Clark, terminally

ALEXANDER SANGALANG Cauguiran, new president-CEO of the Clark International Airport Corp., has served notice of his express priority to pursue the construction of the low-cost carrier passenger terminal as designed by Aeroport de Paris.

“Pres. Duterte’s order to the airline companies to transfer flights from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to Clark is firm. It is final, knowing his style in leadership. We are anticipating growth and we must prepare for it,” qualified Cauguiran of his overdrive to put up the LCC terminal, ASAP.

Made possible through a grant from the French government, the Aeroport de Paris design was shot down reportedly at the initiative of Transportation and Communication Sec. Joseph Emilio Abaya, allegedly for being “too grand” for Clark, and recommended its re-design at a projected cost of P500 million. Thankfully, Abaya, and his costly stupidity, were swept by the change that came with Duterte’s election.

“The previous (BS Aquino III) administration reduced (Clark airport’s) capacity from 8 million passengers annually to 3 million. We want it restored to its original annual capacity,” said Cauguiran, as he enthused: “The design is free and is modular. We can extend it, that’s why I like it.”

I do not have the least doubt that Cauguiran can work wonders for the Clark airport. The way he wielded a virtual miracle in the transformation of garbage-dumped, vermin-ridden, crime-infested abandoned railroad tracks in Angeles City into productive people’s parks.

Indeed, the three successive victories of Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan – against the dominant political families that were – and still are – the Nepomucenos and Lazatins, and the once-invincible Lapid were primarily factored on Cauguiran as both brain and muscle to the Agyu Tamu campaigns.

Besides, CIAC is no stranger to him as he was its EVP during the GMA years. Not to mention his even earlier Move Clark Now! advocacy. So, can Caugurian do anything less as CIAC head honcho now?

He can certainly do more – and supremely better – than his immediate predecessors, who’ve made a terminal case, literally and figuratively, of their stint at the CIAC.

A brief chronology here of the Clark terminal case, as culled from a Zona piece dated July 16, 2012:

Terminal delirium

In September 2006, on or around the birthday of her father, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo presided over the laying of the time capsule for the construction of Terminal 2. It was announced then that the sum of P3 billion, to come from the Manila International Airport Authority, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., and the Bureau of Immigration, among other agencies would be allotted for the project.

The plan did not pass beyond the publicity for the event.

Under the CIAC chairmanship of foremost architect Nestor Mangio, came the $1.2 billion proposal from an ALMAL Investments Co., a subsidiary of the Kuwaiti mega developer M.A. Kharafi Projects, “to cover all civil components of the DMIA Terminals 1, 2 and 3 plus the adjacent 1,500 hectares in the aviation complex strictly following the CIAC original master plan.”

Travels to Kuwait and Egypt by CIAC officials and even GMA herself yielded nothing but loose talks of Rolexes and Patek Philippes finding themselves on non-Arab wrists.

Thereafter followed the CIAC report of a group of major government-linked and private firms in Malaysia called Bristeel Overseas Ventures, Inc. (BOVI) offering to infuse at least $150 million in foreign direct investment to immediately undertake the much-needed expansion of the passenger terminal of the Clark International Airport.

And then we came to read that in a regular meeting on May 17, 2010, the CIAC Board “resolved to accept for detailed negotiations” the proposal of the Philco Aero Inc. on the Passenger Terminal 2 Development Project of the DMIA, as it was deemed “superior” to the BOVI proposal.

That was the first and last time we read about and heard of Philco Aero…

As one of the last official acts of GMA as president though, she inaugurated the refurbished terminal, complete with two airbridges two or three days before she stepped down. That was the only concrete, albeit incomplete, improvement at the CIA terminal after all those billion-dollar proposals

In January 2012 the CIAC was high with terminal fever again.

(CIAC President-CEO Victor Jose) Luciano announced that “they” are pushing for the construction of a budget terminal that will handle about 10 million passengers a year at the CIA.

According to the press release, “The new facility, amounting to P12 billion, will take three years to complete and make (the CIA) the second largest airport in the country, next to Manila’s NAIA.”

“This budget terminal is the kind of terminal that meets the requirements of our airport in Clark. Our terminal right now can only accommodate 2.5 million. So we need a budget terminal to effectively say that DMIA is the next budget airline airport of the country.” So hyped Luciano.

In February 2012, CIAC signed a P1-billion loan facility with Land Bank of the Philippines for what it said was the Phase II expansion of the passenger terminal and other support infrastructure of the CIA, including navigational equipment.

Luciano said the bidding of the Phase II expansion of the P360-million passenger terminal was to start on March 5… 

Only a month or two ago, CIAC announced it was seeking some P8 billion for a low cost carrier terminal, soon after upgraded to P12 million, complete with presidential backing…   

With CIAC in this perpetual state of terminal delirium, Clark’s premier international gateway future could only be in coma.    

P7.2-B LCC

Further terminal non-developments thereafter:

On October 2, 2013, Luciano announced, at the sidelines of Emirates’ inaugural Dubai-Clark flight, that the construction of the proposed P7.2-billion budget terminal at the Clark airport will likely start in the second quarter of 2014 and is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2016.

The terminal, he noted, will have a capacity of between 10 million and 15 million passengers. He added the government may fund the project or place it under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program.

