Down with irresponsible pet owners!

Down with irresponsible pet owners!

Updated 00:58am (Mla time) Oct 27, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the October 27, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


WE routinely call the dog "man's best friend," but do you know that in Metro Manila, supposedly the most civilized in the country, thousands of dogs are put to death every day by -- and this is shocking -- city and municipal governments? In Makati City alone, the nation's business capital where the superrich live, 1,800 dogs are euthanized every year. Perhaps as many are brutally killed and eaten in just one week in Baguio City, the favorite vacation spot of the beautiful people. In Boracay, another favorite tourist spot, dogs were being shot dead on the beaches and the roads until the tourists protested.

Man's best friends are also being routinely shot by government employees in other towns and cities in other parts of the country. Even in cities governed by model mayors, like Marikina, dogs are caught with nooses, kept in the city pound for a few days, and then gassed.

Many more suffer an even worse fate. They are sold by “barangay” [neighborhood district] council officials to drunkards who kill them by clubbing them on the head, then butchering, cooking and eating them as “pulutan” [bar chow] during drinking sprees. In some cases, children have watched horrified as their elders gleefully stabbed or clubbed stray dogs to death then roasted the animals over a wood fire. Others are stolen from their owners and sold in the illegal dog black market, shipped, all trussed up or cramped together in wire cages, to the provinces where they are bludgeoned to death, butchered and cooked and sold openly and even advertised in restaurants and wet markets. That's how we treat "man's best friend."

And yet we have a law, Republic Act 8485 or the Animal Welfare Act of 1998 (AWA), that prohibits the maltreatment, killing and eating of dogs and other pets and animals not specifically raised for food. Penalty is imprisonment of not less than six months or more than two years or a fine of not less than P1,000 or more than P5,000, or both.

The maltreatment and killing of dogs and cats are being perpetrated openly everywhere, but have you heard of anybody being arrested and jailed for doing that? In fact, CARA Philippines, an NGO -- CARA stands for Compassion and Responsibility for Animals -- has documented cases where policemen and “barangay” watchmen were the perpetrators of these heinous acts.

Ironically, the bond between man and dog go back 12,000 years. Since humans domesticated dogs, they are most happy when they are in our company. Their loyalty, love and trust are their gifts to us. There are many stories of dogs saving their masters' lives. The animals have been used as war dogs, working dogs, seeing-eye dogs, bomb- and drug-sniffing dogs, search dogs, etc. As pets, scientific studies have proven that they reduce loneliness, depression and stress. Medically, they have been introduced as companions to patients in hospital wards and in homes for the elderly all over the world.

So why are we being cruel to them and killing them? Because of ignorance and lack of compassion, primarily. And in the worst irony of all, because governments think they are doing a good deed in rounding them up and killing them. It is to prevent the spread of rabies, an almost always fatal disease from the bite of a dog or other mammals. The risk of rabies in the Philippines is the fourth highest in the world. And because the number of stray dogs is increasing due to many irresponsible owners, local governments believe they are reducing the risk of rabies by killing stray dogs.

This is wrong on two counts. First, a study made in 1998 showed that 95 percent of dog bites did not come from street dogs but from those that had owners. Dogs are territorial and street dogs have no territories. It is the pet dogs that protect their territories by aggressive behavior.

Second, killing dogs (and cats) will not reduce the stray population if we do not reduce the number of irresponsible pet owners. These owners allow their pets to breed indiscriminately and then give away the puppies and kittens in staggering numbers. More often, kittens are simply abandoned on sidewalks or vacant lots. These have hazardous lives, and are sometimes squashed by vehicles. Those that survive grow up by scavenging for food in garbage cans, wracked by disease and starvation, and breed more strays that, in turn, breed more.

Two unaltered dogs and their offspring can produce 67,000 dogs in six years. For cats, the number is much higher. There should be a law that punishes throwing away or abandoning kittens.

Filipinos usually take home puppies and kittens because they are cute. But once they grow up and cease to be cute and, worse, show signs of illness, they are turned out on the streets where they unwittingly compromise the health of the whole neighborhood. As CARA Philippines said, "In our country dogs provide an important sense of security. However, here we find the paradox of people who don't really like dogs and yet will keep them to guard their homes. As a rule, these people are neither caring nor responsible owners. It is these owners' dogs that are usually allowed to scavenge on the streets for food and routinely let out to urinate and defecate on public property. As a result, this human irresponsibility leads to these dogs creating a public health hazard."

For many in our country, the dog is viewed not as a companion but as a necessary evil, so that neither time nor money is invested in ensuring good health.

Since dogs and cats are treated as dispensable and replaceable commodities, the abandoning of sick or unwanted dogs and cats is done with impunity. Invariably a neighbor's dog or cat will also have puppies and kittens and these will be given away. So the cycle of irresponsible ownership continues.

How Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo creates many new jobs

How Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo creates many new jobs

Updated 10:54pm (Mla time) Oct 24, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the October 25, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


WHO says President Macapagal-Arroyo isn't providing jobs to Filipinos? Isn't she handing out jobs right and left?

And not just ordinary jobs, but jobs in Malacañang-as presidential advisers with Cabinet rank. What advice they will give, nobody (not even the advisers) knows. But we do know that as Cabinet secretaries, they will take home not only fat salaries but also fat allowances, and free service cars, free gasoline, free chauffers, vans full of bodyguards, two or more motorcycle escorts, and the right to appoint relatives as confidential secretaries and chiefs of staff, all paid for by the taxpayers. And the right to be called "Mr. Secretary" and to be saluted by the Palace guards.

I heard another wing is being added to Malacañang Palace because, during Cabinet meetings, the Cabinet members and presidential advisers of Cabinet rank can no longer be accommodated in one place. Also, there is talk that Malacañang wants to reclaim part of the Pasig River and convert it into a parking lot because there is no more parking space for all the luxury vehicles with red plate numbers that converge on Malacañang on the days the Cabinet meet. There are so many of these luxury vehicles with the number "6" that the superstitious in the neighborhood become agitated because the number "666" is said to be the Devil's number and therefore could bring bad luck.

When the Cabinet meet, the Palace guards are placed on high alert not only because of the concentration of "6s" but also because so many top officials gathered in one place become a tempting target for terrorists.

There is also talk that hungry politicians are reluctant to take the position of national treasurer, afraid that they'd have difficulty looking for money to pay for Malacañang's growing payroll.

