There is now an Anti-Wang-Wang Campaign. It's not against this blog though. I read this news on the paper the other day. Here's the story covered by another site (couldn't find the one I read). I also found this blog while searching for the article.

I also got to take a few shots of one SUV with blinkers and a siren this afternoon. I'll try to report this and see if law enforcement still exists on this country.



The plate says XTD 373. I know this is irrelevant but this car wasn't speeding and didn't swerve like most offenders do. The vehicle was spotted northbound on the South Luzon Expressway near Susana Heights around 13.00 today (Oct. 19, 2007).

Did Manny Pacquiao, also known in and out of the ring as Pacman, lose his mind? I'm just wondering. Why did he decide to run for congress?

I haven't seen or heard of Pacquiao involved in decision making so I am in no position to judge him. But, I still prefer someone who has spent his or her life studying our laws and our economical status.

It may be a good thing because Pacquiao is a rags-to-riches type of person so he probably knows what the real problems are and how it feels to be poor. I'd prefer that he knew a lot about business. I read somewhere that he was a baker before starting a career in professional boxing. But it didn't say if he ran the bakery.

So I did some googling on boxing-related brain damage. I found this article.

[...]as boxing involves powerful people hitting each other repeatedly, often around the head, there are other risks - most serious of all being permanent severe brain damage.

While other injuries repair relatively easily, brain tissue, once damaged, remains damaged.

The symptoms of such brain damage - commonly known as being "punch drunk" - include slurred speech, slow reactions and even occasional blackouts.

Although Pacquiao doesn't have slurred speech or slow reactions yet. I'm still wondering if there was one blow that shook his head. What do you think? Would you vote for Pacman?

About a month ago, I took a cab home to Alabang. It has been a while since I took a cab because I drive or take something a lot cheaper than cabs.

I'm not going to rant about the cab driver. In fact, he was a careful driver (I'm not the snob type that sits at the back). But before I start with the rant, I have a rave.

What's cool about this cab is that it runs on LPG (yes, your ordinary shellane or gasul). It's not the first time I saw this. All the cabs and small coaches in Hong Kong use LPG. Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand probably have the same setup.

The emmission is cleaner and it is a lot cheaper. The driver said the cab could go round trip, non-stop from Manila to Pangasinan with a full tank. That's about 400 kilometers. A full tank costs around PhP900.00 (for a 1996 Toyota Corolla model; don't know how many liters).

The driver said that the conversion is around PhP20,000.00 and the tank is installed in the trunk. A couple of Petron gas stations around the metro has facilities for these cabs. And in case you run out of fuel and can't find a nearby gas station that has the facilities, you could switch back to the, err, normal gas.

I did hear about this arriving here about four years ago but there were only three gas stations that you could go to and cabs didn't use them yet.

From what I was told though, the cab doesn't have that umf for the performance junkies. I did notice that the driver could't go over 80km/h or he was just saving fuel and being practical. It could be slow when loaded with four big people plus baggage.

Now for my rant, I asked the driver if there is some kind of tax incentive or some initiative that the Philippine government is doing. The answer is obvious and is the reason why I'm ranting. The government could at least sponsor research and development for this.

HK's cabs are Toyota Crowns, they weigh a lot more and heavier than our cabs and they have LPG-powered coaches for crying out loud. They managed to make the most of this fuel. In the United States, you have tax incentives if you use a hybrid car (I think it's 10%). I hate comparing from other countries and asking, "if they can do it, why can't we?" but I want to give some examples and ideas.

If they do look into this, the benefits are a lot. This really needs a lot of exposure and support. We get to save on fuel, reduce air pollution and help our cab drivers.

I'm also wondering why the hybrid cars aren't getting sold here. A friend who used to work for Toyota said that there's only one Toyota Prius is here and it's even owned by some big politician.

I also heard of other possible fuel sources such as cow dung but it was not that efficient, you needed a big-ass flatbed diesel truck to carry the cow dung fuel. We also have the water-powered car but I'm not really sure what happened with the patent and the development. There were rumors that the inventor was threatened by our gas companies.

Telecom regulator to confiscate unused frequency bands

by M. E. Estavillo

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is set to confiscate unused and underutilized frequency bands awarded to telecommunication firms in the past.

NTC Commissioner Ronald O. Solis told reporters yesterday the agency is set to conduct "very soon" a thorough review of the frequency band allocation being issued to companies.

"It is a fact that some companies are not using the frequencies being allocated to them. Some of them are still paying the annual fees,but there are also some that are not paying at all," Mr. Solis said.

One of the companies with unused frequency band is Lopez-led Bayan Telecommunications, Inc. (BayanTel). BayanTel was given a license to operate as a mobile phone network three years ago but has not engaged in mobile phone business. Its subsidiary Express Telecommunications, Inc. (Extelcom) had been inactive with less than 200,000 subscribers.

More than the revenue contribution to the agency, Mr. Solis said NTC needs to free up unused frequency band to prepare for upcoming new telecom services.

"Some of these frequencies can be allocated for other services. These are services that can provide more important and more efficient services to the public," Mr. Solis said.

Last year, BayaTel said it would launch a cellular service by this year to avert possible confiscation of frequency bands. The service had been designed to complement BayanTel’s fixed-line infrastructure.

Link

NTC imposes weird regulations including siding with Meralco on the WiFI issue (it's already settled ...sort of). But at least they're doing their job. I'd like to commend them for that. I hope the SMS spam issue could be resolved soon. I just got one the other day.

I saw this white pickup truck the other Friday northbound on SLEX within the Sucat entry to the Skyway onramp around 13.00.

It was smoke belching and the driver was reckless. Red-plated with plate number SCN 909.

Why "Wang-Wang Ko To"?

Wang-Wang, in Filipino slang, a siren or a flashing emergency/warning light used only by ambulances, police squad/patrol cars, fire engines and on special occasions, by the elite and those with "power".

This blog is my "wang-wang", my power (thru freedom of speech) to log things that I see in the government that isn't right. I'm just an ordinary Filipino, not a cop nor a firefighter, most especially, not a part of the elite.

If you want to join my crusade as a cyber-vigilante, feel free to leave a message via email, .

Come on, don't be scared, you can have a wang-wang too.