YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
10/28/2011
I always thought that GMA took politics more Litely than ABS-CBN. Vice versa, I always thought that GMA was more committed to the truth than ABS-CBN, PTV, IBC, RPN, as well as most of the other large and small networks and stations.
Bob Stewart set up TV Channel 7 under the Republic Broadcasting System.
He was an American citizen.
If my memory does not fail and fool me, Bob was a World War II US Army GI who stayed behind after the war, perhaps married a Filipina, pioneered in the entertainment television business, sold it later on and retired to Phoenix, Arizona.
ABS & CBN
If I’m not mistaken, Tony S. Quirino set up either of ABS or CBN.
ABS was the Alto Broadcasting System. CBN was the Chronicle Broadcasting Network.
Eugenio Lopez, Sr. set up one of them and bought the other. He put them together and built ABS-CBN up into what it is.
Ining was the brighter brother of Fernando Lopez, Jr., father of Geny, Precy Psinakis, Oscar, Manolo and Robin, and grandfather of Gaby.
Tony Quirino was the brother of President Elpidio Syquia Quirino of Vigan, Ilocos Sur. He was the father of Cory Quirino.
New Medium vs Opposition
In preparation for his brother’s re-election campaign for President in the November 1953 National Elections, Tony bought television broadcasting equipment.
The CIA, led by Col. Edward Landsdale, USAF, had manipulated the Philippine Press against Quirino and in favor of their fair-haired candidate, Ramon Magsaysay, Jr.
Although television was a new medium, Tony had the connections and resources to beat the opposition in this medium.
Take note that Fernando Lopez, Jr. was not only the two-term Vice President of Ferdinand E. Marcos from 1965 - 1973. He was also the Vice President of Quirino from 1949 – 1953.
I have not managed to confirm a hundred percent that he was the Vice Presidential running mate of Quirino in 1953. However, logic would confirm that he, indeed, was.
Quirinos & Lopezes
In all the National Campaigns and Elections from 1935-1969 under the 1935 Constitution, there was an unwritten rule in the putting together of a Presidential and Vice Presidential tandem.
One had to come from Luzon, the North, and the other from the South, the Visayas or Mindanao.
Thus, when the Presidential Candidates were Quezon (1935 and 1939), Quirino (1949 and 1953), Magsaysay (1953), Macapagal (1961) and Marcos (1965 and 1969) from Luzon, their running mates were Osmena (1935 and 1939), Lopez (1949 and 1953), Garcia (1953), Pelaez (1961) and again, Lopez (1965 and 1969).
When the senior partners in the tandems were Roxas (1946), Garcia/Yulo (1957) and Osmena (1969), the junior partners were Quirino (1946), Laurel or Puyat/Macapagal (1957) and Magsaysay (1969), respectively.
Take note that the Quirinos and Lopezes were political allies.
TV & Newspaper
After Quirino’s defeat in 1953, the Lopezes, whose wealth was based on sugar, bought or took over Tony Quirino’s TV experiment.
Being a new medium, as well as business, a TV network or station was not yet profitable. It had to be cross subsidized from other more profitable and proven businesses.
The Lopezes most probably already owned and ran the Chronicle broadsheet newspaper, as well as the Chronicle Broadcasting Network of radio stations.
Tony’s ABS was a very appropriate and complimentary addition to and partner of CBN.
Both ABS and CBN were embroiled in politics from the start.
The Lopez Family’s very vested interests in Sugar, Public Utilities and Tri-media dictated and laid the foundations for the policy and style of ABS-CBN.
Walang Kinikilingan
All the time, I believed that Bob’s TV Channel 7, later on the Duavit, Gozun and Jimenez GMA TV and Radio Network, were truly “Walang Kinikilingan, … , Serbisiyong Totoo Lamang!“
However, two to three months ago, I discovered a hidden aspect of GMA in GMA News Network’s Channel 11.
Channel 11 has a 30-minute, late Monday night (10 or 11 pm.) show called “I Juander” hosted by Susan Enriquez.
Since August is the Chinese Ghost Month, they produced an episode, “Sino ang (White Lady) Babae sa Balete Drive?” for broadcast on August 29.
Since, I own and live in an 85-year-old house between Campanilla and Sampaguita Streets along Balete Drive in New Manila, Barangay Mariana, Cubao, Quezon City, the major TV Networks regularly use our home as a backdrop for their scenes and shows that have ghosts as their subjects and topics.
