POSTSCRIPT TO A PACQUIAO FIGHT

Manny Pacquiao’s win against Antonio Margarito once more invites world attention to a Filipino in particular and the Philippines as his country of origin. While most Filipinos are still relishing Pacman’s recent victory, foreigners whose attention is advertently invited into the Philippine situation will find out that there are a string of high profile cases that are yet to be resolved.

Foremost of these cases are the Maguindanao Massacre, the Supreme Court being besieged of attacks relative to the Del Castillo plagiarism affair, the unresolved NBN-ZTE deal, the Jocjoc Bolante fertilizer fund scam, the case of Senator Panfilo Lacson who absconded in order to evade eventual arrest to answer for murder charges, the recent incident resulting to the death of taxonomist-scientist Leonardo Co who was allegedly caught in the crossfire between government forces and the New People’s Army while doing scientific research in the mountains of Kananga, Leyte, the pending case of impeachment against Ombudsman Merceditas Guittierez, graft charges against former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and on top of these, cases of victims of disappearances, and a litany of other pending cases and debacles that could not be contained in this piece.

What the Filipinos, in general, and the Philippine Congress, in particular, failed to see is Manny Pacquiao’s dereliction of duty to attend to regular sessions and official functions as congressional representative from Sarangani Province. He had been absent from those sessions from the time he went into full preparation for his fight with Margarito until after he won that fight. Moonlighting or pursuing a private profession while in government service and using official time and resources for one’s personal gain is definitely unethical if not against the Code of Conduct of government officials. In Manny Pacquiao we have a model where a Congressional Representative of the Philippines is seen by the world fighting in a professional match while being away officially from the legislature.

The mediocrity of the rest of the legislative members, as well as that of the Chief Executive, to take action on the blatant absenteeism is a tacit admission of the flawed presumption that Congressmen are exempted from the rules of attendance to work, or that boxing has a much higher level of priority compared to concerns for enacting laws and legislative inquiries--- or that other personal alibi could be a viable reason to be absent from the hallowed halls of Congress, or that no agency or authority has the prerogative to censure the likes of Pacquiao, even if he does another boxing match in the near future.

The public in general has been led to believe that things are going regularly. It is, for instance, not extraordinary to have a boxer as a Congressman, to have a movie actor as a legislator, to have a congressional representative as anchorman in a primetime television show, or a Senator or Governor endorsing a commercial product, or to see the likes of Senator Bong Revilla running a television program. All of these, taken together, lend further credence to impressions in the public mind that the legislative work is easy, that sometimes it could even be unnecessary, and, yet, really, very rewarding. These are the subtle impressions that get embedded in the Filipino psyche and culture which are sooner or later manifested in the way government is run in the Philippines.

It's Time We Own the Earth

Wind, solar and other renewable-energy technologies that were once considered more appropriate for single homes or small communities are reaching levels of scale and centralizing that were formerly the province of coal- and gas-fired plants and nuclear reactors. In other words, green is going giant. In the Philippines, where land area and living space are fast becoming constricted, limitations relative to areas necessary for installing solar panels, wind turbines and infrastructure for renewable energy technology are a hindrance to making policy decisions intended to cope with thrusts towards clean air and sustainable environment. 

The Philippine National Building Code will have to be revised to keep it attune to the turbulence of technology and technical change. Sooner or later there will be a need to require homes, condominiums and shelters to have solar panels as roofing materials to do away with fossil fuel permanently. One drag about this idea is the reluctance of oil producers and oil marketers to relinquish business and take on the challenge of a new frontier where they will be groping for clout in a path less traveled. 

Arizona Public Service, an electric utility based in Tucson, is already harnessing natural energy by using an array of mirrors to concentrate sunlight in order to heat mineral oil up to 550 degrees; the heat vaporizes a liquid hydrocarbon, which runs a generator to make electricity. In other places, windmills and turbines are employed to generate and store electricity to run factories and light homes.

Government should encourage business to thrive in these areas. But more often than not, engineers and technicians employed therein become trapped in a system where everything becomes trade secret thereby killing the industry that was primarily intended for public purpose. The real change should come not in newer technologies, but rather on the willingness and political will of government policy makers to adopt these technologies for the advancement of humanity and the preservation and renewal of global environment.

In the G20 Summit which started last Thursday night in Seoul, no agenda has been included pertaining to environmental protection, much less global warming and climate change. World leaders were all concerned about currency war, the ailing US economy and the uncertainty of the Euro. For all we know, issues and anxieties about environmental destruction in Africa and the Middle East and territorial marine disputes could be the underpinnings of terrorism, global unrest and the crashing world economy. In short, the real issue should be about the rising temperature of planet Earth and the man-made factors that contribute to the foreseen impending global catastrophe.

