Despite the travails of becoming and maintaining the status of billionaire, I think that I’ll really like being rich a lot.

Now I so love the song “I wanna be a billionaire” by Travie McCoy and Bruno Mars.

You think that it’s easy to be a billionaire? Think again. It’s hard and it’s a harsh world out there for rich girls like me.

This June the world renowned publisher of The World’s Richest – Forbes Magazine named tycoon Lucio Tan as the richest Filipino billionaire.  He is one of the four top spenders in philanthropy in the Philippines. Notwithstanding this, workers in his Philippine Air Lines (PAL) have partly caused economic shortfalls in the accounting of the airline. PAL’s statements are in the red. In the past the past year alone, PAL posted actual losses of US$10,000,000.

The PAL employees’ union would not believe that this billionaire will suffer if their group and their backers will paralyze his airline, and that is precisely what they did in September 27 this year. They also believe that the man will pay them huge indemnity once they win in court cases filed left and right with lower Courts and the Supreme Court itself. After all, if the public suffers along with the airline owner, that becomes the lookout of the owner and does not diminish their goodwill with the devils in hell.

In spite of these challenges, Tan sent tens of tons of cargo made of 700,000 bottles of water to victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March this year. The Tan Yan Kee Foundation, named after his father, has undertaken projects in Northern Luzon to build providing freshwater basins that will improve water quality in that region.

Tan’s charity foundation has built the first ever library for Fil-Chinese students in the country and sent thousands of them to Xiamen City, Fujian Province in Mainland China to study culture, language and experience being in China.

The foundation also undertook trainors’ training for teachers, medical missions – among other projects.  Tan also funded housing projects for the poor.

Like Mr. Tan, Mr. Henry Sy also, on the other hand, despite his advanced age, regularly flies in a helicopter to the far end of Northern Luzon (Aparri). His destination is a huge mansion in a seaside town in that province where a very young recipient of his own charities meets with him.

Other big charity spenders that Forbes cites are RFM President and Chief Executive Jose Concepcion, Planters Development Bank Chairman and Chief Executive Jesus Tambunting, as well as pharmaceutical empire Zuellig Group of Companies founder Stephen Zuellig.

Jose Concepcion, for his part, was cited by Forbes for his project Go Negosyo.  This venture helps the poor jumpstart businesses and no less than 230,000 individuals have already been benefited by the project. Concepcion also writes books, the proceeds of which are also given to Go Negosyo.

Forbes’ 40th richest man, Jesus Tambunting, is spending much for charity in education and cultural projects as well as many other Catholic Church-related charities. In 2008, Tambunting was ordained as a Knight Commander with Star of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

Tambunting sits as a board member in various foundations and spends generously for housing and relocation of the poor.

Retired Stephen Zuellig and family donated $5 million to public health advocacy. His charities’ mission is to lower infant and maternal mortality rates as well as to improve health care.

Tan, Concepcion, Tambunting and Zuellig are among the Forbes’ list of big charity spenders that include Jackie Chan, Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi, Tadashi Yanai of Uniqlo and Vincent Tan of Berjaya Group in Malaysia.

Forbes Asia Senior Editor John Koppish says that some of the generous charity givers are big tycoons, billionaires, who nourish a large vision of how best to help society and have donated millions of dollars to back up that vision. Others are little-known citizens who are extremely generous with their limited funds.

Koppish however clarifies that Forbes Magazine’s goal is not to rank the biggest givers.  He affirms that  the aim is to call attention to a mix of notable people and causes throughout the region, and to encourage more giving.

Whatever Forbes Magazine says, doesn’t matter much to me. whether I’m rich or not, I’m still big on charities anyway. So I reckon, I might not be outspending Messrs. Lucio Tan, Joe Concepcion, Jess Tambunting and Steve Zuellig, but at least I’m not manhid. Surely, when I get to hold my first billion, all the gates will be opened to my beneficiaries of charities.

The first in the list are autistic children.

The second in the list are the homeless.

