The grand smoking hotel

One of our Eye-Spies took this photo of the Grand Boulevard Hotel on Roxas Boulevard spewing out this toxic black smoke and soot. The hotel reportedly does this almost every morning and at times intermittently for the whole day, and nobody seems to be doing anything about it. Who’s responsible for going after this hotel – the DENR, the Department of Tourism or the City of Manila? The Bay Walk along Roxas Boulevard is supposed to be ideal for strolling and jogging, but we doubt if joggers will find their health improving with the deadly smoke coming out from this nearby hotel. The Malate Catholic School is also nearby and the school children breathing these toxic fumes are reportedly getting sick with respiratory illnesses. People living in condominiums nearby also keep their windows closed, and as a result are denied the pleasure of breathing in the fresh sea breeze that attracted them in the area some two decades ago. How can we attract tourists to come to the Philippines when a major hotel is spewing such poisonous smoke? Worse than that, it adds to the already horrific pollution in Metro Manila that has so far killed thousands of people.

Assessing rip-offs

Spybiz informants reported about an alleged scam being perpetrated by some unscrupulous government employees. According to informants, employees from this city’s assessor’s office would send letters to lot owners telling them that their property is in the middle and has no road access. As such, it will be classified as commercial because it could not be considered agricultural owing to the fact that the land could not be tilled, citing the frequent flooding and the low level of the land. The lot owners are then told that they would have to pay a huge amount for penalty, then these opportunists would convince the owners to sell the land at a paltry sum. Those who don’t know any better end up selling their property, only to find out later that the land would be sold at a much higher price to businessmen and property developers. Now that’s one rip-off that should be seriously looked into by the proper authorities.

School service operators should choose drivers

Many parents were shocked when a La Salle Greenhills school service van slammed into a Metro Rail Transit (MRT) post in Mandaluyong the other week. According to police reports, the van driver took the vehicle without the owner’s knowledge, then went on a drinking spree with several companions until the wee hours of the morning. He asked a companion to drive the vehicle because he was too drunk to do so. He also needed to get some shut-eye before reporting for work. Police said the speeding vehicle rammed on an MRT post, instantly killing four people on the spot. School bus service operators should be choosy about the people they get as drivers because these people will ultimately be responsible for the lives of the schoolchildren riding in these buses and vans. Just imagine, if the driver reported for work nursing a hangover, then it might have been just possible that he would have rammed the van with the students in it. In a globalized environment of competition, the country’s future resources are its youth. We have to give the utmost protection to our schoolchildren.

Ubs issues clarification

UBS AG has lodged a disclosure statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last Jan. 27 in relation to its holdings in Banco de Oro Universal Bank (BDO). UBS, one of the world’s leading financial firms with offices in 50 countries worldwide, recently issued a statement clarifying that the holding was accumulated by UBS Global Asset Management as part of its discretionary management of several client portfolios. The holdings reflected by this filing do not represent a proprietary holding of, or investment by, UBS AG in BDO, the financial firm disclosed. None of UBS Global Asset Management’s clients has instructed the investment and securities firm to buy BDO shares, the statement said.

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