Idiots at the gate

FUTURE PREMIER international gateway.

Thus was the Clark International Airport ordained to be by Executive Order 174 issued by President Ramos in 1994. Twenty one years past, the CIA’s present has remained all too distant to its future sense.

Where the CIA is virtually frozen in some back-to-the-future time warp, the gateway to the Clark Freeport is by contrast caught in a dynamics of constant change.

Before the end of last month, the Clark Development Corp. press released that “the construction of a new main gate structure at the Clark Freeport zone is set for implementation to make the Freeport more distinct, vibrant and attractive to tourists and residents.”

Allotted P10 million, the new main gate will have as primary feature “a huge LED-TV to welcome Clark visitors” that will also “flash hotline numbers, major points of interests and events in the Freeport zone.”
Why a new main gate when there’s one by the Clark Veterans Cemetery built at the tail end of the CDC presidency of Benny Ricafort – if ageing memory still serves right – immediately before the glorious coming of the Tatalonian toughie?

Well, according to the CDC in its PR, that’s called a “control gate” intended for “access control and security purposes.” Emphasizing that “it is not a replacement of the main gate.”

Call me a dummy, but ain’t a gate – with either “control” or “main” as modifier – essentially a barrier meant to control access and ensure security?

And that “control gate” has been, for some years now, serving as the main gate of the freeport. Efficiently, if I may add, in welcoming visitors and investors to Clark. Not so effectively in controlling smuggling, if I heard it right from some disgruntled CDC security staff themselves.  

Still, declared the CDC in its PR: “The Main Gate serves as a basis in the establishment of boundary of Clark Freeport Zone under Republic Act 9400.” 
RA 9400 approved by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on March 20, 2007 made amendments to RA 7227 or the Bases Conversion Development Act, among which is the “exception” from the Clark Freeport area of “the twenty-two-hectare commercial area situated near the main gate and the Bayanihan Park consisting of seven and a half hectares (7.5 has.) located outside the main gate of the Clark Special Economic Zone.” 

Again, if memory serves right, it was this exception that pushed back the Clark gate to the current “control gate” clearly defining the boundaries that excluded SM City Clark from the duty- and tax-free privileges accruing to the freeport locators. It was, as claimed by the Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement, GMA’s way of levelling the playing field to deny the giant enterprise undue advantage over the city’s small traders and retailers.   

With the “control gate” established, the old main gate was left to the mercies of the elements and vagrants answering nature’s call, becoming – as CDC put it – “dilapidated and was torn down few months ago to give way to a new structure.”

Memory, imperfect as it may be, on a roll now: That old main gate was actually the second incarnation of the main gate since the establishment of the Clark Special Economic Zone.

It was constructed at a cost of P14 million during the CDC presidency of Levy Laus to “lend global corporate appeal” to the freeport, so it was bruited then, in keeping with the corporate image of Laus.

That gate, in turn, replaced the massive edifice constructed during the CDC presidency of Gen. Romeo S. David at a reported budget of P30 million. The cost justified in the immensity of the structure and its aesthetic complements of  waterfalls, a terraced garden and bamboo groves by its egress side. Only the bamboos give a trace now of what was once a very welcoming, refreshing sight to Clark.

Just reading the cost of construction – and the subsequent destruction – of the Clark main gate gives one some sense of waste, of profligacy, of sayang na sayang in Tagalog.

Yet, a new main gate costing P10 million is set to be constructed again to serve “as a basis in the establishment of boundary of Clark Freeport Zone under Republic Act 9400.”

What is to be seen there?

Where exclusion was the intent in the previous invocation of RA 9400 applying to SM City Clark, inclusion seems the objective now in the case of the Green Frontier project of the Singaporean firm Capilion Corp. Pte. Ltd. for its availment of duty- and tax-free privileges and other perks as Clark locator.

Interesting where the new gate will be sited. 

Wherever though, it can only aggravate the constriction of the main entry to Clark already poised by the Capilion project and the Honda-Clark showroom-service center allowed to locate there.

And put the lie to what CDC said as its express intent “to make the Freeport more distinct, vibrant and attractive to tourists and residents.”