In May 2015, Luciano’s successor, Atty. Emigdio Tanjuatco III disclosed that CIAC “is set to bid out the contract for the first phase of the P7.2 billion low cost carrier passenger terminal building…within the next two months.”

Tanjuatco said the first phase of the project worth P1.2 billion would be presented to the National Economic and Development Authority for approval next week.

 “Once the President approves it, hopefully the bidding for the project will start by the middle of this year,” Tanjuatco said.

"The fact that the national government infused P1.2 billion for airport improvement is an indication of the government’s support through the DOTC,” he said.

In September 2015, Tanjuatco again announced that BS Aquino III “finally approved the allotment of P1.2 billion for a new French-designed modern airport passenger terminal” at the Clark airport.

Tanjuatco went on to say that “the terms of reference for the project, which would cost a total of P15 billion when totally finished, are now being prepared for bidding.”

Rejection

In March 2016, Tanjuatco said CIAC “is bidding out the P500-million plan for its mixed-use passenger terminal this month.”

This, he said, was the result of the rejection by the NEDA Board of the Aeroport De Paris design as it was “too ambitious” for the 8 million passengers expected to use the airport by 2022.

Ay, illusions, deceptions, delusions, hallucinations – all make a terminal case of the Clark airport spanning two presidencies. Bred – in the bitterest irony – in Clark’s own homeground of Pampanga and Tarlac.

Comes now the Davao ascendancy, and a brighter promise for Clark. This time,  with an appended warranty for delivery – Cauguiran.

Don’t fail us, Sir. Move Clark now!  

The Angeles aristocracy

A SPIN off last week’s acrimonious brouhaha in the web over the non-suspension of classes in Angeles City at the onslaught of habagat is a pride-of-place piece uploaded by city businessman Marco Nepomuceno, scion of the local aristocracy.

Just my opinion, Mr. Nepomuceno empathically ended his piece. Which instantly, and in the scheme of things opinionated, naturally, drew clashing viewpoints. 

Premised on the geographical given of landlocked Angeles City as 90 meters above sea level to the City of San Fernando’s 45 meters, thereby affirming gospel truth in the old folk’s belief that "Bayu lumbug king Angeles, lumbug ya pa ing pisamban king Sampernandu," and on political grounds of the highly urbanized city being independent of the Pampanga provincial government, even ranking 15^th most competitive city in the country, the brilliant Mr. Nepomuceno asked:

How come when the Pampanga provincial government (with due respect to Gov. Lilia Pineda), declares a disaster, no matter the magnitude, people also think that Angeles City should also be automatically included in the declaration?

The obvious answer would be: Those people did not know the political autonomy of the city from the province.

And granting they did know, they still expressed some wish – indeed, hoped against hope as it turned out – for empathetic consideration, given the very magnitude of the calamity befallen their area outside the city.

Who are these people? Are they Angeleños or are they transients from the outlying areas who work, study and play in Angeles, use the resources of Angeles, but do not pay income taxes to the local government. Sure, they have sent their children to the schools in Angeles, but they do not spend in Angeles most of the income they might make in Angeles.

Perorated the excellent Mr. Nepomuceno, who went on to lecture:  

From an economist's point of view, their contribution to the local economy is limited since the household (which is the basic unit of the economy) to which they belong is located elsewhere. Households make the economy move and, in a certain sense, households that are located outside the local economy do not contribute as much to the local economy as those that are.

I cannot hold a candle to the brilliance of Mr. Nepomuceno in matters of economics: he, being an esteemed business leader whose recent master’s degree from the Ateneo making but a single leaf in his already thickly foliaged laurel.

Woe then unto one netizen who dared contest Mr. Nepomuceno’s learned assertion by saying that even the casual traveler to the city who buys bottled water already contributes to its economy. Obviously a non-Angeleño, less so a master’s degree holder. So what did he know?   

From one Jason Paul Laxamana – the prize-winning filmmaker? –  came these hugot lines:   

Sounds like a Brexit sentiment...I think the progress of highly urbanized cities, especially for those that have no abundant natural resources such as Angeles, is built also on the contribution of migrants/transients. A lot of these transients eventually become residents anyway, and to not consider their concerns as important as (that of) the so-called hardcore residents is a bit problematic, discriminatory, non-compassionate.

#PampExit, anyone?

Conceded the erudite Mr. Nepomuceno, but with the qualification:

Of course, I agree with the first part of your statement. As for the second part, the kind of "discrimination" you are talking about, including protectionism, is allowed by the jurisprudence of many countries all over the world.

Pursued Laxamana: Angeles is just a chartered city within a country. It can't even survive without IRA from the national government. For it to imagine itself as a developed city-state like Singapore is a bit over the top.

Declared the knowledgeable Mr. Nepomuceno:

Discrimination, exclusivity, and protectionism are practiced by cities all over the Philippines. It's not illegal.

In the context of the WTO, of ASEAN integration, is there still room for discrimination, exclusivity and protectionism in this part of the world?

Then, how will this “not illegal” discrimination, exclusivity and protectionism stand before the eternal truth of the Christian values of faith, hope and charity? Indeed, of guardianship upon which Angeles was founded, dedicated as it was – and still is – to its patrons, Los Santos Angeles Custodios?

So has Angeles City gone the way of Cain scorning the Almighty: Am I my brother’s keeper?     

