Monday, December 31, 2007

There’s no kickback in science, that’s why

GOTCHA, Published in The Philippine Star, Monday, December 31, 2007

Are we a race of suckers, or just plain happy-go-lucky? Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. asks so in the wake of Honda’s announcement to make cars that run on water using the invention of Filipino Daniel Dingle. That it took a Japanese conglomerate to recognize Dingle’s genius reflects the sad state of Philippine science and engineering. Lamenting government’s failure to aid scientists, Pimentel blames bureaucrats for Dingle’s shabby treatment. The senator recalls meeting the inventor when he was Minister of Interior in 1986. No less than President Cory Aquino road-tested the water car, with instructions for the Ministry of Science and Technology to help mass-produce it. It took months for the agency to move, and when it did a minor official dismissed Dingle’s contraption as puny. Two decades later, with the world reeling from $100-per-barrel oil, Pimentel can only shake his head at the country’s missing the boat. How many billions of dollars could we have saved using water on cars instead of importing fossil fuels, Pimentel rues?

Rep. Baham Mitra, head of the House committee on agriculture, tells how inability to adopt basic science and engineering has cost the country. The Philippines loses 1.5 billion kilos of rice per year, worth almost P33 billion, due to plain lack of dryers and warehouses. And yet, the legislator says, the government spends P24 billion each year to import two billion kilos of rice. That amount, if used to build post-harvest facilities, would have prevented spoilage and fed 12.5 million Filipinos for a year.

Why Filipinos do not have a scientific or engineering culture can be traced to many factors. But government mostly is to blame. There are very few legislators with grounding on technology, so Congress as policy setter overlooks its importance. By contrast, many of China and India’s leaders today are scientists and engineers, which accounts for their economic leaps. In the Philippines, even the science boards are headed by non-scientists. No premium is put on research. Public funds are spent on projects with kickbacks, such as the P780-million fertilizer scam of 2004.

Pimentel tells of another inventor, Isidro Umali Ursua, who has found a way to harness ocean currents to produce electricity. Like Dingle, Ursua had sought Pimentel’s endorsement in 2003 to the DOST. Then-Trade Sec. Mar Roxas too put in a good word. But again the agency dragged its feet instead of swiftly aiding the innovator of an energy saver. In the end, a bureaucrat rejected Ursua’s plea for help because the latter allegedly didn’t comply with some procedures. Pimentel suspects the oil lobby quietly had moved against the savant. Grown suspicious of government, Ursua applied for a patent not with the local Intellectual Property Office but with the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva. Philips-Philippines has since awarded him, and Marikina City has adopted him as its son. Still, the government has not helped Ursua, and the Philippines is about to miss the boat a second time.

* * *

Under the law a local chief executive has the power to pick his chief of police. The National Police Commission must submit a short list of three nominees, from which the governor or mayor selects. If the latter deems none in the list acceptable, he may demand a new one. To facilitate things, the Philippine National Police may ask the official for his choice, and then have the Napolcom include the officer in the short list.

If it’s that easy, why is Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio having a hard time getting his preferred provincial police director?

Panlilio, a priest who aims to wipe out jueteng, has long chosen Sr. Supt. Cesar Hawthorne Binag. There’s good reason for it. A preacher who founded the Christian Officers Reform the Police Service, Binag is a staunch battler of vice. Panlilio needs a partner in his fight against illegal numbers games that not only corrupt cops but also worsen hunger and abet narco-trade.

Fr. Melo Diola, who helps Panlilio wade through sticky politics, says the latter has written the PNP thrice to move Binag to Pampanga — to no avail. Panlilio finds the explanations lame. One is that Binag supposedly is underage; yet several other provincial directors come from younger batches of the military academy. (Binag used to be Commandant of Cadets of the police academy, a very prestigious position.) Another is that the acting provincial director needs to become regular director in order to earn his general’s star; again, Diola says, this is not necessarily so. The last is that Panlilio must get the Napolcom short list, which he already did.

PNP Dir. Gen. Avelino Razon has warned provincial and city chiefs about the long-standing three-strike policy. That is, if inspectors from general headquarters are able thrice to raid jueteng dens in their areas of responsibility, out they go. With a resurgence of gambling syndicates all over, Razon can expect a massacre of inept field officers. The good ones will clash with governors and mayors who are on the take from vice lords. The only way to lick jueteng is for the local executive and the chief of police to link arms in crusade. Razon can try it in Pampanga.

Ano ang pakay mo sa buhay?

SAPOL Ni Jarius Bondoc, Pilipino Star Ngayon, Monday, December 31, 2007

NAKAKA-INSPIRA si Rick Warren, pastor sa California na umakda ng Purpose Driven Life. Sa isang panayam ito ang mga sinabi ni Warren:

“Tinatanong ako ng mga tao: Para ano ang buhay? Ang maikling sagot ko: Ang buhay ay paghahanda para sa walang-hanggang panahon. Nilikha tayo para tumagal habambuhay, at nais ng Diyos makapiling natin siya sa langit.

“Balang araw hihinto ang pagtibok ng aking puso, at ‘yun na ang wakas ng aking katawan — pero hindi wakas ko. Maari akong mabuhay nang 60-100 taon, pero trilyon-trilyong taon ang ibubuhay ko pagkatapos. Kaya warm-up pa lang ito, dress rehearsal ika nga.

“Nais ng Diyos sanayin natin sa mundo ang magiging gawi natin sa kawalan-hanggan. Nilikha tayo ng Diyos para sa Kanya, at hangga’t hindi mo ‘yan naba­batid, hindi mo maiintindihan ang pakay ng buhay.

“Ang buhay ay kade-kadenang pagsubok. Kung hindi ka pa tapos sa isa, papasok ka sa bago. Kasi, mas interesado ang Diyos sa iyong pagkatao kaysa iyong pagkakontento. Mas interesado Siyang gawing banal kaysa masaya ang iyong buhay.

Maari tayong maging masaya sa mundo, pero hindi ‘yon ang pakay ng buhay. Ang pakay ay bumunga ang pagkatao na tulad ng sa Diyos.

“Itong nakaraang taon ang pinaka-masagana sa aking buhay, at pinaka-malala dahil nagka-cancer ang asawa kong si Kay. Akala ko dati ang buhay ay mga kabundukan at kapatagan, dadaan ka sa karimlan at pagkatapos ay aangat sa tuktok, at baba uli.

“Hindi na ‘yon ang pananaw ko. Imbis na taas-baba, ang buhay pala, sa pananaw ko, ay parang magkapares na riles ng tren, at sa lahat ng oras meron kang mabuti at masama. Gaano man kaganda ng mga nagaganap sa buhay mo, merong dapat haraping masama. At gaano man kasama ang sitwasyon mo, meron kang kabutihan na ipagpapasalamat sa Diyos.

“Maari mong pagtuunan ang iyong pakay, o ang iyong problema. Maari kang maging makasarili, o maging maka-Diyos at makatao.”

Friday, December 28, 2007

Filipinos learn cheek from their leaders

GOTCHA, Published in The Philippine Star, Friday, December 28, 2007

Romeo Jalosjos’s lawyer and son, on feeling hurt when people call him “convicted child rapist” for his heinous crime on an 11-year-old: “We urge the media to (instead) use ‘convicted minor rapist’. We don’t question the word ‘conviction’, (but) ‘convicted child rapist’. ‘Child’ has an open meaning, (to include) kids, maybe toddlers, up to 12 years old... My father is not a rapist. The issue with the girl is not about rape; it’s all about politics. He has been convicted, okay, that’s fine, but at least he deserves respect.”

An unlicensed firecracker maker, on a mall fire this week started by his unsafe wares: “Why blame me? Do the police not know that it takes a person to light or mishandle a firecracker for it to explode? It doesn’t cause fire by itself. So don’t blame me.”

And the inconsiderate jeepney driver, on any given day, when accosted for loading and unloading passengers in the middle of streets: “Boss, I’m only trying to make a living.”

Filipinos will amaze you with their capacity for hairsplitting. But where do you think they learn it? You guessed right: from their leaders, of course. Consider these examples of chutzpah:

Budget Sec. Rolando Andaya Jr., on the World Bank’s recent ditching of a $265-million loan for road repair after 200 local officials rigged the bids: “It’s all the World Bank’s fault. They insisted on using their faulty rules, instead of our superior laws on public bidding and procurement.”

Sen. Antonio Trillanes’s chief aide, on why he broke his campaign promise to not draw the graft-ridden pork barrel of P200 million a year: “We were told that if we don’t get it, someone else will.”

Joseph Estrada, on his conviction for plunder: “Granting that I took money from jueteng, but I did not steal from the government, that is not government money.”

Governor-priest Ed Panlilio, on the P500,000 un-receipted cash given to him during a Malacañang meeting on presidential impeachment: “I don’t think it’s a bribe because there were no strings attached. But I’m waiting for them to tell me where it came from.”

And the classic Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, breaking in June 2005 her long silence on her wiretapped calls to election officer Virgilio Garcillano: “I recognize that making any such call was a lapse in judgment. I am sorry... That is why I want to close this chapter and move on with the business of governing.”

Philippine officials have filled up history notes with grim displays of gall. Senate President Jose Avelino’s remark “What are we in power for?” in 1949 matches the crudeness in the 1989 excuse of a presidential appointee for buying a luxury executive massage-chair out of meager agency funds: “Ours is a rich country pretending to be poor.”

As far back as 1897 at the Tejeros Convention between the Magdalo and Magdiwang factions of the Revolution, insolence showed at the top. At the time, Katipunan founder Andres Bonifacio already had been humiliated at being passed up for the Presidency. A rival aimed to shame the Supremo further for being a plebian. When the latter was elected only as Secretary of Interior, the former questioned his credentials and said the post should go to a lawyer.