But what can one do, the President promised to create one million jobs and if private companies won't provide those jobs, why, the government will. Her promise to create jobs must not make a liar out of the President-again. She has promised so often that whenever she promises something, people expect the opposite. That's bad, so I think she has the right to change the people's wrong attitude by surprising them: once in a while, she should fulfill her promises.

But having one million presidential advisers may be a little too much, even for the likes of GMA. So she is creating whole new offices. Then she can hire people not only singly but in batches. The "superbody" Office of External Affairs (OEA) is only one of these. There will be others, don't worry. The President's one-million-job promise will soon be fulfilled.

But where will the government get the money to pay all the new hires? From the Filipinos, where else? There are 80 million of them. If each of them pays a few hundred pesos in taxes, that will make billions of pesos. Anyway, they will pay, whether they like it or not; Congress will see to that-by passing the necessary tax laws.

Besides, many of these taxes they will not recognize at all. They will be hidden in the prices of necessities that people buy every day. People can't eat or go anywhere or do anything without having to pay taxes. You want to relax by smoking a stick of cigarette? You pay tax. You want to forget your woes by getting drunk? You pay tax. You want a can of sardines for your hungry children? You pay tax. Yes sir, like death, taxes are unavoidable.

In fact, even when you die, you have to pay taxes. And your children, whom you will leave behind without a breadwinner and saddled with your debts, will have to pay an inheritance tax.

So don't worry about where to get the payroll money. And if the Treasury goes bust, the President can always order the layoff of hundreds of thousands of rank-and-file government employees so that their pay allocations can be rechanneled to the salaries of the presidential advisers. If worst comes to worst, we can always borrow, as GMA did during her first term. She sailed through that term without anybody getting any wiser, didn't she?

But how will she pay for all the loans? Again, don't worry. That's not her problem. That's the problem of the next president.

* * *

It has become clear why the paratroopers are the elite soldiers in any armed force. We know now why being a paratrooper is coveted by almost every soldier. In fact, it has turned out that every AFP chief of staff is a paratrooper, regardless of whether he comes from the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines. Each of them is provided with a "golden parachute" upon retirement from the AFP.

The parachute is very expensive. It might as well be literally coated with gold, for it costs as much as P300 million each.

Where does the money to pay for them come from? Where else but from the taxpayers!

* * *

Isn't it eerie that the unfolding "corruption in the military" seems so like the corruption in the civilian government? It is history repeating itself.

The son of an aide of former AFP chief of staff Angelo Reyes has come out to claim that he owns the cock farm on Reyes' lot in Parañaque. This sounds so much like presidential brother-in-law (now congressman) Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo claiming the Jose Pidal bank deposits as his own, thus taking the heat away from his brother.

Iggy has become a role model of sorts, it seems. Maj. Gen. Carlos F. Garcia's mantra- his right against self-incrimination-before the House committees on defense and banks is an echo of Iggy's own mantra before the Senate-his right to privacy.

Poor Filipinos reduced to eating garbage

Poor Filipinos reduced to eating garbage

Updated 01:19am (Mla time) Oct 22, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on Page A14 of the October 22, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


TWO young children died the other day because they ate rotten food recovered from a garbage can and brought home by their father. Did you get that? Poor Filipinos have been reduced to eating garbage -- literally -- and are dying because of it.

As the cliché goes, they're caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. They'll die of starvation if they don't eat, but they'll die anyway if they eat the garbage that they are able to scrounge from the trashcans.

Can you see the irony? Officials of government financial institutions take home millions of pesos in salaries and politicians travel in style around the world and eat the most expensive steaks while their constituents eat garbage! Generals amass wealth and squirrel them away in other countries while the people whom they are sworn to serve wallow in poverty! Our own President travels all around the country and the world with a retinue, shakes hands and delivers speeches and cuts ceremonial ribbons, while her constituents living in appalling conditions not very far from Malacañan Palace are dying because they are forced to eat garbage!

Poor Filipinos being reduced to eating garbage is nothing new. That has been going on for quite some time, but our officials treat it as nothing more than a bad dream that will go away when they wake up. But it is only in the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration that some of them actually died because of it.

The administration was shocked awake by a recent survey that hunger stalks the land. Its knee-jerk reaction was to distribute food coupons. In other words, Filipinos will queue up in long food lines to wait for their daily food coupons like beggars. Is it not yet enough that we are known around the world as "the begging bowl of Asia"? That our President and diplomats travel the globe with begging bowl in hand to beg for aid and loans? Now we want to rub it in by having photographs and TV footage of long lines of Filipinos begging for food coupons.

The food coupons will initially cost the cash-starved government P67 billion. After that is gone, the people will still be hungry for the next meal. But there probably will be no next meal because the government can't afford it anymore. By then the food coupons will have already bolstered our culture of mendicancy, a bad habit that our government, judging from the billboards prohibiting begging and the giving of alms, is trying to discourage. But how can the government discourage something that it is propagating?

Instead of spending that P67 billion on free food coupons, why not use that to give jobs to those who need them? Give the people dignity. Let them work for their food instead of giving them handouts. Instead of begging, they would be working. They don't want to beg; they want to work. But there are no jobs. The President promised "10 million jobs" but instead of creating new jobs, she is going to throw thousands who already have government jobs out of work.

Meanwhile, thousands of kilometers of feeder roads and irrigation ditches need to be built to boost food production, but there is no money for them. Thousands of schoolhouses are needed to prepare young minds for the challenges ahead, but there is no money for more schoolhouses. Millions of homes need to be provided for the homeless but there is no money left for them after paying our foreign debt.

There are millions of Filipinos who are willing to work, and in fact are asking for jobs to be able to feed their families, but the government is not giving them jobs. Instead, it plans to distribute food coupons, which is like putting Band-aid on a festering ulcer.

The coupons will be distributed through the “barangay” [village or neighborhood district] councils and local government units, which means that ward leaders and followers of the local politicians will get them first. In fact, the politicians may get the lion's share of the coupons, in the same way that relief goods supposed to be distributed to victims of calamities often end up in the bodegas of the affluent and influential citizens. That is political patronage that will come in handy for the 2007 elections.

President Arroyo's own father, President Diosdado Macapagal, gave emergency jobs to those who were willing to work early in his term. He created the Emergency Employment Administration under the Department of Labor. Workers were hired to repair roads and build new ones. It brought food to the tables of the hungry. And they didn't have to beg for it; they earned it.

