Iligan: Cooked in own oil

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / November 4, 2013 / Daily Tribune

Iligan City's social media have raised a barrage against a columnist of a smaller Manila broadsheet who chastised them for opposing an Iligan City council's sale of two Build-Operate-Transfer power plants. These plants were turned over from the National Power Corp. — valued at almost P2.5 billion — and sold for only P300 million despite a higher bid of P500 million (with the balance turned into bonuses for awarding officials?).

The two power plants in question were originally owned by the same stockholders of the present receiving company. But worst for Iligan City is the renewed owners' claim that the plants' rehabilitation plus acquisition cost amounting to P1.318 billion should now form the new rate base. However, going by the estimate submitted by power plant manufacturer Wärtsilä to another bidder, the rehab cost should only be P36 million.

The first of these two power plants, by the way, was the first and only Independent Power Producer (IPP) contract for Mindanao signed by then President Cory Aquino two days before she turned over the reins of government to Fidel V. Ramos in 1992. It was a midnight deal signed by the "incorruptible" Cory favoring a longtime family friend (or crony, as others would say), the Alcantaras.

That was at a time when there were no power shortages in Mindanao except for a regular 15-year cycle of rain shortfall, which excuse was made for signing the unneeded power contract.

FVR, whose father Narciso Ramos worked for the same people, later even hurriedly awarded a second unnecessary IPP contract to the Alcantaras.
Iligan City, home of the famed Maria Cristina Falls and the giant Agus-Pulangi hydroelectric complex, had no power crisis in the 1990s. Even today, its shortfall is around only 10 megawatts; yet the plants that are to address it have a combined 100-MW capacity.

Power rates in Iligan City had always been the cheapest in Mindanao. Now, those rates will double due to the overpriced rehabilitated power plants.
Set up in 1992, the plants were hardly used — "broken-in" for 16,000 hours and subsequently operated for just 700 hours a year — literally brand new but sold for scrap. The buyer even got P60 million worth of oil in the plants' fuel tanks for free. Thus, Iligan City residents are really being cooked in their own oil.
So much for the "incorruptible" post-Marcos governments led by Cory Aquino: Her legacy of cronyism continues to this day as evidenced by the sale of Iligan City's IDPP-1 and IDPP-2.

The Save Iligan Movement, People Against Crime and Corruption (SIMPACC), through efforts of oppositor and intervenor Uriel Borja, has filed a fully documented complaint at the Ombudsman against officials of the Iligan City Council, including former mayor Lawrence Cruz and former Vice Mayor Henry Dy, as well as former councilors Chonilo Ruiz and Jose Zalsos, together with Tirso Santillan Jr., CEO of Conal Holdlings Corp. (which bought the two power plants for Iligan City). Also included among the respondents is the Commission on Audit (CoA), led by its chairman, Grace Pulido-Tan, and one of its commissioners, Heidi Mendoza.
The Ombudsman had ordered the respondents to submit their answers to the complaint, including a demand for the immediate suspension of the city council officials involved.

The Ombudsman's action naturally panicked Iligan City's council officials as well as the officers of the company, who must have instigated some of their paid media in Manila to begin their propaganda against the filing of the case. The columnist of a small Manila-based newspaper lambasted the concerned citizens for allegedly creating a situation in Iligan City akin to the damage inflicted of late by the Moro National Liberation Front.

Truthfully, while Zamboanga City may recover in time, Iligan City will suffer an unjust power rate base for decades on end if this "Con-al" deal isn't scrapped.
The Philippine government and the City of Iligan have lost billions upon billions from the series of "con" games played by various cronies of successive Yellow regimes of Cory Aquino, FVR, Gloria Arroyo, and now BS Aquino III. All these have been carried out in connivance with the corrupt political gofers at all levels of the endemically corrupt political system, including the incorrigibly partisan and politicized CoA to which BS Aquino III has personally appointed subservient minions.

The only hope left for the Republic is "citizens' action," as seen in the spirited struggle of Iligan City's residents, and for the rest of the nation to join in on the revolution.

(Tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch "Iligan City power struggle" on GNN Destiny Cable Channel 8, Skycable Channel 213, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m., also on www.gnntv-asia.com; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0923-4095739)

3 frauds and a drip

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / October 28, 2013 / Daily Tribune

One fraud poses as a top defender of the territory of the Philippine Republic. A second poses as an anti-corruption crusader vs the opportunistic pork barrel system. Another is a global bank that local economists and business newspapers tout as a paragon of business virtue, with its endorsements of local finance officials cited as proof of their merit.

