DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/9/2012
The other spat that managed to outdo the “Whaa!” vs “Hear no Miriam” brouhaha in the Senate last week was the exchange between Manny Pangilinan (MVP) and Gina Lopez at a forum organized by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI). That event at a plush hotel, clearly organized to push the corporate mining agenda, was where Lopez, as a self-appointed representative of the anti-large scale mining sector, made her point that such an approach destroys the beauty of nature. Opposite to that was MVP’s counter-argument, which said that since areas where large scale mining will be conducted are not tourist spots anyway, the most important thing to keep in mind is that “Mining is not the enemy, (but) poverty is.”
MVP and those lining up behind his arguments are obviously selling the idea that giant corporate mining will solve poverty in the Philippines. But, in the hundred-year history of large scale mining in the Philippines, has poverty decreased?
John Moldero was OIC Governor of Benguet in the immediate post-Edsa I government. Son of an American haciendero married to a native, John grew up very close to the locals of the Mountain Province. As founder of the globally famous Hobbit House, a regular habitué to many expats and a feature in Western films, which put the country on the world tourism map, John is also known for his unique contribution to Philippine hospitality and entertainment.
In the 2004 elections, John joined the campaign for FPJ. Tragically, he didn’t get to finish it. While driving on his scooter down Commonwealth Ave. to organize political marchers toward a rally, he was sideswiped by a delivery van and expired just minutes after being brought to a small nearby hospital.
John often waxed nostalgic when the subject of the Mountain Province arose and whenever the topic shifted to the issue of large vs small scale mining, he would leave us with this narrative:
“I grew up playing with the children of miners of the Mountain Province. There is a basic difference between the mining in Benguet and in Kalinga. The big mining companies of Benguet, such as the world-renowned Philex, employed thousands of miners and attracted foreign investors (even Mafia figures such as Meyer Lanky), leading Fortune magazine to report it as the “crown jewel” of the Mafioso’s holdings; but the miners remained as miners all their lives, as well as the generations of their children and grandchildren that followed. The difference in Kalinga is that mainly small mining took place there and the extraction of the rich lodes was gradual and sustainable, while mining families used much of their earnings for the education of their children. The second and third generations of Kalinga mining families are now doctors and lawyers, professionals produced by the small mining endeavors of these natives.”
Here lies the real argument against large-scale mining: Who benefits and how sustainable it really is.
Large scale miners promise to set up facilities, tailings ponds (really the size of giant lakes), and dams to contain poisonous and disastrous deluvial tailings for 20 years of mining operations. But what really begs to be asked is since they are expecting to exhaust the riches of those mines, taking all the wealth in a period short of a generation, what will be left for the people’s children and grandchildren?
All the benefits will simply accrue to a handful of foreign corporate interests, whereas the mining sites and communities will be left with only the ever present danger of a deluge of poisonous and utterly damaging flash floods of tailings that render hundreds, if not millions, of hectares (as in the Tampakan mines) uninhabitable for centuries.
So why are MVP and his cohorts (such as Peter Wallace) in such a hurry? Why are government mining officials so excited to pass laws and regulations that will allow this? Why should the nation accept a mere five, seven, or even 10 percent tax, plus some other short change, when such wealth should be 100 percent for the nation?
Besides that, we should ask: How bad can tailings disasters become? To date, there are 92 mine tailings disasters from all over the world significant enough to be listed on Internet sources. One of the worst is the Stava Valley disaster on July 19, 1985, an industrial catastrophe that cost 268 lives and 133 million euros in damage. Poisonous mud spread over 4.2 square kilometers, as aerial photos showed the horrendous extent of its permanent, irremediable damage.
The Foundation Stava 1985 was created in order to make sure that the innocent lives lost on that fateful day would not be in vain and that the world remembers the dangers and folly of gigantic scale mining.
The Philippines has its own Marcopper mine disaster in Boac, Marinduque, too, where 1.5 million cubic meters of toxic mine tailings spilled into five villages and buried Barangay Hinapula under six feet of muddy floodwaters, with residents poisoned with zinc and copper beyond tolerable limits.
Marcopper is estimated to have reaped a net profit of $7.3 billion from mining 30,000 tons of copper ore a day, but Marinduque still has a 71.9-percent poverty incidence and registered as the 14th poorest province in the country as of 2006.
While the corporate mining giant’s foreign mother companies have reaped billions, the country was left with thousands of hectares of poisoned lands that must rely on public resources (if any) to clean these up.
