Keep their dirty hands off…

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

5/22/2013

Daily Tribune

For 27 years the country's three million or so coconut farmers and advocates have fought to get the billions of pesos of the Coconut Levy Fund for the use of, for and by the coconut industry sector to develop highest value-added products and grow incomes in the sector. It has not succeeded.

The Philippine coconut industry sector may be losing the levy funds to the dirty hands of the Yellow President's corrupt cronies. On May 20 this year, in the midst of the distraction of the election ado and the Taiwan-RP imbroglio spilled over, news of BS Aquino and his budget Rasputin Butch Abad's memorandum to divert the remaining "P120-billion coco levy fund" to "farm-to-market roads" — code name for pork barrel feasting.

For a year now the country's coconut industry sector, farmers and advocates, have been monitoring the BS Aquino's underlings' maneuverings. He let the hyenas lose with the Finance and the Akbayan (Rocamora-NGO) mafias competing to get their dirty hands on the remaining billions. The incumbent Department of Agriculture secretary was supposed to be making the pitch for the genuine coconut farmers and advocates to dedicate the remaining billions to a permanent fund for the continuing development and advancement of the coconut industry with grassroots multi-product, mini processing centers that can service 300 hectares clusters of coconut farmlands where farmers can bring their coconuts for processing to various high value products.

Eighty five percent to 95 percent of Philippine coconuts are processed only into copra, throwing or burning away four billion liters of coconut water, husks and shells, billions of liters of coconut milk and virgin coconut oil, and many other potential byproducts. Copra exported to other countries are pressed and processed there and we lose the massive downstream incomes. The coconut producing areas do not need more farm-to-market roads, they need processing facilities. The farm-to-market roads fixation assumes that the best approach to bring goods to big, industrial centers; this is a great big mistake. For example, today coconuts from Mindanao are still transported to Laguna, in Luzon, where most of the giant copra and coconut processing plants are concentrating incomes in a few companies while the province remain impoverished.

The KMU and Coco Levy Fund Ibalik sa Amin said, "We don't want so-called road projects that only benefit corrupt local officials…. The dire poverty (in coconut areas) exists mainly due to high land rent, the imposition of resicada, low prices of copra and other semi-feudal forms of exploitation and not due to lack of access roads,…" Other coconut farmer and advocacy groups are gearing to take action too, such as the Philippine Coconut Society (PCS) , COIR, and even members of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) leadership who will be joining the street actions. Taking the struggle one level higher, the PCS presents crystal clear grassroots based development plan for the coconut industry sector, called Freshco, versus copra, processing with the multi-product processing centers for every 300-hectare coconut lands cluster — a national coconut industry development road map.

For the coconut farmers, the just concluded general election is a totally irrelevancy, none of the candidates and winners talk about these substantive issues. The farmers' and the country's problem is how we can keep BS Aquino's, Abad's and the politico's hands off the coconut levy. When the new and young pols are inaugurated in June, the vast majority of them will start to take action protecting their family's legislative or local government fiefdom and the share of the pork barrel. Some are making a big show of how they will still be learning the ropes and how they will respectfully, "magalang," learn from the elders in the institutions. I don't know how many Filipinos are still taken in by such shallow posturings but I do know that many even among the masa are already tired of the comedia.

Despite my distaste for the concluded political exercise, I do find some gems in it. One example is Johnny Chang of Quezon City who garnered 10 percent of QC's votes representing the thinking portion of that population. Chang educated the public on the taxation and pork barrel issues of Quezon City. Chang got just over 3,000 votes in 2010; now it's 51,000. Next time around he may be mayor of Quezon City already. Of course, Estrada in Manila was an absolute necessity; Lim was already a cancer that needed to be excised. Manila will see its old glory back. To the Kapatiran, the party-lists Magdalo and Append, congratulations. To Sanlakas, Kaakbay, maybe a miracle can still put one of yours in. In the meantime, we continue preparing for the revolution.

