DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
08/30/2010
While the whole country is distracted with the Hong Thai tourist bus massacre and the subsequent embarrassing and demoralizing imbroglio, the PeNoy Aquino government is insidiously conniving with its financial overlords to transfer taxpayers’ money to the oligarchs under the guise of an “investment fund to finance loans for infrastructure under the public-private partnerships (PPPs)... at very low interest rates.” Big Business’ DPA (deep penetration agent) in the National Economic Development Authority, Cayetano Paderanga Jr., adds that the money will be used “for loans to pump-prime the economy” to boost infrastructure “if we are to generate the six million tourists we hope to achieve,” as well as “strengthen the legal, institutional, and governance framework” of the PPPs.
Take out the gibberish and the scheme is simple: Subsidized loans for private corporations that will engage in government projects, with sovereign guarantees yet again!
Frankly, the pump-priming and six million tourists Paderanga is dreaming about went up in smoke after PeNoy allowed the police under his authority, as commander-in-chief, to go without timely interference despite the Keystone Kops’ odious performance from the moment they pumped bullets into the tourist bus’ tires without immediate follow through. But since that fiasco has been already whipped more than the proverbial dead horse, we will not beat it anymore. Nonetheless, there are still live horses which PeNoy and his Big Business masters are intending to ride on to another six years of unprecedented corporate profits — hoping to beat their previous P3-trillion bonanza in the nine-and-a-half years of Gloria Arroyo. With the announced PPPs of PeNoy yielding billions of low interest loans, Big Business will be off to a very spectacular start again under its new puppet government.
Of course, PeNoy’s economic plotters believe that affixing any plan with a “pump-priming” tag will sound academic and economic, a kind of techno-talk enough to impress the public into acceptance. However, such a step will only impoverish the nation and destroy its economy, while enriching only the oligarchs. It’s much of the same pump-priming that US President Obama did, which is why it’s now almost certain that not only will a “double dip recession” descend upon that once mighty superpower, but that it will most probably lead to its “greatest depression.” Already, top American economist David Rosenberg, along with trend researcher Gerald Celente and other luminaries such as Arthur Laffer and Paul Krugman believe so. That’s because Obama’s stimulus package, which amounted to trillions of dollars, merely went to bailing out the financial mafiosos that left the people penniless.
In stark contrast, China’s pump-priming consists of tax rebates and the raising of minimum wages, along with massive infrastructure expansion by the state. The Chinese people therefore have more money to keep domestic consumer activity expanding; to fuel demand; to keep farms and factories viable; and to sustain employment.
PeNoy’s Big Business-biased cheap loans, meanwhile, will result in infrastructure projects that only favor business interests. And, as we have seen in the past three decades, the supposed “trickle down” effect will only fall into the catch basin of Big Business and its corrupt partners in the government bureaucracy through corruption — as exemplified by the Gloria to PeNoy holdover of appointees’ financial perks, including a “privatization bonus,” which is actually a bribe to government executives who will betray public interest by promoting the oligarchy’s privileges.
The Big Business bias in Philippine government and society started with the Edsa I coup. This was then institutionalized by Cory Aquino through her 1987 Constitution with provisions that mandated the economy to be “private sector-led” and the Monetary Board to be dominated by bankers.
As public wealth and power started getting transferred to the giant corporations of the oligarchs, it made government progressively bankrupt, and among many other things, caused the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ store of equipment to shrink (from over 100 helicopters down to two dozen in recent years) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to rely more on jueteng and other sidelines to keep the loyalty of its generals and officers to the ruling class (while many in its rank-and-file resort to petty crimes to survive). All these have led to the low morale (and morals) of our uniformed service — fostering a deteriorating professionalism, the rise of a “pera-pera” culture, as well as, careerist opportunism in its ranks.
Should we be surprised then, given the overall decay of society and the government institutions, that at the Hong Thai crisis the Manila Police District and the PNP showed utter lack of cooperation and cohesion; or that on the same day, two Korean missionaries in the Philippines were kidnapped, with their two companions killed; or that eight policemen were ambushed and killed elsewhere in the Philippines that same week; and so on? Should we be surprised that the nation’s psyche, in reaction to the hostage fiasco, has come to mirror national confusion and paranoia?
We as a nation are already in the ICU (intensive care unit). Radical brain surgery of the Edsa I-Edsa II tumor is therefore imperative if we are to recover. Here’s an SOS to all patriotic citizens, soldiers, officers, and civilian leaders!
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics (and Economics) Today, Tuesday, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m. on Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 21 about “Ninoy’s Death: A False Flag Operation?”; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Monday, August 30, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Yellows, GMA to blame
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
08/27/2010
It can be classified as one of the greatest fiascos this nation has ever committed before the eyes of the world. The disastrously botched rescue of the Hong Thai tour bus hostages showed the whole world the absolute institutional collapse of the Philippine National Police (PNP) under nine-and-a-half years of Gloria Arroyo and an almost two-month old administration of PeNoy Aquino. The City of Manila is under intense scrutiny, too, run as it is by another Yellow stalwart, Mayor Alfredo Lim — who was a “darling” of Cory Aquino and an old reliable enforcer of the Edsa I and II cabals. The same is true for Fidel Ramos, who was among the last to head the old and much-maligned Philippine Constabulary — precursor to the PNP — at a time when jueteng became endemic in the entire organization.
Moral-professional decay has infected the PNP and “Manila’s Finest” since the Yellows took over and ruled our country for 24 years. All that rot has led to the showcasing of the complete collapse of institutional leadership, administrative and organizational competence, and amazing misappropriation of the PNP’s resources in the hostage incident.
Clearly, there was no direction from the PNP or from the national and local leadership the whole time, even when it became obvious that the local PNP was already botching the negotiations and later, the assault of the hostage bus cum fortress — such that not a single gas mask was produced in over 10 hours of the siege, which blinded the police with their own tear gas and rendered them inutile when the hostage taker fired back indiscriminately. Why, the PNP even took hours to break the windows and pry apart the door of the bus, only to finally open it by pulling down the lever of the emergency door. (Dumbkopfs indeed!)
All the rot the whole world saw on display last Aug. 23 could not have developed overnight under the PeNoy government; it was a long-standing infection that ate into the structures of our government and the PNP — corrupting its flesh while eating up and corroding its moral spine. There is no doubt that the nine-and-a-half years of unprecedented corruption under Gloria Arroyo — from the promotion to powerful positions of her co-conspirators in Edsa II, such as Ebdane, Mendoza, Berroya, and many others; to the three-fold increase in jueteng and consequently, the unprecedented size of the pot that the PNP top brass divvy up each month; to the misuse of the PNP as a personal tool to spy on critics and suppress the legitimate opposition; as well as massive election cheating, ad nausea — had all been a major accelerator of this decay in the police.
When the congressmen of Gloria’s party stepped up to brag of their President Arroyo “hostage crisis” handling, one can only wonder if they really think the population to be that stupid to swallow their ridiculous claims. Reps. Danny Suarez and Edcel Lagman should remember that the PNP hierarchy led by Director General Jesus Verzosa was inherited from them. The thing is, PeNoy was just showing his idiocy when he decided against replacing PNP Chief Versoza when he could have.
If PeNoy had really represented a clean break from the past, he should have started afresh with new leadership for the police organization. But then, the Yellow movement is really just a continuation of the old Arroyo regime — under names and faces doing the same old thing.
The Arroyo congressmen cited several hostage taking incidents during Arroyo’s watch that ended without casualties. Actually, we saw those operations and the PNP did not perform any better and neither did Gloria do anything significant in those cases. Plus, the cast of characters were different; as were the arms used, as well as, the motives — which included petty publicity for that other bus-taking incident.
The Manila Peninsula incident, meanwhile, would have ended with reporters and civilians killed had not Gen. Danilo Lim and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV taken the morally courageous stand to leave with the civilians to save everyone from slaughter. In fact, Gloria’s attack dogs staged the most ridiculous “glass façade assault” by using the PNP’s V150 APC as it was played across the globe too.
In Manila, the Yellow-backed Mayor Alfredo Lim was inexplicably absent from his usual role as “Dirty Harry.” Why so? Does this lend credence to what we gather from the Binondo, Manila grapevine that Lim had actually caused the cases to be filed against Senior Insp. Rolando Mendoza? According to this story, Lim was afraid he would trigger a worse reaction from the hostage taker, thus all efforts toward dialog got assigned to the vice mayor, who failed to get the job done anyway.
But the top Yellow honcho, PeNoy Aquino, did worse: He hid from his Hong Kong counterpart the whole time and even smiled inopportunely at a somber press conference for the victims. All these must have caused the extreme “black” travel advisory imposed by Hong Kong on its citizen-tourists.
The dismal performance of the PeNoy government, capped off by the disastrous Hong Thai hostage crisis fiasco, bolsters the point we raised during the campaign: We need mature, experienced, involved leadership, determined to institute change and forthrightness in governance; curtail PNP corruption by flushing out jueteng payola through legalization; and restore faith in the justice system by cleansing it of “hoodlums in robes” and “rogue cops at the very top.” There was only one candidate who could have filled such shoes; but the Yellows Hocus-PCOSed him, “wheeled and dealed” with religious sects, and manipulated surveys to get their unprepared, reluctant, dense, stiff, uncoordinated, and maladroit puppet in.
Although I sympathize with PeNoy whenever he has that awkward, incongruous look on his face as he tries to defend himself, such follies merely create more problems. Ultimately, he can only blame his Yellow alalays for pushing him into this.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics (and Economics) Today, Tuesday, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m. on Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 21; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http:hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Herman Tiu Laurel
08/27/2010
It can be classified as one of the greatest fiascos this nation has ever committed before the eyes of the world. The disastrously botched rescue of the Hong Thai tour bus hostages showed the whole world the absolute institutional collapse of the Philippine National Police (PNP) under nine-and-a-half years of Gloria Arroyo and an almost two-month old administration of PeNoy Aquino. The City of Manila is under intense scrutiny, too, run as it is by another Yellow stalwart, Mayor Alfredo Lim — who was a “darling” of Cory Aquino and an old reliable enforcer of the Edsa I and II cabals. The same is true for Fidel Ramos, who was among the last to head the old and much-maligned Philippine Constabulary — precursor to the PNP — at a time when jueteng became endemic in the entire organization.
