YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
5/30-6/5/2011
In the Philippines, May is the month of Fiestas. In Camelot, it was the Merry month of May. But for P-Noy, it was not so.
He did not make it a happy month for us, his alleged BOSSES. His Barkada, Classmate, OJT and Student Council Administration were no Camelot either. Rather, for P-Noy, it was a case of: “Piniyestahan siya ng Problema.”
At the start of the month, several problems were ripening to a boil:
1. The uncontrolled factionalism within the Aquino Administration was 20 months old.
• It started way back in August of 2009. As soon as Cory died on Aug. 1, even before she was buried on Aug. 5, the Liberal Party started to use her death, the Cory Magic and the Yellow Revival for its own selfish interests.
• They, including Mar Araneta Roxas, conveniently forgot that LP President Gerry Roxas and LP Secretary General Ninoy Aquino were bitter rivals prior to Martial Law. They forgot that the LP boycotted the April 7, 1978 region-wide elections for the Interim Batasang Pambansa. They forgot that Ninoy had to run under the banner of Laban. They forgot that when Gerry Roxas died in New York in the early 1980’s, and Ninoy wanted to succeed him as President, that Diosdado Macapagal, Jovito Salonga and their allies in the LP blocked Ninoy.
• As soon as Mar Roxas withdrew his bid for the Presidency as the LP bet on Sept. 2, and even before Noynoy accepted the LP Presidential Candidacy on Sept. 9, Noynoy supporters started to react against the LP, Mar and the “Hayop” 10 cum “Evil Society”. The main reason for this was that the LP and their Hayop and Evil Allies tried to Lord it over a Ninoy and Cory Yellow Movement that was much bigger than the Aquino and Roxas families and the Liberal Party combined.
• The clincher was that the Roxas withdrawal included in the deal the adoption, take over and funding of the professional Mar Roxas for President Organization.
2. Various problems in the DOTC were simmering. Scandalwise, the P2-billion Stradcom deal with the LTO had been popping since December. Pocket-wise, the proposed increase in transport fares had been posing as a sword of Damocles over the riding public for as long as P-Noy has been President.
3. The Aquino Administration and officials had been mishandling our Muslim Brothers, Mindanao issues and the matter of the Aug. 8 ARMM Elections. Among these was the cavalier treatment by the Secretary for the Peace Process Ging Quintos Deles of two lady muslin officials.
4. Many Noynoy allies, supporters and sympathizers were feeling neglected, left out and taken for granted by P-Noy and his dominant factions. Even his relatives on both sides, Aquino and Cojuangco felt this way.
5. A Cabal of Barkadas, Classmates, Shooting Buddies, and Fellow Travellers had surrounded the Presidency. They occupied strategic positions but more importantly, they occupied the President’s ear as well as time. They could do no wrong in P-Noys eyes, but in reality they were doing a lot of wrong.
6. Aside from talk about the President’s morals, word was leaking out about his work style. Six months ago, Atty. Tony Gatmaitan said that P-Noy only worked two hours a day.
7. He is believed to wake up just before lunch. He spends too much time playing around. He knocks off early from work. He hardly works on weekends and holidays.
8. His acquisition of an expensive and mysterious Porsche sports car did not sit well with many poor Filipinos. His refusal to show the Deed of Sale, CR and OR of the new car and the old vehicle that he sold led to suspicion that the car was a gift from a favor seeker.
9. In Popularity, Satisfaction and Trust, he consistently slid in the SWS and PA Surveys of September-October and February-March.
10. VP Binay overtook him in these surveys.
11. And, the grandmother of all problems – the RH Bill – was coming up for Plenary Debate in both Houses of Congress.These problems exploded in May.
Uncle Peping’s Letter
On May 1, a Sunday, I received in my email (linggoyis@yahoo.com) a letter from former Tarlac Congressman, Cory’s younger brother and P-Noy’s most politically experienced uncle, Jose “Peping” Sumulong Cojuangco, Jr. That letter has been published in OpinYon (May16-22), Diaryo Pinoy (May 9 and 13), Philippine Star (May 10), Tribune (May 11), and People’s Tonite (May 14).
