YANO YAN AY!
Viewpoint
The price of working abroad
Abandoned wives, orphaned children
MANILA, Philippines--I believe there is another kind of calamity that has been causing more havoc upon the lives of millions of Filipinos both here and abroad than the natural calamities that visit the Philippines regularly. It has been going on for four decades starting in the early '70s when our countrymen started to leave their land, their homes, and loved ones for greener pastures overseas.
It has made millions of children virtually orphans as they are left by one or both of their parents for jobs abroad; and spouses virtually widows or widowers. This different kind of calamity has a name: The Filipino diaspora. It has put to naught the biblical fiat that no one should put asunder the marriage of man and woman inasmuch as overseas employment has been relentlessly causing the erosion and break-up of thousands of marriages and families.
Absence, it is said, makes one's heart grow fonder. But more often, insofar as innumerable OFWs are concerned, absence makes their heart grow fonder for fellow OFWs. The same is true of hundreds of spouses left in the home front who, out of sheer loneliness for their absent spouses, become vulnerable to temptations.
Hence marriages, treated by our Civil Code as an “inviolable institution” and by the Catholic Church and other religions as a “sacrament,” have been crumbling continually for decades now and there's no sign of its letting up.
OFW Family Club
The OFW Family Club which I and my family organized eight years ago as a support group for OFWs and families, has a subgroup known as the Kinalasan, acronym for the Kababaihang Iniwan Na ng mga Lalaking Sumama sa ibang Nililiyag. It was founded by my wife Minerva. It has in its roster OFW wives and children who have virtually become widows and orphans after they have been abandoned by their husbands and fathers.
The club has a group of volunteer lawyers headed by Roger Evasco and Jose Maronilla who assist the members for free in filing claims for support with the courts. We have been busy in the club writing to ambassadors and labor attachés to locate OFW husbands and fathers overseas to remind them of their statutory obligations to provide financial support to their families.
The Kinalasan is now headed by Jovielyn, an abandoned wife with two children whose husband is a hotel worker in Macau. With the help of the club, she now receives a monthly allowance from her estranged husband who lives with another OFW in Macau. Jovielyn is actively assisted by her fellow “abandonados” in playing the role of “cheerers” or “morale supporters” to fellow Kinalasan members, such as Noraida.
Broken marriage
Noraida has her own sad story to tell. Sometime in 2003, her husband Karim went to Jeddah to work as an aircon technician. Later, Noraida also found work in Doha as a housemaid. Her Qatari employer raped and impregnated her and sent her home while her pregnancy was not yet obvious. Later, she gave birth to a black-skinned boy with Arab features. Her husband understood her helpless situation and forgave her. Noraida gave birth to two more kids of their own.
But eventually Karim found another woman in Jeddah for whom he built a home in Antipolo, Rizal. The club threatened Karim with a lawsuit constraining him to settle with Noraida with a monthly support that is so meager, Noraida laments, she had to seek regular help from her sister.
Gov't clueless
The devastation wrought by the diaspora is aggravated by a government that is clueless about what it is supposed to do to come to the rescue of the OFWs and the loved ones they leave behind. It is a government that is as clueless as it was about what to do when “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” relieved themselves of unwanted floodwaters upon our land.
The question now is, can we rely on this government to come to the rescue of the OFWs in the face of the unceasing devastations that they are being subjected to?
We do not talk merely of their painful separation from their loved ones; of marriages being broken; of employment contracts being brazenly violated by employers. We have to talk, more urgently, of countless of rapes being committed on a daily basis upon our hapless women, especially those who work as domestic helpers in millions of households of complete strangers.
Many of them are back in the Philippines like Jovielyn and Noraida, doing their best to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. Many have gone mad, many have gone six feet below the ground with the untold stories of their harrowing experiences. In the files of the club are countless of sad stories about OFWs. They are open to everyone who may be interested to research or to lend a helping hand.
OFW profile
Of the eight million OFWs, there are one million professionals such as doctors, engineers, architects, nurses, seafarers, and others; two million skilled like master mechanics, electricians, carpenters; three million semi-skilled like hotel workers, restaurant waiters, and others; two million domestic helpers, caregivers, and others.
The two million domestic helpers are females. They are the ones who, by the very environment of their jobs, are highly vulnerable to all sorts of abuses, from non-payment or underpayment of salaries, to physical and verbal abuse, acts of lasciviousness, and worse, rapes. The abusers, criminals as they are, do not discriminate whether the victims of their bestial instincts are virgins or not; married or unmarried; teeners or in their 40s; Christians or Muslims or neither.
I was labor attaché to the United Arab Emirates from 1983 to 1989. At the time, the total population of Filipino domestic helpers in the UAE was only 15,000 out of a total population of only 80,000. The total worldwide at the time was only five million. At any given day during my watch, the number of runaway housemaids that I sheltered in my family's three-bedroom apartment averaged 10.
Millions of maids
After solving the problems of some of them, others would take their place. At present, the population of Filipino domestic helpers in the UAE has sextupled to 100,000 out of a total population of 300,000. The total number of domestic helpers worldwide in 1989 was only half a million as compared to today's total of two million.
Last June, former President Joseph Estrada asked me to accompany him, former Senator Loi Estrada and their son, Senator Jinggoy Estrada to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Kuwait. I was with the three when they visited and donated plane tickets to runaway housemaids at the OWWA centers there. There were 120 runaway housemaids in Abu Dhabi, 130 in Dubai, and 160 in Kuwait. The number of runaway maids has obviously grown by leaps and bounds.