Moral-professional decay has infected the PNP and “Manila’s Finest” since the Yellows took over and ruled our country for 24 years. All that rot has led to the showcasing of the complete collapse of institutional leadership, administrative and organizational competence, and amazing misappropriation of the PNP’s resources in the hostage incident.
Clearly, there was no direction from the PNP or from the national and local leadership the whole time, even when it became obvious that the local PNP was already botching the negotiations and later, the assault of the hostage bus cum fortress — such that not a single gas mask was produced in over 10 hours of the siege, which blinded the police with their own tear gas and rendered them inutile when the hostage taker fired back indiscriminately. Why, the PNP even took hours to break the windows and pry apart the door of the bus, only to finally open it by pulling down the lever of the emergency door. (Dumbkopfs indeed!)
All the rot the whole world saw on display last Aug. 23 could not have developed overnight under the PeNoy government; it was a long-standing infection that ate into the structures of our government and the PNP — corrupting its flesh while eating up and corroding its moral spine. There is no doubt that the nine-and-a-half years of unprecedented corruption under Gloria Arroyo — from the promotion to powerful positions of her co-conspirators in Edsa II, such as Ebdane, Mendoza, Berroya, and many others; to the three-fold increase in jueteng and consequently, the unprecedented size of the pot that the PNP top brass divvy up each month; to the misuse of the PNP as a personal tool to spy on critics and suppress the legitimate opposition; as well as massive election cheating, ad nausea — had all been a major accelerator of this decay in the police.
When the congressmen of Gloria’s party stepped up to brag of their President Arroyo “hostage crisis” handling, one can only wonder if they really think the population to be that stupid to swallow their ridiculous claims. Reps. Danny Suarez and Edcel Lagman should remember that the PNP hierarchy led by Director General Jesus Verzosa was inherited from them. The thing is, PeNoy was just showing his idiocy when he decided against replacing PNP Chief Versoza when he could have.
If PeNoy had really represented a clean break from the past, he should have started afresh with new leadership for the police organization. But then, the Yellow movement is really just a continuation of the old Arroyo regime — under names and faces doing the same old thing.
The Arroyo congressmen cited several hostage taking incidents during Arroyo’s watch that ended without casualties. Actually, we saw those operations and the PNP did not perform any better and neither did Gloria do anything significant in those cases. Plus, the cast of characters were different; as were the arms used, as well as, the motives — which included petty publicity for that other bus-taking incident.
The Manila Peninsula incident, meanwhile, would have ended with reporters and civilians killed had not Gen. Danilo Lim and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV taken the morally courageous stand to leave with the civilians to save everyone from slaughter. In fact, Gloria’s attack dogs staged the most ridiculous “glass façade assault” by using the PNP’s V150 APC as it was played across the globe too.
In Manila, the Yellow-backed Mayor Alfredo Lim was inexplicably absent from his usual role as “Dirty Harry.” Why so? Does this lend credence to what we gather from the Binondo, Manila grapevine that Lim had actually caused the cases to be filed against Senior Insp. Rolando Mendoza? According to this story, Lim was afraid he would trigger a worse reaction from the hostage taker, thus all efforts toward dialog got assigned to the vice mayor, who failed to get the job done anyway.
But the top Yellow honcho, PeNoy Aquino, did worse: He hid from his Hong Kong counterpart the whole time and even smiled inopportunely at a somber press conference for the victims. All these must have caused the extreme “black” travel advisory imposed by Hong Kong on its citizen-tourists.
The dismal performance of the PeNoy government, capped off by the disastrous Hong Thai hostage crisis fiasco, bolsters the point we raised during the campaign: We need mature, experienced, involved leadership, determined to institute change and forthrightness in governance; curtail PNP corruption by flushing out jueteng payola through legalization; and restore faith in the justice system by cleansing it of “hoodlums in robes” and “rogue cops at the very top.” There was only one candidate who could have filled such shoes; but the Yellows Hocus-PCOSed him, “wheeled and dealed” with religious sects, and manipulated surveys to get their unprepared, reluctant, dense, stiff, uncoordinated, and maladroit puppet in.
Although I sympathize with PeNoy whenever he has that awkward, incongruous look on his face as he tries to defend himself, such follies merely create more problems. Ultimately, he can only blame his Yellow alalays for pushing him into this.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics (and Economics) Today, Tuesday, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m. on Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 21; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http:hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Monday, August 23, 2010
Was Ninoy’s death a US operation?
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
08/23/2010
The Aquino children’s repudiation of the reopening of the Ninoy Aquino slay inquiry, under the pretext of “having already forgiven the perpetrators,” is facile and unacceptable. The Filipino people are entitled to know the truth in their continuing conduct of history; and the unclosed chapter is unfair to Ferdinand Marcos et al. who were long condemned as the masterminds through insinuations by the Aquino family and the Establishment media.
Take Billy Esposo’s logic, written in 2007: “…The responsibility falls squarely on the Marcos regime… The compelling reason for ordering the Aquino assassination was to remove the all-too-real threat of Aquino rallying the opposition…” That same facile logic about the 1971 Plaza Miranda bombing — which has been proven absolutely false to waylay the nation — created chaos and almost absolved the real perpetrator, Jose Ma. Sison.
Esposo, echoing the logic of all those still simplistically blaming Marcos or those around him, argues: “The power dynamics of the Marcos era was such that the Aquino assassination could only have been undertaken with the go-signal of Marcos or someone who could act on his behalf in ordering the military to undertake the elaborate operation.”
But could Marcos have forced the US not to renew the visa of Ninoy Aquino and his family? And why exactly didn’t the US extend the visas of the Aquinos, since there were countless humanitarian grounds to grant this, particularly the alleged threat of physical harm to his family in the event they returned to Manila? Could Marcos have arranged the acceptance of the obviously faked passport of Ninoy (under the name “Marcial Bonifacio”) through the British in Hong Kong and the Taiwanese authorities? Could he have imposed upon these governments to let a fake passport holder slip through?
Ken Kashiwahara, Ninoy’s Japanese-American brother-in-law, writing his firsthand account in 1983 of that last plane leg at the Chiang Kai Shek International Airport before arriving in Manila (republished by The New York Times last week), said: “Ninoy had no problems going through immigration as Marcial Bonifacio… but as soon as he left the counter, the two ‘security’ men escorted him around the corner. I panicked. ‘This is it,’ I muttered. ‘He’s been discovered.’ I hurried through the immigration, rounded the corner and there was Ninoy, grinning. ‘That was the Taiwan garrison commander,’ he said, ‘and he just wanted to make sure I got through O.K. Can you imagine? A general?’”
The point I am driving at should be clear by now: There has always been a power that could supercede Marcos and any other president to this day. (Erap tried to insist on his way and got ousted, too.)
The official investigation of Ninoy’s assassination stops at Sgt. Pablo Martinez, the identified gunman. But after decades of incarceration and religious guidance from Msgr. Robert Olaguer, assigned by the late Cardinal Sin to minister to the spiritual needs of the 10 soldiers implicated in the assassination, Sgt. Martinez decided to come out with his personal knowledge of who the mastermind was.
On November 2007, Gloria Arroyo pardoned the convicted Ninoy Aquino killers on humanitarian grounds. And as the Aquino siblings denounced this decision, Msgr. Robert Olaguer came up to defend the soldiers to insist on their innocence.
Meanwhile, Esposo, in his aforementioned 2007 article, came to Danding’s defense saying, “What rules out Danding Cojuangco from being the mastermind is the fact that (he) was only in the money game during that time but was nowhere in the line of succession. He neither had the title to vie for it nor had command of the legions to be able to grab it...”
Years after the fall of Marcos that began with the Ninoy Aquino assassination, many US State Department bigwigs, among them former State Secretary George Schultz and then ambassador to Indonesia Paul Wolfowitz, have come out to claim credit for the former leader’s ouster. They’ve stated this either in their memoirs or in various speeches which I have accessed by patiently searching on the Net.
The fall of Marcos caused a reversal of his nation-building programs; then restored and reinvigorated the power of the old privileged elite; demolished trade protection; and accelerated privatization and deregulation, which all led to the greatest transfer of wealth from the Philippine state’s coffers (and the people’s pockets) to global transnational corporations and their local partners. From then on, the sinister program to obliterate the existence of a sovereign Philippine Republic has all but ended with finality.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics (and Economics) Today, Tuesday, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m. on Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 21 about “Ninoy’s Death: A False Flag Operation?”; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Herman Tiu Laurel
08/23/2010
The Aquino children’s repudiation of the reopening of the Ninoy Aquino slay inquiry, under the pretext of “having already forgiven the perpetrators,” is facile and unacceptable. The Filipino people are entitled to know the truth in their continuing conduct of history; and the unclosed chapter is unfair to Ferdinand Marcos et al. who were long condemned as the masterminds through insinuations by the Aquino family and the Establishment media.
Take Billy Esposo’s logic, written in 2007: “…The responsibility falls squarely on the Marcos regime… The compelling reason for ordering the Aquino assassination was to remove the all-too-real threat of Aquino rallying the opposition…” That same facile logic about the 1971 Plaza Miranda bombing — which has been proven absolutely false to waylay the nation — created chaos and almost absolved the real perpetrator, Jose Ma. Sison.
