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St. Jude College - Dasmarias

URC Ave., Salitran IV, Salawag Dasmarias, Cavite

Philosophical Analysis

(Broadsheet)

Submitted By:

Kate P. Purificacion

Submitted To:

Sir Leo Marko F. Azucenas

August 16, 2013


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Name of Broadsheet: Philippine Daily Inquirer

Date: August 01, 2013

Columnist: Letty Jimenez Magsanoc

Structural Analysis:


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'Padrinos'

Retired general Danilo Lim spoke of powerful forces preventing reform from

taking root in the Bureau of Customs. How powerful? Enough to dissuade the

former Scout Ranger from naming names. Another ex-soldier, Sen. Antonio

Trillanes IV, said he was certain President Aquino knew who the padrinos

pulling strings in the controversial agency were, and called on the President to

name names, too.

This sounds like a dangerous game of one-upmanship, but in fact Trillanes has a

point. Identifying who the real powers are in Customs would be a vigorous step

in the right direction.

But identification alone is not enough. Proof must be presented, yes, but beyond

that, naming names would be tantamount to declaring open season on

powerful individuals; the President, or indeed anyone else who dares, must be

prepared for the certainty of conflict. If the padrinos in Customs are named, the

intensity of the infighting among the political class will make the political

skirmishing over the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona look like a

bloodless video game.


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Already, a senator has gone on record to say he has indeed been calling up

Customs officials, but only to complain about inefficiencies or instances of

corruption. We can expect more strategic denials in the future, from other highly

placed politicians or highly influential businessmen. They may be completely

innocent; they may be intricately implicated in the corruption in Customs. But

they have mastered the political game as it is played in the Philippines, enough

to know that all they need to do is ride out the bad publicity, and things will

return to normal.

That is why naming names is important; it fixes the identity of those very people

who have turned the agency into the icon of incompetence and corruption

denounced in the State of the Nation Address. And that is also why Lim missed a

real opportunity to fight for the reform he champions; unlike President Aquino,

he can speak from his personal experience with these padrinos.

We realize that some padrinos change from administration to administration;

how many Filipinos have heard horror stories about one influential individual in

the previous government directly calling the shots in the agency? Lim, then, can

offer a specific kind of testimony: the time-bound kind, which demonstrates how

even corruption in Customs follows a cycle.


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Even Trillanes must have based his unlikely challenge to President Aquino on

certain knowledge. He can name names, too, offering another kind of

testimony: the one from reputation. It may even be that some of those he has

heard convincing details about are old, familiar namesthe ones who have

been around for decades. Think of the service he will render the country.

But Lim, Trillanes, even Mr. Aquino must prepare to do battle; the padrinos are

where they are precisely because they know their way around power.

The truth is: In the Customs context, money is not the root of all evilthough

there is certainly a lot of money to do evil with. Rather, it is patronage that is the

source of corruption.

The padrinos serve as gatekeepers; their nominees win the right posts. They serve

to protect those they have nominated, from reassignment or the occasional

anticorruption initiative. They serve as guarantors of those they protect, assuring

them of steady extra revenue. They even serve as financiers for political

campaigns.

These powerful forces must be exposed for who they are. Lim, Trillanes, even the

President are faced with the opportunity of a lifetime.


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Date: July 31, 2013




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Reverberations

Many of the victims were visitors, convention delegates from around the

country. Perhaps that is why the blast that shook Cagayan de Oro and killed

eight persons and injured 46 others at a popular nightspot last Friday continues

to reverberate. It struckit still janglesa common nerve. A week since the

tragic incident, however, we still dont know who did it, and why it was done.

This silence from the investigating agencies is almost deafening.

Aside from those two essential questions, others also need to be asked. Here are

three related sets.

First: Two days after the bombing, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas noted that the

explosive was really different because it did not have shrapnel or metal parts

like in grenades or claymore mines. The physicians who prepared the autopsy

report had not found any. In other words, the bomb was not a mortar round or

an artillery round, which was set off by a detonator, because no metal parts

were recovered. It did not contain nails, glass shards or metal balls, which are

usually placed inside a bomb to hurt people.