But then, what do the opinions of this plain AB-holding, struggling journalist matter vis-à-vis those of the highly respected, supremely successful, eminently progenied master of economics?

Nada. Zilch. Ala man qñg calingquingan.

Faced then with the impeccable reason of Mr. Nepomuceno, we can only reduce ourselves to ad hominem and ad misericordiam, as one JP Dizon precisely did:

It does show that you know much about what we should be thankful for as an Angeleño. However, in weather like this, you do not consider these things. What you do is put yourself in the regular Juan's shoes. You do not think if they even meet the city's or your standards. Why become politically correct in a time you can just be simply empathetic? Wa, megaral ka, wa maimpluwensya ka, pero milalako mu silbi uling eka makaabut keng panandaman dareng tau.

Comes to mind now F. Scott Fitzgerald: ...the very rich. They are different from you and me. As the aristocracy from the rest of the miserable mass of society, so is Angeles City from the rest of Pampanga?

God forbid! Marx now: The history of all hitherto existing society is a history of…patrician and plebeian, lord and serf…in a word, oppressor and oppressed…

Got to stop here before I end up with Les Miserables…

Do you hear the people sing, singing the songs of angry men…

   

20 years 'warranted'

WHEREFORE, this case is ordered DISMISSED against accused Caesar Lacson y Zapata for lack of interest to prosecute…

SO ORDERED.

Given in open Court this 18^th day of August, 2016 in Angeles City.

Thus, the Honorable Irin Zenaida S. Buan, presiding judge of RTC Branch 56, in a single-page decision, thoroughly expunged any iota of guilt and definitively “unwarranted” an alias arrest order on my person.

The case that dragged on – absent my knowledge – for all of 20 years took but two hearings to be scratched off the court archives. But that is already rushing right to the end of the long story.           

Accused Lacson was absolved of any liability in Criminal Case No. 97-149 – Libel filed by one Rowena Domingo of the Mabalacat Water District that stemmed from a Sun-Star Clark news story which exposed alleged cases of nepotism and abuse of authority in the managerial succession in the agency. Cited in the story were the investigations conducted by the Mabalacat municipal council which pointed to the alleged irregularities.

Soon as the complaint was filed in 1996, a common friend brokered a meeting between us respondents and the complainants and differences were resolved. In my book Of the Press (1999), there is this short account included in the chapter The Libel Tradition, to wit:

Ody shared two libel cases with me and Joe Pavia, the publisher of Sun-Star Clark in 1996.

The first was lodged by the Mabalacat Water District…No, we did not write the story but we were included in the charge sheet just the same as managing and associate editors. Toy Soto, a consultant of the water district office, intervened in our behalf and the complaint was promptly withdrawn.

Hence, we did not find it necessary to present any counter-affidavits. And nothing more was heard about that case.

In the meantime, Sun-Star Clark re-birthed itself as Sun-Star Pampanga with Ashley Manabat as editor in 2001. Ody Fabian died in February 2005, and Joe Pavia in 2011. Toy Soto died in 2007, or thereabouts.

In November last year, Ashley and I applied for NBI clearances pursuant to the renewal of our gun licenses. It was there that CC No. 97-149 surfaced, with a corresponding alias warrant. Ashley also had a libel case to his name but “provisionally dismissed.” Surprisingly, my case did not show up in two previous applications for NBI clearances.

Promptly, I presented myself at RTC 62 where my case was lodged, and posted the required cash bond of P2,000 for my “provisional liberty.” On the other hand, Ashley’s elation over the dismissal of his case turned to total dismay with the discovery of another libel case – filed by Angeles Electric Company in 2004 – with prescribed bail of P10,000. He is currently at pre-trial stage on this case.

With RTC 62 now designated a “drug court,” and me having not been arraigned yet, the records of my case were turned over to the Office of the Clerk of Court for re-raffle.

Initially assigned to RTC 60, CC No. 97-149 was – upon motion of counsel Enrico P. Quiambao – re-raffled and landed at RTC 56 last April.

At the arraignment on June 20, counsel Quiambao already made manifest the “absence” of the complainant, given the return of copies of his entry of appearance and motion for re-raffle sent by LBC Express to complainant Domingo at her given address in Lourdes Sur East, Angeles City.

Counsel Quiambao highlighted the number of years the complaint remained archived without any word from the complainant or her counsels. And moved for its dismissal.

Judge Buan designated the Court to serve notice anew to the complainant and scheduled the pre-trial on August 18. That day, with the complainant remaining unaccounted for, counsel Quiambao made an impassioned plea for dismissal of the case, as much for lack of interest on the part of the complainant as injustice against the accused for its chilling effect in the performance of his profession.       

Dismissed. So ordered.  

For all the 20 years that the case took through its conclusion, it was never – to me – an instance of delayed justice being justice denied. It just makes one wonder how a case could last this long without the slightest of interest expressed by the complainant or her counsel.

Still, it was sheer luck for me that none of my professed haters knew of the alias warrant of arrest against my person. Else I could have been readily cuffed and taken in by the police. Which, under the present dispensation could have had a grim repercussion.

Think of the tabloid account now: Editor, patay matapos mang-agaw ng baril habang nakaposas.

Shudder at that cardboard justice: Libeler ako. ‘Wag tularan.