(Tune to 1098AM, 5 to 6 p.m., Tuesday to Friday; Destiny Cable, Channel 8, Saturday 8 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m.; visit: http//www.newkatipunero.blogspot.com)

Strike Three: Noy’s out

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

5/20/2013

Daily Tribune

1) August 23, 2010 Hong Kong Tourist Association Luneta massacre resulting in death for eight Hong Kong tourists; 2) April 8, 2012 Panatag Shoal incident when "grey ship" (naval) BRP Gregorio Del Pilar was sent to confront and arrest eight Chinese fishing boats triggering Chinese marine surveillance ships to respond; 3) the May 9 Balintang incident resulting in the death of one Chinese fisherman. Each of these incidents resulted from the absence of executive (i.e. presidential) response and leadership from the Chief Executive of the Philippines and blatant politicization of the investigations and perceived coddling of guilty parties in the process. Most unfortunate and to some, deeply suspicious in these series of grievous errors of the president is the victimization of Chinese civilians.

Last week this space wrote "Taiwan's rage, RP's failings" trying to discern the just approach to the incident at the Balintang Islands. We recounted the facts of the case as information trickled in from Taiwan's authorities and media and from the Philippine authorities. Aside from the corpus delicti, the Taiwan side was very quick to report details on the ballistics forensics showing the trajectory of the bullets from the Philippine Coast Guard fire hitting mainly astern, portside or rear left side, hardly indicating a boat attempting to ram the PCG head on as the initial impression one gets from reading the PCG report. The PCG had claims but absolutely no physical evidence to support any of its claims, such as pictures of a damage patrol boat and the like.

After the Balitang incident, May 10, Taiwan media had the images all over the world of the dead fisherman, the grieving family and the Taiwan protests. Taiwan authorities were already demanding an apology, compensation and investigation from Philippine authorities. The MECO (Manila Economic and Cultural Office) representative visited the grieving family, a quick action that must be commended. Deputy spokesman Abigail Valte had a late evening press conference which didn't impact at all. Malacañang waited a week for a high level, formal response through presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda; but by then the damage to RP-Taiwan relations already looked irreversible. Through the week I waited for any proof from the PCG that may show that the Taiwanese, as some allege, are overreacting.

The first indication that the PCG had a credible piece of evidence to its claim that the shooting incident was an act of self-defense against an attacking fishing vessel was the May 17 news report that the PCG had a video tape of the whole incident that would prove its case. If it had this it would have erased doubts about the defensive nature of its action. Without a self-defense motive the PCG was clearly in troubled waters as the international laws covering the situation the Taiwanese fishing vessels and the PCG ship do not permit the use of lethal force, especially in an area where sovereignty is subject to question such as an overlapping exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Even in an EEZ when clearly exclusivity is established, the use of lethal force is not countenanced by international laws.

At this writing 11 days after the incident the alleged video still has not been released raised suspicion that the footage may not really be as helpful as the PCG claims. Malacañang should have called in all this evidence at the earliest opportunity to formulate its response to the Taiwanese claims, but the "noynoying" was also in operation. Today, we are still awaiting the video's release to the public, but in the meantime the earliest indication of the culpability of the PCG by Philippine media comes from a leak form an unnamed PCG official privy to the internal investigation that the "Coast Guard may have violated rules of engagement" which questions the apparent haste with which lethal force was used that may violate even the PCG's Rules of Engagement.

Reports say the video confirm the 1-hour chase the Taiwanese claim the PCG conducted, firing over 50 rounds against the unarmed Taiwanese fishing vessel, indicating hostile intent on the PCG's side. In such situations the PCG is expected only to report the incident and file the corresponding case through appropriate channels. One aspect to look for in this is whether the Taiwanese fishing vessels were actually caught fishing, because if they were not they could claim to be just making passage through the Luzon Straits. That's covered by the 1991 Executive Order No. 473 of President Corazon Aquino providing safe passage to Taiwanese vessels provided they do not fish and have their fishing gears stowed in their holds.

