No approval needed

No approval needed

THE Philippine government is about to make the tourist visa—a very important travel document and official authorization for entry and stay—obsolete.

The Bureau of Immigration has announced that foreigners with temporary visitor’s visas may extend their stay in the Philippines every two months and up to 16 months without prior approval from the immigration office.

This rule is fraught with danger. The government must authorize every extension of visa. An extension must be requested and applied for. Without this safeguard, it could lose count of foreigners who have extended their stay. A responsible government must keep accurate figures on arriving, overstaying and departing foreigners.

A visa is a contract between a government and a foreigner that defines the conditions of his stay. It is the government’s duty to check on compliance and determine if violations were made.

At a minimum, the government could give each tourist a six-month stay, after which official extension must be granted by the state.

After 16 months, according to Commissioner Marcelino Libanan, a foreigner may extend his stay by another eight months, up to 24 months if his application is approved by the chief of the bureau’s immigration regulation division.

Libanan’s order takes effective immediately. It directs the visa extension office to expedite the processing of pending applications for extension of stay.

What prompted Libanan to issue the new order? Well, he said he was heartened by the 21-percent rise in the number of tourists who extended their stay in the country during the first semester of the year.

Data from the bureau visa extension office showed that from January to June this year, a total of 196,172 applications for extension of stay were approved, compared to 161,984 approved in the same period last year.

It also showed that total tourist arrivals for the six-month period increased by 38,755 to 468,281 arrivals. There were only 439,526 arrivals in the same period last year.

“These statistics indicate that our country is fast emerging as one of Asia’s most favored tourist destinations,” Libanan said.

We don’t think numbers alone could justify the new extension-without-authorization policy. Extensions of stay and increasing arrivals are fine, but an important national program such as immigration and tourism needs safeguards before we throw away the keys to the door.

The immigration regulation division chief, lawyer Gary Mendoza, said the new policy on visa extensions applies to all foreign tourists regardless of nationality.

Previously, foreigners, such as Indians or Chinese, who must secure entry visas to the Philippines, were allowed to extend their stay every month up to a total of only six months.

“Now, any foreigner, whether he is a visa-required national or not, may extend his stay every two months up to a total of 16 months without getting prior approval from the bureau’s management,” Mendoza added.

How did this new immigration rule come about? Did the immigration office consult with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the police and military, or the committees on immigration in the Senate and the House of Representatives?

We doubt that the BI consulted with Filipino and foreign chambers of commerce and business organizations.

We urge a review of the new immigration rule. There are more important elements to a tourism program than warm bodies and dollars. These include national security, the threat to Filipino businesses, dangers to public health and the stay of unwanted aliens who are probably considered undesirable by their own governments.

The visa-waiver program

WE should have an active tourism program to bring in more visitors and catch up with the world in this important economic and nation-building activity.

The tourist visa rules, however, must be respected. Requests for extensions should be required and properly documented.

The Philippines, of course, is a participant in the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) visa-waiver program. As courtesy to fellow members, Asean countries waive the visa requirement for citizens of the 10 countries that comprise the group.

We have also begun, at the initiative of the Bureau of Immigration, a visa-upon-entry program for tourists coming from Mainland China. The bureau owes us a report on the program, especially on the number of Chinese who have visited and have left the Philippines since the undertaking started.

The United States runs a visa-waiver program with 27 other countries, including Japan, whose citizens can visit the US without a visa for up to 90 days.

In July, a new homeland-security bill expanded eligibility for the program by allowing 12 more countries to apply: Taiwan, South Korea, Argentina, Brazil, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Israel, Malta, Slovakia and Uruguay.

The Philippines is light-years away from qualifying because of the US “refusal rates” rule. This is the annual percentage of visa applications from a country that are denied for any reason. US law requires a refusal rate of 3 percent before a country can qualify. The refusal rate for Filipinos must be 40 percent.

Rules of conduct

Rules of conduct

he recent scandal over shakedowns and shady horse-trading in the Commission on Appointments might yet lead to something good. Davao City Rep. Prospero Nograles, the newly designated head of the CA contingent in the House of Representatives, is proposing “rules of conduct” for members of the House team.

Nograles was one of two congressmen mentioned by his predecessor in the CA team, Prospero Pichay Jr., who supposedly raised certain “concerns” with Finance Secretary Margarito Teves when the Cabinet member faced CA confirmation. Teves was bypassed by the CA. His father, Negros Oriental Rep. Herminio Teves, later denounced the CA confirmation process, accusing members whom he did not identify of shaking down officials who need the com-mission’s nod.

Though no names were mentioned, Pichay came out to defend the CA, engaging Teves and his son in a war of words. Watching this public washing of dirty linen, Filipinos simply waited for the verbal skirmish to end, believing the scandal would die down with lawmakers never lifting a finger to change anything in the CA confirmation process.

Probably because his name cropped up in the scandal, Nograles at least is now making noises about introducing new rules to be observed by the House CA contingent, whose members the elder Teves accused of engaging in the shakedown. Nograles has a general idea of the new rules of conduct he is seeking: he said the CA must act swiftly and with transparency on matters requiring the approval of the commission. These include appointments to the Cabinet and the diplomatic corps and military promotions.

If such reforms push through, the executive branch should do its part and start showing the CA due respect. This administration has treated the CA with utter disregard, allowing Cabinet nominees bypassed several times to stay at their posts for over a year by virtue of interim appointments. Protests from the CA have been muted, possibly because of the shady deals exposed by Teves. If the CA does not want to be rendered irrelevant by the executive, it should show that it deserves respect.

Not so wholesome Cebu

Not so wholesome Cebu

Bird watchers on Olango Island, Cebu, could watch strange birds on the uninhabited Sulpa Islet on August 2. A Japanese couple was having sex—with penetration and everything—on the beach while two companions were video filming the scene. Policemen promptly arrested the four Japanese after bird sanctuary wardens on nearby Olango Island who caught the action on their binoculars, alerted the police in Lapu-Lapu City.

The story naturally made it to the headlines in the local news. Newspaper photographers took pictures of the steamy video footages and the pictures were published on the front pages of the local papers. The penetration part was, of course, blurred but probably few if any readers had problems imagining what was hidden. The four Japanese—three men and a woman—pleaded guilty to a violation of Article 201 of the Revised Penal Code, paid a fine of P6,000 each and were released.

Tourism officials were upset about the incident which, according to them, has damaged the image of Cebu as a wholesome tourism destination. However, those of us who live in Cebu know that it is so-so with the wholesome image of Cebu as a tourist destination. Thousands of young women work in establishments that sell sex. The women are forced to let men—Filipino as well as foreign—grope them, as this is part of guest relations. The customer-friendliness goes as far as stripping inside private rooms. And, of course, going out with the customer if he wants to have sexual intercourse. The managers of the establishments would usually deny that they have anything to do with this, but the fact is that no less than our government has imposed on the female guest relations officers (GROs) the keeping of an updated health card. This card is the government’s assurance to the customer that the girls are free of sexually transmitted diseases. We don’t want our foreign tourists to contract an STD or HIV in this wholesome tourism destination, do we?

Some years ago I attended a press forum with officials of the local Departments of Tourism and Health. They were arguing for the health card to protect Cebu’s image as safe and clean for foreign tourists who come here and seek sexual services.

An NGO workers once told me about some Japanese men who returned to a mountain barangay in Cebu City where they were going to have fun with some children. During the sightseeing earlier that day, the parents had approached the men and offered them their children. Other parents have no calms about pushing their teenage daughters into relationships with foreign men—I remember meeting a Swedish national on Bantayan Island. He had two teenage girls in tow. The parents of the girls had told them to befriend the Swede. With the aggressive promotion of the Philippines as a retirement haven, expect more of this kind of prostitution.

Foreign men are occasionally caught in hotel rooms taking nude photos of teenage girls. Once, a foreigner was arrested in Cebu City for shooting his own video in a hotel room. He was having sex with a young girl while her female friend was filming the couple.

What harm did the four Japanese do? While what they did was extremely stupid, they did not involve any Filipinos in their activity. They didn’t prostitute or corrupt any minors. They offended the senses of the general public, but probably the policemen have viewed the videos more than once, and not for purely investigative purposes. The punishment the Japanese was meted—a fine against pleading guilty—for once gives us hope that the justice system is fair, reasonable and efficient.

Sex sells and the four Japanese who could thank the timely intervention of the police for not getting a severe sun burn, were top news in Cebu for a day. The Japanese had to leave the country without their video. End of story. But thousands of Filipino women, girls and boys continue to service their male customers, many of whom are foreign tourists, risking their health and destroying their self-worth, their dignity and their lives. Not enough is being done to confront and end this continuing crime. Authorities, instead of regulating prostitution through the issuance of health cards, should work harder to create jobs that will uplift rather than destroy the human spirit.

Shanghaied to Baghdad

Shanghaied to Baghdad

SCARY was the testimony of Rory Mayberry before a US congressional committee on July 26. He told the story about how, in this age, foreign workers could be tricked by a contractor for the US government to work on a project they knew nothing about, for which they were not prepared and, when they were on the project, worked under bad conditions.

Mayberry, an emergency medical technician contracted to First Kuwaiti International—the construction company building the US Embassy inside the Green Zone in Baghdad—testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that he was ordered to shepherd 51 Filipinos. First Kuwaiti has denied the claim.

He told the committee that the Filipinos thought they were bound for Dubai for hotel work, and had no idea that they were being brought to the Iraqi capital.

When the Filipinos protested on the plane upon learning they were being brought to the wrong place, a security officer threatened them by waving an MP-5 machine gun.

Eventually, the Filipinos were “smuggled into the Green Zone,” past US security forces.

Mayberry testified that the Filipinos, among other laborers forced to work on the embassy site, worked without safety equipment. Many were injured at work.

The medical technician testified under oath. He must be telling the truth. This prompted Sen. Mar Roxas, whose staff uncovered the testimony on YouTube, to call the attention of Philippine authorities and the US Embassy in Manila about a modern case of piracy.

