Certainly, this agency will never have any problem looking for sources of funds for bonuses and allowances for its officials who are given privileges of in-country and international travel at least once a year. And as we said it here, it is among the perks that top management people enjoy in addition to clearly work-related travels necessary supposedly to enhance management systems skills.
The source of funds that the agency can readily dip its hands to fork the amount needed is of course the accumulated monthly rental of one gadget necessary for the delivery of its product to the people.
It is one account in the agency’s books that is well-disguised as monthly maintenance cost amounting to P50 per month. It is one charge that is supposed to pay for the cost of each gadget but considering that it is being included in the customers’ bill for as long as the consumers continue to be patronizing the services of the agency the cost of the gadget will be recovered many times over its actual cost.
And how come the agency calls it a maintenance cost when for the past many years that people, including us, had been subscribing to its services, we never saw even for once that the agency has ever conducted maintenance work on the gadget. In fact, the agency readily adds up to the customer’s bill penalty charged should its people find the seal broken or altered.
Imagine how much the said agency earns from the P50 maintenance charge monthly if there are, say, 400 to half a million service subscribers? And how much is budgeted by the hybrid firm for capital expenditures solely devoted for the gadgets? And how often does the firm purchase additional gadgets for new customers or for changing some of the busted ones?
Now we could not help but miss the dynamics during the heydays of Konsumo Dabaw’s consumer activism.
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Why are a few of us Filipinos so obsessed with the surrender of our sovereignty to a group of representatives of some other countries claiming they are clothed with powers to investigate crimes against humanity because they are mandated by the United Nations? Surprisingly some of the persons claiming to be members of the so-called international criminal court (ICC) are coming from countries that are themselves known for their notorious violations of human rights at certain times of its existence.
Yes, why are some of the ICC members so wanting badly to have the alleged extra-judicial killings that reportedly happened during the immediate past administration of President Rodrigo Duterte probed by them when the Philippines is a functioning democracy where even the worst critics of the past and present administrations are enjoying the various freedoms that it affords, including the freedom to destroy Philippine society by bombarding it with prohibited drugs?
Yes, it is a given that many died during the 6-year anti-illegal drugs campaign of the previous leadership. But why were there so many who were arrested during the campaign as compared to the number of those who allegedly died as a consequence of the drive?
How many of the deaths during the campaign can be legitimately attributed as the result of the government’s action? And what is the percentage of the slain victims that is actually the doings of the drug syndicates themselves just to destroy the legitimacy of the anti-illegal drugs drive? And mind you, the drug syndicates are not run by dumbs and morons. These are huge world-wide network with those in the Philippines run by local mafias, some leaders of which are even walking in the corridors of power.
Yes, it is common knowledge although not, or will never be admitted, especially by those who want to blame the government for the loss of their relatives who they will never admit to be in the employ of drug syndicates, that many killings of drug personalities were perpetrated by the drugs group themselves.
Besides, which is more genocidal, the deaths that occurred as a result of legitimate enforcement of the law by the government, or the wanton snapping of lives of those the drug syndicates believe are becoming useless and liabilities in their organizations and bringing them possible perdition?
Moreover, the Philippines has a constitutional body that is charged with investigating alleged violations of human rights in the Philippines – the Commission on Human Rights. Is the body’s apparent silence on the ICC’s insistence to probe the so-called EJKs in the Philippines another way of saying the Commission cannot do its responsibilities? It is our take that those who are employed in the CHR should better quit their job and offer to have the body dissolved if they feel it is impotent under the regime.
Is not it a travesty of the Constitution that created the Commission when it cannot function as expected? If the people at the CHR just keep their silence on the apparent “usurpation” of their job by the ICC, then they have to manifest it in black and white so that the present government may be guided accordingly on what course of action it has to take in regards to the loud clamor of a few that we let the ICC do the probe instead.
Indeed we are at a loss in trying the figure out what is in the minds of these fellow Filipinos why they are so eager (in language though) to even fight to the death to protect even a single inch of our territory in the West Philippine Sea from the Chinese encroachment, yet readily make it appears that we have no capability to investigate alleged human rights abuses in the country, thus turning over the responsibility to other nations.
Will these fellow Filipinos be initiating moves to mobilize a multi-national police organization to implement whatever decision the ICC will come up against the accused former and present officials of the Philippines considering that the ICC does not have any police power in the Philippines? Are they not creating too much risk for the Philippines to be in chaos and upheaval? Pray, tell the people.