That was adopted from the post-Depression policy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt of giving emergency jobs to jobless Americans. And it helped America recover from the Depression.

As an economic tool, emergency employment makes a lot of sense. By giving jobs to people, you give them money to spend. They spend the money to buy food, clothes and other necessities. This in turn makes the factories produce more of them and hire additional workers. The additional workers spend more money to buy what they need and the cycle goes on and on and the economy grows.

But using billions of government money on non-productive things like food coupons produces nothing and promotes nothing. There is no chain-effect. After eating his daily ration, the man of the house sits back and fondles his fighting cock and waits for the next queue to get his next coupon. He doesn't have to look for a job. He and his family will eat anyway even if he has no job. He has the administration to thank for that.

* * *

TODAY'S JOKE: Senator Lito Lapid: Ano ba ang ibig sabihin ng "fiscal crisis"?

Senator Bong Revilla: Ah, ang ibig sabihin n'yan may shortage ng mga fiscal.

Generals handling funds now under suspicion

Generals handling funds now under suspicion

Updated 10:41pm (Mla time) Oct 19, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the October 20, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


THE TESTIMONY of Major General Carlos F. Garcia before a committee of the House of Representatives, during which he repeatedly invoked his right against self-incrimination, sounded so much like the testimony of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s brother-in-law, now a congressman, Iggy Arroyo on the Jose Pidal bank deposits, during which he also repeatedly refused to answer questions by invoking his right to privacy. In both hearings, the legislators threw up their hands in exasperation and failed to get any information from their witnesses.

But actions speak louder than words. Why would a witness be afraid to talk and incriminate himself if he isn't guilty of something? An innocent person would only be glad to tell everything he knows to prove his innocence, wouldn’t he? But silence is the refuge of the guilty, like the Mafia mobsters.

Alas, the House investigation of the former comptroller of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has turned into a comedy, with the general and his lawyers outwitting the congressmen. The congressmen have to find other sources of evidence; they can't get any from the mouth of the accused himself. I think the strategy should be to charge him with unexplained wealth. Make him explain how he acquired all his bank deposits and real estate properties. That would be interesting to hear.

* * *

Because of the Garcia scandal, all AFP generals are now under suspicion, especially those who handle funds. One of them is retired Brigadier General Jose S. Ramiscal, who is in trouble simply because he is the president of the formerly cash-rich AFP Retirement and Separation Benefits System (AFP-RSBS). But unlike Garcia who obviously doesn't want to be subjected to any investigation, Ramiscal wants the charges against him to be heard as quickly as possible. It is the prosecution that is dragging its feet. The case has been percolating in the offices of the Ombudsman and the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court for several years.

The case against Ramiscal is simplicity itself. The AFP-RSBS bought 148 separate parcels of land in Laguna province for real estate development back when the market was robust, before the Asian economic crisis. The total area purchased was 964,494 square meters. The total amount paid by the AFP-RSBS was P195,852,513, or an average price of P203 per square meter. The total amount registered at the register of deeds was P28,226,090, or an average price of only P30 per square meter. What happened to the difference of P167,626,423? Conclusion: Ramiscal pocketed it. And because of this, Ramiscal is facing at least 148 cases of “estafa” [swindling], which, judging by the number, gives the impression that the general must be a hardened criminal.

It is not that simple, Ramiscal told me. I interviewed the general over dinner at our neighborhood coffee shop one night last week, and he gave me the facts and explained what happened. There is no missing P167 million, he said, and he has not pocketed a single centavo.

The 148 parcels of farmland, he explained, were bought through a "consolidator" or broker. The AFP-RSBS did not negotiate directly with the farmers. This was necessary because if it were known that the AFP-RSBS was buying their properties and negotiating separately with each farmer, the asking price would rise progressively higher. It was the job of the consolidator to haggle for as low a price as possible, consolidate all the purchased parcels and then turn them over to the RSBS as one parcel.

The AFP-RSBS board of trustees approved an acquisition cost of P225 per square meter, but the consolidator was free to bargain with the owners for a lower price. The difference between the amount paid by the AFP-RSBS and the amount actually received by the owners was the fee, or commission of the consolidator. From this, the consolidator would pay the capital gains tax and other taxes due, as well as sundry expenses. What is left after this is his profit.

The law allows the consolidator to unilaterally report to the register of deeds the purchase price. The deeds of sale were signed only by the sellers. Neither Ramiscal nor the AFP-RSBS had any part in this.

Based on the findings of Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio in his June 15, 2004 memorandum to the Ombudsman, the average amount actually received by the sellers from the consolidator was P150 per square meter. But the consolidator registered an average price of only P30 per square meter for a total price of P28,226,090 obviously to lower the capital gains tax. This is falsification of public documents for which the consolidator is liable, but not the RSBS or Ramiscal, the latter said.

The acquisition price approved by the board of trustees was P225 per square meter but the RSBS paid only an average price of P203 per square meter, so Ramiscal saved it P22 per square meter or a total of P21,218,868.

Since the amount acknowledged to have been received by the sellers from the consolidator was P150 per square meter (not only P30 per square meter as reported to the register of deeds) and the total area bought was 964,494 square meters, it logically follows that the amount received by the sellers from the consolidator was P144,674,100.

If the amount paid by the AFP-RSBS to the sellers through the consolidator was P195,852,513 and the amount acknowledged by the sellers to have been actually received from the consolidator was P144,674,100, we are looking at a difference of P51,178,413 which possibly went to pay for the capital gains tax, documentary stamp tax, tenants' disturbance fee and consolidator's fee as stipulated in the memorandum of understanding between the AFP-RSBS and the consolidator.

There is no "missing" P167 million.

As for the 148 estafa cases against Ramiscal, there are so many because each deed of sale was counted as one case. Technically, there are 148 counts of only one case.

Requiem for a great artist

Requiem for a great artist

Updated 11:35pm (Mla time) Oct 17, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the October 18, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


THE DEATH anniversary of painter Hugo Yonzon Jr. passed yesterday, Oct. 17, without any fanfare, not even a whimper, from the local art community. Yonzon was one of the best, most prolific, most versatile, fastest-working Filipino painters-and I've seen a lot of them. In fact, he should have been honored as a National Artist, but he had no clique, no lobbyists, no drumbeaters in the award-giving bodies.

Not that Yonzon didn't have any friends. He had plenty of them (and I'm proud to be one of them): journalists, fellow painters, cartoonists, illustrators, art collectors, gallery owners, etc. But unlike some artists who park themselves for hours at the desks of cultural editors of newspapers gossiping and wasting time, Yonzon had no time for that. He was too busy providing for a huge family.