Ferdinand Marcos for 14 years used the Red bogey on critics of his one-man rule. One such dissenter declared himself manifestly to be anti-communist. Whereupon, one of Marcos’s bright generals hauled him off to political prison with the charge, “I don’t care what kind of commie you are, you’re all the same.”

More recent Sen. Miriam Santiago, shuddering in 2000 at the thought of her beloved Erap being ousted, vowed to jump off a plane if it ever came to pass. When Erap later was toppled and TV reporters asked Santiago why she hadn’t gone to the airport, she looked straight into the camera and said, “So I lied, bwa-ha-ha-ha.”

Not to be outdone last August was then-Comelec chief Ben Abalos. Cornered by the press into admitting going to Shenzhen four times last year on ZTE Corp. expense, he challenged them, “What was wrong in that?”

There was more to come from the consequent Senate hearings on that telecoms scam. Officials insisted that the people foot the supposedly useful and upright $330-million bill — yet refused to make it public on grounds of confidentiality of ZTE’s proprietary information. In all impudence, they wanted Filipinos to spend P26 billion, sight unseen.

But Filipinos see instances everyday of their leaders’ cheek. So they begin to follow the sterling examples. Officials often say, even when caught with hands in the cookie jar, that they don’t need to steal because they’re rich. A mangled mimicking of it by the pickpocket caught red-handed is to plead, “I did it only to buy medicine for my sick baby.”

Inosenteng pananaw

SAPOL Ni Jarius Bondoc, Pilipino Star Ngayon, Friday, December 28, 2007

ISANG araw isinama ng ama ng isang mayamang angkan ang anak na lalaki sa biyaheng probinsiya. Matatag ang plano ng ama na ituro sa anak kung paano mabuhay ang mahihirap. Dalawang araw at gabi silang tumigil sa sakahan ng isa sa pinaka-hikahos na pamilya sa baryo. Sa pag-uwi nila mula sa biyahe, tinanong ng ama kung naibigan ng bata ang “munting bakasyon”

“Ang galing, Papa.”

“At nabatid mo ba kung paano mamuhay ang maralita?” usisa ng ama.

“Ay, opo, talaga po,” masugid na tugon ng anak.

“O, sabihin mo sa akin kung anu-ano ang natutunan mo sa biyahe,” pagsubok ng ama.

Sagot ng bata: “Nakita ko na meron tayong isang aso, pero sila ay may apat.

“Meron tayong swimming pool na hanggang gitna ng ating bakuran, pero sila ay may batis na walang hanggan.

“Meron tayong imported na mga parol sa hardin, pero sila daan-daan ang mga bituin sa gabi.

“Ang patio natin ay hanggang sa front lawn, pero ‘yung sa kanila hanggang abot-tanaw.

“Meron tayong kapirasong lote para tirahan, pero sila sunod-sunod ang pitak ng palayan hanggang sa kabun­dukan.

“Binibili natin ang pagkain natin, pero sila tinatanim at pinatutubo.

“Meron tayong bakod sa paligid ng lote para protek­siyon, pero sila ay protektado ng mga kaibigan.

Walang masabi ang ama. Tapos, nagpahabol pa ang bata: “Salamat, Papa, at itinuro mo sa akin kung gaano tayo kahirap.”

Hindi ba’t nakagugulat kung minsan ang inosenteng pananaw ng bata? Walang malay, walang malisya, puro masaya. ‘Yan ang hinihingi ni Hesukristo sa atin: Ang pananampalataya ng isang bata. Kaso naaalangan tayo. Para sa atin, kahibangan ang mag-asal bata sa Diyos. Sinisikil natin ang konsensiya. Para tayong si Herodes na kumitil sa Niños Inocentes.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Where is progress in overseas jobs?

GOTCHA, Published in The Philippine Star, Wednesday, December 26, 2007

It is to Arturo Brion’s credit that over a million more Filipinos landed jobs overseas this year. Given a target, the labor secretary set out to meet it. Besides, those workers would have added to the worsening unemployment and hunger had they not gone abroad. And so a total of 9 million overseas Filipino workers will remit $14 billion by end-2007. Truly manpower is the country’s bigger export than semiconductors and electronics.

It is to the government’s discredit, though, that Filipinos are finding work only by leaving their families. That 121 Filipinos leave every hour is a malady, given the demographics. Most of the men who leave are aged 29-35 years, while the women are 25-29. The government is not providing the youth with the promised bright future after college or vocational school. And as the educated youths spend abroad their most productive years, the country is also deprived of their talent.

Ironically the so-called boom in overseas placement comes under an economist President. Laymen cannot grasp what economic philosophy it is that makes Gloria Arroyo see growth in sending away the country’s best minds. Perhaps all Filipinos are dimwits and only Arroyo values which direction the country is going. All they know is that as many as three of every ten overseas worker families end up broken. Too, that children of oversees workers are likely to drop out of college because sadly unguided. And, that the officials who are supposed to assist them instead mulct them of travel money at the airports.

The government is fond of talking big — about greatness in achieving national goals through unity and all that blah. But the macro doesn’t matter to desperate families. Youths take up courses to be able to work abroad — not to be fulfilled and fruitful in chosen fields. Physical therapy, care giving and merchant marine used to be the top picks. Then, even doctors switched to nursing and women took to welding. Parents even egg supple and pretty offspring to become “cultural dancers”. Hope to get out of the poverty rut is only in dollar salaries.

It doesn’t always work out. In a growing number of cases, jobseekers abroad end up with false contracts and lower-than-agreed salaries. Or, their employers turn out to be fiends who hurt or rape and then sell them to white slavery. Or they run afoul of incomprehensible laws and land in jail. Or they simply get sick and cannot fulfill the duties they flew out to do. With 9 million Filipinos out there — a tenth of the population and a fifth of the manpower pool — thousands of them per day are bound to encounter serious trouble.

The majority of workers who survive their stint abroad fortunately are able to save enough to build homes and buy better food. Perhaps that is where the government can somehow claim credit: the economy perks up every time a worker comes home. But then again, they return uninspired to practice their trades precisely because of the very reason they left: bleak futures under bad governance. They end up going into overcrowded small businesses of tricycles.

A theory in the ’80s held that Filipinos are among several races that have missed the bus to industrialization. (Perhaps Arroyo is an adherent of that notion.) RP supposedly should no longer dream of putting up a strong steel-and-technology that manufactures machines to make other machines. It should instead focus on exporting talent as its contribution to global growth. And such talent exports should range from the highest end of scientists, engineers and surgeons, to the lowest end of a-go-go dancers, escorts and circus freaks.

If that were so, the manpower export binge would also need a steady production line. Schools have to train the workers is the spectrum of skills. But even the education system is sinking. The economist-President has not started to reverse the deterioration that everybody has been talking about for a decade.

Really, where is the economic progress there?

* * *

It’s bad enough that government, in the name of poverty alleviation, permits mountain dwellers to hunt deer and birds at will. What worsens it is that rich members of air rifle clubs take to the forests and shoot at will, as if patay-gutom. The website of one such club in Negros brags of their photos with dozens of mangled doves and mallards slung on their shoulders.

“The poachers should be punished and the penalties to be slapped should be strong enough to stop these practices and serve as a warning to others,” says Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, a conservationist and executive director of the Philippine Cockatoo Conservation Program and the Philippine Deer Foundation. “This is not just about ecological balance; it’s about natural heritage and biodiversity legacy,” he adds, noting that collections of insects and agricultural pests also surged in recent years.

I say just hang those macho shooters by their balls.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Kuwentong pampasko

SAPOL Ni Jarius Bondoc, Pilipino Star Ngayon, Tuesday, December 25, 2007

DALAWANG lalaki, parehong malala ang sakit, ang pinag­kasya sa isang kuwarto sa ospital. ‘Yung una, pinauupo isang oras tuwing hapon habang inaalis ang fluids sa baga; tabing-bintana ang katre niya. ‘Yung isa, buong araw hindi makabangon. Walang patid ang kuwentuhan nila: tungkol sa asawa, kaanak, trabaho, parehong pamantasan, at mga pinasyalan abroad.

Sa hapon kapag iniuupo na ‘yung una, ginugugol niya ang oras sa detalyadong pagtukoy sa isa pa ang mga tanawin sa bintana. Sabik ‘yung kasama sa isang oras na pagtutukoy na ‘yon, kung kelan pinalalawak at binubuhay ang kanyang daigdig ng mga nagaganap at kulay ng tanawin.

Tanaw mula sa bintana ang malaking halamanan na may marikit na lawa. Naglalaro ang mga itik sa tubig habang inuusad ng mga bata ang laruang bangka. May mga magkasintahang magkakapit-kamay sa gitna ng mga bulaklak na pula at ube. At sa malayo ay mga nagta­taasang gusali.

Habang iniisa-isa lahat ito nu’ng lalaki sa may bintana, pumipikit naman ‘yung isa at inilalarawan lahat sa isip. Minsang maginhawang hapon idinetalye pa nu’ng una sa kasama ang dumadaang parada. Miski hindi naririnig nu’ng isa pa ang banda, nakikita niya ito — kung paano ito tinutukoy sa kanya para panoorin sa isip.

Lumipas ang mga linggo. Isang umaga nang dinala ng nars ang almusal, napansing hindi humihinga ang lalaki sa tabing-bintana. Tahimik pala itong pumanaw sa tulog nung gabi. Malungkot na inalis ang bangkay.

Nang hindi na abala ang lahat, nakiusap ‘yung isa pang lalaki kung maaring ilipat sa may bintana. Magiliw siyang pinagbigyan ng nars; nang masiguradong komportable ay iniwan na siyang magpahinga. Dahan-dahan, tinitiis ang sakit, itinukod ng lalaki ang isang siko para sumilip sa totoong mundo sa labas. Hirap na hirap siyang bumangon nang konti para tumanaw sa bintana sa tabi ng katre. Pader lang ang nasa labas.

