Subic Bay Travel Guide, Tourists and Tourism Guide | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
WONDERFUL SUBIC BAY There is literally so much going on in this forested, bayside retreat offering panoramic views, restful-splendor, fun-filled adventure, ecological-enlightenment, and awesome-beauty, that you’ll find you need a week or two to truly experience it all. From jet-skiing and parasailing in the bay to eco-tourism In Subic you can, swim, dive, kayak, jet ski, sailboat, wind-surf, parasail, yacht, fish, hike, horseback ride, target practice, go nature trekking, marvel at centuries-old trees, bird-watch, bat-gaze, butterfly hunt, watch/learn auto racing, race go-carts, enjoy casino action, play tennis, golf, bike, bowl, play pool, shop, enjoy an amusement park, and, one of my favorite treats, indulge your pallet in a variety of interesting cuisine. For those who prefer a more relaxed lifestyle, you can find interesting bars and night-spots along the romantic boardwalk featuring quality entertainment; test your vocal chords at local karaoke spots, or simply go to a local concert hall or cinema to catch the latest flick. For 94 years, this former pride of the U.S. Navy, with its long-status as the largest naval installation outside the United States is now a recreational, entertainment and food wonderland. With over 1000 businesses employing over 50,000 people, the industry and business backbone in Subic is very-much a part of the picture. Yet you’ll find that these companies are managed under tough environmentally-friendly developmental rules that allow industry to blend with nature in a combination ecosystem/business climate unique to Subic. It seems as though the conversion from a military base to a recreation and business haven with strict environmental controls is working for Subic. In Subic, you can’t help but appreciate the wild orchids and ferns along wonderfully tree-lined streets. You’ll also be surprised to see kingfishers, orioles, wild ducks and sea eagles in the Triboa Bay area. Many people take pleasure in the marvelous pristine beaches and ocean-resort areas. If you are into diving, then there is probably no place better to experience old shipwrecks than in the waters around Subic with over 20 historic vessels sunk in the bay. If you are concerned about emergency, safety and protective service, while you frolic and play, then worry no more. With a 911 emergency response system providing fire, security and ambulance services 24 hours a day 7 days a week, you can enjoy all of your adventurous activities knowing help is but a phone call away. In addition, Subic maintains one of the strictest police and traffic safety programs in the entire country; as a result, Subic enjoys one of the lowest crime rates in all the Philippines. EXTREME ADVENTURE PARK
Extreme Adventure is synonymous with extreme adrenaline! If you’ve got the courage, Extreme Adventure has the facilities, trainers and equipment. This facility is not for the faint at heart, in fact, you get to do things normally reserved for elite military groups or for those on the popular T.V. show Fear Factor. But you don’t need to be a group in order to avail yourself of this experience. Don’t worry, the instructors and guides are highly trained professions and the equipment is high-quality, high tensile strength and well-maintained. So, whether you are a group, family or just a thrill-seeking individual, go for the adventure of a lifetime with Extreme Adventure. A Few of these Adventures are Listed below.
If you want a realistic Indiana Jones experience, try the Hanging Bridge. Here you walk along an old, cable-suspended, wooden bridge high above the jungles of Subic. You feel the breeze of fresh Subic air in your face as you sway back and forth attempting to make it to the other end. Onward brave soul! The Wall is an endurance and bravery test where you and your teammates climb a large scalable wall with pegs designed for climbing. It takes perseverance, skill and technique to make it to the other side. If you are part of a team, the objective is to give hints and positive reinforcement, to the other team members, so as to work together in order for each member to make it to the other side of the wall. This is a classic military exercise that you’ve probably seen in numerous movies. For additional information about Extreme Adventure and for bookings call: 045-499-0695 Jungle Environment Survival Training (JEST) Camp is a unique facility used to gain experience on how to survive in the hostile environment of the jungles of Southeast Asia. The prestigious special operations teams from the U.S. Marines used to learn jungle survival skills from the local indigenous Aetas of this region. They acquired skills such as how to make fire out of nothing but dried bamboo, what plants are safe to eat and those that are not and, how to obtain precious water in the deep, isolated jungle in order to sustain their lives. If you are one of the brave ones and opt for the full-blown course, you will be taken to remote areas of the jungle overnight without food or water. Your Aeta guides will show you how go retrieve water from different plant vines. Then you will be taught how to cook rice using only green bamboo, make insect repellant from certain plants and so forth, all utilizing only the basic elements of the jungle that surround you. So, why not learn some new techniques for survival from the same instructors who taught these jungle skills to the elite Navy Seals? But JEST Camp is more than a place to learn about jungle survival. A few of the additiona For additional information and bookings for JEST Camp Call: 045-499-0695. ECO-TOURISM BY SBMA TOURISM & FREEPORT SERVICES CORPORATION (FSC) If you are into nature, appreciate the wilderness and the beauty of protected forests and If you enjoy bird watching, remote stream fishing or simply want to be at one with nature, then this program offers you the opportunity to hire an FSC guide to show you and your group some of the most beautiful back-country areas of Subic. The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Tourism Department and Freeport Services Corporation (FSC) offer tours and a wide variety of adventures in the deeply forested nature areas in and around Subic Bay. Trips to Baton Falls, Hidden Falls, El Kabayo Falls, Pamulaklakin Forest Trails, and the Pamulaklakin River in the Binictican Heights area are but a few of the wonders of nature waiting for your senses to absorb. Call to arrange your eco-tourism trip at: 045-499-0695. REME FIELD SPORTS COMPLEX
Here you’ll find many of the athletic courts and facilities are covered, or indoors to protect you from the sun and weather. You can play tennis or band mitten in covered elegance and even basketball and boxing in an air conditioned gymnasium. Why not try the rubber-based track and field facility for high-tech nightly walks, jogs or runs with your friends and family members. This surface actually helps protect your skeletal-structure from too-much damage as you jog or run the track. Also included are various athletic pits and facilities for full-scale track and field activities such as the long-jump. EL KABAYO RIDING STABLES
El Kabayo offers simple riding within the safe confines of the area, or, for more experienced riders, you can venture-out beyond the facility into the Subic foothills and forested areas. There are even guided rides to the Kabayo Falls and a long extended trip through the Subic Forests and Jungles to the Subic Bay waters. For those who have always wanted to learn to ride horses, the climb on the back and let an expert instructor teach you all the tricks. HILL 394 Found in the eastern park of the Ilanin Forest Park, is a place called Hill 394. A strange name for a location of isolation and beauty, but it was named such for a good reason. Back in the old U.S. military occupation days, this hill was used as a secret, hidden helicopter landing spot. Named for its elevation above sea level, 394 feet, today it’s an observation spot where you can see over 50 species of birds and more than 150 species of vibrantly green trees. Here you’ll find panoramic views of lush forests and the Bataan and Zambales Mountains. For those interested in a little exercise and fresh Subic air, you can take the 45 to 60 minute trail hike to the top of the hill. For those wanting to experience this beauty without the work of a hike, a slightly-rough, remote drive in your car takes you to the top for some restful camping or simply to experience a great picnic spot. SUBIC INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
Types of races held here include, Formula 3, motorcycles, Philippine National Touring Car series and SVI Grand Prix. Most races are three day events with a typical season encompassing 12 race events. The track is host to the Annual Philippine Motor sports Festival in November. For those who have always wanted to learn to be a racecar driver, you will find two racing schools using the raceway as their base of operation and training track. The Ramirez’ Racing School utilizes your own vehicle as the race car and teaches you the skills needed to perform in a race environment. Tuason Racing School, using specially equipped and race-ready cars to take you to the next step of racing. Operated by Sports Values, Inc. and governed by Automotive Association of the Philippines (AAP) and Federacion Internationale de Automotive (FIA), this racing facility in just one more example of an unexpected, world-class Subic experience. Call 047-252-9069 for additional information about Subic International Raceway.  SUBIC LE-MAN’S GO CART TRACK So, you want to be a race driver but you don’t want to risk your life. Why not try a smaller version of a race car that is much closer to the ground and yet still exciting enough for those wanting the feel of a quick-turning, fast moving vehicle under-foot. Located next door to the Magic Lagoon Park Grill and Bar, along the main road, Rizal Ave., leading into the Freeport, here you can pretend you are Mario Andretti and get all of those frustrated-racer anxieties out. OCEAN ADVENTURE AMUSEMENT/THEME PARK
Don’t miss the Discovery Aquarium, a showcase of Subic Bay and South China Sea marine-life and its ecosystem. Here you’ll learn of the multitude of varied marine life in these seas, along with ways to help protect and preserve our rich, natural, sea resources. Your children will enjoy a the Learning Center where they will learn numerous aspects of marine life and get to sit-in on a spectacular Sea Lion Painting Session where very wise sea lions actually paint on canvas. Visit the Dolphin and Friends Show and watch the Killer Whales and dolphins in their lagoon perform jumps and tricks with grace and amazing skill. You will also learn interesting facts about these mammals. If you love sea lions, you can’t miss the Sea Lion Marine Patrol Show. Here you’ll get to watch these extremely smart guys perform tricks with balls and dancing that will make your heart sing with joy and laughter. The trainers also deliver a strong environmental message of preservation throughout the show. The Photo Encounter brings you close to the mammals of Ocean Adventure in a way you may have never experienced. The South American sea lions, dolphins or whales all make fantastic friends very easily! You can shake a flipper, a get a kiss or hug from a sea lion and have that moment captured in photo opportunities to show all your friends and family back home. If you’d like to encounter these fantastic sea creatures more in these natural environment, and stay only in shallow water, why not try the Beach Encounter? This is a 30 minute interactive adventure with the dolphins and whales where you can shake their fins and touch their smooth skin actually in the water with them. Of course you have lots of photo opportunities here. The Swim Encounter is one step beyond the Beach Encounter and will provide an experience found in few other places in the world. For 45 minutes, you can actually swim with the dolphins and whales in deep water. Put on your life vest and go for a ride with one of these majestic creatures. Pictures taking sessions are included. If you are a diver, why not take it one step further and try the Dive EncounterProgram where you strap on your dive-tanks and actually play-amongst, feed and swim in the deep with these massive, playful, majestic creatures. Of all the encounters, this requires the most skill. Then get your photo taken with your new aquatic acquaintances to show all of your friends and family back home. You must be a certified diver and show your dive card for this one. For the really serious enthusiast, there is even a half-day long program called theAnimal Trainer Adventure. Work hand-in-hand with the actual trainers at Ocean Adventure and actually participate in training sessions with these feisty sea creatures. Swim with then, prepare their food and learn some important training techniques. Lots of lasting memories photo opportunities present themselves when you sign-up with this program. ZOOBIC SAFARI A Few of the Attractions are Listed below. Close Tiger Encounter - An exciting, extra-close encounter (2 ft away) with Siberian and Bengal tigers. Watch them tear apart and bite-through raw chicken carcasses with the ease of butter. Tiger Safari - A once in a lifetime adventure! Ride in a safari jeep where you actually enter an open-range area teaming with live tigers roaming and frolicking in their natural habitat. Listen to their deep, awesome growl just a few inches from your face as they eat from the hands of your tour guide through the screen mesh of your safari vehicle. While on our safari the tour guide threw a chicken on top of the vehicle and a 400 pound Siberian tiger followed to the roof, rocking the vehicle back and forth with its massive weight. He consumed the entire chicken while we watched his huge teeth only a foot or so away, through the screened mesh of the vehicle, directly under the giant mammal. Wow, what an experience! The Zoobic Park - Enjoy a walk-through petting zoo, jungle environment with tame and gentle roaming albino caribou, deer, ostrich, bear, monkey, eagles, miniature horses, ducks and more. Savannah - A sanctuary of exotic and farm animals featuring a wide range of ostriches, potbellied pigs, wild boars and guinea fowls. See the ostriches run alongside your car. You may even get a peck from them. Serpentarium – Grab an up-close and personal view of snakes, iguanas, lizards, turtles and various other slithering and crawling reptiles. Rodent World – A collection of rodents like you’ve never seen before. They even have their own grooming salon where you can watch guinea pigs get a shampoo and style job. Croco Loco – Here you can view up to 200 crocodiles in a natural swamp area. If you’re lucky, get a chance to feed a few of the snappers. Dangle a chicken on a fishing pole and see them jump, snap and tear at the carcass. Quarter chickens can be purchased for only P50 each. Adventure Animal Rides - Ride on camels, horses, carabaos and alpacas - a unique and exciting experience only available at Zoobic Safari. Educational Shows - You can also see educational shows featuring live animals or learn jungle survival skills from the indigenous Aeta people and see native dances performed by the same. When an Aeta did the monkey dance for us, he traversed up a tree in a split-second; for a moment, we thought he actually changed into a real monkey. Call: 045-499-0695 for additional information regarding Zoobic Safari.
There’s a total of 60 hectares of land belonging to the park, much as yet to be developed. As of April 2008, they have 6 hectares ready for family fun and excitement. Located in the lush Subic mountainous area of the Group 3 Ilanin Forest, you and your family will enjoy the deep, rich, green surroundings and get lots of exercise as you partake of all the attractions. The first phase of this amusement park consists mainly of the Bunkers of Fun attractions. These are brightly painted and completely transformed, creatively designed, play areas with various themes. Some of the attractions you’ll find in these include, interactive kiddy rides, novelty shops, discotheques, an ultra-comfortable beanbag seated theater, Santa and the Elves village and other uniquely-themed, interestingly exhilarating attractions. For the older kids and adults, there’s a very large-scale and challenging paint ball course. This one is huge with sniper towers, numerous obstacles and hiding places. You’ve never played paintball like this before. At Jungle Joe’s, not only will the kids and adults have fun, but the fun is strategically integrated with learning experiences at every turn and lots of physical exercise thrown in as well. Many of the attractions encourage the kids to learn about ecological and other issues and to burn-up lots of energy as they are kid powered. By the end of the day, they most likely will be sleeping in the car on the ride back home. The near future looks very bright for Jungle Joe’s World with gargantuan plans afoot such as an artisan village, scholarships for talented Filipinos and, if financing works-out, some very large themed attractions. An example is the planned and very eagerly awaited roller coaster ride through the Mt. Pinatubo Volcano experience. Lets hope the owners are able to get this one going. Call 045-499-0695 for additional information regarding Jungle Joe’s World. PLACES TO STAY IN SUBIC BAY SUBIC CONDOS - Affordable family condo accommodations in Subic Bay available through a special arrangement with Clark Subic Marketing only. Now you can stay in Subic Bay at a one-of-a-kind, master-planned community nestled close to the residential foothills where lush, green forests meet the clear blue skies. These are reasonable, full-featured villa-style units with multiple bedrooms. You’ll feel rested and at peace as you enjoy this classy and spread-out facilities of this wonderful home away from home lodging. Call: 045-499-0695
WHITEROCK BEACH RESORT - This is indeed a true resort in every sense of the word. This resort is located just outside of the Freeport Zone in the Bareto’s Beach area, but well worth the short drive. 115 rooms of all varieties, your vacation or group event is in the perfect setting at this resort. This one has it all: jet skiing, banana boat rides, beach activities, oceanfront cottages, elegant restaurants and romantic beach evenings for you and your mate. 045-499-0695 LEGENDA HOTEL – Enjoy a class-act as one of the original Subic Bay high-end hotels. The Legenda maintains a well-founded reputation of high-quality accommodations. This facility features 236 rooms from standard to luxury suites. They specialize in putting on first-rate events with their variety of function rooms large and small, and even a huge convention center for a wonderfully facilitated, corporate seminar or large wedding reception. 045-499-0695 MAJESTIC HOTEL – Affordability and comfort work hand and hand at this central Subic business district location is great for you business men on a budget. And for entertainment purposes, you’ll find it only an extended-stroll to the boardwalk and waterfront areas. Currently being renovated, this hotel will help free-up your budget for other luxuries while vacationing. 045-499-0695 LIGHTHOUSE MARINA HOTEL/RESORT – This hotel/resort stands out from the rest as a landmark in Subic with its authentic looking old lighthouse structure right on a peninsula jetting-out into the bay in the Moonbay Marina district. Light house offers high-end facilities with lots of amenities for moderate to upper-end prices. Enjoy widescreen plasma television sets in each room. 045-499-0695 SUBIC BAYFRONT HOTEL – You get a reasonable room with a view of the beautiful Subic sunsets? This is a mid-level hotel with nice rooms, a great courtyard swimming pool and very fair prices. This facility is located directly on Waterfront Road in the Moonbay Marina district for all the fun and entertainment potential. 045-499-0695 VISTA MARINA HOTEL/RESORT – A very open and airy hotel-resort facility right on the waterfront. You can sit-back at Vista’s great pool, sip a margarita and contemplate the sunsets glistening off the bay. Features include a business center, paid Wi-Fi Internet access and a 100 person meeting room for your events. 045-499-0695 SUBIC BAY YACHT CLUB HOTEL/RESORT – This is a members-only facility, but Clark Subic Marketing may be able to arrange a potential match with a member. A very dramatic and ultra elegant clubhouse is ideal for your large event, wedding or corporate kickoff. Call CSM for coordinated bookings of this facility. 045-499-0695 SUBIC BAY RESTAURANTS AND FAST FOOD
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Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Olongapo Subic Tour
If you are looking for some extreme fun and excitement, then Extreme Adventure is the place for you. This place requires a degree of courage and is popular for enforcing teambuilding skills in groups and amongst work associates. This is the type of training that is normally reserved for military groups.
lush jungle areas, you have come to the right place in your quest. You won’t be disappointed with Subic Bay for exceptional ecological and nature experiences.
