Long live Jose Maria Sison!

I am always ambivalent every time I hear any news about this guy's continuing persecution, which only serves to fuel his revolutionary delusions. In fact, one of my favorite conspiracy theories is that Sison's closet allies in the Philippines is national security adviser Norberto Gonzales, who has done more than his fair share in making Sison and his comrades more important than they really are.
Well, if justice has to be done, let it take its course, though I support the hypothesis of Joel Rocamora that the cause of Sison and his comrades still shines only because of the slow speed of light. People might be seeing light from a dying star, but because of the delay, what appears bright is already actually dead. But this phenomenon is not unique to the dead Maoist cause.
One other favorite conspiracy theory is that Sison became a celebrated 'revolutionary' in the Philippines primarily because of the help of the Central Intelligence Agency and Benigno Aquino Jr.

All I'm sure of is Joma Sison must be celebrating this most recent episode of 'persecution.' The first and last time I ever talked to this guy, he was lying though his teeth about the history of the revolutionary movement in the Philippines.

Norwegian Would: Barbara Goldoftas's book on Ecological Decline in the Philippines now available locally

Norwegian Would: Barbara Goldoftas's book on Ecological Decline in the Philippines now available locally

The continuing decline of energy sector institutions

Just had dinner with a reliable newly elected congressman who quoted other neophytes requesting anonymity in aid of obscurity. The buzz in the House is that the unpalatable Michael Defensor is being groomed to be energy secretary. From good to acceptable to bad to worse. What say you?

Being clear on going nuclear

I would not worry too much about reported plans by the energy department, with the imprimatur of the president, to 'study the possibility' of harnessing nuclear power in the country. There is no lack of things to worry about in this world, and there is no dearth of interesting subjects to study either. For all I care, Secretary Reyes can study nuclear physics and rocket science, but on unofficial time. I will start worrying when he gets distracted from the more important tasks of introducing real competition and lowering rates in the power sector and achieving the goals of the rural electrification program.
While I keep an open mind on nuclear power, especially as a potential solution to the risks of global warming, this is a non-starter for the Philippines, where the justifiable knee-jerk rejection of nuclear power is informed by the intertwined issues of corruption and safety.
It came to pass without much ado that the foreign debt of more than $ 2 billion incurred under clearly fraudulent conditions for the Bataan nuclear plant was finally fully paid in April this year. While many in legal circles felt we had a strong case against the Marcos henchman Disini and the supplier, Westinghouse, the Aquino administration had opted to settle out of court with the latter for a meager $25 million worth of old turbines. I don't know what happened to Disini. The Aquino administration also opted to honor the obligation but transferred it from the books of the National Power Corporation to the national account. (Just think how much higher NPC rates would have been if the white elephant had been part of utility's rate base. To its credit, NPC has at least managed to generate some income from the Morong complex by operating a hotel and cabanas---respectable houses meant for the power plant staff--- open to the public for conferences and private breaks. I've tried fishing by the wharf there and snagged some poisonous fish--- no not from any nuclear contamination because no fuel rods were ever stored there. There is also a good firing range for target shooting). Aquino officials shuddered at the thought of triggering cross-default provisions, used to shield banks from the consequences of their bad decisions---sound familiar?---- and lengthy litigation, had they chosen a more militant stance.
That same fear also probably was behind the attitude of the committee tasked to review the contracts with the independent power producers. From the very beginning, it chose a non-confrontational stance. But I've digressed enough.
Perhaps, Secretary Angelo Reyes was misquoted in this reportage on his view that nuclear power would help decrease power rates. A recent Economist article argues this hope rests on shaky ground. I'm all for nuclear power, but for Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand. Let them, as long as that decision has popular consent. On safety and sustainability, he can be guided by this real expert. Also, what to do with spent fuel and the risks of nuclear proliferation remain unresolved.
Notwithstanding Three-Mile Island, Chernobyl, and the fears evoked by current difficulties in that Japan nuclear plant undergoing repair after an earthquake, many risk assessment experts would probably tell you that Filipinos living around a nuclear plant would have a greater chance of dying from a motor accident (getting hit by a tricycle?), a fall resulting from a carelessly thrown banana peel, or from the bullets of political hitmen than from a nuclear plant failure. But subjective risk perceptions are always part of objective reality and that is where the main problem is. Moreover, it will probably take us at least fifty years to resolve the issue of safety in this country, where many controversies one hopes could be resolved by hard science never seem to be. (For lack of resources and intellectual boldness, neither the department of energy nor of science and technology could even come to a simple judgment on some alleged fuel-saving automotive gadgets that a former environment secretary had installed in his department's vehicles).
But what is there to study anyway? The energy secretary must of course appreciate that we are not at the forefront of nuclear research and would thus have to depend on technological advances from abroad. He wants a technical pool? For what and at whose expense? Most of the people sent by NPC to train for nuclear plant operations opted to remain in the United States, and my acquaintances who came back formed part of NPC's brain trust, mainly in desk jobs in planning and in environmental work, and are now in the private sector after the utility's downsizing.
As far as I know there is no legal prohibition against putting up a nuclear plant in the country, but the proponent would have to pass the difficult environmental and social hurdles. Identifying potential sites? Okay. We can always let local governments with suitable sites volunteer and take care of the problem of social consent. Cebu? Just kidding. Unless of course one option under study is for government to get back into the business of generation, which some would consider foolish.
Finally, on climate change, we should not worry about that too much either, not in the sense of spending our meager resources. Our climate change policy should be anchored on the fact that historically and currently, we are a very minor source of so-called greenhouse gases. To the extent that we are almost certain to suffer from hotter average temperatures, our national policy should be one of seeking justice and compensation from the culprits, the developed countries responsible for the accumulation of these gases. We should adopt policies encouraging less GHG emissions, sure, but not at the expense of the poor and more important priorities. For one, we can tax, to the extent possible, the energy consumption of the rich.
Okay, let's be open, and just leave it at that.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer's recycling advocacy is probably garbage