He called on the Departments of Foreign Affairs and of Labor and Employment to verify the information. He urged the Philippine Embassy in Iraq to conduct an inspection, get in touch with US officials, verify the presence of the Filipinos and help them get out.

Foreign affairs and labor officials must immediately check all recruitment agencies to see who have sent Filipino workers to the Kuwaiti company, he added.

What has been the response to the senator’s representation? The US Embassy has remained silent on the issue.

President Arroyo has extended the term of the Presidential Middle East Preparedness Committee, a group to oversee the safety and evacuation of Filipinos in that region, until the end of 2007. The committee chief, former Gen. Roy Cimatu, is traveling to Iraq to investigate the case.

Vice President Noli de Castro, presidential adviser on migrant labor, has identified two recruitment agencies among those supplying workers to First Kuwaiti Trading, which has denied Mayberry’s claim.

The government had banned Filipinos from travel and work in Iraq since 2004, after Angelo de la Cruz, a truck driver, was abducted by Iraqi militants. He was released only after Manila pulled-out its peacekeeping troops from Iraq. Records show 6,000 to 10,000 Filipinos are in Iraq. They were smuggled into the war-torn country.

“This is not just a violation of our travel ban, this is forced labor. Unless we have officially accepted that the days of slavery are back, the government must act,” Roxas stressed.

It is also more than a labor issue. It is a violation of human rights on US soil, apparently with the help of American officials and contractors.

The Green Zone

THE Green Zone is often touted as Fortress Iraq, the part of Baghdad that is invulnerable to enemy attack because of tight security. It is surrounded by high concrete blast walls and barbed wire. All entry points are controlled by coalition troops.

But in 2004, the zone was hit by two suicide bombings, which destroyed the bazaar and café. On April 12, 2007, a bomb tore through the Iraqi Parliament cafeteria, killing one person and injuring 22, including the vice president.

The attacks have shattered the Green Zone’s myth of impregnability although efforts to make it the capital within the capital continue. One major activity is the construction of the US embassy building which,in size and staff, will make it the biggest US mission in the world.

Fifty-one Filipinos, according to a testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, were recruited to work on the site although the workers were promised they would be working in Dubai, one of the states in the United Arab Emirates.

Stretching 10 kilometers in central Baghdad, the zone is the center of the Coalition Provisional Authority. It remains the hub of the international presence in the city. It is the headquarters for private military contractors, and home to the British embassy, America’s closest ally on the war on terror.

The area was originally home to the villas of Iraqi government officials, cabinet ministries, and a number of palaces owned by former President Saddam Hussein.

Since the handover of sovereignty to Iraqis, many of the properties have been turned over to the Iraqi government. Some 5,000 homeless Iraqis also live in the zone with American forbearance.

The Green Zone is expected to house more international organizations and private businesses in keeping with its status and its promised security. Our embassy hopes to find a home there but that could come only when peace has returned to Iraq.

Weighing In

Weighing In

I HAVE always worked at the development side of things. Development is defined here as that area where investments, whether in money, time and effort, result in improving opportunities for areas and peoples who need it the most. I have worked in both houses of Congress, the Girl Scouts of the Philippines, the Board of Investments, UP, DoLE and the Civil Service Commission. As one of my colorful friends would say: "aba, kinarir mo na ang gobyerno" (you have made a career of government!). This is why being at the Development Bank of the Philippines has been a cause for ribbing from friends. I have been asked if I already renounced poverty. Or, if being in Makati has caused me to shift shopping habits from 168 to 6750. The fact is that at DBP, I have shifted from the implementing end to the financing end of development. And while I struggle to understand the arcane (to me, anyway) language of banking, DBP colleagues sometimes get visibly, well, amused with ignorance and bias resulting from many years in the service of development. Today, a year after I assumed at DBP, one thing is even clearer: Development pays.

DBP has had its history of behest loans. One year ago, my transfer to the bank was met with a chorus of "now, I can borrow" from friends whose credit ratings are woefully similar to mine. Prospective "behestors," you will agree. A monthly salary of P41,000 does not inspire too much confidence and a housing loan from Land Bank required that I mortgage my 350 sq.m piece of land and the house that will be built on it with automatic deduction from my retirement account. If I had borrowed from DBP — and they would have called that DOSRI now — I might have had an even harder time. The fact is, with all the financial scandals in the past decade, international and local regulations have tightened and borrowing has become more difficult. But precisely because of this, more creative ways have to be found to fund development without getting into trouble with the rest of the world.

One interesting frontier is the local government sector (LGU) Development is local even if planning is done at the national level. Local governments can now loan against their internal revenue allotments to fund continuing projects such as electrification, water systems, schoolbuildings and hospitals. Some have gone as far as float bonds to finance housing. And the good news is that for the most part, LGUs pay. A progressive LGU can finance development as if it were a corporation and do the development infrastructure and programs that in the past would have waited for actual cash in the coffers before they could even get started. They are also learning more prudential management of resources and working at acquiring financial skills. All of this would not have happened without a Local Government Code which Senator Pimentel and President Cory then championed. Our total exposure to local governments is P12.5 billion. And this amount is growing everyday.

But what are you doing to fortify micro, small and medium enterprises, asked a legislator friend. What are you doing to help future taipans? I asked the question myself when I just got in. The problem is, because we have a limited branch network, we have had to use microfinance institutions to extend our reach. When these micro-finance institutions retail the money borrowed from us, nowhere is it said that the money came from DBP. And so the misimpression remains that we are not in the business of lending to small borrowers. Our total exposure to MSMEs is P16.2 billion. We also have a factoring facility where small entrepreneurs who are unable to immediately collect from the people they supply to may get their moneys from the DBP Instant Working Capital Facility. This stands at P1.8 billion for 2006 alone.

The roll-on, roll-off (also known as RORO) links the Philippines through a nautical highway that facilitates cheaper movement of goods backed up by cold chain that ensures longer shelf-life for local products. The total bill for this, thus far, is P4.7 billion. There is also a network of forests, 25 in all, meant to prevent desertification and soil erosion and mitigate environmental damage resulting from ignorance and bad practices. All told, there are 6,000 hectares of reforested land at a cost of P112.9 million to the bank.

In the end, all of these come with a price. The interest from banking transactions alone would not be enough for financing development. This is where good treasury operations can spell the difference between being a good development bank and just another bank. Interbank loans, treasury accounts and investment in bonds and unquoted debt securities provide the wherewithal for pursuing development activities. And in the past year alone, this added up to P54 billion. Hence, despite all the developmental loans and projects of DBP, it was able to generate gross revenues of P18.3 billion and register the highest and record-breaking net income after tax of P3.7 billion in 2006.

Because we all know that development pays in the long run, government banks in particular must work doubly hard to ensure that what it gets from its prudent operations goes back to the 84 million Filipinos who constitute its primary stockholders.

Blasting the corrupt

Blasting the corrupt

Here’s something refreshing from China—and it’s not about the trade war.

The British Broadcasting Co. has reported that an online game called “Incorruptible Fighter” has become so popular that its Web site has crashed. Since its launch nine days ago, the game has been downloaded more than 100,000 times. It is currently being updated to meet the unprecedented demand.

Players get ahead by killing and torturing corrupt officials and assisting honest ones.

“Along the way, they are led through a series of moral challenges before entering a corruption-free paradise,” the BBC said.

The game was designed by a regional government in east China to highlight the problem of corruption among public officials.

China has become aggressive in its crackdown on corrupt officials. In recent weeks, high-profile cases have been exposed. A former food and drug watchdog head was executed after being convicted of taking bribes, and the former leader of Communist Party in Shanghai was expelled from the party after being linked to a pension find scandal.

Gamers say they feel a “great sense of achievement when [they] punish lots of evil officials.”

This sentiment could well be uttered by anybody from the Philippines, equally plagued with corruption—in the event, and we hope it’s not remote, that some form of justice against corrupt officials is served.

The Chinese definitely have no qualms using this violent approach. We don’t always agree with them, but we do here, as far as the attitude against the crime is concerned. Corruption is never to be taken lightly or accepted as a given.

College basketball in foul trouble

College basketball in foul trouble

Last week the National Bureau of Investigation arrested the star guard of the College of Saint Benilde basketball team on allegations that he fixed at least one game he played. The NBI said it acted on a complaint filed against the player, Paolo Orbeta, by his classmate who bet on the game after Orbeta guaranteed he would win. When the classmate didn’t pay up, the player and some of his companions allegedly threatened him with bodily harm.

Saint Benilde promptly announced it was suspending Orbeta while the case is being investigated. The NCAA, the league to which Saint Benilde belongs, was equally quick to pronounce the incident as an isolated one. “The NCAA has been very vigilant in terms of monitoring any forms of illegal gambling as evidenced by working closely with NBI since the 81st season. This season [the 83rd] has been very quiet and an incident like this is purely an isolated case allegedly involving an individual,” one top official of the league said.

The official may be whistled for jumping the gun. It is too early to conclude that the Orbeta case is a rare exception. Or if Orbeta was fixing games on his own. The NBI has long had its eye on a highly organized syndicate running high-stakes, illegal sports betting. It just could not get hold of hard evidence to bust the group.

Sports has always been a rich hunting ground for criminal syndicates. Even professional leagues are not immune. A referee of the National Basketball Association is under federal investigation over suspicions that he had bet on games he officiated and agreed to influence the winning margins. The NBA commissioner, David Stern, described the referee as a “top-tier official” and intimated that he may have links with the Mafia.

In the early 1970s, several marquee players of Crispa, one of the country’s long-reigning basketball dynasties, were implicated in game-fixing and were invited for questioning by the military. No charges were filed, but the incident cast the players under a heavy cloud of suspicion.

As the shadow of last week’s scandal spread, the Games and Amusements Board chairman, Eric Buhain, acknowledged that game-fixing and illegal gambling did bedevil the Philippine Basketball Association in the past, but added that the pro league has licked the problem. “We didn’t discount the possibility that game-fixing and illegal gambling exist in professional sports, but management control and vigilance in informing the players, officials and even the top-level executives made things easier for the GAB to control or even eradicate the problem,” Buhain said.