Located along Rizal Highway and the Corner of Burgos, right in the heart of Subic, you’ll find a little-known sportspersons treasure chest. After the long-drive, while lodging at your hotel or resort in Subic, why not get some exercise at a world-class sports and recreation complex.
Ride some quality imported horses from the United States, Argentina and Australia at El Kabayo. You can ride a thoroughbred, saddle-bred, or a quarter-horse if you prefer. If you are the type who simply admire horses but you are afraid to ride an animal weighing 4 times your weight and with a mind of its own, then you should also visit, simply to admire the beautiful, magnificent breeds and to get a feel of a peaceful and serene U.S. style horse ranch/equestrian facility.
Completed in 1994, situated beside the Subic International Airport, only 15 minutes away from the Subic Central Business District, you’ll find a track worthy of local and international races, a road-race course 2.9 kilometer long with 12 turns. This is a familiar racetrack to racers from the Philippines and even many foreign countries.
As the first Marine Park and aquarium in the Philippines, you and your family can enjoy playful sea loin, dolphin and whale shows. Ocean Adventure is located at the Camayan Wharf, West Ilanin Forest Area of Subic Bay. With 12,000 sqm of land area and 8,000 sqm of water space, your family is assured an entire day of fun and excitement, intermixed with informative knowledge about the wonderful world of sea life.
This is probably one of the most family-oriented fun places you’ve ever been to. Imagine, old U.S. Navy munitions bunkers, set in the deep Subic jungle, converted to various specialty entertainment bunkers of fun. Jungle Joe’s World is currently oriented towards the younger crowd, but you’ll find fun for the entire family here for sure.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Palace: Con-con up to Comelec
Malacañang distanced itself from the approval of a House resolution calling for a constitutional convention and the election of delegates to be held simultaneous with the presidential elections next year.
Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said it is up to the Commission on Elections to decide if the holding of simultaneous elections would be feasible.
“Kasi sila naman talaga ang institution who is in charge of this. They should know better,” Fajardo said.
Voting 6-1, the House committee on constitutional amendments proposed Con-con as the mode to amend the Constitution. The committee is considering the election of six sectoral representatives for every region or a total of 291 delegates to the Con-con.
But Fajardo said the smooth sailing of the regular elections is more important as far as Malacanang is concerned.
“We should not lose focus, the primary objective is the 2010 elections and especially that medyo bago yung poll automation…baka mag create ng confusion kung dadagdagan pa po natin ng con con elections,” she said. By: Tess Bedico - People's Journal
Thursday, August 27, 2009
YOUNGEST EVER FILIPINO BOXING CHAMPION IS FROM OLONGAPO
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr. - PhilBoxing.com
There have been recent articles stating that Ben Villaflor is the youngest Filipino to win a world boxing title. I got a bit curious because I remember reading from my collection of old boxing magazines that Morris East was also a teenage world champion.
So, I decided to look it up in boxrec.com. Ben Villaflor was born November 10, 1952 in Negros Occidental and won the capturing the WBA junior lightweight title on April 25, 1972, at 19 years and five months when he beat Venezuelan Alfredo Marcano by 15 round unanimous decision in Hawaii.
Morris East born August 8, 1973 in Olongapo City, Zambales was 19 years and one month old when he won the title on September 9, 1992. He beat Akinobu Hiranaka of Japan for the WBA jr. welterweight title in Tokyo. His 11th round knockout victory was chosen as Ring Magazine's KO of the year for 1992.
East is the second youngest boxer to win a world title at 140 lbs. Puerto Rico's Wilfred Benitez won the WBC jr. welterweight title when he was 17 years old.
This would make East our youngest ever world boxing champion. The reason that this question is raised is that Marvin Sonsona will be 19 years and 5 weeks old when he fights Puerto Rico’s Jose Lopez for the WBO superflyweight world title this September 4.
I actually had a very interesting conversation with promoter Sammy Gello-ani regarding these facts since he handled East as a prizefighter. East actually relocated to Cebu City and was just roaming around Colon Street. He was spotted by Lito Cortes and brought to the Cebu Coliseum gym and Gello-ani offered him amateur fights to keep him earning for his meals. Gello-ani now promotes Sonsona who even if he beats Lopez would not beat East’s record.
Manny Pacquiao was also 19 but was thirteen days away from turning 20 when he won the first of his six world titles via an eighth round knockout over Chatchai Sasakul for the WBC flyweight crown in Thailand in December 1998.
Malcolm Tunacao of Mandaue City, Cebu holds the Philippine record for the shortest route taken towards a world title. He only had ten pro fights when he took the WBC flyweight crown from Medgoen (3K - Battery) Lukchaopormasek of Thailand via 7th round knockout in May 19, 2000. Malcolm was 21 years old during his brief title reign.
Top photo: East when he won the WBA junior welterweight title against Akinobu Hiranaka of Japan.
Editor's Note: PhilBoxing.com has contacted Morris East in Las Vegas where he is now based, and East has confirmed the veracity of his birth data at boxrec.com. East said he is aware that he is the Philippines' youngest world champion and felt 'amused' that Filipino boxing writers have seemingly 'forgotten' him.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Gilbert should be competitive
It is a steep, uphill climb to the presidency in the 2010 elections, particularly if you are a contender for the nomination of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD. But it is not nearly an impossible undertaking if you happen to be Gilbert Cojuangco Teodoro, currently secretary of National Defense in the Arroyo administration.
The key is to be able to show to the right people that four months from now, or about December of this year, one can demonstrate that the candidacy is competitive.
The three principal measures of strengths and weaknesses of any candidate are the electoral track record, the composite survey results of SWS and Pulse Asia and the controlled votes of the various political machines. While other measures may be brought to bear in the contest, these will give deeper understanding of the standing of the various candidates vying for the presidency.
Electoral track record
The first crucial measure is the electoral track record of the various contenders. It gives you the idea of the pulling power of the candidate in past electoral contests and is usually a dependable gauge on future performances. Previous form often heralds future results.
Top vote getters
Joseph Estrada 10 million plus 1998 won as president
Mar Roxas 19 million plus 2004 number 1
Loren Legarda 16 million plus 2007 number 1
Noli de Castro 15 million plus 2004 won as VP
Other contestants
Chiz Escudero 2007 number 2
Manny Villar 2007 number 5
Jamby Madrigal 2004 number 4
Dick Gordon 2004 number 7
Gilbert Teodoro 3-time congressman
Bayani Fernando 3-time mayor
Ed Panlilio provincial governor
Ed Villanueva 2004 4th place
Except Ramos
There are exceptions to the rule, of course. Most notable was the Secretary of National Defense Fidel Ramos. With no electoral track record to speak of, but carrying the endorsement of his then Commander-in-Chief President Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos eventually carried the day.
The second measure in the present scheme of things are the surveys of the two most credible public opinion polling. In the build-up to the campaign proper, they are important in the sense that contributors usually base their choices on the public opinion surveys. But in the final analysis, the final vote will be largely determined by the partisans. No doubt the surveys exert an influence on the decisions of the electorate but only to the extent of influencing the non-partisan votes.
Remember that the typical surveys are the composite opinions of 1,200 respondents, or at most, 7,000 respondents. The purpose and function of political parties is to persuade and in effect, intervene in the decision process.
Composite survey results, SWS and Pulse Asia:
1. Manny Villar
2. Joseph Estrada
3. Mar Roxas/Chiz Escudero
4. Noli de Castro
5. Loren Legarda
Below 4 percent:
Gilbert Teodoro
Bayani Fernando
Ed Panlilio
Eddie Villanieva
Dick Gordon
The Danding playbook
Maybe Gilbert Teodoro can borrow a page from Danding Cojuangco’s playbook in the 1992 campaign. Behind all in the surveys until the last six weeks of the campaign, two weeks before election day, Danding was a close second to Miriam Defensor-Santiago. The strategy was to keep away from Metro Manila until the last minute. We built our strength from the provinces and came to Metro Manila for the final salvo. We were rewarded by the best attended miting de avance at that time.
Machine votes
The third and probably the most important is the realpolitik of every campaign. According to a private think tank that studies political parties, based on memberships, number of congressmen, local officials and barangay officials, the machine votes defined as the number of votes deliverable to the party’s national candidates are as follows:
Lakas-Kampi-CMD 32 percent
PMP-PDP-UNO 27 percent
NPC 24 percent
The key is to be able to show to the right people that four months from now, or about December of this year, one can demonstrate that the candidacy is competitive.
The three principal measures of strengths and weaknesses of any candidate are the electoral track record, the composite survey results of SWS and Pulse Asia and the controlled votes of the various political machines. While other measures may be brought to bear in the contest, these will give deeper understanding of the standing of the various candidates vying for the presidency.
Electoral track record
The first crucial measure is the electoral track record of the various contenders. It gives you the idea of the pulling power of the candidate in past electoral contests and is usually a dependable gauge on future performances. Previous form often heralds future results.
Top vote getters
Joseph Estrada 10 million plus 1998 won as president
Mar Roxas 19 million plus 2004 number 1
Loren Legarda 16 million plus 2007 number 1
Noli de Castro 15 million plus 2004 won as VP
Other contestants
Chiz Escudero 2007 number 2
Manny Villar 2007 number 5
Jamby Madrigal 2004 number 4
Dick Gordon 2004 number 7
Gilbert Teodoro 3-time congressman
Bayani Fernando 3-time mayor
Ed Panlilio provincial governor
Ed Villanueva 2004 4th place
Except Ramos
There are exceptions to the rule, of course. Most notable was the Secretary of National Defense Fidel Ramos. With no electoral track record to speak of, but carrying the endorsement of his then Commander-in-Chief President Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos eventually carried the day.
The second measure in the present scheme of things are the surveys of the two most credible public opinion polling. In the build-up to the campaign proper, they are important in the sense that contributors usually base their choices on the public opinion surveys. But in the final analysis, the final vote will be largely determined by the partisans. No doubt the surveys exert an influence on the decisions of the electorate but only to the extent of influencing the non-partisan votes.
Remember that the typical surveys are the composite opinions of 1,200 respondents, or at most, 7,000 respondents. The purpose and function of political parties is to persuade and in effect, intervene in the decision process.
Composite survey results, SWS and Pulse Asia:
1. Manny Villar
2. Joseph Estrada
3. Mar Roxas/Chiz Escudero
4. Noli de Castro
5. Loren Legarda
Below 4 percent:
Gilbert Teodoro
Bayani Fernando
Ed Panlilio
Eddie Villanieva
Dick Gordon
The Danding playbook
Maybe Gilbert Teodoro can borrow a page from Danding Cojuangco’s playbook in the 1992 campaign. Behind all in the surveys until the last six weeks of the campaign, two weeks before election day, Danding was a close second to Miriam Defensor-Santiago. The strategy was to keep away from Metro Manila until the last minute. We built our strength from the provinces and came to Metro Manila for the final salvo. We were rewarded by the best attended miting de avance at that time.
Machine votes
The third and probably the most important is the realpolitik of every campaign. According to a private think tank that studies political parties, based on memberships, number of congressmen, local officials and barangay officials, the machine votes defined as the number of votes deliverable to the party’s national candidates are as follows:
Lakas-Kampi-CMD 32 percent
PMP-PDP-UNO 27 percent
NPC 24 percent
Liberal Party 22 percent
Nacionalista Party 19 percent
The caveat of the private think tank is that the percentages for the PMP-PDP-UNO is conditional. It is only good if Joseph Estrada is running in 2010.
Gilbert Teodoro can be competitive if he captures the nomination of the ruling party and if GMA stays the course and supports him all the way.
Joseph Estrada leads by 27 percent in Mindanao, according to Pulse Asia. In the same study, Mar Roxas leads in the Visayas by 22 percent. Gilbert, being the only Ilocano speaking candidate can lay claim to the provinces North of the Agno River and parts of Central Luzon. An interesting scenario.
By. Antonio Gatmaitan - Daily Tribune
Nacionalista Party 19 percent
The caveat of the private think tank is that the percentages for the PMP-PDP-UNO is conditional. It is only good if Joseph Estrada is running in 2010.
Gilbert Teodoro can be competitive if he captures the nomination of the ruling party and if GMA stays the course and supports him all the way.
Joseph Estrada leads by 27 percent in Mindanao, according to Pulse Asia. In the same study, Mar Roxas leads in the Visayas by 22 percent. Gilbert, being the only Ilocano speaking candidate can lay claim to the provinces North of the Agno River and parts of Central Luzon. An interesting scenario.
By. Antonio Gatmaitan - Daily Tribune
Thursday, August 20, 2009
PGMA to honor this year's top teachers
Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX - President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will confer gold medallions on the winners of this year?s Metrobank Foundation Search for Outstanding Teachers during awarding ceremonies in Malacañang on Sept. 3.
Organizers said the awardees will also be presented with plaques and cash amounting to P300,000 each during the 47th anniversary celebration of the Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company on Sept. 4 at the Metrobank Plaza in Makati City.
Eight public school teachers -- four each from the elementary and secondary levels -- and two professors from the University of the Philippines-Diliman and University of San Carlos in Cebu emerged as winners in this year?s competition.
In the 25-year history of the annual search, Dasmariñas, Cavite; Olongapo City; Tulunan, North Cotabato; and Leganes, Iloilo produced their first awardees in 2009.
The four awardees for the elementary level are: Mrs. Lourdes L. Matan of Mag-Ubay Elementary School in Calbayog City; Mrs. Gemma G. Cortez of Dasmariñas Elementary School in Dasmariñas, Cavite; Benjamin M. Martinez of San Sebastian Elementary School in Tarlac City; and Mrs. Eva B. Imingan of Nellie E. Brown Elementary School in Olongapo City.
The awardees for the secondary level are: Ms. Shena Faith M. Ganela of Philippine Science High School-Western Visayas Campus in Iloilo City; Mrs. Rochelle D. Papasin of Philippine Science High School-Southern Mindanao Campus in Davao City; Mrs. Ma. Petra A. Romualdo of Minapan High School in Tulunan, Cotabato; and Zoilo J. Pinongcos Jr. of Leganes National High School in Leganes, Iloilo.
For the higher education level, the awardees are: Dr. Dina Joana S. Ocampo of the University of the Philippines-Diliman; and Dr. Ramon S. Del Fierro of University of San Carlos in Cebu City.
?The Metrobank Foundation believes that by giving recognition to the outstanding qualities, achievements and contributions of our beloved educators, we promote a sense of pride in and provide inspiration to the teaching profession and to the rest of the society,? said Metrobank Foundation president Aniceto M. Sobrepeña.
?For over 25 years, we have envisioned our awardees to serve as infrastructure for continuing excellence and to provide greater impact on their respective spheres of influence,? added Sobrepeña, who is former Presidential Management Staff head (1986-1992).
The winners were selected from 173 nominees coming from various public and private educational institutions in the country, of which 40 qualified as regional finalists.
The regional finalists underwent interviews and teaching demonstrations before the members of the preliminary board of judges identified for each category, of which 20 were selected to become the national finalists.