Out of the 10 domestic helpers who sought shelter in my apartment when I was labor attaché, an average of three complained of rape, and two of attempted rape or acts of lasciviousness. The rest complained of breach of contract, physical abuse. Most rape victims would ask not to file a complaint with the police for fear that the Filipino community would get wind of it and their husbands, parents, or neighbors back home would come to know of their ordeal. They would prefer to keep their suffering to themselves.
Sex perverts
It is difficult to extrapolate from the number of those who were victims of rape during my time as labor attaché to arrive at the current number now of Filipinos all over the world who have become victims of rape.
But considering that there are now two million domestic helpers out there in the world toiling inside the confines of employers' households as compared to only half a million in 1989, it is reasonable to conclude that hundreds are being raped or sexually harassed every day, but still choose to just keep their agony to themselves until they die. Not a few employers consider their housemaids as chattels or as members of their harem.
This government, wittingly or unwittingly, has been playing the role of providers of the insatiable sexual appetites of rapists and perverts all over the world.
The law is clear. Section 27 of Republic Act No. 8042, otherwise known as the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act, says: “The protection of the Filipino migrant workers and the promotion of their welfare, in particular, and the protection of the dignity and fundamental rights and freedoms of the Filipino citizens abroad, in general, shall be the highest priority concerns of the secretary of foreign affairs and the Philippine foreign service posts.” The other two concerns of the Department of Foreign Affairs are: economic diplomacy and furtherance of national security.
Romulo's role
Notwithstanding the clear mandate of our DFA, we have a foreign secretary in the person of Alberto Romulo who is apparently clueless about his role as the vicar of Philippine foreign policy. It is of public knowledge that it is Vice President Noli de Castro who is playing out Romulo's role insofar as the OFWs are concerned.
Who makes the pronouncements every time an OFW is about to be executed? Who gives out instructions for the rescue of kidnapped Filipino seafarers in Somalia and other crises involving OFWs? It has always been Noli de Castro. But the man's background and experience have never been honed toward the conduct of foreign policy and service. Unlike Romulo, the man has not gone through the burning furnace of the Commission on Appointments to determine whether or not he has the competence to venture into the realm of our country's “highest priority concerns” in foreign affairs.
We fervently wish this government shed itself off its affliction and issue forthwith several directives in line with Section 27 of Republic Act 8042: One, to issue an executive order requiring ambassadors to exercise the extraordinary diligence of a good father of a family in overseeing the welfare and protection of OFWs in their host countries. Their job performance should be measured on how true and dedicated they and their subordinates are in discharging their roles as surrogate fathers and substitute families of the OFWs; two, the government must likewise put more teeth to the citizens' arrest law by requiring the police to swiftly come to the assistance of victims of illegal recruitment who decide to arrest on the spot their illegal recruiters; three, the government should authorize ambassadors and consuls to withhold approval or cancel the passports of irresponsible OFW husbands and fathers until they resume their support to their dependents;
Four, using its profound power and influence upon every sector in society, the government should prod big businesses, especially those who have tremendously benefited from OFW remittances like Henry Sy's SM, Lucio Tan's airlines, the Ayalas and the Villars, Gotianum's real estate conglomerates, Manny Pangilinan's and the Indonesians' PLDT, Globe's, and the Lhuillier's remittance companies and other banks owned by Tans, Sys, Yuchengcos, to contribute to a private fund that will underwrite the education of children who have been orphaned by the death of their fathers or mothers overseas;
SSS coverage
Five, the government must acknowledge in more concrete terms the major OFW contributions to the economy by placing them under the coverage of the Social Security System to enable them to avail of a loan, and most especially, its retirement benefits. The government must play the role of being their “surrogate” employer by paying the counterpart amount that employers in the Philippines are normally required to pay;
Six, government must regulate the rates of remittance fees; seven, government must augment the present budget of embassies, consulates, and overseas labor offices. What they have there now, to use a metaphor, are tricycles, when what they need are buses to ferry out of danger thousands of distressed OFWs; eight, local governments must establish special desks for the spouses and children of absent OFWs who have lost a pillar, permanently or temporarily, due to overseas employment.
Voting for the bad
Philippine Daily Inquirer, Feb. 4, 2010
NUMBERS CAN LIE. That is the lesson we learn from the well-intentioned study conducted by the National Statistical Coordination Board, comparing the electoral fate of incumbent provincial officials vis-à-vis their province’s performance on the so-called Good Governance Index.
According to NSCB secretary-general Romulo Virola, eight of the 10 “worst-governed” provinces (measured in 2005) re-elected their governors in 2007. This “finding” seems unobjectionable—until we compare it with the other major “finding”: that three of the 10 “best-governed” provinces threw out their governors in 2007.
Virola’s conclusion: “Our voters, essentially, do not vote for good governance.” He also told the Inquirer: “Good performance is not sufficient for the governor to win; neither is bad performance sufficient for a governor to lose.”
Since Pampanga is one of those three “best-governed” provinces that replaced their governor three years ago, and the Lapid dynasty was the ruling clique that was replaced, we need to ask: Just what does the NSCB mean by good governance?
