People’s right outweighs presidential privilege

GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc, The Philippine Star, Friday, May 30, 2008

The entrepreneur in him makes Manny Villar see opportunity in crisis. The global cereal shortage and consequent surge in prices is the bane of consumers. But for the Senate President, it is a boon for Filipino farmers. Bright prospects await planters — what he calls “agricultural renaissance.”

Where farmers are coming from, rebirth may be hard to see. Decades of neglect of agriculture, food price controls, and consumer subsidies have debilitated farmlands. Low yield, depressed farm-gate prices and lack of wherewithal discouraged planters from plowing on. The best and irrigated lands have been converted into export zones and subdivisions. So, where to start?

Villar scans a roadmap out of the rut. Businesslike, he first lists down the strengths of the rural landscape. Rich soil, rain and rivers combine with hard-working rural folk, plus local and international rice research outfits. Villar then lists what more are needed. These have long been identified: more irrigation, better seed varieties, more potent fertilizers and pesticides, rural credit, far-to-market roads, grains dryers and silos, and technical info and training. What government has to do is put money into these.

Past administrations have tried to boost agriculture. Ramon Mitra Jr., as Speaker in 1987-1992, worked most of his time to “put more money in the pockets of farmers.” In 1995 President Fidel Ramos, Senate President Ed Angara and Speaker Joe de Venecia crafted an Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act. Their efforts didn’t go far because of fund shortage.

Reviewing his predecessors’ works, Villar plans an agricultural push where farmers already have a head start — in rice-producing Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Mindoro, Iloilo, and South Cotabato. Government’s meager resources will be poured into these provinces to boost harvests, cut waste, and teach new techniques. The rest of the country can follow their lessons.

The renaissance doesn’t end there. “When rice farmers begin to earn a comfortable profit margin, not only will their disposable income improve,” Villar forecasts. “They also will become entrepreneurial in outlook because of their success.”

* * *

Apr. 8, 2008, the Senate petitioned the Supreme Court to reverse its defense of Romy Neri’s executive privilege on the NBN-ZTE scam. It noted that the privilege, in giving executive officials an excuse to avoid legislative inquiries, has become a “refuge of scoundrels.”

Apr. 28, Neri commented that the Senate misread the Court’s original ruling and so had no basis for the motion for reconsideration.

May 5, the Senate replied to the comment. Lamenting Neri’s silence, the Senate cited the people’s right to be informed of their government’s acts. From jurisprudence, such right outweighs mere privilege of confidentiality of presidential conversations. The Constitution is replete with provisions guaranteeing the right to be told, not of secrecy. It also specifically compels the President to report to Congress all foreign loans, which the $330-million telecoms caper would have contracted.

Since the people elected the Senate (and House of Reps) to represent them, their right to information therefore extends to Congress. The Senate stressed that Neri’s refusal to answer three crucial questions on the ZTE deal curbed Congress’ duty to craft good laws. Among the works affected was a proposal to delete executive agreements as an exemption from the Procurement Reform Act.

Neri had put on record in the Senate (and in the Court) that Benjamin Abalos offered him P200 million to endorse ZTE Corp. But he avoided three questions: did President Arroyo follow up the ZTE project with him, did she tell him to prioritize it, and did she tell him to approve the project even after he reported to her the bribe offer?

The Senate stated that since Neri admitted the occurrence of crime, all the more he must be compelled to answer. The Constitution requires accountability from public officials and transparency in their dealings. Allowing Neri to clam up breached these principles.

The Senate also lamented Neri’s doubletalk. At one point, he had told the Court that the information he was withholding easily could be obtained from NEDA documents. And yet he knew that NEDA and Malacañang had also invoked executive privilege to hide the papers. (It is in fact the subject of another Court petition filed by Sen. Mar Roxas.) Then, he flip-flopped anew and said there were no records or transcripts of the President’s instructions about ZTE as chairman of the NEDA Board.

A week after the Senate replied to Neri’s comment, the Solicitor General too opined on the Senate motion, taking Neri’s side. All parties have submitted their arguments and are awaiting the Court’s final ruling. Will it continue to defend Neri’s suppression of information on the ZTE deal, or search for truth?

* * *

E-mail: jariusbondoc@workmail.com

P1 bilyon: 8 oras lang gastahin ng gobyerno

SAPOL Ni Jarius Bondoc, Pilipino Star Ngayon, Friday, May 30, 2008

KUNG hindi nabisto ang walang-silbi pero waldas na DOTC-ZTE deal, P17 bilyon sana ang pagbabayaran ng taumbayan. At P10 bilyon nu’n ay ibubulsa sana na kickback ng mga may-pakana.

