Champions

Champions

We congratulate our group of six boxers for demonstrating once again that our country is a force to be reckoned with in the lower weight classes of international boxing by winning the Boxing World Cup.

Together with the string of victories that Manny Pacquiao has been enjoying, the triumph of the Filipino boxers can be expected to trigger greater interest in boxing both as a professional and an amateur sport. Many impoverished youths will see boxing as a ticket out of the mire of poverty.

But the development of boxing should not be made at the expense of other sports in which Filipinos could excel. Baseball was one sport in which Filipinos excelled before World War II. But after Liberation, because of the heavy American influence, basketball became the most popular sport among the masses. Filipinos seem to forget that because they are a race of short people, they cannot excel at basketball, in which Caucasian giants enjoy a natural advantage. In the recent Fiba Asia Championships, for instance, not even the addition of tall Filipino-Americans to the Philippine team could win it a slot in the finals.

Soccer, the truly international sport, is another game at which Filipinos, with their speed, natural agility and balletic grace, can excel. But it is played mostly only in the provinces and as a spectator sport it draws big crowds to movie houses and sports restaurants only during the biennial World Cup. Perhaps big corporations can help popularize soccer, and revive interest in baseball by sponsoring teams.

Boxing, often called “the manly art of self-defense,” will always be seen as the poor man’s ticket to riches. Because of its violent nature (many boxers have died as a result of ring injuries) and its identification with gambling, boxing has had a controversial history. There have been periodic calls for outlawing the sport, but especially in a poor country like the Philippines, such calls cannot succeed. Meanwhile, the best that can be done would be to ensure that boxers are given enough protection in the ring and that those who are retired are assured of some means of livelihood. Many boxers have been a source of national pride but some of them have been reduced to pathetic figures by penury. They should be accorded recognition not only when they bring honor to the country, but also given support in their twilight years.

Extreme weather

The world appears to be in for a long period of extreme weather, if recent reports are to be our gauge. More than 25 million people have been affected across South Asia by massive flooding. Since the start of the monsoon in June, at least 1,120 people have been killed and 18 million affected in India. In Bangladesh, abut 250 have been killed and around 8 million stranded or displaced.

Heavy rains have doused southern China, and landslides have killed 120 people and floods have displaced 14 million people. England and Wales had their wettest May and June since 1776 and suffered $6 billion in damage from extensive flooding. Germany suffered its driest April and its wettest May since 1901. All over the world—Mozambique, Uruguay, the reports are the same: extreme weather events have been taking place.

In the Philippines we are witness to the same phenomenon of weather being turned upside down, of having a wet dry season and a dry rainy season. At one point, the situation became so alarming that the Catholic Church called for what could be the modern-day equivalent of the tribal “rain dance”: the Oratio Imperata ad Petendam Pluvium (an obligatory prayer pleading for rain). And then a storm or two brushed the northern tip of the country, bringing much needed rains that raised the water levels in dams that supply much of the water for Luzon.

While most scientists believe extreme weather events will be more frequent as heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions cause world temperatures to rise, the World Meteorological Organization says it is impossible to say with certainty what the second half of 2007 will bring. But it is best to be prepared for extreme weather occurrences. We cannot let our guard down; for instance, we still have to conserve water and prepare for the possibility that the rivers and lakes will dry up. And as a long-term measure, carry out in earnest, among other things, a project to plant 20 million trees that will help retain water and at the same time produce more life-giving oxygen.

Amnesia, not amnesty

Amnesia, not amnesty

It had the familiar sweeping quality of Speaker Jose de Venecia’s pronouncements: an “all-encompassing” amnesty for, as one news report put it, “all enemies of the state,” filed “soon,” in order to “unify the nation.” No halfway measures for this five-term leader of the House of Representatives; it’s all or nothing.

But in this case, it’s nothing. The proposed amnesty is so ambitious it is bound to fail. It includes all insurgents, as well as (possibly, De Venecia hinted) deposed President Joseph Estrada. The reaction from Sen. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, the ex-president’s co-accused son who is now, in one of history’s ironies, Senate president pro tempore, is one index of the difficulty the bill will face. His father is not an enemy of the state, he said.

To be sure, De Venecia is conscious about the limits of the proposed amnesty. “This is a wide-ranging, all-encompassing amnesty to cover all insurgents and all those who have committed political crimes against the state,” he said over the weekend. The protective mantle, in other words, reaches only those charged with or convicted of political crimes.

But De Venecia has more, much more, in mind. “This will create the beginnings of real national unity. The next president will have [fewer] tasks [on] his or her hands and at the same time it will complete a legacy for all of us.” All this legacy-speak makes sense, however, only if Estrada is included in the amnesty’s scope.

The plunder charge Estrada is facing cannot be considered a political crime (although we will, yet again, hear the case described as politically motivated, regardless of the finding, when the Sandiganbayan issues its decision in the next several weeks). But the status of Estrada’s alleged crime does not faze the ever-practical De Venecia. The former president can be included in the amnesty, he said. “Let it come normally. Let it be a consensus of all.”

It is less difficult to include Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who is facing coup charges before a regional trial court.

Far be it from us to argue against a policy proposal merely because it is difficult to implement or because it is certain to meet determined resistance.

De Venecia, in fact, argues from the relative successes of recent history. He pointed, for instance, to the example of Sen. Gregorio Honasan, one of a legion of coup plotters who were granted amnesty in 1995. Honasan himself the other day acknowledged the advantage of “six years of uninterrupted political stability” -- referring to the term of President Fidel V. Ramos, the ex-general who promoted amnesty as a policy and forged the peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front.

But that was then, and today’s circumstances are radically different.

In the first place, the 1995 amnesty was supposed to prevent future military adventurism. But the 2003 Oakwood mutiny, which the government initially alleged was masterminded by Honasan himself, shows us that success on the amnesty front has been relative indeed.

Secondly, unlike in the early 1990s, the Armed Forces of the Philippines is in the middle of a major offensive against Abu Sayyaf terrorists, in Sulu and Basilan -- an offensive that necessitates taking action against “lost commands” or rogue units of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro National Liberation Front. Any appeal for amnesty at this time is not only in poor taste; it is demoralizing for government troops who are in the thick of the fight.

Not least, those who availed themselves of the amnesty in 1995 showed remorse for their actions, or at least acknowledged their wrongdoing. Even if, by some legal or legislative sleight of hand, plunder is redefined as a political crime, we still have to hear Estrada acknowledge that he did wrong.

If it becomes “the consensus of all” to include Estrada in the general amnesty, then this proposed policy is nothing more -- and nothing less -- than a prescription for amnesia.

In other words, De Venecia’s “wide-ranging” formula as it stands is the legislative equivalent of saying, “Let’s forget everything.” That way lies continued political immaturity.

The Malaysians are coming!

The Malaysians are coming!

WE must state immediately that we are not mounting a hate campaign against Malaysia which is our brother in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. As a matter of fact, we should be grateful about their help in the ongoing peace talks in Mindanao, not to mention our cordial ties despite Sabah.

But we should be wary about a few Malaysian investors in the Philippines who may not be as good as the rest of their countrymen on the matter of corporate governance. We are referring to some Malaysians imbedded in the board of the Philippine Racing Club, Inc., (PRCI) which owns and manages the famous racing club bordering the cities of Makati and Manila.

These Malaysians were OK until they thought of setting up a firm, supposedly owned by the PRCI, with a plan to attach the 21-hectare racing club on the basis of sheer majority vote. Ordinarily, that would have been all right, except for one glaring fact seen by the lawyer of the minority and Makati Regional Trial Court: The capitalization of the new firm was only 25 million pesos, compared to the price of the land which now valued in their billions.

The argument of the majority members of the board was that they could do anything—and their act would be pro­per—because they were the majority. What kind of argument is that? It was just good that a lawyer of the minority, Mr. Brigido Dulay, asked for a temporary restraining order to allow for further discussions on the matter.

It is good that the case has been elevated to the Court of Appeals which will look into the jurisprudence of the case. But I think that on the matter of propriety, we ask the question why cannot the old board handle the development of the racing club if that was the original purpose of creating a new company to modernize the racing club.

We cannot blame the minority for suspecting that this move to create a new firm is a subterfuge by the majority to completely dominate the development of the racing club.

Gusto lang mawala ang minority. Already, there are reports going around the business community that the racing club is another example of a project by an unethical group of Asean businessmen to make profit at the expense of the minority.

We hope that is not true, otherwise the public would suspect that some Malaysians are abusing our hospitality which started at the time we dropped our historical claim to Sabah.

DAR employees against transfer

The employees of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) are against the transfer of its central office to Min­danao. Speaking at the Ka­pihan sa SulÙ last Saturday, Antonio Pascual said that the transfer would cause untold suffering to the employees.

They have asked the President to reconsider her decision to transfer, made during the last sona speech. It seems that the President wants to focus on Mindanao as far as land distribution and providing of inputs was concerned.

But the employees said that such focus could still happen even without transferring the central office. Pascual said that most of the agencies involved in land transfer and support for land beneficiaries are all based in Manila. DAREA intends to go to the Senate and the House for support.

Gordon against two-party system

If Senate President Manny Villar and Sen. Mar Roxas want to revive the two-party system, possible presidential candidate Sen. Richad Gordon believes in creating a coalition of his own.

Sen. Richard Gordon was viable as a presidential candidate about 15 years ago. In a recent interview, he said: “I will try to mold a popular party coalition for national modernization and renewal from the many parties that have emerged over the past decade…”

Popular party coalition? Sounds like a third party!

