DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/31/2011
The enemies of the Philippines’ nationhood are running circles around its people, Armed Forces, media, and even its progressive forces. At the forefront of these bewildering issues is the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)-GRP maelstrom that has left our soldiers and citizens unable to tell for certain who the enemies are and where they lie — whether across or behind our lines. Many Juan de la Cruzes are beginning to feel that some of their government officials behave like the enemy, making public statements more sympathetic to the motley secessionists than our own soldiers; and granting them cash donations while our armed men suffer crucial shortages.
Confusion will continue to reign as long as Filipinos are blind to the existence of the “enemy within,” or the “traitor class” that persists in executing the will of foreign interests in key institutions of society — be it in government, the church, “civil society,” or the academe. Without the purgation of these elements, there is simply no saving the nation.
The Oct. 18 encounter in Al-Barka, Basilan was never a result of legitimate issues of territorial delineation. This much was admitted by no less than the chairman of the MILF negotiating panel, Mohagher Iqbal, in statements to the press two weeks later on Oct. 29 that say: “The ceasefire agreement provides that such a movement of troops… should be coordinated first through the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) or the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (Ahjag), set up in 2002 for joint efforts to go after criminals and ‘lost commands.’”
Basilan Special Operations Task Force commander Col. Alexander Macario, however, in accusing the MILF of treachery with the death of the 19 soldiers (including three young lieutenants), who were going after wanted fugitives, positively stated that they were coordinating with an MILF official, Hudlimaya Salim, before the operation was launched.
Colonel Macario argued that government soldiers merely banked on the “sincerity” of the MILF, and from what I read of his statement — even if a mistake was perceived to have been made after the initial encounter — why did the MILF reinforce its allies and finish off many of the soldiers, even disemboweling them? If there was a sincere intent to adhere to the spirit of peace, couldn’t it have initiated some truce at the very least?
Then, as if to further rub salt on an open wound, sources in media raised the ignominious idea that the pursuit of the fugitives could have been for the “reward” of several millions each — this as our military officers were just about to explain their actions. Despite the fact that investigations into this angle are just underway and Colonel Macario’s clarification that the two fugitives carried no reward on their heads, the damage to the soldiers’ reputations has been done. To jaundiced eyes, some behind-the-scenes deals must have been entered into despite the fact that rewards are not given to soldiers but to informants.
It’s true that there are many issues to look into; but what should demand intense scrutiny is the P5-million “donation” of government to the BangsaMoro Leadership and Management Institute (BLMI).
The BLMI can be found in the Asia Foundation Web site as one of the NGOs it supports, and apparently it was with prodding from the Asia Foundation that the GRP peace panel took the cue to donate the P5 million. The Asia Foundation, according to AllGov (a US Web site entirely about the US government), “was established as a Central Intelligence Administration (CIA) proprietary in 1954 with the mission ‘to undertake cultural and educational activities on behalf of the United States government in ways not open to official US agencies.’”
The fact that government peace officials, namely, Teresita “Ging” Deles and Marvic Leonen, as well as their boss, BS Aquino III, are only too willing to accede to the US advice to donate the said amount, or to extend favors that serve as an “aid to the enemy,” depicts these officials’ real traitorous bent.
When news of the murders of our soldiers at the Al-Barka site and the Keystone Kops reaction of Malacañang came out, one of our youngest, twin sons, who once fervently wanted to join the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), remarked, “How stupid can these leaders in Malacañang be?” That’s when I explained that the reason I couldn’t allow him to join the PMA was this kind of political leadership which had no loyalty to its people. I told him, “You could have been one of the three young second lieutenants who were killed in vain at Al-Barka. I could never allow that.”
I have many friends from the PMA — very courageous men — who have exhibited to me up close the best that soldiery has to offer. I pity that they should serve under political leaders who deep down have only scorn for our Men in Arms. I know, for I have also seen these so-called “moderate reformists” up close — from the Ateneo “Sarilikha” that included Deles and company, to the UP’s UPSCA from whence the likes of Leonen and other “leftists” sprung.
The Filipino people’s struggle to preserve the nation’s territory and vast richness, which the founding fathers of the Philippine Revolution strove to establish, is doomed unless the enemies within, the Fifth Column, are vanquished, along with all the appendages of foreign interventionists.
This Fifth Column numbers only a few hundred but is ensconced in Big Business, the country’s banking and financial system, the religious hierarchies, “civil society,” foreign funded NGOs, academia, the underworld and even within the military and police establishment. Their “capo di tutti capi” sits astride Manila Bay, which ominously, was inundated by the raging torrent of an angry sea. Could this be a portent of how the nation can rid itself of its enemies within?
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives).
Monday, October 31, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
The demoralization of our soldiers
This summary is not available. Please
click here to view the post.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Don't take the truth about ghosts Litely!
YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
10/28/2011
I always thought that GMA took politics more Litely than ABS-CBN. Vice versa, I always thought that GMA was more committed to the truth than ABS-CBN, PTV, IBC, RPN, as well as most of the other large and small networks and stations.
Bob Stewart set up TV Channel 7 under the Republic Broadcasting System.
He was an American citizen.
If my memory does not fail and fool me, Bob was a World War II US Army GI who stayed behind after the war, perhaps married a Filipina, pioneered in the entertainment television business, sold it later on and retired to Phoenix, Arizona.
ABS & CBN
If I’m not mistaken, Tony S. Quirino set up either of ABS or CBN.
ABS was the Alto Broadcasting System. CBN was the Chronicle Broadcasting Network.
Eugenio Lopez, Sr. set up one of them and bought the other. He put them together and built ABS-CBN up into what it is.
Ining was the brighter brother of Fernando Lopez, Jr., father of Geny, Precy Psinakis, Oscar, Manolo and Robin, and grandfather of Gaby.
Tony Quirino was the brother of President Elpidio Syquia Quirino of Vigan, Ilocos Sur. He was the father of Cory Quirino.
New Medium vs Opposition
In preparation for his brother’s re-election campaign for President in the November 1953 National Elections, Tony bought television broadcasting equipment.
The CIA, led by Col. Edward Landsdale, USAF, had manipulated the Philippine Press against Quirino and in favor of their fair-haired candidate, Ramon Magsaysay, Jr.
Although television was a new medium, Tony had the connections and resources to beat the opposition in this medium.
Take note that Fernando Lopez, Jr. was not only the two-term Vice President of Ferdinand E. Marcos from 1965 - 1973. He was also the Vice President of Quirino from 1949 – 1953.
I have not managed to confirm a hundred percent that he was the Vice Presidential running mate of Quirino in 1953. However, logic would confirm that he, indeed, was.
Quirinos & Lopezes
In all the National Campaigns and Elections from 1935-1969 under the 1935 Constitution, there was an unwritten rule in the putting together of a Presidential and Vice Presidential tandem.
One had to come from Luzon, the North, and the other from the South, the Visayas or Mindanao.
Thus, when the Presidential Candidates were Quezon (1935 and 1939), Quirino (1949 and 1953), Magsaysay (1953), Macapagal (1961) and Marcos (1965 and 1969) from Luzon, their running mates were Osmena (1935 and 1939), Lopez (1949 and 1953), Garcia (1953), Pelaez (1961) and again, Lopez (1965 and 1969).
When the senior partners in the tandems were Roxas (1946), Garcia/Yulo (1957) and Osmena (1969), the junior partners were Quirino (1946), Laurel or Puyat/Macapagal (1957) and Magsaysay (1969), respectively.
Take note that the Quirinos and Lopezes were political allies.
TV & Newspaper
After Quirino’s defeat in 1953, the Lopezes, whose wealth was based on sugar, bought or took over Tony Quirino’s TV experiment.
Being a new medium, as well as business, a TV network or station was not yet profitable. It had to be cross subsidized from other more profitable and proven businesses.
The Lopezes most probably already owned and ran the Chronicle broadsheet newspaper, as well as the Chronicle Broadcasting Network of radio stations.
Tony’s ABS was a very appropriate and complimentary addition to and partner of CBN.
Both ABS and CBN were embroiled in politics from the start.
The Lopez Family’s very vested interests in Sugar, Public Utilities and Tri-media dictated and laid the foundations for the policy and style of ABS-CBN.
Walang Kinikilingan
All the time, I believed that Bob’s TV Channel 7, later on the Duavit, Gozun and Jimenez GMA TV and Radio Network, were truly “Walang Kinikilingan, … , Serbisiyong Totoo Lamang!“
However, two to three months ago, I discovered a hidden aspect of GMA in GMA News Network’s Channel 11.
Channel 11 has a 30-minute, late Monday night (10 or 11 pm.) show called “I Juander” hosted by Susan Enriquez.
Since August is the Chinese Ghost Month, they produced an episode, “Sino ang (White Lady) Babae sa Balete Drive?” for broadcast on August 29.
Since, I own and live in an 85-year-old house between Campanilla and Sampaguita Streets along Balete Drive in New Manila, Barangay Mariana, Cubao, Quezon City, the major TV Networks regularly use our home as a backdrop for their scenes and shows that have ghosts as their subjects and topics.
Garchitorenas & Rectos
“I Juander’s” researcher and producer got in touch with me to find out more about the White Lady of Balete Drive, as well as to borrow our home and surroundings as a venue for their video shoots.
I had written about the White Lady in the November 1–7, 2010 issue of our weekly OpinYon opinion newspaper.
I knew and had written about her father and mother’s family names, her death and apparitions or appearances in the early 1950’s and her residence. Her parents were a Garchitorena and a Recto.
She died in a vehicular accident during an unauthorized (by her parents) joyride with friends.
She owed money to her class fund. This was one of the reasons why she could not leave her earthly surroundings.
She usually made her appearances by hitching rides along Balete Drive at night, riding in the back seat and then disappearing or vice versa, i.e. by just appearing in the back of a vehicle.
Confirmed
The “I Juander” researcher discovered and informed me of the following.
The White Lady of Balete Drive’s name was MARIA ELENA RECTO GARCHITORENA. Her mother was MARIA CRISTINA RECTO and her father was a GARCHITORENA from the Municipality of Tigaon, Camarines Sur. They could not establish his first name.
However, my friend, former Caloocan City Congressman and NAIAA/MIAA General Manager Romeo “Romy” Santos told me that the father was the “Tito Manito” of his wife, Magdalena Garchitorena.
Up to today, Romy and Meg still own what is left, after Land Reform, of Hacienda Magdalena, in Tigaon, in the Partida District of Camarines Sur.
Aside from Romy, a common friend, former DAR Undersecretary Pejo confirmed the family lineage of the White Lady.
Denied
My friend, former Batangas Vice Governor Ricky Recto, told me that the White Lady was his cousin.
His father, Raffy Recto, owned the house on Balete Drive, corner Bougainvillea Street, up to Hibiscus Street, where the White Lady and her family lived in the early 1950’s.
He confirmed a slightly different version of why and how she died and haunted Balete Drive and nearby streets.
“I Juander” was not able to interview Ricky, who is still in hiding and the subject of a warrant of arrest based on unbailable charges of double murder.
Senator Ralph Recto denied to “I Juander” that he had a White Lady as a relative.
However, they interviewed Louie Recto Ysmael, former Disco owner and pioneer, and son of Chona Recto, married to Ysmael, and later to Kasten.
Louie confirmed most of the things that I knew about the White Lady.
No Mention at All
However, when the 30-minute “I Juander” episode, “Sino and babae sa Balete Drive?” was shown late on Monday, August 29, there was no mention of the surname “Recto”.
Neither the middle name “Recto” of Maria Elena Recto Garchitorena or Louie Recto Ysmael were mentioned.
The White Lady’s residence was not described as owned by a Recto.
Neither Ralph’s denials to “I Juander” or Ricky’s statements or confirmations to me were mentioned at all.
“I Juander” used my home and garden half a dozen times. They interviewed me on TV audio and video for almost 30 minutes. They did not include any of my TV recordings that mentioned “Recto” as the White Lady, her parents and family and finally, her home’s residents and/or owners.
Well, so far this Halloween or “Undas” season, we have only had one query about our home as venue for a TV encounter with the White Lady or other ghosts or just to hold a Halloween Activity - GMA’s “Unang Hirit.”
Linggoy Alcuaz
10/28/2011
I always thought that GMA took politics more Litely than ABS-CBN. Vice versa, I always thought that GMA was more committed to the truth than ABS-CBN, PTV, IBC, RPN, as well as most of the other large and small networks and stations.
Bob Stewart set up TV Channel 7 under the Republic Broadcasting System.
He was an American citizen.
If my memory does not fail and fool me, Bob was a World War II US Army GI who stayed behind after the war, perhaps married a Filipina, pioneered in the entertainment television business, sold it later on and retired to Phoenix, Arizona.
ABS & CBN
If I’m not mistaken, Tony S. Quirino set up either of ABS or CBN.
ABS was the Alto Broadcasting System. CBN was the Chronicle Broadcasting Network.
Eugenio Lopez, Sr. set up one of them and bought the other. He put them together and built ABS-CBN up into what it is.
Ining was the brighter brother of Fernando Lopez, Jr., father of Geny, Precy Psinakis, Oscar, Manolo and Robin, and grandfather of Gaby.
Tony Quirino was the brother of President Elpidio Syquia Quirino of Vigan, Ilocos Sur. He was the father of Cory Quirino.
New Medium vs Opposition
In preparation for his brother’s re-election campaign for President in the November 1953 National Elections, Tony bought television broadcasting equipment.
The CIA, led by Col. Edward Landsdale, USAF, had manipulated the Philippine Press against Quirino and in favor of their fair-haired candidate, Ramon Magsaysay, Jr.
Although television was a new medium, Tony had the connections and resources to beat the opposition in this medium.
Take note that Fernando Lopez, Jr. was not only the two-term Vice President of Ferdinand E. Marcos from 1965 - 1973. He was also the Vice President of Quirino from 1949 – 1953.
I have not managed to confirm a hundred percent that he was the Vice Presidential running mate of Quirino in 1953. However, logic would confirm that he, indeed, was.
Quirinos & Lopezes
In all the National Campaigns and Elections from 1935-1969 under the 1935 Constitution, there was an unwritten rule in the putting together of a Presidential and Vice Presidential tandem.
One had to come from Luzon, the North, and the other from the South, the Visayas or Mindanao.
Thus, when the Presidential Candidates were Quezon (1935 and 1939), Quirino (1949 and 1953), Magsaysay (1953), Macapagal (1961) and Marcos (1965 and 1969) from Luzon, their running mates were Osmena (1935 and 1939), Lopez (1949 and 1953), Garcia (1953), Pelaez (1961) and again, Lopez (1965 and 1969).
When the senior partners in the tandems were Roxas (1946), Garcia/Yulo (1957) and Osmena (1969), the junior partners were Quirino (1946), Laurel or Puyat/Macapagal (1957) and Magsaysay (1969), respectively.
Take note that the Quirinos and Lopezes were political allies.
TV & Newspaper
After Quirino’s defeat in 1953, the Lopezes, whose wealth was based on sugar, bought or took over Tony Quirino’s TV experiment.
Being a new medium, as well as business, a TV network or station was not yet profitable. It had to be cross subsidized from other more profitable and proven businesses.
The Lopezes most probably already owned and ran the Chronicle broadsheet newspaper, as well as the Chronicle Broadcasting Network of radio stations.
Tony’s ABS was a very appropriate and complimentary addition to and partner of CBN.
Both ABS and CBN were embroiled in politics from the start.
The Lopez Family’s very vested interests in Sugar, Public Utilities and Tri-media dictated and laid the foundations for the policy and style of ABS-CBN.
Walang Kinikilingan
All the time, I believed that Bob’s TV Channel 7, later on the Duavit, Gozun and Jimenez GMA TV and Radio Network, were truly “Walang Kinikilingan, … , Serbisiyong Totoo Lamang!“
However, two to three months ago, I discovered a hidden aspect of GMA in GMA News Network’s Channel 11.
Channel 11 has a 30-minute, late Monday night (10 or 11 pm.) show called “I Juander” hosted by Susan Enriquez.
Since August is the Chinese Ghost Month, they produced an episode, “Sino ang (White Lady) Babae sa Balete Drive?” for broadcast on August 29.
Since, I own and live in an 85-year-old house between Campanilla and Sampaguita Streets along Balete Drive in New Manila, Barangay Mariana, Cubao, Quezon City, the major TV Networks regularly use our home as a backdrop for their scenes and shows that have ghosts as their subjects and topics.
Garchitorenas & Rectos
“I Juander’s” researcher and producer got in touch with me to find out more about the White Lady of Balete Drive, as well as to borrow our home and surroundings as a venue for their video shoots.
I had written about the White Lady in the November 1–7, 2010 issue of our weekly OpinYon opinion newspaper.
I knew and had written about her father and mother’s family names, her death and apparitions or appearances in the early 1950’s and her residence. Her parents were a Garchitorena and a Recto.
She died in a vehicular accident during an unauthorized (by her parents) joyride with friends.
She owed money to her class fund. This was one of the reasons why she could not leave her earthly surroundings.
She usually made her appearances by hitching rides along Balete Drive at night, riding in the back seat and then disappearing or vice versa, i.e. by just appearing in the back of a vehicle.
Confirmed
The “I Juander” researcher discovered and informed me of the following.
The White Lady of Balete Drive’s name was MARIA ELENA RECTO GARCHITORENA. Her mother was MARIA CRISTINA RECTO and her father was a GARCHITORENA from the Municipality of Tigaon, Camarines Sur. They could not establish his first name.
However, my friend, former Caloocan City Congressman and NAIAA/MIAA General Manager Romeo “Romy” Santos told me that the father was the “Tito Manito” of his wife, Magdalena Garchitorena.
Up to today, Romy and Meg still own what is left, after Land Reform, of Hacienda Magdalena, in Tigaon, in the Partida District of Camarines Sur.
Aside from Romy, a common friend, former DAR Undersecretary Pejo confirmed the family lineage of the White Lady.
