I Wrote A Letter to the City Administrator and You Won't Believe What Happened Next

Back in February I posted an article about a leaning crosswalk light. The light had actually been dangerously leaning against the roof of the market since January.  In vain I waited to see how long it would take for the light to be fixed. Six months passed and it was still leaning. So I decided to get to the bottom of it. Why was this light still not fixed?

Here is the light on June 3rd.

The first place to ask questions was the management office of the market. I walked up the stairs and knocked on the door. Only two people were inside. They offered me a seat and I asked about the light.  Why was it not fixed yet and who is supposed to fix it?

"We told the City Administrator's Office but they have not responded," I was told. 

I thanked the man for the information and made my way to City Hall after I snapped the above photo.

The City Administrator's office was high on the third floor. I made my way through the building and was shown a seat where I waited to talk to someone. The lady I spoke with asked me what I needed and I showed her the photo I took.

"This crosswalk light has been leaning on the roof of the market for six months now and I want to know when it will be fixed. The officials at the market said they informed this office but no action has been taken."

"Sir," she said, "you must write a letter of complaint before we can do anything."

"But here is the picture. What need for a letter? Just send out a crew to fix the light."

"Sir, you must write a letter."

There was no way out. A letter must be written so a letter I wrote. Who can understand the ways of bureaucracy? Two days later I returned only to be turned away because all government offices were closed due to it being Eid al-Fitr or the last day of Ramadan. Why were there no signs posted about this closure when I visited previously? What a waste of my time!

It was next afternoon when I finally delivered my letter. The receptionist stamped my copy and that was that. It as hardly a letter of complaint. More a statement of fact.

Dear Atty. Juan Orola, Jr.; 

I am writing about a crosswalk light which has been broken for six months and is in dire need of repair. This light is located at Burgos Market on the corner of Burgos and Hilado streets. As you can see in the picture below the light is leaning on the roof of the market and is a hazard to all who work at the market.  The light has been in this condition for six months. Please direct the relevant agencies to repair this light before someone gets hurt.

Thank you for your time

When I told others that I was going to write this letter they responded don't do it. Only the barangay captain could write such a letter and I would be branded persona non-grata I was told. I said the lady in the office instructed me to write a letter, why would she tell me to do so if only the barangay captain can write one? The thought that my letter might be all for nothing lingered in the back of my head as I left City Hall.

The only thing to do now was wait and see if the light got fixed. On Monday June 10th I received the following text message from the City Administrator.

What an exciting message! It meant the City Administrator read my letter and I was not going to be branded persona non-grata. But how long would it take to fix the light? A few weeks? Months? Certainly not right away especially as Wednesday was Independence Day and it would surely take more than one day to send out teams to complete the necessary repairs. 

Turns out I was wrong. I don't know when they did it but by Thursday morning, June 13th, the light was wholly fixed.

They even set it on a new base which means it was fixed correctly and not haphazardly. 

The speed with which my letter was acted upon is encouraging but raises a few questions. Did the management office of the market really contact the City Administrator's office? Did they submit a letter? If so why would the City Administrator act upon mine but not theirs? If they did not submit the requisite letter then why did they fail to do so? Why even have to write a letter in the first place? Why not just be able to call a hotline to report things which need fixing? Why not take my photo as proof enough and send out a crew immediately?

None of us mere mortals will ever understand the mysteries of bureaucracy but the quick action upon reception of my letter gives me encouragement. I wonder what else I can have fixed with only a letter.

Electric Pole Literally Standing on Only Three Legs

Just when you think it couldn't get any worse. I've seen cracked wooden poles, leaning wooden poles too, I've seen wires dangling down on me and you. And I think to myself.....what a Filipino world.

Just look at that complete lack of foundation! The pole is built right on top of a gutter. Even if all three legs were touching the ground there would be absolutely no stability! Even if all the concrete was there it would still be unstable because it's built on top of a gutter!

There is nothing I can add that does justice to the insanity in these pictures. It is an impossible structure which should not exist and yet there it is. 

UPDATE: The first blog entry of the year was about a dangerously leaning electrical post: https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-first-leaning-electrical-post-of.html

I am happy to report that the pole has been fixed and is no longer leaning.

Now that the pole has been straightened the wires are left dangling in mid-air! 

Sleeping on the Truck

When the urge to sleep hits you better listen. Especially if it's night.  You don't want to be driving a truck packed with sugarcane when your body is exhausted. What better place to sleep than the hood of the truck?  So spacious and warm. Just pull over and climb on top!