We’re glad Buhain did not invoke the “isolated case” disclaimer. We understand the sports officials’ eagerness to put the controversy behind them. But they should not readily sweep the issue under the rug. Instead they should allow the NBI to dig deeper into the case and come up with its findings.

Not just global warming

Not just global warming

Storm “Chedeng” is expected to enter the country today, bringing much-needed rain, according to weather forecasters. The question is whether the rain will fall over areas now stricken by drought in Central Luzon and the northern regions. Yesterday the governor of Cagayan placed the province under a state of calamity. This means the entire Cagayan Valley, which accounts for 40 percent of the country’s rice production, is now under a calamity state because of the drought.

Blame global warming; weather around the planet has been bizarre this year. Farmers in this tropical archipelago worry more often about torrential rains and floods than long dry spells. But blame poor agricultural infrastructure as well. Droughts are not rare even in this country that serves as the welcome mat for typhoons hitting Southeast Asia. This is supposed to be the wet season, and southern Luzon has been experiencing downpours almost daily. But the rainfall cannot be contained in catchments and diverted to areas where water is needed. Another problem: irrigation systems in the farming areas of Luzon are inadequate and ill-suited for emergency situations.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said the National Irrigation Administration gets an annual budget of P200 million – an amount that is insufficient for the repair and maintenance of irrigation facilities nationwide. The budget has been increased, but by the time the needed funding is released, the weather is likely to have changed and there would be other agricultural priorities. And by the time the results of additional funds are felt, the drought would have done its worst.

It’s too late for any infusion of irrigation funds to save this season’s crops. But after seeing the consequences of the ongoing drought, the government should learn enough to be prepared for the next dry spell. World weather patterns are changing dramatically, and the country is likely to see more devastating droughts in the coming years. The government will have to invest in improved water resource management and irrigation facilities if it wants to prevent more agricultural disasters.

The Histrionic Security Act of 2007

The Histrionic Security Act of 2007

I don’t know why Congress and President Macapagal-Arroyo still had to enact the Human Security Act of 2007 when the Armed Forces are already violating the Bill of Rights under existing laws. The pretext of protecting the nation against terrorists is a lame excuse. There are already the checkpoints and the warrantless arrests and the desaparecidos and the unsolved murders and other violations of human rights that are traceable to the military under its fearless “Don’t count me out” commander in chief. These are enough to assure President George W. Bush that GMA is still loyally supporting his campaign to combat international terrorism, from the hills of Pakistan to the malls in Metro Manila, with his Guantanamo Bay persuasions.

The HSA is like an uncomely woman using all kinds of artifices to make her look attractive. Colored wigs, heavy makeup, padded brassieres, corsets, perfume and other beauty aids are used to cover up her innate ugliness and deceive the unsuspecting and easily impressed onlooker. So it is with the anti-terrorism law which conceals its oppressive provisions with a veneer of supposed restrictions and conditions intended to convince the people that any abuse in the implementation of its strictures shall be dealt with severely and instantly.

Stiff penalties are imposed for the commission of the crimes enumerated in its Section 3 that are already punished by the Revised Penal Code but are additionally condemned if they sow and create “a condition of widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace, in order to coerce the government to give in to an unlawful demand.” This requirement can be easily established before a court of justice influenced by the cohorts of the administration or because of the inefficacy of our procedural rules, as in habeas corpus proceedings that are helplessly disarmed where the respondent simply denies custody of the person sought.

There are many restrictions on the conduct of the law-enforcement agents seeking to defile human rights and individual liberties, like the deadlines for the filing of motions to make illegal searches and seizures, the duration of the extraordinary permission given by the Court of Appeals, the care, confidentiality and disposition of the seized materials, the examination and even freezing of bank accounts, the return of the documents improperly taken, the inadmissibility of evidence illegally obtained, the humane treatment of detained persons, the requirement for the continuous trial of alleged terrorists, and other supposed guarantees for the observance of due process.

But all this are mere blank bullets in a theatrical gun intended merely to impress the gullible with loud sound effects. Even current earlier laws already carry similar safeguards that are frequently and openly violated by overzealous or malicious law agents without incurring the prescribed disciplinary sanctions including criminal prosecution and punishment.

How many missing persons are now languishing in some military hideout if not already buried in unmarked graves? Where, to name only a few victims, are Bubby Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito, who vanished years ago and are strongly presumed to have been murdered by two still unpunished officers of the national police? Where too is Jonas Burgos, whom the military denies having abducted or, worse, it may already have executed since his disappearance more than three months ago?

Will (for it can) the HSA expose and avenge these provable mysteries?

There is also that silly Section 50 of the HSA calling for the payment of damages in the amount of P500,000 to any person acquitted of the charge of terrorism “for every day that he or she has been detained or deprived of liberty or arrested without a warrant as a result of such accusation.” This must be done within 15 days from the acquittal of the accused, from some esoteric appropriation that is sure to be inadequate if not invisible. After all, the one million peso travel allowance Speaker Jose de Venecia has promised each new member of the House of Representatives must first be paid.

Under RA 7309, victims of unjust imprisonment, arbitrary detention or violent crimes may claim damages in the amount of P1,000 for every month of imprisonment, and in all other cases, the award shall not exceed P10,000 or the expenses incurred for medical treatment, loss of wages, loss of support or other expenses related to the injury, whichever is lower. This law is peanuts compared to the impossible generosity of the HSA under the exorbitant and spendthrift Arroyo government.

Let it also be especially noted, with alarm, that implementation of the HSA is under the supervision of the Anti-Terrorism Council composed of tractable Cabinet secretaries under the control of President Arroyo. And, unbelievably, the law was passed with the consent of the lucid members of the Senate, which is usually fastidious when it comes to the protection of the Constitution.

The Human Security Act is comical except that the people who enacted it are dead serious about it. We could all die laughing.

Reckless warmongering

Reckless warmongering

Yet again, we face a vital test of institutions. The beheading of Philippine Marines in Tipo-Tipo continues to foster a justified outrage, and keeps on producing shocking, even damning, allegations of incompetence on the part of the armed forces. First, there were questions concerning the ammunition provided the troops. Then, more recently, there emerged the equally shocking allegation that the Marines were unable to receive assistance, for lack of a common radio frequency between the men on the ground and the pilots sent to lend them air support.

The Marines want revenge. By all accounts, the public is largely foursquare behind the soldiers. We recall an observation made by a TV executive, some months ago. With regard to news and current affairs, the public hates news of the fighting in Mindanao: ratings show that when shows cover that topic, viewers switch channels. The public would much rather keep the fighting in Mindanao out of sight—and out of mind.

But nothing gets public opinion heated up than the massacre of soldiers, and nothing brings out a residual patriotism in the public than a military offensive in Mindanao. And it is very easy for the national leadership to pander to—there’s no other word for it—such chauvinism by letting loose the dogs of war.

This is why we say the country faces a vital test of institutions. The Marines, sent to rescue a hostaged Italian priest, apparently stumbled onto territory jealously guarded by rebels, who engaged the Marines in a firefight and butchered them when the soldiers were subdued—because their ammunition was defective, their command-and-control ineffectual, and their search-and-rescue proved a suicide charge.

The question is whether a military offensive should proceed on the basis of a bungled operation. Perhaps the public doesn’t care why the soldiers died, and only, that they did—and that the rebels must pay. However, the public ought to care that the soldiers, who died bravely, also died senselessly: and that more soldiers’ lives will be squandered if the military doesn’t get a grip on the causes of the massacre in the first place.

The causes are two. First, the rebels in Mindanao are either disunited (with factions talking peace while others are trying to goad the military into renewed hostilities), or plain insincere about the peace talks, valuing the protection of their territorial enclaves more than the peace process. Second, the armed forces, because of poor generalship, and inefficiency verging on the criminal, are incapable of mounting effective operations, which include supporting troops tasked with missions on the ground. All this, despite the active assistance of allies in the fight against groups like the Abu Sayyaf, once a bandit group but which has now armed itself with a pan-Islamic, radical ideology.

The same intellectual ferment that produced the First Quarter Storm also gave birth to the concept of a Bangsamoro. President Ferdinand Marcos’ delusions of being the conqueror of Sabah resulted in the Jabidah massacre, revolt in Muslim Mindanao and the bloodiest fighting in the country since World War II. The Tripoli Agreement of 1976 established a brittle peace with the Moro National Liberation Front.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front split off as a more radical offshoot, with dreams of a Bangsamoro more patently religious than the fairly secular MNLF. But the MILF has been torn by a further radicalization: dreams of an Islamic state covering the region. The MILF has flirted with the Jemaah Islamiyah, which has a larger goal, represented by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda: to restore an Islamic caliphate. The Abu Sayyaf belongs to this radical, pan-Islamic regional movement.

Human Rights Watch recently reported that since 2000, more than 1,700 civilians have been killed or wounded in terror attacks, mainly in Mindanao. This is more than the casualties in terror-related activities in Indonesia, or Morocco, Spain, Turkey, or Britain. And yet, our institutions have overlooked a central question: unquestionably popular a military solution might be, among Christians (particularly in Mindanao), the Filipino Muslim voice—particularly those clamoring for peace—has been not only largely drowned out, but also ignored. Yet, who can doubt that a lasting victory against terrorism, and a just peace, are impossible without their support?

August

August

THE Carriedo Waterworks was inaugurated on August 23, 1870. Don Francisco Carriedo, a Spanish engineer and philanthropist, was responsible for the construction of this early water system that supplied water to Manila for more than a century.

If you miss water service anytime this month owing to poor weather or poor water delivery and distribution, remember Don Francisco and his pioneering work.

August holds many memories. We have only two national holidays—Ninoy Aquino Day (August 21) and National Heroes’ Day (August 26) but the rest of the month is busy. August is National Lung Month, Sight-Saving Month and National Language Month.

