BLOGGED PHILIPPINES

Budget carrier Cebu Pacific announces a piso fare promo for its CEB club members. The travel period for this promo is from January 1 to March 31, 2015. All destinations are on sale! This promo officially starts today and will be open for booking until July 17 or until seats are available.

Malcanang Palace officially declares July 29, 2014 (Tuesday) as a regular non-working holiday all over the Philippines in celebration of the annual Muslim festival  Eid’l Fitr or the Feast of Ramadan. The official declaration can be read at official government portal  www.gov.ph . Those who will be required to work at that date shall receive additional compensation based on the existing Labor rules set by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). English: Coat of arms of the Philippines (Photo credit: Wikipedia )

To the Management, First of all, I'm very thankful that there's a third company competing against Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines. The presence of your company in the local aviation market is essential. But I was disappointed by your performance. Because, you consistently provide bad service to your passengers. Let me cite some specific examples. AirAsia Zest Airbus A320-216 [RP-C8970] (Photo credit: Diego Roxas ) Last year, you cancelled my flight a few weeks before my actual travel. And you did that with utter insensitivity. Yes, I booked your promo ticket but it doesn't give you any right to leave me hanging by cancelling my flight and offering me just a refund of my ticket. My goal is for you to fly to me my destination and we agreed on that. And then all of a sudden, out of the blue, you'll just tell me "here's your money, can't fly you because of some reason". I was very disappointed. [Read: True Story: Warning to Zest Air Pa

The last time I tried to get my NSO birth certificate was in 2006 as part of the requirement for my on-the-job training application. It took me more than half of the day to get it. Now, I need an original copy of my Birth Certificate (BC). But unlike 2006, I don't have the luxury of time now to line-up in the NSO office. Good thing is that nowadays, you can easily get a certified true copy of your BC. NSO Help Online Introducing the NSO Help Online, an online service that will allow you to get your birth certificate without going to the NSO Office. A huge convenience especially for busy persons like me. How to use it? It's very easy. Just go to their website www.nsohelpline.com and follow the simple steps: Order-->>Pay-->>Check. They deliver anywhere in the Philippines and they have different payment option: Credit Card, ATM Card, Bayad Center, or Bank Deposit (Metrobank). Delivery will take only 2 to 3 days. I ordered my BC last Friday and by Monday mor

Budget carrier Cebu Pacific announces a new piso fare promo offering discounted fares for early 2015 flights on all destinations. The promo starts today and will be available for booking until July 6. The travel period for this promo is January 1 to March 31, 2015.  Tickets can be purchased online at www.cebupacificair.com or via their ticketing office*. *All international, all Manila, Cebu to Boracay, Coron, Davao and Puerto Princesa flights are only available online.

I first heard of this concept in Cebu City. At first, I don't really understand how it works. Now the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) has released a video of the result of a comprehensive of the effectiveness of a BRT system in providing an efficient, relatively low-cost transportation system. Here's the video. To compliment the economic progress of he Philippines, we desperately need an efficient transport system. As you can see in the above video, Metro Manila traffic is worsening year-after-year. The BRT system can be the solution we need now.

Malacanang Palace officially confirms that June 24, 2014 is a special non-working holiday throughout the city of Manila. This is in celebration of the 443rd Foundation Day anniversary of the City of Manila. Manila was founded by the Spanish conqueror Miguel Lopez de Legaspi in 1571. Malacañang Palace, the residence of the Philippine president, from the other side of the Pasig River in Manila (Photo credit:  Wikipedia ) The announcement was made by executive secretary via Proclamation No. 766, s. 2014 . For employees who are required to work tomorrow, corresponding additional compensation based on Labor rules shall be given.

Streamlined check-in process. Saves time. We only hear of the advantages of integrating terminal fees to ticket price. But have you ever thought of the flip side of this move? Have you ever tried booking a promo fare which is non-refundable and then cancel your flight? The ticket price is non-refundable but should the terminal fee be the same?

