No this is not a third sequel to Ben Stiller’s smashing hit the “Night at the Museums” rather this refers to the program initiated by the Cultural Heritage Program of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. in celebration of International museum day and the National heritage month.

Dubbed as “Gabii sa Kabilin” or translated as “Night of heritage” the one night affair aims to immerse local Cebuanos and visitors both foreign and domestic in the rich cultural heritage of Cebu. Participating in the event are 6 museums and heritage sites in the oldest part of Cebu City, Philippines.

For only P 150.00, participants in the Gabii sa Kabilin get free entrance to spend a night at the musuems. Particiapting museums are The Casa Gorordo, Cathedral museum the Sto. Nino Museum and the Museo sa Sugbo and two other heritage sites, the Yap-San Diego Ancestral house and Fort San Pedro. With that you also get a free unlimited tartanilla ride (horse drawn carriage) to and from the museums.

We started this exciting night by going to the Casa Gorordo museum which we consider as our starting point. However traffic was so heavy in that area as the Cebu City traffic management office has closed down some streets in order to accommodate the walking tours for this special event, so we decided to go to the Museo sa Sugbu instead and park there. We than got a tartanilla ride to Casa Gorordo Museum.

When we arrived at the Casa Gorordo museum some of the shows have already started. A “Fiesta” atmosphere filled the place. We tried to get in the Museum itself, but we have to line up as the museum can accommodate only a number of people. While we were waiting in line, we just had fun watching the music and drama being presented in the garden. Featured performers were our very own Cebuana home grown mezzo-soprano singing traditional Visayan and Cebuano songs. A local string orchestra also played some folk songs. Some plays were presented one of those plays being the conversation between Josephine Bracken and the wife of Andres Bonifacio. The most interesting presentation we saw there was the performance of some old folks from the south of Cebu who performed the “Balitaw” or “Balak-awit-sayaw” (A combination of poem-song and dance) a long forgotten original Cebuano literary art form. I remember years ago that somebody told me that my great grandmother was one of the best “mag ba-ba-Balitaw” performers in Cebu. I jokingly told some of my friends that “Balitaw” is the forerunner of the “yo-mama jokes” and rap music.

Finally it came our turn to get inside the museum. We snapped up some pictures of the old place. It was interesting to look inside what a typical old Filipino “middle class” house looks like during the Spanish era. Well the Casa Gorordo museum is basically an old house built during the Spanish period sometime in the 1863. Four generations of the Gorordo family lived in this house. Today the Casa Gorordo Museum is owned and operated by the Ramon Aboitiz foundation.

Inside the museum one can have a glimpse of how a middle class family lived during the Spanish times. Old furniture, books, kitchen utensils and other home stuff filled the place. I can’t just imagine people living without the conveniences of life such as faucets.   It’s like getting off a time machine and traveling back to the 18th century. A copy of Dr. Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere can be found in one of the book shelves.

Going back in time and seeing the old kitchen and dinning table in the Casa Gorordo Museum does certainly fire up our imagination on what tasty treats the middle class Filipinos living in the Spanish era have to enjoy. So when we went out of the museum we were all certainly eager to satisfy our gastronomic cravings so we had our dinner at the garden while watching some of the presentations. Shang-rila hotel was selling packed dinner for less than P 100.00.

Since the next stop was just several meters away, we decided to go by foot to the Yap-San Diego ancestral house. The Yap-San Diego house is situated in a place called “Parian” which in the olden times is widely considered as Cebu’s mini-China Town. Parian intersects with the oldest street in Cebu City, Colon street.

This ancestral home was built in the 17th century and is considered as one of the oldest in the country. The San Diego family which up to this day owns the place is doing their best to preserve it in it’s original form. The San Diego Family is one of the prime movers among a silent group of Cebuanos who are actively promoting the preservation of Cebuano arts and culture. So passionate are the San Diego’s about their cause that members of the family themselves were the ones who welcomed us to their ancestral house and toured visitors around the place. As we toured the house music whose lyrics extol the importance of restoring the old glory of parian was played.

The next museum, the Cathedral museum was also just a few meters away so we just walked all the way there. I just learned that this old place was just recently restored. Most of the relics found in this museum are religious artifacts although there are several cultural pieces like pieces of broken pottery and plates. What interest me most in this museum is the exhibit that revealed four layers of foundation underneath the place which reveals the building’s transition from the Spanish period to the modern times.

Next in line is the nearby Sto. Nino. museum. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside the place. Anyway, we weren’t really interested much in the place considering that all of the exhibits are religious artifacts.

Our second to the last stop is Fort San Pedro. Since it is quite far from the Sto Nino Museum, we waited for our tartanilla ride. After a few minutes of waiting, we decided to just make it by foot despite the distance since there were no Tartanillas that passed by.

After a long exhausting walk we finally made it to the Plaza independencia area where Fort San Pedro was located. Fort San Pedro is the country’s smallest, oldest triangular bastion fort in the country. It was built in 1738 by Miguel López de Legazpi and the Spanish Government in Cebu.

I thought at first that the Fort San Pedro museum would be open. I was saddened that it was close and that only the Fort itself is open. The reason for this is because the museum is under the administration of the National government and probably the organizers of Gabii sa kabiliin did not obtain permission from the National government to have the museum opened.

