Saturday, September 12, 2009

Hay naku, Chairman Bayani! Pa'no ka naman iboboto ng taong bayan. Batas trapiko pa lang, hindi mo na masundan, hindi pa mapatupad. Pa'no pa kaya ang batas pang lipunan?

'Etong Kia Carnival ('ata) na may plakang ZLJ838 na tadtad ng BAYANI stickers meron na ngang blinkers sa dashboard tapos daan pa ng daan sa yellow lanes.

Sayang ka talaga. Sayang.



P.S. Sorry at di namin nakunan yung blinkers sa harap. Pero, maniwala kayo, meron talaga.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

According to research by Petron, ethanol-blended gasoline, sold as E10 in the country, can be highly corrosive to cars not equipped with a dehydrator. Read more about it here.

Has anyone here had some problems that can be attributed to E10?

Monday, September 07, 2009

Ang galing mo, Lourd!



Luma na, pero magandang panoorin pa din.

Shell, Petron and Phoenix announced that they will roll back pump prices on Tuesday, September 8, 2009.

Beginning 12:01am, Shell will reduce diesel, E10, unleaded and V-power by P1 and regular by P0.50, while Petron will reduce premium by P1. Phoenix, on the other hand, reduces both gas and diesel by P1 effective 6am.

Read more about it here.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

An ordinance is being proposed by Quezon City Councilor Jesus Suntay to implement the charging of street parking fees on roads near "areas of special interest." If approved, parking fees of P10 for the first three hours plus P5 for every succeeding block of three hours will be charged for parking on roads surrounding the city's "parks, churches, government offices, schools, museums, hospitals and shopping malls."

Hay naku! Dagdag gastos na naman ito. Okay lang sana kung maalagaan at ma-pro-protektahan nila ng mabuti ang mga nakaparadang sasakyan, kaso alam naman nating lahat na di nila magagawa ito ng mabuti.

Effective 12:01am yesterday, Chevron, Shell and SeaOil implemented a 50 cent price hike on gasoline and rollbacks of 50 cents and P1.00 for diesel and kerosene respectively. Following their announcement, Petron also implemented the same price changes effective 6:00am yesterday. PTT Philippines, on the other hand, implemented a 50 cent rollback on diesel effective at 12:01am today. No changes on the prices of their other petroleum products were announced.

With this latest round of price changes, the Big 3's pump prices for gasoline has gone up by P1.75 while diesel has gone down by P3.75 since the start of the year. I'm sure the smaller players have slightly different price movements but since the majority of all gas stations in the metro belong to the Big 3, this doesn't really make that big an impact for the average consumer.

P.S. Sorry for the late reporting. We're all pretty busy these days.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Citing recent increases in gasoline prices and an impending increase for AutoLPG, the Philippine National Taxi Operators Association is mulling over requesting the reimposition of the P10 add-on rate during the next LTFRB hearing scheduled for February 18.

Sa dami ng nagtatanong tungkol sa status ng UVVRP for Pasig at Paranaque, tinawagan namin ulit yung MMDA Hotline (136). Ang sagot nila ngayon ay ang mga lungsod ng Pasig, Paranaque at Marikina ang walang coding at ang Pasay daw ay meron.

Labo talaga.

Anyway, updated na po ulit yung UVVRP post.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The Big 3, Total Philippines and PTT have all announced a price hike on gasoline prices effective 12:01am on Wednesday, January 28, 2009, with the exception of Petron, who will be implementing the price increase beginning 6:00am the same day. The Big 3 and Total will be increasing gasoline by P1 per liter while PTT will only raise its pump price by 50 cents.

Also, a 75 cent and P1 rollback for diesel and kerosene, respectively, will be implemented by the Big 3 and Total at the same time as their price increase for gasoline. PTT, on the other hand, has announced a P1 per liter rollback for both its diesel and kerosene.

These announcements follow SeaOil's rollback of diesel and kerosene by P2 per liter and Eastern Petroleum's P1 rollback for the same products earlier today. The two firms did not announce nor implement a price increase for gasoline.

With all these price movements, we believe that the oil firms have adopted a confuse-the-consumer policy in an effort to stem negative public opinion on the price hikes. It sure is working on us!