Probe this bloodbath, Secretary Teodoro

Probe this bloodbath, Secretary Teodoro

BUSY as he is with the campaign on the new Abu Sayyaf depredations in the southern Philippines, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro should take time to ask his generals about the Black Saturday shootings in Parang, Sulu, that killed eight soldiers and a civilian four months ago.

To this day, neither the Armed Forces of the Philippines nor the Department of National Defense has released an official report on the killings that began at 2:30 a.m. in an Army camp housing Charlie Company of the Philippine Army’s 35th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Silangkan, Parang.

On April 8, the Army spokesman, Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres Jr., reported the mass killings as a “shooting incident,” a catchall phrase that could mean anything. He denied that one of the soldiers had gone on a shooting rampage.

A day later, the AFP chief of staff, Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., hinted that “animosities” among the troops may have triggered the shooting, but refused to go further. He said the investigation was in progress.

Since then, we have not heard from the general or his spokesman. The military has not released a single report on the investigation. The public remains in the dark about the mass killings.

The silence has raised speculations and theories about the mysterious deaths. One explanation said a troop had run amuck. Another theory posited that a civilian was refused enlistment and had vented his resentment on the soldiers. The NPA or MNLF could have attacked the camp, went another story. It was reported that a drinking binge preceded the bloodbath. An overnight guest, a woman, is said to have been present at that party.

The public does not even know who headed the investigation. Was there a cover-up? Was there an effort to pass off command responsibility? What’s the big reason for the secrecy?

We have not been told the identities of the fatalities. They remain nameless to this time. We hope the families, at least, were notified. We hope the bodies were given proper burial.

Truth must be told, the guilty punished, and the innocent cleared. We owe the victims and their families justice. Responsibility for the massacre must be located and the episode closed to the satisfaction of everyone. Military honor and tradition will remain tarnished if the Black Saturday Massacre is not fully explained. Clearing the air should be part of Secretary Teodoro’s priorities.

Action, finally, in Darfur

AFTER four years of procrastination, after more than 2.1 million people have been driven into camps, after an estimated 200,000 died from the combined effects of war and famine, and after hundreds of women were raped, the United Nations has started moving to protect civilians and prevent further deaths and destruction in Sudan’s vast, arid western region.

On Tuesday the UN Security Council authorized up to 26,000 soldiers and police officers for Darfur. The mission will take over peacekeeping from 7,000 ill-equipped African Union troops.

The resolution, unanimously adopted, authorizes a UN-AU operation to protect civilians under siege and to ensure the free movement of humanitarian workers. While the resolution acknowledges Sudan’s sovereignty, it allows the use of force for self-defense.

The resolution supports the implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement signed by Khartoum with the main Darfur rebel groups more than a year ago. Two of the other negotiating rebel factions refused to endorse the deal.

It urges Sudan and rebel groups to commit themselves to a permanent ceasefire and to join peace talks under AU-UN auspices.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon described the resolution as “historic and unprecedented” and said the mission would make a “clear and positive difference.” Ban has made Darfur a priority since taking over as UN chief last January.

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad urged President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to extend “maximum cooperation” but warned that if Sudan does not comply, Washington “will move for the swift adoption of unilateral and multilateral measures.”

If fully deployed, the mission will be the biggest peacekeeping operation in the world. The troop strength will depend on the willingness of UN members to contribute troops, police and materials.

The Philippines should make a contribution to the humanitarian mission and contribute troops to the peacekeeping army.

Peace in Darfur, Sudan and the African continent is in the interest of the Filipinos. Providing troops, supporting pro-Darfur resolutions at the UN and helping end repression anywhere will help advance our democratic ideals and promote world peace and prosperity.

Uncontrolled development

Uncontrolled development

Owners of business establishments in Boracay have welcomed a moratorium on new construction on the world-renowned island resort. Now foreign investors are said to be setting their sights on an island in Romblon for tourism development similar to Boracay. Elsewhere in the Philippines, new tourist destinations are also being developed.

The story of Boracay should provide valuable lessons in uncontrolled development. The island resort grew into a top tourist draw with no planning and little regulation, and it shows. With Boracay’s forest cover depleted and resorts, restaurants and nightspots jumbled together cheek by jowl on the island, authorities are scrambling to stop overdevelopment, which is straining the island’s resources and posing a threat to the environment.

It’s not just Boracay that can use some regulation. Even the highlands overlooking Taal volcano are becoming overdeveloped, depleting the vegetable and flower farms that have long been part of the area’s charm. Authorities must bear these lessons in mind as new tourist destinations are developed. Among the emerging tourist spots are the areas around the Albay Gulf where visitors can watch whale sharks and dolphins, and surfing areas in the coastal regions of La Union and Ilocos.

The irony is that amid overdevelopment, top tourist destinations lack facilities and skilled workers to provide quality services to visitors. Both the national and local governments are unable to provide the most basic of visitors’ needs: public toilet facilities that are spacious, clean and with piped water and toilet paper. Many of the nation’s tour guides can also use better training.

Older tourist destinations, meanwhile, are being neglected. The rice terraces of Banaue continue to deteriorate. For several decades there has been little improvement in access to the site either by land or by air. The country’s tourism infrastructure is inadequate not just in the Cordilleras but also in many other areas, except in destinations such as Boracay where the private sector has taken the lead in development. The danger in this case, as we have seen, is overdevelopment.

What is happening to the Armed Forces?

What is happening to the Armed Forces?

uring the last years of the Martial Law period, former Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez was ambushed by unknown gunmen on a dark evening in Quezon City. As he was being rushed to the hospital, Quezon City police chief Brig. Gen. Tomas Karingal attended to him. As Pelaez lay in a hospital bed, seriously wounded, he whispered to Karingal, “General, what is happening to our country?”
Today, many of our countrymen, among them retired military officers, are asking Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon: “General, what is happening to the AFP?”
* * *

It has been a terrible month for our Armed Forces. Never in its history have so many soldiers lost their lives in so short a period of time against an enemy with whom we are supposed to be holding “peace talks” under “ceasefire conditions.” The most shameful aspect of these incidents is that our soldiers were ambushed—bushwhacked is another term used in similar situations. One would think that after the Basilan massacre, our fighting units would be more alert and combat-savvy.

How did we get to this sad and sordid state of affairs in the Armed Forces?

Let me advance a few thoughts that may help us see beyond the mistakes and shortcomings of small unit commanders who unfortunately bear the brunt of the disastrous incompetence and negligence of their military superiors.

First, we have a highly politicized Armed Forces.

The AFP is not the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It is the Armed Forces of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (AFGMA). Every officer who makes it to star rank and who aspires for high position in the military organization must, first and foremost, indicate a sense of personal loyalty to her over and above loyalty to country and people. As Sunday’s Inquirer editorial put it: “The AFP is her praetorian guard and like the imperial bodyguards of ancient Rome, what matters most is personal loyalty to her more than efficiency, honesty or even honor. And like the Neros and Caligulas of the past, she has maintained that loyalty by studiously ignoring all criticism, by being lukewarm to genuine reform; instead, she lavishes her generals with praise, showers them with promotions within the service, and heaps them with civilian appointments upon retirement.”

During the Marcos era, we had the controversial indefinite tenure of general officers. Today, we still have the revolving door policy which has seen the appointment of eight AFP chiefs of staff in the six years of the Arroyo administration. She failed—for some reason not known to the public—to sign into law a bill passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives in November last year, providing for a fixed term of office for the AFP chief of staff. That bill also provided for a two-year term for the major service commanders—Army, Air Force and Navy. It was one of the reforms advocated by former Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz. Unfortunately, he left just as his innovations were moving into high gear.

After Cruz left, we had President Arroyo serving as defense secretary. She was followed briefly by ex-Philippine National Police chief Hermogenes Ebdane who was moved from the Department of Public Works and Highways to Defense. Norberto Gonzales, of “Venable” fame, took over for a few weeks and now Gilbert Teodoro, a bright young technocrat, has just been installed in the Defense Department.

The rigodon in this critical Cabinet office reminds me of a most embarrassing episode at Southern Command two years ago. At that time, Maj. Gen. Samuel Bagasin was supposed to take over as Southcom chief. At the very last minute, Lt. Gen. Edilberto Adan, the AFP deputy chief of staff, who was retiring from the service in four months, was named officer in charge (OIC) of the most important unified command of the AFP. Adan was later replaced by Maj. Gen. Gabriel Habacon, who had less than a year before retirement.

Were all these frequent changes necessary for the good of the organization or in the best interests of the nation? Or were they more to advance the personal agenda of the commander in chief?

When military personnel are raised in an environment that provides a premium for kowtowing to politicians, when officers are being moved around in a game of “musical chairs” which takes into account mainly the interests of politicians, the armed services are bound to suffer from a decline in their level of professionalism. This translates to a less effective fighting force and is reflected in the casualties suffered on the field of battle.

Second, Esperon was appointed chief of staff in July 2006. Even without the investigation report on the “Hello Garci” scandal in which he and three other generals were implicated, he was designated Army commander. When the Mayuga Report on the “Hello Garci” controversy was completed, its summary—not the whole report—was released under the most unusual circumstances. No copies of the summary were made available to the media and today it remains one of the most closely guarded documents in AFP history.

When Esperon was appointed chief of staff, the Inquirer editorial noted: “It [Esperon’s appointment] will not enhance the prestige of the Armed Forces, nor inspire confidence in the senior officer corps.”

A few weeks after his installation as AFP chief of staff, NPA rebels in Valencia City, Bukidnon carted away some 40 high-powered firearms from a military camp without much resistance from security forces in the area. At that time, Esperon dismissed the event as a “minor incident.” A former Army commanding general expressed astonishment over Esperon’s cavalier treatment of the matter. The Army commander viewed it as a dereliction of duty on the part of the unit commanders and called for court martial proceedings.