“Every issue of the Inquirer is already made from 100% recycled paper. But if every reader recycled their (sic) newspapers for one year, we would all save an additional 3.4 million trees, 840 million kilowatthours of energy, and 78
million gallons of oil. Support the PDI NewPaper Drive and help save the environment ...”

The recycling advocacy of the Philippine Daily Inquirer is admirable, but the claim above is mind-boggling and incredible. In what follows I’ll just leave the claim about trees saved to stand.
I did some back-of-the envelop calculations and came out with an estimate of a combined national hardcopy daily newspaper circulation of 6.6 million, assuming the Inquirer assumed its drive would include the recovery of old editions of its rivals. Otherwise, the circulation estimate would be bloated by a factor equal to the reciprocal of its market share. I also estimated that each copy of PDI weighed 200 grams, but even if we grant that that weight is a kilogram, that would still imply a daily circulation of 1.32 million.
(Reliable newspaper circulation numbers are hard to come by because ironically, the principles of transparency and the public’s right to know are not shared by the business and advertising departments of newspapers. The Philippines is one of a few Southeast Asian countries for which newspaper circulation data are missing by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization).
The electricity savings is already about two percent of generation in the whole of Luzon, and at spot prices prevailing in the WESM, would be worth about P4 billion. So, at this point, I will not even question the claim of the volume of oil saved except to say that at prevailing world prices, that would add another P6 billion in putative savings.
The proper way to estimate energy savings from recycling is to subtract energy consumption with recycling from a base case (meaning transporting old newspapers to a landfill and production of newsprint from trees. For the curious and/or technically inclined, try following this reference.
Aggravating the exaggeration of the claims of the Inquirer, and more unforgivably at that, is the assumption that no old newspapers are being recycled. (If it did, the circulation figures above would again be bloated by another factor). In the United States, the rate of newspaper recycling is around 82% and I dare say that in a poorer country such as ours, the rate would be higher. If you don’t know the schedules of your friendly neighborhood ambulant BDP’s (Bote, Diario, Papel) entrepreneurs, you must be living in Forbes or Dasma. My best guess is that the savings from any newspaper recycling drive such as the Inquirer’s would be much less than 10% of the figures cited above. In my case, all newsprint is sold to vendors by the neighborhood diner (the owners of the diner are friends of the Inquirer’s readers’ advocate) I donate newspapers to after breakfast coffee, except for the crumpled ones I use to wipe grease off dishes and kitchen implements, as absorbent for the occasional water intrusions on my bedroom floor after storms, and to clean glass. I can also safely assume that newsprint not ending up recycled would be re-used as wrappers of choice for bulad and tapa in your friendly neighborhood talipapa. In the latter, the Bulletin trumps the Inquirer hands down. I don’t know why. A secret ingredient from the ink supplier?