Uh-oh, could have been speaking too soon. Yes, I have yet to be arraigned in one more libel case. Though I have already posted bail – P10,000 this time – to pre-empt the issuance of any warrant of arrest. Hopefully, this one won’t last another 20 years.

Yeah, nice to serve as link in the continuity of Pampanga media’s libel tradition.          

Classes unsuspended, logic interrupted

Public Service Advisory:

With the lifting of the yellow rainfall alert warning, classes in Angeles City in all levels in both public and private schools will RESUME tomorrow (Tuesday) August 16, 2016.

For the information and guidance of all. Thank you.

‪#‎MayPasok

AS STATED, in all its plainness, an FYI from the city information office posted in FB the evening of August 15. 

NO CLASSES on Tuesday, August 16, 2016 from pre-school to senior high school in all public and private schools in Pampanga due to the expected heavy rains as per PAGASA rainforecast – Office of the Governor.

As plain, this advisory from the provincial disaster risk reduction and management office issued in the afternoon of August 15.

Separate issuances from separate local government units. Plain as plain can ever be with their respective messages: Classes in Angeles City. No classes in Pampanga.  

Still, some puzzlement – at least a number dismissed as stupidity – in the net: Bakit po may pasok sa Angeles, eh nag-declare na pong wala sa buong Pampanga?

Kaya po WHOLE PAMPANGA sinabi ni Governor dahil lahat…Tapos sabihin politically separated, saang lugar ang Angeles?

City councilor Edu Pamintuan responding: Meron nang Pasok sa Angeles City, as per Mayor Ed Pamintuan at 'di sakop ng Pampanga ang Angeles as far as political jurisdiction is concerned that's why Angeles City does not vote for a Pampanga governor.

On the issue of non-suspension of classes for tomorrow, the Local Chief Executive of Angeles City said the city is NOT among the LOW-LYING areas of Pampanga na kung saan kahit ulan lang nang konti bumabaha na.

And as the world renowned environmental global organization WORLD WIDE FUND FOR NATURE stated at Clark "Angeles is the last migration area in Pampanga because of its being located in a much higher area than the rest of the PROVINCE."

Instead of putting the issue to rest – in this wise, under water – the good alderman’s post generated a tsunami of comments that flooded the net with arguments running the gamut of the Material Fallacies of Reasoning we were cautioned against in Philosophy 101. Not to mention the creatively bizarre, and the graphically out-of-this-world memes: Angeles City carved out of the map of Pampanga and laid in some nowhere land, and that of the solar system placing the city as an asteroid in Earth’s orbit. (Note: We did some redaction on the comments cited here.)

Ad misericordiam comprised most of the arguments: Angeles City may be high and dry, but there are many students in city schools who come from neighboring San Fernando and other towns which are now flooded. Please be considerate….    

The risk of going through floodwaters, under driving rain, to go to school is just too high. Have some compassion for these poor students.

Ad hominem too: Parents should decide for their children. Kahit na si Duterte pa ang magsabing may pasok, if the parents think it would put their kids at risk they should not allow them to go to school…

Reng tamad a e bisang lungub, mag-drop nakayu mu. Asnako pang karakal pamanyabyan.   

Classes in Angeles resume tomorrow. Tama na reklamo!!! Kung ayaw mo pumasok anak mo edi wag mo papasukin. Ganun lang kasimple!!!

At sa mga estudyanteng reklamo ng reklamo... mag-drop out nalang kaya kayo para forever bakasyon!!! Ang aarte.... ang tatamad.

And reasoned sensitivity: With due respect, we all know that politically Angeles is separate from the province. However, there is one thing that makes Angeles part of Pampanga and that is geographically. Today some public school classes experienced 20% class attendance which means hindi po maximized yung gastos, time, at effort ng bawat isa dahil sa point of view ng teacher uulitin nila sa class ang diniscuss. Likewise deng pung manatad at mandakit ali eganagana makasaken. Yung mga preparatory kindergarten magkasakit la pu pamamunta dahil narin king uran, traffic at other weather factors. Ita mu pu. Try tamu sanang mag-commute pamisan-misan.

All arguments, expectedly, turning moot and academic with the post from the city information officer 9 p.m. of August 16: Public Service Advisory: With the orange rainfall alert warning, Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan has declared the SUSPENSION of classes in Angeles City in all levels in both public and private tomorrow, Wednesday, 17 August 2016.

Be safe, Angeleños.

But no, there’s just no end to it. Why, even class war was invoked: …Siguru reng king Angeles city hall e de makaing panamdaman ing effect ning uran uling ken la mansion makatuknang. Or eyu gagawan ing obra yu kaya nung e da kayu katukan o bulabugan e ye i-declare No Classes ya ing Angeles, or marine kayu mu at mekyapus nakayu mu. You are very insensitive. Reng rugu kalulu ilang halos makalbug, ikayung makwalta ali yu pagtyagan tuknang keng lugal a lulbug.

So, on we go blah, blah, blah. And duh, duh, duh.   

Whatever happened to Sagip-Ilog?

 STRETCHES OF the Olongapo-Gapan Road or Jose Abad Santos Avenue turned into veritable seas, the floodwaters – in some ironical sense – concentrated in front of the showrooms of Ford, Mitsubishi, and BMW…

The OG-MacArthur Highway junction was likewise inundated, knee-deep waters lapping at the entrances of Hyundai and Jollibee.