Why, then, did the officer in charge of the Armys 4th Infantry Division, based in

Cagayan de Oro itself, say initial investigation showed that a mortar round had


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been used? Perhaps we can attribute Brig. Gen. Ricardo Visayas statement to

initial confusion. But where did his sense of certainty come from? It is made of

mortar but we cannot say what type of mortar, and the investigators are trying

to determine if its a 60mm or an 80mm type of mortar and they are evaluating

the fragments recovered, he said the day after the bombing. Then he added,

in a mix of Filipino and English: This is the style we usually get from armed Moro

rebels in the past, but its not fair to attribute this to any rebel group.

Turns out it was not fair at all to declare the bomb was a mortar round; what was

Visayas purpose in his passive-aggressive raising of the Moro scare?

Second: Early in July, the Canadian, Australian and American embassies issued

adverse travel alerts, advising their citizens not to travel to any part of

Mindanao. The US travel advisory included the cities of Davao, General Santos

and Cagayan de Oro, even though these areas were seen as generally more

controlled. It also noted that US Embassy employees must receive special

authorization from embassy security officials to travel to any location in

Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago, including these urban centers.

Did the perpetrators behind the July 26 bombing show up on the US security

radar? While it is only right that the Philippine government should protest blanket

travel advisories that cover inordinately large areas (any location in


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Mindanao?), it is also only prudent for the Department of the Interior and Local

Government to reconsider the basis of the travel alerts and request the three

embassies for a briefing.

Third: Despite Cagayan de Oros longstanding reputation for being safe, the

heavy hand of violence has visited the popular convention city from time to

time. Perhaps unknown or unremembered by many, two mysterious blasts shook

the city late last year.

On Oct. 11, 2012, two bombs were found outside Maxandrea Hotel near Cogon

Market. The second bomb was defused, but the first exploded, killing two

civilians and wounding two of the policemen who had responded to the early

morning call to investigate an unusual package.

On Nov. 21, a grenade attached to the door of a financing company exploded

when the firm opened for business, wounding eight victims, including two

policemen who happened to be passing by at the exact moment of

detonation.

What has happened to the official investigation into these incidents? Even more

important: Do they have any clues to offer about the July 26 bombing? At the


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time, sketchy reports suggested that the Oct. 11 blast did not involve mortar

rounds either.

But even if the 2012 bombings have nothing to do with the big one last Friday,

the state of the investigation into the incidents or the lack of resolution in the

cases still bears important consequences. Are the police in the city up to the job

(and deserving of the citys enviable reputation for general safety)? Are certain

groups using the traditional openness of the city to test new modes of attack?

The 2012 bombings quickly faded from national consciousness, in part because

the victims were the citys own residents. We hope that the national attention

that is now focused on Cagayan de Oro will help solve the mystery, not only of

the bombing last Friday, but also of the explosions last year.


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Date: July 30, 2013




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Starting them young

Should the Sangguniang Kabataan be abolished? Its getting harder and harder

to find good reasons not to.

The latest reports on the ongoing registration for the SK and barangay elections

in October underscore how compromised this supposed training ground for and

official showcase of the countrys young political elite has become. In the

Visayas, from Tacloban to Cebu, hundreds of registrants were reportedly trucked

to the Commission on Elections offices aboard barangay-owned vehicles or

private buses, provided meals, and promised money in exchange for supporting

specific SK aspirants.

Everything was preplanned, down to the paraphernalia to be used by the

registrants. In Cebu City, a candidate for SK councilor was seen bringing a box

of ball pens, stamp pads and registration forms, said a report in this paper.

Likewise, in Jaro town, Leyte, a barangay official whose daughter will run for SK

admitted that she escorted would-be SK voters to the local Comelec office.

And she wasnt bashful about it: Lets be practical, she declared. I want to

ensure the win of my daughter.


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Given that mindset, and the example the mother is setting before her child, is it

unreasonable to expect that the young womanor any other SK candidate

exposed to such slick tactics, for that matterwould inevitably end up as

dishonorable as her parent-mentor? The setup, in effect, has become the

breeding ground for that vile species that has been the bane of this country for

so long: the devious, wheeling-dealing politicobut worse, in this case, because

the specimens being corrupted are in the bloom of youth, the so-called hope of

the motherland waylaid so early by the warped example of their elders.

The most odious result of the SKs contamination by the sleazy hand of politics is

the transformation of this once-promising platform for young leaders and bright

political aspirants into the plaything of local dynasties, where the sons and

daughters of families in power are made to learn a variation of that famous

dictumthat politics is addition, and better start counting early.

