Water, Sabah, tourists

“DCWD (Davao City Water District) stops discount.”

That's a mistake. A discount, even though it be a handful of pesos, encourages folks to pay on time (Hasn't DCWD noticed the scrimmages at their offices after the bills go out. The Victoria Plaza branch is murder). Money coming into DCWD provides cash flow, the lifeblood of any company, the workers get paid, projects go ahead. Stop the discount and folks don't care anymore. Why pay on time if there's no incentive? DCWD's cash flow falters, projects stutter. Keep the discount, raise the basic water rate.

No? Setting aside the “best water in the world” baloney the DCWD's water is outrageously cheap and to illustrate just how outrageous a cubic meter of perfectly potable DCWD water costs the residential user about P30. A cubic meter contains 1,000 liters. 1,000 liters of bottled water - much of it drawn from that very same DCWD faucet – costs P15,000. That's how cheap DCWD water is (And how much bottled water companies are ripping off the customer).

On Thursday evening's Solar News Channel news there was a government spokesperson - the Malacanang seal behind him - reiterating that it was quite possible lawsuits would be brought against the Sultan of Sulu and anybody else involved in the Sabah fracas because “they are Filipinos living in the Philippines who are governed by and must abide by the laws of the Philippines.”

I snorted at this. Tawi-Tawi, Jolo, and all those other nether islands “governed” by Malacanang? Government which allowed barca-loads of armed men to boat across to Malaysian Sabah and cause chaos? Government which took the best part of three weeks to put in place a naval blockade to prevent reinforcements setting sail? Government which tolerated the existence of an armed private army after vowing for years and years to get rid of such groups?

If anything, it's Malacanang, which should be taken to court for non-governance of its southern islands. The local governmental authorities - the army, the navy, the police, must have known what was in the wind, look at all the millions which disappear into “intelligence" funds. If they'd been awake, or the tiniest bit effective, all that death and dying and nastiness could have been avoided; could have been nipped in the bud. Here's a bit from a Sabah item the other week – “An estimated 800,000 Filipinos, mainly Muslims from insurgency-plagued southern provinces, have settled in Sabah over the years to seek work and stability.” Says it all, doesn't it? Eight hundred thousand Filipinos moving to a foreign but familiar land fleeing the ineffective governance of their home islands.

“Aquino said the number of domestic tourist arrivals reached an all-time high of 37.5 million.”

Define domestic tourist arrival. Anyone who steps off or on an aeroplane anywhere in the Philippines? Uncle Juan nipping down from manic Manila - there and back equals two domestic foreign tourist arrivals? If so, why not just say; folks travelling about by air within the Philippines instead of wrapping it up in the crowd-pleasing “tourist arrival” mumbo-jumbo. The same item noted a “huge leap” in foreign tourist arrivals, some 4.3 million in 2012, forgetting to add that quite a few failed to depart, being absorbed instead into family businesses, medical schools, local internet scam ventures and shabu labs.