We all know that Freddie Aguilar is a patriotic person. We are all proud of his achievements. However, patriotism must be put in context all the time. His remarks on Arnel Pineda, Charize and Gary V has put him in hot water.

In his latest interview, he blurted out "kaya tayo nasasabihang mga unggoy" (that's why we are called monkeys). That is in reference to the supposed interview on Mariah Carey wherein she supposedly said that she does not want to be compared with a "brown monkey" when asked about Regine Velazquez. For the record, we still don't know if Mariah really said that. For the uninitiated, "monkey" in this context means "copying." At that time, Regine is covering Mariah songs.

Arnel Pineda and Charice has not written their own song yet (or at least have not released). Charice covers songs for a number of popular singers while Arnel is the current lead vocalist for Journey. And since they are covering other people's works, they are basically copying. Thus, "they are like monkeys copying their master."

I think in this case, Freddie is misinformed. The remarks is done in bad taste and it's just right that people react violently. How can you expect Charice to sing a Filipino song in Oprah? And Arnel, being a vocalist for Journey to sing an OPM in their album?

What do you think?

I noticed that mosts of my posts lately involved politics and celebrities. For a change (and I'll try to do it all the time), let's look on the current state of wedding industry in the Philippines. June, the wedding month, has just past so I think it safe to speak now so as not to invite a lot of violent reactions.
Not that I mind but I don't want to ruin the day of the brides. Hehe.

Don't you think Filipinos are now spending/splurging more and more for their wedding? You see, I've attended several weddings the past two years in around Manila and was appalled with the amount of money people are throwing for their "dream wedding". The wedding industry has become multi-billion peso industry now. It's has become normal to see couples spending millions for their wedding. Want a sample? Just look at the Star Wars Wedding.

"Exclusive" churches are making a killing on this wedding frenzy with the San Agustin Church and Manila Cathedral fully booked on weekends for the next two years. As a result, people are going places now for their wedding. There's this Caleruega Church in a secluded but scenic area in Nasugbu, Batangas. Naturally, receptions for weddings in that church are held in Tagaytay area with Sonya's Garden and Villa Sommet getting more and more popular.

If there's any good news about it, it's the fact that all there's a lot of wedding suppliers in the business now. Wedding photographers are everywhere and the new receptions veneus in and around Mega Manila are busy. If there's a business, jobs are generated. For every job generated, one less family

By the way, my officemate is getting hitched this coming December. He's a person you wouldn't to setlle. Apparently, his girlfriend's wishes prevailed. He's now saving for the event and expects the cost to hover around 800k. If you cover all his travel to Manila, the number will only go higher. Imagine, the pre-nuptial fee at Punta Fuegao is PHP25,000 already. That's a fortune for many and yet, that's just an entrance fee in that exclusive resort. A fraction of the total cost.

So for the very few who read my blog --that includes YOU--, do you think it is worth it to spend lavishly in a wedding? Especially with this crisis around? No, really?

P.S.
The diocese in my home province does not allow "special" wedding. The bishop believes that "special weddings" create a great divide between the poors and the well-off. I must agree.... So we had our wedding in Manila. hahaha.

The ongoing war between GSIS and IBM is turning uglier. Like you, there must be some questions running on your mind regarding this issue. For one, why is SAP not included in the charge? Why only Questronix and IBM? SAP is the application used on top of IBM's DB2 database. So it is SAP which is writing data in the database and could be the reason of the problem. In a few months that it is running, they already accumulated 2TB of data. That's a lot of data and would need a lot of storage for such a short time.

I've got the chance to have first hand experience in supporting frontline applications and I never encountered a system that required so much storage in such a short time. An insurance application suite I handled before implemented in several SEA countries didn't even reached 200GB for each country in the 6 years I handled them. And we are talking about ten thousand transactions daily here. SAP and DB2 are widely used all over the world by top-notch companies and you would not expect it to falter with GSIS.

