CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
12/26/2011-1/1/2012
In part one of our year-ender, we discussed the role of the oligarchy in dragging our economy down. We pointed out how various Big Business oligarchs engage in the piracy of the nation’s public utilities and infrastructure assets or projects, then later use these to plunder the nation. We also touched on the way they are doing this in cahoots with elements of the international financial mafia. Just think of the MRT deal between the Ayalas-Sobrepeñas-Agustines with Goldman Sachs that cost $800 million of government bank money to repurchase--only to be privatized again. And that’s just one of the many examples.
In this “Year-ender II,” we will focus on the conspiracy between the local ruling elite with the Western financial overlords to swindle our economy through perpetual debt bondage. First, let us underscore the fact that despite $76 billion in Gross International Reserves (GIR) sitting in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), enough to pay off our entire $60-billion foreign debt, annual debt service still eats up P800 million of our budget. Besides this, another anomaly lies in the dormant Special Deposit Account (SDA) of government, amounting to at least P1.7 trillion, which is supposed to fund domestic development.
However, despite all the financial resources now available to us, the BSP has even scheduled $4 billion in new borrowings for 2012. The situation is so distressing that even conservative business and academic sectors have now called for the wipe-out of our debt to finance our own development.
On the subject of the SDA, Marvin Fausto, president of the Trust Officers Association of the Philippines, said on Nov. 3, “(The money parked in SDA facilities) should instead be channeled to funding needs, like in infrastructure projects. We need investments. (The money in SDAs) is enough to spur (further) growth.” Victor Abola, senior economist at the University of Asia and the Pacific, whom I seldom agree with but do in this case, also said that SDAs are a “waste of resources” and the “BSP should lower interest rates for SDAs to free up more funds, from the present 4 percent to 3 percent.”
As for the country’s international reserves, we have an Oct. 12 report from Abigail Ho about what one of our more enlightened political leaders said: “Binay urges gov’t to use gross int’l reserves for dev’t projects…" Vice president Jejomar Binay is urging the national government to tap its $75-billion gross international reserves to fund development projects and open the door to more local public borrowing. In a speech before members of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday, he said the country’s large GIR would be a viable source of funds for projects that would promote social and economic development. ‘If the national government could be persuaded to utilize its large gross international reserves… for its development projects, the (public-private partnership) could open up in various areas, giving a big boost to business activity nationwide… This could also shift the source of public borrowing from foreign financial institutions to the central bank, which could save the government from the rise and fall of the US dollar.’
“’I will ask (PCCI) to join me in asking the President to consider using our large dollar reserve for development, and to confine public borrowing to local sources… According to the Bureau of the Treasury, 58 percent, or P2.736 trillion, of the country’s total outstanding debt was secured from domestic lenders… The country’s foreign currency debt, which accounted for 42 percent of the total, stood at P2.01 trillion, booked in US dollar, euro, and yen.’”
You see, while we seek to get rid of our foreign debt, the domestic debt we can live with for a while--one problem at a time. Ultimately, I am for nationalizing all banking functions as all credit is backed up by the people’s taxes anyway; but Vice-President Binay’s position is already the maximum that one can hope for under the present situation, which would be a game changer for the Philippine economy. With an immediate medium-term turnaround that can be expected from such an action, the Philippines will surge ahead in Asean within five years.
How important is it to break free of debt? Argentina experienced a dramatic reversal of fortunes since its debt default in 2001 to become one of the most dynamic economies in Latin America, with growth rates that have averaged 8.5% from 2003 to 2010 (way above the –14% it sustained after defaulting in 2002).
Although we don’t need to default, we just have to substantially pay off our debt and invest in our own development projects without borrowing any further. For sure, this will push Philippine growth rates beyond what Argentina had achieved.
It is thus imperative that we begin pump priming our economy as export and OFW markets dwindle in the crisis-stricken world. Already, projection for the Philippines’ 2012 GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is a dismal 5%, a far cry from the rosy projection of 7% and above, while World Bank estimate of 4.2% for 2011 varies from government’s projection of 7 to 8%.
Sadly, we are kept at this worse-than-expected level of economic growth due to the total lack of economic and financial independence (or imagination) of Malacañang and its finance managers.
As 2011 ends and 2012 begins, we call on our readers to join our nationalist economic movement in clamoring for a militant national financial and economic policy that junks economic bondage to regain our financial sovereignty and independence. Let us free our nation so that we can plan our own economy according to the needs of the people, as well as our collective vision of prosperity and stability.
Keep following Dyaryo OpinYon and it economic section to keep abreast of this struggle, in order to bring about the glory of the Philippine economy as it had in the 1950s--when the Filipino First Policy guided the nation toward the beginning of industrialization and economic sovereignty.
(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)
Friday, December 30, 2011
‘Little boy’ preps for war
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
12/30/2011
The raggedy “little girl” doll was all-too-willing a tool in the subversion of our country’s slow but fledgling popular democratic governance. For her almost canine devotion to her masters, she was rewarded with her share of the plunder by the US and the local oligarchy for nine years. But, as that raggedy doll became worn out and torn on all sides, she was amply thrown away, replaced with a “little boy puppet.” This dummy, with a wooden smile carved into a wooden face (perplexing everyone besides himself), has a wide eyed gape like the cowboy marionette of the 1950s puppet show, Howdy Doody, coupled with the jerky motions and hobbling gait of Jim Henson’s Muppets.
The past year, this little boy’s puppeteers made him over as a “hanging judge” to end 2010 with a bang. For the New Year, they are dressing him up as the “little drummer boy” and “little tin soldier” rolled into one, hobbling off to a new adventure of patriot games — even when the future of our people, our children, and grandchildren is not something to be toyed with.
Two of my recent columns raised the alert for the heightened geopolitical tensions being drummed up in the Eurasian front, centered on Syria and Iran, and in the Asia-Pacific front, on the South China Sea issue. “A creeping World War III” and “Useful idiot’s autocratic mission” are a wake-up call to the real and present danger of having a literally insane leadership in Malacañang — installed in the 2010 “Hocus-PCOS” elections, where technical shenanigans had been established and where the key to uncovering the electoral manipulation lies in the second software sneaked in. Yes, my friends, they do go to that extent to control our elections, with US software company, Dominion Voting Systems, at the core of that discredited AES of Smartmatic.
War does not just happen. It is painstakingly planned on a long-term basis. And it is seldom done so for reasons other than money. Since wars are utterly expensive in resources and lives, these are never initiated without a clear payback in mind. We see that in every conflict initiated throughout the millennia. In the latest one in Libya, the lion’s share of that country’s oil revenues now go to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) countries, leaving mere drops for the Libyans themselves.
The assaults on Syria are aimed at Iran’s oil, which, in turn, leads to the ultimate goal — aborting China’s rise as a world power. The personal assaults on Vladimir Putin by the plethora of “opposition” groups funded by Western NGOs (like George Soros’ Open Society, the National Endowment for Democracy, and Freedom House) is meant to weaken Russian politics for the ultimate assault on its sovereignty and the weakening of the Russia-China alliance.
Meanwhile, in Asia, the Australia, New Zealand, United States Security (ANZUS) partners are aiming for the China Sea issue as the casus belli against China — this, despite perfectly sound arrangements having been forged by that emerging superpower with Asean to resolve their shared maritime territorial and resource issues through peaceful dialog and joint exploitation.
Thus, with an irrational element needing to be introduced, the likely “hero” would be a little boy blue with all his insecurities covered up by his love of guns, the company of his kabarkada cronies, all while exhibiting an incompetence that has caused the most dismal Asean growth rate the past year and presiding over troubles at home that are wreaking havoc on the nation’s institutions.
Here, the perfect chance to escape all these woes is by playing soldier and patriot, egged on by a Big Brother, who promises this little “useful idiot” a steady supply of disposed guns, warships, and planes for his war games. No surprise there really — for this little dummy now struts before his generals, declaring a shift of focus, from internal security to the defense of the realm. And as the little boy now has his toys to brandish, all it takes is to provoke an overreaction from the “enemy.”
That situation was very eruditely described in the Asia Sentinel, a prestigious Web magazine that features well-known Asian writers. In a Dec. 20 article there (“US Playing a Dangerous Asia-Pacific Game?”), Gavin Greenwood says: “On Dec. 14, Philippine President Benigno Aquino formally commissioned his country’s latest and most capable warship, a 46-year-old former US Coast Guard cutter. Renamed the Gregorio del Pilar after a young revolutionary general killed fighting American troops in 1899, the navy’s new flagship… along with many other small warships, form what military strategists like to call ‘the tip of the spear’… The significance of this ageing vessel’s deployment, however, is not its manifest inability to defend itself — let alone the Philippines — from almost any other warship afloat in the region but that such an attack could invoke the country’s 60-year-old mutual defense treaty with the US… The role of the Gregorio del Pilar may be seen as simply to remain at sea long enough to get in the way of a potential enemy — invariably seen as China — and introduce a layer of uncertainty over the consequences of any direct action against the Philippines or its state assets…
“By providing the Philippines with even the most limited means to confront an opponent at sea, backed by Clinton’s explicit signaling her government’s resolve to stand by its treaty obligation, Washington may have handed over the potential detonator for an armed confrontation with China to the crew of an elderly ship that had once borne the name of the first US Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton’s caution that ‘when the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation’…”
Such a sword — in the hands of a little tin soldier boy imbued with a growing sense of insecurity over his domestic failures and the conflicts he has spawned, who is moreover nervous and fretful of the consequences of his rapidly disintegrating governance — can certainly come in handy, with Big Brother eagerly awaiting the consequences.
(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
12/30/2011
The raggedy “little girl” doll was all-too-willing a tool in the subversion of our country’s slow but fledgling popular democratic governance. For her almost canine devotion to her masters, she was rewarded with her share of the plunder by the US and the local oligarchy for nine years. But, as that raggedy doll became worn out and torn on all sides, she was amply thrown away, replaced with a “little boy puppet.” This dummy, with a wooden smile carved into a wooden face (perplexing everyone besides himself), has a wide eyed gape like the cowboy marionette of the 1950s puppet show, Howdy Doody, coupled with the jerky motions and hobbling gait of Jim Henson’s Muppets.
The past year, this little boy’s puppeteers made him over as a “hanging judge” to end 2010 with a bang. For the New Year, they are dressing him up as the “little drummer boy” and “little tin soldier” rolled into one, hobbling off to a new adventure of patriot games — even when the future of our people, our children, and grandchildren is not something to be toyed with.
Two of my recent columns raised the alert for the heightened geopolitical tensions being drummed up in the Eurasian front, centered on Syria and Iran, and in the Asia-Pacific front, on the South China Sea issue. “A creeping World War III” and “Useful idiot’s autocratic mission” are a wake-up call to the real and present danger of having a literally insane leadership in Malacañang — installed in the 2010 “Hocus-PCOS” elections, where technical shenanigans had been established and where the key to uncovering the electoral manipulation lies in the second software sneaked in. Yes, my friends, they do go to that extent to control our elections, with US software company, Dominion Voting Systems, at the core of that discredited AES of Smartmatic.
War does not just happen. It is painstakingly planned on a long-term basis. And it is seldom done so for reasons other than money. Since wars are utterly expensive in resources and lives, these are never initiated without a clear payback in mind. We see that in every conflict initiated throughout the millennia. In the latest one in Libya, the lion’s share of that country’s oil revenues now go to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) countries, leaving mere drops for the Libyans themselves.
The assaults on Syria are aimed at Iran’s oil, which, in turn, leads to the ultimate goal — aborting China’s rise as a world power. The personal assaults on Vladimir Putin by the plethora of “opposition” groups funded by Western NGOs (like George Soros’ Open Society, the National Endowment for Democracy, and Freedom House) is meant to weaken Russian politics for the ultimate assault on its sovereignty and the weakening of the Russia-China alliance.
Meanwhile, in Asia, the Australia, New Zealand, United States Security (ANZUS) partners are aiming for the China Sea issue as the casus belli against China — this, despite perfectly sound arrangements having been forged by that emerging superpower with Asean to resolve their shared maritime territorial and resource issues through peaceful dialog and joint exploitation.
Thus, with an irrational element needing to be introduced, the likely “hero” would be a little boy blue with all his insecurities covered up by his love of guns, the company of his kabarkada cronies, all while exhibiting an incompetence that has caused the most dismal Asean growth rate the past year and presiding over troubles at home that are wreaking havoc on the nation’s institutions.
Here, the perfect chance to escape all these woes is by playing soldier and patriot, egged on by a Big Brother, who promises this little “useful idiot” a steady supply of disposed guns, warships, and planes for his war games. No surprise there really — for this little dummy now struts before his generals, declaring a shift of focus, from internal security to the defense of the realm. And as the little boy now has his toys to brandish, all it takes is to provoke an overreaction from the “enemy.”
That situation was very eruditely described in the Asia Sentinel, a prestigious Web magazine that features well-known Asian writers. In a Dec. 20 article there (“US Playing a Dangerous Asia-Pacific Game?”), Gavin Greenwood says: “On Dec. 14, Philippine President Benigno Aquino formally commissioned his country’s latest and most capable warship, a 46-year-old former US Coast Guard cutter. Renamed the Gregorio del Pilar after a young revolutionary general killed fighting American troops in 1899, the navy’s new flagship… along with many other small warships, form what military strategists like to call ‘the tip of the spear’… The significance of this ageing vessel’s deployment, however, is not its manifest inability to defend itself — let alone the Philippines — from almost any other warship afloat in the region but that such an attack could invoke the country’s 60-year-old mutual defense treaty with the US… The role of the Gregorio del Pilar may be seen as simply to remain at sea long enough to get in the way of a potential enemy — invariably seen as China — and introduce a layer of uncertainty over the consequences of any direct action against the Philippines or its state assets…
“By providing the Philippines with even the most limited means to confront an opponent at sea, backed by Clinton’s explicit signaling her government’s resolve to stand by its treaty obligation, Washington may have handed over the potential detonator for an armed confrontation with China to the crew of an elderly ship that had once borne the name of the first US Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton’s caution that ‘when the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation’…”
Such a sword — in the hands of a little tin soldier boy imbued with a growing sense of insecurity over his domestic failures and the conflicts he has spawned, who is moreover nervous and fretful of the consequences of his rapidly disintegrating governance — can certainly come in handy, with Big Brother eagerly awaiting the consequences.
(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)
Friday, December 23, 2011
Useful idiot’s autocratic mission
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
12/23/2011
BS Aquino III had wanted to impeach the Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice (CJ) as far back as January, our informant tells us. Now, even the Senate President faces an ouster plot by a Liberal Party that wants to consolidate its hold on the upper chamber, with the last phase of the plan getting the Vice- President “boiled” in the proverbial “hot water.”
Eight demonstrably lame charges were raised against the CJ, such as his alleged “biased” decisions — despite the fact that SC decisions are collectively arrived at. What is indisputable is that this CJ ouster move would allow BS Aquino and his cohorts to appoint one of their own to the top post, such as (alleged Machiavellian) Justice Antonio Carpio of “The Firm” or Ma. Lourdes Sereno, a demonstrably biased magistrate for the ruling powers.
Our source, very high up in politics, was told in a visit to Malacañang last January — long before the Palace and its previous occupant figured in a “hold departure” imbroglio — that the maximum goal was to oust nine more SC justices. Why would Malacañang want this if the problem, as it is being made to appear, is simply the CJ (along with perhaps two of his associates)?
It should be clear by now that there is a bigger agenda to this impeachment: The replacement of as many sitting justices with BS Aquino’s appointees. Hence, the goal is full control of the SC, with justices beholden and compliant to the Executive. After this, there will be full control of the Senate; and an autocracy without a vice- president would soon follow.