The national finalists then faced the Final Board of Judges for this year?s Search co-chaired by Supreme Court Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo De Castro and Muntinlupa City Rep. Rozzano Rufino B. Biazon.
Also serving as judges were: Chairman Ricardo L. Saludo of the Civil Service Commission (CSC); Governor Miguel Rene A. Dominguez of Sarangani Province; Dr. Ma. Cristina D. Padolina, president, Centro Escolar University (CEU); Ms. Cecilia L. Lazaro, founding president, PROBE Productions, Inc.; and Dr. Cecilio K. Pedro, president and CEO, Lamoiyan Corporation.
This year?s winners will join the rank of 276 outstanding teachers who have been honored by the Foundation for the last 24 years.
They automatically become members of the Network of Outstanding Teachers and Educators or NOTED, an honor society of outstanding teachers committed to nurturing a culture of excellence and service among educators through professional development, publications, research, and advocacy in active partnership with government and non-government organizations.
Now on its 25th year, the Search bestows honor upon the teaching profession by according special recognition to teachers who manifest profound commitment to the development of the youth through exemplary competence, remarkable dedication to their work, and an effective educational leadership.
The Metrobank Foundation is the corporate social responsibility arm of the Metrobank Group of Companies chaired by Dr. George S.K. Ty.
Over the last 30 years, it has promoted a culture of excellence among Filipinos through its various programs notably the Search for Outstanding Teachers, the Metrobank Art and Design Excellence, The Outstanding Philippine Soldier, Country?s Outstanding Policemen in Service, the Metrobank Math Challenge, and College Scholarship Program.
The Foundation also has a grants program that assists NGOs and government in the fields of education, healthcare, and the arts.
Redesigning industrial economic zones
I am glad that Director Lilia de Lima of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority has been very strategic in her view about the future of our economic zones. Very early on, she gave the go-signal to the IT Parks, in which Eastwood City was a pioneer. Then there are the agro-industrial zones. More recently, there are the retirement village and tourism zones. Such a forward-looking strategy is adapting to the rapidly changing competitive dynamics in the global economy.In the next twenty years, the Philippines’ competitive advantage will veer towards agribusiness, tourism, health care, BPO and manpower training. We must redesign our economic zones to move away from the industries that will lose their competitive edge based solely on cheap labor.
I was heartened to read a report of AFP that quoted Subic Freeport Administrator Armand C. Arreza saying the most sensible thing about the future of Subic. Commenting on the shift in Subic from manufacturing to tourism and logistics, he said that Subic's manufacturing future had been in question even before the ongoing global crisis hit electronics companies.
He said that for the past several years, low-wage competition from China and Vietnam has been luring companies away from Subic. He categorically states that "low-cost manufacturing is not the area where Subic is competitive. Most of our land area is protected forests and protected seas. We don't have any space to accommodate large industrial parks." In his opinion, the future of Subic lies in tourism, medical care, shipbuilding and logistics, using the ample space still available for warehouses especially around the largely unused Subic airport.
Subic is like a microcosm of the entire Philippines. We have more than 7,000 islands, many of which can attract millions of tourists (both domestic and foreign) if only we build more efficient infrastructures (which are part of industry). Besides, we have highly educated and motivated industrial workers.
We can, therefore, graduate to higher-value manufacturing in the electronics and semiconductor devices sector. When I say that the likes of Intel, Fairchild, Texas Instruments will phase out their labor-intensive manufacturing activities, I am not suggesting that the whole industry is doomed to extinction. The key is found in the statement in the same AFP report of Danny J Piano, President of the Subic Chamber of Commerce: "Subic manufacturers can survive. The Philippines has the capability to do good high-end work due to workers' better education, communication and English skills."
The electronics and semi-conductor devices industry is now in crisis because for thirty years, it has hardly graduated from low-value manufacturing to the high-end work to which Mr. Piano is referring. Unless we can produce more engineers and highly-skilled technical workers that can be employed at the higher end of electronics manufacturing, then we will see more firms in this sector (that accounts for more than 60 percent of our exports) following the example of Intel that decided to leave the Philippines even before the present deep recession. I hope other export-processing zones such as those in Mactan, Batangas, Laguna and Cavite are listening to the wise advice of the Subic officials.
They have to encourage their industrial tenants to go upscale in the manufacture of electronics and semiconductor devices.
The experience of the electronics industry should be studied very closely by the BPO industry that is just beginning its own thirty-year industry life cycle. Fortunately, there are enlightened leaders in this sector (that continues to grow at double-digit rates even as the global economy is taking a dive this year) who already realize that they have to move as quickly as possible from just call centers to higher-value BPO activities like medical transcription, animation, legal documentation, accounting and finance, investment research, etc. It is not impossible that in the next five to ten years, there will be millions of Chinese university graduates who will be very fluent in English and take over the role of Filipinos in manning call centers. We better make sure that we are ready for this situation by moving to higher-value BPO activities more rapidly than the electronics sector has been able to do in the last thirty years.
Finally, to once and for all bury the manufacturing bias of some of our leaders, let me quote from Zenaida Pineda, 40, a former electronics worker in Subic, who was also quoted in the AFP report. She said that she now earns as much working as a chambermaid in a Subic hotel as she did at her factory job: "I like housekeeping more because you can move around, not just stay at your work station. Besides, working on electronics hurt my eyes." These very sensible remarks of Ms. Pineda take away the mystique and glamour of manufacturing. Most labor-intensive manufacturing jobs, whether in textile, garments, shoes, electronics, etc. are dehumanizing.
They involve repetitive tasks with very little intellectual content and remind me of Charlie Chaplain's famous movie Modern Times. Service-oriented jobs are more humane and can be more challenging both intellectually and emotionally.
I always tell my friends jokingly that if I had to earn my keep as a blue-collar OFW, I will look for a job as a gardener in Barcelona or Vancouver rather than as a factory worker in Taipei. As a gardener, I will be using not only my brawn but also my creativity and intellectual capacity to understand the most exciting world of trees, shrubs and flowers. I will be combining earning a living with a very pleasurable hobby. For comments, my email address is bvillegas@uap.edu.ph.
By BERNARDO M. VILLEGAS - Manila Bulletin
Mining triggers disaster in Zambales
Mining mayhem triggers ecological disaster in Zambales province
By Jaileen F. Jimeno, Philippine Center For Investigative Journalism
SANTA CRUZ, Zambales: Nickel is not doing too well in the world market these days, but residents here do not seem to mind, even though nickel has become one of this town’s major revenue earners.
That’s because whenever nickel commands top dollar, red dust smothers the town’s main highway and the pier, and red mud cakes the roads. Residents also have to share their small barangay roads with huge, lumbering trucks, and when rains come, floodwaters the color of blood fill their rice fields. Meanwhile, up in the mountains, armed guards hired by mining firms menace real and imagined foes and sometimes engage each other in deadly shootouts.
No wonder Gov. Amor Deloso of Zambales has taken to describing Santa Cruz—some 170 kilometers north of Manila—as “parang Iraq [like Iraq].”
Deloso seems to confine such a description to what he and others say is the increased militarization in this town because of mining. But he may well also be describing the helter-skelter way mining is being conducted in the entire province, recalling the mayhem and lawlessness in Iraq. Ironically, according to local officials and ordinary Zambaleños, the situation can be traced largely to no less than Deloso’s mining policies.
The governor himself said that Zambales has become a “battleground between big and small interests, national against local officials, with some intramurals between me and the mayor [of Santa Cruz].” Yet he was unapologetic about the policies on mining he has crafted, even though lawyers and some local officials said the legality of these are, at the very least, suspect, especially those pertaining to small-scale mining.
These are also why unearthing Zambales’ minerals (which include chromite and gold and are estimated to be worth billions of dollars) has turned the province into a virtual powder keg waiting to explode. Indeed, Secretary Joselito “Lito” Atienza of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has called Zambales “the most problematic province in terms of mining.”
Laws bent, ignored
Zambales’ mining mayhem, however, is not only a template of how local governments should not manage the industry. It also reveals how national government offices, like the Environment department, are rendered inutile as laws are bent and manipulated to suit the needs of local officials.
Confesses a mid-level department official when confronted with the situation in Zambales: “Our men just deal with small problems on the ground, like conflicts between small miners.”
This is even though it was the department that issued the implementing rules and regulations for Republic Act 7076, or the 1991 People’s Small-Scale Mining Law. It is also the department that has direct supervision and control over some of the vital bodies that govern small-scale mining, which is aimed at helping generate income for the rural poor.
These include the Provincial Mining and Regulatory Board (PMRB), a five-member body that is supposed to be headed by the regional director of the Environment department’s Mines and Geosciences Bureau. It is the department’s implementing agency for the People’s Small-Scale Mining Program. Among other things, it is upon its recommendation that a small-scale mining contract is issued by the governor.
In addition, it is the department secretary who has “direct supervision and control over the [People’s Small-Scale Mining Program] and activities of small-scale miners” within the designated area.
Permit or contract
An Environment department primer on small-scale mining says either a permit or a contract can be issued. A permit is good for two years and renewable only once. A contract is also effective for two years, but is renewable for like periods.
Both permits and contracts emphasize artisanal work or manual labor; the use of heavy or sophisticated equipment like drilling machines, payloaders, and excavators is prohibited. Also, the law limits the annual production for metallic minerals for a small-scale mining operator at a maximum 50,000 tons of ore.
Clarificatory guidelines signed in 2007 by then Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes say that contracts are issued to cooperatives that will work in sites designated as small-scale mining areas. Permits are issued to qualified individuals who have the “capacity to contract” or a corporation or partnership “authorized to engage in mining, registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, [with] at least 60 percent of the capital . . . owned at all times by Filipino citizens.”
Permits cover sites outside of small-scale mining areas. They are issued following the rules spelled out in Presidential Decree 1899, a Marcos-era law that remains in force.
Reyes’ guidelines, however, make it clear that both permit- and contract-holders are bound by the “provisions of . . . the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, the Small-Scale Mining Laws and their implementing rules and regulations, among others.”
Zambales, though, does not seem to believe it needs to follow these laws. Since 2007, it has been one-month small-scale mining permits that allow a holder to haul off 50,000 tons of ores within that period from a 5-hectare area. The permits can be renewed twice, after which a miner only has to show proof of active extraction to secure a longer-term permit. And contrary to stipulations in the small-scale mining laws, these allow a holder to use heavy equipment to extract the ore from the ground.
But Governor Deloso, who is also a lawyer, sees no conflict with his province’s unique mining permits and national laws.
“Nobody can stop a governor from giving a special permit to in any line of business,” he said. “It is not prohibited, therefore it is permitted.”
Still, he does subtly acknowledge the prohibition against the use of heavy machinery in small-scale mining by calling the provision “backward” and “impractical.”
It consigns small-scale miners to “kamote mining,” he said, thundering, “How can you get 50,000 tons with your spade and wheelbarrow? It’s like telling me that since my father rides a horse-drawn carriage, I should not drive a car.”
Deloso pointed to Zambales’ past forays into mining as one reason why he decided to come up with the short-term permit for small-scale miners. He said that big miners, though operating for generations, did not contribute much to the capitol’s coffers, since they sent their taxes directly to the national government. The province even had to repair roads in mining areas that were run down by heavy trucks and machinery, he added.
Permit for P10K
This time around, Zambales issues its one-month mining permit to anyone who can cough up P10,000 as issuance-fee payment. Small-scale miners also have to pay the provincial government an “enhancement fee” of P50 per metric ton of nickel and P60 per metric ton of chromite. There is a P15,000 fee for a Provincial Environmental Clearance Certificate (PECC) as well.
Despite these fees, hundreds of entrepreneurs line up for the permits. One harried employee of the Environment and Natural Resources of Zambales (ENROZ) was reduced to spewing mixed metaphors, saying that the permits have been “selling like hotcakes” and that applicants show up at his office “like mushrooms after a thunderstorm.”
The employee added that before Deloso became governor two years ago, his office received just three mining inquiries a month. By mid-2006, it was handling as much as five new applicants a day, besides those following up on the processing of their permits, making his small office seem like a market on a payday weekend.
Quips Sangguniang Panlalawigan member Samuel Ablola, chair of the capitol’s environment and natural resources committee and who thought of the enhancement fee: “Halos lahat na may application. Baka iyong sementeryo na lang ang wala [Almost all land areas have pending mining applications. Maybe only the cemeteries are spared].”
Indications are that most of those permits are granted. In the past, Zambales was netting an annual average of only P3 million in regulatory and extraction fees from mining and quarrying activities. As late as 2006, the Environment and Natural Resources of Zambales was still reporting a total annual collection of P3.3 million from mining and quarrying. Yet, just a year later, that figure had shot up to P28.3 million—and that excluded monies collected as enhancement fees.
The provincial government does not get the bulk of the income from mining, taking only 30 percent of the revenue. Another 30 percent goes to the host town, while the remaining 40 percent is supposed to go to the barangay, where the mining site is.
But Deloso does not seem to mind. The capitol’s share will go to the provincial government’s general fund, he said, adding, “I can spend it for school buildings and repair of roads.”
The governor says Environment and Natural Resources of Zambales will manage the fund from the enhancement-fee payments, which helped the capitol’s yearly total mining income rise to almost P60 million in 2008. He has already designated Botolan, his hometown, as a beneficiary of the enhancement-fee fund, but is vague about specific projects.
Wild about mining
Botolan, just a few minutes away by car from the capitol, hosts nickel mining companies, among them NiHAO Mineral Resources International Inc., which is headed by former Environment Secretary Michael Defensor. The town was submerged recently in floodwaters that reached rooftops, after a dam broke at the height of Typhoon Kiko.
Yet despite the revenue windfall generated by the capitol’s one-month mining permits, some local officials are far from being pleased. In fact, Santa Cruz Mayor Luisito Marty fumes when the subject of the permits comes up in an interview.
“People go wild,” he said. “All of a sudden, there are these little mining companies in our midst.”
It’s bad enough that the capitol does not consult the concerned municipality before issuing the permits. According to Marty, mining firms now also bypass his office and go directly to barangay officials for permission to operate in their chosen area.
Since 2007, a smarting Marty has not issued a mining permit, save for one that went to the firm A3UNA Mining Corp., which is on the Environment department’s list of eight companies permitted to do large-scale mining in Zambales. But miners big and small have nevertheless invaded his town, waving papers from the capitol or from barangay officials.
Fights have broken out over overlapping claims, prompting several overzealous firms to hire security guards, some of whom are described by Deloso as “vicious.” Referring to the big mining companies, he added, “They all have private armies and camps.”
In January 2008, then Region III Director Anselmo Abungan of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources wrote to Deloso, asking him to refrain from issuing permits already covered by prior mining permits.
Abungan also asked the capitol to secure an area clearance from the department before granting a permit. The request stemmed from a complaint by three major mining firms against A3UNA for alleged illegal mining and quarrying. A3UNA turned out to be holding a permit granted by the capitol to small miners.
But Deloso says the problem could have been avoided had the big mining companies approached him before they began operating. “They were boasting that they were protected by the national government, [and] that’s why there was trouble.”
It’s a statement that may not go unchallenged. Even ordinary folk have been grumbling over the capitol’s one-month mining permits, which are issued so frequently and speedily that the provincial government has been hard-pressed in keeping up-to-date records.
With a combined staff of just 20 people, the Environment and Natural Resources of Zambales and the Provincial Mining Regulatory Board have also found it difficult to double check an applicant’s claim of having satisfied the requirements and if a permit-holder is following mining rules and regulations.
Theoretically, the board provides the check and balance to the capitol’s power to issue mining permits and contracts. It is also through this body that the Environment department keeps tabs on small-scale mining in the area. Yet especially after current Region III Director Danilo Uykieng of the department assigned an underling to attend meetings, the crucial decision-making has been left to the rest of the board members—who are all Deloso appointees.
Rubber-stamp board?
A Provincial Mining and Regulatory Board member who declines to be named for fear of antagonizing the capitol confirms that all one-month permits go through the board. But the member says that there is a tendency to gloss over the failure of small miners to submit complete requirements.
The member said that instead, the board has tried to focus on ensuring that mining claims do not overlap. Yet the board performs dismally even in that, says the member, because any effort to validate a claim is thwarted by a swift move for a vote.
