Saturday, January 26, 2008 Ledesma: Of Internet games and DBP By Jun Ledesma Sunbursts
DAVAO City Councilor Tess Matas Maranon is set to run after Internet cafes that admit school children and minors during school hours. I was listening to her explaining to radio dxAB's Estong Caballes the kind of strategy that she intends to draft in the resolution she said she will sponsor.
I have serious misgivings about this council move. Not too long ago this concern was taken up in the City Council. It looked like everybody was interested to put a stop to minors going inside the Internet cafes. Nothing and absolutely nothing came out from that brouhaha and dramatics.
Just when they were about to come out with some regulatory measures, the city councilors maintained a sepulchral silence. You and I can only surmise what happened then.
Comes now Councilor Maranon. Her idea is to direct all Internet operators to be members of an association. This will not solve the problem madam. Look at the roster of members and check whether they do as they preach. If the City Council is in earnest to solve the harm that Internet cafes have done to the young boys who are hooked on Internet games, they can actually make a shortcut.
But this needs political will. Let's not beat around the bush. If Councilor Maranon has the guts, all she has to do is to include in her proposed legislation the following:
1. Remove all games software in all personal computers used in Internet cafes.
2. For all Internet cafes including video game joints to issue receipts for every transaction they make.
3. Prevent all minors from playing video games in all video joints at any time of the day every day of the week.
4. Increase penalties on erring Internet cafes and video game operators.
Anything less than these measures will render the ordinance toothless I assure you Madam councilor.
Thousands of school children have dropped out from elementary and high school and even college as they are hooked to the Internet and video games. This phenomenon is worst than the menace of shabu. Parents woke up at the end of the school year to discover that their children cannot proceed to the next grade or year because of failing grades brought about by series of absences.
Parents sweat it out to earn money for tuition fees and "baon" of their children only to find at the end of the school year that their children had spent more time in Internet cafes and video shops!
This is worst than the plague and yet we have not come up with measures that will stamp out this peril completely.
It's okay for the councilors and the rich for they can afford to have wireless Internet connections in their homes. In a situation like this, the parents can monitor the number of hours the kids spend in the Internet. But those who cannot afford a PC and Internet connection, the cafes and video game joints are veritable enticements for the kids. The poor are the victims.
In an unsupervised condition, the kids can go on and on to the delight of the operators. Children hooked to the games spend their "baons" on the games instead of buying food. That is why among the symptoms displayed by children that developed a mania for the games is weightlessness, paleness, and sunken eyes.
I would classify Internet cafes into several categories, namely:
1. ICs that have permits to offer Internet services but are in fact offering solely online or local games. Instead of computer monitors, they have TV monitors. Instead of keypads they have controllers. The fee is by the hour and many do not issue receipts.
2. ICs that offer Internet services but 95% of its operations are offering Internet games. In fact some of their units are not online so one cannot use it for Internet connections. Only games are available on these units. The player plays against the computer. Through local line configurations within the café, children can organize themselves into teams to fight with another team. Majority of these do not issue receipts too.
3. ICs that offer only Internet service like research, chat, PC rental and printing. Mostly these joints issue receipts.
The biggest menace of them all is video games. The monitors are bigger, the sounds are closer to the real thing, and the encounters of players are more graphically brutal and bloody. The operators sell tokens or 'loadable' cards.
A token cost P6.00 and a game would last less than two minutes. It's more addicting and definitely more expensive. No receipts are issued by the operators.
If the Bureau of Internal Revenue can only collect the exact sales tax on these café and video games operators, in less than six months we will have enough money to rebuild our Bankerohan Bridge. And I am not joking.
BTW, I thought the Development Bank of the Philippines is more into serving those who have less and therefore cannot pay more than what private banks are asking for their services. I cannot believe this could happen.
The other day I wrote Davao's DBP Manager and requested for a copy of my latest three-month statement of account and a bank certification that I have this much deposit with them. I needed the documents for my foreign travel. I sent my son to receive the documents from them. They called me up to advise me that I have to pay P50++ for every monthly statement and P107 for the certification. China Bank, Citi Savings Bank, and Bank of PI never asked me for anything. This is how miserable the Arroyo government has become.
For its failure to collect the right taxes from giant corporations, they sell government assets in the guise of "privatization". Now even banks that are suppose to be pro-masa is fleecing more from their clients for a piece of paper costing less than P5.00.
I never realized the signature of the government bank manager can be that expensive. Come to think of it, aren't banks supposed to deliver to my doorsteps a monthly statement of account?