Only in this BS of an administration can road constriction by heavy traffic deemed vibrant and attractive. Yeah, as in the traffic standstill at EDSA deemed non-fatal, hailed as a sign of progress.

Too bad no gate can control the rush, aye, the crush of idiocy in this administration.       

 

     

FOI Bill is dead, FOI practice lives

A BEND, one crooked bend in BS Aquino III’s matuwid na daan is the failure to pass the Freedom of Information Bill, a campaign promise – the passage not the failing – of the BS, echoed even louder just after his victory in 2010.

Today I stand aside and cede my space to the Right to Know. Right Now! Coalition in this the best articulation of the FOI Bill and the circumstances about its demise dated 20 August 2015.

THE FOI Bill is dead. We put the blame squarely on President Aquino and the leadership of the House of Representatives.

From our years of campaigning for the passage of the FOI Act, this we know for certain: without decisive support from the President and the leadership of the House of Representatives, the bill will not pass.

Benigno S. Aquino III led us to believe that it will be different under his administration. On at least two occasions before he took his oath as President, he promised that the passage of the FOI bill will be among his administration's priorities. In 2011, his government also joined the Open Government Partnership, a multilateral initiative led by the US that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to scale up transparency, accountability and public participation. We thought that he would see the urgency of passing the FOI Bill as an essential condition for Daang Matuwid.

Aquino is turning out to be no better than his predecessor on FOI. Now entering into the final months of his term, the Philippines remains the only one of the eight founding members of OGP that has not enacted an FOI Act. For all his administration's breast beating about transparency, President Aquino has not mustered the political will to honor his campaign pact with the people to assure the passage of FOI. Instead, early in his term, the promise of support turned into ever-mutating Presidential concerns over the FOI bill. Even after his concerns were addressed in the consolidated versions that emerged in Congress, we have not seen credible proof of his personal push for the measure.

The President's last SONA was a perfect opportunity for him to show a determined and sincere effort to pass the FOI. But for the the sixth and final time, he chose not to do so. Instead, his spokespersons point to a single sentence on FOI buried in page 38 of the 43-page Budget Message. If it can be included in the budget message, why can't it be said openly for all to hear in the 2-hour-long SONA?

Not foreseeing decisive action from the President's camp, what is difficult enough to accomplish at the House of Representatives has become even harder. We are witness to Speaker Belmonte's repeated promises on FOI that is not matched by action. The Speaker, under the rules, is the political and administrative head of the House of Representatives. He is responsible for the overall management of the proceedings of the House. He is primarily responsible for preparing the legislative agenda for every regular session, with the view of ensuring the full deliberation and swift approval especially of priority measures. Yet on the ground the Speaker has not lifted a finger to give FOI a positive push. On the contrary, Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales, the Speaker's chief enforcer, is already laying the basis for all excuses for FOI's non-passage. We can almost hear the tired and disingenuous refrain, "we tried our best, but we lacked time".

The Right to Know. Right Now! Coalition, in its more than 15 years of campaigning for the passage of the FOI Act, has held forums, issued statements, ran pooled editorials, participated actively in the legislative process, held mass actions, launched signature campaigns, held advocacy runs, filed its own bill by way of Indirect Initiative, produced information materials, initiated dialogues, and coordinated work with allies in Congress and the executive. We confront the reality that our institutions, particularly the Presidency and Congress, are not ready to overcome their selfish fears and take the side of public interest on the issue of FOI.

Under these circumstances, the coalition feels it unfair to continue to burden our House FOI champions with the expectation to take political risks in order to overcome the leadership's refusal to push for FOI. We thank them for their efforts to bring the FOI Bill to the point where it is clearly at the doorstep of the President and the House leadership. We will continue to provide assistance to them as best we could should they request for it, for whatever next moves they will decide to take.

While the FOI bill again meets its death in the hands of a President and a House leadership reluctant to redistribute power or too arrogant to heed our call, our fight for an effective, working, and living FOI, lives on. It may take a different form, emphasis and strategy, but its essence will remain the same: we assert the right to information as a fundamental mechanism in the struggle for a rights-based governance with greater transparency and accountability, less corruption, broader and informed peoples’ participation, and development outcomes that are sustainable and just.

