Monday, October 6, 2014

ANL 3rd Quarter Issue 2014

E D I T O R I A L

Laughing stock of the world!

What’s happening to our country, General?” was the dire query thrown at Quezon City police chief General Tomas Karingal by former Vice-President Emmanuel Pelaez who was ambushed in broad-day light by unknown armed men on a busy city street during the dark days of martial rule. Not too long after, Karingal himself was gunned down and killed at a Quezon City restobar by unknown men surmised to be guerilla operatives of the now-defunct Alex Boncayao Brigade of the New People’s Army.

Today might not be as critical as those days leading to the ouster of the infamous dictator Marcos when urban guerilla warfare was employed by the NPA in trying to hurt the dictatorship and bring the despotic regime down to its knees. It was a war getting to be an accepted fact by a martial law-weary nation languishing under a most hated “conjugal dictatorship” glued for too long at the seat of power, force and greed.

Now, we swear: Never again to martial law!  Now, we ask: What have we got today?

Yep, Mr. Juan Dela Cruz! We have BS Aquino lll and his chaotic leadership and governance. We have a President with a questionable character—one  who  coveted the presidency only because he is the son of Ninoy and Cory who were overly idolized as icons and heroes which is largely untrue. This BS Aquino as a former congressman and senator is no achiever. Nothing personal but the bohemian guy is no marrying type; only a penchant for dating women including broadcaster Korina Sanchez who later married DILG Secretary Mar Roxas;  Valenzuela City Councilor and TV personality Shalani Soledad who eventually married Congressman Roman Romulo; and a handful more.

Aside from being a chain-smoking jolly “pistolero”, the guy is reported to be a computer game aficionado, thus tying him down late in some appointments. With nary a touch for diplomatic savvy, the man is likewise known to be pique and blame-game goat with only Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as favorite punching bag for the woes he can’t seem to tackle.

Exactly six months last May since storm Haiyan flattened Tacloban City but not a rough draft of a master plan has been drawn up to address the rehabilitation of affected towns and cities of Leyte and Samar provinces. Turning a bitter page November this year, Haiyan’s victims have yet to see any significant progress in the rehabilitation efforts of government now spanning almost a year.

We have a Supreme Court littered with P-Noy’s appointees. A supreme court that recalled the already-approved Reproductive Health Law. A high court that approved the Anti-Cyber Crime Law with the obsolete thing—“libel”—Incorporated in it as a major offense. A supreme court that declared DAP [disbursement acceleration program] unconstitutional but conveniently exculpating the President of any culpability in DAP’s illegal cashing out of hundreds of billions of pesos in all three years that criminal hands sapped the nation’s coffers.

We have a Philippine Congress cohabited by morons and kleptomaniacs. And yes, many of them, like P-Noy himself, are good at mimicking to be clean and innocent as to the identity of a lady scammer now known infamously as the pork barrel queen, Janet Lim-Napoles, who turned out to be their “confidential friend” after all. We have a Congress that simply refuse to act on the proposed bills on divorce and freedom of information for fear that when both bills be passed into law shall ram through their faces and narrow personal and malicious interests. We have a Congress that accepts bribes in the billions derived from the President’s pork barrel DAP as payback in impeaching a Chief Justice. Sadly, we have a docile Congress with the Chief Executive right at the steering wheel.

We have a kingdom called the Executive Branch with the “Pork Barrel King”  reigning over the “snakepit” called Malacanang Palace inhabited not by snakes but by the larger kind known in local tongue as “buwaya”  [crocs]. This snakepit is a unique one in that sordid notes in history are manufactured here. It receives in its royal sala the kind of bigtime criminal like Napoles surrendering to no other than the highest palace occupant who promptly escorted the fugitive lady to her prison cell in a nearby police camp with a cabinet buddy in tow. A sham to protocol and statesmanship!

We have an Executive Branch utterly insensitive to the well-being of the poor beneficiaries of public hospitals such as the Philippine Orthopedic Hospital and the Philippine Children’s Medical Center blindly ceded to big private corporations whose prime business is to amass huge profit, not for charity or cheaper health care for the indigents as supposed to be the duty of a responsible government.

We have a defiant Executive Branch audaciously demanding explanation from the Supreme Court—a co-equal branch of government—as to the merit and/or logic of the latter’s verdict on the DAP as illegal being unconstitutional in most parts. “We implemented DAP and used its funds in good faith,” rationalizes the apparently “ill-advised” [or ill-minded?] palace bigwig and his minions.  Or,  is it simply testing the waters and go away with it? 