Denied
My friend, former Batangas Vice Governor Ricky Recto, told me that the White Lady was his cousin.
His father, Raffy Recto, owned the house on Balete Drive, corner Bougainvillea Street, up to Hibiscus Street, where the White Lady and her family lived in the early 1950’s.
He confirmed a slightly different version of why and how she died and haunted Balete Drive and nearby streets.
“I Juander” was not able to interview Ricky, who is still in hiding and the subject of a warrant of arrest based on unbailable charges of double murder.
Senator Ralph Recto denied to “I Juander” that he had a White Lady as a relative.
However, they interviewed Louie Recto Ysmael, former Disco owner and pioneer, and son of Chona Recto, married to Ysmael, and later to Kasten.
Louie confirmed most of the things that I knew about the White Lady.
No Mention at All
However, when the 30-minute “I Juander” episode, “Sino and babae sa Balete Drive?” was shown late on Monday, August 29, there was no mention of the surname “Recto”.
Neither the middle name “Recto” of Maria Elena Recto Garchitorena or Louie Recto Ysmael were mentioned.
The White Lady’s residence was not described as owned by a Recto.
Neither Ralph’s denials to “I Juander” or Ricky’s statements or confirmations to me were mentioned at all.
“I Juander” used my home and garden half a dozen times. They interviewed me on TV audio and video for almost 30 minutes. They did not include any of my TV recordings that mentioned “Recto” as the White Lady, her parents and family and finally, her home’s residents and/or owners.
Well, so far this Halloween or “Undas” season, we have only had one query about our home as venue for a TV encounter with the White Lady or other ghosts or just to hold a Halloween Activity - GMA’s “Unang Hirit.”
QC’s 20% real estate tax hike
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/28/2011
The Quezon City (QC) mayor has a P500-million pork barrel while every city councilor has a P44-million annual budget. These are over and above the city’s entire budget of P2.7 billion per annum. QC already has one of the highest tax structures in the country. Its residence certificate tax alone is 10 times higher than Makati’s. And even as those in city hall officialdom claim to be pro-poor — the reason they green-lighted this controversial Socialized Housing Tax (SHT) ordinance last Oct. 25 — QC has one of the highest employment taxes in the country.
Quezon City has ordinances taxing everything, including the office coffee maker. It has a tax on household water pumps even if the homeowner, not the local government, has invested in its drilling, installation, and procurement (notwithstanding the fact that the water pump is to be situated within his own property). It has an environmental tax but with no environmental services. It taxes fast food outlets operating in malls that already pay environmental service fees — charges which are then passed on to the mall’s tenants — thereby illegally taxing these small stall owners twice. And the list goes on.
Unfortunately, QC has been virtually under the same city administration since Edsa II; it is expected to continue through several more terms unless its citizens wake up to the truth about the corrupt dynasty that has entrenched itself in city hall.
Although 2010 brought in a change of name in the Mayor’s Office, with the electoral victory of the former vice mayor, comedian Herbert “Bistek” Bautista, for all intents and purposes, the ancien régime continues not only because a very young daughter of the previous mayor is now Bautista’s vice but primarily because the old boys of Sonny Belmonte continue to “rule the roost.”
For instance, the former city treasurer, touted as having generated a P6.5-billion budget surplus, is now the city administrator; while behind the scenes is Taddy Palma whose name elicits from QC Circle locators a raised hand with thumb and middle finger formed into a circle.
In the last elections where the former mayor campaigned for his congressional seat, media were flooded with glowing reports of his surplus of P6.5 billion in the city’s coffers. This one from the Philippine Star, dated June 20, 2010 by Reiner Padua, said, “After nine years of being mayor of Quezon City, congressman-elect Feliciano Belmonte Jr. will be leaving the city government with P6.5-billion cash on hand and in banks.” Yeah, right!
If there is this surplus in Quezon City trumpeted just a little over a year ago, then why did current Mayor Herbert Bautista, Vice Mayor Josefina Belmonte, and the city council deem it necessary to pass a new real estate tax of P180 million or so, purportedly for “socialized housing” or SHT?
When confronted by this P6.5-billion surplus claim, Mayor Bautista simply denies its existence or says that the entire amount has already been used up for salaries and whatnot — which is highly improbable.
So who is lying, Mayor Bautista or the former mayor and his city treasurer, now administrator Vic Endriga? Can the vice mayor-daughter of Belmonte tell us who the liar is among them?
Mayor Bautista, along with his political caboodle in Quezon City, says the tax is a “measly” 0.05 percent of every P100,000 assessed value of real estate property; but that is deceptive and misleading to the extreme.
Based on the “basic real estate tax” for urban centers in Metro Manila of 2 percent, the tax hike approved by the current QC administration adds 0.05 percent for every P100,000 of assessed value, which means P5,000 in SHT for a P1-million property. This is aside from the P20,000 representing the 2-percent basic tax, which means that the SHT is actually an increase of 20 percent or more!
Many Quezon City civic leaders have gone to the city council hearing to oppose this, with city officials, particularly councilors, not being able to give sufficient and rational justification for the measure. One of the most vehement in imposing this tax hike is the “pro-poor” 4th District Councilor Edcel “Grex” Lagman Jr., son of a prominent House apologist for Gloria Arroyo, leading QC residents and homeowners to shake their heads and say, “So young, so corrupt.”
Then, as if to assuage the anger of taxpayers, the city council promises to rebate this exaction five years later — liars all!
If the city council and administration want to do something right for a change, they can begin by investigating the P6.5-billion surplus of Belmonte that is now nowhere to be found. They should also cleanse themselves of the reeking stink from the 3,000 ghost employees that the new Commission on Audit uncovered in city councilors’ payrolls, amounting to over P200 million a year (which investigation was triggered by our July 15 “Quezon City CoA-llusion?” article).
Further, the city council should investigate the North Triangle urban poor relocation scandal involving hundreds of millions and the “favorite contractor” of Belmonte and a former FVR Finance man alleged to have headed the “QC government’s real property pilferage.”
But instead of doing good for QC residents who are filling their city’s coffers with tax payments, these local politicians prefer to keep milking the city’s taxpayers for their imagined “pro-poor” socialized housing program, which is just an excuse for more graft.
Quezon City residents interested in studying the abuse of their city’s taxes can visit http://www.better-qc.org set up by QC anti-graft crusaders Johnny Chang, Rod Kapunan, Andy Rosales, et al. We understand that court suits are already being prepared against this tax hike. Maybe they might as well consider “Occupy QC Hall” very soon.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8 — this week: “Quezon City Homeowners Oppose 20% Real Estate Tax Hike;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/28/2011
The Quezon City (QC) mayor has a P500-million pork barrel while every city councilor has a P44-million annual budget. These are over and above the city’s entire budget of P2.7 billion per annum. QC already has one of the highest tax structures in the country. Its residence certificate tax alone is 10 times higher than Makati’s. And even as those in city hall officialdom claim to be pro-poor — the reason they green-lighted this controversial Socialized Housing Tax (SHT) ordinance last Oct. 25 — QC has one of the highest employment taxes in the country.
Quezon City has ordinances taxing everything, including the office coffee maker. It has a tax on household water pumps even if the homeowner, not the local government, has invested in its drilling, installation, and procurement (notwithstanding the fact that the water pump is to be situated within his own property). It has an environmental tax but with no environmental services. It taxes fast food outlets operating in malls that already pay environmental service fees — charges which are then passed on to the mall’s tenants — thereby illegally taxing these small stall owners twice. And the list goes on.
Unfortunately, QC has been virtually under the same city administration since Edsa II; it is expected to continue through several more terms unless its citizens wake up to the truth about the corrupt dynasty that has entrenched itself in city hall.
Although 2010 brought in a change of name in the Mayor’s Office, with the electoral victory of the former vice mayor, comedian Herbert “Bistek” Bautista, for all intents and purposes, the ancien régime continues not only because a very young daughter of the previous mayor is now Bautista’s vice but primarily because the old boys of Sonny Belmonte continue to “rule the roost.”
For instance, the former city treasurer, touted as having generated a P6.5-billion budget surplus, is now the city administrator; while behind the scenes is Taddy Palma whose name elicits from QC Circle locators a raised hand with thumb and middle finger formed into a circle.
In the last elections where the former mayor campaigned for his congressional seat, media were flooded with glowing reports of his surplus of P6.5 billion in the city’s coffers. This one from the Philippine Star, dated June 20, 2010 by Reiner Padua, said, “After nine years of being mayor of Quezon City, congressman-elect Feliciano Belmonte Jr. will be leaving the city government with P6.5-billion cash on hand and in banks.” Yeah, right!
If there is this surplus in Quezon City trumpeted just a little over a year ago, then why did current Mayor Herbert Bautista, Vice Mayor Josefina Belmonte, and the city council deem it necessary to pass a new real estate tax of P180 million or so, purportedly for “socialized housing” or SHT?
When confronted by this P6.5-billion surplus claim, Mayor Bautista simply denies its existence or says that the entire amount has already been used up for salaries and whatnot — which is highly improbable.
So who is lying, Mayor Bautista or the former mayor and his city treasurer, now administrator Vic Endriga? Can the vice mayor-daughter of Belmonte tell us who the liar is among them?
Mayor Bautista, along with his political caboodle in Quezon City, says the tax is a “measly” 0.05 percent of every P100,000 assessed value of real estate property; but that is deceptive and misleading to the extreme.
Based on the “basic real estate tax” for urban centers in Metro Manila of 2 percent, the tax hike approved by the current QC administration adds 0.05 percent for every P100,000 of assessed value, which means P5,000 in SHT for a P1-million property. This is aside from the P20,000 representing the 2-percent basic tax, which means that the SHT is actually an increase of 20 percent or more!
Many Quezon City civic leaders have gone to the city council hearing to oppose this, with city officials, particularly councilors, not being able to give sufficient and rational justification for the measure. One of the most vehement in imposing this tax hike is the “pro-poor” 4th District Councilor Edcel “Grex” Lagman Jr., son of a prominent House apologist for Gloria Arroyo, leading QC residents and homeowners to shake their heads and say, “So young, so corrupt.”
Then, as if to assuage the anger of taxpayers, the city council promises to rebate this exaction five years later — liars all!
If the city council and administration want to do something right for a change, they can begin by investigating the P6.5-billion surplus of Belmonte that is now nowhere to be found. They should also cleanse themselves of the reeking stink from the 3,000 ghost employees that the new Commission on Audit uncovered in city councilors’ payrolls, amounting to over P200 million a year (which investigation was triggered by our July 15 “Quezon City CoA-llusion?” article).
Further, the city council should investigate the North Triangle urban poor relocation scandal involving hundreds of millions and the “favorite contractor” of Belmonte and a former FVR Finance man alleged to have headed the “QC government’s real property pilferage.”
But instead of doing good for QC residents who are filling their city’s coffers with tax payments, these local politicians prefer to keep milking the city’s taxpayers for their imagined “pro-poor” socialized housing program, which is just an excuse for more graft.
Quezon City residents interested in studying the abuse of their city’s taxes can visit http://www.better-qc.org set up by QC anti-graft crusaders Johnny Chang, Rod Kapunan, Andy Rosales, et al. We understand that court suits are already being prepared against this tax hike. Maybe they might as well consider “Occupy QC Hall” very soon.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8 — this week: “Quezon City Homeowners Oppose 20% Real Estate Tax Hike;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Meralco-Napocor settlement: NOT OK
CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/24-26/2011
Last Oct. 18, several mainstream newspapers headlined “CA okays P14B Napocor-Meralco compromise,” which could have led many to conclude that things are all honky dory for the parties concerned. No, the compromise agreement is definitely NOT OK. The Court of Appeals (CA) just said that the Pasig Regional Trial Court (RTC) can deal with the issue, which the Solicitor General still disputes.
If you are unable to connect the relevance of this news to your daily life, please read along. I’m sure the vast majority of citizens still do not know the particulars of this case even if it is of huge importance to them, given that it might potentially cost them an additional arm aside from the other limbs already taken by Meralco.
The dispute stems from power distributor Meralco’s violation of its contract in 1994 to purchase P42 billion worth of electrical power from the National Power Corp. (Napocor). At a great loss to government, Meralco reneged on its obligations when it set up its own IPPs (independent power producers) and bought from them (or itself) instead of Napocor.
In the ensuing suits at the Pasig RTC, and after much haggling, Meralco and Napocor finally settled on a P14-billion penalty for the former, which penalty--take note--they agreed to PASS ON TO CONSUMERS!
This extremely lopsided compromise agreement represented a loss of at least P28 billion to government and, worse, the penalization of millions of consumers who were never a party to the contract or negotiations.
The Solicitor General’s office, in pursuing its mandate to protect government’s interest, faulted Napocor for not having the authority to enter into such an agreement and for failing to consult with other concerned agencies adversely affected by the deal. The SolGen then went to the CA to question the jurisdiction of the Pasig RTC, after which a TRO (temporary restraining order) was issued.
Consumer protection groups also eagerly awaited the outcome of this case since the Pasig RTC is believed by many to have a track record of being under the influence (or payroll) of Meralco. It was in this Pasig RTC where one of our original petitions questioning the constitutionality of the EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) was made to drag for several years before being trashed.
While we could have gone to the Supreme Court after that, the repression of the Arroyo regime, plus the 2004 elections, overtook the issue. Had FPJ (who was against the EPIRA) won, that disastrous law could have been reversed.
Going back, the recent CA decision said, “Petitioners’ fear that the settlement agreement would be a burden to the consuming public who were not able to participate in the mediation proceedings is an unconfirmed assumption.” Oh, really?
So why did the dissenting opinion from Justice Japar Dimaampao say that the CA majority “deprived the public of their ‘right to probe into the burdensome ‘pass-through’ (provision),” arguing that since the “people stand defenseless against the inauspicious consequences ensuing from the settlement agreement… Why should we allow Meralco to pass on the buck to us? Why should we be made to pay the horrendous obligation of Meralco?”
Thank you, Justice Dimaampao. The SolGen now has the option to raise the issue to the Supreme Court which we believe we can win. But at the same time, we in the anti-power plunder group believe that it is still best to go beyond the jurisdictional question and thresh out the demerits of the settlement agreement itself.
The SolGen’s position is both correct and imperative: To prevent government agencies such as Napocor from going on their own--abusing their authority--to negotiate, which is an open avenue for graft and corruption. Besides, Meralco’s owners already have a long track record of exercising their political and media clout to influence corrupt regulatory agencies. The result is that we always lose and get screwed as taxpayers and consumers.
The consumer protection movement, even consumers themselves, should work even harder to oppose this settlement agreement outside the courts, by including it as one of the issues in a planned “vigil” (a la Occupy Wall Street).
The fight over this compromise deal represents one of the best opportunities to put both Meralco and Napocor on the spot while we batter them with other cases to be brought to the courts by our anti-power plunder group.
But then, there is another matter that power consumers of this country must take note of, which mainstream media is practically blind to. The “provisional reset” of Meralco’s PBR (Performance Based Rape… este, Rate) and its MAP (Maximum Average Price) of P1.60/kWh are being torpedoed despite formal opposition from Mang Naro Lualhati and the anti-power plunder group that it should be not more than P0.90/kWh.
That was the subject of the last hearing at the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) where consumer representatives were given a runaround--as the hearing schedule was switched from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, in order to confuse the public, which has already relied on the ERC website or its public bulletin board just outside the hearing room. It’s good that we stayed on so as not to be declared in default. We were able to force the ERC to postpone the hearing on the PBR reset request of Meralco. But then, as if railroading their plans, the ERC still granted Meralco a provisional increase without any public hearing. The people must resoundingly reject this and penalize culpable ERC officers. This outrage cannot be tolerated any minute longer.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “Russian and Philippine Ties in the Multi-Polar World” with Ambassador Nikolay Kudashev; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/24-26/2011
Last Oct. 18, several mainstream newspapers headlined “CA okays P14B Napocor-Meralco compromise,” which could have led many to conclude that things are all honky dory for the parties concerned. No, the compromise agreement is definitely NOT OK. The Court of Appeals (CA) just said that the Pasig Regional Trial Court (RTC) can deal with the issue, which the Solicitor General still disputes.
If you are unable to connect the relevance of this news to your daily life, please read along. I’m sure the vast majority of citizens still do not know the particulars of this case even if it is of huge importance to them, given that it might potentially cost them an additional arm aside from the other limbs already taken by Meralco.
The dispute stems from power distributor Meralco’s violation of its contract in 1994 to purchase P42 billion worth of electrical power from the National Power Corp. (Napocor). At a great loss to government, Meralco reneged on its obligations when it set up its own IPPs (independent power producers) and bought from them (or itself) instead of Napocor.
In the ensuing suits at the Pasig RTC, and after much haggling, Meralco and Napocor finally settled on a P14-billion penalty for the former, which penalty--take note--they agreed to PASS ON TO CONSUMERS!
This extremely lopsided compromise agreement represented a loss of at least P28 billion to government and, worse, the penalization of millions of consumers who were never a party to the contract or negotiations.
The Solicitor General’s office, in pursuing its mandate to protect government’s interest, faulted Napocor for not having the authority to enter into such an agreement and for failing to consult with other concerned agencies adversely affected by the deal. The SolGen then went to the CA to question the jurisdiction of the Pasig RTC, after which a TRO (temporary restraining order) was issued.
Consumer protection groups also eagerly awaited the outcome of this case since the Pasig RTC is believed by many to have a track record of being under the influence (or payroll) of Meralco. It was in this Pasig RTC where one of our original petitions questioning the constitutionality of the EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) was made to drag for several years before being trashed.
While we could have gone to the Supreme Court after that, the repression of the Arroyo regime, plus the 2004 elections, overtook the issue. Had FPJ (who was against the EPIRA) won, that disastrous law could have been reversed.
Going back, the recent CA decision said, “Petitioners’ fear that the settlement agreement would be a burden to the consuming public who were not able to participate in the mediation proceedings is an unconfirmed assumption.” Oh, really?
