You stayed up late partying with friends in Olongapo City. It’s closing time—to use the local bar lingo–and you suddenly felt your stomach rumbling. Where do you go? McDo and Jollibee don’t seem like great places after a late-night after-binge grub. If you’re like most Olongapeños, then you’d probably end up at Rico’s.

By Percy Roxas

Rico’s has been a perennial favorite of ‘Gapo late-nighters for as long as we can remember. It’s location on the corner of 4th and Corpuz streets — which is very accessible from the city’s main nightlife hubs — and its 24-hour operation, is a boon to many bar hoppers hungry for a quick, delicious meal after a drinking binge.

It was so popular that way, in fact, that Rico’s opened an extension branch in Baretto, another leading entertainment area in Olongapo. And a third one, we heard, is already underway.

While the original Rico’s in downtown ‘Gapo now boasts a fancier dining area than the last time we have eaten there, it is still – strictly speaking — a fast food eatery. Not fastfood in the McDO, KFC, or even Chow King style maybe, but a fastfood place still. I mean, you want food, you want it fast– you go to Rico’s, any time of day.

And, like all fastfood joints that have succumbed to “promos” like “set meals for the affordable crowd,” Rico’s now serve set meals such as bistek with rice, porkchop with rice, dinuguan with rice, and other Pinoy specialties for just a little over a hundred peso or so. There are a la carte options too, such as bulalo just to name a few, but of course.

The eatery was so successful because those who live in the surrounding areas find Rico’s a great option when they don’t feel like cooking, or when visitors come to stay for meals and they are caught unprepared. And these days, by the way, Rico’s is among the few locally owned eateries that have withstood the onslaught of outsider competition.

But our memory Rico’s as a true-blue Olongapeño eatery serving an array of delicious, affordable home-style Filipino food (“A pride of Gapo,” says many) the quality of the food has gone down a bit today, it seems – especially if you go there after 2 or 3 a.m.

Take my “Bistek Tagalog,” for example. Topped with uncooked sibuyas Bombay, and served with half-cut salted egg and rice almost as tough as plastic, I wasn’t able to control myself and complained to the staff: “Have you ever tasted this rice?” My friends’ rice tasted the same, so I guess it wasn’t just me being fussy. To be fair, the staff quickly replaced my rice with a newly cooked serving.

Now, I’m not here to bash Rico’s and I sincerely hope our recent experience there was an isolated one. In fairness, my friend finished his sizzling porkchop in no time at all. It must be good. And the bulalo soup wasn’t shabby at all.

Perhaps our timing was just off. But a few more customers came in after us, meaning many people go to Rico’s to eat during unholy hours so they must be prepared. They are open 24 hours right? Anyways.

Now pricewise Rico’s was right on, I would say, because our meal – for four persons – sans soft drinks or beer, cost us less than PHP500. I also notice their posters for all-you-can-eat buffets, at PHP150 and PHP170 only, respectively. I’d like to try these budget buffets mind you.

Anyway, we’re glad that Rico’s is still open when other eateries in the city are already closed. You’ll find it invaluable too when your hunger pangs attack during unholy wee hours.

But I just hope that they – and other local restaurants here — develop more service-mindedness and work their best to ensure consistent quality, not only in their food but also in their overall service. With a world-class Freeport just over the main gate of the former U.S. Naval Base, it’s not too much to ask, is it?

And anyway, why allow some bad rice or bad bistek ruin your reputation when — with just a little effort — you can rise up to your status of being a local legend? Beats me, Rico’s.

First Published: subicsun.com

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Thirty-two persons allegedly involved in the using and selling of illegal substances were arrested by the Olongapo City Police Office (OCPO) during the “One Time Big Time” (OTBT) anti-illegal drug operation conducted August 19.

By Patrick Roxas

Police said the arrests were made during 12 simultaneous buy-busts operations and through 24-hour checkpoints in the whole city manned by pesonnel from six police stations, which included the Olongapo Police Public Safety Company, City Intelligence Branch, police stations and the City Police Anti-Drug Enforcement Unit working as one in the relentless campaign against illegal drugs and criminality in the city.

The OTBT operation netted 70 pieces of heat resistant plastic sachets of shabu approximately weighing 12.62 grams buy-bust money, assorted drug paraphernalia, one tricycle and one Toyota Innova.

