The HPV vaccine scam

CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
7/4-7/10/2011

I have to shift my column theme from “Critics’ Critic” to “Consumers’ Demand” as critical developments in the consumer welfare sector are crying for immediate attention.

There is a new Big Pharma scam going on.  It involves an aggressive marketing campaign on millions of innocent consumers who are being peddled an exorbitantly priced, unnecessary, and even potentially harmful vaccine.

The last time Big Pharma committed this atrocity was in April 2009 when it sensationally engineered the “Swine flu outbreak” in Mexico that allegedly killed hundreds but later declared severely exaggerated, given the final estimates that placed deaths at only a few dozens.

Such a scare led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a pandemic and predict “millions of deaths.”

But one year and eight months later, in December 2010, several science and technology sites such as PhysOrg.com merely reported that swine flu “has killed 163 people out of almost 36,000 cases reported in 76 countries, according to the WHO.

Ad Brainwashing
Worldwide, seasonal flu death, according to WHO statistics, ranges from 250,000 to 500,000.

This makes the total swine flu deaths miniscule in comparison. Yet the WHO pandemic scare pushed governments into spending billions of dollars in totally useless drugs like Tamiflu – this, even as such drugs proved to be ineffective, with harmful side effects such as delirium as well as suicidal tendencies to boot.

Tamiflu, for one, was later revealed to have been manufactured by biopharmaceutical firm, Gilead Sciences, where former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had substantial shares.

It is the same company that produces the poison Aspartame that many consumers swallow willingly (because of ad brainwashing).

GMA bought Billions
As billions worth of swine flu vaccines were sold amid panic vaccination campaigns across the globe, Gloria Arroyo also bought billions of these.

Regular flu vaccines were simultaneously promoted, with many still being misled into accepting their efficacy, despite studies proving the contrary.

We’ll quote just one among thousands of such studies – this one from ProgressiveHealth.com:

“Cochrane Collaboration, a non-profit group that reviews scientific evidence… published in Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews examined studies of health care workers vaccinations between 1997 and 2009.

“Researchers at the University of Calgary in Canada analyzed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and other studies assessing healthcare workers vaccination and effectiveness against influenza illness in elderly nursing home residents.

“The researchers found that vaccinating healthcare nursing home workers had no impact on confirmed flu cases among elderly residents.  Furthermore, vaccination did not affect the number of pneumonia-linked cases or deaths.  ‘We conclude there is no evidence that vaccinating healthcare workers prevents influenza in elderly residents in long-term care facilities…’”

‘Pimping’ a Vaccine
Then, it went on to say that EU Health Minister Wolfgang Woodard investigated WHO and found that “governments were ‘threatened’ by… the pharmaceutical industry as well as the WHO to buy the vaccines and inject their populations without any reasonable scientific reason for doing so…”

A few weeks ago, I noticed an increase in the tempo of the marketing campaign to get Filipinas young and old to shell out anywhere between P1,500 to P 3,000 for their own HPV (human papilloma virus) vaccination.
It was around that time that I saw this ad with Kris Aquino promoting the HPV vaccine.

Then, after seeing a number of billboards along EDSA offering HPV vaccinations at a cosmetic surgeon’s chain of clinics, I decided to surf the Net and saw a quote lifted by interactive magazine site Zimbio from celebritypulp.com melding Kris’ denial of her rumored pregnancy and her trip to her OB-GYN supposedly for “…the cervical cancer screening… (but also) to pimp some cervical cancer vaccine.”

Why the term “pimp” was used is already striking in itself.  Could this be the attitude these people take on such a serious issue?

No Efficacy Trials
The scare that HPV causes cancer has now been created that even some of the most intelligent women I know are rushing headlong to have it, feeling that they owe it to their body and well-being to do so – without realizing that they may just find their health (and pockets) compromised.