The Taiwanese are not the only victims in this sordid mess. One hundred million Filipinos are also victims, their country suffering further damage to its reputation and many sectors such as Taiwan-bound OFWs and our local tourism hit with crippling boycotts. All victims of the lackadaisical and incompetent BS Aquino III government whose highest officials, after striking out the third time should be offering resignations posthaste if it had any shame at all.

(Tune to 1098AM, 5 to 6 p.m., Tuesday to Friday; Destiny Cable, Channel 8, Saturday 8 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m.; visit: http//www.newkatipunero.blogspot.com)

Taiwan’s rage, RP failings

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

5/15/2013

Daily Tribune

Little noticed over the din of the last elections is a mounting tsunami of rage and potential for economic-political retaliation from the Taiwan government and people over the killing by elements of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) of 65-year old Taiwanese fisherman Hung Shih-Cheng of the fishing vessel Kuang Ta Hsing No. 28.
At first blush the PCG contention seems to be an open-and-shut case as Rear Adm. Rodolfo Isorena claimed the Taiwanese fishing vessels were "poaching" in the Philippine exclusive economic zone (EEZ), 43 nautical miles east of the Balintang Islands which is just about 40 kilometers North-North East of the Babuyan Islands. The PCG defended its use of high caliber weaponry claiming the Taiwanese fishing vessel tried to ram the PCG patrol vessel.

Protests exploded in Taiwan and the grief stricken family of the dead Taiwanese fisherman dominated Taiwan news media. Taiwanese fishermen threw eggs at the Philippines' representative office in Taipei and burned images of the Philippines' flag. Protesters included members of the New Taipei-based National Fishermen's Association, as well as from other fishermen's associations in Hsinchu and Yilan. Politics entered the picture as the opposition DPP (Democratic People's Party) criticized as weak the actions of ruling Kuomintang (KMT) president Ma Ying-jeou who has threatened to cut the employment of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) (87,000 there) unless the Philippine government meets a deadline (Tuesday, midnight) for an investigation, official apology (which the Philippine government is hesitant to make) and compensation for the bereaved family.

The mainland China English news channel CCTV 9 also covered closely the Taiwan fisherman's tragic death. I first understood the Taiwanese perspective on the controversy from CCTV 9 in an interview with a Taiwanese lady politician and two foreign affairs analysts. Taiwan's view is not covered much in the Philippine media. After hearing their view the PCG's defense of its action may not be as tenable as it first looked. The Philippine's claim of the fishing vessel being in Philippine EEZ is only half the story, the other half is that that same area is just 165 miles off the Taiwan coast and within the 200 miles EEZ of Taiwan. Thus, the area is an overlapping EEZ. According to the Law of the Sea, when EEZs overlap or coastal baselines are less than 400 nautical miles apart, it is up to the states to negotiate the actual maritime boundary.

The Philippines may argue that the location where the incident occurred is a point closer to the Philippine coastal baseline and defaults to the nearest state or the Philippines. The more difficult case for the Philippines is the use of heavy armament against the unarmed Taiwanese fishing vessels, and the contention that the fishing vessel tried to ram the clearly heavily armed PCG vessel. Why would an unarmed vessel manned by scrawny, ordinary fishermen, as obvious from the video footages of the crews, dare to assault another armed vessel? Worse, if the Taiwanese view is validated, the Taiwan news reports claim the PCG shots were fired 52 rounds at the rear of the fishing vessel which was apparently speeding away instead of confronting the PCG vessel. The PCG claimed it wanted to disable the "poachers," but 52 rounds do seem excessive.

