DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/14/2011
Fidel V. Ramos speaks with a twisted tongue and heart; he would make the weak brave and heroic, and the self-sacrificing and courageous a villain. FVR is twisting certain quarters’ perception of events by hurling aspersions on those pursuing the truth in the Senate hearings on widespread corruption in the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines).
Some RAM (Reform the Armed Forces Movement) veterans, such as Col. Proceso Maligalig, even fault underclassman Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV for the suicide of Angelo Reyes, claiming that the senator’s alleged “shaming” of the late general did him in. But shouldn’t Reyes have spilled all the beans earlier to spare himself of any and all shame?
Why such crap coming from them? Are they fearful that their past relations to these “pabaon,” “pasalubong,” and “conversion” practices may be uncovered, as some retired officers credit this top Yellow general for the introduction of this corrupt system?
My previous column placed the onus of the systemic corruption within Philippine society and the AFP on both the ruling class and the principal foreign power. Through their financial, monetary, foreign, media and political policies, they set the parameters for this country’s governance and shape society in their perverted image.
Hence, an extreme concentration of wealth in the hands of a few powerful families (or oligarchs) tied to the foreign power’s coattails continues. Together, they systematically impoverish the nation by, first of all, ensuring that government institutions give out ridiculously low salaries to mendicant officials who will be perpetually addicted to graft and corruption as an “unofficial” means of attaining a modicum of fine living.
Because of this, officials from every branch of government have rackets to augment their ridiculously low incomes. Supreme Court justices, for example, are accused of raiding the Judiciary Development Fund (much like a former Chief Justice) or selling case decisions (often involving land disputes); while Comelec syndicates abound; and the Department of Budget and Management releases funds only after percentages are deducted, ad nausea.
The inquiries are best laid bare before the public than shoved back to the “Old Boys’ Club,” where that top Yellow general is said to be a major enabler. As a decorated AFP man and West Point grad, this noted trapo is credited with the issuance of “envelopes” during his days as a general while making camp visits and the proliferation of jueteng when he was still chief of the Philippine Constabulary.
The solons definitely knew about the pabaons long before, which we wrote about as early as 2005. Why then did it have to take a Heidi Mendoza, George Rabusa or Antonio Lim to be prodded by Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Trillanes to force the issue out?
Perhaps the silence and now apparent turnaround of some wimpy legislators in the conduct of these public investigations is that many of them are no different from these tainted AFP generals. After all, don’t most of them benefit from “pork barrel,” lobby money, as well as cash-for-privilege speeches cum exposés, and the like?
Those who can’t take the heat can kill themselves, but the truth must out. The overwhelming popular demand is for more open hearings, as the nation now has a rare, historic opportunity to flush out all the shame and to turn over a new leaf.
This popular sentiment is all over and here are parts of an e-mail circulating today that reads “Launch Non-Stop Campaign Against Corruption, Shame The Corrupt, Redeem Our Land,” by Mila D. Aguilar (http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=501011960917&id=588112853):
“I am a jobless widow about to reach 62 years of age, and have nothing to lose but my life… Today, I am hearing calls to ‘moderate’ the investigations, turn the public hearings into closed-door ‘executive sessions,’ and generally, to ‘respect’ the ‘institution’ that is the AFP. I am also getting messages on FB trying to show how hopeless the situation is in many variegated ways. I smell a rat, and the rat is human. It infests not only the AFP, but ALL government offices, almost without exception. It has its tentacles in the private sector. And we all know it. But most of us think the only thing we can do is to do our own little good thing. Or in fact, not do anything at all. This despite the fact that we have already been gifted by God with a Heidi Mendoza and a General Rabusa. Can’t we see a candle — two candles — when they’ve already been lighted?... So in the light of recent developments… let me propose the following:
1. Do not ever consent to stopping the public, open-door hearings on corruption in the AFP, even if on the grounds that these are generated by politicians out for vengeance. It does not matter who or why…
2. What matters about the public open-door hearings is that the guilty are brought to shame, and the not-so-guilty are made to reflect on their own guilt.
3. Public hearings are our only way… to bring our nation to righteousness, by showing all and sundry what distinguishes right from wrong…
4. With our courts in disarray, shame is our only weapon now against misfits, so let us bring them to shame. With no viable legal means left at our disposal... we are constrained to use our culture of hiya, and use it to the hilt.
5. Let us bring the corrupt to shame through (various means)… Let us use our pens wisely…
6. Go to the streets, light a candle, hoot a horn, show that you are against corruption…
7. And most of all… Pray that the guilty will repent, and if they do not… That they will be punished, here and in the hereafter. Pray that the millions will wake up to righteousness… (and) For a final, absolute end to corruption.