For unlike other painters, who usually had regular 8-5 jobs as principal means of livelihood (as art teachers, or as newspaper, magazine or advertising agency artists, etc.) while doing
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some painting on the sideline or as a hobby, Yonzon, for the most part of his career, lived entirely from his paintings. During his early days, he was the art director of Adcraft, a pioneering advertising agency, but he soon left the job to draw editorial cartoons, comic strips and illustrations for newspapers and magazines-and yes, to paint.

He was a member of the triumvirate Malang-Larry Alcala-Yonzon, versatile cartoonist-painters who were not only contemporaries but were very close family friends, compadres, gambling buddies, billiard addicts, barkada, partners in sexcapades, etc. Until Alcala got married to a beautiful salesgirl of Aguinaldo's Department Store-whom Alcala courted almost daily with his two partners behind him as morale support-the triumvirate enjoyed the bohemian night life together.

Together with other cartoonists, they set up the Bughouse art gallery in Mabini. That was back in the '50s, when the Philippine Art Gallery on Arquiza was the center of the Philippine world of modern art. The cartoonists envisioned the Bughouse as the gallery for cartoons as PAG was for serious art.

The PAG it was that popularized most of the present icons of neo-realist art: Vicente Manansala, Hernando R. Ocampo, Cesar F. Legaspi, Arturo Luz, Fernando Zobel, Ramon Estella, etc.-and a young cartoonist who dared branch into serious painting, Malang.

The PAG, run by writer Lyd Arguilla, had a "feature wall" for young artists, and during one exhibition of the latest neo-realist paintings, several of Malang's first tentative attempts at serious art were featured there. There were only about two dozen pieces, and all of them were tiny, measured in few square inches. Malang aptly called them "miniature paintings." But they were beautiful pieces, in bright decorative primary colors, even if their subjects were mostly barong-barongs, squatters, sidewalk vendors-all visible from the second-floor windows of the newsroom of the Manila Chronicle on Aduana Street, Intramuros, where Malang worked as an artist.

Malang was then drawing his Kosme the Cop comic strip in the daily and the spot cartoon Chaingang Charlie in the weekly This Week Magazine; and painting his "miniatures" while waiting for the editors to assign him art work for the evening.

At this time, Yonzon was already into serious painting, but he was also drawing cartoons and comic strips (Sakay and Moy) for the Manila Times and comic magazines after his work at Adcraft. Every afternoon, he would walk from Adcraft on Dasmarinas, across the Jones Bridge, to the Chronicle in Intramuros to have merienda with Malang and us in the This Week staff for ideas for their cartoons. Alcala, who was drawing Kalabog en Bosyo, Siopawman, Tipin, etc. for the comic books, was also into some serious painting, mostly watercolors, at that time, but he soon gave that up to devote all his time to comic strips.

During these sessions, the cartoonists picked our brains for ideas for cartoons, and usually they left in the evenings with the next day's cartoon output already clear in their minds.

When we all left the Chronicle during a labor dispute and dispersed to different newspaper publications, Malang concentrated on painting-very successfully (all his exhibits were sold out). When I went to The Evening News and later the Daily Express, Yonzon followed as editorial cartoonist and illustrator. Alcala stuck to his comic strips but at the Express, I assigned him to make the full-page "Slice of Life" on the back page of the Weekend Magazine.

It was at this time, meanwhile, that Yonzon produced his best and most numerous paintings. While waiting for work at the Evening News and Express art departments, he would use the time to paint his oils on canvases, exchanging stories and banter with the other artists all the time. Before anyone noticed, the painting was finished, which was immediately bought by collectors. At home, he painted in his garage, which he converted into a studio. The paintings were bought even before they were finished. During his lifetime, Yonzon held very few one-man exhibits because he could not accumulate enough paintings for such a show. They were all snatched up by buyers before the paint could even dry on the canvas.

All three-Malang, Yonzon and Alcala- have been nominated separately for National Artist. They all deserve it. The question is who should get it first; the latter two are dead. My suggestion is to give it to all three of them at the same time. Or to give it to them as a triumvirate, for together they combined the arts of cartooning and painting to their greatest glory.

Philippine medical profession in crisis

Philippine medical profession in crisis

Updated 01:04am (Mla time) Oct 15, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the October 15, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


IN THE OLD days, churches were the sanctuary of people trying to escape arrest by the men of feudal lords. Now hospitals have replaced churches as the refuge of people trying to escape the long arm of the law. Whether the person is trying to stay out of prison, like convicted rapist Romeo Jalosjos, or a general trying to dodge questions regarding his wealth, like Major General Carlos F. Garcia, they pretend to be so sick they need to be confined in a hospital. And law enforcement authorities are often only too willing to accept the word of their doctors who are, for their part, only too willing to lend the weight of their reputations to convince the authorities that their patients indeed need to stay in the hospital.

And so, if Mohammed cannot go to the mountain, the mountain will go to him. Members of Congress are going to the Santo Tomas University Hospital to question Garcia instead of forcing him to go to them. Authorities respect the expert opinion of physicians so much that many scoundrels stay out of jail for long periods on the say-so of their doctors.

How dangerous is sleep apnea to the life of Garcia if he goes to Congress to answer questions? Sleep apnea is a condition where the patient sometimes stops breathing while asleep. But the general is not going to sleep in Congress. On the contrary, he would have to stay wide-awake and on his toes as the legislators pepper him with questions.

On second thought, his doctor also said the general has arrythmia, an irregular heartbeat which can trigger a heart attack when he is under stress. But this can easily be verified with an electrocardiogram that can be done in minutes by any cardiologist. So it wouldn't be difficult to determine whether Garcia is really in a life-threatening situation or just malingering.

In view of the penchant of some scoundrels to use hospitals as a refuge, Congress and the Philippine Medical Association should formulate rules to regulate this practice.

* * *

Speaking of doctors, members of the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) signed last Tuesday a covenant pledging (1) "to practice and be based in the Philippines for the next three years" and (2) "to spend a portion of their time for charity work... at least one day in a month for charity, or to give free consultations for their poor patients." The PCP has 6,000 doctor-members and 11 chapters nationwide, and is the umbrella organization of 13 component and affiliate societies.

