DIGITEKPUBLISHINGHOUSEYour One-Stop Publishing CompanyTel. No. 843-39-89

NOVEMBER 15 - 21, 2010 • Vol. I, No. 13 The Only Opinion Paper, We Take A Stand

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The irony that’s Meralco The new owners are wealth and power personified. We need to revisit anti-trust laws or pass a new policy to protect consumers. EDITORIAL PAGE 4

New mulitmillionairesThe good news is that human trafficking has declined. The bad news is that the new rules on insurance coverage will encourage illegal recruitment. And the worst form of human trafficking is illegal recruit-ment. Therefore, the danger that human trafficking will rise is real.Contract workers are required to buy a six-months insurance coverage to be paid for in advance by the recruitment agency. Under this new set up, the legitimate recruitment agencies will have to scour or borrow funds to pay for the extra cost.Page 2

publisher’s notes

Dummy?I SS N 2 0 9 4 - 7 3 7 2

Consumer advocates have raised hackles over whether or not Meralco’s top honcho, Manuel V. Pangilinan, is a ‘dummy’ of foreign interests, notably those based in Hong Kong and Indonesia.

Though undeniably a Filipino, Pangilinan – Meralco president and chief executive officer (CEO) – appears acting more on behalf of his foreign principals rather than on his own as a prospective investor.

By Al Labita

TURN TO PAGE 2

inside THE MIGRANT WORKER by CeeJay COMPulSARY INSuRANCE: PIECE Of MINd fOR OfWs � 9 MATAHARI by William Tell CuSTOMS WON’T MEET 2010 COllECTION BudGET � 9 REGISTEREd by Atty. Sara Jane Saguitanh HOW TO OBTAIN COPYRIGHT � 10 TWO-PRONGEd by Jeremy Baer & Margarita Holmes A GAY & A MuSlIM� 14

YESTERDAY, TODAY &TOMORROW By LINGGOY ALCUAZ

Pacquiao LossBad for P-Noy

8

BERNIE LOPEZBernie writes from the perspective of the eye of the storm – fromserious to humorous, philosophical to comical, esoteric to eclectic, artistic to comic, microscopic to cosmic.

MARIVIC DEL PILARMarivic is involved in tourism and the public transport industry. She shares her travel experiences, insights and lessons learned from other society and culture.

DAVID CAGAHASTIANDavid is a reporter and newsman for the past seven years, covering various beats like foreign affairs, justice, Malacañang, the Senate, and the House of Representatives.New columnists, new perspectives

2 N O V E M B E R 1 5 - 2 1, 2 0 1 0 OpinYon

The Only Opinion Paper, We Take a STandNEWS

Wittingly or unwittingly, the high-profile busi-ness leader’s alleged “fronting” for foreign busi-nesses puts him at risk of breaching the country’s anti-dummy law.

Known as MVP in the business circle, the as-tute businessman is the managing director and CEO of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the offshore flagship of Indonesian conglomer-ate Salim Group.

With a mixture of Indonesian, British and Hong Kong shareholders, First Pacific has been rapidly expanding its presence in the local cor-porate scene, acquiring lock, stock and barrel a number of cash-strapped companies.

“Pacman”From telecoms, the foreign corporate behe-

moth has diversified to tollways, media, ports, water supply, energy and other multi-million peso ventures. Soon, it will embark on mining, airport and other “big ticket” infrastructure projects.

Surprisingly, it’s not the Salim Group or First Pacific that figured prominently in the buyout deals, but it’s MVP, an investment banker by profession and often derisively branded as the “Pacman” in Philippine business. As such, his main job was only to arrange debt financing, corporate takeovers, mergers and acquisitions.

In Meralco’s share purchase, MVP syndicated a highly sophisticated financing package with a wide array of investors chipping in. They in-cluded the Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT), Metro Pacific Corp. and other related firms.

However, all these buyers awash with cash have one thing in common: they were either subsidiaries or affiliates of the ultimate parent, the cash-rich financier Salim Group.

Through elaborate layers of firms registered as Filipino-owned as “fronts,” the Salim Group

managed somehow to circumvent the country’s anti-dummy law.

Profit-hungry

Not only that. They also dodged the 40 percent foreign equity ceiling in public utilities like Meralco as stipulated under the Philippine constitution. Filipinos must account for the remaining 60 percent interest.

Obviously, the same pattern of intricate machination was employed in the case of dominant carrier PLDT where foreign corporate raiders led by the Salim Group gained a major-ity ownership through the maverick Pangilinan group.

Lately, the group wants to tighten its control of Meralco after dislodging its previous majority owner, the Lopez family, now relegated as a mi-nority stakeholder with a remaining 13.4 percent interest in the company.

From 41 percent shareholding in the power retailer, the Pangilinan faction plans to jack it up to 46 percent at an estimated cost of P11.5 billion pesos. Such size of equity will make the group as Meralco’s single largest bloc of stockholders.

What worries the consumers is that the pro-posed purchase deal will spark a flurry of more prohibitive power rate increases as the Pangili-nan group will surely seek to recoup their new equity investments in Meralco.

For the profit-hungry and callously insensitive to the misery of financially enslaved consumers, what else is new?

By REA ANN SANTOS

“The government should stop making people believe that the peso appreciation is market-driven and that a stronger currency will bring more benefits than negative effects to the economy,” said Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. president Sergio Ortiz-Luis.The continuous surge of peso resulting from influx of dollar remittances from Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and inflows from foreign investors and local stocks, which has risen itself to its highest rate, may have been a cause for a celebration. Yet, exporters and families of OFWs think otherwise.

Inevitably, the appreciation of peso has unfavorably af-fected a number of sectors including exporters. With a strong peso, there will be lesser pesos needed for acquiring raw materials and finished products will be sold earning weak dollars. Therefore, there will be more dollars needed to pay labor in pesos.

Exporters now fear that that the country’s finished products will be less price competitive in the global marketplace if a strong peso raises production costs. Labor costs will definitely increase because there will be more dollars to be converted to pesos and be allocated for labor. Hence, with less competitive products for export, profits will drop and operations may be cut, if not closed.

Unfortunately, exporters who are heavily reliant on lo-cally-sourced materials are the most affected. However, other currencies in the region have

also been bolstered against the US dollar. This process tends to reduce or even equalize the loss in price competitiveness occurring from the peso ap-preciation.

Analysts say the strong peso affects the business process outsourcing industry, which employs nearly 900,000 workers and is expected to bring in $11 billion to $13 billion in revenue this year.

The beneficiaries of OFWs’ remittances, on the other hand, are also adversely affected by the strong peso. As the peso appreci-ates, families of OFWs receive less and in effect, both OFWs and their respective families have to cut down spending to be able to cope with the changes. The peso is expected to plunge as Christmas season is fast ap-proaching and a huge flow of dollar remittances from OFWs around the world will once again be coming in the country.

The tourism sector, in the same way, may similarly be hit as foreign tourists find the country less attractive to visit while domestic tourists prefer to travel abroad.

Meanwhile, the government is looking at ways to cushion the local industry and help mitigate the effects of the strong local currency. The Central Bank said that the peso surge is tem-porary and that market forces will eventually compel the peso to seek its level.

The sad part is that even if the peso appreciates, Filipinos have never felt it locally. Prices of local commodities remain the same. The question remains: Is the surging peso advantageous or detrimental to the economy?

MTD Capital Bhd., Malaysia’s biggest toll operator has found itself caught in the throes of col-liding forces among the Executive Office, the Supreme Court (SC), and angry consumers - ham-pering its projects in the South Luzon Expressway (SLEx) and ambition to increase toll rates.

MTD Capital Bhd has expressed confidence on the Aquino administration but feels SC intervention could be a hurdle to its plans. In addition, consumer groups are also ques-tioning the 250% toll increase that is now being settled in the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB).

Despite the impediments, Dato Azmil Khalid, chairman of South Luzon Tollway Corp. said the Malaysian firm has no plans of pulling out despite SC’s prevention of its collection of a higher toll fee. However, he quickly warns the Malaysian firm might grow impatient if a reasonable toll rate will not be implemented.

Khalid is very much con-cerned about the high level of uncertainty from the government to proceed with what was agreed upon in the contract. This delay has already cost the SLTC billion

in revenues, compelling itself to seek drastic measures to curb its operational expense.

Khalid was worried that his creditors will pressure him, which could affect his existing contracts with other countries.

According to SLTC president David Isaac the losses figured at P6 million daily, with foregone revenue reaching P800 million to P1 billion.

The TRB granted SLTC a toll rate of P2.68 a kilometer for Class 1 vehicles, which was initially slated for implementation in June. However, this was deferred twice, the latest one caused by a Supreme Court-issued TRO on consolidated cases filed by petitioners.

David said the current basic toll fee at the SLEx, placed at only 76 centavos a kilometer, was only around half the rate charged by government toll-ways and less than a quarter of the rate of private sector-operated toll roads.

However, oppositors of the toll hike do not believe that the entire project would cost up to P11.5 billion. They said it should only be P7 billion.

Karlo Gomez

IMPACT Of STRONG PESOdummy?

From page 1

By KARlO GOMEz

Credit should be given to the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) for standing by its decision to temper the Peso’s sharp appre-ciation on strong capital inflows and slamming the International Monetary Fund’s appeal.

The IMF is pressing the Asian markets to embrace the repercussions of currency ap-preciation brought about by the devaluation of the dollar, saying in the long run it will sustain their local economies by allow-ing job-generating investments to flourish.

While the advantages of a strong Peso reflect on cheaper imported goods and reduced national debt, monetary of-ficials are not ignorant of the more alarming issues that concern both the OFW remit-tances and the growing export industry. The stakes include weaker competition of exported products in the international market because of their costly dollar pricing and OFW fami-lies who rely heavily on remit-tances that will get lower dollar conversions, thus curbing their purchasing power.

IMF issued a stern warning against monetary authorities in the Asian region which resorted to controlling local markets by

buying dollars. This strategy, ac-cording to the IMF, will worsen the global imbalance triggered by sluggish US market that is barely recovering from the plagues of recession.

In a statement, the IMF said, “Managing capital inflows into the region is a difficult challenge. These inflows present many opportunities, but they also pose potential risks to financial stability.”

IMF’s meddling with Asian currencies is perceived as a move to protect US interests, which puts it in a compromising posi-tion to provide sound judgment and prudent recommendations to monetary authorities in the Asian region.

BSP’s changes in the rules on

foreign exchange transactions are seen as a timely strategy to protect businesses from severe, foreign currency fluctuations.

BSP told the IMF to instead divert its attention to bigger industries like the US that are historically responsible for the global imbalance.

Recently, the US Federal Reserve announced it will bring money straight into the US’s cof-fers to boost liquidity by buying $900 billion in bonds in the next eight months – a selfish move that has completely paralyzed transatlantic initiatives to ad-dress the global imbalance.

BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo criticized the US Federal Reserve’s decision, say-ing it will not only exacerbate the global imbalance but will hurt emerging markets like the Philippines.

In a bold move, the BSP has increased the $30,000 cap for service payments and the $30 million cap for external investments. Guinigundo also explained that the country has sufficient liquidity for both the foreign and peso sides, which is a good economic approach that should silence the IMF for good.

Operators of the South Luzon Tollway Corp. seek for govern-ment approval of 250% toll rate hike

BSP slams IMf proposal

With a mixture of Indonesian, British and Hong Kong shareholders, First Pacific has been rapidly expanding its presence in the local corporate scene, acquiring lock, stock and barrel a number of cash-strapped companies.

Diwa Guinigundo

SlEX seeks 250% toll hike approval

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OpinYon N O V E M B E R 1 5 - 2 1, 2 0 1 0 3

NEWS

Nasecore president Pete Ilagan furnished OpinYon a copy of his Supplemental Manifes-tation filed in connection with ERC Case No. 2010-069 RC, Meralco’s application for its An-nual Revenue Requirements for 2011 to 2015, where his group asked ERC to “immediately act on the information provided by Nasecore,” consisting mainly of data culled from Meralco’s annual reports.

Consumers questioning Meralco’s latest application insist that a full audit of expenses, revenues and capital expansion of the previous years should first be undertaken, before any new rate is even considered.

For the year 2008, Ilagan told OpinYon, Mer-alco’s actual and reported revenues from distri-bution, supply and metering charges reached P26.2 Billion, while the approved revenue was only P22.969 Billion, or a P3.3 Billion overcharge for that year only.

Using the same data sources, i.e., Meralco’s

annual reports, Nasecore tracked overcharges of P1.59 B in 2003, P1.54 B in 2004, P2.047 B in 2005, P2.649 B in 2006, and P3.066 B in 2007.

Earlier, OpinYon reported a Meralco over-charge of P51.9 B consisting of P39 B in ERC Case No. 2008-092 filed by Genaro Lualhati and P12.9 B covered by a Commission on Audit report on test years 2003 and 2007.

Another action for another overcharge of at least P10 B covered in ERC Case No. 2010-034MC filed also by Lualhati could bring the total overcharges consumers are asking to get back from Meralco to as much as P76.1 Billion.

Ilagan chided ERC for sidestepping Nasecore’s earlier letters on Meralco’s gargantuan over-charges even as Lualhati pinned the blame for high rates and irrational price hikes on ERC.

Nasecore also asked Meralco, thru ERC, for details of Meralco’s claimed expenses, reported investments in subsidiaries and associated com-panies, and acquisition cost of its assets

mORE mERALCO OVERCHARGESEXPOSEDThe National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms (Nasecore) has asked the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to order Meralco to refund P14.2 Billion to its customers representing revenues or charges collected in excess of its approved rates.

urges fast-tracking of downscaled geo-hazard maps for barangays nationwide

OCCULaR InSPeCTIOn Senator loren B. legarda, Chair of Senate Committee on Cli-mate Change conducted an on-site inspection of San Roque Dam in San Manuel, Pangasinan with Tom Valdez of San Roque Power Corp. whose release of water during typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng had been blamed by local officials for the floods that devastated the province.