Pero may mga nakalusot na katiwalian. Sa fertilizer scam, halos P1 bilyon ang halaga ng kunwari’y ipina­mahaging pataba sa mga kongresista at gobernador na maka-admin nu’ng mag-eeleksiyon ng 2004. At P1 bilyon din ang overprice sa isang delivery pa lang ng uling sa Napocor nu’ng Abril 2007.

Ang hirap para sa ordinaryong tao na imagine-in kung ano ang isang bilyon. Pero ang husay ng pag­kakapaliwanag nito kamakailan ng isang US ad agency. Wika nito:

“Nu’ng lumipas na 1 bilyong segundo ay 1959. Nu’ng lumipas na 1 bilyong minuto ay buhay si Hesukristo. Nu’ng lumipas na 1 bilyong oras ay nakatira sa kuweba at naka­bahag ang mga ninuno natin. Nu’ng lumipas na 1 bilyong araw, walang lumalakad sa mundo nang dalawang paa.”

At dagdag ko diyan:

Ang lumipas na 1 bilyong piso ay walong oras at 10 minuto lang — sa bilis ng paggastos ng gobyerno ng P1.12 trilyong budget para sa 2008, na galing sa ating ibinabayad na buwis.

Ang P1 bilyon ay halagang kikitain ng empleyadong sumusuweldo nang P10,000 kada buwan sa loob ng 100,000 buwan — o 8,333 taon.

Ang P1 bilyon ay sapat para ipang-patayo ng 2,250 silid-paaralan, 375 rural health clinics, o 7,500 balon sa barangay.

Ang P1 bilyon ay makakabili ng 500,000 sako ng bigas — sapat para pakainin ang isang probinsiya nang isang buwan.

Kung magnakaw ka ng P1 bilyon, at lalo na kung P10 bilyon tulad ng tinangka sa NBN-ZTE deal, hindi mo ‘yon mauubos sa buong buhay mo. Pero maluluklok ka sa puwesto sa apoy ng Impiyerno habambuhay.

* * *

Lumiham sa jariusbondoc@workmail.com

Neri’s comment seems to implicate The Boss

GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc, The Philippine Star, Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Task Force RCBC, the posse hunting the killers of ten bank employees May 16 in Cabuyao, Laguna, is compromised. Its men were involved in the obvious rubout of four “suspects” days later in adjacent Batangas province. That means they silenced them in order to hide something. Shushing is no way to solve crime. The early foul-up only indicates that the massacre may never be fully explained and prosecuted.

From the start the crime was atypical. The robbers did not just take an amount they precisely knew to be that big on that day from the two bank managers who knew the vault combination. They also executed all nine employees and one depositor Nazi-style — with one bullet each in the head as they knelt in line on the floor. Why was everyone killed, when the only usual fatality in bank heists is the security guard who fought back? Did the gangsters feel they were totally identified?

Witnesses came forward to tell what they saw of the massacre. So detectives were able to pinpoint from mug files five gunmen — “two of them from the uniformed service”, most likely cops. Then suddenly, the rubouts.

The task force claimed that two shootouts occurred on May 21 and 22 in Tanauan, Batangas, as operatives were following up leads. In the first, in Barangay 4, a certain Pepito Magsino supposedly shot it out with policemen who had accosted him. Then, in Barrio Pagaspas, Vivencio Javier, Angelito Malabanan and Rolly Lachica did the same. All four allegedly were members of the Lucido-Javier-Galica holdup gang that operates in Southern Tagalog.

Human rights investigators quickly saw the lie in the police report. Ten eyewitnesses swore that Javier, Malabanan and Lachica were killed separately. Javier even shook hands with an officer he addressed as “Sir” before others shot him four times by his bedroom window. Arms raised, Malabanan was shot 14 times at the gate of the farm of Javier’s brother. Lachica was dragged out of bed in the farm hut, and then shot in the head. Presumably Magsino too summarily was executed the night before.

The rights lawyers see no link between the “suspects” and the bank robbery-murders. But they might turn up something on deeper look.

The Lucido-Javier-Galica Gang that the task force is talking about is long dead. Crime boss Armando Lucido was killed by lawmen in mid-2002; “Galica” and “Javier” have been unheard from, probably dead or retired.

The leaderless hoods reportedly have joined Fajardo brothers Rolando and Harold, long-wanted crime bosses in Tanauan’s Barrio Saplang. The Fajardo Gang has political and police connections in Batangas, and so is left untouched so long as it operates elsewhere. It was known to have pulled the PNCC payroll and Jollibee-Calamba heists in Laguna years back.

