Manila tech start up Pencil Rocket has come out with taxikick.com, a website that allows you to report abusive taxi drivers. The complaints, or “kicks,” are forwarded to the Metro Manila Development Authority and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.

Recent kicks on the site paint a picture of cab drivers who are rude, who short change passengers, give generally bad service, and serve cold pizza.

Indolent Indio is still verifying reports that Ver.2 will also give copies of complaints to the local TBS13 (and similar local gang) in the area so they can actually kick cabs.

 

And since we are on apps, Commission on Elections spokesman James Jimenez has an idea to pitch to developers: The Reality Check App (Recapp), for politicians and pundits who harp on about why X country has this but we don’t.

“They can peer at the innovation or the thing or WHATEVER through their smartphones and voila! up pops information about how much that innovation would cost if it were to be implemented in the Philippines, how much money the organization actually has, and what they’re gonna have to cut spending on if they really want to see that innovation implemented.”

 

Diario Filipinas is our go-to source for news from the front and on the revolution. They live-tweeted the execution of Dr. Jose Rizal and have been keeping us updated on militarization in the countryside.

They are on Twitter, but may not be for long. Their latest exclusive: Polavieja may be preparing for an offensive against the rebels by February. Leaked rebel documents indicate they have been preparing against attacks since December.

 

Also in fighting the powers that be, somebody apparently defaced the Wikipedia page of impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona, changing his title to ‘thief justice’ and implying a special relationship between him and court administrator Midas Marquez.

Militant gays were quick to condemn the gay-bashing, but apparently not the “Thief Justice” tag because although politicians and government officials can be persecuted, they are in no way marginalized.

“We totally deplore this heinous way of using gay slurs for launching political attacks between the opposing sides in the impeachment trial,” declared Goya Candelario, spokesperson of ProGay, in a statement.

This was followed by an urgent appeal from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales to help keep the site running.

 

RELEVANT: The Top 10 grilled liempo (pork belly) in Metro Manila, according to Spot.ph
Like its distant cousin Pep.Ph, the comments section is all kinds of classy.

“Baliwag? Seriously?! haha. mas masarap pa dun sa ‘liempuhan’ beside SPUM”–Spot reader ‘dc’

“Their liempo are too crispy and are major rip-off. Now worthy for its cost. its not even crispy. Darn.”–Spot reader ‘skies’

Truly, if a Filipino can express a contrary opinion without any consequences, he will do it.

 

And since we’re on that, here is former Department of Tourism undersecretary Vicente Romano III* on people hating on the new tourism slogan announced last week:

“You see the new DOT slogan trending and creating a lot of positive buzz. You tell yourself, “this is too good to be true.” So you google “It’s more fun in” and true enough, it’s been used before by Switzerland.

Never mind that Switzerland used it way back in 1951. Or that there was “Truly Tuscany” before Malaysia’s “Truly Asia”, Amazing Australia before Amazing Thailand, and Incredible Italy before Incredible India.

No. We can’t stoop down to their level. Iba ang Pinoy. Kailangan Orig!”

This was, by far, the classiest response to negative feedback to “It’s more fun in the Philippines.” The least classy was probably from one Twitter/real-life celebrity who, when some girl from the US dared say the slogan was “the stupidest thing ever” because it’s not true that it’s more fun in the Philippines, called her out with a “self-hating Filipino, much?”

It turns out the girl had had deep personal reasons for not liking the Philippines. Twitter/real-life celebrity backed off, eventually, after reminding the girl to “think before you click.” Lesson learned! Also, “Internet tough guy, much?”

Comelec’s Jimenez has this to say about that:

“Just because someone disagrees doesn’t make them a downer – a negatron, someone tweeted. Doesn’t make them an enemy either, or a de-stabilizer. Very few people on twitter are actually anti-PHL, but nearly all are opinionated. This is a good thing.”

And finally, here is a strip from web comic/blog Cereal Saturdays that will never get old (unlike the experience of shopping with troll parents):

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*For context: Former Department of Tourism undersecretary Vicente Romano III left government service over the last tourism logo and campaign, which was found to have been very similar to a tourism campaign for Poland. The DOT quietly dropped its “Obejrzyj prezentacje o Polsce” campaign soon after launch.