After catching our breath and imagining what might have crossed the mind of the Spanish soldiers when they were guarding the fort, we caught a Tartanilla ride to our last stop, the Museo sa Sugbo.

The Museo sa Sugbo used to house the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC). The prison was transferred to a more modern facility in another part of the city. The provincial government then decided to convert CPDRC into a museum. At first I thought that probably the reason why they converted the old prison to a museum is that they ran out ideas on what to do with the place. Later on I discovered an entirely different reason.

Unknown to most Cebuanos the former CPDRC was already a prison even during the Spanish period. Hundreds of our revolutionary leaders known as “Katipuneros” was jailed there. Later on the placed was continued to be utilized as a prison during the Japanese and American periods and until the modern times when finally the Cebu provincial government transferred the prison to another place.

The Museo sa Sugbo houses artifacts and exhibits that tells the story of Cebu itself. Since the place itself is as old as history, one can again say that going there is like stepping back in time. The history of Cebu since the pre-spanish era, the Spanish period, the Japanese period and the American period are displayed on exhibits.

In the Pre-spanish exhibits you can find old potteries, plates, tools and other artifacts used by the Cebuanos of old. An old coffin is even exhibited to show how the ancient Cebuanos buried their dead.

Moving to the Spanish period, letters from the Spanish governor general were exhibited as well as some artifacts from this era. I was amazed at the very nice penmanship of the governor general. It seems like the letter was being printed off a computer. In the olden times, people were really taught how to write properly. The Japanese and American era was quite interesting. Several vintage remnants of World War II were placed on display. What interest me most were the documents exhibited. Old copies of Cebu’s oldest newspaper, the Freeman were placed on display with several headlines reporting on the great Leon Kilat whose original name was is Pantaleón Villegas. For most Cebuanos, Leon Kilat is just a street but in history the great Leon Kilat whose name means Leon of the lightning was one of Cebu’s greatest revolutionary leaders during the Spanish era and was widely credited as having led the victory of the now forgotten “Battle of Tres De Abril.” (The name of another street today) The result of this battle is that Leon Kilat drove the Spanish back to Fort San Pedro and took control of the city for 3 days until Spanish reinforcement came.

Other stuff that roused my curiosity was old pictures of places and streets that we cross in Cebu everyday. If only all Cebuanos would know the history behind those places I guess they would appreciate more the privilege and beauty of living in Cebu. Most notable of these places was “Mango avenue.” It wasn’t called Mango avenue for nothing, an old picture revealed that the street used to be filled with mango trees. Today Mango avenue has been renamed “Gen. Maxilom Avenue” in honor of the great general who took over the command of the revolutionary forces in Cebu after the assassination of Leon Kilat.

Our night at the museums was certainly better than Ben Stiller’s experience. It not only brought history to life, it made us realize that to live life to the fullest we must learn the lesson’s that history has to offer.

Last June 2, 2009 I wrote a post entitled “Newbie’s questions to investing in the Philippine stock market” wherein I answered several questions on the investing in the Philippine stock market from a reader of this blog.

After several days, she emailed me back and gave some follow up questions. I enjoy answering questions from my readers as it forces me to write on a topic and to know exactly what my readers want. Here is my response to her email:

Dear Ashley,

Sorry it took me a long time to response as I had been very busy with other matters

I have tried to break down your questions into 5 parts and have done my best to present it just the way it is, unedited. I hope by answering this questions and posting it in my blog, others with similar questions might find the answers that they are looking for. In a way you are helping others who might have similar questions but are to shy or too busy to ask. Anyway, here are my answers to your questions:

1.) “ . . . I just wanted to ask, by “match” do you mean an EXACT match? What if I wanted to buy the stocks for 1 peso and 50 cents per share and someone is selling it for just 1 peso and 25 cents, wouldn’t that also be a “match”? Similarly, what if I wanted to sell my stocks for 1 peso per share and someone wanted to buy it for 1 peso and 10 cents, wouldn’t that also be a “match”?”

Yes, technically it is also a match. You do not need to meet at a certain price. For as long as there are willing buyers and sellers you will get a match. For example the other day, I wanted to buy a certain stock for P 3.00 per share. But the minimum amount that the sellers were selling was at 3.05. Anyway, I entered my buying price. Before the closing bell closed, somebody sold the stock to me for P 3.00 per share. Remember that the stock market is just like your regular market where people sort of “haggle” over the price, although not physically but electronically. The price wherein you buy and sell will be dictated by the law of supply and demand. The hotter the stock, the more people will buy and the more the price will go up. The more sellers there are of a certain stock, prices will go down as more and more people want to get rid of a certain stock. This is what they meant that the investing in the stock market is like a roller coaster ride as there is too much volatility.

2.) “ . . .Can you recommend a good book to read for a newbie like me? . .. ”

I am glad you asked that I have been asked by others as well about this. Although I highly recommend the book Rule #1 by Phil Town which is my very first introductory book to the world of value investing, I recommend that you read first the book entitled “How Buffett does it” by James Pardoe. It’s only 154 pages and is such an easy read. After that you can read Rule #1 by Phil Town. Other books I strongly recommend are The Tao of Warren Buffett, Buffetology and the New Buffetology by Mary Buffett and David Clark. After reading Rule #1, I grabbed all the value investing books that I could get my hands on especially those on Warren Buffett. I have read more than 20 value investing and Warren Buffett books so far. If you live in the United States you can purchase these books via my Guerilla Blogger eStore which is powered by Amazon. Just click on books and enter “Value investing” or “Warren Buffett” in the search box. If you live in the Philippines you can get copies at your nearest Fully Booked or Power Books.