The PCP leadership was prompted to ask its members to sign the covenant because of the exodus of doctors because of better opportunities abroad. In fact, several hospitals in Mindanao and the province of Negros Oriental face closure due to lack of doctors and nurses.

Not only that, full-fledged doctors are going back to school to become nurses because there is a big demand for nurses abroad. A PCP flyer said that in 2002, 2,000 doctors enrolled to become nurses and in 2003, this increased to 3,000. This year, an estimated 4,000 doctors will shift to nursing. Medicine has now ironically become a pre-nursing course.

The reason for all these? The low morale and low income here of doctors, especially the younger ones. Ironically, it is the young doctors who know the latest cures and techniques that they learned abroad. These doctors leave their flourishing practices in hospitals abroad to come home and serve their countrymen, only to be disappointed.

Sad to say, the media contribute to the poor image of the medical profession and therefore to the low morale and exodus of doctors. For it sometimes unfairly portray doctors as greedy and incompetent. How often do we see patients denouncing in the media doctors and hospitals for making them wait, giving them the runaround, not giving them prompt medical attention, not realizing that the overworked doctors are attending to many other patients and giving the more seriously sick ones priority?

Add to this the Medical Malpractice Bill and the Patients' Rights Bill now pending in Congress, which will make medical practice here more hazardous and expensive for doctors. Physicians will have to buy malpractice insurance to protect themselves from ambulance chasers. If they have to do that, doctors say, they might as well practice in the United States. Doctors there all have malpractice insurance but at least they earn more than the doctors here. Add to that the fact that Filipinos are a litigious lot and that we have an excess of lawyers willing to chase ambulances. And that we have legislators who are all too ready to espouse populist but wrong causes because it would win them votes.

The truth is that all hospitals, big and small, have charity wards that attend to the poor and that many doctors give free services to poor patients, go on medical missions in the provinces and even look for funds and dig into their own pockets to save patients' lives. This happens often in many hospitals, but they hardly get reported by media. What gets reported are often the non-paying relatives of patients complaining because they were not given attention by the overworked doctors fast enough.

Doctors risk their lives every day caring for high-risk patients, such as those with drug-resistant tuberculosis, AIDS, hepatitis, etc. Sometime ago, the young doctor-daughter of cartoonist Larry Alcala was bitten by a patient who had the virulent fulminant hepatitis. She got infected and almost died, hovering between life and death for weeks at the intensive care unit of the Makati Medical Center.

Yet many doctors will continue caring for their countrymen in times of crises and calamities and, as the PCP covenant shows, they will stick it out in the Philippines in good times and bad.

Why not limit session time of Congress?

Why not limit session time of Congress?

Updated 06:43am (Mla time) Oct 13, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the October 13, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


I HAVE only one objection to lawyer Romulo Makalintal's proposal to abolish Congress and save P67 billion. His proposal is not to have any elections for all congressmen and for half of the 24-member Senate when their terms expire in 2007. The other 12 senators, whose terms won't expire until 2010, will stay on to enact the laws that are necessary and repeal those that are not needed anymore. Then we will have a unicameral legislature. That will save the nation P67 billion which we sorely need to balance the budget and pay our debts, he said.

Makalintal was one of the two guests at last Monday's Kapihan sa Manila media forum; the other was Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes.

I have earlier also proposed the abolition of Congress but my principal objection to Makalintal's version is that among the 12 senators who would be left behind to do the mopping up are Lito Lapid, Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada, plus five neophytes: Jamby Madrigal, Pia Cayetano, Dick Gordon, Alfredo Lim and Mar Roxas. There would be only four veterans left: Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Juan Ponce Enrile, Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Rodolfo Biazon. What is happening to us?

My original proposal was to abolish the whole Congress, period, and save even more money. The most peaceful time we had was after President Ferdinand Marcos abolished Congress. Things became “magulo” [chaotic] again, and graft ridden, when the Batasang Pambansa [National Legislature] was established. (Note that the Batasan was a unicameral legislature, with which Makalintal and certain congressmen want to replace our Congress.) Without a legislature, the government would be a dictatorship, some say. But with the Batasan, the government was still a dictatorship, and the legislature only added to the taxpayers' burden.

Anyway we have too many laws already so that many of them are not being enforced. These laws are so many that law enforcers, judges and justices, lawyers and even the legislators themselves can't remember them all. That is why court cases take years and years to finish, and fiscals and courts often make mistakes, resulting in miscarriages of justice. Even the Supreme Court sometimes contradicts itself because of too many contradictory laws.

And if the members of the legal profession can't remember them all, how can we expect ordinary citizens to remember and obey them all? That is why there are many law violators; they don't realize they are violating laws. Ergo, too many laws make too many criminals. Our lives were much simpler, more peaceful and orderly when we had very few laws promulgated by the village chieftains.

With fewer laws, we would need fewer courts, judges and justices, fiscals, clerks of court, stenographers, interpreters and lawyers and save even more money.

This is not a joke. Many countries have no legislatures for much of the year. They are called to sessions only when the proposed laws to be enacted have been gathered for discussions. As soon as they are passed, the legislature adjourns.

Needless to say, the legislators are paid only when they are in session. Which is only fair, 'di ba? So, a lot of taxpayers' money is saved, and legislators don't make a career and a family business of politics.

The Philippine system is very wasteful. Congress holds sessions for most of the year, during which the legislators, members of their staff, drivers, advisers and consultants are paid salaries, not to mention the bills for light, water, telephone, gasoline, snacks, office supplies and a thousand and one other things. In fact, they are paid even when they don't attend sessions, or they are in recess, or traveling abroad (which is often), with the taxpayers paying for their travel and representational expenses. Include the notorious multibillion-peso pork barrel, a big chunk of which goes into private pockets, and you will see why the government is going bankrupt.

Since Filipino politicians want to copy legislatures of other countries anyway (after copying the American presidential-bicameral system, they now want to copy the parliamentary, unicameral system), why don't we copy that system wherein the legislature holds sessions only when needed and the chief executive calls them? When Congress holds sessions the whole year, it does mostly nothing but investigate, investigate and investigate every little thing that would give its members publicity and end up finding nothing. Or they file innocuous and useless bills such as changing the names of streets and schools.

We don't have to abolish the Senate. If one of the houses of Congress has to be abolished, I think it should be the House of Representatives. With limited session time, we would save enough money even with a bicameral Congress. And movie actors like Bong Revilla can go back to acting when Congress is not in session.