The answer is determined by the GGI, which is anchored on three important sets of indicators: economic (with data from the NSCB, National Statistics Office, the Commission on Audit and the Department of Budget and Management); political (with data from the Philippine National Police and the Commission on Elections); and administrative (with data from three departments: education, health and local government). The second set, in particular, bears a special relationship to our Pampanga question: those political indicators were chosen which describe improvements in law enforcement and the administration of justice and the elimination of graft and corruption. Under the Lapids, father and son, Pampanga did not lose its reputation as a vital center of the illegal numbers game jueteng. Indeed, as the election of Gov. “Among Ed” Panlilio showed, the forces associated with the jueteng operators in the province constituted a formidable political bloc, almost equal in strength to the traditional politicians associated with the Lapids. It was precisely because these two rival political blocs were of almost equal strength that Panlilio’s alternative politics squeaked through to victory.
If Pampanga scored high on the political component of the governance index, what does that tell us about the political indicators used? Under the Lapids, collections of the lahar quarrying fees were only a tiny fraction of the fees collected in the first year of the Panlilio administration. This strongly suggests that corruption was involved, and may in fact have been systemic. If this is the case, then the political indicators the NSCB used (provided, let us remind ourselves, by the PNP and the Comelec) were gravely deficient.
Alternatively, there is also the Maguindanao question. In 2007, the patriarch of the Ampatuan clan, Andal Ampatuan, was returned to the governorship of Maguindanao, one of the 10 “worst-governed” provinces the NSCB identified. Before we conclude that the people of that province voted for Ampatuan regardless of his performance as governor, we need to ask: Were the elections in the province, in fact, fair and free? We have seen evidence of the Ampatuans’ command vote, in the 2004 presidential election and in the 2007 senatorial contest. In the wake of the Maguindanao massacre, the authorities have unearthed unused voter’s IDs and election forms; these help confirm the common public perception that, in many places in Maguindanao, elections were not held.
Thus, if election results in Maguindanao were in fact manufactured, what does that tell us about the NSCB’s indicators? Is there a statistic that reflects, say, the level of intimidation an electorate living in fear faces?
What these questions suggest is that the NSCB must fine-tune the indicators it uses to capture the true state of a given province. It must not rely on the data provided by government agencies alone, but make room for alternative sources of information (such as social surveys conducted by reputable polling organizations). Only then will it be really possible to gauge whether “good governance” is, in fact, a non-issue in elections
Pooled editorial commitment
We will be their witness.
We will retrace their steps, those early hours before their shocking extinction, when they, at least 27 journalists, set out for a day’s work.
We will piece together the bloody shards of the crime — the point in the highway in Ampatuan country where the convoy in which they were part was waylaid, the guns that snuffed them out, the grassy field where they, along with the rest of the unfortunate lot, breathed their last.
We will approximate the horror, mindful of the limitations of words but galvanized by the same calling that ultimately led them to their doom. We will keep asking the terrible question: How could this have happened?
FILIPINO DECLARED "HERO OF THE YEAR" by CNN
By Alexander Villafania, Edson C. Tandoc Jr.
INQUIRER.net, Philippine Daily Inquirer 11/22/2009
MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE) For his innovative “Kariton Klasrum” (pushcart classroom) Filipino educator Efren Peñaflorida has been awarded by CNN as “2009 Hero of the Year.” Peñaflorida was awarded during the CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. He received his award from American actress Eva Mendes. He bested nine other nominees from different countries for the Hero of the Year award. The nominees were initially selected by a panel of 14 “Blue Panel” luminaries but the Hero of the Year award is given to the one with the most number of online votes in the CNN Heroes website. Peñaflorida would be the first Filipino to become a nominee of the annual CNN Heroes awards and the first to Filipino to win the top prize. The project, already in its third year, is a tribute by the international news organization to selfless humanitarian acts of individuals from different countries. In his acceptance speech, quoted by CNN, Peñaflorida said: “Our planet is filled with heroes, young and old, rich and poor, man, woman of different colors, shapes and sizes. We are one great tapestry. Each person has a hidden hero within, you just have to look inside you and search it in your heart, and be the hero to the next one in need.” "So to each and every person inside in this theater and for those who are watching at home, the hero in you is waiting to be unleashed. Serve, serve well, serve others above yourself and be happy to serve. As I always tell to my co-volunteers ... you are the change that you dream as I am the change that I dream and collectively we are the change that this world needs to be." Peñaflorida will receive $100,000. This will be used to fund his work in the Dynamic Teen Company (DTC), a volunteer organization that he put up to conduct his “Kariton Klasrum” program. Peñaflorida’s program conducts weekly visits to poor and underserved areas in Cavite, north of Luzon, to teach young people basic lessons in Mathematics, English, and Science using only a specially designed pushcart. In a previous interview, Peñaflorida said he will continue holding weekly lessons and hopes that it will encourage other people to lend time to help others in need. Family reaction Glenis Mae said: "We are very thankful that God gave us this blessing. I am very proud of my brother." Last Thursday, Peñaflorida, 28, flew to the US to attend the CNN's awarding ceremony, being one of its 10 heroes for 2009. The DTC earned worldwide recognition for recruiting teenagers as volunteer teachers to streetchildren in Cavite City. To reach the poor children, the DTC goes around the city carrying pushcarts loaded with books, blackboards and other