Planning a road trip to a far-away place involves estimating the total distance to be traveled and multiplying this with the cost of fuel per kilometer (which you get by computing the fuel consumption of your vehicle as described below).

The high prices of fuel is a burden to commuters and travelers who want to explore places where backpacking (i.e. via public transport) is not easy.

Tutubi presents this infographic on why gas prices are high in the Philippines:

Gas prices at gas stations along EDSA Southbound in Quezon City, prices in Makati, San Juan and Mandaluyong are generally higher

As Tutubi gets irked from time to time and wondering why the Oil Deregulation Law is useless but he understands the OPSF was also too burdensome to the government, there must be a way to solve this problem like regulation (and enforcement) against cartels.

Do you agree that there's really some "magic" involved here in the Philippines why gas prices are high and the same across the three big oil retailers?

Alam na ni Panong yan!

---

How to compute the fuel consumption of your car (more accurate than the meter in some cars):

1. Gas up a full tank, request a "sagad" to the gas boy
2. Reset your vehicle's trip meter to zero
3. Drive around until you get to empty your tank a bit (best if more than half-empty)
4. Gas up again (sagad)
5. Divide the trip meter reading in kilometers by number of liters and you'll get the fuel consumption (in kilometers per liter). (For Scarlett, Tutubi's Toyota Innova E 2.5 automatic, it's something around 7.5 km/L city driving and 11 km/L highway)

Labels: Rants

This is a rant post, usually posted before the year ends for the Department of Tourism, now it's the turn of Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Bureau of Immigration (BI).

Tutubi flew to Singapore recently via Philippine Airlines to attend a security seminar at a hotel on Orchard Road, Singapore's premier shopping strip.

This post details Tutubi's encounter with an immigration officer at NAIA Terminal 2 on December 10, 2012 at around 4am:

Tutubi arrived early before 4am for his 620am PAL flight. There was no queue yet at the NAIA Terminal 2 entrance gate. He went straight to pay the international travel tax (PhP1620.00) then waited just a few minutes to at the PAL check in counter. This was a breeze since he also doesn't have any check-in baggage, just his 40 liter backpack that's half-full (or half-empty :) then paid the airport terminal fee (PhP550.00, sometimes called airport tax or departure tax).

The next part was the irritating part where Tutubi queued at counter 6 of Immigration counter, and as he's using a new passport, he asked Tutubi for his old passport but he replied he lost his old one with several stamps of countries he's visited. The expressionless immigration officer asked where he's working, how long, where he's staying in Singapore, Tutubi answered them all, then the officer requested for his company ID to which he obliged.

The officer looked at his ID for about a minute then returned Tutubi's documents to him without stamping his passport and instead directed him to the "immigration police" at the back where some people are being questioned, calling someone or waiting for something instead of their flight.

The "immigration police" asked Tutubi the same set of questions earlier asked by the immigration officer to which he gave the same answers. Then the immigration police requested him to show more proof of his trip telling him he needs to show more so as to avoid writing a letter to the commissioner to request permission to leave (even if his flight is just two hours away very early in the morning, imagine the hassle of just trying to prove you're just going to be a tourist and you need to set an appointment with the commissioner) like the other people in the area were doing. He showed the telegraphic transfer of his company to the seminar organizer but the "immigration police" told him it indicated only his company name and purpose (of course it's under his company name), the "immigration police" asked for more information, it's good that he has the hotel confirmation in his name (together with his two office mates who went ahead two days before to explore Singapore) plus the company email trail in his iPhone. The "immigration police" asked him what other countries he's visited and for how long to which he replied: "Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand twice, India and Australia with three weeks the longest" and now brought his passport and immigration card back to counter six where a brief conversation with the immigration officer ensued.

Tutubi was called again by the immigration officer, sans a smile, sorry, nor apologetic tone for the "false positive," then even had the temerity to berate Tutubi with a grumbling tone but later stamped his passport.

Tutubi boarded his flight on schedule, the same Philippine Airlines flight with the whole Philippine Azkals team set to play (and lose) against the (now champion) Singapore Lions in the AFC

Now, this is the problem with the POEA Overseas Employment Administration, the OEC system needs an overhaul and also the people of the DFA, BI, and POEA seem to be conspiring to make life much harder for OFWs and tourists.