The third in the list are Muslims who cannot have potable water or even simple bathing water when they believe in a faith that is based on cleansing rituals using a lot of water!  OMG! After I told the government this fact, I was not surprised to find in Jolo, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi that the United States of America Embassy went out of its way to build water systems for our brother Muslims in the South! Good job! I salute your efforts and will follow after your work when I get my billions.

The last but not the least in my list of beneficiaries are the down trodden people of uncertain gender and who cannot decide what they will do with their lives. I don’t know what to do with them yet, but I’ll figure that out. Counseling, livelihood, whatever. Basta! It’s easier when I am sitting on my billions and spending them for my favorite pastimes.

You will find below, Forbes Asia’s list of richest men and women in the Asian region.

The Forbes List – Top 10 Asian Billionaires

Mukesh Ambani
$29 billion
India
Global ambitions: His Reliance Industries, already India’s most valuable company, recently bid $2 billion for 65% stake in troubled Canadian oil sands outfit Value Creation. Firm’s $14.5 billion offer to buy bankrupt petrochemicals maker LyondellBasell was rejected.

Lakshmi Mittal
$28.7 billion
India
London’s richest resident oversees ArcelorMittal, world’s largest steel maker. Net profits fell 75% in 2009. Mittal took 12% pay cut but improved outlook pushed stock up one-third in past year. Looking to expand in his native India; wants to build steel mills in Jharkhad and Orissa but has not received government approval.

Li Ka-shing
$21 billion
Hong Kong
Betting on recovery, upped stakes in publicly traded conglomerates Cheung Kong and Hutchison Whampoa. Through HW, Li is world’s largest operator of container terminals, world’s largest health and beauty retailer by number of outlets, a major supplier of electricity to Hong Kong and a real estate developer. Has a large holding in Canadian oil firm Husky Energy, which recently announced its third discovery in South China Sea.

Lee Shau Kee
$18. 5 billion
Hong Kong
Lee’s wealth rebounded, thanks in part to doubling of share price of Henderson Land Development, the property firm he founded and still heads. Active investor in China, has stakes in such outperfomers as PetroChina, China Shenhua Energy and China Life. Chairman of Hong Kong & China Gas, which distributes gas in more than 90 cities.

Azim Premji
$17 billion
India
Software czar chairs $5.5 billion (revenues) Wipro, country’s third-largest software exporter. Reported jump in net profits in last 2 quarters, signaling a rebound for U.S.-dependent outsourcing giant.

Kwok family
$17 billion
Hong Kong
Family behind one of Hong Kong’s most storied real estate firms has benefited from rebound in property prices. Eldest brother Walter, who stepped down from 18-year chairmanship of Sun Hung Kai Properties in May 2008 after disputing with his 2 younger siblings, Raymond and Thomas, dropped his lawsuit alleging improper dismissal; he is now a nonexecutive director.

Robert Kuok
$14.5 billion
Malaysia
Onetime rice and sugar trader heads multinational Kuok Group, with interests ranging from shipping to real estate to media. In 2007 merged extensive Malaysian, Indonesian palm oil interests with Singapore’s Wilmar International, run by his nephew; now his most valuable holding.

Anil Ambani
$13.7 billion
India
Estranged brother of Asia’s richest person, Mukesh Ambani, oversees Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, which has interests in telecom, infrastructure and entertainment. His Reliance Power plans to build 13 power plants for $25 billion by 2014. Infrastructure arm is investing $5 billion in new roads and metro systems to be completed by 2012. His entertainment unit has committed $825 million to Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks Studios to co-produce films.

Shashi & Ravi Ruia
$13 billion
India
Brothers’ $15 billion (revenues) Essar Group has weathered downturn and embarked on an expansion drive in all its businesses, including steel, oil and power. As part of global push, refiner Essar Oil bought 50% in Kenya Petroleum Refineries and is negotiating with Royal Dutch Shell to acquire 3 refineries with a total capacity of 25 million tons.