Inusisa ng lalaki ang nars kung bakit ang gaganda ng mga tanawin sa bintana na itinukoy sa kanya ng kasamang kapapanaw lang. Tugon ng nars, bulag ang dalawang mata ng unang lalaki, at imposibleng nakita niya ang pader: “Tiyak, pinatatag lang niya ang kalooban mo.”

Maligaya ang tao na nagpapaligaya sa iba. Maligayang Pasko.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Does gov’t still give option for reform?

Published in The Philippine Star, Friday, December 21, 2007

It will be a lonely yearend for the Arroyo government. Deservedly — given its series of shameful dealings and shallow cover-ups in the past 12 months. As 2007 draws to a close, Malacañang finds itself more and more isolated. One by one the sectors that matter in any tenure’s success have dissociated from Gloria Arroyo.

First, six main business groups decried a rising “culture of impunity.” The administration was inking one shady deal after another, like the ZTE scam, because it knows it can get away with them. One last time, the Makati Business Club, Bishop-Businessmen’s Conference, Management Association of the Philippines, Financial Executives Institute, Foundation for Economic Freedom, and Action for Economic Reform gave Arroyo the benefit of the doubt. Reform the Cabinet, they urged, carefully avoiding blaming her per se for the scandals. But instead of heeding them, the Palace deemed it cosier to just pay off congressmen and governors into blocking any impeachment. Outraged, regional chambers of commerce in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao joined the original six national organizations in denouncing the callousness. Pretending to be cool, Malacañang insisted that the economy was booming, so what’s the fuss.

Then, the heads of all Catholic, Protestant and Born-Again bishops condemned the regime’s “moral bankruptcy”. Joined later by three major congregations of nuns and priests, they enumerated the many unresolved issues under Gloria Arroyo: the Macapagal Boulevard overpricing, Impsa deal, Piatco deal, MegaPacific scam, fertilizer scam, Jose Pidal alias account, Hello Garci, ZTE scam, Palace bribery, and of late the Transco scam. Worst of all, they said, are the unsolved killings and kidnappings of activists and unionists, journalists and jurists. To that, Arroyo merely paid lip service to defending the weak during Human Rights Day. Her liaisons to the bishops also went around the islands urging friendly ones to rebuke the critics.

Now comes the official assembly of lawyers condemning the “culture of dishonesty and deceit” in the government. In an advertised statement in The STAR yesterday, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, like the bishops and businessmen, listed the frauds and flimsy explanations. Once again, the lawyers described the state of people’s mind: “These incidents dishearten the citizenry who is regularly fed reports of a supposedly improving economy which we cannot feel. When we vote, there is a lingering suspicion that our collective voice will be subverted. When we pay our taxes, there is frustration that our hard-earned money will be used not to pave our roads and improve social services.” Once more, they derided the situation: “These continuing acts of a government whose moral fiber has worn thin and whose conscience has seemingly vanished. A government, which has mastered the art of cover-up and manipulation, finds its constitutional right to lead diminished. It betrays the people’s trust when it thrives not on good governance but on corruption.”

The IBP takes a step further, though. The businessmen had asked Arroyo to rein in her thieving minions; the bishops, for her to please just leave. Now the lawyers are telling the people to themselves move instead: “We challenge the Filipino citizenry to channel their rightful indignation and disappointment into legal means of expression.”

The lawyers did not say what the means are. But coming as they do after the Trillanes-Lim sedition in Makati, they cannot be referring to violent ones. Filipinos, including those who dreamingly prescribe the death of all citizens aged above eight as a start of meaningful change, abhor bloodshed.

But does the situation still leave Filipinos room for peaceful change? Dissenters in the city demonstrate and get clubbed by the police. Those in the countryside are picked up and tortured by death squads. Local execs are the first and last resort of aggrieved folk, but Malacañang has co-opted them too with P500,000-cash gifts from the public till. The Speaker had suggested a moral revolution, but was hooted down by his own House allies and close advisers. Senators are developing a new habit of inquiring in aid of snuffing out an exposé of misdeed.

Malacañang will surely treat the lawyers’ outcry the same it did the businessmen’s and the bishops’ — with derision. And Malacañang will do the same with the next influential sector that stands up and says it has had enough.

As the Integrated Bar came out with its rebuke of the Arroyo regime, the latter’s political allies were at it. All 236 congressmen paid themselves P200,000-Christmas bonuses each, for a total of P47.2 million. A justice who invariably decides for the administration bought himself a brand-new Jaguar. And a cabineteer who loves the good life saw to the delivery this week of his P200-million yacht.

Sure, it will be a lonely Christmas for the administration men. But what the heck, they must be assuring themselves. They’ve got the money anyway.

Pork ni Trillanes, cash ni Apostol

SAPOL Ni Jarius Bondoc, Pilipino Star Ngayon, Friday, December 21, 2007

TALAGANG ang isda ay nahuhuli sa bunganga. At big fish, ika nga, ang nabisto kamakailan sa magkabilang panig ng pulitika — sina Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol at opposition Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.

Nahuli ang pagkatao nila dahil sa daldal ni Apostol. Ibinunyag niya na kaya pala nag-alburuto si Trillanes sa Peninsula Hotel nu’ng Nobyembere 29 ay dahil ni-reject ng Department of Budget ang pork barrel request ng senador na P100 milyon sa ilalim ng priority development assistance fund (PDAF). May bukod na liham daw si Trillanes sa DPWH nu’ng Nobyembere 15 para sa P50 milyon mula sa congressional insertions; tinanggihan din.

Wala palang isang salita si Trillanes. Nu’ng Mayo nang kapapanalo pa lang niya sa eleksiyon, sabi niya hindi siya kukubra ng pork barrel — tulad nina Ping Lacson at Joker Arroyo — dahil sanhi ito ng katiwalian. Pero hayan, nilamon na siya agad ng sistema.

Ang babaw pa ng paliwanag ng chief of staff ni Trilla-nes, si Reynaldo Robles. Kesyo raw malisyoso si Apos-tol sa pagdi­dikit ng pork barrel request at ng nabigong kudeta sa Makati. At kesyo raw pinayuhan kasi sila na kung hindi kukubrahin ni Trillanes ang pork barrel ay may ibang kukubra nu’n para sa kanila. Pinalalabas niya na kung sila ang gagamit ay malinis, pero kung iba ay marumi. Palalo!

Pero dagdag pa ni Apostol, kung ni-release daw ng DBM at DPWH ang pinagsamang P150 milyon, tiyak na gagamitin ‘yon ni Trillanes para sa pagpapabagsak ng gobyerno. Ipagpa­lagay nang walang iniisip si Trillanes kundi ang pag­ banat sa administrasyon, lumilitaw ang mga tanong na dapat sagutin ni Apostol, na matagal naging kongresista kaya kabisado ang pork barrel: Bakit niya sinasabing gagamitin ni Trillanes ang P150 milyon para sa kudeta, dahil ba cash na pala ngayon ang PDAF at congressional insertions? Hindi ba’t palaging sinasabi ng Malacañang, DBM at Kongreso na hindi naman hina­hawakan ng mga senador o kongresista ang pondo, kundi tinutukoy lang ang mga proyekto? Kung gan’un, bakit pinapa­hiwatig ngayon na cash pala ang kinukubra?

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Still no action on WB report of bid rigging

Published in The Philippine Star, Wednesday, December 19, 2007

It was, as Sen. Mar Roxas decried, “a huge national embarrassment.” But the World Bank’s discovery of bid rigging and consequent cancellation of $265 million in road construction loans is now a dead story. Malacañang blarney cleverly diverted attention from it. Allegedly it was all the Bank’s fault for imposing flawed bidding rules when the country’s laws were better. Forgotten now was the portion of the report that about 200 local officials had submitted false tenders.

It is true that the Bank is not always of high virtue or intelligence. Not only was its headman sacked last summer for giving undue benefits to a lover-subordinate. It was also caught in 2006 naively awarding three-fourths of a P3.5-billion textbook project to publishers and printers with the same blacklisted owners. But that should not be the end of the story in any discovery of fraud.

The $265 million is what’s left unspent. Over $120 million reportedly was earlier released for road repairs; there could’ve been bid riggers there too, like the 200 discovered later. The first and second batches of crooks need to be punished to set an example.

Public Works Sec. Hermogenes Ebdane supposedly has investigated the anomaly. Yet defying Senator Roxas’s request, he has not made public the report. Surely it is because the 200 mayors and governors are Palace pals.

* * *

“What would drive anyone to do this?” conservationist Dodo Cu-Unjieng e-mailed along with sad photos from Dasmariñas Village, Makati. Twenty-nine kittens had been shot with an air pistol at pointblank range in their clinic cages. All bore multiple pellet wounds. Three were already dead when the subdivision guards discovered the misdeed early Sunday. Eleven more had to be euthanized when the vet ruled that their wounds were beyond repair. Of the 15 that endured the brutality, only a handful has a good chance to recover under intensive care. “Those that will survive will be traumatized,” Dodo wrote. “Blood was splattered all over the cages. The three kittens that died didn’t do so quickly. Evidently theirs were horrific, painful deaths.”

Dodo’s wife Nancy has been helping the homeowners association control the stray dog and cat population. The animals are captured and sent to her CARA Clinic or to other vets to be spayed or neutered. From there, the Cu-Unjiengs nurse the animals in their own home before returning them to the Dasma security office. They are temporarily kept in cages before release to the areas where they were found.

“Why would anyone mercilessly shoot animals in cages?” Dodo wrote. “They were in a storage area not frequented by residents; they couldn’t have been disturbing anyone.” What’s disturbing is that such a person is roaming around with an air gun.