Esposo, echoing the logic of all those still simplistically blaming Marcos or those around him, argues: “The power dynamics of the Marcos era was such that the Aquino assassination could only have been undertaken with the go-signal of Marcos or someone who could act on his behalf in ordering the military to undertake the elaborate operation.”
But could Marcos have forced the US not to renew the visa of Ninoy Aquino and his family? And why exactly didn’t the US extend the visas of the Aquinos, since there were countless humanitarian grounds to grant this, particularly the alleged threat of physical harm to his family in the event they returned to Manila? Could Marcos have arranged the acceptance of the obviously faked passport of Ninoy (under the name “Marcial Bonifacio”) through the British in Hong Kong and the Taiwanese authorities? Could he have imposed upon these governments to let a fake passport holder slip through?
Ken Kashiwahara, Ninoy’s Japanese-American brother-in-law, writing his firsthand account in 1983 of that last plane leg at the Chiang Kai Shek International Airport before arriving in Manila (republished by The New York Times last week), said: “Ninoy had no problems going through immigration as Marcial Bonifacio… but as soon as he left the counter, the two ‘security’ men escorted him around the corner. I panicked. ‘This is it,’ I muttered. ‘He’s been discovered.’ I hurried through the immigration, rounded the corner and there was Ninoy, grinning. ‘That was the Taiwan garrison commander,’ he said, ‘and he just wanted to make sure I got through O.K. Can you imagine? A general?’”
The point I am driving at should be clear by now: There has always been a power that could supercede Marcos and any other president to this day. (Erap tried to insist on his way and got ousted, too.)
The official investigation of Ninoy’s assassination stops at Sgt. Pablo Martinez, the identified gunman. But after decades of incarceration and religious guidance from Msgr. Robert Olaguer, assigned by the late Cardinal Sin to minister to the spiritual needs of the 10 soldiers implicated in the assassination, Sgt. Martinez decided to come out with his personal knowledge of who the mastermind was.
On November 2007, Gloria Arroyo pardoned the convicted Ninoy Aquino killers on humanitarian grounds. And as the Aquino siblings denounced this decision, Msgr. Robert Olaguer came up to defend the soldiers to insist on their innocence.
Meanwhile, Esposo, in his aforementioned 2007 article, came to Danding’s defense saying, “What rules out Danding Cojuangco from being the mastermind is the fact that (he) was only in the money game during that time but was nowhere in the line of succession. He neither had the title to vie for it nor had command of the legions to be able to grab it...”
Years after the fall of Marcos that began with the Ninoy Aquino assassination, many US State Department bigwigs, among them former State Secretary George Schultz and then ambassador to Indonesia Paul Wolfowitz, have come out to claim credit for the former leader’s ouster. They’ve stated this either in their memoirs or in various speeches which I have accessed by patiently searching on the Net.
The fall of Marcos caused a reversal of his nation-building programs; then restored and reinvigorated the power of the old privileged elite; demolished trade protection; and accelerated privatization and deregulation, which all led to the greatest transfer of wealth from the Philippine state’s coffers (and the people’s pockets) to global transnational corporations and their local partners. From then on, the sinister program to obliterate the existence of a sovereign Philippine Republic has all but ended with finality.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics (and Economics) Today, Tuesday, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m. on Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 21 about “Ninoy’s Death: A False Flag Operation?”; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Friday, August 20, 2010
The money masters’ subversion of the peso
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
08/20/2010
The cat is now out of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)’s bag: New pesos are being printed without the knowledge of the Filipino people. And these will be circulated by December, according to the best information we got. Worse, the BSP is not duty-bound to inform anyone as to when, how or why this decision was made!
The 1987 Cory Aquino Constitution states in Article XII, Section 20 that “The Congress shall establish an independent central monetary authority… (which) shall provide policy direction in the areas of money, banking and credit. It shall have supervision over the operations of banks and exercise such regulatory powers as may be provided by law over the operations of finance companies and other institutions performing similar functions…” By “independent,” it means that the BSP does not even have to report to government whenever it does so to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS).
The details of the BSP’s operations, contained in Republic Act 7653 or the New Central Bank Act, were passed during Cory’s time by the late Sen. Raul Roco, considered by some as “The Father of the BSP.” The law passed on old debts of the former Central Bank of the Philippines of around P300 billion to taxpayers (when the exchange rate then was still half of what it is today). Yet it established something even more insidious which very few know of: It organized a Monetary Board to govern the BSP and redefined the composition of the members of the board from five representing government and two from the private sector — which was the case in the old Central Bank board — to a reverse of five representing the private sector and two representing government. Although all are supposedly appointed by the President, the law predetermines that the private sector’s interests shall always dominate the board.
But that’s not all: The new pesos are being printed abroad in foreign money printing facilities instead of our own Security Printing Complex (built by Marcos in 1978 to ensure that the Philippines would have currency sovereignty). The excuse for this is that the new currency will have the most modern security features that would make it impossible to counterfeit. But have we had any reports of major counterfeiting problems with the peso to date? Unlike the dollar which is widely accepted across almost all borders, there is very little advantage to counterfeiting the Philippine peso because of its limited acceptability.
A complete change of a currency normally occurs in the wake of a revolutionary change of the existing political order, as when Marcos tried with the Bagong Lipunan notes, as well as, after Edsa I when Cory Aquino took over. This always results in the flushing out of savings, demonetization of hidden wealth, and the establishment of total financial control.
Of course, there had been new issuances in recent times such as Gloria Arroyo’s P200 bills, which were for a specific purpose and in limited amounts, which would not change the system substantively. But a total replacement of all the cash and coins in circulation means something far more extensive is afoot. Coming as this does with the new regime under PeNoy Aquino, who clearly doesn’t know that this is going on, it shows that the real money powers over our country had planned this long before the last elections, where they expected their surrogate to win through the Hocus-PCOS, to ensure that there will be no resistance to this “coup d’état” being carried out against our peso.
Our suspicions are further heightened by the fact that while this is happening, a great number of former employees of the WB continue to be appointed to high government positions.
From the Bureau of Internal Revenue to the Supreme Court; from the Presidential Management Staff to the government financial institutions and pension funds, elements formerly associated with the WB — who are invariably drawn from Big Business, financial conglomerates and other oligarchs and corporatocracies — are making the PeNoy Cabinet look very much like a structure run by these vested interests.
With the complete change of our money and coins commencing by the final month of 2010, we would have completely lost our Republic by next year if this isn’t stopped. By then, the program for a complete takeover of our state by the corporate powers, planned from Day 1 of Edsa II, would have been fulfilled. Then the Charter change referendum through another Hocus-PCOS will follow for the de jure separation of the richest resources of Mindanao for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front-US partnership.
Resistance by the usual means is now futile. These money masters totally control the money of the land — and consequently, the law and government, mainstream media, all elections, as well as, the guns and goons, and even the forces of coercion of the state.
Resistance by other means is imperative if the nation is to be restored to viability and sustainability. But are the forces of patriotism and nationalism still standing? Are there still clear hearts and minds that can discern the vision of a vibrantly free, just, and prosperous Philippines or have all but a few been reduced to unthinking zombies by these money masters?
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics [and Economics] Today, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m. on Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 21; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Herman Tiu Laurel
08/20/2010
The cat is now out of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)’s bag: New pesos are being printed without the knowledge of the Filipino people. And these will be circulated by December, according to the best information we got. Worse, the BSP is not duty-bound to inform anyone as to when, how or why this decision was made!
The 1987 Cory Aquino Constitution states in Article XII, Section 20 that “The Congress shall establish an independent central monetary authority… (which) shall provide policy direction in the areas of money, banking and credit. It shall have supervision over the operations of banks and exercise such regulatory powers as may be provided by law over the operations of finance companies and other institutions performing similar functions…” By “independent,” it means that the BSP does not even have to report to government whenever it does so to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS).
The details of the BSP’s operations, contained in Republic Act 7653 or the New Central Bank Act, were passed during Cory’s time by the late Sen. Raul Roco, considered by some as “The Father of the BSP.” The law passed on old debts of the former Central Bank of the Philippines of around P300 billion to taxpayers (when the exchange rate then was still half of what it is today). Yet it established something even more insidious which very few know of: It organized a Monetary Board to govern the BSP and redefined the composition of the members of the board from five representing government and two from the private sector — which was the case in the old Central Bank board — to a reverse of five representing the private sector and two representing government. Although all are supposedly appointed by the President, the law predetermines that the private sector’s interests shall always dominate the board.
But that’s not all: The new pesos are being printed abroad in foreign money printing facilities instead of our own Security Printing Complex (built by Marcos in 1978 to ensure that the Philippines would have currency sovereignty). The excuse for this is that the new currency will have the most modern security features that would make it impossible to counterfeit. But have we had any reports of major counterfeiting problems with the peso to date? Unlike the dollar which is widely accepted across almost all borders, there is very little advantage to counterfeiting the Philippine peso because of its limited acceptability.
A complete change of a currency normally occurs in the wake of a revolutionary change of the existing political order, as when Marcos tried with the Bagong Lipunan notes, as well as, after Edsa I when Cory Aquino took over. This always results in the flushing out of savings, demonetization of hidden wealth, and the establishment of total financial control.
Of course, there had been new issuances in recent times such as Gloria Arroyo’s P200 bills, which were for a specific purpose and in limited amounts, which would not change the system substantively. But a total replacement of all the cash and coins in circulation means something far more extensive is afoot. Coming as this does with the new regime under PeNoy Aquino, who clearly doesn’t know that this is going on, it shows that the real money powers over our country had planned this long before the last elections, where they expected their surrogate to win through the Hocus-PCOS, to ensure that there will be no resistance to this “coup d’état” being carried out against our peso.
Our suspicions are further heightened by the fact that while this is happening, a great number of former employees of the WB continue to be appointed to high government positions.