PhOTO jOSEPh ViDAl

Senator Loren Legarda, the Asia-Pacific Regional Cham-pion for Disaster Risk Reduc-tion and Climate Change Adaptation, today lauded the growing awareness of citizens and various groups in Eastern Visayas on the issue of climate change.

Legarda, who has produced documentaries to inform the public about climate change, said that the increasing con-sciousness on the phenomenon would lead to the effective adaptation to its effects.

“Once we become aware of climate change and its adverse impact that is when we begin to think of ways to combat its effects.”

“I commend the local gov-ernments and various groups in

Eastern Visayas for the frequent conduct of forums on climate change which would provide more people the facts that they need to know regarding this phenomenon,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Senator also took notice of the government’s ongoing geo-hazard map-ping, which according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Region VIII is almost complete in the Eastern Visayas Region.

Geo-hazard mapping is the identification of areas of the country where natural hazards and disasters--such as rain-in-duced landslides, floods, storm surge, coastal erosion, and sea-level rise, among others--are most likely to occur.

“I am hopeful that the

geo-hazard maps in the whole country, particularly those that are downscaled, would be completed the soonest possible time and be effectively utilized by local governments in devel-opment planning.”

“This is very useful for our disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation initiatives because we could now effectively shield our communities from the destruc-tive effects of geologic hazards since we would be able to make the necessary preparations and build the proper defenses in the appropriate disaster-prone areas. This would definitely reduce the loss of lives and properties brought about by natural disasters,” Legarda concluded.

legarda lauds Eastern Visayas’ heightened awareness on climate change

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT–The Subic Bay Metro-politan Authority (SBMA) recently hosted a dialogue among executives from the business community, local government agencies and the academe to address employments gaps in Central Luzon, which is now a leading economic growth center.

SBMA labor department manager Severo Pastor Jr. said the annual Labor Matching Congress, which is now on its fifth year, has pooled together officials from the SBMA, Clark Development Corp. (CDC), and the Authority of the Free-port Area of Bataan (AFAB), as well as representatives from the Subic Bay Freeport Cham-ber of Commerce (SBFCC), Metro Olongapo Business Club (MOBC), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Technical Education and Skills Development Author-ity (TESDA), National Eco-nomic Development Authority (NEDA), Public Employment Services Office (PESO), and various schools and local gov-ernment units in the region.

Pastor, who is the concur-rent president of the Subic Bay Workforce Development Foundation, Inc., said the labor-matching dialogue was held because many workers in the region remain unemployed despite the presence of four special economic zones in the area.

According to CHED Region 3 director Maura Consolacion Cristobal, the 2009 records of her office indicated that the courses that registered the highest enrolment are busi-ness education, health-related courses including nursing; information technology; and teacher education.

“We already have an excess of graduates in these courses, and we have employment gaps, both qualitative and quantitative,” Cristobal said.

She added that in order to address the over-population in the said four programs, CHED has issued Memorandum Order No. 32, which enjoined all schools not to accept enrollees in the four courses in all levels.

Cristobal added that the move was also meant to strengthen the under-subscribed programs like agriculture, engineering, science, arts and technol-ogy, and fisheries, by offering scholarship grants to students enrolling in these programs.

In Subic, meanwhile, SBMA administrator Arreza said that to maximize employment of workers in the Subic Bay area, the agency is now focusing on specific sectors where Subic has the competitive advan-tage. These include logistics, shipbuilding, tourism, and information technology.

“We want to make sure that we are all set up on the right direction,” Arreza said. “We are looking for our own ‘Manny Pacquiao’ — locators in the Freeport that will defeat any challenger.”

He pointed out that in the case of Hanjin, the Korean shipbuilder has in its list of or-ders a total of 55 ships, which amount to US$4 billion. With 40 percent of the value going to components that could be manufactured locally, the ship orders could yield about US$1.6 billion for the local economy.

“That is why we encourage a lot of entrepreneurs to explore and look into this sector, as well, and manufacture the 40 percent that Hanjin imports from other countries. This way, we can cre-ate more jobs,” Arreza said.

The SBMA official likewise announced that Hanjin also needs marine engineers that are now in short supply in the Philippines since most colleges and universities in the country have stopped offering marine engineering courses and shifted instead to nursing or IT.

“If we build these indus-tries, the SBMA Labor Center has to provide the manpower necessary for these industries to become Manny Pacquiao,” Arreza noted.

In the dialogue, CDC vice-president for business Ernesto Gorospe said that manpower needs in the Clark Freeport in-clude openings for pilots, busi-ness processing outsourcing technicians, call center agents, semiconductor technicians, and other skilled workers.

Pastor meanwhile thanked the CHED for accrediting some of schools in the Subic Bay Freeport that introduced new courses in aeronautical maintenance, vocational technical education related to electronics and shipbuild-ing, and manpower support for tourism such as catering, housekeeping, bar-tending, among others.

“These are giant little steps to patch manpower mismatch in the Subic Bay Freeport,” Pastor said.

SBMA hosts Region 3 dialogue on employment gaps

The still undetermined amount of infrastructure bonds to in-stitute the Aquino administration’s public-private-partnership (PPP) initiative aimed to entice investors for the big-ticket projects raised questions once again.

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said in an interview that the maturity of the bonds will take 20 to 25 years depending on how big the project it needs to support. The bonds, however, will be issued locally to avoid exchange-rate risks.

The government is expected to derive 73 percent of its borrowing requirements from the local market. According to Purisima, there will be no outstanding money involved since the amount of the debt paper will be almost similar to the cost of the project.

The PPP initiative is set to begin in the middle of the month. The top 10 PPP projects include the P70-billion MRT-LRT expansion project; the P11.29-billion MRT Line2 Phase 2; the P7.54-billion Bohol airport; the P4.36-billion Puerto Prinsesa airport; the P21-billion North Luzon Expressway-South Luzon Expressway link; the P10.5-billion Cala Expressway; and the P3.07-billion Daraga International Airport.

If the PPP program will not be able to generate revenues, the projects supposedly for economic development might be an addition to the burden of Filipinos. Rea Ann Santos

Gov’t to tap bonds for PPP initiative

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4 N O V E M B E R 1 5 - 2 1, 2 0 1 0 OpinYon

Published and printed by Digitek Publishing House with editorial and business offices at Unit A, Finlandia Residences 2926 Finlandia Street corner Volta Street, Makati City.

Telephone: 843-3989. Email: opinyon_2010@yahoo.com

The corporate tug-of-war over prime Meralco shares betrays what ails the Philippine economy. It eloquently illustrates the utter inadequacy of laws to cope with the surging tide of monopoly and cartelization characterizing a globalizing economy.

Indeed, pertinent anti-trust bills have been filed by lawmakers, but two of them deserve merits – Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

Obviously, both legislators were incensed over the glaring lack of unfettered competition and free enterprise as true and real parameters of a democratic economy.

Instead, what has prevailed is the preponder-ance of wealth and power reigning supreme over a market increasingly dominated by influence peddlers, corrupt brokers and other shady char-acters.

In the process, retailers and other mass-based business players are dislodged, curtailing the spread of growth and opportunities to other critical sectors of society, especially in the countryside.

Meralco, by definition of the constitution, is a public utility bound to cater to the general interests of Filipinos. What has transpired is that its owner-ship has fallen prey from one vested interest to another, but this time more potent because of its purported links to predatory foreign principals.

If the duly elected legislators had the foresight in the past, they could have averted the orgy of monopolistic and oligopolistic tendencies of big businesses and multinationals.

Tragically, Meralco’s case is a microcosm of the ineptitude of the government and the short-sightedness of its public policies under the guise of privatization, liberalization and deregulation.

Now comes P-Noy’s much-ballyhooed public-private partnership scheme. On closer look, it’s no different from the failed build-operate-transfer program of the past.

For Meralco, it’s no different either to bleed its multitudes of poor customers financially dry...

The irony that’s Meralco

Meralco easing out PLDT as MVP’s flagship

From the rumor mill, mar-ket talk points to his tempting (irresistible?) offer to acquire the 27 percent equity of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) in the power retailer.

The deal: a share swap in MVP’s holdings in Manila North Tollways Corp and Maynilad Water Services, Inc. On top of that, here’s the sweetener: a reasonable premium over Meralco’s last traded share price by the time the transaction is closed.

While SMC is itself hastily scrounging for funds to bank-roll its ambitious diversification to heavy industries, it appears not keen to bite MVP’s juicy offer. Maybe, it’s banking on prospects that Meralco’s share price will further appreciate, given the stock market’s cur-rent bullrun.

Deal or no deal, SMC is in Meralco for the long haul…for now.

• • • • • •Why the feisty Justice Sec-

retary Leila de Lima is drag-ging conglomerate Ayala Corp. to the alleged cover-up of the bomb blast that ripped through ritzy Glorietta mall in 2007 is mind boggling.

For Ayala, the country’s oldest business house, that incident is already a closed

case. A police report concluded then that it was accidental and sparked by the explosion of methane gas tanks stored in the mall’s basement.

Lately, however, an ex-Army forensic expert surfaced, claiming the blast was trig-gered by a remote-controlled bomb as evidenced by traces of a chemical used to produce C-4, a military-type plastic explosive, at the blast site.

Though the claim was un-verified, the publicity-hungry de Lima just took it hook, line and sinker and implied there was a government cover-up then, obviously referring to that of President Gloria Arroyo.

Now, Ayala Corp is at a loss – who to believe.

• • • • • •President Aquino may not

know it, but the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is hesitant to dispose of its hard-earned

foreign exchange (forex) earn-ings in a highly volatile and unpredictable currency trading market. It incurred P9.67 bil-lion in forex losses last year, not a paltry sum by any logic and definition, trying to tame the fluctuating US dollar-peso rate.

Despite pleas from OFWs and exporters to stem the green-back’s sagging forex rate against the peso, BSP has turned a deaf ear, opting instead to allow the free market forces to dictate the market’s tempo.

However, some insiders say, there’s a deeper and un-derlying reason why monetary authorities seem taking a luke-warm stance in overseeing the financial market – the Aquino government’s indifference to beef up the BSP’s capital requirements.

• • • • • • From the grapevine, there’s

a swirling pitch that not all is well at PLDT, MVP’s corporate flagship. The beef is that the rank and file facing termination are restive over a separation pay they felt was inadequate and forced on them by the management.

With profits steadily declin-ing due to the advent of new technologies, the telecom giant is poised to fire 2,000 employ-ees anytime from now as part of its cost-saving measures.

But the workers’ unions are demanding a dialogue with MVP to sort things out. And, if there’s an impasse, a labor strike is not a far-fetched possibility.

SHOPTALK,INC.Ryan & Allen

MVP, short of corporate whiz Manuel V. Pangilinan, is so enamored with blue chip money spinner Meralco that he’s willing to throw caution to the wind.

publisher’s notesBy RAy jUNiA

Human trafficking cases decreasing. This is a report coming from the Philippine National Police. We are supposed to take hats off to this achievement by the PNP. I do.

But nobody is explaining why the decline. There is no reason though for the PNP to window dress the report. I am just bothered as this report does not fit the realities in the OFW sector.

I got this text from Lito Soriano: “Pare our days are numbered. It is almost impossible to survive under the new rules set by the government.” He said the insurance wipes out the profits of the agencies. Worse is new requirements disqualify sending OFWs to many countries.

I have been with Lito in the fight against il-legal recruitment back in the ‘90s. I have seen the futility of the illegal recruitment campaign while we have corrupt officials in the govern-ment from the DOLE to the airports. Every time the government tightens the screw against illegal recruitment, the illegal recruit-ers make more money while the legitimate agencies are wiped out.

The worst form of human trafficking is illegal recruitment. Why? Because victims

of illegal recruitment pay just to be abused at the point of destination. The crime of human trafficking and illegal recruitment happens at the point of destination. When the victims realize they were had.

When laws and rules are stiff and Filipi-nos are desperate enough to leave for work in other countries to find the dollars to keep soul and body in the family together, violat-ing our laws or taking the risk is the least of their concerns. This is the reason when overseas placement rules are stiff, illegal recruitment rises, even dramatically.

Even the cost in sending out the victims rise to make many airport and DOLE of-ficials buy luxury cars and build mansions. DOLE insiders claim that cost has now doubled as people are taking advantage of reports of the government making serious steps to satisfy the USA on its campaign against human trafficking.

Many numbers don’t match in the eco-nomics of movement of people and skills. I really don’t think the government is in the right direction. But the DOLE people may have their own agenda. Lets find out how these new rules will impact on the economy of the country and in the ordinary Filipino family. What I am sure of is some officials in the government are happy and are already multimillionaires in just the last five months of P-Noy leadership.

New multimillionaires

RAY L. JUNIA AlLFONSO O. LABITA DAVID S. CAGAHASTIANPublisher Managing Editor News Editor

NESTOR L. ABREMATEA REA ANN SANTOS RICARDO G. VELARDEVis-Min News Bureau Chief Editorial Assistant Art Director

MICHELLE NIKKI M. JUNIA Atty. RICKY M. RIBOAdmin/Marketing Director Legal Counsel

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Haver no Fear, OpinYon is Hereyes!

But it came quite unexpect-edly last week, at the hearing on Mang Naro Lualhati’s petition to abolish Performance Based Regulation (PBR) and scrap the dreaded WACC or Weighted Average Cost of Capital.

Only on its second hearing day after counsels on both sides – for Meralco and for consumers – argued the due execution of some annexes, the ranks of the petitioners had been virtually decimated.

Mang Naro was gamely at the lead of the charge with intervenor Siegfredo Veloso of the Federation of Villagers Assoc. (FOVA) by his side, but volunteer- counsel Nelson Loyola of Loyola Law Offices was down with the sniffles and Pete Ilagan of Nasecore was at a crucial meeting elsewhere.

