Ending the next war now

Ending the next war now

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 08-05-2013 MON)

 

This week, the world will be remembering the August 6 and 9 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki--murderous incidents where hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians were massacred by both US bombs and their own morally infirmed Japanese imperial leaders.

 

Amid today’s attempts at reasserting Western neo-imperialist hegemony over the globe, we lay witness to the deployment of the “missile defence” system encircling Russia, followed by last year’s US “pivot to Asia” threatening China.

 

Japan, either on its own or under US pressure, triggered tension to justify that pivot by nationalizing the Diaoyu Islands (which it calls Senkaku) and reigniting “ultra-Japanism” with rightwing politician Shinzo Abe’s push toward junking Japan’s “peace constitution.”

 

Here at home, efforts to stir and intensify anti-Chinese sentiments have been in the works for the past two years, led by some US-based Filipino-Americans and Philippine political personalities.  All these culminated last week in an attempt by these “Filipino diaspora” at a “global” spate of anti-China rallies in front of several Chinese embassies.

 

In Manila, a group of around 500--with some Akbayan “hakots” carrying professionally-printed streamers, alongside some “elite” civil socialites--were all led by a US Annapolis Naval Academy graduate who served as a former Gloria Arroyo national security adviser.  One leader there announced that they are not against the people of China but against the Chinese government, without understanding that the Chinese people are probably far more sensitive to their own nation’s sovereignty than their politicians.

 

An even worse misunderstanding on the part of those attempting to stir anti-Chinese sentiments into a maelstrom from RP’s territorial disputes with the Asian giant is the idea of promoting an alliance with Japan by opening Philippine naval and other military facilities to the World War II villain.  There are just too many adverse memories that the terms “Japan” and “military” conjure up even among the generally historically amnesiac Filipinos.

 

As we are beginning to see on the Internet in the wake of announcements from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Defense chief, the wounds of Filipina “comfort women” as well as historical accounts and images of the devastation of Manila and the plethora of atrocities under the Japanese military are quickly re-opened.

 

The latest reaction of the Chinese representative to the Philippines reflects the path China wants to take.  Ambassador Ma Keqing last Wednesday suggested that the Philippines meet China halfway in the current standoff in the disputed waters of what I would call “The Asian Sea” (West Philippine Sea or South China Sea), saying the two countries are close neighbors with a friendship that dates back thousands of years.  Ma implored the Philippines to “properly handle (such) differences through dialogue and consultation, jointly promote cooperation in investment, trade, tourism, agriculture and other areas and enhance exchanges and friendship between the two people.”  In short, she was proposing that both sides “jaw-jaw” and not “war-war,” as British imperialist warmonger Winston Churchill used to say to avoid “lose-lose” situations.

 

While China is offering more opportunities for dialogue and peaceful resolution of tensions with the Philippines, the prospects of which could even surprise anti-China Filipinos with the benefits these can provide the country, China will not be as open and flexible with Japan.  China is waiting for any excuse to settle scores with its erstwhile North Asian foe for the oppression and humiliation of World War II--and Japan knows this.

 

While Japan likes to talk tough, it must be noted that the olive branch is being extended by the other hand simultaneously.  Led recently by Hiromu Nonaka, former Japanese chief cabinet secretary, a mission to repair the strained relationship was made as Nonaka recalled the consensus on side-stepping the dispute in allowing more than 40 years of the “common aspiration” for peace and friendship.

 

There is no reason to believe that Japan wants the tension with China whose market is a major hinge for its own economic recovery and prosperity.

 

In this week of remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the absolute pointlessness of promoting conflict with China and inviting “mutual destruction” through any level of physical conflict among neighbors is highlighted.  It is simply utter stupidity--except for those countries that are not in the region, such as the US, whose territories are so far away as to be safe from immediate harm in case of any Asian conflict.

 

It is the US that is pushing the installation of the “missile defense” system in Japan, allegedly to protect against puny North Korea, but which is more believable as a deployment to neutralize China’s retaliatory capacity against US assets in the region.

 

Asia understands that a “next war” in the region will mean devastation for the entire neighborhood; and every effort should be made to overcome the poisoning of minds that US neo-imperialist assets are working at.

 

As the UNESCO Constitution’s preamble states: “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed…”

 

We must end the next wars--as well as the next Hiroshimas and Nagasakis--not tomorrow but TODAY.

 

(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., this week on a “Collage of anti-war documentaries”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 09234095739)

Power income tax, too!

Power income tax, too!

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 07-01-2013 MON)

 

Last week, the income tax payments of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS)’s concessionaires being passed on to water consumers became the burning issue of the day.  Manila Water (of the Ayalas) and Maynilad (of the Manny V. Pangilinan-Consunji Group) were exposed again (as this is not the first time NGOs have reported this) to be making consumers pay for taxes on what these companies are earning.  This provision in the original water concession agreement with each company was signed by Fidel V. Ramos, which has effectively rendered MWSS regulators helpless, if not totally inutile.