But 10% of a billion pesos is still a lot, right? But to whom will these savings accrue? Is the waste collection system competitive? Three years ago I worked for a project with a paper manufacturing facility in Luzon and observed so many layers of middle men enroute to supplying the plant with scrap paper, and that’s one of the reasons I’m able to come up with the estimates above. The spouse of my masseuse was in the garbage business in Antipolo and he had to give it up because of the competitiveness of supply going against the monopsony of the buyers.
It may be that the Inquirer drive will benefit impoverished folk targetted as beneficiaries. But it can actually do better. It can radically change its business model and encourage more readership by scrapping its archaic and unenforceable links policy, and thereby reduce the use of newsprint at source. This commentator, for instance, explains resistance to the net forcefully.

And, if you happen to be like me, sentimentally retarded and insisting on reading the news while sipping coffee, find a cost-effective way to access news in cyberspace.
(I’m still trying to muster the heart to tell the old man who has delivered the Inquirer to my doorstep the past 15 years that I have finally discarded old habits).
A final note: Worthy advocacies often lose credibility by the exaggeration of the advocates. This is obviously one of those. To recycle an old economics argument, allow me to say that if it pays for them to do something, reasonable people generally do it. Except if they read Bulletin Today.

P.S. To those interested in my calculations, the spreadsheet file will be mailed on request.

Mikey Arroyo's thin line on energy

I have no idea where he came from, but he has a lucky mother. But when I saw him on ANC last night saying there was a thin line between the independence of the Energy Regulatory Commission and the wishes (populist and manipulative) of the executive, I was alarmed. Rep. Mikey Arroyo, chair and lone member of the House energy committee, at first seemed cautious, until the interviewers got the better of him. And that was when he not only betrayed his ignorance (forgivable) and then his political tendencies (unforgivable).
Most every observer of the Philippine energy sector would agree that one of the main problems of sector regulation is the lack of transparency aggravated by the discretionary powers of the regulator, complexed with the political influence of whoever wields executive power. Sometimes, this weakness is utilized by all sorts of contending political factions (including, unfortunately, those from the Left and who should know better).
The independence of the regulatory bodies in the sector has seen some ups and downs in the close to three decades I've been in it, as an active participant and observer. I must say we might be hitting anothe new low.
Less power to you, Mikey Arroyo.

p.s. My favorite senator and neighbor, who went epileptic with the appointment of Angelo Reyes as energy secretary, must be baying at the moon.

Bull, Ron Nathan, Run?

The stock market analyst of the Inquirer claims he made the right call for his clients and Inquirer readers a few weeks back. Maybe, but who is to say, especially if he doesn't publish the wrong calls he made for his clients, who've been paying a fixed fee for his advice?
Let me be kind. Can Mr. Nathan honestly tell us he has made money for his clients in the last two months,on average, and how much. He may have articulated some warnings but also still managed to hype some stocks (especially mining)? It probably is not his fault, but that of a system where so-called investment advisors don't really face the same risks and rewards as their clients do. Thus their risk-aversion is not properly reflected in their advice to clients.
So, Mr. Nathan,can you at least be honest and narrate some of the stories of your disgruntled clients?
One consolation of the market downturn is that Ron Nathan is more somber now and has refrained from making his wife a punching bag for his nasty jokes. Perhaps, he can get out of this with suggestions on how his fate can be more closely followed by his clients. How about that, Ron?