Who could have thought of this? Like many of us, my informant does not think that either BS Aquino or his lieutenant is bright enough to conceive of such a plan. We are, of course, no stranger to PeNoy’s fecklessness throughout his stints in the House and the Senate; in his election campaign; and, now, his know-nothing, do-nothing presidency.
It is apparent that Renato Corona was speaking with more than just propaganda (or even Hacienda Luisita) in mind when he accused BSA III of fomenting a “dictatorship” — though I think by the time the VP is immobilized, the term “autocracy” would be more accurate. So, who could be so skillfully coaxing PeNoy into this direction and why?
Knowing the history of authoritarianism (of both President Marcos and Cory Aquino), we can only conclude that it is no one else but the US State Department.
Marcos kept Ambassador Henry Byroade on martial law plans, even as he had the brains to plan and carry it out all by himself. Cory, meanwhile, had her “revolution” and “revolutionary government” thanks to the US. BSA III’s candidacy was also conceived and run for him by the same forces that backed his mother. Kristie Kenney, the US envoy at that time, even appeared on national TV saying, “I wear Yellow,” in the run-up to the polls.
Later on, as PeNoy was in his first few months in office, one of his executives kept asking one of the Yellow veterans this question: “Has the US Embassy talked to you?”
When the executive no longer sought him for guidance, this Yellow veteran (who remains anonymous for now upon his request) then asked him about this and was told that the Palace was already in close touch with the Embassy.
Yes, the US State Department does micro-manage, especially when it’s a matter of national security — like when it micro-managed the transition from Marcos to Cory with the frenzied trips of Philip Habib and Stephen Solarz, or the earlier “snap election” TV interview with Nightline host, etc.
Marcos planned martial law from 1966 to the moment it was declared in 1972. While BSA III didn’t plan his mother’s death or his run for the highest seat, he did “win” after a confounded automated election system, which coincidentally used US-based Dominion Voting Systems software that faced many issues in New York’s elections.
With the gamut of social and economic challenges left unaddressed, BSA III curiously gives priority to his government’s conflict with the SC, as well as a foiled Senate shake-up. Amid this faltering governance, US State Department officials, namely, Hillary Clinton, seem to be more concerned with buttressing PeNoy’s “machismo” exertions on the South China Sea and “upgrading” Philippine naval assets with “junk” Hamilton cutters.
Last Nov. 17, Barack Obama declared before the Australian Parliament that the US will now “shift from the war on terrorism to economic and security challenges in the Asia-Pacific region,” as he deployed 2,500 US Marines to that country. Indonesia warned that such a ove will only spark tension and mistrust, on top of “irritating” China. It was then no accident that President Hu Jin Tao called on the Chinese Navy weeks later to “prepare for combat.”
All this is happening under a simmering new “cold war,” with Russia on the European front and us in the Pacific theater.
On Dec. 12, the little gun-loving PeNoy addressed the new Armed Forces chief “to shift the military’s focus from defending the country from internal threats to defending it from external (ones), particularly intruders… since the government’s separate peace negotiations with communist rebels and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are moving forward.”
I have always wondered why communist leader JoMa Sison went to the Netherlands, and not Cuba or China, for exile; or why Ninoy coddled and Cory released him. Now, he is rumored to be coming home to sanctify another Aquino in order to cap off the political consolidation.
With the many rebellions supposedly ending, with the MILF soon happy with its territories (having permanent US bases), and with BSA III as their unifying leader, what could be the end game? Is it to unite the nation in a “holy war” against the intruder in the now dubbed West Philippine Sea; is it to nettle and consternate the enemy of the US while inviting devastation the way the Philippines did in World War II? Useful idiots all indeed!
(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
12/23/2011
BS Aquino III had wanted to impeach the Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice (CJ) as far back as January, our informant tells us. Now, even the Senate President faces an ouster plot by a Liberal Party that wants to consolidate its hold on the upper chamber, with the last phase of the plan getting the Vice- President “boiled” in the proverbial “hot water.”
Eight demonstrably lame charges were raised against the CJ, such as his alleged “biased” decisions — despite the fact that SC decisions are collectively arrived at. What is indisputable is that this CJ ouster move would allow BS Aquino and his cohorts to appoint one of their own to the top post, such as (alleged Machiavellian) Justice Antonio Carpio of “The Firm” or Ma. Lourdes Sereno, a demonstrably biased magistrate for the ruling powers.
Our source, very high up in politics, was told in a visit to Malacañang last January — long before the Palace and its previous occupant figured in a “hold departure” imbroglio — that the maximum goal was to oust nine more SC justices. Why would Malacañang want this if the problem, as it is being made to appear, is simply the CJ (along with perhaps two of his associates)?
It should be clear by now that there is a bigger agenda to this impeachment: The replacement of as many sitting justices with BS Aquino’s appointees. Hence, the goal is full control of the SC, with justices beholden and compliant to the Executive. After this, there will be full control of the Senate; and an autocracy without a vice- president would soon follow.
Who could have thought of this? Like many of us, my informant does not think that either BS Aquino or his lieutenant is bright enough to conceive of such a plan. We are, of course, no stranger to PeNoy’s fecklessness throughout his stints in the House and the Senate; in his election campaign; and, now, his know-nothing, do-nothing presidency.
It is apparent that Renato Corona was speaking with more than just propaganda (or even Hacienda Luisita) in mind when he accused BSA III of fomenting a “dictatorship” — though I think by the time the VP is immobilized, the term “autocracy” would be more accurate. So, who could be so skillfully coaxing PeNoy into this direction and why?
Knowing the history of authoritarianism (of both President Marcos and Cory Aquino), we can only conclude that it is no one else but the US State Department.
Marcos kept Ambassador Henry Byroade on martial law plans, even as he had the brains to plan and carry it out all by himself. Cory, meanwhile, had her “revolution” and “revolutionary government” thanks to the US. BSA III’s candidacy was also conceived and run for him by the same forces that backed his mother. Kristie Kenney, the US envoy at that time, even appeared on national TV saying, “I wear Yellow,” in the run-up to the polls.
Later on, as PeNoy was in his first few months in office, one of his executives kept asking one of the Yellow veterans this question: “Has the US Embassy talked to you?”
When the executive no longer sought him for guidance, this Yellow veteran (who remains anonymous for now upon his request) then asked him about this and was told that the Palace was already in close touch with the Embassy.
Yes, the US State Department does micro-manage, especially when it’s a matter of national security — like when it micro-managed the transition from Marcos to Cory with the frenzied trips of Philip Habib and Stephen Solarz, or the earlier “snap election” TV interview with Nightline host, etc.
Marcos planned martial law from 1966 to the moment it was declared in 1972. While BSA III didn’t plan his mother’s death or his run for the highest seat, he did “win” after a confounded automated election system, which coincidentally used US-based Dominion Voting Systems software that faced many issues in New York’s elections.
With the gamut of social and economic challenges left unaddressed, BSA III curiously gives priority to his government’s conflict with the SC, as well as a foiled Senate shake-up. Amid this faltering governance, US State Department officials, namely, Hillary Clinton, seem to be more concerned with buttressing PeNoy’s “machismo” exertions on the South China Sea and “upgrading” Philippine naval assets with “junk” Hamilton cutters.
Last Nov. 17, Barack Obama declared before the Australian Parliament that the US will now “shift from the war on terrorism to economic and security challenges in the Asia-Pacific region,” as he deployed 2,500 US Marines to that country. Indonesia warned that such a ove will only spark tension and mistrust, on top of “irritating” China. It was then no accident that President Hu Jin Tao called on the Chinese Navy weeks later to “prepare for combat.”
All this is happening under a simmering new “cold war,” with Russia on the European front and us in the Pacific theater.
On Dec. 12, the little gun-loving PeNoy addressed the new Armed Forces chief “to shift the military’s focus from defending the country from internal threats to defending it from external (ones), particularly intruders… since the government’s separate peace negotiations with communist rebels and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are moving forward.”
I have always wondered why communist leader JoMa Sison went to the Netherlands, and not Cuba or China, for exile; or why Ninoy coddled and Cory released him. Now, he is rumored to be coming home to sanctify another Aquino in order to cap off the political consolidation.
With the many rebellions supposedly ending, with the MILF soon happy with its territories (having permanent US bases), and with BSA III as their unifying leader, what could be the end game? Is it to unite the nation in a “holy war” against the intruder in the now dubbed West Philippine Sea; is it to nettle and consternate the enemy of the US while inviting devastation the way the Philippines did in World War II? Useful idiots all indeed!
(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)
Thursday, December 22, 2011
The Oligarchy, 2011 and 2012 drags
CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
12/19-25/2011
I owe it to our weekly OpinYon readers to give a year-end assessment of the state of the national economy. For Juan de la Cruz, keeping track of the country’s financial, material and social conditions alone is a task made doubly difficult by the leadership in Malacañang that certain quarters say deliberately creates noisy political sideshows and circuses to divert attention from the true economic picture. This time, though, summing up and accurately describing the state of our economy is made a bit easier with the IMF (International Monetary Fund) assessment of our GDP (gross domestic product), which it says “is well below the official 5 to 6% target and the 4.5 to 5.5% forecast,” prompting it to cut its full-year outlook for 2011 to just “3.7% from (the previous) 4.7%.” The BS Aquino III administration actually had, in economist Ben Diokno’s words, only “aspirational” growth rates of 7 to 8%; whereas the reality for the people now is an “asphyxiational” growth rate that is choking our economy.
The IMF’s projection for Philippine GDP next year is 4.2%. Truth to tell, for an economy to just stand in place, at least 6% growth should be achieved; below that, it would be simply falling behind expectations--for example, in jobs generation, which is vital to a growing labor supply setting like the Philippines. The Aquino III administration cannot contend that the global financial and economic crisis since 2008 has hampered its efforts because all other countries in Asia are faced with the same conditions but with them doing much better. The IMF projects that Vietnam’s 2012 GDP will be 6.5%, with its 2011 growth rate estimated at 5.8%--almost double that of the Philippines. The consensus of all economic analysts about our country’s dismal performance has been the under-spending of the Aquino III government, courtesy of its Budget Secretary Butch Abad and its economic team, led by NEDA (National Economic Development Authority) chief Cayetano Paderanga. For lesser fiascos, other officials have been fired; but not in this administration.
As this column was intended to analyze, reflect and provide enlightenment and guidance to OpinYon readers on consumer welfare and protection issues, this focus necessarily brought us to the gamut of social, financial, as well as micro- and macro-economic issues. We have given the most space and effort to electricity, putting it on the people’s consciousness as the top economic issue. Today, almost everyone knows that the Philippines has “the highest power cost in Asia” and a national outcry has been raised to demand action from the highest authority of the land. But, in spite of such calls, coming even from normally taciturn conservative business and labor groups, Malacañang has chosen to stay meek and mute. Worse, Congress and the Senate are not only equally mute; but the Energy Committee chairs, Sen. Serge Osmeña and Rep. Dina Abad, are actively suppressing initiatives from the few legislators who have dared to raise questions. Oligarchs win, people suffer.
I cannot overemphasize the deleterious and devastating impact of the oligarchs’ control of our political institutions that determine the rest of the nation’s economic-social governance, which stack the odds against the people. As in electricity, our petroleum sector which was privatized and deregulated since FVR’s term--a common program of all the Yellow (Edsa I and II) administrations from Cory to Gloria and now, Aquino III--charges some of the highest rates in the world. A recent report on Philippine gasoline prices showed our unleaded gasoline to be 20% higher than the highest unleaded gasoline prices in the United States.
The major oil companies here are alliances of the local oligarchs with the global petroleum giants--from Shell, which has the Ayalas, to Petron, which has the Ashmore group with San Miguel Corp. lurking behind--all traditional oligarch family names intertwined with the political dynasties of the land.
But that’s not all: As we turn to every strategic sector of the economy, we see the oligarchs and their abuses. Our telecommunications charges, for instance, are high due to the highest interconnection fees in the world. Our MRT and LRT have been exploited by a few local families that conspired with the regime of FVR to set sky high profits for the “investors” while financing these with government “sovereign guarantees;” which led to a forced government buyback and instant profits in connivance with Goldman Sachs and other foreign finance mafia firms suing the Philippine government for payment (with the captive Arroyo government only too willing to cooperate by compelling the DBP and Land Bank to cough out $800 million to $1 billion).
By the way, scandals are now erupting around this involving Bobby Ongpin while BS Aquino III and MVP this time around are working out a sweetheart deal to re-privatize the MRT after taxpayers shell our P6 billion to refurbish it, with MVP subsequently allowed to raise fares by up to 70% by 2012.
Our regular column here has also dealt with other critical issues involving the scams of global oligarchy-captured institutions such as the WHO. We were among the very, very few Filipinos who understood the scam behind the H1N1 scare to compel our governments to buy billions of useless vaccines, which now have all gone to waste. We also wrote of the HPV vaccine hoax, which is still being pushed by pharmaceutical firms, beauty consultants (like Belo) and some government health officials, being completely unnecessary aside from being very harmful, as many cases of serious side effects in the US have shown.
Invariably, at the root of all these problems that bedevil consumers (who are also taxpayers and citizens) is the financial oligarchy that pulls the strings and moves its puppets (in the corridors of government and other multilateral or national public institutions, as well as mainstream media) to pull the wool over the public’s eyes while picking their pockets.
Our society and country must therefore head toward the elimination of the power of the oligarchy over our national polity, government and financial structures, in order to restore genuine people’s power (not of the Yellow kind that hides the oligarchs behind its glare). We still hope that our electoral system can bring the changes we need, by installing the correct political leaders who will uphold public interest over oligarchic greed.
Since we have two elections ahead where our actions can count, we need to treble our efforts to educate, elucidate and enlighten the nation and the people. That is what we in OpinYon have pledged to accomplish, along with my own little tri-media sphere that always blares the message: “Down with the Oligarchs! Up with the People!”
(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
12/19-25/2011
I owe it to our weekly OpinYon readers to give a year-end assessment of the state of the national economy. For Juan de la Cruz, keeping track of the country’s financial, material and social conditions alone is a task made doubly difficult by the leadership in Malacañang that certain quarters say deliberately creates noisy political sideshows and circuses to divert attention from the true economic picture. This time, though, summing up and accurately describing the state of our economy is made a bit easier with the IMF (International Monetary Fund) assessment of our GDP (gross domestic product), which it says “is well below the official 5 to 6% target and the 4.5 to 5.5% forecast,” prompting it to cut its full-year outlook for 2011 to just “3.7% from (the previous) 4.7%.” The BS Aquino III administration actually had, in economist Ben Diokno’s words, only “aspirational” growth rates of 7 to 8%; whereas the reality for the people now is an “asphyxiational” growth rate that is choking our economy.
The IMF’s projection for Philippine GDP next year is 4.2%. Truth to tell, for an economy to just stand in place, at least 6% growth should be achieved; below that, it would be simply falling behind expectations--for example, in jobs generation, which is vital to a growing labor supply setting like the Philippines. The Aquino III administration cannot contend that the global financial and economic crisis since 2008 has hampered its efforts because all other countries in Asia are faced with the same conditions but with them doing much better. The IMF projects that Vietnam’s 2012 GDP will be 6.5%, with its 2011 growth rate estimated at 5.8%--almost double that of the Philippines. The consensus of all economic analysts about our country’s dismal performance has been the under-spending of the Aquino III government, courtesy of its Budget Secretary Butch Abad and its economic team, led by NEDA (National Economic Development Authority) chief Cayetano Paderanga. For lesser fiascos, other officials have been fired; but not in this administration.