You knew all the while, Mr. BS Aquino, that the DAP is  ill-intent on your part having filed a bill when you were a senator during Gloria Arroyo’s term opposing such an evil scheme of squeezing blood from the peoples’ pocket. How dare you forget this glaring fact in your argument with and in your bullying the country’s highest court?! Is it because you’re squeezing payback from your appointee-justices up there? Is it because you hold the neck of the entire Congress with your cash-dangling hands duping them to intervene for and in your behalf?

How dare you threaten the Supreme Court—the country’s ultimate arbiter of laws—with a head-on collision with your Executive branch in defense of something illegal as the DAP?!  Are you throwing this country into chaos? Suck it, bully-boy!

And finally, we have this bagman-collector Janet Lim-Napoles who brought forth a historic scandal of global proportion plunging into mud this nation once reduced to being a “banana republic” under martial law.

“Bagman-collector”? And for whom?

It’s a well-planned telenovela-racket starring Napoles and a cast of hundreds propping her up by the sidelines—politicians and bureaucrats crazed and blinded by hundreds of millions in fat commissions [“pork barrel” kickbacks!] with not a drop of sweat. Napoles’ backers [and mentors like Budget Secretary Butch Abad] coached her into putting up fake non-government organizations where the priority development assistance funds [PDAF] of her politician-patrons  are funneled and secured in a sweetheart deal of 70-30 percentage sharing—the bigger end going to the politico-backer and the smaller amount for Napoles.

Silly-funny, dude! But there goes the easy loot of “funds” in the Philippines. Shenanigans end up laughing their way to the bank ever cocky and ritzy.

So is a nation coming to terms with the very misfortune of plunging itself back to being a stinking banana republic—the laughing stock of the world.    
[editorial board, asingan newsline, july 2014]


N E W S L I N E

DAP used to compensate Aquino kin at Luisita
                                                                            By  the daily tribune 
                                                                                Sunday, 20 July 2014
The Department of Agrarian Reform [DAR] had confirmed that P5.4 billion of the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program [DAP] was released to the DAR which was used as landowners’ compensation, including those for the relatives of President Aquino for Hacienda Luisita land.

Based on the list of DAP projects released by MalacaƱang, the DAR received P5.4 billion for landowners compensation and another P1.29 billion for agrarian reform communities project 2.  In a statement released to the media July 17, DAR admitted that the funds from the DAP were used to compensate over 4,000 landowners, including those of Hacienda Luisita.

The DAR said that from 2011 to June 2014, Landbank disbursed P4.052 billion representing the cash portion of landowners compensation to more than 4,000 landowners whose lands were distributed to farmer-beneficiaries of the agrarian reform program.

The DAR paid the Hacienda Luisita, Inc. [HLI] a total of P471.50 million broken down as follows: P304.03 million as the actual cost of land and an additional P167.47 million as interest. The amount is 11.6 percent of the P4.052 billion paid to more than 4,000 landowners.

According to the Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura [UMA], the amount paid to Hacienda Luisita was equivalent to P100,000 per hectare or “double the value initially prescribed by the April 24, 2012 Supreme Court decision on Hacienda Luisita.”

In its final ruling, the high court maintained that the date of reckoning for land valuation in Hacienda Luisita shall be November 21, 1989, the same date that the stock distribution option [SDO] in Hacienda Luisita was approved. The SDO is one of the non-land transfer schemes allowed under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. To evade actual distribution of the land, the Cojuangco-Aquinos during the administration of the late president Corazon Aquino, the current president’s mother, gave farm workers shares of stocks instead of land.

According to Ambala’s lawyer Jobert Pahilga, the 1989 valuation should be pegged at P40,000 per hectare, the same valuation given by the Cojuangco-Aquinos when they computed the shares of stocks of farm workers under the SDO. The SC affirmed that the valuation should be based on1989 prices. The UMA said the Cojuangco-Aquinos were overpaid by as much as P167 million.

Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes, however, claimed that although an amount was indicated for landowners compensation in the list of DAP-Identified Projects, the funding was included only because it was part of the disbursement strategy and it only required the release of cash and not an additional funding landowners compensation already has an appropriation for fiscal years 2010 and 2011.

The fact that this was included in the DBM list, however, indicated that the cash released was from the DAP.

De los Reyes said in 2010 and 2011, Congress appropriated a budget of P3.966 billion for each of these years for landowners compensation but no cash was immediately released to the Landbank. “In September 2011, the DAR endorsed the request of the Landbank for the cash release to the Landbank of P7.932 billion representing the total appropriation for landowners’ compensation for 2010 and 2011. This request was prompted by the prospect of the depletion of the available cash of the Agrarian Reform Fund in the wake of the Supreme Court decision on the case of Apo Fruits Corporation and Hijo Plantation, Inc. vs. Land Bank of the Philippines in April 2011. The Supreme Court had ordered the Landbank to pay Apo-Hijo not only the actual valuation for land DAR acquired for distribution but also a penalty interest from the time the DAR acquired the landholding in December 9, 1996 until the Landbank paid the amount on May 9, 2008,” he said.