Lazatin Boulevard was impassable to cars for a long while, notwithstanding its waters drained to St. Jude Village…already deep in flood from the overflowing creek bounding the west side of the subdivision.

Also impassable to cars was the Sto. Nino end of Lazatin Blvd., but a pissing distance from Heroes Hall.

Floodwaters reportedly reached waist-level in Barangays San Jose, Del Pilar, Sta. Lucia and Sto. Nino. Also inundated was Barangays San Nicolas…

The floods last Saturday were a perfect reprise of the above account from our post here of June 30, 2011 titled All wet written in the aftermath of tropical depression Falcon that hit us June 25, 2011.

Our piece made the perfect foil to Sun-Star Pampanga’s banner story of June 22, 2011, Mayor: No massive flooding in city in the wake of tropical depression Egay. 

"There are no floodings. Okay naman. So far so good. Unlike before when the situation is like this ay lubog na ang maraming lugar (some areas are submerged). Nakatulong ng malaki ang preparasyon namin at iyung Sagip Ilog (Our preparations have helped and our Sagip Ilog program)." So was quoted the Honorable Oscar S. Rodriguez, detailing the “preparations” as the clean-up of canals and drainage systems and citing Sagip-Ilog “whose first phase is 98 percent complete,” that contributed much in flood prevention.

In that same hallelujah story of Rodriguez, the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry “lauded the Department of Public Works and Highways for its flood mitigation projects that were put to test by Tropical Depression Egay” and “credited the P700-million Sagip Ilog Project of the City Government and the massive canalization works done by the DPWH along the stretch of MacArthur Highway in the city.”

Noted the story further: "The canalization works were part of the DPWH road widening project along MacArthur Highway that included the removal of old acacia trees that were affected by the road widening.” In effect justifying the so-called “massacre” of the trees.

Building frenzy

Notwithstanding the lie Falcon made out of Rodriguez and PamCham’s post-Egay declaration, the Sagip-Ilog project made the recurring refrain of the Rodriguez administration as the final solution to the floodings in the city.

Thus, our piece here of April 9, 2012 titled Building frenzy:

YES. THE city government is going full blast as to these much-needed infrastructure projects. It’s a long list actually where we hope Fernandinos will eventually be the beneficiaries thereafter as the projects are realized.”

So affirmed City of San Fernando Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez of the infrastructure boom in the capital. As reported in Sun-Star Pampanga.

Getting the lion share of the amount is the Sagip-Ilog Project, nearing completion – at last, at last, at long last! – at a cost of P700 million, with P100 million as the city’s counterpart.

Complementary to the river-saving project is the rehabilitation of Balimbing Creek at the cost of some P60 million.

A thoroughly flood-free city is the end in-view of the above cited projects. So we have heard, ad nauseam, from the city government…

Exited Rodriguez. Entered Mayor Edwin Santiago. And nothing more was heard of Sagip-Ilog.

The breadth and depth of the inundation that hit the city last Saturday draw an instant judgment of Sagip-Ilog as a monumental failure. But, no, Santiago would have none of this, not even any passing mention of his predecessor’s pet anti-flooding project.

He would rather go the rigmarole of climate change, heavy volume of rain water, heavier volume of garbage and derby that “jammed the city's major water channels which obstructed the supposed swift flow of floodwaters which engulfed most major roads and almost the entirety of the city.”

No, Santiago did not say anything of the silt that has long veritably buried all of the city’s creeks rendering them useless as water channels.

No, he did not see that the floodwaters were deepest where the DPWH built and is still building the drainage canals, one right in front of Heroes Hall.         

Yes, to be fair, Santiago “activated the city emergency operations centers to provide immediate response to affected communities and avoid untoward incidents.”

Whatever, it is incumbent upon the Santiago administration to make an account of Sagip-Ilog. Absent its delivery on its very promise of a “flood-free city” vis-à-vis its sheer cost of P700 million makes the imperative of a thorough, transparent investigation of all those involved in its implementation.

Damn contractors

And while at it, while not probe too all the flood control projects undertaken by the Mt. Pinatubo Engineering-Project Management Office of the DPWH.

Again, we reference another piece, Damn contractors, published here August 9, 2010, to wit:

…(PamCham), led by its stalwarts Levy Laus and Rene Romero, is calling – short of the constructor’s head – for stiff sanctions against R.D. Policarpio Construction for virtually sleeping on the job as it accomplished but half of what it was supposed to finish by now.

The P169-million flood control project at the San Fernando River, dubbed as Sagip Ilog by the city administration, covers rehabilitating some 5.26 kilometers of the San Fernando River so as to allow the freer flow of floodwaters out of the city.

Philip Menez, project director for the flood control projects being undertaken by the Mt. Pinatubo Engineering-Project Management Office of the DPWH, revealed in a talk with the PamCham attended by Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda that R.D. Policarpio was the only “problematic contractor” assigned to project packages relative to the P4.6-billion flood-mitigating program for Pampanga.

