INVISIBLE GOD

At Carriedo, the street that runs in perpendicular direction to the Quiapo Church are hordes and hordes of vendors of all kinds of products, from child toys, to peanuts, cigarettes, to stockings, and fruits. If you pass by there, you might not be able to negotiate that very small stretch of a street as it is really full of stalls, on both sides and in the middle. Manila City Hall has found it a very lucrative business to rent out even the middle of the road to the inconvenience of the pedestrians. Is there a way out of this? None. Even the Chinese stall owners are complaining because the vendors have taken over even the selling of similar products to theirs, yet they do not pay any rent at all; whereas the Chinese, aside from paying rent have to deal with garbage and other fees charged to them.

Going beyond the legal aspects of the vendors' occupancy of the streets, we would note that the small Filipino entrepreneurs have after all such perseverance in eking out a living. Thus it is not true that they are lazy and good for nothing and that all they want is a fast buck. I think that what motivates the vendors there is that money is quick no matter how small. They realize right away a profit from every item that they are able to sell.

Despite the industriousness of the people however there are highly unscrupulous big companies that are milking the people in huge millions of pesos. I am talking here of the telcos. A friend has just bought a load of P20 supposed to allow her to text 20 times. But every time she texts me, am with Globe, she loses her load after only three messages.

Now because my celfone has been attacked by a HUMAN VIRUS that blocks my calls or makes it difficult for me to get connected to the numbers I wish to call, I bought a Smart sym card. With a 30 pesos load and 200 free texts as a first timer, I was only able to send 10 texts, and the so-called 20-min voice calls, turned out to be a one-time 3 minute call and kaput. Then I bought a 100 pesos load supposed to give me unlimited call for 4 days. For two days I could not get through. The message was that -- no network service whereas with my globe handyphone I could easily get connected. Multiply this situation by 1 million subscribers and how much do you think is being sucked from the hard-earned kita of our kababayan? By the millions, and that is even daily.

So I was wondering why Manny Pangilinan was going to buy off a basketball team in the US out of the profits he has been making with his businesses, one of which is Smart. Isn't it high time that he plows back all that profit to enhancing the service of his telco? God, this is simply being a Christian -- to do unto others what you want others to do unto you.

Now where is God in our country?