De los Reyes said that in October 2011, a Notice of Cash Allocation [NCA] for P7.932 billion corresponding to appropriations in the General Appropriations Act of both 2010 and 2011 was released to the Landbank. A part of this amount, P5.4 billion, was through the DAP “as part of the disbursement strategy.”

“I wish to emphasize that this P5.432 billion was not an augmentation of the fund for Landowners Compensation, the entire P7.932 billion corresponds to the 2010 and 2011 appropriation for Landowners Compensation in the GAA for those years,” he added.

From 2011 to June 2014, Landbank disbursed P4.052 billion representing the cash portion of Landowners Compensation to more than 4,000 landowners whose lands were distributed to farmer-beneficiaries of the agrarian reform program.

“The landowners of Apo Fruits-Hijo Plantation and of Hacienda Luisita are but two of the more than 4,000 landowners paid by the Landbank,” according to the DAR statement.

De los Reyes branded as baseless and untrue the accusations that DAP was released to the Landbank in order to primarily pay for Hacienda Luisita lands saying the P7.932 billion released to the Landbank was the total of the 2010 and 2011 budget for landowners compensation approved by Congress and that it was used to pay not only Hacienda Luisita, Inc. but more than 4,000 landowners. 

“President Aquino himself has allocated billions of pesos from his unconstitutional DAP for landlord compensation and for alleged bribery to secure the impeachment of Chief Justice Corona after the SC promulgated its final and executory decision on Hacienda Luisita,” the UMA in its 2013 fact-finding report.

In 2012, the Supreme Court [SC] under then Chief Justice Renato Corona released a final and executory decision to implement land distribution in Hacienda Luisita. According to reports, billions of pesos from the DAP were used by Aquino to bribe legilators to impeach and convict Corona, as retribution for the landmark Luisita ruling.

“The Cojuangco-Aquinos are using power and influence to sabotage the SC decision. All government agencies such as the Department of Agrarian Reform [DAR], the military, police, and local courts in Tarlac are directly taking orders from the Cojuangcos to coerce and disenfranchise supposed land reform beneficiaries in Hacienda Luisita,” said Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita [Ambala] chairman Florida Sibayan said.

Aside from the DAP, a new disbursement mechanism by the Aquino-Abad tandem is now believed to be actively used to fund the Cojuangco-Aquino’s illicit sugarcane “aryendo” [lease agreement] victimizing thousands of Luisita beneficiaries in the guise of “land reform support services” such as block-farming. Under the 2013 Grassroots Participatory Budgeting [GPB] program, otherwise known as Bottom-Up Budgeting [BuB], P476 million was released to the DAR for agrarian reform beneficiaries’ support services.

Sibayan said that loyal Cojuangco agents such as Arsenio Valentino, a former supervisor of the Hacienda Luisita now heads the DAR’s Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Organizations [ARBO] and can easily access these “support service funds.” The funds are used to entice cash-strapped farmer beneficiaries to enter unfair lease agreements known as the aryendo  leading to the wholesale disqualification of beneficiaries and the reconcentration of the sugar estate back to Cojuangco-Aquino control.

“The DAR says that they need enough proof to stop the aryendo  in Hacienda Luisita, but the most notorious of “aryendadors” are currently in their employ. We will not be surprised if the DAR takes action on the aryendo – not to pin down these Cojuangco agents – but to lay the blame on the thousands of Hacienda Luisita farmworkers which they have systematically swindled and disenfranchised through consistent deception, violence and coercion. Puro panloloko, pandarahas at pangangamkam,” Sibayan said.

Sibayan also lamented that since June 25, DAR and PNP personnel using government-owned tractors are now directly involved in the ruthless destruction of crops and productive organic farms in Barangay Mapalacsiao, Hacienda Luisita to make way for the replanting of sugarcane by another Cojuangco-Aquino agent, ex-LTO Chief Virgie Torres, a known ally and Kabarilan [shooting range buddy] of Aquino.

“While Aquino coddles and grants special treatment to pork plunderers, hundreds of Luisita farmers have been subjected to police brutality and harassment suits. Under this landlord president, I have been mauled by police several times, imprisoned at least three times while facing numerous trumped-up charges because of defending farmworkers’ rights to our land,” Sibayan said.


