Author Archives: admin

22 days without a car

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UPDATE: I was able to recover my funds, intact. God is good to me even if I’m being stupid. Kudos to the excellent anti-fraud teams of UBP and EWB who acted swiftly. It’s a harrowing experience.

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Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Today my EastWest Bank accounts were phished and funds and were transferred to a Union Bank account. Around PHP 300,000 or more than USD 5000.

Using my connections at Union Bank, I have reported the bank transactions and the UBP account used to funnel funds so they can freeze it. The syndicate doing this is also using my credentials to hack into my UBP account as I received SMS and emails from legit UBP number and email address about this attempt.

I think the syndicate is a crypto gang, and this is similar to just like what they did to BDO account holders at the beginning of this year. They used a UBP account as a conduit to funnel funds into crypto accounts because this bank has connections to crypto or they’re dipping their hands into crypto so it’s easier to move money from a legit bank to a crypto account and international transfers are easier. UBP has very loose eKYC, like GCash.

I don’t think I can get back the money but I’m trying to trap the syndicate. I am in constant communication now with UBP people and my next stop is NBI. I just have to make sure they have frozen the account before I go to NBI so that the scammer/s cannot withdraw the money.

Someone is still watching over me since my BDO account wasn’t touched as it was under maintenance last night until this morning. ❤️

My HSBC credit card was hacked earlier this year and some purchases in the US were made. These were reversed as I was able to prove that the physical card is with me the same time the transactions in the US were made. I think they gained access into my account when I subscribed to Windows CCleaner app or Malware Bytes. Same thing happened to my Citi credit card; there were attempts to use my card which were unauthorized but with Citi, they were the ones who immediately invalidated the transactions and shut down my credit card number.

It’s hard to do anything online these days. The problem is, everything is going online.

21st day without a car

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Yesterday was a bit shocking that even my former boss messaged me to ask, “What’s happening with the world?!”

Looks like a case of mental health illness issue rearing its ugly head. Again. News from Japan say that the assassin is an unemployed former military (Japan’s equivalent of navy) and he killed Shinzo Abe on the basis that he believed Abe is involved with an organization (which news reports say religious) that this assassin hates.

He told investigators that his mother had become bankrupt after spending her money to support a religious group, according to Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun, which cited police sources. He said his family fell apart because of his mother’s obsession with the group, and he targeted Abe “out of resentment,” Mainichi reported.

Mental health issues are taboo topics in Japan, a country that values conformity so much. Psychiatric therapy is almost unheard of there. That’s why you have a lot of hikikomori there and suicide rates are some of the highest in the world.

It’s just sad.

I brought the girls today to their friend’s house so I owned the rest of the day. And of course I spent it sleeping and cuddling with the cats. Slept probably for three hours.

Kimchi is so cute!

My cats, my children, my relatively comfortable and quiet life make my heart full. I am complete.

I am complete.

As I wrote in my Instagram post today, I fear nothing these days.

Revelation of John 4:5 “From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God”

One of those seven is Michael the Archangel, the guardian of Israel, who is also my guardian angel.

Together with God’s promise in Psalm 91 and this archangel, I am forever protected. ❤️ I have no fear. 🔥

I am loved and protected. I fear no evil. Many times my ass has been saved from sure disaster.

I used to fear expressing my spiritual beliefs because J scorns it. He doesn’t believe in God, I think. Now, I don’t care anymore. I’m very free to do, express, and believe in whatever I want.

My faith was just tested now but the archangel is looking after me.

20th day without a car

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This story from The New York Times struck a chord somewhere, not because I have a similar story, but because the pain indirectly expressed here is universal. Pain just comes in different degrees and forms.

“What is true? The note I wrote on a slip of paper and put in the drawer of my bedside table after we broke it off that final time: ‘Long after you are gone, my stones will hold your warmth.'”

Awww, journalists are really masochists. Why is she doing this to herself?

Nope, don’t try to answer. I already answered my own question.

Some literal positive news today

And I really love how people are responding to this. 😂

St Peter Memorial 😂

These past few weeks were very challenging for Philippine media, with the revocation of Rappler’s registration statement at the SEC, the red tagging of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines and Bulatlat.com (where my first investigative piece about juvenile justice was published). This Marcos administration 2.0 is hell-bent on shutting free media down.

Anything that publishes the truth is being persecuted by this government.

My fellow journalists are now having drinks in Cubao X and as much as I want to join them, I can’t because 1) I don’t have a car; 2) I feel like staying in bed more; and 3) my doctor hasn’t given me the clearance to have alcohol. The last time I was with them, I had to exercise great self-control because beer was free-flowing and Johnnie Walker was table-hopping.

I just sent them a bottle of wine via Grab as a goodwill gesture and in solidarity. We all had tough weeks. Will probably join them next time.

