At Midfield By Ding G. Gagelonia

Operation Odyssey Dawn

2011-03-20T00:19:00.000-07:00

Operation Odyssey Dawn

So it is that the coalition mandated by the UN Security Council to protect Libyans from what France called "Gadhafi's murderous rule" has begun.
The goal is to clamp a no fly zone over Libya.

France began 'Operation Odyssey Dawn' overnight with fighter planes targeting Gadhafi's military assets on Libya's northern coast.
Now the USS Barry used Tomahawk cruise missiles at up to 20 surface-to-air missile batteries plus command-and-control sites.

Despite being demure about it, Odyssey Dawn is US led.
Resolution 1973 was itself drafted by the Americans.
To their credit, even the Arab Cooperation Council itself sought the no fly zone.
The coming days will show whether Gadhafi will be ousted.

The Return

2011-03-19T14:16:00.000-07:00

My apologies for being away. My home site has become locked and so much else has happened, both happy and sad.
But my commitment to try to make sense of events the impact our lives has not wavered.
I focus more now on the fate of OFWS and global events.
you will find my most recent writing on the Facebook page of FilipinoVoices.
For this 'homecoming' post, two items:
it looks like Gadhafi is dithering to buy time and even set up a blockade of Benghazi.
The UNSC coalition cannot pussyfoot. Enforce the no fly zone without delay.
On local matters. our government should accelerate help for our nurses here and abroad who continue to be exploited and discriminated against.
Failing to help them is a monumental disservice.
Civil society. the Philippine Nurses Association in particular cannot shirk from the moral obligation it has to our nurses and the whole of Philippine society.

Bravo, PAGASA

2010-10-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

The Aquino administration, PAGASA in particular, deserves every Filipino’s gratitude for the disaster mitigation efforts against mega typhoon Juan.

The damage it wrought on public and private is running upwards of P200 million and the death count is put by latest reports at 12, considerably lower given our horrendous experience from typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng.

As our officials see it:

Science Undersecretary Graciano Yumul (PAGASA OIC):

I think we were able to prove them wrong. The government’s preparedness and the people’s cooperation helped minimize the losses from Super-typhoon “Juan” (international codename: Megi), which made landfall in Isabela province on Monday. I think Typhoon Juan showed you Team Philippines. “The good thing about this is you saw a tremendous typhoon entering the country but the loss of lives—considering this is the strongest in the world—was basically minimal. The coordinated responses by the national and local governments and civil society to respond to the storm but also by individuals and families on the ground. They really made the difference.

President Benigno Aquino III:

I am very happy to report to the public that everyone has delivered. The thorough preparations of all concerned agencies are in marked contrast to the official helplessness of the past, and at present, we haven’t had to ask the public to contribute outside resources. To date, the needs of affected communities are being met. The damage and loss of life could have been much greater had we not prepared for the storm.
The damage and loss of life could have been much greater had we not prepared for the storm. The actions of the government and the people themselves shows what can be accomplished when we all cooperate to anticipate the needs of our people.

Following this success, there are suggestions that the government instead use the P600-M it was allocated for additional Doppler radars for other social services.

It will be a big mistake to do this.

We should not be lulled into the legendary Filipino ‘ningas cogon’ and ‘put-off-for tomorrow’ mindset.

Let’s build on this new-found ‘can do’ posture of PAGASA and fully develop it as a top caliber weather agency.
Equally misguided is a proposal for local government units to pool their calamity funds into interest-bearing mutual funds.

We can almost hear the flapping wings of money-hungry vultures at the ready to steal those public monies.

It is way too early to become complacent yet again.

Too much remains at stake.

Who Will Save Us From Underserving Telcos And The NTC???

2010-10-19T19:25:00.000-07:00

What’s almost as worse as having your home submerged underwater while being huddled, feeling cold and hungry this typhoon season?

For Filipino netizens, it’s being left high and dry by the Philippines’ scandalously rich telcos whose underdelivery of broadband data services conk out at the first heavy downpour!!!

A petty middle class worry?
Certainly not if such isolation from the information superhighway leaves you crippled and blind about how your loved ones are coping.

Not when your productivity becomes grossly impaired along with access to vital information in real time.

What compounds your hardship is after suffering the ordeal, you end up getting demand letters and threats of disconnection from the very same rapacious telcos!!!

Oh yes, there’s actually a government entity that’s supposed to protect us hapless working folk.

It’s called the National Telecommunications Commission.

However, don’t be deceived.

The NTC is famously insensitive to public complaints not to mention being graft-ridden.

You need only to consult broadcast industry engineering insiders to know how deals for radio frequency assignments are awarded along with Certificates of Public Convenience of fly by night radio stations despite the lack of congressional franchises.

Equally insidious is the way NTC regulatory powers have been used in the past for political arm-twisting to favor allies of those in power and harass enemies.

When will the war versus corruption and agenda of good governance make landfall at the NTC and stem the abuses of the telcos???

Super Typhoon Juan: Will PAGASA Now Mean Hope?

2010-10-17T03:29:00.000-07:00

The next three to four days will be the proverbial acid test for our ‘re-energized’ PAGASA – the Philippine Astronomic Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration in the aftermath of last year’s typhoon disasters that left more than 700 people dead, misery to millions and material damage from floods, and mudslides.

The accuracy of its tracking and severe warnings for super typhoon Juan with its center winds in excess of 200 kilometers per hour may very well signal PAGASA’s emergence from its Jurassic image if not the awakening of a sleeping giant as far weather forecasting capability goes.

For the first time, Filipinos are learning how dangerous storming warning number 4is as far as the amount of water may get dumped in the areas long it path and how it
augurs well for our water-starved dams.

There’s nothing we’d like more that to now associate PAGASA with hope rather than desperation and inefficiency.

One of the most important legacies the Aquino administration build during the next 28 months of its governance can surely be the weather services manned by properly compensated who will be the envy of our neighbor countries both for their expertise and the facilities are their disposal.

Filipinos deserve nothing less.

Immigration Cards As Vicky Belo Discount Cards???

2010-10-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

We are supposed to be starting on a brand new “matuwid na daan.”

But nothing best exemplifies the tough work still ahead for the Aquino government than this hare-brained commercialization of our immigration departure and arrival cards which have been converted as 10% discount cards for the cosmetic services offered by Dra. Vicky Belo.

Particularly galling is the flimsy excuse that the printing and distribution of the 30 million cards was resorted to because the Commission on Immigration and Deportation is in dire need of funds.

What were you thinking, ‘honorable’ ex-congressman Marcelino Libanan???

The firm which was given a long term contract allowing it to solicit advertisements for cards even tried to ingratiate itself with the new administration by printing President Aquino’s mug in the first edition of 30 million cards!!!
Mr. Aquino had the good sense to reject the stunt.

But lo and behold, the Belo edition rolled out days later.

I will bet you that there will now be an attempt to sweep this patently distasteful and illegal misappropriation of an official government form under the rug!!!

Who exactly made under the table mullah from the deal?

Will the crooks ever be prosecuted?

What say you ex-commissioner Libanan???

Padre Damaso And The 'Condom Summit'

2010-10-12T19:41:00.000-07:00

So the 'Philippine Condom Summit' has begun minus the acrimonious language from the embattled Catholic Church leaders who threatened to excommunicate the President and defy the legal program to give Filipinos freedom of choice in planning their family size.

The agreement forged at the condom summit's low profile start was for Church and State to keep communication lines open.

Their positions are not necessarily poles apart but with Philippine population ballooning, and Filipinos unwilling or unable to use the Church mandate for natural family planning (limiting sexual contact based on the female spouse's fertility cycle) the use of condoms by men and IUDs or birth control pils by women simply cannot be banned by the Church.

The Catholic Bishops Conference Of the Philippines that it cannot afford to be friar-like and intractable lest it become further alienated from the people.

The long sought Reproductive Health Bill is almost sure to be enacted in the 15th Congress and it will do good for the CBCP to actively participate in harmonizing the bill's five versions.

Many believe that even the passage of a divorce law will come sooner rather than later... and further into the future - legal abortion.

These weightier issues will surely be hard-fought and socially divisive.

For now, the Philuppine Catholic Church must regain the trust and confidence of its flock by actively helping fight poverty, and corruption.

This includes dipping into untaxed coffers to fund shelters for street children, broaden access to its exclusive schools and owning up to the immorality and other abuses of some of its own priests.

The stigma left by Padre Damaso must be erased for the Catholic Church to be embraced anew by its flock.

Rizal Park Bloodbath Findings: Closure Or Whitewash?

2010-10-11T18:09:00.000-07:00

So it is that the proverbial ax has been unsheathed in the wake of the Rizal Park hostage-taking bloodbath that left 8 Hong Kong tourists dead along with the hostage taker – dismissed police captain Rolando Mendoza.

From the earlier recommendation that 13 individuals be charged administratively or criminally, the list was pruned to seven.

Pres. Noynoy’s directives based on the review of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee:

• Refer to the National Police Commission (NAPOLCOM) the filing of appropriate charges against P/Supt. Rodolfo Magtibay for gross incompetence and serious neglect of duty (under Sec. 2, Rule 21 of the PNP Uniform Rules);
• Refer to the NAPOLCOM the filing of appropriate charges against Police Director Leocadio Santiago Jr. for less grave neglect of duty (under Sec. 2, Rule 21 of the PNP Uniform Rules);
• Refer to the NAPOLCOM the filing of appropriate charges against P/Supt. Orlando Yebra for neglect of duty (under Sec. 2, Rule 21 of the PNP Uniform Rules);
• Refer to the NAPOLCOM the filing of appropriate charges against Police Chief Inspector Santiago Pascual III for gross incompetence (under Sec. 2, Rule 21 of the PNP Uniform Rules);
• The initiation of administrative proceedings against Manila Mayor Alfreo Lim for misconduct in office and simple neglect (under Sec. 60 of the Local Government Code). His case will be referred to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) for appropriate proceedings;
• The initiation of administrative proceedings and investigation of Deputy Ombudsman Emilio Gonzales III by the Office of the President for neglect of duty and/or inefficiency in the performance of official duty (under Rule XIV, Sec. 22 of the Omnibus Rules Implementing Book V of E.O. 292 and other pertinent civil service laws, rules and regulations) and gross misconduct (under Sec. 3 of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act);
• Refer the IIRC Report to the House of Representatives for appropriate action in the case of Ombudsman Merceditas Guttierez;
• Instruct the Department of Justice to expedite the resolution of the serious disobedience and conspiracy in illegal detention cases currently lodged against SPO2 Gregorio Mendoza and to instruct the Manila Police District to file appropriate complaints for illegal possession of firearms and serious illegal detention as an accomplice of his brother Rolando Mendoza;
In the case of media, we view media as an effective partner in providing checks and balances, and to this end, allies in our goal of good governance. We will continue to champion freedom of the press as guaranteed in our Constitution. However, in this case, freedom was not tempered with appropriate responsibility in the behavior of Michael Rogas and Erwin Tulfo of RMN. Rogas interfered in the negotiations and effectively aided and supported the hostage taker by giving him a platform to air his demands. Tulfo, by his own admission, violated police instructions. Their behavior was irresponsible bordering on the criminal.

http://www.gov.ph/2010/10/11/statement-of-president-aquino-on-the-recommended-actions-after-reviewing-the-iirc-report-on-the-quirino-hostage-taking/

Not surprisingly, the bumbling police chief of Manila who was sacked early on bears the brunt of the administrative blame for how the rescue attempt was botched along with his police boss, the Metro Manila regional police chief.

Among the civilian officials, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim is also on the carpet for allegedly failing to convene the local crisis management committee.

People remember how Lim left the scene to eat at a Chinese restaurant and directed his police chief Leopoldo Magtibay to join him.

So it was from the restaurant that Magtibay monitored and stupidly try to direct ground operations by remote control.

So far so good, right?

But wait.

How come presidential buddy Rico Puno (DILG Undersecretary overseeing the national police) and then national police chief Jesus Versoza were cleared of any accountability???

Versoza, who was given an automatic one rank promotion upon his hurried retirement, left for Cagayan De Oro for a meeting on the afternoon of August 23 even as the gunman was brandishing his automatic rifle at his hapless captives and demanding his job back.

We’re being told that there was nothing wrong since Versoza’s regional police chief was mining thing.

But was this not an international incident already given how our government was committed to safeguarding the lives of foreign nationals on our shores???

As for Puno and his avowed lack of any knowledge in handling hostage-taking situations, wasn’t he the effective superior of General Versoza and the President’s alter ego in dealing with the crisis?

The two gentlemen aside, a third personality who’s not being held to account is Supt. Remus Medina, chief of the NCRPO’s Police Intelligence and Operations Unit who acted as the Liaison officer with the President.

Medina’s role on the ground, according to the facts:

44. At 7:35 p.m., upon orders of Magtibay, the SWAT headed by Police Chief Inspector Santiago Pascual III assaulted the bus. They tried to breach the bus by using sledgehammers. At this point, Mendoza fired at the assault team, forcing them to withdraw.
45. At the same time, the NCRPO Chief Santiago ordered that Medina take over the operations. Medina then ordered the SWAT to assault the bus from the front, while the SAF-CRG would assault the bus from the back.

So having taken over the directing the SWAT operations why was Medina not cited for administrative charges, too?

Unfortunately, it appears the decision on that blood-soaked snafu is shot full of holes bordering on a whitewash.

P-Noy's 1st 100 Days And Two Comunications Secretaries

2010-10-07T17:31:00.000-07:00

Was Communication Secretary Rocky Carandang unhappy with the 1st 100 Days Report of Pres. Noynoy Aquino?

Your Midfielder would think not considering that Carandang, whose journalistic credentials are rock solid, oversees the strategic and planning aspects of the renamed and reorganized Office of the Press Secretary.

In fact, it is safe to say that the manner the event was staged (at the La Consolacion College) and beamed on a national and international scale with P-Noy fielding questions from multiple locations, the broadcast was an unqualified success.

To the good Secretary goes a 5 stars rating for this.

This is why I was surprised about his curt reply to reporters’ questions about what he thought of the event:

You better ask (Communications Operations) Secretary (Herminio) Coloma.

I was taken aback by the statement.

Closely reviewing footage of the coverage, I now realized that Sec. Carandang was nowhere with camera range at the event as the presidential entourage entered to thundering applause and laudatory cheers.

Instead, it was Mr. Coloma, who entered together with the President, walking right behind Vice President Jejomar Binay.

As the audience sat down to hear that President, seated side by side on the very first row were Veep Binay and Sec. Coloma, both sporting wide smiles.

Nuff said, maybe I am just reading too much into the visuals.

Is The Noynoy-Shalani Romance Over?

2010-10-07T02:37:00.000-07:00

Filipinos are hopeless romantics.

So it is that as we are marking the first 100 days of the Republic’s first Bachelor President is a largely celebratory mood, a rumor is swirling – that P-Noy’s romance with Valenzuela city councilor Shalani Soledad has fizzled out.

The Facebook entry above peddles the ‘story’ and AM radio reports are airing blind items saying “Soledad” has been seen in the company of an unnamed local official on several occasion while “she has not been seen with her long-time boyfriend since P-Noy gave his first State of the Nation Address.”

In tongue-in-cheek fashion, many have observed repeated presidential references about his being a bachelor and that he’s not had a ‘honeymoon’ and that it’s been difficult for him to go out on a date.

Tell us it ain’t so, Mr. President.

Filipinos are ‘kilig’ (titillated) about the prospect of a presidential wedding and surely see yo and Soledad as a ‘perfect pair’.
Go for it. :D

P-Noy on First 100 Days: We're On Track; The Days Of The Corrupt Are Numbered

2010-10-06T21:08:00.000-07:00

Every Juan, Maria, and even Bitoy has his/her take on how our 15th President has performed in his first hundred days with critics, either well-intentioned or nurturing self-serving interests, giving Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III mixed reviews.

Those thumbing down the Bachelor President are impatient if not unhappy over issues like his perceived inability to crack the whip on the widely reported infighting among certain members of his official family or the pace at which basic services are being improved and institutional reforms are being pushed.

But is the 100-day ‘grading period’ a fair parameter upon which to judge P-Noy?

Certainly it isn’t and his missteps, real or not, will not define the Aquino Presidency.

He has 68 months to go – surely enough time for his promised poverty-mitigating and corruption-busting reforms to take root and even bear fruit.

If the latest survey is fairly accurate, P-Noy continues to enjoy the backing of seven in every ten Filipinos, his huge popularity buttressed by the Philippines’ economic vital signs.

Here’s the President’s report on his first 100 days (emphasis mine):

Message of His Excellency Benigno S. Aquino III
President of the Philippines
On The First Hundred Days of his Administration
(October 7, 2010, La Consolacion College, Manila)

Isandaang araw po ang nakalipas, nagpanata ako sa taumbayan: Hindi ko tatalikuran ang tiwalang kaloob ninyo sa akin. Ang nakalipas na isandaang araw ang magsisilbing tanda ng ating paninindigan.
Malalim at malawak po ang mga problemang minana natin. Nag-ugat ito sa isang gobyernong parang tatlong matsing na nagbingi-bingihan, nagbulag-bulagan, at gumawa ng sariling katotohanan.
Mali po ito. Ngayon, mayroon na po kayong gobyernong handang makipag-usap at magsabi ng totoo; handang makinig sa makabuluhang usapan; handang iangat ang antas ng pampublikong diskurso ukol sa mga isyung makaaapekto sa ating lahat, at maging sa mga darating na henerasyon.
Ang natamasa po natin ngayong unang isandaang araw ng ating panunungkulan: Mayroon na po kayong gobyernong hindi kayo binabalewala o inaapi.
Bumalik na po ang kumpyansa sa ating bansa. Tumatatag ang ating ekonomiya, at dahil dito, lumalago ang kaban ng ating bayan. Ang lahat ng inani at aanihin pa natin mula sa pinatibay na ekonomiya ng ating bansa, ibinabalik naman natin sa taumbayan upang tuluyan na tayong makaahon sa kahirapan. Binibigyan natin ng katuturan ang paggastos. Walang pisong dapat nasasayang.
Halimbawa po ang mga itinalagang opisyal sa mga GOCC. Naroon po dapat sila para pangalagaan ang interes ng taumbayan. Noon pong nakaupo sila doon, nilabag nila ang Memorandum Order 20, na pinirmahan noon pang Hunyo 2001. Inatupag po nila ang sariling interes na nagdulot ng pinsala sa interes ng taumbayan: nakakuha sila ng kung anu-anong mga bonus at allowance.
Ipinatutupad naman po natin ang Executive Order No. 7 na nagsuspinde sa lahat ng pribilehiyong iyon. Idiniin lamang po natin ang dapat naipapatupad na noong 2001. Sa isang kumpanya lang po tulad ng MWSS, ang napigil nating mahulog sa bulsa ng bawat opisyal ay umabot na sa dalawa’t kalahating milyong piso kada taon. Siyam po ang miyembro ng Board nila, at sa MWSS lamang po iyan. At ilan po ang mga GOCC, GFI, at mga ahensyang sakop ng EO No. 7? Isandaan, dalawampu’t dalawa (122) mga ahensya’t kumpanya.

Nariyan din po ang nangyayari sa mga kontrata tulad ng sa NAIA 3. Isipin lang po natin, tatlong administrasyon na ang dinaanan nito. Pang-apat na kami. Tumagal na po nang husto ang kasong ito, may mga pinaslang pa dahil dito. Kundi dahil sa mga tapat na nagmamahal sa bansa tulad nina Justice Florentino Feliciano at Justice Meilou Sereno, baka wala na ring pinatunguhan ang kasong ito. Sila po ang mga tunay na bida sa kaso, ngunit death threats pa po ang ibinayad sa kanila. Tila ba nagkulang sa aruga ang nakaraang gobyerno. Ngayon pong alam nilang suportado sila ng mga kapwa nilang nasa tuwid na landas, naresolba na po nila ang kontrata. Kung natalo po ang gobyerno natin rito, 990 million dollars ang nalagas sa ating mga pondo. 43.5 bilyong piso ang perang nailigtas nila at natin. Higit pa rito, mapapakinabangan na natin ang airport sa lalong madaling panahon.

Kung naaalala po ninyo, pinahinto natin itong negotiated contracts ng DPWH; pinarebid natin ito. Ginawa lang po natin kung ano ang tama, napigil na po natin ang paglustay ng 934.1 million pesos, at lumalabas na kung susunod tayo sa tamang proseso ay nasa 600 million pesos lang ang dapat gastusin sa mga proyektong ito. Nabalik po ang pera sa kaban ng bayan na kung pinahintulutan natin ang maling sistema ay natapon na naman sanang muli. Hindi lang po sa mga kalsada: sa DOTC, pinigil natin ang pagwaldas ng isang bilyong piso. Sa Department of Agriculture, 30 million at least ang natipid sa spectrometer na gusto sanang doblehin ang presyo. Lahat po iyan naibalik natin sa kaban ng bayan.

