More betrayals in Arroyo administration

More betrayals in Arroyo administration


Posted 10:47pm (Mla time) Jan 30, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the January 31, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


ILOCOS SUR Gov. Chavit Singson was hopping mad last Saturday after he read a story in one newspaper that President Macapagal-Arroyo had reached a deal with former President Estrada to stop the latter from attacking her administration. The deal was allegedly for GMA (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) to drop Singson in exchange for Erap going slow in his attacks on GMA and her policies. The story said it was Presidential Chief of Staff Norberto Gonzales who struck the arrangement during a one-hour talk with Erap at the latter's rest house in Tanay, Rizal.

True or false? Singson suspects it is true because a day after Gonzales' visit, GMA issued a statement that she plans a change in the Poro Point Management Corp. (PPMC), the agency implementing projects in the La Union port. Singson's former employees-Carmelita Itchon and Emma Lim-are members of the PPMC board. The two had testified against Erap. A relative of Singson, Filodelfo Roxas, heads the PPMC.

At the time GMA made the statement, Erap announced the formation of a citizen's committee that, he said, would help solve the country's economic problems.

The next day, Malacañang said, "The President welcomed the opposition's move not to destabilize her administration and its offer to help."

If you were Singson, what would you think? No wonder he was very angry. This is ingratitude and a betrayal of the worst kind, he said. It is all right to woo your enemies, he added, but not at the expense of your allies.

Circumstantial evidence really points that way, but let's wait for what Malacañang has to say and for further developments.

I hope it is not true; but if it is, it just proves GMA is true to her character: she cannot be trusted. It is just the latest chapter in a career full of betrayals and false promises.

* * *

The increase in the Value Added Tax is one more such betrayal of the people. The increase will hit the poor where it hurts most: in their pockets and their stomachs.

Malacañang's statement that basic commodities will be exempted from the increase is a lie. There is no provision in the bill passed by the House exempting basic goods from the VAT. Congressmen said the exemption would be passed later or inserted by the Senate-House bicameral conference committee.

But what happens if the exemption is not passed? As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. This is not the first time that a bill with good intentions is lost in the wheeling and dealing in Congress. It would be just one more betrayal, nothing new in the Arroyo administration.

The increase in many government fees, the increase in power and water rates, the continuing rise in the prices of fuel and medicine are more betrayals. Maybe the administration cannot stop the rise in power and fuel prices, but it certainly could have stopped the increase in government fees out of consideration for the people already being squeezed dry. The fact that many government agencies rushed to increase fees means they had the tacit consent of the President. To paraphrase Hamlet: Betrayer, thy name is woman.

* * *

What's happening to our policemen? After a policeman ran amuck and killed six persons in Aklan, another policeman shot in the head, in cold blood, a helpless and defenseless dog. In the premises of the Senate, pa. The latter policeman is no ordinary cop. He is a member of the elite Special Action Force (SAF), whose members are carefully selected and specially trained. That is why they were the ones chosen to secure the Senate.

So what happened to this particular cop that he cold-bloodedly shot the dog "Butchoy" in the head? His excuse was that his unit had orders to keep dogs away from the Senate premises (if it was the House, I would say it is because crocodiles hate dogs). But surely, the senators didn't order them to shoot dogs, did they?

Many people were angered by the merciless shooting of Butchoy, a pet of the employees of the Senate motor pool. Fortunately, the dog did not die, though the .22-caliber bullet is still lodged in its head. It may still die. It is now frail and sickly.

The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) (bless its soul) has offered to nurse Butchoy back to health and adopt it. But even if the dog survives, the future is not so bright for it. In the future, it may have epileptic fits, or worse than that. No animal harbors a bullet in its brain and remains normal.

The strange thing is why our distinguished senators and the officers of the Philippine National Police are unusually quiet. Not even a slap on the wrist of the erring cop. It is said that the Senate SAF members had earlier shot another dog and ate its meat as pulutan in a drinking spree.

Obviously, they liked the taste of asocena and so they tried to make out of Butchoy another asocena.

A law, the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), penalizes the killing, butchering, selling and eating of dog meat. The duty of policemen is to enforce laws and arrest those who violate it. The day after Butchoy's sad tale came out in the media, the police arrested several persons in Tondo for butchering dogs and selling their meat. What about the policeman who shot Butchoy?

I hope the Senate and PNP leadership punish the erring cop to show the rest of the population that-in the words of Sen. Alfredo Lim-"the law applies to all, or not at all."

Today, a dog was shot in cold blood by a cop; tomorrow, it could be a person.

Pasig ferry may help ease land traffic

Pasig ferry may help ease land traffic


Posted 01:06am (Mla time) Jan 28, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the January 28, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


A LITTLE bit of good news in an otherwise bleak situation, like a ray of sunshine during a cloudy day, is the announcement that the government will revive the ferry service in the Pasig River, something that this column has long been urging. The ferry will greatly contribute to decongesting the streets of Metro Manila and shorten travel time from Manila to points east.

The Pasig River, as well as its tributaries and “esteros” [creeks], was a water highway for both passenger and cargo long before we were seduced by the land vehicles powered by the internal combustion engine. It is still a useful highway in the same way that Thailand and Australia are using their waterways (the floating markets of Thailand is a tourist attraction) for transportation.

A ferry service was attempted twice or thrice but all failed for a number of reasons: the water vessels fielded were small and low in the water so that passengers were scared to board them and, once aboard, they couldn't help but smell the stinking water. Besides, the view from the boat was depressing and revolting: the backyards of factories, long lines of squatter shanties along the banks with people defecating into the water, and piles of trash everywhere.

Because of the shallowness of the river, the low bridges spanning it, and the stink of the water, the ferryboats should be of shallow draft and should have air-conditioning to keep the smell out. The ferryboats of Disney World in Orlando, Florida, (not the double-deckers of the Hong Kong ferry) would make a good model. They are of shallow draft, just right for the shallow waters of the Pasig, and are air-conditioned with the front and back decks open for smokers.

But even with first-class boats, a ferry service might still fail if the passengers see the same depressing sights along the banks. Along with the ferry, the national government and the local government units should develop the right-of-way along the banks as roads, the same way Mayor Lito Atienza is developing the Manila riverbanks into river walks.