Savitri Jindal
$12.2 billion
India
Nonexecutive chair of the O.P. Jindal Group, a steel and power conglomerate founded by her late husband, Om Prakash Jindal, in 1952. Took over as group head after he died in a helicopter crash in 2005. In his lifetime, patriarch had handed down operations to their 4 sons, Prithviraj, Sajjan, Ratan and Naveen, who today run their independent units.

Among the Forbes-listed Philippines’ billionaires:
Henry Sy, 86, SM shopping malls — $7.2 billion
Lucio Tan, 77, Fortune Tobacco, Asia Brewery and former crony of late President Ferdinand Marcos — $2.8 billion
John Gokongwei, 83, Cebu Pacific — $2.4 billion.
Andrew Tan, 58, Property developer, $2 billion
David Consunji, 90, construction magnate, $1.9 billion
Jaime Zobel de Ayala, 77, former Chair Ayala Corp., $1.7 billion
Enrique Razon, 51, port operator, $1.6 billion
Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr., 76, San Miguel Corp. chairman, $1.4 billion
Roberto Ongpin, 74, former Finance Minister, gold mining — $1.3 billion
George Ty, 78, Metro Bank founder, $1.1 billion
Tony Tan Caktiong, 58, Jollibee hamburger restaurant chain, $1 billion
The Forbes Philippine Multimillionaires:
Inigo & Mercedes Zobel, $980 million
Emilio Yap, 85, $930 million
Andrew Gotianun¸ 83, $795 million
Jon Ramon Aboitiz, 62, $760 million
Beatrice Campos, $685 million
Manuel Villar, 61, $620 million
Vivian Que Azcona, $555 million
Robert Coyiuto Jr., 58, $400 million
Mariano Tan, $375 million
Alfonso Yuchengco, 88, $370
Enrique Aboitiz, 89, $310
Oscar Lopez, 81, $280
Jose Antonio, 64, $245
Eric Recto, 48, $200
Gilberto Duavit, 76, $190
Menardo Jimenez, 79, $185
Alfredo Ramos, 67, $180
Betty Ang, $165
Felipe Gozon, $163
Tomas Alcantara, 65, $160
Benjamin Romualdez, 81, $155
Wilfred Uytengsu Jr., 49, $150
Manuel Zamora Jr., 71, $145
Jacinto Ng Sr., $115
Frederick Dy, 56, $110
Luis Virata, 57, $100
Bienvenido Tantoco Sr., 90, $95
Eugenio Lopez III, 59,$90
Edgar Sia II, $85
Number 29 in the list of multimillionaires, Edgar Sia, from Bacolod City, a 34, college dropout, founder of chicken-barbecue restaurant chain Mang Inasal (now owned by Jollibee) has $85 million.

When the late Gov. Joseph Marañon was still alive, the family of Edgar Sia invited our group to sell them a property that their mall sits upon. They were willing to pay the handsome sum of P600 million just for the real estate to have the last and final claim to the hotly contested property.

I’m still hoping our deal will push through along with the rest we are pursuing, it might help hasten my becoming a big spender and a Forbes-listed Philippine billionaire. God knows by that time, I’ll be changing my marching song “I Wanna Be A Billionaire” to Agnetha Faltskog’s popular “It’s So Nice To Be Rich”!

Who can say?

Agnetha is one of the members of the song group ABBA.

what are they doing stopping an airline from functioning those hoodlum and criminal looking idiots? are the stewardesses, stewards and pilots of PAL that bad looking now? huh!

just look at their faces! OMG! it’s as if the minions of Satan descended from hell! and papangeet! JC my Lord!

if i were PAL, i wouldn’t take bullshit from people like them. maybe i’ll take a pison and sagasaan ko sila lahat.

the problem with them policemen is that they never budged. of course, they are not allowed to carry firearms within 50 feet of rallyists and demonstrators but at least they are empowered to disperse illegal protest assemblies. possibly the policemen felt very very merciful towards the rallyists, thinking what if they were my poppa, momma, bro, sis or cousin? what if they were my children?

