Cellular phone companies rob subscribers

CELLULAR phone companies in the Philippines are robbing their subscribers – both pre-paid and post paid – millions of dollars everyday. Just imagine one of the leading networks sending an average of ten alerts/advisories a day to its more than 25 million subscribers at an average cost of ten cents (the equivalent of one peso, which is the basic charge per text message in the Philippines). That’s a whooping $25 million!

But the robbery doesn’t stop there, it is perpetrated wantonly, brazenly, and with impunity. Even requests that such advisories and alerts be stopped are disregarded. Repeated requests would only illicit more advisories… and further charges until one’s precious and hard-earned load is all but consumed, without a call made or an all-important business or personal text message sent.

How about the second biggest cellular phone service provider? The third? And the others? All in all, estimates of cellular phone ownership and usage in the Philippines could easily reach 50 million. As a matter of fact, the Philippines is the runaway texting capital of the world with an average of 2.5 million text messages every hour.

But how does one stop the cellular phone companies from sending such alerts, some of which cost as high as 35 cents. Sending text messages to stop all alerts and advisories are ignored. Perhaps, the programs used in sending these alerts are deliberately set not to respond to customers’ requests that such be stopped. Ah, talk of deceit. How about robbery?

Indeed, when one perpetrates this kind of scheme on unsuspecting and unwilling subscribers, it is nothing but a crime called robbery. And by using technology, the crime becomes even more heinous.

So, who does a subscriber turn to? Obviously, this robbery, in simple terms, violates a subscriber’s right of choice. Doing something against a person’s will is a serious crime that must be addressed by the authorities. More appropriately, it should be stopped. But apparently, even the authorities, most of whom have two or three cellular phones, are also victims of this type of fraud. But they suffer less, because they have more to spare.

Unlike the ordinary cellular phone subscriber, who scrimps from a pitiable budget just to purchase a pre-paid load equivalent to 35 cents. How about the student, who foregoes a 35-cent snack, opting to go hungry, just to be able to load his or her cell phone to text a friend or a family to inform them of her or his whereabout or wherefor.

If the cellular phone companies are not doing injustice to their subscribers by sending this unwanted alerts and advisories, what is? But the robbery continues unabated.

Once a subscriber is really pissed off by constant alerts and advisories that eat up his or her load, he or she simply throws away the SIM card, hoping that a new one will not be getting the same deluge of alerts and advisories. But that’s only for a while. After the cellular phone companies notice that a SIM card is active, alerts and advisories flood the subscriber again. Thus, the poor subscriber get’s robbed not once, but twice – via alerts and advisories and a new SIM card. Or worse, as the cycle continues, so does the robbery.

If only traditional telephones – land lines – are as efficient and as convenient as mobile phones, subscribers will just abandon their cellular phone units and relegate them to the dustbin of history.

Philippine maritime industry gets what it deserves

GOING OVER the various publications that now serve (and claim to cover!) the Philippine maritime industry, one could not help but feel discomfort and sheer frustration.
One tabloid paper, that's been there for years, continue to survive (more appropriately gyp advertisers) without the basic qualities necessary for a high school publication. Imagine photos without captions. Also, how can you bear to read pages full of grey (because what the paper publishes and claims as stories are reprints of speeches or position papers). And when does a big story merit a two-column head and relegated into the minor pages of a newspaper. But of course, the publisher and editor (now) know no better. They both don't know what is basic, even sensible publication is. What they know, and this is obvious, is to "get" people to advertise in their so-called maritime newspaper.
The same is true with another tabloid that claims to be the leading Philippine maritime newspaper. In its latest issue, the paper insulted -- murder is more appropriate -- Shakespeare for bastardizing the great writer's soliloquy.
How about the only surviving magazine in the Philippine maritime sector? While its editor continues to draw flak for parallax journalism, he can't be blamed. His publisher, an equally self-assuming person, tries pulling strings, where it can be pulled, and bullying, where nothing else works, in favor of his editor.
Well, these are just some of the things we have come to see about how shabby Philippine maritime journalism is. Well, our seafarers -- officers and ratings -- don't deserve this kind of treatment. They are hailed as the world's best, but they are not accorded what they deserve.
How about our distinguished and respectable manning executives? Well, in recent years we have seen how many of them resort to mainstream media for their supplements during major events or important dates in their corporate lives.
That should have served notice to the publishers and editors of Philippine maritime publications. But instead, they fight tooth and claw, to be agents for the mainstream publications.
Surely, the Philippine maritime sector deserves a better media. One of the daily broadsheets recognize this. Even if one or two broadsheets have long foregone their shipping sections, there is a good potential for a better media to serve and influence this particular sector.
This kind of shabby reportage that the Philippine maritime industry also tells of how ineffective is the Fourth Estate in generating views and opinions on issues that matter in the sector. Well, as of now, most of the opinions we hear are from the players themselves. They do most of the talking and they get answered by their fellow industry players. So there are no independent opinion makers -- what maritime journalists are all about.
For now, let Capt. Gregorio Oca, an institution in the Philippine maritime industry, be muddled with the media his organization supports. For one who has done a lot to the industry, he doesn't deserve a media that doesn't know who Jean Edades is or what she advocated. Kawawa naman siya... si Kap Oca.
On the other hand, we can let the Greeks get their geek English through a magazine that claims to help their seafarers bridge the loneliness gap while at sea. They are only feeding their seafarers thrash that will not help their comprehension of the English language any. Thus, they make their seafarers more pathetic and lonely. 'Di bale na yung mga Griyego, Greek naman sila.
Probably this is the reason why many of the more discriminating (even prudent) executives in the Philippine maritime industry refuse interview and subsequent publicity. One executive had been continually asked for an interview (over the years by one tabloid), but this executive shuns requests and proves more than elusive. At one affair, where the publisher meets this executive, she remarked "Your name precedes you!" with one eyebrow raised and with a puckered lip.
Well, what do your think? Does the Philippine maritime industry deserve what it gets, in terms of media attention and coverage?