Our officials have traveled around the world enough to see how other countries have made use of their rivers. In Sydney, Australia, there is a ferry service from downtown along the river to the sea. Both banks have been transformed into streets. The most expensive houses line the river. You can watch a concert at the Sydney Opera House, take the ferry home at midnight, and be home in a few minutes.

In the United States, notably in San Antonio, Texas, and New Orleans, the riverbanks have been developed into entertainment and leisure spots. And in Europe, all the major rivers are tourist attractions with ferryboats taking tourists on river cruises. Any other country with a major river cutting through its main metropolis, like the Pasig bisecting Metro Manila, will not hesitate to develop it for tourism.

But the banks of our Pasig River can hardly be attractive to tourists. They are the ugly backyards of factories that dump their garbage and keep the equipment they want to hide there. Squatter shanties also line the banks like a festering sore.

We should develop the banks into streets all the way to Laguna Lake. The owners of lots along the river may even agree to donate part of their backyards to widen the streets. After all, the value of their properties will rise. Instead of just being their backyards, these properties will have another frontage.

And oh, the governments should also clear the undersides of bridges of squatters, otherwise ferryboats passing under will emerge with their roofs festooned with garbage, the same way railroad trains become like a garbage dump when they pass through a squatter colony.

Traveling by boat across the metropolis is much more relaxing and cooler than bearing the heat and dust cooped up in a jeepney or bus, inching through traffic. Before the Coastal Road to Cavite was constructed, there was a ferry service from Luneta to Cavite City that took workers to and from their homes and jobs. We used to take this ferry on late afternoons from Manila to Cavite and back just to relax, sipping cold beer on deck during the trip. The ferry was discontinued when the road was finished, but it is now so choked with traffic that the ferry service should be revived.

In fact, the Pasig River ferry should later be extended to Laguna Lake (and a boulevard built around the lake) to service the lakeshore towns.

Another project that I have repeatedly been urging is the use of both banks of the Tullahan-Tenejeros River from Manila Bay, through Malabon, to Valenzuela as streets. A flood control dike is planned for the whole stretch of the river. It is logical to turn the concrete tops of the dikes into roads to provide commuters with another highway besides the congested MacArthur Highway. That should stop squatters from building their shanties on the banks of the river, the factories from emptying their effluents into it, and people from throwing their garbage into the river and making it their own private cesspool. With roads lining the banks, the value of adjoining lots would appreciate as they would have another street frontage, and the local governments can collect more in real estate taxes.

Then another ferry service can connect Valenzuela and Malabon to Manila and the Pasig River and Cavite ferry services.

Warning to traffic violators: You are being 'shot'

Warning to traffic violators: You are being 'shot'


Posted 11:25pm (Mla time) Jan 25, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the January 26, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


HERE'S a warning to jaywalkers and undisciplined drivers: You think you are getting away scot-free when those aging, shabby-looking traffic aides of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority don't arrest you for violating traffic rules? You don't. In a few days or weeks, you will receive a letter from the MMDA telling you that you have just been "shot" (meaning, photographed) violating a traffic rule and you have to pay the fine at the nearest bank.

Yes, the traffic aides directing traffic act as though they are blind, oblivious to the traffic violations right and left, but you are not really getting off easily. Other traffic aides are surreptitiously taking pictures of you and your vehicle, undeniable proof of your violations, and you have to pay the fine, or else....

What if the driver or jaywalker disregards the letter and does not pay the fine? Again, you will think you are getting away with it. Nothing will happen for weeks and months. You may even commit more violations with no apparent repercussions. But wait until you try to renew your driver's license at the Land Transportation Office. Your name will appear in the computers as a delinquent driver and your license will not be renewed. You may even go to jail.

The penalty for traffic violations, including jaywalking, is a mere warning for the first offense, a fine for the second offense, and a jail term for the third.

MMDA Chair Bayani Fernando explained at the Kapihan sa Manila last Monday other aspects of his campaign to impose traffic order in the metropolis, including his tiff (he calls it "misunderstanding") with a few mayors over the "wet-flag scheme."

"There are only three or four mayors (opposing the 'wet flag')," said Fernando, "but there are 17 Metro Manila mayors. And these three probably thought that the 'wet-flag' scheme will douse pedestrians with water like they do in San Juan during the feast of St. John the Baptist. No, the 'wet flag' will only wet them to remind them to get off the street."

And here's another warning from Fernando: You think that after the trucks with the "wet flags" pass, you can safely step back into the street to wait for your ride? Don't. There are prison buses following those trucks. If you go back to the street, you will be arrested, thrown into these prison buses and taken to police headquarters where you will be booked and made to pay hefty fines, or jailed if you are a recidivist. The "wet flag" is just a warning of more dire consequences coming behind.

Why don't they just arrest the jaywalkers outright without resorting to the "wet flag''?

"We don't really want to arrest people," replied Fernando. "It's embarrassing to them, is a waste of time, and is hard on their pockets. Arrest is only the last resort. The 'wet flag' is just a fair warning. But if they persist in violating traffic rules, we have no choice but to arrest them."

As for the alleged violation of human rights, what right is being violated? Fernando asked. What gives the jaywalkers the right to wait for rides on the street and disrupt the smooth flow of traffic? Isn't getting slightly wet so much better than being arrested and fined?

The trouble is that when others see violators not being arrested by the traffic aides visible nearby, they think those traffic aides are inutile or are afraid of the drivers and jaywalkers and follow suit, Fernando was told.

"That's their mistake. Sooner or later, the long arm of the law will catch up with them. And then they will learn their lesson," the MMDA chief replied.

Why don't you make a show of arresting the violators so that others will obey the rules? When people know that erring drivers and jaywalkers are being arrested, they suddenly become law-abiding.

"The trouble with that is that they get into the habit of obeying the law only when they see law enforcers. But they should get into the habit of obeying the law at all times, even when there is no policeman around," Fernando said. "When they learn that they are being photographed by somebody they cannot see and that the summons to pay the fine will come soon enough, they will also learn that 'big brother is watching' them and they will be careful."

"Besides," Fernando continued, "when there is contact between the violator and the traffic aide, that's where the temptation for bribery comes in. The 'no-contact' rule removes that temptation."