Did the Fajardos lead the RCBC-Cabuyao massacre? Was the silencing of the bank employees and then of the “suspects” done to prevent exposure of the gang’s protectors?

* * *

Back to the Supreme Court’s defense of Romy Neri’s silence over three questions from the Senate regarding the NBN-ZTE scam:

Neri, as petitioner for executive privilege, was allowed to comment on the Senate’s motion for reconsideration. It was his turn to defend the High Tribunal.

Through counsel, Neri twitted the Senate for “misreading” the original ruling: “As respondents would put it, the Decision emasculates the Senate, renders inutile its power to investigate, vests witnesses from the Executive Department with some kind of blanket immunity from Senate questioning, and made executive privilege a ‘refuge scoundrels’... [They] exaggerate and distort. Speaking less to this Court than to the crowd below, respondents hysterically proclaim that the Decision will pave the way for ‘autocracy in our government’.”

He claimed the contrary: “Properly read, the Decision adds more stringent requirements than Ermita v Senate before executive privilege can be invoked. It requires that the communication relate to a ‘quintessential and (sic) non-delegatable presidential power’, and that advisor be in ‘operational proximity’ to the President. Fortunately, both these two additional requirements were met in [my] case.”

At one point, Neri seemed to implicate Ben Abalos alone to sleaze: “[I am] not covering up or hiding anything illegal. No law on foreign laws or on the NEDA has been violated. The bribe offer was rejected, and both the offer and its rejection were disclosed to respondents.”

In the next, he indicated more culpability: “Respondents speculate that the President’s conversations with [me] ‘may reveal the extent of the President’s participation in the NBN Project despite her knowledge of a bribe offer’... There is actually even no need for respondents to speculate because it is of judicial notice that the President even witnessed the signing if the NBN contract with ZTE after [my] disclosure to her of the Abalos bribe offer. Whatever [I] and the President discussed cannot alter that fact.”

In closing, Neri said he “did not (sic) outrightly refuse to attend the Senate hearings” after invoking executive privilege. He will attend if other matters need to be clarified, provided the Senate submits a questionnaire.

* * *

E-mail: jariusbondoc@workmail.com

Habang 40% nagugutom, yumayaman ang Arroyos

SAPOL Ni Jarius Bondoc, Pilipino Star Ngayon, Tuesday, May 27, 2008

MAPAIT sa dila. Habang kapos sa pagkain ang 40% ng Pilipino, may yamang P500 milyon ang kanilang Pre­sidente at pamilya nito.

Hindi natin sinisisi ang mga Arroyo dahil mayaman sila. Pero kinakatawan nila ang naghaharing-uring pulitika — at hindi ginagamit ng uri nila ang poder para iahon ang masa mula sa kahirapan.

Dalawa sa bawat limang Pilipino ay tinuturing ang sarili na hikahos sa pagkain, ayon sa 1st-quarter 2008 survey ng Social Weather Stations. Aba’y 7.1 milyon pamilya sila, o 35.5 milyong indibidwal. Ang dami!

Samantala, lumago ng P11 milyon ang yaman ni Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sa isang taon, mula P88.6 milyon nu’ng 2006 tungong P99.6 milyon nu’ng 2007. Matindi rin ang assets ng dalawang anak na kongresista: Mikey, P155 milyon; Dato, P86 milyon. Ang kongresistang-bayaw na Iggy ay may P153 milyon.

Ang kabuuang yaman na kalahating-bilyong piso ay sa mga Arroyo lang sa national government, hindi kabilang ang nasa ahensiya o lokal na puwesto. Binubuo ang yaman ng mga bahay at lupain, alahas, furniture, pera sa banko, at stock certificates na panaginip lang ng karaniwang tao.

Samantala, itinataya ng mga ekonomista na P8,000 ang dapat na buwanang kita ng bawat pamilya para kumain man lang nang dalawang beses isang araw at may matirang konting pang-damit at gamot. ’Yun nga lang, karamihan sa kanila ay kalahati lang nun ang kinikita.

Katumbas ng yaman ng mga Arroyo ang inuuwi ng 125,000 pamilya na P4,000 lang kada buwan.

Bulok ang sistema natin. Habang naghahari ang mga pulitiko sa ekonomiya, umaasa na lang sa kanila ang mahi­hirap para sa lunas na hindi naman dumarating. Meron lang paminsan-minsang pabuya sa mahihirap: rice subsidy dito o katiting na wage increase diyan. Pero ang kadalasang inaatupag lang ay ang pagpapanatili sa puwesto — sa paraang legal o ilegal. Aba’y pork barrel at kickback ang kalakaran ng mga pulitiko, imbis na baguhin ang sistema upang magsilbi para sa masa.