Don't lift total logging ban!

Don't lift total logging ban!


Posted 00:55am (Mla time) Feb 25, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the February 25, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is reportedly reviewing the logging ban she had imposed immediately after floods and landslides killed hundreds of people and destroyed the homes of thousands of others in Aurora, Quezon and Nueva Ecija. The disaster was caused by rampant logging, legal and illegal, on the mountains above the towns and villages. In fact, it was the deluge of cut logs washed down the mountainsides that caused the most fatalities and damage. Now the President is reportedly thinking of lifting the ban at the insistence of loggers and wood processors, members of the Philippine Wood Producers Association (PWPA).

Here we go again. After the corpses have been buried and the disaster is no longer in the news, public officials change their minds about the remedial measures they have imposed to prevent a repetition of the disaster. Vested interests had time to work on the officials, especially the President, to change their minds and go back to the old ways. Anyway the people have forgot the tragedy. So happy days may be here again for the loggers. And for the public officials, big and small, high and low, with whom they share their profits from the blood of the people.

It is Ormoc all over again. After floods and landslides and an avalanche of cut logs from the mountains rained down and decimated the people below, there was a lot of sorrow and wringing of hands and remedial measures and speeches from public officials. After the corpses were buried, the fatalities, the tragedy, the remedial measures, the promises were forgotten. If Ormoc had not been forgotten, what happened there would not have been repeated in Aurora and Quezon.

Even legislators have forgotten what they have said after the Aurora-Quezon tragedies when almost all of them proposed a total log ban. Now they are largely quiet, no doubt because some of them are loggers themselves. It is now the turn of the loggers to be noisy. They have had time to work on the legislators. It is only Sen. Jamby Madrigal who is steadfastly protecting the environment.

Veteran politician Nene Pimentel has been impressed by the neophyte senator. "I thought Jamby was just a rich spoiled brat," he told me last Saturday. "But it turns out she is a very intelligent person."

Pimentel narrated her performance at the Senate when she interpellated Environment Secretary Mike Defensor. She was well prepared, she knew her subject, she had studied it very well. Her questions made mincemeat of Defensor. "Nagkalat si Mike," he said.

Which is why I invited Madrigal to the Kapihan sa Manila media forum last Monday. I was convinced that she knows by heart the problems of the environment. (More on this later.)

* * *

A justice of the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court, Raoul J. Victorino, retired the other day but his retirement was different. Justices and judges retire all the time, so what made Victorino's retirement different?

Well, most members of the bench retire with many of their cases unfinished, leaving it to their overburdened replacement the job of finishing them. I remember the case of former Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Francis Garchitorena who applied for retirement. The Supreme Court ordered him to first clear his backlog of cases, some of which had been submitted for decision for many years. Still, the justice was unable to finish all of them and left many of them behind for his replacement.

Passing cases to new judges causes difficulties and can even cause miscarriage of justice. The replacement judge has to depend entirely on the transcript and records of the case. He has not watched the demeanor of the witnesses during direct and cross examinations. It is basic that an observant judge can determine if a witness is lying or not by his demeanor in court. The new judge is deprived of that chance, and therefore the chances that he would make a wrong decision are higher. And this is one reason we have the slowest administration of justice in the world. Cases take decades to finish.

Victorino was pleasantly different. He left the court without any backlog of cases.

But that is not the only reason he is respected by his peers. He is known not only as a hard worker but also as an incorruptible jurist with integrity. Too bad he has retired. We need more jurists like him.

* * *

Speaking of miscarriage of justice, all the members of the Commission on Elections are facing graft charges before the Ombudsman for the contract to purchase counting machines intended for use in the May 10, 2004 elections. The Supreme Court declared the contract null and void. All the commissioners have been charged: Chair Benjamin Abalos, Luzviminda Tancangco, Ralph Lantion, Mehol Sadiin, Resurreccion Borra, Rufino Javier and Florentino Tuazon Jr.

But in the Comelec resolution awarding the contract, which is a part of the complaint, Commissioner Javier has no signature. Instead of his signature, the initials "O.B." is written over his name and beside it the signature of Abalos. "O.B." means "Official Business." This means that Javier was out on official business at the time the resolution was discussed and passed.

Clearly Javier was not present at the meeting when the decision was made to award the contract for the supply of counting machines. He did not participate in that decision. So why is he included in the complaint?

Pinoys have had bad experiences with IDs

Pinoys have had bad experiences with IDs


Posted 00:48am (Mla time) Feb 23, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the February 23, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


THE PROPOSED National Identification Card System has once more violently divided public officials and the public the same way the value-added tax (VAT) has divided them. The Valentine's Day terrorist bombings has terrorized public officials into proposing the ID system, but the public is in bigger terror of an ID system than of bombs. The ID, which will contain basic information about the holder, will invade the privacy of the individual, a right guaranteed by the Constitution, say those who are opposed to it.

Curiously, Filipinos really like ID cards. The average Filipino has a few of them: a voter's ID, an SSS or GSIS ID, a driver's license, a company or school ID, a numbered vehicle sticker which identifies the owner of the vehicle, a credit card, a passport, a residence certificate, etc. These are all identification cards containing information about the individual, Senate President Franklin Drilon told the Kapihan sa Manila last Monday. The national ID will only combine in one card all the information already contained in all these different ID cards.

"What right to privacy is being violated by merely putting in one card the information the individual has already voluntarily put in the other cards?" Drilon asked. "Instead of having a wallet full of cards, he will have only one card."

Practically every civilized country in the world, including the United States which is the champion of democracy and privacy, has an ID system, Drilon noted. The Philippines is one of the very few that still doesn't have one.