President Mar Roxas? It may not matter...

With still over two years before the next presidential elections, Philippine pundits are already obsessing about the potential candidates, although some commentators argue that the landscape will have changed radically by then, either with a dictatorship or a parliamentary system dominated by the same elite.
Last night I had a chance to view an interview with one of the most articulate and ‘wonkish’ of the 2010 contenders, by one of the (if not the) sharpest talk show hosts on Philippine tv.
Because there are no ideologically defined political parties in the Philippines, voters usually look for personalities that have the most of their desiderata in a leader. Let me qualify this a bit. The Left is usually assumed by the so-called intellectual elite to offer a distinct alternative, but the Philippine Left, almost two decades after the end of the Cold War, is still finding its bearings. Its political participation is limited and its parties and their programs suffer from the same superstition centering on the battle between Good and Evil as their bourgeois counterparts are.
Ricky Carandang and his colleague Manolo Quezon have of late rightly brought the issues of poverty and inequality into focus in their work and it was to be expected that Carandang would confront Roxas on these issues. Roxas would be categorized as a compassionate conservative in the US and a left-winger here. But because I am far to the left of the Democrats, I would still consider him just as an over-cautious liberal. Roxas’s program on equality is to allocate (actually reallocate) funds to education and health. He will not impose new taxes. I would, especially more punitive ‘sin’ taxes on cigarets and alcohol ( I am a former heavy smoker and still a tippler) and impose efficiency-enhancing environmental taxes ( fuel prices in the Philippines are too low, especially from the standpoint of environmentalists) and lessen income taxes on the middle class.
But it is possible that Roxas will be the best in the field in 2010. And that is only because the Left, advocating a shorter path to poverty eradication and greater equality, doesn’t really have a significant constituency. Why not? I don’t really know but I will attempt to answer this later.
How much of a difference can Mar Roxas make? Not much, as the evidence marshalled by Steven Levitt shows. But it can, if you read it, especially the links in the comments, more carefully.

Chances are GMA is fantasizing

What is the price elasticity of demand for fantasy? I don't know, and neither does GMA. But I suspect it would depend on the kind of fantasy one is buying. But the president fears that raising the prices of lotto tickets might drive people to switch to illegal numbers games, which, I think, shouldn't be illegal in the first place.

Lotteries are technically mostly losing propositions for players, not because of the low probabilities of winning fantastic wealth, but because of the administrative costs and profit margins of the operators and the government take. Otherwise, the game would be fair, meaning the ticket price would be equal to the probability of winning multiplied by the pot. In the case of 6/42, where the chance of hitting the jackpot is one in 5,245,786 and not a million and one as reported here, the jackpot should be 52,457,860 if the choices are uniformly distributed and all the numbers are taken, for the expected value to equal P10. (Here I assume away the consolation prices as insignificant). But the PCSO guarantees only P3 million for this variant, which implies that at a minimum, the PCSO assumes that there are at least 545,454 fantasizers at the start of each 'game').

I have observed that the queues do get longer as the pot increases, but at a declining rate, which means that eventually the lottery becomes fair and perhaps, even a winning proposition. So people are not that dumb after all, as mainstream economics suggests, starting with the letdown that lotteries are a regressive tax on the innumerate.

Many years ago, I welcomed the articles of one Dean Jorge Bocobo in the pages of the Inquirer because he 'sounded' numerate and scientific, as opposed to many opinion writers whose only claim was the strength of their convictions and prejudices, until one day he wrote a feature on the lottery, betraying his lack of understanding of probability theory and statistics. Unfortunately, when I see him on TV these days, I get the impression he has retrogressed even further to the level of the pundits he used to criticize.