Menez said that China Water International Corp. is on schedule in its work at the Porac-Gumain River diversion channel (P1.5 billion), the Tokwing Joint Venture in the construction of outlets and bridges at the San Fernando River (P491 million), and LRT Construction in flood mitigation works in Guagua town (P183 million). Most of the projects are funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The failure of R.D. Policarpio to finish its job has raised the spectre of greater flooding in the city, a reality all too real to the Fernandinos, especially to the city’s flood czar, Engr. Marnie Castro, who advocated that aside from sanctions, the construction company be held liable and accountable for any losses flooding would cause in the city.

Flooding is a serious matter of death and destruction, those tasked – and paid – to stem it and fail should be made to pay for their shortcomings.

Indeed.

The Marcos spectre

... OR WOULD you rather that I declare martial law?

So President Duterte posited in response to the letter of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno which raised apprehension over the "premature public announcement" of the names of judges allegedly linked to the drug trade.

Rhetorical. The President’s minions knee-jerked at their bossman’s reference of  martial law, trying to allay deep-seated terror always stirred even at its most casual mentioning.

Call me paranoid, but Duterte’s diktat for the burial of Ferdinand Edralin Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani gives me the chills over the dictator’s imminent second coming, in him.

No, Duterte cannot make good on his martial law rhetoric, constitutionalists argue. What with the 1987 Constitution mandating: The Supreme Court may review, in an appropriate proceeding filed by any citizen, the sufficiency of the factual basis of the proclamation of martial law or the suspension of the privilege of the writ or the extension thereof, and must promulgate its decision thereon within thirty days from its filing. (Article VIII, Section 18).

So, guess what’s all this frenzy to tinker with the Constitution all about? Only a change to federalism? Your guess may not be as malicious as mine. Aye, what with the appropriately named con-ass – stress on the second syllable – as the preferred means to do it. 

And then, if fading memory still serves right, didn’t Marcos call his martial law a “constitutional coup”? The then Supreme Court, led by the Imeldific’s umbrella bearer, not only acquiescing a collective nod but according its deepest bow to the “benevolent” dictatorship?

Maybe, we should ask the brilliant Estelito P. Mendoza, then-as-now victorious in all his pleadings with the High Court, the hows, the whys and the wherefores of doing it. And be convinced.

Oligarchs

Call me neurotic, but Duterte’s belligerence to “monster” oligarchs gives me the Marcosian creeps.    

I am fighting a monster. I am just two months old (into the presidency) but believe me, I will destroy their clutches sa ating bayan (in our country)…Yung mga mina, napupunta ‘yan sa mga oligarchs. Walang iba ‘yang ginawa kung hindi mag-influence peddling (Oligarchs benefit from mining. All they do is influence peddling). So the papers reported him as saying.

Duterte further sayeth: Ang plano talaga is, destroy the oligarchs that are embedded in government. 'Yan sila, I'll give you an example, publicly – Ongpin, Roberto.

(From the papers: One of the 50 richest Filipinos in 2015 according to Forbes Magazine, Ongpin supposedly had a net worth of $900 million. Last August 1, the Court of Appeals stopped the Securities and Exchange Commission from enforcing its en banc decision on Ongpin's insider trading case involving Philex Mining Corp. shares in 2009. The SEC had barred the businessman from joining the board of any publicly listed company, and fined him P174 million for insider trading. Ongpin sits as chairman of two listed firms – PhilWeb Corp. and Atok Big Wedge Inc. Last Aug 4, Ongpin resigned as chairman and director of the listed online gaming firm PhilWeb Corp.)

Eloquence

From the pugnacious Duterte, to the supremely eloquent Marcos now: In the Philippines, the real power lay back of the shifting factions, in the hands of a few rich families strong enough to bend Government to their will. This oligarchy intervened in government to preserve the political privileges of its wealth, and to protect its right of property.

This intervention of wealth in politics unavoidably produced corruption. And when this practice seeped through the whole of society itself, the result was moral degeneration. So the Philippine political culture equated freedom with self-aggrandizement, and the politics of participation, so essential in a democracy, with the pursuit of privilege.

Oligarchic “values” permeated society all the more easily because the rich controlled the press and radio-TV. The press particularly became the weapon of a special class rather than a public forum. The newspapers would noisily and endlessly comment on the side issues of our society, but not on the basic ones: for example, the question of private property.

The oligarchic propaganda was that somehow, with the election of “good men” – good men who please the oligarchs – mass poverty would come to an end. The search for “better men in politics” and not institutional change; a “higher political morality,” and not the restructuring of society – this was the oligarch’s ready answer to the question of change.

Marcos’ “monster oligarch”: the Lopez family that owned the power that was – and still is – Meralco, and the glory that was – and still is – ABS-CBN. Which “the state” confiscated after the declaration of martial law in September 1972.

Dismantling the oligarchy was as good a casus belli for Marcos’ declaration of martial law as suppressing the communist rebellion.

The dictatorship though falling flat on its face on both counts: 1) the communist insurgency grew, the New People’s Army armed cadres swelling to 25,000, opening multiple fronts in all major islands of the country; 2) a new set of oligarchs – Cojuangco, Benedicto, Disini, Cuenco, et al – rising from the old.

Some lessons from history there. Santayana, may we feel you.

So, in dismissing Ongpin and some others of his ilk yet to be publicly named and shamed, should we brace ourselves to welcome Villar, Floreindo, Dizon, Uy, Zamora as this administration’s own oligarchy?     