And when the afternoon sun is burning down upon the earth why not get some rest in the shade? Just throw a hammock underneath your rig while it's parked on the side of a busy road and catch a few Z's.

Nothing more comfy than sleeping off the afternoon heat in a hammock under your overstuffed big rig while traffic speeds on by.  Just like paradise.

Today I Became A Filipino Lineman

Life truly is an adventure here in the Philippines.  At least every time I go for a run it's an adventure. I never know what's waiting for me when I open the iron gate and run off down the street and into the great beyond.

This morning started out great. Not many cars or people. Hardly any smoke in the air or garbage in the street or dogs roaming around. It was at the halfway point that I came across the following.

Wow!  Can you believe this? I got a sweet picture of the moon!  And only using my little digital camera with no special lenses or anything.  There's also a very dangerous and no doubt very hot electrical cable fallen across the street. This picture was taken at 5:20 am and there is no telling how long this cable had been lying there. Seems like someone would have alerted the PNP or the electrical company to take care of this. There's nothing I could do about it so I continued on my way.

Running down the street I turned the corner and I saw a pile of long bamboo poles and in the blink an eye I was filled with inspiration. Picking up the longest pole with the most knobs on it I ran back to the fallen cord.  Carefully I inserted the tip of the pole under the cord so that it snagged onto a knob and I raised it up. It was a bit of a struggle because the pole was so long and getting it to stand up straight was a little awkward.  I had to walk it back slowly making sure that I didn't snag any of the other cords.  

All the while I was doing this a group of runners ran past, a few guys were standing around, and a little boy was watching too. Not a single person offered any assistance. So I raised it up like it was my own personal Iwo Jima.

After the battle was over I continued on my run being sure to stop at the PNP and alert them to the situation. The gate to their office was locked so I picked up a stone and banged on the gate until sleepy eyed officers stumbled out to see what was the matter and who was waking them up at this early hour.

I showed them the photos and told them the situation and they said they would call the electrical company to fix the problem.  They seemed oblivious to what had happened. This would mean that the cable fell after they had done their nightly rounds. I guess no one thought to call them. After that it was smooth running back home.  

Now how does this make me a Filipino lineman?  All I did was get the cable out of the way like any person would do. (Except for all those guys standing around doing nothing who did not even bother to alert anyone to the problem or help me temporarily fix the problem.) Take a look at this photo which is not my work at all and you will see that I have utilised the same technique as the Filipino lineman.

It's a skill that will come in handy though I hope I don't have to use it again any time soon.

Coroner's office ignores basic safety protocols

So they found the headless body of the German who was executed by Abu Sayyaf on February 26. Now the coroner has to do an inquest.  It's all standard procedure of course.

Standard procedure?  To wear shorts and slippers in the examination room?

Obviously the guy pointing to the dead body is the lead man.  The head honcho.  The man in charge. Why is he not wearing the proper safety equipment?  Everyone else is.

Were there not enough gowns to go around?  Did he get a 3am phone call and have to rush over? Is he too important to have to put on a gown? Did he figure, "I'm not going to be doing the actual examination so it doesn't matter?"

Seems doubtful.  

Why is following safety protocols such a difficult matter in the Philippines?

Too many questions.  Never a satisfactory answer.  

The Philippines will not save you

You cannot escape yourself. Everywhere you go, there you are. Some people who move to the Philippines thinking to get away from the hassle and stress of the West do not realise that it is they who are the source of all the hassle and they will only bring their problems with them.

One such man was Richard Alexander Harbich.  

A German man with many complications back home, in 2014 he ran away to the Philippines to meet a woman he met online. He returned to Germany in early 2015 and came back to the Philippines a few months later. I will not give a biography of this man.  I will only say that all the media reports of him being duped by a woman are incorrect.

The fact is he was beset by serious financial and psychological troubles which he could not handle and he thought that he could outrun them by moving to the Philippines.  As with many he thought that the Philippines was a paradise where everything would be so much easier, where he could start a new life and the past would simply vanish.  But he caught up with himself and on March 3rd, 2016, in a final desperate act, he jumped from the third floor balcony of a mall and killed himself.

BACOLOD -- About a year after he complained to local police that his Negrense fiancée duped him, German national Richard Alexander Harbich leaped to his death from the third floor of a shopping mall in Bacolod City on Thursday afternoon, March 3. 

Apparently broken-hearted and broke at the same time, his frustration could have prompted him to end his own life, said Senior Inspector Richard Fajarito, chief of Police Station 1. 