The antecedent to this letter was that sometime before April 10, P-Noy went to Peping and Tingting’s home on Acacia St. in Dasmariñas Village in Makati City. In a three-hour meeting, he sought his uncle and auntie’s support for his desired postponement of the ARMM elections.
Peping and Tingting rejected the request. In turn, Tingting resigned from her GMA-appointed position as the President of the Philippine Public Safety College. They agreed to disagree. Up to this point, it was a civil separation.
Rectificatory Meeting
However, on or about April 25, in a meeting at Malacañang about Philippine Sports, the clash exploded.
By law the PAGCOR has an annual allotment for Philippine Sports. Like the PCSO, PAGCOR is usually topsy-turvy in its priorities. Mandated (by law) charities are delayed in their releases, sometimes for several years. The President’s, the Boards and the Official’s whims are prioritized.
In this case, the PMS, headed by Julia Abad Porter, daughter of two parents and with a brother, all in P-Noy’s government, got the Sports allotment under the PMS. This is something like what DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman did with funds of other departments and programs and placed them under the Conditional Cash Transfer 2013 election campaign fund.
With that, Peping exploded and the result was the letter.
Unconfirmed reports say that after the letter was published in the Mass Media, P-Noy has been trying to see his uncle at home. His uncle would rather be invited to a rectificatory meeting in Malacañang.
Time Ran Out
Whether connected to this or not, the fact is that last Sunday, former Tarlac Governor Margarita “Tingting” de los Reyes Cojuangco filed her certificate of candidacy for ARMM Vice Governor as the running mate of former Sultan Kudarat Congressman and Governor Pax Mangundadatu.
Meanwhile, time has run out on P-Noy’s unconstitutional and illegal attempt to postpone the Aug. 8 ARMM Elections and to appoint his own unelectable OIC officials.
The COMELEC three times postponed and/or extended the period for the filing of certificates of candidacy. The Senate Bill for the Postponement is still stuck in Sen. Bongbong R. Marcos’s Committee. Then COMELEC has started to spend big money for the election preparations including the rental of PCOS machines.
P-Noy and his Evil Advisers will get a triple slap in the face.
First, they lose in the attempt to postpone the elections. If they succeed, the issue will still go tom the Supreme Court.
Second, they don’t have winnable and capable candidates. They will lose the ARMM as a political base for the next five years. This will complicate the peace talks with the MILF, MNLF and whatever else.
Third, if Tingting wins, it will show him up as a buffoon who did not know whose counsel to choose and listen to, his most experienced uncle and auntie or his Cabal.
Diokno knows too much
While P-Noy has too many problems that we don’t have enough space for, we have to mention the Bureau of Corrections Hullaballoo. The RH Bill, we will have to leave for our next column.
Too many credible people have been saying that one of the reasons that Director Ernesto “Totoy” Diokno is sticking to his post is that like Ochoa, Puno and the rest, he knows too many secrets.
They say that from the time that Cory was the President, he has been holding Noynoy’s “secrets”. In fact, many who dispute the point that Noynoy is “Bakla” will be disputed by my best and most credible witness, the then senior police officer who was asked by Cory herself to investigate the same thing more than 20 years ago.
Stealing Time
Well. There goes the “Matuwid na Daan”. As for “Walang Mahirap pag walang Korapt!”, corruption is not only stealing money. It is also stealing time.
Mr. Absentee President, How many hours do you work every work day. It is also immorality. It is also setting bad, bad examples.
Meanwhile, something that was not on the radar screen at the beginning of the month suddenly came up last week after being dormant for quite some time. A new group, calling itself Tanggulang Demokrasiya (TAN DEM) held a press conference at the Valle Verde Country Club last Thursday. The topic was: PCOS: A Tool for Honest or Fraudulent Elections!
