HOW those LTO (Land Transportation Office) guys love to project authority on the road. Surely they have it, and the number of vehicles they flag down to the roadside for non-fastened seatbelt to non-wearing of the standard blue shirt (for PUJ drivers) and similar violations every now and then proves that. How great the feeling of being able to stop vehicles in motion and order them to the side must be to these agents of the law!

But how many, just how many, of these State Cop-acting LTO teams ever, and I mean, ever, even just randomly check whether any of these vehicles are still using the now banned R12 aircon freon on their vehicles? And there are fairly easy spot checks for this which LTO agents must know. Read more

THE  moguls of marketing are hard at work promoting the magical properties of the Green Tea like it carried God’s miracle in a bottle or can. As far as I know, it was the Gokongwei’s Robina Food Corporation that started this unprecedented fascination for tea since last year when C2 (for Clear and Clean?)) hit   supermarkets and convenience stores in the country with the force of a blockbuster. 

The “fad” caught on soon enough and Nestle and other bottlers and health drink companies came up with their versions of the great green tea in flavors similar to the C2 line, selling these at cheaper price to gradually chip away at C2’s market lead. The drink madness recalls the storm generated by the Noni Juce some years back when health Read more

REMEMBER my earlier post “Bewarethat Internet Cafe?”

Well, you may not take my word for it but you sure can the real techies in the field who know how things are in this cyberage. It was Techie Diary who verbally actually first gave us and a couple of blogger-friends an inkling of how others could actually steal your vital and secret data from the dime-a-dozen cybercafes in town you sometimes patronize –carelessly, I might add.

Now, here’s another, if more “thought-provoking” one on the subject from TechnoPinoy. I’d rather quote /cite him verbatim ‘coz it makes more sense than if Itry to hurriedly paraphrase his words of caution: Read more

EVERYTIME I see that Disudrin ad on teevee that splashes the word ‘Phenylpropanolamine’ across the screen, I wince.

Isn’t that the very same phenylpropanolamine that the Food and Drugs Administration of the U.S ordered recalled for being unsafe to women and children? Check out our earlier post on this below.

There’s not even a line or two in the TV ad that says the phenylpropanolamine had been “reformulated” as the FDA  had ordered all manufacturers to do, for the proper guidance of the public.

Now, if the Disudrin guys haven’t actually reformulated, they must really be full of gall to do that — advertise their drug to viewers that, presumably, include Pingcoy Duque’s DOH and Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD). Either that — or they think the health and food regulation guys here are blind.

As the gay radio entertainment hosts would shrilly shout it:”Pakieksplika lang eto, kuya!”

IF you’re one of those who find the facilities and services of internet cafes or cybernooks so convenient and, uh, private that you’d rather not buy yourself a PC or a laptop but simply hie off to the nearest IC, you’ve got another think coming.

My neighbor, Wilson, set many of us thinking deep, including another neighbor, Ging C, when he revealed that for all the cozy, pretty, hunky dory atmosphere in there, you could actually lose your precious “privacy” as you innocently log on to some confidential sites or file that online loan application with your bank or insurance firm or do money transactions (especially withdrawal activities) using one of those P20-an-hour units.  Read more

 GOT some feedback on my last post about ‘Good Chow in Dagupan’ from some real nomadic diners out there. One said we seem to have missed citing the new restaurants and eating holes along the De Venecia highway that has of late become some sort of a dining strip or meal row.  Another thought we should have included the location of each for easier reference. Read more

VISITORS to Dagupan City in the province of Pangasinan located in the Northern Luzon region of the Philippines often ask the first question to themselves or to their hosts: “Where’s a good place to eat?”

These questions should be easy to answer for the native Dagupeno who knows nooks and crannies in this big,little city. But what if the visitors are asking each other and have no native resource person to ask around? Somehow, one among them should be able to provide the answer. And that’s probably him (or her) who has read this blog.

Pedrito’s Bakeshop and Restaurant, Matutina’s Seafoods Restaurant and Siapno’s Seafoods Restaurant still lord it over in terms of general clientele hereabouts. That is, ever since Dagupena Restaurant,the crown business of the couple Alex Castro and wife, Emma Bernal, relocated to nearby Calasiao town and left its primus inter pares position in restaurant row to the others.

Pedrito’s, managed by the Tordesillas; Matutina’s, by the Balingits of Mekeni country (Pampanga) roots and, not to forget, presidential intimates too and Siapno’s by the big Siapno clan, who else but, have conquered the fertile gourmet and gourmand sector, across class levels with their excellent cuisine and superb service they practically need no advertising. The name, not the fancy blurbs. Read more