We do not have space enough to describe the horrors and economic injustice that large scale mining companies (that laugh all the way to their transnational banks) inflict on communities and nations while leaving a trail of disaster for the public to pick up in perpetuity.
So the problem is not poverty as poverty is not a cause but an effect--an effect of the greed, corrupting power, and avaricious machinations of oligarchs who want to devour and monopolize the wealth of nations.
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “A Tribute to Horacio ‘Boy’ Morales: A People’s Man;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Friday, March 9, 2012
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Obscenities at Edsa
BACKBENCHER
Rod P. Kapunan
3/3-4/2012
The most unusual thing that transpired in that latest circus of politicians who still entertain the thought of cashing in on that swindle was the presence of deposed President Joseph “Erap” Estrada. Many believe he has completely lost his sense of political history, forgetting he was a victim of Edsa not only once, but twice! In Edsa I, he was removed as mayor of San Juan, and his mandate was not at all respected by the new overlords. As he narrated, it was then Major Panfilo “Ping” Lacson who told him to vacate, if not they will be forced to drag him out.
He tried to put up an indignation rally for the shabby treatment he got. He joined the march of that maligned “holdouts” of Marcos loyalists. Estrada, together with his followers, were savagely beaten up for defying the order not to march by the government that just proclaimed to the Filipino people their liberation from the “dictatorship.” It was his defiance to be on the side of the underdog that made a destiny out of a municipal mayor. The people — not only of San Juan — loved him for that. Instantly he became a national figure.
Nobody then dared to be identified as a Marcos loyalist because they thought it would amount to committing political hara-kiri. Charismatic Estrada, after losing his post, then started to aim for a higher political office, although people could sense he avoided being identified as a Marcos loyalist. Nothing was wrong with that for in fact people admired him for trying to build his own identity and political mass base over that simmering discontent of people who realized that Edsa was all but a political swindle.
Estrada then began his “long march” to define his political history. In 1987, he ran for senator under the hastily organized Grand Alliance for Democracy, and only he and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile won. It was his election as senator that firmed up his ambition of wanting to become President, but clever enough, refusing to be identified as a loyalist, although the Marcoses were openly campaigning for him. In 1992, he ran for vice president with business tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, Jr. as his presidential candidate. He won with a sizeable number of votes, but his presidential running mate failing to make it despite the all-out support from their traditional bailiwick, Iglesia ni Cristo.
Estrada had no reason to fear the yellow horde despite being treated like political lepers. The overwhelming votes he obtained when he ran for vice president were more than enough to convey the ominous message that he would be the next President. It was from that grim prospect of the Yellow Era about to come to an abrupt end with a closeted Marcos loyalists wresting power that the conspiracy of hatching another Edsa came about.
One of the notorious plotters that engineered his ouster was there. It was Ramos, who even scolded him publicly when he was President, who worked out that hideous strategy; that should they fail in dissuading the people to vote for him, they could well proceed to discredit him by fabricating charges of corruption, incompetence, and for wallowing deep in vices. Once the black propaganda reached their saturation point, the people would have no choice but to go along with the idea of kicking out the President they overwhelmingly elected.
Indeed, another of that dark chapter in our political history came, and it focused on how the President elected by more than 50 percent of the voters was unceremoniously removed from office. The hypocrites succeeded, but not without seeing Estrada’s followers going berserk. Had it not for the now jailed political hijacker’s determination to hold on to power, the May 1 bloody rampage could have evolved to one of widespread riots. Yes, he was jailed and convicted by a Kangaroo Court, but people did not mind that. He remained popular because he represented their galvanized sentiment, thinking he had that unwavering principle worthy of their blind adulation.
Maybe a man could lose everything, but not his honor. When he too loses that, then we could readily conclude he has become a real goner. Many regretted seeing him making that chikahan at people instrumental for his ouster. There are many things Estrada could do to ingratiate himself with the present regime, but of all things he could have excused his presence for that would imply he has been reduced to a mindless sycophant. His presence was not only an insult to himself, but an exposition that indeed he has lost his sense of political history. He made a trash of his own record at a time when he is about to pull down the curtain to his erstwhile colorful political career.
It was not only a case of him forgetting the people who sacrificed for him, but of distorting Edsa itself. Everybody knew he was not there when the first political swindle happened. But when he showed up in that last celebration, he completely distorted history all for his desire to be included as a party that threw filth at the Filipino people. He cannot term is presence a mere chika-chika, but a betrayal of himself, and an ultimate act of political self-destruction.
