Category Archives: Opinion

BPI #SUCKS

Opinion,

At the start of the year, I joined a different organization which forced me to open a new payroll account with a bank that I left more than a decade ago, Bank of the Philippine Islands.

Which means that I was among the thousands of its customers that was temporarily denied access and use of my own money from June 14 up until June 17, 2026 when BPI’s online services and app had an epic downtime.

Today, BPI president and CEO TG Limcaoco, in an interview with One News Money Talks apologized for the outage which turns out was the result of their inadequate infrastructure and terrible planning:

“The reality is it’s a series of unfortunate events that just came one after the other. We had a network issue on Sunday, which we resolved, and then because we had updated the app to a new version… the load on the backend was quite heavy, given the outage on Sunday, and then it was payday. I apologize to all our customers, and I take it on myself. Its’ my responsibility.”

First, BPI is notorious for having frequent outages that usually happens on or before payday. So that alone is proof that the country’s oldest bank with an $8.38 billion market cap is still running on a weak and unreliable infrastructure.

Second, BPI’s management is either incompetent or stupid or both, as who in their right mind would push out an app update less than 24 hours to when your banking systems regularly see peak traffic because it’s payday?!

The bank president’s apology is not enough. BPI must be made accountable, in concrete terms. It’s high time to strengthen laws that regulate banks and financial institutions like huge fines for service disruptions. Waiver of or compensation for fees incurred because of delayed payments. Criminal prosecution for its officers. Apologies are not enough. Customers deserve a lot more.

A far-right group of Filipinos have been recently gaining traction on social media. They organized an online webinar purportedly to teach the art of debate, riding on the popularity of late Christian nationalist celebrity, Charlie Kirk. They made a claim that “truth varies according to respective ideologies” then say that only conservatives guard “timeless truths” is a laughable self-contradiction.

Then again, it’s not much of a surprise since their group worships someone whose style of “debate” is built on rapid-fire fallacies, selective use of facts and bad-faith framing.

On being more tolerant towards theists

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Around a decade or so ago, I’ve decided not to engage in debates about religion – the interpretation of the Bible, which religion is THE religion or trying to win over believers that there is no such thing as a divine being, etc as I’ve come to accept that it is anyone’s right whether they would believe in it or not, whether they would join one religion or another.

However, when one’s religion or their own interpretation of what ever text they consider holy, is used to abuse and mistreat, to oppress, marginalize, and limit the agency of members of certain communities including the LGBTQIA+ communities, then I would spare some time to address it, expose it and call it out for what it is. I may not have all the answers, but someone has to make a stand and speak up.

Marcos Jr ditches cousin to deflect flood control mess

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Pundits say no one becomes Speaker of the House without the blessing of the President, so when Marcos Jr practically scolded both Houses of Congress in his last SONA with his now infamous “Mahiya naman kayo!“, what he meant was ‘WTF gentlemen, first you fucked up the impeachment, then you didn’t exactly gave me a complete victory despite all of the ayudas even though we all knew the 2025 budget was for the election, now the people are getting wild ideas from the Indonesians because the monsoon has exposed how you all got so greedy with these shitty flood control projects!

So…some would have to be thrown under the bus, it will be somebody, not me. No, definitely not me. But surely it will be some of you.’

A little over a week ago, it was Chiz Escudero who was the first to fall after being ousted as Senate President.

Now, it’s Martin Romualdez as he will be resigning as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The Duterte propaganda machine will spin this as ‘their’ victory, but it was all on Romualdez as he brought this upon himself. He fucked up so bad, being a cousin of the President is not enough to save him. And no, all that meow meow was just a silly distraction.

That Romualdez will be replaced by Faustino Dy III, another trapo from the Dy dynasty that has lorded over the province of Isabela for decades, means the change is just cosmetic.

How this ‘adjustment’ to the current dispensation will affect or factor in the Marcos camp’s design to convert their Restoration into a continuation come 2028 remains to be seen, they have demonstrated to be able players of the long game and there’s still some time before Marcos Jr becomes a complete lame duck and the factions of the political class would have packed up and hitched their wagon to the next possible contender aside from, and if, Daughterte makes it there unscathed.

Coming back to the present, our task has become much more obvious: we must continue to demand accountability from our officials and the bureaucracy. Leadership reshuffles in Congress is not enough. Having a handful of private contractors and expendable bureaucrats facing charges are not enough. They could not have cheated and robbed the public coffers alone. It started with the preparation and deliberation of the national budget, so Congressmen and Senators are definitely involved, it would not even be a surprise if the proper investigations would lead to the President and his cabinet.

Keep following the investigations in the Senate and House of Representatives, even though we know they’re meant to distract, obfuscate, or would not reveal the complete truth, it would keep our politicians honest enough to know we are watching. Demand for the passage of the Freedom of Information bill. Demand that SALNs be made public again.

Support journalists that are really doing their job of asking the hard questions, digging deeper and providing more context beyond mere quote cards, reporting on facts rather than innuendos and gossip.

If you can spare the time, join the protests on September 21 either at Luneta or EDSA Shrine or even both. Everyone who wants a clean, honest and accountable government is welcome.

On the murder of Charlie Kirk

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It’s basic for any decent human being, Christian or otherwise, to feel some empathy for victims of violent crime like Charlie Kirk. To say that one doesn’t agree with his views while expressing such empathy is also a given.

However, we should not gloss over what Charlie Kirk stood for and did: contempt for immigrants, vilification of LGBTQ+, ridiculing the poor. His campus debates and speaking engagements weren’t a spectacle of enlightenment nor learning, he used it as an opportunity to prey on the vulnerabilities of students, humiliation was his style instead of persuasion. He became a millionaire by profiting off of his politics and ideology of hatred, marginalization, division and fear.

If your measure of what being a ‘Christian’ is aligns or fits with being like Charlie Kirk then you need some serious discernment and deep reflection.