No, there shall be no final closure in burying the long-dead dictator at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. He will continue to haunt us – the living, as well as the dead, victims as we all are of his martial law.

His very spectre now ruling and reigning over, indeed, reining in, the nation.

What change has come.     

The will to kill

ONE DEATH is a tragedy; one million, a statistic.

Thus, Stalin. The victims of his Great Purges and gulags outnumbering the body count in all previous Russian pogroms combined.

I don’t care.

Thus, Duterte. Amid the rising death toll – breaching 800 last week – in his war against illegal drugs that has entered only its second month.

Expect more kills.

Thus, Philippine National Police Director General Ronald “Bato” de La Rosa as Duterte issued a shoot-to-kill order against elected officials involved in the illegal drug trade.

That’s my order…You will surely die.

Thus, Duterte warning “narcopoliticians,” judges, and police officers he named past midnight into Sunday.

Murder capital. Killing fields.

Thus, the Philippines infamously tagged, primarily in the global media by international human rights organizations.

Back home though, there only obtains an abject lack of public outcry over this utter devaluation of human life. Neither fearful acquiescence nor jaded indifference there but full acceptance, aye, strong approval of it by a nation, seeing it as the final – and only – solution to the drug menace.

Indeed, that long-wished-for political will, ever promised but always undelivered by previous leaders, finding its fulfilment in Duterte’s unbending will – to kill.

Hindi ka puwedeng maging Presidente kung hindi ka marunong pumatay at takot kang mamatay (You cannot be President if you don’t know how to kill and are afraid to die).

Thus, Duterte delivering on his campaign promise. To the letter.

The dregs of humanity deserve to die.

Thus, netizens at just about every report of cardboard justice served.

The scums are wasted, all cheers to the Punisher. Judge, jury and executioner all in one, no matter.

Still…  

When tears are replaced by wide smiles each time a human is killed, I shake my head and ask, ‘What has happened to humanity?’ Can we still cry with those who cry?

Thus, Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

“From a generation of drug addicts, shall we become a generation of street murderers? [Can] the do-it-yourself justice system assure us of a safer and better future?”

Thus, pour out of his heart the primate’s lamentations.

There is a little voice of humanity in us that I believe is disturbed by the killings; but that voice of disturbed humanity is drowned out by the louder voice of revenge or silenced by the sweet privileges of political clout.

I am a human being. That is all it takes for me to stand up and say, ‘Enough.’

So, when is enough…well, enough?

We will not stop until the last drug lord, the last financier and the last pusher have surrendered.

Thus, Duterte, resolute, unswerving, unwavering. Now, were the surrendering more than the killing. And the innocent spared from the dying.

Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Thus, John Donne.

An alarum for you and me.

Basta driver....

FIRST AND foremost in my gallery of people fit for abomination are passenger jeepney drivers.

Last and least in my list of people warranting even but the minutest semblance of esteem are tricycle drivers.

Maybe some hasty, generalized prejudgment there. But certainly, grounded on  empirical knowledge. On first-hand experience. As a long-time, law-abiding motorist around the San Fernando-Angeles area. Of course, there are always specific exceptions to the general rule.   

Most surely, even the most casual of observers have noted how the JODAs and TODAs routinely flout the law with the impunity usually attributed only to the very rich and the all-too powerful.

No Loading/No Unloading zones are not even suggestions to be considered, much less rules to strictly follow as passenger jeepney drivers drop and pick up commuters right under the very noses of traffic enforcers.

Passenger jeepney drivers keep to the road instead of “ramping” on the shoulders to load and unload commuters at any point of the highways.

Passenger jeepney drivers – again! – take the outermost lanes and zoom through red lights right on plain sight of traffic enforcers.

Passenger jeepney drivers – again, again! – keep their vehicles’ headlights off in the dark of night. That’s no simple driving with reckless imprudence, that’s wanting – not waiting for – an accident to happen. So where’s the LTO?

Tricycles traverse stretches of the national highways in direct violation of the law, being confined only to crossing them.

Tricycles keep to the innermost – and therefore, fast – lane at processional speed holding traffic and raising blood pressures of drivers behind them.

Tricycles are loaded to the roof with passengers and goods as they ply their merry way along the major roads and highways.

Tricycles have made street corners, many times even whole streets as their terminals, complete with sheds and karaokes.   

Include in this group too the padyak-sikels who lord it all over city streets – making terminals atop bridges, counterflowing traffic at will, do pick-and-drop passengers wherever, whenever.

Want to undertake a study of anarchy in Pampanga’s principal cities?

Go downtown San Fernando from 6:30 in the evening onward and drive through a maze of jeepneys, tricycles and tri-wheelers parked, idling or slowly moving in all directions, in utter contempt of the right of way.

Drive through the obstacle course of rushing people and parked vehicles at Angeles City proper starting 5:30 p.m. 

Jeepney. Tricycle. Basta driver, law breaker.

How did this come to pass?

Blame the laxity of law enforcers rising out of their fellowship – in Tagalog, kapalagayang-loob – with the drivers as members of the same socio-economic class.

Blame the timidity of local government units to enforce the law in view of the “solid votes” of the TODAs and JODAs. Which, in actuality, is more myth than might.