Across the aisle, Meralco’s battery of lawyers and staff were in full array, with the customary load of documents weighing their side of the aisle down.

Advice of Atty. Loyola’s indisposition was received just minutes before the hearing, and while it put Meralco in a quandary (Who will object, they asked.), Mang Naro was firmly resolute about taking the stand.

After all, having received and refuted Meralco’s Mani-festation and Comment cum prayer for dismissal, and armed with his own written comment totally debunking Meralco’s

manifestation, Mang Naro was ready to take on all comers.

While the main thrust of ERC Case No. 2010-034 MC is the abolition of PBR and WACC, its immediate conse-quence is Meralco’s refund of P10 Billion from what Mang Naro described as “Meralco’s rates (that) are excessive, con-fiscatory and illegal xxx.” Thus Meralco must defend PBR and WACC.

His morale boosted by a re-assuring call from Atty. Loyola that a re-direct examination would cover as much ground as could be lost at cross-examination, Mang Naro took the stand without the slightest hesitation.

And there I saw the first signs that I may have to eat crow on ERC.

Hard-put at concealing his amusement at Mang Naro’s courageous but lawyer-less stand and his respect and admiration for our 89-year-old champion shining through that fine morning, the Hearing offi-cer allowed Mang Naro to take on Meralco single-handedly.

Mang Naro quite literally had his day in court, showing off his mastery of utility eco-nomics (or hocus pocus), not mincing his words of exaspera-tion as a consumer and arguing obtuse legal points from what he holds natural and moral.

He was given full rein and control of his cross-examina-tion by Meralco, unaided by a lawyer but under the baleful eye of the Hearing Officer who made sure that our champion was not tripped on technicali-ties and procedural trickeries.

In fairness, Meralco’s lady lawyer treated Mang Naro with the patience and consideration that can only come with the years, all 89 of them in his case, although I am sure Mang Naro could hold his own even against the best of them.

It was a heart-warming hearing, the seriousness of Mang Naro’s intent notwith-standing, because the ERC Hearing Officer gave it a heart.

For that I give my highest re-spects to Atty. Noel Salvanera, Hearing Officer par excellence, who I understand is also the head of the Commission’s Legal Department.

In earlier and other hearings, I had planned to raise a big howl over the irresponsibility of the Commission in delegating major cases to lesser officials like hear-ing officers. I am glad I did not. After that hearing, I knew the consumers were in better hands than they ever will be with the Commissioners.

l Email crsng_47@hotmail.com for comments, suggestions and concerns.

Hearting with a heartI always thought the day I will have a good word for the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) was far, far off and vastly remote.

CROSSINGSButch L. Junia

came Meralco’s announce-ment that power rates will rise again by 98 cents per kWh due to higher prices from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM). This whop-ping P3.68 to P4.85 per kWh increase translates to 55 cents from Meralco, with the other half from Napocor’s alleged “under-recoveries” that were compelled by WESM’s over-charging the past years.

Even as the EPIRA law requires Meralco to source 10 percent of its power supply from the WESM, the spot market’s rate increases are never explained to the public clearly, thus ensuring that manipulation, instead of sup-posed competition, actually rules the day.

But realistically, power cost should not be subject to any volatility except for fuel and currency fluctuations which consumers pay for in price adjustments. However, the WESM, which counts among its participants the IPPs and the distributors-buyers of electricity, factors into its auctions demand and its fluctuations--something that is very prone to manipulation, as supply can be exploited with claims of “breakdown” of some plants, “unscheduled maintenance” such as when “jellyfish invasions” bogged down the Sual plant, or sup-posed El Niño effects, to cite a few easy excuses.

Furthermore, the WESM is managed by the PEMC (Phil-ippine Energy Management Corp.), which operating costs (including salaries, etc.), we consumers, pay for to the tune of P622.868 million in 2009, to an additional P108 million in late 2009, and another P800 million this year just for “trading” alone. I tell you: It’s all one big swindle!

The WESM model was actually adopted en toto from California that allowed the infamous Enron to raise power rates by faking breakdowns while leveraging its stocks until the company’s collapse,

which bankrupted the state with $50 billion in losses.

The local WESM, just the same, has been scandal-ridden since its inception, with public investigations being called again and again. To cite one of many cases: In 2010, two power utilities charged WESM for “drastic price spikes” from January 26 to February 25, and brought this up to the PEMC which passed the buck to the ERC, where nothing was resolved. Generation prices in the WESM can go as high as P19 per kWh even when production cost is really just around P4 per kWh. The thing is, Enron executives were sent to jail while the WESM executives here continue to hoodwink the nation.

For the longest time, Meralco has been raising its rates, followed by Aboitiz Power (see our article “Power 1-2-3”); now it’s WESM and Napocor; while in another time, it will be the NGCP (the former TransCo); then it’ll be Meralco’s turn again for power rate increase petitions, which the ERC never stops. The swindle just goes on and on, keeping our power rates the highest ever in Asia .

l Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Talk News TV with HTL, Tuesday, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on “The People’s Power Cham-pions: Reps. Dette Herrera and Toby Tiangco,” on Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 21; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com

CONSumERSDEmAND!Mentong Laurel

Two weeks ago, just as torrential rains compelled authorities to release water from dams, fueling expectations that the bountiful hydro power would re-duce November’s electricity costs,

Now it’s WESM’s turn

Senator Loren Legarda today reiterated her call to both the national government and local government units (LGUs) to double their efforts and act swiftly to make the country resilient to disasters and able to combat the effects of climate change.

Legarda made the statement as she noted that the Philip-pines ranked 6th in a Climate Change Vulnerability Index. Furthermore, Manila has been tagged as one of the most dangerous cities to live in if a natural hazard strikes.

“The whole world is telling us, matter-of-factly, that we are in great danger every time

a natural hazard hits us. It is telling us that we must exert greater efforts and we must act double time because we are among the countries that are most vulnerable to disasters,” the Senator stressed.

Based on the Climate Change Vulnerability Index, compiled by British-based global risks advi-sory firm Maplecroft, the Philip-pines is the world’s sixth most climate-vulnerable country, out of 170 nations. The ranking was attributed to the country’s grow-ing population who are exposed to flood, drought, storms and sea-level rise.

Meanwhile, a report from the United Nations Office for

the Coordination of Humani-tarian Affairs - Integrated Re-gional Information Networks showed that Manila, the state capital, is one of the five most dangerous cities in the world to live in when a disaster strikes because it is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire and lies in a coastal area. The presence and continuous growth of slum areas also contribute to the city’s vulnerability to disasters.

In this regard, Legarda, the UN’s Asia-Pacific Regional Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation, reiterated her call to all local leaders in the

Turn to page 13

legarda double efforts, act swiftly on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation

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6 N O V E M B E R 1 5 - 2 1, 2 0 1 0 OpinYon

Their calendar was so sophis-ticated and precise that many believe they had help from alien visitors. In that ancient prehis-toric era, no one with a crude astrological wisdom, could have possibly envisioned an entire galaxy, when it would take an-other millennia for Copernicus to say the Earth was flat and you would fall off to an abyss if you got to the edge.

The Mayan calendar has a staggering 25,800-year that they say will end on December 12, 2012. On that day, Mayan astrologers predicted the align-ment of the Earth and the Sun with the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, our very own galaxy from the trillions in the known universe. Modern as-tronomers have confirmed such an alignment to occur on that precise day. Read more about the Mayan prediction. Just click on this link – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon.

Note the numbers – 12/12/12, which in Chinese numerology is the number 6. Some astrologists suggest, as cited in many articles, the galactic alignment would occur on 11:11 o’clock in the morning, although this is subject to scientific verification.

Modern prophets of doom say that the galactic alignment may end up with the sudden reversal or change in the Earth’s polarity or magnetic field. This means the present north-pole-to-south-pole axis of the Earth’s rotation would change. It must be clari-fied that the Mayans predicted the alignment, not the cataclysm. All they said was there would be a dramatic “spiritual renewal”, whatever that means.

This article aims to inject awareness and fore knowledge rather than fear and panic to the general public. It is good for us to know that there are such predictions, whether wild and unfounded, or reasonable and based on scientific evidence. So let us wait for more evidence.

Climatologists and as-trologists say that such a polar reversal, if it would really occur on that fateful day of 12-12-12, would trigger a global cataclysm beyond human imagination. A polar reversal was theorized by many astro-physicists to have

occurred on Earth many times through the eons, evidenced by fossil and soil studies.

One of the many theories say that millions of years ago, the dinosaurs may have been reduced to extinction by such a reversal, triggering dramatic instant climate change. Tropi-cal rainforests suddenly had polar climate of freezing tem-peratures and the polar regions suddenly had warm tropical weather, triggering massive melting of polar ice caps, trig-gering in turn oceans rising by hundreds of meters. Deserts were converted to lush valleys and lush valleys into deserts. Such an occurrence today, the scientists say, would result in the destruction of half to two thirds of the human population, or 3 to 4 billion people.

Aside from the polar reversal of the Mayan galactic alignment, many other types of cataclysms were predicted, which include global warming, a nuclear war, a global pandemic, etc. Read the related story “Parts of Fa-tima’s Third Secret Still Secret”. Just click on this link – http://www.sisterraquel.com/2010/10/prayer52-pa r t s-of-fat i ma-secret-un-disclosed/.

Throughout history, Man has always related celestial events to disasters. The appearance of a comet is viewed as the omen of droughts, famine and pestilence. Some of these predictions be-came true, but many also were simply false alarms. One reaction is to wait for more scientific evi-dence to prove such predictions. Another reaction is to simply be prepared, whether physically, such as tsunami early warning systems, or spiritually, through prayers and good works.

l Reactions for the author – redgate77@gmail.com.)

Centuries before civilization came up with the lunar calendar, a very accurate and sophisticated system was conceived by the Mayans, the ancient astrologers and mathematicians of prehistory.

LIGHT &DARKNESSBernie Lopez

And the Reds do not trust the AFP, and vice versa. Our political divide is seemingly incapable of being bridged. Yes, peace is so elusive; be it here, there or everywhere. Of late, some powerful nations have issued travel advisory against travelling to The Philippines. Yes, Shalani, they fear about the threats to peace in Islas Filipinas. That said, allow me then to take my debut into this craft with a borrowed anecdote about peace.

Here goes: Right after one Sunday mass, two pre-schoolers were running helter-skelter out-side the churchyard while their mothers were carrying on with their conversation. They were so consumed about compar-ing notes, and defending their positions on intimate issues that apparently were close to their hearts as career women. It must have been their reunion of sorts, after long years of physical sepa-ration. So intense a chat they had that they forgot they both had their kids in tow who, like their mothers, were engrossed in their separate juvenile activity as well. Suddenly, one of the boys wailed exceedingly loud. And when he surfaced from nowhere, he had a bruised forehead. Tears were welling from his eyes, and he was sobbing no end.

As normal as every mother does under the same circum-stances, the mother of the un-scathed boy quizzed her own child – “Son, what did you do to him?” she asked. The joven an-swered, “Nothing, he just tripped. It was my turn to chase him after he was done chasing me.” So his mother pursued, “And why did you chase him?” The kid shot back, “Mommy, we’re just playing war – he is America and I am North Korea!” That reply floored his mother. She suffered momentary black-out. As if the entire ashfall of Mt. Bulosan were upon her.

And there was silence, until she managed to ask: “Why do you have to play war? Why not play peace instead? The boy was quiet for a brief moment; his thoughts wandered, then with an innocent look, asked her mother: “Mommy, how do you play peace?”

The boy’s mother struggled, and stammered trying to figure out how to answer her son’s inquisitiveness, but in vain.

Yes, Shalani, the mother was

unable to answer her son’s not so “major, major” question!

What about us, how do we play the game of peace? Are there rules to follow? Prescribed gadgets? Banned gears? How do you deter-mine the victor? How does one get vanquished? Who sits as umpire, referee or judge? Are there appeals? And what’s the prize?

I can only wager: very few, if at all, ever played the game before. I admit I haven’t played it myself, and I bet most haven’t either. Why so? Because, we have always taken for granted this priceless possession called peace – we cared less about what it means, what it entails, and how to pursue it. It’s unfortunate. Pitiful. We take pride in labeling ourselves as peace-loving Filipi-nos yet what do we have in our midst? In every nook and cranny of this Islas Filipinas, we always declare that we want peace; in

church we profess peace. Even in the streets we holler peace; in the haciendas, we long for peace. In verdant hills, in quiet steeples, in the savannahs, in the valleys, in villages as well as in poblaciones, we yearn for peace. I’m afraid, we know what we want, but we don’t know how to want it.

Does it surprise you, Shalani, that even in most friendly games, where everyone is expected to be amiable to one another, where every contestant is expected to square their actions by the square of their virtues, some players are still caught bullying, cheating, and employing foul tactics just to stay the course? Yet, when they open their mouth, they talk about peace in a manner that is ex cathedra; some even sound more popish than the pope.

In our bureaucracy, it’s no different. We have a peace panel, pursuing the peace process, in a manner that it loves doing best – talk. Thus we take pride as a government pursuing peace talks. And we have been talking about peace for years, for decades. It has been made a top priority of every administration. But, to no avail. The peace process has already become nauseatingly re-petitive, going around in circles. Almost always, right after the peace talks begin, the parties accused each other of insincerity, of sabotaging the talks. Then, they bury the proverbial hatchet in each other’s back. And the peace eludes us. We then brace ourselves for the consequence of failure – armed hostilities.

When election time comes, the opposition never fails to raise it as a political issue. Un-fortunately, and when the new administration comes, it makes the same overtures for peace yet repeats the same mistake again. And the same process starts anew, and hits a snag again, and it goes on and on, en secula seculorum.