Meron pa po. May proyektong inaprubahan ang dating administrasyon, huhukayin daw nila ang Laguna de Bay para palalimin ito. Ang sabi raw dadami ang isda. Mas makakaiwas daw sa baha. Mas madali daw makakaikot ang mga bangka. Tatanggalin daw ang mga pollutant doon po sa Laguna de Bay. Ang tanong ko, saan ililipat ang lupa? Ang tatanggalin sa Laguna de Bay, itatambak lang din pala sa ibang bahagi ng Laguna de Bay. At magkano naman po ang uutangin ng gobyerno para rito? 18.5 billion pesos lang naman po. At pareho rin ang kuwento: Tila hindi na naman dumaan sa tamang proseso ang pag-apruba sa kontrata. Hindi natin dadaanin sa madaliang hokus-pokus ang proyektong ito. Pag-aaralan natin ito nang husto at sisiguruhing hindi masasayang ang pondong gagamitin para rito.

Napansin n’yo po ba, pati ‘yung weather forecasting gumanda? Napansin n’yo po ba na hindi na paulit-ulit ang mga mensahe ng PAGASA? Ngayon po, nakatutok na at mas malaman ang mga weather bulletin natin. Ang dating intermittent rainshowers across the country, ngayon, sasabihin na uulan sa ganitong lugar nang ganitong oras, delikadong lumabas.

Tama po na hindi pa kumpleto ang equipment natin. Pero ngayong nagsimula na po tayong magtrabaho, kakaunti na lang ang kulang na kagamitan. Maling sistema at maling palakad ang nangligaw sa pagtataya ng panahon. Ang mga update dati na dumarating kada anim na oras, kada oras na ngayon kung dumating. Marami po tayong binago sa PAGASA, at kasama na po rito ang bulok na sistema.

Nakita naman po natin ang katakut-takot na problemang minana natin, pero hindi po tayo natinag. Naisasaayos natin sa loob lamang ng isandaang araw ang hindi nagawa ng dating administrasyon sa loob ng tatlong libo, apat na raan, apatnapu’t walong (3,448) araw.

Hininto na po natin ang pagkatagal-tagal na sistema kung saan itinuloy nang itinuloy ang mga proyekto na walang sumisiyasat kung angkop ba o kung may katuwiran ba ang mga ito. Isinulong po natin ang zero-based budgeting. Ang sabi po namin, isa-isahin natin iyan. Kung hindi mo mapatunayang may saysay ka pa, tigil na ang ginugugol ng bansa sa iyo.

Ang mga Agricultural Input Subsidies na lalo lamang nagpayaman sa mayayaman na habang binalewala ang mga mahihirap; ang mga programa tulad ng Kalayaang Barangay at Kilos-Asenso na hindi naman inilatag nang malinaw kung ano ang prosesong dapat daanan, at kung saan napunta ang pera—inilipat po natin ang pondo ng mga ito tungo sa mga programang napatunayan nang nakakatulong sa taumbayan. Humigit-kumulang na labing-isang bilyong piso pa po ito na magagamit at mas mapapakinabangan natin lahat.
Sa edukasyon, kalusugan, at pag-ahon sa kahirapan po natin itinutok ang pondong natipid natin. Mula 175 billion pesos, umangat ang budget ng DepEd sa 207.3 billion pesos. Gugugulin po ito upang makabuo ng 13,147 bagong classroom, at ng sampung libong bagong teaching positions. Sa DoH, umangat mula 29.3 billion pesos ang budget papuntang 33.3 billion pesos, upang mapatatag ang National Health Insurance Program. Sa DSWD, lagpas doble na po ang budget, galing 15.4 billion pesos papuntang 34.3 billion pesos.

Ang punto po natin dito: Walang maiiwan. Hindi po tayo papayag na yayaman ang iilan habang nalulunod sa kahirapan ang karamihan.

Kaya nga po natin pinatatatag ang Conditional Cash Transfer Program. Salbabida po ito para sa mga nalulunod nating kababayan, upang makapunta na sila sa pampang ng pagkakataon at pag-unlad. Lampas doble po ang bilang ng mga pamilyang matutulungan ng Conditional Cash Transfers, mula isang milyong pamilya sa ngayon, tungo sa kabuuang 2.3 million na pamilya sa 2011.
Patuloy po ang ating tema ng pagbibigay ng lakas sa taumbayan. Dahil na rin po sa panunumbalik ng tiwala sa gobyerno, nabiyayaan ang KALAHI-CIDSS program ng dagdag na 59.1 million dollars—halos tatlong bilyong piso—mula sa World Bank. Sa programa pong ito, dadami pa ang komunidad na magkakaroon ng kuryente, kalsada, at malinis na tubig—mga proyektong ang taumbayan mismo ang nagpaplano at nagpapalakas.

Paulit-ulit po nating ididiin: trabaho ang pangunahing agenda ng ating administrasyon. At marami pong magandang balita ukol dito.
Lampas dalawang bilyong dolyar ang papasok na pera sa ating bansa mula sa mga foreign investors. Direkta po itong magbibigay ng 43,600 na trabaho sa mga Pilipino.

Simula pa lamang po iyan: Kung hindi natin sila papadaanin sa butas ng karayom, makukumbinsi pa po silang magnegosyo rito, at madadagdagan pa ang mga trabahong nalikha.

At manganganak pa po ng manganganak ang mga trabahong ito. Halimbawa, sa call center, kailangang panggabi ang trabaho. Kailangang magbukas ng kapihan, ng fastfood, ng mga convenience store. Hindi bababa sa dalawandaang libong bagong trabaho ang malilikha pa—kahit hindi ka marunong mag-computer, may pagkakataon ka sa dagdag na mga trabahong ito.

Trabaho din po ang idudulot ng mga Public-Private Partnerships na patuloy nating isinusulong. Nagtayo na po tayo ng PPP Center, kung saan ang mga gustong malikahok sa pagbabago ay mapapasailalim sa tapat, malinaw, at mabilis na proseso.

Mula sa pagpapahaba ng mga LRT Lines, hanggang sa pagpapatayo ng bagong paliparan na tutulong sa turismo, hanggang sa mga eskuwelahan na itatayo sa buong sambayanan, magsisimula na po ang bidding para sa mga ito sa loob ng mga susunod na buwan.

Kinikilala na ng pandaigdigang merkado ang pagtatag ng piso. All-time high po ang ating Gross International Reserves na umabot na sa 52.3 billion dollars noong ika-dalawampu ng Setyembre. Ang dati rati’y parang imposibleng maabot na Philippine Stock Exchange Index na 4,000, nalampasan natin. Kahapon lamang po, all-time high na naman ito na umabot sa 4,196.73 points. Ipinapakita nito ang kompyansa sa ating ekonomiya, sa ating mga mamamayan at sa ating pamahalaan. Kabilang na po ang ating PSE sa mga best-performing stock market sa buong Asya. At habang lumalakas ang piso at lumalago ang ekonomiya, steady lang naman po ang mga presyo ng ating mga bilihin.

Handang-handa na tayo po talaga sa pag-unlad.

Lahat po ito nagawa natin dahil nakasandal ang gobyerno sa inyong tiwala. At umaapaw na rin po ang tiwalang iyan sa buong daigdig.

Dalawang ulit na pong nag-apply ang Pilipinas para sa Millenium Challenge Corporation Grant. Sa unang tatlong buwan lang po ng administrasyon natin napaaprubahan ito. Ang sa kanila lamang po, aminado silang hindi natin maiwawasto agad ang lahat ng problema, pero naniniwala silang patungo na tayo roon. Sabi nila, gusto namin kayong matulungan para maabot ang inyong mga pangarap, heto ang 430 million dollars.

Pati po ang mga international organization tulad ng OECD, tinanggal na tayo sa listahan ng mga bansang kumukupkop ng mga tax evader. Maaari na tayong makakuha ng impormasyon na makakatulong sa paghuli sa mga tax evader na isinasagawa na po ng BIR.

Dahil na rin po sa panibagong tiwalang nangingibabaw sa pamahalaan, dumadami ang mga tumutulong sa pamamagitan ng pagbibigay ng mga tip tungkol sa katiwalian. Sumasaksi sila sa maling pangyayari, para makatulong sa ating paghahabol ng demanda.

Halimbawa, sa bagong-tayo na Pera ng Bayan website, isa-isa nang lumilitaw ang mga taong makatutulong sa atin upang tugisin ang mga smuggler at tax evader.

Ibinabalik ng mga hakbang na ito ang kumpiyansa ng daigdig sa Pilipinas.

Nagkakaisa nang muli ang ating lipunan, at ang nananatili na lang na parang sirang-plaka na paulit-ulit ang reklamo ay ang mga gustong bumalik sa poder upang ituloy ang kanilang ligaya na nagmumula sa ating pagkaapi.

Sila na nga ang nagdulot sa atin ng mga problemang pinapasan natin ngayon, sila pa ang may ganang bumanat nang bumanat sa atin. Papansinin ba ninyo sila?
Magpapalinlang ba kayo muli?

Hindi po kami nagbibiro sa pagtahak sa tuwid na landas. Kayong mga mali ang palakad at pinipinsala ang mga kababayan natin, may taning kayong lahat.

Ito pong mga problemang pinangako nating solusyonan, tatlong buwan pa lang nakikita na ninyong nabubuo ang solusyon. At ang inyong tiwala po ang pundasyon ng lahat ng ating naabot sa loob lamang nitong tatlong buwan ng panunungkulan.

Mula pa noong kampanya, ibinato na po sa atin ang lahat ng puwedeng ibato sa loob at labas na yata ng Revised Penal Code. Pati po ang buhok natin ginawang isyu. Dahil siguro binata pa tayo, hindi na tayo binigyan ng honeymoon.

Gusto talaga tayong gibain ng mga taong nais mapanatili ang lumang sistema, kung saan para silang mga dambuhalang buwayang nagpapakasasa sa kaban ng bayan.

Binabatikos lang naman po tayo dahil may iilan na naghahanap ng paraan para magpatuloy ang siklo ng mali. Alam din naman po nila ang tama, hindi pa nila maatim gawin. Mayroon po talagang mga nag-aambisyon na makabalik sa poder, nag-aambisyon na panatilihin ang sistemang sila lang ang nakikinabang, mga kapit-tuko sa puwesto na nakikinabang sa lumang sistema—mga taong gusto lamang ituloy ang kanilang ligaya, habang binabalewala naman ang sakripisyo ng taumbayan.

At tayo naman po: tuloy na tuloy ang laban. Hindi po tayo titigil.

Kung mayroon po tayong pagkukulang, ito marahil ay ang hindi natin naging kaugalian
na ipamalita ang mga tagumpay na ating nakamit. Mas binibigyan natin ng halaga ang paghahanap ng mga paraang makatutulong sa ating mga kababayan. Kitang-kita naman po ng taumbayan ang resulta ng ating pagtatrabaho: talagang nakagagalak ng puso itong satisfaction rating na seventy one percent. Natural po, sa inyo ang tagumpay na ito—sa bawat Pilipinong nagtitiwala at nakikilahok sa ating agenda ng pagbabago.

Ang patuloy ko pong panata: Hindi tayo titigil. Habang dumarami tayo sa tuwid na landas, dumadali naman po ang tungkulin nating itama ang mali.

Hinding-hindi po tayo titigil sa tuwid na landas. Unti-unti na pong natutupad ang ating mga pangarap.

Maraming salamat po. Magandang umaga sa lahat.

A closing note – while we Filipinos, pundits all, are ‘grading’ the President, let’s also look at the mirror and assign a grade for we ourselves have contributed to better Philippine society.

The Lord's Prayer

2010-10-05T15:18:00.000-07:00

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 11:1-4.

He was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test."

Bounty-Driven Crime Solution

2010-10-04T22:38:00.000-07:00

The headlines are saying that there is now a P1.2-M reward fund for information leading to the solution of last month’s grenade bombing just outside De Ls Salle University while the law fraternities and sororities were making merry to boost the morale of their friends.

The bounty pot was started by a P200-K offer from the UTOPIA law fraternity of Ateneo (which reportedly counts no less than Chief Justice Fenato Corona as its most prominent ‘brod’).

The additional P1,000,000 has now been pledged anonymously.

CJ Corona has rightly denounced the bombers as “criminals without souls” and DLSU says it will no longer host the bar exams.

There are calls for the fiesta-like and violence-prone to be banned while UST and UP Diliman are being considered to host the bar exams.

The NBI is working with the Manila Police District, following the cue of Justice Secretary Leila De Lima to carelessly narrow its roster of suspects to members of warring brotherhoods.

Filipinos have only but admiration for law student Raissa Laurel who lost both her legs barbarous attack but is determined to pursue her studies, drawing power from her faith in the Lord.

Indeed the resolution of the incident will bring justice not only to Raissa by the 43 others wounded in the bombing.

However, what worries your Midfielder is that is has seemingly become de rigueur for police sleuthing work to be prodded on with bounties.

What happens to the unpublicized suffering of ordinary folk whose loved ones
brutalized or even murdered by the ‘haves’ with no sympathizers putting up bounties or to not have ‘connections in high places’???
The news media do help considerably as in the case of the sensational but still dragging Maguindanao massacre and recent gang rapes.

But on a massive scale the families of countless destitute victims feel, and know, that police drag their feet or even withhold evidence unless their hands are greased and pockets are lined with offers of material reward.

In my book this is called crime solution for sale if not outright ‘extortional justice’.

The Bishops Bite Their Tongue, For Now

2010-10-04T16:24:00.000-07:00

There’s a truce in our local version of the global ‘condom wars’.

From the CBCP comes this story:

An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said they are withdrawing from giving “unnecessary statements” until a formal dialogue is finally held.
“We respect the request of Malacañang for a ceasefire to calm everybody… and as we wait for a face-to-face dialogue with the bishops and the president,” said Fr. Melvin Castro, executive secretary of the CBCP’s Commission on Family and Life.
He said the “ceasefire” will be a good opportunity for both parties and the public as well to take time and carefully study the matter.
Castro said they are already preparing for a “bigger” dialogue between the prelates and the Aquino administration.
Castro also stressed that their silence does not mean that they are already foregoing their strong position on the RH bill.
“It does not mean that the Church is compromising (its position). It simply means that it is good there’s this lull moment to pause, to assess things and to pray and hope for a genuine dialogue,” he said. (CBCPNews).

It’s good that the Catholic prelates are tempering what Filipinos feel is their ‘friar-like’ hubris in asserting ‘moral’ control over the free choice of Filipino couple to use either the ‘rhythm method’ of limiting the number of their progeny and the use of condoms by virile men and intra-uterine-devices (IUDs) by women of child-bearing age.

The bishops must know all-too-well that opinion surveys are lopsidedly against their ‘in-the-box’ doctrine.

The negative public sentiment has been stoked even further by the clumsy if not irresponsible use of the E-threat (excommunication) against a hugely popular president who understands that poverty, which he aims to cut by 50-percent by 2015 (as committed by RP in the UN Millennium Development Goals , is aggravated by our ballooning population (project to reach 120-M in two decades if not earlier).

The CBCP cannot credibly assert that its faithful are obey the edict “pigilin ang panggigigil’ (control the sex urge) nor does it have a responsive program to ease poverty given its rich coffers that swell from tax-free donations and business earnings.

Let the Condom Summit preparations move forward in earnest!

CBCP To Question Condom Plans' Constitutionality?

2010-10-04T01:23:00.000-07:00

The battle for the hearts and minds of Catholic Filipino couples over the free choice of using state-provided artificial birth control tools like condoms is heating up as the week begins.
Now the Catholic Church says its civil disobedience push will include mobilizing it’s laity groups like the Couples for Christ and even Parish-based organizations while hinting at a formal legal challenge to the constitutionality of the government’s espousal of the U.S.-supported “responsible parenthood” program.

Here’s what’s now on the web site of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (emphasis mine):

Church leaders say ‘civil disobedience a possibility’
MANILA, Oct. 3, 2010—Catholic leaders said civil disobedience is an option that can be considered by the Church should President Benigno Aquino make good of his promise to hand out artificial birth control devices.
Church leaders, in separate interviews said bishops and priests have the moral authority to teach and lead the faithful based on Church teachings.
Aquino has earlier said during a small town meeting in the United States that he may consider contraceptive methods to curb population even though it runs counter to the natural methods being promoted by the Catholic Church.
Artificial contraception is a moral issue and Church leaders said civil disobedience is an important option that maybe considered to bring the Church’s message to the current leaders.
“The Catholic Church in the Philippines can do that if it decides to do that because for one thing, civil disobedience is a moral option, one of the moral options,” said CBCP Secretary General Msgr. Juanito Figura in an interview with CBCP News.
He explained civil allegiance is the respect given by the people to the state and the laws of the state “and according to Church principles, we should do that but according to the same Church principles, if a law or a state policy is against Christian teachings, persons, Christians, Catholics are not bound by conscience to obey that.”
He said this is the very foundation of civil disobedience.
“When a law or state policy or state program is not in consonance with what the faith teaches so from that perspective, if the local church in the Philippines or the hierarchy in the Philippines decide to call for disobedience because of this possibility of enacting the controversial Reproductive Health bill and the distribution of artificial contraceptives the bishops would have a moral reason to do that,” he further added.
Figura said they have not received any call or letter from the Office of the President for a dialogue on the controversial issue although it was published in the papers that an audience with the Catholic bishops is being prepared.
“We have not received any communication so far,” the secretary general said, adding that it may be a good idea for Aquino to seek a dialogue with the Catholic bishops.
The previous administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had a liaison officer who was in constant touch with the CBCP secretariat.
But Figura said he is not sure if the present government “would appoint somebody to the position.”
CBCP Media Director Msgr. Pedro Quitorio said only once it happened in the history of CBCP that the Church called for civil disobedience.
“Since the CBCP was established in 1945 until today there was just a single event that called for civil disobedience and this was after the February 7, 1986 snap elections,” Quitorio said.
But the actual civil disobedience did not take place because it was “overtaken” by events.
He emphasized that the CBCP has not called for any mass action so far.
Quitorio said he doesn’t know of any forthcoming meeting with President Aquino and the archbishops and bishops to discuss the controversial issue.
On his part, San Fernando de Pampanga Auxiliary Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, expressed alarm on the statement President Aquino’s made while in the United States.
“Alam kaya ni Presidente Noy na marami sa artificial methods na iyan ay abortifacients na ang ibig sabihin ay they were designed not only to prevent conception but terminate a conceived child because once you already have a fertilized embryo you already have a human being,” the prelate explained.
The prelate said the 1987 Constitution guarantees the protection of the unborn as it is the duty of the state from the moment of conception.
“It is therefore unconstitutional to promote methods that terminate conception,” he explained. He said the country’s leadership seems bent on following the templates from highly developed countries which already backfired and failed.
“These countries have already taken a new approach to population management because they have already experienced a demographic winter,” the 51 year-old prelate added.
He said these developed countries should not force developing countries to suffer from their earlier experience.
“These countries are threatened by issues concerning geopolitics or an issue of power that their population may be overtaken by developing countries,” he further explained.
The prelate added the developed countries may become totally dependent on migrant workers.
Lingayen-Dagupan Auxiliary Bishop Renato Mayugba said the bishops may not anchor their statements on faith but on the country’s existing Constitution which calls for the protection of the unborn child from the time of conception.
“If the government will pursue programs that run counter to the provisions of the Constitution, it would simply mean violating the country’s constitution,” the 54-year old prelate said.
Meanwhile, Lipa Archbishop Ramon V. Arguelles called on the faithful of his ecclesial province to prepare to mobilize the laity for mass actions against the movement of the Aquino government to push for the passage of the controversial Reproductive Health bill and all population control measures.
In a text message to his flock from Italy, the archbishop said they are in solidarity with the lay faithful of Cebu in its opposition to the planned introduction of artificial methods to the Filipino families. (Melo M. Acuna)
http://www.cbcpnews.com/?q=node/13320

ATENEO LEGAL EAGLES OFFER 200K REWARD FOR INFO IN BAR EXAM BOMBING CULPRITS

2010-10-03T00:03:00.000-07:00

A leading group of alumni of the Ateneo College of Law is offering a P200,000 rewards for "anyone who can provide information that will lead to the early resolution, and apprehension of the suspect/s in, the bombing incident during last Sunday's Bar Exams."