Scratch a congressman, mayor or governor, and youre likely to find such early

tenure in their hometowns supposed youth legislature as the launch pad for

their entry into the big league. How, for instance, did Junjun Binay become

mayor of Makati? First by serving as SK president in 19922001, where he learned

the ropes under the mentorship of the longtime mayor who was also his father,

now the vice president of the republic.


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In the beginning, perhaps, the Sangguniang Kabataan raised hope that it

would serve its purpose well. Established as a replacement for the despised

Kabataang Barangay under the regime of Ferdinand Marcos, the SK as created

by the Local Government Code of 1991 aimed to involve the youth in public

governance by giving them the opportunity to serve their communities through

programs they themselves created and ran, and that helped harness their

energies and passions.

But all in the spirit of volunteerism, said Caloocan Rep. Edgardo Erice, a one-

time member of SK who has filed a bill seeking its abolition. The early SK had no

budget from the local government and was run by volunteers, recalled Erice. In

time, however, because of their close proximity to the down-and-dirty business

of real-world politics, the group of impressionable youth also proved to be a

constituency ripe for manipulation.

With money and attention lavished its way, the SK became the logical first

choice target for local politicians seeking a higher position, said Erice. Now, the

School ng Korupsyonas he calls the grouphas, sadly speaking, become

both a tool and a vehicle for the proliferation of corruption.

It remains of crucial importance for the voice of young Filipinos to be heard in

governmental affairs. The SK, however, appears to be no longer the best vehicle


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for any such program of youth empowerment, if it ever was. Over the years,

reports of irregularities in its ranks have come to rival the worst shenanigans in

governmentfrom the SK national federation president haled on corruption

charges before the Ombudsman in 2010, to political clans hijacking the group

for both short-term electioneering activities and long-term dynastic plans, and

now the wholesale adoption by SK candidates themselves of the trademark

hakot of their political elders. Such precocious dirty tricks need to be nipped in

the budpermanently.


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Date: July 29, 2013




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Port Privatization

For a country with more than 7,100 islands, one would expect a developed

interisland shipping sector. Yet that is not the case with the Philippines. Aside

from the lack of political will on the part of previous administrations, the unusual

role played by the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) as regulator of the industry,

developer of ports and competitor of the private sector in maritime trade and

port services has been blamed for the poor state of interisland transportation.

Government ownership of some 100 ports across the country has also led to the

eventual degradation of many of them due to the perennial lack of public

funds to sustain and modernize these facilities. Yet every administration knew

that privatization is the answer to having a developed port network. Just

recently, the chambers of commerce of south Luzon reiterated the call to

modernize and develop the various ports across the country. But first, they said

the government had to level the playing field in the ports sector by ending the

multiple and conflicting roles of the PPA.

Members of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) from

Regions IV-A (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), IV-B (Mindoro,

Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) and Bicol have asked the Department of

Transportation and Communications to amend the PPA charter and leave the


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agency only with its regulatory function. An amended PPA charter will signal to

investors that they can expect fair competition in developing and operating

ports, said PCCI president Miguel Varela. A level playing field will be an

incentive for large infrastructure projects because investors will feel predictability

in their operations if the government regulator is not a competing developer of

ports at the same time.

They also asked the DOTC to privatize the ports under the PPA. In 2010, the PPA

said it would privatize at least five state-controlled ports as part of the Aquino

administrations public-private partnership (PPP) program. The first targets

included the ports in Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, Ozamiz and General

Santos as well as the roll-on, roll-off (Ro-Ro) ports covered by the so-called

nautical highway that connects Luzon to several islands in the Visayas all the

way down to Mindanao.

While some of the ports are now run by private cargo-handling operators, the

privatization effort for many other facilities remains delayed. The government

can do some catching up if it can fast-track the privatization of the major port

of Davao. Earlier considered as one of the possible links in the Ro-Ro shipping

network of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Davao port failed to

make the cut because of its dilapidated condition. This moved the government

to draft last year a modernization program costing anywhere from P3 billion to


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P5 billion through the PPP program. Two local private sector firmsglobal player

International Container Terminal Services Inc. and Asian Terminals Inc.have

expressed interest in the project. Bidding was earlier scheduled for the middle of

2013, but no official word has yet been announced on when the actual bidding

will be held.