* * *

Also to the poll in which Filipinos judged Gloria Arroyo as the vilest of five past Presidents, Malacañang made a false claim. One storyteller gave as example of the admin’s anticorruption drive the conviction of Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia. That’s farthest from the truth.

From Oct. 2004 when I broke the story on the arrest of Garcia’s sons for bringing undeclared $100,000 cash into America, to Dec. 2005 when a court martial convicted him to two years in prison, the Palace never helped in the case. It was a chance for Arroyo to grandstand, as she is wont to do, by saying or doing something to stop the thievery by the military brass and help the foot soldiers. Yet she and her aides even seemed to be avoiding the issue of corruption in the uniformed services.

Malacañang’s unusual silence had something to do with Arroyo’s faulty “revolving door policy”. Then, as now, she would accommodate all senior generals to become her Armed Forces chief of staff, even though they would serve only three months or so. Some of the chiefs weren’t able to do much more than repainting the GHQ fence, but it was fine. She got their loyalty and they got heftier retirement packages. There wasn’t enough time to check on everything, especially the military’s money. That allowed Garcia as comptroller to run circles around five chiefs of staff while secretly amassing more than P300 million from a monthly pay of P26,000.

The Sandiganbayan is still trying Garcia for plunder and perjury. Then-Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo’s researchers sealed the case with Chief Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio’s litigators. Credit for deep investigative spadework should go to three colonels who prefer to remain anonymous. The only time Arroyo stepped in was to accept the military court’s sentence of two years’ hard labor. And that only meant not making Garcia do chores beneath a general’s dignity.

The Palace spin-doctor who now claims credit in nailing Garcia even tried to belittle my initial exposé. Maybe it was from habit of denying any misdeed by persons around the President, but he looked like he was siding with the general. Only later when more proof surfaced of fraud at the top and Malacañang allies in Congress asked for heads to roll, did he shut up.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Pagtanim ng jatropha para sa dagdag-kita

SAPOL Ni Jarius Bondoc, Pilipino Star, Ngayon, Tuesday, December 18, 2007

ANI PNOC-Alternative Fuels Corp. president Peter Antony Abaya, anim na milyong ektarya sa Pilipinas ang idle. “Bumiyahe ka lang mula Tarlac hanggang Isabela,” aniya tungkol sa mga walang patid na bakanteng kapatagan at kalbong kabundukan. Mas marami pang ganyan sa Min­danao, lungkot ni AFC chairman Rene Velasco. Tinu­koy ng state firm ang 700,000 bakanteng ektarya sa paligid ng Cagayan de Oro bilang posibleng taniman ng puno na sanhi ng alternative biodiesel.

Hindi tulad ng mais or tubo na pinuputol sa pag-ani, minsan lang itatanim ang jatropha. Kahit anong klaseng lupa, mataba man o tigang, at terrain, patag man o bangin, ay maaring tubuan. Miski seasonal rains lang, yayabong na ang puno. Pero ani AFC general manager Clovis Tupaz, mas mabuti kung didiligan sa unang taon, at lagyan ng pataba.

Sa ikawalong buwan pa lang, magbubunga na ang jatropha ng nut na may 35% oil. Maari nang anihin. Magiging hitik ito nang 50 taon, mula sa ikatlo o ikaapat na taon.

Naghahanap ang AFC ng mga samahang magsasaka na merong bakanteng 3,000 hanggang 5,000 ektarya. Tatayuan nila ito ng seed nursery na, sa simula ay magbibigay ng libreng buto na itatanim. Magtatatag din ng oil expeller at refinery. Dito, bibilhin ng AFC ang ani na jatropha nuts nang P3.50 per kilo. Kakatasin ang langis ng jatropha at idadala sa refiners.

Kausap na ng AFP si Quezon Gov. Raffy Nantes. Bumubuo siya ng 100,000 ektarya para magkaroon ng unang jatropha seed center sa Quezon sa first quarter ng 2008. Sa Quezon naka-base ang dalawang pinaka-malaking gawaan ng coco-biodiesel: Chemrez at Senvel. Pero dahil maaring kapusin ang supply ng niyog para gawing coconut methyl ester — maganda kasi ang presyo ng kopra ngayon sa $1,000 per metric ton — naghahanda na ang probinsiya. Jatropha ang gagawing panghalo sa diesel, na inobliga ng Biofuels Act.

* * *

Para sa karagdagang kaalaman, tignan ang www.pnoc-afc.com.ph. Magkakaroon na rin ng Internet central library sa darating na taon.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Cleanup team ensures she stays in power

GOTCHA, Published in The Philippine Star, Monday, December 17, 2007

Fish are caught by the mouth, the Tagalogs say. And what big fish with mouthfuls were caught on both sides of the political pond last week. Snagged were no less than Presidential Legal Counsel Serge Apostol and opposition Sen. Sonny Trillanes.

Apostol’s big mouth gave them away. Trillanes, he roared, threw a tantrum at The Pen last Nov. 29 because the budget office had rejected a claim for P100-million pork barrel. Quoting “intel”, Apostol said the senator on Nov. 9 had asked for P60 million under Congress’ priority development assistance fund and P40 million under the public works fund. The request was turned down allegedly because Trillanes disrespects them. “You can see how this fellow thinks,” Apostol sneered, “While he is trying to topple the government, he is also demanding money from it.”

Trillanes has been shown to have no word of honor. He had vowed right after election in May that he would never partake of the corrupt pork system. Six months into office, dirty politics has devoured him. By way of explaining, all the senator said is that his pork order had nothing to do with his fizzled coup. His chief aide lamely claimed to being advised that if they don’t collect Trillanes’ yearly entitlement of P200 million, someone else will get it. By arrogant implication, Trillanes using pork would be clean, but somebody else doing the same would not be.

Apostol was unstoppable. He said that had the budget office released the P100 million, Trillanes “would have used it to topple the government.” It was with this instructive line that Apostol the ex-congressman raised new questions. For one, do not Malacañang and Congress repeatedly claim in defense of pork that funds are not given directly to congressmen or senators but to projects they have identified? So how come Apostol now says Trillanes nearly got P100 million cash to use for rebellion? Granting that Trillanes does have nothing in mind but to bring down Gloria Arroyo, does Apostol on the other hand know something about the pork that the public doesn’t? Is he so conversant about pork that he’s sure the ubiquitous contractors who help legislators skim from projects have reached even a rebel like Trillanes? Lastly, will Apostol have the usual talkativeness to expose pork thieves?

* * *

To a poll in which Filipinos opined that Gloria Arroyo is the vilest of five past Presidents, Malacañang’s response is neither here nor there. “No charges have been proven in court,” one presidential spokesman snorted, to show that the survey result is only perception and not reality. But of course no charges have been proven because none have been filed. That Palace smart aleck must know: the President is immune from suit while in office.

But even without that exemption, it’s next to impossible to bring up charges against the highest official of the land. That office comes with vast powers to frustrate seekers of justice, which is why they are reduced to expressing disgust through polls.

Persons once close to the center of power but have since left because of unconscionable corruption know only too well about Arroyo’s cleanup team. That cabal of selected cabineteers, generals and politicos ensures by hook or by crook that she overcomes every political crisis.

It employs a combination of legal and other tricks. Among the legal ploys is to craft sham impeachment raps ahead of real ones — to inoculate Arroyo for a year under a mangled constitutional rider. Alongside it are the rigged congressional inquiries that let off steam but eventually snuff out exposés, foot-dragging by the Ombudsman, or filing of weak cases against minions. Documentary evidence conveniently get lost. Witnesses are spirited away from public view until the coast is clear: Udong Mahusay, Jocjoc Bolante, Virgilio Garcillano, Lintang Bedol. Executive branch officials are forbidden from attending congressional inquiries that are not controlled by administration allies. If forced to attend, they invoke executive privilege to conceal high crime.

From there it gets worse. Whistleblowers are intimidated or bought off. In the ZTE deal, Malacañang operatives bad-mouthed the complainers while wiretapping them. They even tried to link to a fabricated theft of official documents the newsmen who wrote about the scam. Threatening the exposers has become commonplace. “Isang preso lang ‘yan (One prisoner is all it’ll take)” is now the favorite expression of assurance of Malacañang bigwigs about those who break ranks. Meaning, all it would take to silence them is to let out of prison for one night a trusty armed convict.

Lawmakers are called in when necessary. Pork barrels are released or withheld based on Malacañang’s critical needs. Congressmen, senators and local officials are bribed, and then brought along foreign junkets. At times bishops too are paid off.

Worst is when dissenters are killed or kidnapped. UN fact-finders have listed down close to 850 cases of activists, unionists, journalists and jurists slain or abducted for exposing government abuses. Complementing these are repressive measures like the calibrated preemptive response and a looming revival of an anti-subversive law.

The cleanup team invariably wears down the whistleblowers and civil society. Disaffected citizens simply emigrate. And once in a while a bunch of outraged soldiers mutiny.

Jatropha tutubo sa ulan at abandonadong lupain

SAPOL Ni Jarius Bondoc, Pilipino Star Ngayon, Monday, December 17, 2007

NAG-AALALA ang United Nations sa biglang pagsikat ng biofuels mula sa oilseeds. Kasi mas malinis nga ang diesel o gasolinang halaw sa mais, palm, coconut, soya o sunflower — pero nababawasan ang ani na para sa pagkain, dahil ginagamit sa kotse at pabrika. Halos 75% na ang itinaas ng presyong pagkain sa buong mundo mula 2005. At para tumiba sa biofuels, kinakalbo ng mga timawa at malalaking pabrika (tulad sa Malaysia) ang mga gubat para taniman ng oilseeds.

