Recently the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) announced that it would soften is approach on social media influencers, according to a Malaya Business Insight news report.
In reference to the Revenue Memorandum Circular 97-2021 issued by the BIR, social media influencers are defined as those who derive their income from the following sources: YouTube Partner Program; sponsored social and blog posts; display advertising; becoming a brand representative/ambassador; affiliate marketing; co-creating product lines; promoting own products; photo and video sales; digital courses, subscriptions, e-books; and podcasts and webinars.
To put things in perspective, posted below is an excerpt from the Malaya Business Insight report. Some parts in boldface…
Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr. is opting to take a “soft” approach on influencers, giving them a chance to cooperate and comply first with the tax agency’s regulations.
When asked by reporters if the agency is currently working on possible cases to be filed against non-compliant social media personalities, the BIR chief said: “Not yet. I don’t want to file a case yet because I want to take a soft approach first.”
“We may do an audit, but we won’t file a case yet. As long as they are willing to comply, we will help them (to comply),” Lumagui said.
During the previous administration in 2021, the BIR started cracking down on social media influencers and probed an initial 250 individuals to check their tax compliance. Some major online personalities, however, deactivated their accounts after the release of a related circular during the said year.
Lumagui said he has extended his invitation to the association of these social media personalities to sit down and discuss with them their concerns and how the industry can be more tax compliant.
“We would just like to educate them on their obligation,” the BIR chief said.
Lumagui also said he has been in touch with individual influencers who are correctly paying their taxes, and asked them to encourage their colleagues to do the same.
According to Revenue Memorandum Circular 97-2021, social media influencers should pay income tax and percentage tax or, if applicable, the value-added tax, as mandated under the National Internal Revenue Code and other existing laws.
Let me end this piece by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this recent development? Do you think this latest move by the BIR will encourage social media influencers to come out and cooperate?
The Swimming Lessons 2024 program at Tropical Palace Resort Hotel in BF International, Las Piñas City will begin on June 10, 2024, and already enrollment is ongoing.
The swimming lessons will be taught by coach Alec Dequiña who has over twelve years’ experience in coaching and was an NCAA medalist.
The main swimming pool at Tropical Palace Resort Hotel.
The swimming pool for younger and shorter swimmers.
Courses offered for those who are interested to learn swimming are as follows: Basic (6-years-old and older) with schedule of 7:30 AM to 8:30 AM; Advance (6-years-old and older) with schedule of 7:30 AM to 8:30 AM; and Toddlers (4-years-old) with schedule of 8:45 to 9:45 AM.
Basic course enrollment fee is at P5,500. Advance course enrollment fee is also at P5,500. Toddlers course enrollment fee is at P6,000.
This is the exterior of the Tropical Palace Resort Hotel facility. To visit the swimming pools, you will have to enter the office and pass through inside.
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Recently here in the Philippines, GMA Network made waves to boost their sports coverage by unveiling their artificial intelligence (AI) sportscasters named Maia and Marco which drew varied reactions from Filipinos online. Check out the official video unveiling of the AI sportscasters from GMA Integrated News’ YouTube channel below…
If you look at Maia and Marco’s unveiling, you probably would have been impressed with how photo-realistic they look and how almost human they sounded (including being able to speak Tagalog). They were made to look like Filipinos convincingly You might be saying to yourself that this is a shining example of Filipino achievement in the world of technology and be totally accepting of it. But make no mistake as Maia and Marco are indeed not real people (fake Filipinos) and most notably, they have no souls at all.
This bring me to the fact that AI has no soul and we humans must take action to prevent artificial intelligence from overwhelming us. Overseas, the development of AI is moving at a rapid face and the competing tech giants (which invested heavily on AI) involved are so focused on outmaneuvering and outdoing each other, they don’t seem to care about the possibilities that AI could turn into a rebellious force that could harm people around the world in multiple ways. Already, artificial intelligence and robotics are emerging as threats to humanity. To put things in perspective, watch the CBN News YouTube videos below…
With AI and robots left unchecked, a new form of religion that has nothing to do with God, Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit is emerging already. There are those who pulled themselves away from the Lord to dedicate themselves to intelligent robots, human-like AI-driven characters and other aspects of technology. I would not be surprised if I find out that GMA’s Maia and Marco are being idolized by some people right now (note: idolatry is both foolish and unholy).