This has made the board function like a rubber stamp. When the motion is carried, documents granting the permit are readied for Deloso’s approval. According to the board member, the governor signs the papers without knowing how the debates went.
Another board insider said this had exasperated Uykieng, who was said to be even more upset when the board approved small-scale mining permits for areas where there were already large-scale operations. Uykieng, who is supposed to head the board, reportedly said, “What am I here for, if you don’t respect the large-scale permits?”
The insider said Uykieng, who was appointed as the department’s Region III director in May 2008, sat in only two board meetings before he began sending an underling to take his place.
Board secretariat head Wilson Biag admitted some small-scale mining permits encroach into large-scale mining areas. But he said the small-scale miners were there first.
He also defended the 30-day small-scale mining permits by noting that the industry’s big players already control 90 percent of Zambales’ mineral-rich areas. Small-scale miners begin their trade at a disadvantage, Biag argued, so they need all the help they could get.
The boost from the capitol includes allowing those armed only with exploration permits to extract up to 20 metric tons of minerals even in areas that are already legally spoken for. Biag said, “We want to give them [small-scale miners] time to check if there are minerals, before they invest more money into the project.”
The irony is that the month-long permits have become the alternate source of ores for big firms that want to speed up mineral collection.
Biag said the capitol is aware of the practice. “We are trying to resolve this because the permits are non-transferable. They come to some sort of an agreement that the small-scale miner is just the claimant, and the big mining firms are the operator.”
For a fixed fee, a small-scale mining permit holder may also totally surrender its site to a major mining company.
No legal basis
Biag said the capitol was drawing up new guidelines to make Zambales’ small-scale mining practices dovetail with the national government’s policies. But to Leo Jasareno, chief of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau’s Mining Tenements Management Division, the issue is simple: “These permits are not part of the mining laws. Anything that is not in the mining law has no legal basis. That’s common sense.”
He said that the Environment department has been working on an order that would guide governors and local government units (LGUs) in implementing the Small-Scale Mining Act. Jasareno added that efforts to draft the guidelines had been hampered by a controversy over the department’s January 5, 2009 order for all extractions to be covered by a Mineral Ore Export Permit (MOEP) before being shipped out.
The permit is an Environment department initiative to curb ore smuggling. Jasareno said that compliance with the permit order has been almost 100 percent. The sole exception is Deloso, who even asked the Court of Appeals in January to have the order rescinded, arguing that it was “an administrative issuance which is not sanctioned by R.A. 7942.”
Jasareno said that once the mining guide for local governments is finalized, it would address the issues in Zambales. But legal experts like environment and human rights lawyer Antonio La Vina said that all the Environment department has to do is to “assert its power.”
“All of the environmental powers of the LGUs are also under the control and review of the DENR,” said La Vina, who is dean of the Ateneo de Manila University’s School of Government. He added that the department could put a stop to what is happening in Zambales “by issuing a cease-and-desist order.”
“That’s the proper remedy,” he said.
La Vina also echoes other legal experts in saying that while the Local Government Code gives provincial and municipal officials latitude in developing their own rules, these should never contradict national laws.
To Governor Deloso, however, the issue is more about justice than the law. “I do not understand,” he said, “why the big firms will get all the benefits from mining, and Zambales gets nothing.”
He added that his policies are easing poverty in Zambales. After all, Deloso said, very few residents from mining towns like Santa Cruz now line up in front of his office to ask for money.
By Jaileen F. Jimeno, Philippine Center For Investigative Journalism
SANTA CRUZ, Zambales: Nickel is not doing too well in the world market these days, but residents here do not seem to mind, even though nickel has become one of this town’s major revenue earners.
That’s because whenever nickel commands top dollar, red dust smothers the town’s main highway and the pier, and red mud cakes the roads. Residents also have to share their small barangay roads with huge, lumbering trucks, and when rains come, floodwaters the color of blood fill their rice fields. Meanwhile, up in the mountains, armed guards hired by mining firms menace real and imagined foes and sometimes engage each other in deadly shootouts.
No wonder Gov. Amor Deloso of Zambales has taken to describing Santa Cruz—some 170 kilometers north of Manila—as “parang Iraq [like Iraq].”
Deloso seems to confine such a description to what he and others say is the increased militarization in this town because of mining. But he may well also be describing the helter-skelter way mining is being conducted in the entire province, recalling the mayhem and lawlessness in Iraq. Ironically, according to local officials and ordinary Zambaleños, the situation can be traced largely to no less than Deloso’s mining policies.
The governor himself said that Zambales has become a “battleground between big and small interests, national against local officials, with some intramurals between me and the mayor [of Santa Cruz].” Yet he was unapologetic about the policies on mining he has crafted, even though lawyers and some local officials said the legality of these are, at the very least, suspect, especially those pertaining to small-scale mining.
These are also why unearthing Zambales’ minerals (which include chromite and gold and are estimated to be worth billions of dollars) has turned the province into a virtual powder keg waiting to explode. Indeed, Secretary Joselito “Lito” Atienza of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has called Zambales “the most problematic province in terms of mining.”
Laws bent, ignored
Zambales’ mining mayhem, however, is not only a template of how local governments should not manage the industry. It also reveals how national government offices, like the Environment department, are rendered inutile as laws are bent and manipulated to suit the needs of local officials.
Confesses a mid-level department official when confronted with the situation in Zambales: “Our men just deal with small problems on the ground, like conflicts between small miners.”
This is even though it was the department that issued the implementing rules and regulations for Republic Act 7076, or the 1991 People’s Small-Scale Mining Law. It is also the department that has direct supervision and control over some of the vital bodies that govern small-scale mining, which is aimed at helping generate income for the rural poor.
These include the Provincial Mining and Regulatory Board (PMRB), a five-member body that is supposed to be headed by the regional director of the Environment department’s Mines and Geosciences Bureau. It is the department’s implementing agency for the People’s Small-Scale Mining Program. Among other things, it is upon its recommendation that a small-scale mining contract is issued by the governor.
In addition, it is the department secretary who has “direct supervision and control over the [People’s Small-Scale Mining Program] and activities of small-scale miners” within the designated area.
Permit or contract
An Environment department primer on small-scale mining says either a permit or a contract can be issued. A permit is good for two years and renewable only once. A contract is also effective for two years, but is renewable for like periods.
Both permits and contracts emphasize artisanal work or manual labor; the use of heavy or sophisticated equipment like drilling machines, payloaders, and excavators is prohibited. Also, the law limits the annual production for metallic minerals for a small-scale mining operator at a maximum 50,000 tons of ore.
Clarificatory guidelines signed in 2007 by then Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes say that contracts are issued to cooperatives that will work in sites designated as small-scale mining areas. Permits are issued to qualified individuals who have the “capacity to contract” or a corporation or partnership “authorized to engage in mining, registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, [with] at least 60 percent of the capital . . . owned at all times by Filipino citizens.”
Permits cover sites outside of small-scale mining areas. They are issued following the rules spelled out in Presidential Decree 1899, a Marcos-era law that remains in force.
Reyes’ guidelines, however, make it clear that both permit- and contract-holders are bound by the “provisions of . . . the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, the Small-Scale Mining Laws and their implementing rules and regulations, among others.”
Zambales, though, does not seem to believe it needs to follow these laws. Since 2007, it has been one-month small-scale mining permits that allow a holder to haul off 50,000 tons of ores within that period from a 5-hectare area. The permits can be renewed twice, after which a miner only has to show proof of active extraction to secure a longer-term permit. And contrary to stipulations in the small-scale mining laws, these allow a holder to use heavy equipment to extract the ore from the ground.
But Governor Deloso, who is also a lawyer, sees no conflict with his province’s unique mining permits and national laws.
“Nobody can stop a governor from giving a special permit to in any line of business,” he said. “It is not prohibited, therefore it is permitted.”
Still, he does subtly acknowledge the prohibition against the use of heavy machinery in small-scale mining by calling the provision “backward” and “impractical.”
It consigns small-scale miners to “kamote mining,” he said, thundering, “How can you get 50,000 tons with your spade and wheelbarrow? It’s like telling me that since my father rides a horse-drawn carriage, I should not drive a car.”
Deloso pointed to Zambales’ past forays into mining as one reason why he decided to come up with the short-term permit for small-scale miners. He said that big miners, though operating for generations, did not contribute much to the capitol’s coffers, since they sent their taxes directly to the national government. The province even had to repair roads in mining areas that were run down by heavy trucks and machinery, he added.
Permit for P10K
This time around, Zambales issues its one-month mining permit to anyone who can cough up P10,000 as issuance-fee payment. Small-scale miners also have to pay the provincial government an “enhancement fee” of P50 per metric ton of nickel and P60 per metric ton of chromite. There is a P15,000 fee for a Provincial Environmental Clearance Certificate (PECC) as well.
Despite these fees, hundreds of entrepreneurs line up for the permits. One harried employee of the Environment and Natural Resources of Zambales (ENROZ) was reduced to spewing mixed metaphors, saying that the permits have been “selling like hotcakes” and that applicants show up at his office “like mushrooms after a thunderstorm.”
The employee added that before Deloso became governor two years ago, his office received just three mining inquiries a month. By mid-2006, it was handling as much as five new applicants a day, besides those following up on the processing of their permits, making his small office seem like a market on a payday weekend.
Quips Sangguniang Panlalawigan member Samuel Ablola, chair of the capitol’s environment and natural resources committee and who thought of the enhancement fee: “Halos lahat na may application. Baka iyong sementeryo na lang ang wala [Almost all land areas have pending mining applications. Maybe only the cemeteries are spared].”
Indications are that most of those permits are granted. In the past, Zambales was netting an annual average of only P3 million in regulatory and extraction fees from mining and quarrying activities. As late as 2006, the Environment and Natural Resources of Zambales was still reporting a total annual collection of P3.3 million from mining and quarrying. Yet, just a year later, that figure had shot up to P28.3 million—and that excluded monies collected as enhancement fees.
The provincial government does not get the bulk of the income from mining, taking only 30 percent of the revenue. Another 30 percent goes to the host town, while the remaining 40 percent is supposed to go to the barangay, where the mining site is.
But Deloso does not seem to mind. The capitol’s share will go to the provincial government’s general fund, he said, adding, “I can spend it for school buildings and repair of roads.”
The governor says Environment and Natural Resources of Zambales will manage the fund from the enhancement-fee payments, which helped the capitol’s yearly total mining income rise to almost P60 million in 2008. He has already designated Botolan, his hometown, as a beneficiary of the enhancement-fee fund, but is vague about specific projects.
Wild about mining
Botolan, just a few minutes away by car from the capitol, hosts nickel mining companies, among them NiHAO Mineral Resources International Inc., which is headed by former Environment Secretary Michael Defensor. The town was submerged recently in floodwaters that reached rooftops, after a dam broke at the height of Typhoon Kiko.
Yet despite the revenue windfall generated by the capitol’s one-month mining permits, some local officials are far from being pleased. In fact, Santa Cruz Mayor Luisito Marty fumes when the subject of the permits comes up in an interview.
“People go wild,” he said. “All of a sudden, there are these little mining companies in our midst.”
It’s bad enough that the capitol does not consult the concerned municipality before issuing the permits. According to Marty, mining firms now also bypass his office and go directly to barangay officials for permission to operate in their chosen area.
Since 2007, a smarting Marty has not issued a mining permit, save for one that went to the firm A3UNA Mining Corp., which is on the Environment department’s list of eight companies permitted to do large-scale mining in Zambales. But miners big and small have nevertheless invaded his town, waving papers from the capitol or from barangay officials.
Fights have broken out over overlapping claims, prompting several overzealous firms to hire security guards, some of whom are described by Deloso as “vicious.” Referring to the big mining companies, he added, “They all have private armies and camps.”
In January 2008, then Region III Director Anselmo Abungan of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources wrote to Deloso, asking him to refrain from issuing permits already covered by prior mining permits.
Abungan also asked the capitol to secure an area clearance from the department before granting a permit. The request stemmed from a complaint by three major mining firms against A3UNA for alleged illegal mining and quarrying. A3UNA turned out to be holding a permit granted by the capitol to small miners.
But Deloso says the problem could have been avoided had the big mining companies approached him before they began operating. “They were boasting that they were protected by the national government, [and] that’s why there was trouble.”
It’s a statement that may not go unchallenged. Even ordinary folk have been grumbling over the capitol’s one-month mining permits, which are issued so frequently and speedily that the provincial government has been hard-pressed in keeping up-to-date records.
With a combined staff of just 20 people, the Environment and Natural Resources of Zambales and the Provincial Mining Regulatory Board have also found it difficult to double check an applicant’s claim of having satisfied the requirements and if a permit-holder is following mining rules and regulations.
Theoretically, the board provides the check and balance to the capitol’s power to issue mining permits and contracts. It is also through this body that the Environment department keeps tabs on small-scale mining in the area. Yet especially after current Region III Director Danilo Uykieng of the department assigned an underling to attend meetings, the crucial decision-making has been left to the rest of the board members—who are all Deloso appointees.
Rubber-stamp board?
A Provincial Mining and Regulatory Board member who declines to be named for fear of antagonizing the capitol confirms that all one-month permits go through the board. But the member says that there is a tendency to gloss over the failure of small miners to submit complete requirements.
The member said that instead, the board has tried to focus on ensuring that mining claims do not overlap. Yet the board performs dismally even in that, says the member, because any effort to validate a claim is thwarted by a swift move for a vote.
This has made the board function like a rubber stamp. When the motion is carried, documents granting the permit are readied for Deloso’s approval. According to the board member, the governor signs the papers without knowing how the debates went.
Another board insider said this had exasperated Uykieng, who was said to be even more upset when the board approved small-scale mining permits for areas where there were already large-scale operations. Uykieng, who is supposed to head the board, reportedly said, “What am I here for, if you don’t respect the large-scale permits?”
The insider said Uykieng, who was appointed as the department’s Region III director in May 2008, sat in only two board meetings before he began sending an underling to take his place.
Board secretariat head Wilson Biag admitted some small-scale mining permits encroach into large-scale mining areas. But he said the small-scale miners were there first.
He also defended the 30-day small-scale mining permits by noting that the industry’s big players already control 90 percent of Zambales’ mineral-rich areas. Small-scale miners begin their trade at a disadvantage, Biag argued, so they need all the help they could get.
The boost from the capitol includes allowing those armed only with exploration permits to extract up to 20 metric tons of minerals even in areas that are already legally spoken for. Biag said, “We want to give them [small-scale miners] time to check if there are minerals, before they invest more money into the project.”
The irony is that the month-long permits have become the alternate source of ores for big firms that want to speed up mineral collection.
Biag said the capitol is aware of the practice. “We are trying to resolve this because the permits are non-transferable. They come to some sort of an agreement that the small-scale miner is just the claimant, and the big mining firms are the operator.”
For a fixed fee, a small-scale mining permit holder may also totally surrender its site to a major mining company.
No legal basis
Biag said the capitol was drawing up new guidelines to make Zambales’ small-scale mining practices dovetail with the national government’s policies. But to Leo Jasareno, chief of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau’s Mining Tenements Management Division, the issue is simple: “These permits are not part of the mining laws. Anything that is not in the mining law has no legal basis. That’s common sense.”
He said that the Environment department has been working on an order that would guide governors and local government units (LGUs) in implementing the Small-Scale Mining Act. Jasareno added that efforts to draft the guidelines had been hampered by a controversy over the department’s January 5, 2009 order for all extractions to be covered by a Mineral Ore Export Permit (MOEP) before being shipped out.
The permit is an Environment department initiative to curb ore smuggling. Jasareno said that compliance with the permit order has been almost 100 percent. The sole exception is Deloso, who even asked the Court of Appeals in January to have the order rescinded, arguing that it was “an administrative issuance which is not sanctioned by R.A. 7942.”
Jasareno said that once the mining guide for local governments is finalized, it would address the issues in Zambales. But legal experts like environment and human rights lawyer Antonio La Vina said that all the Environment department has to do is to “assert its power.”
“All of the environmental powers of the LGUs are also under the control and review of the DENR,” said La Vina, who is dean of the Ateneo de Manila University’s School of Government. He added that the department could put a stop to what is happening in Zambales “by issuing a cease-and-desist order.”
“That’s the proper remedy,” he said.
La Vina also echoes other legal experts in saying that while the Local Government Code gives provincial and municipal officials latitude in developing their own rules, these should never contradict national laws.