Nothing happened. With his remarks, Esperon sent out the wrong signal to the officers and men in the field. Now we are reaping the bitter fruits of complacency and negligent leadership.

Third, when President Arroyo ordered the Army commander, Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino, to move his headquarters to Zamboanga City and closely supervise operations there, she was administering a slap to both Esperon and Tolentino.

Esperon’s resignation should now be on the President’s table. If he resigns, he would be remembered as a man of honor and decency, an officer worthy of emulation by the officer corps and by the graduates of the Philippine Military Academy in particular. It is the chance of a lifetime to show that a sense of delicadeza is still very much alive in his person.

Dying in Sulu

Dying in Sulu

What, exactly, is happening in Sulu? The high death toll reported last week has caused many to sound the alarm, not only in Camp Aguinaldo but even in the halls of Congress.

It has since become clear that the Armed Forces sustained the losses not in a single firefight, but in two encounters. The grief the public feels remains sharp, but it becomes a bit more bearable when the fog of war lifts a little.

The brutal fact remains, however: Too many soldiers lost their lives last week in the battlefields of Sulu. What did they die for?

They died in pursuit of the remnant Abu Sayyaf, and especially of two Jemaah Islamiyah leaders: Dulmatin and Umar Patek. That they were killed, in all likelihood, by members of the Moro National Liberation Front, an organization the government signed a peace accord with a decade ago, makes their sacrifice all the more heartbreaking.

Or all the more pointless—if, that is, we credit those who have never believed a lasting peace with Moro separatist groups was possible. For them, every armed encounter, every ambush, is fresh proof that Muslims cannot be trusted.

For those of us who believe in the possibility of lasting peace in the South, however, every armed encounter, every ambush, is proof positive that the peace process is as necessary as ever.

Certainly, the government’s iron fist must come down hard on those who coddle the JI terrorists and the Abu Sayyaf bandits. But the government must do so without losing sight of the true national interest: not merely to pursue the terrorists or to punish those who offer them sanctuary, but to establish the basis of a lasting peace. As President Macapagal-Arroyo said in the first of three statements she released over the weekend: “The military offensive against the Abu Sayyaf must continue, not as an act of vengeance but as a strategy to win the peace.”

Much about the offensive in Sulu remains confusing, and confused. But this much we can say.

THE KILL RATIO. The other day, Rep. Roilo Golez asked plaintively why the kill ratio, as it were, was almost 1:1. Perhaps a congressional investigation was in order? As a graduate of the US Naval Academy, however, Golez should have known better. This is guerrilla warfare. Rebels are not obliged to tell the media how many casualties they sustained; in fact, they remove bodies from the battlefield as soon as they can, because they can.

After two encounters last Thursday, for example, it was reported that only five Moro rebels had died. That is to say, only five bodies of men identified as belonging to the MNLF were found. But Jolo brigade commander Anthony Supnet said he had found out from residents in the area that about 40 rebels were actually killed. In contrast, Supnet said, “We cannot hide our casualties.”

THE ROGUE MNLF. All the President’s statements notwithstanding, the offensive against the Abu Sayyaf at this stage involves—or rather consists mainly of—attacks on MNLF redoubts in Sulu suspected of harboring the bandits and the JI leaders. Because “blood ties are very strong in Sulu,” as one peace advocate and long-time Sulu researcher told this newspaper, the AFP is actually engaged in combat with armed men who do not think of themselves in the same way the AFP, and the public at large, thinks of them. Said Victor Taylor: “What needs to be stressed is that from the perspective of the fighters, the organizational labels that the government uses, such as ‘rogue MNLF-Abu Sayyaf,’ have no meaning. It’s the common enemy that binds them together.”

That common enemy, unfortunately, is the AFP.

THE SPIRAL OF WAR. Is this reality “on the ground,” as both military commanders and armchair warmongers are fond of saying, evidence that peace with our Muslim brethren is only an illusion? No. Peace with the majority of our Muslim citizens is a triumphant fact; peace with one major Moro separatist movement a true feat; peace with the other separatist group still, despite recent encounters, closer at hand.

Over and above the snarling image of remnant MNLF units who retained their arms, we must acknowledge the reality of thousands of former MNLF rebels successfully integrated into the AFP or fully rehabilitated into mainstream life. In fact, some of those killed or wounded or involved in last week’s offensive were ex-MNLF “integrees.” We don’t doubt their sense of duty, their patriotism.

‘Killing Fields’

‘Killing Fields’

VISITING the Killing Fields museum in Cambodia, one is both appalled and mesmerized by the almost two million skulls and skeletons of ordinary Khmers or Cambodians, aged at least 14 years at the time of their murders, sickeningly piled on top of one another. In response to the massive genocide committed by communist forces led by French-educated Saloth Sar, also known as Pol Pot, the United Nations established a national prison center to house the top leadership of Khmer Rouge while awaiting prosecution to be apparently initiated through an international criminal tribunal. Unfortunately, after more than 30 years after the start of the national massacre on a scale that former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan says is still almost impossible to comprehend, the trial of these ruthless Khmer Rouge leaders has not even commenced. Only a single communist leader has been apprehended for the genocide.

Cambodia has already marked its 30th anniversary of the dubious liberation of Phnom Penh by the Khmer Rouge, which then embarked in a national experiment of utopian social engineering supposedly to create a singular and unified proletarian class. The socio-political experimentation, however, left more than a fifth of its population dead and the rest of the nation mourning the decaying corpses and broken bones of their relatives that continues to haunt them today.

But Pol Pot and many of his chief lieutenants have already died while many of those responsible for the genocide are aging. Kang Kek Leu, also known as Kaing Guek Eav, is the Khmer Rouge chief executioner Duch, and director of the Tuol Sleng torture prison. He was the first to be even arrested eight years ago; there have been no arrests ever since. He just recently became the lone inhabitant of the national prisons created by the UN International Criminal Tribunal. It is anticipated that other top regime leaders will soon be arrested, which may include Khmer Rouge Head of State Khieu Samphan, Deputy Chairman Nuon Chea, and Foreign Minister Ieng Sary. Although these murderers have denied their leadership roles to the butchery claiming unawareness of the killing fields occurring in distant zones under the command of more junior communist cadres, Kang Kek Leu is the link, the middle person, or the joint nexus anticipated to “explain the decision making for the killings and the chain of command and responsibility” from Pol Pot to the top leaders down to the senior officers then to the junior cadres.

The international community seeks a closure to the evils of the national massacre but this can only be attained by sending the message that crimes against humanity, of such massive degree, committed with impunity, shall never be tolerated and those responsible for such universal atrocities and gore must be punished. Many Cambodians may have no direct recollection of Pol Pot or the massacres in their country and may even wonder if the money is better spent on irrigation or drinking water rather than for the initiative of a protracted, tedious trial that may raise renewed violence and bloodshed throughout their volatile nation. But many do clamor for justice.

Unfortunately, however, the great vanishing tribunal to end the impunity of the worst genocidal criminals of Asia is now a global embarrassment, with America contributing nothing to the effort to hold those genocidal terrorists accountable. While America aspires to pursue the globalization of democracy, the world’s tyrants and genocidal terrorists are escaping their deserved punishment because America has not even contributed a single cent to the effort to prosecute and to bring to trial these mass murderers that have committed the worst crime since Adolf Hitler. If America refuses to act, will the Association of Southeast Asian Nations take the cudgels for the ordinary Asian? Or is respect for human rights and dignity of its individual citizens just a myth that may never see fruition, especially in the lands of tyrants?

Singapore girl, a

Singapore girl, a

If you have access to the Internet you have probably received an e-mail that contains pictures of what are claimed to be the flight attendants’ quarters of various airlines.

The e-mail starts with the plush accommodations—complete with airbeds—that several foreign airlines supposedly reserve for their cabin crews. It ends with the picture of an Asian-looking flight attendant dozing off on a crappy jump seat; the picture is captioned “Philippine Airline” (sic).

It is one of those e-mails that a disturbing number of Filipinos seem to enjoy circulating as they engage in their favorite pastime—putting their own country down.

Indications are, however, that the e-mail is nothing but a hoax. For one thing, the “Philippine Airline” stewardess looks more like a malnourished stewardess of one of China’s regional airlines—a number of which are truly crappy, going by their horrible safety records—than a PAL flight attendant.

But even if the e-mail were authentic, it does not tell the whole story.

If foreign airlines are indeed able to make available deluxe accommodations to their flight crews, it is only because their bottom line regularly gets a big boost in the form of hefty subsidies from their own governments.

In contrast, our flag carrier and our other carriers get no such support from the Philippine government.

In our part of the world, many airlines are either partly or wholly owned by the state. For some Asian countries, keeping their airlines at par with the world’s best is a matter of national pride—and they don’t mind spending billions of taxpayer dollars just to be able to do so.

For instance, the charming Singapore Girl who promises to satisfy the fantasies of air travelers is actually a civil servant because Singapore Airlines is owned entirely by the city-state’s government.

Other Asian airlines such as Thai Airways International, Malaysian Airlines, Korean Air and Asiana regularly get infusions of state funds. Practically all of the countries in the Middle East also subsidize their airlines.

In other parts of the world—from North America to Europe to Australasia—governments continue to support their flag carriers notwithstanding admonitions from their own officials and economists that governments have—to borrow the free-traders’ mantra—no business going into business.

State subsidies to airlines are bad because they give unfair competition to those of countries like the Philippines that do not give financial support to their carriers.

What is worse in our case is that the government is giving undeserved advantage—in the guise of an “open skies” policy—to foreign airlines that are heavily subsidized by their own governments.

