who is afraid of allan bantiles, the father charged of putting a gun on the head of a CSA high school student?

this was posted by bullyfree Philippines in the comments section on a post in this blog (https://wawam.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/adult-points-gun-at-high-school-boy-inside-his-own-school-in-front-of-teachers/#comment-7089)

personal info of the gun poking dad:
my source told me His name is Alan Bantiles, also known to his friends as “ROY NEGRO”. born and raised in Cebu from a poor family.
His father who disowns him is an African- American soldier.
he is a multi millionaire and often boasts to be a close friend and neighbour of an ex president. Also is a close friend to few influential people
He is not a politician and does not hold any position in the government.
He owns several units/resorts and other properties in manila, visayas and several multi million houses in Sydney, Australia.
His “real” source of income is still unknown although he owns several franchise of restaurants/cosmetic shops which is obviously not generating enough money to support his lifestyle.
He owns several luxury cars.
He never go out without his bodyguards.
Has a criminal record in Australia.
Known to his friends/neighbours and own relatives to be a very violent/ irrational/ paranoid person, if you see him please do not dare to approach him.

someone gave me a picture of him but don’t know where to post it.

we also saw this on twitter:

received this texts  on my cellphone:

• atty nethercott, lawyer of bantiles used to be the chief of staff of dotdot jaworski
• to my question is the picture posted in my blog that of allan bantiles? the answer via text – “yun na nga”

Student files criminal raps vs classmate’s dad in bully issue; accused to lodge countersuit
By Niña Calleja, Kristine Felisse Mangunay

Philippine Daily Inquirer

The 18-year-old student of an exclusive school in Makati City in the center of a bullying controversy Tuesday filed criminal charges against the gun-toting father of one of his classmates.

Jesus Manuel Garcia, a senior high school student of Colegio de San Agustin in Dasmariñas Village, charged Allan Canete Bantiles with attempted murder, slander and slander by deed in the Makati Prosecutor’s Office.

Bantiles has been the subject of the condemnation of people online after a Facebook page on the alleged gun-toting incident was put up on the Internet.

Accompanied by his parents and his grandmother, Garcia filed the complaints together with his narration of the Aug. 30 incident when Bantiles allegedly slapped him, shook his shoulders and pointed a loaded gun at his forehead.

He said Bantiles also threatened to shoot him. The incident happened an hour after Garcia reportedly hit Bantiles’ son Joshua  in the face as a reaction to his and his other classmates’ bullying.

“One hour had passed after (Garcia) hit the boy.  When he (Bantiles) brought his gun with him to the school, there was an intention to hurt somebody,” Garcia’s counsel Allan Tan told the Inquirer.

Garcia included slander and slander by deed in the charges, claiming Bantiles had also called him crazy and slapped him, the lawyer said.

Bantiles and his son said the allegations were “lies.”

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/277508/student-files-criminal-raps-vs-classmates-dad-in-bully-issue-accused-to-lodge-countersuit

1 priest & 4 teachers witnessed the gun pointing bullying at CSA – police report

The gun-pointing incident was allegedly witnessed by several faculty members, identified in a police report as Mrs. Alicante, Ms. Jenny, Father Masana, Mr. Ignacio, and Ms. Cadangan.

The police report also quoted the father as saying: “You shouldn’t go to a school, you’re crazy. You should be in a mental institution…Do you want to fight me?”

http://rp3.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/metro-manila/09/20/12/deped-probing-gun-pointing-incident-inside-makati-school

what did these teachers do when the CSA parent bantilles pulled out a gun and pointed it on the face of high school boy jaime gonzales?

more than that, what were these teachers thinking asking the high school boy to meet with the father of the other high school boy involved in a bullying incident? a confrontation between an adult parent versus a high school boy – what can you expect will happen in a confrontation like that?

we didn’t think it was wise to get the high school boy and the father to meet. the proper thing to do would be to ask the parents of gonzales to meet with bantilles and settle the matter among the adults / parents. that is assuming of course that before the meeting CSA would have processed the whole situation already with appropriate sanctions ready for application to all parties and the high school boys talked to by school counselors.

this confrontation which unfortunately is the worst kind, a life threatened  would not result to anything good. it’s easy to conclude and expect that the father, bantilles will intimidate the boy gonzales. and the resulting “confrontation” will only humiliate and traumatize gonzales. this is a high school boy an experience like that will be hurtful to this young boy.

clearly there are five very wrong things on this whole situation:

1. CSA’s way of handling and resolving bullying needs improvement
2. allowing  the high school student to be confronted by a parent is a huge mistake
3. CSA’s silence on the matter and very delayed reaction  (happened august 30 or 3 weeks ago) is hurting the school, the students involved and the whole CSA community
4. there is no acceptable reason why a high school student should be subjected to a situation where a gun is pointed at his face and threatened with his life being ended by a bullet from a gun
5. unless CSA implements significant changes, CSA parents are right to feel their children are not safe inside the campus

read other posts, click to read:

• colegio san agustin alumni association response to gun bullying – “wait for school’s official statement”
• adult points gun at high school boy inside his own school (CSA) in front of teachers

colegio san agustin alumni association response to gun bullying – “wait for school’s official statement”

note that this is a reaction by the CSA alumni association, not CSA itself yet.

click to view: http://www.facebook.com/CSAMAAOfficialAccount?ref=ts

these are two of the reactions there:

given the gravity of the incident, it being the worst kind of bullying that occurred inside the CSA campus in front of teachers where the life of a high school boy student was put at risk with a bullet from a gun held by a CSA  parent, the responses are underwhelming to say the least.  not only underwhelming but also much delayed.

click to read here :

adult points gun at high school boy inside his own school (CSA) in front of teachers

1 priest & 4 teachers witnessed the gun pointing bullying at CSA – police report

adult points gun at high school boy inside his own school (CSA) in front of teachers

this incident is being talked about in twitter this morning.

we have gathered the following from a source close to the incident:

• the incident  happened 3 weeks ago
• no police report has been filed on the incident (tv patrol showed a police report document)
• the boy at whom a gun was pointed at felt his life was in mortal danger while it was happening. the boy felt he was going to be shot and die in school. that will make you weep. just imagine the kind of trauma this boy must have felt then until now.
• the boy was alone when this happened. it happened during school hours. the boy was apparently called to the principal’s office. the incident happened in front of the admin office. (tv patrol says it happened inside the faculty room)
• it happened with teachers witnessing the whole thing plus the father who pulled the gun and his two body guards
• last year, another kid bullied retaliated by hitting a bully with a hammer in the head
• the father who pulled the gun has been banned from entering the CSA campus
• boy who got bullied with a gun was suspended for 5 days
• the 2 other boys involved in the bullying were also suspended but, get this – for shorter period of time – 2 to 3 days only
• CSA PTA (parents teachers association) is not getting involved here
• my source tells me they needed the interview with korina sanchez to give the case publicity as nothing was happening on the issue
• my source appreciates the tweets on the incident and wishes to thank everyone for the concern and the effort
• please help the family of the boy bullied with a gun in giving this attention – tweet about it, put it on facebook and email to as many people as you can
• please give your comment on this incident. let your thoughts and feelings be heard.

we (#gangsters tweets) have been talking about this incident in twitter since this morning,  these are the reactions to the incident from myself and the others:

• we feel for the boy and parents of the boy. the boy or any student do not need this kind of trauma.
• have always said that the safest places in the world for our children are #1 the home and #2 the school. for this to happen in the school is terrifying and wrong.
• this incident is not just an issue of bullying, this is an issue of a life of boy that could have been taken inside the school by a bullet from a gun from a parent of a classmate.
• how was the father able to bring in guns into the campus? the security guards did not check? are guns allowed in this school?
• why was the boy called to the admin office when the teachers knew the father was going to confront him?
• why wasn’t the parents of the boy at whom the gun was pointed informed of the meeting / confrontation? and why were the parents not present during the meeting / confrontation with bantilles?
• shouldn’t this matter have been handled first among the parents? like the school to ask for a meeting with  both sets of parents first. we did not think any of the students should have been involved in the meeting or confrontation.
• what was the school thinking allowing a confrontation with the father (bantilles) and the boy? what were they intending to achieve? and how is this being fair or productive?
• one can argue the boy was set up to allow the father (bantilles) to bully the boy
• we think this is not just a CSA matter, this is also a police matter. the police needs to get involved and legal action should be take against the adult who pulled a gun at the boy.
• the boy could have been shot to death in this incident. and the loss of a life over a bullying incident in school?  that is senseless and terribly wrong.
• how rampant is bullying at CSA?
• CSA needs to review its policies and procedures on settling issues among students and parents and specifically on bullying. the school needs to study this carefully and draw out a procedure and a strategy on reducing bullying in the school and how to handle or resolve  it.
• bullying is a real problem in all schools. CSA is not the only one and this has been going on for generations in all schools.
• but that should not stop CSA from trying to minimize it if not stop it in their campus. CSA should continue to find solutions and should learn from past incidents to be better at handling it year to year.
• government authorities should be involved here – the PNP for sure as it involves guns and the threat of death on a boy. as mentioned in twitter the Commission on Human Rights and the DSWD should be involved as it involves a minor.
• parents of CSA should be concerned and get involved in this incident. the parents should demand action from the school. they should realize that this incident is saying their children may not be safe inside the CSA campus. not only did this incident show a weakness on CSA in handling bullying cases, it shows a major weakness in security.
• people in twitter (mostly from #gangsters) find the CSA action on this incident as making no sense and being grossly unfair and unjust. the school suspended the boy at whom the gun was pointed at.