There are special days and weeks. August 1 is Family Planning Day. August 18 is National Seafarers’ Day. We are exiting from Breastfeeding Week. Soon it will be National Hospital Day. Of course National Asthma Week will have its time. The third week is National Coconut Week. Don’t forget Diabetes Week.

On August 23, we remember the heresy at Pugad Lawin. Ninoy Aquino was assassinated on August 21, 1983. The infamous Plaza Miranda bombing took place on August 21, 1971. On the same day in 1901, the US transport Thomas arrived in Manila with 600 teachers. The Jones Law passed on August 29, 1916. The RP-US Mutual Defense was signed on August 30, 1951.

The first atom bomb ever used in war fell on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed by a second blast in Nagasaki on August 9. Japan surrendered on August 14. On August 13, 1961, the east-west border was sealed and construction began on the Berlin Wall.

Several notable institutions are observing their anniversaries this month. The Commission on Elections. The Philippine Normal University. The Social Weather Stations. The Supreme Court. The Land Bank of the Philippines. Bank of the Philippine Islands. The Presidential Management Staff. The Bureau of Internal Revenue. The Philippine Independent Church. El Shaddai.

Let’s offer a toast to Bolivia on its national day tomorrow. Keep the glass raised for Switzerland (August 1), Ecuador (August 10), Singapore (August 9), Indonesia (August 17), Malaysia (August 21), India (August 15) and Pakistan (August 16). We have just marked 40 years of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Yo, Elvis Presley died on August 16. Get out those costumes and guitars, guys. Don’t forget your wig, grandpa.

Iraq celebrates

IT was one of the most inspiring and unforgettable moments in sports.

THE intense gunfire that blanketed Baghdad and other parts of Iraq last Sunday was not to kill or maim but to celebrate a national holiday—Iraq’s 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia in the 2007 Asian Cup in Jakarta.

It was not an easy feat for the Iraqi national football team. The Iraqis could not train on home turf. The first three coaches who were offered the job of organizing the team declined. It was a Brazilian, Jorvan Vieira, who accepted the challenge.

The team was put together under expedient circumstances from all parts of Iraq. The team captain Younis Mahmoud is Turkman. Goalkeeper Noor Sabri is Shiite Arab. Hawar Mulla Mohammed is Kurdish. The others were Sunni Arabs.

It was Iraq’s first. The Saudis were three-time Asian Cup champions.

When the skipper scored the winning goal the stadium erupted. He ran across the field, his teammates behind, before they collapsed in a heap, flushed with their victory. The autonomous Kurdish region celebrated. Iraqi refugees and immigrants from Damascus, Syria, to Dearborn, Michigan honked horns and waved flags.

For a moment there was unity and overpowering pride in the bitterly divided nation. Hard work, patience and team play among the athletes made the victory possible. There’s a lesson there for the rest of the Iraqis.

Right place, wrong dress

CANADIAN Deputy Foreign Minister Leonard Edwards will have an amusing story to tell friends and family when he returns to Ottawa.

He was the only guest to show up Wednesday at the Malacanang state dinner wearing the Barong Tagalog; the rest of the male guests wore suits and ties.

Edwards, like all the foreign ministers and representatives to the Asean ministerial meeting and the Asean regional forum, was provided with a barong, the diaphanous, finely embellished shirt, for the traditional group picture and certain functions.

The state dinner hosted by President Arroyo called for suits and ties, the formal wear for such occasion. Edwards showed up in the elaborately woven barong. He put on a brave face and a wide smile as he greeted hosts and fellow guests. The AFP story added:

“He did not appear to be the happiest man in the room when the group’s photo was taken—and he ended up in the front row.”

Worse things could happen—such as when two or more famous ladies show up at a party wearing the same dress. At the recent Kennedy Center Honors, one of Washington’s biggest nights for celebrities and gorgeous fashion, four women, including First Lady Laura Bush, wore the exact same $8,500 Oscar de la Renta dress. The three guests could only look at each other, but Mrs. Bush took decisive action. She went upstairs and changed.

Secret Deals

Secret Deals

It’s not just businessmen who are smelling secret deals. Filipinos — especially those who still remember the dark years of the dictatorship – are appalled at every court victory of the Marcoses. The public also can’t help noticing the current zeal – never before seen since the 1986 people power revolt — with which the Marcoses are moving to recover the enormous wealth frozen by the government on suspicion that the assets were amassed illegally.

More than 21 years after the Marcoses were driven into exile in a popular revolt, most of those assets remain frozen, and the accusation that the assets were ill-gotten have not been established beyond doubt. Perhaps some folks just have all the luck. Or perhaps it helps to have a sympathetic administration on your side, with those tasked to go after ill-gotten wealth under tacit orders to lose interest in winning court cases. The Marcoses are refurbishing their old homes, and family members are moving aggressively to gain ownership of several large business holdings and pieces of prime real estate. Imelda Marcos is back in the party circuit, and is a special guest even in the party of a ranking official of the Presidential Commission on Good Government. The PCGG commissioner did not receive even a slap on the wrist for the incident; he probably knew Malacañang would not mind.

If you can’t win a court case, the next best thing is to go for a compromise settlement. Negotiations for such a settlement are normally best kept out of the public eye. But the public must first be informed that the administration has decided to abandon the judicial route and go for a settlement with the Marcoses. The key figures in any negotiation must be identified, and the public must know which assets are at stake.

Equally important, a mechanism must be in place to ensure that whatever wealth is turned over to the government will go to public coffers rather than the pockets of a handful of corrupt officials and private dealmakers. Those who remember the days of the dictatorship are also demanding an explanation for the source of the Marcoses’ wealth, which an honest Philippine president could never have amassed in 20 years. If the administration wants to settle with the Marcoses, there must be transparency in the process.

Overseas Filipino slaves in Iraq

Overseas Filipino slaves in Iraq

POSTED on YouTube last July 26 were video clips from a United States congressional hearing on the controversies spawned by the $600-million US Embassy construction in Baghdad. Two of the testimonies refer to the circumstances under which Filipino workers were brought into the work site by their employer, the First Kuwaiti Company, and the horrible conditions in which they were made to work. Filipinos who still care might want to view these testimonies, and weep in anger.

Roy Mayberry, one of the witnesses, is an American medical technician who was recruited by a US contractor and assigned to work as an emergency medic for First Kuwaiti in the US Embassy construction site. He quit his job after only five days, unable to stand seeing the sub-human conditions to which the foreign workers were subjected. His job, he said, was to provide emergency treatment to people who were injured at work. But there was no way he could function in a situation where workers were treated as dispensable labor, and made to work without basic safety equipment like shoes, gloves, hard hats and harnesses. The workers--mostly Filipinos, Indians, Pakistanis and some Africans--had to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with only a short break on Fridays for prayers. They were constantly on their toes to avoid being verbally and physically abused, or fined with huge wage deductions.

Mayberry recalls the day he reported to the Kuwaiti company in Kuwait city, preparatory to his being shipped out to Baghdad where he was assigned. Fifty-one Filipino nationals were in the same room with him, also waiting for their documents and identification cards. The Filipinos told him they were bound for Dubai where they expected to work in hotels. Their plane tickets clearly indicated their next stop: Dubai. To his surprise, a manager of the company told him to keep an eye on them as they were all taking the same flight to Baghdad. He told the manager that these men had tickets for Dubai. The manager first told him that the Dubai tickets were just a cover since Philippine passports banned travel to Iraq. But when Mayberry pressed that the Filipinos were expecting to work in Dubai, the manager told him to be quiet and not to tell them they were headed for Baghdad.

Sure enough, as soon as the pilot of the Baghdad-bound plane announced the flight's destination, all hell broke loose. The Pinoy passengers screamed and insisted on leaving the aircraft. They took their seats only after the security detail in the aircraft pulled out his gun. "I believe these men were kidnapped by the First Kuwaiti Company to work on the US Embassy in Baghdad," Mayberry emphatically told the congressional committee. These men could do nothing, he said, but accept their fate. Their passports had been taken away from them in Kuwait.

Mayberry's testimony was corroborated by John Owens, who was hired by the same company to work as a general foreman in the embassy construction project. Unlike Mayberry, who left after only five days, Owens stayed on the site from November 2005 to June 2006--a period of eight months. Owens recounted the abusive treatment of "third-country nationals" at the embassy work site, and wondered how slave working conditions could be allowed in what was supposed to be an American project.

On cross-examination, Owens told the committee of the repeated attempts of the workers to escape from the site. "One night, 17 Filipinos scaled the fence and fled, hoping to find jobs elsewhere within the Green Zone (the area secured by US forces). They were soon rounded up and brought back." Apparently, the Kuwaiti company threatened to file suits against other companies that would take any of these workers whose passage to Iraq they had paid for.

The events recounted in the testimonies of Mayberry and Owens took place more than a year ago. Their story was never reported in our local papers, as far as I know. No one knows exactly what happened to the 51 Filipinos. It is likely that more Filipino workers found their way to the US Embassy construction site by the same system, their passage facilitated at every point by a network of unscrupulous recruiters, government officials, airport and immigration personnel, security forces, and layers upon layers of private contractors.

Their saga is replicated on a daily basis by hundreds of other desperate Filipinos--domestic helpers, entertainers, unskilled workers who fall victim to human trafficking syndicates. Many of them end up as indentured labor or as prostitutes in faraway lands, with neither passports nor access to any form of legal protection. Philippine authorities know about their plight, but they often choose to play blind to their predicament, mostly out of fear of creating a diplomatic issue.

In the civilized world, the first duty of a responsible nation-state is to protect the rights of its citizens wherever they are. It is a duty that has become astoundingly complex in an age of rapid global travel and migration. One might expect that a country like the Philippines, which has deployed millions of its nationals for employment in more than 190 countries, would have the basic sense to strengthen its institutional capacity to keep track of where they are and to protect their interests. But, alas, in the more than 30 years that we have been exporting our people, we have seen nothing but the government's benign neglect and insatiable greed for remittances.