(tears of sorrow)

it’s possible that they are affected by their bleeding heart, cry baby chief of the Philippine National Police, Dir Gen Nicanor Bartolome who sheds tears at any moment’s notice like a FAMAS awardee. OMG! such a mess!!!

take a look at Akira’s video:

What does this and the past government combined have to be proud of in terms of emergency preparedness? None. Nothing at all.

When the time comes that the NASA forecasted superstorm or solar maxima, an electromagnetic and superheat or flamestorm will arrive, there is absolutely nothing that this government can do.

Whereas Norway has undergone the building and preparation for occupation of underground shelters, such actions are not even within the imaginations of our decision makers.

The government, as it is, is to busy in its witch hunt. This is no longer the era of the Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials and Lynchings. This is the modern age. In the guise of transparency, accountability, etcetera, etcetera, as if the close buddies and relations of the sitting power are not exceedingly corrupt, the government launches one investigation after another.

Now they are investigating anything about the former administration that is investigable. huh?

When the tsunamis come, and the earthquakes rumble, I bet that the first ones to run will be the thieves in this and the other administrations. Even the suits and their subalterns in the United Nations will be as guilty of that as well when the time comes.

They won’t even care to look back at us, the small people. Is that why they don’t care to announce any impending disaster that is about to come only two to three years from now? How heartless! But how stupid! What do they know if we do or don’t already have a plan? Let’s see who gets to laugh last!

Foreign intervention plus black, evil money? what is going to happen to this country?

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CLIMATE CHANGE LAW – SECRETARY LITO ATIENZA
October 26, 2009

 

The Climate Change Act of 2009, which President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed into law, puts local government units into the center stage of governance, given the important roles city, town, and barangay leaders play in the implementation of whatever plans and programs on climate change adaptation and mitigation measures that will be crafted by a body tasked under the new law.

The substance and efficacy of Republic Act (RA) 9729 will only be as good as those executing climate change measures. The new law may even be a potent tool in bringing about a stronger green-minded electorate because of the centrality to local elected officials in mainstreaming the climate change agenda into their platforms of governance at the provincial and down to the barangay level.

See more about Sec. Atienza’s post here…

1.  The 2010 Hazard Mapping and Environment Summit in Manila, Apr 8-15, 2010

2.  One Festival, Rock Concert for the benefit of the victims of Philippine typhoon, earthquakes and tsunami in the ASEAN Region in Rizal Park Grandstand, April 16, 2010.

We encourage the Philippine Government, Asian Governments, combines like the United Nations, ASEAN, financial institutions like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, to support this milestone activity the 2010 Hazard Mapping and Environmental Summit in Manila from the remainder of 2009 up to 2010. The actual even is as mentioned above.

We encourage everyone to support the One Festival, to raise token assistance for those that were victims to the Philippine floods, the tsunami and earthquakes that rocked many nations in ASEAN.

ANNUAL ECOLOGY CRISIS CONFERENCE

The Resource Recovery Movement will hold the first 2010 Hazards Mapping and Environment Summit (Eco 2010 Summit) in Manila, Philippines. This is ultimately borne about by the tremendous changing of the Philippine landscape and those of other countries in the Pacific Rim in the last few decades. All efforts towards risk mapping in relation to calamities and disasters in the past should now take into consideration the great shifts and transformations in land mass, the enormous amount of rainfall brought about by Climate Change and many new factors that were heretofore not factored into national and sub-national planning by governments as well as even by business establishments and non-government organizations.

Click this link to sign up: Join Resource Recovery Movement!

The 2010 Hazard Mapping and Environmental Summit (HMES) is intended to develop better approaches to mapping risks and dangers to communities in the Philippines and other countries with tropical climates. It takes a cue from the recent experience in China, Indonesia and the Philippines, notwithstanding the previous experiences in Thailand, Bangladesh, Pakistan where scores of people died due to unforeseen occurrences during the incidence of a natural disaster: earthquake, typhoon, tsunami and other calamities. The databasing, mapping and full coordination of efforts towards use and sharing of a full function GIS on hazards, volcanoes, water, flood, forests in the Philippines and Asia, vulnerability areas, liquefaction potential, crisis and hot spots is long due because of the long-running phenomenon of Climate Change in the planet. This is also significant in that the Philippines, among other countries, lies in the Pacific Rim of Fire where a large number of earthquake faults lie.