You might want to follow what I am reading, so just drop by from time to time in this blog. In my right side bar I usually display what books I am currently reading and what I have just read.

3.) “. . . Also, in BPI Trade Online, they said that the credit/debit will be posted to your account after 3 transaction days. But I was just thinking, what if the closing price of the stock I wanted to buy today is 0.20 pesos then I decided that I wanted to buy it today. Now, I entered to BPI Trade Online and entered my transaction but it’s already 1pm. Can you give me the possible results for this scenario? I’m afraid that the price of the stock will rise the next day and I will never ever get a match since there’s like a day of delay (I entered my transaction today then the next day the price went to 0.30 pesos). When will my online broker actually post my offer at the market? After 3 days? After a day? . . .”

You can only do actual real time selling and buying of stocks during trading hours that is between 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. The PSE was planning to add 2 hours of trading session in the afternoon, but I heard recently that the implementation of this has been postponed. Anyway, you can post “off hours” orders but you can’t buy and sell during these times as the market is closed. So the possible result of the scenario you are presenting is this, if you posted an off hour order, the next day when the market opens your order will get posted. If your off hour order gets matched then you either successfully executed a buy or sell order. However if you get no match, then you could cancel your off hour order and enter a new one.

Do not confuse entering orders with “credit/debit.” What that means is that if you cash out or transfer money from your trade account to your settlement account (Which is usually the account where you can withdraw via ATM) is that it takes 3 days for this process to take effect. This also refers to the selling of stocks. If you sell a certain stock today, the proceeds will be credited to your trade account after 3 days. The same thing also applies to dividends that you received from companies. After the payment date, it takes 3 days before you get the money gets into your trade account.

4.) “ . . . I read somewhere (not sure where over the vast space of the internet) that the common misconception of newbies in buying/selling stocks is that, if the price of your stock go down, then wait until it goes up I mean, isn’t it the most logical thing to do? You don’t want to lose some possible profit, do you?”

I am not sure what you mean by this, but yes I agree it is the most logical thing to do. Probably you are confused because the author of the article says that it is the “common misconception” of newbies in the stock market. Well most likely the author of that article is a technical investor. Most of those who invest in the stock market especially the Philippine stock market are technical investors. (Probably 80 or more than 90 %) Purely technical investors or Day traders do not care about the fundamentals of a company. All they care about is the price. If the price starts to go up and the charts and their technical analysis say that it will keep on going up then they buy. If the price starts to go down and the charts and their technical analysis say it will go down further they start to sell to “minimize their losses.” This is probably why the author of that article said that “holding” on to a stock is a misconception for newbies because for them dumping a stock to minimize their losses is the most logical thing to do. (Whatever happened to the old time adage of “Buying low and selling high ?” it seems that the technical investors forgot about this hehehehe) Technical and or day traders engage in a lot of buying and selling in the stock market. They could buy a stock today and sell it tomorrow, or buy a stock this minute and sell it after several minutes or hours.

As a value investor I find such activity repugnant. With due respect to the technical investors, frankly it is the most stupid thing to do. It reduces stock market investing to speculation and makes investing in the stock market become a gamble. Even you as an ordinary person who is a newbie to stock market investing finds such statement confusing and deems it “illogical” and that the most logical thing to do is to wait for the stock to go up. Warren Buffett has this to say about stock market forecasting “We’ve long felt that the only value of stock forecasters is to make fortune tellers look good. Even now, Charlie and I continue to believe that short-term market forecasts are poison and should be kept locked up in a safe place, away from children and also from grown-ups who behave in the market like children.” With regards to indiscriminately buying and selling of stocks for the short term, Buffett has this to say “Long ago, Sir Isaac Newton gave us three laws of motion, which were the work of genius. But Sir Isaac’s talents didn’t extend to investing: He lost a bundle in the South Sea Bubble, explaining later, ‘I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men.’ If he had not been traumatized by this loss, Sir Isaac might well have gone on to discover the Fourth Law of Motion: For investors as a whole, returns decrease as motion increases.”

As value investors we do not read the carts. We do not care if the stock price goes up or down. We do not even care what the market’s activity is at all. In fact we act as if the stock market do not exist. This is what Buffett meant when he refers to himself as a “Rip Van Winkle” investor.

Remember that shares of stocks represent real and actual businesses. All we care about is if the fundamentals of the underlying business of the stock we are buying are sound. For the technical investors or day traders a stock is merely pieces of paper or a commodity that they trade around. For the fundamental investors or value investors when we buy stocks we are buying a business. This is what Benjamin Graham, Buffett’s mentor meant when he said “Investing is most intelligent when it is most business like.”

5.) “. . . another newbies misconception is that, if the price of a stock is going up, then don’t buy it yet. Wait for it to go down again, then buy it, then wait for it to go up again, then sell it. Is this really a misconception?”