P U N C H L I N E

A Commentary

"SONAmashit"? 
By: Bencio Balino

It really depends on who's judging Mr. BS Aquino III. But as we see it, his fifth and penultimate "Statement Of the Nation Address" [SONA] this July 2014 is a mere arithmetical recitation of his so-called completed/yet-to-be-completed infrastructure projects which are mostly difficult to believe [and verify] if he indeed initiated all these and not by previous administration[s]. Obviously justifying "holDAP" [disbursement acceleration program], he goes on to brag that some of these projects were financed by the illegal fund that only he [yes, only he!] has the sole and absolute discretion where to source and spend all the hundreds of billions of pesos without clear and transparent accountability. Obviously, too, this is a swipe [again!] at the Supreme Court's declaring the DAP unconstitutional.



A brag that he is [he alleged to have barely escaped death in the 1989 military coup against his mother], he boasted to have alleviated the sufferings of the poor by spending PhP120 billion for his dole-out program dubbed as "Pantawid Pamilya Program", or the CCT ["conditional cash transfer"] since assuming office over four years ago even as the "Pulse Asia" survey in June says that 600,000 families were added anew to the legions of those already languishing below the poverty line. 

Aside from detailing some purchases of mostly second hand military arms and equipment, Mr. Aquino forgot quite a number of vital agenda but not to praise some of his cabinet members who were suspect to be running for higher posts in the 2016 elections. Waxing hot and emotional, he lambasted his critics for the nth time falling short of calling them evil; while, at one point, he [and Sisters Kris and Ballsy!] broke down to tears on mere mention of their parents name in the SONA text. For the political icing, P-Noy heads into early politicking by advising his audience to elect people of his kind to push his "yellow program" beyond his term.

By intent, or a sorry miss?

With a cabal of lawyers and advisers at his beck, it can’t be a sorry miss. Aquino made no mention of his repeated promise--the passage into law of the proposed "Freedom of Information" [FOI] bill widely sought for by the public. He's probably too scared that an FOI law may boomerang, first, into his "yellow face" and, second, to his minions'.

Aquino missed altogether the rice and power crises--both at critical proportion since the former involves not only smuggling but  in the lack of supply and the searing prices of the people’s staple; while the latter is plagued by frequent brownouts due to breakdowns of aging power plants that are in dire need not only of urgent upkeep but for additional units as well. P-Noy have said nothing on the price and supply crisis facing the ginger-garlic-onion industry reported to be mired as well by smuggling.

P-Noy doesn't seem to care casting even a line in his SONA about his own people--the overseas Filipino workers [OFWs]--laboring hard abroad to fuel up a sagging economy. He has totally forgotten his so-called "national greening program" [NGP] even in the midst of all-too-frequent flooding and warming of global temperature and drought. He haven't any say on good and affordable healthcare as to easily cede to big business some all-too-important government hospitals like the Philippine Orthopedic Center and the Philippine Children's Medical Center.

The Conjuangco-Aquinos are sowing terror and killings among the restive Hacienda Luisita's tenants and farmworkers with P-Noy's bloodthirsty clan desperately hanging on to over 6,000 hectares of land mandated by law and the high court for them to distribute said lands back to the tenant farmers. Aquino's clan frowns at genuine agrarian reform as they disdain genuine change.

As President of an impoverished nation, he failed to squarely discuss vital growth factors such as manufacturing, agriculture and the likes. His human rights record is equally dangerous for political activists and press people who bore the brunt of killings during his term. According to crime watchdog VACC [Volunteer Against Crime and Corruption], P-Noy's term record is highest on high-profile crimes including the rampant "riding-in-tandem" killings.

Now, when BS Aquino can't push you around, he can at least lie through his teeth. He rattled a load of convoluted data on education, poverty, crime, employment, etc., that are nowhere to be found in any decent and reputable paper or journal. Much less can you see it on the ground. Go to Zamboanga; to Bohol; to Leyte-Samar; down to typhoons Sendong's [2011] and Pablo's [2012] paths. See for yourselves and talk to the people out there and you'll see in their eyes a liar president and his "SONAmashit"!


F E A T U R E



 Luisita farmers deprived of food, income
Posted on July 13, 2014
[On the average, a hectare of land yields 100 cavans of rice. The 53 hectares of land destroyed could have produced 5,300 cavans of rice per harvest season or 10,600 cavans for one year. A cavan is equivalent to 50 kilos.]
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com

MANILA In just a minute, 12 banana trees were razed to the ground. A blue tractor then ran over the newly planted chili and peanut plants in sitio Maligaya, Mapalacsiao village inside the Hacienda Luisita, July 8.