To Governor Deloso, however, the issue is more about justice than the law. “I do not understand,” he said, “why the big firms will get all the benefits from mining, and Zambales gets nothing.”
He added that his policies are easing poverty in Zambales. After all, Deloso said, very few residents from mining towns like Santa Cruz now line up in front of his office to ask for money.
Zambales Firms mining forests, watersheds – locals
By Jaileen F. Jimeno, Philippine Center For Investigative Journalism
Editor’s note: The first part reported how mining have wreaked ecological havoc in Zamabales, but local officials argued that those operations have generated much-needed jobs.
Conclusion
SANTA CRUZ, Zambales: For nearly two years now, Leonardo Lustria Jr., manager of the Santa Cruz water district, has been at his wit’s end trying to find ways to protect the town’s watershed, which feeds the town’s two irrigation systems and provides residents with potable water.
“They’re mining the watershed,” he said.
“We have a waterfall up there,” Lustria added. “We have more Mindoro pines there than in Mindoro, and pitcher plants that that are among the biggest in the country.”
Some 20 kilometers from the town proper, the Santa Cruz watershed was also reforested more than a decade ago through an P18.1-million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) project, which called for the planting of mahogany, acacia, agoho, eucalyptus, and other types of trees, was carried out from 1994 to 1999.
In total, the national government borrowed P27.5 million from the ADB to reforest five areas in Zambales. The biggest reforestation site—1,000 hectares, or 67 percent of the total—was at the Santa Cruz watershed. Today all five reforested areas are being mined. Randolph Mirador, who headed the people’s organization that planted trees in Santa Cruz under the ADB program, can only say with a sigh that it is truly heartbreaking.
In her 2008 State of the Nation Address, President Gloria Arroyo dedicated a few lines to mining, asking business and civil society to “continue to work for a socially equitable, economically viable balance of interests.”
“Mining companies,” she said then, “should ensure that host communities benefit substantively from their investments, and with no environmental damage from operations.”
President Arroyo also outlined her plan to set aside P2 billion for reforestation in 2009, saying the forests mitigate the effects of the increasing frequency and intensity of typhoons brought on by climate change.
Mining plus flooding
In Zambales, officials and ordinary folk alike are still debating the financial benefits of mining. But there seems to be little question among most of them that the surge in this province’s version of “small-scale mining” in the last two years has brought with it fast-rising floods during heavy rains, and even a decline in the output of several farms.
This has threatened Santa Cruz’s reputation as the province’s rice granary. In Barangay Guisguis, a group of women surveying a nearby river and a swathe of ricefields after an afternoon downpour take in a eerie scene that only fortifies the fear they now feel whenever the rains come—blood-colored water rushing down from upstream, breaching riverbanks in some places, the murky water inundating ricefields.
“When there was no mining, the river was deep enough to take in the rainwater,” said one of the women. “Now the river overflows and the water goes directly to our ricefields.”
Recently, Santa Cruz was among those hardest hit by Typhoon Kiko, which saw a state of calamity being declared in the whole of Zambales. Early last year, Guisguis was also among the areas on which Typhoon Cosme had the worst impact. Residents had to wade through waist-high floodwaters in darkness at the height of the typhoon, with several families seeking refuge at a local daycare center.
Guisguis residents conceded that they have had floods before. But they said that these days, the waters rise too quickly. One resident said, “The soil was parched, and Cosme brought just a little rain, which can only mean that the mountain is now absorbing less.”
In fact, besides scraping the forest cover and operating in the watershed, some miners here have also bulldozed their way through plots covered by the Environment department’s Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM).
Kamote mining
Under this program, people living in the community are given a portion of the forest to plant trees, from which they are supposed to earn some livelihood. According to Mayor Luisito Marty of Santa Cruz, portions of the Community-Based Forest Management area covering some 5,000 hectares in barangay or villages Guisguis and Ginabon have been overrun by those who present themselves as small-scale miners.
“There’s kamote mining there,” he said. “We’ve lost control because Governor [Amor] Deloso keeps on issuing permits.”
Community activist Mirador, who ventured into the Community-Based Forest Management scheme as well, also said that at least three mining firms were now intruding into the area that he and other people used to tend.
Of all villages down the main mining site in Santa Cruz, Guisguis has the most to lose. It has some 400 hectares of productive ricelands, and is a huge player in palay or unhusked rice trading in Olongapo City and Pangasinan, with which it shares a border. It is estimated that Guisguis alone produces an average of 32,000 sacks of palay each harvest time. Planting can be as frequent as thrice a year in most areas.
The community improved because of agriculture, said Guisguis Barangay Captain Juvenar Mose. “Wala kaming ibang inasahan kundi pagtatanim. Walang yumaman dito dahil sa mina [We rely on nothing else but farming. No one here got rich because of mining].”
Lomboy Barangay Captain Randy Merced probably shares the same sentiments. When the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) caught up with him, the rambunctious 41-year-old was busy worrying over the possibility that should all those holding mining permits—individual and corporate alike—operate simultaneously, his barangay’s ricefields would not fare well, since their dam lies close to a major creek upland.
Big firm the culprit
As it was, he was still upset over the siltation of his barangay’s irrigation system. The culprit, he said, was one of the big mining firms.
On paper, there was no mining operation in Lomboy. But like all other communities on the slopes of Santa Cruz’s nickel—and chromite-laden mountain range, it is a receptacle of all that may flow from mining areas. Lomboy has 110 hectares of irrigated farmland. Twenty hectares, however, rely on rainwater.
Merced said that for days, he and a dozen volunteers had manually dug up a small reservoir to serve as catch basin for the water requirement of the unirrigated 20 hectares. They later found their efforts erased.
“Kinalkal ng isang kompanya ang kabundukan at doon sa hinukay namin itinambak ang bato at lupa. Gagawa yata sila ng daan [One company dug up a portion of the mountain and dumped dirt and rocks in our reservoir. I think they might construct a road],” said Merced.
It’s bad enough that whenever it rains, nickel-laden soil from the mountains flow into Santa Cruz’s rivers and creeks and into irrigation canals, he said. The result: “Namula ang palay namin, ayaw magbunga [Our crops turned red and did not bear grains].”
Even officials of the local chapter of a Rotary Club said they would rather that the capitol focus on preserving the natural beauty of the town, instead of issuing one mining permit after another. After all, Santa Cruz has four islands off its coast, including the so-called Miss Universe Island that had been a shoot destination for contestants of an international beauty pageant in the 1970s. Santa Cruz also has a 300-hectare marine sanctuary where giant clams are being raised.
The view, however, is often marred by the site of tons of nickel stockpiled at pier, as well as the coast’s blood-red water, courtesy of the mined mountain range.
No safety engineering
The staining of bodies of water is the first sign that mining upstream is being carried out without the required safety engineering, explained Leo Jasareno, chief of the Mining Tenements Management Division of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).
Indeed, he said, monitoring reports from Zambales showed no environmental protection measures like catchment basin, siltation ponds, and cover cropping. Without these, Jasareno added, silt would settle in irrigation canals, making these shallower.
The official indicated that these could be traced largely to the questionable one-month mining permits that the capitol has been issuing since 2007. For one, he said, a big firm that pours considerable capital into its business is more likely to protect the environment to ensure continued tenure in area. And allowing quickie mining operations only means the government may not be able to hold anyone accountable should there be any damage to the environment.
“The technology is there,” Jasareno said. “But since it’s expensive, if you are a fly-by-night miner, you will not spend for it. Bodies of water will turn orange, and this is the first sign of environmental impacts of mining.”
He added that any watershed project funded by the Environment department, including the one in Santa Cruz, is off limits to mining, and any activity in those areas should first have clearance from the national agency—if at all. “If there’s no DENR clearance, it means somebody violated the law and it should be looked into.”
Asked about the reforested area in the Santa Cruz watershed, Governor Deloso would only say that inspecting it is the job of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
“I don’t want them to say that I’m meddling too much.” he added. “What I know is that not a lot of trees grew there.”
Deloso has said that he has set aside P5 million from the province’s mining revenues for reforestation.
Can’t beat mining?
“I will not go for any bargaining laban sa [against] environment,” the governor said. “Bayan ko iyan, probinsiya ko iyan. Definitely ayokong masira. Gusto ko ba iyong dumausdos at mawalan kami ng palayan [It’s my country, my province. Definitely don’t want it destroyed. Would I want landslides and the destruction of our rice fields?]”
But added, “To go against mining, is actually counter-productive. Para tayong si Adan at si Eba [We’re like Adam and Eve]. We have to face the challenge, but make it intelligent.”
For his part, Sangguniang Panla-lawigan member Samuel Ablola, who heads the provincial board’s environment committee, said he was unaware of the watershed project in Santa Cruz, noting that he was elected only in 2001. Like the governor, he said that whatever happens to it was the Environment department’s responsibility, since it is a national government project.
But it seems mining in a watershed is not an issue to Ablola, especially when it’s on a mountain rich with mineral ores. He said, “Hindi tutubuan ng puno ang bundok. Tanggalin mo muna ang minerals at kapag puro lupa at putik na iyan, mabubuhay ang mga kahoy [Trees won’t grow on the mountain. Strip it of its minerals first, and once it’s all soil and mud, then the trees will flourish].”
That may not be a view shared by many local officials in Santa Cruz, especially when they have to deal with angry constituents wading in floodwaters or wailing about failed crops. It has not helped that mining permit-holders have not done much to endear themselves to residents here.
For instance, the day after Typhoon Cosme slammed through Zambales, the first order of priority of mining firms was to make sure the road to the pier, which crosses the main road and the town square, was immediately cleared of debris, even as residents dealt with the damage the typhoon caused.
Truck-choked roads
During typhoon-free days, trucks filled with nickel block local roads. “Once there is a medical emergency, we may not be able to reach the hospital in time because the roads are choked with those trucks,” said one resident. He also pointed to the possible health hazards posed by nickel-laden dust, noting that many of his townmates are already complaining of respiratory problems.
But standing up to mining firms could also be hazardous to one’s health. Lomboy Barangay Captain Randy Merced found this out after making known his opposition to mining public one too many times. He lets on that he was once “kidnapped” for his opposition to mining, but he refuses to elaborate. Some residents in his barangay whisper that Merced was mauled before he was released.
A high-ranking provincial official explained, “Si Kap Merced kasi hinaharang ang trak ng dalawang kompanya na ang nasa likod ay isang malaking pamilya sa probinsiya [Barangay Captain Merced was blocking trucks of two companies owned by a prominent family in the province].”
Not all opposed
To be fair, not everyone in Santa Cruz is against mining.
Guisguis Barangay Captain Mose admits that some of his constituents welcome it, especially those who have no land to till. After all, mining does provide employment to unskilled workers.
Mose himself has a confusing stand on mining. While he bats for a moratorium on permits to allow a study on the impact of mining, his office had asked mining firms for various forms of aid to his barangay, like providing scholarships to students.
One elderly resident here has been more steadfast in her belief that Santa Cruz is better off without mining, so much so that she voted for Deloso in the 2007 polls because, she recalled, he had promised to put a stop to mining in this town.
The resident, who requested anonymity, said Deloso did as he promised—at least for a month after the elections. When it became apparent that the new governor was reneging on his campaign pledge, the resident sought him out to remind him about it.
“Nagalit [He got mad],” said the woman, recalling the governor’s reaction. “Sabi niya ako na lang daw kaya ang mag-gobernador [He said maybe I should be the governor].”
Editor’s note: The first part reported how mining have wreaked ecological havoc in Zamabales, but local officials argued that those operations have generated much-needed jobs.
Conclusion
SANTA CRUZ, Zambales: For nearly two years now, Leonardo Lustria Jr., manager of the Santa Cruz water district, has been at his wit’s end trying to find ways to protect the town’s watershed, which feeds the town’s two irrigation systems and provides residents with potable water.
“They’re mining the watershed,” he said.
“We have a waterfall up there,” Lustria added. “We have more Mindoro pines there than in Mindoro, and pitcher plants that that are among the biggest in the country.”
Some 20 kilometers from the town proper, the Santa Cruz watershed was also reforested more than a decade ago through an P18.1-million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) project, which called for the planting of mahogany, acacia, agoho, eucalyptus, and other types of trees, was carried out from 1994 to 1999.
In total, the national government borrowed P27.5 million from the ADB to reforest five areas in Zambales. The biggest reforestation site—1,000 hectares, or 67 percent of the total—was at the Santa Cruz watershed. Today all five reforested areas are being mined. Randolph Mirador, who headed the people’s organization that planted trees in Santa Cruz under the ADB program, can only say with a sigh that it is truly heartbreaking.
In her 2008 State of the Nation Address, President Gloria Arroyo dedicated a few lines to mining, asking business and civil society to “continue to work for a socially equitable, economically viable balance of interests.”
“Mining companies,” she said then, “should ensure that host communities benefit substantively from their investments, and with no environmental damage from operations.”
President Arroyo also outlined her plan to set aside P2 billion for reforestation in 2009, saying the forests mitigate the effects of the increasing frequency and intensity of typhoons brought on by climate change.
Mining plus flooding
In Zambales, officials and ordinary folk alike are still debating the financial benefits of mining. But there seems to be little question among most of them that the surge in this province’s version of “small-scale mining” in the last two years has brought with it fast-rising floods during heavy rains, and even a decline in the output of several farms.
This has threatened Santa Cruz’s reputation as the province’s rice granary. In Barangay Guisguis, a group of women surveying a nearby river and a swathe of ricefields after an afternoon downpour take in a eerie scene that only fortifies the fear they now feel whenever the rains come—blood-colored water rushing down from upstream, breaching riverbanks in some places, the murky water inundating ricefields.
“When there was no mining, the river was deep enough to take in the rainwater,” said one of the women. “Now the river overflows and the water goes directly to our ricefields.”
Recently, Santa Cruz was among those hardest hit by Typhoon Kiko, which saw a state of calamity being declared in the whole of Zambales. Early last year, Guisguis was also among the areas on which Typhoon Cosme had the worst impact. Residents had to wade through waist-high floodwaters in darkness at the height of the typhoon, with several families seeking refuge at a local daycare center.
Guisguis residents conceded that they have had floods before. But they said that these days, the waters rise too quickly. One resident said, “The soil was parched, and Cosme brought just a little rain, which can only mean that the mountain is now absorbing less.”
In fact, besides scraping the forest cover and operating in the watershed, some miners here have also bulldozed their way through plots covered by the Environment department’s Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM).
Kamote mining
Under this program, people living in the community are given a portion of the forest to plant trees, from which they are supposed to earn some livelihood. According to Mayor Luisito Marty of Santa Cruz, portions of the Community-Based Forest Management area covering some 5,000 hectares in barangay or villages Guisguis and Ginabon have been overrun by those who present themselves as small-scale miners.
“There’s kamote mining there,” he said. “We’ve lost control because Governor [Amor] Deloso keeps on issuing permits.”
Community activist Mirador, who ventured into the Community-Based Forest Management scheme as well, also said that at least three mining firms were now intruding into the area that he and other people used to tend.
Of all villages down the main mining site in Santa Cruz, Guisguis has the most to lose. It has some 400 hectares of productive ricelands, and is a huge player in palay or unhusked rice trading in Olongapo City and Pangasinan, with which it shares a border. It is estimated that Guisguis alone produces an average of 32,000 sacks of palay each harvest time. Planting can be as frequent as thrice a year in most areas.
The community improved because of agriculture, said Guisguis Barangay Captain Juvenar Mose. “Wala kaming ibang inasahan kundi pagtatanim. Walang yumaman dito dahil sa mina [We rely on nothing else but farming. No one here got rich because of mining].”
Lomboy Barangay Captain Randy Merced probably shares the same sentiments. When the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) caught up with him, the rambunctious 41-year-old was busy worrying over the possibility that should all those holding mining permits—individual and corporate alike—operate simultaneously, his barangay’s ricefields would not fare well, since their dam lies close to a major creek upland.
Big firm the culprit
As it was, he was still upset over the siltation of his barangay’s irrigation system. The culprit, he said, was one of the big mining firms.
On paper, there was no mining operation in Lomboy. But like all other communities on the slopes of Santa Cruz’s nickel—and chromite-laden mountain range, it is a receptacle of all that may flow from mining areas. Lomboy has 110 hectares of irrigated farmland. Twenty hectares, however, rely on rainwater.