In value investing we do not care if the price is going up or going down. Besides who in the entire world can predict this except from a few clairvoyant individual like Madam Auring (Or can she predict it ? hehehehe, if she did she’d be richer than the world’s greatest investor, Warren Buffett)

In value investing remember this rule of the thumb “The price you pay determines your rate of return.” Before I buy stocks, I look for “wonderful businesses with a durable competitive advantage.” Then I look at the fundamentals of the business. Once I determine its intrinsic value, I set a price wherein I project that I will get a minimum of 15 % compounded rate of return per annum. Why 15 % for more on this you might want to read my post entitled “Determining the best rate of return”

I buy only at that price because the price I pay determines my rate of return. Even if it is “a wonderful business but the price is too high, it might affect my rate of return. The higher the price, the lower my expected rate of return. So if it exceeds my target price then I wait until the price drops. How do you know when the price will drop ? Frankly you don’t, however there are some conditions that might cause prices to drop you might want to learn more about this. Learn more about when to buy stocks in my two part post entitled “Follow Warren Buffett’s signal on when to buy stocks”

Warren Buffett has this to say about waiting for the right moment on when to buy a stock. He calls this as the “Fat pitch” he wrote “I call investing the greatest business in the world because you never have to swing. You stand at the plate, the pitcher throws you General Motors at 47! U.S. Steel at 39! and nobody calls a strike on you. There’s no penalty except opportunity lost. All day you wait for the pitch you like; then when the fielders are asleep, you step up and hit it.” In contrast Warren Buffett has this to say about most fund managers “The stock market is a no-called-strike game. You don’t have to swing at everything–you can wait for your pitch. The problem when you’re a money manager is that your fans keep yelling, ‘Swing, you bum!’”

I hope you find my answers to your questions satisfactory and I hope that the wit and wisdom of the world’s greatest investor has enlightened your path to investing once again as he has done with mine.

The Guerilla investor

To celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary, my wife and I together with our son and two household helps Londer and Lalay spent 4 days and 3 nights in the beautiful island of Boracay.

It is not our first time to visit this lovely place. This is the third time that my wife has visited here, while it is my second time. For both my household helps and my son, this is their first time. The first time I was here was in 2007. Right after taking my lawyer’s oath, my wife and I went here to celebrate.

My parents have never been to this place so when they heard that we were going, the decided to join us. However since they booked their tickets late, we flew in several hours earlier.

What’s interesting about this visit is that we also tried the latest hotel here which is the Crown Regency  located in Station 3. We used our free coupons (courtesy of Club Ultima) for our stay here.

Crown Regency is putting up several Boracay hotels here. I’ve heard that they are planning to put one in every station plus a huge facility which could probably be Boracay’s largest convention center.

Anyway we had such a great time. For several days we satisfied our gastronomic cravings by trying out different buffet places for dinner. One of the best we tried out is the Sea Breeze café at the Boracay Regency. For desert the best we had was probably the “Fruits and Ice Cream” parlor in station 2 located at the Sands hotel just near where we were staying. Good thing I brought my diet pills, otherwise I would have gained a lot more weight

To go places, we prefer to walk along the beach. The farthest we went was walking all the way to station 1 which is a distance of almost 4 kilometers.

We enjoyed basking in the white sands and swimming in the crystal clear waters. We also went snorkeling and boating and was informed that Manny Pacquiao had a resort near Station 1. The row of white houses you can see in the pictures is Pacquiao’s mansion here.

All good things must come to an end so we flew back to Cebu on Sunday morning. That was the time when Manny Pacquiao had a fight with Ricky Hatton. The pilot jubilantly announced that Pacquiao had beaten Hatton in the 2nd round eliciting applauses from the passengers.

And what souvenir items did I bring back from Paradise Island? Well I bought a shirt, a picture frame, some magnets for the fridge and some Crocs (as shown in the picture) which Crown Regency was selling for just half the price ! I also bought some keychain and t-shirts for my friends. Prices for such item are very reasonable. T-shirts sell for only P 150 buy one take one while the keychain and the fridge magnets sell for only P 100 for 7 pieces. Of course the best souvenir I got were the good memories that I have of this little piece of paradise on earth.

I’ve been ranting about stock market investments since the inception of this blog. I know there are a lot of you who are very interested on how to invest in the Philippine stock market. Many of you are in fact wishing that investing in the stock market was made part in our high school or college curriculum. (Although there are moves now by the Philippine stock exchange to include the subject matter as part of high school curriculum.

Investing in the stock market does not only seem fun exciting and sophisticated, it also gives you real return on your money that is IF YOU KNOW EXACLTY WHAT YOU ARE DOING. You might want to read my post on the advantages of investing in the Philippine stock market. Stories of fortunes and failures abound in the stock market. To prove my point that you can make money in the stock market you might want to read my post “Applying value investing in the Philippine stock market”

Anyway if you want both an introductory and comprehensive course on how to invest in the Philippine stock market check these seminars out.