Unfortunately, logic doesn't explain why Filipinos are allergic to a national ID system. The explanation is more psychological. Filipinos have had unpleasant experiences with IDs in the past.

During the Spanish regime, Filipinos were required to carry cedulas, which is the counterpart of today's residence certificate. It was a badge of servitude. Indios were required to show them to Guardia Civil sentries. So hated was the cedula that Andres Bonifacio and his Katipuneros tore up their cedulas in Balintawak as a gesture of their revolution against Spain.

During the Japanese Occupation, Filipinos were also required to show their residence certificates to Japanese sentries. If they didn't have any, they were slapped and taken to jail.

Filipinos are afraid the same thing will happen with a national ID system: people being accosted by cops and soldiers and told to produce their IDs and if they don't have any or they find something suspicious with the IDs, they would be jailed the same way the martial law regime of Marcos did. Can you blame Filipinos for being suspicious of IDs?

But the most practical reason against an ID system is the uselessness of it all. The system is the government's antidote to terrorism. But it is hard to understand how a piece of card or plastic will do it. Perhaps the theory is that it will identify a terrorist. How, I don't know. Perhaps the police will have a list of known terrorists and compare the names and photos on the list with those on the ID cards.

But as Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said, will a terrorist be foolish enough to put his own name on an ID? No, he will have a new identity. He will even try to alter his appearance.

And won't we just give more business to the Recto forgers? The Recto entrepreneurs (who by the way continue to ply their illegal trade openly without the police trying to stop them) are so good that they can produce almost any document one needs: passport, Torrens title, driver's license, bankbook, marriage certificate, school records, even FPJ's birth certificate showing that he was not a Filipino. Name it, they can produce it with such surprising accuracy that foreign embassies no longer accept Philippine documents as proof of anything.

Now if they can produce these documents convincingly, won't they try to produce IDs, too? Considering that there would be 80 million Filipinos who would need IDs, that would indeed be big business. Which means the whole exercise to flush out terrorists would be a waste of scarce money and an exercise in futility.

The government's answer to that is technology. The ID will not be the ordinary card but will be made of hard-to-duplicate plastic or some other material that will make a fake easy to detect. That remains to be proven. But even assuming it can be done, that means the ID will be frightfully expensive. And considering the millions of Filipinos who will ask for them, the whole exercise is going to cost tens of billions of pesos, money a bankrupt government cannot afford.

Which means, in turn, that this is not the time to do it. Even now, Congress is having a hard time passing a measure to increase the VAT because people strongly oppose it. How can the government ask the people to pay more taxes when it is not even trying to cut expenses but, on the contrary, is thinking of new ways to spend more money it doesn't even have yet?

Worse, the government is going to use part of that money to invade their privacy and even spy on them. If the government insists on implementing a national ID system, I think the next revolution will be preceded by the Cry of Mendiola when people will gather at this now famous street and cut up their plastic IDs.

But I have my own proposal to make Filipinos accept the ID system and even scramble to get one. Considering how many Filipinos crave for the green card, let's make our ID card green.

Of cops and 'counterfeit' medicines

Of cops and 'counterfeit' medicines


Posted 10:44pm (Mla time) Feb 20, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



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


A SUSPECTED dealer in fake medicines was arrested in a buy-bust operation in San Fernando, Pampanga before the weekend, while the Department of Health revealed that 80 percent of medicines sold in drugstores and pharmacies in the Ilocos region are fake. Around P5 million worth of medicines were confiscated in San Fernando. The capsules were filled with corn starch; others were expired medicines, their expiration dates altered. Samples obtained from Ilocos drugstores contained ash and flour.

The manufacturers and distributors of fake medicines should be given long prison sentences because they put the lives and health of patients at risk. Fake medicines have long been a problem here; one reason for this is the high cost of medicines sold by multinational pharmaceutical companies. Many years ago, a notorious manufacturer of fake medicines could not be nailed by the police because he was very influential and had plenty of money to bribe officials. He had many friends in at least one morning daily and he even tried to tempt me. I was then the managing editor of the Daily Express; he came to the newsroom and introduced to me his girlfriend, a very pretty woman. One night this girlfriend came to the newsroom alone and after some small talk hinted that if I wanted a date with her I was welcome. Of course, I did not bite the bait.

That was how the guy operated and the police could not do anything with him. Until one night our police reporter called in to say that he had been killed during a high-speed car chase near Roxas Boulevard with a police team led by then Manila police chief Alfredo Lim. His case was somewhat similar to that of Don Pepe Oyson who, despite his notoriety, could not be nailed by the police. He had so many friends in the right places. Until one night he was fetched from a billiard hall by Robert Barbers, then a police detective. On the way to the Manila Police Department, inside a closed van, he allegedly grabbed a pistol and tried to escape. He was shot dead; end of the problem.

Barbers later became congressman and then senator and his chief, Lim, is now also a popular senator, proof that good cops who really fight criminality the best they can are rewarded with high office.

Why am I telling this? Because the policemen now are so different, and I miss the old days. Most policemen then were feared by criminals. When a policeman got killed, the order to every cop was: "Leave everything else; get the killer!" The cop-killer usually had less than 24 hours to live. He is often buried before the funeral of the slain cop.

These days, policemen get assassinated, but no suspects to the killings are arrested. Cops are not feared anymore-not by criminals or by drivers. As little as P50 will usually settle any traffic violation, a kindly behavior quickly learned by the traffic enforcers of the Metro Manila Development Authority. The last policeman feared, after Lim and Barbers, was Panfilo Lacson, when he was still the chief of the Philippine National Police. He is now also a senator, one more proof that good cops go places. Compare them to the present crop of policemen.