Unacceptable

Unacceptable

NO DEAL. That's the assurance administration officials have been repeating like a mantra since it was first known that Marcos family members, including the former first lady, Imelda Marcos, would testify against businessman Lucio Tan.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, who said he had cleared the decision of the Presidential Commission on Good Government to call the Marcoses as witnesses, declared that "definitely" there was no compromise agreement between the family of the late dictator and the Arroyo administration. "There is no such deal," said PCGG Commissioner Nicasio Conti, who is in charge of litigation. "The Marcoses are principal defendants in this case." But who can blame a cynical public for believing otherwise?

The PCGG is seeking the forfeiture of some 60 percent of Tan's share holdings in 10 giant companies--among them, including Fortune Tobacco Corp., Asia Brewery Inc. and Allied Banking Corp.--claiming that the Chinese-Filipino businessman merely served as dummy for the late dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, who was their real owner. Tan, who is now estimated to have a personal fortune worth $2.3 billion, was reputed to be one of Marcos' closest cronies.

In a surprising turn of events, the Marcoses announced last week that they were going to testify against Tan. First to be called before the Sandiganbayan last Wednesday was Ilocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who promised to produce documents showing that their family owned the shares in question. (Tan's lawyer tried to block his testimony, but succeeded only in deferring it to later this month.)

But if the Marcoses now find themselves on the same side as the government in trying to recover the shares they are claiming, that's about how far their alliance will go--or so both sides are saying.

The PCGG says the testimony of the Marcoses would strengthen its case against Tan, but once the court declares the shares to be owned by the Marcoses, then it would grab the whole lot as ill-gotten wealth. Conti said there was no way the Marcoses could prove they acquired such assets through legitimate means, given the vastly more modest income earned by both the dictator and his wife. The Supreme Court earlier determined that between 1965 (when Marcos assumed the presidency) and February 1986, when he was toppled, the Marcos couple had a combined income of P2.3 million or $304,372, based on the exchange rate during that period. Anything beyond that amount is deemed to have been acquired through illegal means and therefore to be forfeited in favor of government.

But if that is a sure thing, as the PCGG would like the public to believe, is it possible that only the Marcoses cannot see it that way? Why would the Marcoses fight for those shares if the government can take them away almost immediately?

Marcos Jr. said he decided to testify against Tan in order to clear his father's name as well as his family's. But as Estelito Mendoza, Tan's lawyer and Marcos' long-time solicitor general, has pointed out, in order for the Marcoses to stake their claim to majority of Tan's share holdings, they would have to admit that Marcos got them in exchange for favors, which is tantamount to bribery. Or they would have to say Marcos engaged in business, which the Constitution prohibits a president from doing.

The last thing the Marcoses will do is admit that the former dictator got wealthy through bribery, blackmail or any illegal means. Maybe they have proof that Marcos already owned most of the country's business even before he became president? Or that he had come upon tons of gold and other treasures some time during his charmed existence, as Imelda Marcos used to claim? And maybe the PCGG finds that explanation believable?

It's hard to believe that the Marcoses stand to gain nothing from cooperating with the government in going after Tan's share holdings. They may be everything their critics say they are, but no one has accused them of being dumb. The PCGG and the Arroyo administration have a lot of explaining to do in regard to this latest twist in the government's efforts to recover the Marcos wealth. Declaring there's no deal simply is not acceptable. That's like saying no consideration was involved when then Rep. Imee Marcos suddenly made herself unavailable as the House prepared to vote on the impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Impossible demands

Impossible demands

We will let on government planners on a private sector secret which actually has long been known to practically all corporate planners. For almost 20 years now, many companies routinely input the high likelihood of a drought every five years and adjusted their corporate plans accordingly.

This nugget of defensive strategy we learned from the corporate planner of one of the biggest conglomerates in its time, which was severely weakened by the money market collapse in 1980-1981 and finally buried when its principal flew the coop after the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos. The planner learned to take the vagaries of the weather seriously when he started as an analyst of the US agriculture department, working out from a desk at the US Embassy. For all we know, he is still using the same, if improved, forecasting model at a commercial bank where he is now serving as executive vice president.

His point was that invoking force majeure was rather silly because information about the cyclical El Niño phenomenon was readily available (global warming was not yet a familiar term in those days). And invoking force majeure won’t cut ice with the board of directors which he was reporting to. So his group’s investment, trading and lending programs were designed to minimize exposure on industries dependent on good weather, meaning, principally agricultural-related companies, whenever he saw signs of a coming dry spell.

How good is the planner? Well, let’s just say he is treated as a star every time the Philippine Economic Society holds its annual meeting.

So why doesn’t the government do the same, pro-actively addressing the threat of a long dry spell like what the country is experiencing now?

Wrong question. Most agencies, especially government-owned corporations and financial institutions, do plan ahead. It’s just that politicians tapped to head the corporations and to sit on the boards have priorities set by their masters.

Let’s take the National Power Corp., the current whipping boy for the rising power rates due to a) idled hydroelectric plants and b) more expensive fuel. It is not publicly known that Napocor is a subscriber to a very expensive weather forecasting service that is acknowledged as being better than the official weather bureau. The Napocor should have known the hydros were about to run out of water. It should have been prepared to harness its other plants, mostly thermal.

The reality is that the Napocor has not stocked up on coal, for example, in anticipation of greater reliance on thermal plants. The reason is simple. The pressure is on Napocor to raise its profits while ensuring stable rates. Remember the to-do about the alleged price-fixing in the wholesale market? The Napocor told the trading groups at the wholesale market that they should not sell output at giveaway rates. For its trouble, Napocor was cited by the Energy Regulatory Commission for price-fixing.

This week, wholesale spot prices peaked at over P52 per kilowatt-hour, more than 10 times the recent average. We expect to see stepped up calls for heads to roll at the Napocor. As if cutting off heads will lead to an additional megawatt of power to the grid.

And so the finger-pointing goes on, with every expendable executive adjudged guilty to absolve the pols who demand adequate power supply at a cheap price on rising production cost.

They might as well demand the squaring of the circle. But that’s politicians for you.

The definition of terrorism under the HSA

The definition of terrorism under the HSA

The definition of the crime of terrorism under the Human Security Act (HSA) has been criticized for being vague as well as ambiguous and, as a result, highly susceptible to governmental abuse. In truth, the definition is clear enough, albeit ill-conceived. For it is guilty both of under-inclusive­ness and over-inclusiveness. Under-inclusive classifications do not embrace within its scope all those intended to be considered guilty of the crime; while over-inclusive classifications encompass within its breadth those intended to be innocent. Hence, the criticism that it is susceptible to abuse is correct. More significantly, since the definition includes those who are not similarly situated under an intended classification and excludes those who are, it may also be criticized for violating the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

There exist three elements to the crime of terrorism under the HSA: (i.) a person must commit any of various specified acts punishable under our criminal law, the more important of which constitute piracy or mutiny, rebellion or insurrection, coup d’état, murder, kidnapping, crimes involving destruction, arson, illegal or unlawful possession, manufacture, dealing in or acquisition of firearms, ammunitions or explosives; (ii.) such an act “thereby [sows] and [creates] a condition of widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace,” and (iii.) the act is committed “in order to coerce the government to give in to an unlawful demand.”

It is instructive to examine some paradigm examples of terrorism in our historical experience in order to test the suitability of the above definition. In the late 70s and early 80s, members of the Light-A-Fire Movement issued threats of arson and committed crimes involving destruction in an attempt to overthrow the Marcos government. These crimes included making numerous calls warning government offices of imminent bombings or fires and actually bombing some buildings, such as the Philippine International Convention Center. More recently, the bombing of certain buses or railway trains was allegedly committed by the MILF in order to compel the government to recognize an independent Muslim state.

If the above examples are indeed paradigmatic, then the definition is flawed by several misconceptions. First, they indicate that an essential element of acts of terrorism involves the willingness of the terrorist to actually harm, kill, damage or destroy civilians or non-military targets as part of strategy. That is precisely why such acts result in widespread and extraordinary fear and panic. Hence it is not actually the commission of any of the crimes enumerated in the first element of the definition, along with the second and third elements, which renders an act one of terrorism; rather, it is the commission of these or other acts in fulfillment of the above strategy which does.

The failure to appreciate the first misconception results in the anomaly of prosecuting and punishing the traditional rebel for the crime of terrorism instead of rebellion. Whereas the terrorist uses methods such as the sacrifice of innocent civilians in pursuit of his cause, the traditional rebel refrains from doing so. After all, in his attempt to overthrow the government, the traditional rebel desires to win over the populace to his cause. And yet, if the rebellion is reasonably successful so that widespread and extraordinary fear and panic results, he would, under the HSA, be guilty of terrorism, and not simply of rebellion or insurrection. The definition, as a result, is over-inclusive.

Next, the second element of the crime indicates that the “condition of widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace” is merely an effect of the criminal act. This is counterintuitive. On the contrary, the very intent of the act must be to create that condition. This distinction is critical.

Clearly, the intent of the Light-A-Fire or MILF terrorist, in the paradigm examples above, was to create widespread and extraordinary fear and panic; however that was not realized, since most of the populace went about their daily lives largely unaffected. Consequently, their crimes would not, under the HSA, be classified as acts of terrorism. The definition, as a result, is also under-inclusive.

The point just made needs further emphasis and clarification. It is not necessary to the crime of terrorism that widespread and extraordinary fear and panic are successfully sown and created; it is enough that the fear and panic were intended by the terrorist for the crime to have been committed. Otherwise, acts normally considered terrorist in character would not be punished as acts of terrorism.

Support the US sex-slave resolution

Support the US sex-slave resolution

The Democratic Party-dominated US House of Representatives has passed a resolution pressing the Japanese government to apologize officially to Asian women forced to become sex slaves by the Japanese military during World War II. These are the so-called comfort women.