For us this fight will now take the road of FOI Practice. In the past year, the coalition has already been systematizing the coordination and documentation of experience in our information requests relating to our respective advocacies. We will scale this up to include administrative and judicial interventions to address the problems that we thought Congress, with decisive push from the President, would address though a comprehensive and progressive legislation. In this fight we will also engage the constitutionally mandated independent accountability institutions, such as the Civil Service Commission, the Commission on Audit, and the Ombudsman.

Lastly, we will use FOI Practice to bring to the surface the real cause why our politicians have defaulted, copped out, or resisted the passage of the FOI Act all this time. As starting point, we are revisiting the 2007 to 2009 COA audit of PDAF. We demand that COA and the agencies that implemented the PDAF projects afford us access not just to the main audit report, but also to all the underlying paper trail to the transactions that COA has found anomalous, so that the people may fully see how we were defrauded of public funds.

Out of the box

KAHON NG mga pangarap. The box of dreams: so rightly, so fondly, tagged has been the balikbayan box.

Pangarap to the loved ones back home, simple dreams gloriously fulfilled in Adidas shoes and Nike shirts, Dove soap and Olay cream, Alicafe and Lipton tea, Barbie doll and Tamiya car, Libby’s and Toblerone, and some other sweet etcetera.

Pangarap to the loving senders braving the desert sands of Dubai and the oil fields of Arabia, dodging the bombs in Iraq, scrubbing the cramped flats of Hong Kong and Singapore, caregiving in the hospitals of London and the nursing homes of Canada, riding the waves of the North Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the Pacific in finding the full measure of their sacrifice to ensure, if only for a time, a better life for the families they left behind.           

Each and every balikbayan box invested with drops of blood, sweat, tears of the overseas Filipino worker, expended and spilled for months on end. Packed with tender, loving care: “…ang OFW pa mismo ang mag-aayos kasi may sense of belongingness sa pag-aayos ng box. Pinapangalanan kung para kanino ang bawat item… Simpleng bagay sa iba pero para sa amin, meaningful pati ang ayos at bawat nilalaman ng isang balikbayan box.” As former caregiver Bhing Comiso of the Pinoy Expat/OFW Bloggers Awards put it, so poignantly.

Finding its English translation in Sen. Bongbong Marcos: "For every OFW, a balikbayan box is the equivalent of his or her love letter to a spouse and the rest of the family. Every item inside that box was bought with a specific person and purpose in mind, bought for with the hard-earned money of our modern-day heroes."

Kahon ng pagmamahal, indeed. “It is an expression of love, and we always look forward to hearing about how its contents made our family happy.” As Lito Soriano, a former-OFW-turned-businessman, summed it, so precisely. “This is why a balikbayan box is so sacred to OFWs.”

That sanctity now set for vicious violation by the state. With the Bureau of Customs poised to impose tougher measures, read: random opening and taxation, on balikbayan boxes on the suspicion that these are being used to smuggle in taxable goods.

Per law tracing back to the Marcos era, balikbayan boxes are duty- and tax-free packages designed for overseas Filipino workers sending home gifts to their families. But with certain limitations, such as canned goods, grocery items and other household effects not exceeding a dozen a kind; the contents not exceeding $500 in value; and one consignment per sender during a one-month period.

Limitations readily contained in even the biggest of the standard sizes of the balikbayan box, at 24x18x24 inches.

Only by the longest stretch of imagination then can be acceded Customs Commissioner Alberto Lina’s allegation that his bureau is losing about P50 million a month, or P600 million in revenue each year due to “technical smuggling” involving balikbayan boxes.

Bah, Sir, Prada, Hermes, and Louis Vuitton are too impossible a dream for OFWs to box and send home.

Indeed, Sir, there just cannot be any Porsches and Ferraris, not even a Honda Wave inside balikbayan boxes.