If the president were sincere in her concern for impoverished players of lotto, she would be more productive if she reduces admin and operating costs of the lottery and revisiting the contract with the private operator. But more importantly, she can also reform the funds allocation system of the PCSO. This is a difficult task, I imagine because these funds are under presidential discretion. But she can convince me if she relinquishes control and makes PCSO earnings part of general funds under congressional control.
(Disclosure: in 2005 I helped an acquaintance settle hospital bills through political connections, by accessing PCSO funds. His wife underwent expensive brain surgery. Though I would not classify him as poor, there was just no way he could foot the bill. But how many people are able to access such funds, especially if they don't have political connections?)
(Aside: It's funny that one Cris Remonde from Argao, Cebu was one of those protesting the PCSO move. He might be related to Cerge Remonde of the presidential management staff, tasked by Arroyo to discuss the matter with the PCSO.
So what are the benefits and costs of fantasizing? While economics can help, perhaps psychology can do better.
If President Arroyo fantasizes about leaving a legacy for the Philippines, the chance of that might be one in a billion, and she also might need professional help. Wanna bet?

Come to your census

Actually, the enumerators will come to you. In the fifteen years or more I've lived in Teachers Village West, I've never met any of the census enumerators. This is a very important matter for both the public and private sectors.

In the two times I could have been included in the censuses, the interviewers just left forms in the hole in the wall. Next time I meet them, I will even ask them to come inside the apartment because I myself have a number of questions to ask them as part of my own private surveys.

For example, the last time I looked at the NSCB figures, there were at most 5000 single male-headed households in Quezon City. Am I an outlier? Or within the norm of households headed by single males.

The enumerators in the latest survey can count on me to serve them coffee, at the very least. At most I will engage them in discussions on statistics and econometrics. At worse, I will serve them breakfast.

More than twenty years ago, my sister's shirt, suggesting population stats would be broken down by age and sex sounded funny. Because I'm already sixty seven, the slogan is no longer amusing.

Masinloc and Philippine power rates (1)

Except for the self-congratulatory releases from the energy bureaucracy, the response to the successful bidding of the 600-MW coal-powered Masinloc plant has been muted. At $ 930 million, the bid of Singapore-based and AES-led consortium was 50% more than the winning bid of YNN Pacific, which forfeited its rights after failing to pay the required downpayment last year. The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) has divulged neither the bids of the five other bidders nor its reservation price. But its announcement did say that all the bids surpassed the latter. Some reporters revealed all the bids, but the figures have neither been confirmed nor denied. This is PSALM's release.
In the first round, all the competing bids were revealed to members of Congress whose various committees launched investigations in aid of one thing or another. But let’s get back to this later.

So, what would the sale, if concluded successfully, mean for the Philippine electricity consumer? The short and long answers are, it depends on how competitive the electricity markets in the country will really be in in both the medium and long term.

To understand the consequences for the consumer, we need first to understand how the privatization of NPC assets affects NPC rates in the short run. In the short short run, it won’t. This is because of the so-called regulatory lag, which delays warranted upward or downward adjustments in rates due to changed circumstances. But in the medium and longer term, my bet is the high valuation by the winning bidder presages higher rates, and not just higher rates, but higher rates based on higher profit margins for the new owner of the generation asset. (In nominal terms, there is no way but up for rates because of higher fuel prices based ultimately on world demand).

If the sale is concluded, then, before the end of the year, the new owners will be a new participant in the wholesale market. Most of its net revenues will depend on the market-clearing price and its operating costs----mainly variable or fuel costs. Let’s grant that the latter does play a role in the equation, because the new managers, with greater accountability to the new owners, have greater and more palpable incentives to reduce costs. But I find it difficult to imagine that the differences in the bids can be attributed to this factor. In my experience, the owners and managers of newly privatized power assets usually retain the technical personnel, whose bright ideas were just suppressed and ignored by a system lacking in incentives and accountability. The new owners don’t have an Einstein up their sleeve and even if they did, the other bidders would have had access to him or her, at the right price.

My guess is that the new owners can justify their high valuation or recoup their investmentsonly by exercising market power in the wholesale market. In the long run, this is not necessarily bad for the consumer. But in the the short and immediate periods, expect higher rates, but don’t blame me.

update on the travails of Philippine UNDP staff

Here's an update on the 'inaction' of the UNDP on complaints lodged against UNDP country director Noble. It seems all the New York office could do is acknowledge the problem. In the meantime, the Philippine staff are in limbo.