The United Nations, recognizing the claims of Asian NGOs, accepts the fact that some 200,000 young women—13 years old and older—from mainland China, Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia and other East Asian countries were abducted or forced to serve in officially sanctioned, established and managed houses where they were systematically abused by Japanese soldiers in need of sexual release.

In the post-WWII war-crimes trials of the Tokyo tribunal, forcing women to perform sexual congress with Japanese soldiers was not among the charges against the Japanese. As a result, the “comfort women” issue never came up. It was not until the 1990s when the complaints of the, by then, dwindling group of Japanese military victims, became widely known.

Silence on the issue allowed the Japanese government to ignore the comfort women’s call for justice and demands for compensation.

The Japanese authorities argued that rape was not a war crime until the 1949 when the Fourth Geneva Convention was adopted.

They also tried to deflect the complaints against the Japanese military authorities by claiming that it was civilians, not military officers, who had gathered the women to serve in the soldiers’ bordellos.

Korea was Japan’s colony from 1910 to 1945. The 1965 Japan-Korea agreement required a payment of US$800 million to the Korean government in loans and grants. In return the Korean government agreed not to demand further reparations.

Japan claims that the agreement disallows private claims because the Korean government has been paid. The Korean government denies that claim and has declassified the agreement to prove to Koreans that the Japanese statement is false.

But in Japan, no private WWII Korean victim is allowed to sue the Japanese government unless Tokyo declassifies the agreement. In March lawyers of Korean victims went to court petitioning for the declassification of the agreement.

Also last March, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had obscenely stood firm on the protestation that the World War II Japanese military authorities were not guilty of forcibly using Filipino and other Asian women in official sex houses. “There was no coercion such as kidnappings by the Japanese authorities. There is no reliable testimony that proves kidnapping,” Abe said. He even added that economic reasons and the persuasiveness of pimps made these Asian women choose to become whores to Japanese soldiers.

That Japan’s military authorities were involved in putting up and managing these brothels for soldiers was substantiated by six official documents from Japan’s National Institute for Defense Studies. These were found and then published by Prof. Yoshiaki Yashimi of Chuo University.

In 1993 the Japanese government at last began to admit that sex slavery had happened in the Second World War. And in 1994, Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama announced that the private Peace and Friendship Exchanges Foundation had been founded to deal with the comfort-women issue.

International, including Philippine, associations of victims refused to cooperate with the organization. They knew it was again an effort of the Japanese government to avoid responsibility and liability. The victims declared: “We want our honor back, not charity.”

UNCHR’s recommendations

THE UN Commission on Human Rights has recommended a list of measures the Japanese government should take to solve the problem:

It should acknowledge that the Japanese military violated international law; it should make a public apology to all the women; it should pay each victim a cash compensation; it should change the Japanese schoolbooks and curricula so that the true facts of history are taught; it should publish all the documents relevant to this issue and ferret out and punish those involved in this crime.

It was only in 1996 when the Chinese delegate to the UN officially spoke of the need for Japan to pay compensation to the comfort women or sex slaves.

Preparing for the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII, women’s groups in Asia, Europe and North America formed a united front in publicizing the demands that the Japanese government apologize and pay compensation to the sex slaves.

The Japanese authorities had tried to prevent the US House of Representatives from passing its resolution. Tokyo instructed the Japanese ambassador in Washington to say that the resolution would not be beneficial to Japanese-American relations.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki also made his displeasure publicly known when he said that, “The Prime Minister personally informed the United States of our position during his visit to that country in April. We regret to say that the resolution was approved despite that.”

Meanwhile, human rights and women’s organizations in Japan are launching a campaign to demand apologies and payment to the comfort women from their government.

We Filipinos should support these movements in every way we can.

Filipino cities

Filipino cities

Whenever I’m in Cebu or Iloilo, I go through the ritual of discussing with my friends the possibility of moving from Manila and living there.

The reactions are always of two kinds. One is great enthusiasm, “Yehey, yahoo, now na,” sometimes accompanied with job offers. The other, which used to surprise me, is: “But why?”

“Why?” I would retort. “Because I’m not sure I want my kids to grow up in Manila.” I would mention all the problems we have: pollution and traffic, malls and fast-food (read junk food) joints on every corner, the extreme consumerism.

I then turn to the attractions of Cebu and Iloilo (and occasionally, Davao). Cebu and Iloilo have a certain Old World charm, metropolitan yet small town, of department store (yes, they still have them) clerks who will engage in a bit of banter, of istorya-istorya while they’re wrapping up your purchases. And I remind my friends of how close they are to nature. You can live in the middle of Cebu and yet see both the mountains and the sea, and if you can’t, well, the sea’s never more than an hour away.

But my friends warn me about not having good bookstores, no good libraries, no good concerts, no good European films and how they look forward to visiting Manila to get those things. I smile back and explain that even in Manila, I don’t have time to watch the not just good but great films and concerts at UP, where I teach. As far as I’m concerned, I could live even in one of the smaller cities like Tagbilaran and still get a cultural life of sorts, via DVD (again, assuming I have the time to watch) and high-speed Internet (these days you can subscribe to Internet services like High Beam Research and Questia and get access to thousands of books and journals).

Some of my friends would persist: “You won’t have anyone to talk to here.” They would claim there’s no intellectual life in Cebu and Iloilo. Perhaps most shocking is, “We don’t have good schools here for your kids.”

So I actually end up defending my friends’ cities: “But Iloilo is like Athens: you have schools on every corner.” And I’m serious, it’s not just the number of schools, but some rather innovative and progressive ones.

Let me assure my friends in Manila that I’m not about to move . . . yet. I have too many commitments here that will make that move difficult. The biggest factor that keeps me in Manila are my parents, who are quite old. Both are big-city people who think of any place outside of Manila as “probinsya.”

‘Balik-Manila’

It’s not snobbery on their part. The paradox is that even if our smaller cities now have malls and other trappings of modernity, they do lag behind in terms of economic infrastructure and many social services.

I’m going to be specific now and refer to the experiences of two of my former employees who did pull up stakes here in Manila to move back to their home cities, one in the Visayas and the other in Mindanao. Both now have regrets about having moved back and are asking me if they can do a reversal, a “balik-Manila.”

Yes, they say, the air is cleaner and they have the mountains and the sea, but they’re overwhelmed by problems. The kids complain all the time, missing Manila. It’s mainly their friends and the malls and “gimmicks” of Manila, but the parents have greater concerns. They moved back thinking that it would be easier to make ends meet, with better prospects for small business ventures amid lower costs of living.

They were wrong on both counts. The costs of setting up businesses, even in small cities, can be quite high. Rent and utilities aren’t cheap, while potential customers haven’t been coming in because the purchasing ability is just too low. And yes, they do see now the problems of lower standards of education, especially as their kids are about to enter college. One of them wonders if her very ill mother might be better off in Manila for specialized care.

Their sad experiences remind me that more than many other countries, the Philippines is plagued by having one primate city while the others remain quite neglected by the national government. In Thailand, Indonesia and China, capital cities are still prime attractions, but they are primus inter pares (first among equals). Shanghai has as much, if not more, allure than Beijing. In Indonesia, Yogyakarta’s Gadja Mada University puts up stiff competition against the University of Indonesia in Jakarta. In the Philippines, the best universities are still concentrated in Manila.

Rethinking cities

The Philippines is supposed to be 64 percent urbanized, but “urbanization” is a relative term. We’ve had an epidemic of municipalities converting themselves into cities, with even the League of City Mayors complaining about the newcomers not coming up to standards.

The UNFPA’s latest yearbook suggests new ways of looking at urbanization. In the past, development planners tried to discourage migration from rural to urban areas, fearful of squatters and urban poverty. Today, the thinking is that we should encourage such migration because it alleviates rural poverty. One interesting research finding is that cities can be more eco-friendly because they can be more efficient in terms of using land and other natural resources.

But poverty alleviation and environmental conservation depend on how much government is committed to ensuring that the cities have adequate housing, jobs and social services. The problems we have today is that city politicians welcome rural migrants because they become cheap labor and bring in more votes during elections, but provide them very little by way of economic and social services.

Another point raised by UNFPA is that countries should develop several urban centers so hordes of rural poor don’t stream into the capital city. I’d add here that we need a major cultural shift as well, to get Filipinos to move away from “Manila imperialism.” We forget that Cebu and Iloilo were originally considered to be more sophisticated and advanced than Manila, centers of “urbanidad” or a sense of civility and civilization. If they’re losing that urbanidad, it’s because they try too hard to imitate Manila. If they could just keep their small-town charm and urbanidad, they might attract more professionals, artists and business people.

Meanwhile, those of us in Manila should also expose our kids to other urban centers, from Vigan and Tuguegarao up north, down to Zamboanga and General Santos in the south, so they can expand their horizons and their ideas of what a city should be. Hopefully, someday they will have more choices and options of where to live. Even better, they can contribute toward recreating and revitalizing our urban areas.

‘Doing nothing’ in Boracay

‘Doing nothing’ in Boracay

This is “habagat” season in Boracay, the season of the west or northwest wind, with monsoon rains and strong gusts driving rain and sand into the resorts, shops and restaurants lining the island’s famous White Beach.

As a consequence, almost all establishments have set up tall windbreakers on the beachfront, bamboo or wooden scaffolding with nylon screens or plastic sheets that allow the sea breeze to waft in while keeping out sand and rain.

Since this was our first time to visit “Bora” during the habagat, we are by turns dismayed and fascinated by the windbreakers, which at times look like messy barriers that mar the pristine landscape of White Beach, and at other times loom like other-worldly structures, the screens billowing in the wind like landlocked sails.

This also happens to be the season of Korean honeymooners, says Henry Chusuey, chair and president of Boracay Regency, the resort that played host to our group of media people, together with SEAir. Apparently, many Korean couples get married during the summer season (in their country) and increasing numbers have been choosing Boracay as their honeymoon destination.

