SOEs

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

11/30/2012

Daily Tribune

The People's Republic of China's phenomenal resurgence did not come by "privatized" enterprise and "foreign investment." The most crucial element was — and still is — "state planning" of the economy. At the heart of this planned economy is the state or the people's ownership of the "means of production," i.e. the tools and materials by which all productivity is generated. These tools, in turn, are the financial and physical economic enterprises brought about by the state's control of credit, money, and finance, as typified by the Bank of China, which they correctly consider a "public utility" and "state-owned enterprise." This set-up is very much the same in the case of power, water and infrastructure, with such business entities as Sinopec (China Petrochemical Corp.) or State Grid Corp. of China (that has already bought into the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines). As of 2011, 35 percent of business activity and 43 percent of profits came from these companies, and many "private enterprises" have as much as 49 percent state investments.

It is not only China that uses such methods in building progress and growth for its nation. Among other countries doing the same is Singapore, which has an economy primarily guided by the state and where its largest investment corporations are state-owned and run, such as Singapore Investment Corp. and Temasek Holdings or its telecommunications company, SingTel, which invests even here. Although some others mask their national industries under private companies, these are nonetheless mandated by the state, such as Japan and South Korea's respective zaibatsus and chaebols.
These are in stark contrast to the Philippines, where private corporations that are invariably backed by foreign interests suck up to P1 trillion in profits annually, siphoning these out of the system (as admitted by GMA economic adviser Joey Salceda in 2009) — which figure has increased by as much as 25 percent each succeeding year.

In our column entitled, "Opening up RP," our point was "nationalization" as the necessary direction against today's "privatization" and the "opening up" of windows, gates, skirts, and all to "foreign investors," as one Australia "business consultant" (who has no business at all) prescribes.
The Philippines was proud to be the first to accede to the GATT-WTO (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade-World Trade Organization) model and is now the last in Asia in terms of foreign economic investments and growth after almost 20 years since its signing. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) reported last October that the Philippines got only $800 million in 2011. For a country of 95 million people, the said figure is just the same as what Cambodia, having 14 million people, had achieved. China, meanwhile, with its state-controlled strategic enterprises and strict foreign investment guidelines, gets the lion's share of "foreign investments" at $91 billion in the first 10 months of 2012 alone.

The original title of this piece was "LOL (laughing out loud)" after I read a number of reactors lambasting me for being "Chinese," calling me among other things, "gago," an "excrement," a "dickhead" — all of which I enjoyed immensely. For sure, my provocations successfully opened a "can of worms," exposing a host of biological brainless creatures in wild verbal undulations. One reaction was to my depiction of the Aussies' roots, which the Australian government itself, in its Web site article entitled, "Convicts and British Colonies in Australia," narrates: "On 26 January 1788, Phillip raised the British flag at Sydney Cove. Seven hundred fifty-one convicts and their children disembarked, along with 252 marines and their families. Two more convict fleets arrived in 1790 and 1791… From 1788 to 1823, the Colony of New South Wales was officially a penal colony comprised mainly of convicts," which I capped off with a quip of "Need we say more?"

From the 1700s down to 1928, White Aussies massacred native Australian Aborigines. The "Aborigine Genocide" records: "Australian Aborigines suffered genocide at the hands of the European invaders in the 19th and 20th centuries. The indigenous population dropped from about 1 million to 0.1 million in the first century after the invasion in 1788, mainly through violence, dispossession, deprivation and introduced disease. The last massacres of Aborigines occurred in the 1920s. Throughout much of the 20th century there was a policy of forcibly removing Aboriginal children from their mothers, a systematic genocidal policy involving the removal of perhaps 0.1 million children." The Australian government has since officially apologized but the racism still continues, as my friends there report to us quite often whenever they return here. Let's hope the Aussie-philes learn a few historical lessons.

LOL (laughing out loud) is an expression popularized on the Internet but it also frequently has another meaning in Filipino (uLOL) describing a rabid dog.
Not a single one from the pro-"opening up" camp presented any sane argument. Neither have they rebutted the point that so-called foreign investors — in the sense of "finance capital" being the stuff of "foreign investments" in RP (like those going into PLDT or the MRT) and extolled by the late 20th and early 21st Century globalist economists — have destroyed both the US and Europe, where the "Occupy" movement is now gaining ground. It seems they cannot even admit to themselves that Greek protesters have been occupying town halls to protest the bitter fruits of globalization and "foreign investors" in their country. Mga uLOL nga!

(Watch GNN's HTL show, GNN Channel 8, Saturdays, 8:15 p.m. to 9 p.m., 11:15 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m., and over at www.gnntv-asia.com on "Lessons from Latin America" with Federico Fuentes and Rihanna Melencio as guests; tune in to 1098 AM radio Tuesday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m., and visit http://newkatipunan.blogspot.com)

RP's patsy intelligentsia

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

11/26/2012

Daily Tribune

I scan almost every Filipino mainstream newspaper columnist or commentator almost every day. I also scan global news and analysis Web site. Comparing the range of thoughts on the international and national issues of our times I always come to the inescapable conclusion that the vast majority of Philippine intellectuals are "intellectual patsies." A patsy is a person who is gullible and easy to take advantage of. In Pilipino, a patsy is one who is "uto-uto." Collectively, the Philippine intelligentsia (purportedly highly educated people as a group, regarded as possessing culture and political influence through their intellectual standing) is predominantly a collection of patsies, mostly sucking up to the global and national financial elite, the corrupt politicians and the global hegemon that is the US of A. Recently, I find this trait in many columnists and commentators.

One Filipino columnist, a lawyer, lambasted Hun Sen and described the Cambodian leader as "being part of the Pol Pot regime that committed genocide that is now being prosecuted by the Extraordinary Chambers of Cambodia. He is also no match to our P-Noy in terms of moral stature."
The facts of history show Hun Sen as very courageous leader, a former military officer with the Khmer rouge (the only effective force against the US imperialist and its puppets) who defected and led the war to depose Pol Pot with Vietnamese help. Hun Sen has one glass eye due to combat injury. Many Cambodians consider Hun Sen a hero against Pol Pot. I don't see how PeNoy can be morally superior to Hun Sen in domestic or global affairs — for being a "patsy" of GMA to being a "patsy" of Ambassador Thomas — PeNoy has never shown any moral stuff to begin with.

We have patsies on all levels of the government hierarchy. For example, Marvic Leonen ascended to the Supreme Court (SC) despite being totally bereft of integrity for declaring that "there is no foreign influence in the peace agreement on the Bangsamoro" when the handprints of Malaysia, the US and Britain are all over it. Leonen has been rewarded for catering to the desires of the powerful. Leonen's appointment follows Justice Sereno who caters to the interests of the corporate oligarchs of the country instead of interpreting law in favor of the welfare of the people. We will never see non-patsies, outstanding legal luminaries willing to stand up to the powerful, with proven track record of principled advocacy in the SC, such as lawyer Alan Paguia who sacrificed almost a decade of being suspended from practice for standing against the skewed justice of the GMA-Davide SC.

Many newspaper columnists now lambast China and its supposed "bullying" of the Philippines, citing the naval build-up of China as evidence. But what is China building up for? Isn't it against the real bully in all of modern history — the Western hegemon? In many critiques of China's defense moves a myopia is prevalent, failing to see China and the Philippines in relations to global political-economic-military strategic situation. They term China a bully when the greatest bully is right inside the Philippine — the US overlord and its minions demanding continuously increasing tribute by way of diktats from its agencies such as the International Monetary Fund. Lagarde has just demanded new "tax on texts" after ramming through the "sin tax" and tollways taxes despite Noy's promised "no new taxes." The US rammed through the Bangsamoro agreement, violates with impunity the "no nukes" policy of the Philippine Constitution, ad nausea.

Filipino intellectual patsies are a scourge to human history, they abet wars that serve the Western hegemony's interests while collaborating in the ritual sacrifice of the rest of the world to that hegemony. In World War II where the Philippines acted as a loyal colony of the rival imperialist countries at war instead of exercising independent influence to avert war. Many in the Philippine intelligentsia today are incapable of playing a new game — taking sides instead of standing sovereign and exercising its influence for the good of its own strategic interest which is the prevention of conflict and war in the region. The Philippine intelligentsia should help clarify that: the issue on the China Sea is not who "owns" but how to share "50/50" or more for the small countries; the defense issue is how to stop the US "missile defense shield" that will allow US "first strike" capacity and trigger retaliation against the US "lily pad" military bases in the region like the Philippines, Japan and South Korea

.
(Watch GNN's HTL show, GNN Channel 8, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., 11:15 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m., and over www.gnntv-asia.com: "Bolivia's Progress" with surprise guest from Latin America; tune to 1098AM radio Tuesday To Friday 5 to 6 p.m. http://newkatipunan.blogspot.com)

Genocide for the world to see

BACKBENCHER

Rod P. Kapunan

11/24/2012

Manila Standard Today

In justifying its genocidal bombing of the Gaza Strip, the criminal Zionist state of Israel has issued a statement saying "the Palestinian people had it coming." For their decision to vote for Hamas, the militant wing within the umbrella of the Palestinian Liberation Organization representing mostly the people living in Gaza, they are being punished collectively. According to Gilad Sharon, the son of General Ariel Sharon, the butcher of Sabra and Shatila whose soldiers murdered more than 3,500 civilians mostly women and children in 1982, "Gaza should be flattened to the ground like what the US did in Nagasaki and Hiroshima to compel the Japanese to surrender."