Pedestrians are forced to walk in the streets because the sidewalks are full of parked vehicles, if not sidewalk vendors, Fernando was told.

The vendors were allowed to go back to the sidewalks by some mayors during the Christmas season but this privilege should be removed now that the holidays are over, he said. As for the parked vehicles, there really is a shortage of parking spaces in Metro Manila. It is the responsibility of local government units to provide those parking spaces, either by constructing parking buildings themselves, or by giving private business incentives such as tax holidays or loans to construct them. They also should not give commercial establishments business permits unless they can show that they have ample parking space nearby and will not use the sidewalks for parking. Parking buildings earn a lot of money with a minimum of effort and investment.

Medicines imported by RP gov't are not fake

Medicines imported by RP gov't are not fake


Posted 11:31pm (Mla time) Jan 23, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the January 24, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


MULTINATIONAL pharmaceutical companies are currently on a propaganda drive to scare Filipino consumers into buying only their own branded medicines. This is a reaction to the efforts of the Philippine government, through the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC), to provide Filipinos with cheaper medicines from other countries, notably India. The propaganda line of the multinationals is that the PITC imports are fake. False.

In legal parlance, drugs coming from other countries but of the same brand as those manufactured here, are called "counterfeit." They are made of the same ingredients and the same formulation as those made here. They are even manufactured by sister companies (in India and Europe) of the multinationals here. Technically, they are made by the same company, but by its different branches. Yet they are called "counterfeit" when they are imported by countries where they are not manufactured. They are the same medicines, genuine products, only they are made in another country. They are legally termed "counterfeit."

But they are not "fake" in the sense that they are made of different materials as the real ones or are harmful to health. Unfortunately, in the Philippines, "counterfeit" is often mistaken for "fake," as in "spurious" or "fraudulent." But that is what the multinationals are trying to plant in the minds of Filipino consumers: that all imported medicines, even those made by their sister companies, are "fake."

No, they are not. They are the same medicines as those made by the multinationals here. The only difference is that they are very much cheaper than those manufactured here.

The multinationals are not making clear the difference between "counterfeit" and "fake" for obvious reasons. The strange thing is why the PITC is not explaining the difference to protect its own imports.

Even Sen. Pia Cayetano has been taken in by this false propaganda. At a hearing of the Senate committee on health, it was obvious that she also confuses "counterfeit" drugs with "fake" drugs, as did the other committee members. Cayetano said the Department of Health, Bureau of Customs, PITC and the Drug Stores Association of the Philippines (DSAP) should "disseminate information necessary to combat the illegal trade."

One necessary information to enlighten the public is precisely to differentiate between "counterfeit" and "fake drugs." And in the second place, the drugs being imported by the PITC are not "illegal." The PITC was tasked precisely to import medicines because those manufactured here by the multinationals are so expensive they are beyond the reach of the poor. Secretary Roberto Pagdanganan, chief of the PITC, was at the hearing, but he did not take the opportunity to explain that the medicines his agency are importing are not "fake." Neither did the representatives of the DOH, who should know better.

Why have the multinationals embarked on this false propaganda? Because they are afraid of the competition they may face from the cheap drugs the PITC is importing from India, Pakistan and Europe. The multinationals have nothing to be afraid of because they control 80 percent of the Philippine drug market. Filipino pharmaceutical companies, of which Unilab is the biggest, have the remaining 20 percent.

The multinationals compose an oligopoly. Only one company manufactures the different medicines of the different drug companies. And they are marketed by one big drugstore chain, Mercury Drug, that has hundreds of branches all over the country. Many of the small family owned boticas and farmacias have been killed off by this chain.

And that is why the multinational drug companies can dictate their high prices. They have no real competition, like the Big 3 oil companies.

And that is why then Trade Secretary Mar Roxas thought of importing medicines from India, where they are priced a fraction of what they command here. The present PITC is continuing the importations and distributing them through government hospitals and clinics and health centers. These are not enough, however, so the PITC is distributing the cheaper drugs through the small boticas and sari-sari stores to make them accessible to as many people as possible. And that is why Cayetano told the committee hearing that most of the fake drugs "are sold in sari-sari stores and small drugstores," and urged the public to "buy only from reputable drugstores (meaning Mercury) and pharmaceutical companies" (meaning the multinationals). The target of the propaganda is obviously the cheap imports of the government.

Of course, there are really fake drugs manufactured here by illegal, small backyard companies but the multinationals are not afraid of them. What they are really afraid of are the legitimate government imports. And there may really be some medicines smuggled here. But that is because local prices are so high that it makes smuggling profitable.

Let me repeat: the medicines being imported by the PITC from India and Europe are much cheaper but they are not fake. The Philippine government will not import fake medicines.

Why can India make the same medicines much cheaper? Because it does not have to pay for the patent rights by using a different process but using the same ingredients. We should change our patent laws so we can do the same thing and remove our people from the greedy clutches of the multinationals.

* * *

REMINDER: This evening, at 6:30, is the inauguration of the Front Page piano bar and Plaridel's clubhouse and art gallery on T.M. Kalaw Street, near the Rizal Park in Manila. Journalists and their friends are invited.

People want to know who their president is

People want to know who their president is


Posted 02:27am (Mla time) Jan 21, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the January 21, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


WITH FERNANDO Poe Jr. dead, should his election protest against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo be continued? There are legal experts who believe that the poll protest died with FPJ, but there are also those who say it can, and should be, continued. In fact, there are precedents wherein the Supreme Court allowed the running mate of a protesting loser to take over the poll protest when the principal died before the case was finished.

This was the topic of the Kapihan sa Manila last Monday where Ilocos Norte Rep. Imee Marcos and lawyer Romulo Macalintal took opposing sides. Macalintal, who is President Arroyo's counsel, said the case should be dismissed outright and buried with FPJ. Marcos, on the other hand, said that on the contrary, there is now a more urgent need to determine who really won the election. She said the tens of thousands of people who flocked to FPJ's wake and funeral and the thousands more who signed the petition urging his widow Susan Roces to take his place in the protest, show how great is the following of FPJ and who believe that their idol won the presidency but was cheated.