PSE-GCIC Stock Market investing Seminar
When: June 15 to 17 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Where: Global City Innovative College, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig Metro Manila
Cost: P 5,000.00
Click here for more details on the PSE-GCIC Stock Market investing Seminar

AET-PSE Practical Trading Seminars
When: Almost every month for the year 2009 for all modules
Where: Philippine Stock exchange training room at the PSE Centre exchange Road in Ortigas
Cost: P 5,000 for modules 1 to 3 (Covers Introduction and technical analysis) and Module 4 cost P 3,000 (Covers fundamental analysis)

Click here for more details on the AET-PSE Stock Market investing Seminar

Both seminars are equally good, has good speakers and is definitely worth your money. Personally I however prefer the AET-PSE seminar because you get an actual tour of the Philippine stock exchange gallery. Their seminar for modules 1 to 3 is also just for one day, so this is an added advantage for those who do not live in Metro Manila. The PSE-GCIC seminar is however much cheaper and includes a bonus seminar on equity portfolio management.(The portfolio management seminar will probably espouse the modern portfolio theory which for me is not very advisable. For more on this check out my post entitled “What is the best portfolio diversification strategy”)

Although the topics are almost similar, if you want you can attend both seminars in order to get the best of both and to let the information sink in deeper.

For those who can’t attend the above seminars due to budget and distance constraints you might want to attend the free seminar this month of June 2009 offered by the PSE in the upcoming Cebu-Leyte PSE road show. For more details check out my post entitled “Philippine stock exchange in Cebu!”

A word of caution though, I’ve always emphasized value investing and most of those who lecture on stock market investments most likely will always emphasize technical analysis although the seminars above includes a part on Fundamental analysis. For me, technical analysis is just good to know but has little benefit to value investors. At least you get an idea on what it is, but always remember I believe that value investing is the best strategy in investing in the Philippine stock market or any stock market for that matter. I look forward to the day when value investing seminars will be offered to the public ! Since nobody is offering this now, I suggest you read books about the subject. Click here to get Value investing books or Warren Buffett books at my Guerilla blogger eStore.

From time to time I write all original posts on value investing and on Warren Buffett.  If you want to learn more about value investing you might want to subscribe to this blog for free. Enter your email address below to subscribe via email.

Before I start to argue on why I am saying yes to Con-Ass and Cha-cha let us have some definition of terms first so that other people will understand what we are talking about.

Con-ass is short for Constituent Assembly. Cha-Cha on the other hand stands for charter change.

Aside from the Katrina Halili, Ruffa Mae Quinto, Vicki Belo, Maricar Reyes, Hayden Kho video scandal, one burning issue that consistently hounds the Arroyo administration is the issue of Charter Change. Charter change refers to amendments or revisions to the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

There are three ways of amending the 1987 Philippine constitution and it is outlined in the Constitution itself more specifically in Article XVII Sections 1 and 2. Those three are as follows:

1.) By way of a Constitutional Assembly (Con-Ass) (Congress, upon a vote of three-fourths of all its Members)
2.) By a Constitutional convention (Con-Con)
3.) People’s Initiative

With all the negative sentiments raised all over the blogsphere, you might ask why I am saying yes to Con-Ass and Cha-Cha.

Well first of all with regards to Cha-Cha, I always believe that implementing changes is good, especially if the change is for the better and that it is attuned with the times. Even the United States Constitution had 27 amendments ever since it was promulgated in 1787 the latest amendment being done on May of 1992. One important amendment I believe should be included in the Constitution is to reduce the number of law makers as there are too many of them and maintaining them is expensive. Another amendment that I propose is the provision against political dynasties. There are other amendments I would like to propose however that will be made subject of another post.

I am also saying yes to Con-Ass because among the three, Con-Ass is the quickest and most cost effective way of amending or revising the Constitution. Calling a Constitutional Convention would be costly and time consuming. Besides, believe it or not we still have some intelligent people in Congress who have the brains to come up with useful amendments to the Constitution. A people’s initiative would be out of the question besides it being impractical and costly as until now no implementing law has been passed by Congress for the exercise of such right.

These are my two cents on why I am saying yes to both Con-Ass and Cha-Cha. Sadly the public is misled as to the real meaning of Con-Ass and Cha-Cha. Con-Ass and Cha-Cha are often equated to the term extension of President Arroyo. May the public know that Con-Ass and Cha-Cha are not solely for the term extensions of President Arroyo. A Cha-Cha is good if changes are for the better and I believe the best way to implement it is through a Con-Ass.

However I am saying yes to Cha-Cha only after the 2010 elections and I believe Congress should also do the same. Having a Cha-Cha right now would lead to political unrest because of the misunderstanding that the president is trying to get an extension of her term.  Because of that I am saying no to the Con-Ass that Congress is trying to implement now.  If our incumbent lawmakers will really insist on charter change right now, I’d be better off packing my bags and contacting some moving companies Los Angeles. I hope you in Congress will consider what the people are saying and let your Con-Ass move to the beat of the Cha-Cha after the elections.

I should have blogged about this topic weeks ago, but decided to put it off until now. I really felt the pressing need of the work of Bible Translation when Pastor Lloyd Estrada, director of “Sa Bawat Wika” gave his presentation and sermon on the importance of Bible translation in mission work.