In the world of entertainment, AI is already being used as a tool for visuals (combined with computer-generated imaging or CGI) which includes the process of recreating the likenesses of actors (both the living and the dead) to make characters on-screen look as real as possible. In relation, the digital ways of resurrecting dead actors to portray their respective characters is morally disturbing to say the very least. It should also be stated that AI itself is being used to make articles, essays and even scripts – literary pieces that were not composed by the human user himself/herself. Has it occurred to you that the movie or streaming show you watched used a script that was partially made with AI because the screenwriter took shortcuts when working? Learn from the YouTube videos of Dave Cullen below…
Going back to GMA Network and its AI sportscasters, a lot of Filipinos have been questioning how artificial intelligence will affect not only journalism but also Philippine sports broadcasting (a lively sector) and job opportunities (which millions nationwide need badly). No matter how life-like and charismatic they look on-screen, Maia and Marco are still fake Filipinos created with AI and CGI. They are characters, not human beings. Did GMA Network even try to search for talented and charismatic prospects for their sports broadcasting needs among the many living and breathing Filipinos present in the country? The Philippines has a population of over 100 million people and that includes many young adults and adults who can be employed.
Way back in 1992, in a response to Marvel Comics’ expression that creative people (their employees) are secondary to their comic book characters, Image Comics co-founder Rob Liefeld emphasized the need for a living and breathing work force to keep the company and the business moving.
“Without your creative people, there would be no Batman, there would be no Spider-Man, there would be no Hulk. That’s short-sighted as far as I am concerned. You will need warm bodies, warm creative bodies to create properties to keep your company going,” said Liefeld.
While he specifically did not talk about AI at all, what Liefeld said long ago is still highly relevant which companies and organizations here in the Philippines can learn from before going all-in with artificial intelligence (which will deprive job seekers the opportunities). At least in my view, AI is unnecessary with sports broadcasting. There is nothing like watching a live sports event happen in which the human broadcaster makes powerful or exciting verbal expressions whenever a fun moment happens during the game. That being said, do you seriously think an AI sportscaster can pull off such human reactions in natural and believable fashion for the millions of viewers watching? In case you did not notice, Maia and Marco of GMA still have that robotic tone with the ways they talked – undeniable proof that AI has no soul. Humans who work have souls.
In fairness, GMA Network is aware of the public’s concerns about AI with regards to ethics, human labor, journalism and more. Watch the GMA YouTube news video (mostly in Tagalog) below…
Regardless of how AI develops and make impact on Filipinos, what is clear to me is that measures must be taken to ensure that humans will always have an advantage over artificial intelligence. I am talking about the need for kill switches covering all AI applications and projects to ensure that human users will have the edge in the event that AI turns rogue against humanity. That being said, I encourage you readers to contact your congressional representative and tell him or her to make laws that will make kill switches on AI a requirement all over the Philippines, and that includes requiring all AI providers/makers (including the foreign entities) to comply. Users of AI should be prioritized always! Do you want ChatGPT to control you or destroy you and your family? Do you want robots with AI to be a major part of your household and your lifestyle? I don’t think so.
Once again, AI has no soul. If you want to cook, do it yourself. If you want to write a letter or an article, do it yourself. If you want to compose a teaching module or a new prayer for a bible-focused session in your local church, push AI out of the way to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit and then proceed with the Lord’s command. By the way, artificial intelligence and technology could never understand the Holy Spirit and you definitely should never let them be part of your Christianity. No matter how many people around you worshipAI, robots, science and technology, you should never let them pull you away from the Lord.