During his SONA, President BSA invited the Reds to prepare some talking points on what they want discussed on the negotiating table. He sounded sincere. Yes, the Reds are in the President’s radar screen. Unfortunately, some of the President’s subalterns have been showing signs that are not in harmony with the President’s body language.

You will recall that our defense officials have been reported to have imposed some conditions to the revival of the failed peace talks. They demanded that the Reds should first lay down their arms before the peace talks can resume. And as usual, the Reds were quick to react by saying that if the government really wants peace, it should not impose pre-conditions to the resumption of the talks?

There was even a time when the new peace panel of the Aquino Administration was reportedly toying with the idea of making Charter Change a necessary pre-condition to the attainment of peace in Southern Philippines. JeJoMar!

That said, is it still any won-der that the mother failed to answer her little son’s question: “Mommy, how do we play peace?”

GAlACTIC AlIGNMENT

An omen

Playing warinstead of peace

VISTAADuANAArgee Cee

There is conflict in the Middle East, in the Korean peninsula, in the Pakistan borders, in the Spratlys, in the Sea of Japan, and in other parts of the world. Even in our very own Lupang Hinirang, the age-old conflict in the South remains contentious up to these days.

And there was silence, until she managed to ask: ‘Why do you have to play war? Why not play peace instead?’

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OpinYon N O V E M B E R 1 5 - 2 1, 2 0 1 0 7

So, when many carelessly talk about Filipino TIME, I quickly declare “Hoy, SOME Filipinos’ time, I am ON time and often EARLY for most appointments.”

Hoyyy, Huwag mong lahatin! I demand.

In fact, I often inform con-stant tardy members of the cast or technical support that traffic in Manila is a reality we have to cope with. It was NOT invented yesterday so it cannot be an excuse. Travel time must include TRAFFIC delays.

No ka, born yesterday?When in a bad mood, I shout

“Traffic is fuck of Manila life!“ And, I pronounced that word properly!

Another pet peeve I have is a bad habit of SOME Filipinos to Emerikanize their Filipino or Spanish names.

For example, I cannot abide television announcers, disc jock-eys and the like who refer to that Hispanic beauty/singer/dancer as Jennifer LOWpez as though they were not familiar with the names of Graciano LO-pez Jaena, Vice President Fernando Lopez or his brother Eugenio Lopez or that industrialist’s son Genny Lopez or those television announcers’ big boss Gabby Lopez. (I think he should demand employees learn to pronounce his name PROPERLY!)

How did the name suddenly become LowPEZ?

When did the transformation come about?

Usually, the mispronoun-ciation starts from the uni-formed Americans who wrongly mispronounce a Spanish name. So, why the heck aren’t they cor-rected by those who know better but instead follow the wrong example?

I think Martin Sheen is wrong in allowing fans of his son to call him Emilio EsteVEZ when as a mestizo (Español) Martin should realize the name is pronounced EsTEvez.

That Hispanic comedienne is wrongly referred to as Rose PeREZ instead of Rosie PE-rez like Speaker Eugenio PE-rez or Barbara PE-rez!

How can Filipinos familiar with such names bother to call them wrongly to sound Emer-

iken, Gee…Of course, I likewise am riled

when many Filipinos think it is oh-so-chic to rename our city Manelah!

Gee, give me a break ha?Manila comes from mayni-

lad, a place with a river (Pasig) with lots of the water lily nilad pronounced as neelad.

So, where did this may NELAH come from?

Ignorant American G.I.’s pronounced the name of our ancient city wrongly after the Pacific War. They turned the long ee sound into a short i. They were wrong, of course since they introduced a short i sound where it doesn’t exist.

They, of course, also wrongly pronounced historic sites like Corregidor and Bataan, sites of two of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific War.

Instead of pronouncing the first as Korehidor, Americans wrongly referred to it as Koregi-dor. The latter lost a vowel and became Batan!

How wrong can you get?But, SOME Fiipinos instead

of correcting them like fools aped them! Maneelah became Maneelah!

As that Filipina proclaimed to an international viewing audience that is MAJOR MAJOR mistake.

l BEHN CERVANTES is a cultural activist-stage-film-television-actor-director-playwright-columnist, founder of UP Repertory Company and inveterate traveler

Low-Pez et alSome Pinoys talaga since I do not approved of statements like “Filipinos talaga” since such statements include Filipinos NOT guilty of the same fault.

ETALBehn Cervantes

Mang Dolphy

He personally requested me to act as script consultant for the movie, since he wants some degree of certainty in balancing what is humorous and what is sacred. As it is the movie promises to be holy and funny at the same time. Mang Dolphy must have engaged God’s humor when the creator himself extracted the woman from Adam’s ribs. That tickled Adam’s funny bone, hence making husband and wife relationship so much fun.

Of course, Mang Dolphy would be coy as to my profes-sional fee rate as consultant. His point man Mang Fred did the asking. With the same demure, I told Mang Fred that there is no need to com-pensate me, since my whole family owes Mang Dolphy a tremendous lot. Mang Fred is aware that Mang Dolphy’s heart goes for the poor and gently asked me if there was a time the great comedian ever extended charity to our family. I said no. I told him to please tell Mang Dolphy that he may not be aware of it but he is the poor man’s hearty laugh. Ours was a poor fam-ily in the far flung province of Laguna. We had all sorts of struggles like any other mar-ginalized rural family and we had our shares of stresses and pressures especially when both ends didn’t meet. And laughter was our only recreation and escape. Mang Dolphy provided much of it.

We were a brood of six who, together with our parents would do a 10-kilometer walk to the only movie house in our town to watch a Dolphy movie to our heart’s content. Our movie houses then were unselfish and accommodating and

allowed us to watch the movie as many times as we wanted. As we quequed for the tickets, we could already hear the audience bursting into laughs which we shared in anticipation.

Then as we retraced our steps back home to the bar-rio, our laughter remained unabated trying to recall every funny scene in full contrast to the already dim-ming skies signaling the end of the day. That heart warming experience would last for as long as we wanted to recall the comical antics of Mang Dolphy---as we dined meagerly at table, as my mother laundered in the nearby stream and as we rested our backs on the dayami or haystack in the rice field during siesta time.

Mang Dolphy was the poor man’s laughter and escape in a difficult world that could have robbed us of our sensibilities and even sanity. The king of comedy’s insanity in his mov-ies would always bring back sanity to the poor people like us whose momentary comical experience would indeed fill up the hiatus between hope and hopelessness.

Of course, owing Mang Dolphy this much is no laughing matter. He de-serves every bit of gratitude my family and of course, the whole country can offer.

Long live the King of Laughter.

Now, you don’t hear her say the contrast.

Perhaps she has come to terms with reality—that there is just a thin line that separates show biz and well, if you would want to generalize it, politics.

Or there are really no more territorial boundaries between the two worlds.

Look, ma! Both are public service.A politician, from the ba-

rangay level to the executive branch, is serving the public, or as such should serve the public, by social commitment to the enhancement and improvement of the total being and the insti-tutions that come with his or her constituents, a role generally mandated by laws.

Bad social conditions should be reconstructed and replaced with a compassionate society conducive to the welfare of the majority if not all, best described by the democratic tenets.

A politician is of course, mostly elected except for some electoral cases where one is appointed for reasons also pre-scribed by laws.

Movie and television stars and other artists from a multi-level aesthetics, on the same hand, are also elected by the people or by their fans or followers of films and TV shows not excluding theater

and other forms of entertainment and the arts.

Moviegoers might not have a pen and a ballot or a televi-sion fanatic might not have an ink to blacken the tiny circle beside a candidate’s name in automated elections but they have cinema tickets pur-chased, DVD or CD, original and otherwise, bought, and a TV set tuner or remote control to elect and select the viewing fares that would stamp their approval of their idols.

An actor or an actress has the responsibility as a chosen public servant of the people to portray roles on big and small screens or on bare stage the realities of his or her milieu however harsh and ugly they maybe in relation to other elements of the bigger picture that reflect reality.

In other words, an actor has the right to complain and reject inane, illogical or unrealistic roles that obscure realism em-

ployed in any style or genre.This is, of course, just a one-

dimensional common ground among celebrities and govern-ment personalities just as there are still thousands and millions identifiable features in them.

Vilma Santos, a conscious and an innate thespian, knows this fully well however she may or may not articulate them.

• • • • • •During the celebration of

her nth natal day at her turf on Batangas City, a decoded Vilma was in sight.

She was glowing in her glori-ous court and at the same time, gnawing the provincial life of most of her people.

What could award-winning filmmakers like Jeffrey Jeturian, Adolf Alix, Jr. and Armando Lao do to beef up Santos socio-political involvement in show biz and politics?

Director Alix came all the way from Manila with prime Vilmanian Jojo Lim with script in hand handed to Vi.

“Babasahin ko muna ang script at saka ako magdi-decide,” exclaimed Vi while she walked down Batangas Provincial Mansion to a nearby legislative building.

Jeturian is writing or looking for a new screenplay adapted to the actress since his former scriptwriter and now director Lao, also known as Bing Lao, wants his script taken back and directs Vilma instead in Atty. Joji Alonso’s production.

Next year, when Vi renews her acting vows, let’s see what she can decode again for public awareness.

Decoding Vilma Santoson her nth birthdayBefore, when she was just new in her local political office as mayor or Lipa City in Batangas and later as governor of the whole province, actress Vilma Santos would say politics was an entirely different thing from show business.

THE NET[National Entertainment Today]

Boy Villasanta

Ace comedian, the king of all laughter in the Philippines is starring in a comedy movie titled, “Fr. Jejemon”, to be shown at the annual Manila Film Festival in December 2010. In this movie, he plays the role of a priest.

WATER FROmTHE ROCKLarry Faraon OP

The 82-year-old Dolphy feigned falling when the Presi-dent was putting the Grand Collar (Maringal na Kuwintas of the Order of the Golden heart) on him that elicited the familiar laughter from guests including members of the Quizon family.

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8 N O V E M B E R 1 5 - 2 1, 2 0 1 0 OpinYon

While our President is away representing us in a foreign land, we wish we could write positively about him or at least not write negatively. However, our column, as well as our paper, are on a weekly basis. We don’t have the luxury to withhold our opinion on pressing matters.And anyway, by the time we hit the coffee shops on Monday, P-Noy will be back on our soil.

Our last column was pretty hard on P-Noy and his “Midg-et, not just Little, President”, Atty.Paquito “Jojo” Ochoa. We did a tightrope walk on the boundaries of Libel. My conscience reverberated so much because my friend and OpinYon Editor Ike Seneres’s name disappeared from our Isyu # 12’s Editorial Box. Last Monday, aside from picking up complimentary copies of our paper at our Makati office, I had coffee and lunch with OpinYon Publisher Ray Junia.

I wanted to know how he and Ike felt about my Isyu # 12 column entitled, “Can P-Noy be Worse than GMA?” I had actually met and talked with Ike in a “Sorry Yellow” meet-ing the day after our column submission deadline. When I asked him if he had read and edited my column, he sounded as though it was no big deal.

That put my conscience to rest until I realized that he was gone. I went to see Ray to make sure that my column had been printed by them, not by default, but by consciously knowing what it contained.

If you are wondering why I am taking my last week’s column too seriously, it’s be-cause I said there that there is a perception that: 1) corruption at the BOC is worse now under P-Noy than before under GMA; 2) P-Noy may be gay; and 3) P-Noy must have a Happy Hour as opposed to a Midnight Cabinet. The attorneys I con-sulted about the possibility of my column having committed Libel, told me that it was clear that I was describing a percep-tion and not stating a fact.

Actually, I even explained that I was doing a daring ex-periment. I was testing how far I could go in criticizing the four and a half month old Aquino

Administration. If I spent a few hours writing my column last week, I spent the better part of my waking hours for the past week and a half discuss-ing the contents of my column and much more with dozens of groups and at least a hundred individuals of different colors and persuasions. Less than half a dozen from among my hundred strong audience ob-jected to my opinion. However, I will have to reserve those for a future column.

For now, we would like to end with a serious request for double barrelled prayers for suc-cess for our compatriots P-Noy and Manny Pacquiao. If Manny loses, it will imply that P-Noy has worse luck than GMA. It may imply that P-Noy may become our shortest lived President with worse luck than our first and thirteenth Presidents, EMILIO Aguinaldo and Joseph “ERAP“ Ejercito Estrada.

yESTERDAy,TODAy &TOmORROWLinggoy Alcuaz

Pacquiao lossbad for P-Noy! Last week, as P-Noy flew off to the APEC meeting in Japan, we wished him well silently.

For me, it was fun seeing my little ‘art’. As a child, I really didn’t know that such a petty habit will become my dream: being a writer and a journalist. However, I can’t forget the time when I punctured my finger with the sharp edge of the pen I was playing with. I saw the blood dripping on the paper. Unlike other children, I didn’t cry. I just stopped the bleeding by apply-ing pressure on the wound and just continued writing.

A couple of years later, my indifference to that experience turned into fear and disap-pointment as the target of kill-ings nowadays are primarily journalists. In the same way, the blood of journalists have been hounding the entire country. During the Arroyo administra-tion, there were over a hundred journalists who had their pens’ inks mixed with blood and their voices put into silence. Just a few days before the inauguration of the Aquino administration, three journalists in various areas in the archipelago added to the long list of killed journal-ists. Not to mention those who were slaughtered in the Magu-indanao massacre who haven’t been served justice almost a year after the incident.

Alarmed by the rise in the

number of media killings which now reached 140 as of July, the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) have summoned president Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III to resolve cases of media killings piled up in the attic. I myself appeal to him to put an end to these hostilities against jour-nalists. I don’t see any reason for his administration to be lenient towards such matter. Considered as the fourth estate of government and a watchdog for the people, the media must be protected by the legislative through enacting laws that will promote press freedom, by the executive through proper execu-tion of these enacted laws and by the judiciary through putting those unscrupulous hooligans behind bars.