As this column was intended to analyze, reflect and provide enlightenment and guidance to OpinYon readers on consumer welfare and protection issues, this focus necessarily brought us to the gamut of social, financial, as well as micro- and macro-economic issues. We have given the most space and effort to electricity, putting it on the people’s consciousness as the top economic issue. Today, almost everyone knows that the Philippines has “the highest power cost in Asia” and a national outcry has been raised to demand action from the highest authority of the land. But, in spite of such calls, coming even from normally taciturn conservative business and labor groups, Malacañang has chosen to stay meek and mute. Worse, Congress and the Senate are not only equally mute; but the Energy Committee chairs, Sen. Serge Osmeña and Rep. Dina Abad, are actively suppressing initiatives from the few legislators who have dared to raise questions. Oligarchs win, people suffer.
I cannot overemphasize the deleterious and devastating impact of the oligarchs’ control of our political institutions that determine the rest of the nation’s economic-social governance, which stack the odds against the people. As in electricity, our petroleum sector which was privatized and deregulated since FVR’s term--a common program of all the Yellow (Edsa I and II) administrations from Cory to Gloria and now, Aquino III--charges some of the highest rates in the world. A recent report on Philippine gasoline prices showed our unleaded gasoline to be 20% higher than the highest unleaded gasoline prices in the United States.
The major oil companies here are alliances of the local oligarchs with the global petroleum giants--from Shell, which has the Ayalas, to Petron, which has the Ashmore group with San Miguel Corp. lurking behind--all traditional oligarch family names intertwined with the political dynasties of the land.
But that’s not all: As we turn to every strategic sector of the economy, we see the oligarchs and their abuses. Our telecommunications charges, for instance, are high due to the highest interconnection fees in the world. Our MRT and LRT have been exploited by a few local families that conspired with the regime of FVR to set sky high profits for the “investors” while financing these with government “sovereign guarantees;” which led to a forced government buyback and instant profits in connivance with Goldman Sachs and other foreign finance mafia firms suing the Philippine government for payment (with the captive Arroyo government only too willing to cooperate by compelling the DBP and Land Bank to cough out $800 million to $1 billion).
By the way, scandals are now erupting around this involving Bobby Ongpin while BS Aquino III and MVP this time around are working out a sweetheart deal to re-privatize the MRT after taxpayers shell our P6 billion to refurbish it, with MVP subsequently allowed to raise fares by up to 70% by 2012.
Our regular column here has also dealt with other critical issues involving the scams of global oligarchy-captured institutions such as the WHO. We were among the very, very few Filipinos who understood the scam behind the H1N1 scare to compel our governments to buy billions of useless vaccines, which now have all gone to waste. We also wrote of the HPV vaccine hoax, which is still being pushed by pharmaceutical firms, beauty consultants (like Belo) and some government health officials, being completely unnecessary aside from being very harmful, as many cases of serious side effects in the US have shown.
Invariably, at the root of all these problems that bedevil consumers (who are also taxpayers and citizens) is the financial oligarchy that pulls the strings and moves its puppets (in the corridors of government and other multilateral or national public institutions, as well as mainstream media) to pull the wool over the public’s eyes while picking their pockets.
Our society and country must therefore head toward the elimination of the power of the oligarchy over our national polity, government and financial structures, in order to restore genuine people’s power (not of the Yellow kind that hides the oligarchs behind its glare). We still hope that our electoral system can bring the changes we need, by installing the correct political leaders who will uphold public interest over oligarchic greed.
Since we have two elections ahead where our actions can count, we need to treble our efforts to educate, elucidate and enlighten the nation and the people. That is what we in OpinYon have pledged to accomplish, along with my own little tri-media sphere that always blares the message: “Down with the Oligarchs! Up with the People!”
(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, December 19, 2011
BS Aquino III is not president?
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
12/19/2011
Just as we said that Gloria Arroyo was not president when she was declared such in 2001 by Davide and again in 2004 by Congress (in an election where the Cojuangco-Aquino clan endorsed her wholeheartedly), so it is increasingly the case with the current Malacanang occupant.
When BS Aquino III became an accidental candidate in 2009 upon the death of his mother, Cory Aquino (an event played up to launch his campaign), the election that followed was soon hounded by suspicions on the PCOS (Precinct Count Optical Scan) machines of Smartmatic and the Commission on Election (Comelec)s removal of vital voting safeguards. Many became aware that the UV light ballot authentication, the digital signature of the Boards of Election Inspectors (BEI), and the voters receipt were all done away with. Even the highly irregular recall of 76,000 CF (Compact Flash) cards just a week before the polls raised a huge red flag.
Today, many of those suspected criminal acts are now confirmed, thanks to the findings of citizens election watchdogs, CenPEG (Center for People Empowerment in Governance) and AES (Automated Election System) Watch, after year-long investigations.
The following conclusions, which I abridge below, have been borne out of the painstaking efforts of information technology (IT) academics and experts alike:
On May 10, 2010, (Comelec) made available to the public the election results by precinct, town/city, district, province, and nation (via the Web site) http://electionresults.comelec.gov.ph/. A few months later this Web site was taken down. We believe that it is governments duty to make election data from this Web site publicly and freely available, because it is THE STORY of how the Smartmatic-Comelec partnership carried out the computerization of our elections, and whether the computerization exercise was successful or not (As such) we have decided to publish our mirror of this Web site, so that the data are available even if they are not anymore available (That) Web site is: http://curry.ateneo.net/~ambo/ph2010/electionresults/...
A number of researchers have begun work on the data in this Web site (discovering) many serious errors like: 1) 371 precinct election results with 10 voters or less, when the actual number of voters is 400 to 1000 for each of those precincts, 2) 8,939 precincts with no data at all, indicating a possible failure of transmission of data from the precinct to Comelec, 3) of the 67,162 precinct election results which contain data, 25,530 precinct election results have missing data in one elective position, or two or three or more (Such) missing data in one or more elective positions is a clear indicator of the presence of serious bugs which SysTest Labs already pointed out in its certification report to Comelec, which bugs the Technical Evaluation Committee and Comelec conveniently chose to ignore
(The researchers cannot) stand by while Comelec makes another serious mistake in re-using the Smartmatic technology. First, Smartmatic has to install a substantial number of bug fixes in their system before they can get it to work for our elections. Second, Smartmatic cannot do these bug fixes by its lonesome self, since it does not own the technology the copyright to the software is by Dominion Voting Systems of Canada, and Smartmatic is not allowed to make any changes in the source code, and must wait for Dominion to write the bug fixes in its own good time. Third, the PCOS hardware is not adequate to implement the security features required by RA 9369, like: 1) the requirement of digital signatures by the BEI and 2) the planned fingerprint/biometric reader to be installed on the PCOS
Kudos to experts Dr. Pablo Manalastas, Dr. Felix Muga and Dr. Philip Truscott of the Ateneo de Manilas computer science and mathematics departments for trawling data originally posted on the Comelec Web site, which had been inexplicably taken down.
Out of all the major findings, the most significant centers on the missing data in 25,520 precincts, which indicates that there were at least two different canvassing programs in use during the 2010 elections, one that was used in the 41,632 precincts that had a complete set of data and another that was used in the 25,530 precincts that had missing sets of data
So they ask: How come there was more than one program in play? The obvious answer is that the original program that was supposed to canvass votes and transmit the results from those 25,530 precincts was replaced by another program
As a result, The only way of discovering the actual results would be to open the ballot boxes in those 25,530 precincts and count or feed them into pre-tested PCOS counting machines. The results can then be compared to the results reported by the substituted software In the set up by Smartmatic, the consolidating computers apparently had no hand-shaking protocols that would have allowed them to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate sources (which means) the canvassing computers could have added to, subtracted from, or otherwise altered election results and then transmitted bogus returns.
The late IT expert Manuel Alcuaz had repeatedly stressed in the many forums he spoke, including my TV show, that the cheating in elections is not at the precinct level, where local and party officials are focused on, but at the municipal canvassing level, where the totals are very conveniently and easily manipulated with spurious inputs. Knowing this, he was thus incensed as the precinct level computerization was a big rip-off. Since past Comelec officials (including its then legal chief) allegedly derived pecuniary benefits from Smartmatics PCOS machines, so are the present crop of Comelec commissioners and their supposed politician-clients perceptibly pushing for this patently fraudulent automated system for 2013 and 2016.
In the meantime, the political elite and its darling chief executive are creating political circuses left and right all to divert attention from the most crucial issues, including the question, Is PeNoy simply a Hocus-PCOSed president?
(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
12/19/2011
Just as we said that Gloria Arroyo was not president when she was declared such in 2001 by Davide and again in 2004 by Congress (in an election where the Cojuangco-Aquino clan endorsed her wholeheartedly), so it is increasingly the case with the current Malacanang occupant.
When BS Aquino III became an accidental candidate in 2009 upon the death of his mother, Cory Aquino (an event played up to launch his campaign), the election that followed was soon hounded by suspicions on the PCOS (Precinct Count Optical Scan) machines of Smartmatic and the Commission on Election (Comelec)s removal of vital voting safeguards. Many became aware that the UV light ballot authentication, the digital signature of the Boards of Election Inspectors (BEI), and the voters receipt were all done away with. Even the highly irregular recall of 76,000 CF (Compact Flash) cards just a week before the polls raised a huge red flag.
Today, many of those suspected criminal acts are now confirmed, thanks to the findings of citizens election watchdogs, CenPEG (Center for People Empowerment in Governance) and AES (Automated Election System) Watch, after year-long investigations.
The following conclusions, which I abridge below, have been borne out of the painstaking efforts of information technology (IT) academics and experts alike:
On May 10, 2010, (Comelec) made available to the public the election results by precinct, town/city, district, province, and nation (via the Web site) http://electionresults.comelec.gov.ph/. A few months later this Web site was taken down. We believe that it is governments duty to make election data from this Web site publicly and freely available, because it is THE STORY of how the Smartmatic-Comelec partnership carried out the computerization of our elections, and whether the computerization exercise was successful or not (As such) we have decided to publish our mirror of this Web site, so that the data are available even if they are not anymore available (That) Web site is: http://curry.ateneo.net/~ambo/ph2010/electionresults/...
A number of researchers have begun work on the data in this Web site (discovering) many serious errors like: 1) 371 precinct election results with 10 voters or less, when the actual number of voters is 400 to 1000 for each of those precincts, 2) 8,939 precincts with no data at all, indicating a possible failure of transmission of data from the precinct to Comelec, 3) of the 67,162 precinct election results which contain data, 25,530 precinct election results have missing data in one elective position, or two or three or more (Such) missing data in one or more elective positions is a clear indicator of the presence of serious bugs which SysTest Labs already pointed out in its certification report to Comelec, which bugs the Technical Evaluation Committee and Comelec conveniently chose to ignore
(The researchers cannot) stand by while Comelec makes another serious mistake in re-using the Smartmatic technology. First, Smartmatic has to install a substantial number of bug fixes in their system before they can get it to work for our elections. Second, Smartmatic cannot do these bug fixes by its lonesome self, since it does not own the technology the copyright to the software is by Dominion Voting Systems of Canada, and Smartmatic is not allowed to make any changes in the source code, and must wait for Dominion to write the bug fixes in its own good time. Third, the PCOS hardware is not adequate to implement the security features required by RA 9369, like: 1) the requirement of digital signatures by the BEI and 2) the planned fingerprint/biometric reader to be installed on the PCOS
Kudos to experts Dr. Pablo Manalastas, Dr. Felix Muga and Dr. Philip Truscott of the Ateneo de Manilas computer science and mathematics departments for trawling data originally posted on the Comelec Web site, which had been inexplicably taken down.
Out of all the major findings, the most significant centers on the missing data in 25,520 precincts, which indicates that there were at least two different canvassing programs in use during the 2010 elections, one that was used in the 41,632 precincts that had a complete set of data and another that was used in the 25,530 precincts that had missing sets of data
So they ask: How come there was more than one program in play? The obvious answer is that the original program that was supposed to canvass votes and transmit the results from those 25,530 precincts was replaced by another program
As a result, The only way of discovering the actual results would be to open the ballot boxes in those 25,530 precincts and count or feed them into pre-tested PCOS counting machines. The results can then be compared to the results reported by the substituted software In the set up by Smartmatic, the consolidating computers apparently had no hand-shaking protocols that would have allowed them to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate sources (which means) the canvassing computers could have added to, subtracted from, or otherwise altered election results and then transmitted bogus returns.
The late IT expert Manuel Alcuaz had repeatedly stressed in the many forums he spoke, including my TV show, that the cheating in elections is not at the precinct level, where local and party officials are focused on, but at the municipal canvassing level, where the totals are very conveniently and easily manipulated with spurious inputs. Knowing this, he was thus incensed as the precinct level computerization was a big rip-off. Since past Comelec officials (including its then legal chief) allegedly derived pecuniary benefits from Smartmatics PCOS machines, so are the present crop of Comelec commissioners and their supposed politician-clients perceptibly pushing for this patently fraudulent automated system for 2013 and 2016.
In the meantime, the political elite and its darling chief executive are creating political circuses left and right all to divert attention from the most crucial issues, including the question, Is PeNoy simply a Hocus-PCOSed president?
(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)
Friday, December 16, 2011
Impeach all: Merry Xmas!
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
12/16/2011
Except for the very sparse Christmas spirit in the air, I bet one wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference between this December season and months past. Everyone is pretty much aware of how life has progressively gotten harder each passing year. But, just when I was just about to give up on the holidays, an early and unexpected present seems to be coming our way, with the moro-moro war among the Yellow factions now getting so heated up that it’s becoming somewhat real.
Of course, the acrimony as of now involves only words, which don’t break bones. However, in the event that somebody gets pikon and starts throwing real punches, the ruffling of the feathers can lead to some blood being drawn or worse. Even if real issues, such as the widely believed power plunder conspiracy between Malacañang, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), and the oligarchs, and other similar Big Business abuses, are set aside for a while, I am hoping that enough pandemonium will manage to drag in truly vital issues into the fray.
For starters, somebody could raise the issue of the oligarchs’ control of certain members of the Supreme Court (SC), whether appointed by PeNoy or Gloria. In fact, one of the appointees of the present dispensation, Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, was the ponente of a decision favoring the ERC and the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) on the crucial approval of a 2009 Performance Based Regulation rate-setting scheme that raised power rates and Meralco’s profits — based on, of all things, a flimsy technicality of a supposed failure of consumer advocates to attend an ERC hearing.
Sereno apparently glossed over the fact that there was an oppositor present in that hearing (Mr. Uriel Borja of Iligan Light and Power), who interposed his objection and was amply prepared to present the evidence of the alleged massive overpricing of Meralco of its power rate proposals, but whom the ERC, in its usual pro-Meralco manner, gagged on the technicality that he was not registered as an “intervenor.”
As a result, the public has been penalized. They are now charged almost double the P0.90 per kilowatt-hour cost, which was shown by another petitioner, Mang Naro Lualhati, to be the rightful rate.
Moreover, as we narrated in a previous column, the ERC again apparently conspired with Meralco to confuse power consumer advocacy groups about the exact schedule of a recent hearing, hoping that the latter would be declared in default. Even while the advocates persisted, waited, and had siesta in the hearing room until the new appointed time, the issue that Mang Naro was to raise in a subsequent hearing was resolved in favor of Meralco since the ERC sent the advice for the later date to an old address of Lualhati which he, of course, never got. If this is brought to the SC, I have no doubts that Lualhati’s petition would be thrown out again.
Further, who can forget that another widely perceived Meralco-leaning lawyer was appointed to the high court by PeNoy? According to the news recap sent by Ferdie Pasion of the history of this magistrate’s appointment, “Court of Appeals Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes, who once served as finance manager of a security agency owned by President Aquino’s family, was appointed as the newest Supreme Court justice… Reyes served as vice president and finance manager from 1987 to 1990 of Best Security Agency Inc., a security agency set up by Benigno Aquino III and his uncle, construction magnate Antolin Oreta.” But that’s not all.