Despite world condemnation, US President Barack Obama said "Israel has a right to defend itself, and no country in the world would tolerate missiles falling in torrents within its borders." Such exaggerated statement also exudes that typical imperialistic hubris of sanctioning Israel's systematic act of genocide. The US, being the principal broker of the criminal Zionist state, ignores the truth that when the Palestinian people voted for Hamas in January 2006, it was the result of a democratic process that should be respected by all civilized nations, including the US which has proclaimed itself as the champion of democracy.

The problem, however, is that Israel together with the US, now acting in criminal concert to isolate and starve the Palestinian people, not only refuse to abide by that decision, but have arbitrarily classified Hamas as a terrorist organization. While the criminal Zionist state continues to bludgeon the Palestinians, the US plays the duplicitous role of pitting the Fatah of President Mahmoud Abbas against those supporting Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.

Thus, from the time Hamas took control of Gaza, the tinderbox situation was long expected to explode because of Israel's persistent stonewalling in halting construction in the occupied lands and in evicting Palestinians. Hamas was brave enough to accept the hard truth that all the avenues for peaceful negotiations have become futile. In fact, the criminal state of Israel has been racing fast to convert the whole of Gaza into a virtual cage for the 1.7 million Palestinians.

No food, medicine, goods or any kind of supply, including fuel, could enter Gaza by land and by sea without the permission from the criminal Zionist authorities. More than that, supplies are restricted and severely limited. Aside from having been isolated from the West Bank, its entire border with Israel has been fenced with high concrete blocs. Its outlet towards the Mediterranean Sea has equally been blockaded. In fact, last May, 2010, in gross violation of international law, the criminal Zionist state has imposed a unilateral blockade of Gaza. An international flotilla was organized to help deliver the much-needed supplies. The flotilla consisting of small vessels carrying food supplies, medicines and basic necessities was to break the illegal naval blockade. However, while still on high seas, the ships were suddenly boarded by Israeli commandos, and the soldiers started firing their guns and began beating the passengers resulting in the death of nine with several others seriously injured.

For that bloody assault on the crew members engaged in humanitarian mission, all that was heard from the criminal Zionist state was to say the incident was regretful, but it never made an apology nor offered to compensate those killed. As usual, they were summarily branded as "terrorists" as if terrorists would announce themselves publicly to carry out a humanitarian mission. The US, on the other hand, blamed the organizers of the flotilla saying that the bloody boarding could have been avoided had those manning the vessels did not attempt to break the blockade which in the first place was in violation of international law.

The latest carnage has resulted in the death of 163 Palestinians and wounding 850 as a direct result of indiscriminate aerial bombing and artillery fire, while only five Israelis were killed and 60 wounded from the improvised rockets fired by Hamas. Again, Israel and the US take as their linear point in blaming the Palestinians on the rockets fired by Hamas into Israel, and not from the long list of brutal oppression inflicted on them by this Jewish Gestapo. They are even prohibited from digging tunnels even for purposes of using them as bomb shelters fearing that Hamas would use them to smuggle arms.

To this day, the US and the criminal Zionist state refuse to see that an entire population has been caged like animals crammed in a very small territory for easy picking using electronically-guided drones to drop concussion bombs and even of the prohibited white phosphorous bombs which is illegal under Protocol 3 on the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons which the criminal Zionist state of Israel refuses to sign.

In fact, many could not understand because Resolution 242 urges Israel to withdraw from all territories it occupied since June 1967. Rather, it continues to defy the resolution, and its defiance has consistently been supported by the US using its veto power to reject any resolution condemning the criminal state of Israel. In the latest round of conflict, the criminal Zionist state wants to collectively punish the Palestinians in Gaza for voting for Hamas. It is on this score why the world is appalled because the right of the people to elect their own leaders and to form their own government is a right that is supposed to be exclusive to them.

Besides, their right to elect Hamas is internal to them and is apart from actual process of negotiation. But it seems the Zionist criminal state has opted to prejudge Hamas to avoid negotiations, thus exposing the truth of its contempt for international law and complete disregard of world opinion.

rpkapunan@gmail.com

'Opening up' RP

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

11/23/2012

Daily Tribune

There's a foreign business consultant cum commentator in the Inquirer pressing for constitutional change for unmitigated "opening up" to foreign investors. But aren't foreign investors already welcome? However, like all other countries in Asia, limits are imposed to keep nationals in control, except in sectors where locals have no competence, inclination or capital to venture in. That's only fair. The Filipino Internet's social network also has rabid activists for radical opening up to foreign capital as a way to fight the local oligarchs' abusive business monopolies, but they "miss" the similarity of that "foreign capital" with local Big Capitalists and have created economic crises in their own lands such as the US and Europe. There is another way for Philippine growth: the State ending foreign debt, and releasing available domestic capital and credit for collective or individual Filipino enterprises.

The country already has significant surplus in foreign exchange holdings relative to its foreign debt, and P1.8 trillion in savings from overseas Filipino workers, export and BPO sectors held in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) paying four percent to keep in its vaults. This capital is ready and waiting to fund large, medium and small scale enterprises. However, if these trillions of pesos were used only for consumption, horrendous inflation would ensue. These billions should be used for productive agriculture and manufacturing enterprises which would necessarily compete and substitute for goods imported today today — local dairy, shoes, clothes, steel, machinery, ad infinitum. That would be very good for the economy. This was this nation's dream in the 50's, 60's and 70's, dreams set aside during the 80's globalization that continues to be the doctrine of this country's economic planner today.

There is no lack of domestic capital, only the lack of political will to carve an independent and productive national economy reminiscent of the dreams of our economic nationalist leaders from the likes of Mike Cuaderno during the Filipino First policy era, while industrialists like Ysmael and Delgado starting on the road to manufacturing local appliances and transport vehicles, nationalist ideologues like Hilarion Henares and Alejandro Lichauco were recruited by Congress to plan the industrialization of the nation. This is the paradigm that all wealthy Asian nations followed to success, from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and, now China which weathers the global economic and financial "perfect storms" by tweaking it policies toward domestic pump priming and economic development. We have trillions of pesos now ready to pave the road to this type of success.

The foreigner inveigles Filipinos with arguments such as, "The dream of many Filipinos is to gain a foreign education to add to what they've learnt here… going to Harvard, but the cost is prohibitive. Why not bring Harvard here?" Do Filipinos really need or want Harvard education? Harvard graduates in the US are hard put to find jobs and can't pay their student loans. Did Henry Sy Sr. or Lucio Tan, or for that matter many successful businessmen siblings and thousands of successful Filipino and Tsinoy entrepreneurs go to Harvard? I can say with certainty that 99.99 percent of them never did go nor needed to go to Harvard. Maybe if one wants to be an atsoy of a Western multinational that would be necessary. In the age of the Internet, what can be learned in Harvard can be picked up over the Internet; besides, the best schools in the world's list of top universities are already in Asia.

The foreign commentator added, "In 1935, there was rudimentary AM radio, negligible commercial air travel, cars that could reach 100 kph if they struggled hard enough. TV was unheard of … Fifteen years ago, we didn't have cell phones; today, we can't leave the house without them. Imagine if the Constitution had banned mobile communications in the name of protecting national security. (But even North Korea has cellphones!) Today, I can turn on the TV and CNN is right there in my living room. It doesn't need a transmitter here… so why not let it have one if it wants? "But if they're in already, what's their need to have a transmitter here? If they're already in, what's the need for "opening up?" Inane logic! He is saying Filipinos would still be "Monkeys in trees" if the White Man like him hadn't come. He should be kicked out and returned to his land of "bandits, rogues and garbage" thrown out by England.

It is the colonial mentality of some Filipinos, even Big Business Filipinos who are nothing more than compradors and domestic gents of transnationals, that this foreign commentator faces regularly (such as in the Makati Business Club) and thinks these represent Filipinos in general. Those Filipinos may be in pinstriped suits and ride around in chauffeured Mercedes Benzes but they don't represent the vast number of independently employed and productive Filipinos, from tobacco farmers to self-made industrialist, who have no patience for condescending foreign parasites preying on the Philippines.

(Watch GNN's HTL show, GNN Channel 8, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., 11:15 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m., and over www.gnntv-asia.com: "Comelec-Smartmatic 2010 Fraud" with lawyer Bono Adaza, Toti Casino and Ado Paglinawan; tune to 1098AM radio Tuesday to Friday 5 to 6 p.m. http://newkatipunan.blogspot.com)

Not so Smartmatic

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

11/19/2012

Daily Tribune

On June 28, 2010, led by Ado Paglinawan and represented by counsel Homobono Adaza, with Myrleon Peralta, Don Emilion de Castro, Patricia Ilagan, we filed GRL case No. 192561 demanding the annulment of the 2010 presidential and local elections. We filed the case on the basis of the massive failure of the Comelec-Smartmatic automated elections system to deliver transparent, efficacious, clean and credible democratic elections. In violation of the Constitution, the Comelec outsourced its powers and functions to a private and foreign corporation with false claims of technical expertise and competence, financial capability and reliability — all of which are now confirmed by a case filed by Smartmatic itself against the principal election automation technology company Dominion Voting Systems International Corp. (DVSI).

The reporters covering our action asked if there was any point to our case as the new president was already to be inaugurated the next day. Adaza explained that we were putting on record with the highest court of the land, the violations of the Constitution and our electoral laws by the Arroyo government, Comelec and Smarmatic: they committed basic misrepresentation of the problem for which we spent P7.2 billion for the PCOS purportedly addressed which the late Mano Alcuaz, an information tech pioneer, incessantly pointed out: that the precinct manual voting and counting was never the problem as they were always finished by the end of election day, it was the verification and security of transmission which a range of simpler and cheaper solutions addressed — such as cellphone snapshots of the canvass board and sheets by watchers and the public to, among others.