From the Natural Family Blog comes this report of an HPV vaccine researcher who dropped a bombshell: “Sunday, October 25, 2009; Dr. Diane Harper, lead researcher in the development of two human papilloma virus vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix, said the controversial drugs will do little to reduce cervical cancer rates and, even though they’re being recommended for girls as young as nine, there have been no efficacy trials in children under the age of 15…

“Dr. Harper began her remarks by explaining that 70 percent of all HPV infections resolve themselves without treatment within a year.

“Within two years, the number climbs to 90 percent.  Of the remaining 10 percent of HPV infections, only half will develop into cervical cancer, which leaves little need for the vaccine… stating that the incidence of cervical cancer in the US is already so low that ‘even if we get the vaccine and continue PAP screening, we will not lower the rate of cervical cancer in the US.’"


Adverse Reaction
The report further said: “Since the drug’s introduction in 2006, the public has been learning many of these facts the hard way.  To date, 15,037 girls have officially reported adverse side effects from Gardasil to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).  These adverse reactions include Guillain–Barré, lupus, seizures, paralysis, blood clots, brain inflammation and many others.  The CDC acknowledges that there have been 44 reported deaths.

“Dr. Harper also participated in the research on GlaxoSmithKline’s version of the drug, Cervarix… Since the government began administering the vaccine to school-aged girls last year, more than 2,000 patients reported some kind of adverse reaction…

“The most tragic case involved a 14 year-old girl who dropped dead in the corridor of her school an hour after receiving the vaccination… (Dr. Harper) also weighed in last month on a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that raised questions about the safety of the vaccine, saying bluntly: ‘The rate of serious adverse events is greater than the incidence rate of cervical cancer.’”

Huge Rip-Off
Dr. James Howenstine’s article, “Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine Fraud,” enumerates the arguments against HPV vaccines:

“• HPV vaccine increases the risk of developing a precancerous cervical lesion by 44.6 percent in women previously infected with a HPV viral type found in the vaccine.

“• HPV virus does not cause cervical cancer.

“• HPV viral infections are self-limiting and are not a health threat to healthy females.

“• This valuable information about the etiology of HPV viral infections has been suppressed from public knowledge.

“• Allowing untruths about Gardasil to be disseminated in public hearings and planting fear have been used to promote sales of this worthless vaccine.”

It is thus the duty of media to bring the full story of the HPV vaccine to the public, and expose the snake oil salesmen peddling this huge rip-off.

The hefty amounts individuals shell out for such worthless, if not dangerous, vaccines would be enough for several months of fresh leafy greens and natural health remedies like turmeric, garlic, lemon grass, and virgin coconut oil (VCO) to naturally boost the body’s immune system.

Readers are therefore urged to do their own reading on the Internet about this; and not just rely on advertisements and celebrity endorsers for their health and well-being.

(Tune in to Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m., and Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “Supreme Court: Supreme Injustices” with Lauro Vizconde, Dante Jimenez, and Rasti Delizo of PMJ; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus select radio and GNN shows)

Nothing good, new to offer

YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
7/4-7/10/2011



After one year


After P-Noy’s “Ulat ng Bayan” last Thursday, June 30, what is next? What is new? What will happen for the next year? Or in Filipino, “Ano pang pambobola? Ano pang pagmamalaki? Ano pang pagmamalinis?”

At least, one thing I noticed about the First Birthday Celebration is that P-Noy did not name drop or, rather, take his father and mother’s names in vain anymore. He wants to be his own man or boy already. However, his sisters still tried to do a chorus. And, there was no more direct reference to protect their parent’s legacy.

False Hopes for the SONA
What is next is that those who cling on to hope eternal will expect that last Thursday’s milestone will give him, P-Noy, enough practice to prepare for a better SONA (State of the Nation Address).

The “Ulat ng Bayan” was a soft launch or practice run. The SONA will be the real thing.

If P-Noy has got any brains, if he has any experience, if his Administration has any Vision and Program, and if his spin artists have any abilities at all, then on Monday, July 25, at the Batasang Pambansa Plenary Hall, usually from 4 to 5 pm, P-Noy will show us, his Bosses, where we are and where we will go from there.

