Making Sense of The BIR’s E-Filing System

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Consider this post a continuation of sorts of the entries I did recently on the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) registration and taxation for (part-time) freelancers. To be specific, I’ll be tackling here about the e-filing system recently introduced by the BIR that has caused much confusion, frustration, and a lot of quite negative sentiments against the agency. (as if it has not been getting enough of those already, but that’s another story)

It took me quite a while myself to finally understood how these things work, something I finally figured out quite recently. With that knowledge in mind, I’m happy to help you understand what it is all about.

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Art, Anime, and History at Ayala Museum

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If you happen to pass by Ayala Museum recently, you may have chanced upon a massive art installation located just outside it. And if you are one of those who grew up during the Martial Law era and loved the Japanese robot animes of the 1970s, especially that certain anime called Voltes V, this artpiece should grab your attention even more.

Even if you are neither of those but is someone who is at least familiar with the story of Voltes V in the Philippines, this work by Toym Imao should be of interest.

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Roaming the Yuchengco Museum

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RCBC Plaza is one of the most known landmarks in the Makati Central Business District, partly because of its strategic location at the intersection of the city’s two main thoroughfares: Ayala Avenue and Sen. Gil Puyat (also known before as Buendia) Avenue. There is also the presence of some diplomatic missions in the country, as well as it being the home base of one of the country’s prestigious conglomerates, the Yuchengco Group of Companies who owns various businesses such as the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation or RCBC, (after which the building as named) Malayan Insurance, and the Mapua Institute of Technology.

But aside from being a center of commerce and diplomatic missions, RCBC Plaza is also a hub for culture and arts with the presence of the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium where plays, concerts, and other performances are held and the subject of this post today on the occasion of the National Heritage Month and International Museum Day, the Yuchengco Museum.

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Tragedy in Valenzuela

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Last Wednesday, May 13, the metropolis was stunned by the news of a giant fire that consumed a two-storey building in Valenzuela, causing the deaths of 72 people (at this time of writing) and may rise in the coming days as authorities are still trying to retrieve any remaining bodies.

The structure in question is a factory building that belongs to Kentex Manufacturing Inc., a slippers manufacturer based in the city’s Barangay Ugong and most of the dead were workers in the said factory. The circumstances have not been solidly established yet; nevertheless, it serves as a grim reminder yet again of the importance of fire safety and preparedness of the structures located in the metropolis.

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