While we're on the topic, shouldn't the LTFRB now be pushing for price reductions for public transport fares? We seem to recall that they, together with various transport groups, have vowed to bring down fares once diesel reaches a certain price point, which we believe has already been reached.

In response to several queries submitted to Huli Ka! regarding the UVVRP, we called up the MMDA Hotline (136) to inquire about the cities that have 1) chosen to NOT implement UVVRP, and 2) do not recognize the 10:00am to 3:00pm window.

In response to the first question, the cities of Marikina and (surprisingly) Pasay have chosen NOT to implement UVVRP within their bounderies.

As for the second question, the cities of Makati, Las Pinas and Malabon have all chosen to implement UVVRP from 7:00am to 7:00pm.

Anyway, we have changed our UVVRP post to reflect the changes.

Drive safe!

Smile! You're on camera!

MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando has announced on Sunday, January 25, 2009, that the MMDA has started using traffic surveillance cameras on EDSA to catch traffic violators in the act. The program, which is currently on a three month trial stage, was implemented in support of their "no physical contact" policy. Similar to "speed camera" programs used in other countries around the world, violators caught on tape will be sent a notice (presumably, to the address indicated on the vehicle's registration) which will contain the details of their violation as well as a still photo of the vehicle "in the act". Violators will then have 7 days upon receipt of the notice to either file an appeal with the Traffic Adjudication Board or pay the fine at any Metrobank branch. Failure to pay within the 7 days will automatically result in the flagging of the vehicle's registration and/or the owner's driver's license, which will be cause for their non-renewal.

For those of you who are interested, you can get more details on the MMDA's traffic surveillance cameras here.

Didn't they implement a similar program a few years back? I seem to recall some friends telling me that they've received a violation notices before, mostly those who were caught on camera driving on the yellow lanes. Anyway, I hope they're able to iron out the details on this as issues such as other people driving somebody else's car and relatively short videos not telling the whole story are bound to cause some confusion (and irritation, at least on the part of the vehicle owners).

Monday, January 26, 2009

UniOil announced on Monday that they will be rolling back diesel and kerosene prices by P2 per liter. The rollback, which took effect at 2pm today, has brought down UniOil's diesel and kerosene prices to P28.97 and P37.68 per liter, respectively.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

The PNP will be celebrating their 18th Anniversary on Monday, January 26, 2009, so expect traffic to be heavy around that area in the morning. In fact, they'll be closing the area around Camp Crame's Santolan gate between 7am and 9am while they conduct flagraising and wreathlaying ceremonies. So all motorists are advised to avoid area during that time or take alternative routes.

For the second time this week, oil firms have announced an increase on gasoline prices by 75 cents. The Big 3 have all implemented the increase beginning today, with both Shell and Chevron also increasing their E10 pump prices by P1 per liter. All three firms, plus PTT Philippines, have also implemented a 50 cent rollback on diesel.

Seems like the oil companies are putting one up on the people again. When global oil prices go up, they implement price increases immediately. But when the pricing trend is going the opposite way, they delay the rollback.

P.S. Thanks to AuTom for the heads up!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Petron announced that they will be raising gasoline prices by 50 cents, effective 12:01am on Wednesday, January 21, 2009. The move was made to match a similar increase made by Shell, Chevron and a few others earlier today.

Bumigay din.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Saw this thread on The Pitstop on the PinoyExchange forum about the LTFRB's How's my driving? program. The program requires that all vehicles with an LTFRB franchise display the words How's my driving? Text LTFRB 0921-4487777, followed by the operator's telephone number, on the rear, either by painting or a sticker. This goes for all public utility vehicles (buses, jeeps, taxis, AUVs), shuttle service vehicles (school buses, company shuttles) and the like. Failure to comply means a P500 fine for each offense.

Anyway, based on the entries on the thread, people who have tried texting the number have either gotten no response or received a reply asking them to go the nearest LTO office to file a formal complaint. If that's the case, then why bother placing the LTFRB number if they won't act on complaints submitted there? Niloloko lang nila yung mga tao and sinasayang yung piso o singkwenta sentimos. The LTFRB should either take ownership and start acting on complaints or junk their hotline number altogether.

Several oil firms have announced new price movements today. SeaOil led the pack with a P1 rollback on diesel and kerosene prices, effective 6pm today, January 19, 2009. This was followed by the Big 3, PTT and Total, who will be implementing a 50 cent rollback on the same products effective 12:01am, Tuesday. Eastern Petroleum also announced a 50 cent cut effective tomorrow, but only on diesel.