latest as of 7:35 pm

the boy was interviewed at abs-cbn’s TV Patrol, his name is Jaime (jay-mee) Gonzales. the information posted here are mostly the same to what he  revealed in the TV interview.

in the tv interview, jaime said bantilles slapped him, cursed him then got a bag from a bodyguard, looked inside and took out a gun. gun was pointed to his face and bantilles said “i can kill you right now”.

why didn’t the teachers who were witnessing the incident  stop bantilles from slapping, hurting and verbally abusing the high school boy?

why did bandilles, an adult and also a father of a teen-age boy think what he did to jaime was right and justified? does he treat his son that way?

video of abs-cbn’s TV Patrol World news clip here : http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/video/nation/metro-manila/09/20/12/parent-points-gun-student-inside-school

——-

click to read here:

see picture of allan bantiles here :  who is afraid of allan bantiles, the father charged of putting a gun on the head of a CSA high school student?

colegio san agustin alumni association response to gun bullying – “wait for school’s official statement”

1 priest & 4 teachers witnessed the gun pointing bullying at CSA – police report

——-

Man accused of pointing gun at student inside exclusive school

By Dharel Placido, ABS-CBNnews.com

MANILA, Philippines – A woman has accused a man of pointing a gun at her grandson inside the premises of Colegio San Agustin in Dasmariñas Village, Makati City.

In an interview with Korina Sanchez on her dzMM radio program on Wednesday, Sony Lopez Gonzales said her grandson was pointed with a gun on the forehead by Allan Bantilles last August 30.

Gonzales said the gun-pointing incident started after her grandson punched Bantilles’ son.

She said her grandson only punched Bantilles’ son after reaching his limits due to the latter’s alleged bullying.

“They kept harassing my apo. Pino-poke ba naman yung penis and pwet. For weeks they were doing that,” Gonzales said, referring to Bantilles’ son and another student.

“Ulit sila ng ulit. Then sabi ng apo ko, ‘tama na, tama na, stop it.’ Doon nag-init ang apo ko, siyempre sinuntok niya,” she added.

Gonzales said after learning of the brawl, the older Bantilles immediately rushed to the school’s campus in Makati with a bodyguard and pointed his gun at the forehead of her grandson.

video : Psy, korean sensation performs gangnam at WNBC’s Today Show

psy’ single apparently reached the top spot at iTunes after his appearance at the Today show.

he also appeared at SNL:

also at the ellen show with ellen degeneres and britney spears.

English Translation:

Oppa is Gangnam style
Gangnam style

A girl who is warm and humanle during the day
A classy girl who know how to enjoy the freedom of a cup of coffee
A girl whose heart gets hotter when night comes
A girl with that kind of twist

I’m a guy
A guy who is as warm as you during the day
A guy who one-shots his coffee before it even cools down
A guy whose heart bursts when night comes
That kind of guy

Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Now let’s go until the end

Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style

Eh- Sexy Lady, Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh

A girl who looks quiet but plays when she plays
A girl who puts her hair down when the right time comes
A girl who covers herself but is more sexy than a girl who bares it all
A sensable girl like that

I’m a guy
A guy who seems calm but plays when he plays
A guy who goes completely crazy when the right time comes
A guy who has bulging ideas rather than muscles
That kind of guy

Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Now let’s go until the end

Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style

Eh- Sexy Lady, Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh

On top of the running man is the flying man, baby baby
I’m a man who knows a thing or two
On top of the running man is the flying man, baby baby
I’m a man who knows a thing or two

You know what I’m saying
Oppa is Gangnam style

Eh- Sexy Lady, Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh

Romanized:

Oppan gang-namseutayil
Kang-namseutayil

Naje-neun ttasaroun inkanjeo-gin yeoja
Keopi hanjanye yeoyureuraneun pumkyeok i-nneun yeoja
Bami omyeon shimjangi tteugeowojineun yeoja
Keureon banjeon i-nneun yeoja

2 dengue victims and 1 cure – tawa-tawa

this dengue story happened three years ago and I wrote this to share the experience with members of a yahoogroup composed of parents of my son’s batch when he was in grade 7. I wrote and shared it so that other parents in the batch of my son could be warned and perhaps learn and benefit from my experience with dengue.

there was a palpable dengue scare in the country at the time I wrote this with many dengue cases and dengue related deaths reported. the infection rate at that time was high and rising.

the write up is mostly intact from the original with a few things added for clarity and more details.

please read:

it’s important to note that I am writing this just as a regular parent of children who got dengue. I am not a doctor and my profession and background is not even related to any medical field. the information contained here are the things that I knew then and remember now and may or may not be correct from a medical standpoint.

this narration is purely anecdotal, without any scientific or medical basis or proof.  if dengue infects you or members of your family, you must consult a doctor immediately.  you must discuss, consult and get the agreement of the dengue patient’s attending physician for any action you will take as a result of reading this blog entry.

this is my dengue story:

the nightmare called dengue is done and over with for my family, thank God!  i just want to share a few things.

my son has fully recovered from dengue after being in the hospital for a week. but it was a double whammy for us as my daughter, my eldest and “ate” to my son had dengue too and was hospitalized just 2 days after my son was confined. both are already out of the hospital and fully recovered. thank God twice.

my whole family are now full converts of  tawa-tawa,  the “rumored” herbal cure for dengue. based on our twin experiences, tawa-tawa as

tawa-tawa plant

a cure for dengue is for real.

this is our dengue experience:

one  week-end, my son at night complained of very high fever. i needed to stay on a bed that was beside his to watch over him. even though it was the first night of high fever, he was unable to sleep and kept on complaining of feeling very hot. there was nothing I could do to relieve him of the fever with the medicine given to him does not seem to be working.  he had terrible chills and was shaking almost the whole night and gave a low moan because of the fever.

the next day, a Monday, we decided to take him to the hospital as we thought the high fever was very unusual. after two hours at the emergency room, we were shocked to find out that he had dengue. we immediately had him confined at the hospital.

as soon as I had the time,  i did internet research and read through those sent to the yahoogroup by other parents on the cure for dengue.  i found a lot of anecdotal evidence, mostly testimonies on how tawa-tawa has cured dengue from the internet and the philippine press. I thought that was worth a try.

anticipating that i might eventually use tawa-tawa,  i had the plant bought from the Manila Seedling Bank in quezon city. we bought the actual plant itself as we wanted to make sure we get the real thing.

a group of nuns and priests took it upon themselves to plant and propagate tawa-tawa at the Manila Seedling Bank so that residents of metro manila may be able to have them when needed. the tawa-tawa plant came with preparation instructions on how to make a tawa-tawa tea drink and placed the concoction  in the refrigerator.

i discussed it with my wife but she was not convinced on it. i printed the stuff i got from the internet and left it in the hospital room for her to read.

we also talked to my son’s doctor about it. the doctor, being a woman of science and medicine of course was not for it. her main concern for not agreeing to it was the lack of scientific or formal studies on its efficacy and more importantly the zero knowledge on its side effects. i understood that to her side effects are key issues as being my son’s doctor she will need to face these if they occur.

wawamTECH: philippine call center agents are the biggest liars in the world

if you have a cell phone service, a dsl service at home or a telephone landline in the philippines, then you have experienced this for sure. it is an experience we all have when something goes wrong with any of these services. and one more thing, it is never a happy experience.

1. “I’ll just put you on hold for 1 to 2 minutes” –  that can be anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes. never once did i wait for just 1 to 2 minutes when i am put on hold.

2. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience” – saying “sorry” is just lip service. if they are truly sorry then they would ask their management to fix things and get things done faster.

3. “I do understand your concern…” – this is a hit and miss thing. you will be lucky if the call center agent dealing with you really know your concern. this is one of those lines the call center agent say just to pacify you or make an attempt to make you feel better.why do they use this line when it really does not work?

