Mounting complaints

Complaints are reportedly mounting over the latest Ironman triathlon event hosted by Camarines Sur, ranging from traffic jams, hundreds of neglected local and foreign competitors, and overcharging.  Then there are the insect and rat-infested accommodations.

Provincial board member Charie Pante bemoaned the lack of transparency of Gov. LRay Villafuerte’s  administration  in accounting for the income generated and expenses incurred during the event.

Pante claims that for two years now, she has been asking the provincial treasurer and tourism officer for financial reports on the operations of the CamSur Watersports Complex (CWC) but that her pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

The Commission on Audit in its reports on Camarines Sur from 2007 to 2009 said that receipts had not been issued at CWC, leading to the conclusion that substantial revenues had not been turned over to the treasurer. 

So where has the income generated by CWC and other facilities operated by the provincial government gone?

Back to Ironman. Some competitors complained that they had been enticed by LRay’s minions to join the event for free only to be billed later for the promised free accommodation, only to discover that they will be billeted in converted corrugated metal truck trailers.

Observers say the problem of LRay has to do with false advertising, with some mincing no words in lambasting the governor for his “piles of lies.”

They say that contrary to LRay’s claims, data from the National Nutrition Research Council, which conducted Operation Timbang in 2010, showed that Camarines Sur has the highest incidence of malnutrition among pre-school children in the whole of Bicol region.

 In 2009, as per figures from the  National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), Camarines Sur’s poverty incidence increased by two percent even if poverty incidence in its 4th district, which had been allegedly neglected by the provincial government for political reasons, decreased by 8.6 percent.

Then there’s LRay’s claim of 2.3 million tourists in Camarines Sur in 2011, which travel and tour operators say is unbelievable because the province simply does not have the transport and lodging infrastructure to accommodate that many tourists.

Even Albay Gov. Joey Salceda blasted LRay’s No.1 tourism destination claim for Camarines Sur  by saying that in the first quarter of 2011 alone, Albay has had five foreign tourist arrivals for every one tourist that came to Camarines Sur.

Again, as per NSCB figures, Boracay had only about 700,000 tourists in 2010, but it netted a whopping P14 billion in tourism receipts. Camarines Sur, in contrast, only had less than a billion pesos in tourism receipts for its claimed 2.3 million tourists.

And then there’s the denial made by Reps. Roilo Golez and Anthony Golez on LRay’s claim that a “Congressman Golez” apologized to him and promised to withdraw his vote for the bill creating Nueva Camarines and splitting Camarines Sur into two?                              

It’s about time

The House of Representatives has passed the Lemon Law, and hopefully very soon, consumers will have the necessary protection against unsympathetic merchants who sell costly substandard products leaving consumers without any recourse and ending up with, well, a lemon.

Hidden Agenda has at least a couple of friends who have expressed elation over the impending law.   

One is Eaglecor which purchased and fully paid for a 2010 European luxury car.

After only 18 months and, with an odometer reading of less than 6,000 kilometers, the car stalled in the middle of Ortigas Avenue.

The seller, an official dealer, diagnosed the problem as defective transmission. The dealer replaced the transmission but with just a one-year warranty period. Some experts Eaglecor consulted said the transmissions for this particular model is actually manufactured by an American car company and, get this, they’re disposable types.

Understandably, Eaglecor rejected the one-year warranty offered by the dealer especially after the transmission in their unit just conked out and gave up after a year and a half.

Eaglecor eventually proposed four, quite reasonable options: replacement of the car, total refund, trade-in, or five-year warranty for the transmission.

The dealer rejected all four proposed options and simply extended the warranty to two years.

Another friend told us about his experience this time with his new generation 2007 model Japanese SUV paid for in cash.

A couple of months later he brought the unit back to the dealer to complain about the engine’s idling speed constantly dropping causing a disturbing level of vibration over the entire vehicle each time the aircon’s compressor was activated by its thermostat,

He said the dealer even had the temerity to opine that he may have been using substandard fuel with inadequate octane rating. But when he told them that he uses Petron’s Blaze which just happens to have the highest octane rating in the market, they were all eerily silent.

The dealer took the unit and kept it for 10 days for observation. They eventually claimed that it was likely the vehicle’s engine mounts which they replaced, but the problem remained.

Our friend, also an avid car enthusiast, suggested to the dealer that they look into the vehicle’s engine management system which is nothing more than a computer box that monitors and manages the engines performance. They didn’t. No matter how many times our friend raised the issue, the dealer never even bothered to check it.

Today, after the SUV’s warranty having lapsed and his less than four-year-old unit having no more than 33,000 kms on it, our friend continues to to suffer and worry about the lemon he bought.

The Philippines basically has no concept of consumer law, consumer rights, implied warranties, hidden defects, and so on and so forth. The Lemon Law is a good start, but I bet implementation is going to be tough.

Well, as the saying goes, caveat emptor!

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