On CCTV 9 a Chinese foreign relations expert emphasized that the Philippine maritime officers have killed Chinese fisherman before the last time in 2006. He added that 30 incidents of arrests have been recorded over the years, and often demands for ransom for the release of the fishermen were made. The Hong Kong Tourist Massacre incident in Luneta was recalled and opprobrium heaped on Philippine police and governance. The Taiwanese lawmaker added that given the facts, the US must take a position on the side of the Taiwanese against it other ally, the Philippines; implying that otherwise, In the "new era of cross-straits relations" (PROC and Taiwan) where the US does not count as much as previously, Taiwan can gravitate closer to China if the US does not support the Taiwanese case. Taiwan's bitterness can be a coup for PROC's diplomacy.

A fellow Filipino said to me "Why should be stand for a 'deadline' from a country of only 20-million people (Taiwan)?" The Philippines often feels it is always in the losing end of disputes with its northern neighbors of the China or West Philippines Sea, but a lot of its woes has to do with its own failings. Besides, the Taiwanese did lose a life to the PCG, just as the Hong Kong people lost eight killed in the Luneta, and we do have 87,000 OFWs in Taiwan and China does buy billions from Filipino exporters. But the Philippines is in a hapless position not because of them but because it has the kind of leaders like those unremarkable top senators chosen in the last elections who can never oppose US-local oligarchy, corporatist corruption and economic abuse and exploitation impoverishing this country.

(Tune to 1098AM, 5 to 6 p.m., Tuesday to Friday; Destiny Cable, Channel 8, Sat. 8pm and Sun 8am: this week "Circus Over: What to expect"; visit: http//www.newkatipunero.blogspot.com)

Source(ery) code

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

5/13/2013

Daily Tribune

The Commission on Elections' (Comelec) promised source code finally arrives in Manila less than a week before Election Day. Coming three years after it should have been delivered to the voting public for inspection and put in escrow at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, it is now too late to subject it to serious scrutiny. This much has been pointed out by Philippine Computer Society president Toti Casiño, a view backed not only by the organization's 3,000 members but also by various groups such as the Automated Election System Watch (AES Watch) and many others. Similarly, the Facebook commentaries of internet activist Adriano Solomon, which point out that the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines for today's elections had been sent out by the thousands with their source codes since April, question if there is any similarity between these and the source code now said to have been delivered by Dominion Voting Systems.

Other than a face-saving gesture for the Comelec and Smartmatic, the Dominion Voting Systems' delivery of this source code is totally meaningless and downright insulting to the intelligence of the public. Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes had the usual temerity to say, "All those who say that there is no source code should now keep their peace," when it was he who had dilly-dallied on it. The question now is whether the source code (either for 2010 or today) is reliable, trustworthy, and conforms to the automated elections law — something that cannot be as it has yet to undergo public scrutiny.
Dominion Voting Systems, for its part, is also being very dubious for delaying the source code delivery, which, if likened to a basketball game, was made only in the last 10 seconds.
Have Dominion and Smartmatic been playing cat-and-mouse game with the Filipino people all along with their Delaware court suit to cover for a suspected 2010 election fraud, which will continue for as long as we use their PCOS system?

Stranger still was the sum of money that had to be forked out for Dominion's delivery. According to news reports, it was put into effect only after Smartmatic agreed to pay $10 million — an amount first offered by Brillantes, which had to be retracted as Comelec was later claimed to have no budget for it.
Even if it appears that Smartmatic had paid for it, this episode clearly demonstrates that the PCOS election system (under then Chairman Jose Melo in 2010 and now Brillantes) has reduced Philippine elections into a process by which foreign companies can hold the country's democracy hostage and release it only upon payment of ransom. But even more skeptical and technically capable minds go deeper than the scandalous financial aspect of the Dominion-Smartmatic scenario. Information Technology Foundation of the Philippines (ITFP) president Maricor Akol once commented that Dominion may be very coy about the source code as its examination may reveal manipulation for BS Aquino III by the United States.

