Filed under: Tabloid
“Sulpicio to pay victims P200-T
“TO MAKE compensation claims easier, owners of the MV Princess of the Stars said it would waive a one-year claim period for families of victims in the ill-fated ship voyage.
“Sulpicio Lines Inc., in a statement, said it would pay legal heirs P200,000 whether or not the bodies of the passengers have been found or identified.
“As long as the name of the passenger is listed in the ship’s manifest, legal heirs can file a claim and submit identification papers to collect the amount.
“Legal heirs include children, parents and spouses.
“‘Sulpicio Lines Inc. has decided to cast aside legal technicalities and waive the waiting period of one year within which missing passengers will be compensated,’ the company announced in an ‘ex-gratia’ statement.
“Ex-gratia is a Latin phrase for “out of goodwill”.
“‘Instead, the legal heirs of all victims listed in the passenger manifest (724 persons) will be paid the amount of P200,000 regardless of whether the bodies have been recovered or are still missing, and regardless of whether the bodies have been identified or not up to this time.’”
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The last time I remember that I was on a bus hitting EDSA beyond the speed limit and constantly changing lanes, or what I termed as the rollercoaster bus, was when my friends and I went home from our CAT class in college. The bus driver decided to hit the road with the highest km/h as he could get because his gas gauge is low. And our more than an hour trip was reduced to roughly a half hour.
Going home after meeting with friends, I hit again on a rollercoaster bus. Enraged with the bus driver, I almost yelled, hey, slow down. I gripped on the hand rail tightly as the driver changed lanes avoiding other buses and cars. Nearing Ayala, he slowed down a bit. As the bus was on a stop in an intersection, two men got in the bus. They were street vendors, one dragged his huge bag of feather dusters towards his seat, which was parallel to my seat, while his confidante was holding roses and strings of sampaguita flowers on his two hands. The feather duster man put down his bag near my seat, which he did haphazardly. A woman then got in the bus and eyed for a vacant seat. The feather duster man yelled, “Dito sa dulo may upuan pa.”
After the woman walked past him and got herself a place to sit, the feather duster man got into a conversation with his confidant.
Here is a part of their conversation, as far as I can remember:
“FDM: Pare, ang suwerte naman ng mga biktima nung lumubog na barko, Sulpicio. Biruin mo may 200k na sila. Sana may kamag-anak akong napasama dun. Kahit sampu lang mayaman na ako.
“C: [Laughter] Putang-ina mo. Ayusin mo nga ‘yang dala mo, nakaharang.
“FDM: Hindi nga, pare. Kung may kamag-anak akong napasama dun malamang milyonaryo na ako ngayon. Sayang at di ko nasama dun yung mga magulang ko, yung nanay ko. Eh ‘di sana maganda na ang buhay ko ngayon. [Shrill laughter]
“C: Teka, pare, isabit ko lang dito sa taas yung sampaguita ko baka masira, di ko pa mabenta. Sayang”
I thought of spending the whole Sunday watching CSI: Las Vegas and downloading torrent mp4 files on the Internet. I went home late Saturday night after going out with my friends at the office, wrapping up our day eating a yummy carrot cake at Tsoko Nut. When I got home, Po said hello to me waggling his tail.
Here is Po giving me my slippers, all right, all right, getting it from me.
Getting angry at the paparazzi
I asked my brother if he had received texts from my friends without telling him that I posted his number on my friends’ Friendster page after my 3200 phone was lost. I could not send a private message, so I ranted on the testimonials and comments section that a good Samaritan deceived me and got away with my phone. Quite embarrassing but I do not know how to contact them, so I did that and at the same time indicated there my brother’s number. I didn’t really ask my brother if someone texted him saying, “Puwede ka ba maging textmate?” 
I went to my mother’s room and yelled my usual “Hey, yo, momma, am home.” She was quite sleepy when she told me that Jandy and Ann phoned me. I didn’t really get their message because my half-asleep mother told me just words and phrases like “Aalis daw kayo,” “Jandy,” “lamay.” I panicked, “What? Who died?” She didn’t explain more and just said that she wrote Ann’s number on a paper, which she put somewhere. And somewhere is quite vague. Would you agree? While searching for a paper that was placed somewhere, the phone rang. It was Ann telling me that we would go out that Sunday, that Jandy’s family thingy was canceled and she was the one who requested for us to watch a film, which is Urduja. And Jandy clarified when we saw each other the following day that she would go to a wake that evening and told my mom that it was best for me to contact her at 11:00 that night or the following day. Okay. It was that that happened.