Our call is: Oy kurap, tumigil ka! Tama na, sobra na!...”
And with it, I add: Expose the oligarchs, too! That will surely flush out the rats from our system.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; TNT with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “The Roots of RP’s Systemic Corruption: The Oligarchy;” visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Monday, February 14, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
ERC Case No. 2008-092 CC
REITERATION OF MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION
IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION FOR REFUND OF RATES FOR RESIDENTIAL CONSUMERS IN THE AMOUNT OF PHP 39.00 BILLION FOR THE YEAR 2004-2007.
(For a higher resolution, click on the images.)
IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION FOR REFUND OF RATES FOR RESIDENTIAL CONSUMERS IN THE AMOUNT OF PHP 39.00 BILLION FOR THE YEAR 2004-2007.
(For a higher resolution, click on the images.)
Friday, February 11, 2011
The root of RP’s systemic corruption
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/11/2011
I checked the Chan Robles Internet law library and found Republic Act 9166 of June 2002 defining the lawful salary of a general of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), under “Section 2. Pay Schedule,” as: General, P30,000 (a month); Lieutenant General, P29,000; Major General, P28,000; Brigadier General, P27,000; and so on.
An AFP officer confirmed these figures’ continuing validity today. Thus, with a few extra compensation, such as combat pay, the total take would bring the general’s legal income to only about P50,000 a month. Given this, can any AFP general, commodore, or admiral expect to maintain a standard of living that befits a member of the top echelons of society?
That would be ridiculous to expect. Though some generals and navy brass do live on their meager incomes — which is why nothing irregular is heard of them — others find unseemly ways to attain what they believe they deserve.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) is another such case, where the directors generals’ and various superintendents’ official salaries will never be able to compete with those of Makati junior executives by any stretch. Hence, the necessity of underground activities such as jueteng becoming part of their regular unofficial payroll, from the national down to the local level.
Election upon election promises and threats of damnation from politicians and a long list of Catholic prelates alike have not stopped these jueteng operations from flourishing. Not even the much-vaunted Yellow saint Cory Aquino or her “heirs” have been able to put a lid on the wellspring of jueteng payola going to the PNP and the DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government).
Why? An insight into this can be gleaned from an encounter between a scion of the oligarchy and the anti-jueteng crusader, Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, where the former was said to have told the bishop to “go easy on jueteng.” My thesis is that the oligarchy consciously wants illicit money sources such as jueteng to thrive in order to contribute largely to the unofficial real income of police generals and government officials. Otherwise, these dogs may just bite their master’s hands if he has nothing to feed them.
A president of the Philippines today officially earns P95,000 a month, which wouldn’t amount to, say, the cost of a brand new Porsche over a six-year term. Although that is 65 percent higher than the immediate predecessor’s monthly pay of P57,750 a month (with the increase signed by the predecessor just before the end of her term), the fact is, it is still low. Since the President’s pay is Salary Grade 33 in the official government pay schedule, the highest in government, all the rest necessarily have to be below that — except for institutions with special pay scales such as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), where janitors can get as much as AFP generals.
Singapore’s Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, whose son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong gets $2.8 million today, once made a widely reported tongue-in-cheek comment about a Philippine president’s salary being among the lowest in the world. Even so, a Philippine president can still rake in amounts that rival the highest incomes in the world — but from under-the-table “proceeds.”
If one were to follow government corruption like a maze and work back to its starting point, one may well find this ridiculous government pay schedule as the root of it all. An AFP or PNP general, or even a Cabinet official, with just an official monthly salary that approximates the take home pay of a veteran call center agent doesn’t make sense.
So it has become a way of life among those in government to accept these unofficial incomes as a natural part of the job — as natural as MWSS personnel getting their 30-month bonuses from water concessionaires Manila Water and Maynilad, as if they aren’t supposed to regulate these firms; and as natural as the secretary of Finance cashing in on the CodeNGO deal with fat commissions! You see, it’s not only the generals.
The entire government pay scale is designed to institutionalize dependency on the unofficial, underground and illegal to augment our officials’ pauper-level pays. Whenever I suggest to politicians to do as Singapore does, I always find inexplicable their non-appreciation of the logic. Perhaps it’s because it takes away their excuse for continuously promoting the graft?
After all, the situation is perfect for those who want unlimited graft revenues, where oligarchs control the political leadership through all sorts of bribes or blackmail (as carried out by their media outlets), or even their influence over US-controlled anti-corruption watchdogs such as Transparency International.
Generals Garcia, Rabusa, Ligot, et al.; the PNP and DILG jueteng roster; and lest we forget, regulatory bodies like the Energy Regulatory Commission and the MWSS, ad infinitum, are all controlled by the oligarchy and its foreign partner, the US (the one that really exposed Garcia), through this system that’s designed for corruption.