4. “I’m sorry, my supervisor is not available now and is attending to another customer.”  – you did follow the procedure by talking to the call center agent, the first line of defense by your service provider. but after some minutes of dealing with the the agent. being patient or checking your anger you give up and ask to speak to the supervisor. the customer asking for the supervisor is something the call center agent does not like. she is supposed to fix your concern and for the customer asking for the supervisor means she has failed in her job to satisfy the customer. the customer asking to speak to the supervisor is a point against the call center agent. that is the reason why every call center agent in the philippines says this lie. it is an attempt to dissuade the customer from doing that.

we have dealt with call centers of US companies, like several banks. online stores and tech companies, we never experience this with them. ask for the supervisor and the supervisor talks to you in a few seconds if not immediately. it is strange that the call center companies that service US companies are able to do this and yet those servicing philippine companies are not while both are manned by filipinos and are based in the philippines.

5. “I will call you back.” – after some excruciating minutes, your problems with the service has been fully understood and recorded. they know admit something is wrong with their service and that the customer needs relief and action. the call center agent says this to make you feel better, to give the impression that they are there to fix things for you, that they want you to be a happy customer.  but they never call back to tell you if the problem has been fixed or not fixed.

often i will ask the call center agent exactly what she/he will do and what will be said when they call back. i ask that several times just to be clear. i also ask them what time will they call back. they will of course not be precise as to what time they will call within the day which is a ridiculous time frame. it’s weird that call center agents think you will actually wait the whole day for their call.

you push and they relent and give a time frame instead – anywhere from within 3 to 6 hours. you push and ask for a shorter time frame. the most you can get is within 2 to 3 hours.

but do they call back? never! again we have not dealt with a call center agent who calls back as promised.

6. “My name is…” – often i find that that names call center agents give of themselves are not their real name and not the name they use when they are on duty. they do this to keep you off track when you call back and complain about the service you get from call center agents.

i know that as i do call back to complain about call center agents who do bad in their handling of customers. i find out they gave you the wrong name as the person i am talking to will usually say they do not have call center agents by that name. worst, i ask the person i am talking to what is the name of the call center agent who entertained my call based on their record and they say a different name.

7. “My ID number is…” –  one of the other things i do is ask for their ID numbers aside from the names of the call center agents i deal with. the ID number is in many ways a better info than their names. but of course you really can’t be sure that is their ID number. they give you this lie for the same reason they lie about their names.

8. “I will do this myslf…” – this is supposed the  ace in the conversation with a call center agent. this is meant to reassure you that something will be done to fix the problem you had called them for. they are saying here that they will not just make a report and wait for someone to fix your problems but they will take action themselves. don’t believe this, it ain’t gonna happen.

this is a really sad affair not only for these telco companies but for the philippine call center industry as a whole. the philippine BPO industry is supposed to tbe the leader in the world and wants to not only maintain that status but grow it even bigger and faster but behavior like this, the lies that say to customers is not going to get them there.

the other despicable thing about this is that this happens a lot with call centers of telcos like Globe and PLDT (DSL). these are communication companies and yet these examples show they are bad communicators. the worst kind of communication are the ones that lie to customers.

i say it again, why is that filipino call centers handling philippine companies behave so differently and so badly compared to filipino call centers handling US companies? aren’t they the same company and son’t they follow the same metrics of performance and philosophy?

why this is happening is the next topic in this blog.

wawamTECH: how bad is globe service? smart launches a national ad campaign to exploit it

competitive advertising  is one of the most effective advertising concept and format. competitive advertising takes many forms, one is calling out the weakness of your competitor to set up your brand as the superior brand to the inferiority of your competitor. it is one of the most effective as consumers will always go for the superior brand.

not only that, users of your competitive brand, the inferior brand will be encouraged to switch to your brand. that is the main reason why smart telco has launched a new advertising campaign.

globe, it’s only other competitor has been experiencing network problems for many months now.

click to read here : wawamTECH: globe handyphone service failing for months now, collapses metro manila wide on the weekend

globe service has been very unreliable with frequent downtime, inconsistent signal strength, fluctuating signal strength from zero to 2 bars, 30 minute to several hours of receiving and sending text and inability of subscribers to make calls. this has been happening to globe for several months now. this happens area to area but the other weekend the globe system apparently failed metro manila wide.

smart very smartly exploited the inferiority of service that globe has been showing by launching an national ad campaign calling out globe’s network failures. the advertising objective is to get globe subscribers to switch to smart and to prevent new subscribers from going to globe.