What is new is that at the Ultra, P-Noy tried to put on a show with a young audience.

Maybe they thought that the younger the person, the more the tendency to be pro P-Noy.

More of the Same
Well, as they say “nakabenta na iyan”.

That was true during the campaign, the May 10, 2010 elections and the pre-inauguration period (May 11 to June 30, 2010, about 50 days.).

You can check it out for yourself.

If you were to conduct your own survey you would find out the following. Staff of Mc Donald’s, Starbucks, and the like tend to be for P-Noy because they are younger. Those from fine dining restaurants are older and tend to be for former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada.

What will happen for the next year? More of the same.

Let us start at the Creation of the Second Aquino Administration from September 2, 2009 to June 30, 2010.

That Guy, Jojo Ochoa
Let us look at the core of that Administration – the Little and the Midget President.

Usually, the Executive Secretary is called the “Little President”.

However, under the Aquino Administration, P-Noy is already “Little”, and therefore, we have to call the Executive Secretary something else. Let’s call him the “Midget” President.

A year ago, P-Noy could hardly commit any mistake. But he did.

The biggest mistake of both his life and his six-year term as President was to pick his overall Kabarkada, Paquito “Jojo” Navarro “Midget” Ochoa of MOST (Marcos, Ochoa, Serapio and Tan Law Office) and formerly former Quezon City Mayor Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte’s City Administrator, as his Executive Secretary.

This immediately gave the lie to the “Matuwid na Daan” and the “Walang Mahirap pag Walang Korap” slogans.

Ochoa and QC
There is a general impression posing into a question: How could someone who worked for more than a day, if not nine years, in the Quezon City Government, not be corrupt?

If you think, P-Noy, Ochoa, Puno and Torres are angels and patriots, tell that to Johnny Chang, Rod Kapunan, Hans Palacios, and Andy Rosales.

They are Quezon City citizens, who ran for Mayor, Vice Mayor, Congressman (4^th District) and Councillor (3^rd District) last May 10, 2010.

They did not expect to win but they have a lot to say and tell about graft and corruption in our city.
To keep this part of the story short, just go to Morato Ave. and see for yourself how they spent billions on sidewalk bricks, just barely two or three years old. Now, they are tearing this billion-peso project up the sidewalks for the third time in a few years.

Who did it the first and second times? Belmonte, Ochoa, et al. Who did it this third time? Since they keep Mayor Herbert “Bistek” Bautista as a virtual puppet, are Belmonte and Ochoa’s men still responsible?


QC Dad as Solon
You may also do your own research and compare the perks and pork of an average Congressman with those of a Quezon City Councilor.

QC Councilors who get promoted to Congressmen suffer a culture shock.

The staff of a Councilor is three times that of a Congressman’s in size.

Considering that there are six councilors to a district, a Congressman has to take care of a constituency thrice as big for the same amount of pork.

His staff has an 18-fold more difficult a job than a councilor’s staff, taking care of the district constituency.
Quezon City was the home of Ninoy, Cory, Noynoy, and his sisters, since I first heard of the Aquinos. But even then, P-Noy could not have not known of the “reputation” of his allies in the City Government.

Then, Sonny Belmonte became the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The last time that he was the Speaker for a brief five and a half months, he was allegedly involved in the payola scandal over the passage of the EPIRA Law. That is another long story that is better left to Butch Junia and Mentong Laurel.

Samar HQS
When I learned in December of 2009 that Noynoy had appointed a certain Jojo Ochoa as the scheduler of his campaign over and above his Liberal Party Campaign Manager, Florencio “Butch” Abad of the new KamagAnak, Inc., I was surprised.

When I learned that there was an unofficial rear campaign headquarters on Samar Avenue owned by Jerry Acuzar of San Jose Builders, I knew something was awfully wrong.