An efficient network of ports is very crucial. Being an archipelago, maritime

transport plays a very vital role in developing the regions, where poverty remains

high. Ports are very important as these serve as gateways to towns and cities in

transporting people and in trading goods and services.

The country has a creditable record in the privatization of essential services, with

the water distribution previously handled by the state-owned Metropolitan

Waterworks and Sewerage System the most successful example. Over the past

years, the governments track record in port privatization has been limited to a

few major facilities, among them the Batangas Port, the Manila North Harbor,

the Manila International Container Terminal and the Manila South Harbor.

It is time to speed up the privatization of as many ports nationwide as possible.

There is no doubt that these facilities can be better handled by private investors

with the money and expertise to operate them efficiently. In 2010, PPA General

Manager Juan Sta. Ana said: We subscribe to the basic notion that the private


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sector is the engine of growth. For this reason, we should continue to encourage

more private-sector participation in the management, operation and

development of ports. Time to follow these words with action.


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Date: July 28, 2013




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Abolish Customs?

The harsh words were President Benigno Aquino IIIs. Its like the Bureau of

Customs is competing to be incompetent, he said in his fourth State of the

Nation Address. Instead of collecting the right taxes and stopping contraband,

it seems they [Customs personnel] are ceaselessly letting trade slip through, as

well as illegal drugs, arms and other such into our territory. The question is: Is the

President now open to the trial balloon Customs Commissioner Rozzano Rufino

Biazon floated last April, that of abolishing the bureau in its entirety?

Upon hearing the Presidents harsh language against corruption and

incompetence in the Bureau of Immigration, the National Irrigation

Administration and Customs, Biazon immediately offered to resignin a

decidedly post 20th-century way, by sending President Aquino a text message.

Aquino reaffirmed his confidence in Biazon, also via SMS.

Emboldened by the Presidents new expression of support, Biazon late last week

ordered all 17 Customs collectors to vacate their posts, to prepare the way for a

revamp. Its logical that we start with the district collectors. Providing new

leaders in the collection districts will at least give a fresh start on how to institute

reforms down the line. We will focus next on the examiners, assistants as well as

other personnel in the bureau, Biazon said.


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This is a major initiative; the Customs collectors represent the countrys 17 major

ports of entry (among them, the Port of Manila, the Ninoy Aquino International

Airport and the Manila International Container Terminal) and as such (together

with the 37 subport collectors) may be the most important officials in the Bureau

of Customs.

Biazon acknowledged the popular perception: There are 17 collection districts,

17 kings and subkings. But he said he did not subscribe to that view: I dont

acknowledge or recognize kings, theyre collectors under the authority of the

commissioner.

We will find out soon enough whether these are mere brave words, or whether

Biazon has sufficient political will to remove underperforming or corrupt

collectors. Under the law, his appointments are subject to the approval of the

finance secretary, but in reality, the choice of which collectors are removed or

retained is Biazons.

If all or most of the 17 are merely reassigned to other collection districts, then we

can expect nothing much from this so-called revamp; it will be merely cosmetic.


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A good performance record is definitely a plus factor, Biazon said, identifying

the criteria he will use to choose the new collectors. Well also check if they are

[the] subject of complaints, their level of notoriety, among other things.

Perhaps he should also check with the President. When Mr. Aquino assailed

those officials in Customs for whom the only thing that matters is getting rich,

surely he must have had some persons specifically in mind?

But even assuming that every single corrupt or incompetent official in the

bureau has been identified and replaced, there is no guarantee that the

agency will work as designedbecause it remains subject to the very powerful

forces that retired general Danilo Lim referenced when he tendered his

resignation as a deputy Customs commissioner.

These forces, Lim said, prevent genuine reforms from taking root in the agency.

But the former coup plotter and elite soldier stopped short of naming names.

Any consumer of the news can make a guess: Could these powerful forces

consist of the Presidents own Liberal Party perhaps, or Vice President Jejomar

Binays busy United Nationalist Alliance, or ex-Senate President Juan Ponce

Enriles unrivalled political network, or the politically influential Iglesia ni Cristo, or


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powerful businessmen, or indeed all of the above? The ordinary citizen is

reduced to guesswork, because no one, not even Lim, would say.