Help! Our prayers have been answered....

Last week, a top official of the Department of Science and Technology was on TV saying that if cloud-seeding efforts did not succeed in inducing rain to help fill our dams and inducing cooler weather, we could do nothing more but pray... A science official's resort to prayer doesn't really inspire faith.

Of course not everyone agrees on the power of prayer, as a US governor found out.

Now the rains have come. Although it is too early to say whether these will continue and alleviate the water and hydropower shortages, it is clear enough that heavy rains always come with the perennial consequences: flooding, traffic jams, lost school-days...

One of these days, our top officials, failing to sell the idea of emergency powers for the executive, might consult with a Norwegian princess on talking to angels. It is unfortunate that this member of the royalty proves that royalty can be such royal... By the way, Norway has a very sensible policy in managing it's oil resources, treating these as an endowment for all it's citizens instead of squandering these in the short term.

Greed's not always good

The raw assumption that economic agents are primarily motivated by selfishness has been refined in recent decades. Here is a recent study which illuminates motivations in human market interations. Scientific American Mind: Is Greed Good?
Economists are finding that social concerns often trump selfishness in financial decision making,a view that helps to explain why tens of millions of people send money to strangers they find on the Internet...

Clouds, now, from both sides

I’ve looked at clouds and the climate for over two decades and I must say the claims of our weather, energy, and science officials are a bit befuddling.

In the early 1990’s I was investigating the remote and immediate causes of the crippling power shortages, and observed that unseasonably bad weather inflicted a double whammy on power consumers in the Philippines. The less rain there was, the less hydroelectric power availability and thus the higher were electricity production costs. At the same time, less rain entailed higher ambient temperatures and thus greater demand for airconditioning. This is true for the whole country, and to all countries similarly situated. It is a double whammy indeed, for both supply and demand factors result in lower satisfaction at a much higher price.

From Nick Nichols I learned that Cyril del Callar of NPC had been quoted as saying that the current cloud-seeding operations were meant more to lower ambient temperatures, and thus lower airconditioning demand, rather than to increase the water levels in the dams of the hydropower facilities. Yet, the pronouncements of spokespeople of the departments of agriculture and of science of technology belie this. And so does the an article in the weekly newsletter of NPC, which clearly associates the cloud-seeding with attempts to elevate dam water levels.

I had a brief exchange with Cyril first to ask him whether there was any ‘optimal’ cloud-seeding effort level. Perhaps he did not appreciate the import of my question and said no. He said that in terms of NPC cash operations, the expenses were justified.

Now, if you follow me, why don’t we spend billions instead of a few million to induce rain? I am an advocate of science and economics and would thus suggest that government spend on cloud-seeding as much as and until the incremental costs exceed the marginal benefits. And, to my knowledge, we are far from there, although I need to study both the science and economics more thoroughly.

Incidentally, government spokesmen recently admitted that cloud-seeding operations could be concentrated on specific areas when clouds were favorable. That might buttress suspicions that government can exercise weather control to lessen attendance in poitical opposition rallies. Triple whammy!

Pacific GOODBYE

In the next few days, I expect Pacific Internet to give me an award for being such a dumb and lazy customer. And that would really be embarassing, as I take a personal and professional interest in competition policy. I confess: I stayed Pacific for five years even after knowing that in the last three, there were many better quality options and at much lower prices.

In economics, one explanation as to why prices do not really adjust as fast as costs (you will probably contest this) is what is called the ‘suki’ effect---prices are rigid upwards because merchants want to keep existing customers. But what I’ve found and illustrated is a perverse ‘suki’ effect. Customers take dung from their merchants and service providers until they become almost homicidal.

If you have the patience, read the following exchange between me and my ISP provider, and weep.