* * *

Former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff and former defense secretary Angelo Reyes had no inkling of the AFP scandals that exploded recently, he told the Kapihan sa Manila last Monday. For which reason he has not yet formed any opinion as to whether former AFP comptroller Carlos F. Garcia should be tried in a civilian court or face a military court martial. Reyes is now the secretary of interior and local government and fortunately above the AFP scandals -- as of the moment.

* * *

TODAY'S JOKE: Senator Lito Lapid: Ano ba ang ibig sabihin ng Bank Secrecy Law?

Senator Bong Revilla: Ibig sabihin n'yon ang mga deposito sa bangko ay sekreto.

Senator Jinggoy Estrada: "Di totoo 'yon. Bakit ang Jose Velarde deposit sa bangko ng erpat ko, nabisto?

Senator Lapid: Bakit hindi mabibisto eh ang dami ng mga tellers sa bangko.

Ad valorem better than specific tax on cigarettes

Ad valorem better than specific tax on cigarettes

Updated 00:24am (Mla time) Oct 11, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the October 11, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


THE LEAST opposed tax measure is the proposed increase in the "sin" taxes (on cigarettes, liquor and the like). But the legislators can't agree on how to go about it. One group of congressmen wants to stick to the fixed specific tax; another wants the ad valorem tax, and a third, a combination of both.

For the past 20 years, Congress has been changing the tax system on "sin" products. From 1984 to 1986, it was specific tax plus ad valorem; from 1986 to 1996, it was ad valorem; and from 1996 to the present, it has been specific tax.

Why do members of Congress keep changing tax systems? Perhaps because whenever a new tax scheme is proposed in Congress, lobbyists with conflicting interests on the tax in question are very active in Congress, and you know what that means. And there are no more generous lobbyists than those representing the manufacturers of cigarettes and liquor.

What are these taxes? The specific tax is a fixed tax on every pack of cigarettes, regardless of retail cost. The proposed increase is a uniform P1 for the pack retailing at P13.44 and for the pack selling at 40 centavos. Thus, the high-priced cigarettes will be sold from the old P13.44 a pack to the new P14.44 per pack, an increase of 7 percent. The low-priced cigarette, on the other hand, will be sold from the original 40 centavos to P1.40 a pack, an increase of 250 percent.

If the increase is P2 per pack, the premium brand will sell at P15.44, an increase of only 15 percent. But the low-priced brand will sell at P2.40 a pack, or a whopping 500 percent increase. There are several tiers of prices for cigarettes, set in consideration of the smokers' different class levels and tastes. From 40 centavos a pack, the prices go up gradually to P1.12, P5.60, P8.96, to P13.44. But the percentage of increases go down proportionately from 250 percent, to 89 percent, to 18 percent, to 11 percent and to only 7 percent for the premium brand, respectively. If the increase is doubled to P2 per pack, the percentages are also doubled, from a high of 500 percent for the low-priced brand to a low of only 15 percent for the premium brand.

As you can see, an across-the-board increase, which is the specific tax, imposes disproportionate burdens on the different brands and their smokers.

The ad valorem tax, on the other hand, is a fixed percentage added to the price per pack. The higher the price, the bigger the tax, although the percentage remains the same for both the premium and the low-priced brands.

Not surprisingly, the competing manufacturers favor the tax most favorable to them. Philip Morris and La Suerte, which manufacture the premium foreign brands, favor the specific tax, while Fortune Tobacco, which manufactures the lower-priced local brands, favors the ad valorem.

Philip Morris and La Suerte say that under the ad valorem tax manufacturers can deflate their selling price to retailers so that they would pay less taxes. In the new ad valorem tax, however, the tax would be based on the retail prices per pack of each brand in selected outlets.

Fortune, on the other hand, says that the specific tax system results in the unequal sharing of the tax burden among the various brands of cigarettes. To illustrate, compare the tax imposed on two brands, Philip Morris and Hope, Fortune's highest-priced brand. The retail price of a pack of Philip Morris in 2003 was P22.31; it was taxed at P8.96 a pack. On the other hand, Hope cost only P17.81 and was taxed at the same rate-P8.96 a pack. The tax burden of Philip Morris, therefore, was only 40 percent while Hope was 50 percent.

Increasing the tax rate by P1 a pack will increase the tax burden of Hope to 56 percent while that of Philip Morris will rise to only 45 percent.

But if the tax burden is equalized by the ad valorem tax to 50 percent of the actual retail price, the tax on Philip Morris would be P11.22. The combined taxes of Hope and Philip Morris would be P20.18 or P2.26 (12.63 percent) more than their combined taxes under a specific tax scheme. For these two brands alone, had they been taxed in 2003 in proportion to their retail prices, the government could have collected P609 million more.

For the top 11 brands, (all are taxed under Republic Act 8240 at P8.96 per pack), the tax lost in 2003-had they been taxed in proportion to their retail prices-amounted to P1.74 billion!

Besides, Fortune says, that the ad valorem system is consistent with Sec. 28, paragraph 1 of Article VI of the Constitution, to wit: "The rule of taxation shall be uniform and equitable. The Congress shall evolve a progressive system of taxation."

Fortune maintains that the ad valorem system is a progressive tax measure where all products pay proportionately according to their actual retail prices.

For example, applying the 1996 ad valorem tax rates to the 2003 retail prices and volume sold by the 11 major brands, tax collection should have been P14.594 billion, or P2.670 billion more than what was actually collected. Including other brands, the industry's tax payments would have totaled P25.087 billion, or P5.615 billion more than the tax actually collected.

By the way, in 2003, Fortune Tobacco paid the biggest share in the industry total, more than P11 billion in taxes, or more than 56 percent of the total revenues collected by the government from the whole tobacco industry. The second biggest was paid by Philip Morris, more than P7.6 billion, or 38.8 percent of the total, while La Suerte paid only P630.1 million, or 3.20 percent.

The total tax collection in 2003 was P69.31 billion. Almost one-third or 28.42 percent of that came from the tobacco industry.

Foreign drug firms killing RP patients softly

Foreign drug firms killing RP patients softly

Updated 01:05am (Mla time) Oct 08, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the October 8, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


THE GOVERNMENT has finally accepted the fact that in the Philippines, the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. In fact, hunger already stalks the land. So the government will start giving out food coupons to the poor, and there are already lugaw lines at the Quiapo church, the counterpart of the bread lines during the American Depression.