Thats a shame. Lim can render real service to the country by talking straight

and telling us exactly what he knows. Information about who pulls the strings in

Customs is by itself a necessary reform.

Necessary, but insufficient. Judging from President Aquinos own scathing

remarks, the culture of the Customs agency is rotten to the core. A revamp or

two, no matter how high up, will not be enough. Its time to reconsider the idea

of abolition.


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Date: July 27, 2013




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Missing

The third class town of Donsol in Sorsogon had made a name for itself because

of the butanding (whale sharks) that congregated in its waters at certain times

of the year, so much so that its very name became almost synonymous with the

gentle giants.

Local and foreign visitors set out in boats to catch a glimpse of or interact with

the butanding, the largest of all fish. Some of the creatures became veritable

stars: Putol with the missing tail fin; Nognog, a stand-out by dint of being

darker than the others; Kuping with the folded back fin; and the obviously -

named Puti.

This come-on resulted in revenues for Donsol (pop.: 47,000) and lessons in self-

sufficiency for its residents, who not only serve as guides and butanding

interaction officers (BIO) but who also open their homes to tourists under the

home-stay program. The Donsol folk came to rely heavily on tourism revenues of

some P35 million a year. And the once-sleepy seaside town enjoyed certain

developments in the form of resorts and restaurants to cater to the tourists, as

well as a now-paved main road. We were once a fifth-class town, Donsol

tourism officer Nenita Pedragosa recalled at one point during the boom. Now,


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we are a third-class town and we are actually applying to be classified as first-

class.

That was then. From reports, butanding sightings have been steadily declining

since 2011, and the four stars appear to have gone missing. Says Donsol BIO

chair Alan Amanse: The bigger ones measuring 14 meters long are nowhere in

sight. What has caused this regrettable turn of events? Pedragosa scoffs at the

suggestion that the whale sharks have taken off for Oslob in Cebu, where they

are fed by hand: Those who want to see butanding come to Donsol first. They

only go to Oslob when they fail to see one here.

The theory is that the disappearance of Donsols butanding is due to a killer

combination of global warming and bad sanitation. Amanse notes that the sea

temperature has risen from 26-27 degrees Celsius in 2012 to the current 29-30

degrees. Donsol Councilor Rey Aquino says fishermen have overgathered the

plankton that the butanding feed on, and, more urgently, the waters have been

contaminated by the dangerous E.coli bacteria as a result of the building of

household toilets on the riverbanks. And one more significant thing: According

to Amanse, the butanding are suffering from stress because of too much

interaction in BIO-coordinated events from December to May. (During a

standard interaction event, some 40 boats loaded with six tourists each come

close to the whale sharks.)


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Fewer butanding sightings have resulted in fewer visitors. Per Amanses count,

the number of tourists has dropped by 2,000 in the first half of the year, from the

average of 25,000. Thus, tourism revenues are slipping.

A review of Donsols tourism program is clearly in order. The absence of the

regular butanding is worrisome enough. Donsol BIOs say only two whale

sharksCurly and Luckyare regularly seen in the waters. The way things

are going, they may also soon vanish.

The Worldwide Fund for Nature Philippines, which had helped build the

ecotourism project in Donsol, once sounded the warning that the towns growth

required careful handling. The popularity of Donsol as a major destination for

[butanding-watching] needs to be handled with care to ensure the

sustainability of the whale shark interaction activities. The unprecedented

increase in tourists wishing to experience an encounter with the whale sharks

brings with it much risk and potential danger to these gentle giants, it said. It

also noted that the increase in the number of visitors had led to a parallel rise in

noncompliance with butanding interaction rules, and that the habitat of the

whale sharks needed to be managed properly.

The story of Donsol and its star butanding is all too familiar, hewing as it does to

the now-common narrative of tourism boom, unregulated development, and


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neglect of ecological imperatives. Lets hope that it does not end in tragedy: a

case of killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

Lets hope that theres still time and space to turn things around.


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Date: July 26, 2013




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Exclusionist

What was KLM thinking? The Dutch airline came under fire recently for having

barred an 18-year-old indigenous Filipino woman from flying to Rio de Janeiro

for the flimsiest but most outrageous of reasons: She was tagged as not ready

to travel despite the full documentation she presented to airline personnel.