Mabuti na lang naiwasan ng PNOC-Alternative Fuels Corp. ang isyu ng food versus fuel. Mula nang itatag ang state firm nu’ng Hunyo 2006, pinagtuonan na ni chairman Rene Velasco ang jatropha nut bilang sanhi ng alternative diesel. Siksik ito sa langis, pero hindi nakakain. Bukod dito, hindi kailangan itanim sa mga lupaing pam­ pagkain at may patubig, kundi sa mga abandonadong lote at mga kinalbong bundok. Halos anim na milyon ektarya ang bakante sa Pilipinas, at 15 milyon ektarya ng gubat ang kalbo na, ani AFC president Peter Anthony Abaya. Mag­tanim du’n ng jatropha trees, payo niya, at mabubuhay na ito sa seasonal rains. Walong buwan pa lang, may bunga na, pero magiging hitik nang limang dekada mula ikatlo o ikaapat na taon.

Tiyak ang merkado ng jatropha. Kasi ipinasa na nu’ng Abril ang Biofuels Act. Tinakda ng batas na haluan ng 1% biodiesel sa gasolinahan. Mula 2009 magiging 2% ito, at maari pang itaas pagkatapos. Sa ngayon ang sanhi pa lang ng panghalong biodiesel ay coconut methyl ester. Pero nagmamahal ito ngayon dahil mas pabor sa mag­niniyog ang i-export na lang ito bilang kopra nang $1,000 per metric ton. Maari rin ang ibang vegetable oils — palm oil, rapeseed, linseed o mani — pero mas mahal pa kaysa coconut. Jatropha na lang ang pamalit. Maari din bumili ng jatropha biodiesel ang mga ibang bansa dahil sa paghihigpit nila sa vehicle fumes. Sumubok na nga ang biodiesel maker Chemrez ng jatropha oil sa kotse.

Para sa karagdagang kaalaman, tingnan ang www. pnoc-afc. com.ph. Magkakaroon na rin ng Internet central library sa darating na taon.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Government going for jatropha big-time

GOTCHA, Published in The Philippine Star, Friday, December 14, 2007

After a year-and-a-half of testing, government is ready to propagate jatropha large-scale. Everything is in place. The best of 25 local nut varieties have been classified from 500 trial hectares in Cagayan de Oro and Nueva Ecija. Oil extractors have been invented. Public interest has been preened, and private firms have pitched in. One company has bioengineered a fast-growing strain; another has refined the nut oil into high-grade biodiesel. Confident farmers have experimented harvests in 850 hectares in Butuan and General Santos cities. What’s next is for the PNOC-Alternative Fuels Corp. to set up seed centers and oil expellers in interested communities.

Economies of scale tops the bill. AFC president Peter Anthony Abaya is scouting for communities that can spare 3,000-5,000 contiguous hectares for the new cash crop. The area may be loamy or sandy, rich or marginal, flatland or rolling hills — but it has to be idle. The AFC does not want to compete with land use for food, and so is benignly looking only at vacant.

The aim is to augment farmers’ incomes. The AFC initially will give seeds for free. Having studied the highest fruiting and oil yielding species, it knows what variety is suitable for the area’s terrain and climate. Jatropha is low maintenance. It can grow even only with seasonal rains. But for top productivity, watering the plant in the first year would be best. Pruning is also needed so that the tree does not grow too high for nuts to be harvested handily. A young tree can begin to fruit by the twelfth month; peak yields begin on the third or fourth year, onwards to over 50 years. (The Biofuel Development Consortium of three private firms has cultivated a “super-jatropha” that fruits in eight to ten months, and each nut’s body weight is 32-35% oil.) The AFC commits to buy the yield at P3.50 per kilo. From an average harvest of ten tons per hectare, the farmer makes P35,000, general manager Clovis Tupaz calculates.

The AFC has many farm cooperative models to choose from. Decades of operations have perfected seed selling and leaf buying stations in North Luzon, copra trading in South Luzon and Mindanao, and rice and corn transporting everywhere. Once a right-sized area is ready, the AFC will set up a seed nursery that will supply the best varieties and train participants. An oil expeller plant, which Abaya describes as a medium-size factory, will buy the harvest and extract the oil. From there trucks or ships will take the oil to biodiesel refiners. Chemrez, one of two biggest makers of coco-diesel, successfully has blended jatropha oil with imported diesel for use in cars. (India is in the middle of a two-year experiment using pure jatropha biofuel for train locomotives.) Jatropha, unlike sugarcane or corn, requires no replenishing. Plant and nurture it once, and three generations can partake of its yield revenues.

The AFC’s first commercial venture is not as small as Abaya’s desired 3,000-5,000 hectares. Gov. Rafael Nantes of Quezon is consolidating 100,000 hectares of idle lands for the AFC’s first seed nursery-oil expeller by the first quarter of 2008. Quezon is coconut country, the biggest supplier of coco-methyl ester as substitute to imported diesel. But copra has been selling for $1,000 a ton for three years and higher prices are expected from use in food and cosmetics. Anticipating hard times with raw materials for coco-diesel refiners in Quezon, the governor is laying down this early an alternative oil source.

Dr. Rene Velasco, AFC chairman, meanwhile is busy promoting jatropha to foreign buyers. The Biofuels Act required all filling stations in the Philippines to mix 1% biodiesel into imported stocks, with the blend to rise to 2% by 2009. But Europe, America, Japan and Korea are mulling higher biodiesel blends to clean the air in their cities. Since their oilseed sources — soy, rapeseed, linseed, palm oil — are as expensive as copra, they might turn to jatropha from the Philippines and Indonesia.

For more info, visit www.pnoc-afc.com.ph. A central repository of all information on jatropha also will be put up soon on the Internet. The Biofuel Consortium may be reached through: Dr. Eleuterio Bernardo, Biophil, +63910-2612619, engb98@gmail.com; or Mr. Pablito Villegas, Meganomics Specialists, +63917-8211548, pmvillegas2001@yahoo.com or meganomics@pldtdsl.net.

* * *

A related letter from Carlos S. Carmona of Fort Bonifacio, Taguig:

“I read (Gotcha, 12 Dec. 2007) regarding arable yet idle lands. I have used the same argument: lots of unfarmed land is available. People can use those for pasture dairying in order to produce milk locally at lower cost. Within a hundred mile radius of Metro Manila, idle lands can be used to yield as much as 30% of its milk needs. Government and private investors have yet to take notice. An unproductive lot of 35 hectares can sustain up to a hundred milking cows by rotational grazing of the right pasture grasses.”

Kagubatan ng Samar uubusin na naman

SAPOL Ni Jarius Bondoc, Pilipino Star Ngayon, Friday, December 14, 2007

LUMIHAM sa akin ang kaibigan kong Samareño, Charo Cabardo. Nilista niya ang ilang sakuna ng dalawang dekada: Baha sa Ormoc nu’ng 1991 na lumunod sa ma­higit 3,000 tao; pagguho ng Cherry Hills Subd. sa Antipolo nu’ng 1999 na ikinamatay ng 58; landslide sa Camiguin nu’ng 2001 na bumaon sa 350; baha sa Valenzuela nu’ng 2001 na nagpahirap sa 4,392 pamilya; baha sa Bulacan, Tarlac, Pampanga at Pangasinan nu’ng 2001 na gumulo sa milyon-milyong katao; mudslide sa Aurora, Nueva Ecija at Quezon nu’ng 2004 na pumatay sa mahigit 2,000; pagtabon sa 2,000 katao sa Ginsaugon, Leyte, nu’ng 2006; landslides muli sa Albay, Sorsogon, Camarines Sur at Camarines Norte na nagbuwal ng bahay ng libu-libong pamilya nitong 2006; at nito lang na pag-evacuate sa 25,000 pamilya sa Iloilo mula sa baha.

Sa Samar mismo, ginunita ni Charo, binaha nang isang linggo nu’ng 1989 ang 36 na bayan ng Northern at Eastern provinces, na pumatay sa 79, 56 na hindi na natagpuan, daan-daang sugatan, at 60,739 bahay nasira. Wasak din ang mga pananim at alagaing-hayop.

Bakit pinaaalala ni Charo lahat ito? Para idiin sa isipan na ang sanhi ng baha at landslides ay ang pagkalbo ng kagubatan sa bundok at patag. At bakit kailangan ito idiin? Kasi pinahintulutan ng Department of Environment and Natural Resources ang muling pag-operate ng isa sa pitong pinaka-malaking logging firms sa Samar.

Labing-walong taon na sana walang logging sa Samar. Pinatupad ng gobyerno nu’ng 1989 ang total log ban para maibalik ang kagubatan. Pero ngayon in-extend ng DENR ang timber license agreement ng Basey Wood Co. nang anim na taon. Ito’y para maputol ng Baswood ang dami ng puno na hindi nagawa dahil sa ban.

Nahihibang ang DENR. Tumutubo pa lang muli ang mga puno sa Samar, pero ipakakalbo na muli sa Baswood. Pangalawa itong pinayagang nagwasak ng gubat. Nu’ng 2005 umarya rin ang San Jose Timber ni Juan Ponce Enrile. Nagprotesta lang ang taumbayan kaya naudlot ang salot.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Jatropha precludes food-vs-fuel dilemma

GOTCHA, Published in The Philippine Star, Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Conservationists should be the first to promote the planting and use of oilseeds for biofuel. But they’re not. In an ironic twist, earth activists in Asia, Europe and America are even urging caution against the alternative to dirty crude oil. This is because of twin trends. One, too much land — 25 million hectares, by latest UN estimates — once devoted to food suddenly have been converted to fuel crops. Food prices thus have risen all over by as much as 75% since 2005. Two, to cash in on the biofuel boom, landless tillers and even big companies, as in Malaysia, have been encroaching on rainforests to cultivate oilseeds. Their biofuel end-products may spell less vehicle fumes, but the denudation hastens climate change.

