Enrique L Flores, Jr., Arbiter

This is a warning to all illegally dismissed employees filing for damages with the Department of Labor and Employment.

I filed a case of illegal dismissal for lack of due process against an employer NGO which milks money from US private citizens for their "urban poor" clients, a project of which is the Tuberculosis program. I was dismissed after informing the regional manager of the said agency about "non-delivery of tuberculosis medicines" which I stumbled upon.

The NGO instead fired me, and made up a fraud case instead, without any prior written notice of commission of any violation.

The decision made by Flores states, "As told, no first notice was given to the complainant that her dismissal is sought which is clear violation of her right to due process...judgment is hereby rendered DISMISSING the complaint for lack of merit. However, respondent ... is ordered to pay complainant the amount ... as indemnify / nominal charges."

During our hearing at the DOLE office, my lawyer (a newbie) met a colleague who asked our arbiter and my lawyer replied "Flores."

The DOLE veteran lawyer replied, "Naku, nababayaran 'yan."

I was stymied. And today, the incident is recalled, with lots of dismay and disappointment for a chance to ever benefit from Philippine government service.

Haay Flores. Haay Bayan ko.
ULKPI TB

Smart Hi-Jacking Continues

Whatever happened to "Manong Johnny's" campaign against giant mobile service providers - Smart and Globe - which continue hijacking cellphone loads from consumers?
Manong Johnny, now that many of your fellow tradpols admit EDSA was already diminished to a level that make Cory and Ninoy cringe in their graves endless, does not mean you can leave us taxpayers alone. What happened? (We don't expect the De Venecias could actually do something either but for the sake of our Payless taxes, do speak and stand up). Many consumers have maintained their silence for several big business passes now... well, for all we know, inyo-inyo rin naman ang karamihan ng big businesses (toinks sa ating mga Pinoy)

I have minimized loading up due to internet connectivity but recent Smart e-loads which allows me to send only 10 messages for a P20 load without activating their ALLTX20COMBO (by texting C20 to 2827) promo has grown monstrous. Thing is, we don't actually pay only P20 for these tingi loads but P22. I also noticed how my P30 e-load sends only about the same number of SMS. These voracious institutions who already makes loads of millions per day want everything and will get away with everything they can hi-jack as long as nobody raises hell.
Their monopoly of major media advertisements make them almost untouchables but the heck.

Hey Smart people what is going on? To default your e-load products to your promo is un-called for.

Sure you have no respect to your customers for a long time now since you've been making mega-bucks daily, but why drag us to go berserk? (Actually, am a peaceful person, I can only lash with this keyboard.)

Family

I am not voting nor endorsing to family, friends and people I encounter Noynoy Aquino nor Gibo Teodoro, if only for their commonality: their middle name Cojuangco. While their respective PR agents will emphasize their being on the opposite side of the fences of politics since the Marcos regime, this does not remove the fact that ruling families have ransacked this country to its current squalid state and continue doing so until now. We should not forget the massacre of farmers at Hacienda Luisita, the continuing plight of these victims' families in the said hacienda owned by the Cojuangcos, and the lot of other farmers in massive lands owned by the Cojuangcos elsewhere, the immoral and continued defiance of law by being the beneficiaries of coco levy supposedly serving the poor coconut farmers in the south, and we should not forget that while Noynoy insists he will not steal, does not guarantee his family and clan won't, when even now, they do. In fact, I will not vote for Noynoy not because of the overtly sensational, scandalous but sometimes funny Kris Aquino. It was his middle name why.

Smart Update

Here's the email of Smart:

Dear ....:
Thank you for writing us.

We understand where your sentiments are coming from. However, we regret to inform you that we could not validate the details of your usage anymore, as we could only check the last 7 days transactions of your account. However, we were able to retrieve the reloading history.

Previous records show that aside from the pre-loaded value of P100 last Nov 21 (the date of your activation), you have made another reload of P300 last Nov. 23. This was the reason why Mr. Deon Hidalgo of *1888 informed you that you have P400 total accumulated amount on your account at the time of call. Further, you have reloaded P300 last Jan. 10 after you have spoken with the agent which made your account have a total loaded amount of P700.

Regarding the concern of your sister-in-law with PLDT budget card, we would suggest to seek assistance from PLDT Customer Service for appropriate handling.