* * *

But going back to fake medicines, I notice that the word being used in the press releases and news reports is "counterfeit." By legal definition of the World Health Organization, imported genuine medicine of the same content and quality as medicines manufactured here are included in the label "counterfeit." Therefore, the word embraces the less expensive medicines imported by the Philippine government itself to give Filipinos an alternative to the high-priced medicines manufactured here by multinational companies. Filipinos are thus being frightened from buying this cheaper government imports by the propaganda campaign of the Coalition Against Fake Medicines.

I am all for informing the people about fake medicines, and the coalition should be complimented for its campaign. But its information drive is incomplete. It does not clarify that the cheaper medicines being imported and sold by the government's own Philippine International Trading Center are not fake medicines. I have written about this in two previous columns, but I have yet to read a press release or clarification on this from the coalition.

And it is not true that the DOH, supported by the Department of Trade and Industry, is the lead agency in the propaganda campaign of the coalition. The PITC is a subsidiary of the DTI. The propaganda is an initiative of multinational companies-one sells medicines, and the other manufactures all the medicines of all the foreign-owned pharmaceuticals here-and a giant drugstore chain. The DOH and DTI and the others were just invited to join the coalition. A professional public relations agency is doing the propaganda work.

Some people suspect that the sudden campaign against "counterfeit" medicines was prompted by the PITC's parallel importations of medicines which could cut into the multinationals' 80-percent hold on the Philippine drug market. The imported medicines are very much cheaper, many of them less than half of the prices of those made here. If the imported medicines are not the target of the coalition's propaganda, why is there no clarification to make everything clear, as all information campaigns should?

We should all fight fake medicines (and there is no doubt that there are many of them), but please avoid collateral damage to legitimate government imports that are meant to give Filipinos access to cheaper medicines.

One more story of life and death in World War II

One more story of life and death in World War II


Posted 02:25am (Mla time) Feb 18, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the February 18, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


A FEW weeks ago, I visited an aunt, whom I had not seen in a long time, in the tiny one-story apartment she rents in Malabon. She lives alone there, except for a great-granddaughter in grade school she takes care of during school days (the father fetches her to spend the weekend with her parents). My aunt is 95 years old.

She is a small woman, less than five feet tall, and she has become smaller because she is now stooped with age. But she still does all the housework, cooks, cleans the house and hand-washes her laundry. She is a little hard of hearing, but she can still read, sew and knit without using eyeglasses. She is the younger sister of my mother who died at age 30, when I was just starting to go to school, leaving us six children orphans. My aunt became our surrogate mother.

It is nothing short of a miracle that she has lived to be this old because she almost died during the Battle for Manila. In fact, her husband and crippled younger brother died at Fort Santiago, within sight of the American forces on the other side of the river. She and her little son almost died at San Agustin Church, where the Japanese had herded the women and children of Intramuros and tried to kill them.

February is the anniversary of the Liberation of Manila and the massacre of residents of Intramuros and Malate by the Japanese rear guard, which is why I am writing about my aunt. Her story is as moving as those of the casualties and survivors that the Inquirer published in a series the last several days.

My aunt's name is Eugenia Villanueva-Sanchez. Her husband was Pedro Sanchez Sr., and her brother was Paquito Villanueva, who was crippled by polio. Survivors of Intramuros and Fort Santiago who came across them may remember them or their names.

The family would not have been trapped had they heeded warnings to leave Intramuros as the Americans were already coming. We had a family compound on an island in the middle of fishponds in Malabon, but we also had a shoe store in Intramuros, one of a long line of shoe stores and tailoring shops on Calle Real. Our store's name was Real Shoe Store.

My uncle Paquito was the manager, my aunt was the housekeeper, and Pedro was one of the expert shoemakers working for them. The workers made the shoes and boots at the back of the store; living quarters were on the mezzanine.

My father kept telling them to come back to Malabon but business was good in Intramuros. So many Japanese officers were ordering boots and my uncles were loath to close the store and leave all that opportunity.

When they woke up to the danger because of the more frequent air raids and the sound of artillery in the distance, it was already too late. When they tried to leave, the streets out of Intramuros were closed. Japanese sentries told them to go back. Later, they heard several loud explosions. The bridges across the Pasig River had been blown up by the Japanese.

Still later, Japanese soldiers went from door to door telling residents to come out. They were herded to the San Agustin Church. There the men were separated from the women and children. A doctor tried to protest the separation of the family members. The Japanese shot him dead.

The men were ordered to walk to Fort Santiago, while the women and children were locked inside the San Agustin Church. As the cannon blasts came closer (the American forces were already on the other side of the river and coming up from the south), the Japanese opened the church doors a little, poured gasoline in and then hurled a grenade inside. Those in front were immediately killed by the blast and fire, but my aunt and her son and others who were behind immediately dived under the church pews and were saved.

At Fort Santiago, meanwhile, the men were locked up inside the dungeons. (This information now comes from survivors of Fort Santiago.) Little by little, they were able to dig through the adobe wall to an adjoining small cell, then punched a hole through the top of the wall beside the river. The hole was only big enough for one person to squeeze through at a time. From there, it was just a short dash to the edge of the wall to the river, and then a long swim to the other side and freedom.

As the Americans came closer, the Japanese also poured gasoline into the dungeons and threw grenades. As the dungeon burned, the prisoners squeezed through the hole one by one, ran to the edge of the wall and jumped into the river. Some were too weak to swim across and drowned.