“Reyes was appointed Supreme Court justice despite having been reprimanded by the high court in 2008 for signing a decision favoring Manila Electric Co. even before Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez could decide which of the court’s two divisions should resolve the case.”
The report added: “The Meralco-GSIS case exposed serious ethical issues, prompting the Supreme Court to investigate accusations of bribery. Reyes then faced a Supreme Court panel that eventually reprimanded him for simple misconduct. Reyes’ appointment filled the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Eduardo Nachura” (the former congressman who allegedly did dirty jobs for the Arroyo government as its Solicitor General).
It will be argued that such appointments passed through the Judicial Bar Council composed of politicians and leaders of the legal community. But ask any non-partisan and apolitical members of the community and they will tell you the extent of the horse trading that goes on in that body. That’s why political lackeys get appointed there in the first place. The ordinary folks and consumers will only get a better shake if we impeach all the justices of the present SC and fill the slots with a People’s Court.
That People’s Court can then also take the function of the Ombudsman and Sandiganbayan to prosecute both houses of Congress and the Executive branch, replacing them with a People’s Congress and a “participative-ly” elected Executive structure.
That People’s Democratic Government can then prosecute the dozen or so oligarchs who have been behind the sham democracy in the country and put them in prison with their darling Gloria Arroyo and all her henchmen; same with PeNoy and company for the murders at Hacienda Luisita, the continuing jueteng operations, and the plunder in Quezon City and all over government.
That would be a wonderful Xmas indeed and an even better and happier New Year!
(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
12/16/2011
Except for the very sparse Christmas spirit in the air, I bet one wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference between this December season and months past. Everyone is pretty much aware of how life has progressively gotten harder each passing year. But, just when I was just about to give up on the holidays, an early and unexpected present seems to be coming our way, with the moro-moro war among the Yellow factions now getting so heated up that it’s becoming somewhat real.
Of course, the acrimony as of now involves only words, which don’t break bones. However, in the event that somebody gets pikon and starts throwing real punches, the ruffling of the feathers can lead to some blood being drawn or worse. Even if real issues, such as the widely believed power plunder conspiracy between Malacañang, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), and the oligarchs, and other similar Big Business abuses, are set aside for a while, I am hoping that enough pandemonium will manage to drag in truly vital issues into the fray.
For starters, somebody could raise the issue of the oligarchs’ control of certain members of the Supreme Court (SC), whether appointed by PeNoy or Gloria. In fact, one of the appointees of the present dispensation, Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, was the ponente of a decision favoring the ERC and the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) on the crucial approval of a 2009 Performance Based Regulation rate-setting scheme that raised power rates and Meralco’s profits — based on, of all things, a flimsy technicality of a supposed failure of consumer advocates to attend an ERC hearing.
Sereno apparently glossed over the fact that there was an oppositor present in that hearing (Mr. Uriel Borja of Iligan Light and Power), who interposed his objection and was amply prepared to present the evidence of the alleged massive overpricing of Meralco of its power rate proposals, but whom the ERC, in its usual pro-Meralco manner, gagged on the technicality that he was not registered as an “intervenor.”
As a result, the public has been penalized. They are now charged almost double the P0.90 per kilowatt-hour cost, which was shown by another petitioner, Mang Naro Lualhati, to be the rightful rate.
Moreover, as we narrated in a previous column, the ERC again apparently conspired with Meralco to confuse power consumer advocacy groups about the exact schedule of a recent hearing, hoping that the latter would be declared in default. Even while the advocates persisted, waited, and had siesta in the hearing room until the new appointed time, the issue that Mang Naro was to raise in a subsequent hearing was resolved in favor of Meralco since the ERC sent the advice for the later date to an old address of Lualhati which he, of course, never got. If this is brought to the SC, I have no doubts that Lualhati’s petition would be thrown out again.
Further, who can forget that another widely perceived Meralco-leaning lawyer was appointed to the high court by PeNoy? According to the news recap sent by Ferdie Pasion of the history of this magistrate’s appointment, “Court of Appeals Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes, who once served as finance manager of a security agency owned by President Aquino’s family, was appointed as the newest Supreme Court justice… Reyes served as vice president and finance manager from 1987 to 1990 of Best Security Agency Inc., a security agency set up by Benigno Aquino III and his uncle, construction magnate Antolin Oreta.” But that’s not all.
“Reyes was appointed Supreme Court justice despite having been reprimanded by the high court in 2008 for signing a decision favoring Manila Electric Co. even before Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez could decide which of the court’s two divisions should resolve the case.”
The report added: “The Meralco-GSIS case exposed serious ethical issues, prompting the Supreme Court to investigate accusations of bribery. Reyes then faced a Supreme Court panel that eventually reprimanded him for simple misconduct. Reyes’ appointment filled the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Eduardo Nachura” (the former congressman who allegedly did dirty jobs for the Arroyo government as its Solicitor General).
It will be argued that such appointments passed through the Judicial Bar Council composed of politicians and leaders of the legal community. But ask any non-partisan and apolitical members of the community and they will tell you the extent of the horse trading that goes on in that body. That’s why political lackeys get appointed there in the first place. The ordinary folks and consumers will only get a better shake if we impeach all the justices of the present SC and fill the slots with a People’s Court.
That People’s Court can then also take the function of the Ombudsman and Sandiganbayan to prosecute both houses of Congress and the Executive branch, replacing them with a People’s Congress and a “participative-ly” elected Executive structure.
That People’s Democratic Government can then prosecute the dozen or so oligarchs who have been behind the sham democracy in the country and put them in prison with their darling Gloria Arroyo and all her henchmen; same with PeNoy and company for the murders at Hacienda Luisita, the continuing jueteng operations, and the plunder in Quezon City and all over government.
That would be a wonderful Xmas indeed and an even better and happier New Year!
(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)
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
BSA III PSALMs off P75-B
CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
12/12-18/2011
“Palm off: to conceal in the palm of the hand, as in cheating at dice or cards or in a sleight-of-hand trick; to dispose of or pass off by deception…”
If you’ve been carried away by the massive PR operation to keep your eyes and ears glued to the ongoing BS Aquino vs. Gloria Arroyo media saga, with a side trip to the BS Aquino vs. Renato Corona royal rumble, then you are certain to miss some of the more gargantuan swindles of the people being perpetrated by the current corporatocratic-bureaucratic conspiracy between Big Business and its captive government.
One of the scams being palmed off involves P75 billion by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), an agency tasked by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001 to privatize the nation’s energy sector, specifically the sale of the National Power Corp. (Napocor)’s power generating assets.
The already established scandal is that after 10 years and at least 80% of Napocor’s assets privatized, PSALM has still not erased Napocor’s original debt of $18 billion, which we taxpayers are saddled with. Worse, just last week, we learned that PSALM has sought approval from the Finance Department to borrow P75 billion for 2011 and P85 billion for 2012 to finance its operations, which Secretary Cesar Purisima will undoubtedly oblige.
PSALM president Emmanuel Ledesma Jr., appointed under the present government, is from Big Business. A banker, former managing director and country head of the Royal Bank of Canada, he is only one of many corporate gofers heading the different departments of government today. The others include Energy Secretary Rene Almendras from the Ayala and Aboitiz companies; Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson who’s worked for Maynilad and was a director of Pangilinan’s Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC); while Trade Secretary Gregorio Domingo had ties with the Bankers Association of the Philippines, the Sys, Meralco, and a list of banks from Chase to Mellon Bank. Transportation and Communications is, of course, headed by cacique investment banker Mar Roxas, whom Senate staffers say can’t hold back his “mata pobre” streak; while Tourism used to be headed by Bertie Lim of the Makati Business Club, then replaced by Ramon Jimenez who used to sell ice cream and burgers but can’t seem to come up with anything so far to sell the country’s vast tourism advantages. See what I mean by a corporatist-captured government?
Ledesma justifies the PSALM palm off by claiming that his agency is already unable to meet its working capital and cash flow requirements. But what are the tasks of PSALM that it should require these billions to operate? The EPIRA tasks it to “take ownership of all existing (Napocor) generation assets, liabilities, IPP (independent power producer) contracts, real estate and all other disposable assets… formulate and implement a program for the sale and privatization of (these) assets and IPP contracts and the liquidation of (Napocor) Debts and Stranded Contract Costs… calculate the amount of the Stranded Debts and Stranded Contract Costs of NPC… (and) assume all outstanding financial obligations of… government agencies arising from their respective Rural Electrification Program.”
But didn’t the sale of 80% of Napocor’s assets raise any funds for PSALM? Where did all the proceeds go and why is the nation still saddled with an $18-billion debt exactly as it was 10 years ago?
And we haven’t even factored in the sale of Napocor’s vast transmission grid that stretches north to south, carrying power generated from its many plants across the country. If you will recall, the grid was renamed TransCo after the EPIRA was passed; it was sold off in 2008 to a group led by Monte Oro--associated with FVR and regular crony-oligarch Enrique Razon--which brought China State Grid into the picture, with the help of the Ramos-affiliated Carlyle Group. Sometime later, the Henry Sy group took over and it is now named the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).
That sale alone should have fetched $3.95 billion but look at what PSALM says now: “The proposed prepayment of NGCP privatization proceeds, Ledesma said, would allow PSALM to meet its cash flow requirements and avoid incurring additional loans for payment of maturing obligations. The shortfall in cash flow, he said, arises due to the mismatch in the timing of the collection of these receivables and the maturity of debt obligation payments.”
TransCo was earning around P18 billion (or $400 million) per annum when it was sold and if this had kept flowing in for PSALM, it would have lightened the burden of government and taxpayers considerably.
The sale of TransCo was supposed to bring in cash to the country’s coffers, unburdening the taxpayer; but instead, the people now have to shoulder almost a hundred billion pesos more every year. Meanwhile, the privatized transmission grid now earns $400 million for the new owners.
No wonder when San Miguel’s Ramon Ang (another gofer) was asked for advice by Henry Sy Jr., this was what he (who also got a piece of the action) said, “SMC did not spend even one peso to join that transaction; if I have then I would have to disclose that… I just advised (Sy and Coyiuto) that… it’s a super deal, but I did not participate.” In that same news report, Sy Jr. said that the acquisition will be funded “from equity and debt arranged by a foreign financial institution.”
While they are arranging the debt and earning from NGCP already, we taxpayers are made to pay PSALM to keep it going, with no cash out from the NGCP buyers at all!
Filipino middle class and masa consumers should wise up to the palming off by the oligarchy and corporatist-controlled system of government (the plutocracy or corpo-bureaucracy) of our hard earned moneys in public utilities and tax payments, and stashing them into their private and corporate bank accounts.
If we no longer allow ourselves to be misled by corporate mainstream media, then we will all see the massive exploitation and abuse we are being subjected to and scream out loud that we won’t take it anymore. Only when this reverberates loud enough will the Walls of the Corporate Jericho fall.
(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
12/12-18/2011
“Palm off: to conceal in the palm of the hand, as in cheating at dice or cards or in a sleight-of-hand trick; to dispose of or pass off by deception…”
If you’ve been carried away by the massive PR operation to keep your eyes and ears glued to the ongoing BS Aquino vs. Gloria Arroyo media saga, with a side trip to the BS Aquino vs. Renato Corona royal rumble, then you are certain to miss some of the more gargantuan swindles of the people being perpetrated by the current corporatocratic-bureaucratic conspiracy between Big Business and its captive government.
One of the scams being palmed off involves P75 billion by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), an agency tasked by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001 to privatize the nation’s energy sector, specifically the sale of the National Power Corp. (Napocor)’s power generating assets.
The already established scandal is that after 10 years and at least 80% of Napocor’s assets privatized, PSALM has still not erased Napocor’s original debt of $18 billion, which we taxpayers are saddled with. Worse, just last week, we learned that PSALM has sought approval from the Finance Department to borrow P75 billion for 2011 and P85 billion for 2012 to finance its operations, which Secretary Cesar Purisima will undoubtedly oblige.
PSALM president Emmanuel Ledesma Jr., appointed under the present government, is from Big Business. A banker, former managing director and country head of the Royal Bank of Canada, he is only one of many corporate gofers heading the different departments of government today. The others include Energy Secretary Rene Almendras from the Ayala and Aboitiz companies; Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson who’s worked for Maynilad and was a director of Pangilinan’s Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC); while Trade Secretary Gregorio Domingo had ties with the Bankers Association of the Philippines, the Sys, Meralco, and a list of banks from Chase to Mellon Bank. Transportation and Communications is, of course, headed by cacique investment banker Mar Roxas, whom Senate staffers say can’t hold back his “mata pobre” streak; while Tourism used to be headed by Bertie Lim of the Makati Business Club, then replaced by Ramon Jimenez who used to sell ice cream and burgers but can’t seem to come up with anything so far to sell the country’s vast tourism advantages. See what I mean by a corporatist-captured government?
Ledesma justifies the PSALM palm off by claiming that his agency is already unable to meet its working capital and cash flow requirements. But what are the tasks of PSALM that it should require these billions to operate? The EPIRA tasks it to “take ownership of all existing (Napocor) generation assets, liabilities, IPP (independent power producer) contracts, real estate and all other disposable assets… formulate and implement a program for the sale and privatization of (these) assets and IPP contracts and the liquidation of (Napocor) Debts and Stranded Contract Costs… calculate the amount of the Stranded Debts and Stranded Contract Costs of NPC… (and) assume all outstanding financial obligations of… government agencies arising from their respective Rural Electrification Program.”
But didn’t the sale of 80% of Napocor’s assets raise any funds for PSALM? Where did all the proceeds go and why is the nation still saddled with an $18-billion debt exactly as it was 10 years ago?
And we haven’t even factored in the sale of Napocor’s vast transmission grid that stretches north to south, carrying power generated from its many plants across the country. If you will recall, the grid was renamed TransCo after the EPIRA was passed; it was sold off in 2008 to a group led by Monte Oro--associated with FVR and regular crony-oligarch Enrique Razon--which brought China State Grid into the picture, with the help of the Ramos-affiliated Carlyle Group. Sometime later, the Henry Sy group took over and it is now named the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).
That sale alone should have fetched $3.95 billion but look at what PSALM says now: “The proposed prepayment of NGCP privatization proceeds, Ledesma said, would allow PSALM to meet its cash flow requirements and avoid incurring additional loans for payment of maturing obligations. The shortfall in cash flow, he said, arises due to the mismatch in the timing of the collection of these receivables and the maturity of debt obligation payments.”
TransCo was earning around P18 billion (or $400 million) per annum when it was sold and if this had kept flowing in for PSALM, it would have lightened the burden of government and taxpayers considerably.
The sale of TransCo was supposed to bring in cash to the country’s coffers, unburdening the taxpayer; but instead, the people now have to shoulder almost a hundred billion pesos more every year. Meanwhile, the privatized transmission grid now earns $400 million for the new owners.
No wonder when San Miguel’s Ramon Ang (another gofer) was asked for advice by Henry Sy Jr., this was what he (who also got a piece of the action) said, “SMC did not spend even one peso to join that transaction; if I have then I would have to disclose that… I just advised (Sy and Coyiuto) that… it’s a super deal, but I did not participate.” In that same news report, Sy Jr. said that the acquisition will be funded “from equity and debt arranged by a foreign financial institution.”
While they are arranging the debt and earning from NGCP already, we taxpayers are made to pay PSALM to keep it going, with no cash out from the NGCP buyers at all!