Despite the lack of government support, our carriers have managed to keep their heads above water. But the question is, for how much longer?

Philippine Airlines, for instance, was able to post profits without subsidies from the government. It registered record net earnings of $140.3 million for fiscal 2006-07—PAL’s third profitable year in a row.

The milestone has emboldened the private flag carrier—the only one of its kind in Southeast Asia—to apply for an exit from receivership from the Securities and Exchange Commission by the end of the year.

PAL, therefore, had good reason to take the moral high ground as it joined the global call for the abolition of all forms of government subsidies to flag carriers—especially those in Southeast Asia and the Middle East—as a precondition to the liberalization of the aviation industry.

PAL executives, led by vice-president for marketing support Felix Cruz, said at a recent press forum that subsidies and all other forms of state support “can seriously distort competition.”

They added that PAL is ready to compete but underscored the need for “equal opportunity” for the “open skies” regime, which certain government officials have long been pressing for.

PAL joins other airlines, such as Australia’s flag carrier Qantas, which has called for a ban on unfair subsidies enjoyed by Emirates, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines and other carriers.

The enemy with a blurred face

The enemy with a blurred face

Suddenly, the military has found itself fighting Muslim militants on two fronts. In Basilan, a Marine-led offensive is under way to hunt down the killers of 14 soldiers, some of whom were decapitated and mutilated. The suspects belong to a combined force of Abu Sayyaf and Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters who had engaged soldiers “trespassing” in MILF territory.

In Jolo, government troops are ranged against Abu Sayyaf and Moro National Liberation Front guerrillas who killed 26 soldiers in two ambuscades last week.

The new surge in fighting puts in sharp perspective the minefield the government must negotiate in its quest for peace in Mindanao. It had signed a peace covenant with the MNLF and was putting the finishing touches to a separate pact with the MILF. Now its ties with the two separatist groups are being strained to the limit.

Those ties were never strong in the first place. The treaty with the MNLF has been shot through with violations by both sides. The truce with the MILF has been broken so many times, despite the presence of foreign observers.

If we look at the problem hard enough, we will realize that it is not politics or religious fervor that has fueled the conflict in Basilan and Jolo. Simply put, it is the company the MILF and the MNLF keeps. The two groups have been cozy with the Abu Sayyaf for the longest time. In Basilan, the MILF considers the Abu Sayyaf family, in the literal and figurative sense. Their members are interrelated either by blood or marriage, or live in the same communities. This closeness forges a strong alliance; the MILF’s enemy is the Abu Sayyaf’s enemy. In Basilan the common enemy is the military.

Relations also run deep in Jolo between the MNLF and the Abu Sayyaf, which is why the army has not been able to finish off the terrorists who have made the island their sanctuary. The offensive in Sulu was mounted long before hostilities in Basilan broke out last month. But the fugitives, who include two foreigners wanted for the 2002 Bali bombings, remain elusive, and the Armed Forces has been accusing the MNLF of harboring them.

The military had been treading cautiously in Basilan, allowing a fact-finding team to come in and determine the individuals involved in the atrocities before unleashing 5,000 troops to seek out and arrest the culprits. The team reported that Abu Sayyaf members beheaded at least six of the soldiers, but could not say who mutilated the other four.

In Sulu, the ambushes, which the military acknowledges as one of the heaviest casualties it has suffered in the war against Muslim militants, has drawn swift reaction.

The President ordered the Army chief to Sulu to personally take charge of operations there. Mrs. Arroyo has clearly identified the enemy as the Abu Sayyaf. “We cannot allow terrorists to hold the South hostage to their agenda of mayhem and blood sport,” she said.

Without mentioning the MNLF by name, the President added that she also seeks peace “with those with peaceful intentions.”

It could be the President’s way of warning the MNLF to stand down and let government forces deal with the real enemy, the Abu Sayyaf. We hope her message gets through.

The right to know

The right to know

In approving any project involving public funds, there are three considerations: the country must need the project, taxpayers must be able to afford it, and the deal must offer the best value for money.

Alongside these considerations, transparency is a key requirement. Whether the project is financed through a loan from a foreign government, in which case public bidding is not required, or was awarded through bidding, the public has a right to know details about the deal, especially the conditions attached to it. Foreign loans, no matter how seemingly easy the terms, are not always in the best interest of the recipient, and must be closely scrutinized because taxpayers’ money will be used for repayment.

These matters must be addressed as the government reviews the national broadband network deal with China’s ZTE Corp. Several months after the original document for the project, which was signed by Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza and Chinese authorities in the presence of President Arroyo, was lost in China, different government officials have different versions of what was signed. Was it a contract, signed during a campaign period in violation of election laws? Was it a mere financial agreement? The government says what was signed has been reconstituted, but the reconstituted version has yet to be made public.

The Department of Justice has so far upheld one aspect of the deal: there was no need for a public bidding, the DOJ said in a legal opinion, because the whopping $329 million for the project – double the price tag of a similar broadband service proffered by another interested party – is supposed to be provided by Beijing in the form of a soft loan. Amid criticism that the nation does not need the broadband service, the Department of Finance is said to be reviewing the deal. The case has been brought to the Supreme Court and Congress is poised to conduct an investigation.

Such troubles could have been avoided if the government had been transparent about its plans. Whether it’s an interconnected broadband service for all government offices, a cyber education project, poll automation, an airport terminal or rice importation, the nation has a right to know if public funds are being spent judiciously. If the considerations enumerated above cannot be met, the deal is rotten and must be discarded.

Testing the mettle of ‘presidentiables’

Testing the mettle of ‘presidentiables’

The "trapos" and their apologists are back to peddling counterfeit goods with their call to ignore the jockeying for a place in the starting line in the 2010 race. The country has yet to recover from the stresses of the May elections. The country faces formidable challenges. The nation – and the political institutions – should, therefore, take a much-needed vacation from politics and buckle down to work, they said.

What they actually mean is for the people to let their guard down and leave politics to the exclusive province of the politicians.

In this distorted view of politics, people’s participation is limited to going to the polling places every three years, no matter if the choice is limited to Tweedledum and Tweedledee foisted on the voters by the same power blocks hiding under the guise of political parties. In the meantime, the pols should be allowed to decide the people’s fate I in the proverbial smoke-filled rooms.

Take the current battle for the leadership of the Senate. Manuel Villar was elected Senate president on the strength of a mongrel coalition of nine administration, three opposition and two independent senators. This early, plots are brewing for a coup within the nine-man administration bloc in the majority and the eight-man opposition which forms the minority.

The instability has been attributed to the presidential ambition of some senators. That may explain why this or that senator personally wants Villar out. But it glosses over the real political divisions within the chamber. The people have decisively voted for a Senate that would serve to check the administration’s unbridled greed for power and pelf. They see their hopes dashed in the emergence of a majority built around the core of pro-Arroyo senators.

If some senators are exploiting this uneasiness over the majority coalition to advance their presidential ambition, we see this as a beneficial narrowing of the focus of political discourse. The issue is Gloria Arroyo. The elections of 2010 will determine whether the nation can decisxively cast off her legacy of lying, cheating and thieving.

This early, those who have presidential ambitions should come out clearly on where they stand on this fundamental issue. There is no room for opportunists waiting to see which way the wind blows.

So let’s test the mettle of these "presidentiables" starting here and now. Let’s hear from Villar, Mar Roxas, Loren Legarda, Ping Lacson, Dick Gordon and Noli de Castro (have we left out anybody?) on what they can offer the nation. They have three years to tell us.

If they say they are too busy doing their job to talk about 2010, they’re no different from Gloria.

We have had enough of Gloria who keeps spouting the nonsense that she’s too busy growing the economy she cannot be distracted by the pesky "political" questions of why people are going hungry, unsafe in their homes and in the streets and fearfully uncertain of their future.

Marching orders

Marching orders

Swearing in her new defense secretary, President Arroyo’s marching orders, according to reports, was for Gilbert Teodoro to pursue military reforms. The success of that effort can only be as good as the commitment to defense reforms of the President herself. Her record in this department is spotty at best.

Teodoro is the President’s fifth defense chief in six years, and the seventh if two men who served as acting defense secretaries are counted. Orlando Mercado, a holdover from the Estrada administration, resigned after President Arroyo picked a retired Armed Forces chief implicated in corruption scandals as her national secretary adviser. Angelo Reyes, whose latest government recycling is as secretary of energy, was replaced shortly after junior officers staged the Oakwood mutiny in July 2003 to denounce corruption and other anomalies in the military.

The Philippine Defense Reform program took off in 2004 when Avelino Cruz assumed the helm of the defense department. Probably because he was at the time the most trusted legal adviser of the President, Cruz managed to last two years, reducing opportunities for graft in the military, initiating measures to insulate the Armed Forces from politics, and paving the way for the indictment of military generals for large-scale corruption. That sort of good work is not appreciated in this administration; Cruz eventually quit over policy differences with the President.

He was replaced with former national police chief Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., who openly lobbied for the job. The President dismissed recommendations from two fact-finding commissions that drew up military reforms to stop appointing retired Armed Forces and police generals to the post of defense chief. Ebdane, who was linked to the disappearance of former election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano at the height of the “Hello, Garci” scandal, presided over the defense department during the election period before being shuffled back to the Department of Public Works and Highways.

Now Teodoro, a former congressman, has taken over the defense portfolio. His youth, education and civilian background have raised hopes that he can continue the reforms initiated by Cruz. As the case of Cruz showed, however, the success of those reforms depends a great deal on the commander-in-chief. For reforms to succeed and take root, they must have the support of the political leadership.