Meanwhile, both Shell and Chevron has also announced that they will be increasing gasoline prices by 50 cents, also effective tomorrow.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Nakita namin 'tong Suburban kaninang hapon sa EDSA, patungong Cubao. Ginagawang busina yung wang-wang n'ya para tumabi yung mga "mabagal" na nasa harap n'ya. Tapos, nakabukas pa yung headlights n'ya palagi. Wala naman masyadong sasakyan.
Kupal talaga.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Here's a link to an article on Inquirer.net regarding rerouting info for this Sunday's Caracol festival, which will be celebrated with a parade starting at 3pm of Sunday, January 18, 2009.. Note that the major roads to be affected by the parade will be closed off starting 6pm on Saturday.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

The LTFRB has announced that they will be scrapping their "flexibility rule", which allows provincial buses to pick up commuters in the metro outside of their official route. According to LTFRB chairman Anton Lantion, they're hoping that this will result in a reduction of around 700 buses from the metro's major thoroughfares and drastically reduce traffic congestion.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much meat on the article. Does this mean that these buses won't be allowed to pass EDSA and other major roads? Or that they can't stop to load and unload commuters outside of their official stations? Anyway, either way, this would still help, even if just a little. So, kudos to the LTFRB!

The Big 3 and Eastern Petroleum has announced that they will be implementing a 50 cent rollback on gasoline, diesel and kerosene. Shell, which was the first to release their announcement, said that their rollback will be take effect starting 12:01am on Friday, January 16, 2009. Petron and Chevron then followed suit. Eastern, on the other hand, said that their rollback will take effect at 6pm today, January 15.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

According to this report on GMANews.tv, it seems like Shell has followed the 50 cent rollback of Chevron and Petron.

Eastern Petroleum and PTT also implemented their own rollbacks effective 6am today. Eastern implemented the same 50 cent reduction, while PTT implemented a "heftier" P1 rollback.

Oops! We almost missed this. Busy kasi kaming lahat. Anyways...

Both Chevron and Petron implemented a 50 cent reduction in the prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene, effective 12:01am, Tuesday, January 13. Chevron also implemented the same reduction on its E10.

Ho hum...

Friday, January 09, 2009

Seems like the MMDA has issued a new ordinance regarding crossing the EDSA-Ortigas intersection at the ground level, according to this thread from Tsikot.com's Goon Squad. Private vehicles heading southbound are not allowed to cross the intersection, we suppose in an attempt to reduce the congestion in that area (which is typically caused by buses in the loading and unloading station right after POEA).

If anyone has pics of that area showing signage of the new rule, we'd appreciate if you could please forward it to us at hulika.contribute@gmail.com.

Anyway, thanks to Tom for the heads-up!

Thursday, January 08, 2009

The MMDA will soon start using portable machines to issue tickets to traffic violators. The machines will also have the capability to remotely verify if the driver has unsettled violations just by swiping their driver's license on the machine. Aside from the obvious benefits of hastening the process of issuing traffic citations, the technology will also help reduce cases of bribery by preventing traffic enforcers from withdrawing tickets already issued by the machine.

Cool! If this works as advertised, this will make it more difficult for both the violator and enforcer to come up with an "arrangement". Sana lang reliable yung wireless network nila. Otherwise, status quo 'cos they'll be forced to fall back on paper TVRs.

Monday, January 05, 2009

According to this article on ABS-CBNNews.com about the increase in toll rates on Coastal Road and STAR, SLEx is expected to implement a new round of rate hikes by March or April due to "road improvements".

Can anyone confirm this? Also, based on our understanding SLEx, starts after the Alabang interchange, right? Does this mean that the Nichols to Alabang (and vice-versa) rates won't be included in the increase?

Sunday, January 04, 2009

According to Geoffrey de la Cruz, chief of the DPWH’s Bridge Maintenance Section, repairs on the Magallanes flyover will be completed before Monday, January 5, in time for the first working day of 2009. The repairs include the sealing of the cracks on the pavements, leveling the left lane to its previous height and adding support to lessen vibrations on the bridge. Read more about it in this article from Inquirer.net.