My uncle-in-law Pedro was already out when he heard my uncle Paquito calling him. Being a cripple, he couldn't reach the hole in the ceiling. Pedro went back to help him. But even had Paquito been able to get out, it was unlikely for the cripple to be able to swim to the other side. Pedro stayed with his brother-in-law up to the end. They were never able to get out. We were never able to find their remains.

Years later, the small hole was still there. When I was working in the Manila Chronicle nearby and we used to walk to Fort Santiago some afternoons, I would point it out to my fellow journalists and tell them the story of my two uncles who died there together. That hole has now been patched by workers who probably didn't know its story, no doubt because some hapless tourist might step into it and break a leg.

Meanwhile, my aunt wants to see the dungeon, San Agustin Church and Calle Real one more time before she dies, although she hopes to live to be a hundred and promises to throw a big birthday bash.

Bombs and love songs for Valentine's

Bombs and love songs for Valentine's


Posted 00:50am (Mla time) Feb 16, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the February 16, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


THERE were many Valentine's Day shows last Monday, but I'm glad I chose "Love Songs at the Front Page" at the 21-day-old piano bar that is the new watering hole for journalists. There, a combination of veteran and relatively new singers took turns entertaining the crowd with old favorites on the joys and pain of love.

The veterans were pop icon Nonoy Zuñiga, M.D., the doctor who reportedly sings to his patients to hasten healing; Girl Valencia, the favorite singer of National Artist Nick Joaquin when he was still alive; and Edgar Orpida, the "Elvis Presley of Asia." The relative newcomers are Juan Rodrigo, a pioneer of telenovelas long before imported “telenovelas” [TV soaps] flooded the country, who has now turned singer, and, in the most pleasant surprise of all, Marri Nallos, a beautiful 20-year-old from London who is a contestant in "European Idol," which has been imitated by the United States as "American Idol." Well, she is not really a newcomer because Marri just had an album of love songs released by Universal Records, "Ikaw Pa Rin Ang Mamahalin." She was the featured singer of Front Page while the others were guests.

You may have heard of Marri only recently, but she is really a veteran and very accomplished singer. So you would know more about her, let me cite her pedigree:

Although she was born in Rome and grew up in London, Marri is a full-blooded Filipino. And although still very young, she already has had a long experience in music and theater. She was a scholar of the Sylvia Young Theatre School in Marlybone, London, and a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, with a bronze medal to her name. She started singing when she was only 9 years old at their own restaurant in Central London after winning the grand prize in an amateur contest in Le Palais, London. At age 12, she was picked from over 20,000 children in Great Britain to be the "Most Talented Child," a nationwide talent search in Great Britain.

While studying in London, she had memorable appearances in the theater like Young Stars in Sadler's Wells Theatre and the musical "Oliver" in London's Palladium. She also did television shows over BBC-London.

Here, in the Philippines, she finished her first album tour, which included 10 malls and five bars/music lounges last April. She started her music lounge act at the Calesa Bar and had gigs with her own band, Friends Inc., in other five-star hotels.

Marri, dressed in a green low-necked see-through with sequins, opened the show with a series of love songs, ending with "The Way You Look Tonight." Then she introduced Juan Rodrigo who sang the Spanish song "Amor, Amor, Amor" and followed it up with a medley of Broadway musicals. Then he and Marri sang a duet, "You Are My Destiny."

Girl Valencia, the girl with the svelte voice, sang a series of three interconnected love songs: "I'm In the Mood for Love," "The Nearness of You," and the Pilita Corrales standard, "Saan Ka Man Naroroon."

In a well-applauded number, Girl sang a duet with Marri, "I Will Always Love You" that almost brought the house down.

Elvis Presley has many imitators, both here and abroad, and there are always contests for Elvis Presley look-alikes. Recently, there was another such contest in Tokyo and our very own Edgar Orpida won over the other contestants from the region as the "Elvis Presley of Asia." (Chito Bertol of the Manila Seedling Bank Foundation is the first "Elvis Presley of the Philippines.")

In the signature Elvis costume of white tight-fitting, high-collared togs with sequin embroidery open in front down to the navel, sunglasses, complete with pasted sideburns and many big-stoned rings on his fingers, Edgar sang three Presley favorites that made the audience yell for more. For an encore, he sang a duet with Marri, "When I Fall In Love," a rare occurrence as Elvis rarely sang a duet with anybody.

After that, the audience practically went crazily in love with Marri again when she sang "Crazy." Mark my word, this girl will be tomorrow's super singer.

Then came the pop icon himself all in black, Nonoy Zuñiga, the doctor with the cool baritone that sends females swooning. He sang two songs from his newest album, released on Valentine's Day by Viva Records, one of which is the sentimental favorite, "Moon River."

For a finale, the group together sang "The Greatest Love of All" with hardly any rehearsal beforehand. This is the trademark of professional singers: they can sing duets, trios and in big groups with hardly any rehearsal.

The show was put together on short notice by talent managers Nelia Lim and Peter Sing, to whom I am grateful. Many journalists called, asking that the show be delayed so they could catch it as they were still busy changing their own front pages to report the series of bomb explosions that killed seven and injured scores of others in Makati, Davao and General Santos, the Valentine's Day gift of terrorists to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

But we couldn't delay it too much, as the audience had been waiting since 8 p.m. So, we decided to make it a regular show of Front Page with different outstanding talents performing and to have it televised so more people can see it.

Make it a habit to drop by the Front Page. You never know whom you'll see there.