19th day without a car

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My Melody and Kuromi car key covers. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Because I’ve gone crazy and bored out of my skull, I started dressing up my car keys so that no man would ever attempt to drive my car 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. I got these from Shopee.

Seriously though, this solved my problem because one of the original car keys had a broken head so I couldn’t attach a chain on it. Now with these Sanrio covers, I could now put key chains and won’t get lost in my bag.

And in keeping with my penchant nowadays for bling, I bought a new bracelet for my smart watch so it would match my jewelry when I’m in my business attire.

Photos by CallMeCreation.com

Online shopping, you are fueling my insanity. 😂😂😂

One of these days I would purchase that T-Rex costume I had been eyeing on for years.

And start going around UP Diliman and UP Los Baños in this get up:

And create an Instagram account like this one:

I always got a kick out of this costume. I always laugh out loud whenever I see them. I encountered a bunch of them in Takashimaya in Singapore in 2018 😂. I wanted to buy one ever since.

At Takashimaya. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I have a weird sense of humor. I couldn’t stop laughing whenever I watch this:

18th day without a car

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“Mommy, why are you counting the days without a car?” Twin I asked me when she saw me drafting a blog entry the other day.

“It’s like counting days without alcohol, darling. I’m so addicted to having a car at my disposal that I already forgot how to use public transport,” I said.

So it has been 18 days since I went outside my 4-km radius. It’s like a self-imposed quarantine or something.

Meanwhile, I had been struggling with sleep again for a couple of weeks now. My hours are upside down again and this time I’m keeping London hours. I don’t know how long I will be like this but this should be fixed once I get out of my house again. Maybe when I’m in Singapore my hours will be saner.

Speaking of which, I learned that none in my cluster in our company has been coming to our office regularly so I guess I really don’t have to drop by our office and I should just go straight to our conferences. I’ll just work in my hotel if I need to. Even my deputy hasn’t been reporting to our office because there’s no strict back-to-office order for us journos. That’s some kind of relief for me since I don’t want to be hopping from one train station to another just to show my face to people I don’t really need to work with. Those who regularly report to office belong to a different cluster. Well I could try to be friendly but my schedule is just packed and I don’t even have room for that.

One of the realizations I have in my healing process is this:

I now know that I am more than enough.

I am a treasure to somebody else and I no longer want to recall that feeling I had for more than 1.5 years that I am trash, hence, I was treated like trash.

I will never allow myself to be in that position again. It destroys you.

Now that I’m ok, I am able to parse things more clearly. I am thanking God everyday that I chose this route and resisted friends’ suggestions to put myself in the market to heal. That’s not healing; it’s escaping. The problem will still persist and you’re just applying bandage upon bandage on a wound that is undergoing gangrene necrosis. In the end it will kill you. You’ll just realize that you’re already emotionally dead at age 50 and you’ve never had anything meaningful all those years.

And you wonder where has the time gone.

I have now learned to love myself and realized my real value so I don’t need another person’s validation for that. I am beautiful, intelligent, funny, caring, and dignified and I truly believe that, not just lip service to myself. Now that I’ve reached that stage, I think I would have a healthier relationship with the next person since I am not looking to become a whole person through my partner. I am already whole, with or without that partner. I don’t have to bend over and backwards just to accommodate that person and make him love me.

Just be.

And these are lessons I have already imparted to my girls this early.

17th day without a car

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The fuck are you saying?!

This, my friends, is the president of the Philippines, who does not have any idea how inflation works. It hurt my head this afternoon while reading the transcripts of the live reports about his first presscon. As I tweeted:

“Dear BSP Gov Medalla, can you explain to him the difference between actual inflation and the BSP target inflation range? Can you also tell him that inflation is not opinion, it is not rumor.”

Speaking of BSP, the event on Friday is cancelled. I was told by fellow reporters that the Finance Secretary has COVID and yet he attended the turnover of governorship yesterday. So everyone is quarantined and likely infected. Including reporters. Some banker sources I have also have COVID. I called up Hotel Jen and asked for a reschedule of my booking given the circumstances.

And speaking of tweet, I had no outlet for this incident early this morning. I couldn’t scream, I couldn’t do anything but this:

It was Sushi. She was patiently waiting for me to open the door so I can marvel at her offering. It was 2 am and I wanted to go to the bathroom when I saw it. I needed to pee so badly so I just made my way down saying ewwww eeewwwww eeewwwww. Then I quickly headed back to my room and shut my door. I let Ate C deal with it. I was just so befuddled to get rid of a dead baby rat that crossed from the messy neighbors at 2 am.

Kimchi. Useless Kimchi but I still love her to bits. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I asked Ate C if the mouse was intact. She said yes. Did it have any blood? She said no. Then I think Sushi just played with it. Good. I don’t want to think about my clean cats, whom I painstakingly bathe while they give me cuts and bites, eating a rat. *barf*

Because of that lovely present and disturbed sleep, I spent the rest of the day harboring this massive headache.