Fishy Thoughts At 34000 Feet Above Sea Level

 I am crossing the Sulu Sea, awed by the beauty of small islets dotting the seascape. Amid these serene views, my thoughts linger on President Digong's State of Nation Address where he spent considerable time talking on the nexus of poverty, environment degradation and development: asking why in areas of mining operations, there is abject poverty among the people. In the same token he spoke about the inequity of fishing access in Laguna lake, that by promoting fish farming to address food security, small scale fishers are marginalized.

These observations translate as to how this current administration will envision on .reducing that 40% poverty rate in the fisheries sector: The critical agencies tasked to develop a cohesive developmental agenda between agriculture, fisheries and environment and trade and investments should work towards a new framework. This is exactly the way into the future. This calls for a blue economy approach, promoting a circular economy, improving efficiency and use of resources under a changed climate regime and on the process, getting more value out from less resources.  

With this thought, I will pursue the idea to draft a white paper along with a friend from DENR on an ocean framework for the country, expanding and providing more focus on DENR and the Department of Agriculture (DA) on  their role of not just regulatory but providing leadership in sustainable development.

For this to happen, the departments of environment and natural resources and the agriculture department must work together a long-term sustainable development agenda designed to eradicate poverty in this country. Wishful thinking? Perhaps but change is coming.

Why You Too Should NOT Fly Cebu Pacific

When Cebu Pacific started operation using its DC9 planes, I have been their loyal customer and a gold miler at that despite the fact that their planes were older than 20 years. I simply trusted them, liked their very personal service, their on-board games, their spartan but pleasant summit lounges. I used to buy commuter pass and have been one of those that convinced a lot of people to try this company. In short, they were, at that time, far better than the national airline.

But when Cebu Pacific changed its fleet, it changed with it their way of doing business, from customer oriented service to pure profit using (rather abusing) the "value" airline concept.
Below are my reasons why:
1. Many (not sure if all)of their ticketing offices even at airports are private travel agencies, not in anyway attached to Cebu Pacific. Many of these ticketing offices charges additional service fees even at airports. Some scrupulous travel agencies add costs on offers of the cheapest rates.
2. Because of such setup, they are in no position to undertake changes in bookings (as in the case of Jakarta, Bangkok, Singapore)and one has to buy a ticket at a regular rate. SO BE CAREFUL WHEN TRAVELING TO THEIR REGIONAL DESTINATIONS. ENSURE NOT TO CHANGE YOUR SCHEDULE OR YOU WILL END UP BUYING AN EXPENSIVE REGULAR PRICED TICKET. (Tip: try other airlines, its cheaper)
3. Their baggage allowance is only 15 kg (10kg for small planes), not a bit more or you get to pay a hefty sum for excess baggage. Other airlines have 20 kg. If you are coming from abroad using other airlines, I advise you not to take this airline because all your savings will end up paying your baggages. They know how to exploit the culture of filipinos of bringing so many "pasalubongs".
4. When buying tickets on-line, never tick that no baggage because if you do, you will pay 400 pesos even if you only have a kilo to check in. I call this pure robbery. I wonder if this is legal.
5. When buying tickets on-line, the default is for you to get an insurance. Be careful to untick it. The only nice thing on line is they let you offset your carbon footprint by ticking that Panda of WWF. This should have been the default.
6. If you are plump, overweight (waistline over 36 inches), tall by filipino standard over 1.75 meter, this airline is not for you because seat distances between rows fit only small sizes comfortably. Their seatbelts are also very short. Unless of course you are willing to pay for their exit row seats which cost 200 pesos, I advise you to take up yoga or train to become a contortionist before taking the ride. CALLING ATTENTION OF ATO!! If we go by the rules of safety, the wider the rows the easier for people to get evacuated in emergencies.
7. Their marketing strategy rests on cheap ticket prices. Beware, the prices of tickets are the same for all the airlines, yet if you fly Cebu Pacific, you will have to buy your own food and water, there are no newspapers and you will freeze inside the plane because they carry no blankets. I just don't know if you need to pay for medicines for emergencies as I have not been sick.
8. Some flights of Cebu Pacific do not use the bridge because of cost saving measures. This is really one of the worst thing they do. Passengers pay for 200 pesos for airport tax but in some instances, eg in some Davao flights, the plane is parked on the tarmac where people use the stairs and walk to the arrival station, drench in rain or dried by sun, all because of savings, theirs, not yours.
9. On time 95% of the time? No longer and more likely the NOT on time 95% of the time. Airlines do not make money at the airports so the plane needs to be in the air most of the time. The consequence is that once the plane is late, it accumulates. A flight from Davao to Manila leaving at 8:30 pm finally took off at 12 midnight. They will offer food if the delay time is over four hours.
10. But their practice is not to inform the public immediately. They will inform of the delay on INSTALLMENT BASIS even if they knew before hand that the delay will be for several hours. This removes your posiblity of requesting for tranfer to another airline which they must shoulder!
11. Take note of their practice of telling people on their preflight announcement that flight duration is made longer by 10 minutes, such that upon arrival, they will boast that they arrive 10 minutes ahead of scheduled arrival. But this is announcement is done upon touchdown. How many times have we waited at the tarmac for over 10 minutes because the space where to dock is not yet free?
12. But the worst experience I have with this airline is when I was charged double on my credit card. I only realized this when I checked in where I am being charged for no-show for the same name, same flight, same date. It was only then I realized that they charged me twice.
13. It was good that they say they would rectify the problem and debit it back to may credit card. It is very bad because they did not tell me how long it would take. From the time I complained, it took them two months for their accounting to "process it" using with todays electronic technology. Today, three months later, the credit company still charges me with interest. I am still awaiting for the debit to be made.
14. I wont travel again on this airline. This is the only way to prevent number 15 to make it in this list.