Rod P. Kapunan
3/3-4/2012
The most unusual thing that transpired in that latest circus of politicians who still entertain the thought of cashing in on that swindle was the presence of deposed President Joseph “Erap” Estrada. Many believe he has completely lost his sense of political history, forgetting he was a victim of Edsa not only once, but twice! In Edsa I, he was removed as mayor of San Juan, and his mandate was not at all respected by the new overlords. As he narrated, it was then Major Panfilo “Ping” Lacson who told him to vacate, if not they will be forced to drag him out.
He tried to put up an indignation rally for the shabby treatment he got. He joined the march of that maligned “holdouts” of Marcos loyalists. Estrada, together with his followers, were savagely beaten up for defying the order not to march by the government that just proclaimed to the Filipino people their liberation from the “dictatorship.” It was his defiance to be on the side of the underdog that made a destiny out of a municipal mayor. The people — not only of San Juan — loved him for that. Instantly he became a national figure.
Nobody then dared to be identified as a Marcos loyalist because they thought it would amount to committing political hara-kiri. Charismatic Estrada, after losing his post, then started to aim for a higher political office, although people could sense he avoided being identified as a Marcos loyalist. Nothing was wrong with that for in fact people admired him for trying to build his own identity and political mass base over that simmering discontent of people who realized that Edsa was all but a political swindle.
Estrada then began his “long march” to define his political history. In 1987, he ran for senator under the hastily organized Grand Alliance for Democracy, and only he and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile won. It was his election as senator that firmed up his ambition of wanting to become President, but clever enough, refusing to be identified as a loyalist, although the Marcoses were openly campaigning for him. In 1992, he ran for vice president with business tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, Jr. as his presidential candidate. He won with a sizeable number of votes, but his presidential running mate failing to make it despite the all-out support from their traditional bailiwick, Iglesia ni Cristo.
Estrada had no reason to fear the yellow horde despite being treated like political lepers. The overwhelming votes he obtained when he ran for vice president were more than enough to convey the ominous message that he would be the next President. It was from that grim prospect of the Yellow Era about to come to an abrupt end with a closeted Marcos loyalists wresting power that the conspiracy of hatching another Edsa came about.
One of the notorious plotters that engineered his ouster was there. It was Ramos, who even scolded him publicly when he was President, who worked out that hideous strategy; that should they fail in dissuading the people to vote for him, they could well proceed to discredit him by fabricating charges of corruption, incompetence, and for wallowing deep in vices. Once the black propaganda reached their saturation point, the people would have no choice but to go along with the idea of kicking out the President they overwhelmingly elected.
Indeed, another of that dark chapter in our political history came, and it focused on how the President elected by more than 50 percent of the voters was unceremoniously removed from office. The hypocrites succeeded, but not without seeing Estrada’s followers going berserk. Had it not for the now jailed political hijacker’s determination to hold on to power, the May 1 bloody rampage could have evolved to one of widespread riots. Yes, he was jailed and convicted by a Kangaroo Court, but people did not mind that. He remained popular because he represented their galvanized sentiment, thinking he had that unwavering principle worthy of their blind adulation.
Maybe a man could lose everything, but not his honor. When he too loses that, then we could readily conclude he has become a real goner. Many regretted seeing him making that chikahan at people instrumental for his ouster. There are many things Estrada could do to ingratiate himself with the present regime, but of all things he could have excused his presence for that would imply he has been reduced to a mindless sycophant. His presence was not only an insult to himself, but an exposition that indeed he has lost his sense of political history. He made a trash of his own record at a time when he is about to pull down the curtain to his erstwhile colorful political career.
It was not only a case of him forgetting the people who sacrificed for him, but of distorting Edsa itself. Everybody knew he was not there when the first political swindle happened. But when he showed up in that last celebration, he completely distorted history all for his desire to be included as a party that threw filth at the Filipino people. He cannot term is presence a mere chika-chika, but a betrayal of himself, and an ultimate act of political self-destruction.
