LPG tanks – a serious consumer concern

It is very welcome news that the government through the DTI, Department of Trade and Industry, is seriously exerting efforts in protecting the public and the consumers from defective and inaccurately weighed LPG tanks.

Not that we are totally against the small private enterprises that make up what we have termed as our "underground economy", for admittedly they keep our nation going during hard times, but there are products and services that may best be purchased only from big reputable companies.

LPG is one such, as records show that a good number of fires have been caused by exploding defective LPG tanks. The reputable firms do not sell defective tanks. These reliable LPG companies have a system of retiring LPG tanks that have become defective in the course of use and the passage of time.

So is the case of LPG tanks that are "bled" or reduced of contents and sold to unsuspecting housewives or house help who are attracted by the discounted price for which they are being sold to the public. If these unsuspecting buyers would only take the time to compute the number of days that their "discounted LPG" would last compared to the ones that are regularly priced, they’ll have the surprise of their lives to find out how they were hoodwinked and sold short. The legitimate LPG firms do not sell short, they have licenses and reputations to think of.

But again the government’s efforts to go after those who sell these defective and short weighted LPG tanks will still go awry or altogether to naught if the consumers themselves will continue patronizing them. We need the public’s complete cooperation to help cut off the demand for these products in order for this nefarious business to cease. Consumers should have the resolve to reject deformed or visibly defective tanks and resist the temptation offered by seemingly cheaper offers.

Teachers would end up with ‘five/six’ lenders

Not unless the leadership of the DECS or Department of Education, Culture and Sports would reconsider their new policies dictating a restructured service interest rate to be strictly adopted by the small lending institutions that presently come to the rescue of the teachers during their times of dire financial needs, the "five/six" lenders would form a beeline to all our schools to fleece our teachers blind, that is if they haven’t yet. Because surely in no time at all many, if not all of these small lending firms, would fold up one after the other burdened by the cost of money and operations as against these new interest rates that are rammed down their throats.

The big financial institutions have shied away from the business of lending these small amounts to the teachers who, because of their meager earnings compared to their daily needs, inevitably borrow money every so often in order to meet some emergency needs or just to merely survive, precisely because they find the viability of the business questionable. What with the volume of documentation and the man-hours involved and the cost of money compared to the meager service interest rates.

But then the small lending institutions, which can survive with meager margins took on the challenge and for many years lent succor to these teachers by way of small loans during their times of financial distress.

But here come the new DECS officials who decided to rock the boat and rocked it so hard that it would eventually belly over very soon, leaving the teachers to the mercy of the loan sharks.

What’s really behind this move?

Is this what many are saying as the grand design to kill all the present lending institutions so that a bigger "centralized" system can be put up and similarly "centralize" the benefits of the business to a few favored and anointed ones?

We just hope this isn’t so.

A ‘DOM’ for an educator?

A member of an exclusive club is threatening to "spill the beans" on one of its board members if he would not change his wicked ways.

According to this lady member, there was a young lass who once worked for the exclusive club who confided to her how this "dirty old man" would pester her whenever he comes around the club. He would come up with sexual innuendos but however admits that he is "no longer up to it" but volunteers that he still loves to "play".

At one time this ageing director asked for the size of the young employee’s bra, which according to her she refused to divulge despite her fear for this influential board member. Nevertheless, according to her the balding malice-prone maniac still insisted on giving her a bra for a gift, which according to the "antique pervert" he just "approximated by sight". Of course, she refused the gift.

In frustration and fear the young employee just decided to leave for abroad but made sure she left some form of deposition to this lady member to strengthen any case against this board director in the event that he would eventually find his match and somebody decides to squeal on him for sexual harassment or whatever misdeed.

But it seems that the lady member, in her desperation over the continued disgusting behavior of this man, who she sometimes describes as "evil personified" may not wait for such occasion considering that the said director, despite his age is still very much into his "plotting and scheming" against anybody who crosses his path. What worries the lady member is that the said pedophile (considering his age he can only be considered as such, said the lady member) is very much into the business of "educating the youth".

Most of the other club members who know about this are advising this lady member to unmask this fiend before his repugnant ways further cause misfortune to the people he gets to associate with. They were saying that despite his ripe age he might still live long enough to go on sowing misdeeds in the final days of his borrowed existence.

A "dirty old man" engage in the profound business of education is a very dangerous prospect. "And living in such a glass house, should stop throwing stones."

We decided to give way to this with no intention to malign anyone but more to warn those who are into this repulsive practice that they are being watched, so better to mend their ways and remember the old adage, "What goes around, comes around."

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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