Filipino middle class and masa consumers should wise up to the palming off by the oligarchy and corporatist-controlled system of government (the plutocracy or corpo-bureaucracy) of our hard earned moneys in public utilities and tax payments, and stashing them into their private and corporate bank accounts.
If we no longer allow ourselves to be misled by corporate mainstream media, then we will all see the massive exploitation and abuse we are being subjected to and scream out loud that we won’t take it anymore. Only when this reverberates loud enough will the Walls of the Corporate Jericho fall.
(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, December 12, 2011
Yellows rant as GDP crashes
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
12/12/2011
A very recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) study had the Philippines dropping to its lowest level in gross domestic product (GDP) growth from 2005 to 2008 among countries in the Asia-Pacific. Currently ranked No. 22, the Philippines used to be 2nd only to Japan in the 1950s and 15th during the early Marcos years (1965-1968). Today, it has been left behind by Vietnam at 7th place, Indonesia at 10th, Thailand at 13th, and Malaysia at 16th, in a group where China, India, Mongolia, Uruguay and (yes) Argentina (of the debt default fame) are the notable leaders.
This IMF report comes on the heels of an anti-poverty summit on 25 years of increasing poverty in RP, which we have traced to the Yellows and their Edsa I and II counter-revolutions. For a quarter of a century, they have waged “hate campaigns,” first against Marcos, then Erap, and now against one of their own, Gloria Arroyo, all to distract the nation from the continuing GDP crashes they have ushered in since 1986.
The last quarter’s growth rate of 3.2 percent is certainly the nadir to which BSA III’s administration has brought this country. Yet, despite its huge toll, this dire economic reversal is not on the agenda of any mainstream debates — whether in the academe, media, the punditry at large, or the religious sector.
Worse, all the Yellows do is rant about BS Aquino’s purported war against Gloria (despite coddling her for a-year-and-a-half) or his new spat with the Supreme Court (SC) and its chief Justice. Here, the Yellows’ “best minds” are brought in to elevate the play-acting — such as that laughable Jesuit Bernas, who compared Noynoy the wimp to the revolutionary giant, Fidel Castro.
Notwithstanding many people’s insistence on more apt parallelisms between PeNoy and Joshua, Forrest Gump, or Bimby; or between Bernas and Damaso, Rasputin, Richelieu or Cardinal Brady of Ireland (the pedophile-priest coddler), let us elevate this discussion from that small-minded analogy to one honest-to-goodness comparison between Fidel Castro’s Cuba and the Yellows’ Philippines: Cuba in 2011 ranked 51st in the United Nation’s Human Development Index while our country only managed to land 112th.
In truth, that Jesuit would no longer be listened to had it not been for the oligarchy-controlled media’s non-stop portrayal of him as a “legal luminary” and “constitutionalist,” when all he has done is to show himself up as a fraud through several of his twisted legal opinions (such as in 2001, which considered a coup d’etat legal for as long as the plotter emerges the victor).
Meanwhile, the Yellow media’s AC/DC (attack-commentary; defend-commentary) on the Arroyo and Corona issues continue to hide the ongoing plunder.
For one, the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm), with the prodding of the energy pirates as well as the approval of Finance Secretary and corporate gofer Cesar Purisima, is indebting Filipino taxpayers once more by another P75 billion (for 2011) and P85 billion (for 2012) for its working capital and operational funding — despite the fact that it has already privatized over 80 percent of the National Power Corp. (Napocor)’s power generating assets, aside from $4 billion worth of the nation’s transmission grid.
Despite the sale of all those assets, Psalm is still saddled with practically its original debt of $18 billion, thereby needing more taxpayers’ billions to keep operating.
Why then was there a need to privatize anything at all when not a shred of the debt or operating cost was going to be covered (where even the $4 billion for our transmission assets hasn’t been collected but with the new owners already raking it in with $200 million in annual profits).
Without an iota of doubt, the massive electricity plundering today was set into high gear in Edsa II, where “civil society,” typified by the likes of Conrado de Quiros, conspired with the now proven corrupt politicos and treasonous military (with the oligarchs’ help) to oust a popularly-elected president who rejected all onerous deals; opposed “sovereign guarantees;” brought down Metro Rail Transit fares (which Yellows like Mar Roxas have been trying to raise); and never allowed a single power and water rate increase in his two-and-a-half year term.
Instead, De Quiros and his ilk attempt to write Procrustean (after Poseidon’s son Procrustes, who cut off victims’ legs to force fit into a small iron bed) to redeem themselves and to spite their hated figure, President Joseph Estrada, even when they are shown up as clowns with their distorted versions of history.
As Erap claimed that Gloria’s arrest is his vindication, the anti-Erap De Quiros could only retort that “if Arroyo’s arrest is any vindication at all, it is a vindication not of Erap but of the groups that demanded that Erap be replaced.”
Now how can this still be claimed with all the evidence of a quantum leap in Filipinos’ economic misery, not to mention political turmoil, post-Edsa II? Perhaps, such a pathological need to lie only reflects a deep-seated fear of the evidence that would damn them.
On the other hand, the proclivity for Procrustean narratives applies to the pro-Gloria Yellows, too. One such fellow, Teddy Locsin Jr., praises the seven-percent GDP under Gloria in 2010 when this was mainly due to election spending. He then tries to deflect attention by digging up past allegations against Estrada, even when he knows that, among other things, the delivery of jueteng money wasn’t proved in court, nor was the stock manipulation charge that was denied by the pension funds’ chiefs.
In truth, Locsin even remarked that the evidence tended to exonerate Estrada — it’s just that this, according to him, was no longer the nation’s problem.
They may talk of the “Rule of Law” today. But what did they say when Estrada’s impeachment trial was scuttled and the myth of his “constructive resignation” was upheld by their court? Well, as it is often said of the Yellows: Ibang klase talaga!
(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
12/12/2011
A very recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) study had the Philippines dropping to its lowest level in gross domestic product (GDP) growth from 2005 to 2008 among countries in the Asia-Pacific. Currently ranked No. 22, the Philippines used to be 2nd only to Japan in the 1950s and 15th during the early Marcos years (1965-1968). Today, it has been left behind by Vietnam at 7th place, Indonesia at 10th, Thailand at 13th, and Malaysia at 16th, in a group where China, India, Mongolia, Uruguay and (yes) Argentina (of the debt default fame) are the notable leaders.
This IMF report comes on the heels of an anti-poverty summit on 25 years of increasing poverty in RP, which we have traced to the Yellows and their Edsa I and II counter-revolutions. For a quarter of a century, they have waged “hate campaigns,” first against Marcos, then Erap, and now against one of their own, Gloria Arroyo, all to distract the nation from the continuing GDP crashes they have ushered in since 1986.
The last quarter’s growth rate of 3.2 percent is certainly the nadir to which BSA III’s administration has brought this country. Yet, despite its huge toll, this dire economic reversal is not on the agenda of any mainstream debates — whether in the academe, media, the punditry at large, or the religious sector.
Worse, all the Yellows do is rant about BS Aquino’s purported war against Gloria (despite coddling her for a-year-and-a-half) or his new spat with the Supreme Court (SC) and its chief Justice. Here, the Yellows’ “best minds” are brought in to elevate the play-acting — such as that laughable Jesuit Bernas, who compared Noynoy the wimp to the revolutionary giant, Fidel Castro.
Notwithstanding many people’s insistence on more apt parallelisms between PeNoy and Joshua, Forrest Gump, or Bimby; or between Bernas and Damaso, Rasputin, Richelieu or Cardinal Brady of Ireland (the pedophile-priest coddler), let us elevate this discussion from that small-minded analogy to one honest-to-goodness comparison between Fidel Castro’s Cuba and the Yellows’ Philippines: Cuba in 2011 ranked 51st in the United Nation’s Human Development Index while our country only managed to land 112th.
In truth, that Jesuit would no longer be listened to had it not been for the oligarchy-controlled media’s non-stop portrayal of him as a “legal luminary” and “constitutionalist,” when all he has done is to show himself up as a fraud through several of his twisted legal opinions (such as in 2001, which considered a coup d’etat legal for as long as the plotter emerges the victor).
Meanwhile, the Yellow media’s AC/DC (attack-commentary; defend-commentary) on the Arroyo and Corona issues continue to hide the ongoing plunder.
For one, the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm), with the prodding of the energy pirates as well as the approval of Finance Secretary and corporate gofer Cesar Purisima, is indebting Filipino taxpayers once more by another P75 billion (for 2011) and P85 billion (for 2012) for its working capital and operational funding — despite the fact that it has already privatized over 80 percent of the National Power Corp. (Napocor)’s power generating assets, aside from $4 billion worth of the nation’s transmission grid.
Despite the sale of all those assets, Psalm is still saddled with practically its original debt of $18 billion, thereby needing more taxpayers’ billions to keep operating.
Why then was there a need to privatize anything at all when not a shred of the debt or operating cost was going to be covered (where even the $4 billion for our transmission assets hasn’t been collected but with the new owners already raking it in with $200 million in annual profits).
Without an iota of doubt, the massive electricity plundering today was set into high gear in Edsa II, where “civil society,” typified by the likes of Conrado de Quiros, conspired with the now proven corrupt politicos and treasonous military (with the oligarchs’ help) to oust a popularly-elected president who rejected all onerous deals; opposed “sovereign guarantees;” brought down Metro Rail Transit fares (which Yellows like Mar Roxas have been trying to raise); and never allowed a single power and water rate increase in his two-and-a-half year term.
Instead, De Quiros and his ilk attempt to write Procrustean (after Poseidon’s son Procrustes, who cut off victims’ legs to force fit into a small iron bed) to redeem themselves and to spite their hated figure, President Joseph Estrada, even when they are shown up as clowns with their distorted versions of history.
As Erap claimed that Gloria’s arrest is his vindication, the anti-Erap De Quiros could only retort that “if Arroyo’s arrest is any vindication at all, it is a vindication not of Erap but of the groups that demanded that Erap be replaced.”
Now how can this still be claimed with all the evidence of a quantum leap in Filipinos’ economic misery, not to mention political turmoil, post-Edsa II? Perhaps, such a pathological need to lie only reflects a deep-seated fear of the evidence that would damn them.
On the other hand, the proclivity for Procrustean narratives applies to the pro-Gloria Yellows, too. One such fellow, Teddy Locsin Jr., praises the seven-percent GDP under Gloria in 2010 when this was mainly due to election spending. He then tries to deflect attention by digging up past allegations against Estrada, even when he knows that, among other things, the delivery of jueteng money wasn’t proved in court, nor was the stock manipulation charge that was denied by the pension funds’ chiefs.
In truth, Locsin even remarked that the evidence tended to exonerate Estrada — it’s just that this, according to him, was no longer the nation’s problem.
They may talk of the “Rule of Law” today. But what did they say when Estrada’s impeachment trial was scuttled and the myth of his “constructive resignation” was upheld by their court? Well, as it is often said of the Yellows: Ibang klase talaga!
(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)
Friday, December 9, 2011
25 years of worsening poverty
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
12/9/11
Early this week, another one of those “summits” on the dire economic straits of the country was in the news — this one convened by religious and “civil society” leaders together with a leading member of the Edsa I political crowd (who is also a counsel of choice of the oligarchs). Archbishop Antonio Ledesma and Christian Monsod had a three-day “summit on poverty, inequality and social reform,” which, as expected, grumbled and griped about RP’s impoverishment.
“Our nation,” the archbishop said, “is in an explosive situation… Poverty is mounting, streets… are teeming with beggars and dislocated indigenous peoples…” And this probably why the other intoned in his keynote, “The task today is no less heroic than at Edsa — it is liberation from the yoke of poverty that would make democracy more meaningful to the poor… Twenty-five years after Edsa, where are we on that promise?”
Where indeed is the country today after those Edsa coup cohorts of the US and the oligarchy took over the reins of government?
Monsod should be the first to know. Didn’t he lawyer for what is touted as one of the most exploitative businesses in the country? Didn’t he preside over the dramatic deterioration of the electoral system when he, as chairman of the Comelec (Commission on Elections), removed party representation in the Board of Election Inspectors while allegedly padding the voters’ list prior to the 1992 polls, which (many say) enabled Fidel Ramos to steal victory and spawned worsening election cheating ever since?
Heck, Monsod and his wife were even at the forefront of Edsa II, which ousted the only Philippine president in the past 25 years who never approved — but, in fact, vigorously disapproved — any power or water rate increases in his attenuated two and a half year term. And hasn’t his wife been the poster girl of globalization economics in the country all these years?
Together, the two only embody the prevailing economic-political-corporatist system of the past 25 years under the Yellow banner.
Meanwhile, Archbishop Ledesma, I am told, is genuinely for the poor. But the religious “bleeding heart” rhetoric and busy “good Samaritan” activities of these well-intentioned human beings (like the antics of running priest, Fr. Robert Reyes) seldom translate into actionable programs that uproot the sources of poverty and its consequent moral decline.
Even during periods of ideological radicalization within the Roman Catholic Church (such as the flowering of liberation theology), the geopolitics of Rome (which has always been intricately linked with the western oligarchy’s pre-eminence) always gets in the way. Although the Vatican has chastised capitalism in many encyclicals of popes past, to this day, it ultimately yields to the power of capital, especially in its politics.
Back here, the situation is no different as the Catholic Church still persists in harping on government corruption when, in fact, it is the corruption of unfettered and extreme, globalized capitalism that systematically concentrates wealth and power in fewer and fewer hands.
The Church spearheaded the ouster of Marcos who, in his 21 years of authoritarian government, began laying the foundations for economic democracy in building publicly owned energy, water, irrigation, transport, health, shelter, as well as social and physical infrastructures.
Such publicly owned utilities are at the heart of economic democracy, where capital from taxes, utilities payments, and profits are plowed back for the expansion and development of these shared assets and services. Without economic democracy as a foundation, any political democracy can only be a farce.
Edsa I and II reversed our budding economic democracy when these assets — financed by past and future taxes of the people — were handed over to the voracious profit-seeking local oligarchy and western corporatocracy, effectively privatizing the profits while socializing the capitalization of these privatized assets.
In the ouster of President Joseph Estrada, the Catholic Church also fell prey to the schemes of the foreign and local corporatist-swindlers. It must never be forgotten that the central issue in the ouster of Erap was not jueteng, which 10 years later is still rampant in the country. The real goal was the massive privatization of our state assets, beginning with the power generating plants.
The evidence is there: The singular focus of the Edsa II regime of Gloria Arroyo was the passage of the Epira (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) that was railroaded through the lame duck Congress in May 2001, allegedly through the carrot of $300 million in ADB loans and millions of lobby money distributed by then and current Speaker Sonny Belmonte. That’s why it is no longer a surprise to hear power oligarch Erramon Aboitiz say (before the Management Association of the Philippines) that “We considered the privatization process as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
The oligarchs never had it so good when they took over our nation’s cheapest and natural energy resources (such as our hydroelectric and geothermal plants); then hiked their production cost, making our rates “the highest in Asia” (four times higher than Vietnam or China); then distributed such electric power at prices that are lopsided against residential consumers by a ratio of as much as 20:1, in favor of commercial and industrial users (like giant malls and factories).
So, should Christian Monsod and Archbishop Ledesma still wonder why the “The nation’s top 1 percent of… families — 185,000 — have an income equal to (that) of the bottom 30 percent of poor families numbering 5.5 million,” or that “the percentage of hungry families at 21.5 percent (has risen) from 15.1 percent in July?”
True, their summit may have dwelt on such issues as Hacienda Luisita, the conditional cash transfers, or the conflict in Mindanao. But, the simple truth is that all these will still have to hinge on the resolution of one fundamental injustice: The socialization of costs and the privatization of profit.
What they did to power, they did to water, toll ways, telecoms, ad nausea. These people can summit all they want; but they who created the problem can never be expected to provide the solution.