A case in point, Mayor Tirso Lacanilao – God bless his soul – standing up to the threats of Apalit’s TODAs after he regulated not only their number and routes but the way they dress – no more sandos and slippers – and daring them not only to vote for his rival but even actively campaign against him. Tirso won by landslide in his three runs for the mayorship.

In an old piece here on the culture of impunity (Immunity index, June 21, 2012) pervading the nation, we cited the jeepney and tricycle drivers as templates. We wrote:   

Culturization though starts small, petty things, which often repeated, graduate to big things. Like the culture of the lie attributed to Goebbels: If a lie is repeated often enough, it becomes the truth.

Hence, if a wrong is done often enough, it becomes not necessarily right, but altogether tolerated, aye accepted as a no-wrong…

…[Jeepney and tricycle drivers] flout the law with nothing more than their stupid grins to flaunt, but nobody dares apprehend them. Not even reprimand them. And these are but the “small folk” far below the ladder of power and influence in local society.

If, in their “lowness” they can get away with these small violations, so can the high and the mighty get away with bigger violations…

…Ending the culture of impunity in this country should be invoked at each unpunished illegality, no matter how seemingly trivial.

Ending the culture of impunity in this country demands the draconian exercise of political will. By all persons in authority. With full respect to the rights of the people, but of course.

Will. Will not. A whale of a difference in the nut.

Put those TODAs and JODAs – come to think of it, their very names bespeak of their characters – in their proper place. 

SO I raged here in December 2014. So I still rage now, the traffic situation having even worsened, recorded for posterity in my almost daily upload on FB of the state of disorder on our highways.

And yes, then as now, the authorities just don’t care. Maybe, just maybe, some sort of vigilantism makes the solution here. No, not the tok-tok, bang-bang-bang kind though.

Pogi points

TAKING AFTER his accomplished father, Angeles City Councilor Carmelo Lazatin, Jr., better known as “Pogi,” has embraced housing for the urban poor as personal advocacy.

In his time at the mayoralty, the elder Carmelo, famously known as “Tarzan,” succeeded in providing decent housing to 15,000 poor families.

“I would like to continue that,” the son now promises, and has set the stage for its fulfilment by filing the Housing Program Funds Allocation Ordinance which calls for the mandatory allotment of 10 percent of the city government’s total annual budget for housing programs for the city’s urban poor.

Rationalizes Pogi: “Rapid urbanization is a sign of a city’s development, however, it also has its drawbacks. As a city becomes urbanized, more people are drawn to it because of the job opportunities and this tends to lead to the disproportionate growth of the population relative to housing.” With the urban poor ending at the short end of the stick, as usual.

The Fund, Pogi’s ordinance stipulated, “will be solely used to finance land acquisition for socialized housing…as well as the development of community sites such as road networks, pathways, and drainages.”

And strictly, “no expenditures arising from the hiring of personnel and release of salaries and other similar privileges shall be appropriated from the Fund.”

With the further proviso that the Local Urban Poor Affairs and Housing Office and other concerned departments be engaged by the city government in the allocation and usage of the said fund.

TAKING AFTER his illustrious grandfather, Pogi is championing the cause of education for all.

Don Rafael Lazatin achieved the rare feat of having served as provincial governor, city mayor and assemblyman – in the old school of straight and clean governance – but is best enshrined in the hearts of his people as founder of Republic Central Colleges that opened educational opportunities to the poorest sector of the community.

Last July 12, Pogi refiled an ordinance – first presented to the council in September 2013 but unacted – amending the charter of the City College of Angeles City, for the college to cease collection of tuition from its students, and for the city government to grant full subsidy of the same.

The proposed ordinance likewise directs the city government to allocate five percent from its general fund, five percent from its Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), and five percent from its collection of market stall fees to CCA’s annual budget appropriation.

Based on the city’s Local Expenditure Program for 2015, Pogi said the local government can fully subsidize the tuition of CCA students, citing the general fund at P913 million, the IRA at P591 million, and the city collection for market stall fees estimated at P10 million. And from there could be allocated P68.5 million subsidy for the CCA.

Yes, Pogi is doing as well in his math too.

A CHIP off the old block, Pogi makes, indeed.

Like both his Lazatin elders, contentious politics for Pogi starts with the campaign and ends with the election. Where the public good takes precedence over personal rivalries.

The lone opposition in the city council, Pogi is most ardent in his support to Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan – much, much more than hizzoner’s own aldermen – in seeking funding for the city worker’s additional benefits, specifically the salary adjustments and bonuses to government employees covered by Executive Order 201-S2016 signed by President Aquino last February.

Late last month, Pogi, filed a resolution “respectfully requesting the City Mayor thru Local Finance Committee to provide the City Council an update on the status of the implementation of the first tranche compensation adjustment in Local Government Units (LGU’s) as provided under the Executive Order 201, Series 2016”.

That, with the commitment to the city workers to “do my very best to ensure that the benefits that are due (you) will be provided by the city government.”

In fine: Unconditional support where the executive agenda hews with public interest. Principled opposition where it is inimical. Clear-cut role for the council fiscalizer.  

Now, where other political scions as keen as Pogi in living up to the demands of the post they sought and to which they were elected. Rather than engaging in some epal­-ities, Facebook mediocrities and Instagram inanities to vainly seek pogi points for the next polls…