Those suspects are now facing charges for violation of RA 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002) at the City Prosecutor’s Office.

OCPO City Director Police Senior Supt. Melchor Baliuag Cabalza 3rd said this operation is just one of the many OTBTs that will be conducted to ensure that the Olongapo PNP is winning in the war against illegal drugs that it is waging in support of the nationwide “Project Double Barrel Reloaded.”

First Published: manilatimes.net

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The dream of “Pinoy Aquaman” Ingemar Macarine to become the first Filipino to cross the English Channel will have to wait for another chance again, it seems. Macarine this month made two attempts to cross the channel–considered as the “Mt. Everest” of open water swimmers like him. Both had to be called off for safety reasons.

By Patrick Roxas

The 41-year-old election officer in Bohol, but who originally hails from Surigao, tried to cross the perilous 33.8 km (21 miles) English Channel last August 13 but his navigators halted the attempt one hour into the swim because of strong winds.

The supposed swim from Dover, England to Calais, France was reset August 18, but before the swim, he was again told it was unsafe to try and the attempt was cancelled.

Last year, Macarine also had to call off his bid to cross the English Channel due to bad weather.

The lawyer triathlete, who has successfully made 32 open water swims in and out of the country, has prepared long and hard for the attempt. In July, he made a 10-kilometer open water swim with Frank “The Legend” Lacson, from Anvaya Cove in Morong, Bataan to All Hands Beach in the Subic Bay Freeport.

The Morong to Subic open water swim, co-sponsored by All Hands Beach, served as Macarine’s last endurance training prior to his trip to England.

Macarine and Lacson were welcomed at the finish line by no less than Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority administrator Wilma Eisma and director Tomas Lahom III, along with the management team of All Hands Beach.

Macarine’s concern before going to England was actually the water temperature as most of the endurance swimmers who have tried to cross the English Channel bordering southern England and northern France have given up of because the water temperature, which is normally 15 degrees Celsius.

In an effort to acclimatize himself with the cold water, Macarine traveled ahead of his scheduled swim weeks before the attempt and began swimming two hours every day in the cold water under instruction of a coach.

So far, he needs another opportunity to see if he can withstand the cold water of the English Channel.
There were actually 2,153 successful swims in the Channel, 720 of which were relays. Macarine would have been the first Filipino to try.

According to Macarine, long distance swimmers consider the English Channel as their Mt. Everest.
“If mountain climbers have Mt. Everest, English Channel is considered the Mt. Everest for long-distance swimmers,” the endurance swimmer said.

Crossing the English Channel be a test of physical and mental strength, courage, sheer human will and heart,” according to Georgian Honorary Consul Thelmo Cunanan Jr., founder of the First Filipino International Movement that is organizing the First Filipino English Channel Swim.

Macarine is not actually new to swimming cold waters having successfully swam the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland in 2015, from Alcatraz Island Penitentiary to mainland San Francisco in California in 2014, and in Lake Lane in Florida in 2014. The Pinoy Aquaman also conquered the 8.4-kilometer icy cold waters of Hudson River in New York.

Macarine said that the English Channel swim is part of his lifetime advocacy for clean seas, environmental tourism, and climate change awareness.

First Published: subicsun.com

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NLEX Corp. is spending over P2 billion to expand the Subic Freeport Expressway to accommodate growing vehicle traffic, a top executive said over the weekend.

A portion of the Subic Freeport Expressway (SFEx) source:en.wikipedia.org

NLEX president and chief executive Rodrigo Franco said SFEx or the Tipo section of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway to Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority would be expanded from 1×1 lane to 2×2 lanes in each direction.

“We are spending over P2 billion for the project but we are still calibrating that,” Franco said.

Franco said the investment proposal would be submitted to the Toll Regulatory Board by October, while construction was expected to start next year.

SFEx, which was constructed in time for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Subic in 1996, is now a part of SCTEx.

NLEX holds the concession to manage, operate and maintain SCTEx, a 93.77-km four-lane highway, traversing the provinces of Bataan, Pampanga and Tarlac.