So there must be something wrong in the implementation or in the administration. Support for SAP and DB2 is a highly especialized job and you'll need top-notch software engineers to maintain it.

And if IBM wins the 200M suit, who will foot the bill? Would it be Winston Garcia and other GSIS executives? Or the GSIS members and the taxpayers? I highly doubt if Garcia or Elamparo will pay anything for it. Also, I highly doubt if they will win this case.

By the way, the contract price for that Integrated Loans, Membership, Acquired Assets and Accounts Management System (ILMAAAMS) project is only PHP80M. I'm quite surprised, really. That's cheap. One ABAP programmer can easily cost you 1 million pesos annualy while a SAP Functional analyst getting 1.5M annually is already considered cheap. So this project is really cheap and thus, cheap service.

O well, let's see what will happen here. GSIS is already burning millions daily with their newspaper ads. I hope they don't realize at one point that their storage engineer is the culprit. And that's how I see this antics by GSIS. To be able to cover their incompetence, they are blaming IBM.

Teddy Locsin is one of my favorite congressmen and he just add a couple of brownie points with his interview yesterday. He is very interested and supportive of the automation of next year's election and was actually present in some parts of the bidding process including the testing of the machines. He was hands on to this and has actually a first-hand account of the process. And just like most of us, he is very disappointed with the current turn of events.

The Makati representative is also furious with the statements coming from the "liars" in the senate who are trying to blame Smartmatic with the mess. In an interview with Inquirer, he states that “anyone with half a brain would know they did their best and suddenly this guy becomes unreasonable.” I completely agree with his opinion. I just wish him to be more direct and name those "liars". (*cough* *gordon* *cough* *chiz*)

Congressman Locsin further adds that

You can’t link TIM’s withdrawal to the administration because the administration has backed up automation 100 percent. In fact, the opposition in the House and the Senate have opposed automation and in a way they got what they wished for

As some details come out, it looks like the TIM management is to blame. The lawyer says that as a Filipino company, they should have the control of the company. That's plain bullshit. It was Smartmatic who has the technology and expertise in this field. They are just riding on the back of the foreigners and now they want to control them? And what's with the PHP500 million demand?

Haaay. This is so depressing. I've been monitoring this project and praying that it pushes through but as things are going, it may not happen next year. I think Comelec Chairman Melo is doing his job well as well as the Comelec Bids and Awards Committee. I really hate Senators Richard Gordon and Chiz Escudero for meddling with the process of Comelec. They made to look Melo and his team like idiots and not doing their job when you see that these people are working hard for this project. I don't know what are the intentions of these two "honorable" senators but what we know is that at least one of the losing bidders approached them. That's what Senator Gordon admitted.

Just this morning, Chairman Melo announced that they are suspending the negotiations for the contract of the poll automation with the winning bidder, Smartmatic-TIM consortium. The reason being is that the consortium is still yet to submit the articles of incorporation. By this time, the consortium must have registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

And late this afternoon, Chairman Melo again told reporters that Total Information Management (TIM) has back out of the contract due to "irreconcilable differences" with their partner, Dutch firm Smartmatic. TIM earlier said that Smartmatic has already signed the papers and only waiting for TIM's signatures. Apparently, that didn't happen. And now, TIM is facing possible charges from Comelec. That would be one huge case for damage claim, I suppose.

For sure, those who are against and afraid of the automation would be grinning wide and ear-to-ear by now. I hope these people don't have a hand with this development. But I won't be surprised if they do. The losing bidders will also be happy as they will have another shot of bagging the contract.

By the way, if I remember correctly, TIM is a service provider for my previous company in the Philippines. They won the contract for the disaster recovery center of my previous employer. They are really a technology company. Though I don't see them as a big company, I know they can pull this off as they are backed by Smartmatic. I see them fit for the automation project. They are far better than a construction company, IMHO.

But automated or not, I'll still vote. I hope TIM and Smartmatic settle their issues. They might need the help of Bayani Agbayani to "settle" things. Hehe.