There were the countless illegal changes in the PCOS machines safeguard provisions, such as the removal of the built-in ultraviolet ballot verification scanners to ascertain the genuineness of the ballots; the voter's printed vote receipt itemizing the voter's actual votes shaded on the ballot and replaced with a simple print out saying "congratulations" to the voter for successfully voting; the digital signature of the election official on the official election result for the electronic transmission of election results from the precinct to municipal to provincial to national canvassing, and many more enumerated in our 5,000-word petition to the Supreme Court. For two-and-a-half years now the case has languished in that court and the petitioners have heard nothing since. No hearing has been called, no dismissal of the case has been heard of.

Two months ago something happened gave impetus to a revival of our case. In the State of Delaware a court case filed by Smartmatic against DVSI provided confirmation of the problems we and many other critics of the Smartmatic PCOS machines, the Comelec and the conduct of the 2010 elections, had pointed out. Smartmatic and DVSI squabbling over huge business opportunities in the sale of voting machines and election software technologies and services, led Smartmatic to sue election software provider DVSI for withholding from it various software support to operate voting machines it markets for its clients in various countries in past, present and forthcoming elections. Smartmatic is now again exposed, as we many have reported before, to be only a "marketing company" and has no software technology capability contrary to it claims made to the Philippines for the 2010 elections. They are not-so-smart-matics after all.

Smartmatic's general counsel said: "This lawsuit is necessary because of Dominion's persistent refusal to deliver technology that Smartmatic legally licensed. We intend to recover the costs of rectifying a basic Dominion software error that nearly affected the 2010 Philippine elections, which we went to great lengths and expense to correct in keeping with our commitment to maintain the highest standards of election integrity and transparency." "Nearly affected" is a gross understatement. Most startling is Smartmatic's contention that DVSI never provided Smartmatic the "source code" for its voting machines in the 2010 election — contradicting Smartmatic and Comelec's claim in 2010 that they had those source codes in safekeeping. When the AES Watch, a group of Filipino IT experts, sought to test the source code Comelec and Smartmatic insisted in had to be at their warehouses.

The law requires that a source code must be given to the Comelec and deposited with the Bangko Sentral, which apparently never happened. What does this make of the BSP officials, the Comelec, Smartmatic, the congressional officials who were supposed to oversee the entire process? Aren't they now all proven to be liars? It's time a new investigation is called and then Comelec Chairman Melo, as well as all other commissioners then, asked to shed light on these. The final problem now is Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes' P 1.8-billion purchase of the PCOS machines for the 2013 elections which many had warned against. Those machines will be useless without the "source code" DVSI is denying Smartmatic — maybe that's why Brillantes suddenly shifted focus to the party-list disqualifications and the anti-dynasty issues.

(Watch GNN's HTL show, GNN Channel 8, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., 11:15 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m., and over www.gnntv-asia.com: "Comelec-Smartmatic 2010 Fraud" with Atty. Bono Adaza, Toti Casino and Ado Paglinawan; tune to 1098AM radio Tuesday to Friday 5 to 6 p.m. http://newkatipunan.blogspot.com)

MRT, WESM, O-bomb-ma

PEOEPLE'S STRUGGLE

Herman Tiu Laurel

11/12-18/2012

OpinYon

THE three issues that should be topmost in the public's mind this week are named in out title. First, the victory the public has won against the MRT fare hike; second, the new electricity rate hike that the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM); and third, Obama II and what it means for Filipinos and the World.

Victory over MRT/LRT fare hikes
After the All Saints Day holidays DOTC secretary Antonio Abaya made an obtuse statement to the effect that the MRT fare hike he announced earlier "…must be adjusted upwards only if the railway systems service improves."

This was partially an announcement that the MRT fares would no longer be increased on January 13 as earlier scheduled, a step backwards for the DOTC and an admission of the resounding victory of the arguments put forwards by the campaign of various commuter crusaders who have battled to oppose and stop the MRT fare hike.

The Aquino III government has been pushing the MRT fare hike since Day One of its administration but never presented actual MRT figures on the cost of operations to the public without exposing the scam Aquino III's oligarchs-backers wrote into the original contract.

The DOTC secretary is also obviously reacting to this writer's article last month entitled "Lower the MRT fares" where we reported the results of research and studies made by the RILES Network (of which I am co-convenor and spokesman) with a coalition of NGOs, including Agham (a group of scientists) which found that the MRT O&M (operation and maintenance) cost per passenger is only P9.11/trip.

Agham's Giovanni Tapang used the "farebox" method, dividing the total revenues by the entire cost of O&M and found that MRT commuters are actually paying more than enough to run and maintain the MRT. Abaya is quoted saying "actual cost of transporting passengers from end to end of the railway station costs P60…. the government must subsidize P45 of the cost since only P15 is collected from the passengers as fares", there are several lies there.

Taxpayers/Commuters subsidizing scam
The P60 cost is rather the financial burden to fulfilling the sovereign guarantee to the 15% profit margin and P 60/ passenger fare in the Fidel V. Ramos contract with "investors" Sobrepeñas, Ayala, Agustines and Campos groups. These groups have cashed in their profits selling the MRT contract several times over to, among others, the MRTC3FC, Goldman Sachs and GAS of Bobby Ongpin, and then Arroyo's government buying back 80% to get Goldman Sachs' court collection suit off its back but without a single voting share. The balance of 20% is owned now by Manny Pangilinan's group which expects to takeover completely after a fare hike is made.

Abaya is covering up for these scams when he hides this truth from the public and lies if he maintains the story that government will take 100% control. Abaya inaccurately claims "…the government must subsidize P45 of the cost …." The Aquino III government is not paying the subsidy. It is the taxpayers, you and me, as well as the MRT/LRT commuters paying the subsidy. The State includes the people, the government or administration is not the people.

Commuters are also already P5 for that subsidy, over the P 9.11/ passenger O&M cost. Investments in improvements can already be made based on the present fares since the MRT commuters pay P 5 over the O&M already, if they take the scam cost-burden out.

Columnist Michael Tan of the Inquirer wrote supporting the fare hike "if there is an improvement", that inaccuracy is a disservice to the millions who take the MRT/LRT on a daily basis; media has a responsibility to fully understand the issues and inform the public accordingly.

Lower the MRT/LRT fares
The Palace is saying "P6 MRT 3 fare hike is a 'good compromise'," so the fare hike is not off the table at all. From the very beginning of the MRT fare hike controversy I wrote that the P10 fare hike was a ploy and only a negotiating position. I told my two youngest sons who take the MRT/LRT to their respective universities every day, "The government is really aiming for a P 5 fare hike, starting at P 10 and scaling down to half that they hope the public will eventually, easily swallow."

So, let's not be fooled. There is absolutely no justification for any fare increase. There are still other sources to raise fund without any fare hike, like reversion of revenues from ancillary business such as advertising and real estate values to the MRT operations, maintenance and improvements; or change of overpricing maintenance contractors like Sumitomo to other s or to in house maintenance that would be cheaper.

The RILES Network has started the petition signing campaign for a "Lower the MRT fare" crusade. We are scheduled to start on November 13 and will appear again at different MRT stations to commuters to sign on and ensure justice for the millions of MRT/LRT passengers. There is no compromise in Truth and Justice in a democracy when it comes to the people's welfare.

The only rule to follow is "The greater good for the greater number of people", and the Aquino III government and its DOTC secretary is still trying to hoodwink the 95-million Filipinos to favor the vested interests of not more than a dozen individuals in the Philippine oligarchy and their foreign financial partners. We the people have won one victory in the MRT/LRT fare hike struggle – we must carry to the next level: Lower the MRT/LRT fares!

Power hikes again
"Power rate hike looms", the newspapers headlined last November 9, allegedly due to higher generation prices in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) the reports say: "There was a de-energization of the Luzon-Visayas interconnection from October 8 to 13, 2012, so that Luzon's supply from Visayas was reduced. During this period, market prices rose significantly."

This means cheaper geothermal sources in the Visayas failed to deliver to the grid and higher cost power from oil fed generations were tapped. Power rates were expected to drop due to the hydro-electric reservoirs being full and consumption of air conditioning being lower. This problem of rising power rates when it should go down is due to privatization and apportionment of the State power assets to countless private companies, losing the benefit of economies-of-scale.

A breakdown in one generating unit cannot be compensated for by another unit; instead during such disruptions private generating company increases its rates to profit from the opportunity, selling through the WESM (Wholesale Electricity Spot Market). Last month the price at the spot market went up because, Meralco said, "two coal-fired power plants underwent repair and maintenance, the 647-megawatt Pangasinan Sual 1 power plant had shut down … while Sual 2, which generates 647MW was also closed… "There is no incentive to maintain reliability at all times since breakdowns are also opportunities to increase rates. Meanwhile, Meralco will start collecting on the "bill deposit" January, completely unjustifiable but apparently approved by the ERC which never held a public hearing on this. We'll have to organize and oppose this in the streets and in court when January comes.

O-"boom" or "bomb"-ma?
Some commentators opine that a Democratic U.S. president is going to be good Filipinos for being more open to immigration. That helps individuals but not the nation. The Philippines will always be a market to pry open wider and wider for predatory business interests such as "hot money" investments, businesses repatriating profits, as well as goods and loan shark services.

Obama II will generate U.S. jobs by exporting – that means a strategic devaluation of its Dollar to reduce imports and push U.S. goods and services into other markets. The recent loss of the Peso exchange rate to the Dollar is the effect of what Guido Mantega, Brazil's finance minister, call "currency war". Obama's victory will bring no "boom" but bring an economic "bomb", and the Philippines must pick up the courage to set up the "bomb shelters" - institute safety net policies such as "currency" and "capital" regulation to contain the damage to our OFWs, exporters, BPOs and all other sectors.