It is not amazing that impetus for global climate protectionism is usually hatched in smaller non-distinct countries where the effects of imbalances in nature and climate are heavily felt. Typhoons and other natural calamities are fast becoming a regular phenomenon if not a scourge. Billions of dollars are annually sucked in the drain by harsh force of nature of which man has no control except the willingness and resolve to mitigate it. Where IMF-WB loan funds seem limitless and unending, we still have to see an orchestrated effort from among the leaders of the world to pool those fund resources and equitably shared among qualified countries for the purpose of  investments on programs to protect and preserve planet Earth--- with strict sanctions against heads of state in case of misappropriations. It can be done if we begin to think that we are all co-owners of this planet!

Notes on Leonardo Co's Murder

This murder is a useless waste, and another one for the books, too. With all due respect to researchers and scientists doing field work, they should involve local government units in their endeavors, first by seeking permission from LGUs to do research in their jurisdictions, and second, by asking assistance from local government agencies to provide security. At the stage of inception of any research work, the LGU concerned should already prohibit field research if the area concerned is infested by rebels or if it is a warfront between armed protagonists.

At this juncture, misgivings about the Agham research group could be commonplace as it is imbued with some political color, taking into consideration the fact that Agham is a party-list political aggrupation. On the one hand, if the Agham group is doing research for Energy Development Corporation, what has it to do with research on taxonomy in Kananga, a research which was what the late Leonard Co and company were allegedly conducting when they were killed in the alleged crossfire between government forces and the New People’s Army?  Taxonomy is the science that deals with description, identification, naming and classifying of organisms.

On the other hand, it is unfair to surmise that Agham and taxonomist Co are somehow having illicit connections with the NPA or that they could be working clandestine on the side of the government forces, all under the veil of scientific research work. These presumptions could have been eliminated at the first instance when Agham researchers and scientists properly secured permission from the local government of Kananga, Leyte.

Now, Anakpawis party-list Representative Rafael Mariano has filed House Resolution 653 for a probe into Co’s death, contrary to a neutral civilian investigation that Agham is asking for.  As usual, cases such as these are gifts to Representatives who are very eager to embark on new causes of action in Congress for their own personal grandstanding. Suddenly a simple case of police matter becomes high profile, giving us the impression that Congress has judicial powers to resolve criminal cases and further deepening innuendos that ordinary courts have lost their judicial ascendancy and functions to decide on legal matters.  At the least, Filipino taxpayers are again at the losing end in terms of time and effort being expended by legislators to inquire into criminal events which are not the primordial concerns of Congress.  This is just another case that is being added to the already piling legislative inquiries that have no clear end in sight. 

Merry Christmas

The Christmas season begins on the day of Advent (December 8), which is also the feast day of the Immaculate Conception, which is also the feast day of St. Nicholas, who, the Roman Catholics believe, is the real Santa Claus. In other words, it is roughly two weeks from now that the Yuletide season begins. News today, however, report business firms already wary about the expected slow-down of business activity after the year ends. This looming post-holiday blues sees the latest confidence index (CI) falling to 51.0 percent for the first quarter of 2011, from the previous 59.2 percent of first quarter of 2010.

Latest survey of the Bangko Sentral nga Pilipinas shows that business expectations of majority of 1,624 respondent business firms were less optimistic for the coming first quarter. The CI is the difference between the percentage of firms that answered in affirmative and the percentage of firms that answered in the negative. The 51.0 percent CI should not dampen the rest of the population who would like to feel the joys and blessings of Christmas this season, and the CI should not set the tone of the upcoming holidays. 

What then ushers in the spirit of Christmas, or more particularly, who should usher in the spirit of holidays? Definitely not the government, even if it allows extra bonuses to government workers, even if it declares holidays on some certain dates; not business firms, not agencies, and not even news that foretell gloom after the Christmas season two weeks before it could even begin. It is the happy people who enliven the season, the people who are eager to share that spirit of giving, who would like to go out and meet friends on a get-together or on a holiday, people who light up Christmas trees this early to herald the coming of the Advent season, people who rejoice at the thought of commemorating the birth of the Savior of the World.

The spirit of optimism is the expression of hope. In the spirit of Christmas we celebrate that hope by setting and lighting up Christmas trees, by sending Christmas cards, by putting up decorations that not only add color to what could be a dull and dim ordinary world, by sharing passages from the Bible that recall the blessed nativity, by singing carols or playing that favorite Christmas tune that has been playing inside our heads, by meeting new friends and posting happy greetings in Facebook, or by simply thinking that the season of giving is a good reason to be happy. 

Merry Christmas!