How DOST uses your money

How DOST uses your money

Listening to an undersecretary of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) at the meeting of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) last month, I recalled Dwight MacDonald’s description of Ford Foundation: “an island of money surrounded by open palms.”

It seems that DOST does nothing but give away money. On the face of it, the recipients are deserving: science high schools, teachers, graduate students, inventors, entrepreneurs, a gaggle of universities, national research councils.

What the undersecretary did not explain was why they deserved to be helped. There was no strategic reason except the scattershot goal of promoting science and technology.

A couple of examples DOST gives graduate students money to complete their theses or dissertations. Why? Is it to increase the supply of MAs or PhDs? Or are the subjects of their research useful to the country? Of course it can be argued that in science, knowledge for its own sake is valuable. Agreed, But tax money needs to be justified by a clearly stated policy to be spent.

Sending large groups of teachers back to college to hone their skills in science teaching is a worthy cause. But after their training, are they assigned to science classes?

My information is anecdotal but when I was with the Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM) I interviewed a teacher in Albay whose training was paid for by the National Science Development Board (NSBD)—the precursor agency of the DOST—who confessed that she was teaching not science but social studies. But it’s all to the good because she also said that since she returned to classroom teaching she had not updated her knowledge of basic science.

Perhaps DOST should investigate how the teachers they trained are being used and to organize regular updating courses for them. Even 2 years are too long in subjects like physics, chemistry and biology for someone to b left behind.

While I’m on the subject of teachers and teaching, has DOST examined the science and math textbooks that are being used in public schools? Are they as ridden with errors as the textbooks in literature and social studies?

I think it’s DOST’s duty to examine them to see if they need to be corrected. I did not hear the undersecretary talk about DOST’s role in textbook review or, better still, in textbook writing.

Next year, the DOST’s bud­get will go up by 51 percent, from the present P3.64 billion to P5.52 billion.

How will DOST spend it? According to Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya, it will be for the same things that the undersecretary talked about in the NAST meeting. Scholarships will get P1.42 billion. The budget of the Philippine Science High School will increase from P434 million to P730 million. Three technology projects will be given P501 million. In addition, the University of the Philippines will get P1.29 billion for engineering research and its Technology Incubation Park will receive P500 million.

These are all in science education and technology development. Where’s science? Is there no money for physics, chemistry and biology? If there is, in what research areas will money be spent?

During the NAST meeting, I heard the undersecretary talk about research into material research. Are they in nano­tech­nology or in ferroelec­trics? These are the fields in which new material technologies are being developed.

The DOST has shown no interest at all in mathematics. There is a national research council but none for mathematics. Why? Isn’t math foun­dational?

One reason Philippine universities rank poorly in international comparisons is their inability to break into refereed journals. Perhaps instead of uncritically accepting just any thesis or dissertation for funding, the DOST should help scientists develop papers that are good enough for peer-reviewed journals in the US and Europe.

I suggest that next year, a small part of the P5.52 billion be set aside for (1) objective assessments of the science education program; (2) investments in basic research; (3) assistance to individual scientists in biology, chemistry, physics; (4) greater attention on mathematics; and (5) promoting new technologies that are still not commercially viable.

DOST must think strategically and assert its leadership by setting the nation’s agenda in science and technology.

Bayani’s bolo brigade

Bayani’s bolo brigade

"The MMDA wants to pursue its plan to arm its traffic enforcers with bolos to protect themselves because Malacanang does not object to it, the agency said yesterday”—Manila Standard Today, Aug. 11, 2007

MAKATI City, August 30, 2007. Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Bayani Fernando launched yesterday the new MMDA traffic enforcement system in colorful ceremonies at the MMDA headquarters in Makati City.

Wearing a custom-made uniform with a shiny bolo on his waist, Fernando thanked President Arroyo for supporting his initiative and pledged to help the law and order campaign, including joining the war against the Abu Sayyaf.

Fernando waged a vigorous campaign to arm his traffic enforcers with jungle bolos, claiming that violent drivers, sidewalk vendors and squatters have hurt or threatened his employees. The police resisted the idea.

The chairman resisted suggestions that the MMDA use billy sticks and teargas. Spears and bow-and-arrow struck him as too medieval. For a while, according to sources, the agency considered using swords. But immediately thrown out was the proposal to use human excrement on unruly squatters and sidewalk vendors.

Fernando won the debate, ordered new uniforms for the enforcers, made them train in bolo fighting, read them the riot act and conducted a metro-wide PR campaign.

About 2,000 rayadillo-clad (the cloth used by the Katipunan revolutionists) traffic officers took part in the launch. They raised high their bolos when they rededicated themselves to their oath.

The MMDA originally wanted to import the kukri jungle bolo, the machete popular among the Gurkha warriors of Nepal who are serving the British army. Fernando was told Marikina-made steel is just as sharp.

About a hundred young good-looking enforcers were noticeably barefoot. They will be used for ceremonial functions and official state ceremonies, according to an MMDA source.

Fernando vowed the weapon was purely for self-protection and would be used only as a last resort. As part of their code of ethics, the enforcers will not take their bolo when visiting bars and cocktail lounges. The rules of engagement require that only rusty bolos may be used for demolitions that usually turn violent.

After the ceremonies, Fernando traveled with two groups that were deployed to Ayala Avenue and Roxas Boulevard. The enforcers demonstrated before assembled businessmen and diplomats their new system of enforcing traffic rules and the correct way to wear and use a bolo.

CNN Asia reported the unusual program, wondering what new perceptions of the Filipinos the world would get this time from Manila’s new experiment.

An unsung patriot

VERY few Filipinos have heard of Jose Kumilos but oral history among old-timers at the Home for The Aged in Pasay City remembers him as an unappreciated patriot who tried to do many great things for his country—and failed.

According to one story, when Emilio Aguinaldo wanted the United States to endorse the June 12 independence proclamation, he sent Kumilos to Washington, D.C., to lobby the White House and Congress. He failed because he traveled to Washington State instead of proceeding to the District of Columbia.

Some old-timers credit Kumilos for writing a set of advice for young Filipinos that uncannily recall popular counsel being circulated today. They recite the advice from memory that, according to those who could remember, was read them by their fathers and forefathers. The Kumilos Cartilla for Young Filipinos include:

Read the works of Rizal, Balagtas and other Tagalog writers for wisdom. Ignore the grammatical mistakes.

Pay your taxes even if the money goes to the Spanish government. This habit will help us because Tagalogs will rule the country one day.

If you have a servant, treat her well because that’s the human thing to do. She will also respect you and will not spit in your coffee or glass of water.

Patronize the national railways because it’s the only thing that unites us from Manila to Damortis, La Union.

Treat foreigners well—Spaniards, Chinese, Japanese, Americans—because someday they may run the economy.

Intramuros, Bagumbayan, the Pasig River, Manila Bay and the Botanical Garden will never be as clean and green as they appear today.

A plan is afoot to do a more extensive oral history on Jose Kumilos. His life is inspiring because it reflects the aspirations. failures and small victories of the Filipino.

‘Crispy pata’ for frequent fliers

WE rather like the Philippine Air Lines ad that invites us to
“fly all you can!” by offering two domestic tickets with every purchase of an economy class domestic ticket. It borrows from the buy-one, take-one concept but not, of course, from the eat-all-you-can promotion. We cannot fly all we want, even if we wish to.

Equally interesting is the BPI Express Credit ad that offers a free crispy pata— courtesy of Gerry’s Grill—with your “free BPI express credit card!”

Next time you get a hankering for “irresistibly free” crispy pata, call a designated number or visit any branch and you get a free card at the same time. Could the bank throw in a bottle of beer? Could PAL link up with BPI’?

Who will be the next Jonas Burgos?

Who will be the next Jonas Burgos?

Monday this week marked the 100th day of the disappearance of Jonas Burgos, the most recent victim of a year-long wave of disappearances that the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings and the Arroyo-created Melo Commission have documented.

Other troubled governments have recognized the limits of domestic remedies, and would be smart enough to know that the “desaparecido” [disappeared person] problem has crossed the continents since it emerged in Latin America in the 1970s. It is time we realized that Jonas, his brave mother Edita, and his family are not the only victims here. We are all stakeholders now, and there is a post-Nuremberg world out there ready and willing to help. We must enlist international help to stop the killings.

We have begun to exhaust our domestic remedies. Jonas’ family has sued before the courts for a writ of habeas corpus, and the military is poised, as expected, to deny that they ever had him in their custody, thus hoping to freeze the petition. But as I have written many times before, it is not enough for government merely to wash its hands. In the words of Otto Triffterer, a professor at the University of Salzburg and director of International Criminal Law, Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law: “Silent toleration may amount to conclusive and therefore active participation” because it has material effects simply “by the impression that it makes.” It is not some passive sin of omission for which government is held answerable only when there is a specific pre-established legal duty, in this case, to protect life.

A state prosecutor has been sacked by his boss, the secretary of justice, for investigating why the van into which Jonas was taken bore military plates. The Supreme Court is drafting new rules to expand the remedies available to grieving families and enable the courts to seek out the victims more actively, conduct quick searches in military camps and detention houses, and ensure that the soldiers manning the camp gates honor the courts’ orders.

But other governments have done much more and have voluntarily opened themselves to international inquiries. A similar move will boost public confidence in President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address condemning the unrelenting murders of leftwing activists. It will at least neutralize her open praise and adulation for Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, the officer most closely linked to the killings, during last year’s State of the Nation Address.