Farmers Rebecca Santos, Neng Pineda, Teresita Ocampo and Reynaldo Ocampo attempted to defend the 9.1-hectare land they have cultivated for the past nine years. Their efforts proved futile as fully-armed policemen and personnel from the Provincial Agrarian Reform Office [PARO] led by lawyer Jose Eduardo Narciso facilitated the destruction of their crops.
The incident is the latest of a series of bulldozing activities targeting agricultural lands inside the hacienda that began in December 2013. Almost 53 hectares of land planted to palay, vegetables and fruit trees – a part of the tillage campaign of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Asyenda Luisita [Ambala] since 2005 — have already been destroyed.
Supporters of the Ambala’s tillage campaign condemned what they called as “attacks against the Hacienda Luisita farmers.”
Alfredo G. dela Mines, organic farming specialist of the Ecotech Masipag, told Bulatlat.com in a phone interview, “This is a clear case of transgression. The farmers are the owners of the land. Why would they harass the farmers?”

Dela Mines, who has been providing free trainings to Hacienda Luisita farmers since June last year, cited the Supreme Court April 24, 2012 decision ordering the distribution of Hacienda Luisita land to the farmworker-beneficiaries.
The demo farms Dela Mines helped cultivate in the villages of Balete and Mapalacsiao were among those destroyed.
Another supporter, Fr. Jesse Dumaual, MSC, told Bulatlat.com he is saddened by the recent developments in Hacienda Luisita.

Like Dela Mines, the Catholic priest also provided trainings on organic farming and sustainable agriculture since February 2013. With the help of Catholic churches and some foundations, the priest was able to donate machineries, seedlings, inputs, fuel and other materials to Hacienda Luisita farmers amounting to P400,000.
Potential food supplier
Both Dela Mines and Dumaual recognized the potential of Hacienda Luisita for agricultural production.
On the average, a hectare of land yields 100 cavans of rice. The 53 hectares of land destroyed could have produced 5,300 cavans of rice per harvest season or 10,600 cavans for one year. A cavan is equivalent to 50 kilos.
Dumaual said marketing would not be problem. Even before harvest season, the priest said there were some church institutions that pledged to buy organic rice from Hacienda Luisita farmers.
Dela Mines said if thousands of hectares of land would be devoted to vegetable production, Hacienda Luisita farmers could supply vegetables to Metro Manila.
Dela Mines who has been teaching organic farming since 1998 said a hectare of land planted with bitter gourd or ampalaya could earn P1 million in one year. He said that in four months, a farmer could harvest ampalaya for 15 to 20 times. In one cropping, farmers could earn P500,000 per hectare.
The pilot farm that Dela Mines supervised in Balete village had ampalaya, string beans, eggplant, tomatoes and other vegetables. It was destroyed by the security guards of the Tarlac Development Corporation (Tadeco) before Christmas last year.
Tadeco, a corporation owned by the clan of President Benigno Aquino III, is claiming ownership of thousands of hectares of land in Hacienda Luisita after the high court issued its historic ruling.
Fr. Dumaual noted that the agricultural lands destroyed in Balete village are part of the notice of coverage issued by DAR.
“Hacienda Luisita is a prime agricultural land,” Fr. Dumaual said. “It would be such a waste if the land would be converted to commercial and industrial use.”
Better than sugarcane
Dela Mines said rice and vegetable production would yield more income than sugarcane.
At the maximum, a hectare of sugarcane could earn P100,000 as opposed to P1 million per hectare for vegetables, Dela Mines said. He added that the five years of income from sugarcane could be earned in just one year from vegetables.
Dela Mines said the sugar block farming being promoted by the DAR in Hacienda Luisita is tantamount to “dictating what farmers should plant.”
“The sugar block farming being pushed by the Department of Agrarian Reform would benefit the sugar mill of the Cojuangco-Aquinos,” Dela Mines said. The Ambala also revealed that “sugarcane financiers” – who are mainly friends and dummies of the Cojuangco-Aquino clan – have leased thousands of hectares of land from farmworker-beneficiaries.
DAR should listen
Fr. Dumaual attributed the disputes among the farmers to the raffle system of land distribution implemented by the DAR.
“DAR should listen to the farmers,” the priest said. He said the DAR should have allowed farmers who have cultivated the land since 2005 to stay where their farms are located.
Both supporters have called on Hacienda Luisita farmers to defend their tillage campaign.
“We are always starting from scratch,” Fr. Dumaual said. After the destruction of some land, they would proceed to another. “But it’s okay, as long as the farmers are willing to till, we will support them.”
This pilot farm in Balete village was destroyed by the security guards of the Cojuangco-owned Tarlac Development Corporation (Tadeco) in December 2013. (Photo by Ronalyn V. Olea / Bulatlat.com)


L I T E R A RY







E  D I T O R I A L     B  O A R D

MEMBERSRudy D. Antonio [Canada Correspondent];  Engr. Silver Casilla  &  RN Merly Grospe-Mayo [U.S. Correspondents];  Ronilo R. Corpuz [Vienna Correspondent];  Fely Dumaguing-Malgapo [Milan Correspondent];  Engr. Joe  L. Sevilla [Asingan Correspondent];  Col. Lalin Layos-Pascual;  Ross C. Diaz;  Engr. Lorie  dG.  Estrada;  CPA Rod A. Layco;  Wena Agaton-Balino [Photo & Lay-out Artist];  Ruben “Bencio” Balino [ Editor-In-Chief].