So why did the dissenting opinion from Justice Japar Dimaampao say that the CA majority “deprived the public of their ‘right to probe into the burdensome ‘pass-through’ (provision),” arguing that since the “people stand defenseless against the inauspicious consequences ensuing from the settlement agreement… Why should we allow Meralco to pass on the buck to us? Why should we be made to pay the horrendous obligation of Meralco?”
Thank you, Justice Dimaampao. The SolGen now has the option to raise the issue to the Supreme Court which we believe we can win. But at the same time, we in the anti-power plunder group believe that it is still best to go beyond the jurisdictional question and thresh out the demerits of the settlement agreement itself.
The SolGen’s position is both correct and imperative: To prevent government agencies such as Napocor from going on their own--abusing their authority--to negotiate, which is an open avenue for graft and corruption. Besides, Meralco’s owners already have a long track record of exercising their political and media clout to influence corrupt regulatory agencies. The result is that we always lose and get screwed as taxpayers and consumers.
The consumer protection movement, even consumers themselves, should work even harder to oppose this settlement agreement outside the courts, by including it as one of the issues in a planned “vigil” (a la Occupy Wall Street).
The fight over this compromise deal represents one of the best opportunities to put both Meralco and Napocor on the spot while we batter them with other cases to be brought to the courts by our anti-power plunder group.
But then, there is another matter that power consumers of this country must take note of, which mainstream media is practically blind to. The “provisional reset” of Meralco’s PBR (Performance Based Rape… este, Rate) and its MAP (Maximum Average Price) of P1.60/kWh are being torpedoed despite formal opposition from Mang Naro Lualhati and the anti-power plunder group that it should be not more than P0.90/kWh.
That was the subject of the last hearing at the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) where consumer representatives were given a runaround--as the hearing schedule was switched from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, in order to confuse the public, which has already relied on the ERC website or its public bulletin board just outside the hearing room. It’s good that we stayed on so as not to be declared in default. We were able to force the ERC to postpone the hearing on the PBR reset request of Meralco. But then, as if railroading their plans, the ERC still granted Meralco a provisional increase without any public hearing. The people must resoundingly reject this and penalize culpable ERC officers. This outrage cannot be tolerated any minute longer.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “Russian and Philippine Ties in the Multi-Polar World” with Ambassador Nikolay Kudashev; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Occupy Quezon City Hall!
YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
10/24-26/2011
Occupy Quezon City Hall! That is definitely a much better thing to do than to try to occupy Malacanang Palace or to try to convince people to occupy Tektite Towers.
Malacanang is from where P-Noy does not govern well enough. Tektite Towers is where the Philippine Stock Exchange is located.
There are a couple of other places that should have been occupied a long time ago. These are the Energy Regulatory Board, the Manila Water and Sewerage System (MWSS) ,and the Local Water Utilities Authority (LWUA), as well as the oil companies.
Additional Taxes
The reason for occupying QC Hall is Proposed Ordinance 2010-91 entitled “An Act Further Amending the QC City Revenue Code, As Amended, To Impose an additional 0.5% on the Assessed Value of all lands in Quezon City Exceeding P100,000.00.
PO 2010-91 allocates the additional collected tax to the City Government’s Socialized Housing Program as provided for under Section 43 of Republic Act No. 7279 or the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 (UDHA).
Following that, meaning after QC residents and taxpayers occupy and symbolically squat on the QC Hall Complex, occupy your own City Hall or Municipality’s Town Hall.
You be the judge. You know best.
If your own local seat of government is not worth occupying, just come to Metro Manila and help us.
Corporate Greed
In suggesting the above course of action, I am coming from my take on, and understanding of several things that developed and happened in history:
On Saturday, Sept. 17, about 50 demonstrators gathered at Zucotti Park near Wall Street in New York City to denounce Corporate Greed.
They were jeered by the Establishment and roughed up by the police.
They stuck at it and maintained a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week vigil under the concept of “Occupy Wall Street.”
Within a month, on Saturday, Oct. 15, Occupy Wall Street was being replicated in 190 US cities and almost a thousand cities worldwide.
Here, in the Philippines, the usual suspects, meaning, the full time activists, advocates, demonstrators and rallyists, have done their token, “Occupy Wall Street” in various venues.
However, it has not yet captured the imagination of the Filipinos, in general.
From a Blog Post
In order for us to understand the immediate beginnings of the phenomenon, may I quote from an article in www.NPR.org dated Oct. 20, 2011, entitled “ Occupy Wall Street: From A Blog Post To A Movement” by Bill Chapell:
“After more than 30 days, the Occupy Wall Street movement has evolved from a protest in New York City into a growing international movement.
And it all started in July, as a single blog post inspired by the Arab Spring.
“Here's a look at significant developments in the Occupy Wall Street timeline, as it gathered momentum and spread to other US cities.
“Timeline: Tracking Occupy Wall Street's Growth
“July 13: Adbusters publishes a blog post calling for "a shift in revolutionary tactics" and urging tens of thousands of people to converge on lower Manhattan.
The plan: "set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months. Once there, we shall incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices."
“The protest will have no leadership, the post notes. And its sole demand will not be determined until the gathered mass of protesters agree on what it should be.
“But the post's authors can't resist offering a candidate: "[We] demand that Barack Obama ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington. It's time for Democracy Not Corporatocracy, we're doomed without it."
“The post, signed "Culture Jammers HQ," also introduces the #occupywallstreet hashtag."
Chronology: Ongoing
“July 26: The Occupy Wall Street website is launched; the group also uses Twitter and Facebook to promote the Sept. 17 demonstration. Adbusters calls for similar protests to be held in central financial districts in Germany, Japan, Britain, and around the world.
“Aug. 23: The activist hacking group Anonymous releases a video supporting Occupy Wall Street and uses its Twitter feed to promote the demonstration.
“Sept. 17: The rally and march take place, and the protesters set up a temporary city in lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park. Soon it will have its own newspaper, food supply chain and WiFi. Reports of arrests and clashes with police emerge almost daily. Many of the incidents are filmed and posted on YouTube.
“Sept. 24: New York police officers arrest more than 80 protesters as they march to Union Square. The conflict brings fresh charges that the police were overly zealous in using force and pepper spray.
“Oct. 1: More than 700 demonstrators are arrested during a march across the Brooklyn Bridge. Police officials say they targeted only those protesters who clogged traffic lanes instead of taking the pedestrian walkway.
“Oct. 5: Many of America's largest unions announce their support for Occupy Wall Street, as the movement holds a large march in Manhattan. In a poll, the group's approval rating is measured at 33 percent — 19 points higher than that of Congress.
“Oct. 6: Demonstrations spread to more cities, including Washington, D.C., where protesters pledge to remain in place for weeks to come.
“Oct. 11: Reports spread about a group seeking to counter Occupy Wall Street by claiming to be 'the 53% of Americans subsidizing these people so they can go hang out on Wall Street to complain'. Inspired by conservative blogger Erick Erickson's blog post on Oct. 5, the group's slogan is a play on "the 99 Percent."
“Oct. 12: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg visits the protesters' camp in Zuccotti Park, telling them they have two days to vacate the park, so that its owners, Brookfield Office Properties, can clean it. His office cites 'unsanitary conditions.' Protesters begin cleaning the park themselves.
“Oct. 14: Brookfield Properties announces that it will not force Occupy Wall Street to leave Zuccotti Park. On his radio show, Bloomberg says the company bowed to pressure from elected officials.
“Oct. 15: Loosely coordinated demonstrations inspired by Occupy Wall Street take place in 951 cities in some 82 countries, according to organizers.
“Oct. 17: Adbusters proposes an Oct. 29 '#RobinHood Global March' — and a candidate for the group's unifying demand: 'On October 29, on the eve of the G20 Leaders Summit in France, let's the people of the world rise up and demand that our G20 leaders immediately impose a 1% #ROBINHOOD tax on all financial transactions and currency trades.'
“Oct. 19: The New York City Police Department says that one its officers — who famously pepper-sprayed women during a Sept. 24 protest — will be disciplined and is likely to lose vacation days.”
In our continuation, we will explain how in the sixties and seventies, we imitated the wave of activism and protests that swept the USA and Europe.
We will also theorize whether we will follow in the footsteps of the “Occupy Wall Street” Movement.
Linggoy Alcuaz
10/24-26/2011
Occupy Quezon City Hall! That is definitely a much better thing to do than to try to occupy Malacanang Palace or to try to convince people to occupy Tektite Towers.
Malacanang is from where P-Noy does not govern well enough. Tektite Towers is where the Philippine Stock Exchange is located.
There are a couple of other places that should have been occupied a long time ago. These are the Energy Regulatory Board, the Manila Water and Sewerage System (MWSS) ,and the Local Water Utilities Authority (LWUA), as well as the oil companies.
Additional Taxes
The reason for occupying QC Hall is Proposed Ordinance 2010-91 entitled “An Act Further Amending the QC City Revenue Code, As Amended, To Impose an additional 0.5% on the Assessed Value of all lands in Quezon City Exceeding P100,000.00.
PO 2010-91 allocates the additional collected tax to the City Government’s Socialized Housing Program as provided for under Section 43 of Republic Act No. 7279 or the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 (UDHA).
Following that, meaning after QC residents and taxpayers occupy and symbolically squat on the QC Hall Complex, occupy your own City Hall or Municipality’s Town Hall.
You be the judge. You know best.
If your own local seat of government is not worth occupying, just come to Metro Manila and help us.
Corporate Greed
In suggesting the above course of action, I am coming from my take on, and understanding of several things that developed and happened in history:
- Last July 13’s single blog post and September 17’s “Occupy Wall Street Movement” march and rally at Zuccotti Park and its expansion to hundreds of cities in the USA and thousands of cities worldwide:
- The birth or expansion of the Anti-Vietnam War Movement 46 years ago;
- The First Quarter Storm of Student and Youth Activism 41 years ago;
- EDSA I 25 years ago;
- EDSA II 10 years ago;
- EDSA III 10 years ago,
- And the failure of the Anti-GMA Movement to oust her over a period of nine and a half years.
On Saturday, Sept. 17, about 50 demonstrators gathered at Zucotti Park near Wall Street in New York City to denounce Corporate Greed.
They were jeered by the Establishment and roughed up by the police.
They stuck at it and maintained a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week vigil under the concept of “Occupy Wall Street.”
Within a month, on Saturday, Oct. 15, Occupy Wall Street was being replicated in 190 US cities and almost a thousand cities worldwide.
Here, in the Philippines, the usual suspects, meaning, the full time activists, advocates, demonstrators and rallyists, have done their token, “Occupy Wall Street” in various venues.
However, it has not yet captured the imagination of the Filipinos, in general.
From a Blog Post
In order for us to understand the immediate beginnings of the phenomenon, may I quote from an article in www.NPR.org dated Oct. 20, 2011, entitled “ Occupy Wall Street: From A Blog Post To A Movement” by Bill Chapell:
“After more than 30 days, the Occupy Wall Street movement has evolved from a protest in New York City into a growing international movement.
And it all started in July, as a single blog post inspired by the Arab Spring.
“Here's a look at significant developments in the Occupy Wall Street timeline, as it gathered momentum and spread to other US cities.
“Timeline: Tracking Occupy Wall Street's Growth
“July 13: Adbusters publishes a blog post calling for "a shift in revolutionary tactics" and urging tens of thousands of people to converge on lower Manhattan.
The plan: "set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months. Once there, we shall incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices."
“The protest will have no leadership, the post notes. And its sole demand will not be determined until the gathered mass of protesters agree on what it should be.
“But the post's authors can't resist offering a candidate: "[We] demand that Barack Obama ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington. It's time for Democracy Not Corporatocracy, we're doomed without it."
“The post, signed "Culture Jammers HQ," also introduces the #occupywallstreet hashtag."
Chronology: Ongoing
“July 26: The Occupy Wall Street website is launched; the group also uses Twitter and Facebook to promote the Sept. 17 demonstration. Adbusters calls for similar protests to be held in central financial districts in Germany, Japan, Britain, and around the world.
“Aug. 23: The activist hacking group Anonymous releases a video supporting Occupy Wall Street and uses its Twitter feed to promote the demonstration.
“Sept. 17: The rally and march take place, and the protesters set up a temporary city in lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park. Soon it will have its own newspaper, food supply chain and WiFi. Reports of arrests and clashes with police emerge almost daily. Many of the incidents are filmed and posted on YouTube.
“Sept. 24: New York police officers arrest more than 80 protesters as they march to Union Square. The conflict brings fresh charges that the police were overly zealous in using force and pepper spray.
“Oct. 1: More than 700 demonstrators are arrested during a march across the Brooklyn Bridge. Police officials say they targeted only those protesters who clogged traffic lanes instead of taking the pedestrian walkway.
“Oct. 5: Many of America's largest unions announce their support for Occupy Wall Street, as the movement holds a large march in Manhattan. In a poll, the group's approval rating is measured at 33 percent — 19 points higher than that of Congress.
“Oct. 6: Demonstrations spread to more cities, including Washington, D.C., where protesters pledge to remain in place for weeks to come.
“Oct. 11: Reports spread about a group seeking to counter Occupy Wall Street by claiming to be 'the 53% of Americans subsidizing these people so they can go hang out on Wall Street to complain'. Inspired by conservative blogger Erick Erickson's blog post on Oct. 5, the group's slogan is a play on "the 99 Percent."
“Oct. 12: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg visits the protesters' camp in Zuccotti Park, telling them they have two days to vacate the park, so that its owners, Brookfield Office Properties, can clean it. His office cites 'unsanitary conditions.' Protesters begin cleaning the park themselves.
“Oct. 14: Brookfield Properties announces that it will not force Occupy Wall Street to leave Zuccotti Park. On his radio show, Bloomberg says the company bowed to pressure from elected officials.
“Oct. 15: Loosely coordinated demonstrations inspired by Occupy Wall Street take place in 951 cities in some 82 countries, according to organizers.
“Oct. 17: Adbusters proposes an Oct. 29 '#RobinHood Global March' — and a candidate for the group's unifying demand: 'On October 29, on the eve of the G20 Leaders Summit in France, let's the people of the world rise up and demand that our G20 leaders immediately impose a 1% #ROBINHOOD tax on all financial transactions and currency trades.'
“Oct. 19: The New York City Police Department says that one its officers — who famously pepper-sprayed women during a Sept. 24 protest — will be disciplined and is likely to lose vacation days.”
In our continuation, we will explain how in the sixties and seventies, we imitated the wave of activism and protests that swept the USA and Europe.
We will also theorize whether we will follow in the footsteps of the “Occupy Wall Street” Movement.
Monday, October 24, 2011
The 'Lion of Africa'
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/24/2011
The man was never in any official position in the Libyan government, yet the West and its propaganda machine often describe him as a “dictator” and “tyrant.” Moammar Kadhafi, “Brotherly Leader of the Revolution (Al Fateh),” began as a young officer with the “Free Officers Corps” and built a movement around an ideology of “direct democracy” (as expressed in The Green Book and his “Third International Theory”) that became the building block of the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
In the 43 years of Kadhafi’s stewardship, the Libyan people achieved the highest per capita income of $12,000, along with the highest standard of living in all of Africa. Their government was able to build the $25-billion Great Manmade Water Project that tapped the Sahara aquifers to supply 6.6 million cubic meters of water daily to the Libyan people, and eventually allow the greening of the Sahara desert. Libya was also able to keep intact 144 tons of gold reserves and $50 billion in assets deposited in Western banks.
Kadhafi was the visionary who had prepared for years to introduce the gold dinar, using his country’s 144 tons of gold reserves to become the African currency — beginning with its use in the trading of oil in Africa, to eventually become the basis upon which an African Central Bank is to be organized. These would have pushed through if not for the Nato attacks on his regime.
Under Kadhafi, Libya had no debt; now, the Nato-led NTC (National Transition or Traitors’ Council) has borrowed heavily from Western countries against the very Libyan assets deposited with them during Kadhafi’s era, with payment to be made from future oil contracts. These countries, in turn, are readying contracts on behalf of their companies for the reconstruction of Libya; the cost of which will be drawn from the Libyan assets they seized (a situation that obviously the new puppet Libyan government can do nothing about). Also, these Western powers are now said to be looting Libya’s gold reserves — this, as French, Italian and US companies are carving up the Libyan oil industry for themselves.
Indeed, Kadhafi had shared Libya’s oil revenues with many in Africa in the pursuit of his pan-African vision, along with other revolutionary movements in the world. In fact, one of the first visits made by the iconic Nelson Mandela outside of his native South Africa, right after his release from 27 years in prison, was to Libya’s Colonel Kadhafi to thank him for his support of the African National Congress’ long and arduous struggle.
It must be remembered that the African Union (AU) continued to call for negotiations and elections to resolve the Libyan crisis while protesting the many gross violations by the US and Nato of the parameters of the UN “No fly zone.” I even recall South African President Jacob Zuma condemning the attacks before hinting that armed support was somehow discussed among African member-nations to come to the aid of a northern neighbor battered by an eight-month assault. The AU must now be hurting terribly from all that has happened.
Still, there is a constant debate as to what the US-Nato motive in the attack on Kadhafi really is. Divergent views say that it is either about oil, the gold dinar, or the African Central Bank; but I see it as all of the above and more. I subscribe to several seasoned observers whose views run along the lines of Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar’s. In his article, “The US power grab in Africa,” he writes, “The big picture remains the Pentagon’s Africom (US military command) spreading its militarized tentacles against the lure of Chinese soft power in Africa, which goes something like this: in exchange for oil and minerals, we build anything you want, and we don’t try to sell you ‘democracy for dummies.’”