We spot quite a number on the morning of our arrival as we stroll southwards along the beach. We even come upon a group of what looks like novice divers, all clad in wet suits, and we follow them as they make their way toward their dive boat. But before boarding, they first take time out for souvenir pictures, the group breaking into pairs and posing, first forming a “heart” with an arm arched over each head, and then kissing for the camera. The last to pose for a picture is a group of four women and we laugh, wondering what pose they’ll take. We’re disappointed though because they settle for demurely holding up their fingers in the ubiquitous “V.”

That afternoon, we spot from the verandah of our poolside room even more amorous couples frolicking in the cool waters.

* * *

WE had been warned to bring jackets and rain gear, as weather at this time of year in Boracay can be quite “unpredictable.” But other than a downpour on the morning we arrived, the rest of the weekend is sunny and hot.

Because of the rains, this is also supposed to be the “lean” season in Boracay, but aside from the Korean honeymooners, we also spot quite a number of families, many of them "balikbayan" [visiting overseas-based Filipinos] taking advantage of summer vacation in the United States and in Europe. There are enough people on White Beach to make for a lively scene, albeit not in the bustling numbers that can make the beachfront as busy as Divisoria during the high “amihan” season.

Our media tour is billed as “The Art of Doing Nothing in Boracay,” but we find that, after a few visits, there is more than enough to do on the island. First on my and my husband’s agenda was a visit to Da Mario’s, which has come to be our favorite place for cheap but delicious pizza in Boracay. It is little known, mainly because of its location on the far southern end of the beach. In fact, for years now, there have been painted signs announcing the place was for sale. To our relief, Da Mario’s is still around, still unsold, and still preparing thin, crisp and crusty pizza.

* * *

ANOTHER item on our agenda was to sample the breakfast at Lemon Café in D’Mall, but Jingjing Romero, PR consultant for SEAir and herself quite the veteran Boracay visitor, hijacks us the next morning to try instead breakfast in Zuzuni, a boutique hotel and restaurant a few meters away from D’Mall. It is jointly owned by Nikos Gitsis, one of the founders of SEAir, and Geny Psinakis, who also owns the Greek restaurant Mati in Rockwell.

We are not disappointed, enjoying the early morning beachfront air as well as a breakfast of pancakes, waffles and yummy “Zuzuni omelettes,” which Jingjing says her children ask her to take home to Manila each time she visits Boracay. Not to be missed either is the restaurant’s LaVazza coffee, dark and rich and invigorating. We’re even treated to the sight of two yellow Labradors being walked by their blonde owner, who it seems was training them to swim in the sea.

We do make it to Lemon Café for breakfast the next day, enjoying the sun-drenched pale yellow interiors. I order eggs benedict, while the hubby tries another omelette, and we share an order of French toast. With cool, tangy orange-lemon shakes, it makes for a filling meal, too filling, in fact for us to try the pastries which all the guides recommended. Maybe next time.

* * *

OTHERWISE, we had all our meals at Boracay Regency, which is so far the largest establishment on the island with 285 rooms, and an additional planned 120 rooms upon the completion of another wing.

We are billeted in the Garden Wing, a new development (just opened in June) with 90 rooms, 18 of which have direct access to the pool, lined in dark blue tiles that give the water a cool, inviting look. The poolside suites have a classic neo-Filipino feel, with a king-size bed and upholstered living set.

Apparently, Chusuey and carriers like SEAir have much faith in the future of Boracay. “We have had a long working relationship with Boracay Regency,” says Patrick Tan, vice president for commercial affairs of the airline. To overcome the inevitable slump in arrivals during the “habagat” season, SEAir has partnered with Boracay Regency and other establishments on the island with special “lean season” packages. Particularly attractive is a package that goes for P9,750+VAT per person, triple-sharing, for four days, three nights, with free breakfast, transfers and air fare. It’s a great bargain, considering how much one can do while “doing nothing” in Boracay.

TV as a reflection of society

TV as a reflection of society

WHAT appears on television in most countries is a useful reflection of what topics are on the mind of the people and what is considered socially acceptable.

Both Philippine and Brazilian television have current shows that reflect similarities in outlook that come from being developing and Catholic nations.

In Brazil this month I watched the country's most popular telenovela "Paraiso Tropical" (http://paraisotropical.globo.com) which airs on the country's largest TV network Globo. One of its main characters is a social-climber prostitute called Bebel played by Camila Pitanga. She was originally supposed to be an evil "contravida" [villain], but her struggle to lift herself out of prostitution by snagging a rich husband is being viewed positively by a majority of the show's viewers, making Pitanga one of the show's and country's hottest new stars.

In a newspaper interview the head writer of "Paraiso Tropical" said that he and the other writers of the telenovela were surprised that Bebel turned out to be such a favorite of the viewers. But in a country like Brazil where there are so many poor people, and the gap between the rich and poor is still so large, is it no wonder that viewers identify and root for a character such as Bebel?

In the Philippines, ABS-CBN television is embarking on a similar “telenovela” [TV soap] with the launch of "Margarita."

So far only teaser ads are being shown, but it seems to be the story of a female dancer torn between loving two men a la "Burlesk Queen." Starring Wendy Valdez of “Pinoy Big Brother” fame, I'm sure Margarita will undoubtedly pull herself out of the sleaze of nightclubs and into a better life, only to be eternally haunted by her fleshy origins. But the new telenovela is not getting very good previews, even though no one has seen any episode of it yet. One Filipino blogger said: "Brace yourself for crappy acting from the lead stars Wendy, Bruce and Diether on July 30."

ABS-CBN is launching "Margarita" as a replacement for their martial arts, science-fiction telenovela "Rounin," which has been a dismal failure with viewers.

Obviously, television executives believe that viewers will be able to identify more with the struggles of a showgirl than with the flying fights of the characters on "Rounin."

Some commentators made a big deal when "Paraiso Tropical" launched in Brazil because it includes a gay, male couple. But they are depicted as young, professionally successful men who live together in a nice apartment. Globo said it was never going to show the couple kissing each other as it had polled its viewers and found out that the majority of Brazilians were not ready to see that just yet on their TV screens.

But Globo television has been hyper-successful in making and exporting telenovelas to countries around the world. One such weekly series, "Malu Mulher," was a huge hit when it aired in 1979. Starring Regina Duarte, one of Brazil's best actresses, as a recently divorced sociologist living in Sao Paulo with her 11 year old daughter, the show was innovative and progressive for dealing with such sensitive topics such as abortion, divorce and the rights of working women.

I was delighted to find the whole series on DVD when I was in Brasilia. I immediately bought it and watched a few episodes at home, finding that it still was excellent even 28 years after it first aired. What was amazing to me was the bold dialogue of the characters, especially given the fact that Brazil then was still under a military dictatorship and all television shows were closely scrutinized by government censors who strictly monitored programs for anything they could consider immoral or subversive.

If only Philippine television could produce something similar, instead of the dopey programs that networks currently churn out.

Beware Of Bigots

Beware Of Bigots

I received messages from two individuals, a columnist and a political spokesman, who are both my friends but who clashed with opposing views during the recent political campaign. They had exchanged harsh words owing to being on conflicting sides of the political fence. One can even say that both had been nearly insulting one another. I thought it would be one of those things that had always bothered me -- when friends of mine fight and I get caught in between.

But, as it turned out to be, both were also Christians, not so much the talking only kind, but the types who strive to live out what they believe in. One of them, the political spokesman, asked me last week to set him up with the other so that they could personally meet and maybe become friends. He had read an article of the columnist praising the work of Gawad Kalinga and the leadership of Tony Meloto, the very work and Filipino leader that the political spokesman had been helping all along in his home province. Immediately, he sensed that a shared value and admiration would be solid equity for reconciliation and friendship.

I, of course, was only too happy to say yes. I knew that both were basically good persons but headstrong in their beliefs and courageous enough to stand their ground in the line of fire. As it turned out, before I could do anything to set up a meeting between the two, they bumped into each other in the lobby of a popular hotel. Without hesitation, the political spokesman approached the columnist and mutual respect was quickly established. Both agreed to be very articulate about their views, and both accepted the high probability that these views would clash every so often. But both knew they would be Christians first, forgive each other should anger get in the way, and move on to work on their friendship after.

In the midst of hypocrisy and belligerence, the example of these two good men is truly refreshing. They do not brandish their shared religion, but they struggle to maintain integrity in their lives. Both are in difficult fields, one deep in political dynamics and the other writing opinions about those dynamics. Politics can be unkind, and so can the pen. Most people are not especially challenged and will never have to go through harsh words and try to build friendships after them. I am simply blessed to two friends who will try to show me and others that they are bigger and better than the issues they take sides with, or against.

A good disposition and a healthy capacity for respect are rare, though. One would think that a fun-loving and hospitality-oriented people would easily bend to accommodate or defer to others. Unfortunately, that is not so, mainly because the seed of divisiveness has been inculcated into our operating system and a false pride always ready to take offense. At the same time, there is a special history with bigots in our colonial past, especially bigots with a religious color.

By definition, a bigot is a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially, one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance. Another dictionary simply says that a bigot is a person who is utterly intolerant of any differing creed, belief, or opinion. A third points out that a bigot is one who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.

It may be easy for us to identify certain personalities as bigots because there are always some around us. Bigotry is irritating when the bigot is an ordinary person. When the bigot, though, has power, position and resources, bigotry becomes dangerous. How many died during the Inquisition? How many died during the Holocaust? Bigots are everywhere, in racists, in fanatics, in terrorists.

Most of all, though, bigots have a tendency towards hypocrisy, especially with a religious nuance. They are most destructive when they hold leadership positions and influence their disciples towards violence -- or mass suicides. By the narrowness of their minds and their emotional constipation, bigots invariably go to extremes in any spectrum.

The history of mankind is littered with stories of bigots and bigotry. They make up the most noisy, the most argumentative. After all, it is only they who are right and utterly intolerant of the other view. Colored with religion or a belief system, bigots can be seen preaching fire and brimstone, yet themselves indulge in their own perversions. In the old days, scriptures seemed to refer to Pharisees and Scribes as the biblical bigots whom Jesus Christ had a special disdain for. Of course, they killed Him.