No such thing as Valentine's Day bonus in budget

No such thing as Valentine's Day bonus in budget


Posted 11:19pm (Mla time) Feb 13, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the February 14, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


FILIPINOS are in near-rebellion over the increases in taxes and government fees, most particularly, in the value-added tax. The government's excuse for the increase is the budget deficit and the foreign debt. The government needs funds to pay for them. Where else to source them but from the taxpayers?

But at the same time that the Arroyo government is squeezing the taxpayers, it throws away P3.6 billion in a so-called Valentine's Day bonus to the 1.2 million government employees. How much of hard-earned money will each worker have to part to fund the P3.6 billion?

The unkindest cut of all is that the money is going to a particularly ungrateful bunch of leeches. Instead of being grateful for the bonus (which private employees will not get), the government employees derided the bonus because it was "too small." President Macapagal-Arroyo had initially announced that the government can afford to give only a P1,000 bonus for each state employee. The beneficiaries made fun of it. And the President, who suffers from an acute feeling of being unloved and is deathly afraid of being unpopular, immediately raised the amount to P3,000 apiece. Not unlike a sugar daddy eager to please his mistress. The President is buying popularity with bribes. But that's still not good enough to the leeches. They want P5,000 each because that's what they received last year.

Last year we didn't have the fiscal crisis. This year we are scraping the bottom of the barrel. This year, the salaries in many government offices are delayed, contractors are not getting paid, infrastructure projects have been halted-because of lack of funds. This year, the President is pushing Congress to pass a number of tax measures to squeeze more money out of the people. But the government employees, those with cushy jobs, security of tenure, fat allowances and sidelines, want more, more, more-not unlike the giant squeezing the goose for more golden eggs until it died.

Malacanang says the bonus will come from the "savings" of government offices. If they have savings, that can only mean that their appropriations were more than enough and that Congress should now reduce their budget to cut costs and give the taxpayers a break. And the savings should go back to the Treasury, instead of being spent. It is no secret that the departments bloat their budgets so that when Congress cuts them, more than enough would be left. It is also no secret that when the fiscal year draws to an end, state offices spend their remaining budgets on such useless and wasteful expenses as seminars in faraway places so that Congress will not cut their proposed budgets for the next year.

I would like to know where the President got the authority to spend P3.6 billion for a Valentine's Day bonus. The President and the government cannot spend any money unless it is appropriated by Congress. I combed last year's General Appropriations Act and I could not find any allotment for a "Valentine's Day bonus." We, the taxpayers, cannot let this pass unchallenged. Today it is a Valentine's Day bonus, tomorrow it could be an All Saints' Day bonus, or a Holy Week bonus, or even a birthday bonus for each and every state employee. The possibilities are endless-for as long as congressmen have the imagination to invent names for the appropriations, in the same way that they have invented various names for the pork barrel.

Already, the President is brazen enough to spend government funds not authorized by congressional appropriation. The Constitution is clear: "No money shall be paid out of the Treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation by law" [Article VI, Section 29(1)]. But there is no appropriation for a Valentine's Day bonus.

This is a culpable violation of the Constitution (Article XI, Section 2), for which the President can be impeached.

But, of course, President Macapagal-Arroyo is used to violating the Constitution and not being made to account for it. Sen. Nene Pimentel Jr. enumerated some of these in his speech before the Philconsa last Feb. 8, Constitution Day, for which reason he called for her impeachment.

"During the last presidential election," Pimentel said, "the President illegally used the trust funds raised through the Road Users' Tax and of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) for her own purposes. P1.4 billion of the Road Users' Tax was transferred to fund her partisan political project Kalsada Natin, Alagaan Natin." She also transferred P4 billion of OWWA funds to PhilHealth supposedly "to enable the poor to have access to public health services."

"While the objectives might have been good, it was still wrong for the President to have done so," Pimentel said, considering that the OWWA and Road Users' funds are trust funds that cannot be used for any purpose other than that specified in the law that created them.

Worse, the obvious reason for these illegal disbursements was to buy votes.

Pimentel also charged the President with illegally authorizing the payment-without congressional authority-of some $68 million, or P3.762 billion, for the purchase of six search-and-rescue vessels. Now she is going to violate the Constitution again with the Valentine's Day bonus.

* * *

Don't forget, make your valentine happy tonight by taking her to the after-dinner concert at the Front Page on T.M. Kalaw Street, in the Tourist Belt in Manila. Nonoy Zu?iga, Eugene Villaluz, Girl Valencia, Marri Nallos, and Juan Rodrigo, plus other surprise guests, will serenade you with love songs.

Best of all, admission is free, especially for journalists and Samahang Plaridel members.

Love songs at Front Page on V Day

Love songs at Front Page on V Day


Posted 11:37pm (Mla time) Feb 10, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the February 11, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


LAST Feb. 2, this column asked questions on the controversial bidding for the Masinloc power plant of National Power Corp. (Napocor). The winning bidder was YNN, whose capitalization has been confirmed to be only P1 million. Its winning bid was P564 million.

This week, my good friend Elpi Cuna, vice president for corporate communications of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), faxed answers to those questions point by point. In fairness to Meralco, I am quoting those answers.

Elpi denied insinuations that Meralco is close to the bidders for the Masinloc plant, particularly YNN. He said:

"1. Meralco has no business relationship with YNN. You mentioned YNN owner Sunny Sun as a retired Meralco executive and a close associate of our president. For the record, Mr. Sun was never an employee much less an executive of Meralco. His company (Duracom Corp.) used to bid for our annual electric wires needs, representing an established manufacturer, Columbia Wires and Cables. Based on our records, the last award (P1,392,000) to him was in July 2000. In 1993, he was the president of a small genco, Duracom Mobile Power Corp., which signed an agreement with Meralco as a dispatchable independent power producer (IPP). Naturally, Mr. Sun is known to our executives. This company has since been acquired and is now a subsidiary of East Asia Power Resources Corp. Its new president and CEO is Mr. Anthony Shibley."