Dear Ms. Aimee Colangoy,

I am not sure if you responded at all to my note below because when I opened my pacific mailbox in the morning of August 1, your system no longer accepted my username and I could thus no longer log in to it. A check with the mail2web site confirmed that you had in fact deleted my pacific mailbox. Finally, I checked with your tech support and was told that my account had been 'terminated.'

I let some time pass before writing you because my initial reaction to the facts stated above was really anger and annoyance. A careful reading of my note below would suggest that I was still expecting a reaction or confirmation from you in regard to my wishes. Your own website says that "all requests for termination are subject for (sic) confirmation."

It is possible that you took my wish as imperative because perhaps you know from experience that many people just walk away from their 'terminal' bills after or just before signing on to an alternative service. In my case, I have an auto-debit arrangement with you and had no intention of simply walking away. Imagine my surprise therefore at your action. I had not even informed friends and associates about any change of e-mail address (although I do have another POP address, this is known only to a select few). This is not really an unremediable problem, though it is still annoying. What is really probably irremediable is that some people may have sent me mail on July 31 and their mail was accepted by my mailbox (and they thus did not receive any returned mail notifications) and I have lost access to such mail. Can this be remedied at your end? Of course I can always write to all my contacts and ask them to resend whatever they sent on July 31. But that is still annoying, isn't it? And what if there were e-mails which needed urgent responses?

So what do I do now? I asked one of your tech support 'engineers' to ask you to call me and explain what really happened. I now understand that your billings for excess usage are delayed two months. So what you might do is send me my final bill with the excess usage for June and July minus the disputed usage period, not as a matter of 'goodwill' as you mentioned in your earlier letter, but as a matter of fairness. You might also do the noble thing of just forgetting about those charges to compensate me for all the aggravation I have had to experience with your service. That would fit my definition of goodwill.

From my end , I have asked my credit provider to reject any billings from you. So, if you insist on collecting, I will just pay some other way after we can agree on a just and fair amount.

To be fair, your company is one of a few in the Philippines that are respectful enough to have customer service people who respond in writing to customer complaints. I do appreciate that, and hope that your management will invest in training letter writers to use better English. (For example, it should be : Thank you for your continued patronage of (not to) Pacific Internet).

Finally, let me assure you that I write not to insult or denigrate your efforts. I know you are trying your best to attend to the needs of customers. My beef is more with your management and perhaps the owners (if they really know what's going on) who insist on duping customers with an overpriced service and who do not seem to care if they continue to lose customers to competition which provides much higher quality at much lower prices. They seem to think Filipinos are dumb. I must admit I have been dumb and lazy for waiting this long to say goodbye.

I wish you luck and hope your managers really wake up.

viking logarta
----- Original Message -----
From: "viking" <viking_l@pacific.net.ph>
To: <csg@pacific.net.ph>
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 11:31 AM
Subject: Re: request for correction

