Population expands to fill up available real estate area. It does so whether it is environmentally safe or not. This age old centralization of jobs and the attitude that living in the city is the key to getting more money whether from a job or from engaging in commerce is what feeds the city.

It is also what consumes it.

I’ve started on oatmeal again. And moving. Yes, moving. That was something I stopped doing in mid-2006, when I got transfered back into Web Services. When I was in Tech I would go out on client calls at least 3, maybe 5 times in a week, and that took care of my aerobic exercise, not just the walking but all the talking I did with the clients.

This long holiday has not been good to me. Heck, this long holiday I had not been good to me. I think my rice intake tripled during that period. So did the flab around my waistline. Or what used to be my waistline.

Gotta getit out. Wish me luck.

What we found last weekend was definitely the opposite of this image. What we looked at were closets with double decker beds stuffed into them, with monthly rates as high as P3,500. But my niece Wanda, who lives and works in Baguio, said this was to be expected within city limits. We could probably find more accommodating accommodations in areas a jeepney ride away from the city. In fact she said she herself had to make to with a bed stuck in a room no larger than two meters in length, in the first few months of her stay in the city.

Needless to say we have not yet decided on where Maui should be billeted for the first semester, but we do have a fallback place in New Lucban in case the offerings at Engineers Hill prove to be too unappealing. We have a couple more months time to do this.

The photo you see above are Maia’s stuff since I don’t know when. OK, since we moved back to Manila, which is almost 4 years ago. The thing is I have not been able to throw anything out, not even the broken ones, because she will not allow it. There’s stuff in there that were gifts from previous birthdays and Christmases, Happy Meal toys from McDonalds, even some of her Kuya Maui’s hand me downs. I wouldn’t be surprised if I found toy Ferrari parts while digging into that hill.

I would like to really get rid of some of them, if only to clear out a little space in the room. But I am met with such enormous resistance from Maia I really don’t know if I can make any progress in this direction. All you mom’s out there who have faced the same problem, please … I need your advice!

OK call me stupid for attempting to withdraw my money on a BDO ATM with a non-BDO card/account. But if you shop at SM Sucat there is hardly any other choice. Partly I blame Unionbank for not having enough ATM machines around the city to be convenient for its depositors, but that’s beside the point. It’s not my card either, because I have managed to withdraw my money at OTHER non-Unionbank ATM machines with no issues at all.

Has BDO marked my Unionbank EON Payroll card as undesirable? Have they singled out this card as their one prey to victimize? This is also strange because I have transacted with BDO ATMs successfully several times before with no issues at all, prior to the previous incident of debit without dispense that happened late last month.

And as that has been resolved I had put it down to a technical glitch at that particular ATM machine. But now it seems that another BDO ATM machine has got it in for me. Or maybe the entire BDO ATM system!

Now I know why I should make a balance inquiry prior to a withdrawal, it’s not because I need to find out how much I have in my account, but to make sure that the stupid BDO ATM machine can communicate with my bank. But that means giving BDO 2 pesos and I didn’t want to do that after last month’s fiasco. So I attempted a withdrawal. After a long wait the BDO ATM Screen said “Unable to get a response from your bank” and spit out my card, with no receipt. So I attempted a balance inquiry, which got the same response on the screen, and still no receipt.

Thinking that no transaction had taken place at all I went on with my life with the cash I had left. This was yesterday afternoon. Today I looked at my account online and realized that the P900 I attempted to withdraw was indeed debited, again with the P12 transaction charge.

I reported the matter to Unionbank as soon as I realized it. They filed my complaint, gave me my reference number and said they would pass it on to their ATM Center who will deal with BDO’s ATM Center.

I then called BDO’s Customer Care who—just like the first time this happened to me—said that there is no record of my transaction.

This is something that I cannot comprehend with both instances that the debit without dispense happened to me at a BDO ATM machine.

Why is there no record of the transaction, but THERE IS A TRANSACTION FEE DEDUCTED? Is this a system flaw in BDO’s ATM machine software?

If the BDO ATM Machine was “unable to get a response” from my bank, why was my account deducted the amount and charged the transaction fee?

In my opinion this is a SERIOUS SYSTEM FLAW in the BDO ATM machines that I have transacted on, two different machines in the same SM Sucat Bldg B.

I’m sure I will not see my P900 back before the new year, as the last banking day of 2008 is on the 24th of December. But since I got my money the first time this happened, I am a little confident that I will get it back this time as well.

But things like this should not be happening, and if BDO insists that only their ATM Machines are on SM Malls premises then they must make sure that people will want to use their machines. While BDO have made their ATM machines and branches as ubiquitous as the common housefly, incidents such as these raise the question of BDO’s honesty and sincerity in serving the people who use their services for a fee.

I had received in one of my e-groups a message from a former BDO depositor. Former, because at a time when he thought he had enough money in his account for the minimum maintaining balance. However, he relates that during that time BDO raised its average maintaining balance, which made his account fall below the required balance. He got no notices from BDO regarding this. When the time came that he wanted to make a deposit he discovered that his account had been closed. BDO had been deducting the fine from his account without his knowing it, to a point that the account was closed.

Debit without dispense. Accounts closed without the depositor being notified. If that doesn’t raise one’s apprehensions about being a BDO depositor, then BDO can do what it bloody well wants and no one, depositor or otherwise, can do anything about it.