By way of example, the United Nations has created a Special Tribunal to investigate the murder of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in downtown Beirut by a car bomb with a charge equivalent to 1,800 kilograms of TNT. The attack was committed on Valentine’s Day 2005, and by March 29, the Lebanese government itself supported the UN Security Council’s decision to create an international independent commission “to assist the Lebanese authorities in their investigation of all aspects of this terrorist act.” No need to worry about the emotionally charged issue of sovereignty; the international commission worked “within the framework of Lebanese sovereignty and of its legal system.” Indeed, if we take this path, we take an intermediate step between a wholly internationalized arena unsettling for governments and a wholly domestic arena uncongenial to the victims.

There are distinct advantages in enlisting foreign assistance. To start with, perhaps it might actually produce concrete results. Remember that no Philippine court, not even the Philippine Human Rights Commission, has ever held Ferdinand Marcos or his estate responsible for any human rights violation from the time martial law was declared on Sept. 21, 1972 to his ouster during the February uprising in 1986. Indeed, the only courts that have dared to do so were those of Honolulu and of Seattle, and the larger award from Honolulu remains unenforced due to internal maneuverings before Philippine courts.

As a nation, we have had no closure on that dark chapter in our history. It continues to haunt present-day debates, and those with short memories openly seek the Filipino Lee Kuan Yew or Park Chung Hee. With regard to the “desaparecidos,” without an authoritative fact-finding, their bereaved families are denied one element essential to their claim of justice, namely, the right to know what happened to their loved ones.

Finally, the strongest endorsement comes from a speech delivered before the UN Security Council and voting for the investigative commission for the Beirut bombing. One diplomat stated: “We have also learned that justice is a powerful force for peace.” Political assassinations could lead to strife, conflict and war. “The creation of an investigative commission is a good and powerful message. It is a practical step towards ensuring international awareness and support for all efforts to see that justice is done.” The UN press quoted him as saying that “today, the Council not only cast a vote for peace and justice, but also struck a blow against those who used political assassination to sow fear and terror.”

That statement was made by Foreign Secretary Alberto G. Romulo at the 5,297th Meeting of the UN Security Council. Should it come to pass that the same body is called upon to take the same measures for Manila, we must remind the Philippine government of Romulo’s wise counsel, and get the Arroyo administration to welcome, if not invite, foreign assistance in vindicating the fundamental human liberties that it has failed, time and again, to protect.

Looks like rain

Looks like rain

A week after Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, the Archbishop of Manila, called on the clergy in his archdiocese to pray for rain, and a mere three days after the Sunday Masses in the area resounded with the “oratio imperata ad petendam pluviam” (literally, obligatory prayer to request for rain) that he had ordered read in all churches and shrines, the heavens obliged and the rains fell.

It’s almost enough, one could be forgiven for thinking, to make an unbeliever question his unbelief.

But we will leave the catechism business to the catechists. Our interest is in understanding how the cardinal’s appeal sheds light on present-day society. Not the sweet irony of seemingly answered prayers -- what does that say about the times we live in? But the cardinal’s appeal, his characteristic return to nature.

Here’s the thing. In our responses to the drought and the looming power shortage, our true character stands revealed. Faced with a natural calamity, the “arzobispado” called on the God of all nature. “We implore the master of all creation, God, our father, at whose command the winds and the seas obey, to send us rain,” Rosales wrote in the letter to his priests.

Faced with the exact same crisis, Malacañang called ... for emergency powers. “As the situation warrants, I’m very sure that there’s nothing that would prevent us from asking Congress for emergency powers,” Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said, on the same day Rosales circulated his letter.

There is, of course, a great difference between the roles of a religious leader and a government official; we certainly do not mean to say that it would have been better if Malacañang had issued the call for prayers. That would have been an admission of incompetence, or perhaps of panic. We also do not mean to suggest that the Executive has done nothing regarding the crisis. Yes, certainly, the red carpet was pulled from under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s feet a week after her State of the Nation Address, after it became clear that the worst crisis of the year had not even figured in her speech. But mitigation measures are in place, and various agencies of the Executive are dusting off contingency plans.

But while some mocked the cardinal’s almost naive faith in “the master of all creation,” many more attacked the executive secretary’s almost indecent faith in more power.

Of course, any talk of emergency powers has now dissipated, in the wake of this week’s rains.

To be sure, the dry spell is far from over. The rains the two storms brought in the last couple of days raised the water level in Angat Dam by only a fraction. And people have died and thousands have been displaced as a result of the weather.

Forgotten amid the collective sighing in relief, however, is another, equally vital part of the cardinal’s message, the appeal to all the faithful to make conservation possible by “sharing” one’s resources. In his letter, Rosales prayed that God “move us to share more, to serve more and to love more,” and that the Creator “inspire us in this time of crisis to share … what we have and to take responsibility for one another and for the environment and resources you have generously provided us.”

This is the true sacrifice: to do the counter-instinctive thing, and share already scarce resources with one another.

How is that even possible? Catechists will have a ready answer. They will point to the famous miracle of the Multiplication of Loaves, the one where Christ’s disciples scrounge around for food to feed a multitude, and manage to gather five loaves and two fish. And the catechists will point out the real miracle: that exhausted and hungry men and women were moved to share their meager rations with everyone else.

That Malacañang could not issue a similar call, even if it wanted to, says much about our life and times.

Welcome the new ‘hit man’

Welcome the new ‘hit man’

Why can’t Gloria Arroyo face problems squarely and make her job easier by firing wholesale the members of the Presidential Commission on Good Government? She does not have to say the obvious, that the PCGG has become a den of the incompetent and the corrupt.

Everybody in her official family says they serve at her pleasure. So she can just fire anybody without offering an explanation. In the case of firing PCGG members, she can let the people draw their own conclusion, which will not be difficult to make.

What Gloria did instead was throw the hot potato on the lap of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, who is not in the best of health and whose decisions at the DOH have been, to put it charitably, erratic. This was done through an executive order transferring administrative supervision from the Office of the President to the Department of Justice.

In so doing, Gloria practically admitted her office had failed to effectively monitor the PCGG. Presumably because the Office of the President is over-burdened by the big number of agencies under its wings. But the explanation doesn’t fly, because just a few weeks ago, she emasculated the Department of Natural Resources and Environment before new appointee Lito Atienza took over by transferring the Philippine Mining Development Corp. to her office.

There appears to be neither rhyme nor reason to what Malacañang is doing, save what her inveterate critics allege is her penchant to place under her direct control offices where big money can be earned.

Going back to the PCGG, Gonzalez jokingly said that he is the designated "new terrorist" at that agency. He wants PCGG to make an inventory of all the ill-gotten wealth cases. He wants to look into allegations of shenanigans by PCGG officials and their nominees in sequestered corporations.

We wish Gonzalez all the luck. We are waiting with bated breath what he would do with that PCGG commissioner, for example, whose first act of business was to visit a Toyota dealer to get hold of a late-model Camry charged to a sequestered company.

Gonzalez ought to be reminded, however, that what he calls shenanigans (some call it thievery) are mostly traced to government nominees to sequestered corporations. And these nominees are selected and nominated by Arroyo herself.

To see what we mean, Gonzalez can review the findings of the Senate investigation into how Palace nominees looted the Philippine Communication Satellite Group. PCGG officials turned a blind eye to the corporate shenanigans for the very simple reason that those doing the looting enjoyed powerful protectors.

We would not like to believe that PCGG was turned over to Gonzalez because no more money could be made from sequestered companies. This flies in the face of the reality. Sequestered firms remain to be fat milking cows.

The speculation is that some sort of a deal has been struck between Gloria and the Marcos family. That makes Gonzalez not a "new terrorist." Designated "hit man" is the more accurate description.

Lowered BIR targets raise eyebrows

Lowered BIR targets raise eyebrows

JUST the other week the Department of Finance announced that the revenue collection target for the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has been slashed from P765.8 billion to P741.3 billion, or a reduction of about P25 billion.

The move immediately raised eyebrows and triggered renewed speculation over the real motive behind this decision by Finance Secretary Gary Teves. There are three reasons for the raised eyebrows.

The first has to do with President Arroyo’s infrastructure commitments made during her State of the Nation address (SONA). The accelerated development of her “superregions” requires trillions of pesos.

The timing of her stepped up infrastructure program combined with Teves’s reduction of BIR collection goals immediately raises the question: Where will the government get the money to fund its ambitious goal? The spending spree can go with a borrowing binge but that would contradict the administration’s current fiscal and deficit objectives.

The second has to do with Teves’s unceremonious axing of the highly respected former BIR Commissioner Jose Mario Buñag. To this day the move is still causing much confusion as to whether or not the government values good public servants. Buñag is one of those rare individuals who ventured into government service out of a desire to serve the nation after making his mark as one of the country’s top tax lawyers in the private sector.

As BIR commissioner, Buñag managed to remain untainted by controversy. He whipped his agency into shape as a team obsessed with raising revenue collection levels. He achieved this rare feat in 2006, a milestone in the history of government revenue generation.

In fact, the feat was one of the highlights in pre-SONA newspaper ads where the government trumpeted its 2006 “Balanced Budget,” highlighting the record collection of the BIR in 2006 and the fact that the record overshadowed the BIR’s own 2005 collection level. Buñag was BIR commissioner when this feat was achieved.

In view of the jubilation over the BIR’s 2006 performance, observers were perplexed when Teves began berating the agency early this year over what he called collection shortfalls. They recall that Buñag had urged a “downward adjustment” of the 2007 targets since the original goal was about 30 to 40 percent more than the 2006 target. Besides, the BIR was being made to reach it without additional budgets, manpower or technology support.

Teves rejected Buñag’s recommendation to lower 2007 targets. Instead, he fired the BIR chief.

With Buñag out of his hair, Teves then turned around and lowered the BIR targets. What gives?

