Business, Economy, International, Law Enforcement

CANADA TO PHILIPPINES: RETURNS NOT ACCEPTED ON GARBAGE EXPORT

October 9, 2014 Pol Pinoy Leave a comment

Ontario, Canada (The Adobo Chronicles) – A total of fifty 40-foot container vans of garbage recently arrived in Manila’s International Container Port. It was supposed to be an export of scrap plastic materials for recycling, consigned to a Metro Manila trading firm by a Canadian company identified as Chronic Plastics.

It turns out that the shipment contained mostly toxic garbage, and was in violation of the Philippines’ Tariff and Customs Code, better known as the “Toxic Substances and Hazardous Wastes Control Act of 1990.”

Alerts were promptly issued on the shipment because the consignee had submitted incorrect documents for the importation, which has a declared value of over $220,000.

Ariel Nepomuceno, customs deputy commissioner for enforcement, warned “this junk dumped in the Philippines could pose biohazard risks to our people.”

Both the Bureau of Customs and the consignee firm have asked the Canadian shipper to take back the garbage. However, Chronic Plastics laughed the request off, saying that it has a policy of “No return, no exchange.”

A spokesperson for Chronic Plastics said that all sales are final, especially for garbage waste. “The only way we can accept a return is if the Philippines can assure us that the return shipment will be in the exact same condition as when it first left the Canadian port,” he said.

That doesn’t seem to be possible, as it was reported that garbage juice is now leaking from the container vans. It’s been sitting for almost a year now at the Customs container yard and shipping it back to Canada will take another 3 months.

Politics

IN THE PHILIPPINES, PIGS DON’T FLY BUT THEY LIVE IN AIR-CONDITIONED PIG PENS

October 9, 2014 Pol Pinoy Leave a comment

Manila, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles) – Elsewhere in the world, pigs have wings and they can fly. In the Philippines, they live in air-conditioned pig pens.

The luxurious pig residences are allegedly part of a 350-hectare real estate property owned by Vice President Jejomar Binay.

Binay, whose alleged involvement in the overpricing of the Makati City Hall Building 2 which began construction during his term as city mayor, is now being investigated for questionable property in his home province of Batangas.

property During a Senate investigation into the overpriced city hall building, former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, presented a slide show of what he says is the Vice President’s properties in Batangas. One of the properties showed a huge hacienda in Rosario, where Binay keeps horses, pigs and fighting cocks.

Mercado also showed a 5,000 square meter property with a mansion in the town of Laurel, which he says is also owned by Binay.

The Vice President has denied owning the properties.

Mercado added that the piggery is air-conditioned because Binay’s wife, Elenita, did not like the smell of pigs.

According to the latest polls, Binay is the leading potential candidate for President in the 2016 Philippine presidential elections. The Vice President is said to focus his campaign platform on providing housing and improved living conditions for millions of poor Filipinos. And yes, pigs as well.

Economy, International, Politics, The Media

FORBES ARTICLE GOT IT ALL WRONG ABOUT THE PHILIPPINES’ BUDGET DEFICIT, AQUINO GOVERNMENT INSISTS

October 8, 2014 Pol Pinoy Leave a comment

Manila, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles) – The Aquino government blasted a recent article in Forbes magazine claiming that the Philippines’ economic boom is a bubble waiting to burst.

The article was authored by economic analyst Jesse Colombo who writes that the Philippines’ economic progress and status as an emerging market — often touted by President Aquino in his state of the nation address and speeches abroad — is deceiving. Colombo points to the continued disparity between the few rich people and the rest of the population and that investors’ insatiable hunger for emerging market debt has caused the Philippines’ external debt to spike in recent years.

Specifically, Aquino’s Budget Secretary Florencio Abad challenged the claim by Colombo that the Philippine government has been running a budget deficit since 1999, which includes the last 5 years of the Aquino administration.

Pointing to the graph showing the deficit years, Abad said Forbes magazine seems to have inverted the graph, and that the bars showing the deficit should be pointing upwards instead of downwards. He said this is how the graph should look like:

inverted