Right is Sen. Ralph Recto: “The bigger issue is for BoC to run after big-time smugglers, those who, for example, bring in rice in ships as big as a mall…As in the case of the reported smuggling of oil and fuel, tankers are a million times bigger and easier to spot than a balikbayan box.”

Iba ang tinitingnan sa tinititigan, as the Tagalogs will readily apply to the BoC and Lina here.

More precise is Marcos Junior: "You seem bent on bullying our OFWs while turning a blind eye on the large-scale smuggling that goes on in nearly all ports across the archipelago."

Come to think of it, ain’t the broker Lina’s assignment at the BoC analogized to Dracula being made the head of a blood bank? Shucks!

And more from Bongbong: "Are they planning to impose taxes on balikbayan boxes to make up for their annual collection deficit? In bullying our OFWs, they managed to expose their own internal deficiencies."

And, yes, maybe even to make the poor OFWs compensate for the crime of the big-time smugglers privileged to have a carancho in the BoC honcho.

Ah, how the OFWs broke the internet with their denunciation of this rapacious violation by the state of their sacred gift of self to their loved ones!

But they – we too – should have seen this coming. The signs have not been wanting.

One. The utter disrespect by the BS Aquino administration of the OFWs verbalized by no less than presidential loudmouth Lacierda in that dismissive sneer: "Hindi naman sa gobyerno napupunta ang ipinapadalang dolyar ng mga OFW's kaya hindi ito nararamdaman direkta sa ekonomiya ng bansa."

Two. The abject absence of any referral to the OFWs in the BS’ State of the Nation Addresses.   

Three. Manila International Airport Authority GM Jose Angel Honrado’s  Memorandum Circular No. 8 series of 2014 including the OFWs in the payment of  P550 terminal fee notwithstanding Republic Act 10022 or the Migrants Workers Act exempting OFWs from it.

Just three of the most overt manifestations there of the express policy of callousness and cruelty of the BS administration obtaining from its acquired ineptness and inherent inanity in governance.

That policy running through the thread of “Buhay ka pa naman, di ba?” and “Bahala kayo sa buhay ninyo!” in the immediate aftermath of Yolanda, the presidential no-show at the arrival honors for the SAF’s Fallen 44 and the smirk of a smile during the subsequent necrological services for the heroes, add to that their non-mention too in the last SONA, and “Hindi naman fatal siguro ang traffic” on the daily EDSA gridlocks.   

How the Filipino people can bear – for so long – this BS maladministration can only be explained by their genetic kinship with the damulag, the all-too patient, uncomplaining beast of burden.  

Or, by the affirmation of that Marcos era truism attributed to US Sen. Mike  Mansfield of the Philippines as a nation of 40 million cowards and one son of a bitch.

Best yet, by that political maxim “We deserve those whom we elect,” even bettered to “We are whom we elect.”

Still, hope springs eternal, the OFWs finding their casus belli may just take the Filipino out of the apathy and indifference he has been boxed in.        

End the Yellow Peril in 2016! 

Macoy or Ninoy?

TIME FOR some reflection on the meaning of this day, the 32^nd year of the martyrdom of Ninoy Aquino. 