I wish you revert back to your old planes and nice service.

Deafening Places: When Music Turns to Noise

Poets tell us that music is food of our souls. I fully agree as it soothes the spirit and connotes peace and tranquility. To appreciate music in such form, one needs a specially built music room or an earphone to experience the true purpose of music.

But somehow music, or more appropriately, NOISE appreciation has been redefined in Malls, public transport systems and other public places (including government buildings) of the Philippines. In most shopping malls, cacophony of songs from different stalls in ear-drum splitting volumes compete with the in-house music of the mall, complimented the sound generated by video games, karaoke stalls and the nerve-wracking bells from several stalls selling ice-cream and sweets. It is a jungle out there and definitely a no man's land for those with low noise tolerance.

What is surprising is that nobody notices, and nobody complains. Are we a nation of deaf people? No wonder, even our complaints are not heard by our leaders in government. They themselves have been afflicted by deafness.

There is certainly a law on noise pollution. The level of noise in these malls, jeepneys and buses and internet cafe's are way above normal tolerable levels and needs to be curbed. Each and every one of us has music preferences and that should be respected. Clearly, the playing of songs in public places are violative of individual rights to a peaceful surrounding. This is not to ban outright music, but to minimize its volume in appreciable levels.

There are few establishments that are quiet (Shangri-la to name one) because no songs are played and stalls do not also provide music. If music are played to entice costumers, it certainly will repulse me. Who will enjoy shopping when you are bothered by a loud music that is not even your choice and you need to shout to top of your voice to speak? Most retaurants, internet cafes too have blarring music. As many business transactions are done in restaurants, a peaceful and quite restaurant is hard to come by. Internet cafes are places where a lot of people work and study but could not concentrate because of too much disturbance both from music played and the rowdiness of people playing interactive games. Could we not classify internet cafes and gaming cafes separetely?

Even the MRT 3, the ads played on the speaker on a very loud volume is repeated over and over ad nauseam from end to end of the line. It plays continuously only to be interupted at every station by the driver for information.

We are a nation of deaf people, literally and figuratively. I call on our people and government to see, in case they could not hear, that noise levels in public places needs to be curbed at healthy decibels.Could the Department of Health of the Philippines do something about this? Could our politicians who are deaf by qualifications, do something?

Have'nt you noticed lately hearing aid stores mushrooming all over the city?

Whale Shark & Firefly Interactions: Some misactions

From obscurity to fame, the town of Donsol, Sorsogon, Philippines was placed on the tourism map for its whale shark and more lately, its firefly interactions. Its a conservation success story that reversed hunting of whale sharks for food and export to objects of wonder that became the backbone of the country's leading ecotourism destination. It has ignited an economic activity that spread throughout the region, propelling the town and adjacent areas to profit from sudden influx of tourist. From airlines, to hotels, transport system and tourism ancilliary industries, the whale shark interaction has breath life to otherwise deteriorating tourist destinations such as the Mayon Volcano.

The development of this tourism destination was made possible by support and cooperation of the local government, department of tourism, NGOs and support of global conservation agencies that ensured its proper development. Locally-trained Butanding Interaction officers (BIOs) guide tourist of rules and regulations, guide tourist to observe the whale shark and ensure safety at all times.

But somehow, the quality of service have deteriorated over the years. As a regular visitor to the area of the last five years, I have observed several issues that needs the immediate attention:

1. Some BIOs do not inform the guests of rules of interaction; as a result, tourists touch the whale shark and swimming too near the animal.
2. Wanton violation of interaction rules by BIOs: these include
a) obstructing the swimming of whale shark in order to please their guests. During my last interaction last May 28, 2009, four BIOs took turns to force the poor whale to surface and "corner" the animal.
b) One boat one whale shark policy - on this date, eight boats and guests numbering around 30 are chasing this poor animal.

This happens because of too few sightings towards the end of the season. BIOs and the pumpboats do it to please their guests. My questions are: who implement and enforce these rules. If violations occur, where should it be reported, to whom? What are the punishments for such violations?

Another issue is the use of these bulky life vests. While its use is a safety provision, it is not designed for use in swimming. Going after a whale shark creates so much resistance creating so much noise and disturbance on its wake and providing other swimmers a grand display of air bubbles. They hinder further movement of other swimmers. The DOT should consider use of more hydrodynamic life vest for not so good swimmers or perhaps, a glass bottom boats for these non-swimmers.

Another and a more serious issue is the amount of plastics floating in the water. Pet bottles, wrappers of food chips, plastic glass and bags abound in the interaction area, concentrated by unique current of the area. Some concrete actions need to be done and would need the cooperation of the whole town an adjacent areas.

The firefly interaction was great, the cresent moon providing the background light to the twinkling rhapsody of the firelies. With great interest, we asked questions to our interaction officer about the firefly only to end up with no additional information. These guides ought to be able to explain and provide some background information but wielded nothing but a guiding light from her flashlight. The communication skill is below par. While these interactions could provide jobs they should provide the services paid for. Perhaps, a reading material could prove better than these firefly guides.