In the local setting, I, being a campus journalist, am dismayed over the outcome of the past ad-

ministrations’ measures against the perpetrators responsible for these numerous killings. While I understand the perils of being a member of the press, it is sad-dening to know that the profes-sion I regard highly is not given due justice and protection by the local authorities. I personally may not be affected by the things I accomplish as a campus journal-ist, but I think of the time when I finish my Mass Communication degree and join the profession. Is this the kind of system waiting for me? That while I am performing my duty as an advocate of truth through relaying the information that the public needs, would there be a gun aimed threatening me to stop?

More than anything, journal-ists live up to their commitment of service to the public through news and information. Journal-ists are people with accountability and integrity who strive to ex-press the truth and nothing else. Journalists deserve respect and protection from authorities who must maintain peace and order in the country for the welfare of the people.

Serve justice and put an end to media killings. This is a chal-lenge I pose to President Noynoy Aquino and his government.

l Benjie T. Bondoc is the current associate editor of PAMAN-TASAN, the official students’ publication of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) a GPN member.

Way back in my childhood days, I often played with pens and papers in our house. I would always write anything with the pens on the paper.

Protect press freedom:A challenge to Noynoy

GREEN PENNETWORKBenjamin T. Bondoc

But for those who are aware of the daily spins in media, where most of the time became the witting and unwitting tool in feeding the public, it is easier to draw the line between truth and a lie. As an observer of events, we can say that where fact ends, lies and bigger lies begin, thus, creating delusion in the process.

The recent bomb scare allegedly found inside an ink cartridge in a plane bound for Chicago, USA brought an alarming truth to this false alarm and was clearly reported that – “After having examined the suspicious ink toner device for six hours and found it to be a dud, bomb experts at East Midlands Airport only reversed their decision after being or-dered to re-inspect the package by US authorities following President Obama’s Friday afternoon speech in which he claimed that the devices did in fact contain explosives”. (Did Obama order British Authori-ties to Find Non-Existent Ink Bomb? Paul Joseph Watson of Prison Planet.com) The telling contradiction in the timeline

of the cargo bomb plot fiasco proves that the story was being hyped and manipulated at early stages.

Despite the fact that authori-ties not only in the UK but also in the cases of the Newark and Pittsburgh packages, initially gave the “all clear,” according to CNN, President Obama, having already been informed of the plot the night before, simply contradicted the very experts who had dismissed the devices as duds, claiming the packages contained explosives. This soon mushroomed into a media scaremongering blitz about powerful explosives that could have knocked dozens of planes out of the sky. (Ibid)

Now that the predicate was laid, it is but logical to ask – who benefits? (Note: I will elaborate this terror scare in global per-spective on my next article. Let me focus first here at home.)

Our country is one of the casualties here, as one foreign government after another gave their travel advisory that PH is faced by an imminent terrorist attack, particularly Manila. We refer to Ambassador, Harry K. Thomas, Jr.’s statement after the inauguration of President Aquino III: “I don’t see the Philippines as a breeder of ter-rorism but I see the Philippines as a partner to rid the world of terrorists.”

And at the Joint Special Op-erations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P) change of command ceremony last July 3, Amb. Thomas said that the rebel groups Abu Sayyaf, Jemaah

Islamiyah and Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM) have become much weaker.

With the above mentioned reports, why is it that the US government was among the first who issued the travel warning against the Philippines?

Again, we have nothing against the Americans, like us, majority of them are being taken for a ride here on the global war on terror (GWOT) which took effect after the 9/11 bombing. But let us all be clear as to the credibility of the said terror threat. As a nation that had suffered enough terrorism, we just cannot take this sitting down.

It is good that President Benigno Aquino III said that

foreign governments were wrong in warn-ing of an imminent terrorist attack in Manila. Government security forces even downplayed separate arrests of five men and the seizure from them of explosives, which were meant for fishing rather than bombing. It was President Aquino’s

strongest statement yet in the past few days against what he had described as unsubstanti-ated intelligence reports on the supposed terror strike in Metro Manila.

Meanwhile, Philippine In-stitute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research (PIPVTR) executive director Rommel Banlaoi, after he announced that the “bomb expert” is linked to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and had stayed in Mount Cararao, Maguindanao a few months ago and has made contact with the Abu Sayyaf, travel warnings were issued. It became a “gospel truth” after his group predicated it at an international security forum at Dusit Hotel last October 29. In local lingo-”NABILI NA YAN.” “LUMANG SCRIPT NA YAN.’

Who are we going to believe, Marine General Ben Dolorfino, a converted Muslim and a real expert on jihadists or a “security expert” Prof. Rommel Banlaoi? PIPVTR should have coordinated what they know, as courtesy to our DND, NSC, NICA or ISAFP so as to assist in apprehending these terrorists.

There is no hope to this country if we will be part of the scare-mongering. Let us be steadfast in protecting our nation against state-sponsored terrorism. The alarm bells for truth should be louder than that of the false alarms being concocted by evil-minded, heartless individuals who could be working for foreign govern-ments or vested interests.

God bless the Philippines!

The alarming falsehood and half-truthIn today’s world of high technology and fast paced communication, people find it hard to absorb all the available information.

WHISTLEBLOWERErick San Juan

It is good that President Benigno Aquino III said that foreign governments were wrong in warning of an imminent terrorist attack in Manila.

I said there that there is a perception that corruption at the BOC is worse now under P Noy than before under GMA

The Only Opinion Paper, We Take a STand LABOR

OpinYon N O V E M B E R 1 5 - 2 1, 2 0 1 0 9

Death cannot be prouder or mightily dreadful, to para-phrase the poet John Donne, than to see a friend die from persecution, an accident or disease.

Carlito Rallistan, a labor leader, succumbs to a long lingering illness last Oct. 30. He was 68 years old. He died because he no longer had money to buy medicines for his diabetes, asthma and rheu-matic heart.

Ka Lito, as he is fondly called by his friends and associates in the trade union movement, spent all his adult life organiz-ing workers, forming unions, negotiating collective bargain-ing agreements, sleeping in the picket lines or marching in the streets for jobs, freedom and justice.

In the early 70s, Ka Lito had his first taste of unionism at the Northern Motors plant in Kamagong, Makati City. Hired as a scab to break a picket line, he later joined the local union and rose to become its president. In the tumultuous years of the 80s he succeeded in liberating a worker’s federa-tion from the clutches of yellow labor dealers. His union, the Association of Democratic Labor Organizations (ADLO) was a founding member of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU)

where he rose to become vice-chairman in the late 80s.

Ka Lito served the workers with honor, courage and com-passion. He persevered in the difficult task of building trade unions in the 1990s. In between organizing workers, holding labor seminars and speaking in public rallies, Ka Lito served as “ninong” in church weddings or godfather to workers’ sons and daughthers. He ran and won as a “kagawad” in his “barangay” in Santa Ana, Manila.

With the split in the radical trade union movement in the early 90s, Ka Lito found himself on one side and help organize the National Confederation of Labor (NCL). Another split led to the formation of the Kon-greso ng Pagkakaisa ng Mang-gagawa sa Pilipinas (KPMP) in 2002. Among the founding members of the KPMP were NAFLU (National Federation of Labor Unions); NLU (Na-tional Labor Union); PALEA

(Philippine Airlines Employees Association) and ADLO (As-sociation of Democratic Labor Organizations).

Aside from his involvement in trade union work, Ka Lito was also active in the broad social movement for change. He was a founding official and later be-came chairman for two consecu-tive terms of the Alab Katipunan (AK). Together with former Sen. Wigberto “Ka Bobby” Tanada, industrialist Meneleo “Ito” Carlos, feminist Mars Mendoza, fair trade advocate Ember Cruz, labor lawyer Ernesto Arellano and UP professor Rene Ofreneo among others, he was a found-ing convenor of the Fair Trade Alliance (FTA). At the height of the oust-GMA campaign, he helped form the Laban ng Masa (LnM) whose chair was former UP President Dr. Francisco “Ka Dodong” Nemenzo Jr.

Like the rest of his fallen brethren in the labor movement, Ka Lito is truly a leader of the working class. Ka Bert Olalia, his mentor, died of pneumonia in his detention cell at Camp Crame. Ka Bel (Crispin Beltran) his former colleague in the KMU, died in an accident when he fell from the rooftop of his rented apartment. Douglas Dumanon, another comrade in the labor movement, died from cancer of the throat early this year. They all died poor. Trade union leaders die poor. Perhaps, it is in this light that the suggestion to put up a mortuary fund must be taken up again, this time in earnest.

Turn to page 13

Death be not proudThere is nothing more painful for trade unionists than live to see a comrade die helplessly poor. So, why not a mortuary fund for trade union leaders?

THINKLABORDave Diwa

A piece of mindfor OFWs

And how many of them even had problems bringing the bodies of their departed loved ones back home?

How many Overseas Fili-pino Workers (OFW) had to beg money for food in their host countries just because their employers did not pay them their salaries? And how many families back home had to bear the anxiety and stress of not knowing the fate of their sick loved ones abroad?

These are just some of the common woes among OFW families. But under the new compulsory insurance cover-age program for agency-hired migrant workers which took effect last November 8, 2010, all these are now things of the past. An early Christmas, indeed, for OFWs.

However, even only in its first week of implementation, the compulsory insurance program has already raised mixed reactions from industry players and labor importing countries.

Overseas manpower placement agencies, in oppos-ing the mandatory insurance program say, it will affect the viability of their operations as they will have to take it from the service fees paid to them by their foreign employers, should their foreign princi-pals decide not to shoulder the added cost of insurance. The estimated cost for the two years insurance coverage is about US$ 144.00. Under the Law, this cost cannot be charged to the workers.

Hong Kong employers for their part, a major market for Filipino domestic helpers, have requested for an exemp-tion from the compulsory in-surance program saying that they already provide insur-ance coverage to their foreign workers in Hong Kong.

But amidst the frenzy about the compulsory insurance program for agency-hired workers, the big winners are the OFWs.

What then, are the provi-sions in the compulsory insurance program, for OFWs to celebrate?

The mandatory ben-efits provided in the OFWs compulsory insurance program are: US$ 15,000.00 for accidental death, US$ 10,000.00 for natural death, US$ 7,500.00 for permanent total disability, repatriation

costs of worker, subsistence allowance benefit of US$ 100.00 per month for a maximum of six (6) months for an OFW involved in a case or litigation for the protection of his/her rights in the receiving country, settlement claims equivalent to at least three (3) months salaries for every year of the OFW’s employment contract, compassionate visit of one (1) family member or any requested individual when the OFW is hospitalized for at least seven (7) consecutive days, medical evacuation when medical facilities are not adequate proximate to the OFWs workplace and

medical repatriation to the Philippines when necessary.

The newly imple-mented compulsory insurance program for agency-hired workers is probably the best thing that ever happened to OFWs. It is so compre-hensive that almost all the anticipated final and medical needs of migrant workers have been addressed. In fact, it practically puts the benefits provided by

the Overseas Workers Wel-fare Administration (OWWA) in the dust bin.

The compassionate visit benefit, for instance, is just one of the many unique benefits of the program that will enable a family member or any requested individual of a sick OFW to visit him/her at his/her host country.

That is how practical and comprehensive the compul-sory insurance program for OFWs is, but I cannot under-stand why recruitment agen-cies are against it. Obviously, it strengthens the protection of OFWs while working in their host countries. And it protects the recruitment agencies as well. With the compulsory in-surance program, recruitment agencies will no longer worry about repatriation, settlement claims for unpaid wages from their deployed workers, and medical assistance for their ailing OFWs.

The compulsory insurance program is practically a win-win for OFWs and recruit-ment agencies. However, If they can’t charge it to their foreign employers, agency owners will just have to be happy with reduced profits. After all, even after paying the cost of insurance, their profits from every deployed worker could still be in several thousand pesos.

How many families of Filipino migrant work-ers are now crawling in poverty just because their dollar-earning bread winner died, while working somewhere around the globe?

THE mIGRANTWORKERCeeJay

The more lucrative enter-prises that we have, the more people who would be able to enjoy stable jobs, higher sala-ries, more benefits and better perks. It’s as simple as that.

The key to better quality of life for most Filipinos is to have many profitable business es-tablishments widely operating and fully employing our work-force. In short, we need a lot of investors and entrepreneurs who will create jobs, jobs and more jobs for Filipinos. This is the time-tested proven formula for poverty alleviation.

Unfortunately, in the pur-suit for more and more profits, businessmen have the natural tendency to become overly greedy and selfish at the ex-pense of their workers. This is the reason why we have labor laws. Workers must be assured of their fair share in the success of the business establishments where they toiled with their blood, sweat and tears. The law of supply and demand cannot be allowed to solely determine workers’ compensation and benefits. Otherwise, workers who contributed to the success of the business will not only be cheated of their share. They will also lose their jobs, as the vast army of the unemployed is out there in cold waiting and

willing to take their places at half their present wages.

Thus, the proliferation of industries must be encouraged as a top priority, and we must give to them an all out sup-port and incentives to ensure their profitability, growth and expansion. By helping the business sector succeed, we in-directly help the working class find suitable employments, decent livelihoods, and other opportunities. Yet, vigilance against the abusive practices of some unscrupulous business-men who prey on our lowly laborers must be maintained at all times. But never to the extent of pampering workers, as their insatiable hunger for more benefits and dole-outs may kill the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg.

Somewhere in between, soci-ety needs to strike a balance. If we favor the business sector too much, oppression of the working class will ensue, which can lead

to social unrest and eventually, revolution. If we favor the labor sector too much, there will be capital flight and businesses will close down, which will result in massive unemployment and economic stagnation, and again, in revolution. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and its attached agen-cies, the National Labor Rela-tion Commission (NLRC), in particular, are at the forefront in maintaining the desired balance and harmony in industrial rela-tions. Not too many knows that labor-management relations are actually a top national security concern.