Questions about conflict-of-interest voting machine companies have come to light in the US where many of these companies are based. As one site, The Landes Report, writes: "Foreigners, convicted criminals, office holders, political candidates, and news media organizations can and do own these companies. It appears that these companies are dominated by members of the Republican Party and foreign investors… Sequoia (UK), Accenture/Election.com (UK-Bermuda), EVS (Japan) and N.V. Nederlandsche Apparatenfabriek (Netherlands). Election.com was formerly owned by Osan Ltd., a Saudi Arabian firm. Many voting machine companies appear to share managers, investors and equipment which raises questions of conflict-of-interest and monopolistic practices." So who are really behind Smartmatic, which has frequently misrepresented itself, and Dominion?

Popular US Establishment critic Alex Jones of Prison Planet wrote an article ("CIA-owned voting machines ensure Bush victory in 2004") where he stated that the "American vote-count is controlled by three major corporate players — Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia (all bought out by Dominion)… These companies… glitch-riddled systems… technology that leaves no paper trail at all… are almost laughably open to manipulation, according to corporate whistle-blowers and computer scientists at Stanford, Johns Hopkins and other universities." The prize for the US in controlling Philippine elections is subversion of the very leadership positions of the country without having to start a costly local invasion such as in Afghanistan or Syria, and getting the success of the BangsaMoro, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Exxon-Mobil, Mindanao-Sulu Sea oil plot, along with diplomatic coups and tensions against China, etc.

Toti Casiño, in my GNN show, concluded with me that Philippine elections using the PCOS are simply circuses. My other guest who gave his usual "fearful forecast," Linggoy Alcuaz, agreed, saying that the "constitutional circus" starts with the manipulated voter preference surveys (where certain bets are favored with top rankings in early surveys to give them an early boost) and ends with the manipulated PCOS elections.

Although Philippine elections had always been manipulated, particularly from the time of Ramon Magsaysay when the CIA's Edward Landsdale set up the National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections to defeat recalcitrant Elpidio Quirino and for the American Manufacturers Association-funded Diosdado Macapagal to defeat "Filipino First" President Carlos P. Garcia, their manipulation has become infinitely more sophisticated with today's "source(ery) code."

We can take David Niven's advice to "Keep the circus going inside you, keep it going, don't take anything too seriously, it'll all work out in the end." Or we can start wising up by reading Stefan Halper's The Beijing Consensus: How China's Authoritarian Model Will Dominate the Twenty-first Century.

(Tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN Destiny Cable Channel 8, Saturday, 8:00 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; also visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)

The US and Isra-Hell

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

5/8/2013

Daily Tribune

The latest travesty of International Law is committed by Israel, a country which this space will now always refer to as Isra-Hell, the deputy in the Middle East of the US imperialists. When this space refers to the US, it is about its ruling class and not its people. All people of the world are essentially peace loving and desiring only prosperity. What human being would not want that, for all people are mothers and fathers and want life and liberty for their children. Iran's late leader (and to my mind one of Mankind's great moral-political teachers) Ayatollah Khomeini calls the US the "Iblis" (Diabolis — the primary devil in Islam) or the Great Satan, and when we review the history of the US from the 19th Century down we can see the evolution of the Great Satan to its present, pre-eminent evil and destructive hegemonism. It has half the world doing its evil bidding of promoting wars, death and destruction.

In the past week and without provocation Isra-Hell attacked the Syrian Republic, destroyed defense facilities and reportedly killed 42 Syrian soldiers in the bombing assault using depleted uranium ordnance. US denials of its pre-knowledge of the attack is only laughed at by analysts, and only fools would accept Isra-Hell's claim that their attack is justified by its claim they bombed Syrian anti-aircraft missiles being delivered to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Isra-Hell has never shown proof. Reports leaked from Isra-Hell and the US initially claimed the attack was on transport convoys making the deliveries, but photos and videos from social media and the Syrian government now acknowledged to be indisputable shows Isra-Hell's bombs defense infrastructure of Syria (if in the Philippines, like hitting Camp Aguinaldo) which every country would have to defend itself against threats to the State.