Merced said that for days, he and a dozen volunteers had manually dug up a small reservoir to serve as catch basin for the water requirement of the unirrigated 20 hectares. They later found their efforts erased.
“Kinalkal ng isang kompanya ang kabundukan at doon sa hinukay namin itinambak ang bato at lupa. Gagawa yata sila ng daan [One company dug up a portion of the mountain and dumped dirt and rocks in our reservoir. I think they might construct a road],” said Merced.
It’s bad enough that whenever it rains, nickel-laden soil from the mountains flow into Santa Cruz’s rivers and creeks and into irrigation canals, he said. The result: “Namula ang palay namin, ayaw magbunga [Our crops turned red and did not bear grains].”
Even officials of the local chapter of a Rotary Club said they would rather that the capitol focus on preserving the natural beauty of the town, instead of issuing one mining permit after another. After all, Santa Cruz has four islands off its coast, including the so-called Miss Universe Island that had been a shoot destination for contestants of an international beauty pageant in the 1970s. Santa Cruz also has a 300-hectare marine sanctuary where giant clams are being raised.
The view, however, is often marred by the site of tons of nickel stockpiled at pier, as well as the coast’s blood-red water, courtesy of the mined mountain range.
No safety engineering
The staining of bodies of water is the first sign that mining upstream is being carried out without the required safety engineering, explained Leo Jasareno, chief of the Mining Tenements Management Division of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).
Indeed, he said, monitoring reports from Zambales showed no environmental protection measures like catchment basin, siltation ponds, and cover cropping. Without these, Jasareno added, silt would settle in irrigation canals, making these shallower.
The official indicated that these could be traced largely to the questionable one-month mining permits that the capitol has been issuing since 2007. For one, he said, a big firm that pours considerable capital into its business is more likely to protect the environment to ensure continued tenure in area. And allowing quickie mining operations only means the government may not be able to hold anyone accountable should there be any damage to the environment.
“The technology is there,” Jasareno said. “But since it’s expensive, if you are a fly-by-night miner, you will not spend for it. Bodies of water will turn orange, and this is the first sign of environmental impacts of mining.”
He added that any watershed project funded by the Environment department, including the one in Santa Cruz, is off limits to mining, and any activity in those areas should first have clearance from the national agency—if at all. “If there’s no DENR clearance, it means somebody violated the law and it should be looked into.”
Asked about the reforested area in the Santa Cruz watershed, Governor Deloso would only say that inspecting it is the job of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
“I don’t want them to say that I’m meddling too much.” he added. “What I know is that not a lot of trees grew there.”
Deloso has said that he has set aside P5 million from the province’s mining revenues for reforestation.
Can’t beat mining?
“I will not go for any bargaining laban sa [against] environment,” the governor said. “Bayan ko iyan, probinsiya ko iyan. Definitely ayokong masira. Gusto ko ba iyong dumausdos at mawalan kami ng palayan [It’s my country, my province. Definitely don’t want it destroyed. Would I want landslides and the destruction of our rice fields?]”
But added, “To go against mining, is actually counter-productive. Para tayong si Adan at si Eba [We’re like Adam and Eve]. We have to face the challenge, but make it intelligent.”
For his part, Sangguniang Panla-lawigan member Samuel Ablola, who heads the provincial board’s environment committee, said he was unaware of the watershed project in Santa Cruz, noting that he was elected only in 2001. Like the governor, he said that whatever happens to it was the Environment department’s responsibility, since it is a national government project.
But it seems mining in a watershed is not an issue to Ablola, especially when it’s on a mountain rich with mineral ores. He said, “Hindi tutubuan ng puno ang bundok. Tanggalin mo muna ang minerals at kapag puro lupa at putik na iyan, mabubuhay ang mga kahoy [Trees won’t grow on the mountain. Strip it of its minerals first, and once it’s all soil and mud, then the trees will flourish].”
That may not be a view shared by many local officials in Santa Cruz, especially when they have to deal with angry constituents wading in floodwaters or wailing about failed crops. It has not helped that mining permit-holders have not done much to endear themselves to residents here.
For instance, the day after Typhoon Cosme slammed through Zambales, the first order of priority of mining firms was to make sure the road to the pier, which crosses the main road and the town square, was immediately cleared of debris, even as residents dealt with the damage the typhoon caused.
Truck-choked roads
During typhoon-free days, trucks filled with nickel block local roads. “Once there is a medical emergency, we may not be able to reach the hospital in time because the roads are choked with those trucks,” said one resident. He also pointed to the possible health hazards posed by nickel-laden dust, noting that many of his townmates are already complaining of respiratory problems.
But standing up to mining firms could also be hazardous to one’s health. Lomboy Barangay Captain Randy Merced found this out after making known his opposition to mining public one too many times. He lets on that he was once “kidnapped” for his opposition to mining, but he refuses to elaborate. Some residents in his barangay whisper that Merced was mauled before he was released.
A high-ranking provincial official explained, “Si Kap Merced kasi hinaharang ang trak ng dalawang kompanya na ang nasa likod ay isang malaking pamilya sa probinsiya [Barangay Captain Merced was blocking trucks of two companies owned by a prominent family in the province].”
Not all opposed
To be fair, not everyone in Santa Cruz is against mining.
Guisguis Barangay Captain Mose admits that some of his constituents welcome it, especially those who have no land to till. After all, mining does provide employment to unskilled workers.
Mose himself has a confusing stand on mining. While he bats for a moratorium on permits to allow a study on the impact of mining, his office had asked mining firms for various forms of aid to his barangay, like providing scholarships to students.
One elderly resident here has been more steadfast in her belief that Santa Cruz is better off without mining, so much so that she voted for Deloso in the 2007 polls because, she recalled, he had promised to put a stop to mining in this town.
The resident, who requested anonymity, said Deloso did as he promised—at least for a month after the elections. When it became apparent that the new governor was reneging on his campaign pledge, the resident sought him out to remind him about it.
“Nagalit [He got mad],” said the woman, recalling the governor’s reaction. “Sabi niya ako na lang daw kaya ang mag-gobernador [He said maybe I should be the governor].”
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Abandon ship
A number of us were invited to board the super aircraft carrier USS George Washington last Thursday, which docked at the Manila Bay for a four-day goodwill visit. The carrier had to be docked far since it is seven storeys deep, and from the Mall of Asia it took us 40 minutes to reach it via water ferry. The last time I boarded an aircraft carrier was in the early ’80s in Subic with the USS Kitty Hawk, which was eventually deployed at the Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan. In December 2005, the US Navy announced its replacement as the forward-deployed carrier in Japan with the USS George Washington taking its place in 2008. The Kitty Hawk was informally retired in January 2009 and finally decommissioned last May.The USS George Washington - or GW to the US Navy, is a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier symbolic of America’s superpower status. It was “christened” by former First Lady Barbara Bush in 1990, two years before it was commissioned. On that day, then-president George H.W. Bush said, “Let the George Washington proclaim America’s commitment to remain free forever,” making its proud crew associate GW with the “spirit of freedom.”
An aircraft carrier like George Washington costs about $5 to 6 billion, and it’s a pipe dream for any country to own one. It is a massive ship, as high as a 24-storey building and can accommodate about 80 aircraft. Its flight deck measures 18,000 square meters and it has four, 360 square-meter giant elevators to move the planes between the flight deck and the hangar bay.
Of the more than 5,000 crew, 300 are Filipino-Americans who are just happy to be back in their native land. Since the visiting American sailors have been reminded to “behave” properly and told to avoid visiting places where they could get in “trouble,” they could easily pass the time on board the ship considering that it has its own TV station, gyms, a barber shop and even a karaoke, since everyone seems to have been “infected” with that favorite Filipino activity.
Interestingly, just before its deployment to Japan in May 2008, the George Washington suffered from a serious fire caused by a crew member who was smoking near flammable materials. Oftentimes, when a ship gets into trouble and looks like it’s about to sink, procedures are started to abandon ship, and by tradition, the captain is usually the last to leave. And though the GW’s captain did not abandon ship, he and his executive officer were nevertheless fired for “failure to meet mission requirements and readiness standards,” with the damage amounting to $70 million.
In another incident in 1991, the world was shocked to hear that the captain of the cruise ship Oceanos abandoned 200 panicking passengers which included women and children. The captain, Yiannis Avranas, later claimed he left the ship to arrange for rescue efforts, arrogantly saying that “When I give the order ‘abandon ship,’ it doesn’t matter what time I leave. Abandon is for everybody. If some people want to stay, they can stay.”
In the Philippines, it looks like the call to “abandon ship” — meaning abandon the administration and its captain in Malacañang — has already started. Ralph Recto is the first to abandon ship, already shopping around for a party that would give him a better than even chance to win as senator in 2010. After all, the last time he ran under the administration in 2007 resulted in a disappointing loss for him. He will most likely join Manny Villar’s Nacionalista Party since they are good friends and they both belong to the Wednesday Club.
The events over the past couple of weeks, in particular the overwhelming show of sympathy for the late president Cory Aquino, was interpreted by political analysts as having the corollary effect of showing the people’s disappointment with GMA. This is turn has convinced some politicians closely identified with Malacañang that the time has come to abandon ship.
But then again, party hopping and shopping has been happening for decades, the most prominent of which was when an old-time LP stalwart like Ferdinand Marcos abandoned the Liberal Party when it became clear that then-president Diosdado Macapagal was not going to keep his word to make Marcos the LP standard bearer for the 1965 elections.
There were a few politicians however who remained steadfast with their parties, like Eulogio “Amang” Rodriguez (who was called “Mr. Nacionalista” and whose dictum was “Politics is addition, not subtraction”) together with former Speaker Danieling Romualdez. Both of them remained loyal to the Nacionalista Party through thick and thin.
Filipinos have gotten used to the rigodon accompanying the politics of convenience in this country, which became more pronounced after the Constitution allowed the multiparty system. Behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing are common. If one can recall, some members of the “Hyatt 10” secretly met with Vice President Noli de Castro in Hong Kong, anticipating that GMA would be forced to step down from power in 2005. But they underestimated the survival instincts of GMA, who soon turned the tables against them.
In the next couple of months, you can see a lot of these changes coming into play especially when each party announces its list of senatoriables - with the “unlisted” ones hopping and shopping for another party that would accommodate them. The main preference of course is a well-funded organization with a winnable presidential candidate.
As the tight surveys continue, with former president Joseph Estrada currently at the top, you can be sure that the political season will get hotter with politicians abandoning one ship for another, with the first round climaxing on November 30th, the last day of filing for certificates of candidacy.
By Babe Romualdez - Philippine Star
Friday, August 14, 2009
Gordon: Pay for debates to end premature campaign
SENATOR Richard J. Gordon (Ind.) yesterday reiterated his proposal calling on the government to sponsor televised debates fore presidential hopefuls to prevent politicians’ form prematurely spending for political ads.
Gordon said that many politicians who are planning to run for national posts in the May 2010 Elections are already gearing up through political ads disguised as infomercials.
“We have politicians spending P300 to 400 million for TV ads alone that are already clogging the airtimes though the campaign period has yet to start. We also have appointed officials suddenly coming out with infomercials,” he said.
The senator noted that the Omnibus Election Code (OEC) prescribes a 90-day campaign period before Election Day for national candidates. However, months before the filing of certificates of candidacy, political ads have already filled the tri-media.
Although the OEC defines “candidate” as a person seeking an elective public office who has filed a certificate of candidacy; Gordon said it would be an insult for the people to make them believe that infomercials of politicians are not part of their campaign strategy.
“These people are insulting our citizens. Do they really expect us to believe that their expenditures which amount to hundreds of millions just for TV is not campaigning?” he said.
--Tonight
Gordon said that many politicians who are planning to run for national posts in the May 2010 Elections are already gearing up through political ads disguised as infomercials.
“We have politicians spending P300 to 400 million for TV ads alone that are already clogging the airtimes though the campaign period has yet to start. We also have appointed officials suddenly coming out with infomercials,” he said.
The senator noted that the Omnibus Election Code (OEC) prescribes a 90-day campaign period before Election Day for national candidates. However, months before the filing of certificates of candidacy, political ads have already filled the tri-media.
Although the OEC defines “candidate” as a person seeking an elective public office who has filed a certificate of candidacy; Gordon said it would be an insult for the people to make them believe that infomercials of politicians are not part of their campaign strategy.
“These people are insulting our citizens. Do they really expect us to believe that their expenditures which amount to hundreds of millions just for TV is not campaigning?” he said.
--Tonight
Monday, August 03, 2009
One Bad Apple Spoils The Bunch
By John Dela Rosa - Guam News Factor
GUAM - In our ongoing effort to bring our readers the most timely and updated information and to expand the dialogue in which we as a community participate, Guam News Factor requested to be added to each local senator's media distribution list in order to receive media releases and advisories.
Less than two hours later, we received an email response personally from Senator Matt Rector stating:
"This office only includes what we consider legitimate media organizations in our media releases. If you want more information on our media policy or the activities of our office feel free to go to our website www.MattRector.com."
Senator Rector's email also was cc'd to every other senator as well as sentorial staff members.
With respect to Mr. Rector's reference to "legitimate media organizations," and given his public refusal to grant interviews to the Pacific Daily News -- one of Guam's most established and respected news organizations -- we can only assume that "legitimate", as defined by Rector, means any organization that promotes or at the very least does not oppose his public policy positions.
While it comes as no surprise to the Guam News Factor team that Senator Rector would refuse to provide us with information that he clearly intends to make public via press releases and advisories, it is still unacceptable.
As an elected official, Senator Rector has a responsibility to answer to his constituency for his actions, bills, statements and positions. He was elected islandwide to promote the interest of all, including those who did not vote for him, or do not support his policies or actions, as well as the media who challenge his position on the issues.
Just as his position as senator is constitutionally founded, created by Guam's Organic Act, so to is freedom of the press an established right founded in the Constitution. His blatant dismissal of anyone's inquiries and his censorship of the media flies in the face of his responsibilities as an elected public servant and shows a dangerous disregard for the office he holds and the democracy that allows him to hold that office.
Mr. Rector must clearly separate his interests as the president of the union from his responsibilities as an elected official. And if he is unwilling to do so, the leadership of the Legislature has an obligation to require it. His actions as a member of that body have the potential to reflect poorly on the integrity of the whole if the legislative leadership allow it to continue.
As for the Guam News Factor, we will continue to bring new perspectives to the issues that matter to our community, even if some try to censor that dialogue.
Senator Rector, shutting out some from the information that should be given to all only raises suspicions about what you have to hide. The people of Guam deserve the full story, and Guam News Factor is committed to helping bring that story to them.
Jac Perry contributed to this opinion/editorial.
GUAM - In our ongoing effort to bring our readers the most timely and updated information and to expand the dialogue in which we as a community participate, Guam News Factor requested to be added to each local senator's media distribution list in order to receive media releases and advisories.
Less than two hours later, we received an email response personally from Senator Matt Rector stating:
"This office only includes what we consider legitimate media organizations in our media releases. If you want more information on our media policy or the activities of our office feel free to go to our website www.MattRector.com."
Senator Rector's email also was cc'd to every other senator as well as sentorial staff members.
With respect to Mr. Rector's reference to "legitimate media organizations," and given his public refusal to grant interviews to the Pacific Daily News -- one of Guam's most established and respected news organizations -- we can only assume that "legitimate", as defined by Rector, means any organization that promotes or at the very least does not oppose his public policy positions.
While it comes as no surprise to the Guam News Factor team that Senator Rector would refuse to provide us with information that he clearly intends to make public via press releases and advisories, it is still unacceptable.
As an elected official, Senator Rector has a responsibility to answer to his constituency for his actions, bills, statements and positions. He was elected islandwide to promote the interest of all, including those who did not vote for him, or do not support his policies or actions, as well as the media who challenge his position on the issues.
Just as his position as senator is constitutionally founded, created by Guam's Organic Act, so to is freedom of the press an established right founded in the Constitution. His blatant dismissal of anyone's inquiries and his censorship of the media flies in the face of his responsibilities as an elected public servant and shows a dangerous disregard for the office he holds and the democracy that allows him to hold that office.