That probably takes care of the food problem, at least in its very limited scope. But what about the "medicine problem," which is oftentimes more desperate and life-threatening than the "food problem"? The prices of medicines are so high that many patients die needlessly because they cannot afford to buy them.

The government has tried to alleviate the problem by passing the "Generic Drugs Law" which requires doctors to write the generic names, instead of the brand names, of the drugs they prescribe so that their patients can choose the cheapest available. And the Department of Trade is importing limited quantities of medicine from India that manufactures them cheaply.

But the results of these efforts are like a drop in the bucket in the supply of medicines consumed by sick Filipinos daily. Only a few drugs have generic, inexpensive equivalents here. And the drugs from India are very limited, both in quantity and in the diseases that they cure.

Four multinational pharmaceutical companies control almost 80 percent of the Philippine market. Filipino companies, of which Unilab is the biggest, have only a 20 percent share. As in our downstream oil industry, the foreigners have monopolistic control of the Filipino consuming public, so that they can dictate any price they want. That is why the prices of branded medicines are beyond the reach of the poor and often even of the middle class.

Not only that, they use unwarranted patent exploitation at the expense of Filipino patients. One case in point concerns a drug that affects millions of hypertensive patients who have to take blood pressure-lowering drugs for the rest of their lives.

In 1987, the multinational pharmaceutical company, Dupont, filed an application for a patent for its anti-hypertensive drug (generic name: Losartan; brand name: Cozaar). After abandoning the application for more than 13 years, it now wants to revive the application. Obviously, Dupont wants to continue the monopoly of the product and consequently retain its exorbitant pricing and profits.

The anti-hypertensive market is a P7.3 billion market, of which P201 million goes to Losartan. Dupont's Cozaar monopolized the Losartan market until June 2004 when a local pharmaceutical company introduced a competing product.

The retail price of the 50 mg Cozaar is P39; the Philippine product is P20.20, or a difference of P18.80. The 100 mg Cozaar retails for P55, the competing brand for only P26, or a difference of P28. With that big difference in prices, Cozaar will naturally lose a sizable chunk of the market and Dupont wants to prevent that by trying to revive its patent application that the old Bureau of Patents, Trademarks and Technology Transfer (BPTTT) had already declared as abandoned way back on Sept. 20, 1988.

There is another probable reason why the foreign company wants to revive the application now. During those 13 years, it was operating as if it already had a patent since it had a monopoly of the Losartan market. But now there is a competitor, so it wants protection.

The life of a patent under the present Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines is 20 years from the date of filing of the application. The patent application Dupont is pursuing was filed in 1987 when the applicable law was RA 165 which provides that the term of patent shall begin on the date the patent was issued and expire 17 years later.

If it gets the patent only this year, it would therefore continue to have a monopoly for another 17 years--after already enjoying such a monopoly for the last 13 years. That has the effect of extending patent protection for 30 years!

Cozaar was issued US patents in 1992 and 1994. It is absurd that a product that has been in the market that long should still be given patent protection.

Dupont alleged in its petition for revival of the abandoned patent application that the Notice of Abandonment sent by the BPTTT did not reach its office in 1988 and that its lawyer never notified it of the abandonment. BPTTT rules allow a petition for revival to be filed within four months from abandonment. Dupont filed its petition after 13 years.

The BPTTT and IPO affirmed the denial on the grounds that Dupont is bound by the mistake or negligence of its former counsel and that the period for filing a petition for revival had long lapsed.

Dupont filed with the Court of Appeals a petition for review. The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) argued that the period for revival prescribed in the BPTTT's rules on patent is mandatory and that Dupont is bound by the negligence of its counsel.

But in its decision, the CA said that despite the lapse of 16 years, there is sufficient justification to relax the application of the doctrine that a party is bound by the mistake of its counsel. This decision contradicts the ruling of the Supreme Court in Schuartz vs. Court of Appeals where it held that "where an unreasonable period of time had lapsed prior to the filing of a petition for revival of a patent application due to negligence of the applicant's counsel, such action would result in the forfeiture of the right to revive the patent application."

The OSG has filed a motion for reconsideration.

Recto: Senate won't pass tax measures

Recto: Senate won't pass tax measures

Updated 09:45pm (Mla time) Oct 05, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the October 6, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


HERE is good news for Filipino taxpayers. According to Sen. Ralph Recto, who was a guest at the Kapihan sa Manila forum last Monday, the eight proposed tax measures, even if passed by Congress, will not improve the economic situation of the Philippines. Neither will they provide jobs to Filipinos nor improve their lives. Collections from these tax measures will only be used to pay our foreign debts. Therefore, they will benefit foreigners, not Filipinos, whose take-home pay will be less because of the tax bite.

So why is that good news? Because the tax measures will not improve the economic situation anyway, Recto said, he doesn't think the Senate will pass any of them, not even the increase in the sin taxes, and especially not the increase in the oil tariff because it is regressive. Recto is the chair of the Senate ways and means committee, so his words regarding taxes have a lot of weight.

So, without new taxes, where does he propose the government get the money to pay our foreign debt?

From better tax administration, he said. There are hundreds of billions of pesos in taxes out there waiting to be collected, he pointed out.

Not only does the government not collect the correct taxes but also refunds taxes to ghost companies that never paid any taxes at all, somebody commented.

Yes, the tax credit scam, Recto agreed.

And in spite of the scam, do you know that the government is still giving out tax credit certificates?

Giving tax credit certificates is not bad per se, Recto said. We have to honor commitments to investors. The mistake was in allowing the certificates to be sold to third parties. That gave smart operators an idea how to make a killing. If they were non-transferable, there would have been no tax credit scam.

What about the plan to remove the tax incentives given to investors in free trade zones like the locators in Subic?

The incentives should continue, he replied. We should honor our commitments. We can remove the incentives to incoming investors if we want, but not from those who are already here. We cannot change policies after the investors are already in, otherwise nobody would believe us anymore. Nobody would invest here anymore.

* * *

Not only will new investors not come in, but those that are already here are threatening to pull out, particularly many of those in the Subic Special Economic Zone because of alleged "high-handed moves" of government against them. Recently, the Bureau of Internal Revenue bared moves to impose new taxes on locators in Subic and disallow several of their incentives. That will put business viability in the area under peril, the locators protested.

Ichiro Tsuji, president of the Subic Techno Park, said recently that Japanese investors are "very disappointed" with the proposed changes, fearing that these will result in the "contraction of business activities inside the Freeport zone." Taiwanese investors are also "agitated" over the plan.