Wednesday, July 2, 2014

ANL 2nd Quarter Issue 2014

E D I T O R I A L

Hate your “banana republic”?
I hate this country
Thursday, June 26th, 2014

Let me say it: I hate this country!”  taunts matter-of-factly this young lady professional.

I hate how most of the politicians running this country are idiots, are corrupt, or both. I hate how many of this country’s citizens continue to vote for the same incompetent characters every election. I hate that votes can easily be bought from our countrymen because they have so little to begin with.

I hate how our “leaders” continue to take advantage of the people and our taxes. I hate how such “leaders” pocketed the aid money that was intended for the victims of Tropical Storm “Sendong.” I hate how illegal logging was responsible for the deaths of more than a thousand people during the same tropical storm. I hate how corruption lets activities like illegal logging keep on happening.

I hate how my hard-earned taxes go to the Louis Vuitton bags of people like the supposed mastermind of the pork barrel scam. I hate how only an elite few control the levers of power in this country and forget to take care of the other 80-million-plus people living in the same space. I hate how a few centuries ago, we were a proud and strong race, but are now reduced to being servants of all—caregivers and nurses in countries outside our own.

I hate having an inefficient transportation system. I hate having to wait almost forever just to get inside a cramped train filled with the body odors of passengers from all walks of life. I hate having to stand in a bus that moves recklessly on the highways of Manila and whose passengers have to hang on for dear life.

I hate having to endure endless traffic. I hate having roads that are always “under repair” when the election campaign season is near, even when these roads are in a perfectly good condition. I hate having to pay more for traveling within the Philippines than traveling outside to places such as Singapore or Hong Kong. I hate having to endure poor traveling conditions just to go and see the wonderful tourist places that this country can offer.

I hate it that most of the attention always seems to be focused on Metro Manila. I hate it that areas outside Metro Manila seem to be given no importance, the news networks all agog when something even minor happens in Manila but barely making noise when it concerns the provinces. I hate it that the capital is overcrowded, with people who think their only goal in life should be to keep adding to the growing population. I hate it that people from the provinces get looked down upon. I hate it that privileged students from the top schools have absolutely no idea what life is the provinces is like. I hate it that many people still believe the Philippines is only Metro Manila.

I hate how so many Filipinos cannot afford to feed themselves and have to resort to eating “pagpag” (leftover food dumped in the garbage). I hate seeing a small child (who is most likely part of a syndicate) go inside a jeepney to distribute envelopes for alms. I hate how so many of our countrymen still live in shanties. I hate it that people die because we do not have adequate health facilities, hospitals, doctors and health workers to take care of the ailing.

I hate how disasters keep striking this country year after year and our only response is to say that the Filipino spirit is strong/resilient, and we continue making the same mistakes leading to the same disasters. I hate it when the media feed useless trash to the public and prevent it from thinking about more important issues (that do not concern Vhong Navarro and his beating incident).

I hate it when brilliant people I know choose to leave this country because there are better opportunities outside where they can best develop their talents (and sadly, this country cannot offer the same options to them). I hate it when mothers and fathers have to leave home to work abroad because they cannot find a job in this country that can sustain their loved ones, and consequently produce a dysfunctional family with spoiled children who see their parents as mere providers of material things.


There are so many things I hate. Most of all, I hate it when I always try to find a justification for this country. I hate it that I have to find myself scrambling for answers to queries from relatives if I have plans to settle abroad. I hate the thought of actually leaving this country, but I sometimes find myself entertaining the thought of actually leaving in order to have a comfortable and secure future—in a land where proper health care is readily available.

I hate it that I found words of inspiration and motivation to stay and fight for this country from a British man, not from a fellow Filipino! I hate how I find so many European volunteers appreciating this country, and they are probably more Filipino in heart than I can ever be. I hate it that as each year passes, I find myself growing more and more discontented with this country. I hate how the strong idealism I had after graduation is being chipped away as I get older.

I hate getting frustrated that whatever effort I make does not appear to have any lasting impact.

I hate how I keep on believing there is still hope for this country to turn around. To quote from Brokeback Mountain: “ I wish I could quit you!”

Angeli P. Diamante, 24, says she is a “supply chain ninja” at Gandang Kalikasan, Inc.