Here’s Part V of an essay on “The Hero in History” that appeared in my column Ingkung Milio in The Voice circa 1983-1984.
Macoy or Ninoy?
THE IDEAL conclusion of revolutions is the liberation of the people. This liberation can come in various forms: from foreign or home-grown oppressors, from want and fear, from repressions of the basic rights of free speech, press, assembly, etcetera,
Now, if we believe that the ideals started by the Revolution of 1898 were continued and bore fruition in 1972;
If we believe that our people’s liberation was effected by Martial Law;
If we believe that President Marcos assumed all the ideals and aspirations of our people in his declaration of Martial Law;
Then, it is logical to conclude that Marcos is the Filipino Hero in History.
But do we believe in any of those basic premises?
For more than a decade we have been led to believe that everything around us is “the true, the good and the beautiful.” Thanks to the controlled media, we were spared the sordid realities of life in these islands where Asia wears a smile. Thanks to the manipulated press, our vision of this country for that period was constricted by high-rise hotels, networks of superhighways, beautiful edifices. The “development” of the City of Man was simply awe-inspiring, so mind-boggling that we were mesmerized to believe all that emanated from the Palace by the Pasig.
On account of these and more mind-bending bordering already on mass brainwashing, the general mass developed short-sightedness, rather, a myopic mindset – the people refusing to think beyond Marcos, failing to envision any alternative to the Marcosian thought, seeing impossibility to find any leader other than Marcos.
In a way, the ruling elite’s boast of no-alternative-to-Marcos was more hallowed than hollow. For the Opposition behaves like a bunch of Boy Scouts lost in the woods, each one wanting to take the whole troop to his chosen direction.
There was indeed a great need to unite the Opposition and subsequently form a common front against the regime. This by coming up with an alternative to Marcos. The more important thing though was to convince the people of the soundness of their alternative for their acceptance, and ultimately, support.
The call for national reconciliation by itself would have served as a call to arms. Its enhancement by the martyrdom of its firmest believer and foremost proponent added the dimension of spirituality to it. By the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, national reconciliation transcended political lines.
To say that Ninoy’s martyrdom awakened the people is an understatement. It would be most fitting to state that Ninoy assumed the role of a political Christ whose Calvary did not only open the eyes of the Filipino people to realities but also heightened their senses, strengthened their hearts and firmed up their resolve to attain liberation.
Events consequential to August 21 likewise provided an antithesis to the long-held Marxist thesis of class struggles. Current movement towards freedom, democracy and justice transcends status: plebeians and patricians, workers and capitalists – the traditionally warring factions have united in Ninoy.
All the rallies, political discussions and heightened conscientization of the people point to the direction of Ninoy in the process of being the Filipino Hero in History. Inasmuch as the process has no guarantee of successfully meeting its desired end, i.e. total liberation of the Filipino from oppression as catalyzed by Ninoy’s martyrdom, we cannot at this time say that Ninoy is our Hero in History. A hero in the company of Rizal, Bonifacio, Sakay, Abad Santos, he definitely is already.
Some years from now perhaps, history will pass a definitive judgment on Ninoy. As it shall pass the same on Marcos.
But even at that future time, the basic questions shall remain:
Who woke up the people from their deep slumber?
Who freed the people’s minds from imposed fixations?
Who liberated the Filipino from fear, from silence, from despair?
Who led the Filipinos to think, act Filipino?
Who brought back the dignity of the Filipino before the world?
A lot more is to be asked, countless questions shall crop up begging for answers. But there shall only be one answer, of two choices: Marcos or Aquino.
Take your pick: Ninoy or Macoy?
I already did.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
A SHORT two years after this piece saw print, EDSA came. And the rest is history. Ninoy’s. And Cory’s.

And, on hindsight, Marx proven right anew. Of history repeating itself: the first as tragedy, the parents’; the second as farce, PNoy’s.

To be not to be

NOT EXACTLY a Hamletian enigma for presidential pretender Mar Roxas here, hence the Bard’s quote excised of its comma and alternative indicator “or” to lose its interrogative element.

Yes, this takes on another Shakespearean extract: A rose by any other name will smell as sweet.

Aye, Roxas by any other moniker will still spell loser. Read on.    

As 2016 nears, Mar Roxas resurrecting ‘Mr. Palengke.’ The Inquirer headlined Thursday last week of the LP standard bearer’s visit at a public market in Bukidnon.

“Nagpapasalamat ako sa napakainit na pagtanggap nila dito sa palengke ng Valencia at nasasariwa ang mga alaala ko noong ako ay nakilala bilang Mister Palengke (I am thankful for your warm welcome. You remind me of when I was known as Mr. Palengke),” Roxas was quoted as saying.

Refreshing remembrance for Roxas there indeed, having parlayed his Mister Palengke persona into some 20 million votes in his 2004 senatorial run, making him the third highest vote-getter in Philippine electoral history that set his trajectory to the presidency. 

Triggering now his re-assumption of that image, justifying: “Hindi naman nawala sa akin ang pagiging Mister Palengke. Nag-iba lang ako ng tungkulin. Sa kahit anong trabaho, parating nandoon pa rin tayo, (Mr. Palengke never left me. I just took another responsibility. In everything I do, it remains with me).”

