All I Can Handle

There is nothing sadder in the world than a near-empty airport, in my opinion. A few days ago, I went to the airport to chaperone my mom who was in transit to Pagadian city. Much to my chagrin, the checkpoints weren't very strict even though I was told that you could only enter the airport terminal if you had a flight that day (including the gates to the arrival area). I did show the security guard my mom's ticket from Zamboanga city where she was stranded since March of this year and perhaps because of her age, they let me in. I had an hour to kill so I decided to track my mom's flight using Flight Aware and Flight Radar 24. My friend recommended those websites when I was started feeling restless. Because they only let a few people board the plane at a time (physical distancing), my mom's plane departed late but maybe because there was very little air traffic, the plane still arrived on time. Looking at the Philippine map while tracking ...

It was in the middle of the afternoon on a payday Tuesday when I decided to go to the mall after seeing some posts on social media about different items on sale for 50% off their usual price.                           I was very surprised to see that traffic in EDSA looks almost like it used to be before the pandemic. As of this writing, the economy has been opened partially for the past four weeks (with much more relaxed quarantine measures in place). At the mall, there is significantly lesser foot traffic and there were still several stores that were closed . In the late afternoon however, an uptick in foot traffic was observed as office workers headed home. Free wireless internet was unavailable (if I remember correctly) to discourage loitering. The supermarket is still where most people go to.  Establishments like bookstores are virtually empty. I don't ...

Providing a fixed return on investment over a specified period time, time deposits are very stable and safe. Over time, they have been the preferred form of investment for most Filipinos. Maybe it isn't a secret that depositor's money in bank accounts are insured at up to 500,000 pesos per investor. But does this insurance cover our money invested in time deposits? Perhaps because of the economic fallout brought about by the lock downs, some people have been feeling anxious about their investments in time deposits. Well, worry no more. Money invested in time deposits is also covered by the insurance provided by the PDIC. But what about the time deposits in Unit Investment Trust Funds (UITFs)? If you have a UITF invested in money market instruments, chances are some of those funds are in time deposits of different banks. Since PDIC only insures 500,000 pesos per depositor, UITFs probably don't qualify since they handle billions of pesos. Top 10 holdings of BDO PE...

I was browsing the photos in my Flickr account and came across some stamps which I bought from the post office in Zamboanga city when I was in high school. I thought of sharing them here. 150 years since the first Philippine stamp 50th anniversary stamp of Grepalife 100th anniversary stamps of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines 100 years of Philippine aviation stamp 150 years of good rum from Tanduay stamp A stamp featuring different kinds of architecture in the Philippines during different time periods This was my favorite stamp of them all. Maybe it was because during this time, I was collecting cacti and succulents. Prior to discovering that the post office sold these very nice stamps, I always thought that all Philippine stamps looked like the plain stamps we usually see on letters featuring Philippine icons like the Maya bird or the Sampaguita flower. So imagine my surprise when I found out that the Philippines ac...