True to their promise to fly to the land of the Kangaroos,  budget carrier Cebu Pacific announced today that they will start flying to Sydney, Australia starting September 9 and to Kuwait starting September 2. This is part of the long term plan of the company to expand their services to long haul destinations. We can remember Cebu Pacific started flying to Dubai, their first long haul destination, last October 2013. Cebu Pacific CEO Lance Gokongwei launching Sydney and Kuwait flights. Photo captured from Instagram.com

Cebu Pacific's contribution to the boom of local aviation industry is tremendous. That is why I totally agree with their tag line "Cebu Pacific - Why Everyone Flies". I love Cebu Pacific and how they set the trend for low-cost flying. But in this article, I would like to voice out my concern regarding the three items Cebu Pacific is doing in their online booking process, that in my viewpoint, are deceptive in nature. 1. Default Baggage Allowance for ALL passengers When customers are not careful, they might unintentionally buy 20kg of baggage because it's the default setting. And you have to check manage per passenger link to set up the baggage for each passenger. So, imagine if you're booking for 5 persons and you want a baggage allowance just for two persons, you will end up paying 3000 pesos instead of just 1200 Pesos. That is if you intended to buy 20kg of baggage and not just 15kg. What if you only want to buy baggage on one way? While I agree that havin

The Philippines is about to celebrate the 116th anniversary of its independence from Spanish government on Thursday, June 12. As part of its tradition, low-cost airline Cebu Pacific joins the celebration by offering 1.16 Pesos base fare*  to all domestic and international destinations. The travel period for this promo is from October 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015 . Here's the promo poster. Poster from Cebu Pacific

If you're thinking of traveling outside the country for the first time, I highly recommend going to Hong Kong. This former British colony is tourist-friendly. Equipped with advanced and efficient transport system - bus, subway, taxi - and many people able to speak English, it's hard to get lost and if you do, it's so easy to get back on track. Moreover, Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific, the two largest airlines in the country flies to Hong Kong frequently. And yes, Cebu Pacific offers promo fares (as low as 1 Peso base fare) from time to time. All you need is a valid passport and your tickets and you can enter Hong Kong easily. [Related: Latest Promo Fares] It's also relatively cheap to go to HK. Lodging place can be as cheap as 500 Pesos per night if you're not sensitive to room size. My last trip to this place cost me a little more than 15,000 Pesos (all-in) for a 3-day fun. View from Victoria Peak, Hong Kong

Good news for travelers next year. AirAsia Zest announced a new Piso Fare promo for January 5 to July 15, 2015 travel dates. Promo starts today and will end June 8. Here's the promo poster. Tickets can be booked online at www.airasia.com or through their mobile App available for Android, Apple and Windows Mobile.

Cebu Pacific announces a Piso Fare promo for all destinations. But this promo is exclusively offered to CEB Club Members. Here's the promo poster. The travel period for this promo is from September 1 to December 15, 2014. Promo ends June 1 or until seats last.

Last Saturday, I watched the latest X-Men movie Days of Future Past . It was good and I was okay with it but it is below my expectation. I'm not a movie critic so my views are based on my own set of biases. Most of my friends though said the same thing: It's okay.. but it's just okay. Capitalizing on Jennifer Lawrence I just felt that the movie capitalized so much on Jennifer Lawrence's popularity. In the previous X-Men series (2000 onward), Mystique is not a central figure of the story. She was portrayed as just one of the trusted assistant of magneto. Although her character was given much attention in the new series which began in X-Men: First Class, she has never been a critical character until this movie. The movie is the sequel X-Men: First Class  (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) It's not that I don't like her story but I feel that instead of entitling the movie as Days of Future Past, I find the movie more of an X-Men Origins: Mystique. Again

It used to be that we can only buy apps from Google Play Store Philippines. Then there came to be books. And then finally, movies are now being sold in Google Play Store Philippines. Just go to play.google.com/store/movies to access this new feature.

I just discovered that Google is now able to track local flights here in the Philippines. By just entering the flight number, the search engine will return to you the next departure and arrival of your flight. For example, I want to know what time will be the next departure of Cebu Pacific flight 5J579. All I need to do is to put the flight number in the search bar, and then boom, you have the results. With this capability, it's now easy to know whether your friend has departed or arrived already, or whether you'll be able to catch your flight, etc. I've also tested Cathay Pacific and it worked. I tried PAL and AirAsia Zest but it seems not working yet for them. Maybe in the next few months it will be available on more flights.

Boracay , being a top tourist spot in the Philippines , is filled with fun activities that would ensure guests won't get bored. They have plenty of  both water and land sports activities you can do. Here is a list some of the most popular Boracay Activities. SNORKELING. One of the most common activity in Boracay. Island Hopping, Snorkeling and Helmet Diving Island hopping  is one of many Boracay activities that is a lot of fun. Small boats that can seat 5 to 10 people can be rented at around 4000 to 5000 pesos.  You just have to ask around the area or the receptionist of the hotel or resort you are staying at. There are plenty of  islands you can visit around Boracay. If you are early enough and the weather is good, you can even go dolphin and/or whale watching. While island hopping, you can ask the boater to stop at some designated areas where you can go snorkeling. Snorkeling is really fun around the island of Boracay as the area is teeming with marine life that is ver

Now that the weather is very hot in most part of the country, many people intends to buy air conditioners and refrigerators. But what factor do you consider when buying a particular model or brand? Most people I know buy by the brand names. They prefer appliance brands they have grown up with. That's not necessarily bad. But have you ever considered looking at that yellow paper sticking in front of the displayed unit in the mall? I'm referring to the document containing the EEF or the Energy Efficiency Factor (EEF).