school supplies. DTC's current chief executive officer Emanuel Bagual said DTC's newfound international fame had brought many positive changes in the group. Before, DTC members had to sell old bottles and newspapers to earn money and sustain their operations. But after DTC was featured in the media, the group started receiving private donations to support their operations. These have enabled the group to increase the number of its pushcart classrooms from two to four. The sweetest recognition, however, comes in the form of replication: Other youth groups in Davao, Metro Manila and Zamboanga have approached the DTC, asking permission to implement the project in their own areas, Bagual said. One group also put up a pushcart classroom in Kenya. The DTC willingly gave the groups its modules, Bagual said. Glenis Mae said his elder brother, the middle child in a family of three children, provided her with "an inspiring example." She said: "I was encouraged to join the DTC because I saw the good things that my brother was doing." In an earlier interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of the Inquirer.net), Peñaflorida said his parents were initially not excited about his project, telling him he was just wasting his time. But seeing the fruits of his passion, his parents became very supportive and Glenis Mae even became a member of the DTC when she was 13. When she learned on Sunday that her brother had won, Glenis Mae immediately sent a text message to his elder brother Edgardo, 30, who relayed the good news not only to their parents, but also to their neighbors. Born to a father who worked as a tricycle driver and to a mother who supported the family as a laundrywoman, Peñaflorida almost had to drop out of grade school. But he got financial support from the Club 8586, a volunteer group based in Cavite City, and from World Vision, a group which matches sponsors to needy children. He said he decided to put up the DTC to help street children as an expression of gratitude to the people who had helped him when he was young. The DTC first used a bike with a sidecar for its street classes, but once in a while, the tires would run flat and the chains fall off, so the group decided to use a pushcart instead. Peñaflorida was chosen as CNN's Hero of the Week in March. CNN gets nominees around the world to be featured as a hero -- an ordinary individual with an extraordinary impact -- each week. In October, CNN chose its 10 heroes from over 9,000 submissions. The 10 heroes, which included Peñaflorida, were selected by an elite Blue Ribbon Panel including former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, actress Whoopi Goldberg, media tycoon Ted Turner, singer Shakira, and Sir Elton John, the CNN had reported. The CNN later opened online voting for seven weeks to choose its CNN Hero of the Year. Bagual said the DTC campaigned for Peñaflorida in Cavite City. The DTC got "vote pledges" not only from its over 2,000 members, but also from residents in Cavite City. Bagual said: "We gave out flyers and we visited computer shops. We asked computer shop owners to put the CNN voting site as their homepages." *** Editorial: philnews.com
Filipino Efren Penaflorida Vying for the CNN Hero of the Year Award | ||||||||||||
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It isn't very often that we here at PHILNEWS.COM find ourselves speaking
highly about someone or something on our website. And while some of our
readers tend to fault us for this, we do realize this "shortcoming" of ours but
nonetheless feel that our job is not to wax poetic about the positive things we
see, but rather point out the things that need fixing, need improving, or need
changing. Well, this week we're making an exception to highlight an outstanding Filipino who was chosen by CNN (Cable News Network) as one of the finalists
in their CNN Hero of the Year contest. He needs your vote to win.
Click on this link to cast your vote online(you can vote more than once).
Efren Peñaflorida, was born and raised in the "squatter areas" of Cavite.
Surrounded by gangs, drugs and poverty, Efren could have easily drifted into
a life of crime or despair. Instead, this resourceful and determined young
man decided to not just lift himself out of the predicament he found himself
in, he decided to take along with him other young children in similar situations.
Barely sixteen years old when he started, Efren now 28, runs the Dynamic
Teen Company and its "Pushcart Classrooms." These are pushcarts loaded
up with books, writing materials, chairs, tables and even a chalkboard,
that are wheeled around the slums of the city so children who would
otherwise never have the opportunity to get a decent education—and a fair
shot at life—can at least learn the basics and maybe, just maybe pull
themselves up by their own bootstraps. And by doing what he and his team
of volunteers are doing, Efren Peñaflorida
might one day awake the rich and the powerful from their fairytale dream
world where Rolex watches and thousand dollar dinners are the norm, and
face the stark reality that their Philippines is now a third-world country and
it is high-time all Filipinos work together
to raise it back up to its rightful place as a proud and respected country among
the global family of nations.
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Super typhoons, flashfloods, and landslides—catastrophes that have befallen the Philippines all within a span of a few weeks could be nature's way of telling Filipinos that time is running out. The problems that our f
athers and forefathers have ignored for all these years can no longer be ignored by us. If we do not solve them within our lifetime, we will be passing on to our children a even larger problem that they might no longer be able to handle.
Though we find it abhorrent to lay blame, or point fingers at our elders, it is nonetheless a fact that since the end of World War II, succeeding generations of Filipinos have done precious little to pass on a better Philippines to the succeeding generation. There are exceptions of course but those exceptions are few and far between.
The country's population that was around fifty million in the Nineteen Sixties has close to doubled in the intervening years to where one of our readers described it as "wall to wall people" in the streets of Metro Manila. A concerted effort to keep our population under control would have been so much easier forty or fifty years ago. Thailand's population was similar to ours in the Sixties, but today there are a third less Thais than there are Filipinos. They did it, we could have easily done it too back then.
