Comments on: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

By: sparks

sparks — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:26:16 +0000

hey! this reply thing is cool!

By: GabbyD

GabbyD — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:00:19 +0000

he isn’t shy hogging the mike eh :) or baka yung mga kasama nya ay shy?

By: GabbyD

GabbyD — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:55:17 +0000

hey is that DJB in the video :)

By: GabbyD

GabbyD — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:20:05 +0000

i was referring to the job or industry. which industry do u (or the guy in your story) work in? just curious…

By: cocoy

cocoy — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:51:52 +0000

of course the price is part of the negotiation process. everything is suppose to be a done deal even before any bid document is submitted. The system is gamed from the start. And the rate is variable from industry to industry.

i forget if it was the ADB or the PCCI who said a few years back that for Philippine companies, 2% of gross revenues goes to for the boys.

Nobody will say it out loud because, 1) that’s the norm, and 2) distasteful as it is, it keeps the economy going because indirectly everything from paper clips to huge multi-million dollar deal, it does finance some companies that specialize in government contracts. 3) as sick as it may sound, would you bite the hand that feeds you? there is hardly any paper trail. So it is all “urban myth”.

i’m not saying it is right. i’m saying that’s how it goes.

By: Renato Pacifico

Renato Pacifico — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:25:55 +0000

Commissions-for-the-boys is already factored-in bid price.

TIP FOR THE POST: Do you know an average of 30% of contracted price goes to commissions-for-the-boys?

By: cocoy

cocoy — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:11:42 +0000

heh. GabbyD, i’ll leave it up to your imagination what i meant.

By: GabbyD

GabbyD — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:00:12 +0000

“If the guy sitting across me is a fellow contractor, he’d lament at how much for the boys commission needs to get out. ”

what kind of contracting? is this the norm for any kind of contractual job?

By: cocoy

cocoy — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:46:54 +0000

LOL. thanks.

By: cocoy

cocoy — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:44:48 +0000

Sparks, manila looks like a hodgepodge of everything, from billboards to its potholes. you can time the traffic. even years away, i can still say when Espana would be tied up in traffic, or that stretch from Cubao to Makati.

What didn’t make the cut in this post was a description of binondo. how different it was years before. how there’s a starbucks near binondo church. how people walk its streets pushing goods, or carrying them on their heads. to see how vendors peddle their goods by the street. to hear a woman and her daughter talk in mandarin or cantonese (sorry they all sound the same to me). how the air smells like foul fish. it isn’t perfect. It is far from perfect but i still love home. it’s my home town, after all.