Garchitorenas & Rectos
“I Juander’s” researcher and producer got in touch with me to find out more about the White Lady of Balete Drive, as well as to borrow our home and surroundings as a venue for their video shoots.
I had written about the White Lady in the November 1–7, 2010 issue of our weekly OpinYon opinion newspaper.
I knew and had written about her father and mother’s family names, her death and apparitions or appearances in the early 1950’s and her residence. Her parents were a Garchitorena and a Recto.
She died in a vehicular accident during an unauthorized (by her parents) joyride with friends.
She owed money to her class fund. This was one of the reasons why she could not leave her earthly surroundings.
She usually made her appearances by hitching rides along Balete Drive at night, riding in the back seat and then disappearing or vice versa, i.e. by just appearing in the back of a vehicle.
Confirmed
The “I Juander” researcher discovered and informed me of the following.
The White Lady of Balete Drive’s name was MARIA ELENA RECTO GARCHITORENA. Her mother was MARIA CRISTINA RECTO and her father was a GARCHITORENA from the Municipality of Tigaon, Camarines Sur. They could not establish his first name.
However, my friend, former Caloocan City Congressman and NAIAA/MIAA General Manager Romeo “Romy” Santos told me that the father was the “Tito Manito” of his wife, Magdalena Garchitorena.
Up to today, Romy and Meg still own what is left, after Land Reform, of Hacienda Magdalena, in Tigaon, in the Partida District of Camarines Sur.
Aside from Romy, a common friend, former DAR Undersecretary Pejo confirmed the family lineage of the White Lady.
Denied
My friend, former Batangas Vice Governor Ricky Recto, told me that the White Lady was his cousin.
His father, Raffy Recto, owned the house on Balete Drive, corner Bougainvillea Street, up to Hibiscus Street, where the White Lady and her family lived in the early 1950’s.
He confirmed a slightly different version of why and how she died and haunted Balete Drive and nearby streets.
“I Juander” was not able to interview Ricky, who is still in hiding and the subject of a warrant of arrest based on unbailable charges of double murder.
Senator Ralph Recto denied to “I Juander” that he had a White Lady as a relative.
However, they interviewed Louie Recto Ysmael, former Disco owner and pioneer, and son of Chona Recto, married to Ysmael, and later to Kasten.
Louie confirmed most of the things that I knew about the White Lady.
No Mention at All
However, when the 30-minute “I Juander” episode, “Sino and babae sa Balete Drive?” was shown late on Monday, August 29, there was no mention of the surname “Recto”.
Neither the middle name “Recto” of Maria Elena Recto Garchitorena or Louie Recto Ysmael were mentioned.
The White Lady’s residence was not described as owned by a Recto.
Neither Ralph’s denials to “I Juander” or Ricky’s statements or confirmations to me were mentioned at all.
“I Juander” used my home and garden half a dozen times. They interviewed me on TV audio and video for almost 30 minutes. They did not include any of my TV recordings that mentioned “Recto” as the White Lady, her parents and family and finally, her home’s residents and/or owners.
Well, so far this Halloween or “Undas” season, we have only had one query about our home as venue for a TV encounter with the White Lady or other ghosts or just to hold a Halloween Activity - GMA’s “Unang Hirit.”
Friday, October 28, 2011
QC’s 20% real estate tax hike
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/28/2011
The Quezon City (QC) mayor has a P500-million pork barrel while every city councilor has a P44-million annual budget. These are over and above the city’s entire budget of P2.7 billion per annum. QC already has one of the highest tax structures in the country. Its residence certificate tax alone is 10 times higher than Makati’s. And even as those in city hall officialdom claim to be pro-poor — the reason they green-lighted this controversial Socialized Housing Tax (SHT) ordinance last Oct. 25 — QC has one of the highest employment taxes in the country.
Quezon City has ordinances taxing everything, including the office coffee maker. It has a tax on household water pumps even if the homeowner, not the local government, has invested in its drilling, installation, and procurement (notwithstanding the fact that the water pump is to be situated within his own property). It has an environmental tax but with no environmental services. It taxes fast food outlets operating in malls that already pay environmental service fees — charges which are then passed on to the mall’s tenants — thereby illegally taxing these small stall owners twice. And the list goes on.
Unfortunately, QC has been virtually under the same city administration since Edsa II; it is expected to continue through several more terms unless its citizens wake up to the truth about the corrupt dynasty that has entrenched itself in city hall.