Let me end this piece by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this latest development? Do you think GMA Network has set a bad example with their AI sportscasters Maia and Marco with regards to Philippine sports coverage and journalism in general? Why do you think the network wanted their AI sportscaster to look human? Do you think the technology of artificial intelligence will be abused by those who possess it here in the Philippines? Do you think Philippine Congress should come up with a new law requiring kill switches on all AI projects and applications within the country to ensure that users will still have an advantage in case AI goes rogue? Do you think a rogue AI can bring down the security and economy of the Philippines?
Did you borrow money from an online lending firm and later got threatened by their agents because you failed to settle your debt on time? For your information, a certain online lending firm in the City of Manila recently got raided by elements of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and resulted in the arrests of many people, according to a Manila Bulletin news report.
To put things in perspective, posted below is the excerpt from the Manila Bulletin news report. Some parts in boldface…
Anti-cybercrime operatives of the Philippine National Police (PNP) arrested a total of 83 people in a raid on the office of an alleged illegal online lending agency in Sampaloc, Manila.
Police Brig. Gen. Joel Doria, director of the PNP-Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG), said those arrested were the ones who were sending threats to their clients who would fail to pay the debt on time.
“They were caught in the act of sending threatening messages to customers while some where unlawfully accessing the clients’ personal information which is posted online with libelous remarks,” said Doria.
The operation stemmed from the numerous complaint of threats and humiliating remarks purportedly coming from employees of the online lending agency using the social media.
Doria said they immediately launched the operation after securing a Warrant to Search, Seize, and Examine Computer Data (WSSECD) from a court to search and seize pieces of digital evidence that were allegedly used by the loan shark company in its lending scheme with usurious rates. The raid was conducted in Barangay 497 in Sampaloc district.
The modus of the lending agency is to encourage people to secure a quick loan. But once the client would avail and fail to pay on time, they would send threats and humiliating messages not only to the clients but also to their friends and followers on social media.
“They take advantage of our poor netizens who happened to click on their advertisements and promotions through social media and ‘google play apps store’ that offer instant loans,” said Doria.
“Customers who fall trapped to this online lending agency, experienced public humiliation and harassment coupled with threats and illegal access to their phones’ contact list when customers cannot pay on time,” he added.
Let me end this piece by asking you readers: What do you think about this recent development? If you borrowed money from an online lending firm and you already failed to settle your debt with them, did their agents send threatening or humiliating messages to you? If you are a victim of such harassment from the online lending firm you borrowed from, are you ready to report them to the police? Does this crime news report make you hesitant to borrow any money from an online lending firm?
If you are a resident of Las Piñas City who never had their Friendship Route vehicular sticker and you still want one, now is a good time to get your key documents and prepare yourselves for filing as the City Government recently announced it is accepting online applications for the Friendship Route stickers, the Manila Bulletin reported. Take note that a Google account is required for online application.
To put things in perspective, posted below is the excerpt from the Manila Bulletin’s report. Some parts in boldface…
The Las Piñas City government announced that motorists who are using alternative routes to ease or decongest traffic along the main thoroughfares in the city can now apply for the friendship route stickers by visiting the link bit.ly/LPCFriendshipStickerApp
Mayor Imelda Aguilar said those who want to get the stickers must be residents of the city.
Aguilar said the stickers are not for sale and the city government has not come out with a new design or layout.
The stickers issued by the city government in 2011 up to succeeding years are still valid.
She said the online application is only for those who have not secured yet a friendship route sticker.
The city government issued on March 17 the guidelines on how to apply for the friendship route stickers.
The vehicle’s official receipt (OR) and Certificate of Registration (CR) of the owner should be registered with Las Piñas address.
Aguilar said residents can still avail of the stickers even as their vehicle is not registered in Las Piñas by just showing driver’s license or any other documents that will prove that the applicant is a city resident.
She said that those that are not qualified to apply for the stickers are public utility jeepneys, buses, taxis, school bus, delivery trucks and vans, tricycle and motorcycles, as well as vehicles stamped with “FOR HIRE” notation.