From the Bureau of Internal Revenue to the Supreme Court; from the Presidential Management Staff to the government financial institutions and pension funds, elements formerly associated with the WB — who are invariably drawn from Big Business, financial conglomerates and other oligarchs and corporatocracies — are making the PeNoy Cabinet look very much like a structure run by these vested interests.
With the complete change of our money and coins commencing by the final month of 2010, we would have completely lost our Republic by next year if this isn’t stopped. By then, the program for a complete takeover of our state by the corporate powers, planned from Day 1 of Edsa II, would have been fulfilled. Then the Charter change referendum through another Hocus-PCOS will follow for the de jure separation of the richest resources of Mindanao for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front-US partnership.
Resistance by the usual means is now futile. These money masters totally control the money of the land — and consequently, the law and government, mainstream media, all elections, as well as, the guns and goons, and even the forces of coercion of the state.
Resistance by other means is imperative if the nation is to be restored to viability and sustainability. But are the forces of patriotism and nationalism still standing? Are there still clear hearts and minds that can discern the vision of a vibrantly free, just, and prosperous Philippines or have all but a few been reduced to unthinking zombies by these money masters?
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics [and Economics] Today, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m. on Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 21; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Commentary
Richard James Mendoza
08/19/2010
Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the H1N1 virus is no longer a threat. It was never a large threat in the first place.. Reports indicate that the ones who advised the WHO to declare the H1N1 as a pandemic had connections with large pharmaceutical companies known collectively as "Big Pharma". Thus, it can be seen as a case of profiteering for Big Pharma that made the drugs. It is sad to see that many countries bought into the scare, the Philippines included, and as a result, we basically spent for contaminated junk that had no real use.
Speaking of vaccines, it was found last year that a girl from England died from the vaccine and consequently, the vaccination then was suspended. If we are to look at statistics, ordinary flu is more deadly than "swine flu", mostly affecting the young and the elderly. They projected about 100,000+ deaths but it came nowhere close to that. I guess my friend was right when he thought of H1N1 as "Buy one, take one": We bought into the scare and we took the drugs.
Now, it seems that another "superbug" has arisen, with cases being reported in India. Let us monitor the situation but at the same time be vigilant regarding the plans of Big Pharma trying to sell their wares to support the depopulation agenda of the global elite.
08/19/2010
Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the H1N1 virus is no longer a threat. It was never a large threat in the first place.. Reports indicate that the ones who advised the WHO to declare the H1N1 as a pandemic had connections with large pharmaceutical companies known collectively as "Big Pharma". Thus, it can be seen as a case of profiteering for Big Pharma that made the drugs. It is sad to see that many countries bought into the scare, the Philippines included, and as a result, we basically spent for contaminated junk that had no real use.
Speaking of vaccines, it was found last year that a girl from England died from the vaccine and consequently, the vaccination then was suspended. If we are to look at statistics, ordinary flu is more deadly than "swine flu", mostly affecting the young and the elderly. They projected about 100,000+ deaths but it came nowhere close to that. I guess my friend was right when he thought of H1N1 as "Buy one, take one": We bought into the scare and we took the drugs.
Now, it seems that another "superbug" has arisen, with cases being reported in India. Let us monitor the situation but at the same time be vigilant regarding the plans of Big Pharma trying to sell their wares to support the depopulation agenda of the global elite.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Skewed 'political capital' idea
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
08/16/2010
""But I would rather be right than popular," said the president," according to a 2007 BBC News report. Earlier in 2004, the San Francisco Gate had this other presidential quote: “I earned capital in this campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it.” The first is from Gloria Arroyo justifying her new revenue measures in her State of the Nation Address while the latter is from George “Dubya” Bush pushing the Iraq War.
Last week, the newspaper mouthpiece of the Yellows had “Aquino ready to sacrifice political capital” as its headline on the tollways value-added tax (VAT) wherein it quoted PeNoy’s spokesman saying, “…we’d rather be unpopular because in the long term we know that the value-added tax will be used for the social service we have promised.”
Well, son-of-a-gun. They sought popular support to the hilt during the campaign; but now, after taking power, they sneer at it!
Without a doubt, the “political capital” being bandied about by PeNoy and his sycophants is nothing but a whip to coerce people into accepting new taxes — taxes that he promised would never happen if they gave him their votes. And as most didn’t believe this promise, more than half of Filipino voters didn’t vote for him. Still, the SWS and Pulse Asia whipped up the incredible surveys claiming that PeNoy suddenly got an 88 percent trust rating after his inauguration, which led PeNoy’s people and some other less astute quarters to assume as “political capital.”
Even if that illusion did actually translate to genuine political capital, then it already disappeared as quickly as PeNoy went back on his word of “no new taxes.” This is in keeping with the nose-dive of the once “most popular” Barack Obama’s political capital when Americans discovered that his promised “change” was a sham.
Political capital for any leader is the sum total of the mandate and public esteem he gets from the nation. In the first place, PeNoy was never a “majority president,” the reason his supporters went on to manufacture this “political capital” through their controlled media’s blitzes and popularity surveys before and after the polls. Strangely, many in the opposition, even among the Left, were led to believe such propaganda, which is why, at best there, there’s some modicum of virtual political capital achieved.
The Wikipedia discussion on “political capital” says, “Political capital must be spent to be useful… In addition, it can be wasted, typically by failed attempts to promote unpopular policies that are not central to a politician’s agenda.” Indeed, PeNoy is trying to use his virtual political capital, but for whose benefit? Obviously, not the people’s.
We know that since at least 70 percent of all VAT is prioritized to pay the national debt, it’s obvious that the first beneficiaries of this VAT on toll ways are the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the finance mafia. Although hidden from the political scene, these groups and institutions are very much present in the system as they are the ones that call the shots.
An example of this power is the appointment of the new Supreme Court associate justice whom PeNoy says he doesn’t know personally (of course, since someone else made the decision). Maria Lourdes Aranal-Sereno is from the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), a known bastion of Big Business. The Inquirer billed Sereno’s appointment as the “Triumph of intellect over shabby politics.” For sure, since public interests and assets will be threatened by Sereno’s legal opinions, notwithstanding Miriam Santiago’s praises which are laughable, it will be more like the “triumph of vested interests.”
The tollways VAT is obviously not going to benefit the millions of Filipinos who depend on these arteries of travel to and from work, home, business, farm, rest and recreation, and countless other activities. Allocating a bit more to toll fees wouldn’t be much of a problem if the people’s incomes were improving. But with static, if not decreasing, incomes, allocating more for this means taking away a bigger chunk from people’s daily needs.
PeNoy doesn’t know this because he doesn’t have a family to care for, as one of my radio listeners, 17-year-old scholar Angeline, says. Moreover, PeNoy’s staff, Ochoa and company, are known to be high-flying lawyers cum political aides of such alleged public fund profligates as Sonny Belmonte, that they wouldn’t even know the meaning of having to budget one’s monthly income.
The Supreme Court came to PeNoy’s rescue by issuing a TRO on the tollways VAT; but the stupidity of PeNoy’s Malacañang still knows no bounds. Lacierda came out to own up to the pressure, this even after World Bank Revenue girl Kim Henares had already denied PeNoy’s involvement in the issue.
There is no doubt that the brawl over the tollways VAT has already expended much of the virtual political capital of PeNoy. Just listening to the morning radio shows reveals at least a 90 percent rage against PeNoy’s insistence on this new tax (on an existing tax). Now, even the Yellows I talk to fear that PeNoy will be lost in six months’ time.
Maybe PeNoy can crawl back to public acceptance by using this “political capital” to say “No” to the oligarchs, the IMF-WB, the US Embassy, and once and for all say “Yes” to the demands of the people for lower power and water rates, lower toll fees and a better life!
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics (and Economics) Today, Tuesday, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m. on Destiny Cable Channel 21; visit our new blog, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
Herman Tiu Laurel
08/16/2010
""But I would rather be right than popular," said the president," according to a 2007 BBC News report. Earlier in 2004, the San Francisco Gate had this other presidential quote: “I earned capital in this campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it.” The first is from Gloria Arroyo justifying her new revenue measures in her State of the Nation Address while the latter is from George “Dubya” Bush pushing the Iraq War.
Last week, the newspaper mouthpiece of the Yellows had “Aquino ready to sacrifice political capital” as its headline on the tollways value-added tax (VAT) wherein it quoted PeNoy’s spokesman saying, “…we’d rather be unpopular because in the long term we know that the value-added tax will be used for the social service we have promised.”
Well, son-of-a-gun. They sought popular support to the hilt during the campaign; but now, after taking power, they sneer at it!
Without a doubt, the “political capital” being bandied about by PeNoy and his sycophants is nothing but a whip to coerce people into accepting new taxes — taxes that he promised would never happen if they gave him their votes. And as most didn’t believe this promise, more than half of Filipino voters didn’t vote for him. Still, the SWS and Pulse Asia whipped up the incredible surveys claiming that PeNoy suddenly got an 88 percent trust rating after his inauguration, which led PeNoy’s people and some other less astute quarters to assume as “political capital.”
Even if that illusion did actually translate to genuine political capital, then it already disappeared as quickly as PeNoy went back on his word of “no new taxes.” This is in keeping with the nose-dive of the once “most popular” Barack Obama’s political capital when Americans discovered that his promised “change” was a sham.
Political capital for any leader is the sum total of the mandate and public esteem he gets from the nation. In the first place, PeNoy was never a “majority president,” the reason his supporters went on to manufacture this “political capital” through their controlled media’s blitzes and popularity surveys before and after the polls. Strangely, many in the opposition, even among the Left, were led to believe such propaganda, which is why, at best there, there’s some modicum of virtual political capital achieved.
The Wikipedia discussion on “political capital” says, “Political capital must be spent to be useful… In addition, it can be wasted, typically by failed attempts to promote unpopular policies that are not central to a politician’s agenda.” Indeed, PeNoy is trying to use his virtual political capital, but for whose benefit? Obviously, not the people’s.