Seoul, Korea boasts of one of Asia's best and most modern traffic management system. Korean leaders understood that unless radical changes were implemented, vehicular traffic in Seoul would become unmanageable. Within a span of a few decades, the Koreans now have one of the best systems in the world. I
n their high-tech environment, even bus schedules are available via SMS text messaging and all public buses are tracked via a global positioning system. Compare that to the chaos of Metro Manila streets during rush hour—where it can sometimes take an hour to get to a destination just five kilometers away—and you easily see where our leaders have failed us.
Now look at the devastation wrought by Typhoons Ondoy (Ketsana) and Pepeng (Parma) and you again you see where no urban planning, inadequate zoning, overwhelmed sewage treatment facilities, and incomplete or non-existent flood control systems, have turned the once proud metropolis of Metro Manila into a soggy stinking mess. It is going to cost our generation a lot more just to clean up this mess than it would have cost our parents' generation to build and maintain a proper flood control system. A system that could have spared countless lives and misery over the years.
We raise our voice and point fingers because previous generations of Filipinos should have tackled these problems back when they were not as large and as costly to fix. Instead they chose not to! Now it is our turn. Sure the problems are now larger and more expensive to fix, but if we do not address them today, if do not roll up our sleeves and endure whatever hardship fixing them entails, rest assured that the next generation of Filipinos will be pointing their fingers at us and asking us how we could have been so 'inutile' and heartless.
IS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH SLOWLY DESTROYING THE PHILIPPINES?
A Philnews.com editorial
Last Wednesday (9/17/2009) Cotabato Auxiliary Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo issued a veiled warning to presidential candidate Sen. Noynoy Aquino indicating that the senator's support of the Reproductive Health Bill which he co-authored in the Philippine Senate could be detrimental to his presidential aspirations. Aquino, who currently leads the pack of presidential contenders is a strong supporter of sensible population control for his overpopulated Philippines.
Bishop Bagaforo, who goes bike touring around parts of the country decked-out in designer eyewear is emblematic of the Bishops, Archbishops, and much of the Philippine Catholic Church hierarchy who seem totally disconnected with the present plight of the nation. These old men of the cloth live lives of relative luxury. They have their assistants and secretaries, eat at least three good meals a day, and regularly hobnob with the rich and powerful. They have as much in common with their poorer parishioners as say a resident of exclusive Forbes Park has with the scavengers and garbage collectors of Smokey Mountain.
The Philippines today is struggling to move forward, but for every step forward it takes—be it in improved farming methods, or conserving its natural resources, or controlling and recycling waste—it is pushed two or three steps backwards by the ever increasing demands of its exploding population. Many Westerners who arrive in Manila are immediately struck by the mass of humanity that they see in the streets. And the worst part is government statistics show that the segments that are increasing the fastest are the poorest segments of Philippine society.
China which has a strict one-child policy in most of its provinces, and until recently an avowed atheistic country, is prospering and may soon eclipse the United States and Europe as the wealthiest and most advanced country in the world. The Philippines on the other hand a deeply religious country, practicing all sorts of esoteric rituals is stuck in a rut and is falling further and further behind even its Asian neighbors.
Another question many are asking is: if the Catholic Church is going after Noynoy Aquino for his support of the Reproductive Health Bill, why has it remained silent about former president—and possible presidential candidate—Joseph Estrada's philandering ways and his many women? Aren't those acts also a blatant violation of one of the Ten Commandments? Does this double standard exist because the Church privately condones such acts for the high and mighty be they inside or outside the Church?
It is high time that Filipinos told their bishops and archbishops to simply concentrate on performing their Confirmations and singing their Gregorian chants and leave politics to those who are actually answerable to their constituents and not to God. Otherwise, the Philippines might soon follow in the footsteps of the United States where a recent American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), showed a significant increase in the number of people who said they do not belong to any organized religion at all.
Malaya: No rhyme, reason for tax on txt (September 8, 2009)
We frankly don’t know where Representatives Exequiel Javier and Eric Singson are coming from with their proposed P0.05 tax on text messaging.
The proposed tax goes against the principles of equity and equal application. It will be an administrative nightmare to implement. And last, it is unlikely to generate the revenues expected.
For these reasons, we doubt the House in plenary would pass the measure which was yesterday reported out by Javier’s committee on ways and means. Even if by some magic the House would approve the measure, the Senate would certainly trash it, also for the reasons mentioned above.
The proponents said Filipinos send 1 billion text messages daily. At P0.05 per message, that’s a cool P50 million a day. Multiply that by 365 days and the collection totals in P18 billion a year plus change, enough to build so many school rooms, buy so many computers for public schools, etc.
The beauty, according to proponents, is that the tax burden will be shouldered solely by the telecom companies because of a provision which provides that the tax cannot be passed on to users.
Now for the flaws in the proponents’ position. Assuming that the one billion volume of text messages is right, it is not true that users are charged P1 for every message sent. In most cases, text messages are an added value service to basic phone service. In most other cases, charges on text messages are packaged in a myriad disguises to the point where even the service providers would only know the actual tariff that applied in general, not on specific cell phone units or users.
The proponents said this could be addressed by installing metering devices at the heart of the operations of telcos. That would be an added cost, but the proponents insist the telcos could very well afford it because they are earning money hand over fist.
That probably was true a few years ago, but the reality is the profits of the telcos have been declining despite the continuing expansion of their subscriber bases. And the reason for declining profitability? It’s the end of the tax holidays on the capital equipment installed to build the business.