We have long and frequently denounced these frauds for what they are but it is not easy to expose them given the control of Philippine mainstream media by bigger fraudsters. Real events in the real world, however, would sooner or later unmask them.

The first fraud sits atop the highest defense post of the land. Last September, this fraud staged a scene announcing that Philippine reconnaissance had spotted 75 concrete blocks laid by the People's Republic of China's (PRoC) in an alleged prelude to the construction of a new base in Bajo de Masinloc. This information was dished out repeatedly by another fraud, a retired Philippine naval officer and Annapolis graduate who went around talk shows to lambast the PRoC. The Inquirer carried the story for weeks. But last Oct. 25, Malaya's Ellen Tordesillas burst the fraudsters' story in her report, "AFP probers say US, not China, put concrete blocks in Bajo de Masinloc."

Tordesillas wrote, "A military investigation found that the concrete slabs were covered by algae, an indication that they had been in the area for many years. The probe also found that the blocks had been used by the US Navy as 'sinkers' to preserve the wreckage of old ships they used for target practice."
Was the error just incompetence or a deliberate lie to please some higher master (in the US) while pushing military purchases?

The Philippine defense establishment has become the laughing stock of the Asian and global military community again; yet embarrassment is the least of the cost of this blatant faux pas. The loss for this country of billions worth of good will and investment from China is simply incalculable.

The next fraud is this "crusader" against political "pork" who has just latched onto the "People's Initiative to end Pork" of former Chief Justice Reynato Puno, by including it in his "Epirma" signature campaign against pork, political dynasties, while pushing the Freedom of Information (FoI) bill. This fraudster is obviously trying to package all motherhood statements under his umbrella and we have discovered the reason. Our sources are persons whom this fraudster had tried to recruit; and they've told this writer that the "Epirma" initiator even boasted of getting contributions from the top honchos of two major conglomerates. I have no doubt about these firms' participation as the "crusade" has been a perfect distraction from the oligarchy's shenanigans.

The third fraud you may help identify: Last week one business newspaper headlined, "BSP earns HSBC praise for "astute management." But I have been aware of the many penalties US and European financial authorities have imposed on Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC), which the following headlines show: "HSBC Faces $2.46 billion Judgment in Securities Fraud Case..." (www.nytimes.com) and "HSBC to pay $1.9 billion US fine in money-laundering case" (Reuters). With so many crimes to its name, is HSBC a reputable endorser? What does this make of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) officials, i.e. Tetangco and Guinigundo, or of the business paper that uses HSBC as an authority on "management?"

But the biggest fraud of them all is a drip. The drip exposed more of his ineffectuality and weakness of character in a recent attempt to turnaround his deteriorating credibility and political stock. Faced with a crashing public image from the DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program) "pork" exposé, despite the yeoman's efforts of controlled popular survey outfits to boost the perception of trust and popularity, this drip accused a "conspiracy" behind the attacks on his DAP pork. But wasn't it the drip's henchman in the Department of Budget and Management who cooked up DAP and Cory Aquino and Yellow stalwart, former Sen. Joker Arroyo, who first charged the DAP as an illegal animal?

Will Fraud Number One, the defense official, atone for his sin and resign after the gargantuan faux pas on the "concrete blocks" he wrongly accused China of placing at Bajo de Masinloc? We don't believe he is capable of such a dignified act since he seems to be fully inured to shame, not by a hide as thick as pachyderms or crocodiles, but because of a pineapple face that any shame would approach with trepidation. Will Fraud Number Two get his funds for his "crusades?" He certainly will, with the useful distraction it will provide for the money masters. As for Fraudster Number Three, is it HSBC, BSP, the newspaper, or all of the above?

Fraudsters are the plague of this country; they are in all sectors and come in all forms. We've discussed only three of these frauds here but they're all over. Then, of course, there's this one drip that the fraudsters of this land, using the fraud of Philippine elections, installed to preside over the fraud of Philippine democracy and economy. When will it all ever end?

(Tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN Destiny Cable Channel 8, Skycable Channel 213, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m., also on www.gnntv-asia.com; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0923-4095739)

The Pirma and Epira

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / October 30, 2013 / Daily Tribune

I couldn't help it. Reminded of the countless past signature campaigns by the Pirma and Eprima and their "anti-pork signature campaign, this echoed in my mind: "Here we go again."