Friday, March 2, 2012
RP’s $500M to IMF: Cruel joke
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/2/2012
I do not know why the usual government financial managers and “experts” went out on a limb to attempt the latest PR stunt for the Philippines’ financial status, but it is so lame that they are certain to get rotten eggs and tomatoes on their faces.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) deputy chief Diwa Guinigundo said the country’s contribution of $500 million to the New Arrangement to Borrow (NAB) program of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) signals its “creditor” status in the world. Cory Aquino Finance Chief Jess Estanislao, meanwhile, chimed in with his paeans, leading a yellow daily to blare, “From butt of jokes in 1986, Philippines has risen to creditor nation, says ex-finance chief.” All these, when the truth is, the national government (NG) will only be borrowing by way of issuing bonds to raise the dollars to “contribute” its regular quota to the IMF — as it had done in the past.
With help from financial forensics expert Hiro Vaswani, we have gathered several instances where the BSP and the NG went about raising the country’s contributions to the IMF. From January 2006 (“NG to issue bonds to BSP for advances of IMF dues”), there was this idea of issuing the same type of zero-coupon bonds as the infamous CodeNGO PeaceBonds which will no longer pass through the national budget and go straight to government’s debt to form part of our “automatic debt service.” In 2009, with the budget deficit incurred at that time but which the NG repaid in subsequent years to the BSP, another development (“BSP advances P9B IMF quota payments”) highlighted the country’s regular ritual of raising contributions for the IMF. There is thus no reason to expect that there will be any difference in the process this year.
The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), in its reaction to the BSP and NG’s trumpeting of another $251-million RP contribution to the IMF’s Financial Transaction Plan (FTP), said in its press release, “The news suggesting that ‘the Philippines has now become a creditor nation’ may sound good, but (FDC) smells something fishy about this ‘hype’… Ricardo Reyes, FDC president, said that while such move ‘seems to suggest that the Philippines has gotten out of its debt problem, which of course is not true,’ considering the outstanding national government debt of P4.93 trillion ($120 billion) at present, the catch lies in the next part of the BSP announcement… (where the) ‘BSP lends a part of our dollar reserves to IMF’s FTP’ so the Philippines can borrow again and borrow more from the IMF!” This contribution to the FTP is again no different from our contribution to the NAB of $500 million.
So let’s throw rotten tomatoes and eggs, and add the rotten balut for PeNoy’s head, for this shamefully lame attempt to glorify the Philippines’ borrowed financial tribute to the IMF. This is nothing but a desperate effort to put an artificial sheen to the 26 years of Edsa I’s financial “reforms,” consisting of liberalization of currency and capital flows, deregulation and privatization of the financial system and economy, among others, which have caused the Philippines to become a shameful laggard in the region.
Believe me: The Philippines has now been overtaken by Vietnam, which 26 years ago had just begun to rebuild form the ravages of 50 years of war with France and then the US. Tonette Chan of the Inquirer, who wrote that report on Estanislao, even dared to ask, “Who is having the last laugh now?” It’s certainly not us Filipinos.
But their hubris doesn’t come in short supply. Estanislao was, in fact, quoted to have said before the Institute for Solidarity in Asia that “The Philippines is going to be a model of good governance in the world,” arguing that “public officials and citizens (who) address local issues like instituting political reforms and changing the political culture… would help the Philippines overtake Thailand and Indonesia in terms of economic growth.”
Given the dismal 26 years of Edsa I financial and economic reforms that Jess Estanislao started and bequeathed to a long list of Finance heirs, from “Boy Blue” del Rosario, Jose Cuisia, Bobby de Ocampo, Lito Camacho, to the latest, Cesar Purisima, how the hell can our country even dream of “overtaking” Thailand and Indonesia, when these countries were well behind the Philippines 26 years ago?
Ah, but the financial milieu imposed by Edsa I was all but a banker’s heaven, erected on Cory Aquino’s pledge to “honor all debts,” which turned our people over to the money masters and the “debt trap,” and dismantled our financial and economic floodgates to effect the massive transfer of public assets to foreign and local corporatists, all financed by “sovereign guarantees,” leading to the emaciation of our nation-state to the shadow of a captive creature that it is today.
As a recent commentary from the Economist’s View (“The Nation-State Reborn” by Dani Rodrik) tells us, the restoration of any nation to greatness would require its people to “turn for solutions to their national governments, which remain the best hope for collective action” because even as the “nation-state may be a relic… (of) the French Revolution… it is all that we have.” For us, that only means a truly sovereign nation-state borne of a new Philippine Revolution; not one that’s captive to corporate powers.