And what’s wrong with high corporate profits? The government already collects a 12 percent valued added tax. It also collects 30 percent of corporate profit in the form of income tax. Is it now acceptable for government to impose what amounts to a windfall tax, one that a company cannot pass on to consumers, every time a business proves highly profitable?
That the proposed measure will not deliver the expected revenues is a distinct possibility. The telcos could simply come up with voice call and text message packages where the latter would be classified as added services at no cost to subscribers.
The effect would be added burden to subscribers in the form of higher basic service cost. In the end, they would be deprived of a cheap and readily accessible means of communication, all because some legislators want to make "pa-pogi" or, worse, are harassing telcos for reasons that would invite libel suits if printed.
| Asian heroes The Philippine Star - August 31, 2009 |
There are people who want to bask in the spotlight, and there are those who prefer to work in anonymity. To the second type belong most of the men and women whose work is recognized annually by the foundation that was set up in honor of a Philippine president who was known for his humility, simplicity and integrity.
Ramon Magsaysay died 52 years ago today in a plane crash, cutting short his presidency. To this day Filipinos are still looking for a leader with the same qualities that endeared him to the nation. Today the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation recognizes the contributions to humanity of six individuals: Krisana Kraisintu of Thailand, Deep Joshi of India, Yu Xiaogang and Ma Jun of China, the Philippines’ Antonio Oposa Jr. and Burma’s Ka Hsaw Wa.
This year’s awardee for emergent leadership, Ka Hsaw Wa, documented human rights and environmental abuses in his country, which continues to be ruled by one of the world’s most repressive regimes. He set up the non-profit EarthRights, taking on multinational giant Unocal, and helping the youth in his country and neighboring lands plant the seeds of civil society.
Like the Burmese, Oposa is being honored for his work in relation to the environment. Oposa, an environmental lawyer, is best known in the country for successfully urging the Supreme Court to order government agencies to clean up Manila Bay. Although the order is controversial, it helped raise public awareness of the need to clean up the bay. Oposa, a believer in the right to a healthy environment, also argued that the court could protect the interests of future generations. The SC later upheld the principle of “intergenerational equity.”
China’s Yu is being honored for his work in promoting an integrated watershed management program in a country where the construction of dams and poor watershed management have displaced millions of people. His compatriot, Ma, publicly identifies China’s water polluters and helps them address pollution problems.
India’s Deep Joshi set up the Professional Assistance for Development Action, a non-profit organization that trains university-educated Indian youth in efficient grassroots development work. Thailand’s Krisana, meanwhile, formulated the first generic versions of two antiretroviral drugs and a “cocktail” drug for treating HIV at only a fraction of the cost of the branded versions, boosting the global battle against AIDS.
These are all individuals who have dedicated themselves quietly and selflessly to alleviating human suffering. Without self-promotion, they do their part to make the world a better place.
DAWNING REALITY
Tribune Editorial - 08/27/2009
For some, that is certainly nothing but bravura, given their consistently very low survey ratings, and in the end, they will either have to slide down to the vice presidential slot or even a senatorial slot when the time comes, knowing that they have no chance at all in winning the plum political prize. While it can be said that the survey findings being released are much too early to have a near-accurate gauge of electorate support for their bids, only about four or five maximum, of these presidential aspirants can still hope to run as president and have a chance of winning, again depending on how they fare in surveys (public and private) in the next three months. All the rest had better just fold up their dream of achieving the top post, because even if some of them run for the "fund" of it, they won�t be getting that financial support mainly because of today�s difficult economic times, besides which, if their survey ratings are unimpressive, obviously, that monetary support will not be forthcoming. At this time, some presidential bets splurge on advertisements and the commissioning of surveys, mainly to get into that survey list and gain a good rating score, mostly using the surveys as a propaganda tool, to create the perception of being a strong presidential bet but perhaps they really are strong presidential contenders and want to have this cemented in the mind of the electorate. It is called mind-conditioning, which some survey firms engage in, by coming up with much too early presidential surveys. This could also explain the survey methodology that asks respondents to choose three presidential picks on a top of the mind basis. Why ask a respondent-voter to name three choices, when it is a one choice, one vote for president and vice president, if not to create the perception that candidate A or B already has over 30 percent of the vote? The funny part of it all is that even those who commission these surveys don�t buy such survey results, which is why they go into commissioning surveys for their private use, many of whose results they do not make public, since the results may not be all that favorable to them. Then too, there is such a thing as "massaging" the survey results. This practice was very evident during the 2004 presidential campaign period and it may still be the practice for some contenders to get the figures massaged. Still, it must be remembered that nine months can be a long time in politics and even in surveys. Take the case of Vice President Noli de Castro, then earlier perceived through survey findings, as the top presidential pick for some months, suddenly plunging in ratings, dislodged from first place to third, to fourth, depending on which survey is cited. Some say he dropped in ratings because of his indecisive stand in gunning for the presidency. Others say that it could be due to his identification with Gloria Arroyo which he cemented when he said he would like to have her endorsement. But who really knows? The electorate are a fickle lot. Their decision will still have to be made in May 2010. Similarly, at least going by the Pulse Asia survey, Liberal Party bet Sen. Mar Roxas� May score held a better chance of winning the race earlier, only to lose more percentage points in the July survey, bringing him down to a poor fifth place on a 10 percent score, which serves as a dampener to any presidential contender. Why he lost more points is also anybody�s guess, although Roxas does rate very well as a senatorial candidate, landing in second place in the latest Pulse Asia survey. Perhaps the electorate see him more as a senator, preferring that he remains that way, instead of a president. In the end, some of these contenders will have to drop out of the presidential race. To have a poor showing and continuing to gun for the presidency, only to lose the race will eventually cut them off as presidential material in the future. There is yet to be a Philippine presidential candidate who lost once, win the race the next time around.