To be clear, Pirma and Epirma are not one and the same, the former is purist and revolves around former Chief Justice (CJ) Reynato Puno and the latter is the project of that "fraud" I wrote about in my previous column boasting of his solicitations from big business honchos for his own campaign. Also, there is no unity in either "Pirma" and "Epirma" ranks, both being divided by the question of holding the B.S. Aquino administration to account for its own gargantuan "pork" or not.

The core groups of both "Pirma" and "Epirma" are reportedly against naming the administration in the campaign and want only to focus on the "pork barrel 'system'"

and/or on those who have plunder cases filed against them, which in a political and propaganda sense would wittingly or unwittingly be useful in the Liberal Party administration's partisan propaganda and political agenda. More militant groups have split. The theory of both signature campaigns is that the removal of the "pork barrel system" will end or, at least, drastically eliminate corruption in government through cleansing of the legislature and make the "separation of powers" and the "checks-and-balance" work.

Their theory fails to take into account the fact that the real corruption is not just in the "pork barrel system" but in today's "monopoly-finance capitalist" system. The Web defines it, as I use it: "…the subordination of processes of production to the accumulation of money profits in a financial system. ..." Which is why unemployment, high prices and poverty/hunger, and oligarchy capture of government prevails here, in the US Europe and the World.
In the celebrated "The Great Financial Crisis (Causes and Consequences)" Fred Magdoff and John Bellamy Foster writes:

"At the center of the story is … monopoly-finance capital, that has generated a giant casino economy and promotes enormously exorbitant, exploitative and corrupt practices as well as violence abroad — all geared to finding and protecting profitable ways to invest the corporate capital surplus. Meanwhile, the real, pressing needs of most people in the society go unaddressed. The…way out of trap, … is the promotion of the security of the working class, and democratizing ownership of productive property —
Satan is not the politicians; it's the global finance-capitalists mafia. The politicians are but acolytes. The global mafia has local enforcers in the BSP, the Department of Finance and the local "bankster" capo-di-tutti-capos.

Their crowning achievement here is: the privatization of public utilities that is now milked for profits and not operated for the promotion of production of cheaper goods and services for democratic betterment. While the "Pirma" figurehead, former CJ Puno may have a clear understanding of that "democratic betterment" as in his term as Supreme Court (SC) chief justice, But there are numerous negative factors, such as being the "ponente" (writer of the verdict) of the "constructive resignation" that deposed a live, healthy, elected president of the Philippine republic — a decision few among legal luminaries can justify in the post-Gloria Arroyo era.

For the most dedicated Filipino legal scholars such as lawyer Alan Paguia, this "constructive resignation" is the height of constitutional transgression for a SC justice. Paguia also disdains Puno's known socializing with US Embassy officials such as former ambassador Kristy Kenney, playing regular tennis while with the SC. Puno also accepted a directorship in San Miguel Corp.

Former CJ Puno was sponsored by Jimmie Regalario of the KME (Kilusang Makabansang Ekonomiya) as the alternative leader in the post Gloria Arroyo scene in case the 1997 Manila Peninsula "people power" attempt succeeded. Elements of the Catholic Church supported that. But what's this fetish with the "superman," that we have to look for one "savior," as if historic events, shifts and changes are ever due to one, single person. All great changes, revolutions, are products of collective passion and efforts based on "the idea." That "idea" is what all post-Marcos changes lacked. The "transition" talk should first raise the idea of what should come after a change and during the "transition."

I propose that: the transition leadership be a State Council and chairmanship rotational (like Malaysia's sultans), major stakeholders are represented — the Catholic Church to militant Left, Philippine Chamber of Commerce to farmers' groups, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, etc. to secure their concerns. There must be a consensus for: cutting the price of power and re-nationalizing it.

The social morale will rise, the economy will revive, the oligarchy's power shall be tamed, "captive government" and politics can be sovereign again.