There are reminders at the airport not to harass immigration officers but first and foremost that should be displayed near the immigration counters is for immigration officers not to harass OFW/OCW, tourists and other visitors, after all, they're there to serve, not to make lives of other people miserable

to the Bureau of Immigration: if you can identify the immigration officer at NAIA terminal 2, December 10, 2012 at counter 6, he doesn't know how to smile even if there are many prominent signs at NAIA that says: We take the extra smile.

This tale of Tutubi is nothing compared to other OCW/OFW OEC woes and exit clearance processing nightmares. For sure there are gazillions more horror stories of legitimate tourists harassed by immigration officers out there. If an OFW has a very limited vacation time, at least one day will be spent just to request an OEC at POEA offices plus the expenses, additional worry and hassle for those just wishing to be home on a holiday. If Tutubi's an OFW, he'll just opt to pay travel tax and airport terminal fee just to get back the day spent to process/request the OEC at POEA, if it's possible even with just a waiver (at least consider this for stable countries instead of requiring companies to include a repatriation clause in employment contracts).

the original intent of the OEC is fine but there must be other ways to improve the process, but as always, most government officials don't really care to even take steps to improve it, even enjoy wielding "God-like" powers against overseas foreign workers and ordinary Filipinos whom they should be serving.

If you're an OFW or a tourist with your own woeful tale, please comment below and share to friends and contacts



Related Posts:

How to apply for POEA OEC (Exit clearance) online
OEC (overseas employment certificate) application requirements

Labels: OFW, Rants

Just a few days when the "catalysts of progress" NPAs swooped down on the mining companies of Claver, Surigao del Norte, Tutubi visited Cantilan, Surigao del Sur and passed by the still smoking dump trucks and heavy equipment of several mining companies burned by the "beneveloent" bandits pretending to be friends of the masses.
Of course, when Tutubi got there, military men were already there while mining companies did not permit even taking pictures of their burned mining facilities and equipment.

a bay in Claver near the boundary of Carrascal where you can see a barge still billowing smoke

a mining company in claver town, looks like they're really flattening the mountain, full of red earth...hoe the rains never come to wash them all away


the road and bridges are all reddish due to the pulang lupa hauled from the mountains

As reported by Tutubi's contact, the NPAs struck in the middle of the night. Blocking forces waited at a bridge ready to blow up reinforcements from the army. Pity, the army doesn't have airlifting capabilities and thus were outsmarted by the NPA.

The NPA also reported blocked passenger buses from travelling, got their cellphones, but returned them after their "arsonic" ways was finished. No casualties/fatalities but the damage to economy due to lost investments and a shame to the international community again to the longest active maoist insurgency in the world, fighting for an ideology that already failed.

Mining companies definitely bring jobs to the local community but the worst part about the trip was that Claver town, with numerous mining companies in operation remains poor, even the main road, about fourteen kilometers of road from Claver, Surigao del Norte up to Carrascal, Surigao del Sur is still very rough road that only heavy duty trucks, buses and 4x4 vehicles can navigate.

Now, where have all the mining money went to?

Labels: Rants

A brand new website, new logo, a new slogan to replace the 8 year old Wow Philippines brand and a poorly executed website to boot...Tutubi's initial reaction to the Department of Tourism's hyped re-branding of the Philippines to attract foreign tourists to the country.



The new slogan sounds like a morning TV show while the website, with good enough pictures but lacking in information and content. The website reeks of the usual lack of brain power and "pwede na" attitude, typical government projects with funds going down the drain!

According to the DOT, the logo portrays "A cute tarsier, a marsupial endemic to the country, highlights our unique and playful character."

For your information, folks, the tarsier is a primate and not a marsupial (where kangaroos, cuddly koalas, wallabies even tasmanian devils belong)

Tutubi though is not critical of using Tagalog but perhaps another name than the "Kay Ganda" might be better like the already popular Mabuhay that precedes Wow Philippines. Foreigners don't understand Tagalog but proper marketing will compensate for it.

The content of the short-lived site also lack proper information. Tourism people, who should be knowledgeable about the Philippines, seem only to know only a little about the country. (have you met really knowledgeable people working at DOT offices? Those people are very rare, with Tutubi speaking from his own experience asking information from them. All they know are numbers of local hotels and some travel agencies to book them)

What do you expect, at the helm of the DOT, Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim, besides his clear bias against backpackers as "not spending a lot" and "leave waste" also bets his money, again, on English, and probably has not yet learned that most tourists visiting the country and checking in at hotels do not speak English at all: Chinese(mainland China, HK and Taiwan), Japanese, Koreans! (Tutubi concurs with an Inquirer.net article that the future of Philippine tourism are the Chinese!)