Happily the state-owned PNOC-Alternative Fuel Corp. foresaw the food-versus-fuel dilemma. From AFC’s birth in June 2006, chairman Rene Velasco focused on inedible but oil-laden jatropha — and only in idle lands or denuded hills. “We do not compete for land use with producers of rice, corn, fruits, veggies and livestock,” he beams. “Food and fuel security can go hand in hand.” Jatropha, locally called tuba-tuba nut found on hillsides or river banks, is used only as purgative. The tree grows on any terrain and requires only seasonal rains, not expensive, sophisticated irrigation. The challenge for AFC is not in enticing farmers to switch to the fuel nut, but in teaching them what to do with vacant lands for extra cash.

Arable but idle lands abound in the Philippines. Quoting an Asian Development Bank study, AFC president Peter Anthony Abaya laments that six million hectares are unfarmed. “Drive up from Tarlac to Isabela and you’ll see what I mean,” he says of the route through both flatlands and rolling hills. The landowners lack money to invest or are preoccupied with unsuitable crops or are absentees. Mindanao has more such areas, Velasco says, so these might as well be used for substitute diesel. The AFC recently surveyed about 700,000 hectares around Cagayan de Oro City as suitable for jatropha.

Another 15 million hectares, half of the Philippine territory, are denuded forests. Abaya notes that since jatropha can grow on slopes and needs low maintenance, it can be used to reforest mountains. Upon maturity in three to four years, the jatropha tree will bear nuts for the next five decades. So who would want to cut it down when its nuts can now be sold for cash by the industrious harvester. India, five years ahead of the world in jatropha research and mass production, at first experimented it on abandoned lowlands that are usually flooded during the monsoon season. Last year the country tested pure jatropha oil on train locomotives, with encouraging results.

The selling point for planting jatropha is that there’s a huge market for it. The Philippines passed a Biofuels Act in April that requires 1% blend of biodiesel in all filling stations, to rise to 2% in 2009 and higher thereafter. (For gasoline, there should be 5% blend by 2008.) The law would reduce vehicle emissions and imports of crude oil. But biodiesel processors are finding it harder these days to get feedstock from the usual coconut planters. With copra fetching $1,000 per metric ton, planters would rather export. Enter the lowly tuba-tuba. Abaya recounts that Chemrez, the biggest biodiesel maker, successfully tested jatropha as substitute for coco methyl ester in cars. And so the AFC in early 2008 will put up its first jatropha seed nursery and oil extraction complex right where the biodiesel refineries are: in coconut-rich Quezon province. Gov. Rafael Nantes reportedly is aggregating about 100,000 unused hectares for the pilot project.

The world mart can be promising too for jatropha investors. Europe recently enforced 30% biodiesel blend (B30) on vehicles that make frequent stops and therefore expel more fumes, like buses and garbage trucks. Some US states have set up incentives for factories to use 100% biodiesel (B100). For all other vehicles, Europe is planning a steady rise in biodiesel blend from the present 5% to 10% by 2020. The US intends to impose B8 in five years. China reportedly will enact its own biofuels law that will force B10 by 2012. Japan and Korea want 8% blends by next year. Thailand already has imposed B5. The problem is that these countries depend on costly sources of biofuels that are also vegetable oils or cosmetics bases: rapeseed, palm oil, sunflower, soy, and linseed. Mass-producing jatropha in idle lands and denuded mountains in Philippines and Indonesia may be their only cheaper choice. India may not be able to export to Europe or America because of its plan to have B20 in all vehicles in ten years.

For more info, visit www.pnoc-afc.com.ph. A central repository of all information on jatropha also will be put up soon on the Internet.

Monday, December 10, 2007

A tale of two populous cities

GOTCHA, Published in The Philippine Star, Monday, December 10, 2007

So embarrassing was the Europe junket of 34 congressmen and three senators that their leaders had to disown them. In identifying his frolicking colleagues, Speaker Joe de Venecia said he didn’t sign their travel; meaning, they flew off on Malacañang, not House, expense. Senate President Manny Villar was peeved that his associates departed when they were to deliberate on the 2008 national budget. Told that most of the footloose deputies were from his party, Kampi head and Interior Sec. Ronnie Puno claimed no part in the trip.

Told about the furor over their needless touring with Gloria Arroyo in Spain, France and Britain, the 37 felt need to somehow justify. Lofty aims belatedly were concocted for the trip, and six or seven of them stammered that they had “used my own funds.”

The pretense was they were there heroically toiling for poor Filipinos — on their own accounts. But half-truths are whole lies. They were partying at public expense — with spouses, offspring and special companions at that, which was why their entourage totaled 184. Using “own funds” only meant juggling for the three-country fling what had already been given them for other public purposes.

Most of the junketeers were the same politicos who got P500,000 each from Malacañang in Oct. Now the Palace is wasting P200,000 each for plane tickets, P300,000 for hotel and food, and P135,000 for shopping. That’s P635,000 per head — or P116,840,000 in one blow for 184 freeloaders.

* * *

Local officials ape the example of the top. Because Malacañang gave out P500,000 each to 190 congressmen and several dozen governors, local politicos too are doling cash to their wards. As in Malacañang, no receipts are issued. But the money is slyly taken from public coffers.

Last week Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan Sr. and Autonomous Region Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan took a step further and handed out cash to total strangers. The father was seeing off the son at the Manila airport when their aides told security personnel to line up for Christmas gifts. About 300 quickly did, and the Ampatuans gaily distributed to each P1,000 that reportedly came from a government agency in charge of the son’s huge entourage to Saudi Arabia.

Let’s hope it wasn’t a ploy to divert the attention of immigration agents looking out for human smugglers.

* * *

Time was when Quezon City’s population was running wild. From 1996 to 2000 it had 35 live births for every 1,000 population. By consequence there were many deaths of women getting pregnant too often, too young or too sick. Maternal morality in the same period was 13 per 100,000 folk.

Coming into office mid-2001, Mayor Sonny Belmonte immediately put funds into family planning. Teaching of reproductive health and use of safe contraceptives gestated for two years. By 2003 live births dropped to 20 per 1,000, and onto only three by 2006. Dramatically maternal deaths also declined: only six per 100,000 in 2003, onto a better three in 2006. Belmonte saved many productive lives for an investment of P10 million per year.

Dr. Jonathan Flavier compared the 1996-2006 figures of Quezon City with Manila, where Lito Atienza was mayor for nine years. Before Atienza began his term in 1998, there were 25 live births per 1,000 population. Maternal deaths were seven per 100,000 people.

Atienza by religious zeal put a stop to children-spacing seminars and artificial birth control. From 1998 to 2006, live births held steady at 20 per 1,000. Mothers felt the toll. Deprived of means to avoid pregnancy, more of them died at a rate of 11 per 100,000.

Flavier’s tale of the two populous cities “gives us basis to decide what policy is better for women, couples and their children.” Child spacing cuts the deaths of women from sickness due to frequent, early or late — because unplanned — pregnancies. Fewer husbands become despondent and fewer children become wayward from being orphaned.

Councilor Joseph Juico uses the study, among others, as basis for his planned Quezon City policy for population checks and reproductive health. Saving women’s lives makes them and their spouses more productive, and their children better supervised. People know it, in spite of what bishops say against family planning in this country with 85 percent Catholics. Nine of every ten adults think family planning important, and the same number want government to provide the means for it. Celibate bishops tell couples to master abstinence, or else have sex only during the wife’s infertile period, which requires the same self-discipline as abstinence. But couples know their bodies better.

Only Catholic bishops, by the way, oppose Juico’s bill. He says he has won the support of the Iglesia ni Cristo, and heads of mainstream and Born-Again Protestant churches.

184 nag-junket, P28-M ginastos

SAPOL Ni Jarius Bondoc, Pilipino Star Ngayon, Monday, December 10, 2007

HINDI lang 34 kongresista at tatlong senador ang sumama kay President Gloria Arroyo sa Spain, France at Britain nitong nakaraang linggo. Kasama rin ang kanilang mga asawa, anak at querida. Lahat-lahat, 184 ang bilang ng delegasyon sa Europe. Hulaan mo kung sino ang nagba­yad ng kanilang pama­ sahe, hotel accommodations at shopping.

Dahil sa dami ng mga saling-pusa mula sa Kamara, napahiya si Speaker Joe de Venecia. Nilabas niya agad ang listahan ng mga bumiyahe, at pinagdiinan na hindi niya inaprubahan ang larga kaya walang pondong nilabas ang Kongreso. Napahiya rin si Senate President Manny Villar dahil nawala ang mga kasamahan habang dine-deliberate ang national budget — ang pinaka-mahalagang bill sa Kongreso. Umiwas-pusoy naman si Kampi chairman (at DILG Sec.) Ronaldo Puno nang mapabalitang puro-kapartido ang naglamiyerda. Hindi raw niya alam ‘yon, nagpalusot siya, na animo’y makakalimutan ng madla ang karangyaan nila kung sabihin niya ‘yon.

Nang mabalitaan ng mga biyahero na binabatikos sila sa Pilipinas, anim sa kanila ay nag-press statement na kesyo sa sariling pondo nagmula ang panggastos. Ibig sabihin lang nu’n, sa official fund ng mga opisina nila galing — kaya pera pa rin ng publiko. ‘Yung mga hindi nagpaliwa­nag ay malamang na sa Malacañang kumuha ng pambi­yahe — at pera pa rin ng publiko. Kabilang sila sa 190 kongresista na tumanggap ng tig-P500,000 sa Palasyo nu’ng Oktubre 11, bagay na kinasuk­ laman ng madla.