The move raises a further question: Are BIR targets merely whimsical and arbitrary? The sequence of events tends to show that Teves had merely set Buñag up for a disgraceful departure. He raised the revenue goal to impossible heights, rejected a Buñag plea to lower it to reasonable levels, then axed Buñag. And then he lowered the target.

Now that he has finally gotten rid of, Teves now has to make do with less revenue. Where’s the financial wisdom and logic in that? Was the government’s revenue collection program caught in the crossfire of personal animosity?

Now comes the third reason for raised eyebrows. Teves named Lilian Hefti, Buñag’s erstwhile deputy, as the axed commissioner’s successor. Again, looking for the logic behind the decision to appoint her is like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. As a key member of Buñag’s team, wasn’t Hefti partly responsible for the agency’s “underper­formance,” which supposedly drew Teves’s ire?

By naming Hefti as Buñag’s successor, isn’t Teves merely perpetuating the infirmity her erstwhile boss and predecessor caused at the BIR?

The view is that Teves’s decision to reduce the BIR’s collection targets was grossly unfair to both Buñag and the government. It is also unfair to Hefti.

Are the lowered targets evidence of Teves’s lack of confidence that she can match her predecessor’s performance?

Hefti has little reason to worry, however. It could be that Teves is all set to applaud her collection since she is expected to hit a much lower goal. Then, Teves would be able to tell all and sundry that BIR hit its target after he axed Buñag.

If this whole affair is unfair to Hefti, it may be because she—like the revenue collection program—may have been merely caught in the crossfire of personal animosity. In the future, a way should be found to prevent government revenue collections from being held hostage by a single official’s pet peeves.

Statesmen who can rise above personal motives, indeed, are hard to come by these days. They just kicked one out on the excuse of collection shortfalls.

Buffoonery

Buffoonery

The tragic state of Philippine public life is crystallized in the buffoonery of all the characters involved in the picaresque saga of Lintang Bedol.

After blatantly not doing his duty as Commission on Election supervisor in Maguindanao—and worse, allegedly conniving with others to frustrate the will of the voters of that province—he refused to be contacted by his Manila superiors. As far as everyone in Maguindanao knew he had disappeared. He became unavailable for questioning about the true facts of the conduct of the polls in that province and the fate of election documents.

He finally surfaced—after the Comelec threatened to order his arrest. On June 11, appearing at the Comelec hearing to answer the questions his bosses and the entire country were asking, all he could say was that all the election documents had been stolen from him two weeks earlier. He could not properly explain why he was in possession of the documents when those should have been in proper safekeeping according to the procedure in the Election Code and the Comelec rules. And his explanation of his reluctance to obey his superiors’ orders to come to Comelec sitting as the National Board of Canvassers on May 30 was that of a clown. He could not come to Manila because he had not received his superiors’ subpoena and without a subpoena his travel expenses would not be reimbursed.

He claimed that there was no election fraud in Maguindanao but he could not explain how the statistically improbable zero votes for 19 senatorial votes could have happened. No municipal certificates of canvass were available to back up the provincial certificate of canvass (COC) for Maguindanao because these were lost or stolen, he said. So he was asked by the media to describe how the elections were conducted in that province. He claimed he could not reply to that question because he was in another province on Election Day. But he could swear to the correctness of the provincial COCs because these were “duly executed.”

Bedol had collected all the municipal certificates of canvass on May 28, two days before he was needed in Manila by his Comelec superiors convened as the National Board of Canvassers. On May 29 all these documents were allegedly stolen from him.

The next joke he was to tell was the answer to the question who could have stolen the documents from his office. He said it could have been the group of people who demonstrated against the Comelec and the authorities on May 29. And he suggested that a case should be filed against those people.

The biggest buffoons of all at this point were the entire Commission on Elections. Bedol’s incredibly shameless performance neither made them puke nor blow up in outrage.

Indecency

When the Comelec, en banc, found Bedol guilty on Wednesday of indirect contempt—guilty of being disrespectful—and nothing else, buffoonery became squalid indecency.

It was as if they had decided to shit on the Filipino people.

The congressmen and senators who spoke of the verdict being wrong and the punishment of six months’ imprisonment and the fine of P1,000 being too light were too kind to the Comelec.

For, by treating Bedol like a naughty child and not a saboteur of our electoral democracy and a destroyer our Republic, the Comelec has loudly proclaimed that elections should not be taken seriously and that it is all right for constitutional officials to be negligent, derelict and perhaps corrupt.

Now more than ever the citizenry has a reason to suspect the Comelec’s members—except for one or maybe two—of knowing and condoning what Bedol really did. Why did they allow Bedol to behave the way he has? Why did they reappoint him to be an election supervisor in the 2007 elections even after he was implicated in alleged election fraud in the 2004 elections?

The Comelec is a constitutionally independent body. Its members can only be removed by impeachment.

The Fourteenth Congress has a duty to prove its worth and integrity by impeaching the members of the Comelec.

Mindanao roads

Mindanao roads

EVER since the bridge over the Polangui River was fixed in Maramag about three years ago, the traffic between Davao and Cagayan de Oro has multiplied several times. Some sections like that between Malaybalay and Valencia resemble Manila streets in traffic at certain hours. It has also turned this highway into a killer road in which no week passes without an accident, mostly heavy trucks going at a speed too fast to negotiate the many sharp turns and motorcycles taking unwarranted risks. The highway is no longer wide enough for the number of its users, which promises to increase by the day. Mindanaoans are jealous when they see the wide highways of Central Luzon. On the other hand what warms my heart are the huge 18 wheelers constantly increasing in numbers signaling that trade is going on between the two cities. This is a breakthrough since previously the big city centers of Mindanao all faced the sea and were enclaves with no land connection with each other. Mindanao was not one economy. The buying power and the manufacturing potential were limited to the two or three million inhabitants of each enclave instead of the whole 30 million of Mindanao. Good highways between the enclaves e.g., Surigao, Butuan, Iligan, Zamboanga City, Ipil, Cotabato City, and General Santos, will make the island of Mindanao one market. Rather than having to ship and import goods to Cebu and Manila and other ports of Visayas and Luzon. It will have a viable market on its own.

More roads are planned and need to be built soon. One of them the east west highway between Tagum and Iligan passing through Valencia and Marawi has been started with test cement patches in San Fernando but seemingly abandoned. The Liloy to Ipil road built by the Army brought safety to the area. More of these roads have to be built. The Philippines-Japan Friendship highway south of Butuan is almost completely repaired. Although well built in the 70s its foundations collapsed. It ran through a forested area and when the huge roots of the forest trees rotted in 30 years, the cement slabs cracked.

There is talk of a railway on the coast between Iligan and Cagayan de Oro. This is welcome but the coasts are sufficiently served by ships. Needed is a railway system that cuts across the island from north to south and east to west. Railroads are better than roads to carry heavy goods over long distances. We really do not have bulk material except grain. The mineral that we extract are mostly metals that do not require bulk handling. Besides roads the international airport in Lagindingan, Misamis Oriental to service Northern Mindanao to be started soon.

Melting in the rain

Melting in the rain

After the floods and consequent traffic jams, another problem inevitably follows: potholes. After just two days of rainfall that was not even heavy enough to raise the water in Angat Dam above the critical level, roads in Metro Manila are again disintegrating. Potholes can be found even in the areas that were quickly repaved for the ministerial meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations less than two weeks ago.

Either road-building technology is retrogressing, or certain individuals are getting rich from substandard public works projects undertaken by fly-by-night contractors. Filipinos still remember the durability of the original smooth asphalt pavement of Roxas Boulevard, which survived several decades of typhoons and floods with little need for repair. Such top-quality roads can still be seen — but no longer in the Philippines.

In other countries that put a premium on efficiency, governments see to it that their citizens are guaranteed a smooth drive on good roads. Not so in this country, where even the capital region is a patchwork of asphalt and concrete — a testament to the arbitrary manner in which road projects are selected and implemented. Bad roads not only are unsightly but also slow down traffic and speed up the deterioration of vehicle tires and engines.

The substandard quality can be due to sheer inefficiency. Or it can be due to corruption, with the quality of road projects suffering because a huge chunk of funds allocated for public works goes to private pockets. In all surveys, the Department of Public Works and Highways is consistently ranked as one of the most corrupt government agencies. The congressional pork barrel system is also to blame, with the executive branch unable to implement a long-term, coordinated approach to road building because about 250 lawmakers, many with personal interests in mind, have a say in decision-making. These lawmakers can also force the DPWH to allow their favored contractors to undertake public works projects even if the contractors do not meet the required qualifications.

Whoever is at fault, taxpayers must start demanding accountability in road projects. Authorities should identify the contractor and the official who approved the construction or repair of roads that melt in a downpour. If a lawmaker foisted the contractor on the DPWH, the lawmaker must also be identified. Once the culprits have been singled out, criminal and administrative charges must be filed for the waste of public funds.

On the wrist

On the wrist

Lintang Bedol got a mere slap on the wrist, opposition politicians chorused yesterday, after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc found the controversial provincial election supervisor of Maguindanao guilty of indirect contempt.

Bedol was found guilty of four counts of what amounts to gross disrespect of the Comelec. “And since we found that he appears to have lost respect [for] the institution,” Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer said, “the institution, in an attempt [at] self-preservation, will have to show that [it] means business to discipline its own people.” Bedol’s penalty: up to six months in jail and a fine of P1,000.

Not surprisingly, the opposition found the sentence too lenient. “The Comelec is clearly treating Bedol with velvet gloves,” said Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel of the party-list group Akbayan. The "punishment is too light,” said Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

Compared to the many allegations of both retail and wholesale fraud that marred the vote in Maguindanao province last May, the penalty is certainly light. But it is important to remember that the “slap on the wrist” is only for one case, the one for indirect contempt. Nothing in the resolution suggests that the Comelec has given up on probing the allegations of election fraud, or that Bedol won’t be called to account for those same allegations in the future.