Moreover, such views hew even closer to Centre for Research on Globalization contributor John Pilger’s “Obama, The Son of Africa, Claims a Continent’s Crown Jewels” treatise, which says, “Africa is China’s success story. Where the Americans bring drones and destabilization, the Chinese bring roads, bridges and dams… Libya under Moammar Kadhafi was one of China’s most important sources of fuel,” further revealing that, according to French newspaper Libération, “the west’s ‘humanitarian intervention’ was explained… in a proposal to the French government by the ‘rebel’ National Transitional Council… (whereby) France was offered 35 percent of Libya’s gross national oil production ‘in exchange’ (the term used) for ‘total and permanent’… American plans for Africa (which) are part of a global design in which 60,000 special forces, including death squads, already (operating) in 75 countries (are to be used)... As Dick Cheney pointed out in his 1990s ‘defense strategy’ plan, America simply wishes to rule the world. That this is now the gift of Barack Obama, the ‘Son of Africa’… what matters is not so much the color of your skin as the power you serve and the millions you betray.”
Kadhafi, who was the visionary for a new, independent, and progressive Africa, stood in the way of the Western powers’ re-conquest of the continent — and the world — through control of expanding territories and minerals, including oil, in a campaign of constriction against the only real, strategic threat to the reestablishment of their uni-polar world. China, with its population and economic/technological potential, is set to become the world’s No. 1 soon — a prospect that they must surely dread.
Finally, let us close with this message from Gerald A. Perreira of the International Revolutionaries Movement, part of an international battalion defending the Al Fateh revolution: “The Lion of Africa is dead… he has left millions of cubs in the bushes and in the desert. They can kill the man but they can never kill his profound ideas. His legacy is only made stronger by his martyrdom.”
And that legacy lives on.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/24/2011
The man was never in any official position in the Libyan government, yet the West and its propaganda machine often describe him as a “dictator” and “tyrant.” Moammar Kadhafi, “Brotherly Leader of the Revolution (Al Fateh),” began as a young officer with the “Free Officers Corps” and built a movement around an ideology of “direct democracy” (as expressed in The Green Book and his “Third International Theory”) that became the building block of the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
In the 43 years of Kadhafi’s stewardship, the Libyan people achieved the highest per capita income of $12,000, along with the highest standard of living in all of Africa. Their government was able to build the $25-billion Great Manmade Water Project that tapped the Sahara aquifers to supply 6.6 million cubic meters of water daily to the Libyan people, and eventually allow the greening of the Sahara desert. Libya was also able to keep intact 144 tons of gold reserves and $50 billion in assets deposited in Western banks.
Kadhafi was the visionary who had prepared for years to introduce the gold dinar, using his country’s 144 tons of gold reserves to become the African currency — beginning with its use in the trading of oil in Africa, to eventually become the basis upon which an African Central Bank is to be organized. These would have pushed through if not for the Nato attacks on his regime.
Under Kadhafi, Libya had no debt; now, the Nato-led NTC (National Transition or Traitors’ Council) has borrowed heavily from Western countries against the very Libyan assets deposited with them during Kadhafi’s era, with payment to be made from future oil contracts. These countries, in turn, are readying contracts on behalf of their companies for the reconstruction of Libya; the cost of which will be drawn from the Libyan assets they seized (a situation that obviously the new puppet Libyan government can do nothing about). Also, these Western powers are now said to be looting Libya’s gold reserves — this, as French, Italian and US companies are carving up the Libyan oil industry for themselves.
Indeed, Kadhafi had shared Libya’s oil revenues with many in Africa in the pursuit of his pan-African vision, along with other revolutionary movements in the world. In fact, one of the first visits made by the iconic Nelson Mandela outside of his native South Africa, right after his release from 27 years in prison, was to Libya’s Colonel Kadhafi to thank him for his support of the African National Congress’ long and arduous struggle.
It must be remembered that the African Union (AU) continued to call for negotiations and elections to resolve the Libyan crisis while protesting the many gross violations by the US and Nato of the parameters of the UN “No fly zone.” I even recall South African President Jacob Zuma condemning the attacks before hinting that armed support was somehow discussed among African member-nations to come to the aid of a northern neighbor battered by an eight-month assault. The AU must now be hurting terribly from all that has happened.
Still, there is a constant debate as to what the US-Nato motive in the attack on Kadhafi really is. Divergent views say that it is either about oil, the gold dinar, or the African Central Bank; but I see it as all of the above and more. I subscribe to several seasoned observers whose views run along the lines of Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar’s. In his article, “The US power grab in Africa,” he writes, “The big picture remains the Pentagon’s Africom (US military command) spreading its militarized tentacles against the lure of Chinese soft power in Africa, which goes something like this: in exchange for oil and minerals, we build anything you want, and we don’t try to sell you ‘democracy for dummies.’”
Moreover, such views hew even closer to Centre for Research on Globalization contributor John Pilger’s “Obama, The Son of Africa, Claims a Continent’s Crown Jewels” treatise, which says, “Africa is China’s success story. Where the Americans bring drones and destabilization, the Chinese bring roads, bridges and dams… Libya under Moammar Kadhafi was one of China’s most important sources of fuel,” further revealing that, according to French newspaper Libération, “the west’s ‘humanitarian intervention’ was explained… in a proposal to the French government by the ‘rebel’ National Transitional Council… (whereby) France was offered 35 percent of Libya’s gross national oil production ‘in exchange’ (the term used) for ‘total and permanent’… American plans for Africa (which) are part of a global design in which 60,000 special forces, including death squads, already (operating) in 75 countries (are to be used)... As Dick Cheney pointed out in his 1990s ‘defense strategy’ plan, America simply wishes to rule the world. That this is now the gift of Barack Obama, the ‘Son of Africa’… what matters is not so much the color of your skin as the power you serve and the millions you betray.”
Kadhafi, who was the visionary for a new, independent, and progressive Africa, stood in the way of the Western powers’ re-conquest of the continent — and the world — through control of expanding territories and minerals, including oil, in a campaign of constriction against the only real, strategic threat to the reestablishment of their uni-polar world. China, with its population and economic/technological potential, is set to become the world’s No. 1 soon — a prospect that they must surely dread.
Finally, let us close with this message from Gerald A. Perreira of the International Revolutionaries Movement, part of an international battalion defending the Al Fateh revolution: “The Lion of Africa is dead… he has left millions of cubs in the bushes and in the desert. They can kill the man but they can never kill his profound ideas. His legacy is only made stronger by his martyrdom.”
And that legacy lives on.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Talk News TV with Herman Tiu Laurel
TOPIC: Consumer Champions in Congress: Cong. Bernadette Herrera-Dy
Guests: Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy, Bagong Henerasyon party-list and Butch Junia, Columnist of OpinYon
Guests: Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy, Bagong Henerasyon party-list and Butch Junia, Columnist of OpinYon
A scam all the way
BACKBENCHER
Rod Kapunan
10/22-23/2011
Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court, with lightning speed, issued a temporary restraining order to stop the Bureau of Internal Revenue from implementing the 20 percent final withholding tax on the P35 billion Poverty Eradication and Alleviation Certificates bond. The petition questioned BIR Ruling No. 370-2011 issued by Commissioner Kim Henares reiterating the 2004 ruling reversing the three previous rulings exempting it from the payment of said tax amounting to P4.86 billion. Likewise, it ordered the Caucus of Development NGO Networks to pay the 30 percent capital gains tax from the P1.83 billion it earned to the tune of P549 million.
The 10-year bond was contracted on October 16, 2001, or barely a year after the corrupt Arroyo administration was installed to power with the help of those leading personalities of Code-NGO, many of whom were later appointed as officials with some still hanging on to their juicy positions under the present dispensation. Because of their influence, Code-NGO, in collaboration with Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, cornered in whole the PEACe Bonds at a discounted rate but at a cost of P10.17 billion bearing an interest rate of 12.75 percent per annum such that the original amount has now ballooned to P35 billion. Despite that, RCBC failed to reciprocate by giving the government a discounted rate of interest, but instead exacted an onerous but illegal condition of being allowed not to pay taxes.
The eight commercial banks that filed the petition for certiorari and prohibition and/or mandamus – Bank of Commerce, China Banking Corp., Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., Banco de Oro, Philippine Bank of Communications, Philippine National Bank, Philippine Veterans Bank, and Planters Development Bank—sought to stop the BIR from collecting the 20 percent final withholding tax, and the 30 percent capital gains tax from Code-NGO. Interestingly, the purported wholesale buyer Code-NGO, which turned over those bonds to RCBC known in the vernacular as “kaliwaan” after consummating the transaction with the Bureau of Treasury, uncannily did not join the petition. Adding suspicion is the failure of the eight banks to file a third party complaint against RCBC, Code-NGO, or to both of them if truly they were guided by “good faith.” As one lawyer-tax consultant quipped, it could have been a good defense for them to get their costly reimbursement.
As BIR Commissioner Henares pointed out, Code-NGO cannot question the retroactivity of the rulings revoking the tax exemptions because of “fatal legal infirmity of the 2001 rulings” issued by then BIR Commissioner Rene Banez. As the same lawyer-tax consultant pointed out, the ruling being null and void can never be used as basis to prevent the BIR from collecting the rightful taxes due the government. They should have known that BIR rulings can be revoked anytime, it not being a law but a mere opinion of the Commissioner. Considering the huge amount at stake, the best thing the banks, as secondary buyers, could have done was to secure a court judgment. Alas, they ignored the ominous warnings amplified by the 2004 and 2001 rulings revoking that exemption.
As the same lawyer-tax consultant explained, even if we take it that Code-NGO is tax-exempt, that specific transaction was at the outset illegal because Code-NGO, in the words of Commissioner Henares, was “ineligible to buy those debt instruments,” it not being a member or accredited as a government securities dealer (GSD). In that she could surmise there was a dilemma on how they could consummate their collusion to consummate the rip-off that is now developing into a more serious crime of tax evasion. As that shoddy ruling of Banez stated, there was only one lender: RCBC/Code-NGO. In that, one could deduce that Code-NGO fronted as the tax-shelter for the scam, while RCBC fronted to make the transaction legitimate. Now that they have profited much from it without a sweat, they want to add insult to injury by not paying their taxes. They are even playing possum by leaving it to the petitioning banks to argue for them.
As explained in the 2004 ruling made by then Commissioner Joel Tan-Torres, “the issuance and subsequent distribution (exchange and treading) of government debt instruments and securities in the secondary market to other market participants, specifically the investors, is in itself a public borrowing of the government. This makes it subject to the 20 percent final withholding tax. The number of lenders was immaterial.” Thus, should the eight banks fail in their defense of “good faith,” and having failed implead RCBC and Code-NGO, that then would deprive them the possibility of getting back their reimbursement. It is not even an excuse for Code-NGO to say that the P1.34 billion it profited was donated to another NGO identified as the Peace and Equity Foundation and given as endowments, and the remaining P400 million paid as fees and commissions to its financial advisers.
Finally, identifying those hustlers, one could say indeed there was in that instance a union of corrupt personalities from the public and private sectors, mostly made up of self-righteous and religious hypocrites. The alibi of DSWD Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman that she already left Code-NGO before the scam was consummated is flimsy. Her husband, Atty. Hector Soliman, assumed the post of first corporate secretary of PEF and took charge in managing the proceeds from the bonds after she left. It was also an all-family affair because their son, Sandino Soliman, is the current project assistant of Code-NGO.
There was also Maria Socorro Camacho-Reyes, the sister of Arroyo’s former finance secretary Isidro Camacho. She actively pursued the consummation of the deal, and presided in the issuance of all the bonds. Among those suspected to have obtained their “rightful share” of the fees and commission for their role as financial advisers included Red Mayo of Capital Advisors for Private Enterprise Expansion (Capex), Inc., Bobby Guevarra and Juan Victor Tanjuatco of SEED Capital Ventures, and Danilo Songco, the former executive director of Code-NGO, and later appointed DBP board member. Finally, although Bureau of Treasury head Sergio Edeza “questioned” Code-NGO’s eligibility to bid, and even “rejected” its initial proposal to purchase those bonds on a negotiated sale, he however ended up employed by RCBC to head its treasury department.
In that, one could see how Code-NGO used its influence and saliva to exact concessions from a notoriously corrupt government. Nothing could amplify that than the truth that those bonds were issued just to allow it to generate huge profit without batting an eyelash that what it did was contrary to its objective, for in the end, it pushed the Filipino people a notch deeper into debt.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Rod Kapunan
10/22-23/2011
Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court, with lightning speed, issued a temporary restraining order to stop the Bureau of Internal Revenue from implementing the 20 percent final withholding tax on the P35 billion Poverty Eradication and Alleviation Certificates bond. The petition questioned BIR Ruling No. 370-2011 issued by Commissioner Kim Henares reiterating the 2004 ruling reversing the three previous rulings exempting it from the payment of said tax amounting to P4.86 billion. Likewise, it ordered the Caucus of Development NGO Networks to pay the 30 percent capital gains tax from the P1.83 billion it earned to the tune of P549 million.
The 10-year bond was contracted on October 16, 2001, or barely a year after the corrupt Arroyo administration was installed to power with the help of those leading personalities of Code-NGO, many of whom were later appointed as officials with some still hanging on to their juicy positions under the present dispensation. Because of their influence, Code-NGO, in collaboration with Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, cornered in whole the PEACe Bonds at a discounted rate but at a cost of P10.17 billion bearing an interest rate of 12.75 percent per annum such that the original amount has now ballooned to P35 billion. Despite that, RCBC failed to reciprocate by giving the government a discounted rate of interest, but instead exacted an onerous but illegal condition of being allowed not to pay taxes.
The eight commercial banks that filed the petition for certiorari and prohibition and/or mandamus – Bank of Commerce, China Banking Corp., Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., Banco de Oro, Philippine Bank of Communications, Philippine National Bank, Philippine Veterans Bank, and Planters Development Bank—sought to stop the BIR from collecting the 20 percent final withholding tax, and the 30 percent capital gains tax from Code-NGO. Interestingly, the purported wholesale buyer Code-NGO, which turned over those bonds to RCBC known in the vernacular as “kaliwaan” after consummating the transaction with the Bureau of Treasury, uncannily did not join the petition. Adding suspicion is the failure of the eight banks to file a third party complaint against RCBC, Code-NGO, or to both of them if truly they were guided by “good faith.” As one lawyer-tax consultant quipped, it could have been a good defense for them to get their costly reimbursement.
As BIR Commissioner Henares pointed out, Code-NGO cannot question the retroactivity of the rulings revoking the tax exemptions because of “fatal legal infirmity of the 2001 rulings” issued by then BIR Commissioner Rene Banez. As the same lawyer-tax consultant pointed out, the ruling being null and void can never be used as basis to prevent the BIR from collecting the rightful taxes due the government. They should have known that BIR rulings can be revoked anytime, it not being a law but a mere opinion of the Commissioner. Considering the huge amount at stake, the best thing the banks, as secondary buyers, could have done was to secure a court judgment. Alas, they ignored the ominous warnings amplified by the 2004 and 2001 rulings revoking that exemption.
As the same lawyer-tax consultant explained, even if we take it that Code-NGO is tax-exempt, that specific transaction was at the outset illegal because Code-NGO, in the words of Commissioner Henares, was “ineligible to buy those debt instruments,” it not being a member or accredited as a government securities dealer (GSD). In that she could surmise there was a dilemma on how they could consummate their collusion to consummate the rip-off that is now developing into a more serious crime of tax evasion. As that shoddy ruling of Banez stated, there was only one lender: RCBC/Code-NGO. In that, one could deduce that Code-NGO fronted as the tax-shelter for the scam, while RCBC fronted to make the transaction legitimate. Now that they have profited much from it without a sweat, they want to add insult to injury by not paying their taxes. They are even playing possum by leaving it to the petitioning banks to argue for them.
As explained in the 2004 ruling made by then Commissioner Joel Tan-Torres, “the issuance and subsequent distribution (exchange and treading) of government debt instruments and securities in the secondary market to other market participants, specifically the investors, is in itself a public borrowing of the government. This makes it subject to the 20 percent final withholding tax. The number of lenders was immaterial.” Thus, should the eight banks fail in their defense of “good faith,” and having failed implead RCBC and Code-NGO, that then would deprive them the possibility of getting back their reimbursement. It is not even an excuse for Code-NGO to say that the P1.34 billion it profited was donated to another NGO identified as the Peace and Equity Foundation and given as endowments, and the remaining P400 million paid as fees and commissions to its financial advisers.
Finally, identifying those hustlers, one could say indeed there was in that instance a union of corrupt personalities from the public and private sectors, mostly made up of self-righteous and religious hypocrites. The alibi of DSWD Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman that she already left Code-NGO before the scam was consummated is flimsy. Her husband, Atty. Hector Soliman, assumed the post of first corporate secretary of PEF and took charge in managing the proceeds from the bonds after she left. It was also an all-family affair because their son, Sandino Soliman, is the current project assistant of Code-NGO.
There was also Maria Socorro Camacho-Reyes, the sister of Arroyo’s former finance secretary Isidro Camacho. She actively pursued the consummation of the deal, and presided in the issuance of all the bonds. Among those suspected to have obtained their “rightful share” of the fees and commission for their role as financial advisers included Red Mayo of Capital Advisors for Private Enterprise Expansion (Capex), Inc., Bobby Guevarra and Juan Victor Tanjuatco of SEED Capital Ventures, and Danilo Songco, the former executive director of Code-NGO, and later appointed DBP board member. Finally, although Bureau of Treasury head Sergio Edeza “questioned” Code-NGO’s eligibility to bid, and even “rejected” its initial proposal to purchase those bonds on a negotiated sale, he however ended up employed by RCBC to head its treasury department.
In that, one could see how Code-NGO used its influence and saliva to exact concessions from a notoriously corrupt government. Nothing could amplify that than the truth that those bonds were issued just to allow it to generate huge profit without batting an eyelash that what it did was contrary to its objective, for in the end, it pushed the Filipino people a notch deeper into debt.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Saturday, October 22, 2011
It's not Lite Work getting back to Work!
YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
10/20-22/2011
Back to the Salt Mines from Dreamland and Sugarlandia.That is how I felt a week ago after a week each of Dreamland and Sugarlandia. Since we launched OpinYon Lite on Monday, August 22, up to the weekend of September 24 – 25, writing four columns a week started to feel like working in the proverbial salt mines.