Among the many major issues that DOLE and NLRC face is the thorny issue of contractualization of labor, more popularly known today as business process out-sourcing, or simply outsourcing. The business sector has insisted that companies should be given unbridled leeway to embrace outsourcing as a strategy and solution to ensure their survival and competitiveness in the global economy. Pro-labor activists, on the other hand, countered that employers are rampantly violat-ing labor’s rights and evading their lawful obligations to their employees under the guise of outsourcing. And the policy debates and labor disputes go on and on ad infinitum.

In the Philippines, outsourc-ing is heavily regulated by DOLE and NLRC because of certain antiquated provisions

Turn to page 13

What’s wrong with contractualization of labor? 3Everyone wants stable jobs, higher salaries, more benefits and better perks. These can only be provided by a very lucrative enterprise.

COMPulSORY INSuRANCE

THEmINESWEEPERApollo X.C.S. Sangalang

The newly imple-mented compulsory insurance program for agency-hired workers is probably the best thing that ever happened to OFWs. 

The Only Opinion Paper, We Take a STandGENERAL INTEREST

10 N O V E M B E R 1 5 - 2 1, 2 0 1 0 OpinYon

These are products of the mind like songs, stories, brands, and inventions. The most common challenge that an owner of intellectual prop-erty encounters is copying. Although it has been said that imitation is the highest form of flattery, it hurts terribly when the imitation results in com-mercial or moral advantage to the copycat at the expense of the original creator.

Under the present law in the country, copyright – the IP over literary and artistic works – lasts as long as the author or creator is alive until 50 years after his

death. After the author’s death, the copyright lapses and the work forms part of the public domain, free and open for public use. This means that the right to profit from the work expires 50 years after the death of the author. The work is for sale until after the expiration of the 50 years from the author’s death. After that, one can freely

reproduce it without having to pay. Note, however, that the moral right to be given credit as the author of the work does not expire. This aspect of copyright is also called the author’s right

of paternity over his work. Even if Jose Rizal no longer profits from the publication, distri-bution and sale of his novels, anyone who shares or reproduces Rizal’s novels must still respect his right of paternity over the work, meaning they must give credit to him as an author by keeping the by-line (The “Noli Me Tan-

gere by Jose Rizal” cannot be changed to “Noli Me Tangere by Sara Jane Suguitan”) and by keeping the work as it is, meaning one cannot distort the content of the novel. Adapta-tions and interpretations are a different matter.

One of the key principles of copyright law is that there is no need to register your copyright.

There is automatic protection from the moment of creation. “Copyright exists from the mo-ment of creation,” said Article 5(2) of the Berne Convention; §172.2, of the IP Code, and the Supreme Court in the case of Unilever versus Court of Ap-peals in 2006.

So why is there a need to register with the National Library? There are two reasons why works are registered and deposited in the National Library and the Supreme Court library – to keep a record of the works (§191, IP Code) and for evidentiary purposes. In case of damages claimed for illegal copying (infringement), the au-thor can cite his or her registry with the Library as evidence that he or she first wrote or created the work. The Supreme Court made this holding in 1996 when it decided the case of Columbia Pictures versus Court of Appeals.

Once before, I came across a news article reporting that Madonna was accusing Gwen Stefani and Lady Gaga of copy-ing her style, her fashion, and even her lyrics. I did my research and found this passage from an encyclopedia of American jurisprudence (AmJur), “The author must almost inevitably work from old materials, from known themes or plots or his-torical events, because, except as knowledge unfolds and history takes place, there is nothing new with which to work.” Let me also quote Gwen Stefani’s comment, “Name one girl my age who wasn’t inspired by her.”

l Atty. Suguitan is an election lawyer and intellectual property rights specialist. Email sara.suguitan@gmail.com

REGISTEREDAtty. Sara Jane A. Suguitan

How to obtain copyrightThe world generates, creates and innovates intellectual property every minute. Intellectual property (IP) is property that is intangible.

Judging from the muffled giggling and undisguised irrita-tion that the remark above elic-ited from the students of Xavier School for Boys in Greenhills at their recently concluded Com-ics Forum, one is tempted to say that comic books have suc-cessfully penetrated Philippine popular culture. At the very least, comic books seem to have been successfully introduced to the students of Xavier School, notwithstanding the lack of mutant powers in its student population.

But other than to point to the eternal struggle between the geeks and the jocks, which has been documented more fully and to greater effect in the movies, what are comic books good for?

Quite a lot, actually. Many progressive educators believe that comic books may be used to inculcate, to borrow from Antoine de Saint Exupery, “what is essential” yet “invisible to the eye”: the desire to learn.

According to one of the leading thinkers in the field of sequential art, Scott McCloud, comics are “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer”. As such, there are at least four good reasons why

people should read comics.First, simply determining

whether the images are jux-taposed involves the critical thinking process. The reader learns to distinguish one image from another. Furthermore, the reader learns that while these images might mean something when considered separately, they could mean something else entirely when considered as a whole.

Second, once the images are considered both as individual images and images that convey a slightly different meaning when combined, it becomes important to follow these images in sequence. Why? Because images in sequence tell a story. Human beings are genetically hardwired to respond to stories.

Third, juxtaposed im-ages that appear in sequence demand a response from the reader. This phenomenon may

be seen most clearly in the spaces in between the panels– the gutter. In his book Un-derstanding Comics McCloud explains “…in the limbo of the gutter, human imagination takes two separate images and transforms them into a single idea. Nothing is seen between the two panels, but experience tells you something must be there!” Human beings connect these fractured moments and mentally construct a continu-ous, unified reality which al-lows them to make sense of the sequence they were presented with. This very human need for closure gives new meaning to the old Jerry Maguire catch-phrase: “You complete me.”

Fourth and most importantly, since reading comics demands a response, comic book readers cannot be ambivalent about what they read. Either they like it or they don’t. Because comics involve the reader on an intimate level, readers are encouraged to retain what they have read. As Confucius noted, “Teach me and I will forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will understand.”

Reading comic books en-courages understanding. And wanting to make sense of what we’ve read is what learning is all about.

l Mr. Borra is a blogger who now brings his wit and wisdom to the print media.

You complete me“What? You’re not mutants? I thought this was the Xavier School for Gifted Students?”

BLOGIN PRINTJohn-D Borra

One for the law books: Politics of education 2

the process of decision making and organizing in society; the state’s regulation of institutions; or, the creation, desconstruc-tion and recreation of mean-ings? Clearly education is most political.

Just last year, reports came out that the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) wants to convert Local Univer-sities and Colleges (LUCs) into community colleges and poly-technic schools. Reports have pointed out that former CHED Chairperson Dr. Emmanuel “Manny” Angeles views the proliferation of LUCs as affect-ing the quality of higher educa-tion in the country. These LUCs are seen as “just duplicating the functions of state universi-ties and colleges (SUC)” and therefore CHED plans to push for their conversion following a justice department’s ruling that “the commission has supervi-sion and control powers over LUCs despite the autonomy granted to local government units under Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991.”

Local Government Units should be providing the mini-mum standards and guidelines for compliance for LGU-run schools in accordance with the declared state policies on higher education as well as the policies, standards and thrusts of the CHED under RA No. 7722 or the “Higher Education Act of 1994”. This law declares that (Sec. 2): “The State shall protect, foster and promote the right of all citizens to affordable quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to ensure that education shall be accessible to all. The State shall likewise ensure and protect academic freedom and shall promote its exercise and observance... State-supported institutions of higher learn-ing shall gear their programs to national, regional or local development plans. Finally, all institutions of higher learning shall exemplify through their physical and natural surround-ings the dignity and beauty of, as well as their pride in, the intellectual and scholarly life.”

On May 26, 2009, the De-partment of Interior and Local Government came out with a Memorandum Circular (2009-67) addressed to all key local government officials and heads of LCUs. Entitled “Guidelines on the establishment of local colleges and universities by local governments, and on the operation of higher education programs.”

Based on this guideline, all institutions of higher learning established by local govern-ments should start out as local colleges. They may only gain the status of university after complying with particular CHED requirements. Now, even more specific to the inter-nal politics and the dynamics of the formal learning institution and the local government, the guidelines clearly spell out that: “A local college shall commence operation only after its Govern-ing Board is duly constituted and its President appointed for a fixed term of four (4) years.”

In light of these policies and guidelines, I invite everyone to look into their own local expe-rience. For instance, you can

ask , does my local government helping “ensure affordable quality education at all levels” and is there a concern for the “protection of academic free-dom” in our local institutions of learning? Do our LUCs “gear their programs to national, regional or local development plans” as specified by the CHED guidelines?

Of late, LUCs have rather speedily sprouted across Metro Manila. In the past few years, as we have seen business magnates acquire private higher education institutions, we witness too Manila local governments setting up their respective LUCs. Hence, we see the rise of the likes of the the City College of Manila (notwithstanding the existence of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila), the University of Makati, the Pamantasan ng Pasig, the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Marikina, and the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Pasay.

Taguig offers a particularly good case study in local gov-ernance of what fashions itself as a University. In Taguig, what initially was referred to as the Pamantasan ng Lung-sod ng Taguig or PLT is now the “TCU”—the Taguig City University—with its barely two-year old edifice in blue, lit-erally, and its Board of Regents, its Governing Board as identi-fied in the DILG guidelines, in a potential clash with the pink, figuratively, of City Hall.

TCU was created by Taguig City ordinance no. 29, series of 2004 as amended by ordinance no. 10, series of 2008 and or-dinance no. 12, series of 2010. TCU was created to provide “quality and globally competi-tive education” for the people of Taguig.

Notably, with the latest amendments to the original ordinance, Taguig City may pride itself as having the first local ordinance that attempts to depoliticize, to the extent possible, the governance of a local university. With only two local officials sitting ex-officio in its governing board, the City Council Committee Head on Finance and on Education, TCU has the distinction of having a relatively independent board.

City Hall, however, still holds the coffers of the Univer-sity. It is the City Mayor that effectively holds the power of signing all personnel contracts of even those of the faculty and University officials. In this case, what I jokingly refer to in my political science classes as the ‘golden rule of political economy’ seems most apropos: she who holds the gold, rules.

We may want to more closely look at what is happening in our local colleges and universities. Let’s monitor the developments in Taguig. The potential issues arising out of TCU’s situation now should be, if I may put it, one for the law books.

Last week I asked, how can education be a politically neutral human activity if by politics we mean:

PONDERING POLITICSLouie C. Montemar

There is no need to register your copyright. There is automatic protection from the moment of creation. ‘Copyright exists from the moment of creation,’ said Article 5(2) of the Berne Convention...

The Only Opinion Paper, We Take a STand

OpinYon N O V E M B E R 1 5 - 2 1, 2 0 1 0 11

TRAVEL / ENVIRONMENT

Along the countless esteros and fetid creeks that meander through the metropolis, or under bridges and inside culverts, thousands of families build what passes as homes: scraps of wood or tin, discarded tarpaulins, old rubber tires and flimsy planks.

Metro Manila has a daytime population of 14 million, or 15 percent of the over 95 mil-lion inhabitants of the whole country, jostling for space in a highly-urbanized area roughly two percent of the archipelago’s land mass. Over half of this population is considered to belong to the sector of informal settlers, or derisively called ‘squatters’ -- no defined prop-erty rights over their places of shelter. Like the well-known favelas of Rio de Janiero, the squalid environs of teeming informal settlements all over the city increasingly define the urban Manila landscape.

This week’s headlines have brought us face to face with the harsh reality of a demographic bulge. “Philippine population growth rate the fastest in the re-gion,” one daily averred. From the time President Noynoy Aquino took office on June 30 this year, an estimated 600,000 new Filipinos have been born, around 5,000 babies every day. Considering the predominantly young demographic – 65 per-cent below the age of 35 – the present population growth rate of 2.04 percent, higher than any of those in the region, is not expected to slow down for at least another generation.

The Population Commis-sion states that one in every

four women aged 15 to 24, especially in rural areas where access to schools is limited, is already child-bearing. Even if couples at this reproduc-tive stage were to have only two children, the country’s population would continue to burgeon for another 50 years. If we add close to two million

people every year – one, say, Davao City every year – that would mean more than 12 mil-lion more Filipinos by the time President Aquino finishes his term in 2016. If the Population Commission says there will be 95 million Filipinos by the end of the year, there will be 108 or 110 million by 2016, more than double the population when President Aquino’s mother came to power in 1986.

What does this all mean? Where do we see the country in the next 10, 20, 50 years? Some groups or organized religions

like the Catholic Church which oppose any public programs on family planning or reproductive health, argue that population is not the problem, but widespread corruption and the inequitable distribution or use of resources. There is enough, they say, for an increasingly growing population, and the world is not wanting in the resources to feed everyone.

What such arguments overlook is the fact that even with more equity and less social disparities, there is such a thing as the earth’s ‘carrying capacity’ and that the bounties of nature, while seemingly abundant, are finite. Any ecologist will tell us that when the ecosystems that provide us with life-support processes and services – clean air, clean water, forests, coastal resources, agricultural land – are strained or damaged, human life is itself imperiled and societies made unsustainable.

Surely a population of 100 million Filipinos, and another 10 million or more in the next decade, have far-reaching implications – on food security,

education, health, employment, economic opportunity. Not to mention the deleterious im-pacts on the environment and the growing vulnerabilities of human communities that arise from climate change.

This behooves government and all sectors of society to take a long hard look at what faces us as Filipinos and com-mon inhabitants of one fragile planet – and peer into the future – so as to chart the kind of path that bears all forms of life sustainably, and saves us, perchance, from ourselves.

Demographic bulgeThe sight of homeless human beings – infants, children, mothers, fathers -- just like every one of us, sprawled on urban sidestreets and narrow alleys at night, makeshift carts or claptrap material serving as dwellings, jars the senses.

FREECORNERDr. Neric Acosta

They are partof our lives

From Batanes to Sulu, many of our people depend for their livelihood on our coastal and marine resources - as well as for their toilet needs.