Here is UTOPIA's press statement in full:

"The Fraternal Order of Utopia, a fraternity based in the Ateneo Law School, is offering a reward of P200,000 to anyone who can provide information that will lead to the early resolution, and apprehension of the suspect/s in, the bombing incident during last Sunday's Bar Exams.
Tony Bernardo, former Customs commissioner. Utopia condemns in the strongest terms the irresponsible act of the perpetrators which caused injuries and sufferings to many young people, whose aspirations to become lawyers have been adversely affected by this dastardly and cowardly act. Utopia hopes that those responsible for this unforgivable crime will soon be apprehended and brought to justice. Utopia commits its all out support to the ongoing investigation being conducted by the Supreme Court."

Refer to Tony Bernardo, (09178446887)
Chairman, Fraternal Order of Utopia Alumni Asoc.

Statement of the Clergy of Manila on Action of Mr. Celdran at Manila Cathedral

2010-10-02T20:21:00.000-07:00

We, the clergy of the Archdiocese of Manila, express our disapproval and condemnation of the protest action done by a Mr. Carlos Celdran at the Manila Cathedral in the midst of the Ecumenical Prayer Service and the Eucharistic Celebration to mark the second anniversary of the May They Be One Program of the Episcopal Commission on Bible Apostolate of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines on September 30, 2010.

Mr. Celdran willfully and with premeditation executed his protest inside the Manila Cathedral the church of the Archbishop and the seat of the Archdiocese of the Manila. The church is the Mother Church in the Archdiocese and is the central place for worship of the entire flock of the Archdiocese. This is the church where the past Archbishops of Manila are buried (in its crypt). This is where the Cathedra (seat) and the seal (coat of arms) of the Archbishop of Manila are displayed to symbolize his office, an appointment that comes directly from the Holy See.

We condemn in particular the blatant disrespect he displayed towards His Eminence Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales, Archbishop of Manila, the Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines Archbishop Edward Joseph Adams and the bishops and priests and representatives of other religions present during the worship service. He disrupted the religious proceedings which included reading from the Sacred Scriptures, and preened in front of the altar with his offensive poster. Unstopped (because no one was prepared for such brazen action) he repeatedly pointed his poster towards the religious leaders and at the sacred altar, and at one time even shouted. When he was being peaceably led out of the Cathedral he shouted invectives.

These actions cannot by any means be considered within the purview of freedom of expression. Instead they were malicious acts directed towards a Faith, a Religion that was represented by its leaders and the faithful gathered. It was desecrating a consecrated place, as every Catholic church or chapel is consecrated by sacred rites. His right to protest in this manner ended after he entered the doors of the Manila Cathedral. May we point out too that he likewise disrespected our National Hero, Jose Rizal, by assuming the hero’s looks to perpetuate his shameful deed.

We demand that the Intramuros Administration make him account for his actions since Mr. Celdran is a tour guide who operates within its confines. We pray for him that he may receive enlightenment and have remorse for what he has done.

Source:
http://www.rcam.org/Homilies/2010/statement_of_the_clergy_of_Manila.html

Coming Soon: The Condom Summit?

2010-10-02T18:57:00.000-07:00

The Catholic Church, long held as THE DOMINANT (if not domineering)influence in the life of Philippine society which is variously estimated as 90-98% Christian, has tempered somewhat its widely reported threat to excommunicate Pres. Aquino, and by implication, other Catholics who will subscribe to the governments "freedom of choice" program making condoms and other contraceptive options to Filipinos.

No less than CBCP president, Bishop Nereo Odchimar, 'clarified' at week's end that his excommunication remark was "misreported" by the usual whipping boy - the news media.

Responding to the 'clarification, Malacanang is restating its readiness "to dialogue with the Church."

We do not know yet what form the 'dialogue' will take but we think there won't necessarily be 'Condom Summit' but a more politically correct packaging.

One party who is not changing his tune is tourist guide and Twitter activist Carlos Celdran whose Padre Damaso-dressed-as-Jose-Rizal stunt gave face to many Filipinos sentiment over the Church's seeming violation of the constitutionally-enshrined separation of State and Church.

Of course not everyone praised Celran with not a few saying he not just disrupted the religious service at Manila Cathedral.

"Celdran insulted us and disrespected our faith," quite several dear friends told your Midfielder.

They may actually be correct in trashing the disrespectful stunt Carlos used to deliver his message... but I think the message itself warning against what I'd call the dangerous return of the 'friar mentality'cannot be blithely ignored.

So Celran was allowed to post a P6,000 bail for his temporary freedom in relation to the charge filed by a security guard of the Manila Cathedral.

Given the upcoming Condom Summit (pardon the pun), I foresee the case's withdrawal to finally clear the air.

To its credit, the Aquino administration is marking its 100th day in office by preventing a full blown public quarrel with the Catholic Church.

A footnote: CBCP knows obly too well that quite other influential Christian denominations have seen their flock swell in recent years if not decades, not least among them the Iglesia Ni Kristo and the so-called Born Again congregations of El Shaddai and Jesus Is Lord whose "Servant Leaders" continue to nurture presidential dreams.

Free Carlos Celdran

2010-09-30T23:18:00.000-07:00

At Midfield joins the call for the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines to drop the charges filed against Celdran over his protest action.

Carlos Celdran represents the sentiments of many Filipino Catholics who reject the Church's threat of mounting a civil disobedience campaign against the government police of giving free couples the free choice of family planning options, inclu access to use of contraceptives.

I am against abortion and the use of contraceptives by no means encourage the murder of fetuses.

Free Carlos Celdran now.

No to the return of Padre Damaso!!!

Excommunication,Modern-day Padre Damasos, and Contraception

2010-09-30T21:36:00.000-07:00

The quite reckless statement from a prelate warning that the President was ricking excommunication by his support for couples to free choose contraceptive options is whipping up quite a storm, it seems.

Online activist and exponent of walking tours in Manila’s historic sites, Carlos Celdran, gave vent to the dismay of many Catholics about how certain prelates are posturing like much reviled Spanish colonial era Friars.

The great Jose Rizal had immortalized the ‘Frayle’ in his revolutionary masterpiece Noli Me Tangere where Padre Damaso typified the oppressive and manipulative prelates that dominated Philippine life for over 300 years.

There is now what appears to be a retraction of the reported excommunication threat against P-Noy but people are angry over how Celran has been jailed for expressing his sentiments as a private citizen.

Articles 132 and 133 of the Revised Penal Code stipulates that the crime of “Interruption of religious worship.” Will be meted “the the penalty of prision correccional in its minimum period shall be imposed upon any public officer or employee who shall prevent or disturb the ceremonies or manifestations of any religion. If the crime shall have been committed with violence or threats, the penalty shall be prision correccional in its medium and maximum periods.
Art. 133. Offending the religious feelings. — The penalty of arresto mayor in its maximum period to prision correccional in its minimum period shall be imposed upon anyone who, in a place devoted to religious worship or during the celebration of any religious ceremony shall perform acts notoriously offensive to the feelings of the faithful.”

While he can post bail, Celdran is refusing to and is asserting tat his protest was an exercise of free speech.

l have to see how this plays out.

But a thoroughly valid, albeit indignanr question to ask is this: while the
Fathers are posturing high and mighty, moralizing and threatening us
with excommunication what about the Fathers who fathered now fatherless
children???

Civil Disobedience VS Free Choice?

2010-09-29T17:17:00.000-07:00

Let’s be blunt.

With our population growing ballooning by one million souls each year and 9 in 10 statistically listed as Christians, just exactly how long will the Catholic Church continue to figuratively, and literally, have its cake and eat it too???

The Church’s threat to wage a campaign of civil disobedience over the State policy of giving the citizenry free choice in the matter of planning their family, including getting government-funded condoms, smacks of outright meddling in governance and the delivery of health services.

This is not to argue against the teaching that children are God-given blessings nor is this a brief for practices that are lead to the abortion of fetuses.

But how is it the our religious shepherds can meddle in secular concerns while ignoring the harsh reality that that they are failing in the primary task of educating, nay, guiding and making their flock follow the Catholic edict that parents’ temper their reproductive urges, whether or not induced by love, with their practical capacity to raise their innocent progeny.

Sure the Church runs token shelters and orphanages, but the truth is the countless children neglected or abandoned by their Christian parents become street urchins who beg for a living while also being victimized by criminals, pedophiles included!!!

Oh sure, there are schools run by religious orders but we are only too familiar with how the high matriculation fees further elitism in the educational system if not Philippine society as a whole.

I wish we had ready statistics about how parochial schools impact on the educational system.

But in the main, what leaves this writer disconsolate, if not angry, is the fact that our Catholic shepherds are loudly sounding like promoters of a theocracy while being unable to minister to the herd in meaningful and life changing meanings ways.

Civil disobedience against lawful government laws and programs?

This I’ll have to see.

What Are We Jueteng For?

2010-09-29T02:09:00.000-07:00

This is really about talking the talk and walking the walk on the issue, nay, the promise that the Republic’s 100-day-old 15th President ran on and overwhelmingly won - the eradication of corruption.

It was THE political race that ended the 9-year-long reign of be-moled and petite Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and told Filipinos that “you can now dream again for a better life, living behind crooked ways and walking the straight and narrow path.

This is very well the central point in what’s being called Juetengate 2010 with the dramatis personae involving a crusading retired bishop, downtrodden ‘whistle blowers’ with death threats perpetually hounding them, big and small-time politicians tagged as ‘illegal’ gambling lords, and yes, the Presidential practical shooting buddy who doubles up as undersecretary in charge of the national police.

Government insists that LGU- supervised Small Town Lottery and legally-franchised Jai-Alai are the antidote to jueteng but the truth is the two projects have simply become cover activities for jueteng and a companion variant, 'Lot-Teng’, to milk poor bettors of their hard-earned money.

So illegal gambling, rigged and pervasive, steals from the poor and lines the pockets of corrupt policemen and politicians with bribes amounting to billions of pesos enough to fund political campaigns and even new ‘kapilyas’ from Catholic dioceses!

It’s time to end the hypocrisy about jueteng.

It cannot and will not end as an illegal activity for so long as the government rakes in revenue from legal high-roller gambling activities under the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation whose core operations are envisioned to be the magnet for tourism.

Let us legalize Jueteng now and remove the seeming mystic that draws Filipinos to it – the fact that it’s illegal and is done on the fly while being the source of livelihood from bet-taking barangay runners.

The revenue potential from legal jueteng has been conservatively estimated at P 30 to 35B, a full 10 % of the burgeoning national budget deficit.

Let’s do this.

The Barbarians

2010-09-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia defines a barbarian as “is an uncivilized person with the noun “often used pejoratively, either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage. In idiomatic or figurative usage, a "barbarian" may also be an individual reference to a brutal, cruel, warlike, insensitive person.

While fraternity men use the term to heap scorn on non-joiners unwilling to be subjected to violent and inhuman initiation rites, your Midfielder strong feels that the real barbarians are the hoodlums behind that grenade throwing incident on the last day of the bar exams at De La Salle University.

The toll from the carnage: 44 injured from grenade and shattered bottle shrapnel that so severely wounded to female law students whose legs have had to be amputated from the knee down.

If the attack was not the work of barbarians, nay, criminals, then something is terribly wrong with Philippine society.

Just over the weekend, four fratmen, suspects in the fatal hazing of a neophyte, had the criminal charges against them dismissed for supposed lack of probable cause.

Fair or not, the public's knee-jerk reaction is the suspects in the Makati hazing were cleared because they are members of APO (Alpha Pi Omega) that ‘coincidentally’ is the brotherhood to which Atty. Jejomar Binay, the Vice President, belongs.

Verily, owing to the violent initiations they endure, fraternity members literally become blood brothers for life.

They support each other professionally and those who become business and political big wigs can always count on their brods’ support.

But what price does society have to pay as these hooligans walk the path toward ‘greatness’???

Exhibit A – the barbarous incident at DLSU.

The Inverted Flag Snafu

2010-09-26T15:46:00.000-07:00

Filipino netizens, hecklers,pundits and honestly patriotic individuals are raising their hackles over how the Philippine tricolor was displayed in the legally mandated wartime red-field-over-blue manner during the 2nd US-ASEAN Leaders Meeting hosted in New York by Pres. Barack Obama.

People are angry over the breach of diplomatic protocol with the blame being leveled on the team of President Noynoy Aquino for failed to spot the error and correct it.

Detractors have, not surprisingly, been quick to pounce on such missteps given the immense popularity of Aquino who trumped his electoral rivals by a wide margin on the back of a promise to rid government of the corruption and widely known opaque governance style of highly unpopular former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The US Embassy in Manila is red-faced for its government:

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Rebecca Thompson: "This was an honest mistake. Tthe U.S. treasures its close relationship and close partnership with the Philippines. We will find out how the "unfortunate" incident happened."

DFA spokesman Ed Malaya: "The Philippine government understands that it was an honest error that "should not detract from the true significance of the summit, which showed the unprecedented cooperation between the ASEAN and the U.S."

The snafu aside, methinks the 'inverted flag incident' cannot overshadow immense goodwill for the Philippines generated by Mr. Aquino's week-long official visit which saw Aquino champion the call for "Global People Power" to help attain Millennium Development Goals to fight poverty, push better health and education in the developing world, and sustain much needed development aid.

Both their schedules were tight but Presidents Aquino and Obama still had a one-on-one meeting lasting for 7 minutes on the first visit to America of the new Filipino leader.

Aquino supporters note this is in sharp contrast to how Arroyo vainly tried to have a face-to-face with Obama in the waning days of her rule and had to settle for a session at the State Department with Hillary Clinton.

Arroyo was finally received at the White House just before she stepped down, but with the occasion only an official trip and not a State Visit with all the attendant pomp and pageantry.

Aquino will be coming home with hopes of new job-creating American business investments plus the new release of 434-M dollars aid package from the US Millennium Challenge Corporation which froze its release to the Arroyo regime for failing to meet committed targets.

So there.

The Need: Political Will To Match Presidential Rhetoric With Action

2010-09-24T22:14:00.000-07:00

The President is finally getting his stride as his young administration marks the 100th day since it took oe reins of power from the widely unpopular and nearly opaque rule of the women who has slid down as opposition member of Congress representing her Central Luzon province.

Bouncing back from the botched Rizal Park hostage crisis mishandled by his lieutenants as “a local crisis incident, Benigno Simeon Cojuangco III this week asserted presidency authority to stop the demolition of squatter shanties in a
Quezon City district that saw hard hat-wearing ‘hoodlums’ (they acted like ones) from the National Housing Authority engage in a stone-throwing battle with irate “informal settlers”.

The anarchy, which saw part of EDSA blocked for hours, broke out as NHA attempted to meet its contractual commitment to hand over the property to the realty development firm Ayala Land.

Quezon City police were nowhere to found to prevent the chaos!!!
Ayala Land, whose top honcho is lead supporter of the President, intends to develop the 43-hectare triangle shaped proper in Barangay Pag-asa (hope) into a multi-use central business district that promises to bring in much needed money that will go to our revenue hungry national coffers.

While there is no question about the legality of the project, what angers the stubborn squatters is the undeniable fact that Quezon City politicos, including newbie mayor Herbert ‘Bistek’ Bautista, supposedly promised that they “won’t be evicted” even as they were illegally occupying public land.

The squatters are wrongly claiming property right to the North Triangle property with “professional squatting syndicates reportedly involved in installing urban poor settler who’ve even put up businesses in the area.

In halting the demolition activity, President Aquino has now asked NHA (which is under the Office of the President) to revisit and improve its ongoing relocation plan which already includes a new homesite in Montalban, Rizal where the core houses are nearing completion along with medical, educational, and livelihood laid out.

This week, Mr. Aquino also debuted on the world stage via the United Nations General Assembly and the US-Asean Leaders’ Meeting.

His call for “global people power” to help attain Millennium Development Goals was rich with statesmanlike rhetoric al promises that his administration will, through anti-corruption reforms and banner Private-Public Partnership that will mobilize developmental investments that will create new, properly-paying jobs and solidly bring down poverty.

While both well meaning observers and the political opposition loyal to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo are giving Aquino bad reviews, the dominant mood among Filipinos remains one of hope that their Bachelor President will deliver on his “Matuwid na Daan” pledge.

We certainly hope that President realizes his success, our success as a people, will hinge in the next five years to choosing the right people, chopping off the heads of the incompetent and unresponsive bureaucrats, stopping his aides perceived or actual turf wars and character differences, and fine-tuning his good governance messaging.

Filipinos await Mr. Aquino’s exercise of political will to match his words with resolute action.

Exploiting Filipino Urban Poor

2010-09-23T18:10:00.000-07:00

The ‘politically correct’ term now being used now is ‘informal settlers’ instead of squatters.

But the double talk did little to change the fact that the Quezon City North Triangle area turned into into a war zone with the squatters resisting their transfer to a resettlement site 23 kilometers away in Montalban, Rizal engaged in a stone-throwing spree to keep demotion men of the National Housing Authority from tearing down their shanties.

As anarchy prevailed, the stretched of EDSA bordering TriNoMa was forcibly closed.

But what’s galling is now the government of Quezon City which tolerated the entry of squatters into the public property and actively courted the residents’ vote in the last elections is now washing its hands of any moral responsibility to convince the squatters to peaceably vacate the area.

The picture that emerges, rightly or wrongly, is that commercial interests matter more than helping the urban poor.

There is no question that the squatters do not have any legal claim on the property.

But our politicians are, at the very least, being mentally dishonest in dealing with the squatters whom they exploited politically but are now blind to their troubles and simply tags them as "professional squatters"!

That maybe true in certain instances.

But the truth is the government also makes money from the business that spout within the squatter areas.

Shame on you!!!

Will The NFA Close Shop?

2010-09-22T22:13:00.000-07:00

Most of us have been transfixed on juetengate 2010 and the striptease routine in the release of the report into the botched rescue of a busload of foreign tourists.

Now it’s time to read this:

For years, the National Food Authority has been the guaranteed buyer of palay from Filipino farmers and buffer importer of rice to the tune of 20-plus percent of the total rice supply in the market and making prices stable.

But while we were not watching, the National Food Agency has seen its requested P15 billion allocation in the 2011 budget slashed by the Cabinet to P8 billion.
Simple belt tightening to curb the budget deficit?

Not really it seems.

The budget has actually been strangely transferred it to the DSWD without prior consultation with NFA officials.

Answer me the question:

How is it that the DSWD itself will now become involved in rice importation minus any track record of conducting such activities?

NFA Administrator Lito Banayo is warning of a looming shortage of NFA rice for the poor should the Aquino administration fail to release the remaining P6 billion budget of the agency.

"We’re close to putting up the shutters on our retail operations. If the DBM (Department of Budget and Management) will not release our remaining budget this year, we will have to close Batanes, Aurora, Masbate, Catanduanes, the entire CAR (Cordillera Administrative Region), Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan, Bohol, Cebu, all of Regions 8 and 9. Even Coron and Busuanga will be closed for selling rice.

Banayo notes that of the NFA’s total allocation of P8 billion for 2010, only P2 billion has been released.

This was surprisingly decided on at Cabinet level as domestic production of palay is projected to be flat as previous events last year and this year will just even out with bad weather conditions having brought down second quarter farm production by 2.18 percent and by 2.88 percent in the first quarter of the year.

Banayo admits that the NFA has been losing money from selling cheap rice at prices below the purchase price. Records show that NFA losses had ballooned to P177 billion of which P54 billion consisted of suppliers’ credit.

"We cannot do anything about that. It is our mandate to ensure there is food for the poor, to provide a way for poor people to have something decent on their table," Banayo says.

Banayo is worried about the prospects of the proposed 2011 budget based on a restructured NFA.

The DBM has slashed the proposed P58 billion budget requested by the agriculture department to P37.7 billion

But the NFA chief rightly points out:

"We cannot work on a zero budget as what is being proposed by the budget department
based on their version of a restructuring program for the NFA. I worry about provinces like Occidental Mindoro where 30 percent of palay produced is being bought by the NFA.”

If this comes to pass, what are the feared consequences?

A sampling from recent news reports:

Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano: The proposed budget of the DA for 2011 "will further worsen the rice crisis and food insecurity in the country."
"Unscrupulous rice traders operating the domestic rice cartel will have a heyday with NFA’s zero budget and intervention in the market through unjust rice pricing and manipulation.

Cagayan Rep. Jack Enrile (NPC):
“Just imagine the nationwide confusion and economic exploitation if this is implemented by a department that has no experience in farmer subsidy operation, warehousing and marketing.
I cannot allow this abrupt change of policy that can cause an adverse effects on farmers as well as rice producers and consumers. Without the budget, NFA would cease to be socially and economically relevant and worse the poor farmers would be placed under the mercy of profiteers and other exploiters.
The honorable secretaries of Budget, Finance and Welfare should explain their action to our people. They may have the noble intention of suddenly changing the policy but it’s also possible that they overlooked the political, social, economic and national security implication of their collective action. Their timing alone is bad enough because obviously they did not consider the plight of our farmers who have just been through a series of typhoon and El Niño calamities that devastated thousands of hectares of their farmlands in many regions of the country.