Something had to give and it did. After our editor Luchie Arguelles left for the USA, I failed to write and submit my columns for both the Regular and Lite editions of OpinYon, as well as my Friday (Sept 30) and Monday (Oct 2) columns for Diaryo Pinoy. In all my absences, I did excuse myself, although a bit late in the game.
Since my vehicles are either out of service or coded on Thursdays, I used to have an enforced stay at home period from 3 – 7 pm on Thursdays. This gave me more time to write. It suited me in relation to our old deadline during the time when all we had was the once a week regular OpinYon. Our official deadline then, was Wednesday. Our actual deadline was Thursday. If you missed both the official and actual deadlines but still wanted to come out in the following Monday to Sunday edition or issue, you had to submit by Friday or at the very, very latest, Saturday morning before our editor woke up.
With the advent of our OpinYon Lite, I knew that I would have a difficult time meeting deadlines. I wanted to write for OpinYon Lite because I felt that it was a challenge to be able to write two very different kinds of columns. Never mind the fact that sometimes you cannot match your mood to the upcoming deadline. It has happened that I wrote a lighter column for the Regular edition and a heavier column for the Lite edition.
I thought of giving up one of my two Pilipino columns for Diaryo Pinoy. However, I did not want to lose my Complimentary copies. My friends in media and in our daily kapihans would miss the copies that they religiously get from me. Moreso, I pitied the traffic aides, security guards, watch your car boys and waiters who would miss receiving a second weekly copy from me.
And so, I continued my pace. My four deadlines were bunched up together on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. My Sunday to Tuesday nights, were my rest nights from writing. My Monday nights were reserved for our Couples for Christ (CFC) Household prayer meetings. We had reduced our frequency of meetings from once a week to every other week. However, lately, we have tended to reschedule our meetings from Mondays to Wednesdays. Then, my Thursday afternoons and early evenings got filled up with a series of meetings for a whole month.
It soon became the rule rather than the exception that I got to submit my Regular columns two days late on Saturdays rather than Thursdays. In like manner, I was submitting my Lite column later and later, until Sunday evening.. Whenever I was running late, I would text or call Luchie to advise that I was not yet finished and would submit late. I would wish that she would just tell me that it was too late and that my column could no longer be included in the next issue. But no matter how late it was, my column could still be accommodated. When your publisher, editors and colleagues are so good to you, you cannot quit, no matter what.
Then, the week after Luchie left for the USA, it all piled up. I gave up. I called or texted my editors to advise them that I was too sick to finish my columns and submit them. I was beset with some kind of computer sickness. My eyes, my back, my upper legs, my lower legs, virtually everything ached. My editors absolved me and wished for me to get well soonest.
As soon as I got well physically, I started to write again. However, I could not think fast enough. I could not easily get my hands on the difficult, serious and tough subjects. I had to go through a warm up period before I could be my old self again.
And that is the rub. Could I be my old self ever again. The iron had turned cold. If it can be said that Years mellow a person, a year of writing had mellowed my writing. In my Regular column last week, I devoted just two paragraphs to criticizing P Noy:
“While we were taking a well-deserved though enforced break and rest, P Noy was going bananas. The island of Luzon was struck by two typhoons – Pedring and Quiel. P Noy had just flexed his tourist muscles. First, he went to the USA. There he succeeded in not having a hot dog, pizza or play station photo op. Just back from his transpacific sojourn, P Noy went to Japan. There, he donated a million dollars for the victims of the March 11 Japan earthquake and tsunami.
“When he came home, P Noy disappeared from view. Maybe, like Linggoy, he got exhausted from his travels and took a break. However, Linggoy only has to answer to his Publisher and Editor. P Noy has almost a hundred million bosses. Several millions of them were in distress due to the floodwaters caused by Pedring, Quiel and the monsoons. They were waiting for P Noy or at the very least, his relief goods and rescue efforts. P Noy is the President. Linggoy is only Linggoy.” (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by Linggoy Alcuaz, OpinYon Regular, Isyu # 13, October 10 – 12).
I now realize that I am doing what I predicted a month ago:
“Observing the time, space and prominence, or lack of the above, given by both broadcast and print media to the topic, I tried to reflect, analyse and conclude on the: “Why?” and “How come?” “Manhid na ba ang tao sakapalpakan ni P Noy?” That is it! During the first year of P Noy in office, the people’s expectations of his performance and the trust in him based on his being the son of his parents, Ninoy and Cory, were so high that he had no way to go but down in the approval ratings in so far as performance and trust were concerned.
“However, by the time period (August 20 – September 2) of the Pulse Asia (With a cousin of P Noy, Rafa Sumulong Lopa involved as stockholder and/or officer.) Survey, people had gotten so used to P Noy’s Ka… ’s and kapalpakans that expectations were so low. As far as the majority of people are concerned, that is it. Period. He can’t do much. Let him be. Let us just muddle through till 2016. We can’t help it and we can’t complain. We had no other choice.” (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by Linggoy Alcuaz, OpinYon Regular, Isyu # 9, September 19 – 21).
And so, it’s very tough getting out of a vacation, a hangover with Dreamland and Sugarlandia. See you next week.
Linggoy Alcuaz
10/20-22/2011
Back to the Salt Mines from Dreamland and Sugarlandia.That is how I felt a week ago after a week each of Dreamland and Sugarlandia. Since we launched OpinYon Lite on Monday, August 22, up to the weekend of September 24 – 25, writing four columns a week started to feel like working in the proverbial salt mines.
Something had to give and it did. After our editor Luchie Arguelles left for the USA, I failed to write and submit my columns for both the Regular and Lite editions of OpinYon, as well as my Friday (Sept 30) and Monday (Oct 2) columns for Diaryo Pinoy. In all my absences, I did excuse myself, although a bit late in the game.
Since my vehicles are either out of service or coded on Thursdays, I used to have an enforced stay at home period from 3 – 7 pm on Thursdays. This gave me more time to write. It suited me in relation to our old deadline during the time when all we had was the once a week regular OpinYon. Our official deadline then, was Wednesday. Our actual deadline was Thursday. If you missed both the official and actual deadlines but still wanted to come out in the following Monday to Sunday edition or issue, you had to submit by Friday or at the very, very latest, Saturday morning before our editor woke up.
With the advent of our OpinYon Lite, I knew that I would have a difficult time meeting deadlines. I wanted to write for OpinYon Lite because I felt that it was a challenge to be able to write two very different kinds of columns. Never mind the fact that sometimes you cannot match your mood to the upcoming deadline. It has happened that I wrote a lighter column for the Regular edition and a heavier column for the Lite edition.
I thought of giving up one of my two Pilipino columns for Diaryo Pinoy. However, I did not want to lose my Complimentary copies. My friends in media and in our daily kapihans would miss the copies that they religiously get from me. Moreso, I pitied the traffic aides, security guards, watch your car boys and waiters who would miss receiving a second weekly copy from me.
And so, I continued my pace. My four deadlines were bunched up together on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. My Sunday to Tuesday nights, were my rest nights from writing. My Monday nights were reserved for our Couples for Christ (CFC) Household prayer meetings. We had reduced our frequency of meetings from once a week to every other week. However, lately, we have tended to reschedule our meetings from Mondays to Wednesdays. Then, my Thursday afternoons and early evenings got filled up with a series of meetings for a whole month.
It soon became the rule rather than the exception that I got to submit my Regular columns two days late on Saturdays rather than Thursdays. In like manner, I was submitting my Lite column later and later, until Sunday evening.. Whenever I was running late, I would text or call Luchie to advise that I was not yet finished and would submit late. I would wish that she would just tell me that it was too late and that my column could no longer be included in the next issue. But no matter how late it was, my column could still be accommodated. When your publisher, editors and colleagues are so good to you, you cannot quit, no matter what.
Then, the week after Luchie left for the USA, it all piled up. I gave up. I called or texted my editors to advise them that I was too sick to finish my columns and submit them. I was beset with some kind of computer sickness. My eyes, my back, my upper legs, my lower legs, virtually everything ached. My editors absolved me and wished for me to get well soonest.
As soon as I got well physically, I started to write again. However, I could not think fast enough. I could not easily get my hands on the difficult, serious and tough subjects. I had to go through a warm up period before I could be my old self again.
And that is the rub. Could I be my old self ever again. The iron had turned cold. If it can be said that Years mellow a person, a year of writing had mellowed my writing. In my Regular column last week, I devoted just two paragraphs to criticizing P Noy:
“While we were taking a well-deserved though enforced break and rest, P Noy was going bananas. The island of Luzon was struck by two typhoons – Pedring and Quiel. P Noy had just flexed his tourist muscles. First, he went to the USA. There he succeeded in not having a hot dog, pizza or play station photo op. Just back from his transpacific sojourn, P Noy went to Japan. There, he donated a million dollars for the victims of the March 11 Japan earthquake and tsunami.
“When he came home, P Noy disappeared from view. Maybe, like Linggoy, he got exhausted from his travels and took a break. However, Linggoy only has to answer to his Publisher and Editor. P Noy has almost a hundred million bosses. Several millions of them were in distress due to the floodwaters caused by Pedring, Quiel and the monsoons. They were waiting for P Noy or at the very least, his relief goods and rescue efforts. P Noy is the President. Linggoy is only Linggoy.” (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by Linggoy Alcuaz, OpinYon Regular, Isyu # 13, October 10 – 12).
I now realize that I am doing what I predicted a month ago:
“Observing the time, space and prominence, or lack of the above, given by both broadcast and print media to the topic, I tried to reflect, analyse and conclude on the: “Why?” and “How come?” “Manhid na ba ang tao sakapalpakan ni P Noy?” That is it! During the first year of P Noy in office, the people’s expectations of his performance and the trust in him based on his being the son of his parents, Ninoy and Cory, were so high that he had no way to go but down in the approval ratings in so far as performance and trust were concerned.
“However, by the time period (August 20 – September 2) of the Pulse Asia (With a cousin of P Noy, Rafa Sumulong Lopa involved as stockholder and/or officer.) Survey, people had gotten so used to P Noy’s Ka… ’s and kapalpakans that expectations were so low. As far as the majority of people are concerned, that is it. Period. He can’t do much. Let him be. Let us just muddle through till 2016. We can’t help it and we can’t complain. We had no other choice.” (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by Linggoy Alcuaz, OpinYon Regular, Isyu # 9, September 19 – 21).
And so, it’s very tough getting out of a vacation, a hangover with Dreamland and Sugarlandia. See you next week.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Paguia: A shining exemplar
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/21/2011
As the country’s elite reveled in the Edsa II mania back in January 2001; as Metro Manila got herded into “legitimizing the illegitimate,” three bright and fresh young UP law graduates (Sabrina Querubin, Ana Rhia Muhi and Charisse Gonzales-Olalia) spelled out the reasons the swearing in of a usurper as “acting president” by the then Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice, who went to the Edsa Shrine to administer the oath and packed the rest of his fellow magistrates to witness it, was patently unconstitutional. That, of course, hit a sour note to their jubilation.
But no one knew that it was going to take one single lawyer, possessed of immense moral courage, to send out a shock wave so loud and ear-shattering that it would eventually jolt the SC (and the powers-that-be) out of their wits.
Even before he became a counsel to the ousted President Joseph Estrada, lawyer Alan Paguia already hammered on the unconstitutionality of the removal of a legitimately elected president who was neither dead, incapacitated, convicted in an impeachment court nor had ever executed a resignation letter, and denounced the SC’s participation in a manifestly partisan political activity.
No doubt various public forums soon sought Paguia out to shed light on these issues. But the Hilario Davide Supreme Court would have none of this free exercise of democratic space. It said in its resolution punishing Paguia:
“On the 7th Sept. 2003 issue of The Daily Tribune, Atty. Paguia wrote to say—‘What is the legal effect of that violation of President Estrada’s right to due process of law?... There was no fair play since it appears that when President Estrada filed his petition, Chief Justice Davide and his fellow justices had already committed to the other party — GMA — with a judgment already made and waiting to be formalized after the litigants shall have undergone the charade of a formal hearing’… Unrelentingly, Atty. Paguia has continued to make public statements of like nature… has not limited his discussions to the merits of his client’s case within the judicial forum; indeed, he has repeated his assault on the Court in both broadcast and print media… By his acts, Atty. Paguia may have stoked the fires of public dissension and posed a potentially dangerous threat to the administration of justice…
“WHEREFORE, Atty. Alan Paguia is hereby indefinitely suspended from the practice of law… for conduct unbecoming a lawyer and an officer of the Court. Let copies of this resolution be furnished the Office of the Bar Confidant, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and all courts of the land through the Office of the Court Administrator. SO ORDERED. Davide Jr., C.J., Puno, Vitug, Panganiban, Quisumbing, Ynares-Santiago, Sandoval-Gutierrez, Austria-Martinez, Corona, Carpio-Morales, Callejo Sr., Azcuna, and Tiñga, JJ., concur. Carpio, J., no part.”
First of all, a court’s partiality is always at the heart of every case. Paguia’s recounting of the facts, which he neither embellished nor invented, as these were self-admitted by then SC Justice Artemio Panganiban in his own book (which was later pulled out from the bookstores so as not to incriminate anyone’s sorry ass), is merely par for the course.
Secondly, in all of Paguia’s deliberations, never did I come across any vulgarity or personal assaults heaped by the lawyer against the high court — which is a stark contrast to how currently retired Chief Justice Davide comported himself when his pet “Truth Commission” was struck down by the SC, with him reportedly saying, “(This decision) clearly proves beyond doubt that the Court has become a protector of some people.”
Last Oct. 11, Alan Paguia’s suspension from the practice of law was finally lifted. After almost eight long years, his tribulation surpassed President Estrada’s incarceration, which lasted six years and six months, and was a bit longer than the seven years and five months endured by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV — all unjust privations imposed on conscientious individuals.
Some legal luminaries may argue that the SC’s impositions were legal; but we contend that these injustices were merely part of the political persecution countenanced by the Establishment to maintain the status quo.
In the case of Paguia, almost everyone in the legal profession I have broken bread with contend that while the suspension was unjust, it was still the law. But doesn’t the law become just only when those who interpret it stand up for its moral precepts themselves?
From what I have seen, only Paguia has deemed it worthwhile to stand by that principle even at great sacrifice to his family’s primordial needs. For this, Alan Paguia stands as the perfect, shining example of what our law practitioners should be — a legal eagle with a keen discernment and an unwavering moral certitude. He is truly the kind of lawyer I will tell my son to emulate (if he ever pursues the profession).
As of this writing, Paguia is already preparing his papers to return to his primary vocation, the teaching of law. He likewise announced that he will now be active in public interest cases, such as the suit being prepared by our group on power issues with the likes of Bono Adaza, Mang Naro Lualhati, Jun Simon, Jojo Borja, Butch Junia, et al.
Parallel to this, I believe that we should raise this bright and shining example of legal illumination to greater heights in our national life, one, as a delegate to a constitutional convention or to the Senate where he can elevate the quality of legislative work, among other possibilities.
But for now, we say: Thank you, Atty. Alan Paguia, for keeping honor, dignity and principle alive through our nation’s Dark Age. Thank you for keeping the light burning even when black became white; evil became good; greed was grace; and the illegitimate was legitimized. You are a shining exemplar in the dark night. Mabuhay ka!
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “Quezon City Hall’s Corruption and Greed”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/21/2011
As the country’s elite reveled in the Edsa II mania back in January 2001; as Metro Manila got herded into “legitimizing the illegitimate,” three bright and fresh young UP law graduates (Sabrina Querubin, Ana Rhia Muhi and Charisse Gonzales-Olalia) spelled out the reasons the swearing in of a usurper as “acting president” by the then Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice, who went to the Edsa Shrine to administer the oath and packed the rest of his fellow magistrates to witness it, was patently unconstitutional. That, of course, hit a sour note to their jubilation.
But no one knew that it was going to take one single lawyer, possessed of immense moral courage, to send out a shock wave so loud and ear-shattering that it would eventually jolt the SC (and the powers-that-be) out of their wits.
Even before he became a counsel to the ousted President Joseph Estrada, lawyer Alan Paguia already hammered on the unconstitutionality of the removal of a legitimately elected president who was neither dead, incapacitated, convicted in an impeachment court nor had ever executed a resignation letter, and denounced the SC’s participation in a manifestly partisan political activity.
No doubt various public forums soon sought Paguia out to shed light on these issues. But the Hilario Davide Supreme Court would have none of this free exercise of democratic space. It said in its resolution punishing Paguia:
“On the 7th Sept. 2003 issue of The Daily Tribune, Atty. Paguia wrote to say—‘What is the legal effect of that violation of President Estrada’s right to due process of law?... There was no fair play since it appears that when President Estrada filed his petition, Chief Justice Davide and his fellow justices had already committed to the other party — GMA — with a judgment already made and waiting to be formalized after the litigants shall have undergone the charade of a formal hearing’… Unrelentingly, Atty. Paguia has continued to make public statements of like nature… has not limited his discussions to the merits of his client’s case within the judicial forum; indeed, he has repeated his assault on the Court in both broadcast and print media… By his acts, Atty. Paguia may have stoked the fires of public dissension and posed a potentially dangerous threat to the administration of justice…
“WHEREFORE, Atty. Alan Paguia is hereby indefinitely suspended from the practice of law… for conduct unbecoming a lawyer and an officer of the Court. Let copies of this resolution be furnished the Office of the Bar Confidant, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and all courts of the land through the Office of the Court Administrator. SO ORDERED. Davide Jr., C.J., Puno, Vitug, Panganiban, Quisumbing, Ynares-Santiago, Sandoval-Gutierrez, Austria-Martinez, Corona, Carpio-Morales, Callejo Sr., Azcuna, and Tiñga, JJ., concur. Carpio, J., no part.”