(Watch GNN's HTL show, GNN Channel 8, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., 11:15 p.m. and Sunday 8am, and over www.gnntv-asia.com: tune to 1098AM radio Tues. To Fri. 5 to 6pmhttp://newkatipunan.blogspot.com)

Extension of misplaced values

BACKBENCHER

Rod P. Kapunan

11/17-18/2012

Manila Standard Today

I am appalled by the furious reaction of the so-called academic community by their filing of a complaint against Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III for allegedly plagiarizing his speech that centered on another controversial issue—the reproductive health bill. Specifically, the complaint came amid the letter sent by Kerry Kennedy, daughter of the late Senator Robert Kennedy, claiming that portions of Sotto's speech were lifted from her father's writings. Kerry said that Sotto had no claim for the use of those words simply because he used Tagalog instead of English. Such an argument has no merit, she said. She demanded an apology for the alleged unethical and unsanctioned theft of Kennedy's intellectual property.

Yes, plagiarism is unethical, but I do not agree it should be classified as an "intellectual theft." The words used by the author or writer whose idea was plagiarized were definitely not coined by him, but lifted from the dictionary used by people with English as their mother tongue. Maybe, it is on how the author or writer phrased the sentence, but surely what he wrote can never be made equivalent to a formula or to an invention to give him that exclusive right that he alone can use it by sealing in it a stamp of ownership.

Claim of ownership to a mere written idea, to my mind, is the most brazen form of intellectual imperialism. No author of a book, novel, article or pamphlet has a monopoly of ideas, written or otherwise. It is man's medium for intellectual growth, although in many finer points, what he has learned and what he is saying are not original to him. Thus, if we are to make an issue out of every sentence, phrase or paragraph one has copied is to impose a law that could seriously imperil intellectual growth.

Nonetheless, copying has also been rampant in other countries. They copy written articles which are a violation of the copyright law, formulas or inventions resulting in the violation of patents, or copy products called counterfeiting. In our case, the issue has grown out of proportion because the one accused is a senator, although it is more of an amor propio. This I say for what is in that Sotto copied for the hypocrites to sizzle? Yet, for want of any sensible issue, they zero in on plagiarism which has nothing to do with the RH bill. In fact, this column is also against the RH bill, and has to come to the defense of Sotto because the debate has now descended to the gutter level. The so-called intellectual community is raving like mad dogs when there is really nothing in it, except for their pricked ego.

Maybe they want to instill phobia in Sotto so for him to never again open his mouth on controversial issues. But people like Sylvia Claudio of the UP Center for Women's Studies, Antonio Contreras, former dean of the DLSU College of Liberal Arts, Red Tani of the Filipino Freethinkers, Inc., and Barry Gutierrez of Akbayan party-list should do more to elevate the debate to a more sensible level than accuse one of cheating. They must come out with their own ideas why they are for or against the RH bill; not as the Vatican would tell them or as some self-indulging moralists would propose. In like manner, the proponents should have a better argument other than parroting the USAID and the World Bank like saying we are now overpopulated.

Moreover, the issue is a dead one because countries that were once considered basket case economies like Japan, China, India, and Brazil are now the fastest growing economies in the world, and it was their burgeoning population that propelled their growth. The hypocrites wriggle like worms every time one is accused of plagiarism without them thinking that they are in fact highlighting their own stupidity that has deterred us to intellectually advance all for fear that anything we might say has already been patented or copyrighted by the imperialists.

Rather, our patriotic duty is to get hold of the technology and ideas as fast as we could because it is out gateway to progress. We cannot forever keep on producing manpower to do the work for them here and abroad, but for us to produce manpower that can come out with our own quality products we could sell. We cannot remain in constant fear of being accused of violating the intellectual property rights and shunned by the so-called international community.

We are not even sure that what they dangle as their patented property was also pirated from others. Many local businessmen suspect that the arrest of violators of the international copyright and patents has become a lucrative business because the reward given to law enforcers comes from the heavy penalty imposed. We are being fried in our own lard. Later on, this could hamper us from producing our own quality products which many industrialized countries did in their quest to industrialize.

Other countries that achieved a high level of industrial and technological development are still fighting to ward off the imperialist imposition of intellectual property rights. For one, Samsung is fighting attempts by Apple to ditch its Galaxy notebooks out of the market. In the World Health Organization, the battle continues to rage on how to delist from the international patent certain medicines because many countries have succeeded in producing them using or accidentally using the same formula to cure some illnesses that have plagued mankind.

Their production is being opposed on the premise that it violates their patents, although it is apparent that Third World-produced medicines could be sold at a much cheaper price than those sold by international pharmaceutical corporations that have been acting as living gods in deciding between life and death.

rpkapunan@gmail.com

'A bit' of greed

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

11/16/2012

Iligan Light and Power Inc. (ILPI)'s majority block owner Jojo Borja, a crusader against electricity price gouging policies, pointed out how explicated the new Department of Energy (DoE) Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla's energy sector policy direction really is.
Here's a quote from media: "He (Petilla) reiterated that even in his previous job as governor of Leyte, his proverbial appeal to its local government unit heads had been: 'There has to be a little bit of greed, but it's not in a level that will squeeze the people financially.'"
What is that level of "a bit" of greed? Is it the 12-percent Return-on-Rate Base (RoRB) prior to 2004 or the present Performance Based Regulation (PBR) rate of up to 17 percent concocted by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), not to mention the 1,000-percent overprice of many components of that rate base? Or is it the 5 percent that distribution utilities (DUs) like ILPI used to make that was already enough for a decent profit?
Borja, a third generation electric power industrialist, says that under the present PBR set-up, they earn in three months what they used to earn in 12 months under the RoRB. They didn't really earn 12 percent as that was only a "cap."
Before the advent of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) in June of 2001, regulators used to be much stricter in approving profit rates and DUs had to eke out much lower profits — but that's not bad considering the "captive market" they have.
So pray tell Mr. Petilla. What is your definition of "a bit of greed?"
Petilla argued that the "bit of greed" should be in the level that will not "squeeze the people financially" and at a level that is "sustainable." But what is that sustainable "level of greed?" Is it when Third World power rates (such as the Philippines') gain the reputation of being the "highest in Asia?" Is that sustainable?
To wit, here are some reactions to the present electric power price situation: Nora Halili, trustee of Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc., in a news report, said "Producers and manufacturers suffer… they are no longer competitive, so they go to (other) countries for an ocular inspection to determine if they can compete (from there)… The countries most favored as alternative locations were Vietnam and China, which… have lower power rates..."
Meanwhile, Marbel Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez said, "It's not the fault of the people of Mindanao why the region is having a power crisis today… It's the government to blame because of its neglect and wrong policies that tend to favor businessmen and private investors rather than looking after the welfare of its people." That's clearly a critique of that "bit of greed" that is the rationale behind "privatization."
Last October, the Associated Labor Unions-TUCP VP Gerard Seno warned of a workers' unrest on rising electricity rates after hitting a record of P13.66 per kWh, "This… will hurt the already precarious income of workers… scares new investors from coming in… force existing businesses to close shop and transfer to other… Asian countries (whereby)… more Filipinos will be jobless."
TUCP Rep. Raymond Mendoza showed Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) residential rates hitting "an all-time high of P13.66 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) beginning August… the highest residential rate in the world surpassing… Denmark, Germany, Italy, Austria, Ireland, Japan, Belgium, and the Netherlands at 22 to 32 US cents per kWh.
Newspapers and columnists, like our friend Dick Pascual, were misled by Australian firm International Energy Consultants to report that ours is only the second highest by a distorted averaging of industrial and residential rates.
Mindanao leaders, meanwhile, had these to say: Davao del Norte Gov. Rodolfo del Rosario at the Mindanao power summit early this year reportedly "asked (Aquino III) … to review the Epira because privatization of power assets has resulted in cartels."
Rep. Daisy Fuentes in the same summit told reporters that she was dismayed by the Epira, admitting she was fooled by the "experts" or those proponents of privatization despite warnings of its "cross ownership" dangers, saying, "Yung sinabi nilang walang cross ownership, it's happening," adding that reasonable rates of electricity have not been attained.
Secretary Lualhati Antonino of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) said that the Epira failed in its purpose of creating a "regime of competition" because in reality there are only a few private players in the industry.
Yet in the face of all these, Secretary Petilla argues that "the private sector has the money, but we always say also that if private sector comes in, the cost will increase?"
Already, he admits that "privatization" and its "little bit of greed" do add cost but doesn't explain that that very added cost has amounted to P1 trillion or $300 billion in Psalm (Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.) debt that they want to charge power consumers over the next 25 years.
Mind you: That "little bit of greed," like Jun Lozada's "moderate greed," has been the undoing of this nation's welfare. More next week.

(Watch GNN's HTL show, GNN Channel 8, Saturdays, 8:15 p.m. to 9 p.m., 11:15 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m., and over at www.gnntv-asia.com on "Bangsamoro Realities" with Gov. Al Tillah and Prof. Antonio Pangilinan as guests; tune in to 1098 AM radio Tuesday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m., and visit http://newkatipunan.blogspot.com)

No to P6-MRT fare hike!

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

11/12/2012

A few months ago Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) Secretary Mar Roxas bequeathed a hard-line P10-MRT (Metro Rail Transit) fare hike stand for his successor Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya to parlay with the public. Met with adamant resistance from commuters and taxpayers enlightened on the serial MRT scam the Aquino administration through DoTC secretary has taken one half-step back and "concedes" to introducing "improvements" first before raising rates by a reduced amount. They hope to erode public resistance with this: But the fact remains — the MRT and LRT (Light Rail Transit) fares today are at least P5 over the O&M (operation and maintenance) costs and there's already hundreds of millions for major improvements. Aquino should prosecute those responsible for the scams instead of paying them at eh expense of the people.