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Air Pollution is Dumbing-down Tomorrow's Filipinos A Philnews.com editorial, August 25 2009 |
A recently published study by researchers at Columbia University in New York has discovered a definitive link between air pollution inhaled by pregnant women and lower IQ scores of their offspring. Published in the medical journal Pediatrics, the study tested 249 New York City women who lived in neighborhoods with high levels of air pollution. They study showed that kids whose mothers breathed in the most pollutants scored four to five IQ points lower on average.
These researchers were able to detect a perceptible drop in IQ test scores from New York's level of air pollution which is nowhere near the suffocating 
particulate-laden air found in Metro Manila and major cities in the Philippines. So the question now is; what about the legions of young Filipino children who have been breathing-in this highly polluted air every day of their lives? And how will it affect them and their future? One can only guess at how much damage has already been done. For indigent kids, its a double-whammy as they also do not get the proper amount of daily nutrients required for their healthy growth.
The culprits are obvious and everywhere. In the Philippines Diesel is cheaper than unleaded gasoline. However, the old surplus diesel engines discarded by Korea and Japan and used in Philippine jeepneys and buses pollute a lot more than their newer, technically-superior counterparts. If you add the cost of air-pollution related illnesses as well as the cost of cleaning up the grime that permeates the metropolis, diesel fuel would cost a lot more than unleaded gasoline.
Culprit number two is the two-stroke tricycle engine. Just one of these tricycles pollute as much as 50 cars—which is one reason why two-stroke motor vehicles are banned in many cities around the world. In the Philippines however, these tricycles abound contributing to a pollution level in metropolitan areas that can be immediately nauseating to a person used to the cleaner air of developed countries.
Inside this noxious cloud of fumes and particulates are children, and students, commuters, and ordinary working folk whose brain cells are slowly but surely
being affected by the caustic environment that is all around them and from which there is no running away from.
They are also tomorrow's Filipinos whose burden it will be to move the country forward and complete in an increasingly globalized and highly technical world. Jose Rizal called them "the hope of the fatherland" yet they might someday see themselves as forsaken by their predecessors (and that includes us) who were unwilling to take the necessary steps and make the needed sacrifices so that they—at the very least—would have a fighting chance. The popular saying 'you reap what you sow' does not hold true in this particular context because it is our children who will reap what we sow today. And so far we have done pathetically little for them and instead are inexorably handicapping them by forcing them to breath in all that toxic air each and every day of their lives.
Lubhang kawawa ang mga ‘isang kahig, isang tuka’
PILIPINO STAR NGAYON Thursday, July 10, 2008 EDITORYAL
WALANG ibang apektado nang patuloy na pagtaas ng gasolina, diesel at liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) kundi ang mahihirap. Ang mga mahihirap din ang apektado ng kasalukuyang kakulangan sa bigas. Ang mga mahihirap ang nagdudusa sa pagtaas ng pamasahe, bayad sa kuryente, tubig at iba pang bayarin. At sa kabila ng pagtaas ng pasahe at mga bayarin, nananatiling nakapako ang kanilang suweldo na kulang pang pambili ng bigas.
Nakaamba ang panibagong pagtataas ng pama sahe sa mga pampublikong sasakyan. Sa kasalukuyan, P8 ang minimum na pasahe sa dyipni. May petisyon ang transport groups na gawing P10 hanggang P12 ang minimum na pasahe sa unang apat na kilometro. Bunga ito nang sunud-sunod na pagtaas ng gasolina at diesel. Ang gasolina ay mahigit nang P60 bawat litro. At ang sabi ng oil companies, P10 pa ang dapat nilang itaas para mabawi ang kanilang pagkalugi. Dikta raw ng world market ang pagtataas ng petroleum products.
Pandaigdigan ang problema sa pagkain at fuel. Hindi lamang sa Pilipinas nangyayari na ang bigas ay pinipilahan para lamang makabili. Sa ibang mahihirap na bansa, halos magpatayan ang mga mahihirap para makakuha ng rasyong pagkain. Matira ang matibay. Kung mahina ang nasa pila, aagawan siya ng malakas at ang kasunod ay ang paglalabu-labo para makakuha ng pagkain.
Ang ganyang senaryo ay hindi malayong mangyari sa Pilipinas kapag hindi pa gumawa nang epektibong solusyon ang gobyerno ni Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Hindi maiiwasang magpatayan para lamang makakuha nang pagkain. Ngayon, sa pila na lamang ng NFA rice ay marami nang nasisiraan ng bait paano pa kung wala nang maibigay na bigas ang gobyerno. Tiyak na magkakagulo.