When we learned that the MOST Law Partner and Quezon City Administrator Atty. Paquito Jojo Navarro Ochoa would become the Midget President, we realized that there was nothing “Matuwid” about P-Noy.
We knew that the number of “Mahirap” would increase because the reverse of “Walang Mahirap, pag Walang Korap” is “Pag may Korap, may Mahirap”.

What if, may I add, the corrupt come so close to the President? Given that question, the best answer could only be: the number of “Mahirap” and “Naghihirap” will increase.

Dirty Linen Exposed
We started our column last week (A sad 1^st Birthday for an Haciendero!) by relating what P-Noy did and said at the 113^th Anniversary of the DPWH.

There, without naming them, P-Noy said that he is not happy with three of his Cabinet Secretaries. And that these three, he said, keep on bringing him problems without the corresponding solutions.

It had come to the point that he did not want to see them anymore. We also went on to explain why P-Noy does such childish and unprofessional things.

We tried to explain that in his case, it is not only a failure to control internal differences and factions. It is in his character to create, encourage and publicly expose his own dirty linen.

Last week, we found out who the three pet peeves are from an insider to the insiders. Our source is an ally of the formerly Civil now Evil Society. He is only an insider in this faction and not a direct insider in the Aquino  Administration.

According to him, the three Secretaries are: Ricky Carandang of the “Tatlong Itlog”; Ging Quintos Deles of the Peace Process, and Bertie Lim of Tourism. (Although as of this writing, speculations gave a name other than Ricky’s.)

An Insecure Noynoy
These names are completely different from my original three suspects. I had thought that they were DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima, DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo, and DOE Secretary Jose Rene Almendras.

Because of P-Noy’s insecurity, he does not want to be outshone by brighter and noisier subordinates. That goes for De Lima.

However, in Robredo’s case, it is the haciendero trait in P-Noy that makes him detest Robredo. The latter looks too much like a peasant or at the most a “kapatas” to be to P-Noy’s liking.

In the case of Almendras, I guess there were many more fuel price increases than decreases.

Although Ricky Carandang may not be brighter than P-Noy, he tries too hard to be more “Mayabang” than his Boss.

Ging, whom I knew since college days and who is married to my comrade, Jojo Deles, is “pesada” and appears condescending. She just does not have the chameleon abilities of Dinky Juliano Soliman (who, by the way is from Tarlac and most probably from Hacienda Luisita).

My theory holds – to P-Noy Dinky may appear like a peasant, but she is the peasant who got into the Landlord’s household as a cook, maid or “yaya”. She may rub elbows with the “amo.”

Finally, we have Bertie Lim. He was my classmate. I think he never recovered from the scandal when his Undersecretary Enteng Romano (who loved P-Noy better than Kabarilans Rico Puno and Virginia Torres, and, therefore, resigned.) spent so much money to replace the “Wow Philippines!” Tourism program with something new that we can not even remember.

Black and White
After spilling the secret last week, our source threw a question at us.

What do the three hold in common?

They are all Black and Whites that begged Vice President Noli de Castro to take over the Presidency from GMA up to November 30, 2005.

A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TEOFISTO ‘TITO’ GUINGONA TODAY, MONDAY, JULY 4, 2011!

The P226-B Meralco windfall

CROSSINGS
Butch Junia
7/4-7/10/2011



The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has given Meralco a P226.6 Billion windfall consisting of operating expenses and dividends amounting to P189.5B and capital expenses of P37.1B, all chargeable to us under PBR or Parusa sa Bayan Rates.

For that, ERC has authorized Meralco to charge us in regulatory year 2011-2012, a so-called Maximum Average Price of P1.5828 pkwh which, when “translated” into actual rates for different customer classes will have some residential households paying distribution rates of more than P4 pkwh while large industrial customers could be paying only P0.26 pkwh, a clear case of discriminatory pricing.

This questionable pricing was challenged by Mang Naro Lualhati at ERC but going into that now would be getting ahead of our story, so let’s save that for later.