Magkano bumiyahe sa tatlong bansa? Di bababa sa P200,000 kada Asia-Eruope round-trip at inter-city, business class. Magkano mag-hotel nang sampung araw sa Europe? Ilagay mo sa P300,000 kada tao, kasama pagkain at inumin. At magkano mag-shopping? Inamin ng ilang Cabinet members na tig-$3,000 o P135,000 ang kabuoang per diem nila.

Samakatuwid, P635,000 ang tinustos ng taumbayan sa bawat junketeer, o kabuuang P116,840,000 para sa 184 katao.

* * *

Lumiham sa jariusbondoc@workmail.com

Friday, December 7, 2007

Bishop sees devil in family-health bill

GOTCHA, Published in The Philippine Star, December 7, 2007

Bishop Honesto Ongtioco came out with guns blazing last month. He had heard of a plan in Quezon City to lay down a population management and reproductive health policy. Right away he saw the devil in proponent Councilor Joseph Juico. “All parish priests, school directors, religious men and women, and lay organizations” in his diocese of Cubao needed to be rallied. In a fiery directive Ongtioco enumerated the evils he perceived in the bill, and his countermeasures:

• It threatens “the sanctity of human life and family”;

• It will “effect adversely contraception, abortifacients and ‘safe’ abortion”;

• It “will make compulsory the teaching of contraceptive methods to pupils from Grade V up to Fourth Year High School students under a punitive provision of imprisonment and fines if they are not followed”;

• “It takes away from us our intrinsic inalienable right to the free exercise of a correct conscience, and our right to freedom of worship”;

• “Believing in the truth handed down to us from the Lord Jesus Christ through the Catholic Church ... we need to defend millions of lives at stake who will be killed because of the cancerous effects of the Pill, the abortifacient effect of the IUD, and the lie about condom as a deterrent to AIDS.”

It is unsure if Ongtioco had read the bill beforehand. What’s clear, though, is that nowhere in the seven pages can be found what he stated.

Contrary to the bishop’s first point, the opening line alone reiterates what the Constitution requires. That is, “that the State recognize the sanctity of life, and protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution.” The bill restates as well other State policies: recognizing the role of women in society and gender equality, and protecting and promoting the right to health of people.

The problem of health is most evident in a growing number of hungry households. The bill quotes studies that “poverty incidence ... (is) greater among families with more children. Only 15.7 percent of two-child families are poor compared to almost half (48.7 percent) of families that have seven children.” In Quezon City, children from poor families are sickly, and one of every five mothers who do not want to bear children anymore does not know what to do.

The ordinance sees the solution in planned, responsible parenthood and protection of women’s rights. Enforcement will be by instruction in hygiene, reproduction, and safe planning and spacing of children — all this, by free choice.

Throughout the seven pages, the bill condemns abortion. It states: “While a wide range of family planning methods, techniques and devices shall be made available to couples ... abortion shall not be allowed, as provided in the Revised Penal Code. The very definition of family planning deems abortion illegal. The objective of population and health programs is, among others, “preventing abortion”. But in case health workers encounter the malady, “women seeking care for post-abortion complications shall be treated and counseled in a humane, non-judgmental, fair and compassionate manner.”

There is no malice or forced used of contraceptives in sex education. Cancer awareness will be stressed, contrary to the claim that cancer will be spread. The curriculum for appropriate ages shall include: responsible sexuality and reproductive health rights; reproductive health care, and services and contraception; attitudes, values and beliefs on sexual development, behavior and health; responsible parenthood; prevention, treatment and management of HIV/AIDS and other STIs/STDs, prostate cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer and other gynecological and reproductive system disorders and illnesses; and maternal care and breastfeeding.

The bill compels city and barangay officials to provide for safe family planning teaching and devices. Employers are not to discriminate against women, especially the pregnant, in hiring or firing. City Hall shall put in an initial P12 million for implementation. It is to the breach of these duties and obligations that fines and jail terms are attached.

Despite the wide gap between what Ongtioco reads and what the bill actually states, some clergymen have stepped up the attack. Their target is Juico who, ironically, comes from a very Catholic family. Ligaya ng Panginoon, among other Church units, cherishes his parents, Philip and Margie for lay ministries in missions and Christ-centered marriages. So it came as a surprise for them that diocesan spokesmen have called such actions like withholding Communion from Joseph. A report had it that the bishop will not allow him to wed in any of the diocese’s churches.

Juico calmly has met with the bishop and subordinates, and invited them to forthcoming public hearings. Through open discussion will the truth emerge. But mom Margie pointed out something for them to ponder on: “I have never seen the Church so vicious in its attacks that, in the process, it loses the virtues it should stand for.”

* * *

Divers have a simple proposal to save the butanding (whale shark) and dugong (sea cow). Declare them by executive order the national fish and sea mammal, reiterate the penalties for catching or killing them, and spread the word. Filipinos would learn to protect the national symbols against local or foreign poachers.

Meat smuggling patuloy, lantaran

SAPOL Ni Jarius Bondoc, Pilipino Star Ngayon, Friday, December 7, 2007

MAHIMALA ang gobyerno. Hayagang naipakita na kaya pala kumolekta ng P1 milyon kada araw na quarry taxes sa Pampa­nga si bagong Gov. Ed Panlilio. Pero bakit walang nagsasampa ng kaso laban kay ex-Gov. Mark Lapid na nag-remit ng P19 milyon lang kada taon? Nariyang umangal ang World Bank na 200 local officials daw ang nagpeke ng bids para sa road projects. Pero ang sagot ng Malacañang ay kasalanan lahat ng kahinaan ng bidding rules ng World Bank.

At heto pa: Atas ng gobyerno sa mga magmamanok, mag­ ba­baboy at magbabaka na pasiglahin ang kanilang indus­triya para mas maraming maempleyo at maibsan ang kara­litaan. Pero hinahayaan din ang patuloy at lan­tarang smuggling ng karne. At ngayong magpapasko at magtataas nang konting presyo ang poultry, piggery at cattle raisers para makabawi sa isang taong pagkalugi dahil sa smuggling, binabalaan sila ng gobyerno na mag-i-import ito ng manok, baboy at baka para bahain ang palengke.

Umaangal si sectoral Rep. Nicanor Briones na hindi na kumikilos ang mga awtoridad. Halimbawa, aniya, nagkalat ang imported meats sa public markets miski bawal. Ibig sabihin lang, smuggled ang ibinebenta. Food processors lang ang maaring mag-import ng fresh meat, pero dapat itong i-process at hindi ibenta nang sariwa dahil baka impektado ng foot-and-mouth disease o bird flu na ma­ kakahawa sa lokal ng stocks. Nasa alituntunin nga ng pag-import ang pagsunog ng mga kahong pinaglagyan ng imported meat para hindi kumalat ang sakit. Pero makikita ang mga kahon na ito sa palengke: Ebi­densiya ng smuggling.

Mahigit P800 milyon kada buwan ang nalulugi sa mga magbababoy pa lang dahil sa smuggling, ani Briones. Mag­kapatong na nga ang Bureau of Customs at Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group, patuloy pa rin ang krimen. Kasi, aniya, may mga protektor na malalaking tao.

Sandaling sumigla ang industriya nu’ng 2002-2003 nang mag-anti-smuggling head si noo’y-PSG chief Her­mogenes Esperon. Kasi lahat ng refrigerated vans noon ay inienspek­siyon niya kung smuggled ang lulan.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Meat smuggling unabated — solon

GOTCHA, Published in The Philippine Star, Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Didn’t Gloria Arroyo tell subalterns to not rile the press? So why is this cabineteer siccing the cops on ABS-CBN News? Enjoying anonymity from one newspaper, he accuses the network of aiding and abetting last week’s coup try. His proof is as silly as the insinuation is grave. The news desk allegedly knew beforehand of a Magdalo seizure of The Pen, and so was able to telecast on spot. And the camera crew didn’t pull out before the police assault, unlike other reporters, to shield the mutinous Trillanes-Lim duo from arrest. By inference, ABS-CBN was in on the plot. So taking the cue from the high accuser whose identity he must know, a police general is demanding surrender of the station’s video clips.

ABS-CBN need not explain but does. Senior veep Maria Ressa says all they had was a tip the night before of troop movements, and their live setup was by pure luck. But even if they did get word of a coup plot, what’s it to the cabinet man? They were under no legal or ethical obligation to tell the cops about it, only to prepare a good coverage. Not even Malacañang’s hacks can site a law or rule obliging media to turn in “enemies of the state”. Ces Drilon, reporter on scene, says she never heard the cops tell newsmen to evacuate. Again, even if she heard but defied them, so what? That’s no proof of obstructing justice, but of grit. Besides, other newsmen had stayed behind too, but are now spared of suspicion.

The official’s tirade displays once again Malacañang’s misreading of media. Many times it has deemed plain coverage as condoning coups. It’s like Donald Rumsfeld first extolling Al Jazeera for showing the US war on terror then scolding it for airing a bin-Laden tape. Shooting the messenger, the Palace treats broadcast of the other side’s story as enemy propaganda. Last year after an aborted coup, cops pretended to be guardians of content and screened the news items of a broadsheet they had raided. In April they tried to link exposers of the ZTE scam to document theft that turned out to be concocted.

* * *

You’d think last year’s successive confiscations of diseased pork from China would stop its smuggling. Nope. Poultry, hog and cattlemen go on losing billions of pesos due to illegal but open entry of meat at ports. Not even the indictment of five aides for theft of the contraband has put the Customs chief on his toes. The rival Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group is of no help either, because too busy running after luxury limos.

Sectoral Rep. Nicanor Briones, representing agricultural suppliers, points to telltale signs of smuggling. Most blatant is the flooding of public markets with vegetables and onions from China. The racket used to depend on rehashed import permits from the Bureau of Plant Industry — until local planters uncovered the modus operandi. Since no more permits are issued, smugglers simply bring shiploads and bribe their way in through Customs.