After the All Saints' Day holidays, DoTC Secretary Antonio Abaya made an obtuse statement to the effect that the MRT fare hike he announced earlier "…must be adjusted upwards only if the railway systems service improves." This was partially an announcement that the MRT fares would no longer be increased on Jan. 13 as earlier scheduled, a step backwards for the DoTC, and an admission of the resounding victory of the arguments put forward by the campaign of various commuter crusaders who have battled to oppose and stop the MRT fare hike. The Aquino government has been pushing the MRT fare hike since day one of its administration but never presented actual MRT figures on the cost of operations to the public without exposing the scam Aquino's oligarchs-backers wrote into the original contract.

The DoTC secretary may also be reacting to this writer's article last month entitled "Lower the MRT fares" where we reported the results of research and studies made by the RILES Network (of which I am co-convenor and spokesman) with a coalition of NGOs, including Agham (a group of scientists) which found that the MRT O&M (operation and maintenance) cost per passenger is only P 9.11/trip. Agham's Giovanni Tapang used the "farebox" method, dividing the total revenues by the entire cost of O&M and found that MRT commuters are actually paying more than enough to run and maintain the MRT. Abaya is quoted saying "actual cost of transporting passengers from end to end of the railway station costs P60… the government must subsidize P45 of the cost since only P15 is collected from the passengers as fares." There are several lies there.

Abaya is reported to say, "Under the present system, a commuter pays P12 to P15 since the government shoulders P40 of the actual cost of P55." Abaya is not being accurate as the Aquino government shoulders nothing; it is the taxpayer and commuters shouldering everything. The government does not include the people, and by the way it acts it certainly never considers the people. The State is defined as including the people, but not the government. This is something our system has to clarify still. The fact is, MRT commuters paying P12 to P15 are already P5 for that subsidy, the amount over the P9.11/ passenger O&M cost. The rest the taxpayers are shouldering to pay off the guaranteed profits of the serial con artists who have sold and resold the MRT profits four times over, con men the Aquino government is shielding and protecting.

The Palace is saying "P6-MRT 3 fare hike a 'good compromise'" — so the fare hike is not off the table at all. From the very beginning of the MRT fare hike controversy I wrote that the P10 fare hike was a ploy. I told my two youngest sons who take the MRT/LRT to their respective universities every day, "The government is really aiming for a P5-fare hike, starting at P10 and scaling down to half that they hope the public will eventually, easily swallow." So, let's not be fooled. There are still other sources to raise fund without any fare hike, like reversion of revenues from ancillary business such as advertising and real estate values to the MRT operations, and changing the overpricing maintenance contractors like Sumitomo to in-house maintenance that would be cheaper.

The RILES Network will start the petition signing campaign for a "Lower the MRT fare" crusade, and will appear again at different MRT stations to commuters to sign on and ensure justice for the millions of MRT/LRT passengers. There is no compromise, if we want genuine democracy, truth and justice must prevail completely and the only rule is "The greater good for the greater number of people."

(Watch GNN's HTL show, GNN Channel 8, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., 11:15 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m., and over www.gnntv-asia.com: "Bangsamoro Realities" with Gov. Al Tillah and Prof. Antoinio Pangilinan; tune to 1098AM radio Tuesday To Friday 5 to 6 p.m. http://newkatipunan.blogspot.com)

Reeking with arrogance

BACKBENCHER

Rod P. Kapunan

11/10-11/2012

What is manifest about the newly-appointed commissioner of the Commission on Elections is the fact that she is practically reeking with arrogance. Grace Padaca's conduct amounts to telling the court she could only be removed from her current position through impeachment. Many interpret her statement as coming from one heavily intoxicated with power because the implication is that she is above the law and could get away with anything if she so desires.

We are compelled to say this because Padaca is accused of a serious crime of graft for awarding a P25-million rice contract without conducting a public biding in 2006 to a private entity known as the Economic Development for Western Isabela and Northern Luzon Foundation, Inc. Everybody knows that like President Noynoy Aquino, she is also a creation of the mainstream media, by her foreign brokers and by the local elite.

Padaca's luck in breaking the well-entrenched political dynasty should not be interpreted that she was voted by the people in Isabela on the basis of her so-called sterling honesty. Instead, it was out of their growing realization that they deserved a break from the clan that had been in politics for almost 50 years now. But that was a myth. No sooner after she was elected on the charm of running as an alleged underdog, her true color as a traditional politician emerged.

That she lost her re-election bid was supposed to have served as an omen that something was wrong with her. Recall that the cases against her were filed before she was appointed by this equally arrogant administration. To be more precise, they were filed while she was still the governor of Isabela.

Moreover, her defeat as governor only rendered moot and academic the imposition of a preventive suspension by the Sandiganbayan as provided under Section 13 of Republic Act 3019, otherwise known as the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. Nonetheless, she was directed to post a bond for those cases which were filed while she was still in office, and have been pending with the Sandiganbayan since July 2011.

Before the yellow hypocrites came to power, decency demanded that public officials who stand as accused for graft and corruption have no business holding on to their office at least until and after the case has been resolved in their favor. In the meantime, they should desist from seeking any position in government, whether by election or by appointment, to prevent them from using their position and connection to influence the outcome of the case.

Even then, Padaca's anomalous appointment as Comelec commissioner will not serve to bar the court from prosecuting her despite the fact that the position she now holds is impeachable as provided under Section 2, Article XI of the Constitution. Neither would that serve to dismiss the graft and malversation cases, nor would have the effect of suspending their litigation. Rather, Padaca should be reminded that cases for which a public official could be impeached pertain only to those committed while in office, but not when they committed were and have in fact been charged before they were appointed.

Otherwise, Padaca would be making a mockery of our justice system considering that impeachment proceedings in this country is more of a political circus as when the lawmakers acting as prosecutors ganged up on the accused for grandstanding purposes and for the reward of pork barrel that awaited them. As one lawyer observed, should the Sandiganbayan dismiss those cases and allow them to be re-filed before the impeachment court would only result in Padaca invoking her right to double jeopardy to peremptorily seek their permanent dismissal.

As if to rub salt into the wound of the offended public, her arrogant patron shouldered her bond by chipping in P70,000. The Sandiganbayan also directed her to post P140,000 travel bond to allow her to attend the US-sponsored International Foundation for Electoral System program. It did not even seep into her brain that by posting a bail bond, she in effect submitted herself voluntarily to the jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan, and that no amount of technicality could divest it of its jurisdiction to convict her even long after she has retired from public service.

Prudence should have prevailed upon her not to accept the appointment. That could have made her more honorable. Alas, she turned out to be another of those power-hungry politicians. In fact, the amount chipped in by PNoy for her bond set a bad precedent, and does not augur well of him as President. The decision to bail out a beleaguered subaltern is indicative of defiance, for strictly speaking, he could be made liable for culpable violation of the Constitution for using public funds to bail out a public official charged for corruption. The arrogance of this regime is blatant as if to tell the people nothing could prevent him from appointing anybody he wishes to appoint, irrespective of whether or not he/she has a pending case in court.

We are saying this not to pre-empt Padaca's right to be presumed innocent, but for the President to refrain from appointing one with a pending criminal case. In fact, no other president (including the non-lawyers we elected), dared to appoint into office one with a pending case, more so if it involves graft, or hesitated in firing or in not accepting their resignation.

Unfortunately, both the appointing authority and the appointee have the thickness of a carabao skin to be affected by decency, and both appear to be basking with arrogance. This now serves to remind us that as far as his horde of hypocrites are concerned, there is no other honest public official they could trust to implement their slogan of "ang matuwid na daan", except those that wear the dog tag of being identified with the yellow herd.

rpkapunan@gmail.com

O-'boom' or 'bomb'-ma?

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

11/9/2012

There's a notion promoted since time immemorial that a Democratic Party US president is better for Filipinos than a Republican. This is a false notion proven by experience. Any US president, Democrat or Republican, will put only one interest in mind — the interest of the United States of America, its ruling class and possibly, when circumstances allow, its people. Some argue that Democrats are lenient on immigration and thus are good for countless Filipinos who crave to migrate, but that helps only individual Filipinos and not the nation as a whole. The plain truth is the Philippines is and will always be a market to pry open wider and wider for US predatory financial investments such as "hot money," businesses repatriating profits, as well as goods and loan shark services.

Obama II's mission is to fulfill the original promise that propelled Obama I — the "Change the US Can Believe In," promises of Obama I that millions of Americans began to see fading before their eyes as jobs recovery sputtered from 2009 to 2012, home mortgage confiscations continued, and promises of an end to an era of war postponed with new wars in Libya and Syria while "resets" and "re-pivoting" of relations with Russia and Asia created more tensions than signals for peace.
The change Obama needs now will begin with change in the "bust" of the US economy to a "boom" leading to US economic and jobs recovery; but this requires a strategic, non-armed war of the US against the World — its wars to export more goods and services to the World. Filipinos are still oblivious of this war.
The loss of the peso exchange rate to the dollar is what Guido Mantega, Brazil's finance minister, calls the "currency war."

The US launched it with the fancy term QE3, i.e. the third quantitative easing or printing of dollars since the 2008 Wall Street and US financial crash at the rate of $40 billion a month since Obama approved it last September. The is the "strategic depreciation" of the US through massive creation of the US dollar to bring down its value, dampen imports and trade deficits with traditional exporting countries the US bought goods from (like China and Asia), spur exports and create jobs. Hence, the Philippine peso exchange rate to the US dollar threatens to diminish from P41-P42 down to P39 to the dollar by early 2013.