BSP Deputy Governor Diwa C. Guinigundo:
The possible removal of government support in the NFA importation of rice will move inflation rate higher by 0.37 percentage point for 2010 and 1.24 percent for 2011. BSP assumes a fare hike of P5 for jeepneys and P10 for taxis. The price of rice will likely increase if subsidy such as tax exemptions will be reduced or removed. NFA rice is priced at P25 per kilo.

This could very well pull retail prices of rice to as high as 34 to near 40 pesos per kilo!

Verily what could happen now is local farmers will see the further depression of palay farm gate prices with the private rice cartel raking in profits and government abandoning its long running commitment to keep politically-sensitive the supply and price of rice within reach.

Further, instead of shutting down the NFA shouldn't it be be reformed to make it more efficient, cleanse operations prone to graft, and make it more responsive to the "matuwid na daan" agenda?

Or will the Aquino administration rather play with fire?

An Open Letter To DILG Usec Rico Puno

2010-09-20T23:44:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr. Puno,

That was a performance you gave at the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on Juetengate 2010.

But Filipinos are wondering why despite your avowed efforts to fight jueteng, our Senators tagged your answers as evasive while you were seemingly just experiencing ‘senior moments’, memory lapses about the names of the enjoys of jueteng kingpins who wanted to schedule meeting with you, being the President’s point man for the Philippine National Police.

You certainly must must have felt being ganged up upon by our lawmakers.

But without meaning to cast doubt on your integrity, given your seeming unshakable brother-like closeness to the President, the problem your are facing now is really akin to what called the “Caesar’s Wife Test.”

As legend goes, Roman Emperor Julius Caesar, when asked why he divorced his second wife Pompeia despite the fact that there was no proof that she was having an affair, reportedly answered: “Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion.”

While our President, your President, is away on a mission to tell the world that “the Philippines is open for business”, it would be a major, major exercise for you to reflect upon whether you would pass Caesar’s test on two counts: Juetengate 2010 and the botched handling of the RizaL Park hostage crisis.

Humbly posited.

Finally, The IIRC Report Is Made Public, Sort Of

2010-09-20T16:15:00.000-07:00

So it is that the report of the inquiry team into the August 23 Rizal Park hostage taking is finally out.
But much like a striptease act, Filipinos are only being given a peep into the recommendation that certain police official, political figures and media practitioners and organizations will face either criminal, administrative, or industry-specific sanctions for their lapses that supposedly contributed to the fiasco's blood-soaked end.
But we are told not to hyperventilate just yet because the inquiry findings led no less by the justice secretary will yet be reviewed by legal minds apparently enjoying a higher degree of presidential trust.
We are also now learning the deeper meaning of the word prerogative, executive prerogative.
It applies in this case in the same way it applied to the decision, for “courtesies’ sake” that Hong Kong and Beijing have been given the privilege of examining the full report with the ‘larger’ goal of smoothing out our frayed diplomatic ties with the two jurisdictions.
The gesture should surely make up for the phone call of Hong Kong’s chief executive which got lost in the Malacanang trunk line along with the failure of Manila to take the initiative of communicating with the former British colony during the 11-hour-long crisis.
So let’s concede that presidential prerogative is sacrosanct and just wait for the Chief Executive to return from his week-long maiden foreign mission which is, anyway, widely expected to brinf home the bacon in the form of new aid from Uncle Sam, and the promise of new investments that will result in new jobs and other major, major benefits.
Anyway, the matter of Filipinos engaging in armchair punditry in the coffee corners and barbershops can never be circumscribed by presidential prerogative.
Gusto nila happy pa rin tayo.

Waiting For The Report

2010-09-17T14:59:00.001-07:00

We've all been waiting for the official findings of the inquiry into the botched police assault on the busload of Chinese tourists from Hong Kong.

But Malacanang says Filipinos can't be told just yet until Hong Kong and Beijing see the report submitted yesterday by the panel led by Justice Secretary Leila De Lima.

The only snippets revealed thus far is that the 8 hostages all died at the hands of dismissed police captain Rolando Mendoza and no one among the casualties were felled by friendly fire - meaning no one was mistakenly hit by gunfire from the SWAT assault team members nor from police snipers.

It's also ben disclosed that up to 12 people will face criminal or administrative proceedings over the helter-skelter way the assault was carried out, and the manner news media covered the event.

Members of the probe panel and several Senators have roundly scolded how journalists supposedly gave "more importance to their news gathering needs over the safety of the hostages and their live coverages' painted a negative image" of the Philippines.

The scuttlebutt:
1. At least two political figures "will be recommended for prosecution or suspension.
2. Up to eight police officers will also be leveled with severe sanctions.
3. Two news media personalities and their media entities will be publicly reprimanded while further investigation may be sought with regard possible infractions of the terms of their broadcasting franchises.

It may surely be concede that the matter of Hong Kong getting first crack at seeing the findings is well within executive prerogative.

But something feels amiss.

Sure the people of the former British colony were 'traumatized and angered' by the fiasco that left 8 of their compatriots dead.

But what about Filipinos who've been humiliated and been put on the receiving end of insults about the incompetence of our police forces?

Why the seeming discriminatory gesture of delaying the report's release to us

Aren't we the bosses???

Danding And The 2010 Polls

2009-11-08T15:22:00.000-08:00

Kind, astute, cunning.

These adjectives separately, and collectively, describe Eduardo ‘Danding’ Cojuangco, the former ambassador, failed presidential candidate, and 'Boss' of the nation’s biggest business conglomerate.

Danding is also chairman emeritus of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, opposition party-cum-bedfellow of the ruling modern-day Kilusang Bagong Lipunan, the Lakas-Kampi-CMD combine.

Mr. Cojuangco’s business acumen and generosity towards his employees is legend.
And so are his potent political dominance instincts.

So while he failed in his own bid in 1992 for the land’s highest office, Mr. Cojuangco is acknowledged still as king maker.

It also is true that critics consider him the brains behind the continued failure of Filipino coconut farmers to gain their fair share of proceeds from the Marcos era coconut levy funds.

Most recently Mr. Cojuangco’s name surfaced anew when the Supreme Court, in lightning fashion, gave its judicial imprimatur to the Presidential Commission on Good Government's approval of the conversion of coco levy San Miguel Corporation common shares (which have voting rights) into preferred shares, premised on the fact that such action would funnel some 57-B in earning from the conversion.

The action covered 753,848,312 Class “A” and “B” common shares of SMC registered in the name of the Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF) Holding Companies representing around 24% of the total SMC voting shares.

The subject block of shares is sufficient to elect four of the 15 members of the SMC Board of Directors.

Sources inside the PCGG told this writer the path for the deal to be smoothed out was done in confidential meetings held in Davao by to lieutenant of Mr. Cojuangco between September 2, the day the PCGG Resolution was approved, and September 17, the day the high court okayed the action whose legality was questioned by citizens led by former Senate President Jovito Salonga.

The wheels of justice do move expeditiously.

The political point is how the reticent Mr. Cojuangco finally did speak up over the weekend about the ongoing shuffling of political cards ahead of the elections now just 6 months away.

Why did he issue the denial?

Well that’s because the latest political trial balloon had thee Little President, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita saying the administration combine is angling to get NPC’s beauteous vice presidential standard bearer to pair up with Defense Secretary Gilbert Gibo Teodoro.

The statements:

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, interim president of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD:

You can see [Defense Secretary Gilbert] Teodoro and the party leadership might just succeed in enticing or talking successfully with the NPC to join up with the majority party.

200 leaders of Tarlac took their oath [of membership to Lakas-Kampi-CMD]. Most of the people are from the NPC ranks in Tarlac.

The “exodus” of political leaders joining the Lakas-Kampi-CMD happened after Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero resigned from NPC and failed its members’ expectations of running as their president in 2010.

The party is wooing Sen. Loren Legarda, NPC’s vice-presidential candidate, to run in tandem with Teodoro for the 2010 elections.

I believe Legarda might also be contemplating on accepting the offer of running as Teodoro’s partner as she maybe fully aware of the talks happening between the two parties. It is in the consciousness or Sen. Loren Legarda that those talks are going on. She will be properly guided.

Business tycoon and NPC chairman emeritus Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco Jr. :

Hindi ko alam (talks with other political parties for the 2010 national elections). Sila na ang bahala. Hindi na ako nakikialam (I don’t know anything about that. It’s up to the party leaders).

Cojuangco said he has also stopped meddling into the NPC's selection process for candidates. He declined to reveal the reason behind Sen. Chiz Escudero's recent surprise resignation from his party.

So you’d have Mr. Cojuangco finally surfacing to support his nephew who ‘bolted’ the NPC just before thwarting Bayani Fernando’s bid to get his party’s nod as standard bearer

It all becomes clear now.

The result: the planned November 19 declaration of a Nacionalista Party tactical marriage with with the NPC feature a Manny Villar-Loren Legarda ticket suddenly goes kaput.

So is the popular Sen. Loren going to the highest political bidder?

Too Much To Bear

2008-09-06T04:07:00.000-07:00

The fighting in Mindanao, the debate over the bungled Bangsamoro Juridical Entity, and yes, the highest inflation rate in 14 years of 12.5% are hugging the headlines, along with the extended presence of ‘visiting’ American troops in Zamboanga.

So it is understandable that the tragic sinking of MV Princess of the Stars nearly three months ago is not on the top of our minds of late.

But there is movement on the ground with salvage work on the ship wreck due to commence in several weeks at a cost of some P350-M to the owner, Sulpicio Lines. The Cebu-based shipping firm has recently reported that it has extended berreavement and other financial aid to more than 500 or is it 600 families of the dead and missing, many of whose remains are still entombed inside MV Princess of the Stars, once the lead vessel in Sulpicio’s fleet of inter-island passenger and cargo vessels.

It’s previously been reported that Sulpicio ships carry up to 40% of the commercial cargo ( including motor vehicles) to and from the Visayas, and Mindanao, making it a truly vital cog in the supply chain, as businessman call it.

The government has been trying to project acute awareness of this reality, attempting to balance the still highly emotional issue of the recent tragedy with the economic imperatives.

It is no surprise then that a key lieutenant of President Arroyo, her former Assumption schoolmate Elena Bautista, already undersecretary for maritime affairs, has just taken over the helm of the Maritime Industry Authority.

The MARINA, in turn has laid down a strict time-bound schedule for Sulpicio Lines to comply with stringent maritime safty standards, including retraining of its sea-going personnel, and upgraded insurance coverage.

To be fair, Sulpicio Lines appears to have shed its earlier bad handling of the crisis which including claiming the incident “was an act of God” and its seeming all-out ’sue everyone” legal tactic.

Government itself is not blameless in the affair with the negligence of key agencies in both the micro and macro sense (the inadequate seaworthiness certifications, the ‘white elephant’ maritime emergency communications system, and PAGASA’s failure to procure properly-budgeted weather tracking nd forecasting systems).

There is also the matter of the ticking environmental time bomb, given Del Monte Philippines’ highly toxic cargo of the Israeli-manufactured endosulfan pesticide which, if it leaks together with some 200,000 liter of bunker fuel still in the overturned ship, could wreak untold harm to the rich fishing waters of the Visayas.

But still, public perception, and blame-selection remains decidedly against Sulpicio even as the firm itself is reportedly struggling to literally stay afloat, operationally and financially.

Its competitors are even suspect of adding fuel to the fire by nudging negatively-slanted news and opinion reportage.

The Department of Justice’s Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) has also been ‘eager’ to stay in the news, prodding victims’ relatives to pursue damage, and criminal cases against SLI.

This writer has confirmed that the legally-required conduct of indigency certification tests for all litigants getting pro bono PAO legal aid has been waived.

Both houses of Congress are also not done yet with their inquiries “in aid of legislation” and there is, of course, a pending Board of Marine Inquiry recommendation for Sulpicio’s franchise, its Certificate of Public Convenience (CPC) to be revoked.

So given these very dire circumstances, what does lie ahead for Sulpicio Lines?

It almost seems too much to bear that last Thursday, Sulpicio’s MV Cotabato Princess rammed the Iloilo pier after reportedly being pished by heavy currents.

GRP Wages War As SC Ponders On BJE MoA

2008-08-22T16:07:00.000-07:00

Make no mistake about it: war is in progress in Mindanao as the Supreme Court is deliberating on the fate of the Bangsamoro ancestral domain agreement that has been initialed but which now will no longer be signed in its present for as far as the Arroyo government is concerned.

Overnight reports from the battlefront in Maguindao are saying at least 30 Moro rebels were slain and government forces captured one MILF camp. The Air Force sent in fighter jets from as far as Basa Air Base in Pampanga, President Arroyo’s home province, to pummel MILF positions with rockets and drop 500-pound bombs.

The Italian-made S-211’s are rarely called into action and used often only for training flights. But this time. they are being paired with missile-firing attack helicopters in the conduct of the biggest bombardments in Mindanao in nearly ten years.

The operations yesterday coincided with the Supreme Court’s latest full bench (en banc) session on the MoA-AD with indications emerging after the 9-hour hearing that the high tribunal will rule that the petitions questioning the initialed agreement’s constitutionality as “moot”

Here are the main points raised by the justices yesterday:

Chief Justice Reynato Puno: There are certain presidential actions that are vested with the President as Commander-in-Chief which necessarily do not require consultation with the people. As President, part of that power is to forge peace agreements “to restore order” in the country.

“Why should the President consult the people with respect to the parameters of power?” Such parameters “are already set in the Constitution.” Aside from judicial remedy, the public may still reject a presidential action by exercising its sovereign right. This is the “political solution” which may satisfy or cure assumptions that lack of consultations invalidates presidential action.

Chief Justice Reynato Puno gave the Office of the Solicitor General until Tuesday to answer the opposition to its motion to dismiss the petitions against the MOA-AD.

Justice Arturo Brion: The initialing of the contract “simply reflects” the intention of the parties and that the absence of signature means “effectively there is no MOA.” As such, “the government has not given its consent to the MOA.,” Since there is no perfected contract in the first place, “then there is no case.” Whether there is “justiciable case that is ripe for judicial determination.”

Justice Antonio Nachura: “There is no MOA in the first place” since it was only initialed and not signed.

Justice Ruben Reyes: Under the provision of contracts, the MOA-AD has no legal significance “with the absence of signature” and thus, “not yet a perfected document.” The initialing of the MOA-AD may simply mean that the parties “have initialed a true and correct copy” and not necessarily the final contract because the one who initialed the document on behalf of government “has no authority.” “So it is not a contract, not an agreement (yet).” “What is the value of this document? It is not signed. There is no basis, there is nothing anymore to prohibit.” “With the absence of the signature of the people who are authorized to sign, it is not yet a perfected document.” When the document was initialed, it was only an authentication of the pages of the document.

Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales: President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has no authority to delegate the creation of the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE). Even if the President had the authority to create the BJE, “the executive could not bind Congress.”

Associate Justice Antonio Carpio: “On the basis of that document, you (referring to chief negotiator Rodolfo Garcia) do not carry the full power of the President. Your authority is only based on the document?” “[In] the last two plebiscites, the subject matter was ARMM [Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao], right? And ARMM, the Organic Act of ARMM does not provide that the ARMM will have its internal police, security force, its own courts, its own Comelec, correct?” “So can that [1989 and 2001 plebiscite] be considered consultation? Will that consultation apply now in the BJE [Bangsamoro Juridical Entity] concept?”

Responding to the argument by Dean Pacifico Agabin, lawyer for Senator Manuel “Mar” Roxas, one of the intervenors, that the executive could not commit to the MILF the amendment of the Constitution to conform with the agreement, Justice Antonio Carpio asked: “There is that clause under the MOA, correct?” “Yes,” said Agabin during Friday’s oral arguments at the Supreme Court that is trying to determine the constitutionality of the MOA-AD. “Then the MOA is unconstitutional on that ground,” said Carpio who also cited a television interview by an MILF leader who said that the Constitution needed to be amended to conform with the MOA. Carpio said the MILF wanted this provision to be included in the MOA because “the MILF did not want to be bound by our Constitution.”

Justice Arturo Brion: “It is a consensus that the MOA will be signed but the government has not yet given anyone the authority to sign the MOA. Since wala pang [there is no] go-signal from the government to sign the MOA, even if it has been signed, it will not be binding.”

Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco questioned why the MILF was not included as respondent in the petitions filed by the petitioners against the MOA-AD. Velasco said that all parties to the controversy should have been included so that they would all be bound by the Supreme Court’s decision.

Associate Justice Adolf Azcuna: Since there had been three plebiscites conducted in 1979, 1989, and 2001 for North Cotabato’s inclusion to ARMM, it could be considered a consultation. “How many participated in the three plebiscites for inclusion in the ARMM? Don’t you think that is enough consultation done by the government regarding the inclusion? They have been consulted three times, they said yes but are overwhelmed by the rest of the province.”

From the foregoing points, it appears abundantly clear what the fate of the petitions will be.

How the events in Mindanao will play out is an altogether harder question to answer.

Expected SC Decision: Bangsamoro Deal A Political Question

2008-08-21T15:13:00.000-07:00

The Supreme Court sits as a full bench today and at bar is the controversy that has caused much consternation, and bloodshed, these past three weeks: the constitutionality of that plan to set up a separate sovereign entity within the Philippines:the MILF-Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.

Four days ago in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Fathe Joquin Bernas of the Society of Jesus and one of the framers of the 1986 Constitution wrote what you midfielder believes is the most accurate analysis of how that Supreme Court will rule today, if it does decide to: the high tribunal will rule that the issue at bar is a political question that is beyond its authority to act on.

This non-lawyer agrees. Father Bernas also reiterates what has already been widely reported and analyzed: since the MoA-AD was simply been initialed and not signed it is not in force and there is no action yet by the executive that can be declared unconstitutional:

Here is Father Bernas’s view in full, with due and full credit to the PDI:

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20080818-155263/That-piece-of-paper-or-Relax-lang

“Sounding Board : That ‘piece of paper’ or Relax ‘lang’!

By Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas, S.J.
Columnist
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: August 18, 2008

MANILA, Philippines - Preliminarily, let me say a word about the full-page ad for the MOA which appeared at least twice in the Bulletin and the Star. I am embarrassed that some think it was mine. But the only thing that was mine in that ad was the quotation of what I had said to an Inquirer reporter. However, I am not complaining because, as Cito Beltran remarked about the naughty trick, even the devil can quote Scripture!

Now, about that “piece of paper.”

Some proposals in it are being attacked by many as unconstitutional. But what I know about Constitutional Law is that the issue of unconstitutionality can come up only after something has been done which can result or has resulted in deprivation of a constitutional right. Has this happened? Or, as lawyers would put it, is there an “actual case”?

The MOA is not a done deal. Whether the framers knew it or not, the MOA was nothing more than an elaborate collection of the “wish-list” of those who want to revise the Organic Act of Muslim Mindanao and even the Constitution. In other words, it is an ambitious list of proposals for the amendment of the Organic Act and even of the Constitution.

But amendment proposals cannot be illegal and much less unconstitutional. If that were so, no law or constitutional provision could be amended. We might as well delete Article XVII of the Constitution on Amendments and Revision! Article XVII is there because the Constitution is not written in stone.

What I have learned from jurisprudence is that the only amendment that is not allowed is one which violates the principle of jus cogens. Jus cogens, or peremptory norm of international law, means “a norm accepted and recognized by the international community of States as a whole as a norm from which no derogation is permitted.”

Any proposal which is not contrary to jus cogens, no matter how stupid or even potentially harmful, cannot be dismissed by the Court—because the Court does not have the power to do so. The matter is what is called a “political question”; that is, a question which, under the Constitution, can be resolved only by Congress or the Executive or the sovereign people.

What then can the Supreme Court do about the petition to prohibit the government from signing the MOA? We are back to separation of powers. I can only repeat what the Supreme Court said earlier about a similar problem:

“The doctrine of separation of powers calls for the departments being left alone to discharge their duties and as they see fit. The judiciary as Justice Laurel emphatically asserted ‘will neither direct nor restrain executive [or legislative] action . . .’ The legislative and executive branches are not bound to seek its advice as to what to do or not to do. Judicial inquiry has to be postponed in the meanwhile. It is a prerequisite that something had by then been accomplished or performed by either branch before a court may come into the picture. At such a time, it may pass on the validity of what was done but only ‘when . . . properly challenged in an appropriate legal proceeding.’”

What the Court said about the 1972 Constitutional Convention can be applied mutatis mutandis to the sponsors of the MOA. “More specifically, as long as any proposed amendment is still unacted on by it, there is no room for the interposition of judicial oversight.”

But if the MOA is signed, should the Court declare as unconstitutional proposals in it which are incompatible with the present Constitution? To answer that question we must ask what commitment the administration would make if the MOA is signed. It would commit nothing more than that the Arroyo administration will exercise “best efforts” to achieve the changes. It may be a foolish commitment, but folly and unconstitutionality are not the same.

