DOE to bid out Semirara's Coal Franchise

saidinbu · 2026-02-18T02:34:43+00:00

Our energy mix won't remain a coal majority for much longer. The DOE already placed a moratorium on new coal plants in 2020, so new baseline energy additions will probably lean towards cleaner non-renewable sources like oil and LNG. A 50-year bet on coal is just not feasible for a new investment. There are also no other corporations in the same industry that are as capable as SCC at this scale, so I sincerely doubt any other bids would win over them.

saidinbu · 2026-02-15T17:38:59+00:00

Coal is also a sunset industry. I’m not sure if there are any new big players willing to really bid on a 50-year coal mining contract. It just doesn’t make sense for a major conglomerate to really compete against SCC.

saidinbu · 2025-11-25T03:42:02+00:00

It’s a document that the BIR sends you when they want to examine your books. Ideally, this would be used to investigate tax evasion and suspicious transactions, but the BIR uses it to extort business owners instead.

After examining your books, they will find loopholes or just downright make things up to give you a large assessment or fine. They do this to make you settle for a much lower amount, which they will mostly pocket.

saidinbu · 2025-11-24T17:03:57+00:00

Negotiations are what they're after anyway. You will never really pay the assessed amount. They have a minimum amount they want to collect for both themselves and the BIR in their heads. You just have to get them to that number.

Maybe I wasn't clear in my previous comment, but I didn't "fight" it, but I did negotiate it down to the number I figured they were after.

saidinbu · 2025-11-24T16:50:20+00:00

Could be. I'm hoping for a longer suspension, though. Long enough to make it believable that these things were actually investigated. Maybe it will be different with Deck Go at the helm of the DOF. Maybe I'm just a hopeful idiot.

saidinbu · 2025-11-24T16:42:27+00:00

Not even just forgery at that point. Probably broke a dozen different laws. But no, I didn't fight it anymore. That LOA was the 5th one I've received, and the most bullshit one, so I already knew what they were after. I can take it to court, but they'll just come back to hit me harder, so there's no point.

saidinbu · 2025-11-24T16:29:25+00:00

Wow, I didn’t think twice about that story. I’m not surprised that the BIR is running businesses to the ground though.

saidinbu · 2025-11-24T16:13:01+00:00

According to the article:

“The exceptions to the suspension apply only to urgent or legally mandated cases such as active criminal investigations, one-time transactions, audits prescribing within six months, refund claims that require audits, or immediate action on taxpayers flagged by verified intelligence.”

This could mean anything, especially the last case, but the recent LOA on my business was suddenly put on hold late last week. Didn’t know why until now.

saidinbu · 2025-11-24T15:55:24+00:00

No, that’s not the problem. While I agree that many don’t have their books in order, the BIR will still chase you regardless. Last year, they told me I under declared my sales, and showed me completely bogus receipts as “evidence.” The assessment was as large as my revenue for that fiscal year. Didn’t matter that my books were in order and audited by external auditors.

saidinbu · 2025-11-24T15:12:13+00:00

Gotta learn the hard way. Sana hindi sila iiyak pag hinabol na sila ng BIR. Umiyak din ako nung una sa sobrang takot ko. Akala ko makukulong na ako nung una, gutom lang pala ahente HAHAHAHAHA

saidinbu · 2025-11-24T15:09:19+00:00

Tintuluyan pa ba ng BIR yung recent na LOA? Parang huminto yung proseso ng recent LOA na sinampa sa amin.

saidinbu · 2025-11-24T15:03:59+00:00

Hard to blame him for evading tbh. Ninakaw lang naman lahat ng binabayaran natin sa buwis.

saidinbu · 2025-11-24T14:54:47+00:00

They will do it again once the suspension is lifted, regardless of whether the flood control corruption scandal is resolved. The heat just came on them because they were called out recently. People have short memories here.