(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
12/9/11
Early this week, another one of those “summits” on the dire economic straits of the country was in the news — this one convened by religious and “civil society” leaders together with a leading member of the Edsa I political crowd (who is also a counsel of choice of the oligarchs). Archbishop Antonio Ledesma and Christian Monsod had a three-day “summit on poverty, inequality and social reform,” which, as expected, grumbled and griped about RP’s impoverishment.
“Our nation,” the archbishop said, “is in an explosive situation… Poverty is mounting, streets… are teeming with beggars and dislocated indigenous peoples…” And this probably why the other intoned in his keynote, “The task today is no less heroic than at Edsa — it is liberation from the yoke of poverty that would make democracy more meaningful to the poor… Twenty-five years after Edsa, where are we on that promise?”
Where indeed is the country today after those Edsa coup cohorts of the US and the oligarchy took over the reins of government?
Monsod should be the first to know. Didn’t he lawyer for what is touted as one of the most exploitative businesses in the country? Didn’t he preside over the dramatic deterioration of the electoral system when he, as chairman of the Comelec (Commission on Elections), removed party representation in the Board of Election Inspectors while allegedly padding the voters’ list prior to the 1992 polls, which (many say) enabled Fidel Ramos to steal victory and spawned worsening election cheating ever since?
Heck, Monsod and his wife were even at the forefront of Edsa II, which ousted the only Philippine president in the past 25 years who never approved — but, in fact, vigorously disapproved — any power or water rate increases in his attenuated two and a half year term. And hasn’t his wife been the poster girl of globalization economics in the country all these years?
Together, the two only embody the prevailing economic-political-corporatist system of the past 25 years under the Yellow banner.
Meanwhile, Archbishop Ledesma, I am told, is genuinely for the poor. But the religious “bleeding heart” rhetoric and busy “good Samaritan” activities of these well-intentioned human beings (like the antics of running priest, Fr. Robert Reyes) seldom translate into actionable programs that uproot the sources of poverty and its consequent moral decline.
Even during periods of ideological radicalization within the Roman Catholic Church (such as the flowering of liberation theology), the geopolitics of Rome (which has always been intricately linked with the western oligarchy’s pre-eminence) always gets in the way. Although the Vatican has chastised capitalism in many encyclicals of popes past, to this day, it ultimately yields to the power of capital, especially in its politics.
Back here, the situation is no different as the Catholic Church still persists in harping on government corruption when, in fact, it is the corruption of unfettered and extreme, globalized capitalism that systematically concentrates wealth and power in fewer and fewer hands.
The Church spearheaded the ouster of Marcos who, in his 21 years of authoritarian government, began laying the foundations for economic democracy in building publicly owned energy, water, irrigation, transport, health, shelter, as well as social and physical infrastructures.
Such publicly owned utilities are at the heart of economic democracy, where capital from taxes, utilities payments, and profits are plowed back for the expansion and development of these shared assets and services. Without economic democracy as a foundation, any political democracy can only be a farce.
Edsa I and II reversed our budding economic democracy when these assets — financed by past and future taxes of the people — were handed over to the voracious profit-seeking local oligarchy and western corporatocracy, effectively privatizing the profits while socializing the capitalization of these privatized assets.
In the ouster of President Joseph Estrada, the Catholic Church also fell prey to the schemes of the foreign and local corporatist-swindlers. It must never be forgotten that the central issue in the ouster of Erap was not jueteng, which 10 years later is still rampant in the country. The real goal was the massive privatization of our state assets, beginning with the power generating plants.
The evidence is there: The singular focus of the Edsa II regime of Gloria Arroyo was the passage of the Epira (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) that was railroaded through the lame duck Congress in May 2001, allegedly through the carrot of $300 million in ADB loans and millions of lobby money distributed by then and current Speaker Sonny Belmonte. That’s why it is no longer a surprise to hear power oligarch Erramon Aboitiz say (before the Management Association of the Philippines) that “We considered the privatization process as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
The oligarchs never had it so good when they took over our nation’s cheapest and natural energy resources (such as our hydroelectric and geothermal plants); then hiked their production cost, making our rates “the highest in Asia” (four times higher than Vietnam or China); then distributed such electric power at prices that are lopsided against residential consumers by a ratio of as much as 20:1, in favor of commercial and industrial users (like giant malls and factories).
So, should Christian Monsod and Archbishop Ledesma still wonder why the “The nation’s top 1 percent of… families — 185,000 — have an income equal to (that) of the bottom 30 percent of poor families numbering 5.5 million,” or that “the percentage of hungry families at 21.5 percent (has risen) from 15.1 percent in July?”
True, their summit may have dwelt on such issues as Hacienda Luisita, the conditional cash transfers, or the conflict in Mindanao. But, the simple truth is that all these will still have to hinge on the resolution of one fundamental injustice: The socialization of costs and the privatization of profit.
What they did to power, they did to water, toll ways, telecoms, ad nausea. These people can summit all they want; but they who created the problem can never be expected to provide the solution.
(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)
A “summit” to prepare a positive economic future
CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
12/5-11/2011
When poverty worsens despite an embarrassingly slow yet supposedly growing economy, then something is obviously very wrong in a country’s economic direction.
The Philippines reportedly attained rates of up to 5 to 6% (peaking at 7% in 2010) due to inflationary election spending. But this year, growth rates have dropped to no more than 4% by year-end.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) reports that in the past decade, only the Philippines was able to attain modest increases in annual growth rates of around 1% but with the irony of increasing the number of the poor (by over three million families).
True State of the Economy
Meanwhile, in other countries, every 1% GDP increase generally resulted in an average 1.4% decrease in poverty levels while in Asian countries, the decrease in poverty became as high as 2%.
We drill these facts into our readers so that we can keep sight of the utmost priority of achieving a consensus on the true state of the economy and what we should do about it.
OpinYon readers are mostly from the educated middle and upper classes.
I know they are conscientious citizens like Chris, Richard, Zaida and many others who tune in to my daily weekday 5 to 6 p.m. radio program over 1098AM, or those who text me their comments about the many articles of OpinYon.
It is this class that can really do something about changing the country, but only if a consensus is attained that is enough to mobilize around 3% of the population in Metro Manila into action toward specific reforms in our economic system.
That 3%, making up at least 300,000 citizens of the 10 million estimated daytime population of this metropolis, can act as one in calling for specific economic policy reforms.
That is the ideal number for a mass base that can mobilize for a demonstration or rally for issues that will, without fail, call the attention of policy makers, politicians, and institutions -- and scare the daylights out of them should they choose not to heed this call.
Not even the Media Force
However, a 300,000-strong mass base, ideal as it is, may not have the wherewithal to be together in all demonstrations and rallies.
Even if only a sixth of that were to physically join, it would already be sufficient to jar the powers-that-be into serious response.
At the same time, this mass base can influence and shape national perception.
Mainstream media obviously won’t be able to stay blind to such a force even if their owners may want to mute or suppress the economic issues being raised by such a crowd, as they are wont to do.
As we explained in our last OpinYon article (which cited the concurring study of the think tank, Stratbase), the root of the Philippine economic crisis is the oligarchy that monopolizes all the country’s wealth, leaving the population, including the middle class, drained of the means to sustain a decent standard of living or to hope for a better future.
What will we do about it?
For the past year and a half in this space, we (along with our long missed colleague, Butch Junia) have incessantly drilled in the problem of massive abuse and plunder of our people by the privatized electricity generation and distribution companies (such as Metro Pacific, Benpres, Aboitiz Power, Alsons) that are all owned by no more than a handful of families.
We have also consistently exposed the same grand larceny of the privatized water utility companies that have grown fat and powerful on the backs of water consumers and taxpayers with tax holidays, exorbitant rates and, among many other things, government write-offs of massive debts, such as that of the Lopezes’ over P8 billion loans (according to party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy) that were magically made to disappear by the DBP.
And that’s just one of the many examples of how the oligarchy is at the root of the continuing decline of the Filipino people’s welfare and fortunes.
The only question remaining is what we will do about it.
Occupy Meralco
I believe that by now a mass base of more than 300,000 citizens are already aware of such evils.
In fact, millions are now even enraged.
For one, we have seen business groups and conservative labor movements, from the Employers Confederation of the Philippines, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, to the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, join the clamor for action to lower power rates.
The Church, for its part, has also become aware, as my appeal to Fr. Rudy Abao of the Santa Quiteria parish, was immediately heeded by a commitment to support an “Occupy Meralco” proposal I advanced.
The only thing lacking at this point is a consolidation of the forces as well as the leadership to organize the forces that will act to alleviate the dire straits of the people and the economy into one powerful thrust.
Campaign vs. corporate greed
Let me cite one example of how this is already happening on a smaller scale.
Last week, this news developed: “Bishop leads PH version of campaign vs. corporate greed… Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo said that the campaign aims to make the poor ‘the center of development and making the government accountable for the welfare of the majority’… the movement Kilusang 99% (K99%) will be launched this week…
"Pabillo, who is also the chairman of the National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, clarified that their movement is… directed… at the financial system that has bred social injustice, economic imbalance, corporate greed and the darkest side of capitalism.
"‘What is happening now is that the government is just at the backseat and they [government officials] just let the market, which seeks profit and not the common good, dictate. We really need to talk before it’s too late.’”
Action Long Overdue
Current events continue to remind us that action to turn the economic situation around is long overdue.
Consider these developments: A report from Cliff Harvey C. Venson “MPIC airs interest in state hospital... METRO PACIFIC Investments Corp. (MPIC) may join the bidding for the modernization of Philippine Orthopedic Center, one of the public-private partnerships (PPP) set to be rolled out next year”; and another, Big Three oil companies remain most profitable...
"The country’s Big Three oil companies remain the most profitable in the industry, according to the DOE... Petron Corp. posted the heftiest profit of P7.92 billion last year, followed by Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. with P6.02 billion, and Chevron Philippines Inc., P1.43 billion. Total (Philippines) Corp. and Liquigaz Philippines Corp. earned P375 million and P183 million, respectively. PTT Philippines Corp., however, lost P233 million in 2010. Excluding Petron, the above companies are units of foreign oil firms.”
Oil Firms' Bonanza
Metro Pacific acquired its financial clout from exploiting our consumers’ payment to its companies in telecoms (which have one of the highest rates in the world) and, now, with revenues from Meralco.
The oil companies’ bonanza started with the deregulation of the oil industry in the 90s to the detriment of everybody else in the country--except, of course, for the local oligarchs like the Ayalas, Aquino-Cojuangcos et al. who are, in turn, partners of the foreign oligarchy.
Meanwhile, news about the economy in general are just as bleak: “Q3 result a letdown... ECONOMIC GROWTH slowed drastically to just 3.2% in the third quarter, dragged down by a weak agriculture sector and a plunge in construction activity” ; “Metrobank warns remittances to slow next year… Mabellene Reynaldo, Metrobank research analyst, said the political and civil unrest in North Africa and the Middle East continue to escalate.
"Saudi Arabia’s Nitaqat system, under which foreign workers are allowed only six years residency, would also slow down remittance inflows in the following quarters.”
Economic Policy Adrift
Some more dire news, this time from a Star columnist: “BPOs won't be economy's savior... Norio Usui, ADB senior country economist, told a meeting of what’s left of our local manufacturing sector that despite the strong growth of the BPO sector since 2001, the country’s unemployment and underemployment rates have remained high.
"To the ADB economist, the country’s economy should walk on two legs: services and manufacturing if we want inclusive growth.”
All told, our national economic policy is adrift because it is the oligarchs who are controlling the government for their own profit.
And all they say is “damn the people.” As such, we need to gather--as one--and plan our actions to reform the nation, through a national summit for all concerned citizens and groups to come together to plot this out.
(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
12/5-11/2011
When poverty worsens despite an embarrassingly slow yet supposedly growing economy, then something is obviously very wrong in a country’s economic direction.
The Philippines reportedly attained rates of up to 5 to 6% (peaking at 7% in 2010) due to inflationary election spending. But this year, growth rates have dropped to no more than 4% by year-end.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) reports that in the past decade, only the Philippines was able to attain modest increases in annual growth rates of around 1% but with the irony of increasing the number of the poor (by over three million families).
True State of the Economy
Meanwhile, in other countries, every 1% GDP increase generally resulted in an average 1.4% decrease in poverty levels while in Asian countries, the decrease in poverty became as high as 2%.
We drill these facts into our readers so that we can keep sight of the utmost priority of achieving a consensus on the true state of the economy and what we should do about it.
OpinYon readers are mostly from the educated middle and upper classes.
I know they are conscientious citizens like Chris, Richard, Zaida and many others who tune in to my daily weekday 5 to 6 p.m. radio program over 1098AM, or those who text me their comments about the many articles of OpinYon.
It is this class that can really do something about changing the country, but only if a consensus is attained that is enough to mobilize around 3% of the population in Metro Manila into action toward specific reforms in our economic system.
That 3%, making up at least 300,000 citizens of the 10 million estimated daytime population of this metropolis, can act as one in calling for specific economic policy reforms.
That is the ideal number for a mass base that can mobilize for a demonstration or rally for issues that will, without fail, call the attention of policy makers, politicians, and institutions -- and scare the daylights out of them should they choose not to heed this call.
Not even the Media Force
However, a 300,000-strong mass base, ideal as it is, may not have the wherewithal to be together in all demonstrations and rallies.
Even if only a sixth of that were to physically join, it would already be sufficient to jar the powers-that-be into serious response.
At the same time, this mass base can influence and shape national perception.
Mainstream media obviously won’t be able to stay blind to such a force even if their owners may want to mute or suppress the economic issues being raised by such a crowd, as they are wont to do.
As we explained in our last OpinYon article (which cited the concurring study of the think tank, Stratbase), the root of the Philippine economic crisis is the oligarchy that monopolizes all the country’s wealth, leaving the population, including the middle class, drained of the means to sustain a decent standard of living or to hope for a better future.
What will we do about it?
For the past year and a half in this space, we (along with our long missed colleague, Butch Junia) have incessantly drilled in the problem of massive abuse and plunder of our people by the privatized electricity generation and distribution companies (such as Metro Pacific, Benpres, Aboitiz Power, Alsons) that are all owned by no more than a handful of families.
We have also consistently exposed the same grand larceny of the privatized water utility companies that have grown fat and powerful on the backs of water consumers and taxpayers with tax holidays, exorbitant rates and, among many other things, government write-offs of massive debts, such as that of the Lopezes’ over P8 billion loans (according to party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy) that were magically made to disappear by the DBP.
And that’s just one of the many examples of how the oligarchy is at the root of the continuing decline of the Filipino people’s welfare and fortunes.
The only question remaining is what we will do about it.
Occupy Meralco
I believe that by now a mass base of more than 300,000 citizens are already aware of such evils.
In fact, millions are now even enraged.
For one, we have seen business groups and conservative labor movements, from the Employers Confederation of the Philippines, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, to the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, join the clamor for action to lower power rates.
The Church, for its part, has also become aware, as my appeal to Fr. Rudy Abao of the Santa Quiteria parish, was immediately heeded by a commitment to support an “Occupy Meralco” proposal I advanced.
The only thing lacking at this point is a consolidation of the forces as well as the leadership to organize the forces that will act to alleviate the dire straits of the people and the economy into one powerful thrust.
Campaign vs. corporate greed
Let me cite one example of how this is already happening on a smaller scale.
Last week, this news developed: “Bishop leads PH version of campaign vs. corporate greed… Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo said that the campaign aims to make the poor ‘the center of development and making the government accountable for the welfare of the majority’… the movement Kilusang 99% (K99%) will be launched this week…
"Pabillo, who is also the chairman of the National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, clarified that their movement is… directed… at the financial system that has bred social injustice, economic imbalance, corporate greed and the darkest side of capitalism.
