WE CANNOT help but be sad because of our failure to join the throng of people – relatives, friends, supporters and political colleagues – who sent off the late Davao Oriental Governor Corazon N. Malanyaon, to her final destination last Friday afternoon.
Actually, we were in Mintal proper during the morning of that day for a meeting with a doctor friend who failed to come because of some emergencies in a hospital where his services were needed. So we went home to our farm residence at roughly noon. It was shortly after our arrival that we received a call from a common friend with Governor Cora, Ilde Bontia, who asked us if we were joining the “send-off.” Considering that the mass for Cora at St. Paul’s church in Matina was scheduled at 2 p.m. and the burial was to follow after, in our own estimate, we could not make it considering that there were other things that we needed to do in the house in that noon time of Friday. So, we told Ilde that we might not be able to make it.
Later however, we were told that the interment was delayed because of the number of people who converged at the cemetery and the eulogies delivered by some of Cora’s relatives and friends.
Indeed the number of people who “sent off” the late lady governor proves only one thing: that she was the ultimate politician and public servant. She is indeed a great loss to the province. But of course, she had a number of legacies that people will remember her for a long, long time.
That was Cora Malanyaon, the servant leader for everyone in her lifetime in public and private service.
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Now we have to let out our frustration with the kind of service that the Philippine Long Distance Co. (PLDT) could have given their less “significant” subscribers like us. It seems that the telecommunications company is getting true to its name Philippine Looooonnnnng Distance Co. We have been complaining that our line conks out so often that we are lucky if, in a month’s time, our telephone (landline) functions normally for at least a week. The last time we complained to the telephone company it took a month before our complaint was acted upon. We had to take the issue up in our column using some “nasty” words to describe the ineptitude of the company. And in two days’ time, a technician came to the house in Talandang to check. According to the technical man of PLDT, the problem was with the modem, so he changed the unit. When we told him that there might be some defects in the receiver set the company installed, he told us that we just have to unplug it from the modem and plug it again; we have to repeat the same process if the same problem persists. For a few days, it somehow worked. But in time, the problem recurred. There were times when for weeks, we could not be called, but we could call. Then for other days or weeks, we could be called, but we cannot call. Then more often, the receiver set only gives us a continuing dial tone. As of this writing, it is the problem that we had with our landline.
Our daughter, who works at an Aboitiz Power subsidiary, had been calling PLDT to report the problem. But as usual, the calls passed through what appears to be a call center the answers given are no doubt recorded. And if she was lucky enough and managed to reach the last number referred to automatically, a voice giving the same instructions is heard. That is, to unplug and re-plug the receiver in the modem.
Since we ourselves cannot make the call to PLDT because, as we said, we cannot make the call from our landline, we keep on reminding our daughter to continue calling the telephone company. For the last few days, our daughter appeared hesitant to follow our instructions because, according to her, it has become routine for the answer she got from PLDT’s end.
So based on the number of days, errrrr months, that our complaint has not been acted we can indeed be certain that the telecommunications firm is true to its name — too loooonnnng a time for it to act on subscribers’ complaints especially if the company senses that the customer is less important to its business. After all, what is the P1,800 plan payment monthly compared to other big-time subscribers.
But wait, it is not all loooonnnnng at the PLDT. It has its short, in fact, the shortest grace period for customers who cannot pay on time every month’s deadline. Yes, from our own experience, when one time our daughter, who we requested to pay our monthly bill, forgot to pay on deadline due to numerous work in her office, our internet connection was gone like a smoke that escaped from a fire build-up.
That is where the “shortest” duration the company can give as a grace period to a customer.
Of course, as far as our case is concerned, we are all asking to change our receiver set to a better and more functional one. At least it will justify the amount we are religiously paying monthly for our plan at our Talandang, Tugbok District residence.
