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Did you
know 1:
In the past few years, BMW Phils. has seen, uhm, a
migration of skilled workers and mid-management to Felix
Ang’s CATS Motors, the local distributor of Mercedes
Benz.
Interestingly, this is also the same time when BMW’s
dominant share in the luxury cars market has been
slipping.
Did you
know 2:
Vagrants and those who sleep at night in
Rizal Park
are now hauled by Manila police to spend the night in
city-owned sports complexes. This is part of Mayor Lim’s
strategy to reduce crime.
Oh yes,
also part of the strategy is to increase the wattage on
Baywalk on Roxas Boulevard. Yes, those nice but
overpriced streets lamps are still there but the
functional lamps overhead have been replaced with more
powerful lights. The same goes for Jones Bridge, which
looks almost pretty at night.
****
Here’s a
horror story. Nurse recruiters from the United Kingdom
booked a flight to Baguio, only to learn that their
flight has been postponed and nobody knew when the next
flight would be.
Because
they were scheduled to interview nurses not only from
the Cordillera but also from the
Cagayan Valley and the
Ilocos provinces, the foreigners ended up chartering a
plane.
The
airline reimbursed the cost of the plane tickets but
refused to shoulder the cost of the chartered plane.
Here’s
another horror story. Actually, it’s more of a
disappointment because it involves the Department of
Trade and Industry (DTI), which is the government’s
point agency in protecting consumers, and because Trade
and Industry Secretary Peter Favila should have known
better, having been the president of two banks with very
good service records before he began spending half of
his time abroad selling the country to foreign
investors.
Last
Friday, DTI decided to hold a seminar for Metro Manila
personnel handling new business registration. Said
another way, DTI would not process new business
registrations that day. The announcement the size of a
bond paper was posted on the main door of NCR offices in
Makati, Manila, Mandaluyong and Caloocan instead of
going through media outlets which have cost the DTI a
lot. Said another way, first-time and small-time
entrepreneurs who are voluntarily trying to get into
government’s taxpayers’ list were told to return another
day.
As an
afterthought, the
Manila office
headed by Emma Asusano was ordered to stay open with a
skeletal staff.
Perhaps
because it was a Friday, Asusano was seen leaving her
office with either her daughter or maid in tow at 3.10
p.m. By then, she had ordered that customers be turned
away even if there were less than 10 customers inside.
Asusano said that’s how long it would take her skeletal
crew to process the papers of applicants and to shuffle
some papers before they can all punch out at exactly
5 pm.
By the
way, the seminar was how DTI personnel can better serve
the needs of their customers, some of whom must continue
to unwillingly pay the salaries of both Favila and
Asusano. |