I had thought for a long time that politicians were bigots because of their hypocrisy. I apologize, though. The hypocrisy of politicians is mostly devoid of a holier-than-thou arrogance. The hypocrisy of politicians is derived more from too many promises which they do not keep. It is a milder form of hypocrisy, and one that does not fool many people anymore. The one with a religious color, though, is the more deadly because it is much more deceptive where disciples follow a false prophet.

No wonder that I feel so uplifted when two individuals who had pushed their opposing views publicly simply leaned on basic decency and Christian training to quietly set their differences aside and try to find common ground for building friendship. Of course, they quickly find basis to like each other. All they had to do was want it, all they had to do was walk their talk.

I feel a deep satisfaction having as my friends two gentlemen who saw amity as a higher option over political issues. One told me, "Tonypet is a likable person." The other said, "Billy is a good man." No arrogance, no hypocrisy, no bigotry.

Cheap medicines bills explained

Cheap medicines bills explained

A few days ago, a front-page story in the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that foreign pharmaceutical companies in the Philippines have put together a P1-billion lobby fund to kill the cheap medicines bills. I am inclined to believe this report. The local pharmaceutical market, after all, is worth P100 billion a year, 70 percent to 80 percent of it controlled by the foreign drug companies. What’s P1 billion to kill a bill that would drastically reduce their profits?

Look at these facts:

The Philippines ranked second to Japan as having the highest medicine prices in Asia. Filipinos spent for medicines the equivalent of $1 billion a year, from 1997 to 2001, the highest in Asean, notwithstanding that half of the Philippines’ 80 million population have no access to essential medicines. The cost of medicines here is 40 percent to 70 percent higher than in other Asean countries. For Filipinos who have access to medicines, their budget for total health-related expenses (not just medicines) is a measly P2,000 per person per year.

The government has tried to provide the people with cheaper medicines by importing them, through the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC). The efforts of the PITC, however, are puny and doesn’t even make a dent on local drug prices. In a P100-billion market, the PITC’s yearly import budget is only P300 million. What’s more, it has few outlets for its drugs. The two biggest drugstore chains in the country, Mercury Drug and Watson’s, refuse to sell medicines imported by the PITC.

How can the multinational drug companies get away with such profiteering? Mainly because of the law on patents and the Intellectual Property Code. These two laws allow pharmaceutical companies exclusive rights to manufacture and sell products they have developed. The multinationals have taken advantage of these laws by pricing their medicines for as much as the market can bear. They can price their products at any level because there is no competition. Any medicine importer, including the government, can be sued by the multinationals that do not like imported drugs to compete with their products.

The Philippines is clearly in the grip of a cartel or oligopoly. The medicine market is controlled by foreign companies who have their own association with plenty of money for propaganda and lobbying. Their products are manufactured here by one or two companies, also foreign-owned. They are distributed by only one foreign company and retailed by two drugstore chains, one of them (Watson’s) foreign-owned.

The Constitution mandates the government to prevent restraints in trade, such as cartels and monopolies, but lawyers say it is difficult to prove the existence of a cartel, hence government exerts no effort to enforce the ban although we have cartels not only in the pharmaceutical industry but also in cement, petroleum products and the power sector. What is obvious to the layman – cartels -- the legal profession refuses to see.

The government has tried to fight back with legislation. The first was the Generics Law wherein doctors are mandated to write the generic names of the medicines they prescribe and the drugstores to carry generic equivalents of branded ones. But many doctors still forget to write the generic names, and the drug companies have mounted a subtle campaign to make people believe that generics are less effective than the branded, and expensive, medicines. On parallel importations, they have a campaign painting imported medicines as “counterfeit,” even if these imported products are genuine ones manufactured by their sister companies.

Congress is counterattacking with two bills, one in the Senate and the other in the House. The Senate passed its version before the 13th Congress adjourned, but the House failed to pass its version for lack of quorum. The bills have been refiled in the present Congress. Their main authors are Sen. Mar Roxas for the Senate bill, and Rep. Ferjenel Biron for the House version.

Kapihan sa Manila invited the two lawmakers to explain the differences between the two bills. Biron was there but Roxas only sent his legal counsel Blas Viterbo. Former Health Secretary Quasi Romualdez and former PITC chief Obet Pagdanganan were also there.

The differences are quite simple. The Biron bill seeks to impose price controls on medicines, while the Roxas bill seeks to amend the Intellectual Property Code.

In a separate interview, Roxas outlined the provisions of his bill:

“1. Disallow another patent for new uses of an existing substance (already patented) so that drug manufacturers can immediately copy off-patent products without fear of lawsuit.

“2. Allow parallel importation and international exhaustion of intellectual property rights for patents. Parallel importation refers to the importation, without the consent of the patent holder, of a patented product that is marketed in another country. International exhaustion refers to the regime where the supply and price of a product is moderated by competition. Both would allow the Philippines to shop around for a quality product with a better price.

“3. Allow the ‘early working doctrine’ to enable generic drug companies to experiment and test generic versions of patented drugs before their patents expire. It will also allow them to produce and sell generic versions of patented drugs upon their patents’ expiration.

“4. Restructure provisions of government use. At present, the government is required to apply for a license before it can use patented medicines or processes for manufacture. The bill does away with this compulsory licensing, making it easier and quicker to respond to public health threats without fear of law suits.”

Yes or no? Maybe

Yes or no? Maybe

Last Monday, Davao Rep. Prospero Nograles raised what seemed like a sensible suggestion. The new leader of the House panel in the Commission on Appointments suggested that, beginning with the first session of the 14th Congress, the CA expedite the entire confirmation process by limiting itself to either approving an official nominated by Malacañang, or rejecting the appointment outright.

“There will be only yes or no and no maybes in acting on government appointments,” Nograles said. “If possible, we will avoid the practice of bypassing appointments, which will just allow the President to reappoint [an official] all over again. It will be either he is in or out.”

Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? The practice of bypassing an appointment allows the President to retain an official whose performance or loyalty she values, even though the members of Congress do not share the President’s high regard for the appointee, through the simple expedient of re-appointment.

Following the disclosure of former Rep. Herminio Teves, however, that some of his colleagues in the House who sat in the CA during the 13th Congress used their position to extort enormous amounts of money from the presidential appointees, the practice of bypassing has assumed a more sinister color. Now there are more and more of us who think: If the CA bypasses the appointment of a nominee, that nominee becomes vulnerable -- or is deliberately rendered vulnerable -- to extortion attempts by CA members.

Nograles’ yes-or-no proposal was designed precisely to minimize that vulnerability. “The new CA must confirm or reject the appointees at the shortest time possible and not keep them hanging,” he said.

Well and good, if the 12 members of the House delegation can persuade the 12 members of the Senate contingent in the CA. A yes-or-no approach to appointments will reinvigorate the constitutional principle that the President’s immense power to appoint requires the tempering consent of both chambers of Congress.

The President’s power is rooted in Article VII, Section 16, the first sentence of which reads: “The President shall nominate and, with the consent of the Commission on Appointments, appoint the heads of the executive departments, ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, or officers of the armed forces from the rank of colonel or naval captain, and other officers whose appointments are vested in him in this Constitution.” Another provision later in the section vests the President with the power “to make appointments during the recess of the Congress, whether voluntary or compulsory, but such appointments shall be effective only until disapproved by the Commission on Appointments or until the next adjournment of the Congress.”

A close reading of these constitutional provisions tells us that the legislature’s share of the appointing power is essentially negative. That is to say, it can temper the executive’s prerogatives in appointing key officials only by disapproving her appointments. This is a responsibility that must be exercised with great care; after all, in our system of government, we must allow the President as much political elbow room as she needs to choose those she would want to work with or work in her stead.

But precisely because of the CA’s longstanding practice of bypassing appointments it does not like, its consent, its approval of appointments, has been devalued. The President simply renews the appointment of, say, a bypassed Cabinet secretary; indeed she has done so in the case of a plurality of her Cabinet appointments since 2001.

The CA’s real power lies in rejecting a nominee outright, or in disapproving an ad interim appointment. Thus, Nograles is half right: Taking away the uncertainty reduces an appointee’s vulnerability to extortion. (Teves’ own son, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, was first appointed in July 2005; two years of waiting must have raised the price of his confirmation to a stratospheric P5 million.)

The other half of the problem, however, remains. Bypassing an appointment has been used in the past to signal the legislature’s displeasure with a particular appointment. Without that option, the CA faces a real choice: To be a rubber stamp, or to be truly independent. Can the CA, can Nograles himself, afford to say no to the President?

Glaring

Glaring

The Philippines would reach first-world status in 20 years, so the President declared during her State-of-the-Nation Address. Income per capita would then be $20,000.

“By then, poverty shall have been marginalized; and the marginalized raised to a robust middle class,” she added.

Ambitious targets are fine. They push people to do more than what they think they can do. They paint a rosy picture of the future and offer a comforting thought that good times are forthcoming.

But many say that to be able to achieve the ideal status, the Philippines would have to grow at an unprecedented double-digit rate annually, faster even than China’s or Vietnam’s. Even the International Monetary Fund forecasts a growth of only 6 percent in 2007 and 2008.

And now, an Ibon survey says nearly eight out of 10 Filipinos consider themselves poor. This is not the kind of news that goes well with the first-world objective.

There will be, of course, the usual questions on the methodology and the motives of the think tank behind the survey. The fact, however, is that the perception—while it is precisely that—has worsened from 68 percent in January and 69 percent in the same period last year.

Lack of livelihood opportunities in the country is cited as the cause for the overall sentiment.

No survey result should be interpreted as an absolute, yet this latest one is just so glaring amid the optimistic pronouncements of recent days. At the very least, it serves as a reminder that another benchmark may have to be used to gauge—and target—economic development.

Per capita income is a convenient planning tool, but perhaps we need something else to make sure the gains of this nation are shared equitably among the population.