Mr. Rector must clearly separate his interests as the president of the union from his responsibilities as an elected official. And if he is unwilling to do so, the leadership of the Legislature has an obligation to require it. His actions as a member of that body have the potential to reflect poorly on the integrity of the whole if the legislative leadership allow it to continue.
As for the Guam News Factor, we will continue to bring new perspectives to the issues that matter to our community, even if some try to censor that dialogue.
Senator Rector, shutting out some from the information that should be given to all only raises suspicions about what you have to hide. The people of Guam deserve the full story, and Guam News Factor is committed to helping bring that story to them.
Jac Perry contributed to this opinion/editorial.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Making a joke of the polls
Emil Jurado - To the point - Manila Standard Today
In the past, there were perennial nuisance candidates, among them the late Racuyal who was best known for filing his candidacy for president every time there was an election. Come to think of it, we at the 365 Club at the Hotel Intercon also had the late Lucio de Gala, who would challenge every presidential candidate.
For the forthcoming 2010 polls, we also have coming out of the woodwork candidates who believe they could be president. They are the ones who almost always get 1-to-2-percent ratings in Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia surveys. Yet they continue to make noise about their aspirations. Are they running for the funds of it?
Now comes the biggest joke of all—the candidacy of Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio, a priest on leave, who invokes the name of God in his discernment to run for the highest seat in the land. Some gall, indeed, for somebody whose election as governor of Pampanga is now being questioned, who believes that good intentions and idealism are enough to govern well, and who thinks he is the only honest official in Pampanga.
Not to be outdone, my good friend Nandy Pacheco of Ang Kapatiran is fielding an unknown Olongapo councilor, whose name escapes me, to be presidential candidate. This makes the 2010 presidential polls a circus. Send in the clowns, as the song goes!
Panlilio should face reality and refrain from making a joke out of himself. But then, in our kind of democracy, everybody—retired priests included—is free to make a fool of himself.
= = = =
Political party tells CBCP: Don’t ignore ‘JC’
By Christian V. Esguerra - Philippine Daily Inquirer
If Nandy Pacheco is scratching his head these days, it’s not because he needs a shampoo.
It’s rather that, much to his chagrin, it hasn’t apparently washed over the Catholic Church hierarchy that the political party he had organized based on Christian precepts has become real with a true-blue presidential candidate.
The founder of Ang Kapatiran party Sunday was incensed upon reading on the website of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) that the prelates saw “no qualified ‘presidentiables’ so far.”
“The bishops know that we have a candidate, so I don’t know why this came out,” Pacheco said. “How can they say that when our party was founded precisely on the social teachings of the Church?”
In its latest pastoral statement released this month, the CBCP said “our present situation poses a great and urgent challenge for active lay participation in principled partisan politics.”
“Many even believe that politics as practiced in our country is a structure of evil. It is alarming that crippling apathy and cynicism has crept in even among our young,” the bishops said.
Pacheco, an advocate of nonviolence who also founded the “Gunless Society,” maintains that Kapatiran has been responding to such a call since 2004 when the party was established.
JC is the name
In May, the party announced that it would field a presidential candidate in the 2010 elections—John Carlos “JC” delos Reyes, a low-key councilor and a member of the Gordon clan in Olongapo City.
Delos Reyes was the lone winner from among Kapatiran candidates in the 2007 elections.
Pacheco also rued that the party has yet to be invited to any of the forums gathering prospective presidential candidates.
“We’re the only party with an official presidential candidate so far yet we’ve not been invited to these forums,” he told the Inquirer.
Asked if organizers were probably not taking the party and its candidate seriously, he said: “That’s how it appears.”
“This is our passion and our crucifixion,” Pacheco said. “What we’re doing is difficult because we are swimming against the current. But it’s faith that keeps us going.”
He said he was “hurt” with the CBCP story, but clarified that he was not blaming the bishops. He said some of the prelates had been accommodating the party’s request for visits in their dioceses.
‘Man of pure heart’
Pacheco described Kapatiran’s candidate as “a man of pure heart fighting big-money politics.”
“With JC at the wheel, I can sleep because I know where we are going,” he said.
On Sunday, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) called on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to stop the forums and debates for the presidential aspirants, saying they were “premature and inappropriate.”
“Right now, we still don’t have a single presidential candidate. What we have now are individuals supposedly aspiring or planning to be presidential candidates. So it is not correct to be staging so-called ‘presidential’ forums this early,” TUCP secretary-general Ernesto Herrera said in a statement.
According to Herrera, an individual’s “self-proclamation” that he or she is interested in running for president does not make him or her a legitimate presidential candidate.
‘This is silly’
“Right now, just about anyone dreaming to run for president can join the so-called ‘presidential’ forums. This is silly,” Herrera said.
The TUCP, a registered party-list group, did not say if it would file a formal petition in the Comelec to ban such forums.
“What is happening now is that a number of individuals are merely using the untimely forums as platforms to project themselves as possible presidential candidates, and collect political contributions, or to promote their secondary political plans to run for vice president or senator,” Herrera said.
He suggested that sponsors call their forums anything they like, except describing them as “presidential.”
Real presidential forums or debates may only be held after the Nov. 30 deadline for the filing of certificates of candidacy set by the Comelec, the former senator added.
Might that be a reason why Kapatiran’s official candidate has not been invited to these talk shows? Or why the bishops have not taken notice of JC? With a report from Jerome Aning
In the past, there were perennial nuisance candidates, among them the late Racuyal who was best known for filing his candidacy for president every time there was an election. Come to think of it, we at the 365 Club at the Hotel Intercon also had the late Lucio de Gala, who would challenge every presidential candidate.
For the forthcoming 2010 polls, we also have coming out of the woodwork candidates who believe they could be president. They are the ones who almost always get 1-to-2-percent ratings in Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia surveys. Yet they continue to make noise about their aspirations. Are they running for the funds of it?
Now comes the biggest joke of all—the candidacy of Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio, a priest on leave, who invokes the name of God in his discernment to run for the highest seat in the land. Some gall, indeed, for somebody whose election as governor of Pampanga is now being questioned, who believes that good intentions and idealism are enough to govern well, and who thinks he is the only honest official in Pampanga.
Not to be outdone, my good friend Nandy Pacheco of Ang Kapatiran is fielding an unknown Olongapo councilor, whose name escapes me, to be presidential candidate. This makes the 2010 presidential polls a circus. Send in the clowns, as the song goes!
Panlilio should face reality and refrain from making a joke out of himself. But then, in our kind of democracy, everybody—retired priests included—is free to make a fool of himself.
= = = =
Political party tells CBCP: Don’t ignore ‘JC’
By Christian V. Esguerra - Philippine Daily Inquirer
If Nandy Pacheco is scratching his head these days, it’s not because he needs a shampoo.
It’s rather that, much to his chagrin, it hasn’t apparently washed over the Catholic Church hierarchy that the political party he had organized based on Christian precepts has become real with a true-blue presidential candidate.
The founder of Ang Kapatiran party Sunday was incensed upon reading on the website of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) that the prelates saw “no qualified ‘presidentiables’ so far.”
“The bishops know that we have a candidate, so I don’t know why this came out,” Pacheco said. “How can they say that when our party was founded precisely on the social teachings of the Church?”
In its latest pastoral statement released this month, the CBCP said “our present situation poses a great and urgent challenge for active lay participation in principled partisan politics.”
“Many even believe that politics as practiced in our country is a structure of evil. It is alarming that crippling apathy and cynicism has crept in even among our young,” the bishops said.
Pacheco, an advocate of nonviolence who also founded the “Gunless Society,” maintains that Kapatiran has been responding to such a call since 2004 when the party was established.
JC is the name
In May, the party announced that it would field a presidential candidate in the 2010 elections—John Carlos “JC” delos Reyes, a low-key councilor and a member of the Gordon clan in Olongapo City.
Delos Reyes was the lone winner from among Kapatiran candidates in the 2007 elections.
Pacheco also rued that the party has yet to be invited to any of the forums gathering prospective presidential candidates.
“We’re the only party with an official presidential candidate so far yet we’ve not been invited to these forums,” he told the Inquirer.
Asked if organizers were probably not taking the party and its candidate seriously, he said: “That’s how it appears.”
“This is our passion and our crucifixion,” Pacheco said. “What we’re doing is difficult because we are swimming against the current. But it’s faith that keeps us going.”
He said he was “hurt” with the CBCP story, but clarified that he was not blaming the bishops. He said some of the prelates had been accommodating the party’s request for visits in their dioceses.
‘Man of pure heart’
Pacheco described Kapatiran’s candidate as “a man of pure heart fighting big-money politics.”
“With JC at the wheel, I can sleep because I know where we are going,” he said.
On Sunday, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) called on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to stop the forums and debates for the presidential aspirants, saying they were “premature and inappropriate.”
“Right now, we still don’t have a single presidential candidate. What we have now are individuals supposedly aspiring or planning to be presidential candidates. So it is not correct to be staging so-called ‘presidential’ forums this early,” TUCP secretary-general Ernesto Herrera said in a statement.
According to Herrera, an individual’s “self-proclamation” that he or she is interested in running for president does not make him or her a legitimate presidential candidate.
‘This is silly’
“Right now, just about anyone dreaming to run for president can join the so-called ‘presidential’ forums. This is silly,” Herrera said.
The TUCP, a registered party-list group, did not say if it would file a formal petition in the Comelec to ban such forums.
“What is happening now is that a number of individuals are merely using the untimely forums as platforms to project themselves as possible presidential candidates, and collect political contributions, or to promote their secondary political plans to run for vice president or senator,” Herrera said.
He suggested that sponsors call their forums anything they like, except describing them as “presidential.”
Real presidential forums or debates may only be held after the Nov. 30 deadline for the filing of certificates of candidacy set by the Comelec, the former senator added.
Might that be a reason why Kapatiran’s official candidate has not been invited to these talk shows? Or why the bishops have not taken notice of JC? With a report from Jerome Aning
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Architect nixes bail vs SBMA libel case
By Allison Lopez - Philippine Daily Inquirer
Renowned architect Felino "Jun" Palafox Jr. has vowed not to post P10,000 bail for a libel suit filed by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) over a tree-cutting controversy.
Palafox, who is waiting to be served his warrant of arrest by an Olongapo court, said in a text message received by the Philippine Daily that he donated the bail money to the Divine Word missionary group.
"After due discernment and consultation with my family, spiritual advisers, religious, business, academic, environmental, civic groups, I have decided not to post bail as a show of protest for the injustice, unfairness, persecution, discrimination and harassment against me in the libel case filed by SBMA officials in Olongapo," said the Makati-basedurban planner.
Palafox, however, declined to give interviews to media upon the advice of his lawyer.
In late 2008, Palafox exposed the planned razing of an urban forest at the Subic Bay Freeport to pave way for a Korean-owned hotel-casino.
Bidding for consultancy in the proposed Ocean 9 Casino-Hotel project, Palafox had said his company got out of the project because more than 300 trees, some of them "centuries old," in the project site would be cut.
He also claimed that an SBMA executive asked his [Palafox's] firm for an 18-percent commission in exchange for the official getting them on the short list of bidders for a previous project updating the free port's master development plan.
SBMA administrator Armand Arreza, meanwhile, said no centuries-old trees were cut and demanded that Palafox prove his allegations of extortion.
Renowned architect Felino "Jun" Palafox Jr. has vowed not to post P10,000 bail for a libel suit filed by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) over a tree-cutting controversy.
Palafox, who is waiting to be served his warrant of arrest by an Olongapo court, said in a text message received by the Philippine Daily that he donated the bail money to the Divine Word missionary group.
"After due discernment and consultation with my family, spiritual advisers, religious, business, academic, environmental, civic groups, I have decided not to post bail as a show of protest for the injustice, unfairness, persecution, discrimination and harassment against me in the libel case filed by SBMA officials in Olongapo," said the Makati-basedurban planner.
Palafox, however, declined to give interviews to media upon the advice of his lawyer.
In late 2008, Palafox exposed the planned razing of an urban forest at the Subic Bay Freeport to pave way for a Korean-owned hotel-casino.
Bidding for consultancy in the proposed Ocean 9 Casino-Hotel project, Palafox had said his company got out of the project because more than 300 trees, some of them "centuries old," in the project site would be cut.
He also claimed that an SBMA executive asked his [Palafox's] firm for an 18-percent commission in exchange for the official getting them on the short list of bidders for a previous project updating the free port's master development plan.
SBMA administrator Armand Arreza, meanwhile, said no centuries-old trees were cut and demanded that Palafox prove his allegations of extortion.
Friday, July 17, 2009
hanjin issue
Editorial: What’s going on?
from Business Mirror
REPORTS that a little-known South Korean firm had managed to lease thousands of hectares of land in Mindoro Oriental, in a deal known only to some local officials but not to the departments of agriculture or environment, is certainly cause for alarm.
While it’s state policy to encourage foreign investors to set up business in the country and thus provide jobs, especially in a time of crisis, the benefits from such large-scale contract farming with nebulous terms remain unclear. In fact, if the worst fears of farming communities come true, such a deal could even impact on the food security of local inhabitants.
Even more alarming is that several similar arrangements are reportedly being forged in many parts of the country, and in many cases those in government who should know about them are either in the dark, or not serious about their regulatory duties.
We are not surprised, meanwhile, that in several recent controversial cases involving the exploitation of natural resources, South Korean firms are involved. The “Korean invasion” is for real, make no mistake about it, and while Filipinos are good neighbors and hosts, it’s time to look into the seemingly unstoppable muscling in of some Korean interests into various sectors and areas. For instance, the new “gold rush” area in a part of the Compostela Valley—site of the famous Diwalwal gold rush—counts scores of Korean prospectors among the hundreds flocking to the place, mostly unregulated.
The argument may be made that it’s good that foreigners are making a stake here and investing their money for business. Yet it behooves government agencies concerned in every case to make sure the benefits from allowing foreign business to operate here far outweigh the negatives—that is, that “dirty money” from organized crime isn’t laundered in Philippine-based operations; that the ventures are fair to the host communities and will not degrade the environment; that the foreign employers create a substantial number of jobs and follow local labor laws strictly (think Hanjin and its slew of cases in Subic); and fundamentally, that these ventures don’t infringe on the Philippine Constitution.
REPORTS that a little-known South Korean firm had managed to lease thousands of hectares of land in Mindoro Oriental, in a deal known only to some local officials but not to the departments of agriculture or environment, is certainly cause for alarm.
While it’s state policy to encourage foreign investors to set up business in the country and thus provide jobs, especially in a time of crisis, the benefits from such large-scale contract farming with nebulous terms remain unclear. In fact, if the worst fears of farming communities come true, such a deal could even impact on the food security of local inhabitants.
Even more alarming is that several similar arrangements are reportedly being forged in many parts of the country, and in many cases those in government who should know about them are either in the dark, or not serious about their regulatory duties.
We are not surprised, meanwhile, that in several recent controversial cases involving the exploitation of natural resources, South Korean firms are involved. The “Korean invasion” is for real, make no mistake about it, and while Filipinos are good neighbors and hosts, it’s time to look into the seemingly unstoppable muscling in of some Korean interests into various sectors and areas. For instance, the new “gold rush” area in a part of the Compostela Valley—site of the famous Diwalwal gold rush—counts scores of Korean prospectors among the hundreds flocking to the place, mostly unregulated.
The argument may be made that it’s good that foreigners are making a stake here and investing their money for business. Yet it behooves government agencies concerned in every case to make sure the benefits from allowing foreign business to operate here far outweigh the negatives—that is, that “dirty money” from organized crime isn’t laundered in Philippine-based operations; that the ventures are fair to the host communities and will not degrade the environment; that the foreign employers create a substantial number of jobs and follow local labor laws strictly (think Hanjin and its slew of cases in Subic); and fundamentally, that these ventures don’t infringe on the Philippine Constitution.
What’s Dick been smoking?
By Jojo Robles - low down - manila standard today
‘‘Senator Gordon wants to pardon the Abu Sayyaf,” the post on the online message board reads. “Maybe he should get kidnapped in Basilan first before he makes such a [expletives deleted] offer again.”
The post reminds one of a wag’s definition of a conservative as a liberal who’s been mugged. Indeed, Senator Richard Gordon’s immodest proposal could only have come from someone so far removed from the ground that he can actually consider granting amnesty to the members of a lawless criminal syndicate even before they can be made to answer for their heinous crimes.