We hope this clarified your concern, Ms. Cruz. Should you require our assistance again, please do not hesitate to inform us. You may also communicate with us via twitter@Smartcares.

Sincerely,

Interactive Social Media Services

Smart Communications

Take note of the email addy: customercare@smart.com.ph.My response:

Assuming I only loaded P400, then, it should amount to 20 hours usage time. I only had a total of 13 hours and 17 minutes the time I talked with Mr. Hidalgo. Where is my 7 hours?

But I can recall I loaded another P300 before December 22, as I have said, it was hubby who bought the card at Novaliches (Bayan). Immediately after, I loaded it. I was not shortchanged, was I?

Now, this is getting really interesting.

My warning to all card load users, keep your cards or record your confirmation /reference numbers from 1510. It's the only weapon we've got against the giant corporations' shockies (shock absorbers- I sympathize fellow commoners, I sincerely do).

And I hate to admit this, but I pity every customer service representative each time a shortchanged customer had to vent their anger regarding products/services. I wish the tax we paid through all these consumption would work for us, but we have worthless government agencies, 99% of the time. Wawang Pinoy.

Smart Customer Service Update

Smart contacted me through this blog and here's their email address:

ISMS@smart.com.ph

Now, let us see if it's working... The blog notification landed in my spam but fortunately, I check my spam mails once done with my inbox to see what's up with the Zongo (btw, zongo in ilocano means monkey) and Burkina Faso guys, so, I was able to capture this one fast.

If you guys have problems with *1881, then this is the email addy to send your whines, rants and barfs... at the end of the day, we still hope to get value for our hard work (money). Will keep you posted.

Hi-Smart-Jacking

Sure SmartJack is threatening mobile phone service providers. Thank you for the agitation this device is causing them, it is about time, but how they will converge and continue fooling us remains to be seen.

Now, back to Smart. I have always used Smart - even when it was still a struggling subsidy of PLDT. I like its user-friendly features of not needing to encode a lot of numbers when requesting for services, unlike Globe. I have an aberration to reading and writing numbers. So that when we have been done (or been made) using broadband of leading landline telecoms, I'd end up using and recommending SmartBro. In fact, while currently using PLDT's broadband/dsl (bundled with the landline), I have turned to Smartbro plug-it for emergency purposes such as when our neighbors chop up some wires of PLDT for recycling and economic purposes (like in my 2 months in our current residence, we have two weeks without service, although I'd really like to work out how PLDT will be notified about billing deductions, because it takes like 1 hour to 2 hours to get through their 171 hotline - that HOT).

The SIM has its initial 100-peso load, explained earlier in the Smart-wireless SM North Edsa center to last about 10 hours. Then, I bought a P300 load at the dome in the garden in the sky (SM-NE). The load expired in about 4 days. It left me wondering - it could be because my sister used a laptop (slowmo). So, hubby bought another P300 load. While there was again a PLDT dsl interruption going on threatening my livelihood, and it's the wee hours, I was earlier thankful I had my Smartbro plugit. I became hysterical, however, as I see my total consumption here to be 13 hours plus only and I could no longer connect to the net:
I was thinking the "total time" indicates for the last card I loaded, but no, it wasn't. Had I realized that earlier, I could have raised more hell against *1881's CSR Deon Hidalgo I was talking with! Because he insisted I only had 1 peso load left!

I told him they are doing the consumer another highway robbery and nobody seems to be raising an alarm! Would these major media companies do? I doubt it when these companies are virtually the bread and butter of these local media companies. So, its up to us netizens to become vigilant and warn our fellow consumers / victims.

Next time that you load, take note of your reference number in case you delete the message from 1510. Or keep your cards. It will serve as reference when you start waging war with the Smart CSR (Customer Service Representative or company shock absorber). Because what got me during my convo with *1888's Deon Hidalgo was he kept insisting I only loaded a total of P400 when in reality, I already loaded a total of P700. And even if I only loaded a total of P400, I would still need to consume a total of 20 hours! Now, how do we raise more hell?

Here's another: my sister-in-law is trying to call up her mom in Canada, and she bought the P100 PLDT budget card charging only P1.50 cents per minute. That's hoot against the operator-assisted P200/ per minute. But while the phone machine acknolwedges the card still has P36 pesos left, she can no longer connect. Hello? PLDT and Smart? What's up with your hi-jacking card loads?