For everyone’s reference, posted below are the visual guidelines (note: written in Tagalog) of March 17 that the City Government published via social media…
Let me end this piece by asking you readers: If you are a resident of Las Piñas City, what is your reaction to this recent development? If you have not secured a Friendship Route sticker, do you plan to apply for one soon? Does the current traffic situation in the city compel you to pass through villages when driving?
Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below and also please consider sharing this article to others. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @HavenorFantasy as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/
For more South Metro Manila community news and developments, come back here soon. Also say NO to fake news, NO to irresponsible journalism, NO to misinformation, NO to plagiarists, NO to reckless publishers and NO to sinister propaganda when it comes to news and developments. For South Metro Manila community developments, member engagements, commerce and other relevant updates, join the growing South Metro Manila Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/342183059992673
Take note of Spencer’s words “existing agreements” and “our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation.” Existing agreements most likely refer to what Activision Blizzard made with Sony which I believe are years-long deals on games with regards to platform releases, marketing, post-release downloadable content, etc. Of course, such agreements can last long but NOT FOREVER. The business benefit for PlayStation from Activision Blizzard will someday come to an end.
As for Microsoft’s desire for keeping Call of Duty on PlayStation, that clearly means that the corporation of Xbox is technically in-charge of not just the COD franchise but on the decision making, marketing and releasing its games on specific platforms. Sony and its PlayStation team are not in the driver’s seat here anymore. Whatever deals Activision signed with PlayStation before the acquisition will expire and they certainly will not be renewed once Microsoft and its Xbox team takes over. In due time, future COD games as well as other upcoming games and new intellectual properties of Activision Blizzard will become Xbox-exclusive in accordance to what Spencer declared before…
“We have games that exist on other platforms, and we’re going to support those games on the platforms they’re on. There are communities of players. We love those communities and will continue to invest in them. And even in the future, there might be things that have either contractual things, or legacy on different platforms, that we’ll go do. But if you’re an Xbox customer, the thing I want you to know is this is about delivering great exclusive games for you that ship on platforms where Game Pass exists, and that’s our goal, that’s why we are doing this,”
This brings me to my next point – Sony as a global business entity is way behind Microsoft, Apple, Google and Amazon when it comes to establishing ecosystems that result tremendous business growth and reaching billions of customers worldwide respectively. The decades-old console-focused approach by Sony with PlayStation was indeed successful but not great enough to help it grow big time. Not even their Hollywood business nor Spider-Man could lift them up greatly. The weird thing was that Sony in previous decades had established an old ecosystem before PlayStation began.
To put things in perspective, posted below is a long excerpt from a recent Nikkei Asia article. Some parts in boldface…
The 10% drop in Sony’s stock price this week following Microsoft’s announcement that it will buy game content developer Activision Blizzard shows the market has belatedly awakened to an existential flaw in Sony’s kingdom. It lacks an ecosystem.
In terrifying contrast, Microsoft is a formidable ecosystem whose component elements, such as devices, operating system, browser, search engine, applications, content, cloud memory, work hand in glove to suck in captive users and never let them go. The ecosystem effect is all too familiar to owners of PCs that run on the Windows OS, which maddeningly redirects users to Microsoft’s Edge browser and Bing search engine against their will.
It is no accident that five of the world’s seven largest companies by market capitalization — Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet/Google, Amazon and Meta/Facebook — are ecosystems. Every consumer decision to buy a device, be it a PC, smartphone, Kindle reader, or game console, entails a surrender to an interconnected ecosystem. Promiscuity among ecosystems is possible but, by design, not easy. The ecosystems are at war and want to make you their captive.
Ironically, Sony was early to recognize the strategic significance of the ecosystem effect. Its decision to acquire CBS Records and Columbia Pictures in the late 1980s was inspired by the notion that controlling entertainment content could somehow push device sales, such as Betamax VCRs and Sony Walkman.