First of all, a court’s partiality is always at the heart of every case. Paguia’s recounting of the facts, which he neither embellished nor invented, as these were self-admitted by then SC Justice Artemio Panganiban in his own book (which was later pulled out from the bookstores so as not to incriminate anyone’s sorry ass), is merely par for the course.
Secondly, in all of Paguia’s deliberations, never did I come across any vulgarity or personal assaults heaped by the lawyer against the high court — which is a stark contrast to how currently retired Chief Justice Davide comported himself when his pet “Truth Commission” was struck down by the SC, with him reportedly saying, “(This decision) clearly proves beyond doubt that the Court has become a protector of some people.”
Last Oct. 11, Alan Paguia’s suspension from the practice of law was finally lifted. After almost eight long years, his tribulation surpassed President Estrada’s incarceration, which lasted six years and six months, and was a bit longer than the seven years and five months endured by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV — all unjust privations imposed on conscientious individuals.
Some legal luminaries may argue that the SC’s impositions were legal; but we contend that these injustices were merely part of the political persecution countenanced by the Establishment to maintain the status quo.
In the case of Paguia, almost everyone in the legal profession I have broken bread with contend that while the suspension was unjust, it was still the law. But doesn’t the law become just only when those who interpret it stand up for its moral precepts themselves?
From what I have seen, only Paguia has deemed it worthwhile to stand by that principle even at great sacrifice to his family’s primordial needs. For this, Alan Paguia stands as the perfect, shining example of what our law practitioners should be — a legal eagle with a keen discernment and an unwavering moral certitude. He is truly the kind of lawyer I will tell my son to emulate (if he ever pursues the profession).
As of this writing, Paguia is already preparing his papers to return to his primary vocation, the teaching of law. He likewise announced that he will now be active in public interest cases, such as the suit being prepared by our group on power issues with the likes of Bono Adaza, Mang Naro Lualhati, Jun Simon, Jojo Borja, Butch Junia, et al.
Parallel to this, I believe that we should raise this bright and shining example of legal illumination to greater heights in our national life, one, as a delegate to a constitutional convention or to the Senate where he can elevate the quality of legislative work, among other possibilities.
But for now, we say: Thank you, Atty. Alan Paguia, for keeping honor, dignity and principle alive through our nation’s Dark Age. Thank you for keeping the light burning even when black became white; evil became good; greed was grace; and the illegitimate was legitimized. You are a shining exemplar in the dark night. Mabuhay ka!
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “Quezon City Hall’s Corruption and Greed”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Monday, October 17, 2011
Consumers, Occupy the World!
CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/17-19/2011
While Filipinos are now conducting sporadic protests on the power price gouging issue, as various groups did with the FDC (Freedom from Debt Coalition) Oct. 11 “Lights Out” campaign, and with others planning for more major moves such as the “Occupy Malacañang Freedom Park” vigil, in the US, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, as reported by PressTV, has already spread its “tent cities” to at least 1,400 events all across that country.
While OWS still has to consolidate around a central issue and leadership, the diverse targets of protesters have one thing in common, which we in the country also share: The disgust over and rage against the prevailing political-economic system of greed and corruption, as well as a mainstream media that protects the interests of the aristocracy of money.
Financial & Political Clout
The targets in the US are pretty clear: The Federal Reserve, Wall Street, and its finance capitalists, and the bankrupt Republican-Democratic political system.
Those targets have, in fact, really a lot more in common with the issues that we Filipinos are bedeviled with in the past 25 years since the so-called EDSA I “revolution.”
Let’s fast forward to one current major issue in the Philippines: The MRT subsidy and fare hike, which few people realize involve the machination of Goldman Sachs which bought out the original “investors,” the Ayalas, Sobrepeñas, and Agustines, and used its financial and political clout to browbeat the Philippine government into buying it out in turn with an instant 15-percent profit, depositing the debts with the Philippine government again.
Flashing back 10 years to EDSA II, we have the World Bank-ADB pressure for the approval of the EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) in exchange for a $300-million loan to Gloria Arroyo’s fledgling usurper government that led to our “highest power rates in Asia” today.
Meanwhile, another 15 years back, we remember the US-AIG-installed Cory Aquino initiating the massive transfer of state assets to the local oligarchy.
1-2-3 Schemes
The economic deconstruction of the US today that spurred the spreading joblessness and economic hopelessness there was inflicted 25 years earlier in the Philippines by the Western finance capitalists who manipulate the global monetary and credit system.
Their thrust -- to enrich the wealthy through financial plunder of the real economy -- is carried out through exotic financial formulations such a “derivatives,” “credit default swaps,” “commodities (including energy) futures,” “secondary and tertiary mortgages,” ad nausea, which are essentially giant Ponzi or one-two-three schemes.
In the Philippines, we have seen many sectors taken over by local oligarchs’ one-two-three schemes (in cahoots with corrupt politicians): The 90-percent privatization of Napocor (National Power Corp.) assets that left its original debt of $17 billion unchanged after 10 years; the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) auctions run by power companies themselves that jack up power rates by up to 600 percent, and many others.
Those one-two-three schemes in the power sector fleeced the nation of $10 billion, of which the biggest beneficiaries were US companies like Mirant which then sold out to a Japanese consortium led by Marubeni, complicating any effort to pursue Mirant in the future.
Changed Hands 4x
The same scheme also took over the expressways funded by public money during the time of Marcos.
Upon privatization, toll fees were raised exponentially despite only a minimal expansion of the roads.
Then, ownership changed several times over to convolute any effort to pinpoint the culprits for the abuse and exploitation of commuters.
The South Expressway, for instance, has changed hands four times -- the last to the largest dummy in the world who’s been the channel of worthless US dollars from Obama’s “quantitative easing” to convert into valuable real assets in the Philippines.
Now certain corrupts in the Philippine Congress want to convene a “bicam con-ass” to convert more depreciating dollars to real estate assets in behalf of US, Korean, Chinese, and other foreign interests?
What scums!
All the Rage
Unless we put a stop to their designs, the world’s financial capitalists will be occupying the entire Philippines--completely -- from our electricity, roads, and water, to every nook and cranny of our lands and our lives.
Yet all the rage of the peoples of the Philippines and of the world will come to naught if the central issue is not threshed out.
Even now, OWS is struggling to find its unified identity and goal for even the US oligarchs such as George Soros, Warren Buffet; conservatives and progressives; the Tea Party; socialists, and the pro- and anti-Obama et al. are prodding their own factions to lead the OWS in whatever direction.
If OWS as a movement does not manage to find its bearings, then it will be doomed to go the tragic way of the Arab Spring, where a counter-revolution in Egypt may already be in full swing.
Similarly, with several major streams of genuine opposition groups rallying against the oligarchic and exploitative system, the same may be true in the Philippines.
The Greatest Saboteur
One major stumbling block -- the “tactical collaboration” between potentially genuine change agents and elements of the Establishment -- has consistently been the greatest saboteur of a unified ideological movement.
The “tactical collaboration” of, say, Akbayan with the Yellow traditional elite-aristocracy is admittedly a major distraction to the consolidation of forces against the neocolonial oligarchic system for it lends an “activist” aura to the otherwise corrupt and aristocratic (cacique) character of the powers-that-be.
It merely postpones the crystallization of the focus of genuine systemic change, which, in the case of the power sector, we advanced as the “cooperativization” of the nation’s vital industries.
Still and all, the message of the demonstrators worldwide is this: The people are sick and tired of the way things are. They now want to take back control over their economies, basic utilities (including money), and lives.
After all, they’ve worked hard for all of it with their blood, sweat and tears.
Power of Alternative Media
From these movements, the shepherds or leaders who can make these ideas mainstream will soon arise.
It is only through the power of alternative media that the people (most especially, the masses) can discern true leadership that represents the values of human love and sharing.
It is only through our efforts that people will be eschewed from the love of hedonist gimmickry by shunning such commercialized idols as Buffet or Steve Jobs, and instead embrace revolutionaries like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Gautama Buddha, and the socialist builders of Singapore and China’s socialist-market system, where the nation and the public count for more than the moneyed few.
People of the Earth, Occupy the World!
Let’s do our share; let’s OCCUPY MALACAÑANG FREEDOM PARK!
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/17-19/2011
While Filipinos are now conducting sporadic protests on the power price gouging issue, as various groups did with the FDC (Freedom from Debt Coalition) Oct. 11 “Lights Out” campaign, and with others planning for more major moves such as the “Occupy Malacañang Freedom Park” vigil, in the US, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, as reported by PressTV, has already spread its “tent cities” to at least 1,400 events all across that country.
While OWS still has to consolidate around a central issue and leadership, the diverse targets of protesters have one thing in common, which we in the country also share: The disgust over and rage against the prevailing political-economic system of greed and corruption, as well as a mainstream media that protects the interests of the aristocracy of money.
Financial & Political Clout
The targets in the US are pretty clear: The Federal Reserve, Wall Street, and its finance capitalists, and the bankrupt Republican-Democratic political system.
Those targets have, in fact, really a lot more in common with the issues that we Filipinos are bedeviled with in the past 25 years since the so-called EDSA I “revolution.”
Let’s fast forward to one current major issue in the Philippines: The MRT subsidy and fare hike, which few people realize involve the machination of Goldman Sachs which bought out the original “investors,” the Ayalas, Sobrepeñas, and Agustines, and used its financial and political clout to browbeat the Philippine government into buying it out in turn with an instant 15-percent profit, depositing the debts with the Philippine government again.
Flashing back 10 years to EDSA II, we have the World Bank-ADB pressure for the approval of the EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) in exchange for a $300-million loan to Gloria Arroyo’s fledgling usurper government that led to our “highest power rates in Asia” today.
Meanwhile, another 15 years back, we remember the US-AIG-installed Cory Aquino initiating the massive transfer of state assets to the local oligarchy.
1-2-3 Schemes
The economic deconstruction of the US today that spurred the spreading joblessness and economic hopelessness there was inflicted 25 years earlier in the Philippines by the Western finance capitalists who manipulate the global monetary and credit system.
Their thrust -- to enrich the wealthy through financial plunder of the real economy -- is carried out through exotic financial formulations such a “derivatives,” “credit default swaps,” “commodities (including energy) futures,” “secondary and tertiary mortgages,” ad nausea, which are essentially giant Ponzi or one-two-three schemes.
In the Philippines, we have seen many sectors taken over by local oligarchs’ one-two-three schemes (in cahoots with corrupt politicians): The 90-percent privatization of Napocor (National Power Corp.) assets that left its original debt of $17 billion unchanged after 10 years; the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) auctions run by power companies themselves that jack up power rates by up to 600 percent, and many others.
Those one-two-three schemes in the power sector fleeced the nation of $10 billion, of which the biggest beneficiaries were US companies like Mirant which then sold out to a Japanese consortium led by Marubeni, complicating any effort to pursue Mirant in the future.
Changed Hands 4x
The same scheme also took over the expressways funded by public money during the time of Marcos.
Upon privatization, toll fees were raised exponentially despite only a minimal expansion of the roads.
Then, ownership changed several times over to convolute any effort to pinpoint the culprits for the abuse and exploitation of commuters.
The South Expressway, for instance, has changed hands four times -- the last to the largest dummy in the world who’s been the channel of worthless US dollars from Obama’s “quantitative easing” to convert into valuable real assets in the Philippines.
Now certain corrupts in the Philippine Congress want to convene a “bicam con-ass” to convert more depreciating dollars to real estate assets in behalf of US, Korean, Chinese, and other foreign interests?
What scums!
All the Rage
Unless we put a stop to their designs, the world’s financial capitalists will be occupying the entire Philippines--completely -- from our electricity, roads, and water, to every nook and cranny of our lands and our lives.
Yet all the rage of the peoples of the Philippines and of the world will come to naught if the central issue is not threshed out.
Even now, OWS is struggling to find its unified identity and goal for even the US oligarchs such as George Soros, Warren Buffet; conservatives and progressives; the Tea Party; socialists, and the pro- and anti-Obama et al. are prodding their own factions to lead the OWS in whatever direction.
If OWS as a movement does not manage to find its bearings, then it will be doomed to go the tragic way of the Arab Spring, where a counter-revolution in Egypt may already be in full swing.
Similarly, with several major streams of genuine opposition groups rallying against the oligarchic and exploitative system, the same may be true in the Philippines.
The Greatest Saboteur
One major stumbling block -- the “tactical collaboration” between potentially genuine change agents and elements of the Establishment -- has consistently been the greatest saboteur of a unified ideological movement.
The “tactical collaboration” of, say, Akbayan with the Yellow traditional elite-aristocracy is admittedly a major distraction to the consolidation of forces against the neocolonial oligarchic system for it lends an “activist” aura to the otherwise corrupt and aristocratic (cacique) character of the powers-that-be.
It merely postpones the crystallization of the focus of genuine systemic change, which, in the case of the power sector, we advanced as the “cooperativization” of the nation’s vital industries.
Still and all, the message of the demonstrators worldwide is this: The people are sick and tired of the way things are. They now want to take back control over their economies, basic utilities (including money), and lives.
After all, they’ve worked hard for all of it with their blood, sweat and tears.
Power of Alternative Media
From these movements, the shepherds or leaders who can make these ideas mainstream will soon arise.
It is only through the power of alternative media that the people (most especially, the masses) can discern true leadership that represents the values of human love and sharing.
It is only through our efforts that people will be eschewed from the love of hedonist gimmickry by shunning such commercialized idols as Buffet or Steve Jobs, and instead embrace revolutionaries like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Gautama Buddha, and the socialist builders of Singapore and China’s socialist-market system, where the nation and the public count for more than the moneyed few.
People of the Earth, Occupy the World!
Let’s do our share; let’s OCCUPY MALACAÑANG FREEDOM PARK!
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Politics is (Un)Fair to those who Pretend to be Good
YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
10/17-19/2011
If Politics is Unfair to the Good, is it then Fair to those Who pretend to be Good? This is my take on the Ronald Llamas brouhaha. More than a year ago, I wrote a column entitled, “In politics, it’s harder for the good boys.” May I quote a couple of paragraphs from that column:
“There is an inherent injustice in politics. When you are a good boy, your campaign is a crusade. Your basic colour is white. When you win and come to power, a lot is expected from you. When you commit a mistake, it is like mud being thrown at you. Black stands out against a white background.
“When you are a bad boy, your campaign is “bola bola”. Your basic colour is black. When you win and come to power, little is expected from you. When you commit a mistake, it is not noticed. It is like black paint being painted on a black background. No matter how much black paint or mud is thrown at you, your appearance does not change.”
I arrived at the above conclusions based on my almost six decades of observing and participating in Philippine and World Politics. I was then referring to the likes of Raul S. Manglapus, Aquilino Pimentel, Jr., Cory C. Aquino, Joey Lina, Jun Simon and Noynoy Aquino.
My vantage points for my observing politics and my points of entry for participating in politics were:
1. From 1953 – 1972, under the 1935 Constitution with its Two Party Presidential Form of Government, the Third Force or Reformist Block.;
2. From 1972 – 1986, under Martial Law and Marcos’s 1973 Constitution, the Opposition against Marcos and Martial Law with Ninoy Aquino, Raul Manglapus, Nene Pimentel, Jose W. Diokno and Lorenzo Tanada as leaders;
3. From 1986 – 1989 and again from 2001 – 2004, under the 1987 Cory Constitution with its Multiparty but still Presidential Form of Government, after both EDSA’s I and II, as an official in the Aquino and GMA Administrations;
4. From 1989 – 2001 and 2004 – 2011, outside of the incumbent Administration, majority of the time in the Opposition and aligned with Popular Political Leaders like Miriam, Erap, GMA, FPJ, Erap, Noynoy and Erap again.
Although the term “Third Force” was popular in the fifties and the sixties, it fell into disuse during the Martial Law years. It evolved out of the thesis propounded by Manglapus and other reformists that under the two party system, both the Liberal and Nacionalista Parties were the same dog with just different collars or colours.
They did not have real and distinct programs of government. They were both for the socio-economic elite and the status quo. They contested elections for the sake of political power for their own interests. Thus, real change and reform could only come from a “Third Force” that was outside the incestuous Two Party System.
The only problem was that the Two Party System gave the two major parties the advantage of having party inspectors paid by the government in the election precincts. Without its own official inspectors, only party watchers, the third force parties could not win in the 1957, 1959 and 1965 elections.
They only won when they coalesced with the Liberal Party under the United Opposition Party in the 1961 national elections. While the LP’s Macapagal won the Presidency, the PPP/Grand Alliance’s Emmanuel Pelaez won the Vice Presidency. Manglapus and Manuel Manahan won the first two slots for Senator. The alliance with Macapagal and the LP did not last.
Martial Law changed the rules and the balance of political power. The LP was decimated. If they and the Reformists did their fighting against Martial Law and Marcos separately, they did not stand a chance of ever winning. And so Reformists and out of power Tradpols united as the anti-Marcos Opposition.
Martial Law encouraged the Left as well as other non-political activists to grow relative to the political opposition. Martial Law and the long absence of elections caused the LP as well as other politicians to whither. It came to a point when the LP and later Political Organizations composed of former politicians could not make an impact without the cooperation of the non-political organizations and movements.
It is at this point that the term “Cause Oriented” became popular. The assassination of Ninoy at the Manila International Airport on August 21, 1983 gave both the cause oriented movements and the opposition parties the opportunity to grow rapidly.
Relative to the Radical Left, which knew how to survive and grow under any circumstances, the so called Democratic Left or Left of Center was perhaps the most benefitted by the death of Ninoy. The revolutionary assumption to power of Cory brought in the most fresh blood into government. These were the Cause Oriented, who once in power so very quickly earned the perception of turning into the Cost Oriented.
Except for Cory herself and a few officials who quickly bowed out of government service, the multitudes of cause oriented reformers became the latest generation of corrupt bureaucrats and traditional politicians.
Cory showed her preference for Non Government Organizations (NGO’s) over political parties. By the end of her term, “Cause Oriented” fell into disuse. The fad of the day was the NGO. Eventually, every Tom, Dick and Harry had an NGO. Up to today, the NGO is still in vogue.