I personally believe that President Arroyo's popularity rating is on a crash dive because of this belief-not only of FPJ fans but of a majority of the population-aside of course from the fact that the living conditions of most Filipinos are getting worse and that President Arroyo's promised reforms are not getting off the ground.

If President Arroyo is to recover her approval rating, she has to prove that she did not cheat and that she won fair and square. The only way to do that is to go ahead and hear FPJ's protest.

Indeed, if I were President Arroyo and I know I did not cheat, I would like nothing better than to prove my detractors wrong by pushing for the recount. For that is the only way I can remove any doubt in the minds of the people of my legitimacy.

On the other hand, if I know I cheated, I will do everything in my power to stop the recount because I will be found out.

So if she blocks the protest before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (her counsel has already filed a motion to dismiss), the people will think President Arroyo is afraid the truth will come out. And if the PET votes to dismiss the protest, the people will believe that it is part of the conspiracy. Tragically, collateral damage will affect the Supreme Court and the whole judicial system, now already rocked by a number of scandals.

Looking back, it is clear that President Arroyo is deathly afraid of the popularity of the movie idol from the very beginning. Instead of facing him squarely before the electorate, she tried to have FPJ disqualified by producing falsified records tending to show that he was not a Filipino citizen. In the counting of votes for president and vice president, her allies in Congress successfully blocked every attempt by the opposition to look at the statement of votes to determine conclusively the number of votes that the candidates garnered.

When FPJ died, President Arroyo showed that she was more afraid of him dead than alive. She barricaded herself in Malacañang on the day of his funeral, as if expecting an invasion, and pitifully pleaded with the military "to stand by" her and not to desert her as it did to President Joseph Estrada during Edsa 2. In Shakespeare's play, Macbeth is terrified by the ghost of Banquo because he knows he is guilty. He had had Banquo murdered by his hired assassins. Is the same feeling of guilt behind President Arroyo's fear of her dead rival?

FPJ is dead; he cannot take over the presidency anymore. Why bother to go through with the recount? Because the people want to know with certainty who won the election. Leave them in doubt and President Arroyo will be saddled with a handicap. People will doubt she is the legitimate president. The notion that she stole the presidency from Estrada and then stole it again from his friend FPJ will gain credibility.

As Marcos said, it is no longer just FPJ and his followers who want to know. It is the people. Susan won't take over the presidency if FPJ wins in the recount. The people just want to know.

The PET should not hide behind technicalities. For the sake of the stability of the nation, it should exercise "judicial statesmanship" and satisfy the craving of the people to know with certainty who is their president.

* * *

Don't forget the formal inauguration of the Front Page piano bar and Plaridel's art gallery and clubhouse on T.M. Kalaw Street (opposite the National Library), Manila, this coming Monday, Jan. 24, at 6:30 in the evening. All journalists and their friends from the government, business, public relations and the diplomatic corps are invited.

An exhibit by two artists, paintings by Malang and sculptures by Julie Lluch on a common theme, "Women," will open at the third floor gallery on the same day. Malang and Lluch are two of the foremost interpreters of a popular subject in Philippine art, the Filipino woman.

Famous impersonator Willie Nepomuceno and a new President Arroyo look-alike (down to her size) plus celebrity singers will entertain the guests during the cocktails.

Manila Mayor Lito Atienza will head the guests of honor and induct into office the new officers of the Samahang Kartunista ng Pilipinas.

* * *

KAPIHAN NOTES: Guests at the Kapihan sa Manila this coming Monday are MMDA Chair Bayani Fernando and PNP Director General Edgar Aglipay. Topic: You guessed it, MMDA's controversial "wet flag scheme," the traffic anarchy and Aglipay's "misunderstanding" with Sen. Jinggoy Estrada.

Instead of 'wet flag,' enforce traffic rules

Instead of 'wet flag,' enforce traffic rules


Updated 10:06pm (Mla time) Jan 18, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the January 19, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


CHAIR Bayani Fernando of the Metro Manila Development Authority is right: pedestrians and drivers (and sidewalk vendors) are undisciplined and something should be done about them. For want of anything better, that "something" is the present "wet flag scheme" that is now raising temperatures among the MMDA chair, some Metro Manila mayors and the commuting public.

Briefly, the problem is this: Commuters waiting for rides get off the sidewalks and wait on the streets, oftentimes up to the middle of the street, to be the first to board arriving jeepneys or buses. Thus, they constrict the space for vehicles, creating traffic jams.

The MMDA and local governments have put up signs ("Strictly No Loading/Unloading," "Huwag mag abang dito; doon ka sa bangketa," etc.), constructed waiting sheds, put up barricades and fences along the sidewalks and on the street islands (making Metro Manila look like Laguna Lake with its myriad fishpens) to force pedestrians off the streets, but to no avail. Commuters continue to ignore them.

Even with the sidewalk barriers, commuters get off the sidewalk through the gaps where they are supposed to board jeepneys and walk back to where the jeepneys are coming from so they would be among the first to get rides, filling up the streets with people instead of vehicles.

Thus, the MMDA thought of the "wet flag scheme." A dripping wet flag hanging from a pole slung on the roof of a vehicle slowly moves beside the sidewalks, thus wetting pedestrians who are on the streets. This will force them to go back on the sidewalk, goes the MMDA logic.

The trouble is, people get off the streets when they see the "wet flag" coming but go back as soon as it passes. In a few minutes, the situation is back to where it was.

Why not just arrest the pedestrians for jaywalking and the drivers for loading passengers outside the loading/unloading zones as the law mandates?

The MMDA counters that it does not have enough manpower to arrest all the traffic violators. Maybe so, but when the people see that at least some of the jaywalkers are being arrested, some of them will take the hint and wait where they are supposed to.

Lack of manpower is not the real reason. The real reason is that the MMDA's traffic enforcers are afraid to confront violators. Being former street sweepers promoted to traffic enforcers, they have inferiority complexes. They feel inadequate when arresting violators (are they even authorized to do that?). They prefer to stand in the middle of the street where they can be seen by their superiors waving their arms at oncoming vehicles. Even when all hell is breaking loose at the nearby intersection, they won't bother to go there to straighten up the jam. That's too complicated and stressful.