Arjean Marie Belco of Bukidnons Talaandig tribe, whose trip was sponsored by

the nonprofit group GoodX.org and its partner Cartwheel Foundation.org., was

at the Kuala Lumpur airport on July 20, en route to Brazil to take part in the World

Youth Day celebrations, when a KLM employee identified as a Mr. Shawa

stopped her at the check-in counter. The man was doubtful about the validity

of Belcos tripand would not let her on the flight even after he was shown valid

travel and supplementary documents.

According to the complaint posted by Belco and her sponsors on Facebook,

Shawa also let loose with disparaging comments and questionsabout why her

ticket was too cheap and was just purchased yesterday, why her passport

looked new, and how much money she had, among other things. Belco was

able to present bank documentation that she had sufficient travel funds; she

also requested the airline to call her sponsors to confirm the trip. But she was still

barred from flying.


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GoodX.org said it had contacted KLM before Belcos ticket was bought, to

confirm her flight details. So what would account for the airlines action?

GoodX.org thinks it was because a high-handed KLM employee profiled Belco

and decided she didnt fit his idea of a typical international traveler. Arjean

was denied her right to travel. This could also be perceived as a possible case of

discrimination based on appearance, gender, ethnicity, nationality, age or

social status, GoodX.org said in its FB post.

Belco, a BS Education student who was on her very first trip outside of the

Philippines, was eventually allowed to fly and is now in Rio. In a subsequent

statement, KLM said it had gotten in touch with GoodX.org and had made all

arrangements needed to bring this to a good end. It also said it values all of its

passengers, does not distinguish between age, gender, race, religion or

lifestyle, and accepts passengers in possession of valid travel documents.

But there was no explanation whatsoever for its exclusionist behavior toward the

young woman, who was not only carrying valid travel papers but was also fully

backed by her sponsors. Worse, there was no hint of remorse in KLMs statement,

or a smidgen of acknowledgment that it had made a regrettable mistake.


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The absence of apology is appalling. This airlines display of disregard for the

rights of customers deserves the strongest rebuke. Travellers are also hereby

forewarned.

All-embracing

Belcos flight to Rio de Janeiro was delayed by two days. But mercifully she

made it in time as the World Youth Day festivities went into high gear with the

arrival of Pope Francis, who has been electrifying the world with the radical

brand of simplicity and humility that he immediately put into practice in the

staid and snooty Vatican.

The former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio has brought to Brazil his back to

basics spirit. His packed schedule includes not only high Masses for fervent

Catholics in grandiose basilicas and appearances before tens of thousands of

young faithful from the world over, but also a visit to a hospital to comfort drug

addictsa gesture reminiscent of the many acts of simple kindness he has

displayed in the gilded capital of Catholicism, such as washing the feet of

juvenile inmates on Holy Thursday, visiting poor migrants outside Rome, and

getting off his popemobile to embrace disabled children.


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Francis has also called on priests to live simpler lifestyles, declared in one homily

that Christs redemption covered even the atheists, and greeted Muslims

during Ramadan. For all these, conservative Catholics have not been really

happy, reports the National Catholic Reporter. Thats the surest sign there is that

this Popes campaign to return the 1.2 billion-strong Catholic congregation to

the kinder, gentler fundamentals of its faithto become a compassionate, all-

embracing Churchis working.


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Date: July 24, 2013




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Wash it out

With unusual speed, the Philippine National Police has concluded that the

deaths of the Ozamiz Gang leader and his henchman last week were probably

the result of a rubout. PNP Director General Alan Purisima said administrative

charges have been filed against 14 policemen implicated in the extrajudicial

killings, including a superintendent.

I have already approved the precharge evaluation of those involved in the

[Ricky] Cadavero and [Wilfredo] Panogalinga case because it appears in the

investigation that there have been violations committed, Purisima told reporters

on Tuesdayor less than 24 hours after President Aquino highlighted the case in

his fourth State of the Nation Address.

The President had devoted a paragraph to incidents that continue to stain the

honor of our police force. (The official English translation of the Sona offers a

somewhat more literary version of the ritual speech. The paragraph in question

begins with: There are still incidents that sully our police forces honor. In th e

rest of the quote, below, we follow a more colloquial reading.)