Although, the convenors, organizers and secretariat appeared to be identified with the GMA Administration, the Speakers were from the Philippine Computer Society and Ang Kapatiran Party.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
May kulong ka sa RH bill
CROSSINGS
Butch Junia
5/30-6/5/2011
If you think the Reproductive Health or RH Bill is only about the well-being of mothers, women and children, think again.
It’s also about going to jail for six months, paying fines of up to P50,000.00, even losing your government job.
After writing last week on HB 4244, The Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development Act of 2011, I got unexpected queries from friends who were not too clear on the objectives of the RH bill.
Why the Fuss?
In particular, Mang Naro Lualhati, our institutional memory on Meralco overcharges, called to ask why we were making such a big fuss on reproductive health. Of course, he knew why, but that was his way of punctuating his point on RH: if our objective in RH is to promote free choice, he said, we already have free choice today.
Besides, since President Aquino already publicly declared that he is for free choice, Mang Naro insisted, all he has to do is withdraw support for the bill and let it whither in the vine, in effect promoting the freedom of choice we already enjoy.
Since I will not presume to know this President’s thinking, I could only go as far as to promise to bring it up in Crossings.
Basic Human Rights
Under the bill’s declaration of policy, “the State recognizes and guarantees the exercise of the universal basic human right to reproductive health by all persons… consistent with the… demands of responsible parenthood.” There will be no quarrel on that policy, for who will argue against these basic human rights.
Sec. 4, definition of terms, says: “Reproductive health refers to the state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes.” The bill defines reproductive health in so many ways but has no definition of the “system.” I am sure there will not be any big debate on what that system is, though I cannot say the same on how it is used.
Reproductive health care, under the same definition of terms, “refers to the access to a full range of methods, facilities, services and supplies that contribute to reproductive health and well-being by preventing and solving reproductive health-related problems.”
The latter portion of the definition is pregnant with dire implications – what are the reproductive health-related problems that are to be prevented and solved, and how.
That definition goes further: “It also includes sexual health, the purpose of which is the enhancement of life and personal relations.” Listed among the elements of reproductive health are: “c) proscription and management of abortion complications, g) education and counseling on sexuality and reproductive health, j) prevention and treatment of infertility and sexual dysfunction.” Have we reached that point where we must legislate the management of sexual dysfunction? Do we not have enough legislation to protect those who need medical attention and to penalize those who practice abortion?
Modern Methods
Isipin ho ninyo, may kulong kayo sa RH Bill.You violate this law, you go to jail from one to six months and/or pay a fine of P10,000 to P50,000.
Let us go through the RH Bill in sequence, and see what it holds for us.
Sec. 10, Family Planning Supplies as Essential Medicines. “Products and supplies for modern family planning methods shall be included in the regular purchase of essential medicine and supplies of all national and local hospitals and other government health units.”
“Modern Methods of Family Planning,” according to the bill, “refer to safe, effective and legal methods, whether the natural, or the artificial that are registered with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the DOH, to prevent pregnancy.” (Emphasis mine.)
Limited Resources
I have a young daughter, Tinie, who recently served in a government hospital, and on a couple of occasions, I did some buying for her at the medical stores in Bambang, for her supply of syringes, specimen bottles, plaster, even cotton buds and swabs, because the hospital did not have enough for the patients who would have to buy these supplies elsewhere.
With many unable to provide for themselves, Tinie and her batchmates always had to have a kind of a “loot bag” from where to draw the basic supplies.
Now, this law mandates the hospital to realign its supplies budget, and there is a penal provision for any violation of that mandate.
Guiding principles of RH bill, Sec. 3, (l) says: “The limited resources of the country cannot be suffered to be spread so thinly to service a burgeoning multitude making allocations grossly inadequate and effectively meaningless.”
We ask the RH sponsors and lobbyists: Where is the adequacy, meaning and effectiveness of the allocation you envision in the RH Bill, where medical supplies basic to the living will be sacrificed for modern methods of family planning?