Many of our fisherfolks in Batangas are having a hard time earning money as their bay is contaminated with Red Tide. Tahong and other sea-shells cannot be sold, much less eaten, as the red poison renders them worthless. However, the outbreak of Red Tide in Batan-gas is not the usually seasonal “red alert” in coastal areas as it affected five to seven bays.

Despite having the Clean Water Act passed by Congress five years ago, our bays, seas and lakes are still polluted - the primary reason of this unusual outbreak of Red Tide. Every year, the fish harvest in the Philippines is declining rapidly. It’s so fast that it has alarmed fish experts worldwide.

Ironic as it seems, people from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) don’t look alarmed at all. They don’t mind if Red Tide is affecting the economy of our country; they don’t mind if Red Tide doesn’t only kill the aquatic resources but it also kill the livelihood of people who barely earn with their catches.

Rep. Jose Carlo “Boying” L. Cari, a neophyte lawmaker from the 5th district of Leyte, comes to the rescue. Stemming from his youthful vigor and ideals, he said that government should make a serious push in protecting and preserving our marine resources. He added that the national government must seriously address the de-struction of our coastal marine resources, which includes the unusual outbreak of Red Tide, by enlisting the cooperation of all local government units (LGU) where the affected coastal areas are located. If the LGUs

will improve the coastal areas with excellent management and superb administration, our beloved fisherfolks can expect plentiful harvest and in turn will bring more income to their pockets.

Rep. Cari also said that LGUs that are located in coastal lines should be be given 2 percent from the Internal Revenue Al-lotment (IRA). He filed House bill no.3073 in the House of Representatives which provides a change in the allocation of the IRA received by cities and municipalities. It amends Section 138 of Repubic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code of the Philippines. The bill aims to de-velop and preserve the country’s fisheries and aquatic resources by providing more funds to it.

The IRA shares are divided into three parts; 50 percent for population, 25 percent for land area and 25 percent for equal sharing. He also explained that the IRA of the provinces will not affect the coastal areas and is only applicable for cities and municipalities. Rep. Cari added that with the 2 percent IRA share for coastal area, LGUs can expect a P3 million increase in IRA but they can only use it for programs and policies for the development and preservation of local fisheries and marine life.

Let us be united in taking care of our bays and seas as they are part of our lives. We cannot live without our marine resources.

Being an archipelago, many of our cities and municipalities are located in coastal areas.

VIS-mINCONNECTIONNestor L. Abrematea

For the sake of keeping my sanity in this fast-paced world, I find peace, solace, and comfort in travelling.

I have travelled to differ-ent parts of the world: North America, Europe, Middle East countries, Africa, Asia, and the Philippines. If there is something I am proud to have observed and concluded, it is the FACT that we have the best beaches right in our own coun-try. The lucky combination of fine sand, clear water and just the right tropical climate found in the Philippines makes for a perfect beach destination for any tourist in the world. Bora-cay is just pefect!

I went to Phuket on a recent trip. I was so excited to jump

in the beach and frolick in the sand which is why I was al-ready wearing my bathing suit inside the clothes I wore during my plane ride. Lo and behold when the tour guide brought me to the beach strip I looked around and thought to myself maybe there was still another real Phuket beach strip. He told me that it was indeed the one already. I immediately had that feeling of travelling so many miles and getting so excited all to realize that this was the kind of beach experience I would find. The sand was not fine, it was not white, the water was not crystal blue. Immediately, I missed Boracay.

As a traveller, one will not realize how nice one’s country

is until he or she has travelled so far and gets to compare. And then finally say… there’s no place like home.

The travel to Phuket made me realize that if only the Philip-pines had as much budget for its Department of Tourism as much as that allocated for Phuket by the government of Thailand, then the Philippines can also

hype and market its beach des-tinations as well as how Phuket, Maldives and Bali are so well ad-vertised. Just imagine, because of the effect of this advertising spree, there are hourly trips from Bangkok going to Phuket on 747 airplanes. Imagine the volume of tourists coming into Phuket. In the Philippines, we have 19 seater planes going to Boracay every hour. This is a matter of country marketing. And country marketing is a matter of funding.

Having said all these, whether it is Boracay, Dumaguete, or Palawan…. Our beaches are perfect but the world needs to know this. At least when we claim that we have the best, we really mean the very best!!!

TRAVELLINGIS my LIFEMarivic Del Pilar

The Philippines has the best beaches in the worldSome women are addicted to cigarettes, some are addicted to shopping. I am addicted to travelling.

Surely a population of 100 million Filipi-nos, and another 10 million or more in the next decade, have far-reaching implications – on food security, education, health, em-ployment, economic opportunity.

The Only Opinion Paper, We Take a STandGENERAL INTEREST

12 N O V E M B E R 1 5 - 2 1, 2 0 1 0 OpinYon

Ironically the poor in the city are truly the impoverished, where the seats of government are all located. And what do we do about it. Rather than strategize a better life, gov-ernment doles out conditional cash transfers (CCA). Poorest of the poor now estimated by the DSWD to be no less than 3 million will receive CCA of Php 1,400.00 with conditions attached that their kids attend school and pregnant mothers go to health centers for as-sistance. This is the attempt to fulfill the millennium devel-opment goals and objectives in reducing poverty.

Other than the urban poor; Filipinos are not necessarily starving. But hold on… Maybe I could stand corrected with Mindanao. This country is rich and food grows everywhere unlike in the barren fields of most other continents. Rice & vegetables are in abundance. Diets in rural areas are health-ier compared to the city. Even when government is remiss with healthcare. So why are we plagued with migration in cities that generate poverty and hunger? Can it be the glamour the urban areas promote. There is no entertainment and activity in the rural areas other than working the fields. What is life

without excitement? According to new data from

the US Census, 14.3% of Ameri-cans are poor, up some 13% the previous year accordingly translating to nearly 4 million people, its second highest jump since 1960. There is no better description of hunger than pov-erty. So with unemployment at reported 10% and climbing, the US poverty levels are ever increasing. A million children were hungry in 2008, a 56% percent jump from last year, the US Department of Agriculture says. A whopping 25% of its children experienced “food insecurity” which translates, in the vernacular, “sometimes not having enough to eat.” (1) Statistics at a 300 million population, at 14.3% sum up to 43 million on poverty levels. A whopping statistic considering we promote ourselves poor and starving. Of course with indolence, one starves and dies.

Government should provide health care, medical support, peace and order. Infrastructure for growth should be sustain-ing. Local leaders given their mandates are remiss and me-tastasize into oligarchies which keep in bondage the people and progress.

TV lures the rural folks into the cities. Congratulations to Wiling Willie (what a show, and on prime time as well). The glamour is mesmerizing to those who have redundant lifestyles. It is not necessar-ily the broadcasters who are at fault with the falsities peddled but the advertisers who are out for a sale regardless of morality, truthfulness and values. The audacity to award themselves, worse advertise their conquests is astonishing. The world of make believe enthralls viewers watching mindless of their environment as they transform themselves into the world of make believe which distort their views and worse, destroy morality. Now if government was serious about reducing poverty and making the people happy and healthy, it should put a cap on rice. But at this rate we will see rice at Php 50 per kilo. This we need… and to purchase with cash; cash that is not avail-able. Soon the NFA mandated to keep the price stable will be gone. I agree, it is not easy to run a government especially when we care. But we need to keep trying.

Filipinos are not starving. And we are not necessarily impoverished, except that politicians say we are to promote themselves

No hungry pinoys

TALKTO HARRyHarry Tambuatco

President Aquino’s P1.645 trillion national budget for next year has been passed with hardly any corrections.

“Hardly any,” because what were corrected by the congressmen were corrected to favor themselves with additional pork barrel al-locations, while the items that were retained are, of course,

beneficial to Malacanang.What this newspaper had

earlier branded as “a bad budget,” because of its flaws that will put the government in a tighter fiscal position in the future and the dispropor-tionate allocations that favor certain agencies led by favored allies, has been passed by a vote of 175-21.

Mr. Aquino could not be accused of imposing his will upon the congressmen,

although they passed the bud-get without further debates on the same day that he certified the budget bill as an urgent measure.

Mr. Aquino had also lob-bied to congressmen in his State of the Nation Address and in several press confer-ences to retain the P21-billion budget for his conditional cash transfer program, a throwback to the Arroyo administration’s cash dole-out program.

He could not be accused of imposing his will because the congressmen themselves have arranged some sort of a quid pro quo in demanding for P50 million more in pork barrel funds if their districts do not yet have that minimum al-location of P50 million worth of infrastructure projects.

The horse-traders argued that former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had insti-tuted the inequitable distribu-

tion of the 2011 budget with the approval during her term of P2.2 billion in flood-control and infrastructure projects in her district in which she then intended to represent in Congress.

Arroyo’s camp said the P2.2 billion budget for flood-control in Pampanga, which will be funded jointly by loans from Japan and Korea and counterpart funding from the Philippines, was approved not during her term, while Malacanang, in keeping with the script, said the P2.2 bil-lion budget for Mrs. Arroyo’s district is not part of her pork barrel because she has no discretion in how that budget will be administered.

Although the Aquino government had promised to pursue the straight path, it has allowed the same brand of negotiations through pork barrel allocations in the delib-erations for the approval of the budget.

The ruling Liberal Party has assured that every congress-man would not have his pork barrel withheld on account of his political affiliation. But the pork barrel is still the ruling party’s leverage in negotiating for its pet bills in Congress by controlling how much each congressman gets on top of the P70 million he is allocated through his regular pork bar-rel. Any increase invariably would have to be shouldered by the taxpayer.

Despite the strident opposition at the House of Representatives, which supposedly enjoys the power of the purse among the branches of the government,

Budget passed through additional pork

PuBLICPRImERDavid Cagahastian

Blacklisting vs suspension

With respect to fat govern-ment contracts, the Supreme Court has time and again ruled that “public bidding” is the way to go. Often times, government offices go around this court ruling by using the convenience of a “negotiated bidding”. The most notorious are the government owned and controlled corpora-tions in the Department of Energy (DOE), like the cash rich PNOC Exploration Corporation (PNOC EC) who during the time of its replaced president Rafael del Pilar negotiated millions of pesos worth of government contracts on the lame excuse that what is being bought is highly technical equip-ment that is sold by a single distributor or not available in the country.

Still for all government contracts to be transparent, and to wean away Presidents and CEOs of government-owned and controlled corpo-

rations from the temptation to commit easy graft aided by willing suppliers, we believe that public bidding is still the best vehicle to open the contract to at least several bidders and not only one favoured bidder.

One government official in the forefront of cleaning the process of government purchases and government contracts is Comelec Law Department Head, Atty. Fer-dinand Rafanan, an alumnus of the UP College of Law. He is also Chairman of the Comelec’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC).

Because of Rafanan and others like him, the public has become aware of such terms in public bidding like “Lowest Calculated Re-sponsive Bid” (LCRB), or the lowest bidder. Where before it is the highest bidder that wins because the contract is “negotiated”.

But before one could qualify as a bidder, a business entity willing to participate in a public bidding of govern-ment contracts must undergo the scrutiny of the BAC of the particular government office. In this process, there is a danger that this power to disqualify might be used to favour a few or only one

favourite supplier.Another technique used

by fellow competitors is to supply the false or mislead-ing information. This was done in the Comelec by a certain Keng Hua Papers Products, Inc. who stated that a winning bidder, Tri-plex Enterprises, Inc. was “blacklisted” by the Supreme Court from participating in its own public biddings, when the truth was Triplex was only “suspended” from participating in the court’s public biddings for a period of one year.

The question is did Tri-plex commit a falsehood when it stated under oath that it has not been “black-listed” from bidding by the gover n ment or any of its agencies in the paper they usually sub-mit to qualify. The answer is no.

Black l i s t-ing and

suspension are two different sanctions meted by a procur-ing agency against any of its contractors. When one is blacklisted, the business is “barred from bidding by the Government and any of its agencies”. This phrase however does not apply to cases of “suspensions”. In the latter, one is merely barred from bidding in one particular agency only for a limited period of time.

Therefore since what was required in the bidding documents was a statement under oath whether or not it was “blacklisted”, then Triplex did not commit any falsehood when it stated no it was not blacklisted. Because that was the truth, it was only suspended by the Supreme Court for one year.

In fact, Triplex has thereafter participated and has won in public biddings before other government of-fices, because it has not been “blacklisted” or barred from bidding by the Government.

l Atty. Briones is a former President of the IBP Quezon City Chapter and former Assistant Secretary of the De-partment of Agrarian Reform (DAR). He is a graduate of the UP College of Law.

In this day and age where the Philip-pine budget involves trillions of pesos, the government remains to be the larg-est employer of our workforce, and big-gest contractor of projects.

THE LEGALaSIDEAtty. George Briones

Still for all government contracts to be transparent, we believe that public bidding is still the best vehicle to open the contract to at least several bidders and not only one favoured bidder.

The congressmen themselves have arranged some sort of a quid pro quo in demanding for P50 million more in pork barrel funds.

The Only Opinion Paper, We Take a STand PORTS & TRANSPORT

OpinYon N O V E M B E R 1 5 - 2 1, 2 0 1 0 13

President Benigno Aquino III wanted to reduce the burgeoning budget deficit, but without imposing new or additional tax measures, leav-ing government economic managers with no choice but to pressure the top revenue generating agencies of the government – the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BoC) for a more efficient collection system, and cut government spending as well.

But at the rate the BIR and the BoC are going vis-a-vis their respective tax col-lection efforts, the President’s order, it appears, is better said than done as both the BIR and the BoC were also struggling to meet their 2010 collection targets. The BIR is tasked to collect P830 billion; the cus-toms bureau P280 billion.

Records though would show that even as the BIR is hard put on meeting its monthly collection target, it may, after all, still meet its full-year collection target, which could not be said in the case of the BoC.

Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez needs more than a miracle to overturn his dismal collection performance.

Actually, Alvarez has already used all the available tricks in his bag, including the illegal “benchmarking system,” but the outcome remains the same.

Alvarez also filed before the Department of Justice a P24 billion suit against oil giant Pilipinas Shell, among oth-ers, for alleged non-payment

of taxes as part of the effort to beef up the bureau’s collection effort.

But the Shell’s case and several other similar high-profile suits will definitely take years to settle and without any gurantee that the BoC will be able to collect the taxes and duties it is demanding.

Records from the customs bureau’s financial service showed a collection shortfall of about P19.5 billion for the July to October period alone. It fell short by P3.5 billion in July, Au-gust, P5 billion; September, P4 billion and October, P7billion .

To justify his failure, Alvarez also used the standard excuse used by past commissioners, particularly former Commis-sioner Napoleon Morales, that volume of imports was signifi-cantly low and the reduction of duties in many goods.

There’s no substitute for success, so they say. Alvarez’ justification is no justification at all if taken in the context of his ability as an administra-tor of a revenue generating agency. His line of reasoning, just like his predecessors, was an admission of failure and victory for smuggling syndi-cates and their cohorts in the bureau.

mATAHARIWilliam Tell

Customs  won’t meet2010 collection targetTHE national government incurred a budget deficit of P259.8 billion in the nine months to September, which is about 80 percent of the projected deficit ceiling of P325 billion for the year.

What’s wrong...From page 9in the Labor Code which favors regular employment as the default mode over other types of employment, such as casual, project, seasonal, probationary, fixed-term, and contractual. Even though the Supreme Court has already relaxed the ap-plication of these provisions, there are still so many instances wherein contractual workers are declared as regular when employers are caught shortcutting the stringent requirements of the law. The principal measure used by DOLE and NLRC in determining whether or not outsourcing is legitimate is known as the “control test”. Simply put, contractual employees must be shown to be under the control of the manpower agency, and not by the principal, as to the means and method in carrying out their work. The principal or owner of the establishment can only set the goals and standards to be followed, as well as prescribe the desired quality or final output. The moment the principal exercises, or even reserves, the right to control his contractual employees, he is deemed to have regularized them.

Death be not proudFrom page 9

Ka Lito died in his sleep but not after suffering another early morning convulsion. Two years ago, he suffered a heart attack. To spare himself from the pollution in Manila he went to stay in his daughter’s house in a small town in Batangas where he could breathe the fresh mountain air. Last year, he suffered another stroke that further weakened his body.

Last Friday, Nov. 5, the AK, KPMP, ADLO, FTA and the labor leaders, allies, young activists, some business executives and members of his Church whose lives he had touched, conducted a “luksang parangal” as a fitting tribute to his selfless devotion to the cause of the working class and the Filipino people.

The passing of a true labor leader is like a death in the family. This time, death cannot be proud. Ka Lito will forever live in our hearts.

l Dave Diwa is a labor leader. He is President of the National Labor Union (NLU).

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — Officials from the Port of Subic will meet with counterparts from other Asian ports on November 9-10, as members of the six-nation International Network of Affiliated Ports (INAP) convene for their 12th annual conference in Cebu City.

Capt. Perfecto Pascual, head of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Seaport Department, said the INAP conference at the Radisson Blue Hotel Cebu will comprise a series of discussions and workshops under this year’s theme of “Relevance of World-wide Port Networks.”

Aside from the Port of Subic, the members of INAP include the ports of Cebu in the Philippines, Kochi in Japan, Mokpo in South Korea, Qingdao in China, Tanjung Perak in Indonesia, and Colombo in Sri Lanka.

“Everything is going global,” explained Pascual. “INAP is an international al-liance whose primary goal is to put its member-ports at an advantage, on better playing fields, so that members could cash in on the globalization trend, as well as shield each other from its ill-effects.”

“Now, we will be discuss-ing how our member-ports could expand their role in the global maritime industry,” he added.

The main agenda in the Cebu conference, Pascual said, is to finalize guidelines for INAP’s technical exchange program, which covers the sharing of information, tech-nology, best practices, and even manpower among the INAP members.

Pascual added that some ports — Tanjung Perak, Mokpo, Subic and Cebu — have already started on the exchange program.

“The INAP as a whole

stands to gain from the results of these exchange programs. These will be exclusively dis-cussed on the second day of the conference,” he said.

For the first day, mean-while, INAP members will hold their plenary meeting, wherein officials from each member-port will present their ongoing projects, as well as projections related to the global maritime trade.

A tour of Cebu City’s port facilities will follow in the afternoon of the first day.

Pascual said the SBMA will send a 12-man delegation to the 12th INAP conference

as a “show of gratitude and respect” to the Cebu Ports Authority, which sent a simi-lar number of delegates to the 10th INAP conference hosted by the SBMA in the Subic Bay Freeport in 2008.

“As in the previous INAP gatherings, SBMA will high-light its growing maritime capability. We will continue to boast of Subic’s world-class port facilities, including its 15 piers and wharves, as well as the Hanjin shipyard, which is

the fourth largest shipbuild-ing facility in the world,” Pascual said.

Pascual added that SBMA, which administers the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, continues to reap benefits from the INAP network through exchanges in information on the global shipping trade, as well as from its economic partnership with sister-ports.

He said that since its inception in 1998, the INAP has been working through its annual conferences to expand its membership base and cement better economic ties between member ports.

Subic, other Asian ports to meet in Cebu for 12th INAP confab

loren...From page 5country to commit to the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction’s (UNISDR) campaign to build more sustainable and disaster-resilient towns and cities.

“We must realize that every decision we make with regard to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation is crucial to our survival. We must plan carefully but swiftly,” Legarda said.

“Our disaster risk reduction and management system needs to be more proactive, coherent, and effective. Committing to the UNISDR’s disaster resiliency campaign would help us achieve that target,” she added.

The UNISDR’s program, Making Cities Resil-ient, encourages towns and cities to commit to the “Ten Essentials” to scale up investments in urban planning, infrastructure and building safety; pro-tect ecosystems to mitigate floods; and install early warning systems, among other measures.

By Vic Bert Sia

Gray skies are looming over the Bureau of Customs (BOC) per-sonnel’s overtime pay when the Court of Appeals (CA) affirmed its 2009 decision declaring BOC’s order to airlines unconstitutional – and the passengers will experi-ence a heavy downpour.

CA’s Special Former Sixth Division denied the motion for reconsideration seeking reversal of its ruling last July 9, 2009. Filed by the Office of the President and the Department of Finance, the motion was de-nied with a six-page resolution written by Associate Justice Vicente Veloso concurred by Associate Justices Normandie Pizarro and Francisco Acosta. In the decision, “the CA held that the arguments raised in the motion for reconsideration have already been sufficiently passed upon in its previous rul-ing.” They added that they see “no cogent reason with which to modify, much less reverse, our assailed July 9, 2009, deci-sion, respondents’ Motion for Reconsideration dated July 28, 2009, is denied,”.

In an interview a week ago, due to the CA’s decision, Angelito Alvarez said that they are considering to charge the outgoing passengers with BOC personnel’s overtime pay – a desperate move to make the BOC personnel stay even if their eight-hour work shift is done.

With the increase OFW deployment in 2009 by 15% ac-cording to Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), a lot of outgoing pas-sengers will bear this financial burden – the burden that made them spend their time away from their families.

In 2009, the Bureau of Airline Representatives (BAR) filed the petition to CA seeking to nullify Section 3506 of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines (TCCP) for not containing “adequate guide-lines or limitations”. It stated that “custom officials may be assigned by a collector to do overtime work at rates fixed by the commissioner of customs when the service rendered is to be paid for by importers, ship-pers, or other persons served.” CA pointed out the term “other

persons served,” is incomplete in terms and conditions.

BAR is composed of Asiana Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Cebu Pacific, China Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Continental Micronesia Airlines, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Eva Air Air-ways, Federal Express Corp., Gulf Air, Japan Airlines, Air France–KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Korean Air, Kuwait Airways Corp., Lufthansa German Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Qantas Airlines, Qatar Airlines, Royal Brunei Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Swiss International Airlines, Saudi Arabian Air-lines and Thai International Airways.

CA also nullified the two administrative orders from BOC, pursuant to Section 3506 – CAO 7-92 and CAO 1-2005. CA declared that these were unconstitutional due to its excessive delegation of legisla-tive power by requiring airline companies, aircraft owners and operators in paying the overtime work of BOC person-nel assigned in NAIA.

BOC’s motion denied by CA

“Everything is going global,” explained Pascual. “INAP is an international alliance whose primary goal is to put its member-ports at an advantage, on better playing fields, so that members could cash in on the globalization trend, as well as shield each other from its ill-effects.”

GENERAL INTEREST

14 N O V E M B E R 1 5 - 2 1, 2 0 1 0 OpinYon

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Have No Fear, OpinYon is Here

The Flea marketBy ThE STAFF

‘The Revenge of the Kuya’

The Flea Market is not so sure if the Ayala empire,

which operates classy malls, is trying to make a political statement by still running the “infomercial” showing the picture of former president Arroyo at the closing credits.

The infomercial is about the harsh effect of climate change.

The ad has been regularly playing before a movie is shown in Ayala theatres even before the elections and is sponsored by a presidential body on climate change headed by an Arroyo ally.

The Ayalas are staunchly pro-P-Noy but the continued showing of the Arroyo-laden infomercial in their movie houses betrays this fact.

P-Noy appears to have moved on and has found

a new love in the person of fashion stylist Liz Uy, the personal pick of sister Kris and bosom buddy, Boy Abunda to replace Councilor Shalani Soledad in his aging heart.

Uy previously belonged to young heartthrob John Lloyd Cruz, who will squirm at the thought of being called “Kuya” by the president himself.

Uy joins the long list of young girlfriends that the bachelor president had and jilted afterwards.

P-Noy, looking by his GF history, is a perennial “Kuya.” He was “Kuya” to a big network boss when he dated a famous broadcaster decades ago. But this “Kuya” role was reversed when his closest ally began pursuing the famous lady broadcaster and even married her.

He returned to being “Kuya” when he dated Shalani, who obviously had a boyfriend before they met.

He was also “Kuya” when he dated a junior broadcaster

who was for a while smitten with another colleague. But there was again a reversal, when the junior broadcaster hooked up with a scion of a political family whose members are also P-Noy’s partymates.

P-Noy will have his greatest “Kuya” revenge, if Willie Revillame eventually falls in love with Shalani.

Policy guidelines on how CESO officials should be

treated were recently settled inside a comfort room of the legislative branch where a CSC official and a ranking DOF official unceremoniously bumped into each other.

In between their ‘splash-es’, the Civil Service official, a straggler from the past government, politely argued on the merit of keeping CESO officials regardless of their political leanings.

The CSC official appar-ently taking the cudgels of hold-over officials who can’t be removed because of their fixed term appointments.

The senior DOF official gave a nonchalant response and afterwards they became chummy. Oh yeah, that’s comfort room diplomacy.

A Senate leader must be happy now that his

“boys” are back inside a cash-rich agency.

The timing of the appoint-ments was not lost on some of the agency’s officials since the Senate leader holds sway in the passage of important legislations, starting with the national budget. The Senate begins deliberations of PNoy’s budget starting this week.

The Senate leader, aside from ensuring approval of priority measures, likewise finally conceded that there was smuggling in his home province after years of self-denial and vowed to do something about it.

His once famous line: “There’s no smuggling in my province because I say so.”

Dear Emily,

Thank you very much for your letter which Two-Pronged started answering 2 weeks ago, Oct 31. My feeling is that Mr Baer answered all your con-cerns at that time and I hope this feeling is not based merely on biased nepotism. There are however some additional points I would like to add.

Studies show that, when it comes to religion, what makes people different from one another is not based on what different religions they belong to; rather, it is based on how devoted they are and how con-cerned they are about following their religion’s tenets. Thus, a devout Catholic is more similar to a devout Muslim than to a lapsed Catholic.

Hard to believe, but true. Let me share with you a

really glaring example (on an international level pa!). An American teaching in Damas-cus ran a poll and asked who his students preferred to win at the next US Presidential elec-tion. Despite George W. Bush’s track record as a leader relent-lessly hunting down terrorists and despite the perception of his Democrat opponent as far more iliberal and laid back, the students consistently preferred Bush to be President. When

the students were asked why they preferred someone who had taken a tough stand against Muslim Fundamentalists such as many of them, they consis-tently said that at least Bush had strong conservative beliefs and lived according to them. He was someone whom they could rely on to be against such things as abortion, gay marriage etc., just like they were. Thus, even as they perceived Bush would give them a much harder time than a Democrat president would, they preferred that he prevailed over a liberal whose views were far from theirs and who thus did not qualify as devout in their eyes.

“Muslim, Schmuslim,” you must be muttering to yourself (pero sana hindi naman), “What the bloody hell does Islam have to do with me?!!?”

Quite a lot, actually. Not really the fact that you and your boyfriend seem to belong

to different religions, but more the fact that he is more devout than you.

In the same way that the Muslims preferred/respected a more devout Bush rather than a less devout opponent; a more devout Christian might, in the end, prefer an equally devout Catholic as a spouse.

TO BE CONTINUED

TWOPRONGED

Jeremy Baer &Margarita Holmes

A gay and a muslimDear Dr Holmes and Mr. Baer:

I’d like to know if I am normal because I feel frustrated sometimes with my boyfriend not initiating to do the deed with me, rather we only kiss in not more than a second. He’s a Christian and he said that he wants to keep it for our wedding day, but how about my needs? How will I share it to him that i need to feel him, assure me that he wants me or what. and I’m also afraid that he might be a gay because he don’t give any hint if he’s turning on to me even I’m in sexy clothes. Oh God this is a really desperate move for me, to go on and ask an expert. I hope to hear from you.