Update: BPI Trade is back online Monday afternoon. BPI Trade , the online stock trading service of BPI Capital notified their clients Sunday night that they will still be offline until Monday, May 19, 2014. This will be the second trading day that the service will be unavailable. During the weekend, the website is accessible but the stock positions as well as other information are not available. To at least minimise the inconvenience, BPI Trade offers alternative ways to post orders. 1. Call them through these numbers:  816-9189, 816-9192  and  845-5617  (Manila) 2. For those who can't call, you can also post orders via email,  bpitrade@bpi.com.ph BPI Trade says that they will take manual orders as early as 7:30 AM tomorrow.

Budget carrier Cebu Pacific announced today a new Piso Fare promo for all destinations. The travel period is from September 1 to December 15, 2014. Here's the promo poster: Tickets can be booked online or through their ticketing office. Promo ends May 16. [Related: Book Airline Tickets Even Without A Credit Card! How? ]

AirAsia Zest, the resulting company after low-cost airlines Zest Airways and AirAsia Philippines merged last year announces a new direct flight: Cebu to Kuala Lumpur . Currently, only AirAsia Zest operates a direct flight between the two cities. To inaugurate the new route, AirAsia Zest also announced a Piso Fare promo. For a base fare of only 1 peso, you can fly from Cebu to the capital city of Malaysia. The total fare though will cost you about 1,842 Pesos for a round trip ticket. AirAisa Piso Fare Cebu to Kuala Lumpur The travel period is from from July 24, 2014 to April 30, 2015. Promo ends on May 11. You can book you tickets online at www.airasia.com .

Have you ever experienced lining up for more than one hour just to deposit a small amount of money at a BPI branch? Isn't it annoying? It usually happens right before or after a long holiday when people are rushing to pay their bills or settle transactions. Now you can at least make the line shorter or not even line up anymore. BPI introduces the first of its kind among Philippine banks: online queue. BPI calls it BEA or BPI Express Assist Online . In a nutshell, it is simply setting an appointment with BPI. So instead of getting your queue number at the branch, you can do it online. Of course, you need to have an active BPI Express Online Account. [Read:  How to Enroll An Account to BPI Express Online Banking? ]

Contrary to what many people think, there are other ways to book a promo ticket online even though one has no credit card. Cebu Pacific, AirAsia Zest and Philippine Airlines have provided many alternative ways to allow more people to access their promo offers. For Cebu Pacific , you can choose to book using your Debit Card, Bancnet Online or Payment Centers. Most ATMs nowadays can also be used as a debit card. If you're not sure if your card is capable of transacting online as a debit card, you can check it through your bank. AirAsia Zest Airbus A320-216 RP-C8971 (Photo credit: /migma/ ) Bancnet Online is an online payment and transaction facility for Bancnet members. Bancnet is the largest network of banks in the Philippines. To know whether your bank is a member of Bancnet, you can visit their website at www.bancnetonline.com .

Tomorrow, May 1, the whole country will again celebrate the annual Labor Day. And since it is one of the major holidays of the year, here are some big news and events associated with it. Piso Fare for Labor Day Continuing the tradition of announcing promo fares in almost all major holidays in the country, Cebu Pacific announces today a Piso fare promo. One peso base fare plus surcharges gives you a discounted ticket for both international and local destinations. Travel period is from June to December 15, 2014. Promo ends May 2 . Labor Day Non-working Holiday This Thursday, May 1 is Labor Day Holiday. There would be no classes and work. If an employee is required to render service on that day, he or she is entitled to additional compensation as dictated by local labor laws.

When San Miguel Corporation took over the helm of managing PAL and PAL Express (then Airphil Express), they decided to merge the operation of the two airline companies. Though the two airlines have been long-time sister companies, they have operated almost independently until Lucio Tan sold his majority stake to San Miguel . PAL Express was named Airphil Express before San Miguel acquired PAL The result of the consolidation is immediately evident. First, Airphil Express changed its name to PAL Express. Second, PAL Express stopped all flights that are common with PAL (e.g. Manila-Cebu). Then just recently, PAL Express suspended 35 Express inter-island flights leaving inter-island travelers with no other choice but Cebu Pacific.