Roxas is not exactly being true-to-life there, at least to his public life as recorded by media. While his public persona may have started with Mister Palengke – which, on hindsight now, he should have kept and cultivated – it sadly devolved to other bumbling characters.

In his presidential run in 2010, prior to ceding his sure slot to the then newly orphaned boy BS Aquino III, Roxas was Boy Padyak, as chronicled in the television ad of him  switching places with a pre-teen out-of-school tri-sikad driver after knowing the plight of his poor family in some slum area. Its objective: To push the elitist Roxas into the masa consciousness as really caring even to the least of them.

Boy Padyak miserably fell short of pushing Roxas past Jojo Binay in the veep sweepstakes.

In the BS Cabinet, Roxas promptly took a new incarnation – Boy Kargador ­– with the series of raids by the police of rice warehouses suspected of hoarding the cereal to manipulate supply and prices. This, after he – for no other apparent reason than a good photo op – heaved a sack of rice on his shoulder during the conduct of “visitorial powers” of the National Food Authority with the police in the warehouse of Purefeeds Corp. at the First Bulacan Industrial City in Guiguinto town.

It was promptly ridiculed in the web as one more desperate instance of epal-itics. And Boy Kargador as quickly receded to oblivion.

But Roxas would not be deprived: surfacing as Boy Traffic when, drenched to the skin, he tried to untangle a gridlock of people and vehicles at Commonwealth Ave. during the President’s State of the Nation Address. That was a year or two ago. And again, netizens had a ball ridiculing him for epal-ness.

Then, when the MRT mess first came into the open, Roxas personified the hapless Mister Commuter, braving the rush-hour crush of everymen and everywomen, with his PR lensman in tow. Only for him to turn out as classic trying hard, second-rate, copycat, Sen. Grace Poe having been there and done that – more credibly and most creditably – much earlier.

So, after all these failed characters, it’s back now only to Roxas’ original, lucky, moniker of Mister Palengke?      

Not quite yet, as the Inquirer also headlined Friday Mr. Palengke does a Miriam Santiago, drops pickup line. Instantly earning Roxas the alias “Boy Pickup.”

Originally one-liners men use to get the attention of women at the first encounter, pickup lines have been re-crafted by the Maid Miriam as witticisms to arouse audience interest, invariably bringing the house down wherever she spoke.

At the Friday meeting of the Mindanao cluster of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, Roxas quipped: “While I was on my way here, I told myself I wish the LMP were Saturday and Sunday. That way, I will be the future of LMP. Is that OK?”

Polite applause.

“I wish the LMP were a guitar. Why? So that I can embrace you every time I sing.” Polite applause. Deferential laughter.

“I wish the LMP were an airport and I’m an airplane so that wherever I go, I will land on the LMP.”

Polite applause. Quizzical looks.

Bombed out, naturally. Spiritless, soberly dry Roxas epically failing to channel the sprightly, feisty, witty Miriam. Boy Pickup succeeding only as one more entry in, aye, even the whole subject of, yet another sequel to her bestseller Stupid is Forever.

Haay, Koring.        

Out of the sewers

INSTANCE AND consequence make two news stories that appeared in most of the local papers Tuesday.

Headlined AC court issues injunction vs. waste recovery project, the first reported on Regional Trial Court 57 Executive Judge Omar Viola issuing a preliminary injunction against that sewerage treatment project at the Clark sub-zone, in favour of petitioner Clark Development Corp.

The CDC, to recall, found itself totally clueless over diggings right at the very channel of the Sacobia River, under that bridge once dubbed as “leading to nowhere.”

Invoking RA 7227 and other laws appurtenant thereto, the CDC immediately clamped down on the construction with a cease and desist order. But the project proponents “continued with the digging or earth-moving activities and that Illuminado S. Sicat, from whom the Soliman acquired the property through waiver of rights, is a non-Aeta and not among the CADT (certificate of ancestral domain-title) holder and thus no right to transfer.”

