A grave housing problem

The British Broadcasting Co. (BBC) correspondent played with words in his report aired Tuesday evening this week (Manila time) on what was presented as a unique Philippine phenomena: Cemetery dwellers. It is an indication, the reporter said, of this country’s grave problems in housing and poverty.

The special report was long by broadcast standards at over a minute, possibly two minutes. It showed video footage of families who have made some of those ornate family mausoleums their home. One father told his interviewer that his children are second generation grave dwellers. He grew up at the North Cemetery and so will his children face a grave future.

An old woman said she doesn’t have a choice because of poverty. And if you compared their living conditions to the squatters who crowd our congested shanty towns or even those who sleep in the streets, the grave dwellers seem better off. They have breathing space. Some live in marble or at least concrete structures with good roofs over their heads.

A funeral was going on when the BBC cameraman was shooting. The reporter commented that the graveyard family should have no problem with this new neighbor who is just moving in. The reporter assumed that the families living at the cemetery aren’t bothered by noisy neighbors, given the silence of the graveyard. But cemeteries are now getting overcrowded by the living. The reporter mentioned that hundreds of thousands of poverty stricken Filipinos now call the graveyard, home.

I wonder what that short report, aired worldwide, did to Dick Gordon’s tourism program. I wonder what it did to the Filipino image abroad, already battered as it is. The image is painfully true.

I wonder if President Arroyo caught it and, if she did, still thinks she gets a better shake from the foreign media.

Selling RP to investors

DTI Secretary Mar Roxas has one of the most difficult jobs in government today: trying to sell the Philippines to foreign investors. Mar joined us at the EDSA Plaza Tuesday Club on invitation of Tony Katigbak, STAR managing and business editor and yours truly to give us an update in the industry and investment sector. The operative word in Mar’s efforts today is "regional" as in Asean for investments source as well as export markets.

Mar told us that he is leading a roadshow team to neighboring capitals to try and get even a small part of available investment funds. The Philippine Stock Exchange and some of the leading corporate issues in the bourse will make presentations before fund managers in Singapore and Hong Kong, among other capitals. He mused that if we can get even one percent of funds available for investment in regional equity markets, we can get the local stock market jump started and perhaps, even entice locals to jump in again.

He said his work of attracting investments has become more difficult in recent weeks because of judicial rulings. That ruling of the Supreme Court on the PEA Amari deal, for example, has far reaching consequences beyond the deal itself.

All of a sudden banks holding mortgages of previously reclaimed land are effectively holding nothing. The taipans and other local investors who sunk in money on reclaimed land now have serious problems as a result of the Supreme Court ruling. Even the petrochemical and the Manila Hotel rulings of many years ago still reverberate when foreign investors consider putting their money at risk here.

Mar also said they are reconsidering the "macho" commitments made by the Ramos administration on tariff cuts for products from countries other than Asean. Apparently, the Ramos officials made tariff cut commitments ahead of deadlines set for us under the WTO. They are looking into the impact on local industries, something the Ramos boys should have done before.

Call centers

Mar also wanted to clarify the impression that call centers moving into the country from abroad and creating jobs here provide nothing more than glorified telephone answering services. Actually, he explained, some of the Philippine- based call centers provide very sophisticated services. Operators have to answer pretty technical questions or initiate action on a consumer request or complaint.

My experiences with local call centers however, are far from pleasant. Even the supposedly sophisticated Citibank call center always leaves me disappointed. The other month I complained about a double billing in my credit card account in addition to another double billing that they have not acted on a couple of months ago.

This week, I got Citibank’s billing and the double billings were reversed, not once but twice. Now I have to call them again to report that they overdid it. But I dread the thought that I have to talk to their call center again.

Last Sunday, my PLDT DSL connection wouldn’t get connected when I tried to check my e-mail. In utter frustration, I called 173, the call center number I was supposed to call if I had any problems. No dice. The number just rings and rings, plays elevator music after a voice tells you to wait because their operators are busy. Ten minutes of this and I gave up. I tried the old call center number 177 but the guy who answered said they turned over responsibility for residential DSL clients to 173. Unless I am a corporation, he shouldn’t even be talking to me. No amount of pleading to help me worked.

Normally, I don’t bother with the PLDT call centers. I have the cell phone numbers of the PLDT linemen and they come right away to help. But they were not responding this Sunday morning, so I just left a text message.

As always, the linemen came around later that afternoon but I was out of the house by then. Bless their souls, there are people in PLDT who care. They told me the problem was at the central in Cubao. The Nokia engineers were replacing some equipment. If PLDT’s call center operators bothered to pick up my call, they could have told me that and I would have understood.

Where would I be without those PLDT linemen? Those unheralded rank and file PLDT employees represent the best of PLDT. They should be getting the salary equivalent of whoever is managing PLDT’s totally useless call centers. These linemen who sweat it out away from the air conditioned offices of the call centers, live up a commitment to customer service, something PLDT’s call center management hasn’t heard of yet.

I guess customer service takes a backseat because Manny P is busy fighting his bosses at First Pacific. But if that’s the kind of call center service we are trying to sell abroad, Mar Roxas has one more reason to feel despondent.

Stupid white man

This one was forwarded by Marilyn Mana-ay Robles.

The old Cherokee chief sat in his reservation hut, smoking the ceremonial pipe, eyeing the two anthropologists about to interview him.

"Chief Two Eagles," one academic began, "you have observed the white man for many generations, you have seen his wars and his products, you have seen all his progress, and all his problems."

The chief nodded. The academic continued, "Considering recent events, in your opinion, where has the white man gone wrong?"

The chief stared at the academics for over a minute, and then calmly replied. "When white man found the land, Indians were running it. No taxes. No debt. Plenty buffalo. Plenty beaver. Women did the work. Medicine man free. Indian men hunted and fished all the time."

The chief smiled, and added quietly, "White man dumb enough to think he could improve system like that."

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]