(Tune to 1098AM, 5 p.m to 6 p.m., Tuesday to Friday; Saturday 8 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m. — Destiny Cable, GNN Channel 8, Skycable channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com — "Thorium Nuclear Power"; visit: http//www.newkatipunero.blogspot.com; text comments to 0923-4095739)

Nukes, MRT/LRT, Kadhafi

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / October 23, 2013 / Daily Tribune

The mainstream media are still channeling along the anti-pork, anti-opposition and distract-from-BS Aquino failures line. Vital national and global issues are being bypassed. There are other issues that cry for attention: First, BS Aquino's P50 million to restore the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) which will be a waste if the obsolete uranium-reactor mindset persists while the 21st century option of Thorium is swept by the wayside. Secondly, the best priced option for new Metro Rail Transit (MRT) coaches is being threatened by the Aquino-Rychtar cabal while the 21-km Light Rail Transit (LRT)-1 to Cavite is being given exorbitant subsidies for the corporate oligarchy. Thirdly, a day of reckoning for those who condemned and killed Kadhafi is again at hand.

The BNPP revival was basically from a local ideological group with antiquated nuclear ideas and the uranium nuke lobby. Uranium nuke will lead the nation into a second bitter energy debacle. The uranium-nuclear option is a dead option, there will be "a next Fukushima" (est. ten-year clean-up cost: $ 250-billion) sooner or later, as there was Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. Uranium-nuclear technology is simply inherently "dirty" and strategically suicidal, its pressurized systems prone of explode, Labyrinthian cooling systems tend to failure, radioactive wastes a threat literally forever and permanently costs billions to store. Thorium has none of these problems.

This is not to support the anti-nuke position which is anti-Third World and pro-financial "cap-and-trade" energy lobby. Neither is it against renewable energy but we do demand renewables costs to be lowered before they are imposed. Like China and India's nuclear scientists and our own Dr. Roger Posadas, I am advocating the leap-frog into Thorium nuclear energy. As Dr. Posadas explains: the Philippines has known Thorium deposits (such as Palawan monazites), its low risk level require technology within Filipino technological and engineering capabilities (we can do it ourselves), it has no by-product that is easily used in nuclear weapons and minimal wastes.

China and India are going into Thorium in very big ways, the former devoting $350 million into its development and the latter is already running a experimental thorium reactor (watch my show Saturday 8 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m. on Destiny Cable, GNN Channel 8 and SkyCable channel 213, or www.gnntv-asia.com with Dr. Roger Posadas, with video of India Thorium operation).

Last June, 2013 Norway successfully converted a uranium-power plant to use thorium. Chile and Indonesia are also in the process of converting their uranium-fuel plants to test Thorium. The Philippines needs a popular Thorium campaign to educate solons and the public on this fuel of today into the future.

On the MRT-3 "capacity expansion project" which is now post-qualifying the winning bid of $1.8 million/coach, the MRT-3 technical team is currently in China evaluating Dalian Locomotive. Since 1954 the company has supplied the world's largest train network, China. The Czech's Inekon wants $3 million/coach and did not join the bidding. Instead, it wants a "government-to-government" deal. The Czech company and embassy are raising a ruckus over alleged "corruption" of MRT-3 executives when it is clear the Czechs have been cultivating its "special relationship" with Aquino related personalities like Psinakis, Aquino-Lichauco, Ballsy Aquino and Eldon Cruz.

On the LRT-1 bidding, the public should read the Department of Transportation and Communications secretary's announcement on the terms it is giving to the corporate oligarchs-bidders: "…the government's absorption of the real property tax; protection of the concessionaire against "radical power rates changes" (why can't residential consumer get same); a "negative bid" or subsidy for the bidders (but they accuse commuters of being pampered with "subsidies"); government will assume the responsibility of rehabilitating LRT-1 in case structural defects arise. If they are getting all these subsidies, guarantees and perks, why doesn't government do the LRT project by itself?

Finally, to the many mainstream media personalities who supported by parroting the US-British-North Atlantic Treaty Organization justification for the "no fly zone" against Gaddafi, the bombing and genocide of his people for "democracy": in this second anniversary of Gaddafi and his family members' murders, let us look at the "democracy" the killers promised. Even British Reuter's had to report Oct. 10 that "Libyan gunmen on the government payroll seized the prime minister in his nightshirt on Thursday and held him for several hours, in a new manifestation of the anarchy that has followed the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi." Libya's oil cannot be exported with anarchy reining supreme.

If lashes could be given for every failed opinion of the "human rights" chatterboxes who supported Western interventions in Third World countries, those self-righteous do-gooders should be bleeding to death by now.