Everyone should understand that the reduction in exchange rate of the peso to the dollar massively damages the Philippine economy since OFW peso incomes precipitously decline, export and BPO incomes reel and the entire domestic economy contracts from shrinking domestic consumer purchasing power and consequential shriveling of local manufacturing, farm and services business and jobs. US Ford CMV (compact multipurpose vehicles) like the model "Escape" are now ubiquitous on Metro-Manila streets, and Chevys, too; expect more US brands like these gaining bigger and wide shares of the local car market of the rich and middle class, and start draining our dollar reserves from OFW remittances. Expect pressure to increase for Cha-cha to remove restrictions on US exports and businesses here.

Obama's victory in the US does not portend a "boom" for the Philippines as some say, it will invariably mean an economic "bomb" unless the Philippines can pick up the vision and courage to set up the "bomb shelters" by instituting protectionist policies such as "currency" and "capital" controls to halt the reduction of the peso exchange rate to the dollar. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the DoF (Department of Finance) do not seem inclined to provide any umbrage for the Philippine economy in the face of the threat, leaving the Filipino people to fend off the impact of the coming economic super-storm by themselves. The national political leadership both in the ruling party and the electoral opposition do not seem aware of the tremendous perils the nation faces, though a few economic analysts and pundits are sounding the warning (like BusinessWorld's Ben Diokno in "Exporters hurting badly").

The real Obama II "boom" is for the World as hopefully the US stops dropping bombs in the Middle East and launching drones all over. The "peace dividend" can then improve. Israel's Netanyahu Iran war crusade is stymied with the loss "warmonger" Romney. One-on-one Iran-US talks under Obama II are now rumored to be in the offing, and the battle of the Straits of Hormuz may finally be a fear of the past. Oil price easing and stability may restart the global economy. The Bush era of war can finally be put to an end by Obama II. That is, if the military-industrial and banking complex in the US does not do a Dallas Texas-John Kennedy scenario again.

(Watch GNN's HTL show, GNN Channel 8, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., 11:15 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m., and over www.gnntv-asia.com: tune to 1098AM radio Tues. To Fri. 5 to 6pm http://newkatipunan.blogspot.com)

Abolishing political dynasties

BACKBENCHER

Rod P. Kapunan

11/3-4/2012

An obscure taxpayer might just end up as our modern-day hero for it seems he alone dared to put to a litmus test Section 26, Article II of the Constitution which provides, to quote: "The State shall guarantee equal protection to opportunities to public service, and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law."

Focal to the petition is the universal constitutional principle about the equal protection clause. The petition seeking a definitive prohibition on political dynasties, viz. put to a test whether we truly have an enforceable Constitution or one that is merely meant as a decoration for the world to believe we have. This question has cropped up for it seems those wise guys whom former President Corazon Aquino appointed to draft her new charter maliciously phrased a provision that would end up as a mere decoration, it being unenforceable allegedly for want of an enabling law. For sure, those wise guys who styled themselves as constitutionalists knew that by inserting that seemingly innocuous phrase, they could render the provision something of a dead duck.

Since many of the constitutional commissioners were themselves politicians wanting to recoup their lost glory in the post-Marcos era, they premeditatedly inserted a provision that made us the only country in the world that cannot enforce our own Constitution. Stated otherwise, Section 26, Article II created a new precedent, which is to make the Constitution subservient to the law, and not the law being subservient to the Constitution. So, if those politicians decide not to enact a law defining a political dynasty, which in fact they did, then we have in effect drafted an inoperative Constitution.

Of course, petitioner Louis Biraogo remains undaunted. The possible dismissal of his petition may appear logical; that it cannot be implemented without an implementing law. But did it come to the senses of those drafters that constitutions, upon ratification by the people, are automatically made mandatory? As my good friend, a lawyer, explained, there is no such thing as an unconstitutional provision of the Constitution. He said that only laws can be declared unconstitutional if contrary to the provision or to the spirit of the charter. But never can the Constitution or any of its provisions be declared unconstitutional.

More than that, to dismiss the petition is to uphold the continuing injustice to the Filipino people because political dynasties have made a sham of our electoral system of government. It is also high time to remind the surviving framers of that prosaic provision and the apologists who style themselves as constitutionalists that Section 26, Article II categorically prohibits political dynasties, it being violative of the equal protection clause as it denies our people the equal opportunities to serve the public. That portion of the sentence which states "as may be defined by law" is redundant, not to say useless. Section 26, Article II can operate on its own without out waiting for politicians in Congress to legislate a law implementing it.

As said, the Constitution needs no implementing law. Yes, some laws require implementing rules and regulations. Moreover, they apply only to agencies entrusted to enforce that law, and it should be consistent with what the law provides, while the law itself must be in accordance with or at least provided for in the Constitution. As my friend lawyer added, there is no statutory construction where the Constitution must be in accordance with the law or that it cannot be made to operate until and after a law has been legislated. But then who is that loony politician who would file a bill that would run counter to his interest?

Even if Section 26, Article II did not state the key phrase called "equal protection clause," nonetheless, its enforcement is peremptory much that it has been used as the most effective legal instrument by all civilized states to secure the equal protection of all the members of society, not only on the opportunity to serve the public, but foremost in the enforcement of basic justice. Without it, the whole thing we have been trumpeting as milestone in our civilization would be nothing more than fiction. It is not easy for the people to decide, as former President Joseph Estrada might think, because politicians like him already enjoy that undue advantage.

To be precise, the "equal protection clause" partakes of a positive command, which is to make sure that it applies to all, while the word "prohibit" is negative command, which means we are forbidden to indulge in that practice. Invariably, the application of the equal protection clause justifies the purpose of the prohibition, it being pernicious to our democratic system of government.

Thus, taken together, Section 26, Article II, is enforceable and the phrase "as may be defined by law" is a surplusage that serves no logical purpose. It is for this why our justices should not allow themselves to become the laughingstock of the world. For them to uphold that silly provision would make us appear as the only country on this planet that have a constitution we cannot enforce. Our justices should take a pro-active stand by giving life to that provision by banning candidates who are related by first degree to the outgoing incumbent public official from running. Our Civil Code has many provisions we can use by analogy to prohibit politicians from institutionalizing their political dominions.

For that matter, we need no specific provision defining what a political dynasty is as if to highlight our own stupidity, notwithstanding that its continuance makes a sham out of and insults our republican form of government. Such a landmark decision Court cannot be said as another of those unwarranted judicial legislation, but is meant to enforce what the Constitution so provides, more so in the wake that our politicians have been dilly-dallying in legislating that law.

rpkapunan@gmail.com

The government’s war against radicals (conclusion)

EVERYMAN

Prof. David Michael San Juan

De La Salle University-Manila

11/2/2012

(Concluded from Friday)

The K to 12 scheme: A poison pill 
Unfortunately for netizens and citizens alike, the Philippine government won't be contented with winning just the online battle against radicals. It is a fact that schools, especially universities, are known breeding ground for all sorts of ideas. Indeed, universities are known bastions of academic freedom and unrestrained research. Hence, universities are venues where the seeds of good radical ideas are planted in the minds and hearts of young citizens who learn the value of critical thinking and reasoning. These skills are best honed or developed at the university level where the country's strong old General Education Curriculum provides students with a comprehensive and holistic education that emphasizes the liberal arts/humanities. It is thus no wonder that college students are among the most politicized and the most engaged netizens and citizens who not only contribute to the general endeavor of Facebooking or Twittering "the revolution's" development, but also participate in actual assemblies, discussions, rallies etc. that challenge the evil forces of the status quo.

College students are known to join protest actions against corruption, militarism, humungous debt payments, lack of ample education budget etc., as they are much capable of digesting current national events and their relationships to their day-to-day struggles as student-citizens, having been challenged by their professors to think creatively and critically at all times. Hence, as per the Philippine government's malevolent agenda, it is necessary to dilute if not totally obliterate the liberal arts/humanities component of the GEC at the university level. It is in this context that the Philippine government has started implementing the World Bank-supported Kindergarten to 12 years of Basic Education (K to 12) scheme.

Under the Philippine K to 12 scheme, the GEC at the university level is downsized, with most of the subjects transferred to the senior high school/junior college level (the additional two years after the four years of junior high school or plainly, "high school" in the old curriculum). Indeed, based on the most recent draft of the curriculum for the new college GEC and core subjects of the senior high school/junior college level under K to 12, the new liberal arts/humanities components will generally be diluted as compared with that of the components under the old GEC.

The politics of language
For example, as per the K to 12 Program, there will be no Filipino subject left in the new Revised General Education Curriculum for the university level, as stated in the August 29, 2012 presentation of DepEd Assistant Secretary Tonisito M. C. Umali, Esq. available at http://ceap.org.ph/upload/download/20129/1881921971_1.pdf

Here's what the pertinent slide states:

Proponents of the K to 12 claim that Filipino subjects would be transferred to the senior high school/junior college level under the K to 12 scheme. Unfortunately, only one Filipino subject (Retorika) will be included in the senior high school/junior college curriculum as stated in the document "K TO 12 TOOLKIT: Reference Guide for Teacher Educators, School Administrators, and Teachers (2012)" released by the SEAMEO-INNOTECH (with the DepEd's imprimatur considering that DepEd Secretary Br. Armin Luistro, FSC gave an introductory message in the document). As per this document, only FILIPINO: RETORIKA will be REQUIRED! Meanwhile, Filipino for Specific Purposes is OPTIONAL! The said document is available at http://www.gov.ph/downloads/2012/201209-K-to-12-Toolkit.pdf Here's the pertinent part:

It is necessary to emphasize that the obliteration of some Filipino subjects perfectly fits the Philippine government's plan on its war against radicals, considering that the Filipino language is the dominant language of dissent and expression among the common folk. Hence, obliterating Filipino subjects would somehow weaken the possibility of the radical elite, middle class and lower classes perfecting their facility of a common language where they can freely express themselves and collectively speak against the status quo and in favor of sweeping socio-economic reforms. The obliteration of Filipino subjects weakens the possibility of a strong united front against the unjust status quo.

