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.

I know that kind of inspection is supposed to be done on registration per a December 27,2005 memo from the LTo to all its field offices. If you still don’t know, Sec 11e of the Revised CCO bans the use of chloroflurocarbons in MACs starting 2006 in motor vehicles manufactured and/or initially registered from 1999 onwards and explicitly prohibits their registration.

That should keep those CFC-emitting cars off the road, shouldn’t it? Think again, bud! For why, in Leandro Mendoza’s name, are those small car aircon shops by the road still obviously using R12 freon on their customers’cars? And the more interesting question — why are these old model, obviously beaten cars sporting updated registration stickers?  Get the point? Some LTO registration inspector must have been sleep-walking when he did the once-over on the vehicles. 

Bad, real bad, for the environment. Some guys must have not heard of the revised Chemical Control Order for Ozone Depleting Substances issued by the Departmnent of Environment and Natural Resources.

Come to think of it — and let me see some raised hands now– how many of you guys have heard of the DENR? 

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 buffs of all ages and shape would do anything to get a bottle of the juice extracted from some exotic plant that was supposedly the secret for the sickness-free condition of  the natives of a Pacific island or something. 

That “elixir’s” marketing strat levelled off and faded soon enough and many former users now smile when reminded of the folly of it all. 

The “green tea” promotion is following pretty much the same pattern. Sure, everyone knows the Camella sinensis, sometimes called Thea sinensis the original brew of the green tea, does have properties that help relieve (to the less discerning, relief means cure itself) some common health problems. Unlike black or oblong tea, green tea is made from unfermented tea leaves which probably explains its better healing properties.

Take note however that  nothing in tea, to include green tea, ever reduces the risk of heart disease as concluded by the US Food and Drug Administration. FDA recently denied a petition by Ito En Ltd., a Japanese company, seeking to allow tea labels to make the claim that drinking green tea cuts the chances of a person contracting cardio vascular  disease.

No, I am no green tea-basher or a health drink irreverent   chap; I do buy C2 with the passion of a beginning addict but I do it to refresh myself and savor the taste without really wanting to be “cured” of anything. 

In this world, one must know how to recognize hype from hypertension.    

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:

Here goes, you careless keyboard punchers out there (uh, remind me to save to buy me a laptop instead, safer, more secure pounding on its keys for online transactions, sez Wilson):

This statement pretty much captures the prevalent thinking of most consumers.  People tend to treat their personal information as a trivial matter.  They throw away their electric bill statements or their phone bill, thinking that nobody would really need that information.  Or they simply walk away from an Internet cafe without bothering to erase their tracks or the websites they visited.  Or worse yet, when a telemarketer calls and asks for reference, they quickly give 5 names of their friends.  What’s the risk in that?
Think about it:  would you really want someone to track and log your online activities?  Would you really want someone to capture your email address and password?  Or your mailing address?  Or your credit card number and PIN?  Maybe the fraudster can’t perform any funds transfer to their account (easily traceable), but they can, for the fun of it, pay YOUR bills using ALL your money, leaving you with no money in your account.  Or max out your credit limit.  Or change your email account’s password.  Or send an email to someone using your email address.  

TechnoPinoy adds:

People can profit from your personal information.  They can sell it to marketers and contact list aggregators.  The more of your information a person has, the greater the value.  If a person was able to build an entire profile of you—your full name, address, phone number, mobile phone, email—imagine the value of that versus just a simple name and phone number.  All it takes is a name and a contact number.  A company obtains this information, checks its database to see if the person is an existing customer, and if not, gives the person a call.  True, maybe you may need the customer’s service or product, but the act of answering a phone call already takes up a few minutes of your time.  And sometimes all it takes is that few minutes to really irritate you.

And finally, to drive home the point that identity theft is a reality, he concludes:

True, maybe your activities in an internet cafe may not provide enough information for someone to commit fraud, but it does give him SOME information.   And before you know it, the fraudster has assembled enough information to masquerade you and you are now a victim of identity theft.

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!”

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. 

No, we don’t mean to impugn the integrity of the internet joints, far from it. Many of them are actually doing simple, honest living and often only earn enough for day-to-day shop operations. Never mind if their softwares or operating systems (OS)are licensed or not; that’s for Microsoft and authorized dealers to break their heads over.

But while the owners or shop operators may not actually be doing the criminal eavesdropping on online identities, there are, as in any human habitat, the smart ones  now called “key-loggers” (wonder if we got that right?) who pretend to be customers  and who can practically steal your key data once you leave the place — PIN, bank account numbers, license numbers, address and  ANY AND ALL PERSONAL thingmagagigs you don’t share even with the wifey or your gf.

You say you took all the necessary safeguards while loggin online? That’s what you think. But cyber technology is now boundless, both for creative and criminal purposes, your deepest data secrets won’t stay that way for long. 

Our neighbor’s simple advise cum word of caution: Internet cafes are good and safe for games and encoding of harmless text (like Liway’s, Eva’s and Yolly’s blogs, see?) but never online banking or Top Secret notes. 

Use a laptop — yours, of course — if you have to be doing such transactions. 

Still I wonder  if … you can even trust yourself nowadays. Ah, the height of paranoia!   

On the first observation, we actually didn’t miss mentioning them; we just could not include them – simply because, by geographical location, they are not located within city limits. As it happens (and we have dutifully checked this out with someone at the city treasury office) the fancy and not-so-fancy new restos there are in Calasiao territory. They actually pay their taxes and fees (granting that they all do) in Calasiao. We gathered that only establishments  within barangays Lucao and Malued area (like Inn-Asia and Westgate and the motor shops around those parts) are within city jurisidiction.

On the second comment, about the unmentioned locations of each restaurant, that’s for future detailing should we get enough “interested queries” online or personally from non-Dagupenos. That may be a little odd of us, but that’s just to establish everyone’s current thesis that websites and blogs indeed can be as informative and helpful, if not more so,  than other traditional media in this cyber age.

Besides, come on, why the need for a road map for a Dagupeno reader or browser when it comes to locating the best eating places in Dagupan? No point there, right? He knows, or at least, he should know.

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.

Rising probably closest to their pedestals are the likes of   pioneer Tsinoy restaurateur Joe So Kua’s De Luxe Restaurant that in recent years built its own sprawling all-in-one building in barangay Tapuac, Jam Sweet Jam, Cafe du Marc, Goring’s Pancit Malabon Restaurant, and Pinkie’s Bakeshop and Restaurant  owned by ex-village chairman Saturnino “Ninoy” Siapno of Pogo Grande; and Best Foods, Best Service (formerly a branch of Pedrito’s) on Arellano St.

All of them except Cafe du Marc, boast of wide floor areas for medium to big affair receptions, short of a grand ballroom accomodation. Those who go for the hotel ambience in restaurants however can of course always try the classy dining areas of Star Plaza Hotel, Regency (in Calasiao town), and Lenox for both local and international cuisines — with some videoke singing fun thrown in, as you wish.

The “new reliables” among fast food chains are there too for those who savor more or less chatty mass dining: Jollibee, Chowking, Kentucky Fried, Greenwich, Pizza Hut, Shakeys Pizza and even Red Ribbon and Kenny Rogers over at Nepo Mall. In semi-cosmopolitan Dagupan, they take a good chunk of the hungry hoi poloi into their cozy interiors, though, as some say, a gourmet or a diet watcher would never be caught dead picking food in there.

So there, more or less, is the city’s field of dining dens, some fine, some comfortable, some budget but all guaranteed to stop the pangs of hunger in anyone who decides to forego with good-old, home cooking once or twice.