(Tune to 1098AM, 5 to 6 p.m., Tues. to Fri.; "The Thorium Future" on Destiny Cable, GNN Channel 8, Skycable Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday 8 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m.; visit: http//www.newkatipunero.blogspot.com; text comments to 0923-4095739)

BSP squanders reserves

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / October 21, 2013 / Daily Tribune

In the midst of the US debt ceiling impasse and the losses it could inflict on the Philippines' GIR (Gross International Reserves) last week, in the report "Top economist chides Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for keeping too much GIR" The Tribune writer cited former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno's criticism of the BSP holding on to the equivalent to a year's imports and four times the internationally required level of foreign currency reserves the majority of which are in US dollars. One devastating cost is a crash of the dollar if and when a US default occurs. A few days later the BSP's Governor Tetangco and, separately, deputy governor Diwa Gunigundo skirted the implications of Diokno's comment on the GIR in the midst of the crisis.

Diokno's comment reminded me of my previous Tribune articles on the issue. One is my Sept.5, 2012 column "RP: Moody's 'walking debt?'" where I stated that Moody's and other rating's agencies' upgrade of the Philippines is just an enticement for the country and its people to take in more debt when the Philippines is awash in reserves with its $ 83-billion GIR — which in my reckoning is three times more than what the country is required to keep to cover three months imports. The interest on this dollar holding is much lower than the interest on the country's foreign debt and we argued that the huge GIR surplus should immediately be used to pay off the country's foreign debt of $63 billion.

Another article I wrote in early 2011 on BSP mismanagement of RP financial resources, I retrieved from the "Asia Finest Discussion Forum" site entitled "RP wasting $ 30-billion fund." It was prefaced by the site, "The Philippine political leadership and its Financial managers especially those in the BSP better flex their political muscle and show some sovereign testicles instead of being beholden to the Foreign Financial controlling interests led by the Dark cabals." That article I wrote focused on the wasted SDA (Special Deposit Account) that is now about P 1.7 trillion despite BSP reducing interest rates paid on it - from four percent in previous years down to today's 1 percent. In the discussion I touched on the GIR and a comment of former Neda chief Romulo Neri:

"… former Neda Chief Romulo Neri was of the opinion that our dollar reserves of $ 65 billion (2011) is substantially above what the IMF (International Monetary Fund)…. Neri …. believe(s) that 'we can, if we wish to, use perfectly legal means to liberate half of the fund ($30 billion) to jump-start a number of badly needed initiatives…" Neri added that these "… funds outsourced to external managers and invested in longer-dated maturity securities, … The BSP's external fund management program started in 1997 (FVR's time), when a portion of the gross international reserves was invested in long-term instruments. The BSP currently has 10 external fund managers including JP Morgan Chase." These external fund managers do not extend this services for free, of course.

Former Budget Secretary Diokno's comment on the wasteful BSP policy of excessive levels of GIR is actually years behind this columnist and others in raising the questions about the management of the GIR; but better late than never. However, Diokno's timing is good. The US dollar's current crisis highlights the issue for all to ponder and to come up with a responsive new policy. Why are we risking the collapse of about half of the $83-billion GIR if and when the US dollar crashes? Shouldn't the country use this amount to pay of the external debt ASAP? Why are the BSP bosses, Tetangco and Gunigundo insisting otherwise? Are "external fund managers" enjoying "financial pork" with local cohorts?

The questions raised on the BSP's policy on the high level of GIR involves up to P4 trillion of the country's funds and reserves. In interest cost alone it involves hundreds of billions. It involves the major drag on the Philippines' financial independence and economic development — the unnecessary foreign debt the country is carrying. It involves the risk of tens of billions of dollars in reserves that could lose half its value in the course of the US financial crisis. Compared to these issues the current and raging "pork barrel" controversy involves a paltry sum of only tens of billions of pesos, why have the media, the "sow-lons," PeNoy and the public devoted two manic months on the pork barrel controversy and almost nil on the GIR waste and other BSP funds issues?

Is there anyone left in this country, in the legislature or media or public not overwrought with the "pork barrel" scandal that can devote time to asking questions and delving into these BSP issues? The largest plunder is being conducted in the government's financial management sector with the "banksters" of Wall Street and the local financial mafia.

(Tune to 1098AM, 5 to 6 p.m., Tuesday to Friday; Destiny Cable, GNN Channel 8, Skycable channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday 8 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m.; visit: http//www.newkatipunero.blogspot.com; text comments to 0923-4095739)

Aquino-Rychtar-Abaya scheme

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / October 16, 2013 / Daily Tribune

Our commuting public, including this writer, owes Metro Rail Transit (MRT) general manager Al Vitangcol a debt of gratitude. Vitangcol did the study and recommendation that became the basis for the bids and awards committee (BAC) to set the optimum price of a little over $1.8-milion/coach.