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Alan Paguia’s crusades;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/2/2012
I do not know why the usual government financial managers and “experts” went out on a limb to attempt the latest PR stunt for the Philippines’ financial status, but it is so lame that they are certain to get rotten eggs and tomatoes on their faces.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) deputy chief Diwa Guinigundo said the country’s contribution of $500 million to the New Arrangement to Borrow (NAB) program of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) signals its “creditor” status in the world. Cory Aquino Finance Chief Jess Estanislao, meanwhile, chimed in with his paeans, leading a yellow daily to blare, “From butt of jokes in 1986, Philippines has risen to creditor nation, says ex-finance chief.” All these, when the truth is, the national government (NG) will only be borrowing by way of issuing bonds to raise the dollars to “contribute” its regular quota to the IMF — as it had done in the past.
With help from financial forensics expert Hiro Vaswani, we have gathered several instances where the BSP and the NG went about raising the country’s contributions to the IMF. From January 2006 (“NG to issue bonds to BSP for advances of IMF dues”), there was this idea of issuing the same type of zero-coupon bonds as the infamous CodeNGO PeaceBonds which will no longer pass through the national budget and go straight to government’s debt to form part of our “automatic debt service.” In 2009, with the budget deficit incurred at that time but which the NG repaid in subsequent years to the BSP, another development (“BSP advances P9B IMF quota payments”) highlighted the country’s regular ritual of raising contributions for the IMF. There is thus no reason to expect that there will be any difference in the process this year.
The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), in its reaction to the BSP and NG’s trumpeting of another $251-million RP contribution to the IMF’s Financial Transaction Plan (FTP), said in its press release, “The news suggesting that ‘the Philippines has now become a creditor nation’ may sound good, but (FDC) smells something fishy about this ‘hype’… Ricardo Reyes, FDC president, said that while such move ‘seems to suggest that the Philippines has gotten out of its debt problem, which of course is not true,’ considering the outstanding national government debt of P4.93 trillion ($120 billion) at present, the catch lies in the next part of the BSP announcement… (where the) ‘BSP lends a part of our dollar reserves to IMF’s FTP’ so the Philippines can borrow again and borrow more from the IMF!” This contribution to the FTP is again no different from our contribution to the NAB of $500 million.
So let’s throw rotten tomatoes and eggs, and add the rotten balut for PeNoy’s head, for this shamefully lame attempt to glorify the Philippines’ borrowed financial tribute to the IMF. This is nothing but a desperate effort to put an artificial sheen to the 26 years of Edsa I’s financial “reforms,” consisting of liberalization of currency and capital flows, deregulation and privatization of the financial system and economy, among others, which have caused the Philippines to become a shameful laggard in the region.
Believe me: The Philippines has now been overtaken by Vietnam, which 26 years ago had just begun to rebuild form the ravages of 50 years of war with France and then the US. Tonette Chan of the Inquirer, who wrote that report on Estanislao, even dared to ask, “Who is having the last laugh now?” It’s certainly not us Filipinos.
But their hubris doesn’t come in short supply. Estanislao was, in fact, quoted to have said before the Institute for Solidarity in Asia that “The Philippines is going to be a model of good governance in the world,” arguing that “public officials and citizens (who) address local issues like instituting political reforms and changing the political culture… would help the Philippines overtake Thailand and Indonesia in terms of economic growth.”
Given the dismal 26 years of Edsa I financial and economic reforms that Jess Estanislao started and bequeathed to a long list of Finance heirs, from “Boy Blue” del Rosario, Jose Cuisia, Bobby de Ocampo, Lito Camacho, to the latest, Cesar Purisima, how the hell can our country even dream of “overtaking” Thailand and Indonesia, when these countries were well behind the Philippines 26 years ago?
Ah, but the financial milieu imposed by Edsa I was all but a banker’s heaven, erected on Cory Aquino’s pledge to “honor all debts,” which turned our people over to the money masters and the “debt trap,” and dismantled our financial and economic floodgates to effect the massive transfer of public assets to foreign and local corporatists, all financed by “sovereign guarantees,” leading to the emaciation of our nation-state to the shadow of a captive creature that it is today.
As a recent commentary from the Economist’s View (“The Nation-State Reborn” by Dani Rodrik) tells us, the restoration of any nation to greatness would require its people to “turn for solutions to their national governments, which remain the best hope for collective action” because even as the “nation-state may be a relic… (of) the French Revolution… it is all that we have.” For us, that only means a truly sovereign nation-state borne of a new Philippine Revolution; not one that’s captive to corporate powers.
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Alan Paguia’s crusades;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
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