Suggestion to the DOT: Please nominate or create a better symbol for the Philippines. Look at Singapore's Merlion symbol, it's relatively new, circa 1960s and yet look at it now. (Manila, too, has the half-man, half-fish image on the city's coat of arms for centuries but very few people know about it)

Update:
Tutubi wanted to explore more the new site http://beautifulpilipinas.com but it seems off-line, probably down or the DOT pulled the plug for serious overhaul, suggest PNoy also overhauls the DOT itself and fill it with qualified and passionate people.

Labels: Rants

Just another example of lack of brain power exhibited by most government agencies was this just finished Dia Del Galeon Festival at Pier 13, South Harbor, Manila.

Tutubi got wind of the coming replica of the Spanish Galleon Andalucia to dock at Pier 13 much earlier but his tight schedule and work load won't permit him to take a leave of absence on a weekday to visit and board the galleon and instead tried his luck on the last day, a Saturday, where he expected many people to also try their luck in boarding the galleon.



He was right! There were too many already queued as early as dawn, including a friend who lined up at 8am and yet the utter lack of system in entertaining excited guests, many of them children, who dared not to break the line just to ensure they'll get a glimpse of the ship made of wood and sails made of cloth woven in Ilocos, left the venue without even a glimpse of the galleon.

Tutubi merely took a few pictures of the tarpaulin banner with the galleon on it and the crowd at the gates of Eva Macapagal Super Terminal, then went to Quiapo to eat at Globe Lumpia House on Raon (now Gonzalo Puyat St.) as well as buy electronics parts, tools and stuff.

The long queue of people waited for hours just to see the galleon, many of them went home, hungry, tired yet no galleon in sight, thanks to the (dis)organizers

To the National Commission of Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and other (dis)organizers of this event, "Kudos" to you! Just to affirm how really good you are in handling events like this. No system was used in managing the expectations of the crowd, particularly on the last day, when it's expected people to come in droves and yet you never thought of contingency measures, merely did nothing...nada...none!

Next time, if the schedule won't permit at least the whole weekend, at least try to make the galleon dock at a location where people like Tutubi, if boarding it is impossible, at least the public can see and take pictures of the galleon say Manila's Baywalk, or the CCP complex. Isn't that hard to do or your brains just don't have the capacity to process or come out of ideas like it? Last Saturday's crowd also would've appreciated it if they're allowed to come near the galleon...
Tutubi's conclusion is indeed true, people in government are just too "brilliant" for events like this...

Labels: Rants

As an avid traveler and frustrated photographer who can take pictures slightly better than ordinary people, Tutubi wanted just a little bit of recognition by having three wishes: that his pictures be seen in print publications like travel and airline in-flight magazines, be featured on newspapers and win at least a photography contest even with a "tsamba" shot as claim to "fame."

The first two of his three wishes already came true - two of his pictures already made it to Cebu Smile, the in-flight magazine of Cebu Pacific (Of course you didn't notice it unless you know Tutubi's real name) and this blog was already featured quite some time ago on Manila Bulletin's Blog-o-rama.

The third one, winning a photo contest, is another thing for most photo contests here have unfair rules that strip photographers of their rights to their artistic creations.

Take the case of the latest PAL Photo Contest with rules that stipulate these unfair terms and condition:

Free use of photo entries? Or are they building a large stockpile of stock images for free use?

"13. All participants understand and agree that Philippine Airlines shall have the right to use any photo or image submitted as entry in the contest for marketing and promotional purposes in all media, advertising, promotion and publicity campaign or exhibition without additional compensation"

Copyright now belongs to Philippine Airlines even for non-winning entries? That means even the photographer can't use his own works for other purposes

"16. By entering the contest and submitting his/her entry/ies, each participant agrees and acknowledges that PAL is permitted to receive the photograph or image entry/ies, and that he/she transfers and turns over to Philippine Airlines the full ownership of the copyright to the photos or images."

Lately, Tutubi's been dabbling on intellectual property rights, that's why he's advocating fair use of all submitted entries in photography contests. The second rule is really, really unfair as you relinquish your rights to your photo upon submission. For it to be fair, the copyright shall still be with the photographer, with the unrestricted use of all photos solely for marketing purposes of the photo contest itself.