Constraining the CDC to seek legal remedies which the same EJ Viola granted via a temporary restraining order that, after its lapse, was followed by the preliminary injunction.

In the injunction, respondents Lydia C. Soliman, Tesuphils Inc., and Rainbow Holdings Inc. – signatories to a memorandum of agreement forming the joint venture to pursue the project – “are hereby restrained and enjoined from implementing the June 16, 2015 Memorandum of Agreement, including the Joint Venture as well as other activities related thereto or in connection with the construction, establishment and operation of the Waste Recovery Facility in Barangay Calumpang, Mabalacat City, CSEZ.”

Further, the respondents were directed to “to remove and withdraw the heavy equipment from the subject area…”

End of the first story, in brief.

Aetas to file raps vs CDC execs. So screamed the second story.

The CDC was accused of “disregarding the Ancestral Domain Law” by “leaders of different Aeta tribal communities in Mabalacat City in Pampanga and Bamban town in Tarlac.”

The story made no bones that the planned legal action against CDC came subsequent, consequent as well, to EJ Viola’s injunction order versus Soliman, et al. The ramifications though go beyond the sewerage treatment facility.

“(President-CEO Arthur) Tugade, representing CDC, continuously ignores the law by claiming our ancestral lands as part of the Freeport area.” So charged one Juvylyn (Ruvielane?) Margarito, identified in the story as “spokesperson of the Aeta communities.”

And more: “Binantaan kami na kakasuhan, hina-harass kami sa aming lupa. Inaalisan na nila kami ng karapatan sa aming lupa, kasi hindi kami puwede magdesisyon sa sariling lupa namin (We were threatened with court cases, harassed in our own land, We are being deprived of our rights to our land as we are not allowed to decide what to do with it).”

CDC “control” of the Aetas’ ancestral domain is embodied in the Joint Management Agreement (JMA) signed by the CDC, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, and leaders of the Aeta community in December 2007.

Under the JMA, all agreements and undertakings within the Aetas ICC’s Ancestral Domain must pass through and be duly approved by CDC and the Joint Management Committee (JDC) created, according to CDC Legal Officer Pearl Sagmit.

This was contradicted by Margarito claiming that the JMA was not implemented due to the absence of implementing rules and regulations and the Joint Development Council.

“A bitter pill to swallow,” Margarito called the JMA, which, since its early days, had already attracted controversy and criticism.

Then 1^st District Rep. Carmelo F. Lazatin accused the CDC of having duped the Aetas into signing the JMA which was followed by the distribution of about 10 Mitsubishi L300 FB vans to tribal leaders. Which became the objects of envy to the tribesmen, especially after they served as conveyances to nightly carousing at the videoke bars under the acacia trees of Mabiga.

Not of Mabiga now but of the JMA, Lazatin said: “The sharing of 80 percent to the CDC and 20 percent to the Aetas on the lease of some 10,000 hectares as mandated by the JMA is most unfair, if not iniquitous. It should be the other way around, the Aetas being the owner of the land and the CDC merely a broker.”

What was sad, Lazatin said then, was that the Aetas had not even been given their share from the payment of the already leased areas.

The solon then said he would file a House resolution investigating the JMA. Sadly, local media lost trail of the JMA from there, until its sudden resurfacing in – of all places – the sewerage treatment facility.

Maybe time to retake the scent from here. What with that stinky smell.     

Ready, really?

RIDING ON the wings of his domain’s recent recognition as the Second Most Competitive (Component) City in the Philippines, Mayor Edwin Santiago last week proclaimed: The City of San Fernando is ready for ASEAN integration.

Wow. Wow. Wow. WOW!

Aghast at Santiago’s bold declaration, biased as I am whenever and wherever he opens his mouth, I struggled – really, really did my darndest – to frame his message as well as its meanings in journalistic objectivity, focused through the clearest lens of disinterested impartiality. Convincing, dramatic effect wished for in that intentional redundancy.

So Santiago believes the city can keep pace with the growing economy of the country, as reported in the Sun-Star Pampanga story.