"‘What is happening now is that the government is just at the backseat and they [government officials] just let the market, which seeks profit and not the common good, dictate. We really need to talk before it’s too late.’”
Action Long Overdue
Current events continue to remind us that action to turn the economic situation around is long overdue.
Consider these developments: A report from Cliff Harvey C. Venson “MPIC airs interest in state hospital... METRO PACIFIC Investments Corp. (MPIC) may join the bidding for the modernization of Philippine Orthopedic Center, one of the public-private partnerships (PPP) set to be rolled out next year”; and another, Big Three oil companies remain most profitable...
"The country’s Big Three oil companies remain the most profitable in the industry, according to the DOE... Petron Corp. posted the heftiest profit of P7.92 billion last year, followed by Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. with P6.02 billion, and Chevron Philippines Inc., P1.43 billion. Total (Philippines) Corp. and Liquigaz Philippines Corp. earned P375 million and P183 million, respectively. PTT Philippines Corp., however, lost P233 million in 2010. Excluding Petron, the above companies are units of foreign oil firms.”
Oil Firms' Bonanza
Metro Pacific acquired its financial clout from exploiting our consumers’ payment to its companies in telecoms (which have one of the highest rates in the world) and, now, with revenues from Meralco.
The oil companies’ bonanza started with the deregulation of the oil industry in the 90s to the detriment of everybody else in the country--except, of course, for the local oligarchs like the Ayalas, Aquino-Cojuangcos et al. who are, in turn, partners of the foreign oligarchy.
Meanwhile, news about the economy in general are just as bleak: “Q3 result a letdown... ECONOMIC GROWTH slowed drastically to just 3.2% in the third quarter, dragged down by a weak agriculture sector and a plunge in construction activity” ; “Metrobank warns remittances to slow next year… Mabellene Reynaldo, Metrobank research analyst, said the political and civil unrest in North Africa and the Middle East continue to escalate.
"Saudi Arabia’s Nitaqat system, under which foreign workers are allowed only six years residency, would also slow down remittance inflows in the following quarters.”
Economic Policy Adrift
Some more dire news, this time from a Star columnist: “BPOs won't be economy's savior... Norio Usui, ADB senior country economist, told a meeting of what’s left of our local manufacturing sector that despite the strong growth of the BPO sector since 2001, the country’s unemployment and underemployment rates have remained high.
"To the ADB economist, the country’s economy should walk on two legs: services and manufacturing if we want inclusive growth.”
All told, our national economic policy is adrift because it is the oligarchs who are controlling the government for their own profit.
And all they say is “damn the people.” As such, we need to gather--as one--and plan our actions to reform the nation, through a national summit for all concerned citizens and groups to come together to plot this out.
(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)
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
An 'Angie Reyes redux'?
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
12/5/2011
The only moment my interest in the ongoing drama between Gloria Arroyo and the Yellow government perked up was when the former’s mouthpiece, Elena Bautista-Horn, broached the idea of a “Put the Little Girl to Sleep” plot brewing--hence, the PeNoy government’s obsession to put the “little girl” in a government hospital where it could be carried out.
At first, I reacted to it as I would to any joke; but on second thought I realized that there are many, many parties who would like to permanently bury their fears of whatever beans GMA may someday spill about them. For starters, there’s a host of oligarchs who used her government to obtain their behest loans and sweetheart deals that were all injurious to the people. There are still more military and police generals, who raked in billions under her watch, dreading the prospect of being exposed. Then, there are the geopolitical twists, which the US fears Gloria can fiddle with to save her hide.
That last notion gained provenance when I saw on the History Channel the feature on the “Ampatuan Massacre” and the manner in which the American producers portrayed Arroyo and stressed her closeness to the Ampatuans. To most Filipinos, this is an obvious fact; but to an analyst of US full spectrum propaganda and cultural warfare like me, this is a significant half-truth.
True, Arroyo depended on the Ampatuans for election engineering, but so did PeNoy’s mother, Corazon Aquino, who was the one who raised the Ampatuans from small-time provincial warlords to full-fledged major ARMM (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao) players as a counterfoil to the Muslim politicians of the Marcos era.
We also know from Yellow sources that PeNoy was, in fact, scheduled to visit the Ampatuans for his 2007 senatorial bid just before the massacre took place, and only then--like every other politician who used to beeline to the clan for their vote additions--did he avoid the Ampatuans like the plague.
The bias of US political strategists for the Aquinos and (currently) against Arroyo was evident in the WikiLeaks-obtained e-mails of the US Embassy in Manila to its home office. There, it was shown that the 2005 Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) decision on the distribution of Hacienda Luisita land to its farmers was followed with concern. The embassy also interpreted that order as Gloria’s way of getting back at Cory, supposedly after the latter joined the so-called Hyatt 10’s Arroyo ouster call on July 11 of that year--a move that had all the markings of a US-sanctioned operation. Back then, Arroyo was already getting much too playful with Chinese interests at a time when the “Hello Garci” exposé became too much of a liability for the US-aligned ruling class here.
Before that, things were pretty honky dory between the two: Cory, after spearheading Edsa II, gave Gloria her all-out support through several military mutinies, even raising her hand after the Oakwood incident. In the 2004 polls, they were together in preventing an FPJ win. Later, Gloria gave the Aquino-Cojuangcos military support which led to the Hacienda Luisita massacre.
Despite former US Ambassador Kristie Kenney’s fondness for Arroyo, the US State Department clearly didn’t fancy her anymore midway through the previous decade. Still, none of that constitutes any real possibility that they have any interest to do her in. It’s the domestic elements that have connived and conspired with Gloria where any danger could come.
Just as unseen forces snuffed the life out of PeNoy’s father, Ninoy Aquino, those out to sow chaos by creating a trigger for a major destabilization move or to cover up for a brewing major scandal, may well decide that putting the little girl to sleep would fit their desired scenario perfectly.
On the other hand, it could simply be a case of the little girl wanting to put herself to sleep, seeing that her “castle in the air” has crumbled despite the meticulously planned Aquinorroyo zarzuela and other defense or exit strategies.
But would Gloria Arroyo do an Angie Reyes (assuming Angie Reyes really did himself in)? As far as lawyer and legal icon Alan Paguia is concerned, that case still cannot be closed until all the legal requirements are met (which haven’t). Besides, the supposedly grieving Reyes family is now enjoying a few hundred millions of public money, which they apparently no longer have to account for. But, as the former Edsa II general purportedly took his life due to “honor,” the danger of an Angie Reyes redux for Gloria is diminished since she has none of it.
The only real danger to Arroyo probably will come from what President Joseph Estrada and his senator-son Jinggoy have warned about: The wily rodents at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center.
On a more serious note, these have come out in various international media since our last column “A creeping World War III:” From GlobalResearch, “So concerned has the Kremlin become about the growing American fascist police state it caused General Nikolai Makarov, Russia’s top military commander, to issue a warning to the West last week that the Motherland was fully prepared for a nuclear World War III and which prompted the Obama regime to state that it would immediately cease observing their arms treaty with Russia;” from Prison Planet, “Citing a report by China’s Central Television… an unnamed government official warned (the US and Nato), ‘Any threat to Pakistan is a threat to China’;” and from various news sites, “Chinese General Threatens ‘Third World War’ To Protect Iran… Major General Zhang Zhaozhong commented that, ‘China will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a third world war.’”
(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
12/5/2011
The only moment my interest in the ongoing drama between Gloria Arroyo and the Yellow government perked up was when the former’s mouthpiece, Elena Bautista-Horn, broached the idea of a “Put the Little Girl to Sleep” plot brewing--hence, the PeNoy government’s obsession to put the “little girl” in a government hospital where it could be carried out.
At first, I reacted to it as I would to any joke; but on second thought I realized that there are many, many parties who would like to permanently bury their fears of whatever beans GMA may someday spill about them. For starters, there’s a host of oligarchs who used her government to obtain their behest loans and sweetheart deals that were all injurious to the people. There are still more military and police generals, who raked in billions under her watch, dreading the prospect of being exposed. Then, there are the geopolitical twists, which the US fears Gloria can fiddle with to save her hide.
That last notion gained provenance when I saw on the History Channel the feature on the “Ampatuan Massacre” and the manner in which the American producers portrayed Arroyo and stressed her closeness to the Ampatuans. To most Filipinos, this is an obvious fact; but to an analyst of US full spectrum propaganda and cultural warfare like me, this is a significant half-truth.
True, Arroyo depended on the Ampatuans for election engineering, but so did PeNoy’s mother, Corazon Aquino, who was the one who raised the Ampatuans from small-time provincial warlords to full-fledged major ARMM (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao) players as a counterfoil to the Muslim politicians of the Marcos era.
We also know from Yellow sources that PeNoy was, in fact, scheduled to visit the Ampatuans for his 2007 senatorial bid just before the massacre took place, and only then--like every other politician who used to beeline to the clan for their vote additions--did he avoid the Ampatuans like the plague.
The bias of US political strategists for the Aquinos and (currently) against Arroyo was evident in the WikiLeaks-obtained e-mails of the US Embassy in Manila to its home office. There, it was shown that the 2005 Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) decision on the distribution of Hacienda Luisita land to its farmers was followed with concern. The embassy also interpreted that order as Gloria’s way of getting back at Cory, supposedly after the latter joined the so-called Hyatt 10’s Arroyo ouster call on July 11 of that year--a move that had all the markings of a US-sanctioned operation. Back then, Arroyo was already getting much too playful with Chinese interests at a time when the “Hello Garci” exposé became too much of a liability for the US-aligned ruling class here.
Before that, things were pretty honky dory between the two: Cory, after spearheading Edsa II, gave Gloria her all-out support through several military mutinies, even raising her hand after the Oakwood incident. In the 2004 polls, they were together in preventing an FPJ win. Later, Gloria gave the Aquino-Cojuangcos military support which led to the Hacienda Luisita massacre.
Despite former US Ambassador Kristie Kenney’s fondness for Arroyo, the US State Department clearly didn’t fancy her anymore midway through the previous decade. Still, none of that constitutes any real possibility that they have any interest to do her in. It’s the domestic elements that have connived and conspired with Gloria where any danger could come.
Just as unseen forces snuffed the life out of PeNoy’s father, Ninoy Aquino, those out to sow chaos by creating a trigger for a major destabilization move or to cover up for a brewing major scandal, may well decide that putting the little girl to sleep would fit their desired scenario perfectly.
On the other hand, it could simply be a case of the little girl wanting to put herself to sleep, seeing that her “castle in the air” has crumbled despite the meticulously planned Aquinorroyo zarzuela and other defense or exit strategies.
But would Gloria Arroyo do an Angie Reyes (assuming Angie Reyes really did himself in)? As far as lawyer and legal icon Alan Paguia is concerned, that case still cannot be closed until all the legal requirements are met (which haven’t). Besides, the supposedly grieving Reyes family is now enjoying a few hundred millions of public money, which they apparently no longer have to account for. But, as the former Edsa II general purportedly took his life due to “honor,” the danger of an Angie Reyes redux for Gloria is diminished since she has none of it.
The only real danger to Arroyo probably will come from what President Joseph Estrada and his senator-son Jinggoy have warned about: The wily rodents at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center.
On a more serious note, these have come out in various international media since our last column “A creeping World War III:” From GlobalResearch, “So concerned has the Kremlin become about the growing American fascist police state it caused General Nikolai Makarov, Russia’s top military commander, to issue a warning to the West last week that the Motherland was fully prepared for a nuclear World War III and which prompted the Obama regime to state that it would immediately cease observing their arms treaty with Russia;” from Prison Planet, “Citing a report by China’s Central Television… an unnamed government official warned (the US and Nato), ‘Any threat to Pakistan is a threat to China’;” and from various news sites, “Chinese General Threatens ‘Third World War’ To Protect Iran… Major General Zhang Zhaozhong commented that, ‘China will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a third world war.’”
(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)
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Compensation?
BACKBENCHER
Rod Kapunan
12/3-4/2011
Now that the Supreme Court has decided last November 23 to distribute the remaining 4,915 hectares of the sprawling Hacienda Luisita —the property which historically has been laced with murders and assassinations—to the farmers, the next question is whether the landlord clan of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III would insist on payment for compensation.
Once this question ripens to actual court litigation it could mean another setback to the farmers who since 1968 have been waiting for their share of the land they tilled. For 43 long years or ten years after the purchase by Don Jose Cojuangco on March 31, 1958 from Tabacalera, the distribution of the original 6,400-hectare hacienda was made part of the condition to secure loan from the Government Service Insurance System and from the then Central Bank of the Philippines.
Specifically, the Monetary Board of the CB, by virtue of Resolution No. 1240, granted to Jose Cojuangco the loan of $2,128,480 for the purchase of the sugar mill. Finding interest in buying the plantation, he secured a second loan of P5.9 million from the GSIS, which was approved by the board of trustees in Resolution No. 3202. Part of the deal was to distribute the land after ten years pursuant to the land reform program of the government.
On its face, the decision is a judicial landmark to the estimated 6,296 farmer-beneficiaries considering that the person who will be affected is no less than the President. They have every reason to rejoice for that would mean their emancipation from the bondage of the soil. But taking a second look at the decision, one could not help suspect that the highly polarized magistrates, with one abstention, coalesced in voting to have the hacienda subdivided.
Maybe the Arroyo-appointed loyalists were out to embarrass what they see as a good-for-nothing administration. For the Aquino-appointed justices, their concurrence has been interpreted as a consciously sorted-out strategy; that possibly, Malacañang had given them the “go” signal. One cannot discount that for in no time the Secretary of Agrarian Reforms, Gil de los Reyes, came out with a statement saying he would immediately seek the enforcement of the decision once it becomes final, while PNoy expressed no objection provided they are paid their just compensation.
To give in to this possible clever scheme of being paid based on the present fair value of the property would amount to another round of swindling. Any right-minded appraiser would say that if ever the owners of the hacienda are to be paid the value for their property, appraisal should be based in the 1968 valuation. The land cannot be assessed beyond that period because the owners stand in default on their loan agreement. So, if they got it say for a total of P10 million, considering that the exchange rate at that time of the peso was 2:1 to the US dollar, the increase in the value of the property could not exceed P200 million by 1968.
More so that a decision has been rendered on December 2, 1985 by then Judge Bernardo Pardo of the Manila Regional Trial Court, Branch XLII, who that early decided in favor of subdividing the hacienda to the farmers. It would not only be unconscionable, but another round of injustice to the farmer-beneficiaries, who by that arrangement, would have to pay the amortization to the government financial institution that will advance the payment of compensation to the Cojuangcos.
Besides, the Cojuangcos have not even accounted for a centavo of the P1.3 billion they earned for the disposition of a portion of the hacienda into industrial estates and the exorbitant payment made by the government for the construction of a right-of-way that cut deep into their manor, nor has presented a record indicating full payment of taxes for the property.
Nonetheless, if it could no longer be distributed to the beneficiaries, at least it should be reverted to those who will be deprived of the land or distributed as dividend to the holders of those worthless SDO who were made to rely on them as supplement to their meager income. In the final analysis, it should be the farmers who should be compensated because of the number of years they were deprived of income from the land which could have been used for their amortization.
For the farmer-beneficiaries, it is not the value of the land that matters, but on its productivity much that they cannot sell that. This notwithstanding that a great portion of the land has become a veritable talahiban after the owners almost abandoned planting sugar. After the Laurel-Langley Agreement expired on July 3, 1974, the so-called sugar barons then lost their preferential sugar quota allocation, which was their main source of income.
