I have been asked, I think, a couple of times in two informal conversations with my classmates/friends this interesting question: "Who do you think among our classmates would succeed MOST in their own careers?"  I really thought hard about my picks and I came up with only three classmates/friends.  Two girls and a boy.  My picks on the girl's side are Lesley and Mai.  Of course, the rest would succeed in their own but I fearlessly predict that they would succeed the MOST.  My reason why I picked Mai is surprisingly not shallow.  To me, she's got the prettiest face in the class and that would definitely launch a thousand ships.  Her face alone can toss your troubles away.  But I advised her to avoid making faces 'cause she might annoy someone hehe.  But she said it's just naturally oblivious of her to do that.  Nevertheless, her pretty face is an asset and in business, an asset will generate revenue.  Her personality, in addition, is fine as well and this is the most important thing.  But let me ask you this: Would it be 'something' that anyone could be astonished by your gleaming vibes even before you speak?  Mai's pretty face sure answers that hehe.  The reason, on the other hand, why I picked another girl classmate Lesley is that she is really a gift of our section.  I don't have an accurate idea how hard it feels for her to sacrifice a lot of sleeping hours just to type those 'review materials' away for our section.  But most likely, it's hard.  And just because of that, I've adored this girl much   On the boy's side, my only pick is Allen.  He's also good-looking but in the corporate world, a handsome face is more of a plus than a requirement (ok, I'm not being defensive here just because I don't possess a handsome face haha).  So the reason why I picked my pal Allen is not essentially the same reason as what I have for Mai.  Allen, for one thing, is our very responsible class treasurer.  And due to my awful experience when I once became the class treasurer in first year college, I could already assert the fact that the treasurer's job can even be harder than the president's.  I can lay out a thousand reasons for this but that's not what this entry is all about hehe.  My boy Allen, for another,  is a great speaker.  He can deliver a speech with overflowing conviction.  And the most important asset that I've discovered IN him is that he's a sensible talker and I can talk with him ON END about current events like the Clinton-Obama US presidential race.  He even surprised me when he told me that Al Gore, former US vice-president, wrote a book about environmental conservation.  In other words, Allen cares about the environment haha.  Boy, was I amazed by this goofball hehe.

Mai's pretty face, Lesley's patience, and Allen's hard work are assets and say this with me: "An asset will generate revenue."  Hehehe.  But there is one item in the asset section that can generate a bigger bottomline than any other.  It's the investment in Education.  I would not fill this entry with words like, "Education is very important 'cause my Papa says so."  'Cause we've already known that it is indeed very important.  What I'll share about is one's perspective on it.  Of course, I'll share my take on it as well since this is my blog hehe.  And this is where it gets a little boring haha. 

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It has been 22 long years since a known dictator stepped down from his tyrannical stance.  Thanks to the first people power!  It was actually the unending issue of corruption that triggered the Filipino people's uprising and ultimately brought the dictator's government down.  Despite my generally indifferent view towards money-politics, I must admit that even after 22 long years, nothing has really changed.  It seems that we still haven't learned from a murky past experience.  Yes, I'm unresponsive when it comes to politics but I know rather enough.  In fact, I know more than enough about how dirty politics can be.  For one thing, I've been a voracious reader of books related to politics such as Plato's the Republic.  And do you know what my biggest secret is?  Ok, I'll tell it now hehe.  I'm a fan of Karl Marx!  Also, I once read the book Pork and Other Perks which details how covetous congressmen spend their pork barrel fund.  Perhaps, the culminating activity of my interest towards politics is when I interviewed former congressman Eduardo Nachura (He was also the former Solicitor-General and now an associate justice of the Supreme Court) for a certain school project when I was in first year college.  We broadly talked about the shift of the country's form of government from a republic to parliamentary or even federalism (if my memory serves me right).  The thing which I'm actually trying to drive at is that I'm fairly knowledgeable about politics and I know how a proper procurement process should run (at least I've had an idea about the basic process of this) despite the fact that I don't flaunt my precious stand on the streets holding a picket placard.  

I assume that you have already known how bidding works, haven't you?  There's also a bidding behind the acquisition of a public works contract, to be specific.  If you are the seller of a certain product or service in a bidding process just for instance, you'd definitely like to sell your product/service to the buyer who offers the highest price, just like in the movies.  But in a procurement process for a public works contract, try to put yourself on the shoes of the buyer.  And as a buyer of a product/service, you must award the contract to the seller who offers the LOWEST price.  That is actually fundamental economics but what I'll blog about here is the typical corrupt practice that could spring from this procurement process wherein the government is the buyer of a certain project.  Read on.

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