WANTED CHILDREN ARE BLESSINGS

Population reduction as an objective of the Reproductive Health Bill I could be elusive. While dependency burdens in low income areas could influence the composition of capital, impede its growth and, thus, influence the rate of economic development. It should however be emphasized that over-population and dependency burden, taken together as a factor, are not the primary reasons for underdevelopment in Third World countries. The real problem about population in the Philippines, for instance, is how the government should be able to harness the Philippine labor sector, or that big portion of population belonging to age group between 15 and 65 who can be employed and are willing to work. This age group of population is the Philippine labor force which should be harnessed and put into use to be more productive and contributive to national economic development. A bigger labor force implies a higher per capita income. In countries with large labor force it is an economic advantage. China has the biggest population in the world, and yet it is now the second biggest economy in the planet.

The conclusion, however, that the Philippines should be a communist government  just to be able to be like a country as progressive as China, does not follow. The key to the answers on questions about population reduction is individual discipline on human procreation. This implies a requirement of a higher level of maturity that often comes after responsibility. A slower pace of population could be only a simple consequence of a fast-paced lifestyle that is similar to lifestyles of Westerners and Europeans. The Philippines have not come to that level primarily because government priorities are not focused on the human development aspect of its citizens. For instance, how could people from the low income class be more responsible when they are unemployed; how could they be employed when they are not properly educated; how could they be properly educated when they have low levels of income and/or in poor health; how could they share in the equal distribution of wealth when they are not employed? These are questions that are actually economic characteristics of underdeveloped countries. Gunnar Myrdal (Asian Drama) sees these factors as moving in a vicious circular cumulative causation, in a continuous link, the breakup of one factor does not destroy the cycle.  These questions require a multi-pronged solution that squarely answers each and every factor all at the same time. Can our government provide the necessary answers? If it can do that, there will be no need for Reproductive Health bills such as the one that is now under attack from the Church and some sectors of society.

Proponents of the Reproductive Health Bill should not be threatened by Bill Clinton’s statement that babies are a boon to the Philippines. As Edcel Lagman says, Bill may have uttered that statement thoughtlessly and in passing. The fact is, that statement of Bill’s is the truth, and Lagman may not just be aware of it. However, just like any other general statement, that also accepts of some exceptions. We refer to babies that are wanted babies as differentiated from those that are unwanted. In the latter case, the issues turn ethical and moral, which the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines should be primarily concerned about. The Church can take these issues in particular on the pulpit instead of attacking the RH Bill in any forum in general. 

SUN TZU'S ART OF PERSUASION VERSUS QE2

Just lately I have discovered that I have been posting comments on Facebook based on my readings of newspapers on the economy and economies of the world. I make these posts thinking that people concerned in the news including people like me who make comments might be able to better the situation by considering the adaption of some of my suggested alternatives. I find offering alternatives as part and parcel of my comments on problem situations. 

Of course, more often than expected, my feedbacks fall on deaf ears, giving me a feeling that this preoccupation of mine is a total waste of time, money and effort, and that there could be other better things to do, that this sense of grandiosity is egotism if not plain barbaric expressions of my suppressed libido, or just a psychological need for a long-denied recognition, the need for psychological acceptance, to be lauded by friends, peer and kin. Mentoring in the classroom was once my sideline and now it gives me unresolved idea that may be I could once again be just another docile pupil learning new lessons and better tricks to be able to hold a captive audience like that in the academe.

Which is not the case in Facebook or in any fan page in the internet. The whole world watches although it may not be listening, or it could be reading but not discerning. In whatever circumstances the world is, bloggers like me should write and express opinions that should be informative, truthful, meaningful, relevant and could serve as rallying point to inspire readers towards taking concrete action or to persuade them to share the same opinion and disseminate the same for the benefit of everyone who are or who will be placed in similar situations. In short, it must also be proactive.

As a blogger, it is my categorical imperative to craft opinions that come soothing to the senses of my recipients. These opinions may sometimes be amusing, or they could be contemptible, purposively, to further arouse interest, such as giving and outlining the finer details of how a heinous crime was carried out, or how genius was a perfidy committed. They could be soul-refreshing as when one writes a critique on the aesthetic value of an impassioned poetry, or heart-rending and life-threatening as my comments could be on The Second Quantitative Easing and its foreseen international currency war or its global economic holocaust, or as persuasive as when I suggest that the outcomes of the Group of 20 meetings in South Korea during the week should hinge on humanitarian considerations in favor of underdeveloped countries of the Third World, and not solely for the preservation of the elitist life and lifestyle of American conglomerates and their intermediaries. 

The US Federal Reserve should reel in the Second Quantitative Easing (QE2) before it should even cast it out. A currency war is in the offing and as Sun Tzu would have it for all wars, persuasion is the primordial step to undertake. Sun Tzu's proposal is of course based on the assumption that there are only two protagonists, which is not really the case in the present tussle--- the interests of the whole world are at stake. All over the planet, countries involved in international trade will be affected. The QE2 involves printing new money worth 600 billion dollars, spontaneously creating paper mills for money bills that are supposed to be legal tender but are in fact worthless pieces of paper if not ludicrous print-outs of Dead Presidents like Monopoly play money bills when the indoor game has totally become outmoded. 


