I just want to announce that I have finally launched a new komik blog called “Buhay Kubo“. Well, it’s not really a new blog. It’s actually a relaunch of the Buhay Kubo blog that I had back in 2007.

Ang Buhay Kubo ay isang Komik blog na gawa ni Juan Karlo Licudine. Ayon sa pagpilit ng awtor, ito ay sumasalamin sa buhay ng mga kabataang Pilipino (Kahit hindi naman talaga. Puro mga walang kwentang bagay lang siya, actually). Sundan ang pakikipagsapalaran ng ating mga bida na sina Jake Lorensaga, Randy Villegas, at Ace Tayug sa kanilang pang-araw-araw na buhay; sa kanilang pagaaral (o sa kanilang “hindi pag-aral”), sa kanilang mga love life, sa paglalaro ng DoTA, at sa mga iba’t-iba nilang kalokohan sa buhay. Oo, ito ang buhay kubo, mga istorya ng pangaraw-araw na buhay ng mga kabataang Pilipino.

An audio recording of Gary Granada, which contains accusations against GMA Kapuso allegedly using his composed music without permission or compensation, is currently circulating the net via e-mail, Plurk, Twitter, and now, blogs.

According to Gary Granada, GMA Kapuso Foundation asked him to compose a jingle for them using lyrics which they have provided. In order for the lyrics to fit the melody of his composition, revisions had to be made to the given lyrics. Unfortunately, his composition was rejected and the job was given to another composer. Much to his surprise, he later found out that GMA Kapuso made use of his lyrics revisions in their final composition without asking for permission. Not only that, Mr. Granada also says that the final tune of GMA Kapuso’s new jingle is actually based on the musical structure of his own composition.

The Commision on Elections (Comelec) is currenly planning to make use of blogs in preparation for the coming elections. Through the Education and Information Department (EID)’s blog , Comelec aims to give updates on the status of the registration of voters, as well as to educate them about the registration process.

“Now that we have the technology available and stable, the Comelec will use the bagongbotante.ph blog website to give voters here and abroad updates about the ongoing registration and at the same time, to gather feedback from voters, especially the youth” said James Jimenez, Comelec spokesman.

Although, it wasn’t mentioned how the Comelec is planning to give their “updates” to the voters (Would it be through individual e-mails? Or a personal status page for each voter? ). The mentioned blog will be providing blog articles, pictures and videos to give voters an idea on how the registration process works, the requirements they need to bring, and what they should do during the registration.

Here are some clarifications on the NTC Memorandum Issue.

Marcelle points out in his blog that bloggers don’t need to worry about NTC’s Memorandum because it only concerns telecom companies.

If you read closely enough, the intention is clear: this bill is aimed for value-added services like ringtones, picture messages, and so forth. This bill is mainly for the cellphone industry, since the NTC has jurisdiction over Telecom companies, but currently, is not quite empowered in the realm of the internet. Furthermore, the bill is not meant to burden the content developer, but in reality, is meant to empower the content developer by changing the current profit scheme that favors the content provider more than the developer. The obvious catch is to ensure this happens, the developers must register. [Read more on Marcelle's Blog]

[Update] Here’s an update on the NTC Memorandum Issue. Check it out for clarification about the issue.

A draft of a memorandum by the National Telecommunications Commision (NTC) has caught the attention of Pinoy bloggers as it states that the NTC is currently making plans of charging content providers for releasing “content” on the internet.

The memorandum states that all parties who develop content, information, applications, and electronic games over the internet are required to register and pay Php6000, plus Php300 for filing fee.