Although 2010 brought in a change of name in the Mayor’s Office, with the electoral victory of the former vice mayor, comedian Herbert “Bistek” Bautista, for all intents and purposes, the ancien régime continues not only because a very young daughter of the previous mayor is now Bautista’s vice but primarily because the old boys of Sonny Belmonte continue to “rule the roost.”
For instance, the former city treasurer, touted as having generated a P6.5-billion budget surplus, is now the city administrator; while behind the scenes is Taddy Palma whose name elicits from QC Circle locators a raised hand with thumb and middle finger formed into a circle.
In the last elections where the former mayor campaigned for his congressional seat, media were flooded with glowing reports of his surplus of P6.5 billion in the city’s coffers. This one from the Philippine Star, dated June 20, 2010 by Reiner Padua, said, “After nine years of being mayor of Quezon City, congressman-elect Feliciano Belmonte Jr. will be leaving the city government with P6.5-billion cash on hand and in banks.” Yeah, right!
If there is this surplus in Quezon City trumpeted just a little over a year ago, then why did current Mayor Herbert Bautista, Vice Mayor Josefina Belmonte, and the city council deem it necessary to pass a new real estate tax of P180 million or so, purportedly for “socialized housing” or SHT?
When confronted by this P6.5-billion surplus claim, Mayor Bautista simply denies its existence or says that the entire amount has already been used up for salaries and whatnot — which is highly improbable.
So who is lying, Mayor Bautista or the former mayor and his city treasurer, now administrator Vic Endriga? Can the vice mayor-daughter of Belmonte tell us who the liar is among them?
Mayor Bautista, along with his political caboodle in Quezon City, says the tax is a “measly” 0.05 percent of every P100,000 assessed value of real estate property; but that is deceptive and misleading to the extreme.
Based on the “basic real estate tax” for urban centers in Metro Manila of 2 percent, the tax hike approved by the current QC administration adds 0.05 percent for every P100,000 of assessed value, which means P5,000 in SHT for a P1-million property. This is aside from the P20,000 representing the 2-percent basic tax, which means that the SHT is actually an increase of 20 percent or more!
Many Quezon City civic leaders have gone to the city council hearing to oppose this, with city officials, particularly councilors, not being able to give sufficient and rational justification for the measure. One of the most vehement in imposing this tax hike is the “pro-poor” 4th District Councilor Edcel “Grex” Lagman Jr., son of a prominent House apologist for Gloria Arroyo, leading QC residents and homeowners to shake their heads and say, “So young, so corrupt.”
Then, as if to assuage the anger of taxpayers, the city council promises to rebate this exaction five years later — liars all!
If the city council and administration want to do something right for a change, they can begin by investigating the P6.5-billion surplus of Belmonte that is now nowhere to be found. They should also cleanse themselves of the reeking stink from the 3,000 ghost employees that the new Commission on Audit uncovered in city councilors’ payrolls, amounting to over P200 million a year (which investigation was triggered by our July 15 “Quezon City CoA-llusion?” article).
Further, the city council should investigate the North Triangle urban poor relocation scandal involving hundreds of millions and the “favorite contractor” of Belmonte and a former FVR Finance man alleged to have headed the “QC government’s real property pilferage.”
But instead of doing good for QC residents who are filling their city’s coffers with tax payments, these local politicians prefer to keep milking the city’s taxpayers for their imagined “pro-poor” socialized housing program, which is just an excuse for more graft.
Quezon City residents interested in studying the abuse of their city’s taxes can visit http://www.better-qc.org set up by QC anti-graft crusaders Johnny Chang, Rod Kapunan, Andy Rosales, et al. We understand that court suits are already being prepared against this tax hike. Maybe they might as well consider “Occupy QC Hall” very soon.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8 — this week: “Quezon City Homeowners Oppose 20% Real Estate Tax Hike;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/28/2011
The Quezon City (QC) mayor has a P500-million pork barrel while every city councilor has a P44-million annual budget. These are over and above the city’s entire budget of P2.7 billion per annum. QC already has one of the highest tax structures in the country. Its residence certificate tax alone is 10 times higher than Makati’s. And even as those in city hall officialdom claim to be pro-poor — the reason they green-lighted this controversial Socialized Housing Tax (SHT) ordinance last Oct. 25 — QC has one of the highest employment taxes in the country.