The situation was worsened by the cowardly act of the Philippine National Police to withdraw all its traffic policemen and leave traffic enforcement to the MMDA. The reason of PNP Director General Edgar Aglipay is to put the "kotong cops" out of business. Instead of controlling and disciplining his policemen (as then PNP chief Panfilo Lacson was able to do), Aglipay would rather take the easy way out. No cops, no kotong, so he and the PNP cannot be blamed for mulcting cops. Aglipay abdicated and adandoned the PNP duty of enforcing traffic regulations.

Result: anarchy. Pedestrians and drivers do their own thing, regardless of traffic rules. They're not afraid of the traffic enforcers who, on the contrary, are the ones afraid of them. Or worse, they are as corrupt as the "kotong cops" they replaced. The MMDA's traffic enforcers are next to useless. The salaries the taxpayers are paying them are a waste of money. Aglipay and Fernando are as much to blame for the breakdown in traffic order as the undisciplined drivers and pedestrians.

If the MMDA will arrest and fine only a third of all traffic violators, it would have enough funds to run itself without depending on the money contributed by local government units. Better still, it will finally impose discipline and restore order.

Instead of the "wet flag scheme" and other harebrained gimmicks, why doesn't the MMDA enforce traffic rules strictly, the same way it successfully cleared most sidewalks of sidewalk vendors (although they're coming back with a vengeance, thanks to mayors coddling them)? The "wet flag" is as harebrained as the petroleum sprinkled on the vegetables and fruits being sold by sidewalk vendors to get them off the sidewalks.

The MMDA spent a lot of taxpayers' money constructing the pink waiting sheds, but which few commuters bother to use. They prefer to wait on the the street corners where buses and jeepneys stop to pick them up. Why doesn't the MMDA arrest drivers who load/unload passengers away from the waiting sheds? Why doesn't it put up steel railings or ropes to the waiting sheds so commuters will be forced to fall in line while waiting for rides? If all PU vehicles would only line up to load/unload beside the waiting sheds, the process would be faster and there would be order. Commuters won't have to wait in the middle of streets and fight to get aboard PU vehicles.

Commuters fall in line to ride buses and jeepneys outside some malls in Makati. They fall in line at Megamall. Why can't we do this in other places as well? The MMDA should be concentrating on this instead of continuing the crazy "wet flag scheme."

To catch a thief

To catch a thief


Updated 11:37pm (Mla time) Jan 16, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the January 17, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


YEARS after Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack made it a box-office hit, "Ocean's Eleven," is still raking in money at the tills. A modernized remake and a sequel have been made, both of which have, like the original, an all-star cast. The newer versions have a lot of technological gizmos-laser fields, underground vaults and all that-to protect the millions of dollars earned by the Las Vegas casinos. But, somehow, I like the original better, not only because of Old Blue Eyes himself, but also because the plot was simpler.

The original "Ocean's Eleven" started out as a lark by the Rat Pack, who never thought that besides giving them something to do to relieve boredom, the movie would rake in a lot of money.

It so happened that Sinatra and the members of his Rat Pack (Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, etc.) were performing at shows in different casinos in Las Vegas (this was how Sinatra is believed to have gotten hooked up with the Mafia).

Since the shows were at night, the gang was left with nothing to do during the day except twiddle their thumbs. To occupy themselves, Sinatra thought of making a movie at daytime, with the Rat Pack as members of the cast. The story had to be about Las Vegas casinos. So "Ocean's Eleven" was born.

The original movie was about a group of World War II veterans on vacation in Las Vegas. For want of anything to do (just like the Rat Pack), they thought of robbing several casinos simultaneously. Their former commanding officer, Danny Ocean (played by Sinatra) was the brains. The other members of the group take on jobs in the casinos, so they wouldn't have a hard time executing their plan, which they successfully did while electricity was cut off briefly after they blew up a transmission tower.

The hard part was how to take the loot out of Las Vegas, which was immediately sealed off by the police with roadblocks and checkpoints. Danny thought of hiding the money in the coffin of a gang member who had dropped dead of a heart attack and was to be buried in his hometown in California.

But the Movie Production Code then in force mandated that no movie should show that crime pays. So the gang must not be allowed to get away with the fruits of its crime. (That was the same reason the gold dust so painstakingly gathered by Humphrey Bogart and his cohorts in the classic "Treasure of Sierra Madre," was blown away by a dust storm.) So while they were waiting in the chapel for the coffin to be taken away, the widow of the deceased-without their knowing it-gave permission to have the corpse cremated right there. The loot was cremated along with the corpse.

The remake (with George Clooney as Danny Ocean) did not have this ironic and humorous ending. Ocean's eleven got away with the loot. It was a box-office hit anyway, largely because of the technological gizmos they had to overcome. So it was inevitable that a sequel would be made. That sequel is "Ocean's Twelve," now showing in movie houses.

The makers of the sequel must have realized that among the appeals of the original were its tongue-in-cheek humor and the lighthearted banter among the cast. So they did the same thing with the new version. The cast obviously was on a lark while making the movie, same as the Rat Pack when they made the original (which was so successful Sinatra made several other movies using the Rat Pack).

Also like the original, the producers packed the cast with stars (besides Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, etc.). Bruce Willis appeared in a cameo role-although his name does not appear in the credits-as did Shirley Maclaine and George Raft in the original. (Sinatra should have cast Humphrey Bogart, original founder of the Rat Pack, in the original, with Lauren Bacall as his gun moll-but was he already dead when the movie was made?)

And like the original, the sequel also ended with a twist, except that the twist was forced and appeared like a cop-out. After piling up problems for the gang early in the movie, it seemed that the writers did not know how to provide the solutions and to end the movie. So they resorted to a simple cliché.

To illustrate this point, I am sorry I have to reveal a part of the plot, but it is not important anyway for the enjoyment of the movie. To begin with, Danny's gang had to do another job because the Andy Garcia character, the casino owner they robbed in the remake, demanded that they return the loot, with interest, or else....

For a change of scenery, the locale was moved to Europe. And the caper was complicated by an experienced French detective hot on their heels and a crafty thief who challenged Danny to see who of them was the better thief.

Toward the end, all the gang members were arrested by the French police, largely through the efforts of Zeta-Jones. The other master thief told Clooney and Roberts how he stole the prize himself, proving he was the better thief. And here is the twist that made the ending look like a cop-out.