Gumawa ng paraan ang gobyerno para mapagaan ang pasanin ng taumbayan. Ang ugat ng mga paghihirap ay dahil sa pagtaas ng presyo ng petroleum products. Bakit hindi makinig sa payo ng nakararami na alisin muna ang Value Added Tax sa gasolina at diesel? Bakit hindi rebisahin ang walang kuwentang Oil Deregulation Law? Bakit hindi gumawa ng paraan kung paano matutulungan ang mahihirap na mapapakinabangan nila nang pangmatagalan at hindi yung panandalian lamang?OPINION
SI DARNA AT SI BRO
May kaugnayan ang labis na kalungkutan sa labis na panonood ng telebisyon. Lumabas sa pag-aaral na ginawa ng University of Maryland na inilathala ng Social Indicators Research noong Disyembere na mas madalas manood ng telebisyon ang mga taong labis ang kalungkutan. Lumabas sa pag-aaral na umaabot sa 10 oras ang kanilang panonood sa loob ng isang araw. Kaugnay pa rin sa nasabing pag-aaral, daang-libong mga tao ang nagsulat sa kanilang mga talaarawan o diaries na bahagi ng kanilang pang-araw-araw na gawain ang panonood ng telebisyon. May karugtong
Romulo Neri, dapat magladlad na
Mistulang inilaglag na ng Malacañang itong kontrobersiyal na si Ginoong Romulo Neri, nga-yon ay nanunungkulang presidente ng SSS, kaugnay sa kinasasangkutang eskandalo sa sinasa-bing maanomalyang ZTE-NBN deal.
Ang paglalaglag kay Mr. Neri at naganap isang araw matapos lumabas ang resolusyon ng Office of the Ombudsman na umaabsuwelto sa First Couple, Pangulong Gloria at First Gentleman Mike Arroyo na isinangkot din sa naturang iregularidad.
Mistulang pinagsabihan ng Palasyo si Ginoong Romulo na “bahala ka na sa buhay mo” ngayong pormal at opisyal na itong pinakakasuhan. At pinayuhan pa ito na harapin ang kaso at ihayag ang katotohanan.
Well, ang hirap naman kasi rito kay Mr. Neri ay ayaw pang magladlad gayung bukung-buko na ang kanyang kostumbre. Mismong ang kanyang co-accused na si dating Comelec chairman Ben Abalos ay nagpahiwatig na merong hayag na lihim na ikinukubli itong si Ginoong Romulo.
Pati nga ang mga lalaking nakakamisola na binubuo ng mga bishop at paring katoliko ay matinding nag-aarunsol sa kanya na “kumanta” na at iha-yag na ang katotohanan at buong katotohanan at patulong ka sa iyong mga anito.
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Kaya nga, sa ngayon, ang pinakamabuting gawin ni Ginoong Romulo Neri, para sa kanya at para sa bayan, ay magladlad na. Magladlad na ng katotohanan upang matahimik ang lahat at mapamayani ang katarungan.
Habang pinipilit niyang magkubli sa isang maskarang naghahantad sa tunay na porma ng kanyang karakas ay lalo namang nag-uumigting ang paniniwala ng mamamayan na meron siyang dapat na aminin upang matapos at magkaroon ng linaw ang naglulumiyad na kontrobersiya.
Sa harap ng katotohanang animo’y mistulang nagbabagang patatas na ibinagsak sa lupa si Mr. Neri, nagtatatarang naman sa kaligayahan itong si dating DoJ Secretary Raul Gonzalez dahil sa pagkakaabsuwelto sa First Couple.
Buong kahambugang ibinandera ng matandang Raul ang kanyang paniniwala noon pa man na hindi siya naniniwala na may kinalaman sa malansang alingasngas ng ZTE-NBN deal ang mag-asawang Arroyo. Sabi pa nga ng matanda, “ngayon ay makaka-tulog na ng mahimbing ang mag-asawa.”
Well, wa na tayo sey sa puntong ‘yan. Sabi nga ni Boy Tiklo, isa sa a-king magigiting na ayudante sa aking TV Show sa Net 25 at radio program sa DZEC, “what are we in power for?” Pero sa totoo lang, iisa halos ang reaksiyon ng bayan sa pangyayaring ito at ’yun ay walang iba kundi isang matunog na ungol.
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Sa kabilang dako, sa isang radio interview ko kay dating Comelec chairman Ben Abalos, mahigpit niyang pinabulaanan ang anumang akusasyon sa kanya tungkol sa maeskandalong deal ng Pinas sa China. Biktima raw siya ng intriga.
Ayon pa sa dating huwes, alam niya ang batas kaya hindi niya isusubo ang sarili sa mga alanga-ning transaksiyon. Higit sa lahat, wala raw masama kung maging malapit niyang kaibigan ang mga opisyal ng ZTE ng China. Talagang walang masamang ma-kipagkaibigan, ne po, mga Kaka?
Pero nagpagsiya ang Ombudsman, dapat daw kasuhan sina Ginoong Abalos at Neri. Ito ngang huli ay pinasususpindi pa nganim na buwan bilang pinakamataas na opisyal ng SSS. At ’yun nga, si-nabi ng matandang Raul Gonzalez na walang maaasahang ayuda ang dalawa mula sa Palasyo ng Malacañang.
Maliwanag na kung anuman ang mangyari sa dalawa ay bahala na sila sa kanilang buhay hanggang sa tuluyang magkahetot-hetot. Sa madaling salita, ayon na rin sa paniniwala ng sambayanan, sina Ginoong Neri at Abalos ay parehong sacrificial lambs.
Ang matinding tanong ng bayan -- papayag naman kaya ang dalawa na sa ganitong situwasyon na lamang humantong ang kanilang buhay matapos maging isang matapat na alipin? What a life?
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YANO YAN AY!
