It's been almost five months now since my last entry.

My last entry talks about a mass in my liver. After the Ultrasound and the CT Scan, that liver abcess was aspirated and was cultured to find out what bacteria causes it. But the culture yielded no bacteria.  They discharged me with some antibiotics for fourteen days. But still my abdominal pain persisted who alarmed my best friend. I was taken to another hospital by my best friend and again submitted to Ultrasound and CT Scan. There they found out a mass obstruction in my colon. I was advised for immediate operation. The operation was successful and the mass was biopsied. I have a Stage 4 Colon Cancer.

I have not submitted to a chemotheraphy until now but just taken another way of battling this cancer. I turned vegetarian and stopped eating meats. This is rather a radical way of battling cancer: Starving the cancer cells.

I have also decided to live and have trusted my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in all of these. If I"ll die in the end, still I will trust Him because whether I'm alive or dead I belong to Him.

Two weeks ago I thought this abdominal pain was just caused by my gastroenteritis especially it started after I ate some green mangoes (Philippine variety). So I have thrown caution to the wind and have just asked my wife to apply some liniment into the abdominal area where the pain occurred. But still the pain persisted so I got someone to apply massage into it. But it got worsen. That’s when I have decided to see a doctor friend who is a specialist of kidney and vascular transplant. After I described to him that the pain is located behind my right rib cage just below my diaphragm and radiates to my back he ordered me to undergo an ultrasound to check my kidney, liver and gall bladder. 

With ultrasound request I headed to a radiologist and was so surprised when told that some mass was seen in my liver. He asked me if I drink wine. I said no. So he handed me the procedure’s result to be read by my doctor friend next Monday.   

I hope this case will not be so severe and can still be managed by medicine not by surgery.

It's been almost a month now since my mom went home in our province to live with my brother. Perhaps I become accustom to her presence day by day while looking after my youngest two year old son David.  Yes, she was nurturing David while me and my wife were in our respective offices. Not that I don't trust a nanny to look after my son but I am more confident if its my relative who will do it. That is why mum came.

Perhaps that's her way of giving what she did not gave to me while I was still a child. The care and attention that she failed to bestow in my growing years she gave to David. (Don't ask me why for now. I will write about it later.)

Though my relationship with her is like much more of a sibling than a parent and son I still missed her. Who can blame me? Inwardly, I'm still her son.

It’s sad to say that we Filipinos have that penchant of not paying our bills if not asked for it.

I’ve been a President of a Homeowners Association down south of Davao City. Based on experience housing borrowers are not keen in their monthly amortization payment especially if billing is not issued. When bill is issued however, they have the guts to get angry stating that it’s the government who granted the loan to them so it’s okay not to pay. Their homes are filled with different appliances when you visit them yet they reason that they have no money to pay for their monthly amortization. And if you check their lifestyle they can even sustain their drinking and smoking habits not to mention their gambling.

Ask me how much is their due why they can’t afford to settle their account? Only Three Hundred Pesos Plus? I call this stunt ridiculous.

This situation is not just happening in this association. There are also other housing loan grantees from different housing institution who failed to pay their loan amortizations. And they dared to cry foul when foreclosure is pushed through by the affected housing agencies. Adding fuel to their resistance is the illogical support of the politicians who are quick to ride on the issue in order to stage a comeback for the upcoming election.

The bottom line is “a loan is a loan. And a borrower is expected to pay it.”

The President of the Philippines signed the Housing Condonation Bill endorsed by House Speaker Prospero Nograles into law. It is now known as the "Socialized and Low-Cost Housing Loan Restructuring and Condonation Act of 2008 or Republic Act (RA) 9507.

There is no question RA 9507 is so favorable to delinquent housing loan borrowers. Who would refuse such favor when the said RA would condone the penalties and interest of the delinquent loan? Add to it is the suspension of foreclosure proceedings.

However, RA 9507 is only applicable to Government Housing Agencies. Excluded are private companies involved in real estate business and loans under government agencies with loan amount exceeding Two Million Pesos.

The said RA also set a parameter when foreclosure will proceed. When borrowers failed to pay for three years his monthly amortization after the approval of his application to this Condonation program foreclosure proceedings will kick off.

Let us see what happened next.

This site would now show entries regarding some personal stuffs, political views and maybe some information materials that would help the general public. My other blog sites "tea and symphony" (www.phileagle.wordpress.com) will bear my spiritual views while "itchy feet" (www.phileagle69.blogspot.com) will showcase my adventures and some photos I shoot.

I hope you will visit my other sites too.

Since melamine contamination in milk products manufactured by China leaked in the media the whole world panicked. Nations pulled out not only milk products but all food products made in China for positive testing of melamine. Since the public has been aware of these products there is a possibility that businessmen would never put the identity of the manufacturers in these products again. That would leave us in the dark and if we are not cautious we would end up consuming all those poisons in melamine contaminated foods manufactured by China.