I'm not really sure why PAL is having this promo, but yes, it was interesting. Starting today until June 30, you can select your seats for FREE on all their domestic flights using their online seat selector while booking your tickets. Here's the promo poster from Facebook.

Asian donuts brand J.CO is finally coming to Cebu. It's been months since people passing-by a corner in the lower ground of SM City Cebu started seeing ads on its arrival. J.CO in SM Cebu soon

Airlines in the Philippines have been very consistent in the past 4 years or more. Everytime there's a holiday, they are more likely inclined to announce promo fares. I remembered what Airphil Express (now PAL Express) and Cebu Pacific announced during the Easter of 2012: Zero Fare . Yes, Zero matching the Egg Hunt, a popular practice during Easter Holiday.

Just a brief background on Heartbleed Bug . Remember that "lock" symbol at you're browser's address bar? That tells you that your connection is encrypted. It means that when someone tries to eavesdrop on your connection, they cannot read your information because it was jumbled. Early this week though, researchers discovered a bug or an error in the technology behind that lock, OpenSSL. Meaning to say, sometimes, it wont work. The worst thing though is that about 70% of the internet uses that technology. It means that some websites, including the ones where you use your credit card number and PIN can expose you to hackers.

Nope, I'm not gonna tell the story or even the synopsis of the movie. But yes, the movie is a great watch. For those who love action, this movie is for you. For those who love twists, this movie is definitely for you. For those who wants increased level of adrenaline, this movie is made for you. I tried to watch the first movie of this series Captain America: The First Avenger shown in 2011. But after a few minutes, I got bored. So I had apprehensions in watching the sequel. Last week though, my friend told me that the action was so cool and that there are twists and turns in the plot. I love action, and of course twists but still didn't erase my fear that I might get bored and sleep in the cinema. But I decided to watch with friends anyway. And that's it. Though at the beginning, there's a portion that I thought was boring, but for the rest of the movie, it was full blast of action and twists. Definitely worth the money. Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Li

A few updates Day of Valor on April 9, 2014 This Wednesday, April 9 is a national holiday in the Philippines in celebration of the Day of Valor. This is in commemoration of the fall of the military base in Corregidor Island, Bataan in April 9, 1942 (World War 2). For more information about the event, please check this link. [ Background: Day of Valor ] Since this is a regular holiday, employers should follow the pay rules set by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for employees who will be required to render work on that day. New 10-Peso Coin Finally Reached Me The new 10 Peso coin that was released by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) finally reached my coin purse. I'm not sure how it got there but I think it was cool. As previously reported as early as December last year, this new coin was minted in celebration of Andres Bonifacio's 150th birth anniversary last November 30, 2013.  The coin features the same 26.5 mm diameter bimetallic style l

Please check this out: Go Hotels is Giving almost a Free Stay in their latest promo. As far as I remembered, this is the biggest sale of Robinsons Land Go Hotels. The low-cost hotel chain is offering 8 Pesos room in their 6 branches nationwide (except Mandaluyong and Tacloban branches). Almost a free stay!

For most people this would be really obvious. But for the sake of those people without the talent of "smelling" scams and are still susceptible to "too good to be true" offers, here's the detail of the Sun Postpaid Scam. Sun Cellular (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Your Number is Selected For 35% Discount The scam begins with a random message from an unregistered number saying: Suncellular:You're the one selected postpaid plan that given 35% discount on your bill.To get your 35% discount just forward the 17-digit secret code to 2292.You will receive the 17-digit secret code on the next message. It may or may not include the so called "17-digit secret code". In my case, I received it after a few minutes. 50 09225533524 4222

In part 2 of this series, I told you about the short and yet very steep trail that we took going to the top of Mount Babag . Well, in this third and final article about climbing that mountain, I will relate the experience we had in the long and less steep trail. Turn Left After the River As we reached the creek again, we took the left trail. As expected, this is a little easier compared to other trail that led us to the rose plantation that is inclined to about 70 degrees. This trail though is longer with many twist and turns. But the good thing is that the terrain is mostly flat or slightly inclined. The Hidden Falls of Mount Babag This is the reason that we came back and took the other trail, the falls. The hidden falls can be found  about 30 minutes after you crossed the creek and turned to the left trail. It was "hidden" in the sense that it was located downhill from the trail and the pathway is covered with bushes. The path is also very steep and it seems as if