2. Elpi also stated that there are no ongoing negotiations with YNN insofar as a power supply contract is concerned. "To link Meralco with the government getting a better price had it bid for Masinloc with a long-term power sales agreement, which Meralco refused to enter with Napocor, is unfair and totally false. There is no legal point to stand on and I also do not see the connection between the bidding of government's power plants with Meralco power supply contracts. Our power supply agreements with our suppliers are based solely on the best price we obtain, which will eventually redound to the benefit of our customers. That is our primordial consideration."

"3. You also asked if YNN and Great Pacific would have bid such a higher price if they were not assured of landing a power supply contract with Meralco and [added] that there is no assurance that the public will not be charged a higher generation rate when Meralco and YNN negotiate for a power supply contract.

"For the record, Meralco had absolutely nothing to do with the bidding for Masinloc. Again let me emphasize that to drag Meralco into this controversy is totally unfair ... Let me reiterate for the record that we have no ongoing negotiations with YNN and Great Pacific so to assume that YNN and Great Pacific are going to land a power supply contract with Meralco is totally false.

"4. You said that Meralco should start showing a heart for the consuming public as a public utility company should. You averred that Meralco negotiated a bloated P5 per kilowatt-hour rate with Quezon Power coal plant similar to Masinloc at the time they could buy power from Napocor at only P3 per kilowatt-hour.

"We have time and again stated that comparing the cost of Napocor's rate with Quezon Power or our other IPPs is unfair. The rate of Napocor is 'artificially low.' Further, as we have repeatedly emphasized, our IPPs have not been dispatched at contract levels resulting in a higher rate per kWh. It is the consumer as taxpayer who ultimately pays for the difference between the artificial Napocor rate and the true cost of power. The latest Napocor increase of 98 centavos per kWh nationwide and P1.28 per kWh in the Luzon grid validates this fact. In fact, they have a pending petition to hike their rates again this year. On the other hand, if our IPPs have been dispatched at contract levels, it would have resulted in 42 centavos per kWh savings to Meralco consumers.

"5. Lastly, it is also not true that we have a negotiated power supply contract with a 1200 MW natural gas power project in Bataan.

"It is very unfortunate that some sectors are really intent on sowing disinformation about Meralco. These may be sectors that are intent on seeing the Masinloc privatization fail in order to advance their own interests. It is so sad that they have to resort to this type of propaganda to achieve their ends."

Now that we have read Meralco's side, I would like to ask one last question: There are only two bidders, YNN and First Gas. The latter's bid is P288 million, below the minimum bid price of P380 million. Therefore, there is only one qualified bidder, YNN. If so, is it not a failed bidding?

* * *

This Monday, the Valentine's Day offering of Front Page piano bar is an after-dinner concert of love songs by singing stars Girl Valencia, Marri Nallos, Juan Rodrigo, the telenovela pioneer-turned singer, and the surprise special participation of a pop icon. Front Page is on T.M. Kalaw Street, Manila, opposite the National Library.

Admission is free. Pay only for your drinks.

The painting and sculpture exhibits of Malang and Julie Lluch, respectively, are still ongoing at Samahang Plaridel's art gallery and clubhouse on the third floor. Journalist-members can now play billiards and have free coffee at the clubhouse, listen to fine music, watch TV, write their stories on computers, read the quality newspapers and magazines in Metro Manila, shoot darts, and play chess, cards, liars' dice, dominoes, checkers, scrabble, etc.

* * *

Kapihan Notes: Monday being Valentine's Day when most people will be preoccupied with making their valentines happy, there will be no Kapihan sa Manila (Hotel). The next Kapihan media forum will be on Feb. 21.

PR drive vs 'counterfeit' medicines confirmed

PR drive vs 'counterfeit' medicines confirmed


Posted 11:15pm (Mla time) Feb 08, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the February 9, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


TWO weeks after this column dwelt on a propaganda drive against government importations of medicines to provide Filipinos with cheaper medicines ("Medicines imported by RP gov't are not fake," As I See It, 1-24-05), I received a faxed letter from Bong Osorio, communication consultant of the Coalition Against Counterfeit Medicines, which confirmed that there really was a drive by various entities against "counterfeit" medicines. He denied, however, that it was against the parallel importations by the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) headed by Secretary Roberto Pagdanganan. He said the objective “is to raise awareness on the part of the public on the dangers of the 'counterfeit' medicines [and] does not intend in any way to allude that the medicines being imported by the PITC are counterfeit. In fact, this is precisely the issue raised by the DOH [Department of Health] and DTI [Department of Trade and Industry] even before they agreed to be a part of the coalition and support its initiatives. Hence, this issue was thoroughly threshed out by the coalition before it launched its campaign so as the same would not be seen as a program against government's parallel imports."

Osorio said the campaign's primary goal is "to arm the public with information against medicines that do not pass trough the regulatory processes of the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD). It aims to educate unsuspecting Filipinos on how to detect a counterfeit from a genuine medicine, and directs them to a hotline so they can report incidences of counterfeiting.

"By World Health Organization (WHO) definition, counterfeiting can apply to both branded and generic products. Thus, counterfeit medicines may include:

" l. products with the correct ingredients but fake packaging;

" 2. products with the wrong ingredients;

" 3. products without active ingredients;

" 4. products with insufficient ingredients.