> your letter is quite difficult to understand. Never mind. What I really also> want to do is to give up my account as soon as possible.> viking logarta> ----- Original Message -----> From: <csg@pacific.net.ph>> To: "viking" <viking_l@pacific.net.ph>> Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 9:58 AM> Subject: Re: request for correction> > > > Dear Mr. Logarta,> >> > Good Day!> >> > This refers to your 31 July 2007 e-mail message regarding your> subscription> > for Pacific Internet account number 1000083476-5.> >> > Please be advised that we cannot pro-rate your August 2007 monthly> > subscription fee and adjust the May 2007 excess usage that was billed to> > your July 01, 2007 statement.> >> > For clients that experiencing problem in our connection or cannot log-on> we> > can only give bonus hours on top of the monthly plan, but if your records> > show that you have zero usage for that month that is the time that we can> > give reversal on the monthly subscription fee. For excess usage, we can> > reverse or adjust the excess usage if the account was hacked.> >> > The additional 5hours bonus will add on your Speed@ccess 10 hours Plan> > effective August 2007.> >> > We hope we have helped you with this information.> >> > Should you have further inquiries, please email us at <csg@pacific.net.ph>> > or call our Customer Care Center at 918-5100.> >Thank you for your continued patronage to Pacific Internet!Yours truly,Aimee Colangoy/Customer Service AssociatePacific Internet Philippines> >> > From:"viking" <viking_l@pacific.net.ph>> > Sent:Jul 31, 2007 06:08 AM> > To:<csg@pacific.net.ph>> > cc:> > Subject:Re: request for correction> > I would really appreciate it more if you simply deducted the 5 hours from> > my> > August statement.> > viking logarta> >> >> > > Dear Mr. Logarta,> > >> > > A pleasant day to you!> > >> > > This refers to your 30 July 2007 e-mail message regarding your> > subscription> > > for Pacific Internet account number 1000083476-5.> > >> > > We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you have experienced lately> > > with our services especially with the internet connection and our> current> > > rates. We greatly appreciate your feedback as we constantly look for> new> > > ways to serve you better. Please be advised that your concerns and> > > suggestion were duly noted for proper handling. Rest assured that we> > will> > > look into this matter to ensure the high level of service you deserve> > from> > > Pacific Internet.> > >> > > Please be advised that your e-mail message has been re-evaluated and> > > approval has been granted as goodwill. We shall credit five (5) hours> to> > > your account for August 2007, which means you have total of 15 hours> > access> > > time for next month.> > >> > > We hope we have helped you with this information.> > >> > > Should you have further questions, please feel free to call our Customer> > > Care Center at 918-5100 (9AM-6PM, Monday to Friday) or email us at> > > csg@pacific.net.ph and we will be glad to assist you.> > >> > > Thank you for your continued patronage to Pacific Internet!> > >> > > Yours truly,> > >> > > Aimee Colangoy/Customer Service Associate> > > Pacific Internet Philippines> > >Dear madam/sir:> > >Thank you for alerting me about my excess usage, because it motivated meto access the record of my usage from your website. This is something Ihardly ever did because historically, I seldom ever exceeded the allotment under myplan.I write to inform you that starting on July 20, your services had been severely impaired because I could not access any websites and the only use I had for the connection was to access my pacific mail. I could not even access my other POP3 mail. I had to keep refreshing and logging out and in to see whether normal service had resumed. You can readily ascertain my claim from examining my usage log because I would dial up so many times in a day, something which is contrary to my usual behavior. Also, I simplyrefrained from logging in for a number of days out of sheer frustration (July 21-22).
I called up your technical support service early in the morning of July24 and was informed that your system had indeed been experiencing problemspartly as a result of heavy traffic because of your 'unlimited use'packages and partly because of connectivity problems with Bayantel. You can alsoascertain my claim because I had to dial up your Cebu access numberseveral times when I became desperate and lo and behold I could get normalaccess using that line, and incurring losng-distance charges! The problem persistedeven after I executed the suggestions of your 'engineer', which was tomanually enter the IP addresses. I could no longer reach your techsupport an hour later because your phone computer would say that your customerservice was closed on account of a 'holiday'. I was able to reach yourtech support again only on July 25 or 26 and after executing another set ofinstructions from another 'engineer', my access to websites had onlymarginally improved. To cut the long story short, it was only in themorning of July 28 that normal access to websites was restored.You would agree with me that is highly unfair and irregular for you tocharge regular rates for the usage when your system was not functioningup to par, and also considering that your rates are hardly competitive. Idon't even like the idea of having to write this request because I feel it isincumbent upon you to automatically adjust the billings in cases such asthis. Thus, I would appreciate it very much if you act on my request andreflect some adjustments in my August bill rather than have to wait fora reversal of charges after the fact. My total usage from July 20 to July27 sums up to 12.2 hours and it is up to you how to adjust this consideringthe problems I have mentioned.I await your prompt response.Sincerely yours,viking logarta> > >> > > p.s.> > >> > > Your letter informs me that excess usage is billed to the nearest> > 15-minute> > > block. When I examined my July bill however, I learned that you were> > > charging me the integer value of usage period in hours: INT(10.9)=10.> > Thus,> > > your claim as to your billing procedure is incorrect.>