The 40-year-old native of Friedberg, Germany, first attempted to jump from the same location on Wednesday evening, but mall tenants stopped him. 

Around 3 p.m. Thursday, Harbich was seen roaming alone inside SM City Bacolod. Moments later, he went to the third floor of the mall’s Annex Building and jumped.

Mall goer Bea Fernandez, 40, of Barangay 16, said she was standing near the foreigner, but she failed to stop him because she was holding her three-year-old daughter. 

She said she saw Harbich climb up the railing and eventually fall to the ground floor. 

 Fernandez added that she asked for assistance from a security guard. 

Harbich sustained serious injuries and died upon reaching Dr. Pablo O. Torre Memorial Hospital.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/bacolod/local-news/2016/03/04/german-national-leaps-his-death-malls-third-floor-460709

Do not make the mistake of thinking the Philippines is a paradise on earth.  There is no paradise on earth. Wherever you go you will bring your own fears and pathologies and issues. You cannot escape yourself and in a foreign country any troubles you have will only be exacerbated.  

Do not make the mistake so many have made and think that running away from your problems will solve them.  It could be that you are the problem. And you cannot escape from yourself.

WARNING: Filipinos at Work!

Some guys from PLDT came by the neighbourhood to install a cable:

Why do Filipino linemen never have a bucket truck? Is PLDT really hurting that much for funds? Why are there three guys just standing around? Why is safety never number one? 

It's amazing how safety here always takes a backseat to getting the job done.  Something tells me that if one were to really study workplace accident statistics for the Philippines the numbers would be quite high.

Filipinos do not like to drive with their headlights on at night

Filipinos do not like to drive with their headlights on at night.  I have seen this time and time again with taxis, cars, trucks, jeepnies, motorcycles, tricycles, commercial trucks overloaded with sugarcane, they simply do not like to turn on their lights at night.  

Some jeepny drivers will drive with their lights on but when they come to a lighted area they switch them off and when they leave the area they turn them back on.  Some will turn them off when they stop for passengers and turn them back on when they start moving again. WHY??  To save power?  That is what the alternator is for!

Other jeepny and tricycle drivers will have their vehicle decked out in green, red, blue, white, or yellow rope lights and the whole thing will be lit up but the headlights will still remain off.  I suppose they think they are looking good but really they look garish and they are putting everyone in danger by not using their headlights.

Others install red, green, or blue headlights.  What good is that??  The point of headlights is so you can see the road and so others can see you.  If other vehicles can see you but you can't see the road in front of you then you have a problem.  Especially if your jeepny is overfilled and you got two guys standing on the back step and hanging on outside the vehicle!  

Driving with no lights on is the most reckless and infuriating driving habit because it is so dangerous and the danger is easily preventable.

TURN ON YOUR HEADLIGHTS!!!!!!!!!

Typical Filipino Linemen

In the Philippines the power often goes out. In my city the power company regularly schedules brown outs that last from 8-12 hours. The alleged reason is the need to work on the lines. They don't advertise this on their webpage.  They advertise it in the notes section of their Facebook page.  Why does the local power company have a Facebook account? Because everyone has their nose buried in their phone  browsing Facebook.  It's as if that's the only website they know here. But that's material for another post. Suffice it to say if you want to get information to Filipinos you have to do it through Facebook. But even so who thinks to look on Facebook for information that should be on the electric company's main site?  And they don't even publish it there.  It's Facebook only.

But back to the electrical situation here. Power lines are strung all across the city in a horrid mishmash and tangle of black lines.  Some lines even dangle precariously into the street.  Are they live?  Dead?  Who knows!  It's certainly dangerous to have power lines dangling in the street. Many of the wooden poles  hoisting these lines are rotted and toppling over which further heightens the danger of electrical fire or brownouts as well as death to passersby.  It's simply not a good situation in any way.

Here's a picture of a typical Filipino lineman.  No bucket truck.  No safety harness.  Just a ladder resting against a thick nest of power lines. Workers standing idly by not even attempting to secure the ladder. Working in the middle of the street on a busy day.  I have seen this exact type of hazardous work situation many times in the city. This is not atypical. In fact it's a very typical carryover of the DIY fix-it attitude that is prevalent here.  That's great if you are repairing your own electronic devices but not when you are repairing the power lines which give life to an entire city.

With such unsafe, unprofessional, hazardous, and potentially deadly workmanship is it any wonder the electricity fails so often here?