Another proof: the import crates of chicken, pork and beef in butcher stalls. Imported raw meats are supposed to be sent straight away for food processing, and not sold as such. Boxes must be buried to prevent spread of diseases like bird flu, mad cow, hog flu and hoof-and-mouth. But importers obviously divert the goods to public markets.

A third proof is in the import records. Roughly 200 million kilos of meat are imported each year. Of the 26.3 million kilos of chicken as of September, 1.3 million are generically labeled as “parts, fats, rind, skin”, instead of the specific “leg quarters” or “whole chicken”. Of the 47 million kilos of buffalo meat in the same period, 5.4 million were vaguely labeled as “trimmings” instead of clear “chuck and blade” or “forequarters”. Of the 46 million kilos of beef, 11.2 million came in as “offal and fats,” apart from “beef cuts” and “choice cuts”. Taxes are evaded through false declaration. Briones, a hog raiser, cites as example the 62 million kilos of pork imports as of September. “Pork cuts”, “bellies” and “deboned parts” are subject to 35 percent duty. At least 51 million kilos came in as “fats, offal, rind, skin”, subject to only 3-percent tariff. Now why would food processors import that much inedible pork parts, Briones explains the racket.

Meat producers recall that smuggling ended for a while in 2003-2004. That was when Malacañang tasked Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, then head of the Presidential Security Group, to run after smugglers. Now the Armed Forces chief, Esperon required the inspection at seaports of each arriving refrigerated van to verify contents. Dispatch of legally imported meat was to processing plants was then closely monitored. Smuggling stopped.

Today, however, Customs lets reefer vans proceed to warehouses of processors. Only then are the contents inspected. By then, authorities no longer have no way of ascertaining the meat quantity, type and source.

* * *

Not only 34 congressmen and three senators joined the presidential delegation to Spain and Britain. Spouses, children and special companions tagged along too, plus more, for a total of 184. Guess who’s paying for their plane fare, hotel rooms and food, and shopping sprees.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Mga leksiyon sa Manila Pen siege

SAPOL Ni Jarius Bondoc, Pilipino Star Ngayon, Tuesday, December 4, 2007

NAGBABAKBAKAN pa ang pulis at mutineers sa Makati nu’ng Huwebes ng dapithapon, kumalat na ang text joke: “Mga leksiyon sa insidente ng araw na ito: (1) kaya palang lakarin mula Makati court hanggang Peninsula Hotel; (2) mas matindi ang teargas kaysa machinegun; (3) kasya sa hotel ang tangke; (4) pati reporters pala hinuhuli; (5) uso na uli ang curfew.”

Puwera na biruan, lima rin ang napansin kong leksiyon mula sa pagtawag nina Sen. Sonny Trillanes at Gen. Danny Lim ng people-power. Mga leksiyon ito kung bakit nabigo sila:

Una, walang taksan-taksan na middle class. Uma­ambon kasi nu’ng Huwebes sa Kamaynilaan; ayaw nila mabasa sa ulan. Tapos piyesta-opisyal pa sa susunod na araw, Bonifacio Day; long weekend na pinlano na sa out of town trips imbes na mag-people power. Mas matindi, magpa-Pasko na; ayaw ng Pilipino ng gulo sa Pasko. Sa kasaysayan, makalipas-Pasko nagaganap ang mala­laking political events: First Quarter Storm, Jan.-Mar. 1970; EDSA-1, Feb. 1986; EDSA-2, Jan. 2001. Pati ang pag­siklab ng Filipino-American War at ang Sakdal Revolt ay pagkalipas ng holidays.

Ikalawa, dahil walang people power, hindi lumitaw ang suportang hinihintay nina Trillanes at Lim mula sa militar. Ang militar kasi, atubili mabansagang coup plotters kung walang civilian component ang aksiyon. Sabi ng PNP-Intel­ligence, dalawang grupo ang nakaakmang sasali nu’ng Huwebes pero umatras nang walang dumagsang tao sa Makati.

Ikatlo, walang suporta ng simbahan. Meron ngang isang obispong Katoliko sa Manila Pen, pero retirado na, at isang pari, na sa Hong Kong na naka-assign. Hindi dumagsa ang mga lider Katoliko, Protestante o Born-Again para mana­­wagan sa mga kasapi na magmartsa.

Ikaapat, walang pondo ang mutiny. Halatang hindi sila tinustusan ng mga negosyanteng dati nang sumusuporta sa people power. Maski si Makati Mayor Jojo Binay, maski taga-Oposisyon, hindi nakipondo.

Ikalima, walang suporta ng America. Sa tingin ng Washington, iisa lang naman ang tabas ng administrasyon at oposisyon: Parehong kawatan.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Curing the economy of ‘Dutch disease’

GOTCHA, Published in The Philippine Star, Monday, December 3, 2007

The verdict is in. Our economy is suffering from “Dutch disease”. Too many overseas workers remitting so much dollars is strengthening the peso but weakening exports. It’s not really an ill, economists opine, so long as its effects are curbed. The Economist coined the term in 1977 when the Dutch gilder surged with discovery of natural gas in the North Sea. Unexpectedly the Netherlands’ top exports, tulips and milk, slumped as farmers earned less for the same money. Agriculture weakened, yet food prices rose as new incomes from the natural resource fired up consumption. Experts believe Dutch disease was what hit Spain in the 16th century with sudden flow of gold from the Americas. Also modern-day Canada when ways were found to squeeze oil from the sands of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Left unmanaged, Dutch disease can impel de-industrialization or de-agriculture. Dutch farmers lost interest in exporting then, as Filipinos today bear the waning value of dollar earnings from call centers or electronics and food exports. Economic planners need to cushion the blow of cheap worth of dollar sales versus steady costs of peso inputs. Prescriptions to minimize Dutch disease range from delaying repatriation of boom profits to inducing savings via tax cuts. RP needs to use its earnings straight away for basic services; its taxes need sprucing, not slicing. The remedy is elsewhere: in investing in social and physical infrastructures.

In sudden booms wise nations spend on education to beef up farms and manufacturing. So education can be the way out of the crunch for call centers. Filipinos need higher training to man new business outsourcing that do not merely receive phone inquiries but more uniquely transcribe medical or legal reports, design software or produce animation. Economist Ted Haresco notes that RP leads in contact centers only because it is the second largest English speaking country. Rising labor costs, made worse by costly electricity and incomes pegged on a weakened dollar, are negating the advantage. “The government is focusing on inflation and, with budget and trade surplus, repaying costly old loans,” Haresco says. It can also avert slumps in agriculture and industry by helping enterprises and jobseekers acquire new schooling.

With the government surplus, now is also the time to build facilities that spur commerce. Recently the World Bank scrapped $232 million in road repair loans due to bidding irregularities. But the project cannot stop; officials must get the amount from other ways. Government has long been talking about reviving a North Railway from Manila to Clark Field, and a South Line to Bicol. How come construction has hardly begun?

Not only roads and railways but also air and seaports need to be put up fast. The transport department has listed at least 168 cities and islands in dire need of new roll on-roll off piers. Yet astonishingly the target to build them is a long way off in 2024. That’s because most port constructions, as with airports, depend on Japanese aid instead of tax takes. Seventeen years’ wait for 168 sites to become trade hubs is simply too long. It ignores what Adam Smith wrote in the 1700s: “As by means of water-carriage a more extensive market is opened to every sort of industry than what land-carriage alone can afford, so it is upon the sea-coast, and along the banks of navigable rivers, that industry of every kind naturally begins to subdivide and improve itself, and it is frequently not till a long time after that those improvements extend themselves to the inland parts of the country.”

* * *

Battle was still raging in Makati Thursday when a comic text spread: “Lessons from today’s events: (1) you can walk from the Makati trial court to Peninsula Hotel; (2) teargas is more potent than machineguns; (3) a tank can fit into a hotel; (4) reporters can be arrested too; (5) curfew is ‘in’ again.”

Joking aside, lessons blare why Sen. Antonio Trillanes and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim’s standoff failed to oust a President:

No people power came. The timing was off. As Sen. Miriam Santiago noted, not only was it raining so people stayed indoors, but the following day also was a holiday to start a three-day weekend outing. And it’s almost Christmas; Filipinos hate spoiling the season. Political upheavals occur after Christmas: the First-Quarter Storm of 1970, EDSA-1 in Feb. 1986, EDSA-2 in Jan. 2001.

Since there was no people power, the military component fizzled out. Lim reportedly admitted on interrogation that several units had agreed to join, but obviously didn’t. And because there was no military uprising, cops were able to swiftly subdue the handful that holed out at The Pen.

There was also no Church component. Religious leaders who have long shown discontent with the administration were not on hand to rally the faithful to march. It’s unsure if they can match the stature of Cardinal Jaime Sin who called out the crowds in 1986 and 2001.

The rebels lacked cash. Apparently not even the oppositionist mayor of Makati donated. They reportedly had only P10,000 and ten SIM cards.

* * *

The U.P.-Samapil reunion concert pushes through this Saturday, Dec. 8, for an evening of music and poetry reliving the members’ cultural works. Paul Galang, Reuel Aguila, Ani Montano, Raf Aguila, Mannix Pablo, and Chuck Manansala, among others, will present originals and adaptations. Between performances, Samapil’s commemorative album and participation in the U.P. centennial will be finalized.

Activities start 5:30 p.m. at the St. Charbel Village., Mindanao Ave., Quezon City. For details, contact: Dan Alampay, 0917-8309862; Lily Layog Bracamonte, 0917-2704250; Reuel Aguila, 0928-6010520; or Boyet Carrera, 0917-8292355.