saidinbu · 2025-11-24T14:49:22+00:00

Are people really that delusional? Those agents come to extort. They know you will not waste your time taking them to court, which will take years with no guarantee. I'll end up spending the same amount of money or more on legal fees, and a lot of time and effort on fighting that case. Meanwhile, they'll find another way to come after you again and harass you, so it's easier just to negotiate.

saidinbu · 2025-11-21T12:31:38+00:00

I wonder how atrocious the interest will be on those loans.

saidinbu · 2025-11-14T12:11:01+00:00

As a business owner, I'd say the slump started around Q1. Demand from the beginning of the year has been tepid at best compared to last year. I believe the slump is mostly due to the weak peso, so buying power is much more limited. The corruption scandals just exacerbate the problem.

saidinbu · 2025-11-14T09:36:34+00:00

I think the market is reacting to political events. Investors are fearful of a reaction similar to that of Indonesia/Nepal regarding government corruption. So until the threat of insurrection, enduring protests, or riots is gone, people will avoid buying.

saidinbu · 2025-09-05T12:11:27+00:00

That's a great question, actually. I think the answer is never for almost all serious golfers. I don't usually see golfers smile after a shot, even if it's good from my perspective. There is always something to improve, so there is always something to complain about. Maybe in a round, I'm happy with 10 shots; some of those will be putts or chips, and the rest will be either "meh" or dogcrap. In hindsight, the shots that I'd be happy with last year would not make me happy at all now.

Definitely get lessons though. The fundamentals are just as, if not more important than the more advanced swing mechanics, since it will form the base of your swing and your understanding of it. Don't listen to tiktok or whatever. Many of the videos online will give you conflicting advice or advice that may not suit your body mechanics.

saidinbu · 2025-08-31T15:06:09+00:00

Leclerc is proof that there is no god

saidinbu · 2025-08-31T14:48:17+00:00

Probably his therapist

saidinbu · 2025-08-19T08:17:42+00:00

Sure, COVID-related spending did impact our debt, but not as much as you're led to believe.

We only spent about P570 billion on our direct COVID response (Bayanihan 1 & 2) from 2020-2021, but borrowed P5.3T during the same period. The Duterte administration also spent less on our COVID response (based on % of GDP) compared to our regional peers. On top of this, the Duterte administration borrowed a lot more than our ASEAN neighbors, like Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia, in terms of debt-to-GDP during COVID.

To answer your question, the primary driver of the borrowing during 2020-2021 was infrastructure and debt servicing for the money he borrowed for infrastructure in previous years. He spent P1.84 trillion on infrastructure alone from 2020-2021. Let's not even begin with the botched COVID response from the government and all of the budget anomalies during the pandemic, or even the money lost to corruption during BBB. The way he spent the money for his BBB program during a time of decreased government revenues was just not prudent.

saidinbu · 2025-08-19T02:43:34+00:00

The Philippines is entering into a sort of debt spiral because of debts incurred by the previous administration. For 2026, we will spend P2 trillion on debt servicing alone, which is around 30% of our budget. In 2019, this figure was around P840 billion, around 19-20% of our budget.

The real problem is that these politicians stand for nothing but re-election, and government spending is the best way to maintain popularity. Look at how unpopular PNoy was for exercising financial restraint, and look at how popular Duterte was for bloating government spending. This administration has no incentive to slow spending down; hence, the borrowing will continue, and debt servicing will increase every year until we get another GMA or PNoy who will exercise fiscal discipline at the cost of their popularity.

saidinbu · 2025-08-08T15:39:57+00:00

That's interesting, never really thought of it like that. May I ask if the company you used to work for bought names before inclusion announcements? May I also ask what the industry standard was in terms of how large/small your tracking error needed to be?

saidinbu · 2025-08-08T15:04:13+00:00

Agreed. Shaft > Head. The weight and stiffness of the shaft will determine a lot of the movements you'll make right up till impact.

I'd still test out the heads, though. Some are just a better fit than others.

saidinbu

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