Said Santiago: "Hindi lang basta-basta tayo gumagawa ng mga proyekto. Lahat pinag-iisipan, mga proyektong pangmatagalan upang tuluy-tuloy ang pag-angat ng ating lokal na ekonomiya (We don’t merely craft projects. We consider everything, long-term projects to sustain the growth of the local economy).”

Of his city’s recognition: "Hindi yan hinihingi, tinatrabaho natin (It’s not for the asking, we worked for it)." Noting the corollary ranking of “third in the government efficiency pillar, fifth in the infrastructure pillar and tenth in the economic dynamism pillar.” The pillars there, we can only assume, as some sort of measurement standards cumulatively gathered to determine the city’s final placement of runner-up in the national most competitive city contest.  

“Empowerment,” Santiago’s current buzzword, naturally takes prime spot in his discourse, credited as “vital key in lifting the economy, boosted by government officials and Fernandinos’ cooperation.”

And the potentials that come with the capital city’s being the center of business in the province are being exploited to the fullest, Santiago stressed.

Even the city’s lack of airport and seaport which are “key factors in competitiveness” can be compensated, Santiago said, by “harnessing competencies in other aspects.” 

And lest it be missed: "Tayo ang sentro ng kulturang Kapampangan (We are the center of Kapampangan culture), the home of arts and crafts and this will be our economic driver to attract more visitors and investors."

"We have lots of existing businesses here. We have the regional offices at patuloy kaming makikipag-ugnayan sa kanila (we are in continuing coordination with them) for a more comprehensive economy as we get set to welcome the ASEAN economic integration."

Being the Philippines’ second most competitive component city, the center of business and Kapampangan culture. Enough for the City of San Fernando to be ready for the ASEAN integration. So believes – and declares – the Honorable Mayor Edwin D. Santiago.

Damn me for my prejudice but I don’t think hizzoner has a full, rational, grasp of what’s rolling out his mouth. His premises – disputable at best – even granted absolute facthood, hold as much water as a sieve.

From readings and briefings:

The ASEAN integration takes the template of the European Union – the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by end of December 2015 aimed at unifying the 10-member nations into: “a single market and production base…a highly competitive economic region…of fair economic development…fully integrated into the global economy.”

The defined areas of cooperation include “human resources development; recognition of professional qualifications; closer consultation on macroeconomic and financial policies; trade financing measures; enhanced infrastructure and communications connectivity; development of electronic transactions through e-ASEAN; integrating industries across the region to promote regional sourcing; and enhancing private sector involvement.”

Only in its express intent, already a mouthful there. More than enough to choke, to smother the Philippines’ 2^nd Most Competitive (Component) City.

The impossibility of a single currency a la the EU’s euro owing to the ASEAN countries varied economies and fiscal systems even set aside, more Gordian Knots remain for the cutting, according to economic experts like former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno. Most especially for the Philippines. 

Like synchronizing its tax system – notorious for having highest marginal personal income tax rates and one of the highest corporate income tax rates – with the rest of the region, to attract more foreign investors.

Then comes the high cost of doing business in the country and corruption in government. Poor infrastructure and communications, dysfunctional power and utilities likewise.

Entailed here too is greater investment in human capital – not only in the skills and professionalism of workers but in their health and security too.

The neglect of the agriculture sector by the government will deliver one telling blow in the country’s performance in an ASEAN integration. How fares here the Philippines against Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam from where we import our staple food?

“To say that we’re ready for the ASEAN economic integration is like whistling in the dark. ASEAN integration is not going to happen overnight, but the sooner our policy makers address the country’s limitations — and there are many and hard — the better.” We can only agree, totally, with Professor Diokno.

On hindsight now, we did not have to go through that learned digression just to see the sham – no scam now – in Santiago’s declaration that the City of San Fernando is ready for ASEAN integration.

All we have to do is ask: How ready is the City of San Fernando to the floods concomitant to even the most moderate of rains? Rainfall instantly submerging the city to a standstill.

No, Santiago was not riding on the wings of the recognition of San Fernando as the country’s second most competitive component city when he made that proclamation. Looks more like he was riding on a bamboo leaf – macasaque yang bulung cuayan, with all the meanings attendant to that Kapampangan idiom.