Killing political science softly
Notice too that the K to 12 scheme lacks any provision for a Political Science subject. In the old GEC, studying Philippine Government and Constitution is a requirement (indeed, it is a constitutional requirement). It must be emphasized that this old subject, now obliterated under the K to 12 scheme, is an important tool in the radicalization of citizens. Goodness, it's the only subject where participation in rallies/public assemblies might be directly required. Without such a subject, how could students effectively learn the value of people empowerment and participation in governance, two things which are necessary for any radical social movement to succeed in realizing its goals to transform society for the better?

Technicalization as dehumanization
Finally, the evident "technicalization" and "dehumanization" of the core curriculum for the senior high school/junior college level are direct machinations to prevent the growth of radical ideas among students. By reducing senior high school/junior college to the mere learning of "technical skills" for immediate employment, the K to 12 scheme aims to "…create a new generation of children who will not have the ability to think or create or listen…," as Mr. Glenn Holland, a music teacher in the movie "Mr. Holland's Opus" (1995) uttered in warning against the death of General Education/Liberal Arts subjects in the United States of America. Imagine a world where "…kids aren't going to have anything to read or write about…" as per Mr. Holland's prophecy. Radicals can't help but remember Mr. Chipping's chilling remark on contemporary education in the film "Goodbye Mr. Chips" (1939): "I know the world's changing. I see old traditions dying one by one. Grace, dignity, feeling for the past. All that matters today is a fat banking account. You're trying to run the school like a factory for turning out moneymaking snobs."

Finally, the K to 12 scheme is thus a dangerous attack against everything that radicals cherish. As Joseph Epstein said in "Who Killed the Liberal Arts? And why we should care": "The death of liberal arts education would constitute a serious subtraction. Without it, we shall no longer have a segment of the population that has a proper standard with which to judge true intellectual achievement. Without it, no one can have a genuine notion of what constitutes an educated man or woman, or why one work of art is superior to another, or what in life is serious and what is trivial. The loss of liberal arts education can only result in replacing authoritative judgment with rivaling expert opinions, the vaunting of the second- and third-rate in politics and art, the supremacy of the faddish and the fashionable in all of life. Without that glimpse of the best that liberal arts education conveys, a nation might wake up living in the worst, and never notice." With the Cybercrime Act of 2012 and the K to 12 scheme at hand, we're treading on the road to perdition. It's good that we still notice it. Let's keep on raging against the dying of the light!

Mr. David Michael San Juan is an instructor of the Filipino Department, De La Salle University-Manila

The government’s war against radicals (Part 1)

EVERYMAN

Prof. David Michael San Juan

De La Salle University-Manila

11/2/2012

This may sound idiotic to Europeans and most Asians, but in the Philippines, it is really necessary to define the term "radical" in any article, lest you are labelled an "enemy of the state," even a "terrorist," right away. Hence, this article clearly states that "radical" is the exact opposite of "conservative." If a "conservative" does everything to preserve the unjust status quo, the "radical" does everything to change or transform the status quo for the better. For example, a conservative thinks it is ok for capitalist firms in the Philippines to pay only a 30-percent corporate tax rate and still receive lots of tax exemptions through bogus donations to equally bogus charitable institutions, not to mention tax holidays (tax-free status for a number of years) while typical university instructors/lecturers and professors pay AT LEAST a 30-percent income tax rate WITHOUT ANY SIGNIFICANT TAX EXEMPTIONS. Meanwhile, a radical thinks it is necessary to increase the tax rates for the richest corporations and individuals —just like what France recently did by imposing a 75-percent tax rate on euro millionaires—so that the government could have more money for public/social services such as education, health care, housing, and transportation.

Simply put, at least in the Philippine context, radicals are good people while conservatives are mostly evil, or at the very least, stupid people (if you still require an explanation, you are definitely a conservative). One wonders now why the Philippine government has waged a war against radicals, and how it is implementing a variety of seemingly diverse and unrelated schemes to win this big war.

The Philippine government hates radicals so much because they are a threat to the unjust status quo. As conservatives have dominated the Philippine government since the 1900s (when the Americans first imposed "elections" in the country), it is obvious that all Philippine administrations are basically conservative/anti-radical.

The perks of being petibourgeois
With the advent of social media (Facebook, Twitter etc.), radical segments of the middle class and some of the lower classes who have access to such, are able to effectively mouth radical propaganda to an increasing number of citizens, beyond the reach (and/or influence) of traditional radical propaganda such as written statements and public assemblies/rallies. Hence, it is now clear that social media has become another weapon in the arsenal of radicals who passionately would want to transform the status quo. Simply put, radicals are now succeeding in radicalizing a significant number of previously non-radical and even totally conservative elements of the middle class and segments of the lower classes that have access to the internet.

The Philippine government is afraid that an era where privately-owned conservative media (newspapers, radios and televisions) and the government's own media outfits dominate the scene and exert influence on the people is fast ending. Within the context of Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony, the Philippine government has now realized that Facebook, Twitter and other petibourgeois perks are de-facto radical counterhegemonic weapons against the unjust and now crumbling (though not yet totally defenseless) status quo —weapons that enlighten the masses and the petibourgeoisie (middle class) and even some (younger) segments of the elite previously blind to social realities and the struggles for their transformation, due to the previously unbeatable influence of the mostly conservative traditional media on their (un)consciousness. In other words, the Philippine government is convinced that the imminent revolution to obliterate the status quo (a revolution which, they officially declare as dying or fading) might be "Facebooked or Twittered," to paraphrase the title of an Irish documentary on Hugo Chavez' socialist Bolivarian revolution ("The Revolution Will Not Be Televised").

Indeed, with the current internet penetration in the Philippines pegged at 30 percent (three out of 10 Filipinos have regular access to Internet), the Philippine government's fear of the revolution being Facebooked or Twittered is not entirely baseless. The popularity of non-aligned Facebook pages such as "T*ng-Ina This," "Pixel Offensive" and "Showbiz Government" that expose the current regime's anti-people and anti-democratic character is a proof that Facebook and other social media sites have become new fronts in the battle for and against ideas and perspectives. The successful entry and propaganda work of traditional radical organizations in Facebook and other social media sites further bolster the power of social media for genuine social liberation. Despite differences in style, tactics and over-all objectives, these groups that have mastered the use of Facebook and other sites for radical propaganda, are in fact strengthening social media as counterhegemonic weapons.

The Cybercrime Act as a tool
With the aforementioned, it is not surprising that the second Aquino administration—despite fashioning itself as a liberal-democratic regime —has doggedly fought for the passage of the anti-democratic Cybercrime Act of 2012. The said law authorizes the Philippine Department of Justice to shut down Web sites found to have libellous remarks, even without any court order. At the micro level, it also criminalizes the liking and/or sharing of libellous remarks in social media. Hence, all radical propaganda would simply be labelled as libellous and voila, the Philippine government could instantly obliterate any chance of the revolution being Facebooked or Twittered. Indeed, the Cybercrime Act of 2012 would psychologically compel some segments of social media users to censor themselves by refraining from liking and/or sharing counterhegemonic material which the government might consider as libellous. Instantly, the broad online counterhegemonic coalition is at least psychologically undermined. Hence, this law is a potent government weapon in its war against radicals.

Continued tomorrow

Mr. David Michael San Juan is an instructor of the Filipino Department, De La Salle University-Manila

RP: Moody's 'walking debt'?

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

11/5/2012

Many Third World countries were ensnared in the global debt trap in the 70's, after the US decoupled its dollar from gold, printed dollars its economy could not support and recouped by trapping nations into endless borrowing of its fiat currency. Other grew wiser: Argentina, Brazil and Russia re-negotiated and/or simply paid off their debts between 2005 and 2006. They have since become major global economic players after being freed from debt. Ecuador in 2007 repudiated unjust foreign debts forcing up to 80 percent write downs then paid off most of it, now economists are advising the Greece to learn from Ecuador. Debt free countries walk free, while debt laden countries like the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain) are zombies of the international bankers — like the Philippines now being set up for a new round of debt indenture and continue poster boy for the "walking debt."

We have seen a flurry of flattering international and domestic financial news about how well the Philippines under Aquino III is doing (despite a third-rate two year average growth of 4.3 percent to this date from seven percent in 2010) capped off by last week's much ballyhooed Moody's rating agency upgrade of the Philippines "just a notch below investment grade." This is the bait. The upgrade prompted Budget Secretary Butch Abad to quip, "we in the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) are equally inspired to take the necessary measures to ensure faster and more efficient spending across the bureaucracy." Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr. in a statement said, "We are delighted with Moody's recognition… This year, BSP has cut policy rates by a total of 100 basis points (one percent) to help the economy …to support economic growth." It all sounds well until we understand the present global financial background.

Actually, Standard and Poor, Fitch have all upgraded the Philippines, but all three ratings agencies have been in the line of fire since 2008 when they rated AAA Lehman Brothers and AIG just before the two collapsed. All have since been accused of conflicts of interest in the ratings game as they are paid by the global bankers for this service. While BSP's Tetangco proudly touts his 100 basis points rates cut in the Philippines it must be remembered that interest rates for the banks in the US under the QE3 (Quantitative Easing III, unlimited printing of dollars for the banks) is practically zero, and "hot money" find its way into the Philippine financial system, stock and money markets, to siphon real value for its dollars without cost.