We know that since at least 70 percent of all VAT is prioritized to pay the national debt, it’s obvious that the first beneficiaries of this VAT on toll ways are the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the finance mafia. Although hidden from the political scene, these groups and institutions are very much present in the system as they are the ones that call the shots.
An example of this power is the appointment of the new Supreme Court associate justice whom PeNoy says he doesn’t know personally (of course, since someone else made the decision). Maria Lourdes Aranal-Sereno is from the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), a known bastion of Big Business. The Inquirer billed Sereno’s appointment as the “Triumph of intellect over shabby politics.” For sure, since public interests and assets will be threatened by Sereno’s legal opinions, notwithstanding Miriam Santiago’s praises which are laughable, it will be more like the “triumph of vested interests.”
The tollways VAT is obviously not going to benefit the millions of Filipinos who depend on these arteries of travel to and from work, home, business, farm, rest and recreation, and countless other activities. Allocating a bit more to toll fees wouldn’t be much of a problem if the people’s incomes were improving. But with static, if not decreasing, incomes, allocating more for this means taking away a bigger chunk from people’s daily needs.
PeNoy doesn’t know this because he doesn’t have a family to care for, as one of my radio listeners, 17-year-old scholar Angeline, says. Moreover, PeNoy’s staff, Ochoa and company, are known to be high-flying lawyers cum political aides of such alleged public fund profligates as Sonny Belmonte, that they wouldn’t even know the meaning of having to budget one’s monthly income.
The Supreme Court came to PeNoy’s rescue by issuing a TRO on the tollways VAT; but the stupidity of PeNoy’s Malacañang still knows no bounds. Lacierda came out to own up to the pressure, this even after World Bank Revenue girl Kim Henares had already denied PeNoy’s involvement in the issue.
There is no doubt that the brawl over the tollways VAT has already expended much of the virtual political capital of PeNoy. Just listening to the morning radio shows reveals at least a 90 percent rage against PeNoy’s insistence on this new tax (on an existing tax). Now, even the Yellows I talk to fear that PeNoy will be lost in six months’ time.
Maybe PeNoy can crawl back to public acceptance by using this “political capital” to say “No” to the oligarchs, the IMF-WB, the US Embassy, and once and for all say “Yes” to the demands of the people for lower power and water rates, lower toll fees and a better life!
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics (and Economics) Today, Tuesday, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m. on Destiny Cable Channel 21; visit our new blog, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
Friday, August 13, 2010
PeNoy, Gloria, et al. — all one family
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
08/13/2010
At the gathering for Sen. Sonny Trillanes’ birthday at Camp Crame last Aug. 7, I predicted the “rehabilitation” of Gloria Arroyo within a year or two. I was with Dodong and Princess Nemenzo, NGO leader Manjette, lawyer Argee Guevarra, Oliver Felix (of our guerilla radio Sulo group), and Linggoy Alcuaz at that time. The Nemenzos found this both funny and appalling, as they laughed, doubted and lamented at the same time. Someone interjected: “Sa bagay, the Marcoses are rehabilitated.” To which I hurriedly added that “at least Marcos had the right nation-building program,” unlike Arroyo’s which people believe was pure kleptocracy.
The truth of my prediction is already being seen on radio and in Congress today, as Teddy Boy Locsin glorifies Gloria’s non-imposition of the Value added tax (VAT) on toll ways while the likes of Rep. Neptali Gonzales Jr. shield her from Rep. Walden Bello’s righteous condemnation.
Gloria Arroyo will be “rehabilitated” under the present system because the system itself is corruption incarnate, in which Arroyo is just one of its children. The other children of the corrupt system will naturally come to her rescue, as sure as Speaker Sonny Belmonte will always be by Gloria’s side to escort the one who has been tagged by many youth activists as “President Evil.” But really, she can only be as evil as the system is.
Belmonte, meanwhile, is said to personify the institutionalization of corruption in Quezon City, the alleged basis of which is that he raised the corruption incarnate “pork barrel” and other fund prerogatives of the Office of the Mayor and all councilors to unprecedented amounts (P2 billion for the mayor, P42 million each for councilors). On the other hand, Lakas to Liberal Party turncoat Neptali Gonzales Jr. has been the alternating partner of Mayor BenHur Abalos in the exploitation of Mandaluyong, the latter being the heir apparent to Ben Abalos’ NBN-ZTE “borger” fortune.
Gonzales invokes “parliamentary courtesy” to shield Arroyo. Coming from a most vulgar Congress, it is truly laughable. They are all claimed to be part of the alleged corrupt family of political degenerates running the country. Walden Belo’s party-list group Akbayan may not be much different, maybe just a bit more ethical by some degree. His party-list matriarch Etta Rosales isn’t exactly a paragon of any virtue, having been a chief lackey of Gloria Arroyo during the 2004 illegal proclamation of the “Hello Garci” president. Rosales will be rewarded by the new Gloria Arroyo, i.e. Noynoy “PeNoy” Aquino, with an appointment to the Commission on Human Rights — to carry on the charade of human rights in an essentially plutocratic, oppressive and exploitative corporatocracy.
Already, PeNoy has proposed to raise the “pork” of senators and congressmen for 2011, from P6.9 billion this year to P22.3 billion next (a whopping 223.18 percent or P15 billion increase). This seems incredible since PeNoy campaigned on the promise of “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap,” but PeNoy’s Budget Secretary Butch Abad was quoted on it. In fact, one report stated, “Even as the PDAF allocation was increased, the government proposed a reduction of subsidy programs… amid the state’s cash flow problems.”
Those subsidies include those earmarked for the National Food Authority rice purchase. So are they saying that there will be no subsidy for farmers but increased “pork” subsidy for politicians? Everyone knows just how “pork” is the mother of all corrupt funds that politicians dip into, so why is PeNoy increasing this? Perhaps if we put this in context with a new development, a clearer picture on how invisible forces behind PeNoy are reinforcing the edifice of corruption will come about.
This new development is the proposed postponement of the barangay election slated for October on due to alleged financial constraints, together with the simultaneous proposal that it be synchronized with the 2013 national elections.
There are several deleterious effects of these two initiatives: (1) abusive and corrupt barangay officials will not be called into account as a democratic system requires; (2) it will strengthen the indebtedness of the present barangay officials to the present PeNoy regime; (3) these barangay officials will then be used by the current regime to consolidate tyrannical powers in 2013 toward the continuation of the corporatist dictatorship consolidated under Gloria Arroyo; and (4) it will make the “fully synchronized” 2013 elections even more massively chaotic than the already messy elections of 2010.
If the present system is corruption incarnate, then a super-synchronized election aimed at securing it is none other than a perpetuation of this systemic corruption, the evil results of which those jaundiced by the Yellow fever can’t seem to see as continuously ravaging the nation.
For those who still do not know, here’s a sampling of these evils — July 2010 item: Power rates to rise again in August (due to Wesm power horse trading); Aug. 8: Manila Water net income up 34 percent (while people suffer heavier costs); Aug. 9: Robredo wants strengthened Small Town Lottery (cover for jueteng); Aug. 10: AFP suppresses Adm. Feliciano Angue exposé on 2010 elections; Aug. 11: $10-billion offer for Pagcor.
As long as the corrupt system goes on and on — exploiting, inveigling and plundering — PeNoy only continues the legacy of Cory, FVR and Gloria.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics (and Economics) Today, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m.; visit our new blog, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
Herman Tiu Laurel
08/13/2010
At the gathering for Sen. Sonny Trillanes’ birthday at Camp Crame last Aug. 7, I predicted the “rehabilitation” of Gloria Arroyo within a year or two. I was with Dodong and Princess Nemenzo, NGO leader Manjette, lawyer Argee Guevarra, Oliver Felix (of our guerilla radio Sulo group), and Linggoy Alcuaz at that time. The Nemenzos found this both funny and appalling, as they laughed, doubted and lamented at the same time. Someone interjected: “Sa bagay, the Marcoses are rehabilitated.” To which I hurriedly added that “at least Marcos had the right nation-building program,” unlike Arroyo’s which people believe was pure kleptocracy.
The truth of my prediction is already being seen on radio and in Congress today, as Teddy Boy Locsin glorifies Gloria’s non-imposition of the Value added tax (VAT) on toll ways while the likes of Rep. Neptali Gonzales Jr. shield her from Rep. Walden Bello’s righteous condemnation.
Gloria Arroyo will be “rehabilitated” under the present system because the system itself is corruption incarnate, in which Arroyo is just one of its children. The other children of the corrupt system will naturally come to her rescue, as sure as Speaker Sonny Belmonte will always be by Gloria’s side to escort the one who has been tagged by many youth activists as “President Evil.” But really, she can only be as evil as the system is.
Belmonte, meanwhile, is said to personify the institutionalization of corruption in Quezon City, the alleged basis of which is that he raised the corruption incarnate “pork barrel” and other fund prerogatives of the Office of the Mayor and all councilors to unprecedented amounts (P2 billion for the mayor, P42 million each for councilors). On the other hand, Lakas to Liberal Party turncoat Neptali Gonzales Jr. has been the alternating partner of Mayor BenHur Abalos in the exploitation of Mandaluyong, the latter being the heir apparent to Ben Abalos’ NBN-ZTE “borger” fortune.
Gonzales invokes “parliamentary courtesy” to shield Arroyo. Coming from a most vulgar Congress, it is truly laughable. They are all claimed to be part of the alleged corrupt family of political degenerates running the country. Walden Belo’s party-list group Akbayan may not be much different, maybe just a bit more ethical by some degree. His party-list matriarch Etta Rosales isn’t exactly a paragon of any virtue, having been a chief lackey of Gloria Arroyo during the 2004 illegal proclamation of the “Hello Garci” president. Rosales will be rewarded by the new Gloria Arroyo, i.e. Noynoy “PeNoy” Aquino, with an appointment to the Commission on Human Rights — to carry on the charade of human rights in an essentially plutocratic, oppressive and exploitative corporatocracy.