We must all have heard about what happened to the members of the Ozamiz

Gang, Ricky Cadavero and Wilfredo Panogalinga: They were arrested, but

ended up dead. Like the investigation we conducted into what happened in


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Atimonan, we will make sure that those policemen or whoever were involved

here will be made to answerno matter how high their ranks are. Whoever are

the masterminds here: Get ready. I am close to finding out who all of you are.

The Presidents language suggests that he had been recently briefed by

Purisima or Interior Secretary Mar Roxas about the status of the internal

investigation that the PNP conducted (which is separate from the inquiry

launched by the National Bureau of Investigation, on orders of Justice Secretary

Leila de Lima). It also suggests that he now considers the official response to the

Jan. 6 incident in Atimonan, Quezonthe deliberate ambush at an improvised

checkpoint of alleged leaders and protectors of an illegal gambling syndicate,

resulting in 13 deathsa benchmark to measure future inquiries by.

From the start, the Ozamiz Gang escape-try story raised suspicions. Only a few

hours after being presented by both Roxas and Purisima at a Camp Crame

news conference on July 15, Cadavero and Panogalinga were killed in San

Pedro, Laguna. The police escorts claimed that the two had tried to grab their

firearms, after their convoy came under attack from unknown motorcycle-riding

gunmen.

Even before a witness came out (and sources inside Camp Crame began

talking), the details of the story already seemed hard to credit. Why were the


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Ozamiz Gang stain, multiple murder charges similar to those filed in the

Atimonan 13 case must be brought against everyone involvedno matter how

high their ranks are.


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Date: July 23, 2013




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Rights victims in limbo

Last February, to much fanfare on the part of Congress and Malacaang,

President Aquino signed into law a bill authorizing compensation of P10 billion

(about $230 million) to victims of human-rights abuses by the Marcos

dictatorship. For the claimants, it was a case of better late than neverthe fruit

of 26 years of unrelenting, often lonely, struggle not only to get the Philippine

government to recognize their status as primary victims of state-sponsored

violence under martial law, but also, and more importantly, to redress that

injustice by way of an official government act that finally enforces some

measure of restitution and punishment against the Marcoses.

Nearly six months later, not one of the claimants has received his or her share of

that compensation, because Malacaang has yet to appoint the members of

the board that would administer the fund. Yet again, the rights victims are being

made to waittheir claims stuck in bureaucratic limbo even as their ranks

continue to dwindle due to old age and the ravages of the violence they

endured long ago.

And now, the government seems to want to add cruelty to its neglect of the

rights victims: The Presidential Commission on Good Government is opposing the

$10-million settlement that the victims lawyers have reportedly forged with the


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unnamed buyer of a valuable Claude Monet painting believed to be part of

the ill-gotten wealth of Imelda Marcos, former first lady and now Ilocos Norte

representative.

The well-known artwork by the French Impressionist painter, titled Le Bassin aux

Nympheas (Water Lily Pond, 1899), was sold to the buyer in 2010 by Vilma

Bautista, Imelda Marcos former social secretary and confidante, for $32 million.

The New York-based Bautista was arrested in 2012 for attempting to sell three

more Impressionist artworks from the Marcos hoard. The buyer of the Monet,

who was said to have bought the painting in good faith, didnt want to be

dragged into the highly publicized case of Bautistawhose trial for art theft and

tax fraud is set to start on Oct. 7 in New Yorkand thus agreed to enter into a

settlement with the rights victims over the paintings ownership for $10 million.

The settlement is the handiwork of Robert Swift, the same US-based lawyer who

won a $2-billion award in a class action suit against the Marcos estate in 1995 on

behalf of 9,539 victims of martial-law abuses. If the agreement with the Monet

buyer is successfully implemented, the remaining claimants, now down to 7,500,

may get another $1,000 in compensation on top of the P43,000 (the equivalent

of $1,000) each of them received in 2011 under a $10-million initial settlement of

the $2-billion judgment.


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Two thousand dollars, or about P86,000. Is that sufficient to compensate for the

rape, torture, mutilation and other horrific barbarities inflicted on thousands of

men and women, among them the flower of the countrys youth, by agents and

soldiers of the Marcos dictatorship? Is that recompense enough for families

wracked by anguish over a parent, spouse, or child gone missing or driven into

hiding in the face of government harassment, oreveryones nightmare in that

benighted eraa loved ones mangled body?