this move of smart is very unusual from an advertising strategy standpoint. ads like what smart ran are usually aired by new brands just launching into the market, not by a brand that has been in the market for almost as long as globe is. newly introduced brands use this type of advertising to get loyal consumers of competitive brands already in the market to switch to the new entrant.

globe has been having network problems as a result of a mismanagement of their switch over to a new hardware and system from chinese supplier Huawei which was supposed to upgrade their service – faster service and bigger handling capacity. the change over is so bad that it is wrecking havoc to globe service. (read link, above)

smart obviously knew this as you don’t normally run ad campaigns that feature competitive weaknesses that can easily be solved and quickly. doing that will waste advertising money. smart must have known that the network problems of globe will be going on for a long time that they can actually air an ad campaign on it. smart’s competitive ad campaign has bite only if globe continues to have an inferior product.

this cellphone service war can very well be named as – how your own upgrade can kill yourself.

~~~mindscape landmark~~~
carlo p arvisu 

baby twins’ secret language and dance

watch the baby girl on the left of the screen as she first looks at her twin sister before both start to dance. they don’t say anything to each other but they seem to have exchanged some secret language and understood what the other meant, that was when they started their dance at the same time.  they did the secret language exchange a few more times in the video, once with a laugh, smiles and getting at their dance at the same time. . this video proves what they say about twins – they are connected by an invisible line.

cute babies! cute dancing! share this video with others and spread the joy.

professors of 3 of the top universities, Ateneo, La Salle and University Of The Phlippines support the rh bill

click to read:

• based on serious evidence, the RH Bill is pro-poor and authentically pro-life & pro-family – UP Economics Professors
• UP School Of Economics : Population, Poverty, Politics and the Reproductive Health Bill

• joint statement of ateneo and UP professors : Pass The RH Bill Now
• UP and Ateneo professors issues support on RH Bill

• de la salle university professors support the rh bill – “rh bill is pro-life”

• ateneo president fr villarin ignores bishop, upholds independent thinking and appreciates ateneo professors efforts on rh bill
• 33 more ateneo professors support rh bill, now 192 professors
• bishop wants pro rh bill Ateneo professors fired – hahahaha
• 160 Ateneo De Manila University Professors declare support for the RH Bill
• Catholics Can Support The RH Bill In Good Conscience – Ateneo Professors’ Position Paper RH Bill 5043

professors of 2 catholic schools, la salle and ateneo announce support for the rh bill

a couple of days ago. professors of de la salle university, a catholic school published their support on the rh bill. la salle joins the professors of another catholic school, the ateneo de manila university in supporting the rh bill.

the support of the ateneo professors has created controversy as the CBCP and  the ateneo president reacted to what the ateneo professors did. with the la salle professors joining the ateneo university, this will be an even bigger controversy in the coming weeks.

read their statements here (click to read) :

• de la salle university professors support the rh bill – “rh bill is pro-life”
• ateneo president fr villarin ignores bishop, upholds independent thinking and appreciates ateneo professors efforts on rh bill
• 33 more ateneo professors support rh bill, now 192 professors
• bishop wants pro rh bill Ateneo professors fired – hahahaha
• 160 Ateneo De Manila University Professors declare support for the RH Bill
• Catholics Can Support The RH Bill In Good Conscience – Ateneo Professors’ Position Paper RH Bill 5043

the de la salle professors:

Prof. Ma. Arcadio G. Malbarosa, Political Science
Dr. Antonio P. Contreras, Political Science
Prof. Louie Montemar, Political Science
Prof. Anna Malindog, Political Science
Dr. Grace Roldan, Political Science
Dr. Antoinette Raquiza, Political Science
Prof. Gina Lomotan, Political Science
Dr. Francisco Magno, Political Science
Mr. Levita A. Duhaylungsod, Political Science
Mr. Robin Garcia, Political Science
Prof. Mark Evidente, Political Science
Prof. Allen B. Surla, Political Science
Prof. Antonio Pedro Jr., Political Science
Prof. Michael Angelo B. Promentilla, Chemical Engineering
Prof. Ma. Carla Pacis, Literature
Mr. Anthony Lawrence A. Borja, Political Science
Dr. Luis F. Razon, Chemical Engineering
Mr. Anton Simon M. Palo, Psychology
Dr. Robert E. Javier Jr., Psychology

The following members have signed the Statement by e-mailing us their scanned signatures:
Dr. Allan Benedict I. Bernardo, Counselling and Educational Psychology
Prof. Ronnie Holmes, Political Science
Atty. Avelino M. Sebastian Jr., College of Law

The following members have expressed support through e-mail, and have indicated they will sign:
Dr. Arturo Pacificador Jr., Mathematics
Dr. Rochelle Lucas, English and Applied Linguistics
Dr. Danilo Dayag, English and Applied Linguistics
Dr. Jeane Peracullo, Philosophy

The following has expressed support and e-mailed an authorization to consider him a signatory to the Statement:
Atty. Arno Sanidad, College of Law

Via RH Bill Portal:
Atty. Emily Sanchez Salcedo, Commercial Law Department

(the following as shared by Louie Checa Montemar)
Redento B. Recio, Polsci/LSIG
Arnel B. Galgo, COSCA
Rey Pomarca, COSCA
J. Bartolome, COSCA
Jon Alcazar, COSCA
Ma Ella Oplas, Polsc

the ateneo professors:

1. Marita Concepcion Castro Guevara, PhD, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies
2. Marlon J. Manuel, JD, Ateneo Law School
3. Amparita S. Sta. Maria, LL.B., LL.M, Ateneo Human Rights Center, Ateneo Law School
4. Joy G. Aceron, MPA, Ateneo School of Government, and Department of Political Science

wawamTECH: globe handyphone service failing for months now, collapses metro manila wide on the weekend

if you are a globe handyphone subscriber, you have been experiencing this – you are unable to make or receive calls and text on certain days, with the signal meter on your cellphone fluctuating from zero  to two bars. this has been happening for months now.

you have learned to live with it, on occasions cursing globe as  you get texts on your cellphone from 30 minutes to 3 hours late. calls made are not any better – you get a “the party you are calling cannot be reached” error message or others calling you hearing the same message. if you are able to connect to a party, the line is choppy with sounds garbled and disconnections happen often.

if you have been a globe handyphone subscriber for sometime, you know that calling their hotline to complain is not worth the trouble to do.  it will not result to anything. the wait is very long when you call and if you are able to talk to a customer service agent, all you get is a promise to fix it but nothing much happens.

the next best thing is you send a tweet to @enjoyglobe and/or @talk2globe. after some minutes, one of those accounts will reply and ask you to DM (direct message) your cellphone number, your cellphone brand and your locati0n to them. you tweet back – “i can’t send you a DM because you are not following me”. (lol).

any person who has a twitter account know that you can only send a DM to people who follow you. but that appear to be unknown to the globe customer service person handling the globe twitter account.

you also know it will not amount to anything so you do not reply. after some minutes, the globe twitter account replies to you that it is true there are network problems in your area and that they are doing something to resolve the problem. that is of course a lie as the problem really does not get resolved for a few days.

you are of course relieved when it gets resolved and you are able to receive and send texts and calls again. but that does not last for a long time as the problem re-occurs again.

after happening at least twice, you get tired tweeting about it and you just console yourself in reading on twitter that many other globe subscribers are complaining about the same thing you are complaining about. you are not alone, the globe service failure happens all over metro manila, repeated many times in all areas and to many globe subscribers.  you wonder, is there a rotating schedule on this one?

what is happening to globe?

globe is indeed having service problems and what is causing this service outages is a very noble reason – globe is upgrading their system.

now, that does not make sense to most of us. if they are upgrading their system, why has the service deteriorated? an upgrade means service will be better but in the case of globe, service has become not only bad but really very, very bad in this upgrade effort of theirs.

we know globe is upgrading its service. post paid subscribers have received at least 2 letters from globe together with our bills saying they are upgrading their network. from what i remember, the first letter from globe came from a vice president or division head then the most recent basically the same letter but this time signed by mr. ernest cu, CEO of globe.

both letters said globe is presently doing a massive upgrade of their systems and spending multi million pesos (meant to be impressive) to do so and that it will be completed within the next 6 months or so. aside from those two letters, globe also released a series of small newspaper print ads saying the same thing.

the truth is, and it is something that globe has not said is that the service failures is being caused by their upgrade efforts.

globe has actually contracted chinese telecom company Huawei to do the upgrade. Huawei was supposed to install new hardware into thousands of globe cell sites around the country. this new hardware is meant to make the globe system faster,  handle more load for them and enhance data handling.

Huawei, a chinese company apparently won in a bidding for this upgrade versus other suppliers like those based in japan and europe. not only did  Huawei submit the lowest bid price, it also promised everything to globe, including the moon and the stars. whatever globe asked, Huawei granted.

globe fell in love with the cheap bid and the amazing moon and the stars promises and awarded the project to Huawei. well, globe soon found out that a cheap bid means you get even cheaper hardware and service. Huawei apparently over promised in their bid and globe for some reason believed them hook, line and sinker.