Already, PeNoy has proposed to raise the “pork” of senators and congressmen for 2011, from P6.9 billion this year to P22.3 billion next (a whopping 223.18 percent or P15 billion increase). This seems incredible since PeNoy campaigned on the promise of “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap,” but PeNoy’s Budget Secretary Butch Abad was quoted on it. In fact, one report stated, “Even as the PDAF allocation was increased, the government proposed a reduction of subsidy programs… amid the state’s cash flow problems.”
Those subsidies include those earmarked for the National Food Authority rice purchase. So are they saying that there will be no subsidy for farmers but increased “pork” subsidy for politicians? Everyone knows just how “pork” is the mother of all corrupt funds that politicians dip into, so why is PeNoy increasing this? Perhaps if we put this in context with a new development, a clearer picture on how invisible forces behind PeNoy are reinforcing the edifice of corruption will come about.
This new development is the proposed postponement of the barangay election slated for October on due to alleged financial constraints, together with the simultaneous proposal that it be synchronized with the 2013 national elections.
There are several deleterious effects of these two initiatives: (1) abusive and corrupt barangay officials will not be called into account as a democratic system requires; (2) it will strengthen the indebtedness of the present barangay officials to the present PeNoy regime; (3) these barangay officials will then be used by the current regime to consolidate tyrannical powers in 2013 toward the continuation of the corporatist dictatorship consolidated under Gloria Arroyo; and (4) it will make the “fully synchronized” 2013 elections even more massively chaotic than the already messy elections of 2010.
If the present system is corruption incarnate, then a super-synchronized election aimed at securing it is none other than a perpetuation of this systemic corruption, the evil results of which those jaundiced by the Yellow fever can’t seem to see as continuously ravaging the nation.
For those who still do not know, here’s a sampling of these evils — July 2010 item: Power rates to rise again in August (due to Wesm power horse trading); Aug. 8: Manila Water net income up 34 percent (while people suffer heavier costs); Aug. 9: Robredo wants strengthened Small Town Lottery (cover for jueteng); Aug. 10: AFP suppresses Adm. Feliciano Angue exposé on 2010 elections; Aug. 11: $10-billion offer for Pagcor.
As long as the corrupt system goes on and on — exploiting, inveigling and plundering — PeNoy only continues the legacy of Cory, FVR and Gloria.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics (and Economics) Today, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m.; visit our new blog, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
Monday, August 9, 2010
RP coconut agencies: Same bananas
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
08/09/10
In the first quarter of 2009, Philippine coconut exports plunged 60 percent whereas total revenues in 2008 reached $1.5 billion. It is thus alarming to note this decline in 2009. Tragically, very little is heard from those in government charged with ensuring that the coconut industry of the Philippines prospers and grows.
I have been involved in the advocacies for the coconut industry for the past several years, seeing it not only as an agricultural commodity with the greatest potential to raise the national per capita income but also as an industrial raw material that can multiply our nation’s income from our 340 million or so coconut trees. If only the country develops all of the Philippine coconut’s potentials in terms of cosme-ceuticals, nutra-ceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemicals, it may well rival the BPOs in dollar earnings at $10 billion, if not more.
In 2009, I attended a series of meetings of coconut industry and government leaders, where it was once held at the Philippine Coconut Authority (Philcoa). Representatives from the Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF) and Congress were there, as was the staff of Philcoa — yet the Philcoa head was never around. Rep. Leonardo Montemayor was very active in those meetings. But I never got to see the Philcoa head either in any of the other activities conducted by the coconut sector organizations.
If you ask around today who heads the Philcoa, very few people will be able to give you an answer, unlike in previous administrations where the agency’s administrator was among the most recognizable public figures.
Sadly, an even more significant government coconut agency that has also been led by lackluster characters is the CIIF, which controls the funds of the sector.
We need to revive the public and government’s consciousness about the coconut industry and its bountiful potentials. The first 100 days of the new administration has slowly ticked by yet nothing is heard about its policies for this sector. The coconut sector has already suffered by omission during the inaugural speech and the State of the Nation Address of this new government. It therefore leads many to ask if the PeNoy administration has anybody in its team with coconuts at all.
If they don’t, then it’s high time they get some coconuts: The Philippine Coconut Week’s festivities are slated on Aug. 12 to 15 of this week, and the welfare of 25 million Filipinos directly and indirectly dependent on the coconut industry for livelihood (that’s over 25 percent of the population of 90 million) are staked in the success or failure of this effort to bring the vital issues of the coconut industry to the attention of our national leaders.
As I have written many times before, and discussed in our Global News Network (GNN) show, the coconut tree is a tree of unbounded potentials. Its water is the healthiest natural drink which provides a thousand times more nutrients than sports drinks like Gatorade or Powerade. The Taiwanese and Chinese know this better than many Filipinos; hence, they import our coconuts even at a premium price.
Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) is a fantastic health supplement that neutralizes HIV and, as recently discovered by Western medicine, Alzheimer’s disease. I take VCO every day and have my own adobo formulation where I mix minced garlic, coco vinegar, and calamansi with over three tablespoons of VCO.
I use VCO on my hair as well before bathing, and I am the only one who doesn’t need to use hair dye among 10 siblings.
VCO’s potent health values are well understood, but its popularity has ebbed due to lack of promotion and advertising, as well as, due to deliberate sabotage by Big Pharma in cahoots with some Department of Health authorities.
Other parts of the coconut are also valuable: Its sap produces sugar of the best glycemic quality (30 in the index) for health. Its husks as mattings could have been used in the massive oil gush in the Gulf of Mexico if there had been enough supply, though these are already used to prevent soil erosion and in re-greening desert areas. It is much sought after in cosmetics for the finest oil is provides.
Of even greater potential is the coconut’s industrial and chemical application (even for industrial explosives), which could be produced in the Philippines if basic infrastructure were to be provided.
On Tuesday, Aug. 10, the “Politics (and Economics) Today” episode on GNN will feature a discussion on “Coconut: The Savior Commodity” with coconut sector leaders Sonny Villariba, Gerry Natividad, and Joey Faustino. I call the coconut “the savior commodity” as it has the potential to save the national economy. And unlike BPOs which are a servant industry dependent on the industrial economies, the coconut sector is a production industry and when developed to its fullest promotes economic independence, reduces imports, expands import substitution (such as replacing the $1-billion milk and related imports), multiplies layers of values from processed coconut exports, and builds the domestic industrial and chemical industries.
The potentials of the coconut industry to save the economy and the nation will never be realized if the “same bananas” stay on in the government coconut agencies. This sector needs leadership that knows its coconuts and knows how to use those coconuts.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics Today, Tuesday, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m. on Destiny Cable Channel 21 about “Coconut: The Savior Commodity” with Phil. coconut industry leaders; visit our new blog, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
Herman Tiu Laurel
08/09/10
In the first quarter of 2009, Philippine coconut exports plunged 60 percent whereas total revenues in 2008 reached $1.5 billion. It is thus alarming to note this decline in 2009. Tragically, very little is heard from those in government charged with ensuring that the coconut industry of the Philippines prospers and grows.
I have been involved in the advocacies for the coconut industry for the past several years, seeing it not only as an agricultural commodity with the greatest potential to raise the national per capita income but also as an industrial raw material that can multiply our nation’s income from our 340 million or so coconut trees. If only the country develops all of the Philippine coconut’s potentials in terms of cosme-ceuticals, nutra-ceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemicals, it may well rival the BPOs in dollar earnings at $10 billion, if not more.
In 2009, I attended a series of meetings of coconut industry and government leaders, where it was once held at the Philippine Coconut Authority (Philcoa). Representatives from the Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF) and Congress were there, as was the staff of Philcoa — yet the Philcoa head was never around. Rep. Leonardo Montemayor was very active in those meetings. But I never got to see the Philcoa head either in any of the other activities conducted by the coconut sector organizations.
If you ask around today who heads the Philcoa, very few people will be able to give you an answer, unlike in previous administrations where the agency’s administrator was among the most recognizable public figures.
Sadly, an even more significant government coconut agency that has also been led by lackluster characters is the CIIF, which controls the funds of the sector.
We need to revive the public and government’s consciousness about the coconut industry and its bountiful potentials. The first 100 days of the new administration has slowly ticked by yet nothing is heard about its policies for this sector. The coconut sector has already suffered by omission during the inaugural speech and the State of the Nation Address of this new government. It therefore leads many to ask if the PeNoy administration has anybody in its team with coconuts at all.
If they don’t, then it’s high time they get some coconuts: The Philippine Coconut Week’s festivities are slated on Aug. 12 to 15 of this week, and the welfare of 25 million Filipinos directly and indirectly dependent on the coconut industry for livelihood (that’s over 25 percent of the population of 90 million) are staked in the success or failure of this effort to bring the vital issues of the coconut industry to the attention of our national leaders.
As I have written many times before, and discussed in our Global News Network (GNN) show, the coconut tree is a tree of unbounded potentials. Its water is the healthiest natural drink which provides a thousand times more nutrients than sports drinks like Gatorade or Powerade. The Taiwanese and Chinese know this better than many Filipinos; hence, they import our coconuts even at a premium price.
Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) is a fantastic health supplement that neutralizes HIV and, as recently discovered by Western medicine, Alzheimer’s disease. I take VCO every day and have my own adobo formulation where I mix minced garlic, coco vinegar, and calamansi with over three tablespoons of VCO.
I use VCO on my hair as well before bathing, and I am the only one who doesn’t need to use hair dye among 10 siblings.
VCO’s potent health values are well understood, but its popularity has ebbed due to lack of promotion and advertising, as well as, due to deliberate sabotage by Big Pharma in cahoots with some Department of Health authorities.