Both Russia and China has protested the violation of the UN Charter by Isra-Hell's unprovoked attack on Syria. Significantly even the Arab League which has been at the forefront of the anti-Assad US-Nato-Isra-Hell crusades against the Assad government has been compelled to make an open and vocal stand against Isra-Hell's attack on Syria and called on the UN to stop the assaults on sovereign Syria. Egypt was especially adamant in condemning the attack and demanding that the UN take action. As expected, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon in masterful hypocrisy and sycophancy to the US called "all sides to exercise maximum calm and restraint" when an aggressor has brazenly violated the UN laws and should issue a condemnation posthaste. The Philippines, if it takes it duty to the International Community seriously should also issue a firm condemnation of the attack.

The US and Isra-Hell has cultivated the cultural domination of the Philippines and Filipinos for a very long time. I hear stories of Filipino tourists visiting Isra-Hell being accorded special treatment by the government and its people there. Very few Filipinos know that Apartheid, against Palestinians, in Isra-Hell is often worse than what had prevailed in South Africa before; but Isra-Hell money is very generous to many Christian-Zionist groups in the Philippines and with the US behind it, very little of the truth comes out in Philippine media. Many Filipinos are enamored with the "success" of Isra-Hell, from the myths of its economic miracle to its Merkava and its Israel Defense Force prowess, but the $ 10-B military and economic/business aid it gets from the US and Europe (particularly Germany and its reparations) and the Western Power's military support are the real reasons for its so called "success" and not its genius.

The roots of Isra-Hell's powers go back to money, i.e. the World's most powerful bankers and the Rothschilds which in the 19th Century had spread its power through domination of banking and the British government. It led one British labor leader to say, "This blood-sucking crew has been the cause of untold mischief and misery in Europe during the present century, and has piled up its prodigious wealth chiefly through fomenting wars between States which ought never to have quarreled. Whenever there is trouble in Europe, wherever rumors of war circulate and men's minds are distraught with fear of change and calamity you may be sure that a hook-nosed Rothschild is at his games somewhere near the region of the disturbance."

A chronology of the Rothschilds narrate, "In 1895 Edmond James de Rothschild visited Palestine and supplies the funds to found the first Jewish colonies there… their long term objective of creating a Rothschild formed country." The British create the State of Israel while the Rothschild bankers also create the US Federal Reserve and control of US politics. Today, the bankers behind the Western financial-military-industrial complex desperately need new wars — and the Big War — to save their system and its ruling class. The challenge has come from secular, socialist, independent and nationalist States or those evolving toward that. The US-Nato/Isra-Hell combine has destroyed Yugoslavia in Europe, Iraq, Libya and now it is destroying the secular Syria. They're trying the same against Venezuela, in the Philippines they are completing the destruction with the Bangsa Moro entity. Ultimately, the targets are China and Russia. Filipinos must wake up and end its enslavement to the US and Isra-Hell. 

(Tune to 1098AM, 5 to 6 p.m., Tuesday to Friday; Destiny Cable, Channel 8, Saturday 8 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m.: this week "Hocus PCOS elections: seeds of revolution"; visit: http//www.newkatipunero.blogspot.com)

Fears beyond 2013

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

5/6/2013

Daily Tribune

My youngest are twins. One is in Philosophy in DLSU who has delayed his graduation this year by taking fewer units, opting to work part-time. The other is a graduate of Journalism from UST and is already job-hunting while helping out in the family business. Deciding on either of their prospects has not been easy as starting pays don't look attractive. Having started driving regularly of late, the latter of my twins went along with me to my grocery trip a few days ago. While I was paying at the check-out counter, he scanned the bill and exclaimed, "How could these few things cost over a thousand?" Perhaps because he's now earning an allowance tending to one of the family's stores, he's beginning to understand the economic angst I've always discussed with the family over meals and how everyone should be ready to cope with harder times.