If the US thinks it can spread its dollar wide and thin, China could also do the same or perhaps even better, and so can Japan, India, Thailand  and the rest of the countries of the emerging markets. Instead of printing more money, all peoples of the world should be planting more trees and preempt disaster and man-made catastrophes that could be brought about by global warming and climate change, and the people of America should stretch some more muscles like when obese, flatulent or figure-conscious enthusiasts do their daily jog, or could use some manual and menial labor just like the rest of the demure or brawny Asians do. Unless it gallivants to be silly, the US has no viable reason to raise or foment another world war. 

ON WHO THE BUDGETS TOLL

The Philippine national budget for the year 2011 is the most articulate instrument of the Aquino administration relative to its plans in the next coming years. The budget document that hopes to be approved before the year ends, further states the continuing trend of government spending, this time in the tune of P1.62 trillion. The greater bulk of this amount, or 78%, is earmarked for foreign and domestic debt interest payments. As in the past, debt servicing has become the primary reason for the enactment of the national budget.

The proposed-to-be-approved 2011 Philippine National Budget is only a virtual reality. Budget estimates are things and imaginings that Congress hopes to see in the nitty-gritty reality. Where will the real money come from? The total amount that must be amassed for actual happy expenditure is only on paper and does not have the color of money, and even so depends so much on the capability of the hallowed Bureaus (Bureau of Internal Revenue, Bureau of Customs, the Bureau of the Treasury, the Bureau of Local Government Finance, and the revenue-raising government agencies) to collect what is expected of them from all taxpayers and other revenue sources.

Aside from being arithmetically systematized, the national budget is also geometric in growth. So much of the budgetary estimates are based on percentage increases on previous years’ actual tax collection and revenue collections vis-à-vis allowances for service and commodity price increases, plus allowances for overhead expenses, plus allowances for bad-debts, plus allowances for natural calamities, plus allowances for over-spending-- a nicer term for graft and corruption in government, plus others.

The realization of the national budget depends largely on the capability of the Chief Executive for look around for funds in the form of aids, grants, financial assistance and dole outs from the IMF-WB, from the US of A, from Asian neighbors, from interested investors, and from all other benevolent financiers.  It is an executive prerogative laden with pitfalls and lures that could make or unmake a President as a true leader, as what happened to ex-President Arroyo and the allegedly anomalous NBN-ZTE deal. Aids, grants, and financial assistance, for one, are misnomers—they are the cosmeticized carrot-and-stick of the national economy, with very tough strings tied behind. These are actually loans and loan advances that come in batches with very stringent terms and conditions sine qua non that often serve as built-in compounders, and pro forma conditionalities. Getting into the availability of these loans is the easiest part, while coming out of them is almost next to impossible.

Just as we read this piece, the World Bank has extended a $300,000 grant to the Philippines to be used purposively for assessment of the country’s national roads. Well, sometimes, the President doesn’t really have to go around looking for those funds, they just fall when they are least expected. Aside from the aforementioned assistance, Mr. Aquino was also able to corner a considerable amount from Vietnam during his state visit there. Earlier than that, the Millinneum Challenge Corporation headed by the no less than the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, also granted the Aquino government $434 million purposively for BIR streamlining and Samar Road construction projects. It should be noted that the MCC grant is ‘gratis et amore’ which needs no pay-back. A closer scrutiny of the grant, however, would reveal that it is part of the US counter-insurgency program in the Philippines, a form of aggression and intervention in Philippine domestic affairs. In short, MCC grant is actually an advance payment for any US bungle that may probably ensue.

Normally, as in the past, the estimated budgetary expenditure is never realized, at most it only served as benchmarks for a blue print of a program of government—a program that should not be implied, rather than that, it must be charted in black and white. Fiscal administration in the Philippine setting serves only as a fund raising program in support of the realization of the proposed national budget, reason enough why calendar years are called fiscal years—an unending process of searching for that elusive pot of gold.

But the buck should have stopped dead right here, when we began to realize that we have already lost our capacity to pay those totality of debts that have ballooned and still continues to grow  because of foreign and domestic debt interest payments. The national budget has become a scapegoat of fiscal and budget policy makers in favor only of incumbent political leaders. The republican government of the Filipino people through their chosen representatives could not scissor-cut a collect-and-spend plan that is at least realistic, at most we have been spending money before we can even collect them. How? We borrow and take out loans from all sources for the purpose of paying those ever-compounding interests on capital loans. Meanwhile, our OFWs are sweating it out there just to keep the capital inflows coming.

On who budgets toll? They toll on thee.