Under the Bases Conversion Law (RA 7227), investors in the special economic zones pay only 5 percent tax on gross income in lieu of all other taxes. They are also entitled to tax breaks on direct costs incurred in the conduct of their operations. But the BIR, really desperate for tax collections, revealed recently its intention to scrap the tax breaks on all administrative, selling and operating expenses even if these are incurred directly and exclusively in registered business activities.

"Foul!" cried the investors. You can't change the rules in the middle of the game. The changes would make the investors less competitive.

A large number of investors have made Subic the hub of their businesses because of several considerations: its location, the set-up, and the investment incentives. But while the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority is working hard to lure investors through tax incentives, the BIR is working just as hard to restrict the beneficial effects of these incentives to generate the needed revenues--a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.

They are not seeking tax exemptions, the investors said. But they deserve respect, fairness and consistency in the application of rules that directly affect them.

But the government desperately needs more money to pay its debts, 'di ba? Yes, but crisis or not, fairness and consistency are the values by which government can command the respect of investors and the public.

* * *

Still on the subject of fair play in the rules affecting business, the government has changed its mind on a rule in the bidding, scheduled late this month, for the sale of Napocor's coal-fired Masinloc power plant in Zambales. Foreign investors have denounced a provision which states that any winning bid by a foreign company may be matched by a Filipino-owned company, which will then be proclaimed the winner.

"Foul again!" howled the foreign investors. This is unfair, discriminatory and grossly disadvantageous to them who spend a lot of money to conduct studies and due diligence on the facility to be sold so that they can determine the right price, they said.

Among the foreign bidders are Marubeni of Japan, Kepco of Korea, YNN of Australia, YTL of Malaysia and the Atlanta-based Mirant. The lone Filipino bidder is First Generation Holdings of the Lopez Group.

I reported all these in my Sept. 27 column. Two days later, the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp., the government agency tasked with disposing of Napocor's assets, removed that controversial provision.

Rivers and riverbanks as transport highways

Rivers and riverbanks as transport highways

Updated 02:25am (Mla time) Oct 04, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the October 4, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


(Continued from last Wednesday)

DO you realize that we have so many problems because our policies are topsy-turvy? We have monopolies and oligopolies where there should be free enterprise: in the cement, oil, power, pharmaceutical and steel industries. And we have free enterprise where there should be government control: in land transportation, especially in Metro Manila.

There is anarchy in the streets of the metropolis because any Tom, Dick and Harry can buy a jeepney, bus, FX van or tricycle, bribe somebody at the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board or city hall to get a franchise, and let the vehicle loose on the roads. Anybody can buy a vehicle, park it on the street and nobody gives a s--t even if it contributes to traffic congestion. In Tokyo, you cannot buy a vehicle unless you can show a title to a garage or parking slot. In New York, you cannot park your car just anywhere.

You can erect your shanty on railroad tracks, or occupy train stations and make them your home and even convert them into commercial establishments (e.g, billiard halls), and the government will even sell the rail tracks right of way to you.

There are too many vehicles on the streets because foreign-owned car and motorcycle assemblers pour thousands of units out to the streets every year, but practically none is phased out.

Too many vehicles and too few streets, that's the big problem.

Yet there are alternatives to roadways staring us in the face but nobody sees them. In an earlier column, I mentioned the railroad which the Arroyo administration wants to phase out in Metro Manila. Yet we need effective mass transit systems to transport people.

And then there are the rivers and the seas that used to be our highways before we fell in love with the motor vehicle. It is surprising that the Philippines, an archipelago surrounded by water, pays so little attention to water transportation.

Not so long ago, commerce moved along the coasts and on the rivers on board barges, sailboats and bancas. Passenger ferries of the Magsaysay Lines were operating along the Pasig River, but they did not become popular because they were too small and too low in the water, and the passengers could smell the polluted water and did not feel safe in them.

The Pasig River is still a good highway. It is still used to transport oil and other products upriver on board barges. So why not try the passenger ferry system on the river again with better boats? Ferries used to transport guests at Disney World in Florida. They are just right for the Pasig River. They have a shallow draft so they won't run aground. They need only to be air conditioned so their passengers won't smell the stinky water. They will help immensely in relieving land traffic in Metro Manila.

All the world's great rivers in the biggest cities are being used as water highways. The Rhine, the Seine and the Volga in Europe, the Mississippi (United States), the Nile (Egypt) and the Amazon (South America) are not only highways but great tourist attractions. Thailand uses its rivers as much as its streets.

As a boy I remember watching, from the banks of the Tullahan-Tenejeros River, cascos loaded with vinegar, salt, nipa shingles and other products from Bulacan being poled downriver to the markets of Malabon, Navotas, Caloocan and Manila. We swam and played in this river in the old days. It used to feed the fishponds of Malabon and Bulacan with fresh seawater from Manila Bay. It is now an open cesspool because of the pollutants from the factories and squatters that line its banks. This is the same river that floods Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela during high tide.

I understand that a dike will be constructed along the riverbanks to keep the high tide out. The top of the dikes on both banks of the river might as well be constructed to also serve as new roads from Bulacan to Manila Bay. There are very few roads-and very narrow ones, at that-in Malabon. The dikes will give the people a new route to Bulacan. The MacArthur Highway is already too congested.

And if the river traffic is revived, people can travel to and from Bulacan on ferries, instead of on crowded buses and jeepneys, and arrive at their destinations relaxed, cool and fresh. The same ferries can go up the Pasig River and to the isolated coastal towns of Laguna Lake. And on Manila Bay, passengers can transfer to ferries bound for Cavite and Bataan. Thus, the coastal road, the Aguinaldo Highway and the highway to Bataan will be relieved of much traffic.

The easements on both banks of the Pasig River can also be turned into one-way streets from Manila Bay to Laguna de Bay, thus adding two more streets in Metro Manila. This will give street frontage to the lots along the river, thus increasing their value. Right now, the lots are just the backyards of the factories and lined with squatter shanties.

In Sydney, Australia, the banks of the river, from downtown Sydney to the sea, are lined with streets. The most expensive residences can be found along these streets.

And there are ferries coming from downtown to take residents home. You can watch a concert at the Opera House, board the ferry at midnight and arrive home in half an hour.

The development of river highways will have many other advantages: factories can no longer throw their garbage and liquid effluents into the river; squatters can no longer build their shanties on riverbanks; the rivers will be clean again; property values will rise, and local government units can collect more real estate taxes.