“Sa Bawat Wika” is a Filipino phrase which means “In Every Language.” The movement is under the umbrella of the Wycliffe Bible Translators. A search in wikipedia reveals that the group was founded in 1942 by William Cameron Townsend. The ministry is named after the “Morning Star of the reformation,” John Wycliffe, who was the first person to translate the whole Bible into middle English. As of today, Wycliffe Bible Translators works in over 50 countries.

The “Sa Bawat Wika” project aims to put a Bible translation in every language without a Bible translation by the year 2025.

According Wycliffe Bible Translators there are 6,909 languages spoken in the world. According to Pastor Lloyd, translation cost is estimated at more than 1,200 per verse on the average. I checked out the internet on how many verses are there in the Bible and there is an estimated 31,103 verses. Multiply that by the cost of translation that is P 1,200 per verse that is an estimated P 37 Million per translation! Multiply that by the number of languages with probable need of Bible translation which is 2,393 and the entire project would need an estimated P 89 Billion Philippine pesos! (Convert it to 47 pesos to a dollar that is about $1.9 Billion U.S dollars) Now I don’t know if my estimates are correct as I am only the one doing the computations, but it sure will take a lot of information drive to raise that kind of money.

However if you think about it, if only every evangelical Christian will participate in this effort the task would not seem so gigantic. The World Evangelical Alliance which is the largest evangelical Christian group boasts of about 420 million members. Let us just say that this is the number of evangelical Christians, if you divide 1.9 Billion by 420 million that would only be $ 5.00 U.S dollar per person ! Gee this is certainly cheaper than low cost life insurance. The problem with this is that most of evangelical Christians have not been made aware of this drive or if they do, they simply don’t care to give.

Aside from the daunting task of raising such huge amount, each translation takes work takes time to complete. A research in Wikipedia reveals that each translation work depends on the portion of the Bible being translated and that on the average, translation work done by the Wycliffe Bible Translators could take as long as 20+ years.

Pastor Lloyd Estrada preached from the book of Revalations 7:9 wherein the Apostle John writes “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.” (NIV) He draws encouragement from the prophecy of this verse that there will be believers from every nation, tribe, people and language.

Further, Pastor Lloyd explained how important Bible translation is and how it has laid the ground work for mission work to flourish. He showed data that in certain tribes in the Philippines, before portions of Scriptures were available to the tribal people there were only a handful or even no churches at all in such and such a tribe. Now that the Bible or certain portion of Scriptures were available in their local language a lot of churches has sprang up among them.

So how can you help in the “Sa Bawat Wika” project ? Their website outlines three things that each evangelical Christian can do to help. You can either Pray, Give or Go or do all three. I would like to add another one and that “Blog” or help spread the word. You can help promote the project by telling other believers about it. For more information on the Sa Bawat Wika project visit their website at www.sbw2025.org.

As of now, you can’t see much in the Sa Bawat Wika website. I strongly suggest that the website administrators of Sa Bawat Wika, improve their website by making it more interactive and informative. Useful statistics such as featuring a language group and the progress of Bible translation within the group would be helpful. Other helpful information I suggest would be the project’s target financial goal and the status of the fund raising project. A graph on such would be very informative and helpful. A link to paypal or donation via credit card facility would also be able to help. It would also be helpful that the project become a member of the ECFA (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability) to ensure transparency and promote accountability. These are just my two cents to make that I would like to suggest to the project director in order that the objectives of this project might be attained.

Well, the task might look gigantic, arduous and very daunting indeed. It certainly is a challenge. But I am certain that the Wycliffe Bible Translators are drawing inspiration from the statement of the father of modern missionary work, William Carey when he said “Attempt great things from God, expect great things from God.” I also want to leave you with this encouraging verse “For with God, nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37)

Stock market enthusiast, investors, entrepreneurs, professionals, those in the academe, anybody interested in investing in the Philippine stock market and Warren Buffett wannabes, brace yourselves, the Philippine stock exchange will be in Cebu soon !

No, the PSE is not building a stock exhange in Cebu, rather they will be having a “Road show” on June 22, 2009 at the WaterFront hotel. There will also be a similar activity at Leyte, to be held at Tacloban City’s Leyte Park Hotel on June 24, 2009. Both activities will start at 1 p.m. and end at 5 p.m.

This road show is part of the PSE’s investors education program. As I have mentioned in the post entitled “Newbie’s questions to investing in the Philippine stock market” only less than 1 % of the Philippine population is involved in investing Philippine stock market making our stock market one of the smallest in the world. The road show also aims to promote the stock market as an effective avenue for businesses to raise capital. There will be seminars on investing in the stock market, exhibits, investment consultation and sessions with stock market practitioners.

The schedule for the afternoon even will be as follows:

1:00 – 1:30 p.m. – Registration
1:30 – 1:45 p.m. – PSE Audio Visual Presentatio ((The stock market: Where your Money works for you) / Opening Remarks
1:45 – 2:30 p.m – Equities 101: The basics of Stock Trading
2:30 – 3:00 p.m – Online stock trading and mutual funds investing
3:00 – 3:30 p.m. – A primer on Technical analysis
3:30 – 3:45 p.m. – Refreshments (Best part of the program ! better bring your best weight loss pills hehehe )
3:45 – 4:30 p.m. – Listing in the Philippine stock exchange
4:30 – 5:15 p.m – Open Forum

It seems like the registration is free. So if you want a crash course on an introduction to investing in the Philippine stock market see you there! Just sleep during the technical analysis session as we value investors don’t need it hehehehe, no offense to the technical analysis people hehehehe just kidding

The Philippine stock is the first and the longest operating stock market (since 1927) in Southeast Asia. Despite its being the first and being the longest operating stock exchange sadly it is one of the smallest in terms of trading volume, known as having the shortest trading hours of any stock exchange in Asia and is among the stock exchange having the least involvement among its citizens.