What Sony overlooked was that it would be self-defeating to make its controlled content exclusively available on Sony devices. Very few consumers would buy a Walkman just because it was the only way to listen to Michael Jackson. And Sony’s refusal to license Michael Jackson to non-Sony device users would perversely shut down third-party royalty revenue from the controlled content. Sony saw, but misunderstood and misapplied, the ecosystem effect between devices and content.
Sony’s next, more costly, wrong turn was its failure to anticipate and keep up with the morphing of portable audio devices like the Walkman launched in 1979 and iPod in 2001 into the iPhone debuted in 2007. The iPhone integrated, in a single handheld device, all of the functions formerly provided by the multiple discrete products in Sony’s consumer electronics lineup: phone, TV, camera, video and audio player and recorder, clock, calculator, and so on.
Sony’s stock price plunged from 30,000 yen ($260) per share in 2000 to 1,668 yen in 2009. Sony and the entire Japanese consumer electronics industry are still in disarray from the iPhone paradigm shift.
Unlike Sony, Apple founder Steve Jobs was a master at creating and orchestrating an ecosystem. In particular, he understood when to link content exclusively to a device and, just as important, when not to. Even now, Apple’s iOS is available only on Apple devices, unlike Microsoft’s device-agnostic Windows OS.Initially, Apple’s iTunes music store platform was available only on Apple’s own devices. Then, in October 2003, “the day that hell froze over,” Jobs made the strategic decision to make iTunes compatible with and freely downloadable by non-Apple devices.
The result was not only to massively increase the audience and revenues of the iTunes platform. Non-Apple device users discovered how great iTunes was and that it worked even better on an iPod, leading to a surge in new iPod owners conveniently prepped for the coming transfiguration of the iPod into the iPhone.
The same interplay between devices and content is at the center of intense competition in the $180 billion global PC gaming industry. Dedicated gamers have a choice among three game-specific consoles — Microsoft’s Xbox, Sony’s PlayStation and Nintendo’s Switch.
The choice of device, in turn, entails a menu of device-specific exclusive content. Xbox and PlayStation each offer about 2,000 titles, but the bestselling 200-300 games for each tend to be exclusive to one or the other. A gamer’s choice of console implies a decision about preferred content.
But the relationship between game devices and content is evolving rapidly, tracking changes elsewhere in the internet universe. Games today can be played on any device, PCs and smartphones, not just a dedicated game console.
Gaming is now mobile. Game content is increasingly being streamed, just like Netflix and Amazon Prime. You can play games on YouTube. And an Xbox can be used as a PC to surf the Internet and do your homework.
The immediate threat to Sony posed by Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is that Microsoft will make the content it is acquiring — global blockbusters like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft — exclusive to Xbox users and invite defections from PlayStation users who want to keep playing their favorite games.
But this is just one element of the multifaceted ecosystem effects Microsoft can deploy to squeeze Sony. Sony should be nervous, for example, that it has no cloud or streaming capability of its own and relies on Microsoft’s own Azure platform to deliver streaming content to Sony users.
Sony’s game and network services segment now accounts for 30% of its revenues. It is hard to see how Sony can compete in the long-term in a narrow game-specific segment without credibly competing with the likes of Microsoft, Alphabet/Google and Amazon across the board in all segments of the device-content spectrum.
From a financial point of view, Sony is not only behind the tech giants with ecosystems. Sony simply does not have the major financial muscle needed to pull off massive acquisitions of game publishers (massive meaning more than $5 billion per each acquisition) that each have lots of game developers, intellectual properties and technologies. The Japanese giant does have a business ecosystem but it’s too small and too narrow compared to its Western competitors. This also means Sony reaches much less customers worldwide.
In a possible response to Xbox-Activision-Blizzard deal, Sony can try to acquire its fellow Japanese gaming entities like Capcom, SEGA or Square Enix and integrate the entity(s) into PlayStation, but that will require not just a whole bunch of money but also willingness to not just make big offers the other party cannot turn down, but also the willingness to overcome all the legal obstacles, solve all the complications, absorb all the employees, fund future projects already in development, etc. If the PlayStation team is willing on building up its very own exclusive properties, they could expand the work forces as well as the projects of their very own game studios.