"Please understand that the coalition's efforts are not against medicines that meet regulatory requirements set by the BFAD, but are against the potentially dangerous counterfeit medicines that deliberately avoid regulatory scrutiny (italics ours) for whatever reasons. Obviously, this is the target of the coalition because they pose serious and grave danger to our countrymen's health, safety and well-being."

The coalition's communications consultant concludes: "We hope this clarifies some of the points raised in your column."

No, it does not, as far as the consuming public is concerned. The confusion is created by the unfortunate use by the coalition of the word "counterfeit." By WHO definition (WHO has often been accused of being a "tool" of US big business), "counterfeit" precisely includes the parallel imports of the PITC that, as No. 1 of the definitions describes, are "products with the correct ingredients but fake packaging." The PITC imports are genuine medicines manufactured abroad by subsidiaries of the mother multinational pharmaceutical companies (in other words, sister companies of the multinationals here) but brought here because they are cheaper. Their packaging and labels may be different from those manufactured here. Therefore, they fall under the WHO definition of "counterfeit."

But as the Feb. 24 column pointed out, in the Philippines, "counterfeit" is confused with "fake." In fact, it is the word "fake" that is often used in news reports in media because it is much shorter than "counterfeit," which is too long for headline purposes. I have not read in the newspapers or heard on TV and radio any explanation from the coalition about the difference between "counterfeit" and "fake" in the case of medicines. As far as the public is concerned, which is not privy to the discussion of the coalition, "counterfeit" is the same as "fake" and that includes the cheaper government imports. Therefore, they are scared into buying only the more expensive medicines made here by the multinationals.

Why not use "substandard" instead of "counterfeit," so the meaning becomes clearer? The PITC imports are not substandard because they are really "genuine" and have the correct ingredients and as potent as those made here by the multinationals. But I think the multinationals like to use "counterfeit" because the PITC imports fall into its definition. I suspect that the real reason for the propaganda campaign is the fear of the multinationals that the government's parallel imports will eat up into their huge market share. I think the DOH and DTI were just suckered in to make it legitimate and credible.

If the coalition is really after the welfare, health and well-being of the Filipinos, why does it not concentrate on lowering the prices of medicines? That will make imports unnecessary.

And speaking of substandard medicines, why not inquire into the efficacy of so many "medicines" claiming so many benefits in their advertisements-packaged herbs, leaves and fruits claiming to be good against diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer and a lot of other diseases, just like the snake oil of old-but which escape "regulatory scrutiny" by the BFAD because they are classified as "food supplements"? I have not heard the DOH explain that there are no clear scientific proofs that these "food supplements" really do what they claim to do. Instead, some doctors and even media personalities are advertised as endorsing this or that product, and they don't even get a slap on the wrist.

Misleading the public with statistics

Misleading the public with statistics


Posted 10:48pm (Mla time) Feb 06, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the February 7, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


THERE are a number of reasons why the people no longer trust this administration. Among them: the administration has not been forthright with information and has in fact been caught many times deliberately confusing and even misinforming the people.

For example, the government recently patted itself on the back for the gain in the exchange rate of the peso against the US dollar, making people believe that this is due to a stronger economy, the result of the measures that the administration has adopted. False.

The peso has indeed gained against the dollar in the exchange rate, but this is not because the peso has become stronger but because the dollar has become weaker. All the currencies in Asia, as well as the Euro, have appreciated in value against the dollar. Of these, the Philippine peso gained the least. While the other currencies have double-digit increases, the peso went up by a measly 3 percent. The Indonesian currency increased by 49 percent, the Euro by 59 percent, and the other currencies by a little less. In effect, the peso even lost in relation to other currencies.

But all these the Arroyo administration hid from the people, praising itself, instead, for the peso's gain on the dollar. How can you trust an administration on such an important matter?

Another example is the alleged 6.1 percent increase in the gross domestic product (GDP). Again, the administration praised itself for this alleged "feat."

But what do we really have? Only numbers on pieces of paper. Do these numbers lay more food on the tables of the poor? Does the alleged growth in GDP create more job opportunities for more people? What good is "growth" if it does not improve the people's standard of living, too?

Even assuming the statistics are correct (the Philippine government has already been caught fudging statistics in the past), the growth in GDP (this is the totality of the goods and services produced in the country) is only among the rich, but not among the poor. The growth is in the business sector-such as the telecommunications and transportation sectors that are non-productive-but not in the productive sector such as agriculture. This alleged "growth" has not benefited the common man. There has been no trickle-down effect. In other words, the rich are getting richer but the poor are getting poorer.

But the government did not impart this information to the people. It just said that the GDP has grown, as though the information would make the people feel less hungry.

Another area where the government is misleading the people is in the employment/unemployment rate. According to statistics foisted by the administration, the unemployment rate is going down. But the government is cheating in counting those who are employed and those who are not.

It categorized a person who was able to work for a few days as "employed," even if he was jobless for 360 days of the year. And it considered only those who are looking for jobs but could not find any as "unemployed." If you are not looking for a job because you have given up or have no more money for transportation, you are not included in the "unemployed" list, even if you have been jobless for the last several years.

This is how the government has increased the employment rate and reduced the hordes of jobless people. But the people do not know this hocus pocus in statistics because their government is not telling them the whole truth.

Another area where the government is deliberately misleading the people is in the value added tax (VAT). Government propagandists assure the people that basic commodities, such as rice, fish, vegetables, cooking oil, will be exempt from the VAT. But if you cook rice and vegetables or buy sardines in cans, you actually also pay VAT on them. Besides, transportation is "VATable," so anything that is transported, such as rice and fish, gets to be covered in a way by the VAT. In short, there is nothing you can eat that is not subject to VAT. So the propaganda that basic commodities are VAT-exempt is a lie.