One recent headline reflects the worsening economic prospects ahead. Coming out on Labor Day, the report entitled, "Joblessness increases," centered on the recent jobs data culled by survey firm Social Weather Stations (SWS), which indicated that "Unemployment has picked up anew after an improvement seen at the end of last year… with one million more Filipinos joining the ranks of the jobless. At 25.4 percent, unemployment among Filipinos at least 18 years old was higher than December's 24.6 percent…" And the joblessness reports, particularly with respect to new labor entrants, just keep piling up.

Still, my journalism graduate son is undeterred. Seeking a job in reporting or writing, he apparently wants to prove that his skills can be of use in the market place. Indeed, after months of searching, he seems confident of landing a job in a transnational headhunting firm. His twin brother, meanwhile, is tending to their eldest brother's bar and is earning an income even if less than the minimum wage. As such, one of the frequent issues in our family's discussions is the electricity bill, particularly the use of air-conditioning units in the twins' separate rooms. With the first billing this summer doubling from the same period last year, awareness of the high power cost has finally seeped into the consciousness of all members of the family.

I am therefore no longer alone in my obsession to keep power cost tamed by turning off the lights whenever leaving any room and the sala; Or quitting the use of the water pressure pump for showers, opting for the tabo instead; Or sharing a single air-conditioner for two instead of going solo in one's room.
Indeed, the power price crisis is not going to go away even if the artificial power shortages created by the ruling powers are halted by everyone's (including the Mindanaoans') capitulation to the blackmail of using coal-fired plants instead of cheap hydroelectric power, under an abusive regime of the 17-percent so-called Performance Based Regulation and the privatization-mad Electric Power Industry Reform Act where power companies of all stripes get to enjoy ridiculously humongous profits.

If labor groups and trade federations were powerless in extracting even paltry concessions from BS Aquino III (as is traditionally expected on Labor Day), what other reason should the ruling capitalist foreign powers and their local partners have in shunning their mercilessness toward Filipinos, whose nation's wealth they have long extracted in support of the West's failing economies?

By the way, the SWS jobs survey also indicated that jobseekers are still hoping for a better future — even if such perennial hope remains unfulfilled. And even after two ballyhooed Philippine ratings upgrades (the last from Standard and Poor's), the usual mainstream media (such as Bloomberg) obligatorily feature shallow headlines such as "Philippines beats Indonesia in gaining S&P investment grade," while deliberately skirting a real economic indicator — foreign direct investment (FDI) — that shows an appalling negative for the Philippines. From Indonesia Investments: "'Domestic and Foreign Direct Investment in Indonesia Grows Strong in Q1-2013' … US $9.58-B;" while for Philippine business news, it was "'FDI drops almost 50 percent to $576 million in January (2013)'… lower than the previous year level of $1.1 billion…"

According to Wikipedia, Indonesian electricity price (in US dollar terms) is $0.0875 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) while the Philippines is at $0.3046/kWh. Despite FDI being a real measure of a country's economic prospects, reflecting the assessment of foreign and local businesses (not the subjective views of governments) and despite the holding of elections in a week's time, the Philippines will still not see any improvement as no candidate of consequence has dared raise this issue of power rate-gouging. Hopefully, though, a few will go out on a limb and start taking up the matter as it is a life-or-death issue for the Philippine economy and for our children's prospects for a good, productive and happy future.

But frankly, I'm not optimistic. As Western powers desperate for war will stop at nothing to recapture their former glory, there is just nowhere to run. Thus, I'm preparing my mountain redoubt farm cum social laboratory, concentrating mainly on coconuts (which, after a long study, are a far superior economic investment to mangoes) cross-cropped with coffee, cacao, macadamia nuts and orange camote. It's a long-term project I can leave my grandchildren as a refuge in the really perilous decades ahead and a teaching laboratory for all to learn how to grow food and stay free and dignified in the looming Dark Age.

(Tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN Destiny Cable Channel 8, Saturday, 8:00 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m., on "Hopeless elections: Looking for revolution"; also visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)

Cheap power = Jobs, wage hike

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

5/1/2013

Daily Tribune

It is the Philippine labor movement's day today. It is once again an opportunity for our workers' unions and federations to make an impact with whatever demands from government or the rest of society they would wish to highlight.