The most important value of the conference is to determine the plan and the cost of implementing such a plan to make the Philippines and other participating nations safer from increasingly hazardous calamities.

Note: The organizers reserve the right to make minor changes in the Conference details prior to the actual Event.

HMES 2010 Organizers

ONE FESTIVAL LIVE MANILA 2010

The Event is a music festival, with a concert and side activities. There will be a side exhibit to be put up by professional event managers. Culture, performing arts, similar exhibits and other featured side shows will also be part of the entire undertaking.

This is the culminating Event of the 2010 Hazard Mapping and Environment Summit in Manila. The activity is a Music Festival intended to raise funds for the victims of man-made and natural calamities such as Philippine Typhoons, IDPs in hostilities in various areas in the Philippines, victims of the tsunami in the ASEAN-Pacific Regions, and to support the Private Sector Led database development and the creation of a full-functional integrated geographic information system that will include the ASEAN Flood GIS, Forest GIS, Water GIS, Volcanoes GIS, Earthquake GIS, Typhoon GIS, Political conflicts and hostilities GIS.

Come everyone!  You are invited!!!

Click here to Join and Sign Up:  OFLM2010 Sign Up

SEE YA ALL THERE GUYZ!!!

Despite what the detractors say, China has redeemed itself. Beijing was a tremendous, astounding success. The opening that was a panorama of colors, a touch of history and more than a pinch of drama. Thousands of athletes, hundreds of games, a little faux pas here and there, but all in all Beijing’s reclaimed fame! Preparations for the games by China’s athletes was rigorous and had paid off well. The Sinos got most of the gold. China is trying to prove her mettle as a responsible power, or so it seems. It is hoped that in as many other respects, such as giving what is due to its distinct peoples China might also shine some day. I rest my case, Your Honors.

you are within the axis of blaring clatter

you are a child on the way to school

there is so much gunfire

there is so much thundering cannon fire

you can’t pass in the street

you pass by the rice fields

you run by the banana fields

you skirt through the rubber farm

you step on a foot

a hand

a head

a broken down chest heaving, heaving

a myriad of images

food to make you choke

to choke until death

i cry Mindanao

an old man with a pen

emmanuel he says

emmanuel i am

emmanuel succor of Christians

enemy of islam

with a moustache

with a paper for magistrates

says simply: let muslims die

we can’t give them land

we can’t turn back

the hands of time

a lady in waiting in the Kingdom

shouts, why give muslims

land?

papers papers papers

read the papers

study study study

a lady with a penis

says, kill them all

kill them all

kill them all

ping them with a gun

ping them all

the old man with a guilty penis

says

kill them all

kill them

use the hand

of iron

the peppery named man

says

blame the dwarf in pasig!

kill the dwarf

kill the muslims

the son of the warrior

who urinated in his pants

and became commander of

all the praetorians in the Kingdom

many eons ago said

get that pact

take it away!

give it to us and

we shall make gold of it

the commander of the guard

raised his gun

i will therefore do as bidden

i shall kill muslims

my ladies my lords

pay me well

pay me well

for e’ery head I cause to fall

pay me well

and my masters evil

that do not believe in god

will jump for joy in hell!

i cry Mindanao

i cry

i cry

The song written by ezky, is about a child grown-up who realized his or her final goal. It is an inspirational song about hurdling obstacles, seeing things and seasons changed after a long, hard-won battle. It is like the beginning of the new life for tribes in Mindanao who will soon, have their own home, finally… it is also dedicated to the heroes that were martyred for the sake of freedom, for all our sakes, so that we are where we are now. It tells of respecting the deeds of those that sacrificed their lives to allow us to be what we are, today. Click here…