A good year

I bid goodbye to 2007 and welcome the new year.

The year had been good to me. I got re-elected to the City Council, advanced many advocacies, stayed healthy in spite of my stomach problems, and started to build a new house.

I am hopeful for more luck in 2008.

Cheers to you all!

(6:44 a,m,)

Activist High Court

Kudos to Chief Justice Reynato Puno for being named as Times Person of the Year (Manila Times).

Recent activism by the Supreme Court as the last bastion of democracy are being recognized elsewhere.

In Nigeria, the whole Supreme Court, not just its chief magistrate, earned the Man of the Year award.

Hope to have more of their like in 2008.

(2:05 p.m.)

Disparity

There’s a big gap between records of the Bureau of Immigration & Deportation with those of the Department of Tourism with regards to travelers to the country.

BID counts arrivals at various entry points such as airports and seaports while DOT records those who check in at various hotels, inns, resorts, etc.

What’s the real score with our tourist arrivals – almost 3 million as tallied by DOT or almost 5 million as claimed by BID?

The DOT had earlier reported that Koreans are now the country’s top foreign visitors. But this recent report from BID showed that the Americans had the most arrivals.

Hohum!

The disparity in figures calls for both BID and DOT to reconcile their stats. Here is an earlier report showing the wide gap among Koreans in the country.

(7:50 a.m.)

Cebu Pacific is No. 1

Asia’s oldest airline must have really given up its position as the Philippines’ No. 1 air carrier.

Proof: a numerical trick by Philippine Airlines to dislodge Cebu Pacific as the top airline in the country.

How? It added the passengers, seating capacity, flights, routes and number of aircrafts of sister company Air Philippines to its stats.

Ha ha ha!

Haven’t you noticed that this trick was forthcoming? Well, I noticed that since the much younger Cebu Pacific claimed the No. 1 spot in terms of passengers flown, print ads by PAL had Airphil in it. That is to create in our minds that the two Lucio Tan owned airlines are actually one.

They might as well do that. Why indeed bother with two airlines when Tan can have one big airline that can really outflank the local competition?

No matter the trick, PAL has really lost the premier spot to Cebu Pacific, the latter being more market-oriented, aggressive and flexible. In this era of “open skies,” jurassic airlines, sans their new aircrafts, would really lose out to new and younger players.

(4:08 a.m.)

City Assessor

The City Government has a new City Assessor.

Mayor Rody Duterte appointed lawyer Cesar Dataya to the post on November 29, 2007 replacing lawyer Edelito Domingo who passed away last October 9, 2007.

A Maguindanao Muslim who studied and worked in Davao, Dataya previously served as Legal Officer V and City Housing Officer of the city government.

Mayor Duterte made another first. Dataya is the first Muslim to be appointed as City Assessor and as a Department Head II in the city government.

His appointment comes at a time when the City Council is reviewing the Market Values of Real Properties in the city. He would eventually lead in implementing revisions to this Ordinance.

As chair of the City Council Committee on Appointments & Reorganization, I prepared a concurrence Resolution for today’s City Council session.