Other parts of the coconut are also valuable: Its sap produces sugar of the best glycemic quality (30 in the index) for health. Its husks as mattings could have been used in the massive oil gush in the Gulf of Mexico if there had been enough supply, though these are already used to prevent soil erosion and in re-greening desert areas. It is much sought after in cosmetics for the finest oil is provides.
Of even greater potential is the coconut’s industrial and chemical application (even for industrial explosives), which could be produced in the Philippines if basic infrastructure were to be provided.
On Tuesday, Aug. 10, the “Politics (and Economics) Today” episode on GNN will feature a discussion on “Coconut: The Savior Commodity” with coconut sector leaders Sonny Villariba, Gerry Natividad, and Joey Faustino. I call the coconut “the savior commodity” as it has the potential to save the national economy. And unlike BPOs which are a servant industry dependent on the industrial economies, the coconut sector is a production industry and when developed to its fullest promotes economic independence, reduces imports, expands import substitution (such as replacing the $1-billion milk and related imports), multiplies layers of values from processed coconut exports, and builds the domestic industrial and chemical industries.
The potentials of the coconut industry to save the economy and the nation will never be realized if the “same bananas” stay on in the government coconut agencies. This sector needs leadership that knows its coconuts and knows how to use those coconuts.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics Today, Tuesday, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m. on Destiny Cable Channel 21 about “Coconut: The Savior Commodity” with Phil. coconut industry leaders; visit our new blog, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
Friday, August 6, 2010
RP: Asian power rate champ
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
08/06/2010
The following are the latest comparative power rates in Asia, culled by the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms (Nasecore) in US$/kWh terms, which we presented in our recent Global News Network (GNN) program on the subject, “Meralco Caught Overcharging Again:”
Jakarta 0.06
Shanghai 0.07
Singapore 0.21
Kuala Lumpur 0.06
Tokyo 0.20
Manila 0.23
One of our other guests, former Quezon City Mayor Jun Simon, also culled some additional figures (in US$) from his siblings in North America:
Vancouver 0.07
Los Angeles 0.11
If you are already incensed at the gross disparity, wait till you learn that power rates in the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) franchise area (at P11.98 per kWh) are much higher than those of rest of the country — from Iligan’s P6 per kWh; Cagayan de Oro’s P8; Misamis Oriental’s P7; Cebu’s P7; to Javier, Leyte’s P5.
Dominant player Meralco seems to be of the view that it is exempt from the rule that the higher the sales volume, the lower the price.
Thus, the poverty-stricken Philippines under PeNoy Aquino now has the distinction of having “The Highest Power Rate in Asia,” up from the achievement of Gloria Arroyo over the past nine-and-a-half-years. While Arroyo’s last few months did usher in these highest power rates, these are due to what’s claimed to be simultaneous misfortunes of low water levels in the Luzon hydro-electric dams (resulting from the over-release of water during typhoons “Ondoy” and “Pepeng”) and, strangely, supposed breakdowns or maintenance operations of several power plants in Mindanao.
PeNoy, on the other hand, cannot escape responsibility for this “highest power rate” ignominy primarily because he failed to include in his State of the Nation Address (Sona) a denunciation of the nefarious methods used by Meralco and its rubber stamp public agencies such as the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (Wesm) and Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) — with convoluted acronyms designed to confuse — to legalize this price-gouging.
Judging from the 2008 per capita income alone of the three Asian countries with the highest power rates shows how the Philippines’ sore thumb is sticking out. With our highest power rates, our country’s per capita income is only at $1,866; while the second and third placers, Singapore and Japan, are at $38,578 and $39,423, respectively.
Clearly, the Filipinos’ buying power is at least 20 times smaller than the Singaporeans and Japanese. But, even when compared to the industrialized economies of the West, the Philippines still beats them all in terms of power rates — from Brussels’ $0.10/kWh; Paris’ 0.11; Rome’s 0.12; Sydney’s 0.14; to London’s 0.19.
Indeed, RP’s Meralco rate matches Frankfurt’s $0.23/kWh; and only New York ’s $0.29/kWh beats it. But, not to worry, the pending Universal Charge covering “stranded costs” and “stranded debts” to be left on the shoulders of National Power Corp. (Napocor), the taxpayers, and consumers by the successive Yellow regimes’ privatization program can still bring our country’s Meralco rates to the top of the world!
If by any chance the Universal Charge doesn’t make RP’s rates the highest in the world, then the new, perverted rate-setting scheme called the Performance Based Rate (PBR) system, which sets rates based on projected improvements in service to be made by the power utility company, upon which Meralco has already submitted rate hike petitions for 2011 onwards, may just do the trick.
This is the only system we’ve seen where increases in public utility rates are based on “prospective” instead of actual performance. Now Meralco can easily charge its capital requirements for these “prospective” capital expenditures to its hapless consumers, upon approval by the ERC, of course (which is really never denied). Can anybody in the world be luckier than the major owners of Meralco who get their capital from their customers and then charge them the highest rates?
On top of all these, the Commission on Audit sample audit of Meralco found the power distribution company guilty of overcharging by P8 billion in 2004 and P4 billion in 2006. A complete audit from 2001 to the present should therefore be demanded. This is precisely why Nasecore, in coordination with Jun Simon, filed petitions for the overcharging already identified to be refunded to the public.
Simon started this advocacy after years of my trying to enlighten him on the issue, as well as further education from Mr. Pete Ilagan in the past few months. The joint effort of the two started when Nasecore suddenly lost its five NGO-funded lawyers when the petition against Meralco was about to be filed. Fortunately, Simon found more committed volunteer lawyers who are convinced of the righteousness and absolute victory of this cause.
Even though Simon campaigned for PeNoy and is widely believed to be one of those awaiting government appointments, he says he is just sticking to advocacy work from here on. During our GNN interview, I needled him about the failure of PeNoy’s Sona to raise these issues of the exploitation, profiteering and manipulation of the power oligarchs while clearly and unjustly making Napocor the scapegoat. Simon asked for time for the administration to address the issue.
Though I didn’t want to make Simon any more uncomfortable about it, the failure of PeNoy to call the oligarchs and their rampant and manipulated predatory rate hikes is really a fundamental anti-people and anti-consumer crime.
Giving more time is really just postponing the inevitable: Joining and championing the revolt against the oligarchs.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics Today, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m. on Destiny Cable Channel 21; visit our new blog, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
Herman Tiu Laurel
08/06/2010
The following are the latest comparative power rates in Asia, culled by the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms (Nasecore) in US$/kWh terms, which we presented in our recent Global News Network (GNN) program on the subject, “Meralco Caught Overcharging Again:”
Jakarta 0.06
Shanghai 0.07
Singapore 0.21
Kuala Lumpur 0.06
Tokyo 0.20
Manila 0.23
One of our other guests, former Quezon City Mayor Jun Simon, also culled some additional figures (in US$) from his siblings in North America:
Vancouver 0.07
Los Angeles 0.11
If you are already incensed at the gross disparity, wait till you learn that power rates in the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) franchise area (at P11.98 per kWh) are much higher than those of rest of the country — from Iligan’s P6 per kWh; Cagayan de Oro’s P8; Misamis Oriental’s P7; Cebu’s P7; to Javier, Leyte’s P5.
Dominant player Meralco seems to be of the view that it is exempt from the rule that the higher the sales volume, the lower the price.
Thus, the poverty-stricken Philippines under PeNoy Aquino now has the distinction of having “The Highest Power Rate in Asia,” up from the achievement of Gloria Arroyo over the past nine-and-a-half-years. While Arroyo’s last few months did usher in these highest power rates, these are due to what’s claimed to be simultaneous misfortunes of low water levels in the Luzon hydro-electric dams (resulting from the over-release of water during typhoons “Ondoy” and “Pepeng”) and, strangely, supposed breakdowns or maintenance operations of several power plants in Mindanao.
PeNoy, on the other hand, cannot escape responsibility for this “highest power rate” ignominy primarily because he failed to include in his State of the Nation Address (Sona) a denunciation of the nefarious methods used by Meralco and its rubber stamp public agencies such as the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (Wesm) and Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) — with convoluted acronyms designed to confuse — to legalize this price-gouging.
Judging from the 2008 per capita income alone of the three Asian countries with the highest power rates shows how the Philippines’ sore thumb is sticking out. With our highest power rates, our country’s per capita income is only at $1,866; while the second and third placers, Singapore and Japan, are at $38,578 and $39,423, respectively.
Clearly, the Filipinos’ buying power is at least 20 times smaller than the Singaporeans and Japanese. But, even when compared to the industrialized economies of the West, the Philippines still beats them all in terms of power rates — from Brussels’ $0.10/kWh; Paris’ 0.11; Rome’s 0.12; Sydney’s 0.14; to London’s 0.19.
Indeed, RP’s Meralco rate matches Frankfurt’s $0.23/kWh; and only New York ’s $0.29/kWh beats it. But, not to worry, the pending Universal Charge covering “stranded costs” and “stranded debts” to be left on the shoulders of National Power Corp. (Napocor), the taxpayers, and consumers by the successive Yellow regimes’ privatization program can still bring our country’s Meralco rates to the top of the world!
If by any chance the Universal Charge doesn’t make RP’s rates the highest in the world, then the new, perverted rate-setting scheme called the Performance Based Rate (PBR) system, which sets rates based on projected improvements in service to be made by the power utility company, upon which Meralco has already submitted rate hike petitions for 2011 onwards, may just do the trick.
This is the only system we’ve seen where increases in public utility rates are based on “prospective” instead of actual performance. Now Meralco can easily charge its capital requirements for these “prospective” capital expenditures to its hapless consumers, upon approval by the ERC, of course (which is really never denied). Can anybody in the world be luckier than the major owners of Meralco who get their capital from their customers and then charge them the highest rates?