The President has not disowned the MOA. Can the President, under her oath to “preserve and defend” the Constitution, sponsor proposals that will result in amending the Constitution? The duty of the President under her oath is a total package which includes not just to “preserve and defend its Constitution” but also to “execute its laws, do justice to every man, and consecrate [herself] to the service of the nation.” Better execution of the laws, doing justice to every man without exception and consecrating herself to the service of the nation may require sponsoring a needed amendment of the Constitution. To paraphrase the words of a man we all know, the Constitution is made for man and not man for the Constitution.

Whether or not the ARMM Organic Act should be amended to accommodate more territory than presently included in it and whether or not the ARMM or a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) should be given powers that presently are not allowed by the Constitution are not for the Court to decide. These are “political questions” which should be addressed by a constituent assembly, whether Congress or a Constitutional Convention, and ultimately by the people in their sovereign capacity.

The MOA is being linked by critics to the extension of term limits for the President. Although extension of term limits is not on the face of the MOA, it is not impossible that the desire to extend the term of the President may have lurked in the secret minds of the framers of the MOA. But again even that will have to come out of the secret mind and go through a constituent assembly and a plebiscite.”E

Remembering Ninoy

2008-08-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

Pausing For Peace, Chasing Out Rogues

2008-08-19T19:14:00.000-07:00

The guns have fallen silent during the past 48 hours in Lanao.

Everyone down south and here in Manila are taking stock and pausing for peace as political and civil society leaders across the board denounced the murderous rampage of Moro rebels at the start of the week.

After putting the military on war footing for any further trouble, President Arroyo is pursuing wider consultations on the embattled peace process with a meeting tomorrow of the broad-based Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council.

This is finally a step in the right, and wise, direction for Mrs. Arroyo, with even members of the political opposition being invited to attend the meeting which will coincide with the second, and possibly decisive, full bench session of the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the MoA-AD.

That widely disputed agreement, which the MILF insists is already “binding” although it has only been initialed, has come under intense question because it proposes to carve a sovereign Bangsamoro State within an expanded Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with treaty-making powers, separate armed forces, electoral, and other prerogatives of a separate nation.

For the first time since the eruption of public uproar and the violence, Malacanang yesterday struck what sounded a contrite tone, and restated its commitment to peace:

Press Secretary Jesus Dureza: “We’re very sorry and we’re very saddened by this. I compare this (the talks) to a shattered glass. It would be very difficult to put the pieces together. But we have not changed our policy. In Mindanao, there is no alternative but peace.”

The other voices:

Kolambugan Lanao mayor Beltran Lumaque:”They killed innocent, defenseless civilians. People are traumatised. We need food, medicines. We want the soldiers here.”

Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno said the objective is to push these MILF groups out of the areas where they can wreak havoc. He estimated their forces to number about a hundred and are not supported by MILF leaders who still believe in the peace process.

Lanao del Norte Rep. Abdullah Dimaporo said the attacks on civilians had changed the way people looked at the MILF.

“Muslims and Christians alike condemn the terrorist acts of the MILF,” Dimaporo said.

“I’m sure that their inhuman acts in Lanao del Norte have eroded the respect for the cause of the MILF even from those who help the MILF.”

ARMM Gov. Zaldy Uy Ampatuan said dialogue between the Moro people, including the MILF, and Christian leaders was needed at this time.

Beverly Selim-Musni, InPeace Mindanao convenor:“We are asking the government and the MILF to give primacy to the peace process in order to resolve issues.”

The chair of the Oro chamber of commerce and industry Rodolfo Menes called on officials not to issue statements that could inflame the situation.

“Let us be circumspect on this thing and not exacerbate the situation by saying irresponsible side comments. There must be a steadfast solution to this situation,” Menes said.

The chair of the Philippine Islamic Council and Center for Moderate Muslims, Professor Taha Basman: “(We) condemn the raging war in Mindanao, the burning of churches and the mounting destruction of heavy collateral damage inflicted on innocent civilian sectors (of society)—Muslims and Christians alike,” he said.

Northern Mindanao Ulama’s League officer Sultan Nas Natangcop: “I believe this (the violence) is just a temporary situation. I liken this to being stricken with the colds, which can be immediately cured. In fact, [life in] Iligan and Marawi are already beginning to normalize.”

Maguindanao Rep. Didagen Dilangalen: “Civilians were the ones killed. It’s really atrocious,”

“The life of a Muslim is no more than the life of a Christian.”

Anak Mindanao party-list Rep. Mujiv Hataman: The killings in Kauswagan and Kolambugan in Lanao del Norte are against the rules of war in Islam.

“Do not kill an old man, a woman or a child. Do not injure date palms and do not cut down fruit trees. Do not slaughter any sheep or cows or camels except for food.”

“Do not burn houses and places of worship such as churches, temples and monasteries. Leave priests and monks alone and do not molest them. These are the rules of war in Islam.”

US Ambassador Kristie Kenney said the United States and the Philippines were “friends for life” when asked if Washington would freeze assistance in the wake of the attacks.

“We’re not going to walk away just because there have been a few bad days,” Kenney said, adding she was hopeful the two sides could return to the negotiating table.

President Arroyo ordered massive relief operations for thousands of people displaced by the violence.. Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral and Health Secretary Francisco Duque will personally oversee “intervention measures” and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, chairman of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, will “trigger the release of funds for relief and rehabilitation of affected families and other victims.”

The Toll: 38 dead, including three soldiers, while dozens of others were injured and nearly 10,000 displaced.

This is where things stand at the moment and At Midfield humbly joins in the call for peace.

Will GMA Declare A State of Emergency?

2008-08-18T15:44:00.000-07:00

There is much trepidation as I write this post, asking if President Arroyo will declare a state of emergency in the wake of the spate of attacks in at least four towns in Lanao that are all being blamed on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front or supposed ‘lost commands’.

The death count has reached at least 28 dead with a lieutenant colonel among the military’s casualties and fleeing civilians reportedly being hacked to death with machetes and left dead on the roads for hours. Even drug stores were targeted in the burning of businesses and homes during the Moro attacks.

The Red Cross is still counting just how many thousands have fled their homes in the 4 Lanao towns even as the attackers reportedly withdrew overnight to their camps in Lanao Sur as the military, put on war footing by the president yesterday, said it was conducting pursuit operations.

The picture that clearly emerges is one of a grave emergency, so will this be the basis for such a move by Malacanang?

Will the President’s allies in Congress call for her to exercise emergency powers after having already called out our troops “to defend every inch” of Philippine territory?

During her national broadcast yesterday ahead of chairing an emergency session of the National Security Council, Mrs. Arroyo carefully prefaced her directive to the military with the phrase “as your Commander in Chief” while AFP Chief of Staff Alexander Yano was in battle fatigues as he himself announced that start of offensives against the Moro rebels.

Sadly even as the situation may indeed call for such moves, today or in the days to come, an emergency declaration will be fraught with danger for civil rights and all those in between.

We watch and wait.

The 3 Possible SC Decisions on the BJE

2008-08-17T16:46:00.000-07:00

The Supreme Court still has another hearing date (August 22) set on the petitions questioning the legality of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain between the Arroyo administration and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

While other issues may still surface that could change the direction of the likely SC decision, a close review of the remarks made by the justices at last Friday’s 5-hour-long point to one of three possible decisions that the high tribunal will hand down:

First: The High Court will lift the TRO and toss out the petitions as premature given that the agreement has not been signed and that no actually illegal act has been committed, thus allowing the signing of the MoA-AD to proceed but with a caveat that it be immediately renegotiated;

Second: The Supreme Court will replace the TRO with a preliminary injunction stopping the MoA-AD altogether;

Third: The Court will toss the issue back to the Executive Department effectively removing the TRO on the ground that it is a political question, allowing the MoA to be signed after renegotiations.

Consider the following observations made by at least 11 of the Justices in the course of the 5-hour-long oral arguments:

Justice Antonio Carpio:

1) Several provisions of the MoD-AD clash with the Philippine Constitution and that implementing them would require amendments to the Charter;

2) The Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) to be formed would in effect govern all of Mindanao and Palawan, as well as the “lumad” [indigenous peoples] in Mindanao and their ancestral lands;

3) “There are obviously several provisions of the MOA that contradict the Constitution.BJE is not the state; ”

4) With the MOA-AD defining the “Bangsamoro people” as all indigenous people of Mindanao, without reference to religion, it would encompass even the Christians and the lumad. If the MOA pushes through, the ancestral domain of all lumad in Mindanao are now part of the BJE. If they want to leave, they can but they have to leave behind their ancestral domain;”

5) The MOA-AD refered to land and natural resources possessed by the Bangsamoro people from time immemorial to the present. If the lumad were included, then “you’re talking of the entire Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan. In short, ancestral domain will now be the entire Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan;”

6) could the lumad be included in the Bangsamoro people without consultation.

Justice Adolf Azcuna:

1) The MOA-AD “on its face is patently illegal under our present laws;”

2) Can the negotiating parties agree to change existing laws?;

3) Even a simple change, such as adding a crescent moon on the Philippine flag, can only be could done if there is an enabling law;

4) “Fr. Joaquin Bernas may be right. The MOA is just a scrap of paper.”

Justice Renato Corona:

1) The parties questioning the agreement appeared to be afraid of nothing because without the signatures, the document did not legally exist;

2) Many concerns are being raised even if the document itself has yet to be signed. “You’re giving me the impression this is mere fear of the unknown. How can you fear something that does not exist.”

Associate Justices Conchita Carpio-Morales and Arturo Brion:

1) The government and the MILF should go back to the negotiating table;

2) Granting a “state within a state” in the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) may not be possible under the Constitution.

Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales:

1) The Arroyo government may have to go back to the negotiating table to ensure that the provisions in the MOA-AD are consistent with the supreme law of the land;

2) If the MILF refuses to renegotiate, that is when the MOA-AD can be considered void.

Associate Justices Renato Corona and Ruben Reyes:

1) It is premature to judicially review the MOA-AD since it hasn’t even been signed in the first place;

2) Corona: The petitioners have a “fear of the unknown;”

3) Reyes: The power to approve constitutional amendments belongs to Congress, not the executive branch.

Justice Consuelo Ynares Santiago:

1)The petitions may be premature, considering that the MOA-AD has yet to be signed.

Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro:

1)The MOA-AD is different from federalism because the BJE is allowed to enter into agreements with foreign nations.

Chief Justice Reynato Puno:

1) The Constitution only allows autonomy, not secession;

2) The Constitution also gives the president the power to review the MOA-A;

3) On the signature page of the MOA-AD, Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo was designated as a witness and not as an endorser;

4) The MOA-AD is “not a done agreement” yet; 5) Nothing in the document says it is final.

Note:

Just hours ahead of the issuance on the SC TRO last August 4, the MILF through it web site, luwaran.com said the MoA-AD would be signed on August 25. Let’s see whether that ‘deadline’ will be met.

Federal Republic of the Philippines: Pimentel’s Blueprint

2008-08-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

We are marking a long weekend so this is opportune to take a closer look into Senate Resolution # 10, Senator Aquilino Pimentel’s Blueprint for the Federal Republic of the Philippines (FRP).

Resisting any premature comment, here first are the main points:

* The FRP will have a 425-Member unicameral Federal Congress with the legislature headquartered in Bohol
* The declared National Territory encompasses the areas to which the Philippine has pending and unresolved historical claims, meaning the Spratlys and Sabah.
* GMA is mandated to step down in 2010 and is prohibited from seeking election in the new government.

Read on:

* The 63-page annex of SR 10 contains 154 proposed revisions of the Constitution.
* Only two articles, the Bill of Rights and Citizenship, are untouched.
* Federal House of Representatives will have 75 senators and not more than 350 congressmen, or a total of 425 members.
* Rationale:

1. “Whereas, the highly centralized system of government has brought about a spotty development of the nation where preferential treatment has been given to localities whose officials are friendly with or have easy access to an incumbent administration;

2. Whereas, this lopsided arrangement has spawned a host of problems including massive nationwide poverty to runaway insurgencies and rebellions that feed on the societal inequalities in the nation;

3. Whereas, creating eleven States out of the Republic would establish 11 centers of finance and development in the archipelago as follows:

* The 11 Federal States:

1. The State of Northern Luzon;

2. The State of Central Luzon;

3. The State of Southern Tagalog;

4. The State of Bicol;

5. The State of Minparom;

6. The State of Eastern Visayas;

7. The State of Central Visayas;

8. The State of Western Visayas;

9. The State of Northern Mindanao;

10. The State of Southern Mindanao; and

11. The State of BangsaMoro”

* GMA’s Term Limit:

“Unless the incumbent President is removed from office, dies, or resigns, the Incumbent shall serve until 2010, the year her constitutional term of office ends. She is, however, not qualified to run again for office under the Constitution.”

SR10 does not have any proposal to switch from the presidential to the parliamentary form of government.

* Longer term limits:

SR10 extends the term limits for members of the House of Representatives, by setting four years, instead of the present three years, as the length of one term, and allowing a maximum of three consecutive terms.

Under SR10, provincial, city, and municipal officials, and also the governor and vice governor of the proposed new states, would all get up to three terms of four years each, longer than at present. Senators would stay within their present limit of two terms of six years each.

* The State of Bangsamoro:

SR10’s proposed State of Bangsamoro only includes the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Shariff Kabunsuan, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, with capital at Marawi City. The areas that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is bargaining for overlap with portions of SR10’s proposed States of Northern Mindanao and Southern Mindanao.

* SR10’s proposed State of Northern Mindanao (capital at Cagayan de Oro City):

Covers the provinces of Zamboanga del Norte, Misamis Occidental, Camiguin, Misamis Oriental, Bukidnon, Agusan del Norte, Dinagat Island, Surigao del Norte, Lanao del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboangay Sibugay, and all cities, municipalities and villages therein.

* SR10’s proposed State of Southern Mindanao (capital at Davao City) :

Covers the provinces of Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Sur, Compostela Valley, Davao, Davao Oriental, Davao del Sur, South Cotabato, Sarangani, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and all local entities therein.

SR10 seeks to transfer major portions of national government operations to the Visayas and Mindanao. It would keep Manila as the seat of the Executive Branch, but proposes to transfer the Legislative Branch to Tagbilaran City. It would require the Supreme Court to transfer to Cagayan de Oro City within 10 years.

* The Seat of the unicameral Federal Congress:

The Federal Congress shall hold office and its sessions in the City of Tagbilaran in the State of Central Visayas. Congress may authorize its committees to hold public hearings in aid of legislation or conduct investigations in furtherance of its oversight functions in any part of the Republic.

How the Constituent Assembly will vote:

“NOW, THEREFORE, Be it resolved as it is hereby resolved by the Senate with the House of Representatives concurring, upon a vote of three-fourths of all the Members of both Houses voting separately, to convene Congress into a constituent assembly pursuant to Section 1, paragraph 1 of Article XVll of the Constitution, and revise the Constitution for the purpose of adopting a federal system of government that will create 11 States, constitute Metro-Manila as the Federal Administrative Region, and convert the nation into the Federal Republic of the Philippines.”

Key Revisions Proposed in SR 10:

Revision No. 1.

Section 1. Article 1. National Territory.

The scope of the national territory is hereby revised by adding a new paragraph as follows: The national territory shall likewise include all islands occupied or claimed by the Republic out of historic title, by discovery or other means recognized under international law and its exclusive economic zone as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Revenues and Taxes

(2) All revenues and taxes collected by the local government units or by national government agencies in accordance with the Local Government Code of 1991, Republic Act No. 7160, shall be divided in the following manner: twenty percent (20%) shall accrue to the Federal Government and eighty percent

(80%) to the States. (3) Of the share accruing to the States, thirty percent (30%) shall pertain to the

State concerned and seventy percent (70%) shall be apportioned among the provinces, cities, municipalities and barangay according to the formula stated in the Local Government Code of 1991.

Revision No. 2.

New Section. Article XIV. Utilization of Local Resources.

States may pursue local development in the utilization of mineral, marine and aquatic, forest and other natural resources. They may engage in local and international trade and commerce to attain self sufficiency and progress within their respective territories subject to the limitations imposed by the Constitution.

Revision No. 3.

New Section. Article XIV. Small-Scale Utilization and Development of Natural Resources.

The right of citizens to engage in the small-scale utilization and development of natural resources, as well as cooperative fish farming, with priority to the right of the subsistence fishermen and fish workers in rivers, lakes, bays, and lagoons as provided in the Local Government Code of 1991 shall not be abridged.

(Note: Senators Rodolfo Biazon and Panfilo Lacson have withdrawn their signatures from the resolution.)

Triggering A Crisis: The BJE Land Grab

2008-08-11T15:08:00.000-07:00

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is back from the Games and so it is most likely that as she scans the ’sunrise news and opinion summary’ prepared by the Office of the Press Secretary the chief executive will confirm what she already has a sinking feeling of: a maelstrom has erupted over the piecemeal revelations about the details of the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity Deal.
Of course chief palace spokesma, Secretary Jesus Dureza, erstwhile pointman for the Mindanao peace negotiations has facetisoudly dismissed the criticisms about the MoA-AD as “noise..”
“The President has approved the way forward and there’s no question about it. If she has the political will to do it she has to muster political will in spite of all these noises.”
It may be that indeed there is political will, but is there a mandate from the Filipino people to proceed with what highly respected news analyst Amando Doronila calls a “begotiated land grab:
“If the MOA had not been revealed in time, no one would have had the slightest idea that the area awarded by the memorandum to the expanded homeland represented the biggest negotiated land grab of national territory to a separatist group in the country’s history.”
Doronila further says:
“The unrest unleashed by the MOA over the territorial grab, the grant of sweeping powers that have the main elements of a sovereign state outside the compass of the Philippine Constitution has undermined the capacity of the Arroyo administration to deliver a peace pact.”
Former constitutional commissioner, Father Joaquin Bernas, for his part, has finally weighed in with a deeper insight beyond the earlier report remark of his that the MoA-AD was “just a piece of paper.”
Now Bernas properly chastises the government of the day from failing to directly mention the fundamental law, the Constitution, in the MoA-AD:
Toward the end of the document I find this passage: “Any provisions of the MOA on Ancestral Domain requiring amendments to the existing legal framework shall come into force upon the signing of a comprehensive compact and upon effecting the necessary changes to the legal framework with due regard to non derogation of prior agreements and within the stipulated timeframe contained in the comprehensive compact.”
The paragraph is highly loaded and will need a lot of exegesis. I take it that the “legal framework” referred to are the existing Organic Act and the 1987 Constitution, but for some reason the document is reluctant to even mention the Constitution. Which is being given greater weight, the “legal framework” or the “comprehensive compact” or the “prior agreements”?
Add to what Malacanang calls “noises” , two senators, the Liberal Party’s presdent and presumptive standard bearer in the 2010 elections, Senator Mar Roxas and former senate president Franklin Drilon are both asking that they be allowed to participate in Friday’s oral arguments at the Supreme Court’s en banc session.
The two gentlemen are denouncing the MoA-AD as a “dangerous precedent” (Drilon) and “traitorous product of coercion and deceit” (Roxas).
In the meantime, yesterday the MILF attacked and briefly took over Tipo-tipo Basilan before being forces to withdraw.
But this was clearly an ominous sign of the rebels’ readiness to open up another front line in the worsening situation, with the flashpoint in Midsayap, North Cotabato still smouldering.
There is now undeniably a refugee crisis that is developing with the civilian evacuees rising to some 130,000.
Now tell us, is this simply “noise”?

Trigerring A Cris

The Bangsamoro Juridical Entity MoA: High Crime?

2008-08-10T20:40:00.000-07:00

With the fighting having erupted over the weekend in North Cotabato, the need for a resolution of the constitutionality of the disputed, and TRO’d, Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain between the Arroyo Regime and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front has taken on a truly urgent nature.

Four days from now the Supreme Court will convene in full to hear the oral arguments of the petitioners against the MoA-AD led by local officials of North Cotabato and Zamboanga City (possibly joined by Senator Roxas who is filing a motion to intervene today) and the reply from government as represented by Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera, armed presumably with the inputs from the negotiating panel of Malacanang, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales, and presidential legal adviser Sergio Apostol.

Last week legal eagles like retired Justice Isagani Cruz and Dean Raul Pangalangan also detailed their reservations against the MoA-AD.

I do not know if the two gentlemen will be asked by the Supreme Court to submit briefs and appear as amicus curiae on the 15th of August but we do pray their views will also get factored into the raging national debate.

This writer is not a lawyer. But I am a Filipino and a taxpayer so I hope I am equally entitled to say how I feel.

I think Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is about to commit or may have already committed treason against the Republic.