Don’t misunderstand me please. I’m not saying that all foods manufactured in China are melamine contaminated. But how do we know its not? So just to be so sure we consumers would refrain buying those China made products regardless whether its contaminated or not.. But how do we know if the products we are buying are not made in China since we would not be seeing the “Made in China” identity? Simply look for the barcode. The first three digits (others just two digits) identify the country where the product is made. The first three codes for China made products are 690, 691 and 692 barcodes. Taiwan is 471 while USA and Canada are 00 to 09. France bears the codes of 30 to 37 while Germany is identified through 40 to 44. Japan is 49 and United Kingdom is 50.

Our responsibility is to save ourselves from contaminants. Let us educate ourselves.

When my wife and I decided to build our own house I want to implement what I dreamt. But when we did the accounting of the cost of materials we fall short of our budget. So I told her why not we go native which is within the limits of our budget? Then we began�deliberating on what materials would we use as medium of our house? After some time we decided to use bamboo because of its sturdiness and thriftiness. Below are some pictures of our new bamboo house.

The Bamboo House.

The Living Room.

We may herald the positive effects of this Housing Loan Condonation Bill endorsed by House Speaker Prospero Nograles as very beneficial to delinquent borrowers since this Bill will condone the penalties and interest accumulated due to non-payment of its monthly amortization. Who would refuse such opportunity when it’s beneficially offered? Who would refuse when foreclosure in this Bill would be suspended giving the borrowers another chance to save their house of abode?

Who can blame the House Speaker in endorsing such bill to the Congress when this Bill would really benefit thousands of housing loan borrowers? Who would blame other political leaders in riding the same bandwagon just to be noticed when the national election is coming soon? Who would blame the media in hyping the same topic over the airwaves just for a higher station rating without consulting the affected agencies first and doing some research to give light and fairness to the tackled topic?

But do they really took the time and evaluate the Bill’s negative effects?

BORROWERS LEARNING IRRESPONSIBILITIES

Penalties and interest is a vehicle to pressure housing loan borrowers to pay their monthly amortization. Remove this pressure and they will delay their payment in their monthly amortization. Execute this scheme and they will prioritize in their budget their due.

Let me take for example the case of Pag-IBIG Fund. Loan borrowers of this housing institution are charged with two interest rates in their loan availment. A lower interest rate is charged when payment is made before the 15 days grace period after the due date. And they called this a discounted rate. But when payment is committed after the 15 days grace period the same loan availment will be charged with a higher interest rate.

A borrower whose loan availment amounting to Three Hundred Forty Four Thousand (P344,000.00) for example will be billed Two Thousand Two Hundred Fifty Nine Pesos and 61/100 (P2,259.61) a month if he will pay his amortization before the 15 days grace period after the due date. This is under the 6% per annum interest rate (lower rate) of his loan availment. But if he fails to pay after the grace period his amortization will jump to Two Thousand Seven Hundred Twenty One Pesos and 30/100 (P2,721.30). This is under the higher interest rate of 8% per annum (higher rate). This method is effective in their collection effort.

If this Condonation Bill pushed by House Speaker Nograles will become a Law do you think these borrowers will prioritize their monthly amortization? I don’t think so. In fact, even now that this Bill is still a bill some housing loan borrowers choose not to pay their amortization dues waiting for this Bill to become a Law. In other words they choose to be irresponsible.

BORROWERS FACES FORECLOSURE

Housing loan borrowers put all their stakes to this Bill since they are so willing to lag their amortization. Good if this Condonation Bill becomes a law as soon as possible for all their penalties and interest will be cancelled. But if not their housing units will be foreclosed. Who is then on the losing side? Isn’t the housing borrowers? For sure housing agencies both government and public alike will initiate foreclosure as a last resort to recover funds if delinquencies are already so high.

BANCRUPCY OF HOUSING LOAN AGENCIES

One of the inclusions of this Condonation Bill is the suspension of foreclosure proceedings. As an effect the collection of the housing loan agencies will collapse and eventually will cause their disbandment. Take for example National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation (NHMFC). Their Unified Housing Loan Program (UHLP) which was created to be a continuous self-sustaining program through repayments of its borrowers was a failure due to high delinquencies. To recover these delinquencies NHMFC sold to Balikatan Housing Finance, Inc (BHFI) these highly delinquent accounts.

One agency that would surely be hit by this Bill is Pag-IBIG Fund. Considering that a member is just to have a fund of Four Thousand Eight Hundred Pesos (P4,800.00) (total contribution of employee with employer counterpart for two years) in his membership to avail a loan of up to Five Hundred Thousand Pesos (P500,000.00). Now where did Pag-IBIG Fund get the money? Of course, from the other members of the Fund. If this sole borrower will not pay his amortization and these members where the funding comes from will withdraw his membership/funds where would Pag-IBIG Fund get the money to release to these members? Now multiply the number of delinquent members, what will happen to the agency?

There are more other negative effects that I have not explored. But for the sake of arguments I have enumerated what are very obvious. I pray that these might become an eye-opener to the author and supporters of the Bill. And if we are not keen enough to what transpired around us this Bill might pave the way for economic collapse like what happened to United States. This time it will be the Philippines.