When President Aquino signed the Human Rights Victims Reparation and

Recognition Act of 2013 during the Edsa rites last February, it was hailed as a

landmark measure that recognized the heroism of those who fought and

suffered under martial law. But it is a recognition that the government has been

unable to deliver so far. One would think, then, that it would welcome the

justness of another arrangementsuch as the $10-million Monet settlement

that could take up the slack and begin compensating the victims.

But the PCGG stands in the way, insisting that the government, not the rights

victims, owns the Monet painting, and thus they have no right to its proceedsa

perfectly valid legal argument, and also a callous, insensitive one. This saga of

injustice has lasted nearly three decades. Whatever funds are extracted from

the Marcos loot, and in whatever waywhether by formal budget allocation or

through the disposal of the ill-gotten hoardthese victims deserve to finally get

their due.


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Until they are afforded such closure, their ordeal continuesand this countrys

as well, with its collective inability, or plain unwillingness, to come to terms with its

dark past.


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Date: July 22, 2013




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Affordable air travel

It used to be that air travel was the domain of the rich. The emergence of so-

called low-cost carriers (LCCs) changed the game by opening air travel to the

burgeoning middle class. However, having LCCs is just half of the picture. These

budget airlines must have their own airport terminals to keep their costs low.

The government announcement last week of a plan to build a P4-billion facility

beside the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 to service the

requirements of LCCs is welcome news. The Department of Transportation and

Communications is doing a feasibility study on a new terminal that can handle

10 million passengers a year. The study may be completed before this year ends

and, if proven viable, construction can start next year. The new facility should

take two years to complete and will hopefully be ready before the end of

President Aquinos term in 2016. A 3.3-hectare lot beside the controversial Naia 3

is being considered for the budget terminal. The government, according to Jose

Angel Honrado, general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority,

also hopes to bring Naia 3 to full operational capacity by the first quarter of

2014, and the idea is to transfer all domestic budget flights to the new terminal

so that Naia 3 can focus on international flights.

The government is also revising the master plan for the Clark international airport

to now include facilities for LCCs. If plans push through, a P6-billion budget


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terminal will be built starting next year for completion also in 2016. It is estimated

that LCC traffic accounts for 80 percent of all aircraft movements in the Clark

airport, thus the need to build a budget terminal. The DOTC has allotted P3

billion in its 2014 budget for the construction of the 45,000-square-meter budget

terminal, and another P3 billion will be released in 2015 to complete it. The

budget terminal will have a capacity of 4.5 million passengers a year. The DOTC

had said that the new budget terminal would be an entirely different structure

to look more like the Changi Airport in Singapore but linked to the existing

terminal that has a capacity of two million passengers a year.

An LCC terminal is specifically designed with the needs of low-cost airlines in

mind. It has simple facilities to keep construction cost low and maintenance

expenses at the minimum. The concept of an exclusive LCC terminal is believed

to have been pioneered by Malaysian tycoon Tony Fernandes of leading

budget airline AirAsia at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in 2006. The

Malaysian airport and another in Singapore are the two often cited examples of

LCC terminals in Asia-Pacific.

With a stripped-down and inexpensive terminal, an airport can cut operating

costs significantly, passing along the savings to budget airlines that, in turn, can

extend these to passengers in the form of cheap ticket prices. Cost reductions

compared to normal airports are usually in the physical building, forgoing


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expensive architectural design in favor of simple warehouse-like structures with

low ceilings and without the moving walkways, fewer restaurants and duty-free

stores, and simplified baggage handling. However, these terminals may have

modern facilities such as free Internet access. Studies on LCC terminals show

that costs to an airline were as little as two-thirds of the total cost of landing at

the main terminal, providing a big competitive advantage to budget airlines

insofar as pricing their tickets is concerned.

Supporting LCCs will definitely help the governments big push for tourismone

of the economic sectors that public and private experts believe can sustain the

countrys high-growth momentum. With two budget terminals coming upone

at the Naia and another in Clarklocal and foreign low-cost airlines can look

forward to expanding their operations to and from the Philippines. The

government should also consider an LCC terminal in the Visayas and another in

Mindanao to make the benefits of cheap air travel available to all people

across the country.

But the government must always keep in mind that low cost should not mean

poor service at the airport for passengers lured by the cheap fares of budget

airlines.


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