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Okay,
okay, so everybody has noticed an increase in ridership
of the Metro Railway Transit (MRT) as a result of the
almost weekly increase in gasoline/diesel prices. Daily
ridership is currently estimated at 500,000 or
25-percent higher than last year. Then again, the MRT
can service up to 600,000 passengers a day, based on its
current number of coaches.
As such,
perhaps Transportation and Communications Secretary
Leandro Mendoza (read: government now runs the MRT while
the consortium of Robert Sobrepeña just handles
maintenance) should field more trains at shorter
intervals during peak hours.
****
The last
batch of documented Filipinos from Iraq have now
returned home after the expiration of their four- to
five-year work contracts. As everybody knows, President
Arroyo ordered a deployment ban in mid-2004 after truck
driver Angelo de la Cruz was kidnapped and released.
Strangely though, there are currently between 6,000 and
10,000 Filipinos in Iraq. These guys (read: all working
for American companies serving the American military
but, hey, the Iraqi government has recently announced a
billion-dollar construction program) are obviously not
registered with such government agencies as the Overseas
Workers Welfare Administration.
****
Did you
know 1:
Even the
buffet price in Makati-based hotels have quietly gone
up. Six months ago, the highest price per person was
P1,500, inclusive of taxes. Today, the going rate is
closer to P2,000 per person.
Did you
know 2:
The Department of Education under Jesli Lapus now pays
volunteers who teach Arabic and Islamic values education
called asatidz in public schools a maximum
monthly allowance of P3,000, which is automatically
credited to their Land Bank of the Philippines account.
Richer local-government units give these volunteers an
additional P2,000.
****
Smartmatic-Sahi Technologies Inc., one of two companies
providing automated technology worth P1 billion for the
elections in Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)
next month, is 60-percent owned by a Filipino group led
by Cezar Quiambao and 40 percent by a Venezuelan group.
The
company will handle Maguindanao while American company,
Avante International Technology Inc., will handle the
rest of ARMM.
As
everybody knows, Quiambao made his fortune and
established some useful connections while based in
Indonesia. His first project when he came home was the
Skyway, which ran out of funds. Since then, he’s been
concentrating on bug-ridden computer projects for
government agencies such as the Land Transportation
Office.
Oh yes,
Avante and Smartmatic-Sahi will, uhm, test their
technologies (read: they’re more or less the same except
for some bells and whistles) during a mock election in
ARMM at the end of the month, where they hope to get an
average of 30 voters per precinct and come up with the
final results within 24 hours. The real election will be
held on August 11. |