In the statements we have read from this sector the past days, we have found reason to be hopeful. In the order of its major demands, the call for "cheaper electricity" is now on top of the labor movement's list, with "higher wages" coming in second. I believe this is the first ever May Day celebration that will see the ritual demand for an increase in the minimum wage come second to anything else — an indication of the severity of the electricity price gouging that has become the hallmark of the Philippine economy as well as an enlightened maturity of our laborers to discern the broader economic issue that affects the working class of the nation.

This new order of priorities had been in the works since the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines and other major labor federations issued demands on BS Aquino III to personally step into the electricity overpricing crisis. The other major group, led by Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), which also issued a similar call for this year's Labor Day, has put the issue ahead of all others. Its chairman, Elmer Labog, declared that "High power and water rates, the flood of imported products, high taxes and government corruption… make doing business in the country difficult" before taking the BS Aquino government to task as the latter "refuses to address these issues and merely keeps on pressing down workers' wages." As a citizen and social journalist-activist relying on our small family enterprise to earn a daily bread for my advocacy and family, I appreciate the line expressed by KMU.

BS Aquino III did step out alright but on the wrong side of the fence, chastising those who press for the lowering of power rates while weighing his presidential authority on the side of the decade-and-a-half-old global corporatist energy and electricity industry privatization scam. Remember the gigantic swindle that was the Enron debacle in California that got transplanted to the Philippines with unequalled success compared to other Third World countries? That resulted in the "highest power rate in Asia," causing the country to be at the tail-end of foreign direct investments in the region, in stark contrast to the bonanza in the energy sector. Today, foreign power companies and local oligarchs are sharpening their knives yet again to feast on Mindanao's energy woes — much like how they feasted on Luzon and Visayas in the past decade — this, after BS Aquino blackballed and blackmailed Mindanaoans with massive blackouts.

To reinvigorate the Philippine labor movement, labor leaders must begin to harness the people's anger over the exorbitant electricity price into a popular and highly charged issue for the nation as all sectors of society are suffering. From the largest companies to the smallest sari-sari store (or at least, the few that still exist), the burden of high electricity cost is universal. In fact, the true driver of the Philippine economy, the small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) that provide up to 98 percent of the total jobs in the country, are reeling from high power costs. The health of ordinary citizens is being adversely affected by the high power cost as well, especially that of senior citizens, who would have to bear the scorching heat of summer as air-conditioning becomes a luxury too costly to afford. With all these insights, the labor movement will surely find renewed enthusiastic support from the people —something it had lost in the past.

While today 97 million Filipinos and their economy suffer exorbitant power costs, power companies enjoy yearly profit bonanzas. For the first quarter of 2013, the dominant player in the power sector, had 20 percent higher profits than last year without any significant increase in its customer base. In fact, this company had been piling up annual profit increases of up to 90 percent per annum since the 2001 Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) and the 2005 PBR (Performance Base Regulation) scheme of the Energy Regulatory Commission made the power business better than any pyramid scam around.

As Jojo Borja, a major stockholder of Iligan Light and Power, would repeatedly stress, "With Epira, power companies earned in six months what used to take them a year; with PBR added, it's down to three months to earn what used to take a year." Thus, poverty rates have worsened over the decade as the people's purchasing power has been sucked dry by exorbitant power rates. The SMEs have always gotten the short end of the stick in the minimum wage issue; the conglomerates, on the other hand, are hardly affected as their employees are largely above minimum wage levels already.

Labor leaders should know the kind of distortions that new minimum wage orders cause the SMEs, which have always teetered at the edge of survival with the onslaught of high power rates, as well as the other operating costs and demands of labor groups, i.e. trade dumping, high water costs, taxes, corruption, high financing costs, indiscriminate senior discounts, etc. Across-the-board minimum wage hikes will be realistic only after other economic inputs for SMEs are rationalized and balanced.

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