May I also now share here the points related to me by former U.P. College of Law dean and former undersecretary of foreign affairs Merlin Magallona yesterday. His points:

“1. The MoA-AD, as drafted and initialed by the members of the Philippine side and concurred to by their MILF counterparts and a Malaysian government representative standing as ‘mediator’ is in complete derogation of constitutionalism;

2. The Executive, acting through the Peace Panel, is way in gross trespass of the separation of powers;

3. Acts executed against the provisions of mandatory and prohibitory laws are void except when the law itself authorizes their validity;

4. Power and authority in the MoA-AD are way out of constitutional limitations with the Executive having exercised authority not defined by the fundamental law;

5. The MoA-AD was initiated by foreign interests;

6.The Bangsamoro Juridical Entity is not a person in law and has no juridical capacity to act;

7. The MoA-AD involves the abdication of sovereign powers;

8. The sovereignty question is not a matter for a plebiscite as it in itself is a question of constitutionality;

9. The plan is premised on the Bangsamoro’s ‘reversion’ to a supposed sovereign state antedating the Republic;

10. Charter change being mentioned as necessary for the MoA to be implemented seeks, in reality, to remove the nationality requirement in the exploitation of natural resources.

The ten points laid down, its was also noted in this writer’s extended interview that it may be that the quid pro qu in the proposed peace pact with the MILF is not simply the issue of ancestral domain, but actually control of the reputed huge reservoir of natural gas deep in the Cotabato Liguasan marsh plus the territorial waters within the expanse of the expanded ARMM that will constitute the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.

THE REPUBLIC IS, INDEED, IN GRAVE PERIL.

The ‘GRP’-MILF Draft MoA: Designed To Fail?

2008-08-04T17:47:00.000-07:00

The Supreme Court, as the headlines this morning announce, issued a temporary restraining order on that Bangsamoro ancestral domain agreement between the Arroyo government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

But as this writer reported at FilipinoVoices.com and in my main blog at midfield.wordpress.com, the MILF ’scooped’ the Supreme Court TRO hours before it came out by announcing a later date, August 25, for the signing of the agreement.

A close reading of the subsequent details in the converging stories wil show that the Supreme Court set the oral arguments for the case filed by the local officials of North Cotabato and Zamboanga City for the 15th of the months, a full ten days before the MILF’s adjusted date.

This ‘coincidence’ clearly allocates a full ten days more before the de facto deadline of August 25, breathing space enough for both the Supreme Court to either junk or allow the agreement (an extreme likelihood) and for the government of the day to ‘calm the fears of and win over’ the MoA’s oppositors.

A ‘cooling down period’, in a manner of speaking, right?

But as Makati congressman and lawyer-journalist Teodoro Locsin clearly puts it: “It is the formal and voluntary dismemberment of the Republic,”

Mon Casiple, Executive Director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform (IPER) elaborates:“Based on the few precious details available, the scope of authority of the BJE seems to approximate–if not the same as–the authority of a local state in a federal state system. If so, what is going to be signed on August 5 will be beyond the autonomy mandated by the 1987 constitution.

The constitution speaks of a national state territory including all those mentioned in the agreement. It also speaks of a unified armed forces and police force. Further, it specifically defines autonomy as the only possible framework for Muslim Mindanao and prohibits any delegation of state authority outside of the constitution.

Article XII, Section 2 also stipulates that, “All lands of the public domain, waters, minerals, coal, petroleum, and other mineral oils, all forces of potential energy, fisheries, forests or timber, wildlife, flora and fauna, and other natural resources are owned by the State. With the exception of agricultural lands, all other natural resources shall not be alienated. The exploration, development, and utilization of natural resources shall be under the full control and supervision of the State.”

The political question that arises on August 5 is: Where did the President and her negotiators got their authority to promise what they cannot give?’

“If what they are thinking of doing is to change the 1987 constitution in order to shift the Philippine state from its current unitary system (albeit recognizing local autonomy) to a federal state system with local states, then they are putting the cart before the horse. They should do this before negotiating on a federal framework for the peace process.

Otherwise, they open themselves to the charge of treason based on the dismemberment of the Philippine State and to accusation of acceding to an agreement in bad faith–when they do not have the constitutional mandate for their negotiating position and their signature on the eventual agreement.”

Finally, the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s John Nery gives us a very clear reading:

‘”… my impression after two readings of the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s copy of the draft MOA is that the basic framework is actually not the government’s, but the MILF’s.”

And behind all these, could there be method in the mafness now unfolding, could it be that the agreement was designed to be un-implementable?

Is it doomed to fail, as least within the remaining lifespan of the current administration?

This, in my view, can be gleaned from the indicative time line for the establishment of the so-called Bsangsamoro Juridical Entity which Manolo Quezon (MLQ3) posted in his Daily Dose last night, with the graphics from Mon Casiple as reportedly prepared by a member of the GRP team.

The ‘Bangsamoro Juridical Entity’: Road To A Republic’s Dismemberment

2008-08-02T13:57:00.000-07:00

With 20 months left in her ‘disputed’ presidency and eager to eave a ‘historical legacy’ Filipinos will remember and supposedlt derive lasting benefits from Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyob is embarking on a bold but totally dangerous path that could prove fatal to the Republic: the establishment, the carving out of what is being called a ‘Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer in a bylined report written by Fe Zamora reports:

“Bangsomoro to get own state

Gov’t, MILF to sign ancestral domain pact Tuesday

By Fe Zamora
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: August 02, 2008

PRACTICALLY A NEW STATE WITH “A DEFINED TERRITORY” and “a system of governance suitable and acceptable to [the Bangsamoro] as a distinct dominant people” will be established in Mindanao under the proposed Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on Ancestral Domain between the Philippine government and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Under the proposed agreement, which is scheduled to be signed on Tuesday, the planned Bangsamoro homeland will have its own “basic law,” its own police and internal security force, and its own system of banking and finance, civil service, education and legislative and electoral institutions, as well as full authority to develop and dispose of minerals and other natural resources within its territory.

Copies of the draft MOA were distributed to retired generals during a forum on July 24 in Camp Aguinaldo, where Hermogenes Esperon, President Macapagal-Arroyo’s adviser on the peace process, was the guest of honor. The Inquirer obtained a copy.

But Inquirer sources privy to the peace process said the proposed agreement with the MILF would require amending the Constitution.

They said its provisions on territory and governance would require amendments to the “existing legal framework” and a plebiscite in areas to be included as part of the Bangsamoro homeland.

The proposed homeland will be governed by the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE), which will have authority to send trade missions to and enter into economic cooperation agreements with other countries provided it does not include aggression against the Philippine government, and send representatives to the Association of Southeast Nations as well as agencies of the United Nations.

Described as a “landmark deal,” the proposed MOA will pave the way for the crafting of a “comprehensive compact” seen to finally end the 40-year, on-and-off Moro armed struggle in Mindanao.

The conflict has left 120,000 dead despite the signing of a peace agreement between the government and another separatist group, the Moro National Liberation Front, in 1996.

Ultimate objective

According to the proposed MOA, the “ultimate objective of entrenching the Bangsamoro homeland as a territorial space” is to “secure [the Bangsamoro’s] identity and posterity, protect their property rights and resources, as well as establish a system of governance suitable and acceptable to them as a distinct dominant people.”

The proposed homeland will include the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Sulu, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan and Marawi City); the municipalities of Baloi, Munai, Nunungan, Pantar, Tagoloan and Tangkal in Lanao del Norte; and hundreds of barangays in the provinces of Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato, which voted to become part of the ARMM in 2001.

The proposed MOA also provides for the inclusion of the Bangsamoro’s “ancestral domain” in Mindanao, Palawan and Sulu.

Definitions

“Ancestral domain” and “ancestral land” are defined in the proposed agreement as land “held under claim of ownership, occupied or possessed, by themselves or through the ancestors of the Bangsamoro people, communally or individually since time immemorial continuously to the present, except when prevented by war, civil disturbance, force majeure or other forms of possible usurpation or displacement by force, deceit, stealth or as a consequence of a government project or any other voluntary dealings entered into by the government and private individuals, corporate entities or institutions.”

“The ‘Bangsamoro homeland’ and ‘historic territory’ refer to the land mass as well as the maritime, terrestrial, fluvial and alluvial domains, and the aerial domain, the atmospheric space above it, embracing the Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan region,” according to the proposed agreement.

It also states: “It is the birthright of all Moros and all indigenous peoples of Mindanao to identify themselves and be accepted as ’Bangsamoro.’ The ‘Bangsamoro people’ refers to those who are natives or original inhabitants of Mindanao and its adjacent islands including Palawan and the Sulu archipelago at the time of conquest or colonization of their descendants, whether mixed or of full native blood. Spouses and their descendants are classified as Bangsamoro. The freedom of choice of the indigenous people shall be respected.”

Shared authority

Per the proposed agreement, the government — referred to in the document as the “Central Government” — and the BJE are to exercise “shared authority and responsibility” over the Bangsamoro homeland.

The details of the structure of shared governance will be defined in the “comprehensive compact.”

A multinational third party will be jointly invited by the government and the BJE to observe and monitor the actual implementation of the “comprehensive compact.”

The other salient points of the proposed MOA are:

Internal waters extending to 15 kilometers from the coastline belong to the BJE. Waters beyond the 15-km limit belong to both the government and the BJE.

The government and the BJE will share all natural resources such as gas, hydrocarbon, petroleum, etc.

The BJE has the sole power to revoke or grant forest concessions and enact agrarian laws, and to explore or obtain minerals, oil, natural gas, petroleum, etc. within its territory.

Stalled peace talks

Peace negotiations between the government and the MILF have been stalled on the contentious issue of ancestral domain since December 2007.

Only on July 25, informal talks aimed at getting the peace negotiations back on track broke down in Kuala Lumpur, with the MILF panel accusing the other side of trying to “undo” provisions in the “breakthrough” agreement forged on July 16.

The MILF said the meeting had been intended to finalize the text of the draft agreement on ancestral domain, but that the government panel led by retired general Rodolfo Garcia wanted certain settled issues reopened.

Stumbling blocks hurdled

But both Garcia and Press Secretary Jesus Dureza, himself a peace negotiator with the separatist rebels for more than 10 years, expressed optimism that the stumbling blocks would be hurdled and the peace process would go forward.

Indeed, on July 27, the government and MILF panels led by Garcia and Mohagher Iqbal, respectively, initialed the final draft of the agreement on ancestral domain, according to Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita.

“This will lead to the signing of the MOA on ancestral domain on Aug. 5,” Ermita said.”

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20080802-152289/Bangsomoro-to-get-own-state

This story breaking out on a Sunday will likely catch by surpise even the critics of the government of the day so I’ll delay any extended analysis until I am able pending consult more knowledgeable sources but this early it is abundantly clear to this writer that:

1) Palawan is being included in the Bangsamoro entity;

2) That entity is being given its own ‘basic law’, meaning a constitution;

3) It will be allowed to set up its own armed forces with delineated territorial limits.

This is a de facto separation of that southern section of what the governments touts as “a strong republic.

Absent any law on the introduction of a fderal system and absent any amendment of the 1986 Constitution, GMA is embarking on a path to dismember the Republic of the Philippines.

Postscripts to An Encounter With Mar Roxas

2008-08-02T13:22:00.000-07:00

Postscript:

Blogger ‘marocharim’ was also and encounter and I missed his exchange with Senator Mar about Dark Knight and Mar’s responses were gems given the duality or multi-faced ‘balimbing’ character of many Filipino politicians:

“I’m not a very political blogger (and if that was a lie, let lightning strike me), and I sort of got confused with all that had to do with my question about E-VAT. My theory is that a lot of politicians can answer a VAT question unfazed. So I decided to ask the Senator a “cute” question (as Ma’am Noemi puts it)…

Sir, you watched The Dark Knight, right? Who would you want to have dinner with: Joker, Two-Face, or Batman?

Now let me just say that this is not a profound philosophical question, I just wanted to know his answer…

I’d really like to talk to Two-Face and ask… “What happened to you?”

Marochim also reports this important angle that I missed:

“It was also the launch of VirtualRally.net, which is a virtual form of EDSA where you can speak your mind about issues like VAT.”

Excerpted from http://www.marocharim.com/2008/08/02/marocharim-meets-mar-roxas/

Second Postscript:

A quick peek at that site at 4:10 am Manila time today the 2nd of August shows 39 rally participants, about two-thirds a bus-load so the govrrnment will not yet be fielding its own ‘virtual’ anti civil disturbance unit’ much less shout virtual ‘destabilization.

At this very early phase of VirtualRally.net this look like a potentially ground-shifting e-nnovation to the blogswarm mechanism. But note who is portrayed in the slightly bigger avatar among the rally ‘participants.

An Encounter With Mar Roxas

2008-08-02T01:18:00.000-07:00

Further to my earlier post, the encounter with Filipino bloggers Senator Mar Roxas had yesterday gave me the distinct sense that this was a different Mar from the one this writer met, and had the honor to work with, when he was secretary of trade and industry serving President Arroyo in the immediate post EDSA 2 years.

Here was a man still cautious with his words but certainly more certain about his conviction that reforms must come now and be made to grow deep roots if the Philippines is to get out of the ecomic, and political, morass it is stuck in.

Here was a Mar Roxas ready to seek the highest office of the land wearing not rose-colored glasses but with eyes that have seen and continues to see the mass povery that stalks the land, even as there are Filipinos who can afford to buy, and drive Benzes and gas-guzzling Ford Expeditions for 3 to 5M a pop.

Truly “a statement about the wide gap between rich and poor Filipinos.” which he said makes him ask “just what does GMA have to show for the yearly national budget of one trillion pesos her government has spent since 2001 since she first took power?”

Through the more that two hours he spent yesterday with the bloggers, Mar showed himself to be a ‘listening’ politician, taking notes as he heard how Filipinos are harnessing blogging to share information and distill their aspirations as a people, regardless of where the politicians are taking Philippine society.

To be sure Mar will have to bring his message out more and he apparently recognizes the awesome power of new media.

Mar is launching his own blog. His handlers promise the blog will try to remain current and responsive with Mar himself, time permitting, doing the actual posts along with special contributors who reflect his thinking and positions on issues.

And as Mar, we hope, learned from yesterday’s session, he will come under closer scutiny once he joins blogosphere with his eye on 2010.

(Among those present at the session with Senator Mar were contributors from FilipinoVoices.com and ScoutAreaOnline (represented by senior writer Paolo Florenda) plus personalities like Ellen Tordesillas, Manuel Quezon III, Ricky Carandang, Noemi Dado, Gail Villanueva, Lester Cavestany, and the-jester-in-exile.)

Mar Roxas Asks: What Do We Have To Show For P7-Trillion?

2008-08-01T22:56:00.000-07:00

Wasn’t able to stay for dinner with the other bloggers presumptive presidential candidate Mar Roxas had last night at Annabel’s in Quezon City.

But the initial 90 minutes with the good senator over peanuts, kropek and light beverages was enough for him to share with us his take on where the Philippines has been these past 7 years with Gloria Macapagal Arroyo at the helm and his take views on recent events.

Am still chewing on my notes so am sharing these initial bullets:

* Mar asks what the government of the day has to show for the 7 trllion pesos it has spent these last 7 years( give or take ’systems losses from graft and the generous 500,000-a-pop ‘gifts’ to palace visitors);
* Mar proposes the establishment of a ‘People’s Fund’ within the national budget where there will be a clear itemization of moneys to be allocated, and spent, on contingent events;
* Mar will vigorously pursue his call for E-VAT’s reform;
* Mar questions the wisdom of Romulo Neri’s selection as ’super secretary’ and points out the it is not the mandate of the Social Security System to be lumped among the government’s so-called pro-poor agencies.
* Mar points out the the SSS is the pension fun of its 24-million-plus private sector employee members and Neri’s legal responsibility, assuming he understands it, is to make that pension fund grow;
* Mar understands that Filipinos are looking for change they can believe in (my paraphrase);
* Mar believes the next 20 months can and should devoted to lay down the blueprint for the reforms necessary all within the framework of the Constitution.

THE CA SCANDAL DEEPENS

2008-07-31T18:42:00.000-07:00

The fire threatening to gut the Court of Appeals appears to have become a bigger conflagration.

Now the so-called 'mystery man' has come out.

Mr. Francis Roa De Borja confirms he spoke to Justice Jose Sabio. De Borja makes no categorical denial he had offered the justice a P10-bribe in exchange for Sabio to inhibit himself in the court's deliberations on the temporary restraining order stopping the Securities and Exchange Commission order to halt the MERALCO board elections.

But he reveals a disturbing twist: He claims Justice Sabio told him the government had also offered him "blandishments" to favor Winston Garcia and the GSIS, including elevation to the Supreme Court.

Garcia has issued a quick denial on the matter.

But taking the scandal in the context of an earlier June 28 Philippine Daily Inquirer piece written by Gerry Lirio:

http://services.inquirer.net/print/print.php?article_id=20080728-151111

The bigger equally disturbing picture that emerges is that two divisions of the Court of Appeals had actually been jostling with each other to decide on the case and that early on presiding justice Conrado Vasquez's intervention was sought by his colleagues.

The insightful PDI report says, in part, "

“The decision issued by the 8th Division of the Court of Appeals last week is not likely to settle the controversy between the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) over the election recently of the utility’s directors.

On the contrary, the decision has reportedly triggered an internal protest by justices belonging to another appellate court division, who claimed jurisdiction over the case and questioned why it was “hurriedly” removed from their sala, according to documents obtained by the Philippine Daily Inquirer Sunday.

The 8th Division on July 23 had voided the order issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stopping and invalidating the Meralco elections on May 27, which was won by nominees of the Lopez family which controls the company.

The order, released to the press the following day, was signed by the division’s head, Justice Bienvenido Reyes, and its two members—ponente Justice Vicente Roxas and Justice Apolinario Bruselas Jr.

The GSIS, led by its president and general manager Winston Garcia, had challenged the Lopez family’s leadership of Meralco and sought the SEC’s intervention. Garcia demanded the validation of all the 4,483 Meralco proxies before voting could be allowed.

In its decision, however, the 8th Division ruled that the SEC had no jurisdiction over the case filed by the GSIS against Meralco, and that a regional trial court was the proper venue for controversies over elections in corporations.

The decision triggered scathing remarks from Justice Myrna Dimaranan Vidal, a member of the Special 9th Division, who said the 8th Division was not the proper body to rule on the GSIS-Meralco row.

In a letter to Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez Jr. dated July 24, Vidal questioned the decision of the Reyes-led division. How could the 8th Division issue an order “much to her regret and consternation” when it was the 9th that had been hearing the complaint of alleged irregularities in the Meralco election, she said.

It was also the 9th Division that issued the temporary restraining order (TRO) on the SEC order to Meralco on May 30, she said.

Her “deepest regret,” she wrote, was that she had already signed a similar decision for the 9th Division, but the three justices of the 8th Division did not even bother to inform her “as a judicial courtesy at least” of her “hurried” removal from the case.

Aside from Vidal, the other members of the 9th Division are Justice Jose Sabio, chair, and, curiously, Roxas, who was also the ponente of the case.

“Under what basis was the case suddenly transferred to the 8th Division, and why was it that neither the undersigned nor the acting chair, Justice Sabio, of the Special 9th Division were not consulted thereof? And foremost, what happened to the decision which the undersigned signed after devoting her precious time and effort in carefully and laboriously examining the voluminous records of the case?” Vidal asked.

Sabio is expected to write a similar letter to Vasquez, according to CA sources.

Sabio’s division was called a special division because it was the result of the reorganization of the 23-division, 64-justice appellate court.

Available records do not show that either Reyes or Bruselas heard the arguments in the case, a source in the court claimed.

Even before the 8th Division promulgated its decision, both Reyes and Roxas were at a loss as to their jurisdiction over the GSIS-Meralco conflict. They wrote separate letters asking Vasquez to settle the issue.

Roxas sent his letter to Vasquez on July 21 while Reyes sent his on July 22, a day before the ruling was promulgated.

Vasquez replied in a letter dated July 24, saying he initially had doubts about his authority in the matter, but in as much as both Reyes and Roxas had sought his legal opinion, he was constrained to express that he “sincerely believed” that it was the Special 9th Division which issued the TRO and had been hearing the case that should rule on the case.

“With this opinion, it is sincerely hoped that the present predicament/controversy will be laid to rest, and whomsoever is dissatisfied with its outcome may elevate the matter to the Supreme Court, for final disposition,” he said in the letter, a copy of which was seen by the Inquirer.”

Justice Vasquez apparently failed to sort out his cooleagues' squabble in time,

The scandal that has broken out is rocking the Court of Appeals to its very foundations and the onus is on the Supreme Court now to sort out this thoroughly sordid mess.

The Lopez-Arroyo Faceoff

2008-07-30T16:43:00.000-07:00

The images speak for themselves with current Lopez clan patriarch Oscar Lopez now appearing to have taken off his gloves, directly comparing the rule of GMA to FM.