The Xbox-Activision-Blizzard deal is very hard to match not just because of the financial value and organizational weights involved, but also because the said deal covers consoles, Windows PC, mobile devices, cloud gaming, browser gaming and much more. The PlayStation ecosystem is still console-focused and so far team PlayStation released only a few of its games on PC. Is Sony even working to improve PlayStation Now? Are the PlayStation executives realizing that their 3rd party marketing deals won’t lift up their corporation and consumer base anymore? Has it occurred to the PlayStation executives that future games of the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro The Dragon franchises (both of which are permanently identified with Sony’s gaming brand due to exclusive games released on the first PlayStation console) will be released only on Xbox platforms?
As mentioned in the Nikkei Asia article above, business ecosystems are not perfect and they have their flaws that affect customers in bad ways. As such, the ecosystem powers and organizers should do their work to be more user-friendly and be more consumer-oriented. Still, the ecosystem approach to business has proven to be very effective with regards to reaching the widest number of consumers worldwide as well as driving business growth to new heights, not to mention generating economic benefits for business partners involved (example: credit card companies whose users buy on Amazon, Xbox network, Google, etc.) No amount of sales of Final Fantasy games and Street Fighter games exclusive to PlayStation consoles will ever match that.
As for the console fanboys who still hate Xbox, they should learn to stop living with fantasy and wake up to reality. Time to grow up.
In ending this piece, posted below are videos related to Xbox and the Activision Blizzard deal…
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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below and also please consider sharing this article to others. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @HavenorFantasy as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/
Here’s a quick look at the China virus situation in Las Piñas City. The Manila Bulletin reported recently that almost 7,000 people in the said city got vaccinated specifically with the China-sourced COVID-19 vaccine.
For transparency, below is an excerpt from the Manila Bulletin’s April 14, 2021 report. Key details in bold…
A total of 6911 individuals received the China-made Sinovac vaccine since the start of the Las Piñas City government’s vaccination rollout last March with the theme of “Ligtas na Las Piñero, Lahat Bakunado.”
The City Health Office (CHO) reported to Mayor Imelda Aguilar that a total of 3902 frontline workers composed of doctors, nurses, and other health workers coming from public and private hospitals, including clinics, already received their Sinovac jabs.
A total of 1,745 senior citizens have also been vaccinated in the city. The inoculation for the other senior citizens will continue after the Department of Health (DOH) approved the use of Sinovac.
The report also showed that a total of 1264 persons with comorbidities also received their first dose of vaccines.
The Public Information Office said the city government is continuing to conduct vaccination simultaneously at the city’s 10 vaccination sites.
For the newcomers reading this, it was confirmed previously that Las Piñas senior citizens got vaccinated with AstraZeneca vaccines (click here and here) which the City Government already paid for. Why AstraZeneca was not mentioned in Manila Bulletin’s report is curious.
Meanwhile, local citizens reading this who wish to avail of COVID-19 vaccines are encouraged to get themselves registered with the City Government by means of digital method (QR code scanning, Google account to be used) or the manual method. For reference about Las Piñas vaccine registration, posted below are official images of instruction.
If anyone of you reading this is a certified resident of Las Piñas City and if you got vaccinated (or you are still waiting to get vaccinated), you might want to share to me your experience or observations about the vaccination process or the local vaccine registration processes by contacting me directly online.
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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below and also please consider sharing this article to others. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me as well. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me at HavenorFantasy@twitter.com
For more South Metro Manila community news and developments, come back here soon. Also say NO to fake news, NO to irresponsible journalism, NO to misinformation, NO to plagiarists, NO to reckless publishers and NO to sinister propaganda when it comes to news and developments. For South Metro Manila community developments, member engagements, commerce and other relevant updates, join the growing South Metro Manila Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/342183059992673
Author Carlo Carrasco 