When banks stole your money

Have you experienced being stolen by your bank?

Well, it's about time to be wary and vigilant as you put your card in any convenient ATM machines because you never know, one day, you might also experience what I had been through.

Last December, it has become a tradition for me and my wife to go to Divisoria in preparation for the Christmas season. We go there without cash in hand as long we had our precious ATM card with us. We just scout for any available ATM machine inside or outside the mall. This time, we chose Equitable Bank because it is an affiliate of the BPI and the only available bank that's not been offlined yet. We waited patiently even if there was a long line of people waiting for their turns. To our dismay, no money was dispensed from the machine. And an error said that the "machine was unavailable."

I have a suspicion that the machine went offline. So I went to another bank to verify my account while I let my wife stayed in front of the ATM machine for the hope of having the machine dispensed the money I've withdrawn. When I verified, I proved that I was right. I was debited with PhP2,000 pesos.

I approached a bank personnel of Equitable bank and reported the matter. He advised us to report what happened to BPI through its hotline number, 89-100. So we called up BPI and they gave us a sort of a reference number that will be recorded by them so we will be able to follow up our complaint. We called them after a week but the phone attendant told us that nothing had been debited from my account and instead file our complaint directly to Equitable bank in Divisoria branch where we used the ATM machine.

I was a bit mad for that conversation because for me, it is their responsibility to follow-up the incident with their partner bank and verify the matter for further investigation. In the first place, we reported the matter to them immediately so that they can make possible actions on it. The solution should be in their hands already but unfortunately, nothing has happened yet.

After almost 5 months, we are still following up the matter through 89-100 and they only gave us the same feedback over and over again that the company is still verifying the incident. It's been months and my wife got her blood pressure on a scale talking with these operators who kept on repeating the same lines. They couldn't even give other suggestions on how they could speed up the process. They just reassuring us of nothing.

ATM or Automated Teller Machine was invented to facilitate the public with easy banking service. But with this type of scenario where debited account was no longer in the vocabulary of these banks was really a violation of public trust and consumer's rights. And it's a bit alarming. What If you withdraw a big amount of money, will it make a difference?

These and many more questions hounded me. This only reflects of how some companies do their businesses. They never took care of its loyal customers, they are only after the money that you can give and the quality of service is at stake. It's only a small amount of money but we felt that we've been stolen.

So Beware...you might be their next victim.

Related Links

* ATTN: BPI ATM acct holders (FYI)
* ATM Machine Monster!!!

technorati tags:divisoria, bank, stolen, money, atm, machine, debited

Camarines Sur: Home for Xtreme Sports in Asia

I have been to Bicol region just recently and the talk-of-the town there was about the new sport complex that is still being developed by the provincial government. It is a world-class facility that will house extreme sports such as dirt biking, skateboarding and the now popular cabled-waterskiing.

The Cam Sur Watersports Complex (CWC) was the first world-class facility in Asia located inside the Provincial Capitol Complex or commonly known as "Kapitolyo." The concept was patterned in Florida, USA who led the popularity of extreme watersports all over the world.

"Kapitolyo" is also the place of the regional government office. It has facilities for all sorts of public recreation. I remembered during my high school days when we regularly visited this place for our outing. I also brought my wife here before we get married three years ago.

This 6-hectares of reclaimed land has 6-point cable ski system that has become a favorite destination spot of sport enthusiasts all over Europe, Australia and the United States. It has a 700 meter long manmade lake constructed for wakeboarding or surfing. Aside from sports, the lake invites visitors to have a swim or bath under the sun.

Cable skiing as the name suggest, is a sport wherein a skier is being pulled by an overhead cable suspended 8 to 12 meters above water surface by specifically designed pylons. It is the same with the water ski being pulled by a motorboat. The cable travels continuously and run counter clockwise with an estimated speed of 20 to 65 kph.

Read more...

technorati tags:wakeboarders, camarines, watersports

Blogged with Flock

Pieces of Hope in Albay

Cagsawa Ruins, the famous landmark of Bicol region are still intact and are spared from the ravaging flash floods brought by typhoon Reming last year. It resulted to more than a thousand deaths from various municipalities surrounding the Mt. Mayon in Albay province.

It is contrary to the reports made by foreign and local media who covered the fiasco and said that it was washed away and half buried by pyroclastic materials from Mt. Mayon. Local residents said that mediamen were not able to reach the Cagsawa ruins because roads leading to it were impassable and full of boulders and sand that reaches up to 20 ft. high.

November 30, 2006, four months after the strong typhoon, I visited this place again and witnessed the real condition of the people and the landmark. The roads that led to it were already cleared but you can see the 20 feet wall of sands in both sides. Some houses were abandoned and was half-buried in the mud.

I saw construction-owned trucks passing back and forth loading boulders and sands from the former Busay river. It was devastated and now cleared with pyroclastic deposits, sands and boulders. Some folks are still trying to catch fish in this almost dried-up river.

Read more...

Related links:
• Albay: One month after super typhoon Reming
• Rummaging through the ruins of typhoon Reming
• Family struggles to survive in Padang lahar site

Related News:
• Bicol region faces dark Christmas
• Slow Recovery for Albay Residents

A Time to Reflect

In the Philippines, the Holy Week culminates the solemn observance of Christians faith. Countless "Cenaculos" and "Pabasas" reciting and re-enacting the passion and death of Jesus Christ will again be traditionally observed. This rituals became one of the tourist attractions during the Lenten Season.