In a flashback, Danny was shown telling his rival that what the latter had stolen was a mere replica; and that he, Danny, had stolen the genuine prize by the simple and hackneyed expedient of switching backpacks with the courier, while his cohorts created a diversion by creating a rumble inside a train coach. Besides, Danny's gang had an informer in the person of Zeta-Jones' long-lost father. Compared to Danny's gang of twelve, the other thief was all alone, and yet he was able to steal the replica. So he was still the better thief.

Don't waste those runaway logs

Don't waste those runaway logs


Updated 11:44pm (Mla time) Jan 09, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the January 10, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


THE LOGS that were washed down the mountainsides during the last typhoon, killing hundreds of people and flattening entire villages in Infanta, (Quezon), and in Real and Nakar (Aurora), could cause more deaths if the government wouldn't do something about them immediately. A war is about to break out between the residents of the three towns and the workers of a sawmill over these logs littering the seashores and floating on the sea and river.

The residents are making them into charcoal while the workers of the sawmill are gathering them to be sawn into lumber. For the residents, who have lost their means of livelihood after their farms were covered with mud and their fishing boats carried away by the floods, charcoal-making is their only way to earn a living. The sawmill, they say, should not take away the logs as these were the same logs that killed their loved ones and neighbors and destroyed their homes. They also insist that the logs, whose ownership can no longer be traced, don't belong to the sawmill.

After causing so much death and destruction, the logs should now be public property. The loggers should not only apologize to the residents; they should be charged in court for the damage that they have wrought.

But the greedy sawmill wants the logs for its own use.

The government should step in before the war erupts. It should confiscate all the logs, set up its own sawmill near the beach, saw the logs into lumber, give the lumber to the residents for them to use in rebuilding their homes; the remnants to be made into charcoal. The government should employ as many jobless residents as possible to gather the logs and to work in the sawmill.

Making whole logs into charcoal-which is what the residents are doing-is wasting a finite natural resource. Sawing them into lumber (only what is left should be made into charcoal) is the better alternative. Even the sawdust can be processed into charcoal bricks. Some of the lumber can be sold to fill the needs of the construction industry so that no new trees will have to be cut down.

But the lumber-sawing should not be done by the private sawmill. They no longer have any right to these logs. It would be an insult to the residents to deprive them of the use of the wood from these logs, after the logs have destroyed their homes and killed their loved ones.

The government should be the one to exercise ownership over the logs. And it should file charges against the loggers. But the government is not even moving in that direction. What is Environment Secretary Mike Defensor doing?

There's smoke day and night rising from the hundreds of charcoal kilns on the beaches of Infanta, Real and Nakar. Sacks of charcoal line the roads; they are being sold at bargain prices. Charcoal-making is the only means of livelihood of the people there. They need the help of the administration of President Macapagal-Arroyo-help that comes not only in the form of press releases, speeches, visits to the disaster areas or relief goods distribution; but real help in action, help that enables the people to rebuild their lives.

First, they have to have homes. And the building materials are there, scattered all over the place. They just have to be sawn into lumber.

Next, the people need jobs. Most of the people are farmers and fishermen. But they cannot for now farm because their fields are covered with mud, and they cannot go fishing because they have lost their boats.

So the people have turned to charcoal-making (polluting their own air), wasting precious wood that can be put to better use for the construction of their homes.

The Bureau of Agricultural Extension should teach and help the farmers to rehabilitate their fields and the Bureau of Fisheries should lend the fishermen funds with which to buy new boats. Meanwhile the Department of Environment and Natural Resources should give them jobs in the sawmill, in the gathering of logs and in the construction of new homes. GMA should not only pay lip service to helping the poor. She should do something concrete to help them.

She went to Indonesia to hobnob with world leaders and had her picture taken with them as they discussed ways of helping the victims of the tsunamis. But our President has forgotten her countrymen who were also victims of a natural disaster that was just as deadly.

* * *

The Metro Manila Development Authority will set up "loading bays" for buses along Edsa in another attempt to ease the traffic on this thoroughfare. "Loading bay" is just another name for "bus terminal," where buses will wait while they are not needed. They will be dispatched as passengers need them. That way they will not clog the whole Edsa as they wait for and pick up a few passengers.

Our problem in Metro Manila is that there is an overpopulation of vehicles, and the big lumbering buses that are not needed take up most of the street space. The Department of Transportation and Communication went overboard in encouraging operators to buy and field more buses-even giving out loans for the purpose-back when there was a shortage of public utility vehicles plying Edsa. But the DOTC did not know when to say "Stop." Now there are too many buses and there are not enough passengers to fill them. If DOTC officials will only get out of their air-conditioned offices, they will see the hordes of buses, with hardly any passengers, lined up bumper-to-bumper, wasting precious fuel and dollars that we pay to buy the oil. It is time to cull the excess buses.

(To be continued)

Philippines' double standard of justice

Philippines' double standard of justice


Updated 03:06am (Mla time) Jan 07, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the January 7, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


IF President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pardons former Rep. Romeo Jalosjos, it will only show that there is indeed a double standard of justice in the Philippines, one for the poor and the other for the rich, powerful and influential. In the first place, he is not yet eligible for a pardon. The law says a prisoner must first serve his minimum prison term before he can be eligible for parole or a pardon. Jalosjos has not served his. Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez himself admits this.

But members of Congress, an Old Boys Club whose members protect one another, want to make an exception of Jalosjos. Their justification: "humanitarian reasons," since Jalosjos is reportedly ailing. He had a stroke. For this reason, the congressmen, two of whom are Jalosjos' brother and sister, said the convicted rapist should be pardoned.

A "medical abstract" issued by a doctor of the Makati Medical Center said only that Jalosjos has been "advised to be compliant on intake of medications and avoid risk factors which may lead to probable strokes in the future." The risk factors are "hypertension, high cholesterol, emotional and physical stress." The abstract didn't say anything about a presidential pardon.

What the abstract meant was that Jalosjos should take his medications regularly and should watch what he eats and exercise to avoid high blood pressure and high cholesterol. He can do that in prison as well as outside. There are probably thousands of prisoners with hypertension and high cholesterol, as well as emotional and physical stress, but they are not being recommended for pardon.