 

Retrospectively, then, Ramos should be charged in the Ombudsman for this con act.  The truth is, water consumers consumed with anger at the unjust P15-billion income tax pass-on should also pour their rage on one person--the supposed Chief Executive BS Aquino, whose office is still the official party to the agreement with the concessionaires.

 

Mind you.  Such income tax pass-on is also continuing in the power sector by the likes of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).  Many civic-minded citizens, including consumer activists, who in 2004 helped win the income tax reimbursement from Meralco of around P20 billion (which has yet to be completed), still believe that Meralco’s unjust pass-on of its income tax had ceased after the Puno Supreme Court (SC) debunked the position taken by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and Meralco that income tax is in the same vein as “business taxes” like the value-added tax (VAT), which can be shouldered by the end user.

 

Former Chief Justice Reynato Puno correctly declared that income tax must be borne by the party that earns the income.  And clearly, in the case of such privatized power utilities, these private corporations earn the profits for themselves--neither for the government nor the consuming public.  The ERC and Meralco were thus caught with their pants down.

 

Right after that historic Puno decision, the ERC quickly went into stealth mode to restore Meralco’s pass-on of its income taxes in another roundabout scheme--the Performance Based Regulation (PBR) scheme.  This is how Romeo L. Junia, one of our fellow power consumer protection advocates, put it in a letter-to-the-editor in 2010:

 

“PBR has effectively reversed a Supreme Court decision disallowing the charging of Meralco’s corporate income tax to us.  Justice Reynato Puno, in that landmark refund order, denied with finality Meralco’s ‘stubborn stance’ to hit us for their taxes.  In an issue paper on PBR, however, ERC said: ‘If income tax was not considered a recoverable cost, an equivalent revenue outcome (meaning the overcharge--RLJ) could be achieved by allowing a corresponding pre-tax regulatory WACC [weighted average cost of capital] to be earned on the asset base.’  This was after ERC realized that openly including income tax as a revenue building block would go against the Court ruling, thus they tucked the item away in WACC, but with the same devastating impact on captive customers.”

 

Who among our over five million Meralco power consumers are aware of every minutia of such labyrinthian rules concocted by the ERC in cahoots with Meralco, based on the powers given it by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) of 2001?

 

Now Meralco’s financial statements do indeed declare income tax payments but what is not seen by the public is the “pre-tax regulatory WACC (weighted average cost of capital) to be earned on the asset base,” recovering whatever income tax is to be passed on to consumers even before such is imposed.

 

For the water concessionaires, MWSS acting chief lawyer Emmanuel Caparas explained at the Water for People Network that I attended last June 29 at the UP Law Center, this WACC equivalent is the ADR (Appropriate Discount Rate) for their capital cost.

 

When we read “capital” in the financial reports of these privatized utilities, it must be understood that this comes not from the equity of the companies but from the computation of the “regulatory period” rate base, which means that consumers are charged the capital required by these companies for operating and capital expenditures spread over the regulatory period (of four years for power and five years for water).

 

In effect, all consumers are subsidizing both the private power utilities and water concessionaires!  We can therefore describe this as “socialized capitalization” but with “privatization of profits or income.”

 

Ordinary private companies or corporations, big and small, fund capital and operating expenses from equity and loans; but these goddamn lucky private (and supposedly public) utilities are funded by millions of hapless consumers.

 

Many are still clueless about why we have this onerous system from the privatization of our public utilities.  It is really difficult for ordinary folks as well as legitimate entrepreneurs or businessmen, who go by the traditional route of raising their own capital and expending this very frugally and judiciously in the course of operating the business, to comprehend.

 

Privatized public utilities know nothing of this because their profits go higher the more they escalate the percentage of their so-called capital and operating costs.

 

Who imposed this privatization program, if not the international financial institutions, in exchange for stand-by loans during FVR and Gloria Arroyo’s terms, the last one totaling $800 million after the Edsa II-induced crisis.

 

The privatized public utilities companies with the sponsorship of the international financial institutions are now dispersing and obfuscating the trail of the capital and wealth the private companies gained form privatization through promotion of “investments” of these companies in other countries.

 

A food and beverage giant’s power and fuel units have put in hefty investments in our North Borneo land-grabbing neighbor, Malaysia; ditto for Meralco in that country and for Vietnam, too.

 

Clearly, such grave injustice in the privatized public utilities sector cannot be redressed without nationalization of these companies, with all capital and earnings due the consumers restored to them.  And this will only happen after the next popular revolution--an outcome hoped for as this nation gradually knocks some sense into its mind and heart.

 

(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., this week on “Specter: 60 percent foreign ownership of rural banks”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 09234095739)

Taking RP and Filipinos for saps?

Taking RP and Filipinos for saps?

