MANILA, Philippines — This is getting to be a regular occurrence.

A part of the archipelago gets too much rain. The next hours or days, that place gets submerged under a deadly mix of raging water, mud, rocks, and tree trunks. Dozens, if not hundreds, of people lose their lives. About twice that number remain missing and are never found or recovered.

Everybody, from local and national governments, religious groups, and media organizations, would be rushing to aid those most affected by the most recent catastrophe. Then, even before all the dead have been accounted for, every child given a packet of instant noodle, and all photo ops done and accomplished, the blaming game starts.

Everybody blames everybody else.

A closer look, indeed, proves this is correct. Everybody, after all, is to blame. From the guy who actually fell all the trees with a chainsaw, the guy who drove the bulldozer that leveled the mountain flat and cut a road through its heart, the moneyed capitalist in pursuit of more money, the government officials who took their cuts, and the people who turned their eyes away, unwilling or too afraid to "mess with" the usual business — everybody is to blame.

Except those little boys and girls, gone and perished before they could know what life is.

Alcatel's New Android Phone

Alcatel Philippines recently unveiled the Blaze Duo 890D Android smartphone. With a compact build, the 890D comes with a 2.8-inch touchscreen display, and is available in steel grey, electric orange, and in some local politicians' favorite color — fuchsia.

Alcatel's smartphone also offers WiFi, making it easy for subscribers to post their Twitter and Facebook updates. The world's most famous social media applications come preloaded. Meanwhile, support for dual-SIM makes this phone ideal for people who need to maintain two mobile personalities.

The Blaze Duo 890D runs on Android's 2.2 Froyo version, giving the phone's owners access to some 500,000 apps from the Android Marketplace. Alcatel's smartphone comes with a budget-friendly price of Php4,799.

Sony Launches PS Vita

Giving its home market the first crack at its latest handheld gaming console, Sony last week launched its PlayStation Vita in Japan. Featuring a 5inch LED touchscreen, two cameras, and a GPS receiver, the $320 PS Vita comes in WiFi- and 3G-equipped versions.

On the console's launch day, hundreds of consumers, mostly males between 20 and 30 years old, were falling in line at stores in Tokyo's famous Akihabara tech shopping district.

That's all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.