Bundled Rate
In tagging this ERC godsend for Meralco, I had a tough time finding just the right word for it.

Granted under very liberal terms, was it a gift or plain largesse? Exacted from us under service that’s presumably regulated, would it be a tribute? Could it be a dowry, divorce from Meralco service being virtually impossible?

I guess being an unearned or sudden gain or advantage, the multi-billion peso ERC decision was simply a windfall, or manna to be collected annually over a four-year period – 2012 to 2015 – under Performance Based Regulation (PBR), ERC’s rate-setting methodology that has made our electricity rates among the highest in Asia and the world.

Mind you, this ERC rate grant under Case No. 2010-069 RC is for distribution, supply and metering (DSM) charges only, excluding Meralco’s pass-through generation and transmission charges which in 2010, for instance, amounted to P195.4 Billion.

Our bundled rate under the Meralco franchise today reaches P10.33pkwh for some residential customers, from only P4.20 pkwh before all these reforms that included PBR.

Equitable Approach
That windfall comes from the so-called 3^rd regulatory period of PBR, with P79.06 B earmarked for return on capital or interest and dividends computed at 14.97% of Meralco’s Rolled-over Regulatory Asset Base (RAB) plus the Working Capital, using what ERC calls the Weighted Average Cost of Capital or WACC, which might as well be called Whack!, considering the wallop consumers get from this ERC concoction.

As approved by ERC, Meralco’s RAB for 2012 is P126.7B; for 2013, P130.9B; for 2014, P134.1B, and, for 2015, P136.8B.

The bulk of the 14.97% return on capital comes from this asset base.

Consumers, however, have asked ERC to first determine how much of the RAB came from the investors or their equity, and which portions were acquired directly from our rate payments and/or loans that we paid for from our rates.

The stockholders’ dividends should be limited to the portions of the assets acquired from investor equity, while the rest of the return on capital should be applied to reducing the rates.

This should be the equitable approach, as the consumers whose rate payments were used for acquiring the assets, in effect, own those assets and should be the beneficiaries of its fruits.

Dramatic Rise
According to Mang Naro, the appraised value of Meralco’s asset base in 2007 was P84B, as reported by the Commission on Audit to ERC in December, 2009.

The dramatic rise in Meralco’s RAB came not from actual investments by the owners or stockholders but from a re-appraisal of assets after 2007.

In fact, the other significant source of Meralco’s capex funds was its captive customers who had to pay for Meralco’s capital investments under successive regulatory periods in PBR.

Every year under the 1^st and 2^nd regulatory periods of PBR, consumers were charged hefty fees for capital expenses which investors and owners of the utility did not have to provide anymore.

Thus, for the years 2007 to 2011, Meralco customers were charged P39B for capital expenditures, an expense Meralco’s investors were not only able to avoid but worst, they even earned 15.5% WACC on this as it was rolled-over to the Regulatory Asset Base.

Ito ang tunay na guisa sa sariling mantika!

ONs and OFs
Before PBR, this return on capital was capped at 12% by jurisprudence and by law, specifically the Public Service Act.

A long line of Supreme Court decisions clearly set the limit for the reasonable return recoverable by a utility at 12% as the maximum.

In most cases, an 8% return was sufficient, considering the monopoly character of the business and the zero market risk.

Under PBR, that ceiling was shattered thus Meralco’s cost of dividends is now much higher than its operating expense or the direct cost for providing us the distribution service – P19.1 B vs  P13.9 B, respectively, for the year 2012 only.

Note, too, that in addition to the P79-B return ON capital, Meralco was given a P23.26B return OF capital, alternately called regulatory depreciation. Between the ON and the OF, that’s a total of P102.6B, and given Meralco’s projected sales of 125.86B kwh for that period, that will be a total charge of P0.815 pkwh for Meralco’s 4.8 Million customers covering a total population of 19 million.