The PPP (public-private partnership) is repeatedly linked to the credit-upgrade, as international banking (read, mafia) are all waiting to broker the cheap money for the PPP. For example, "HSBC Holdings Plc. says it has six clients ready to bid for some of the $16 billion of projects to build hospitals, roads and airports … while Japanese company Sumitomo Corp. (shown to overprice its costs) may offer to upgrade and maintain two railways in Manila." The PPP has suffered delays, Aquino III explain that it is "taking some time because we want to ensure that these projects provide a reasonable return to investors." What they apparently are waiting for, government and PPP companies, are the near zero-interest rate funds to be channeled, with margins made, through the international banks.

The Moody's ratings upgrade of the Philippines and the mainstream media's uncritical and unquestioning paeans to, is setting up the Filipino people for more debt that it needs like a hole in the head. Easily forgotten in the noisy celebrations of the "credit upgrade" is the fact that the Philippines does not need to borrow anymore from the transnational loan sharks or "banksters" (gangster-bankers, as financial analyst Max Keiser calls them) like Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Citi, HSBC, et al. The government and the Filipino financial system buttressed by OFW earnings, with $83-billion gross international reserves against $63-billion foreign debt and P 1.7-trillion in the Special Deposit Account with the BSP can pay off the entire foreign debt with more to spare. Didn't we lend to Greece at three percent or one percent interest loss over our own debts?

Moody's upgrade encourages more the debt, a component of the US' global financial warfare for its own recovery targeting the gullible. Antonio, Shakespeare's Christian who lends without interest, tells money-lender Shylock "If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not as to thy friends — for when did friendship take a breed for barren metal of his friend? — But lend it rather to thine enemy, Who if he break thou mayst with better face exact the penalty. (1.3.8)" The compounded interest and principal Filipinos paid international bankers (Paris Club) is three times over the debt incurred since President Diosdado Macapagal accepted IMF's $ 300-million "stabilization fund" in 1962 after "decontrol." 2013 is time to reject new debt and pay off all old debts: Retake control of our nation's finances and walk, free, proud and prosperous.

(GNN Channel 8, HTL show. Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., 11:15 p.m. Sunday 8 a.m., simulcast www.gnntv-asia.com: tune to 1098AM radio Tuesday to Friday 5 to 6 p.m. and www.kitv.ph; http://newkatipunan.blogspot.com)

Vampire BAT

PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE

Herman Tiu Laurel

10/29-11/4/2012

HERE is a British House of Commons presentation in 2000, "Note of Evidence by Duncan Campbell in respect of Planning, Organization and Management of Cigarette Smuggling by British American Tobacco, Plc, and related issues…the activities of British American Tobacco PLC ('BAT') and its predecessor, subsidiary and group companies during the period from 1970 to date.

It is based on enquiries made by the author and others as part of an international investigation conducted during 1999 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a project of the Center for Public Integrity ("CPI")—a Washington based public interest research group. The major issues are: A) Smuggling, the deliberate smuggling of BAT products evolved from an ad hoc activity into an organized and centrally managed system of lawbreaking…."

In the midst of the raging debate over "Sin Taxes" advocates such as DoF Secretary Purisima, pushing to raise P 60-B by raising by five times the excise tax on domestic, Filipino-made and produced tobacco and cigarette products while leaving taxes on luxury and imported brands practically untouched, it is vital to take the warnings that tobacco smuggling will ensue massively if the "Purisima Sin Tax" (HB1527) is approved. The real and main proponents of the "Purisima Sin Tax" bill, is the British American Tobacco (BAT) corporation.

Here's a headline from Philippine Star, October 15, 2012 by Iris Gonzales: "Brit-Am Tobacco backs House version of sin tax bill… In a position paper, BAT asked lawmakers to pass a bill that would level the playing field in the industry…" Levelling can be read to mean "bulldozing" the Philippine tobacco industry.

BAT's criminal activity endemic
The House of Commons report continues: "Support for criminal activity is endemic among BAT senior managers… in planning, organizing or managing criminal activity, and/or have knowingly consented to the deliberate smuggling of contraband BAT tobacco products around the world. A very substantial part of the company's revenues derives from this. BAT has provided support to narcotics traffickers and other organized crime supported the smuggling of narcotics (cocaine, crack and heroin) by providing tobacco products with which value may be returned to producer countries. This is particularly so where international controls have been developed to restrict money-laundering of the proceeds of narcotics sales. A consequence of the company's actions is and has been to remove billions of pounds annually from the income of governments around the world."

In 2005 Jamie Doward of The Observer reported, "'Smuggling claims hit tobacco giant'… Fresh allegations rock BAT as six-year investigation by the Mounties leads to publication of secret letters… it had colluded in a multi-million-pound smuggling operation. "Among its references is a research paper entitled "Complicity in contraband: British American Tobacco and cigarette smuggling in Asia. Objectives: To examine the complicity of British American Tobacco (BAT) in cigarette smuggling in Asia, and centrality of illicit trade to regional corporate strategy. Results: BAT documents demonstrate the strategic importance of smuggling across global, regional, national, and local levels. Particularly important in Asia, contraband enabled access to closed markets, created pressure for market opening, and was highly profitable…."

BAT-men's "robins"
In the heat of the "Purisima Sin Tax" bill debate the head of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO) Manuel Mamba alleged that the "bribe" money had circulated in the Philippine Senate to water down the radical "Purisima Sin Tax". Senator Ralph Recto felt alluded to and resigned his post as head of the Ways and Means Committee handling the "sin tax" proposal. I don't think Recto is that thin skinned to resign over such simple allegations, most of these politicians are inured to such charges as lobby money is a regular mode of transaction among them as Recto knows from the VAT on fuel taxes which he allowed to be passed on. A threat more serious than mere allegations of "bribery" must have forced Recto's resignation, something like an AMLA violation (as in Corona's case), paving the way for takeover by a pliant Drilon.

"Robin" in the urban dictionary means "nice person", BAT cultivates such "robins" or lobbyists. From Wikipedia for example, "British American Tobacco spent more than €700,000 lobbying the EU in 2008, up to four times as much as the company declared on the EU's register of interest representatives, according to a report by Corporate Europe Observatory." There are other insidious lobbies, such as Bloomberg's Tobacco Control Grants masked under "smoke free" campaigns. On Scott.net on the Internet Mayor Bloomberg of New York City, leading the Bloomberg Foundations, is quoted saying "We want to get governments to raise taxes…" some Philippine recipients: $ 255,626.00 for Action for Economic Reforms (AER), $ 300,960.00 for "HealthJustice" Foundation, $234,794.00 for U.P. College of Law, among a list of over twenty local NGOs and institutions.

Bigger sin, higher tax?
A major issue against the latest compromise version (reducing the tax goal to P 40-B) of the "Purisima Sin Tax" is its inordinately higher tax burden on the tobacco and cigarette industries and reduction of alcohol and beer taxes. Under the original HB1527 cigarettes and alcohol would share the P 60-Billion hike sought by the DoF equally, but Purisima downgraded San Miguel Corp.'s Pale Pilsen to lowest category and with proposed excise tax standing as it is at P 15.49 allowing it a four-year no tax increase holiday, while the rate for the highest tax tier for beer was reduced from P 20.57 per liter to P 18.80. The highest tax rate for top cigarettes brands was raised from P 28.30 to P30 per pack. Overall results of Purisima's maneuvers reduced projected tax from alcohol from P 30-B to P 4.48-B or 85% decrease, while tobacco and cigarettes was reduced by only 10% to P 26.8-B.

Purisima's explanation: "Based on the position of the Dept. of health there is moderate drinking but there is no moderate smoking…. Therefore, the bigger of the sin is smoking and therefore the bigger of the deterrent should be in smoking …It will allow us to… fund public health care and to discourage consumption of sin products…" Purisima and the DoH makes no distinction between smoking one stick a day and four packs a day, and the fact that a smoker in permissible places may harm only himself while drunk driving (a leading cause of death in the World) can and do cause disastrous or even fatal vehicular accidents and/or public or family altercations, mayhem, beatings or worse. Evident from the incongruous logic of Purisima and the DoH is that they are bowing to lobby pressures, whether it is form the BAT, the presidential uncle and others; while preying on the Philippine tobacco industry.

Political tax?
The advocates for the "Purisima Sin Tax" argue that the increase in tobacco and cigarette excise taxes is necessary to fund the Dept. of Health programs (though DOH has P 12-B still unspent from present sin taxes). Gut we noted the statements from budget secretary Butch Abad made before a forum on health financing: "I'm not so much worried about the difference [in the amount of revenue]. I'm more concerned about the ability of the Department of Health and PhilHealth to actually absorb that huge amount…" The report continues to say that "If the sin tax bill is passed, 85% of the expected revenue will be sued for universal health care coverage, while the remaining 15% will go to programs that will help tobacco farmers, Abad said." These statements from Abad pave the way for the DBM to be caretaker of the tax take from the "Purisima Sin Tax".

Abad's words can explain why Pres. BS Aquino III on October 16, 2012 at the FOCAP (Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines) said, "There are several senators who are opting to run for next year's elections …. And how can anybody say they are opposed to an effective sin tax measure? So do we need a plan B if in [case] it doesn't pass? I think I am confident that it will pass,… We have stated the same to our allies in the Senate on how important this measure is …." It's either Abad will be using the hiked tax take from the "sin tax" for the elections or the BAT and such lobbyists will fork over campaign funds only after the Purisima sin tax is approved. Will the political vampires. "Igor Purisima" and the Vampire BAT succeed in sucking the life blood out of our tobacco and cigarette farmers and manufacturers? Will we find out before the next Halloween?

(Watch Destiny Cable GNN's HTL edition channel 8, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., replay 11:15 p.m. and Sunday, and onwww.gnntv-asia.com: this week "Bangsamoro ap-piece-ment" with Attys. Bono Adaza and Alan Paguia; tune to 1098AM radio Tues. To Fri. 5 to 6pm http://newkatipunan.blogspot.com)