Jalosjos can be treated for his cardiovascular problem as well inside prison as outside. If he is a good patient and follows his doctor's orders faithfully, he can expect to live a long life and finish his term. There is no urgent need now for him to be pardoned. If there is really justice in this administration, Jalosjos, the astute politician, should be treated like the other prisoners.

But Jalosjos is an exceptional case. He has an influential family and friends. He is a former congressman. And most important, his political machine in Zamboanga made Ms Arroyo win over Fernando Poe Jr. by 100,000 votes in the last presidential election. It's payback time. So the administration is floating a pardon as a trial balloon to see if there would be opposition to it. If there is not much opposition, Jalosjos is as good as a free man.

Gonzalez cited as a precedent the case of actor Robin Padilla who was also pardoned before he had served his prison sentence. There are other precedents: Bingbong Crisologo, Baby Asistio and Roquito Ablan, who were all pardoned and freed and are now incumbent congressmen. Not to disparage the three, but they seemed to be thoroughly reformed gentlemen who couldn't hurt a fly when they were interviewed together on television recently.

Jalosjos is different. He raped an 11-year-old girl. He has not expressed repentance for it. He has not asked the forgiveness of his victim. He has not served his minimum prison term. What gives him the privilege to be pardoned?

Answer: Because he made Ms Arroyo win in his bailiwick.

* * *

The Metro Manila Development Authority is planning to extend the number coding for vehicles until Sunday. The MMDA is trying everything to ease the traffic congestion in Metro Manila but with little success. There are two reasons why, and they are so simple anybody with two eyes can see them. Anybody, that is, except MMDA officials.

These two reasons are: 1) Traffic rules are not being enforced strictly, and 2) there are too many vehicles in Metro Manila.

No Metro Manila driver today fears being arrested for traffic violation. The MMDA's traffic aides, being former street sweepers, have an inferiority complex and are afraid to arrest unruly drivers. Philippine National Police Director General Edgar Aglipay has pulled out all his policemen from traffic duty, allegedly because many of them were "kotong cops" [mulcting cops]. Traffic enforcement is left to the traffic aides. Alas, they're either as crooked as the regular "kotong cops" or just plain inept.

The MMDA painted yellow lanes on the Edsa highway where buses are supposed to stay on pain of being arrested if they stray out. But watch Edsa any time of the day. Buses stray out of the yellow lanes and nobody arrests them even if they are in plain sight of traffic aides. Buses and jeepneys rush through pedestrian lanes without heed for the pedestrians crossing the street.

Below the flyover at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Tandang Sora Avenue in Quezon City, jeepneys stop to load and unload passengers on top of the pedestrian lane itself, right in front of a traffic aide directing traffic beside a big sign that says: "Strictly No Loading/Unloading-SB" (for Quezon City Mayor Sonny Belmonte). Oftentimes, a barker stands beside the traffic aide calling passengers for the jeepneys.

On the opposite side of the street, they have put up barricades with another "Strictly No Loading/Unloading" sign to prevent passengers from waiting for rides at the street corner.

But passengers wait for rides exactly beside this big sign, making the mayor's SB initials on the sign a laughingstock.

What is strange is that all these blatant violations are in plain view of the Police Community Precinct only five steps away (I measured it) under the flyover. But the policemen there behave as if they were blind.

Footbridges near high-tension wires

Footbridges near high-tension wires


Updated 09:28pm (Mla time) Jan 04, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the January 5, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


THE METRO Manila Development Authority has bared its plans for the new year to ease the traffic gridlock that is the bane of the metropolis. The plans include the extension of the number-coding to Saturday and the construction of more footbridges as well as elevated U-turn roads. The latter would be like miniature flyovers and would therefore cost a lot of money.

Complementing the footbridges are steel fences on the median islands to prevent pedestrians from crossing the street below the footbridges, thus making Metro Manila look like Laguna Lake with all its fish pens.

The MMDA's new pink-and-blue steel footbridges are attractive compared to the old solid, heavy concrete pedestrian overpasses that, alas, have become a haven for sidewalk vendors and holdup artists. Because the concrete sidings cover them from below, vendors have practically appropriated for themselves some pedestrian overpasses. And because the roof of the overpass protects them from sun and rain, they made some overpasses their living quarters. What's more, because streamers of politicians and commercial billboards cover the "windows" of the overpasses, they have become some sort of private enclave for vendors, squatters, snatchers and holdup men. Visit the Philcoa overpass in Quezon City and you will see what I mean.

My own granddaughter, coming home from school, was held up there before Christmas and her cell phone was taken. There were many people on the overpass, mostly vendors, but nobody helped her. The felon must have many friends among them.

That is why many pedestrians avoid going up the overpass at night and thus risk life and limb crossing at street level. Some overpasses are dimly lighted or not lighted at all. Either the MMDA's maintenance people are negligent or the vendors and derelicts who sleep on the overpasses deliberately steal the bulbs to keep the place dark.

Thus, the new steel footbridges are better. You can see the people up there from below and they are lighted by the street lamps. And because they have no roofs, they're no good for vendors and squatters. The danger is when politicians put too many streamers and billboards on them so that the people cannot see what is going on up there.

But the other side of the coin is this: The new footbridges are dangerous. Some of them are situated very near high-tension wires of Meralco. Pedestrians using them can get electrocuted if the wires are not relocated. Steel is a very good conductor of electricity. Look at the new footbridges on Commonwealth and Quezon Avenues, a number of them are only a few feet below high-tension wires carrying thousands of volts of electricity. The one being constructed (very slowly) at the corner of Commonwealth and Tandang Sora is even situated below two transformers.

Remember the transformer that exploded in Tondo and poured boiling oil on schoolchildren below?

There are no high-tensions wires around the Quezon Memorial Park opposite the Quezon City Hall, but the city government does not want footbridges there. This is a very wide rotunda, with 12 lanes and no median island. Pedestrians crossing over to the park have to hurdle hundreds of vehicles speeding around the Circle. There are no traffic lights to stop oncoming traffic while pedestrians are crossing. A traffic aide directs traffic near City Hall but nowhere else. Footbridges are urgently needed here, but I understand Mayor Feliciano Belmonte prefers an underpass instead so as not to spoil the skyline with footbridges.