How to join the PAL Photo Contest and be stripped of your rights? Read the fine print instructions (the catch) and be a willing victim of a rights-grabbing contest should you choose to join. Some (or many) people will say "it's their contest, you're not being forced to join" and that's just the kind of attitude why this country is in the state that it is now: "I'm not affected by it so why should I bother?"

If you really don't care about your rights as a photographer, imagine if your entry didn't make it in the finals but ended up featured on a billboard on EDSA or SLEX without just compensation nor proper acknowledgment, how would you feel?

It's not an imagined scenario for it actually happened to a poor guy who joined a photography contest of a well-known real estate company who could only gnash his teeth in disbelief. He can't bill the company who used his non-winning photo on a billboard for the rules of the photography contest were similar to those of Philippine Airlines-- you totally relinquish your rights to your photo upon submission and can use it without acknowledgment nor compensation even if it's a non-winning entry.

If you're still bent on joining the contest, go ahead, it's your right and they didn't force you. Just don't blame Tutubi should you find yourself in the poor guy's situation.

You've been forewarned!

Labels: Philippine Airlines, Rants

"Boss, chicks," a man, with a wry smile, called the attention of Tutubi while walking early evening near Fuente Osmena in Cebu. It was Tutubi's first time in the city and encountered pimps at least twice during his stay. It was the same Cebu he encountered in his second and third sojourns in the big city.

The fourth time, on his second night in Cebu, his officemates wanted to visit a karaoke bar at the lower ground floor of Waterfront Hotel called Club Nyx KTV and Bar. Three of his senior companions entered the bar while Tutubi and his friends were taking pictures of the hotel's facade. When Tutubi and his friends looked for their companions who went ahead, the guard of Club Nyx asked them if they're from the media possibly due to the DSLR camera strung on his shoulder. They were able to enter and locate their "missing" peers, later emptied San Mig Light and belted quite a number of songs when an un-ordered parade of girls entered the room together with an older woman, who later identified herself as the Mama-san, who narrated she used to work at a certain Lighthouse on Timog in Quezon City when she was poached by the Korean owner of Club Nyx.

On the offer to get a girl to accompany them, even to "take out," the group plainly said "thanks, but no thanks" to the offer and the girls left the room. Letting even one of those girls in small chat requires ordering expensive ladies drinks at regular intervals and for "take out" would have to cough up bar fines, sometimes called "leaving fines," according to a patron of such places (who knows even the prices of various bars he frequents), are the payment a customer pays the bar owners for "taking out" their employees, euphemistically called GROs, short for guest relations officers.

Ad of Egypt bar and International Bar Complex on the inside back cover of the free Cebu visitor's guide at Mactan Cebu International Airport with pictures of Filipinas

Cebu tourism is also a booming industry but the dark side of this is highly evident with a booming flesh trade with the mushrooming of girlie bars masquerading as KTV, clubs, bars (sans the long table), GROs moonlighting as prostitutes and even streetwalkers looking for quick cash. This was confirmed by this report by Cebu Daily News recently.

Even the lone Cebu Tourism channel TV banners rotating ads of Club Temptation, Club Mermaid in Lapu-lapu City, Club Tokyo with interludes of advertisements of Ocean Bay Beach Resort while free travel guide on Cebu at the exit of Mactan-Cebu International airport advertises Grand Stage Bikini Bar, Tarzan Gay Bar, Club Circus, Cities, Club H20, Nasa, Club Jaguar Bar & KTV, International Bar Complex, Love City Bar & KTV, Gold Finger Bar & KTV, Cocoloco, Golden Calesa Club Circuit KTV, Infinity KTV & Music Lounge.

Tutubi doesn't advocate sex tourism, which he jokingly refers to as Air Force One tourism, referring to some people he knows who take visitors to the popular hangout near Manila's Airport. He respects the opposite sex and prefers not to have the same image as Thailand's famous Pat Pong district in Bangkok and instead strive for genuine and sustainable tourism development of which the country, not only Cebu, has a big potential.

Prostitution is illegal in the Philippines but it's practice is an open secret in other places like Angeles City, Quezon Avenue in Quezon City, Burgos St. in Makati among other tourist destinations.

What Tutubi can say about Cebu is that there are lots of "eye candies," in one place-- mga guwapa gyud mga Cebuana! :P

Labels: Cebu, Cebu City, Rants, Sex Tourism