Huawei simply did not move fast enough to install the hardware in the globe cell cites. they did not want to hire the required number of engineers to install them quickly and properly. (of course, as their margins will be depleted.) not only that, the hardware were also not performing well as promised  and in many cases were incompatible with the existing globe hardware already in place in their cell sites.

this whole scenario is causing the whole globe system major hiccups, thus the frequent, wide and rotating outages of the globe service. problems keep popping up everywhere and anywhere. based on the frequent outages, it looks like very little has been resolved, many months after they started.

the whole situation is so bad that globe has threatened if not has already taken legal action against Huawei. Huawei is chinese and apparently communicating with them has been very difficult for globe and that is not just because of the language barrier. it is also cultural and business ethics that is separating and in fact clashing between globe and Huawei.

that is what has been happening in the past months. but what happened over the weekend?

apparently the globe system collapsed metro manila wide over the weekend – people from all over metro manila complained signals fluctuated from zero to 1 bar, often no service. calls could not be made or received. texts were received many hours late or not at all received.

we experienced that ourselves over the weekend. family members and friends were in different parts of metro manila and we could not call each other and texts were not received or grossly delayed. at varying times of the day, these friends and family members were in makati, taguig, pasig, quezon city, mandaluyong and manila and had the same complaint. twitter showed the same thing.

we had tweeted to @talk2globe last september 1 and the above was their reply confirming there were network problems in san juan. note at the bottom, @TheMallOfAsia account also tweeted problems with globe.

today, monday many more netizens in twitter complained about what happened to the globe service over the weekend. as a concession to the complaints, globe released a memo on their website admitting of the problem on the globe service over the weekend and offered a rebate to subscribers in that area. (click here : http://blog.globe.com.ph/2012/09/temporary-disruption-in-south-manila-last-september-1/)

there are a few things about this announcement:

• globe admitted that there was a network service outage over the weekend
• although globe was not completely honest here as the areas were not just limited to those few areas (southern manila) but practically the whole of metro manila. they did confirm via their tweet that to me that the san juan service was out too. plus the experiences of friends and family who were in the areas i had mentioned, including The Mall Of Asia in Pasay City based on their own tweet.
• the offer of a rebate was a nice gesture but we wonder how that will be done and if this was an honest effort  to make amends. that rebate announcement is very difficult to implement plus grossly unfair to all other subscribers not living in those areas but experienced the same outage.
• what will globe do? give rebates to subscribers only to those whose billing address are in those areas?
•  what about subscribers who do not have their  billing address in those areas but were contacting those living there and were unable to? they were also inconvenienced but no rebate?
•  what about those with billing addresses outside of those areas but were in those places and experienced the outages?

the promise of the rebate to make amends, being short in reality and impossible to implement fairly will not do anything to soothe the already battered globe subscribers. on top of that, it is really short of specifics.

if i were globe, to make this right i would offer rebates to all globe subscribers not just to a specific area. fact is there is no way to determine whether subscribers living in a specific area are the only ones affected. relatives of those living in southern manila but are in other parts of metro manila and even the rest of the country have been inconvenienced too. for sure those living in souther manila have relatives and friends living say in davao or baguio for example who were unable to contact them because of the service outage.

if i were globe, i would give 2 free text days or each subscriber receive 200 free texts as a rebate or a gesture of goodwill on their network problems during the weekend. point is it needs to be network wide, all subscribers and it needs to be meaningful.

what caused the weekend metro manila wide outage?   apparently a major hardware literally collapsed during the weekend. this hardware was like a central system that processes all the texts and calls made to and from all of metro manila. it was something like the central hub for metro manila calls and texts.

we do not know why it collapsed. worst, we do not know why globe had no back up system or some redundancy system for failures like these. the globe system seems to be so fragile, ill conceived and poorly designed. it is shocking considering this is ayala owned to whom funds is not a problem and it is a major telecom company in the country.

will what happened during the weekend repeat itself? well, yes. there seem to be no guarantee that it will not. besides what happened in the weekend was on top of that has been happening in the past months on the Huawei upgrade failures. this was just an add on. that means globe subscribers will continue to suffer.