Quezon City has ordinances taxing everything, including the office coffee maker. It has a tax on household water pumps even if the homeowner, not the local government, has invested in its drilling, installation, and procurement (notwithstanding the fact that the water pump is to be situated within his own property). It has an environmental tax but with no environmental services. It taxes fast food outlets operating in malls that already pay environmental service fees — charges which are then passed on to the mall’s tenants — thereby illegally taxing these small stall owners twice. And the list goes on.
Unfortunately, QC has been virtually under the same city administration since Edsa II; it is expected to continue through several more terms unless its citizens wake up to the truth about the corrupt dynasty that has entrenched itself in city hall.
Although 2010 brought in a change of name in the Mayor’s Office, with the electoral victory of the former vice mayor, comedian Herbert “Bistek” Bautista, for all intents and purposes, the ancien régime continues not only because a very young daughter of the previous mayor is now Bautista’s vice but primarily because the old boys of Sonny Belmonte continue to “rule the roost.”
For instance, the former city treasurer, touted as having generated a P6.5-billion budget surplus, is now the city administrator; while behind the scenes is Taddy Palma whose name elicits from QC Circle locators a raised hand with thumb and middle finger formed into a circle.
In the last elections where the former mayor campaigned for his congressional seat, media were flooded with glowing reports of his surplus of P6.5 billion in the city’s coffers. This one from the Philippine Star, dated June 20, 2010 by Reiner Padua, said, “After nine years of being mayor of Quezon City, congressman-elect Feliciano Belmonte Jr. will be leaving the city government with P6.5-billion cash on hand and in banks.” Yeah, right!
If there is this surplus in Quezon City trumpeted just a little over a year ago, then why did current Mayor Herbert Bautista, Vice Mayor Josefina Belmonte, and the city council deem it necessary to pass a new real estate tax of P180 million or so, purportedly for “socialized housing” or SHT?
When confronted by this P6.5-billion surplus claim, Mayor Bautista simply denies its existence or says that the entire amount has already been used up for salaries and whatnot — which is highly improbable.
So who is lying, Mayor Bautista or the former mayor and his city treasurer, now administrator Vic Endriga? Can the vice mayor-daughter of Belmonte tell us who the liar is among them?
Mayor Bautista, along with his political caboodle in Quezon City, says the tax is a “measly” 0.05 percent of every P100,000 assessed value of real estate property; but that is deceptive and misleading to the extreme.
Based on the “basic real estate tax” for urban centers in Metro Manila of 2 percent, the tax hike approved by the current QC administration adds 0.05 percent for every P100,000 of assessed value, which means P5,000 in SHT for a P1-million property. This is aside from the P20,000 representing the 2-percent basic tax, which means that the SHT is actually an increase of 20 percent or more!
Many Quezon City civic leaders have gone to the city council hearing to oppose this, with city officials, particularly councilors, not being able to give sufficient and rational justification for the measure. One of the most vehement in imposing this tax hike is the “pro-poor” 4th District Councilor Edcel “Grex” Lagman Jr., son of a prominent House apologist for Gloria Arroyo, leading QC residents and homeowners to shake their heads and say, “So young, so corrupt.”
Then, as if to assuage the anger of taxpayers, the city council promises to rebate this exaction five years later — liars all!
If the city council and administration want to do something right for a change, they can begin by investigating the P6.5-billion surplus of Belmonte that is now nowhere to be found. They should also cleanse themselves of the reeking stink from the 3,000 ghost employees that the new Commission on Audit uncovered in city councilors’ payrolls, amounting to over P200 million a year (which investigation was triggered by our July 15 “Quezon City CoA-llusion?” article).
Further, the city council should investigate the North Triangle urban poor relocation scandal involving hundreds of millions and the “favorite contractor” of Belmonte and a former FVR Finance man alleged to have headed the “QC government’s real property pilferage.”
But instead of doing good for QC residents who are filling their city’s coffers with tax payments, these local politicians prefer to keep milking the city’s taxpayers for their imagined “pro-poor” socialized housing program, which is just an excuse for more graft.
Quezon City residents interested in studying the abuse of their city’s taxes can visit http://www.better-qc.org set up by QC anti-graft crusaders Johnny Chang, Rod Kapunan, Andy Rosales, et al. We understand that court suits are already being prepared against this tax hike. Maybe they might as well consider “Occupy QC Hall” very soon.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8 — this week: “Quezon City Homeowners Oppose 20% Real Estate Tax Hike;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
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