Czech company Inekon, which triggered the allegations of $30-million "kickback" demands by certain Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) officials, proposed as far back as 2012 $3.3-million per coach. It is the Czech company that painstakingly networked with relations of the Aquino family, employing Steve Psinakis' nephew Yorgis Psinakis as agent, linking with Ballsy et al through presidential cousin Jorge Aquino-Lichauco and working the DoTC through Rene Limcaoco, brother of Cory Aquino gofer Dodi, among others we name in next columns.

The difference in price of what is now the lowest bid in the MRT3 supply of coaches contract at P1.8 million and below the recommended optimum bid price and the final offer of the Czech company of $3.05 million is between 47 coaches against 25 coaches. It is easy to imagine how much more room and comfort our daily MRT3 commuters including me, and my sons who commute to Makati and to La Salle Taft, will enjoy with 47 more coaches against 25 more.

It is clear now that Czech Ambassador Rychtar created the ruckus to sow confusion aiming to abort the best plans of dedicated DoTC officials like first-time government executive Vitangcol who is being made a villain and a fall guy instead of the ideal public servant that he has tried to be.

Al Vitangcol was recruited by former DoTC Secretary Mar Roxas from the private sector, but Liberal Party honchos higher than Mar Roxas (who could be higher?) had other plans for the DoTC. In came Liberal Party stalwart Joseph Emilio Abaya who's not been shy to tell friends that the DoTC is his stepping stone to the Senate in 2016 and then the presidency beyond 2020, hence he had also brought in cronies from the Philippine Science High School and entrenched vested interests with conflict-of-interest within the DoTC such as Manolo Maralit, Wilson de Vera, Marlo de la Cruz (this links to Korina Sanchez and Mar), Dan Palami and Allan Dilay (now GM of PNR) who are all connected with MRT3 maintenance contractors PH Trams and Global APT; and more on these people next issues.

Other than the P 1.8-million recommendation for the optimum price of new MRT3 coaches, Vitangcol radically improved operations: maintenance fee reduced from P1.4-billion per year to P700 million; Insurance cover from reduced from P200 million per year to P96 million; fare box collection increased from 3 to 4 million per day in 2010 to 6 to 7 million in 2012. Averaging the fare box collection to P6.6-million per day, times 365 days a year the total revenues would be P2.34-billion per annum. Take that and less maintenance and insurance cost the MRT3 would still be left with P 1.58 billion. How can the MRT3 be losing money? The truth is, the MRT3 is profiting handsomely and all is paid to the Equity Rental Payments.

MRT3 general manager Vitangcol has been "requested" by the DoTC secretary to go on "indefinite leave" from his post. While Vitangcol had willingly acceded to one or two previous requests to go on leave to clear the air and pending investigations, we are told by our sources that this time Vitangcol has directed the DoTC request to a lawyer. Apparently, this last request for Vitangcol to go on leave is to ease him out permanently, but that's not going to happen without the DoTC mafia of Abaya being the ones to get the ax from the public. We have been shown the paper trail of the Czech company Inekon, the formal communications and instructions from Psinakis, Limcaoco, through Lichauco, to DoTC officials and the trail leads back to the Aquinos, Inekon, Abaya and cabal.

The DoTC and Inekon are now obfuscating the issue using the Yellow controlled or influenced mainstream media newspapers and broadcasters have either never aired the information they have presented or the interviews they have given, and the two major newspapers have even twisted the information they have provided to implicate the "whistleblower" instead. The Tribune, some Internet bloggers and independent columnists have been the sources' reliable avenues to bring the truth about the DoTC-MRT3 scandal to light. At this point this writer believes the DoTC, Inekon and the Malacañang relations' objective is to create confusion, try to bury Vitangcol into obscurity and attempt to disqualify the winning bidder with the $1.8 billion/coach price to supplant this with Inekon's $3.0 million/coach.

(Tune to 1098AM, 5 to 6 p.m., Tuesday to Friday; Destiny Cable, GNN Channel 8 and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday 8 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m. "Gaddafi's Struggle: Lessons for R.P."; visit: http//www.newkatipunero.blogspot.com; text comments to 0923-4095739)