Posts Tagged ‘Money Matters’

Wazzup, Juan Dela Cruz?

Should my title be “Wazzup, Philippines?” I can’t help but react to the present situation. Juan dela Cruz symbolizes filipinos, same as John Doe of US.

The basic commodity prices continues to increase, a regular filipino hardly bought food for the family. How about the less fortunate pinoys, their situation became worst. The skyrocketing price of rice added to their dilemma. Its in the news everyday, price increase of gasoline, rice, raw materials of canned goods etc which naturally the finish product price will follow to increase. There are times that I don’t want to watch news, its always bad news except when Manny Pacquiao wins against Juan Manuel Marquez. The crime rate are also expected to rise because of the terrible cost of living.

A friend living in US, once told me that together with his family, they’ve decided to move from Escondido, California to Texas. The reason is they can’t cope uo with the cost of living in California, they are better now in Texas. I hope, filipinos can apply the same strategy in the Philippines. Nah, enough with the wishful thinking.

Economic sabotage? I hardly heard of ZTE-NBN case witness Jun Lozada except that former President Cory Aquino has colon cancer and her chemotheraphy. I pray and wish her fast recovery. The people now are more focused on how to cope with the cost of living.

A colleague campaining for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo last election told me that her “only” reason why she supports GMA was she is an economist. Economist? Why thinking of rice importation when Philippines is a agricultural country? The reality that she neglected many things and concentrated on other “economy”, proved my collegue wrong on her choice. Where was my collegue now? She migrated to US and plan to go back in the Philippines when the economy becomes better. Whew!

My Sister Won The Lottery!

Last Thursday, I’ve accompanied my sister to Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office in E. Rodriguez, Quezon City to claim her lottery price of php 23,040. It was the price for getting the 5 digits out of 6 digit combination.

It was my usual blogging time when my sister hurried home from work to look for her lotto ticket, at first I thought she was just kidding. I saw the newspaper and her lottery ticket, its true. She asked me to accompany her and bring my valid IDs to claim the price. We were in the PCSO at about 2pm. Validation cut-off is 4pm and bank closes at 3pm. Validation and check issuance took time, we almost didn’t make it at Landbank.
The bank is inside the PCSO building, ground floor.

Because of my excitement, I’ve forgot to take pictures of the lotto ticket, the validation and the check. How silly of me.:-( Anyway, after claiming the price, the whole family headed to Dampa, Macapagal Avenue for dinner. Of course, my sister’s treat.:-)

pinoy

A Stronger Peso?

Reuters reported that the peso hit 41.62 per dollar, gaining just 0.2 percent from Friday, but taking its rise in the past month to 3.7 percent and its gains this year to almost 18 percent. I’ve exchanged my dollar yesterday at SM Mall of Asia for PHP41.40 per dollar.

It is normal that the Philippines have low demand of dollar during Christmas season. We have an estimated of 8 million Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) and other Filipinos abroad who send dollars to their families here for the Christmas season.

Did I mention that Filipinos have the longest celebration of Christmas? Yup, you read it right. We started preparing for the upcoming holiday as early as you can imagine. 90% of Filipinos are Roman Catholics that’s why, plus the culture and traditions we have.

Stonger Peso? Strong just because we have reach the lowest exchange rate? For the record, OFW are the ones who’s sending the money here. They’re working hard for their family and our country. Its not easy raising the family if you’re physically absent on their side. Lower currency exchange rate means lower remittance.

As far as I know, a stronger peso means a “better economy”. Unemployment rate is high and you can smell poverty around.

My Equitable PCI ATM Is Now BDO!

I was waiting for a cash deposit to my Equitable PCI Bank yesterday. The person who supposed to deposit a sum of money to my account informed me that my account had converted already to Banco De Oro account meaning my Equitable account doesn’t exists anymore. This was what the teller told him. duh! If this so, why was that I haven’t received any notice from my branch? Imagine the hassle? If I knew this beforehand, I would not advise that person to deposit it to my Equitable account, I should have use another way of money transfer.

I’ve called up the Equitable hotline (fastphone) immediately, they’ve informed me that eventually the conversion of Equitable accounts to BDO accounts will take place soon, 100%. My branch had converted their accounts last November 10 as what the call center agent told me. She also asked me if I change my mailing address. I did not.

Its confusing already that my account number had changed. I will go to my Equitable Branch first thing in the morning on Monday to know my new BDO account number. I don’t know if they will replace my ATM card… what I know as of the moment is that I’ll go to the same branch I had my account regardless if BDO branch is nearer to my place. Depositors to converted Equitable account should make their deposit transactions to the nearest BDO branch. I wasn’t aware about the BDO and Equitable PCI Bank merge not until yesterday.

life money matters pinoy