It is said that more foreigners are actively investing in the Philippine stock market than the Filipinos themselves. A pathetic less than 1 % of the entire Philippine population is investing in the Philippine stock market. As one newspaper comments, the growth of the Philippine stock market reflects the poor economic growth of the country.

Nevertheless despite its slow or even near stagnant growth, opportunities abound in the Philippine stock market. Just like any stock market, investing in the Philippine stock market can be quite profitable. Because of its current situation, the Philippine stock market has more room and opportunities for growth considering also the fact that the eyes of the world are now focused on Asia. It is my humble opinion that a tsunami of economic growth will soon inundate Southeast Asia in particular and that the Philippine stock market will hopefully ride at the top of the wave. That is why I consider it a blessing and an opportunity to be investing in the Philippine stock market.

One of our readers who is new to investing in the Philippine stock market has asked several questions with regards to the matter. I hope to help educate the public with regards to investing in the Philippine stock market so I am sharing to all of you her questions.

Dear Ashley,

Thanks for your queries with regards to investing in the Philippine stock market. I am always willing to answer questions. Normally I answer questions comprehensively via blog post for various reasons which I already have mentioned in my other posts. However take note that I have blogged about your questions so my answers below will refer you to some past posts I have written on the matter. Judging by your latest comment in my blog it seems that you have already read some of the posts in my blog regarding investing in the Philippine stock market. However, just to be sure, I will still try to answer the questions you sent via email and via a comment.

I have been wanting to write a free ebook on the subject, but I am still collecting ideas on how to go about it, how to make it more user friendly for newbies to investing in the Philippines stock market and what will be its general format and outline. In a sense the posts that I write and will be writing regarding investing in the Philippine stock market will form part of a future ebook on the subject. So keep your questions coming as it will give me an idea on what newbies in the stock market are looking for. Add to this is the fact that it forces me to write about the subject.

I’ve tried to collate your questions. Here are my answers to your questions regarding investing in the Philippine stock market and online trading in particular.

1.) Have you tried online trading like the one offered by BPI and other banks? I’ve been thinking on participating in buying/selling stocks BUT, i don’t even know how to buy/sell stocks!

- Yes I have, I’ve been doing online stock market trading for almost 5 years now. I mainly use BPI but I am not saying it is the one that you should use. You should try out other online stock trading services and decided for yourself which you should use. I highly recommend both BPI Trade and Citseconline. They each have their Pros and cons and I have written about this in the blog post entitled “How to invest in the Philippine Stock Market – Part 3” subtitled:  Starting to trade online.

2.) Is it true that online trading system offered by banks will enable you to buy/sell stocks real time?

Technically yes. It is not only banks that are doing this but stock licensed stock brokers who offer online trading. In online trading, you can buy and sell stocks in real time. The Philippine stock market opens at about 9: 30 a.m. Closing bell is at 12:30 p.m. A two hour afternoon trading session is planned to be added starting June 30, 2009. You can also enter “off hours” order even after trading hours.

3.) Does that mean that in a span of one day, I will be able to buy/sell my stocks as many times as I want? Is that possible?

Yes you can buy and sell stocks as many times as you want. However compared to other stock markets wherein there are lots of trading activities and the stock price wildly fluctuates in a matter of minutes the Philippine stock market is quite small, so it really makes no sense to buy a stock and sell it within the same day. (Although some day traders do this sometimes)

Those who dubbed themselves as “daytraders” can’t even do day trading in the strictest sense of the word. They are more of “week traders” “days trader”   (Day trading is defined in wikipedia “ the practice of buying and selling financial instruments within the same trading day such that all positions are usually closed before the market close of the trading day.”) I would say that day trading in the Philippine stock market would be non-existent unless the market volume increases and the trading hours are extended. There is a new development that the Philippine stock exchange is planning to link with several other Southeast Asian Stock exchanges within the next 3 to 5 years. This is good news for all stock market enthusiast especially the day traders.

4.) I looked at the demo of BPI online trading. Before you can actually BUY/SELL stocks, you must enter the Volume and the Price (is this price per unit?). I’m not sure what price to enter, do I enter the previous close price when buying or selling?

You may enter any price for as long as it is within the price limits. The price referred to there is “price per share.”

Remember that the Philippine stock market is a “market.” In a market the price, buying and selling depends on the law of supply and demand. In a sense when you enter a price for a certain stock you are offering to buy such stock for a certain price. Your online broker will then post your offer at the market and inform everybody that you are willing to buy a certain stock at a certain price. If nobody is interested in your offer than you can’t buy the stock you are trying to buy. If somebody would like to sell the stock you want to buy at the price you have proposed then you have a “match.” The same thing goes on for the selling process. So literally there are hundreds if not thousands of buying and selling activities going on every minute or hour during the trading hours at the Philippine stock exchange.

