The octopus connection

By Herbert Vego

The “octopus connection” has become so familiar that we all know it has nothing to do with the octopus. In electrical parlance, it refers to extension cords plugged into a single power outlet, thus creating an image of the octopus. It may cause overheating, which could trigger fire or any other electrical-related accident.

While we are not sure about it, multiple octopus connections relayed from one household to another could have caused the scores of fires that burned neighboring houses at Rizal Lapuz Sur and Jalandoni Estate, Iloilo City last Friday and Saturday.

Each household has a predetermined load limit. Exceeding that limit, as in tapping a neighbor’s power line, could cause fire. Extension cords and power strips are for limited use only by any heat-generating device.

Where homes are not legally connected to the power-distribution utility, homeowners resort to stealing electricity through “jumpers”; or plugging into a neighbor’s outlet, resulting in overloading.

I learned from a reliable source that personnel from MORE Power had exhausted efforts to convince them to legally connect but their words fell on deaf ears.

Then, too, even legal connections may go haywire, increasing the risk of fire, whenever paying consumers try to cheat by tampering  electric meters.

Their hard-headedness has spoiled the joint campaign of the Iloilo City government, the Bureau of Fire Protection and MORE Power for “zero fire” in the observance of the “Fire Prevention Month”. March, alas, has already seen seven fires within the city.

Such a campaign includes precautions against plugging excessive electrical appliances at the same time, as in watching television in the living room, browsing the internet in the bedrooms, and listening to the radio while cooking or baking on the kitchen range.

Fire-prevention also means turning off appliances when no longer in use, or switching off the main switch when leaving the home unattended for a long time.

Again, this corner quotes a song that asks, “When will we ever learn?”

IT PAYS TO PAY TAXES PROMPTLY

THE good news we heard from Nelia Bartolome Demalata – head of the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s RDO-74 – is that business in Iloilo City is back to normal, as if the Covid-19 pandemic has never happened.

In fact, her collection for the previous year totaled more than P7 billion, which is around 10 percent in excess of goal.

Therefore, she expects a higher goal for the current year, but it remains to be decided by the national office.

She said that BIR’s massive tax information campaign had been very effective in convincing the people to pay taxes promptly. This has been made easier by way of free webinars via Zoom.

The latest webinar, which transpired last March 16, saw the participation of 1,000 employees earning purely compensation income and mixed income.

There they learned why it pays to pay income tax on or before deadline day – never a day later. This is to avoid being penalized with a 25% surcharge.

Congratulations, Ms. Demalata.

MILESTONES, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY

IN an FB message, my long-lost friend Salvador “Bing” San Diego, told me he now lives in Los Angeles, California, “With my parents and siblings.”

Wow, I thought, his parents must have turned centenarians. In reaction, I replied, “Glad to hear that your parents are still around.”

To which he explained, “My parents are already resting in eternal peace. However, I always think and regard that they are still alive.”

How could I disagree?  Most of us see our loved ones “just around the corner” and remember them on their birthday.

Last Monday (March 20), for instance, the children of the late Atty. Ramon L. Muzones – among them my friends Raquel Muzones Chavez and Atty. Rex Muzones – celebrated his 110th birthday. Muzones, the first Ilonggo National Artist for Literature, lives in the heart of today’s elderly who used to read his serialized novels in the defunct Hiligaynon and Yuhum magazines.

On Saturday (March 25), my Auntie Flor Escanillas, will celebrate her 92nd birthday at JJ Inland Resort in Mojon, San Jose, Antique. Thanks for the invitation!

The more we age, the more we count the blessings that God has provided.