On the interest and dividends alone, Meralco is making money hand over fist from the capital we have to provide Meralco because of ERC’s PBR, its so-called internationally accepted rate-setting methodology, a claim disputed by consumers.

Estimates & Forecasts
PBR, according to Pete Ilagan of the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms (Nasecore), is a revenue-fixing platform or mechanism rather than a rate-setting methodology.

At the instance of ERC, and under ERC’s guidance called an Issue Paper, the utility files its Annual Revenue Requirement for four (4) years.

What are submitted, according to Nasecore, are estimates and forecasts of capital and operating expenses, return on capital, depreciation, taxes, sales, customer growth, including economic indicators.

Instead of cost recovery or rates to recoup expenses incurred, utilities like Meralco now charge us rates to finance estimated and forecasted costs, including the forecasted capital expense which in Meralco’s case was applied for at P54B  and approved by ERC for P37 B, despite findings of the consultants (we paid for) that it should only be P31B.

Just and Reasonable Cost
Moreover, the RORB criteria for cost recovery, notably the prudence, necessity and consumer benefits from the claimed expenses and the actual use or usefulness of recoverable assets, are totally forgotten in favor of esoteric indices that have no direct relevance to the service provided.

In that context, PBR is contrary to EPIRA’s mandate on cost recovery.

Sec. 25 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) provides that, “retail rates charged by distribution utilities xxx shall be xxx based on the principle of full recovery of prudent and reasonable economic costs xxx.” (Emphasis supplied.)

Sec. 43 (f) of EPIRA, famously quoted by ERC as basis for its PBR, states in part: “The rates must be such as to allow recovery of just and reasonable costs xxx”. (Emphasis supplied.)

The law allows ERC to establish a rate setting methodology different from Return on Rate Base or RORB “to allow the recovery of just and reasonable costs” but adds: “The rate-setting methodology so adopted and applied must ensure a reasonable price of electricity.” This portion of Sec. 43 (f) is conveniently omitted by ERC when citing the justification for PBR.

Very clearly, Nasecore says, the law talks about “recovery” of expenses or costs already incurred and investments already made by the utility to deliver electricity at a reasonable price, not the collection of charges based on forecasts and estimates.

Worst than our advances for Meralco’s operating and capital expenditures and the guaranteed earnings under WACC for this 3^rd regulatory period, we are also being asked to pay Meralco P24 B in so-called under-recoveries for the 2^nd regulatory period.

Denied the Chance
And, how was this IOU arrived at?

Apparently, it was only on the mere say-so of Meralco. ERC denied Nasecore’s call for a regulatory audit by our Commission on Audit (COA) and thwarted every attempt of Nasecore and the other consumers to look into the performance of Meralco for the 2^nd regulatory period.

Petitions of Nasecore for Meralco to produce documents required for submission under ERC’s rules were denied by ERC, denying consumers the chance to subject Meralco’s application to closer scrutiny.
By the way, a 2009 COA audit with very significant disallowances running into billions has not been acted upon by ERC up to this writing.

We cannot understand how ERC arrived at the P24B under-recovery by Meralco, after Meralco posted P12B net earnings in 2010, double the P6B in 2009. After the DSM rate of Meralco reached its highest in 2011 at P1.6464 pkwh.

Price Cap
This so-called Meralco under-recovery actually dramatizes everything that is wrong with the PBR that ERC imposes on us, which ERC claims to be price capped.

If it is a PBR “using a price cap” as claimed by ERC, how come everything that I have seen in the ERC decision has everything to do with revenues, not the price.

In fact, the under-recovery, if I understood it correctly, is premised on Meralco’s failure to attain the approved revenue requirements for the period.

We appeal to Congress, the LGU’s covered by the Meralco franchise, the academe, even the President, to seriously look into what is happening with ERC, PBR, WACC, etc, if we want an honest-to-goodness re-assessment of our dysfunctional electricity industry.

• Email crsng_47@hotmail.com