What are really VAT-exempt are travel expenses, cosmetic surgery (breast implants, liposuction, facelifts in ordinary lingo), jewelry, among others. All these are expenses incurred by the rich, usually only to inflate their ego, to make the beautiful people even more beautiful. These unnecessary, luxurious and frivolous expenses are exempt from the VAT but the food that the poor need to keep themselves alive are not.

One reason the people are so vehemently opposed to the VAT is that the government is not showing any signs that it is cutting costs, plugging the leakages in tax collection and taxing those who can afford to pay the most. The government only wants to tax and tax.

The government propaganda to push the VAT is that it needs the tax money to balance the budget and pay for our debts. We either have to sacrifice now or we face a worse future, so goes the threat. But at the same time that it wants to squeeze the poor taxpayers of more taxes, it is not doing anything to reduce its expenses. Reducing all government allowances-intelligence, confidential, representational, travel, transportation, etc.-just by 10 percent can save enough money that already approximates the additional collection to be derived from a higher VAT.

The congressional pork barrel is clearly and admittedly a waste of tax funds and a source of corruption. Legally and morally it should be abolished, but there is no sign that the Arroyo administration will even reduce it, much less abolish it.

Cancel franchises of striking buses, jeepneys

Cancel franchises of striking buses, jeepneys


Posted 01:13am (Mla time) Feb 04, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the February 4, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


THE PHILIPPINES is the only country in the world where law violators demand the resignation of those who enforce the law. Associations of jeepney and bus drivers, who are the most notorious violators of traffic rules and regulations and are responsible for the anarchy, chaos and traffic congestion in our streets, are demanding the resignation of Chair Bayani Fernando of the Metro Manila Development Authority who has been doing his best to enforce traffic rules and restore order in the streets.

And it is only Fernando, among all the public officials-police officers, mayors, Cabinet members, bureau directors, etc.-who has been able to impose some sort of discipline among drivers, pedestrians and sidewalk vendors even though he is getting little or no help from the police and some mayors. In fact, three or four mayors are openly fighting him for some strange reasons, considering that they are supposed to be on the same side of law and order.

Perhaps, among these reasons is a desire to grandstand and curry favor with the drivers and sidewalk vendors who, after all, are voters, considering that the next local elections is only two years away. Another could be just plain envy. Fernando gets a lot of publicity and favorable press for his efforts. In fact, he is the one Cabinet secretary who has achieved the most to impose discipline in the streets, despite all the obstacles thrown -- and still being thrown -- his way. Instead of making him resign, we should have more officials like him.

Another reason could be that some local officials and their lieutenants are feeling the pinch of reduced income. For example, it is no secret that the sidewalk vendors of Baclaran were paying tong to some relatives and ward leaders of a previous mayor. That is why they have taken over the area around the Baclaran church and could not be removed. Until Fernando came.

Now the same vendors could be pressuring the incumbent mayor to get rid of Fernando so they could return to their hunting grounds. And as we have seen, this mayor is the most vocal against Fernando's "wet flag" and "no contact" policies. If I am not mistaken, he is also among the mayors who threatened to arrest MMDA traffic aides who attempt to enforce these two policies in their jurisdictions.

Why do the drivers and vendors hate Fernando so much? Because he is making them obey the laws and rules. They have been so used to other namby-pamby public officials, who would rather look the other way than make the effort to enforce the law, so that they now feel constricted by a different official who does the duty that he has taken an oath to do. For they do not want to obey the law. They think they're above the law. They want to do their own thing in the streets, and to hell with the law. And because they are voters, some officials would rather coddle them than enforce the law.

The drivers are threatening to punish the riding public by declaring still another strike if Fernando does not resign. Their franchises mandate that they serve the riding public. But they are going to violate their franchises by denying rides to the public because one man is forcing them to obey the law.

This is a golden opportunity for the Department of Transportation, now headed by a law enforcer, a former chief of the Philippine National Police no less, to finally clamp down on anarchy in the streets. The main reason for the traffic congestion is that there are too many vehicles in the streets, including the jeepneys and buses.

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) went overboard in granting too many franchises to buses and jeepneys. Anybody who could pay the fees and pay a fixer could get a franchise. (And anybody who can bribe a fixer at the Land Transportation Office can get a professional driver's license.) Now we have a surfeit of buses and jeepneys in the streets. The buses crawling on Edsa bumper-to-bumper with only a sprinkling of passengers, even during rush hours, is proof of that. The hordes of jeepneys waiting for long hours at jeepney terminals to get their turn to load passengers are proof of that.

This excess of vehicles fighting for the few passengers is what causes traffic jams. They creep along the streets and dawdle at intersections and beside waiting sheds to wait for passengers. They stop in the middle of the streets to load passengers. The drivers are forced to violate traffic rules -- and bribe traffic enforcers-because of the competition. There are too many of them fighting for too few passengers.

The answer, therefore, is to reduce the number of PU vehicles. But the LTFRB cannot cancel franchises without cause. Violating provisions of the franchise, such as refusing to give rides to the public, is one such cause. Therefore, stopping public service without justifiable cause, such as in an unjustified strike, is sufficient reason to cancel franchises. Striking to force a public official to resign because he is enforcing the law is not a justifiable reason to declare a strike. It is coercion.

With fewer PU vehicles in the streets, only enough to service all the passengers, competition will be less and anarchy will stop. Buses can have regular schedules, with scheduled stops like they have in other cities of the world.

The Department of Transportation and Communication should welcome the next transport strike so that it can finally solve the traffic problem.