5.)” . . .. just emailed you a while ago and have been reading your posts for 2 hours now…I really wanted to do online trading (BPI) but it seems I really have a LOT of stuff to learn”

Although this is not a question you have asked, I would like to comment on what you said. I am glad that you have found interest in investing in the Philippine stock market.

I’ve always been an advocate in investing in the Philippine stock market. I even have disagreement with my family especially my mother and my brother. My mother firmly believes in investing in real estate, while my brother firmly believes in investing in start up businesses. While I do not dispute the fact that these ventures could also reap handsome profits, for me nothing beats investing in the Philippine stock market (I would always argue that Warren Buffett is more rich than Donald Trump:-) ) However before investing in the Philippine stock market, YOU MUST KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE DOING. To do this you must do a lot of research and study. By the way I suggest you read my post first on the advantages of investing in the Philippine stock market in the post entitled “How to invest in the Philippine stock market – Part 2.”

Although I blog about a variety of topics, investing in the Philippine stock market is one of the main topics of this blog and they are all contained in the category entitled “Financial management and investments.” You might want to click on this and check out more post about investing in the Philippine stock market. Yes indeed, investing in the Philippine stock market requires a lot of hard work and lots of study. I would advice you not to give up and continue reading and researching about the subject matter. After a year or so you will somehow gain a mastery on investing in the Philippine stock market.

From time to time drop by this blog and you will find some gems of wisdom with regards to investing in the Philippine stock market. Should you have further questions please don’t hesitate to drop me a comment. I’ll be more than glad to answer your questions.

Sincerely,

The Guerilla investor

Headlines now for the past few days are filled with the Katrina Halili Hayden Kho video scandal. Other big celebrity names such as Ruffa Mae Quinto, Models and celebrity doctors Vicki Belo and Maricar Reyes has been drag into the mess. It is reported that Dr. Hayden Kho has reported his encounters with more than 40 high profile women.

Gee, this Hayden Kho is certainly something I hope he doesn’t develop mesothelioma as payback for all the bad things he did to these women.

The scandal has rocked the entire Philippine nation. The circumstances surrounding it has become the subject of jokes and chit chats among ordinary Filipinos.

Interestingly enough the word scandal comes from the greek word meaning “Trap.” Hayden Kho has literally set a “trap” to clandestinely video tape his intimate moments with high profile women. Ironically, he has been caught in his own trap as well.

When news of this broke out, I wanted to blog about it but I sort of put it off because I thought the interest of the public regarding this matter would wane. Well for several days now it has still been in the major headlines so I guess this keyword is no different from the pinay scandal keyword which until now has been bringing this blog a substantial amount of traffic.

I am one with the public in condemning Dr. Hayden Kho. He deserves to be punished for what he did. However what is more scandalous to me is the fact that this problem about voyeurism has been with us for a long time. We already had the Betamax scandals as early as the 80s. How is it that until now there are still no harsh laws against this? What on earth are our law makers doing? Secondly, it is only now when this scandal broke out that the government has been intensifying its crack down on the sale of pornographic DVDs being sold in the streets. Why does it have to take for this to happen before actions like this are being taken? I do hope that once interest in this issue will subside that the government will continue its crack down on the sale of pornographic DVDs in the streets.

Anyway, if you are looking for any of the following video scandals those of Katrina Halili, Ruffa Mae Quinto, Vicki Belo, Maricar Reyes, Hayden Kho video scandal, I am sorry but I do not havethem here and I do not intend to promote it.

I was browsing the Philippine stock exchange website today and found out that there will be another stock trading tournament that will be conducted starting on June 1, 2009 and ending on February 26, 2010.

Being an avid fan of the Philippine stock market, I’ve always wanted to join stock exchange games. However I did not get to join before because it’s either I learned about a game when it has already started or that the available tournaments are not open to the public.

This time, I have learned about this a week earlier so I wasted no time in entering my registration. This stock grading game is dubbed as the “PSE Manila times equity challenge (Open edition)”

Basically the objective in this game as in any Philippine stock exchange stock trading game is to get the highest portfolio value at the end of the game. At the beginning of the game you are given a million pesos “Virtual money.” You are make that money grow. Kind of like the Bible story of the “Parable of the talents” the only difference being, you don’t get to play with real money.

In my own opinion, stock trading games do not work well for the value investor. The gains in value investing takes 5 to 10 years before it can be realized. This game is more or less geared towards technical investing.

However even if I am more of a value investor I still decided to join because I wanted to find out the possibility of me having an “instant” million pesos and how could I be able to grow such portfolio within 8 months time. I also wanted to satisfy my “been there, done that” mentality.

The objective of this game as is the objective of all Philippine stock exchange stock trading game is to educate the public of the Philippine stock market. It will help give those who join the game a “feel” on what trading in the Philippine stock market is like. It is reported only about one half of one percent of the entire Philippine population is actively involved in the Philippine stock market. The guidelines says that there are prizes to be won, but there are no exact details as to what these prizes are.

So what are you waiting for? Register now! Join me in this exciting Philippine stock exchange stock trading game! If you want more details on the PSE Manila Times equity challenge click here.