The company reported a net income of P2.3 billion in January to June, up 17 percent from last year’s P2 billion on higher toll revenues at North Luzon Expressway and SCTEx and efficient utilization of resources covering toll operations and maintenance costs.

NLEX said toll revenues increased 8 percent in the six-month period to P5.7 billion from P5.2 billion a year ago, led by the increase in traffic from both NLEx and SCTEx operations.

Average daily traffic along NLEx reached 233,652 daily entries in the first half, or 7 percent higher than the same period last year, while average daily traffic at SCTEx reached 54,991 daily entries, up by 24 percent from a year earlier.

NLEX earlier submitted an unsolicited proposal to build the P60-billion C5 Expressway, a 21.8-kilometer elevated toll road from the end of NLEX Segment 8.2 on Luzon Avenue, Quezon City to Cavitex C5 South Link.

The project will complete the missing segment of the C5 Circumferential Expressway alignment, a crucial component of the Metro Manila Urban Expressway Network. (Darwin G. Amojelar, Manila Standard)

First Published:

• subicnewslink.blogspot.com
• manilastandard.net

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The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has greenlighted the takeover by a new company of the debt-ridden property previously leased out to the Lyceum of Subic Bay, Inc. (LSBI), saying the agreement provided for a “win-win” solution for the Subic agency to collect more than P31 million in overdue rent payments and other arrears.

Lyceum of Subic Bay (photo c/o lyceumsubicbay.com.ph

SBMA Administrator & CEO Wilma T. Eisma said a resolution approved by the SBMA Board of Directors last Thursday, Aug. 10, allowed the LSBI to assign its leasehold rights to Premium Technical Training and Facilities, Inc. (PTTFI), which shall assume its financial obligations and continue with the development commitments under its lease.

This was made possible by the withdrawal of the company from coverage of the SBMA policy granting educational institutions a 75% discount in rentals, which are supposed to be plowed back by the schools to scholarship programs and facilities improvement.

The reassignment covered the 34,196 sqm Lyceum campus at Subic’s Cubi-Triboa District, which had P23 million in rentals and utility fees arrears, as well as some P16.68 million in unpaid accounts left by its previous operator, Global Daeil Subic, Inc.

The agreement also required LSBI to pay its debts for another school campus it operates at Subic’s Central Business District (CBD).

Initially, the company paid the SBMA P31 million for its arrears on Thursday, and issued checks to cover outstanding obligations for both the Cubic and CBD campuses.

“As far as we can see, this is a win-win solution to a problem which has been hounding the SBMA since October 2015 when it pre-terminated the contract of Global Daeil over the Cubi property,” Administrator Eisma said.

“The SBMA repossessed the property in January last year and later awarded it to Lyceum, which had the best business model. But unfortunately, Lyceum was not able to operate immediately and market the business properly because of some issue with the previous occupant, so we had a problem that compounded itself over time,” Eisma added.

“But now, with this amendment to the lease and development agreement for Lyceum’s Cubi campus, we finally have a solution that is favorable to all the parties involved,” the SBMA official also said.

According to Beatrix Anagaran, manager of the SBMA General Business and Investment Department, the approved amendment to Lyceum’s lease and development agreement was “overwhelmingly beneficial to the SBMA” because it called for an increase in monthly rent from the discounted rate of P1.22 million to the appraised-value rate of P4 million.

Moreover, the agreement also provided for an increase in escalation rate from 2% per annum starting on the third year to 6% per annum starting on the second year, Anagaran pointed out.

“With Premium Technical taking over the Cubi property, the company will also pay an assignment share to the SBMA, undertake Lyceum’s development commitments, provide additional employment, and continue to honor the scholarship commitments made by Lyceum, with the number of scholars remaining the same,” Anagaran said.

She added that the new operator has also committed to put up a business process outsourcing (BPO) facility at the Cubi campus, as well as a modern training laboratory.

Premium Technical, which is 30% owned by LSBI, has also committed to honor the payment of arrears of Global Daeil with a three-year amortization schedule for the P16-million debt of the previous operator.

It has likewise retained LSBI’s committed investment of P50 million to P100 million, a committed employment of 180 workers, and a development commitment of P10 million to P20 million, and the provision of 36 scholarship grants per year

First Published: subicnewslink.blogspot.com

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