[Editor’s Note: Don’t you hate a President accepting a fugitive pork barrel queen at the sala of his Malacanang Palace office surrendering to save her ass? And yes, a President of the Republic escorting a criminal to her prison cell in a police camp with his DILG Secretary in tow like a trained circus monkey?! Don’t you hate a President belonging to a political dynasty himself thus abetting his own kind? Don’t you hate a kleptomaniac President dipping his dirty fingers into illegal PDAP and DAP funds in the tune of a trillion or so a year? Don’t you hate a President with nary a diplomatic savvy? Don’t you hate a President with a questionable IQ and character? A “jolly-good pistolero”? A chain smoker? A balding, pique and eternal blame-game goat? An “istariray”?

Aren’t you tired counting your fingers like me, and JDC? I regret feeling sick with our own kin and kind never learning; never fighting back for good! The Cory-Cory! Laban-Laban! thing of yore is an oligarch’s shit! The so-called “February 1986 People Power Revolution” was never a genuine revolution but a CIA hoax-plot! A bogus “revolution” ushering in a mere changing-of-the-guard from the clutches of a dictator-despot to the fangs of greedy oligarchs! And so here we are, Angeli, not back to the proverbial square one but to the recesses of the ruling elite’s assholes!]



F E A T U R E

EDCA economics

YES, Master! Anything I can do for you?

Philippine sovereignty remains seriously challenged even as the country marks its supposed 116th Independence Day, 12th June 2014. The biggest threat still comes from the United States of America especially amid its so-called pivot to Asia. This foreign policy of the Obama regime involves the deepening of US-PH colonial ties such as through the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement [EDCA].

Recently signed this June, EDCA is now the most blatant symbol of US intervention in the country, much like the old US military bases in Subic and Clark. And like before, government is reciting all sorts of hosannas to justify what is an essentially new basing deal with the Americans.
Economic gains?
One of the supposed gains is economic. The Department of Foreign Affairs claims that EDCA will further benefit the Philippines “through the provision of jobs and other economic opportunities in the construction activities… and procurement of local goods and supplies by the US military and personnel.” 

Local construction firms, professionals and experts are expected to be hired by the US military to build their facilities in so-called “Agreed Locations”  under EDCA. Entrepreneurs near these agreed locations will profit as well due to demand for services and products from American troops.
EDCA defines Agreed Locations as facilities and areas that are provided by the Armed Forces of the Philippines [AFP] for access and use by US forces and contractors. Although denied by officials, these shall effectively function as military bases for the US, including prepositioning materiel. Agreed Locations can be anywhere in the Philippines, even in areas where there are no existing AFP bases.

Meanwhile, improved business confidence is another purported economic gain from EDCA. The presence of US forces is claimed to provide stability that local and foreign investors seek. The military deal is said to reinforce stability in Asia, which underpins growth in the region.

No preferential treatment
Alas, like its supposed defense and security benefits such as AFP modernization, maritime domain awareness, etc., authorities are overstating EDCA’s economic gains.
For one thing, EDCA does not require the US to give preferential treatment to Filipino firms to build facilities in agreed locations or supply the needs of American troops. On the contrary, it gives the US the exclusive right to choose its own contractors and suppliers.
Article VIII paragraph 1 of EDCA states: United States forces may contract for any materiel, supplies, equipment, and services (including construction) to be furnished or undertaken in the territory of the Philippines without restriction as to the choice of contractor, supplier, or person who provides such materiel, supplies, equipment, or services. Such contract shall be solicited, awarded, and administered in accordance with the laws and regulations of the United States.

What EDCA merely requires is for the US to make the best effort to hire Filipino contractors and suppliers although this too shall conform to US policies. Paragraph 2 of Article VIII states: United States forces shall strive to use Philippine suppliers of goods, products, and services to the greatest extent practicable in accordance with the laws and regulations of the United States.

Bases for US profits
Building and maintaining foreign military bases have become a lucrative industry in the US, and is dominated by a handful of private American contractors. Based on one rough estimate, private contractors raked in $385 billion in overseas bases in the past decade with the 10 biggest groups cornering one-third of the amount.

The central role that profit-seeking contractors play in nearly 1,000 US foreign military bases worldwide has been made possible by the privatization of logistics and core military roles in US wars and intervention. As one study published in the Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies put it“To economically and efficiently ‘manufacture’ the ‘product’ known as security, the DoD (US Department of Defense) has increasingly operated like a transnational corporation: it has adopted the corporate strategies of rightsizing, outsourcing, and offshoring.”