Last Sunday, April 1 marks the Palm Sunday. It signifies and highlights the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem nearly 2,000 years ago. In Sto. Domingo church alone where I usually attends mass was full of vendors with their palm branches reaching people who will attend the mass.

Truly the world is turning so fast and here comes another year for us to reflect on what we have done so far. We, at the big city sometimes forgot about these festivities and usually go the beaches and relax. Yes, I have also been there few years back and I have experienced how the crowd enjoys the Boracay and Puerto Gallera's party even if its Good Friday. Commercialism has crept us the observance of Holy Week which may have been helped along by the lack of understanding of the Paschal mystery and our faith.

Are we still the Christians that our forefathers expect on us? Do we still live by our christian faith? Well, you have the answer.

I still don't have any religious plans this holy week because I will be going home to my hometown in Bicol to visit the destruction of our province brought by the recent typhoons and at the same time to be with my ailing father.

Read more...

Make Your Officemates start Blogging

It's so funny. I have a short chat with some of my coleagues in the office about blogging. Their perceptions is that blogging is just a personal diaries of a teeny booper who are a friendster addict and are hunger for a real romance.. ha-ha-ha...do you think it's funny.

Then I told them that I'm a blogger and at Friendster, too. Then, they start to ask why?. I told them that there's a social network revolution out there that they need to see and find out if their perceptions were correct. They never knew that some personal opinions that I discussed to them on the current events, trends, politics, technology and the like are all based from what I read on blogs. And they were amazed.

When you start blogging, for sure you will gain network of friends while learning things how to earn dollars out of it. Mind you, I see more dollars on their face as they are puzzled and intrigue with the last phrase i have uttered :)

The craze for instant publishing is unstoppable and the battle for supremacy is unimaginable. I told them that blogging is more of words and not just for pictures as you see it on your Friendster accounts. Mine is just a start-up and should catch-up because I'de like to achieve more readership. They asked me how I do it because they are aware that I'm not a writer...and I told them " wala lang sinubukan ko lang."

They want instant hint on how they should go about the process and I give them some pointers that I have researched from probloggers on the net.

The web is about words. No matter how visual and audible it becomes, it continues to be about the words. Some claims that content is king and I think they are right. Blogging is all about writing and It should be king that you should protect.

Here are my top 10 things to think about in creating an army to protect your blog.

• Know your Subject: If you have several topics you want to cover in one blog post, all unrelated, what are you writing about? If you like to do that, make sure you create categories for every post you like. Use Wordpress not Blogger because it has ways to categorize your post.

• Originality Wins: Original content will always win over redundant, blockquoting, and echo chamber content. Even if you can’t write well, the attempt to say it in your words is always appreciated and welcome.

• Make Blog Paragraph Short: Blog writing lends itself to shorter sentences and paragraphs for easier reading on a web page. Web readers want information fast and in small digestible chunks. Huge bulky paragraphs make reading online very difficult, however single sentence paragraphs can make the reader uncomfortable.

• Make your Blog Talks: It’s important to write in a conversational style because your readers will relate to you, the person behind the blog. Your writing should give the illusion you are speaking directly to the reader. Match the writing style with the content.

• Move Your Reader Through the Story: A blog post or article has something to say. It begins, has a middle, and ends. Move the reader through the content, as well as into it. Make them want to scroll down for more.

• Present Facts: Everyone has an opinion. What makes your opinion different from other opinions is that yours is based upon the facts. Wild accusations, suggestions, and analogies do not build trust and respect.
  

• Make Your Point in the First 200 Words: You have less than a second to capture your reader’s attention. If the user on your site, feed, or search engine summary doesn’t “get the point” in the first two or three sentences, you’ve lost them

• Make Your Images Speak: Photos that you inserted in your blog should have something to say to compensate your post. Don't put images that are irrelevant to your contents. Readers sometimes are turned-off with this kind of behavior.

• Be a Friend of Google: With the recent public release of the Google Patent for Blog PageRank, you must be aware of your keywords that will work to the algorithm and multiple content matching of the keywords match with your content. This will help your blog increase your page ranking and visibility. More importantly, write with keywords and tags or labels to help your reader know exactly what you are writing

• Learn to Earn Dollars: Google adsence is helping site owners to monetize thru their sites. Take advantage of it and create your account for free. The program combines pay-per-click and pay-per-impression advertising - meaning you get paid for valid clicks on the ads on your site or search results pages as well as impressions on your content pages.

I just hope with these basic tips, Blogging would be a regular habit to everyone of us who are bonded in the corner of an office cubicles. It's about time for us to see and know things in a new light.

technorati tags:blogger, officemates, wordpress, tips, monetize

Blogged with Flock

Long Live Philippine Blog Awards!

Finally, the bests of Filipino Blogs was acknowledge at the 1st Philippine Blog Awards last night at the Podium of RCBC Plaza in Makati City. I was able to attend the awards night with my wife and I was thankful to the organizer for sending me an invite.

I accompanied my wife at the Glorietta to do her regular shopping before we proceeded to the venue earlier at 5:00 pm. She was actually hesitant to go because she was already exhausted but I have been able to convinced her to go since we are already in Makati.

We have meet Mr. Abe Olandres who was one of the early birds. He was known to the bloggers as "Yuga" and one of the pioneers in the blogging scene in the Philippines. Actually his group are the ones who conceptualized this project because they believe that there's a blog community growing in the Philippines.

Read more