When martial was declared, as forewarned by the Philippines Free Press, then Lopez clan head Geny Lopez was thrown into jail and the Lopez media assets were seized along with MERALCO.

Quoted here, in full, is the 1971 Philippines Free Press report with the publication then under the editorship of Teodoro Locsin, Sr. that recorded for history the earlier face-off the Lopezes had with the government of the day 37 years ago.

“January 23, 1971

Political War and Martial Law?

FIRST, it was the Catholic Church that the Marcos Administration speaking through its propaganda organ, Government Report, accused of being “the single biggest obstacle to progress in the country,” just because the Catholic hierarchy would not cooperate with Malacañang in its plan to make the visiting Pope Paul VI a kid of PRO for the social welfare projects of the First Lady.

Then, it was the turn of the private press to be accused of standing between the government and the best interests of the people—by blackmailing poor President Marcos, or trying to, anyway, into going against those interests.

Then it was the turn of Meralco, or, to be precise, Eugenio Lopez, Sr., Eugenio Lopez, Jr., and, because of his relationship with them, Vice-Pres. Fernando Lopez, to be accused of “undermining the best interests of the nation.”

Who’s next?

In a speech before the first national convention of the Philippine Congress of Trade Unions, President Marcos accused “the powers who are in control of some of the media” of trying to blackmail him into betraying the public trust.

“You cannot perhaps know the pressures that the President is subjected to,” he said, “the coercion, the intimidation. Some time ago, I received a message which indicated the sickness of our society—to the effect that if I did not approve a certain favor I would be attacked in the newspapers. My immediate reaction was: go right ahead and attack me. That is your privilege but I am going to judge these questionable transactions on the basis of their merits, not on anything else. I have decided, I said, that in 1973 I’ll retire from politics. That is my wish, that is my hope, and nobody is going to intimidate me in any way.”

President Marcos pleaded for help from the “great mass of our people” while promising to do all he could to better their lives.

Then, last Wednesday night, after government forces shot to death four and seriously injured or caused serious injury to many during what started as a peaceful demonstration of students and jeepney drivers, President Marcos warned that he might be forced to use his powers to declare martial law and suspend the writ of habeas corpus if present disorders worsened while lashing out at “a particular pressure group” which he accused of inciting them to further passion.” The President said there were reports that the “pressure group” was financing the jeepney strikers as well as inciting them to violence.

On the other hand, he said, “I do not wish to believe this report,” and on the other, he said, “it is written and signed by responsible agents of our government.”

(Was it the same “responsible agents of our government” that told Malacañang that it was the American Central Intelligence Agency that was behind the recent troubles of the FREE PRESS and the President, in the first case, instigating the labor dispute—so a high Malacañang personage told the FREE PRESS editor—and, in the second case, planting Dovie Beams to smear the President and afterward oust him from the power as it did the corrupt Egyptian ruler Farouk?)

President Marcos went on:

“For and in behalf of the Filipino people, I appeal for sobriety. I beg on my bended knees that no man or group of men seek to inflame our people. Violence will not solve our problems. It will not solve our problems. It will not in any way help our country, it will not resolve any conflict.

He said that “this government under my leadership will never utilize the power, the latent, capable power that is in its hands to destroy any legitimate strike, nor to deprive the people of their liberties.”

“This should not be taken as a sign of weakness,” he said.

“There have been some talk about the President becoming soft and weak, supine and submitting and humiliating himself before the drivers.

“I do not look at it this way,” he said. “I look at it as a consultation with the people from whom my power comes. I consult with them because it is necessary that they know what the consequences are of their actions.

“I have not grown weak,” he said. “Rather, I have grown cautious and prudent because if violence continues, if there should be massive sabotage, if theirs should be terrorism, if there is assassination, I will have no other alternative but to utilize the extraordinary powers granted me by our Constitution.

“These powers are the power to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus under which any man can be arrested and detained for any length of time; and the power to declare any part or the whole of the Philippines under martial law.

“These powers I do not wish to utilize, and it is for this reason that I appeal to our people tonight.

“I do not do so for myself,” he said. “I do not say, ‘do not criticize me.’ I welcome criticism. But such things like ‘let us kill Marcos,’ or ‘let us fight in the hills,’ ‘mount a revolution’ is not going to help anyone, not even the press. . . .

“Yesterday there was a gathering of publishers called by a pressure group and they demanded that there be a pooled editorial to call Marcos all kinds of names.

“Now how will that help our people? How will it help solve our conflict? The pooled editorial is supposed to incite and inflame the people to further passion.

“I do not say anything except to appeal to them. Let the fight be between us, but do not involve our people. If the pressure groups have been hurt because I say that I will no longer compromise with them and I will stand for the welfare of our people, if in the past there had been compromises, now I will no longer allow it.

“I will not tolerate it. It is about time that we did this, and it is about time the President took the lead. I am taking the lead now.

“However much you may try to humiliate me, I will not knuckle down. I will stand by the people. But I appeal to you, please don’t bring down the house in flames. Please do not use violence to attain your end.”

The next day, Vice-Pres. Fernando Lopez resigned from the cabinet of President Marcos in which he held the post of Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources. (Under him the department earned the designation by the FREE PRESS of “Government Department of the Year 1970.”) The Vice-President said that he had tendered his resignation as early as December last year and that he had gone to President Marcos to reiterate his offer of resignation.

The President accepted the Vice-President’s resignation from his cabinet.

Here is President Marcos’s letter accepting the Lopez resignation:

“It is with deep regret that I received your offer to resign from your position as Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources. It is with even deeper regret that, in view of developments over the recent past, I must now accept your resignation.

“I assure you there is nothing personal in my acceptance of your resignation. You and I have been in the best relations. But your position in the cabinet has now become untenable in view of your relationship with the financial and political interests that I have identified as constituting a pressure group intent upon the destruction of my development program.

“I have given you more responsibility and invested your office with more prestige than any Vice-President notwithstanding the fact that the media controlled by the Lopez interests were vicious and malicious in their attacks against my person—with the obvious aim of discrediting the government in the eyes of the people, and thus undermining the best interests of the nation.

“While you were a member of my cabinet, the Lopez interests, specifically Mr. Eugenio Lopez, Sr., and Mr. Eugenio Lopez, Jr., were engaged in fomenting unrest and inciting the already militant and impassioned groups who advocate anarchy and assassination. The media controlled by the Lopez interests are still engaged in this, have in fact intensified their campaign against me, notwithstanding the fact that you once assured me of continued amity and cooperation.

“I have begged for unity in the political leadership, knowing that this is demanded by the times and expected by our people. However, the Lopezes have seen fit to make an issue of my refusal to approve their project for the establishment of a lubricating oil factory, a petrochemical complex, the purchase of the Caltex, and the use of the Laguna de Bay development project for reclamation of areas to be utilized for an industrial complex. There are many and varied favors, concessions and privileges which I am expected to extend to this group, but which I have not.

“As I have previously said, the pressure group I have identified is intent upon maligning my Administration and, by means of propaganda and various maneuvers, has sought to undermine public confidence in the government under my stewardship. These designs of this pressure group, according to very reliable information, took a particularly insidious form in the incitement and support it provided to the elements which participated in the violent demonstrations yesterday.

“It is now obvious that this pressure group is not unwilling to employ the most despicable means, including crime and anarchy, to achieve its ends. From our long association, you know, of course, that I have been tolerant of this and other pressure groups in the past—indeed, so tolerant as to give many people the impression that I have succumbed to their devices and manipulations.

“I assure you that I have not succumbed to them. I had merely endeavored to remain as calm, at the same time watchful, as the great responsibilities of my office required.

“You assure me that you cannot continue in your position as Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources while the shadow of doubt and suspicion hangs over you in view of your relationship to one of the pressure groups I have spoken of. I am glad that you realize the difficult and untenable position you are in. While I would have wanted you to continue as a member of my cabinet, I feel on the other hand that the events that will follow and the decisions that I will have to make from here on, possibly affecting the interests and personal fortunes of the pressure groups I have mentioned, could cause personal embarrassment for both of us, and the only way to avoid such embarrassment would be to accept your resignation.

“Finally, I wish to thank you for the assistance you have given my Administration.”

Eugenio Lopez, Jr., president of the Philippine Petroleum Corporation, a subsidiary of the Meralco Securities Corporation, said, in so many words, that President Marcos was lying when he said that he, Lopez, Jr., and his father had been exerting pressure on him, the President, particularly in the case of the lubricating oil refinery in Sucat, Muntinglupa, Rizal.

As reported by the Manila Chronicle:

“The PPC president said that the PPC had been duly granted authority to construct and operate a lubricating oil refinery by the Board of Investment on September 8, 1969, in a letter signed by then BOI Chairman Cesar Virata.

“The MSC applied to the BOI for authority to construct and operate a lubricating oil refinery on May 2, 1969, in response to a publication on April 9, 1969, of the second Investment Priorities Plan.

“The Central Bank of the Philippines, after ascertaining the economic viability of the project, approved PPC’s request to proceed with the acquisition of necessary foreign loans to finance the project.

“One of two unsuccessful applicants who applied for the authority to construct and operate a lubricating oil refinery questioned the BOI award to PPC.

“The National Economic Council conducted hearings on PPC’s application, after which it confirmed and approved PPC’s application on its merits.

“Lopez, Jr., said that on August 18, 1970, the Laguna Lake Development Authority in a letter signed by its general manager, advised the PPC that the area whereon PPC wished to construct the refinery ‘will be reclaimed by the Authority, and the Authority’s Board has approved a resolution for this purpose.’ The letter, he said, further stated that the PPC ‘may locate, install and operate your lubricating oil refinery on the land which will be reclaimed by the Authority.’

“Based on this letter, PPC purchased in October last year the necessary land on the lake front wherein the reclamation would be undertaken, he said.

“The memorandum-agreement to that effect, he also said, was signed between the LLDA and the PPC on Sept. 1, 1970. The two parties agreed that up to 24 hectares of land at Barrio Sucat, Muntinglupa, would be reclaimed for the PPC plant’s site.

“He said that prior to undertaking reclamation of the proposed site of the refinery, the Laguna Lake Development Authority coursed an implementation letter to the President of the Philippines. The letter was routed through the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the Presidential Economic Staff and the Malacañang Legal Staff.

“All of these offices favorably endorsed approval of the order, Lopez, Jr., said.

“In other words, he said, it was only the approval of President Marcos for the Laguna Lake Development Authority to proceed with the reclamation of the proposed site of the oil lubricating refinery that was being awaited.

“Considerable expense has been made in various works preparatory to the construction of the refinery, it was learned.

“According to Lopez, Jr., the lubricating oil refinery when in full operation will not only earn dollars but will also allow the Philippines to net foreign exchange savings of up to $13 million annually or up to $35,000 a day.

“The Export-Import Bank of Washington, D.C., on December 30 last year approved financing for the PPC refinery in the amount of $15.5 million, Lopez, Jr., said.

“Also on January 5, 1970, the International Finance Corporation, an affiliate of the World Bank, approved financing for the construction of the PPC refinery in the same amount of $6.2 million and on the basis of the merit of the project agreed to purchase equity in the refinery in the amount of $1.8 million thereby providing financing totaling $8 million, Lopez, Jr., added.”

Reaction

Leaders of the striking jeepney drivers said that “there was no truth to President Marcos’s charge that the demonstration which turned violent later in the day was financially supported by Vice-Pres. Fernando Lopez and his brother.”

One of the leaders said:

“I boil when people ask me about this report. There is no truth to that charge.”

Another leader of the striking jeepney drivers said:

“The Lopez brothers have not helped the striking drivers and the same is true with the members of the so-called vested interest group.”

One of the leaders of the student activists, Chito Sta. Romana of the Movement for a Democratic Philippines, said that his group did not know of anyone belonging to “the so-called pressure group responsible for Wednesday’s rally.”

Raul Manglapus, president of the Christian Social Movement, said the Filipino people “are waiting for the President to muster for himself the courage to take firm steps to restore popular confidence in his leadership. . . Our country is fast moving into a state of anarchy, disintegration and despair. Most of this condition comes from a deep and rampant popular distrust in the word and in the action of the President.”

Nacionalista Rep. Antonio M. Diaz from Zambales said the greatest single factor plaguing the nation today is “loss of confidence in the leadership in all branches of government,” and, he went on, “unless faith in our leadership is restored, the anger of our people cannot be assuaged.”

Liberal Rep. Ramon V. Mitra from Palawan said:

“By using violence against unarmed citizens ventilating the ills and problems of present-day society, the Marcos Administration is stifling the voice of the people crying for much-needed reforms.”

The national president of the Malayang Pagkakaisa ng Kabataang Pilipino (MPKP), Ruben D. Torres, denounced the “renewed threat of President Marcos to impose martial law and suspend the writ of habeas corpus.”

Nacionalista Speaker Jose B. Laurel, Jr., said:

“The Constitution is specific. It allows the President to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus or to place the country or any part thereof under martial law only in cases of ‘invasion, insurrection, or rebellion, or imminent danger thereof, when the public safety requires it.’ I do not think any of these circumstances exist at the moment.”

Nacionalista Sen. Jose Diokno proposed that President Marcos and all other elected national officials resign and another election be held in June to determine whether the people still have confidence in them.

Liberal Rep. Jose B. Lingad from Pampanga said that President Marcos should prove his patriotism by resigning from office or at least taking a leave of absence, the people having lost confidence in him.

“If Marcos went through with his threat to lift the writ of habeas corpus or declare martial law,” Lingad went on, “Congress might as well close shop.”

Must the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus be suspended, enabling the President to send to prison or otherwise detain anyone indefinitely? Must 38 million Filipinos be placed—by declaring martial law—under a military dictatorship headed by Ferdinand Marcos?

The demonstrations held so far in the Philippines against the government and the violence that has marked some of them are nothing compared with the violent expressions of protest in the United States. President Nixon has yet to speak of the possibility of suspending the writ of habeas corpus or imposing martial law on the America people. If he were to do so, is there any doubt he would be impeached and ousted from office? Why does President Marcos keep talking of the possibility of suspending the writ or imposing martial law on us? The solution for the problem of social unrest in the Philippines is not suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus or the imposition of a military dictatorship on the Filipino people but reform. Regain the confidence of the people. Stop corruption and the waste of the nation’s resources in senseless extravagance. Set a moral example. Be a true President of the Filipino people. Is that too difficult to do?

Must the writ be suspended?

Must there be martial law? “

Court of Appeals Scandal: The Fairest Justice Money Can Buy?

2008-07-30T16:38:00.000-07:00

The Court of Appeals (CA) is in crisis. It is holding an emergency session today over the revelation of a bribery attempt in the still simmering GSIS-MERALCO war and the sensational incident at the recent stockholders meeting of the Philippines' largest power distributor.

The GSIS, wielding its 33 percent share of the utility, tried but failed to engineer a management revamp over what the none-too-tactful Winston Garcia claimed was MERALCO bad management which he says "is the cause of high electricity rates."

The Securities and Exchange Commission hastily issued an order to stop the stockholders meeting but MERALCO simply ignore it.

And so the legal battle shifted to the Court of Appeals, the latest episode of which saw the CA voiding the SEC order.

Now the Philippine Daily Inquirer banner story reveals:

"By his own account, a Court of Appeals justice was offered P10 million to inhibit himself from a case that Manila Electric Co. had filed to stop an attempted takeover by the Government Service Insurance System.

The offer was made to him on July 1 through a Makati businessman, Justice Jose Sabio Jr. said in a letter dated July 26 to Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez Jr., a copy of which was obtained by the Philippine Daily Inquirer Wednesday afternoon.

In an interview Wednesday morning, Sabio said he would hold nothing back in the court’s en banc session scheduled Thursday to discuss the issue of the Meralco case.

Asked if he had informed Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez about any bribery offer made to him in relation to the case, Sabio replied: “Everything, all details, will be discussed. I can just say, no holds barred. If I’m asked to detail everything, I will. I’ll be honest.”

Sabio and Justice Myrna Dimaranan-Vidal of the appellate court’s former 9th Division had protested the issuance of the decision on the Meralco petition on July 23.

In that decision, the court voided the order of the Securities and Exchange Commission stopping the hotly contested May 27 election of the Meralco board, over which the power firm retained control.

Sabio and Vidal described the circumstances surrounding the decision as “fishy,” adding that they had heard the oral arguments on the case but were not among those who signed the decision.

Those who did sign the decision were Justice Vicente Roxas, the designated ponente, and Justices Bienvenido Reyes and Antonio Bruselas. The three make up the 8th Division, to which Roxas was transferred from the 9th Division, when the case was pending.

According to Sabio, the businessman, whom he has known for some time, requested an urgent meeting and waited to see him until his law classes ended at 8 p.m. on July 1.

“It turned out that he was brokering for Meralco,” Sabio said."

This scandal comes just a day after the remark of Mr. Oscar Lopez that "it is as if Marcos had not left," and that the government's target "is not really MERALCO but ABS-CBN."

Coffee shop talk around Manila is describing the statement of Lopez as just short of a declaration of war against President Arroyo who has 20 months left in her term.

The Court of Appeals becoming embroiled in the controversy adds the dimension of how the integrity of judiciary is perceived to have been damaged in recent years over politically-colored appointments and of decisions being written not by judges and justices but by the verr law firms of powerful litigants.

The situation is such that the quality of court decisions has even been described as "the fairest justice money can buy" with the alleged practices reaching all the way up to the Court of Appeals.

Now the cover has been blown.

Mindanao: The Government's Carrot VS The MILF's Stick

2008-07-27T16:03:00.000-07:00

Rushing to catch President Arroyo's State of the Nation Address this afternoon, Philippine government negotiators (according to late Sunday night news dispatches from Kuala Lumpur from both the Associated Press and Reuters) appear to have resuscitated the peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Recently retired armed forces chief of staff Hermogenes Esperon, now the presidential adviser on the peace process announced that government negotiator Rodolfo Garcia signed an agreement with his Moro Islamic Liberation Front counterpart, Mohagher Iqbal, setting the signing early next month of a key accord on ancestral domain.

Earlier late last Friday, the MILF walked out of the peace talks after Manila reportedly hedged on the timetable in the wake of strongly negative reactions to the planned expansion of the autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao.

Now the news reports are saying the expanded ARMM will include 712 villages, subject to the agreement of residents in a plebiscite.

At the weekend, disturbing reports confirmed that MILF forces "went on a rampage in Cotabato, burning 10 houses, wounding three soldiers and causing scores of people to flee.

The military said the rebels "attacked Aleosan town in Cotabato on Saturday, setting fire to 10 houses and firing at the soldiers who rushed to the scene, wounding three of them. A military spokesman said "sporadic fighting raged for most of the day and soldiers were still in defensive positions yesterday."

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. warned the MILF yesterday that hostilities could break out if it fails to control its members.“It’s incumbent upon them … to rein in their people…to prevent the outbreak of hostilities,” Teodoro said.

The MILF decision to stage an attack in Cotabato clearly shows they will not hesitate to restart hostilities while the government has been pressured to flip its hand and offer the ancestral land 'carrot' to rescue the talks in time for the SONA.

These developments bear close scrutiny as the government may have blinked ahead of the August 11 ARMM election, which Manila has also offered to postpone.

The linkage of the postponement at this sensitive point in the government-MILF peace talks is clear.

The matter of expanding the ARMM without amending the organic la,w and the new commitment of an earlier time frame for the plebiscite introduce legal and political issues that government critics are certain to examine in detail in the coming days.

For now, government simply wants to make sure the 'hope for peace' component in GMA's SONA is not disturbed. It will worry about the new issues later.

Filipino ‘TNTs’ In Sabah: Diplomatic Bargaining Chips

2008-07-24T22:58:00.000-07:00

The real reason for the intensified expulsion of undocumented Filipinos (TNT’s or Tago-Ng-Tago) in the disputed territory of Sabah, which has been under formal Malaysia control since 1963, has finally been admitted in a tangential way by Malacanang.

A report in the Philippine Daily Inquirer quotes presidential alter ego or ‘little president’ Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita as saying, “you can’t disregard the Sabah issue, but we can’t connect all these issues at once. Otherwise the goodwill that we have with the other country will be lost.”

Mr. Ermita made the remark in the context of the latest round of talks between Manila and Kuala Lumpur (actually the 5th RP-Malaysia Working Group on Migrant Workers held against the backdrop of the expulsion of the latest batch of Filipinos from Sabah.

Ermita was careful to say that the dialogue was held “under an atmosphere of common understanding of the need to solve an immediate problem.”

So here, the Philippine official has let the cat out of the bag: the current concern is the manner the Filipino TNTs are being expelled, most after being jailed for months on end.