Private contractors perform various functions outsourced to them by the US Defense Department – from the construction and security of foreign military bases to “running dining facilities and performing laundry services” inside these bases. Retired US defense and military officials usually found and head these private contractors, explaining their tight relationship with Pentagon.
Thus, it is not surprising that the US Defense Department ensured that EDCA would not tie their hands as to their preferred contractors that will provide goods and services in Agreed Locations.
American contractors
Even before EDCA was signed, some of the biggest American private contractors have already been working in the Philippines to support US military operations here. One of them is DynCorp International, which has a $16.34-million contract with the US Navy to perform “labor, supervision, management, tools, materials, equipment, facilities, transportation, incidental engineering, and other items necessary to provide support services” to the US Joint Special Operations Task Force – Philippines (JSOTF-P).

JSOTF-P forces have been rotationally deployed by the US in Mindanao since 2002 through the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). Their deployment was part of the so-called war on terror of the then Bush administration. They keep facilities inside AFP bases in Zamboanga City, Maguindanao and Sulu. These facilities are being maintained and secured by DynCorp.

Another is Huntington Ingalls Industries, which builds ships for the US Navy and Coast Guard. In 2012, Huntington Ingalls forged a service deal with giant South Korean firm Hanjin Heavy Industries to provide maintenance, repair and logistics services to the US Navy at Subic Bay. The contract was apparently in anticipation of increased US military presence in the country that will now materialize under EDCA.

Exploiting workers
At best, the only possible economic “benefit” that Filipinos may have under EDCA is as a source of cheap labor. To further bloat their profits, US military contractors usually subcontract to a third party (e.g. recruitment agency) the hiring of workers to perform low-paying jobs inside US military bases.
This system, as a study by Al Jazeera disclosed, is being used to exploit the workers. DynCorp and other US contractors in Afghanistan, for instance, collude with recruiters to charge exorbitant fees to workers and pay them cheap wages while working 12-hour days with little or no time off to do the “cooking, cleaning, laundry, construction and other support tasks necessary to operate military facilities”.

Worse, EDCA does not  provide protection mechanisms to workers but also in fact deprive workers of using Philippine laws to safeguard their rights and welfare. As pointed out by the petition submitted by Makabayan and others to the Supreme Court questioning EDCA’s constitutionality, Article XI of the deal states: “Disputes and other matters subject to consultation under this Agreement shall not be referred to any national or international court, tribunal, or other similar body, or to any third party for settlement, unless otherwise agreed by the Parties.”

Such disputes may include violation of labor rights, which is worrisome since Article VIII of EDCA allows the US to hire contractors without any restriction. This means that even the most notorious contractors such as DynCorp and their partners like Hanjin [also infamous for the series of deaths of their shipyard workers in Subic] will continue to land deals under EDCA.

Another possible source of “jobs” are the services for the “rest and recreation” of American troops. But this also means increased exploitation of Filipino women as red light districts near Agreed Locations are sure to thrive like in the heydays of Subic and Clark.
Certainly, these are not the sorts of “economic opportunities” we seek under EDCA.
Generous perks
In reality, it is the US and its contractors who stand to gain the most economic benefits from EDCA. Agreed Locations, as specified in Article III paragraph 3 of the Agreement, for instance, shall be made available without rental or similar costs.
And while the country allowed the US to use the Agreed Locations rent-free, the Philippines may still have to compensate the US for the “improvements or construction” in the Agreed Locations, as stated in Article V paragraph 2 of EDCA. The same thing is true with equipment stored in the Agreed Locations, which the Philippines may still need to purchase from the US subject to its laws and regulations [Article V paragraph 5].
Furthermore, US contractors and troops can use public utilities such as water and electricity tax-free, as stated in Article VII paragraph 1 of EDCA. It will be the Filipino taxpayers who will be shouldering the tax burden on the use of such public utilities by US contractors and troops. As noted by the Makabayan petition against EDCA, no private company in the Philippines currently enjoys such generous privilege.
Impact on livelihood
Government is clearly exaggerating the supposed economic gains from EDCA while concealing the fact that negotiators gave too many unjustifiable perks to the US. Aggravating the matter is the likelihood that increased US military presence and operation under EDCA will harshly impact on the livelihood of local communities where the Agreed Locations will be established. Already, “Balikatan” military drills have been affecting local livelihood such as the small fishers who are being displaced during naval exercises by US and Filipino troops.
Government will also likely acquire more lands or areas to build military facilities in order to accommodate Agreed Locations that the US wants to establish. This is because some locations that the US finds suitable may not be hosting AFP bases. In Subic, for example, which is now a free port zone, the AFP is negotiating with civilian authorities to establish its bases there so that a portion of it can be used as an Agreed Location.

What if the US wants to build a naval or air force facility in Palawan or Batanes where there are fishing or farming communities? The US is notorious for displacing whole communities just to build its bases such as what it did in Okinawa and Diego Garcia.
EDCA is evidently a lopsided agreement that violates our sovereignty while promising false gains. It has always been the case in our more than a hundred year- old relationship with the US. Something needs to change













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