Understandably, the AFP is flogging itself for the mire of corruption it is in. But to continue doing so, without probing deeper, will just be unfair to the institution. Our AFP men and women should start aiming their sights on the real culprits — the oligarchy and the structure of corruption it has institutionalized through its politicians and media. Such is the root of systemic corruption in this land!
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; TNT with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “The Roots of RP’s Systemic Corruption;” visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/11/2011
I checked the Chan Robles Internet law library and found Republic Act 9166 of June 2002 defining the lawful salary of a general of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), under “Section 2. Pay Schedule,” as: General, P30,000 (a month); Lieutenant General, P29,000; Major General, P28,000; Brigadier General, P27,000; and so on.
An AFP officer confirmed these figures’ continuing validity today. Thus, with a few extra compensation, such as combat pay, the total take would bring the general’s legal income to only about P50,000 a month. Given this, can any AFP general, commodore, or admiral expect to maintain a standard of living that befits a member of the top echelons of society?
That would be ridiculous to expect. Though some generals and navy brass do live on their meager incomes — which is why nothing irregular is heard of them — others find unseemly ways to attain what they believe they deserve.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) is another such case, where the directors generals’ and various superintendents’ official salaries will never be able to compete with those of Makati junior executives by any stretch. Hence, the necessity of underground activities such as jueteng becoming part of their regular unofficial payroll, from the national down to the local level.
Election upon election promises and threats of damnation from politicians and a long list of Catholic prelates alike have not stopped these jueteng operations from flourishing. Not even the much-vaunted Yellow saint Cory Aquino or her “heirs” have been able to put a lid on the wellspring of jueteng payola going to the PNP and the DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government).
Why? An insight into this can be gleaned from an encounter between a scion of the oligarchy and the anti-jueteng crusader, Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, where the former was said to have told the bishop to “go easy on jueteng.” My thesis is that the oligarchy consciously wants illicit money sources such as jueteng to thrive in order to contribute largely to the unofficial real income of police generals and government officials. Otherwise, these dogs may just bite their master’s hands if he has nothing to feed them.
A president of the Philippines today officially earns P95,000 a month, which wouldn’t amount to, say, the cost of a brand new Porsche over a six-year term. Although that is 65 percent higher than the immediate predecessor’s monthly pay of P57,750 a month (with the increase signed by the predecessor just before the end of her term), the fact is, it is still low. Since the President’s pay is Salary Grade 33 in the official government pay schedule, the highest in government, all the rest necessarily have to be below that — except for institutions with special pay scales such as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), where janitors can get as much as AFP generals.
Singapore’s Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, whose son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong gets $2.8 million today, once made a widely reported tongue-in-cheek comment about a Philippine president’s salary being among the lowest in the world. Even so, a Philippine president can still rake in amounts that rival the highest incomes in the world — but from under-the-table “proceeds.”
If one were to follow government corruption like a maze and work back to its starting point, one may well find this ridiculous government pay schedule as the root of it all. An AFP or PNP general, or even a Cabinet official, with just an official monthly salary that approximates the take home pay of a veteran call center agent doesn’t make sense.
So it has become a way of life among those in government to accept these unofficial incomes as a natural part of the job — as natural as MWSS personnel getting their 30-month bonuses from water concessionaires Manila Water and Maynilad, as if they aren’t supposed to regulate these firms; and as natural as the secretary of Finance cashing in on the CodeNGO deal with fat commissions! You see, it’s not only the generals.
The entire government pay scale is designed to institutionalize dependency on the unofficial, underground and illegal to augment our officials’ pauper-level pays. Whenever I suggest to politicians to do as Singapore does, I always find inexplicable their non-appreciation of the logic. Perhaps it’s because it takes away their excuse for continuously promoting the graft?
After all, the situation is perfect for those who want unlimited graft revenues, where oligarchs control the political leadership through all sorts of bribes or blackmail (as carried out by their media outlets), or even their influence over US-controlled anti-corruption watchdogs such as Transparency International.
Generals Garcia, Rabusa, Ligot, et al.; the PNP and DILG jueteng roster; and lest we forget, regulatory bodies like the Energy Regulatory Commission and the MWSS, ad infinitum, are all controlled by the oligarchy and its foreign partner, the US (the one that really exposed Garcia), through this system that’s designed for corruption.
Understandably, the AFP is flogging itself for the mire of corruption it is in. But to continue doing so, without probing deeper, will just be unfair to the institution. Our AFP men and women should start aiming their sights on the real culprits — the oligarchy and the structure of corruption it has institutionalized through its politicians and media. Such is the root of systemic corruption in this land!
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; TNT with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “The Roots of RP’s Systemic Corruption;” visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
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