By that remark, Ermita reveals that Manila is maintaining its policy of putting the Sabah claim of the Philippines in the back-burner, while Malaysia is using the deportations to nudge the Philippines to take action.

This is all too apparent given the conflict reports last week about the heirs of Sultan Jamalul Kiram The First allegedly relinquishing their claim to the territory and denials from other members of the sultanate.

What cannot be denied is that Malaysia has through the year continue to pay the sultanate ‘rent’ on the ‘perpetual lease’ which, as far as the claimants are concerned, has long expired.

Last reports put the annual payment at over P70,000.

So what has really emerged is that the Filipino illegals in Sabah variously estimated at a low of 200,000 to a high of 400,000 or 500,00 are the diplomatic bargaining chips in the long drawn out territorial dispute.

As for the expelled Filipinos, many of them originally from Sulu, they simply will ‘cool their heels’ and venture back to Sabah because “there are no jobs in our home towns, our families no longer want us and while we are discriminated against and even jailed in Sabah we will risk going back because here you cannot eat shame.”

Indeed this human drama will continue with the Philippine government not really willing, much less able, to face the issue squarely.

Both the Philippine Senate and House of Representatives have frozen action of the new Baselines Law. Apparently, low on their list of priorities is the reintegration of our compatriots in Sabah.

If this is not deplorable, and tragic, nothing else is:Filipinos abandoned by their own government and society

Last Supper With The Street Children

2008-07-24T22:55:00.001-07:00

The 12 children in the painting are real people the painter, Joey Velasco, discovered in poor areas of Metro Manila and Quezon City.

After treating them to meals, Velasco took their pictures and retreated to his room to start working on the painting.

Velasco said, the children, aged 4-14, reveal a story of a greater hunger than a plate of rice could satisfy.

He said, ”It was they who touched my soul. Through them, God spoke to me and moved me to paint their stories and tell others about their lives.”

The young girl standing at the extreme left, where Judas appears in the da Vinci painting, is 10-year-old Nene.

Velasco met her at the Manila North Cemetery, where she and her family lived as squatters among the graves.

Onse, 9, sits at the table, his plate cleaned to the last crumb, he listens to Jesus to feed his other hungers.

The child, who scavenges with a push cart, has a father addicted to drugs and a mother who works as a strip dancer.

Itok, another scavenger who at 11 is the family breadwinner, sits at the right hand of Jesus.

According to Velasco, Itok spent time in jail after being caught in a number of robberies.

Another child in the painting does not live in Quezon City.

Velasco placed a small Sudanese boy under the table eating the fallen scraps with the cats.

The artist explained, “The skinny child is not one of the hungry kids who roam our busy streets at night. He is “an imaginary symbolic figure” who in the past “had satisfied himself with unnecessary food, (but) now finds himself under the table seeking spiritual crumbs.”

The children featured in the painting are no longer in the areas where Velasco originally found them.

Through his partnership with Gawad Kalinga, an organization dedicated to sheltering the homeless, the 12 children and their families now have homes at Romeo Cabrera Village in Quezon City.

The children’s stories are featured in the book “They Have Jesus: The Stories of the Children of the ‘Hapag.’”

Note: This piece was emailed to At Midfield by Danny Gagelonia, my Kuya

The Voyage of the Dead

2008-07-09T01:53:00.000-07:00

It is a full two weeks since the ill-star MV Princess of the Stars fell on its side and ended bottom up some 100 meters from the shoreline of San Fernando, Romblon after being allowed to mistakenly sail into the eye of Typhoon Frank.

The vessel was carrying more than 850 souls en route to Cebu and while it nearly did reach port, its final stopover has become the unintended tomb of the Princess’s passengers and crew.

But in a somewhat macabre show, we are witnessing officials now quibbling over just how much it would cost either the government, Sulpicio Lines, or the boat’s insurers to refloat or tow the ‘Princess before anything is done to extract the highly toxic pesticide, all 10 metric tons of it, from the ship’s bowels plus the vessel’s 250,000 liters of bunker diesel fuel.

Extra care must be taken, we are told, to prevent any further loss of life.

But this writer cannot but ask, how about the dead? Just when and how do we take care of the now heavily decomposing remains of the once vibrantly alive passengers and crew?

Don’t they themselves deserve to be attended to with dispatch so they can be given proper, respectful burials?

How much longer do their mortal remains have to suffer the indignity of being entombed in a ghost ship?

When will the voyage of the dead end?

Hapless Victims Caught Between Finger-Pointers And Pontius Pilates

2008-07-01T02:11:00.000-07:00

The immeasurable grief of the families of the dead and missing in the sinking of MV Princess of the Stars is being compounded further with the finger-pointers and modern-day Pontius Pilates now grabbing the media spotlight.

Sulpicio Lines is suing PAGASA for “its erroneous typhoon forecasts” and blaming multinational firm Del Monte for “not disclosing the highly toxic nature of it ‘rush’ shipment of endosulfan. The Department of Agriculture is taking the cudgels for its attached agency, the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority for allowing the continued importation and use of the internationally-banned pesticide.

The FPA says Sulpicio is to blame if the 10 metric tons of endosulfan poisons the waters of Sibuyan Sea and triggers massive fish kills and other dark events.

On its part the Justice Department’s Public Attorneys Office whose boss was refused entry by Sulpicio Lines security guards is threatening to issue a writ of replivin attaching the assets of the shipping company.

All these statements are making headlines as congressional inquiries are being called even while the official Board of Marine Inquiry into the tragedy is still progress.

Quite a circus indeed as the relatives of the victims are left in limbo over the fate of their kin and if relief, and justice, will ever come their way.

Boring Through A Wreck, Tearing Our Hearts

2008-06-29T15:01:00.000-07:00

The agony simply continues for the bedraggled and weary relatives of the hundreds of dead and missing from the what Sulpicio Lines insists was "an act of God": - the sinking of the ferry boat Princess of the Stars in the waters off Sibuyan and Romblon islands while en route to Cebu at the height of typhoon Frank.

For a full week now the bodies of many of the dead have remained entombed in the overturned hull of the 23,000-ton vessel with authorities taking their sweet time in removing the toxic chemical cargo in the bowels of the death ship - all 10 metric tons of endosulfan, a pesticide shipment of Del Monte Philippines intended, they say, to make sure pineapples are safe for exoort.
Quite a queer coincidence, one of the 'highlights' of the presidential 'working visit' to the United States was Pres. Arroyo standing witness at the signing of a $500-M contract for the export of Philippine pineapples!
What a cruel unintended trade-off, indeed.
In fairness, we are sure Mrs. Arroyo and her entourage of 50-plus congressmen will want to hurry back to Manila.
In time to witness the retrieval of the dead from Princess of the Stars or to celebrate the homecoming from Las Vegas of newly drowned world lighweight boxing king Manny Pacquiao?
To his credit, the Pacman yesterday announced he was making a gnerous donation to help the ty[hon victims while we have not heard nary a peep from the junketeers in the preidential party, many of whom battled to get $600 ringside seats at Mandalay Bay --- the better to get within TV camera range and get theIr mugs beamed via satellite live on pay-per-view and delayed free TV.
I am sure many did not miss seeing former Ilocos Sur governor Chavit Singson among those atop the ring looking as if he himself knocked out David Diaz. Magpa-balato ka nga, sir.
But what really tears our heart out is news that commercial divers are finally en route to the scene of the Sibuyan Sea tragedy to bore a hole into the wreck and get at the 40 foot container van loaded with the pesticide and allow rescue drivers to resume their grim task of recovering the other cadavers which by now are surely more bloated and unrecognizable because of decomposition.
This while Sulpicio Lines, feigning compassion, is declaring that it is "waiving legal documentary requirements for victims' relatives to avail of P200,00 in bereavement assistance.
As noted by Nick (who has lost a cousin in the tragedy) and Rom over at FilipinoVoices.com, the Sulpcio offer is nothing but a bribe, an obvious attempt, may we add, to stave off a class action suit Thank you to Sen. Mar Roxas that Sulpicio only has LIMITED insurance coverage for its death ship. Note down the insurer firm: Oriental.
The goal has been further exposed by their caveat that the claimants need to submit original documents!
Heartless, this shipping company really is!

Manny Pacquiao Unites Us Again

2008-06-29T12:42:00.000-07:00

Manny Pacquiao again erased the political and social divide that separates Filipinos by knocking out Mexican David Diaz and capturing the World Boxing Council lightweight crown, the only Asian and only Filipino to win a world title in four weight classes.

Pacquiao displayed blinding speed and explosive punching power as he beat Diaz into a pulp yesterday through all 9 rounds of their scheduled 12-round fight in Laz Vegas, sending his rival the canvass with a left cross smack into the jaw of the outclassed Mexican.

This ended the fight with 36 seconds left in the 9th round, giving the fighter from General Santos City his fourth world title.

With his feat, Pacquiao joins the pantheon of Filipino boxing greats where the memories of Pancho 'The Mighty Mite' Villa and Gabriel 'Flash' Elorde are enshrined.

With this tribute goes our hope that Manny will continue to further sharpen his pugilistic arsenal while keeping his humility and prayerful character intact and his well-earned wealth conserved and nurtured so that he and his family will be properly provided for when the time comes to hang up those boxing gloves.

Mabuhay ka, Manny!

Postscript:

We rejoice over the Pacman's victory but cringe at thw all to familiar mugs we saw on the TV screens trying shoving their faces into the camera frames. The gall of some incorrigible people, indeed!

Cross-posted at http://midfield.wordpress.com/

Killing The Dead, Poisoning TheLiving

2008-06-26T21:37:00.000-07:00

If this were a boxing match with the referees still tallying their scores, we would already be punch-drunk, ready to throw in the towel, and maybe even burn down the gym for good measure.

There is a revelation from the Philippine Coast Guard that several years ago a multi million peso project to install a sophisticated emergency maritime communication system complete with global positioning satellite links. But, the Coast Guard says, the project "became a white elephant due to project billing problems" with the supplier delivering the hardware but not the software to run the gadgetry!

The agency claims the ferry sinking could have been prevented of the project had not failed.

Meanwhile, five days after MV Princess of the Stars capsized off Romblon and Sibuyan islands, we are now belatedly being told that the ’ship of death’ also has in its bowels ten metric tons of the pesticide endosulfan with the solid crystalline poison packed not in sealed airtight containers but in plastic bags, inside ordinary carton boxes stacked in a 40-foot container van.
With this startling confession by the owners of the vessel during the Marine Board of Inquiry, authorities have hurriedly suspended the efforts to retrieve the remains of the dead still trapped in the ship’s overturned hull.
All the Navy frogmen and volunteer divers have been brought back to the surface lest the endusulfan packs burst, unless they already have, and rapidly contaminate the waters.
The Department of Health and the fisheries bureau have withdrawn, posthaste, their safety assurances about eating fish from the site of the tragedy to prevent possible poisonings.
These developments bear the signature of a corrupted system pockmarked by chronic neglect and utter disregard for the public welfare.
This truly compounds the public uproar and magnifies the apparent criminal negligence of Sulpicio Lines plus the massive regulatory incompetence of government.
Those already dead are being killed still while the living are seemingly lying prostrate, at the mercy of the powers that be!

Tragedy's Fine Print

2008-06-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

Sulpicio Lines is eager to immediately stave off any potential class action suit in the aftermath of its latest killer incident: the sinking of MV Princess of the Stars which had been billed as the rown jewel of the tragedy-ridden shipping company.

Even as prayers continue for Navy frogmen to still find any more survivors among the more than 650 still missing, Sulpicio is already announcing that it will pay 200,000 pesos as 'bereavement assistance' for each death.

This as the owners are asserting that the incident "was an act of God."

But ask any lawyer worth his salt: the relatives of the dead, to qualify for the pay-out must have proof: the body of the deceased or at the very least a certification of presumed death ,which under the law can only be issued by the civil registrars, at the earliest, 2 years after tha person goes missing under unusual circumstance such as a plane crash or the sinking of a sea-goig vessel. If the circumstances of one's disappearance are considered 'normal', the waiting period is 7 years with the other party, in this Sulpicio Lines, having the 'right' to contest each and every claim.

So there you are. Sulpicio knows the game only too well, having a record of one vessel sinking every five years these past two decades.

The Possible Untold Story In The Abduction of Ces Drilon

2008-06-25T08:08:00.000-07:00

Was popular broadcast journalist Ces Oreña-Drilon abducted in Sulu by suspected members of the bandit Abu Sayyaf Group as part of a “political fund-raising effort” by the former negotiators and now tagged principal suspects: Mayor Alvarez Isnaji and son Haider? (The Isnajis, police say, pocketed up to 60 percent of the supposed initial P5M ransom paid by the Drion family.)
Was Drilon simply ‘betrayed’ by their group’s guide who was supposed to bring them to their intended interviewee, top ASG commander Radulan Sahiron? (Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales claims Sahiron had “communicated his intention to surrender” two weeks before the Drilon abduction.
The easiest way would be to answer these questions in the affirmative, taking at face value all of the pronouncements of police investigating and considering the incident closed.
However, information reaching this writer from sources in the uniformed services and accounts of recent events point to the disturbing possibility that Drilon and company (which included Mindanao peace advocate Octavio Dinampo) were “used as bait” for at least one high-value target in the war against terror: Indonesian national Dulmatin, the Jemaah Islamiya electronics expert tagged as one of two bomb-makers in the deadly bombings in Bali Indonesia in 2002.
Dulmatin , who has a $10M bounty on his head, was last thought to have been injured, and possibly killed in a raid against the ASG IN 2007. The suspected remains of Dulmatin were even exhumed from a grave in Tawi-tawi and subjected to DNA tests which results were inconclusive.)
Fears that Dulmatin (or elements who trained under him) was still active were revived several weeks ago on May 29 when a bomb exploded just outside the military’s Edwin Andrews Air Base in Zamboanga City, killing two people and injured 23 others, including four engineers working on a project of the US Agency for International Development.
Investigators found evidence with the JI bomb expert’s ‘signature’ in the incident. Colonel Darwin Guerra, a senior counter-terrorist officer told reporters, "the bomb was hidden in a bag and was detonated by remote control using a cell phone," he said.
U.S. embassy officials would not say if they thought the USAID project was specifically targeted, but ambassador Kristie Kelly was described in news reports as “horrified” as she called the bombing a “terrible incident.”
One stark detail in the Drilon abduction which persists is that the man who initially acted as their guide, and then left them for reasons unknown was indeed a regular military intelligence asset, leading even Ces to comment hours after their release that “they were betrayed by people we trusted.”
Our sources tell us the sequence of events in the way Drilon and her group were “guided all through to Maimbung town and then literally handed over to 8 armed men indicate their interception was not coincidental.”
His writer’s sources reveal, “the movement was intended to test whether the presence of the television news crew would be able to draw out either Rahilon, at the very least, even the slippery Dulmatin if he is alive and operating in the jungles of Jolo.”
News accounts also show that at the height of the search operations for the kidnap victims, the US military deployed their unmanned Predator spy planes equipped with highly-sensitive remote imaging capability to support Philippine operations led by Western Command’s anti-terrorist Task Force Comet.
Professor Dinampo has, in the meantime, revealed in an interview of MindaNews editor Carol Arguilas that Drilon and her group were actually first brought to Bud (Mount) Daho, a long dormant volcano in Sulu. (http://www.mindanews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4612&Itemid=50)
The MindaNews report says professor Dinampo, when he was allowed to make a phone call to his non-government organization, the Citizen’s Peace Watch, had given a coded message about where they were being captive. The message, however, was left “undecoded” until their release.
It was only later when negotiations for their release progressed that the captives were brought from Bud Daho to the lowland tri-boundary area of Patikul, Indanan, and Talipao towns. (Bud Daho is a choice hiding place of Tausugs given its secure location, and historical importance being the site of a 1906 incident where an estimated 1,000 Moros were massacred by American troops on orders of Major General Leonard Wood. The centennial of the carnage was marked last March 13.)
Against this backdrop, with the public interest having shifted to the tragic sinking of the inter-island ferry Princess of the Stars, this possible untold story in the abduction of Ces Oreña-Drilon may actually be more than tangent to the continuing Philippine component of the United States’ war on terror and the ‘negative result’ of the intensified hunt for Dulmatin and ASG militants the previous two weeks.
This is because the second tranche of up to $4M in anti-terrorist funding support committed by the outgoing Bush administration has remained unreleased, with American authorities reported to be quietly “auditing how, and why, the earlier first $4M installment had been used by the Philippine police to purchase computer facilities.”
In fact no such ‘anticipated announcement’ of the additional anti-terrorist fund came despite President Bush having congratulated his Filipino counterpart “on her strong stand on counter-terrorism -- more than strong stand -- effective stand on counter-terrorism.”
Will the truth about the Sulu abduction ever be revealed? This is the question that awaits an answer before another major story breaks in Sulu.

Paying For Lost Lives

2008-06-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

How much does a human life cost?

Apparently Sulpicio Lines, with its record of sinking ships every five years on the average has a ready formula: P 200,00. That's the amount it says it will pay for each of the deaths in the sinking of its ferry M/V Princess of the Stars.

The announcement comes even as navy divers aren't really done yet scouring the waters off Romblon and Sibuyan Islands even though their own grim declaration was that they found only"many bloated and decomposing after boring a hole and entering the hull of the overturned wreck.

Only some 72 hours ago the 23,000-ton ferry, supposedly the newest in the Sulpicio fleet was teeming with the live of more than 800 passenger and crew en route to Cebu from Manila.

"We found no sign of life," the navy divers reported stoically.

As the grieving relatives of the missing stare blankly at the ship's manifested posted outside Sulpicio Cebu and Pier 12 offces in Manila we are sure the company's lawyers are busy retrieving their templates of quit-claim documents to stave off possible class action suits.

This is one time we make a call for both well-meaning prosecution lawyers and even 'a,mbulance chasers,

Throw the book at Sulpicio. Now.

Porn On Your Phone: A New Bundled Feature?

2008-06-23T23:56:00.000-07:00

This is my first non-political post. But this writer hopes the message will get through.

Beware ‘platinum plan’ subscribers of one of the major Philippine telcos. They are on a promo binge, moving inventory while also ‘rewarding’ loyal subscribers.

But wait. Are the promo ‘high end’ units really new? Or have they been tinkered with either by a previous ‘trial’ owner or by the supplier?

We raise this point as a business partner has just received an unintended add-on to the promo Samsung cellular phone unit that sports the Mobile Windows operating sys that comes bundled with the Windows Movie Player: PORN.

I certainly don’t think the Koreans would pre-load their fast moving models with such trash, given that Samsung is still playing catch-up to Nokia.

Paging Globe Telecom and Smart Communication.

The Sinking Feeling

2008-06-23T14:59:00.000-07:00

I don't like to write when I'm angry. Also would not have wanted to start this blog with a sad story.

But the latest Philippine maritime disaster: the sinking of the inter-island ferry Princess of the Stars owned by notorious Sulpicio lines cannot but give anyone a bout of depression. Pardon the unintended pun: a truly sinking feeling. The feeling that someone somewhere should hang for this.

This early morning here in Manila far from the murky waters off San Fernando Mindoro we cannot sense the deathly quiet nor smell the stench of bloated bodies. But we are told that with 22 confirmed dead and 59 confirmed survivors, a staggering number of 785 souls remain missing and,by now, feared dead.

Yes the search and rescue choppers are still hovering atop the overturned hull of the ship with the top part of the bow jutting out of the water while coast guard ships and puny fishermen's bancas circling the site looking for any sign of life.

The relatives of the missing are already wailing, grieving nervously at Manila's Pier 12 waiting, hoping to hear something other than reports of more bodies being plucked out of the water or washing on the shore of San Fernando town.

But instead of hopeful news,the mayor of San Fernando was appealing on national radio late yesterday afternoon for body bags and lime so they could tend to the dead.

To underline her own despair and anger, the lady mayor described how they've been been forced to sprinkle white cement on the recovered cadavers just to stem the decomposition while waiting for help. She also complained: not a single call had come, she said, from Sulpicio Lines, to coordinate and help.

And while representatives of the company are reportedly going to Romblon via Aklan this morning, unless they can part the waters off Romblon and raise the dead, there is little else they can do.

The press reports now say how the shiptain's order to abandon ship came only when Princess of the Stars was already tilting very badly so much so that the passengers were already in panic.

In fact even while the vessel was supposedly only three years and had a full complement of life boats and life vests, only four of the listed survivors had vests on.

This time unlike the other Sulpicio tragedies: the sinkings od MV Dona Paz and NV Dona Marilyn, Princess of the Stars was not overloaded.

But the question now emerging is that it was allowed to leave port even while its destination was under severe storm alerts.

So the blame putting has now begun with even the Speaker of the House of Representatives asking for Sulpicio Lines' license to be revoked. That's it?

I don't only have a sinking feeling. I want to puke.