On top of all these, the Commission on Audit sample audit of Meralco found the power distribution company guilty of overcharging by P8 billion in 2004 and P4 billion in 2006. A complete audit from 2001 to the present should therefore be demanded. This is precisely why Nasecore, in coordination with Jun Simon, filed petitions for the overcharging already identified to be refunded to the public.
Simon started this advocacy after years of my trying to enlighten him on the issue, as well as further education from Mr. Pete Ilagan in the past few months. The joint effort of the two started when Nasecore suddenly lost its five NGO-funded lawyers when the petition against Meralco was about to be filed. Fortunately, Simon found more committed volunteer lawyers who are convinced of the righteousness and absolute victory of this cause.
Even though Simon campaigned for PeNoy and is widely believed to be one of those awaiting government appointments, he says he is just sticking to advocacy work from here on. During our GNN interview, I needled him about the failure of PeNoy’s Sona to raise these issues of the exploitation, profiteering and manipulation of the power oligarchs while clearly and unjustly making Napocor the scapegoat. Simon asked for time for the administration to address the issue.
Though I didn’t want to make Simon any more uncomfortable about it, the failure of PeNoy to call the oligarchs and their rampant and manipulated predatory rate hikes is really a fundamental anti-people and anti-consumer crime.
Giving more time is really just postponing the inevitable: Joining and championing the revolt against the oligarchs.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics Today, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m. on Destiny Cable Channel 21; visit our new blog, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
Monday, August 2, 2010
The MRT in PeNoy's Wonderland
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
08/02/2010
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn’t be, and what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?” — Alice, Alice in Wonderland.
When I hear PeNoy and his spokes-platoon I am pulled into the vortex of Lewis Carroll’s topsy-turvy Alice in Wonderland world. PeNoy’s Sona speech was a walk through a “House of Mirrors” twisting images of the real world. On electricity rates gouging, he reported it as stemming from National Power Corp. (Napocor), we showed incontrovertibly that it's the devious privatization program, the Epira which privatized Napocor’s profit centers and its profits to private corporations, while it nationalized and socialized Napocor’s costs and debts. He also discussed the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and its financial and fare subsidy problem, in another Alice in Wonderland storytelling:
PeNoy’s Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) secretary and Lopez gofer, Jose “Ping” de Jesus, has been jawing about how much MRT commuters are being subsidized by government. It’s made to appear that the commuters must feel guilty about this subsidy and expect the pain of an MRT fare hike. De Jesus says the subsidy is P40 per commuter, which means there could be up to P40 additional to today’s fares — or a 200 percent increase! I feel they are just raising the ante to P40 so when the real increase comes of 25 percent or 50 percent, the commuters will sigh in relief and welcome it. But the truth is, many commuters just won’t be able to afford any increase at all — which can mean students not being able to go to school, more workers downtime, less load on the MRT which will mean bigger losses for government again.
How did the MRT go so badly? The so-called investors in the MRT projects, the oligarchs, supposedly raised equities and loans of around $660-million for a total of P22-billion — but all these were taken out on the back of the “sovereign guarantee” of the Philippine government, i.e. the Filipino people and taxpayers; government also provided a 15 percent guaranteed profit to the investors. The investors also got: 1) a quantum increase in real estate values of these so-called investors, 2) the humongous increase in “captive” sales to these investors in their malls and commercial centers where the MRT stations are diverted to (remember the controversy with the Ayalas, which forced the MRT station on its intersection though this is a most inappropriate area), 3) they also got all the advertising values, and 4) the “right-of-way” on Edsa for nothing!
The financial hemorrhage of the MRT started from the drafting of the contract between the so called investors, Metro Rail Transit Corp., and the Philippine government. It was concluded under the notorious BOT-manic President Fidel Ramos. The terms were onerous, one-sided and adverse to the public interest from the very beginning. The guaranteed 15 percent profit was computed on the basis of an overpriced far, over-estimated traffic volume. There was no way the MRT could even break even with these conditions. Why did FVR and the DoTC then allow 15 percent profit, why not demand 5 percent or 3 percent since this is guaranteed anyway; but the corporate and bureaucratic swindlers’ wiles and greed knows no bounds. All other public mass transit systems in the world are planned on the basis of public service and as a component of the overall economy, and not for profit.
PeNoy and his Cabinet men are making it appear that “subsidy” for the people is a problematic thing, but they seem to think nothing wrong in subsidizing the oligarchs behind the MRT swindle. They are even insinuating that the lowering of the MRT fares in 1998, which was ordered by President Joseph Estrada, to be an error that caused the MRT’s financial problems. Truth is, practically no one was using the MRT in 1997 because of the exorbitant rates the investors set. Commuters started streaming into the train carriages only after Estrada lowered it because they could finally afford the fares. Over 10 years later, through convoluted arguments the private MRT owners in cahoots with a corrupt government and a clueless administrator retired from the PNP, finagled a buy-back from government funded by the DBP and Land Bank for P2.5 billion.
The PeNoy government and mainstream media are waylaying the public with Alice in Wonderland depictions: “‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’ ‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ ‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.’” (Through the Looking Glass) Who is subsidizing whom? In PeNoy’s World, it is clear the oligarchs are the masters. For us, the people’s welfare should rule. Justice William O. Douglas, referring to the US, copied by the Philippine elite: “Our upside down welfare state is ‘socialism for the rich, free enterprise for the poor.’ ‘The great welfare scandal of the age concerns the dole we give rich people.’”
(Tune to Sulo ng Pilipino, M-W-F 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics Today, Tuesday 8 to 9 p.m., Global News Network, Destiny Cable, Channel 21: “Meralco overcharging since 2007” and other power issues, with former Mayor Jun Simon and Nasecor’s Pete Ilagan; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
Herman Tiu Laurel
08/02/2010
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn’t be, and what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?” — Alice, Alice in Wonderland.
When I hear PeNoy and his spokes-platoon I am pulled into the vortex of Lewis Carroll’s topsy-turvy Alice in Wonderland world. PeNoy’s Sona speech was a walk through a “House of Mirrors” twisting images of the real world. On electricity rates gouging, he reported it as stemming from National Power Corp. (Napocor), we showed incontrovertibly that it's the devious privatization program, the Epira which privatized Napocor’s profit centers and its profits to private corporations, while it nationalized and socialized Napocor’s costs and debts. He also discussed the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and its financial and fare subsidy problem, in another Alice in Wonderland storytelling:
PeNoy’s Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) secretary and Lopez gofer, Jose “Ping” de Jesus, has been jawing about how much MRT commuters are being subsidized by government. It’s made to appear that the commuters must feel guilty about this subsidy and expect the pain of an MRT fare hike. De Jesus says the subsidy is P40 per commuter, which means there could be up to P40 additional to today’s fares — or a 200 percent increase! I feel they are just raising the ante to P40 so when the real increase comes of 25 percent or 50 percent, the commuters will sigh in relief and welcome it. But the truth is, many commuters just won’t be able to afford any increase at all — which can mean students not being able to go to school, more workers downtime, less load on the MRT which will mean bigger losses for government again.
How did the MRT go so badly? The so-called investors in the MRT projects, the oligarchs, supposedly raised equities and loans of around $660-million for a total of P22-billion — but all these were taken out on the back of the “sovereign guarantee” of the Philippine government, i.e. the Filipino people and taxpayers; government also provided a 15 percent guaranteed profit to the investors. The investors also got: 1) a quantum increase in real estate values of these so-called investors, 2) the humongous increase in “captive” sales to these investors in their malls and commercial centers where the MRT stations are diverted to (remember the controversy with the Ayalas, which forced the MRT station on its intersection though this is a most inappropriate area), 3) they also got all the advertising values, and 4) the “right-of-way” on Edsa for nothing!
The financial hemorrhage of the MRT started from the drafting of the contract between the so called investors, Metro Rail Transit Corp., and the Philippine government. It was concluded under the notorious BOT-manic President Fidel Ramos. The terms were onerous, one-sided and adverse to the public interest from the very beginning. The guaranteed 15 percent profit was computed on the basis of an overpriced far, over-estimated traffic volume. There was no way the MRT could even break even with these conditions. Why did FVR and the DoTC then allow 15 percent profit, why not demand 5 percent or 3 percent since this is guaranteed anyway; but the corporate and bureaucratic swindlers’ wiles and greed knows no bounds. All other public mass transit systems in the world are planned on the basis of public service and as a component of the overall economy, and not for profit.
PeNoy and his Cabinet men are making it appear that “subsidy” for the people is a problematic thing, but they seem to think nothing wrong in subsidizing the oligarchs behind the MRT swindle. They are even insinuating that the lowering of the MRT fares in 1998, which was ordered by President Joseph Estrada, to be an error that caused the MRT’s financial problems. Truth is, practically no one was using the MRT in 1997 because of the exorbitant rates the investors set. Commuters started streaming into the train carriages only after Estrada lowered it because they could finally afford the fares. Over 10 years later, through convoluted arguments the private MRT owners in cahoots with a corrupt government and a clueless administrator retired from the PNP, finagled a buy-back from government funded by the DBP and Land Bank for P2.5 billion.
The PeNoy government and mainstream media are waylaying the public with Alice in Wonderland depictions: “‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’ ‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ ‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.’” (Through the Looking Glass) Who is subsidizing whom? In PeNoy’s World, it is clear the oligarchs are the masters. For us, the people’s welfare should rule. Justice William O. Douglas, referring to the US, copied by the Philippine elite: “Our upside down welfare state is ‘socialism for the rich, free enterprise for the poor.’ ‘The great welfare scandal of the age concerns the dole we give rich people.’”
(Tune to Sulo ng Pilipino, M-W-F 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics Today, Tuesday 8 to 9 p.m., Global News Network, Destiny Cable, Channel 21: “Meralco overcharging since 2007” and other power issues, with former Mayor Jun Simon and Nasecor’s Pete Ilagan; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
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