Indeed, the resolution ends by ordering the commission’s legal department to “determine whether or not any election offense or crime under the Revised Penal Code has been committed by ... Bedol, and to initiate the filing of the necessary charge/s therefor.”

It’s a slim hope, but we’ll take it.

We’ll take it, even though the resolution seems to have been written out of wounded institutional pride, with references to the Comelec’s “integrity” and to its “self-preservation and defense” littering the official prose. We’ll take it, even though we are fully aware that lesser penalties have been used to dodge any serious review of government corruption before. We’ll take it, even though Bedol walked free yesterday after posting bail, and even though he can still file a motion for reconsideration.

The possibility that he will be made to pay for his studied insolence (or perhaps it comes naturally to him?) is a small victory for election reformers, but it is, nonetheless, a victory.

* * *

In the face

The resolution finding Lintang Bedol guilty of indirect contempt should not lull the Commission on Elections (Comelec) into a false sense of complacency, into thinking it had swallowed the bitter medicine and done its duty.

Finding Bedol guilty was easy; now the hard work begins. After all, the real assault on the Comelec’s “integrity” did not take the form of Bedol’s haughty catch-me-if-you-can insolence; it consisted of the massive election fraud allegedly perpetrated by or under Bedol.

In other words, the pain that the election commissioners feel about the public esteem it has lost was caused, not by Bedol’s disrespectful conduct toward the commissioners, but by Bedol’s disrespectful conduct toward Maguindanao’s voters.

Sen. Rodolfo Biazon got it right: “What [Bedol] did with the CoCs [certificates of canvass that Bedol said were stolen] asked for by the Comelec was the most contemptuous act. What he did undermined the credibility of the election.”

It is for this very reason that the finding of guilt in Bedol’s indirect contempt case, while a small victory in itself, cannot be considered victory enough. By all accounts, the Maguindanao vote for national positions was inescapably tainted. And we mean all accounts, because even Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos called the Maguindanao results statistically improbable, and even Team Unity’s spokesmen fumbled and named different candidates as rather conveniently topping the vote.

To be sure, Bedol’s official cockiness is grating, but we hope the Comelec realizes what the rest of the country already suspects: He is cocky not because he thinks he cannot get caught, but because if he gets caught, he will bring other election officers and perhaps higher officials down with him.

On this point public opinion is undeceived: Those who conspired to manipulate the Maguindanao vote slapped the Comelec in the face.

Opening a can of worms

Opening a can of worms

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita yesterday said economic managers and mon-etary authorities will look into the possibility of giving "special" rates for the dollars remitted by overseas workers. What is there to study?

The managers and Bangko Sentral officials do not even have to review their textbook in Economics 101 to shoot down the proposal out of hand. With Gloria Arroyo pandering to every politically powerful block, introducing multiple exchange rates is a foolhardy step down a precipitous slope. Let’s not even think of the economic consequences of multiple exchange rates. Let’s just imagine the effects of giving the corrupt administration additional powers to reward/punish economic units through multiple peso/dollar rates.

Let’s not fool ourselves with the phrase "special rates." It means OFWs will be given the privilege of exchanging their dollars for more pesos than the rate set, as determined by the market. We are familiar with the plaints of OFWs and their dependents. They used to get up to P56 for every dollar. Now, it’s only P45 to the dollar. This means that if an OFW is sending home $500 a month, his family is now getting P5,725 less than it used to. Clearly, OFW families are losers in the strengthening of the peso.

But that’s only one side of the coin. The other side is that OFW families are consumers, too. The stronger peso has resulted in the taming of inflation. Imported raw materials, especially fuel, are relatively cheaper. And this has a direct impact on the stabilization of the prices of basic commodities.

OFWs are borrowers, too, and they, as much as everybody else surely, must have benefited from lower interest rates. It’s now easier to buy television sets, DVDs, karaoke machines and other creature comforts on installment. Buying or building houses is also more affordable now with lower mortgage rates.

And surely OFW families must also be benefiting from what the government boasts as higher social spending in the wake of easier debt payments as a result of a stronger peso. These social dividends are enjoyed by families whose bread winners are not taxed on their income in the first place.

And after the OFWs, who’s next in line for "special" exchange rates? The exporters who at the moment are also being squeezed by their lower peso earnings on the same dollar receipts? And which specific exporters - agricultural producers, processors and traders? And producers of which specific crops – coconut and its products, sugar, bananas, pineapples, papayas, asparagus, etc.?

Before we know it, every interest group would be lining up at the Palace to plead for inclusion in the list of "special rate" beneficiaries.

It would be dollar quota of the 1950s and 1960s in reverse.

Wouldn’t it be rich, the current administration closing its regime of thievery by going back to a discarded system?

No closer to the truth

No closer to the truth

The law penalizing a new crime called electoral sabotage with life imprisonment may finally get its test case, and the felon may turn out to be… not Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol, but a journalist or two who dared to cast aspersions on the integrity of the Commission on Elections.

Comelec officials, to no one’s surprise, allowed Bedol yesterday to post bail after ordering him imprisoned for six months for indirect contempt of the poll body. If the Comelec keeps this up, detention centers could be filled to overflowing with Filipinos who hold the poll body in contempt. Bedol, after spending a night at the Comelec main office instead of in a hotel at taxpayers’ expense, coughed up the required bail of P15,000 but was stranded by floods in Manila. He is certain to return to Maguindanao, where the credibility of the vote in the May elections remains under a cloud of doubt.

Bedol has often been described as the Virgilio Garcillano of the recent midterm elections, and the comparison is not far off the mark. Both men have been implicated in electoral fraud in Mindanao, and both have refused to come clean on the scandals. Both have regarded the accusations with disdain, acting as if they are sure the truth will never be known. Garcillano was cocky enough to campaign for Congress in Bukidnon last May using the nickname “Garci” after initially denying that he was the man with that name in wiretapped phone conversations. Three years after the presidential election where Garcillano is suspected to have rigged the vote in favor of the incumbent, the nation is no closer to the truth.

Now the allegations of poll fraud are focused on Maguindanao. Election returns from the province disappeared, slowing down the national canvassing. Comelec officials later declared that the missing returns had been found. To this day the authenticity of the returns that were “found” has not been established beyond doubt. The mess lies squarely on the shoulders of the Comelec official in charge of the vote in Maguindanao. That happens to be Bedol, but he’s not the one who will get a life term for electoral sabotage. He gets six months and a fine of P1,000. Journalists who criticized the Comelec are the ones who will be locked up for life.

RP-Japan treaty imperiled in Senate

RP-Japan treaty imperiled in Senate

It looks like the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement, JPEPA for short, will face a rough sailing in the Senate. Sen. Chiz Escudero has threatened to block its passage, a move, I was told, would be supported by a bipartisan group.

If a konfrontasi between the executive and the legislative comes, I am sure that we will be back to the prolonged debate during the bases regime. At that time, we didn’t know what kind of international agreement required Senate ratification. As for Chiz, he thinks JPEPA needs to be looked into by the upper chamber.

Political Adviser Gabriel Claudio believes that the RP-Japan accord “has a very good chance of ratification by the Senate… for its relevance and urgency.” Note that JPEPA was one of the bills last Tuesday at the first Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac). Claudio believes senators will decide on the basis of the national interest.

Although Chiz has substantial suggestions, the Sorsogon lawmaker appears more agitated by the form and timing of JPEPA. For instance, he says, “JPEPA cannot breeze through the Senate principally because of the manner by which this treaty was conceived. The entire deal was shrouded in secrecy.” He also thought the government did not consult the public on the treaty.

Consult the public on the contents of treaty? That must be difficult to do because at the time of the bases, some NGOs wanted to have a referendum on the future of the US facilities before calling for negotiations. But the government, then headed by President Aquino, did not agree with consulting the public.

At the Ledac meeting, the President said that the JPEPA is an accomplished fact, as far as the Japanese Parliament is concerned. Apparently, they have a single ratification process there: The Japanese negotiator is automatically armed with legislative support when he signs a treaty with a foreign country.

JPEPA is important to Japan, especially since it wants to secure Manila as a market ahead of its rival, China. It is also important for us because we are a trade partner and aid receiver. More often than not, we are at a psychological disadvantage when it comes to our ties with Japan because we are beholden to the Japanese.

A weak Senate in the making

This Senate will be a weak all throughout its term up to 2010, hobbled as it is by ambitions and self-interest. You can see that the Villar presidency cannot move without being criticized by those affected by his decisions.

The ability of Senate President Manny Villar to manage the conflicts in the Senate is being tested by the intransigence of his critics—Sens. Ping Lacson and Jamby Madrigal. These two believe that the opposition, being the majority, should get the plum committee posts.

In the premartial law days, it was easier to manage the Philippine Senate because what existed then was a two-party system. Today, there is chaos because senators come from various parties, not to mention that some of them have presidential ambitions.

The important question is whether the Senate could be a potent instrument to exercise oversight functions over the executive. My answer is no. Unless the senators agree to unite—today.

Challenge to Sec. Gilbert Teodoro

In his role as defense chief, Secretary Gilbert Teodoro faces the challenges of a job that requires solving extra-judicial killings, the insurgency, the secessionist movement, a politicized officer corps and probably the mood in some sectors in Washington to reduce military aid to RP.

But there is one problem he could easily handle without controversy: Preparing the ways and means for disaster-preparedness that periodically engulfs the archipelago. Good luck!