But an underpass soon becomes a haven for vendors, squatters and derelicts, as what happened to the underpasses in Quiapo and Plaza Lawton. Until Mayor Lito Atienza decided to cleanse and reopen them, they were largely unused because people were afraid to go down there.

I think Belmonte should dwell on this. Lighting up the underpasses and posting policemen in them 24 hours a day will rack up a hefty maintenance bill, not to count the cost of digging up the street with the resulting traffic chaos. I think the footbridge is the lesser evil.

* * *

Let's go now to the U-turn slots. Isn't the MMDA overdoing this?

All the intersections are blocked and motorists have to drive a few blocks in search of a U-turn slot. Because half of the street is blocked to protect U-turning vehicles from accidents, the system has only increased bottlenecks. A four-lane street becomes a two-lane one every few blocks and traffic piles up.

Undoubtedly, the U-turn slots have improved traffic in some places, but I think doing the same thing under the flyovers is overacting already.

Look at the Quezon Avenue-Edsa and Kamuning flyovers. Vehicles going north and south use the flyover; vehicles going east and west use the underpass. The ground level therefore should be used by left-turning vehicles. But big concrete blocks bar the way of vehicles that want to turn left or drive straight through. Instead they have to make a U-turn under the flyover. In the process, the center lane is also blocked and only two lanes are left on each side. Hence, more bottlenecks. I think this needs a second look, too.

This is obviously the reason for the MMDA's plan to build for elevated U-turn passages, to avoid the bottlenecks below. But as stated earlier, they will cost a lot of money. That is in addition to the cost of extra fuel to be used by hordes of vehicles looking for a U-turn flyover kilometers away from where they want to go.

One firecracker victim is one too many

One firecracker victim is one too many


Updated 05:15am (Mla time) Jan 03, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A10 of the January 3, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


AS this column predicted last Dec. 29, a strip of firecracker stalls in Bocaue, Bulacan, caught fire when sparks ignited a stack of firecrackers, killing seven persons. Almost every year, houses-usually converted into firecracker factories-explode and catch fire because of carelessness. Always, there are casualties. This time, it is a row of roadside stalls selling pyrotechnic products.

And yet, government authorities-Malacañang, the Department of Interior and Local Government, the police as well as the provincial and municipal governments-do nothing to prevent a repetition of the tragedies. The Friday fire was the seventh involving firecracker factories and stalls in Bulacan this year. Only last September, a firecracker factory exploded in Sta. Maria town, killing two workers.

Obviously, it is imperative that we adopt stricter rules and monitor more closely the manufacture, quality and storage of pyrotechnic products. So why are government agencies not doing these? Some officials could be liable for multiple homicide through negligence. People keep dying in firecracker incidents so regularly it is almost as if this is the administration's way of controlling population. Stop the population explosion with firecracker explosions? Ha, ha!

For sure, the government has rules on the manufacture of pyrotechnics to make them safe, but nobody pays attention to them, including the public officials and employees who are supposed to enforce them. For example, no firecracker is supposed to have more than 0.2 gm of explosive. But those firecrackers that blasted scores of limbs last New Year's Eve obviously have much more than that. What were the government inspectors of firecracker factories doing?

Obviously, too, the firecracker factories in Bulacan and elsewhere are unsafe. So is the manufacturing process. Else, why do they keep blowing up?

Also obviously, the storing and selling of the products are faulty. Else, why do houses and stalls where they are kept explode?

The usual alibi is that the powerful firecrackers come from illegal manufacturers. A convenient excuse. But it is no secret that even licensed manufacturers are making the illegal firecrackers because they think customers want more powerful firecrackers. For example, the product that started last Friday's fire was a "bomb shell." As the name implies, it was a powerful one, with more than 0.2 gm of explosive, and therefore illegal.

These powerful (pla-pla, whistle-bomb, thunder, etc.) and illegal explosives are being sold openly, in plain view of policemen. But do the cops stop them? Are you kidding?

Sometimes, the police conduct well-publicized raids and seizures of illegal firecrackers, but more often than not, the policemen themselves sell the seized firecrackers and keep the proceeds.

And let's not kid ourselves. Some manufactures, licensed and unlicensed, bribe policemen and government inspectors-perhaps including higher officials-to look the other way.

Under the principle of command responsibility, mayors, governors, the interior secretary and police officers may be held liable for criminal negligence everytime somebody dies in an incident involving firecrackers.

An aftermath of a firecracker accident that can easily be prevented by inspectors is the incidence of tetanus. Tetanus is almost always a fatal disease. Victims of firecracker explosions get into a very high risk of contracting tetanus.

The reason is that carabao or cattle manure is mixed with the explosive substances to make the firecracker more powerful. Manure is a fertile breeding ground for the tetanus bacillus. It enters the body through a break in the skin, such as a wound caused by a firecracker blast. Even a slight injury can lead to a tetanus infection.

Rules should prohibit the putting of animal dung in firecrackers. And it should be quite easy for inspectors to see if manure is being mixed with the explosives.

A "safe" firecracker doesn't just mean a "less powerful" firecracker. It also means a firecracker that does not carry a health-threatening disease.


* * *

The police and other government officials are now patting themselves on the back because there were less firecracker victims in the last New Year's Eve celebrations than there were in the previous years. I say, one firecracker victim is one too many. Nobody should be injured by a firecracker. If the government is doing its job, firecrackers should be so safe that even if one accidentally explodes them in his hand, it would not cause injury.

The cigarette-sized firecracker manufactured in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China won't injure you even if it explodes while you're holding it. But our triangulo, supposedly our smallest firecracker, can harm you if you don't throw it away quickly enough after lighting it. The fuse is so short and burns so quickly, premature explosions are very common.

Local manufacturers complain of the entry of imported firecrackers; it gives them competition. Instead of complaining, they should copy the imported ones. They are of better quality. And safe!

What's more, they would be able to sell more if our firecrackers are strung together like the imported ones. Instead of exploding the firecrackers one by one, Filipinos could light them by the pack so that they would explode like machine guns. With the string of firecrackers progressively longer, they would be able to sell more. And because they are safe, parents will allow their children to buy them. Hence, more sales.