However, in the nineties a new term was imported from abroad – “Civil Society.” At the same time the provisions of the 1987 Constitution regarding representation of marginalized sectors of society was implemented. In the interim, the President could appoint fifty Sectoral Representatives. Eventually, voters at large voted for a Sectoral Party. In turn, its nominee (s) became a Party List Congressman.
PAPA Ronald Llamas belonged to and grew up politically in this world. He belonged to Akbayan, a registered and successful Sectoral Party under our Party List System. Akbayan and its leaders had come out of both the Radical and Moderate Activists of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. To some extent they are a product of the split of the CPP/NPA/NDF into RA and RJ factions. However, they do have a lot of leaders and members who have never been members of the Radical Left.
They were based on the NGO/Civil Society fad of the nineties and had mastered the art of securing foreign funding for various causes. They were anti-trapo. They were loud about their advocacies. Their leaders and party list representatives were high profile including Eta Rosales, Riza Hontiveros and Walden Bello.
Riza ran in Noynoy’s LP Senate Slate and lost as the 13th candidate. Eta was appointed as the Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights. Ronald Llamas was an early appointee of the usually slow P Noy as the Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs. Like his boss, he is a gun enthusiast and a “Kabarilan.”
A few months ago, Llamas' name cropped up as one of three pet peeves of P Noy. The other two were Secretaries Leila de Lima and Bertie Lim. Soon after, Secretary Lim resigned. Up to now, a year and a quarter after being appointed Secretary of a very important Department, de Lima’s nomination has not been submitted to the Commission on Appointments.
A couple of weeks ago Llamas' Mitsubishi Montero Sport SUV with a #6 government plate figured in an accident in Q.C. Although Llamas was not aboard, his high powered AK-47 Russian Assault Rifle was under the driver’s seat. While the police were still investigating and under the glare of television cameras, his subordinates spirited away the AK-47 without clearing with the police.
Llamas is the do-gooder now done bad. The media pounced on Llamas without let up for more than a week. That is what we mean by “Politics is Unfair to the Good.” Or can it also be that Politics is Fair to those who Pretend to be Good?
Linggoy Alcuaz
10/17-19/2011
If Politics is Unfair to the Good, is it then Fair to those Who pretend to be Good? This is my take on the Ronald Llamas brouhaha. More than a year ago, I wrote a column entitled, “In politics, it’s harder for the good boys.” May I quote a couple of paragraphs from that column:
“There is an inherent injustice in politics. When you are a good boy, your campaign is a crusade. Your basic colour is white. When you win and come to power, a lot is expected from you. When you commit a mistake, it is like mud being thrown at you. Black stands out against a white background.
“When you are a bad boy, your campaign is “bola bola”. Your basic colour is black. When you win and come to power, little is expected from you. When you commit a mistake, it is not noticed. It is like black paint being painted on a black background. No matter how much black paint or mud is thrown at you, your appearance does not change.”
I arrived at the above conclusions based on my almost six decades of observing and participating in Philippine and World Politics. I was then referring to the likes of Raul S. Manglapus, Aquilino Pimentel, Jr., Cory C. Aquino, Joey Lina, Jun Simon and Noynoy Aquino.
My vantage points for my observing politics and my points of entry for participating in politics were:
1. From 1953 – 1972, under the 1935 Constitution with its Two Party Presidential Form of Government, the Third Force or Reformist Block.;
2. From 1972 – 1986, under Martial Law and Marcos’s 1973 Constitution, the Opposition against Marcos and Martial Law with Ninoy Aquino, Raul Manglapus, Nene Pimentel, Jose W. Diokno and Lorenzo Tanada as leaders;
3. From 1986 – 1989 and again from 2001 – 2004, under the 1987 Cory Constitution with its Multiparty but still Presidential Form of Government, after both EDSA’s I and II, as an official in the Aquino and GMA Administrations;
4. From 1989 – 2001 and 2004 – 2011, outside of the incumbent Administration, majority of the time in the Opposition and aligned with Popular Political Leaders like Miriam, Erap, GMA, FPJ, Erap, Noynoy and Erap again.
Although the term “Third Force” was popular in the fifties and the sixties, it fell into disuse during the Martial Law years. It evolved out of the thesis propounded by Manglapus and other reformists that under the two party system, both the Liberal and Nacionalista Parties were the same dog with just different collars or colours.
They did not have real and distinct programs of government. They were both for the socio-economic elite and the status quo. They contested elections for the sake of political power for their own interests. Thus, real change and reform could only come from a “Third Force” that was outside the incestuous Two Party System.
The only problem was that the Two Party System gave the two major parties the advantage of having party inspectors paid by the government in the election precincts. Without its own official inspectors, only party watchers, the third force parties could not win in the 1957, 1959 and 1965 elections.
They only won when they coalesced with the Liberal Party under the United Opposition Party in the 1961 national elections. While the LP’s Macapagal won the Presidency, the PPP/Grand Alliance’s Emmanuel Pelaez won the Vice Presidency. Manglapus and Manuel Manahan won the first two slots for Senator. The alliance with Macapagal and the LP did not last.
Martial Law changed the rules and the balance of political power. The LP was decimated. If they and the Reformists did their fighting against Martial Law and Marcos separately, they did not stand a chance of ever winning. And so Reformists and out of power Tradpols united as the anti-Marcos Opposition.
Martial Law encouraged the Left as well as other non-political activists to grow relative to the political opposition. Martial Law and the long absence of elections caused the LP as well as other politicians to whither. It came to a point when the LP and later Political Organizations composed of former politicians could not make an impact without the cooperation of the non-political organizations and movements.
It is at this point that the term “Cause Oriented” became popular. The assassination of Ninoy at the Manila International Airport on August 21, 1983 gave both the cause oriented movements and the opposition parties the opportunity to grow rapidly.
Relative to the Radical Left, which knew how to survive and grow under any circumstances, the so called Democratic Left or Left of Center was perhaps the most benefitted by the death of Ninoy. The revolutionary assumption to power of Cory brought in the most fresh blood into government. These were the Cause Oriented, who once in power so very quickly earned the perception of turning into the Cost Oriented.
Except for Cory herself and a few officials who quickly bowed out of government service, the multitudes of cause oriented reformers became the latest generation of corrupt bureaucrats and traditional politicians.
Cory showed her preference for Non Government Organizations (NGO’s) over political parties. By the end of her term, “Cause Oriented” fell into disuse. The fad of the day was the NGO. Eventually, every Tom, Dick and Harry had an NGO. Up to today, the NGO is still in vogue.
However, in the nineties a new term was imported from abroad – “Civil Society.” At the same time the provisions of the 1987 Constitution regarding representation of marginalized sectors of society was implemented. In the interim, the President could appoint fifty Sectoral Representatives. Eventually, voters at large voted for a Sectoral Party. In turn, its nominee (s) became a Party List Congressman.
PAPA Ronald Llamas belonged to and grew up politically in this world. He belonged to Akbayan, a registered and successful Sectoral Party under our Party List System. Akbayan and its leaders had come out of both the Radical and Moderate Activists of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. To some extent they are a product of the split of the CPP/NPA/NDF into RA and RJ factions. However, they do have a lot of leaders and members who have never been members of the Radical Left.
They were based on the NGO/Civil Society fad of the nineties and had mastered the art of securing foreign funding for various causes. They were anti-trapo. They were loud about their advocacies. Their leaders and party list representatives were high profile including Eta Rosales, Riza Hontiveros and Walden Bello.
Riza ran in Noynoy’s LP Senate Slate and lost as the 13th candidate. Eta was appointed as the Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights. Ronald Llamas was an early appointee of the usually slow P Noy as the Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs. Like his boss, he is a gun enthusiast and a “Kabarilan.”
A few months ago, Llamas' name cropped up as one of three pet peeves of P Noy. The other two were Secretaries Leila de Lima and Bertie Lim. Soon after, Secretary Lim resigned. Up to now, a year and a quarter after being appointed Secretary of a very important Department, de Lima’s nomination has not been submitted to the Commission on Appointments.
A couple of weeks ago Llamas' Mitsubishi Montero Sport SUV with a #6 government plate figured in an accident in Q.C. Although Llamas was not aboard, his high powered AK-47 Russian Assault Rifle was under the driver’s seat. While the police were still investigating and under the glare of television cameras, his subordinates spirited away the AK-47 without clearing with the police.
Llamas is the do-gooder now done bad. The media pounced on Llamas without let up for more than a week. That is what we mean by “Politics is Unfair to the Good.” Or can it also be that Politics is Fair to those who Pretend to be Good?
Notable idea, notable lie
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/17/2011
Late last week, two items in the news got my attention — one, a notable idea; the other, a notable lie. The first came from Vice President Jejomar Binay. In a recent meeting with the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), he urged the national government to utilize its $75-billion gross international reserves to finance development programs as well as to make it available to local borrowers. This certainly echoes what we have been pushing for the past few months.
The other piece of news (which got my goat this time) came from the doyen of the ruling elite’s favored economists. In an interview with GMA News last Oct. 13, former Neda (National Economic Development Authority) chief Solita Monsod claimed that Philippine industrial electricity rates are definitely higher compared to residential rates and that the former even subsidizes the latter. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. Barring complete ignorance, it was a falsehood that could have portrayed her as deliberately lying through her teeth.
A 2010 study by a Perth-based consulting firm providing advisory services to companies operating in and associated with the private power sector in the Asia-Pacific region, International Energy Consultants, whose client base now includes some of the largest companies in the energy supply industry, reveals that “Philippine average residential retail electricity rates were (at that time already) $0.18/kilowatt-hour (kWh) while industrial rates were averaging $0.13/kWh (both in US dollars).” But that’s not all.
The Performance Based Rate (PBR) pricing scheme formulated by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in 2004 also did its “wonders.” First, it established a Maximum Average Price (MAP) based on claims of projected capital expenditures (capex) by the power distributor Meralco (Manila Electric Co.) on asset base factors that were allegedly overpriced by as much as 1,000 percent. Then, this MAP was further subjected to “rate translation,” where residential (distribution) rates rose from P1 to P4/kWh (check your bill and be shocked) while industrial/commercial rates were pegged as low as P0.25/kWh for the largest industrial users like the giant malls.
Mang Naro Lualhati, one of the complainants in the P39-billion Meralco refund case in 2003 that the public won, has a pending complaint at the ERC on the latest MAP and “rate translation” issues, which states that the MAP should only be P0.90/kWh, instead of the P1.60/kWh approved by the regulatory body, and that the so-called “rate translation” should be discarded as it is discriminatory and even violative of the severely flawed Epira (Electric Power Industry Reform Act).
In fact, under that law’s provision in Section 23 on “Functions of Distribution Utilities,” it states: “A distribution utility shall have the obligation to provide distribution services and connections to its system for any end-user… Any entity engaged therein shall provide open and NON-DISCRIMINATORY access to its distribution system to all users… in the least cost manner to its captive market… (emphasis supplied).”
Even as both the ERC and Meralco will interpret any law’s provisions to their advantage, there is no doubt that the ERC should never veer away from the “least cost” and “non-discriminatory” provisions so as not to disadvantage the public.
Now, as to the claim that residential rates are being subsidized, just look at your electricity bills. You will notice that paying residential consumers are in fact subsidizing “lifeline rates” and “missionary electrification” — not government or industrial/commercial users.
Monsod has been puffed up by mainstream media to be the “best” economist there is, so much so that the views she expresses are not being vetted. Well, how can they hide the fact that her husband Christian Monsod has been a long-time collaborator of the owners of Meralco, whether in politics and business; that he sat on its board and served as its counsel and consultant to the chairman for many years; and that he was richly rewarded for all this?
Other than favoring Big Business, Monsod’s patently erroneous claim, which prejudices the public’s understanding of the true picture of the power cost consumers are saddled with, was nothing but an outright lie that can never be supported by any factual evidence. If she were only truly interested, she could have easily checked the Internet or consulted power consumer advocates such as Mang Naro, Nasecore (National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms), FDC (Freedom from Debt Coalition), and others. But going by her incredulous statement, it seems these are not the parties she listens to.
As for Binay, while I have not said anything good or bad about him in this column since the last elections, I must now give credit to his call for our growing Gross International Reserves (GIR) to be used for public and private sector funding for infrastructure, development, and the like.
Since the GIR is already larger than the country’s overall foreign currency debt of around $61 billion, the surplus gives us a lot more room to maneuver. But Binay should also look into the huge P1.7-trillion Special Deposit Account (SDA) lying idle in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), which is used to pay interest to banks and other depositors in accordance with the desires of our foreign creditors. A push from the VP may just give our BSP officials the impetus to lower the interest paid out (by, say, 1 percent) in order to commit the fund for productive domestic use.
That Binay is beginning to show some understanding of the nation’s financial situation, which is essential to advance the national economy in a sovereign and independent way, shows real promise. Of course, his endorsement of Gloria Arroyo’s escalation of the eVAT (expanded value added tax) leaves much to be desired. But I believe that a closer examination of the simpler sales tax system proposed by Bataan Gov. Tet Garcia will make him see the light. After all, the many leakages in the graft-ridden tiers of input-output VAT computations (to the glee of corrupt tax agents) are designed only for the rich.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/17/2011
Late last week, two items in the news got my attention — one, a notable idea; the other, a notable lie. The first came from Vice President Jejomar Binay. In a recent meeting with the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), he urged the national government to utilize its $75-billion gross international reserves to finance development programs as well as to make it available to local borrowers. This certainly echoes what we have been pushing for the past few months.
The other piece of news (which got my goat this time) came from the doyen of the ruling elite’s favored economists. In an interview with GMA News last Oct. 13, former Neda (National Economic Development Authority) chief Solita Monsod claimed that Philippine industrial electricity rates are definitely higher compared to residential rates and that the former even subsidizes the latter. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. Barring complete ignorance, it was a falsehood that could have portrayed her as deliberately lying through her teeth.
A 2010 study by a Perth-based consulting firm providing advisory services to companies operating in and associated with the private power sector in the Asia-Pacific region, International Energy Consultants, whose client base now includes some of the largest companies in the energy supply industry, reveals that “Philippine average residential retail electricity rates were (at that time already) $0.18/kilowatt-hour (kWh) while industrial rates were averaging $0.13/kWh (both in US dollars).” But that’s not all.
The Performance Based Rate (PBR) pricing scheme formulated by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in 2004 also did its “wonders.” First, it established a Maximum Average Price (MAP) based on claims of projected capital expenditures (capex) by the power distributor Meralco (Manila Electric Co.) on asset base factors that were allegedly overpriced by as much as 1,000 percent. Then, this MAP was further subjected to “rate translation,” where residential (distribution) rates rose from P1 to P4/kWh (check your bill and be shocked) while industrial/commercial rates were pegged as low as P0.25/kWh for the largest industrial users like the giant malls.
Mang Naro Lualhati, one of the complainants in the P39-billion Meralco refund case in 2003 that the public won, has a pending complaint at the ERC on the latest MAP and “rate translation” issues, which states that the MAP should only be P0.90/kWh, instead of the P1.60/kWh approved by the regulatory body, and that the so-called “rate translation” should be discarded as it is discriminatory and even violative of the severely flawed Epira (Electric Power Industry Reform Act).
In fact, under that law’s provision in Section 23 on “Functions of Distribution Utilities,” it states: “A distribution utility shall have the obligation to provide distribution services and connections to its system for any end-user… Any entity engaged therein shall provide open and NON-DISCRIMINATORY access to its distribution system to all users… in the least cost manner to its captive market… (emphasis supplied).”
Even as both the ERC and Meralco will interpret any law’s provisions to their advantage, there is no doubt that the ERC should never veer away from the “least cost” and “non-discriminatory” provisions so as not to disadvantage the public.
Now, as to the claim that residential rates are being subsidized, just look at your electricity bills. You will notice that paying residential consumers are in fact subsidizing “lifeline rates” and “missionary electrification” — not government or industrial/commercial users.
Monsod has been puffed up by mainstream media to be the “best” economist there is, so much so that the views she expresses are not being vetted. Well, how can they hide the fact that her husband Christian Monsod has been a long-time collaborator of the owners of Meralco, whether in politics and business; that he sat on its board and served as its counsel and consultant to the chairman for many years; and that he was richly rewarded for all this?
Other than favoring Big Business, Monsod’s patently erroneous claim, which prejudices the public’s understanding of the true picture of the power cost consumers are saddled with, was nothing but an outright lie that can never be supported by any factual evidence. If she were only truly interested, she could have easily checked the Internet or consulted power consumer advocates such as Mang Naro, Nasecore (National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms), FDC (Freedom from Debt Coalition), and others. But going by her incredulous statement, it seems these are not the parties she listens to.
As for Binay, while I have not said anything good or bad about him in this column since the last elections, I must now give credit to his call for our growing Gross International Reserves (GIR) to be used for public and private sector funding for infrastructure, development, and the like.
Since the GIR is already larger than the country’s overall foreign currency debt of around $61 billion, the surplus gives us a lot more room to maneuver. But Binay should also look into the huge P1.7-trillion Special Deposit Account (SDA) lying idle in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), which is used to pay interest to banks and other depositors in accordance with the desires of our foreign creditors. A push from the VP may just give our BSP officials the impetus to lower the interest paid out (by, say, 1 percent) in order to commit the fund for productive domestic use.
That Binay is beginning to show some understanding of the nation’s financial situation, which is essential to advance the national economy in a sovereign and independent way, shows real promise. Of course, his endorsement of Gloria Arroyo’s escalation of the eVAT (expanded value added tax) leaves much to be desired. But I believe that a closer examination of the simpler sales tax system proposed by Bataan Gov. Tet Garcia will make him see the light. After all, the many leakages in the graft-ridden tiers of input-output VAT computations (to the glee of corrupt tax agents) are designed only for the rich.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Sunday, October 16, 2011
A supreme act of self-immolation
BACKBENCHER
Rod Kapunan
10/15-16/2011
There is that proverbial saying among lawyers who cannot “think outside the box” that when the Supreme Court comes out with a wrong decision that becomes a law. The problem however is when lower courts render a wrong decision, the aggrieved litigant can appeal the case until it reaches the High Tribunal. If the magistrates are not in a good mood, the poor judge may even end up losing his job and his retirement benefits. For that we are all enjoined to abide by that shoddy decision because it is necessary for the preservation of an orderly society.