PhilHealth Coverage
It is timely to note that under Sec. 25, Implementing Mechanisms, sub-sec (g), the DOH and the Local Health Units as lead agencies for the implementation of RH Bill will “...facilitate the involvement and participation of NGO’s and the private sectorin reproductive health care service delivery and in the production, distribution and delivery of quality reproductive health and family planning supplies and commodities to make them accessible and affordable to ordinary citizens.”
Lest we forget, Sec. 7, Access to Family Planning, guarantees full coverage by PhilHealth, both at the pregnancy-related and family planning levels, so cost should not be a problem. I just wonder, though, if the rest of the PhilHealth members will agree to this wanton use of the contributory PhilHealth fund, because I don’t.
Also, I googled the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation, Inc., the one headed by Mr. Ramon San Pascual, and in their “Activities for the Month of May”, they have this for May 26-27: “DOH Training on Political Mapping, Stakeholders Analyses and Position Paper Writing.”
Is the DOH training Mr. San Pascual and his colleagues in political mapping? DOH has its hands full with the country’s health needs, why should it use its precious time and resources training these Philippine legislators? Incidentally, are they a committee of the legislators we voted to our Congress?
‘Pork’ Somewhere
Are DOH and Mr. San Pascual way ahead of the RH Bill, already implementing and facilitating the involvement of this NGO in the delivery of health care services. I hope they have not gone yet into the production components.
Sec. 15, Mobile Health Care Service, provides: “Each Congressional District may be provided with at least one (1) Mobile Health Care Service (MHCS) in the form of a van or other means of transportation appropriate to… deliver health care supplies and services to constituents… The purchase of the MHCS may be funded from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) …"
So, there you are. Pork had to be lurking somewhere out there. Looking at the bright side, though, this is better than a basketball court or a farm-to-pocket road.
Next issue, the prohibited acts and the McCarthyist mayhem it threatens to bring about. RH Bill says: “The following acts are prohibited: (e) Any person who maliciously engages in disinformation about the intent or provisions of this Act.” (RH Bill) Critics and objectors be warned. You could fall prey to a Lagman Hunt.
(Email crsng_47@hotmail.com)
Butch Junia
5/30-6/5/2011
If you think the Reproductive Health or RH Bill is only about the well-being of mothers, women and children, think again.
It’s also about going to jail for six months, paying fines of up to P50,000.00, even losing your government job.
After writing last week on HB 4244, The Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development Act of 2011, I got unexpected queries from friends who were not too clear on the objectives of the RH bill.
Why the Fuss?
In particular, Mang Naro Lualhati, our institutional memory on Meralco overcharges, called to ask why we were making such a big fuss on reproductive health. Of course, he knew why, but that was his way of punctuating his point on RH: if our objective in RH is to promote free choice, he said, we already have free choice today.
Besides, since President Aquino already publicly declared that he is for free choice, Mang Naro insisted, all he has to do is withdraw support for the bill and let it whither in the vine, in effect promoting the freedom of choice we already enjoy.
Since I will not presume to know this President’s thinking, I could only go as far as to promise to bring it up in Crossings.
Basic Human Rights
Under the bill’s declaration of policy, “the State recognizes and guarantees the exercise of the universal basic human right to reproductive health by all persons… consistent with the… demands of responsible parenthood.” There will be no quarrel on that policy, for who will argue against these basic human rights.
Sec. 4, definition of terms, says: “Reproductive health refers to the state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes.” The bill defines reproductive health in so many ways but has no definition of the “system.” I am sure there will not be any big debate on what that system is, though I cannot say the same on how it is used.
Reproductive health care, under the same definition of terms, “refers to the access to a full range of methods, facilities, services and supplies that contribute to reproductive health and well-being by preventing and solving reproductive health-related problems.”
The latter portion of the definition is pregnant with dire implications – what are the reproductive health-related problems that are to be prevented and solved, and how.