In addition, the Cojuangcos cannot for long make Marcos their “whipping boy” for their economic debacle, but on their selfish tenacity to hold on to the property. Presidential Decree Nos. 27 issued on October 12, 1972 and 1066 issued on December 31, 1976 clearly exempted from land reform sugar lands, and Marcos did that to precisely protect the sugar industry.
f there is somebody the Cojuangcos could blame, they should blame Mrs. Aquino herself. In her eagerness to make pasikat that her version of land reform would be much better than that of the “dictator” she denounced, the 1987 Constitution drafted by her appointed minions declared in no uncertain terms that all agricultural lands shall be subject to land reform. That was bolstered by the approval of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. When she realized her blunder, she backpedaled by ordering the circumvention of her own laws. Instead of a piece of land, the farmers were given a piece of paper cleverly dubbed as “stock distribution option” (SDO).
Death finally came to their family’s business after her anointed successor, Fidel Ramos, in his usual grand hallucination opened wide the country’s economic door to globalization. Our sugar industry was mercilessly battered by competition because of our inherently high cost of production. Despite that, the Cojuangcos continued to cling on to their property, while converting the choice cuts into industrial estates, thereby gaining more from the business of real estate than in producing sugar.
As usual, the farmers were made to wait, unaware their landlords were already engaged in the speculative selling of lands, and the final trophy was the decision of the Supreme Court for possibly their prayer for just compensation might end up in them becoming the richest family in the country. At the same time, PNoy would appear pro-poor not knowing that the amortization would be equivalent to the proverbial saying of “giving the farmers the rope for them to hang themselves”.
(rodkap@yahoo.com)
Rod Kapunan
12/3-4/2011
Now that the Supreme Court has decided last November 23 to distribute the remaining 4,915 hectares of the sprawling Hacienda Luisita —the property which historically has been laced with murders and assassinations—to the farmers, the next question is whether the landlord clan of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III would insist on payment for compensation.
Once this question ripens to actual court litigation it could mean another setback to the farmers who since 1968 have been waiting for their share of the land they tilled. For 43 long years or ten years after the purchase by Don Jose Cojuangco on March 31, 1958 from Tabacalera, the distribution of the original 6,400-hectare hacienda was made part of the condition to secure loan from the Government Service Insurance System and from the then Central Bank of the Philippines.
Specifically, the Monetary Board of the CB, by virtue of Resolution No. 1240, granted to Jose Cojuangco the loan of $2,128,480 for the purchase of the sugar mill. Finding interest in buying the plantation, he secured a second loan of P5.9 million from the GSIS, which was approved by the board of trustees in Resolution No. 3202. Part of the deal was to distribute the land after ten years pursuant to the land reform program of the government.
On its face, the decision is a judicial landmark to the estimated 6,296 farmer-beneficiaries considering that the person who will be affected is no less than the President. They have every reason to rejoice for that would mean their emancipation from the bondage of the soil. But taking a second look at the decision, one could not help suspect that the highly polarized magistrates, with one abstention, coalesced in voting to have the hacienda subdivided.
Maybe the Arroyo-appointed loyalists were out to embarrass what they see as a good-for-nothing administration. For the Aquino-appointed justices, their concurrence has been interpreted as a consciously sorted-out strategy; that possibly, Malacañang had given them the “go” signal. One cannot discount that for in no time the Secretary of Agrarian Reforms, Gil de los Reyes, came out with a statement saying he would immediately seek the enforcement of the decision once it becomes final, while PNoy expressed no objection provided they are paid their just compensation.
To give in to this possible clever scheme of being paid based on the present fair value of the property would amount to another round of swindling. Any right-minded appraiser would say that if ever the owners of the hacienda are to be paid the value for their property, appraisal should be based in the 1968 valuation. The land cannot be assessed beyond that period because the owners stand in default on their loan agreement. So, if they got it say for a total of P10 million, considering that the exchange rate at that time of the peso was 2:1 to the US dollar, the increase in the value of the property could not exceed P200 million by 1968.
More so that a decision has been rendered on December 2, 1985 by then Judge Bernardo Pardo of the Manila Regional Trial Court, Branch XLII, who that early decided in favor of subdividing the hacienda to the farmers. It would not only be unconscionable, but another round of injustice to the farmer-beneficiaries, who by that arrangement, would have to pay the amortization to the government financial institution that will advance the payment of compensation to the Cojuangcos.
Besides, the Cojuangcos have not even accounted for a centavo of the P1.3 billion they earned for the disposition of a portion of the hacienda into industrial estates and the exorbitant payment made by the government for the construction of a right-of-way that cut deep into their manor, nor has presented a record indicating full payment of taxes for the property.
Nonetheless, if it could no longer be distributed to the beneficiaries, at least it should be reverted to those who will be deprived of the land or distributed as dividend to the holders of those worthless SDO who were made to rely on them as supplement to their meager income. In the final analysis, it should be the farmers who should be compensated because of the number of years they were deprived of income from the land which could have been used for their amortization.
For the farmer-beneficiaries, it is not the value of the land that matters, but on its productivity much that they cannot sell that. This notwithstanding that a great portion of the land has become a veritable talahiban after the owners almost abandoned planting sugar. After the Laurel-Langley Agreement expired on July 3, 1974, the so-called sugar barons then lost their preferential sugar quota allocation, which was their main source of income.
In addition, the Cojuangcos cannot for long make Marcos their “whipping boy” for their economic debacle, but on their selfish tenacity to hold on to the property. Presidential Decree Nos. 27 issued on October 12, 1972 and 1066 issued on December 31, 1976 clearly exempted from land reform sugar lands, and Marcos did that to precisely protect the sugar industry.
f there is somebody the Cojuangcos could blame, they should blame Mrs. Aquino herself. In her eagerness to make pasikat that her version of land reform would be much better than that of the “dictator” she denounced, the 1987 Constitution drafted by her appointed minions declared in no uncertain terms that all agricultural lands shall be subject to land reform. That was bolstered by the approval of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. When she realized her blunder, she backpedaled by ordering the circumvention of her own laws. Instead of a piece of land, the farmers were given a piece of paper cleverly dubbed as “stock distribution option” (SDO).
Death finally came to their family’s business after her anointed successor, Fidel Ramos, in his usual grand hallucination opened wide the country’s economic door to globalization. Our sugar industry was mercilessly battered by competition because of our inherently high cost of production. Despite that, the Cojuangcos continued to cling on to their property, while converting the choice cuts into industrial estates, thereby gaining more from the business of real estate than in producing sugar.
As usual, the farmers were made to wait, unaware their landlords were already engaged in the speculative selling of lands, and the final trophy was the decision of the Supreme Court for possibly their prayer for just compensation might end up in them becoming the richest family in the country. At the same time, PNoy would appear pro-poor not knowing that the amortization would be equivalent to the proverbial saying of “giving the farmers the rope for them to hang themselves”.
(rodkap@yahoo.com)
Friday, December 2, 2011
A creeping World War III
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
12/2/2011
While the people of the Philippines are led like little children by the different Pied Pipers of media chasing after their latest political bogeyman or boxing spectacle, the nation and its economy continue to systemically collapse. As it is, economic growth has plunged to 3.2 percent, well below the universal standstill threshold of 4 percent. Worse, there are no internal programs to lift our economy out of this tailspin, just as our foreign host economies deteriorate equally fast.
To say that the nation is stumbling into disaster because no one is carrying the torch to light the way is bad enough. But for a country to be blindly and merrily engrossed in political and other gladiator sports while unmindful of the dark shadows of past “wars to end all wars” looming above us again, this could only mean the worst for the future of all countries of the world, including the Philippines.
As we recount memories of the Philippines being one of the most devastated countries in World War II (WWII), a flashback to the past is necessary in order to make a moral and ethical stand in connection with that war. Despite ritualistic paeans to the triumph of the will of survival of Filipinos, the simple fact is that WWII resulted in much graver and still uncompensated damage to the country.
Manila was the second most devastated city in that war, second only to Prague. Eighty percent of our farm animals were slaughtered, giving rise to the hunger and poverty that have never left us since. That’s not even counting the many other debacles this country has yet to recover from.
But, the irony of it all is that the supposed enemy was the one resurrected by the victor while the Philippines, its supposed ally, was compelled to remain underdeveloped as other nations achieved First World status.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a deadened sense of history even among those who are expected to help map out the course of the Filipino nation’s march to its destiny. Instead of pointing us toward greater prosperity and security, we are routinely treated to flashbacks of defeats masqueraded as victories such as the “Fall of Tirad Pass,” “The Fall of Bataan,” or the almost comic adoration of the “Death March.”
Oh, I’m not even talking of any great victories hoped for, just “a great escape” from catastrophes that are never of our own making. Suffice it to say, there are such great but glorious, nimble footed diplomacies as that of Thailand (also during WWII) that enabled it to avoid the fate of the Philippines, which we can draw many lessons from.
But as Filipinos high and low continue to go about their little parochial ways, a repeat of the tragedy of the last global war is being set once more. Although there are already a number of perilous global security developments that should be in the headlines, this never happens. Hence, we have a country of ignoramuses — especially on events that are vital to our present and future, as well as our children and grandchildren’s welfare and security.
The recent US-Australia agreement for forward positioning of 2,500 US Marines in Northern Australia is a shot-across-the-bow not only for China, as many wrongly think, but against all of Asean and Asia. Few are aware that Indonesia protested this US deployment as vigorously as, or even more than, China, which only shows its correct understanding of this move as a prelude to creating chaos in our region.
All over the globe, Western powers — now revealed for their true imperialistic nature, which they tried to hide during the infancy of economic globalization — are spreading their war preparations. Just look at such revealed documents as “Project for a New American Century” and “Rebuilding America’s Defenses,” or listen to the operational plans spilled by Gen. Wesley Clark (commander of the invasion of Yugoslavia), who in 2006 identified seven countries to be attacked (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran), and you’ll get the picture.
Whether Afghanistan was merely a side trip or part of another operational plan, no one can say. But the constancy of the “regime change” campaigns alone is absolute confirmation of the inexorable schedule of conquest in the times ahead. These are conquests needed by the West for, among other things, the loot — as we are seeing in Iraq and Libya.
Last week, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev traveled far to his country’s western frontier in a much publicized activation of its massive radar facility in Kaliningrad, announcing that it is Russia’s response to the US missile shield being established in former Eastern Soviet states. At the same time, Russia has warned that it may leave the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty or START, which it had previously signed with the US. Mind you, after tolerating insolent US provocations with this latest missile defense deployment, made under the pretext of defending against Iranian missiles — which is an insult to everyone’s intelligence, this is not a mere tit-for-tat.
China, on the other hand, is conducting its first naval exercise in the Pacific with submarines, missile ships, frigates and supply ships. Its first of several aircraft carriers in the pipeline, meanwhile, is already on sea trials.
Certainly, this US-Australia military alliance is nothing new. Remember where Gen. Douglas MacArthur fled to during WWII? Now, the US is merely preparing early, with its key strategy to control the route to the Philippine Deep — a place so deep that submarines cannot be detected by satellites.
The Philippines will be a key arena as the next world war creeps into full bloom. When it comes, the country will be a magnet for nuclear warfare and all its dire consequences (just picture Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster, which is still ongoing with nary a solution in sight). Our children face bleak prospects unless we distance ourselves from all the war parties — beginning now.
(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
12/2/2011
While the people of the Philippines are led like little children by the different Pied Pipers of media chasing after their latest political bogeyman or boxing spectacle, the nation and its economy continue to systemically collapse. As it is, economic growth has plunged to 3.2 percent, well below the universal standstill threshold of 4 percent. Worse, there are no internal programs to lift our economy out of this tailspin, just as our foreign host economies deteriorate equally fast.
To say that the nation is stumbling into disaster because no one is carrying the torch to light the way is bad enough. But for a country to be blindly and merrily engrossed in political and other gladiator sports while unmindful of the dark shadows of past “wars to end all wars” looming above us again, this could only mean the worst for the future of all countries of the world, including the Philippines.
As we recount memories of the Philippines being one of the most devastated countries in World War II (WWII), a flashback to the past is necessary in order to make a moral and ethical stand in connection with that war. Despite ritualistic paeans to the triumph of the will of survival of Filipinos, the simple fact is that WWII resulted in much graver and still uncompensated damage to the country.
Manila was the second most devastated city in that war, second only to Prague. Eighty percent of our farm animals were slaughtered, giving rise to the hunger and poverty that have never left us since. That’s not even counting the many other debacles this country has yet to recover from.
But, the irony of it all is that the supposed enemy was the one resurrected by the victor while the Philippines, its supposed ally, was compelled to remain underdeveloped as other nations achieved First World status.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a deadened sense of history even among those who are expected to help map out the course of the Filipino nation’s march to its destiny. Instead of pointing us toward greater prosperity and security, we are routinely treated to flashbacks of defeats masqueraded as victories such as the “Fall of Tirad Pass,” “The Fall of Bataan,” or the almost comic adoration of the “Death March.”
Oh, I’m not even talking of any great victories hoped for, just “a great escape” from catastrophes that are never of our own making. Suffice it to say, there are such great but glorious, nimble footed diplomacies as that of Thailand (also during WWII) that enabled it to avoid the fate of the Philippines, which we can draw many lessons from.
But as Filipinos high and low continue to go about their little parochial ways, a repeat of the tragedy of the last global war is being set once more. Although there are already a number of perilous global security developments that should be in the headlines, this never happens. Hence, we have a country of ignoramuses — especially on events that are vital to our present and future, as well as our children and grandchildren’s welfare and security.
The recent US-Australia agreement for forward positioning of 2,500 US Marines in Northern Australia is a shot-across-the-bow not only for China, as many wrongly think, but against all of Asean and Asia. Few are aware that Indonesia protested this US deployment as vigorously as, or even more than, China, which only shows its correct understanding of this move as a prelude to creating chaos in our region.
All over the globe, Western powers — now revealed for their true imperialistic nature, which they tried to hide during the infancy of economic globalization — are spreading their war preparations. Just look at such revealed documents as “Project for a New American Century” and “Rebuilding America’s Defenses,” or listen to the operational plans spilled by Gen. Wesley Clark (commander of the invasion of Yugoslavia), who in 2006 identified seven countries to be attacked (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran), and you’ll get the picture.
Whether Afghanistan was merely a side trip or part of another operational plan, no one can say. But the constancy of the “regime change” campaigns alone is absolute confirmation of the inexorable schedule of conquest in the times ahead. These are conquests needed by the West for, among other things, the loot — as we are seeing in Iraq and Libya.
Last week, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev traveled far to his country’s western frontier in a much publicized activation of its massive radar facility in Kaliningrad, announcing that it is Russia’s response to the US missile shield being established in former Eastern Soviet states. At the same time, Russia has warned that it may leave the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty or START, which it had previously signed with the US. Mind you, after tolerating insolent US provocations with this latest missile defense deployment, made under the pretext of defending against Iranian missiles — which is an insult to everyone’s intelligence, this is not a mere tit-for-tat.
China, on the other hand, is conducting its first naval exercise in the Pacific with submarines, missile ships, frigates and supply ships. Its first of several aircraft carriers in the pipeline, meanwhile, is already on sea trials.
Certainly, this US-Australia military alliance is nothing new. Remember where Gen. Douglas MacArthur fled to during WWII? Now, the US is merely preparing early, with its key strategy to control the route to the Philippine Deep — a place so deep that submarines cannot be detected by satellites.
The Philippines will be a key arena as the next world war creeps into full bloom. When it comes, the country will be a magnet for nuclear warfare and all its dire consequences (just picture Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster, which is still ongoing with nary a solution in sight). Our children face bleak prospects unless we distance ourselves from all the war parties — beginning now.
(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)
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