Incidentally, the case of the Flight Attendants and Stewardess Association of PAL vs. Philippine Airlines has been pending for more than 13 long years now. Interestingly, in October 2008, a Division in the Court of Appeals decided a case which should have been decided by another Division. For that, Justice Vicente Roxas lost his job, Justice Jose Sabio suspended for two months without pay, Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez severely reprimanded, and Justice Myrna Dimaranan admonished. We are not saying the justices of the Second Division of the Supreme Court are guilty, but the question people ask is - what if it turns out they rendered a right decision but is reversed? Would it not create uproar?
Such is asked because the present case pierces directly into the jugular vein of the High Court’s integrity, not to say of its failure to discipline its own ranks. The public cannot go on swallowing that nonsense; that if it commits a mistake it becomes a law, while those mortals in the lower court are severely punished for committing the same mistake of “ignorance of the law.” As said, it is not much about the validity or invalidity of the September 7, 2011 Resolution, but of the fact that the House Rules, with a threat of punishing a lawyer, was violated no less by those men in black robes.
The ridiculous reasoning made by Chief Justice Renato Corona, that before one should start saying something against the institution he should first study the case, is debauched of logic. Everybody knows that it is for the justices to explain why they violated their own rule. There is in that statement the usual braggadocio that they know what they are doing; and it is for the people to digest their erroneous inanities. As one lawyer puts it, between that Resolution and the rights of the members of FASAP, it needs no elaboration that substantive and vested rights have already accrued to the members, and their rights cannot now be set aside by such flimsy technicality that it should have been decided by the Third Division.
The lawyer pointed out that there is nothing in the original decision up to the denial of the second motion for reconsideration stating or even hinting that petitioners won their case against PAL on the basis of technicality. Rather, they won on the merit of what is due them, which on a number of cases has ruled that technicality should not be allowed to supersede the substantive rights of the accused and what the law provides. Hence, it now becomes highly questionable for the Supreme Court to reverse itself without impugning its own integrity. In fact, its only way out from the mess is to go after those who took it to themselves to arbitrarily recall the second motion for reconsideration on the basis of an informal third motion for reconsideration. The lawyer is most adamant because the second motion stated that it was with finality, with a stern warning it will no longer entertain any further pleading or motion.
Alas, to get away with it, PAL’s chief counsel Estelito Mendoza crafted another of his legal hubris by writing instead a “letter” to the Supreme Court. Maybe he anticipated that should he be questioned, he would have his escape latch by claiming he merely sent a “letter,” which is an informal inquiry on the case the High Court just litigated, but which the court ridiculously failed to censure for being violative of the Rules of Court. The lawyer explained, the Resolution dated October 4, 2011 is invalid as it is repugnant to the Constitution for it failed to state the facts and the law why the Resolution dated September 7, 2011 had to be recalled. Under Section 14, Article VIII of the Constitution, it states that, “no decision shall be rendered by any court without expressing therein clearly and distinctly the facts and the law on which it is based.”
Senator Santiago, who is an authority on the Rules of Court, pointed out that even if a second motion is occasionally allowed, such is given due course only under “exceptionally meritorious cases.” The petitioner must first, with leave of court, file a motion with the court pleading that it be allowed to file a second motion for reconsideration. Only when the petition to file a second motion for reconsideration is granted can it proceed to file the formal second motion for reconsideration. Even that, what was actually filed with the court was a third motion for reconsideration which now betrays the court’s confused line of thinking. Their decision to recall the second motion for reconsideration was a resolution based on that “letter” that in their language is nothing but a scrap of paper. Had the lawyer of PAL been an ordinary practicing lawyer, he could have promptly merited contempt, disbarment or both from those dour-faced justices who have lost their way on what to do.
With that questionable attempt to stretch the life of an otherwise concluded case, the Supreme Court committed an act of self-immolation. It was those magistrates who ignited the fire now consuming them. This is clear because those rules are principally intended to put to an end to their Jurassic complaint that somehow there has to be an end to a case. Just like the hypocritical government we have, it was the justices who vandalized their own rules, and in so doing they only added fuel to an already raging inferno. Punishing those who are now pointing out just how they have become ridiculous could only hasten their isolation that it might even galvanize a movement for their impeachment for their insolent subservience to those big corporations.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Rod Kapunan
10/15-16/2011
There is that proverbial saying among lawyers who cannot “think outside the box” that when the Supreme Court comes out with a wrong decision that becomes a law. The problem however is when lower courts render a wrong decision, the aggrieved litigant can appeal the case until it reaches the High Tribunal. If the magistrates are not in a good mood, the poor judge may even end up losing his job and his retirement benefits. For that we are all enjoined to abide by that shoddy decision because it is necessary for the preservation of an orderly society.
Incidentally, the case of the Flight Attendants and Stewardess Association of PAL vs. Philippine Airlines has been pending for more than 13 long years now. Interestingly, in October 2008, a Division in the Court of Appeals decided a case which should have been decided by another Division. For that, Justice Vicente Roxas lost his job, Justice Jose Sabio suspended for two months without pay, Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez severely reprimanded, and Justice Myrna Dimaranan admonished. We are not saying the justices of the Second Division of the Supreme Court are guilty, but the question people ask is - what if it turns out they rendered a right decision but is reversed? Would it not create uproar?
Such is asked because the present case pierces directly into the jugular vein of the High Court’s integrity, not to say of its failure to discipline its own ranks. The public cannot go on swallowing that nonsense; that if it commits a mistake it becomes a law, while those mortals in the lower court are severely punished for committing the same mistake of “ignorance of the law.” As said, it is not much about the validity or invalidity of the September 7, 2011 Resolution, but of the fact that the House Rules, with a threat of punishing a lawyer, was violated no less by those men in black robes.
The ridiculous reasoning made by Chief Justice Renato Corona, that before one should start saying something against the institution he should first study the case, is debauched of logic. Everybody knows that it is for the justices to explain why they violated their own rule. There is in that statement the usual braggadocio that they know what they are doing; and it is for the people to digest their erroneous inanities. As one lawyer puts it, between that Resolution and the rights of the members of FASAP, it needs no elaboration that substantive and vested rights have already accrued to the members, and their rights cannot now be set aside by such flimsy technicality that it should have been decided by the Third Division.
The lawyer pointed out that there is nothing in the original decision up to the denial of the second motion for reconsideration stating or even hinting that petitioners won their case against PAL on the basis of technicality. Rather, they won on the merit of what is due them, which on a number of cases has ruled that technicality should not be allowed to supersede the substantive rights of the accused and what the law provides. Hence, it now becomes highly questionable for the Supreme Court to reverse itself without impugning its own integrity. In fact, its only way out from the mess is to go after those who took it to themselves to arbitrarily recall the second motion for reconsideration on the basis of an informal third motion for reconsideration. The lawyer is most adamant because the second motion stated that it was with finality, with a stern warning it will no longer entertain any further pleading or motion.
Alas, to get away with it, PAL’s chief counsel Estelito Mendoza crafted another of his legal hubris by writing instead a “letter” to the Supreme Court. Maybe he anticipated that should he be questioned, he would have his escape latch by claiming he merely sent a “letter,” which is an informal inquiry on the case the High Court just litigated, but which the court ridiculously failed to censure for being violative of the Rules of Court. The lawyer explained, the Resolution dated October 4, 2011 is invalid as it is repugnant to the Constitution for it failed to state the facts and the law why the Resolution dated September 7, 2011 had to be recalled. Under Section 14, Article VIII of the Constitution, it states that, “no decision shall be rendered by any court without expressing therein clearly and distinctly the facts and the law on which it is based.”
Senator Santiago, who is an authority on the Rules of Court, pointed out that even if a second motion is occasionally allowed, such is given due course only under “exceptionally meritorious cases.” The petitioner must first, with leave of court, file a motion with the court pleading that it be allowed to file a second motion for reconsideration. Only when the petition to file a second motion for reconsideration is granted can it proceed to file the formal second motion for reconsideration. Even that, what was actually filed with the court was a third motion for reconsideration which now betrays the court’s confused line of thinking. Their decision to recall the second motion for reconsideration was a resolution based on that “letter” that in their language is nothing but a scrap of paper. Had the lawyer of PAL been an ordinary practicing lawyer, he could have promptly merited contempt, disbarment or both from those dour-faced justices who have lost their way on what to do.
With that questionable attempt to stretch the life of an otherwise concluded case, the Supreme Court committed an act of self-immolation. It was those magistrates who ignited the fire now consuming them. This is clear because those rules are principally intended to put to an end to their Jurassic complaint that somehow there has to be an end to a case. Just like the hypocritical government we have, it was the justices who vandalized their own rules, and in so doing they only added fuel to an already raging inferno. Punishing those who are now pointing out just how they have become ridiculous could only hasten their isolation that it might even galvanize a movement for their impeachment for their insolent subservience to those big corporations.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Friday, October 14, 2011
OWS: The time has come
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/14/2011
The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests in the US which started just two weeks ago in the “Big Apple” but already pummeled repeatedly by the New York Police Department with aggressive dispersals, including the arrest of some 800 protesters in one day, have now spread to 847 cities across that country. Protesters see themselves as part of the 99 percent ( i.e. the oppressed majority) versus the 1 percent on top that controls their nation’s wealth by continuously exploiting the system. Their movement calls on the rest of the 99 percent to gather at Wall Street and occupy it, until their government is forced to oust the bankers and investment sharks who have long controlled their country, and to return power to the people.
Despite efforts of US mainstream media to downplay (if not, totally ignore) these protests, such as reporting that only a few cities or a handful of participants have joined, these demonstrations have now spread to 847 cities and are still growing. The movement today even represents the greatest potential for a new American Revolution, much like an “American Autumn” in the vein of the so-called “Arab Spring.”
Autumn, by the way, is also called fall; and some have taken to calling the OWS phenomenon “America’s Fall” — the biggest mass mobilization since the anti-Vietnam War era. It has, in fact, gotten Wall Street “banksters” (banker-gangsters) scared. They have branded the movement as nothing but a “mob.”
Much to their consternation, though, a lot of noteworthy figures — or icons — of anti-capitalist and anti-Federal Reserve movements have already graced the OWS rallies, demonstrations, and “tent cities.”
Oscar winner and film producer of establishment myth-busting works, such as Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, and Capitalism: A Love Affair, director Michael Moore, who appeared and spoke at OWS, was earlier heard over radio describing it “literally (as) an uprising of people who have had it… (and it) will continue to spread… (to) tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people… (with a) majority of Americans… really upset at Wall Street... So you have already got an army of Americans who are just waiting for somebody to do something, and something has started.”
Consumer advocate and former presidential candidate, Ralph Nader, said of the OWS: “The frustration seen in the protests on Wall Street over the past few weeks demonstrates a widespread and growing citizen discontent with the two political parties in Washington DC and with a political system that is dominated by corporate interests. It is time for citizens to push their elected officials to break the corporate stranglehold on our economy.”
Major labor unions are joining the OWS, too, from the Amalgamated Transit Union and the Transport Workers Union, to the United Federation of Teachers, whose president Michael Mulgrew said, “The way our society is now headed it does not work for 99 percent of people; so when Occupy Wall Street started… they kept to it and they’ve been able to create a national conversation that we think should have been going on for years…”
Another prominent voice that bolstered the OWS protests came from former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. One report (“Dennis Kucinich Tells Occupy Wall Street to Nationalize the Federal Reserve”) quoted the Ohio Democrat as saying, “We need a government of the people and for the people. We need a financial system that is of the people and for the people. It is time we take our nation back and take our monetary system back from the big banks… put the Federal Reserve under the Treasury… end the practice of fractional reserve banking and… take control of our monetary policy and make sure it works for the people. We can use our constitutional authority to coin money and spend it into circulation to put millions of Americans back to work in a way that is non-inflationary. The time for bold change is now.”
The Federal Reserve, or what many mistakenly take as the US central bank, is in fact a private bank controlled by private bankers hiding behind the term, “federal.” The Fed, as it is also called, is where these banksters manipulate the dollar for a handful of US oligarchs.
As one of the main targets of the OWS is to “End the Fed” and restore the power of the state over money, as in the time of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson, something very similar must be done here too. And I’m speaking of none other than restoring the Philippines’ 1972 constitutional provision on the Central Bank — removing the word “independent” added on to the 1987 Constitution in order to restore the people’s control over our Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
That has been one of the themes I have pounded on in this two-decade column writing of mine. But, I go further: We must declare money as a public utility; and major decisions such as incurring more borrowings should periodically undergo a people’s referendum.
Actually, the abuse and exploitation of the people by the global finance capitalists (as distinguished from real capitalist-entrepreneurs) is far worse here than in the US. It is therefore time for the Philippines’ own “Winter Storm” (or a “2nd First Quarter Storm” next year).
As I close this column, PressTV has just reported that the Occupy Wall Street protests have already spread to 1,000 US cities. I am thus hoping for a spillover to the Philippines very soon, starting with an “Occupy Malacañang Freedom Park” in the coming weeks against the Epira (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) and its extortionist 15.8-percent power rate pricing scheme, as well as the price gouging on water, the VAT (value added tax) on toll fees and pretty much everything else.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8 on “Occupy Wall Street: Lesson for RP”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/14/2011
The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests in the US which started just two weeks ago in the “Big Apple” but already pummeled repeatedly by the New York Police Department with aggressive dispersals, including the arrest of some 800 protesters in one day, have now spread to 847 cities across that country. Protesters see themselves as part of the 99 percent ( i.e. the oppressed majority) versus the 1 percent on top that controls their nation’s wealth by continuously exploiting the system. Their movement calls on the rest of the 99 percent to gather at Wall Street and occupy it, until their government is forced to oust the bankers and investment sharks who have long controlled their country, and to return power to the people.
Despite efforts of US mainstream media to downplay (if not, totally ignore) these protests, such as reporting that only a few cities or a handful of participants have joined, these demonstrations have now spread to 847 cities and are still growing. The movement today even represents the greatest potential for a new American Revolution, much like an “American Autumn” in the vein of the so-called “Arab Spring.”
Autumn, by the way, is also called fall; and some have taken to calling the OWS phenomenon “America’s Fall” — the biggest mass mobilization since the anti-Vietnam War era. It has, in fact, gotten Wall Street “banksters” (banker-gangsters) scared. They have branded the movement as nothing but a “mob.”
Much to their consternation, though, a lot of noteworthy figures — or icons — of anti-capitalist and anti-Federal Reserve movements have already graced the OWS rallies, demonstrations, and “tent cities.”
Oscar winner and film producer of establishment myth-busting works, such as Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, and Capitalism: A Love Affair, director Michael Moore, who appeared and spoke at OWS, was earlier heard over radio describing it “literally (as) an uprising of people who have had it… (and it) will continue to spread… (to) tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people… (with a) majority of Americans… really upset at Wall Street... So you have already got an army of Americans who are just waiting for somebody to do something, and something has started.”
Consumer advocate and former presidential candidate, Ralph Nader, said of the OWS: “The frustration seen in the protests on Wall Street over the past few weeks demonstrates a widespread and growing citizen discontent with the two political parties in Washington DC and with a political system that is dominated by corporate interests. It is time for citizens to push their elected officials to break the corporate stranglehold on our economy.”
Major labor unions are joining the OWS, too, from the Amalgamated Transit Union and the Transport Workers Union, to the United Federation of Teachers, whose president Michael Mulgrew said, “The way our society is now headed it does not work for 99 percent of people; so when Occupy Wall Street started… they kept to it and they’ve been able to create a national conversation that we think should have been going on for years…”
Another prominent voice that bolstered the OWS protests came from former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. One report (“Dennis Kucinich Tells Occupy Wall Street to Nationalize the Federal Reserve”) quoted the Ohio Democrat as saying, “We need a government of the people and for the people. We need a financial system that is of the people and for the people. It is time we take our nation back and take our monetary system back from the big banks… put the Federal Reserve under the Treasury… end the practice of fractional reserve banking and… take control of our monetary policy and make sure it works for the people. We can use our constitutional authority to coin money and spend it into circulation to put millions of Americans back to work in a way that is non-inflationary. The time for bold change is now.”
The Federal Reserve, or what many mistakenly take as the US central bank, is in fact a private bank controlled by private bankers hiding behind the term, “federal.” The Fed, as it is also called, is where these banksters manipulate the dollar for a handful of US oligarchs.
As one of the main targets of the OWS is to “End the Fed” and restore the power of the state over money, as in the time of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson, something very similar must be done here too. And I’m speaking of none other than restoring the Philippines’ 1972 constitutional provision on the Central Bank — removing the word “independent” added on to the 1987 Constitution in order to restore the people’s control over our Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
That has been one of the themes I have pounded on in this two-decade column writing of mine. But, I go further: We must declare money as a public utility; and major decisions such as incurring more borrowings should periodically undergo a people’s referendum.
Actually, the abuse and exploitation of the people by the global finance capitalists (as distinguished from real capitalist-entrepreneurs) is far worse here than in the US. It is therefore time for the Philippines’ own “Winter Storm” (or a “2nd First Quarter Storm” next year).
As I close this column, PressTV has just reported that the Occupy Wall Street protests have already spread to 1,000 US cities. I am thus hoping for a spillover to the Philippines very soon, starting with an “Occupy Malacañang Freedom Park” in the coming weeks against the Epira (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) and its extortionist 15.8-percent power rate pricing scheme, as well as the price gouging on water, the VAT (value added tax) on toll fees and pretty much everything else.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8 on “Occupy Wall Street: Lesson for RP”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