That definition goes further: “It also includes sexual health, the purpose of which is the enhancement of life and personal relations.” Listed among the elements of reproductive health are: “c) proscription and management of abortion complications, g) education and counseling on sexuality and reproductive health, j) prevention and treatment of infertility and sexual dysfunction.” Have we reached that point where we must legislate the management of sexual dysfunction? Do we not have enough legislation to protect those who need medical attention and to penalize those who practice abortion?
Modern Methods
Isipin ho ninyo, may kulong kayo sa RH Bill.You violate this law, you go to jail from one to six months and/or pay a fine of P10,000 to P50,000.
Let us go through the RH Bill in sequence, and see what it holds for us.
Sec. 10, Family Planning Supplies as Essential Medicines. “Products and supplies for modern family planning methods shall be included in the regular purchase of essential medicine and supplies of all national and local hospitals and other government health units.”
“Modern Methods of Family Planning,” according to the bill, “refer to safe, effective and legal methods, whether the natural, or the artificial that are registered with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the DOH, to prevent pregnancy.” (Emphasis mine.)
Limited Resources
I have a young daughter, Tinie, who recently served in a government hospital, and on a couple of occasions, I did some buying for her at the medical stores in Bambang, for her supply of syringes, specimen bottles, plaster, even cotton buds and swabs, because the hospital did not have enough for the patients who would have to buy these supplies elsewhere.
With many unable to provide for themselves, Tinie and her batchmates always had to have a kind of a “loot bag” from where to draw the basic supplies.
Now, this law mandates the hospital to realign its supplies budget, and there is a penal provision for any violation of that mandate.
Guiding principles of RH bill, Sec. 3, (l) says: “The limited resources of the country cannot be suffered to be spread so thinly to service a burgeoning multitude making allocations grossly inadequate and effectively meaningless.”
We ask the RH sponsors and lobbyists: Where is the adequacy, meaning and effectiveness of the allocation you envision in the RH Bill, where medical supplies basic to the living will be sacrificed for modern methods of family planning?
PhilHealth Coverage
It is timely to note that under Sec. 25, Implementing Mechanisms, sub-sec (g), the DOH and the Local Health Units as lead agencies for the implementation of RH Bill will “...facilitate the involvement and participation of NGO’s and the private sectorin reproductive health care service delivery and in the production, distribution and delivery of quality reproductive health and family planning supplies and commodities to make them accessible and affordable to ordinary citizens.”
Lest we forget, Sec. 7, Access to Family Planning, guarantees full coverage by PhilHealth, both at the pregnancy-related and family planning levels, so cost should not be a problem. I just wonder, though, if the rest of the PhilHealth members will agree to this wanton use of the contributory PhilHealth fund, because I don’t.
Also, I googled the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation, Inc., the one headed by Mr. Ramon San Pascual, and in their “Activities for the Month of May”, they have this for May 26-27: “DOH Training on Political Mapping, Stakeholders Analyses and Position Paper Writing.”
Is the DOH training Mr. San Pascual and his colleagues in political mapping? DOH has its hands full with the country’s health needs, why should it use its precious time and resources training these Philippine legislators? Incidentally, are they a committee of the legislators we voted to our Congress?
‘Pork’ Somewhere
Are DOH and Mr. San Pascual way ahead of the RH Bill, already implementing and facilitating the involvement of this NGO in the delivery of health care services. I hope they have not gone yet into the production components.
Sec. 15, Mobile Health Care Service, provides: “Each Congressional District may be provided with at least one (1) Mobile Health Care Service (MHCS) in the form of a van or other means of transportation appropriate to… deliver health care supplies and services to constituents… The purchase of the MHCS may be funded from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) …"
So, there you are. Pork had to be lurking somewhere out there. Looking at the bright side, though, this is better than a basketball court or a farm-to-pocket road.
Next issue, the prohibited acts and the McCarthyist mayhem it threatens to bring about. RH Bill says: “The following acts are prohibited: (e) Any person who maliciously engages in disinformation about the intent or provisions of this Act.” (RH Bill) Critics and objectors be warned. You could fall prey to a Lagman Hunt.
(Email crsng_47@hotmail.com)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