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 07-10-2013 WED)

For over a week now, a Reuters report on China’s supposed threat of a “counterstrike” has riled and wildly agitated Philippine media and officialdom.  Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Albert del Rosario was quoted as having branded the alleged “official” statement as “irresponsible.” Countless media commentators, including “military experts” and “diplomats”--from BusinessWorld’s Rafael Alunan to Manila Standard Today’s Ambassador Alejandro del Rosario--lambasted the supposed counterstrike threat.  I hope they had watched Global News Network (GNN)’s Sunday show with Kit Tatad that featured his interview with the premier China expert in the Philippines, Chito Sta. Romana, where the latter revealed Reuters’ error in translation.  We would love to give them copies just so that they’d sober up.

 

Chito sent us a comparison of the Chinese characters used by Reuters and the exact words used in the opinion piece in the People’s Daily.  I don’t know if Tribune’s printing press is able to print these characters so I’ll also supply the phonetics.  According to Chito, the “Chinese characters used in the original article are 反制, which means ‘counter-measures’ (pronounced “fanzhi”).  Somehow it got translated by the international media as ‘counter-strike,’ which is 反击 (pronounced “fanji”).  I read the Reuters article with the ‘counter-strike’ translation, which was carried by our media.  Here is the link to the Chinese article on ‘counter-measures’: http://world.people.com.cn/n/2013/0629/c1002-22014733.html.  “Fanzhi” (反制) can be found in the second line of the last paragraph.”

 

Did the erroneous Reuters translation intend to take the Philippines (and Filipinos) for a wild ride on anti-China vituperations?  We’ll never know that for sure; but clearly, many of our so-called “intelligentsia” had been too easily aroused to rabid anti-China and war-mongering sentiments.

 

These Filipino pundits are perhaps only too eager to show their abiding obedience to the unspoken desires of the traditional Western masters of this land that ever since they read between the lines of Obama’s “pivot to Asia,” they’ve been falling all over each other to outdo the US hawks in portraying China as “the bully” and the new “hegemon.”  Yet no matter how much they can be reasonably excused for their rabble rousing (if not utter stupidity), for the DFA to be caught in such a wrong-footed interpretation of the “counter-measure” reply is just sheer incompetence.

 

Indeed, the obsequiousness of these pundits and officials inevitably lead to their silliness.  Take for instance this report, “Palace welcomes US diplomat’s stance against China bullying.”  Who was the “diplomat” in question and what the context in which he stated his opinion?  Don’t be surprised but the story was based on comments made during a US Senate confirmation hearing for the promotion of Director for Asian Affairs Danny Russell to Assistant for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, both of which are actually very low posts in the totem pole of the US State Department.  His comments were, however, made front page headlines by the local mainstream media.

 

Chito Sta. Romana observed that the Philippines may now be learning from its past errors of reacting too quickly and too frequently to very low level or even unofficial media, as well as academic opinions that do not reflect official Chinese policy.  I guess he was being a bit too optimistic.

 

There is much disinformation from Western media that we must always sift through.  Alunan, already erring in his “counterstrike” retort, even adds, “Despite China’s atrocious ownership claims, no proof exists to back it up.  From WikiLeaks, Cable 08BEIJING3499, sent to Washington by the US embassy in Beijing on Sept. 9, 2008, (it was) reported that a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) official… could not identify specific historical records to justify China’s ‘Nine Dashes’ claim…”

 

But as far as the Chinese (Taiwan and People’s Republic of China) side is concerned, it is pretty clear that “China’s 1948 nine-dash line map shows the sea border… (and that) China’s nine-dash line map was undisputed for 50 years from 1948 to 1998…”

 

So as the legal tit-for-tat continues, mutually beneficial bilateral talks are being blocked by a lone Asean minority and the real lone global hegemonist.

 

Unfortunately, the seemingly deliberate distortions in Philippine media about China are even bordering on the ridiculous.  A column in Manila Standard Today entitled, “Why China needs a war,” cited a slew of Chinese domestic concerns, such as an economy on a slump; exports facing hard times; communist rule in peril due to an educated young population; Tiananmen anniversary and “hate frenzy” diverted against Japan; Xinjiang troubles; widespread pollution; bird flu, etc., and that “instead of solving these problems,” the writer claims that “China is busy building a mighty army and a blue water navy to bully its neighbors who are disputing its claim over the entire South China Sea.”

 

But China has had the worst of these problems since 1949 and never had to resort to any major war as a solution.  As for the other so-called problem--the slump in growth to 7 percent--it is definitely a “problem” that other countries would dearly love to have.

 

China knows it needs a war like a hole in the head.  It is actually the US that constantly starts many wars--this time provoking China--in order to thwart the rise of the erstwhile sleeping Dragon.

 

Some anti-China pundits are desperate to whip up more reasons to fire up Filipino xenophobia against the Chinese, apparently egged on by a Filipino-American woman who had a failed business in and a failed boycott campaign against the Asian superpower.  Like the pro-Western Reuters news agency, this anti-Chinese bigot is also taking Filipinos for saps.

 

(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., this week on “China, RP, and US hegemonism”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 09234095739)