Even if the suggestion had come from one of those professional bleeding-heart, human-rights activist groups, it would have to be dismissed outright. And it is to the everlasting credit of these groups, in fact, that virtually none of them has even dared to propose something as outrageous as Gordon’s cockamamie amnesty plan.
But this is Gordon, the former tough guy of Olongapo who once ruled a city that grew up around Southeast Asia’s biggest US naval base with an iron hand. And wasn’t the senator’s father, the former Mayor James T. Gordon, himself gunned down at Olongapo’s city hall more than 40 years ago, something that should have convinced the son that punishment should follow crime?
There is nothing in Gordon’s previous public record that would have prepared us for his amnesty plan, except possibly for the fact that he wants to become president next year and may need some votes from Basilan and Sulu. Or maybe that picture of him holding an Aeta child in the aftermath of the Pinatubo eruption and his relatively recent conversion as head of the Philippine Red Cross has pushed him over the liberal edge, where criminals are victims and poverty is the root and justification of all crime.
But why would Gordon want to pardon the Abu Sayyaf, which has made a mockery of government’s efforts to stamp out the barbaric business of kidnapping for ransom and which has embarrassed this country throughout the world? Here’s what Gordon said: “Time has its way of mellowing the minds of people… and the likes of [Abu Sayyaf leader] Radullan Sahiron are becoming mellow in their activities and they’re the ones who could agree to entering into some peaceful program so that they will lay down their arms.”
According to Gordon, the older bandits can convince the younger ones who have inherited their gruesome livelihood to lay down their arms and stop preying on anyone who they think can give them ransom money. He added that the bandit elders would consider amnesty, “especially if there is socio-economic assistance for them.”
What has Gordon been smoking that has made him as mellow as the Abu Sayyaf gangsters that he now proposes to pardon? And isn’t the offer of “laying down their arms” (which sounds like the Abu Sayyaf is some sort of freedom-fighting movement) in exchange for amnesty and economic assistance just another form of ransom payment to these brutal criminals?
* * *
If Gordon is really serious about pardoning the Abu Sayyaf, perhaps he should talk to all those people who were victimized by the kidnap-for-ransom gangs first. And they aren’t just the foreign tourists or aid workers like Eugenio Vagni, who also proposed (right before he left the Philippines, naturally) that we should forgive the bandits.
For every Stockholm Syndrome-sick Vagni, after all, there are dozens of small local traders, professionals and even children who have been abducted for ransom by the gang in the Basilan-Sulu area—many of them abused, tortured, raped and beheaded for some cash. Gordon should ask these people if they are willing to pardon the likes of Abu Sabaya and Al-bader Parad before opening his mouth again on the matter.
Then there’s the military and the police in those two provinces, whose members have been pursuing the Abu Sayyaf for years and losing their lives and those of their comrades because Sahiron and his ilk provide protection to the violent henchmen of this criminal syndicate. How will the military and the police respond to a blanket amnesty offer to the Abu Sayyaf?
While he’s at it, Gordon can even consult the Muslim secessionists in Mindanao and see if they would accept a plan to pardon a group that has been giving the Islamic separatist movement such a bad rep. Gordon will discover that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front will have nothing to do with the kidnappers in Basilan and Sulu—and would be deeply offended if the bandits were offered amnesty while legitimate Moro rebels can’t even make any headway in their peace talks with the government.
No, amnesty isn’t the solution to the problem of the Abu Sayyaf, unless Gordon wants to incite and inflame an entire country that wants to see them brought to justice for their many crimes. If pardoning criminals stopped crime, then the Abu Sayyaf is a real terrorist organization dreaming of a separate Islamic fundamentalist state.
Because the Gordon proposal, at heart, is the logical conclusion of the belief that the Abu Sayyaf does what it does for some purpose other than to make money. Regardless of its origins as a network of terrorists funded by Al-Qaida, the Abu Sayyaf is now merely a criminal organization that funds itself by abducting anyone who looks like he or she could raise some money to pay for their “board and lodging.”
Bring the bandits to justice first. Help the impoverished communities that harbor them and who benefit from their ransom payments, so that the Abu Sayyaf will become anathema to its network of family and friends.
But don’t give them blanket pardon just because they’ve “mellowed” and now want lots of aid so they won’t kidnap people anymore. That’s just plain [expletive deleted] stupid, Dick.
‘‘Senator Gordon wants to pardon the Abu Sayyaf,” the post on the online message board reads. “Maybe he should get kidnapped in Basilan first before he makes such a [expletives deleted] offer again.”
The post reminds one of a wag’s definition of a conservative as a liberal who’s been mugged. Indeed, Senator Richard Gordon’s immodest proposal could only have come from someone so far removed from the ground that he can actually consider granting amnesty to the members of a lawless criminal syndicate even before they can be made to answer for their heinous crimes.
Even if the suggestion had come from one of those professional bleeding-heart, human-rights activist groups, it would have to be dismissed outright. And it is to the everlasting credit of these groups, in fact, that virtually none of them has even dared to propose something as outrageous as Gordon’s cockamamie amnesty plan.
But this is Gordon, the former tough guy of Olongapo who once ruled a city that grew up around Southeast Asia’s biggest US naval base with an iron hand. And wasn’t the senator’s father, the former Mayor James T. Gordon, himself gunned down at Olongapo’s city hall more than 40 years ago, something that should have convinced the son that punishment should follow crime?
There is nothing in Gordon’s previous public record that would have prepared us for his amnesty plan, except possibly for the fact that he wants to become president next year and may need some votes from Basilan and Sulu. Or maybe that picture of him holding an Aeta child in the aftermath of the Pinatubo eruption and his relatively recent conversion as head of the Philippine Red Cross has pushed him over the liberal edge, where criminals are victims and poverty is the root and justification of all crime.
But why would Gordon want to pardon the Abu Sayyaf, which has made a mockery of government’s efforts to stamp out the barbaric business of kidnapping for ransom and which has embarrassed this country throughout the world? Here’s what Gordon said: “Time has its way of mellowing the minds of people… and the likes of [Abu Sayyaf leader] Radullan Sahiron are becoming mellow in their activities and they’re the ones who could agree to entering into some peaceful program so that they will lay down their arms.”
According to Gordon, the older bandits can convince the younger ones who have inherited their gruesome livelihood to lay down their arms and stop preying on anyone who they think can give them ransom money. He added that the bandit elders would consider amnesty, “especially if there is socio-economic assistance for them.”
What has Gordon been smoking that has made him as mellow as the Abu Sayyaf gangsters that he now proposes to pardon? And isn’t the offer of “laying down their arms” (which sounds like the Abu Sayyaf is some sort of freedom-fighting movement) in exchange for amnesty and economic assistance just another form of ransom payment to these brutal criminals?
* * *
If Gordon is really serious about pardoning the Abu Sayyaf, perhaps he should talk to all those people who were victimized by the kidnap-for-ransom gangs first. And they aren’t just the foreign tourists or aid workers like Eugenio Vagni, who also proposed (right before he left the Philippines, naturally) that we should forgive the bandits.
For every Stockholm Syndrome-sick Vagni, after all, there are dozens of small local traders, professionals and even children who have been abducted for ransom by the gang in the Basilan-Sulu area—many of them abused, tortured, raped and beheaded for some cash. Gordon should ask these people if they are willing to pardon the likes of Abu Sabaya and Al-bader Parad before opening his mouth again on the matter.
Then there’s the military and the police in those two provinces, whose members have been pursuing the Abu Sayyaf for years and losing their lives and those of their comrades because Sahiron and his ilk provide protection to the violent henchmen of this criminal syndicate. How will the military and the police respond to a blanket amnesty offer to the Abu Sayyaf?
While he’s at it, Gordon can even consult the Muslim secessionists in Mindanao and see if they would accept a plan to pardon a group that has been giving the Islamic separatist movement such a bad rep. Gordon will discover that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front will have nothing to do with the kidnappers in Basilan and Sulu—and would be deeply offended if the bandits were offered amnesty while legitimate Moro rebels can’t even make any headway in their peace talks with the government.
No, amnesty isn’t the solution to the problem of the Abu Sayyaf, unless Gordon wants to incite and inflame an entire country that wants to see them brought to justice for their many crimes. If pardoning criminals stopped crime, then the Abu Sayyaf is a real terrorist organization dreaming of a separate Islamic fundamentalist state.
Because the Gordon proposal, at heart, is the logical conclusion of the belief that the Abu Sayyaf does what it does for some purpose other than to make money. Regardless of its origins as a network of terrorists funded by Al-Qaida, the Abu Sayyaf is now merely a criminal organization that funds itself by abducting anyone who looks like he or she could raise some money to pay for their “board and lodging.”
Bring the bandits to justice first. Help the impoverished communities that harbor them and who benefit from their ransom payments, so that the Abu Sayyaf will become anathema to its network of family and friends.
But don’t give them blanket pardon just because they’ve “mellowed” and now want lots of aid so they won’t kidnap people anymore. That’s just plain [expletive deleted] stupid, Dick.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Filipino women abroad outnumber men
Filipino women abroad outnumber men
More and more female OFWs from the provinces
Only Bataan, Pampanga and Zambales had more male land-based overseas workers than females.
Editor's Note: The following is an article prepared by the Institute for Migration and Development Issues in the Philippines.
On the national aggregate, females who worked and settled overseas have outnumbered males.
The same gender trend is true when looking at the provinces of origin of overseas Filipinos, as local development in the countryside has an overseas Filipina's face.
Philippine Overseas Employment administration data on overseas workers from 2004 to 2007 shows that 33 provinces have more female land- and sea-based migrant workers than male counterparts, compared to 18 provinces that had more male migrant workers than females, says a policy brief by a nonprofit organization.
These include all the provinces belonging to the Ilocos region and in the Cordillera Administrative Region, writes a policy brief on overseas Filipinos by gender in the provinces released by the Institute for Migration and Development Issues (IMDI).
Some 21 other provinces, meanwhile, had years that there were more female migrant workers than males and vice versa-with no clear trend which gender has more migrant workers over the four-year period, says the policy brief (which can be downloaded at http://depositfiles.com/files/sscex7wj5).
An overwhelming 76 of 78 provinces with data had more female than male emigrants and permanent residents, reveals a 27-year dataset on this group of migrants coming from the Commission on Filipinos Overseas.
Only Aklan and Tawi-Tawi had more male than female permanent residents and emigrants, reveals IMDI's policy brief (written by Dawn Naisa Majaducon).
The provinces that had more female than male overseas workers and permanent residents come from provinces with high and low poverty incidence levels.
Government data segregates overseas Filipinos as land- and sea-based (the latter is included because the Philippines is the world's leading supplier of merchant marine fleet).
But looking at total land-based workers per province alone by gender, 73 of 76 provinces with data show that females outnumber male land-based workers.
Only Bataan, Pampanga and Zambales had more male land-based overseas workers than females.
IMDI wrote that women overseas Filipinos have contributed “a lot of resources quietly yet visibly, and have helped improve their birth provinces' quality of life.”
On the other hand, the institute said these contributions by overseas Filipinas are “not without a cost” since females are vulnerable to human rights abuses”.
IMDI's policy brief on overseas Filipinos in the provinces by gender can be downloaded in this link: http://depositfiles.com/files/sscex7wj5
RP now the least competitive in Asia-Pac
RP now the least competitive in Asia-Pac --survey
The Philippines has become the least competitive country in the Pacific region, lagging behind its neighbors in economic performance, government efficiency, and infrastructure, the 2009 World Competitiveness Ranking showed.
The Philippines’ ranking slid by three notches from 40 in 2008 to 43 in 2003 out of the 57 economies included in the World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) and lagged behind its neighbors in the Asia Pacific region.
“The Philippines is in the bottom among the 13 countries in Asia-Pacific region,” said Felipe Alfonso, interim president of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), during the presentation of the results at the State of Philippine Competitiveness National Conference in Pasay City on Monday.
Asia Pacific countries that performed better than the Philippines included: Hong Kong (2nd), Singapore (3rd), Australia (7th), Qatar (14th), Japan (17th), Malaysia (18th), China (20th), and Taiwan (23rd). Thailand landed on the 26th spot while Indonesia ended one notch higher than the Philippines at the 42nd spot.
“We have not been able to get out of the bottom third,” Alfonso added.
The rankings, however, did not include some Asian countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Brunei and Papua New Guinea but included Kazakhstan and Qatar for the first time.
Leading the rankings were the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore. Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Australia, Canada, Finland and Netherlands. Occupying the bottom spots are Venezuela, Ukraine, Argentina, Romania, Croatia, Greece, Colombia, Italy, Russia, South Africa and Turkey.
“The results are largely based on data from early 2008. The effects of the global economic crisis came at different times so the rankings may not adequately reflect the impact of the crisis last year,” Alfonso said.
The 2009 World Competitiveness Scoreboard of the Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development (IIMD) ranks 57 economies from the most to the least competitive using four criteria: economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure. The four categories are further broken down into different sub-factors.
AIM serves as the local partner of IIMD.
Four criteria
The criterion economic performance includes macroeconomic evaluation of the domestic economy while government efficiency measures the conduciveness of government policies to competitiveness.
Meanwhile, business efficiency tackles whether the national environment encourages enterprise to perform and infrastructure analyzes whether basic resources meet the needs of the business.
The Philippines ranked 51st in economic performance, 42nd in government efficiency, 32nd in business efficiency and 56th in infrastructure.
"Our relative weaknesses are in international investment (56th), public finance (54th), business legislation (50th), productivity and efficiency (53rd), education (54th) basic infrastructure (57th) and scientific infrastructure (56th)," Alfonso said.
Alfonso said that economic performance went down by nine notches because of decline in exports in the fourth quarter of 2008, slump in direct investments and the impact of high prices of oil and food last year.
“The Philippines is hit especially being the world’s largest rice importer,” he added.
Government efficiency, he added, declined because of continuous difficulty in doing business while the infrastructure ranking went down because of high dependency ratio, lack of energy infrastructure and issues affecting future energy supply.
“The Philippines has the worst distribution infrastructure in Asia,” Joseph Lim, a professor of economics at the Ateneo de Manila University said, adding that together with India and Indonesia, the country has the worst water transport system.
Lim said more taxes should be spent for infrastructure development and more projects should be placed in poorer communities and provinces. He added that there is also a need to address wastage in infrastructure due to corruption, kickbacks and inefficiencies.
High pupil-teacher ratio
The study also showed that the Philippines had the highest pupil-teacher ratio in secondary education among 57 countries, and the second-highest pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools. It also showed that the country, along with Indonesia, had the worst secondary enrolment rate among Asian countries.
“More quality schools in primary, secondary and tertiary level will have to be built in poorer, more backward and congested areas,” said Ma. Lourdes Sereno, executive director of the AIM Policy Center.
“Increased incomes, higher employment and lower poverty incidence are crucial to prevent dropouts from elementary and secondary enrolment and to encourage entry into tertiary schools,” she added.
Alfonso, for his part, said that improving the quality of education in the country could reduce the incidence of job-skills mismatch, which also contributes to unemployment and underemployment.
Investments
Reacting to the results of the competitiveness survey, Meneleo Carlos Jr., chairman of the Federation of Philippine Industries, said the government should exert more effort to address the country's lack of competitiveness, particularly in critical areas like infrastructure and business efficiency because these are responsible for the flow of investments into the economy.
"Competitiveness is vital to investments and economic growth," he noted.
Department of Trade and Industry Undersecretary and Board of Investments Managing Head Elmer Hernandez, on the other hand, assured that the public sector is doing its best to increase the competitiveness as well as attractiveness of the Philippines to foreign investors.
On infrastructure, for instance, Hernandez said the government has a number of projects lined up under its Comprehensive and Integrated Infrastructure Program, which is expected to contribute greatly to economic growth.
While citing this, he raised doubts over results of the IIMD survey, saying those interviewed could have been "unaware" or "very skeptical" of the government's economic plans.
"The economy is afloat and doing good. There have been a lot of improvements in different sectors," he told reporters.
Philippine Economic Zone Authority Director-General Lilia De Lima, who also attended the State of Philippine Competitiveness National Conference at the SMX Convention Center, echoed Hernandez's view. "They interviewed respondents in only one city out of 135 cities in the Philippines. That is not representative of the country."
"They should have gone to the PEZA, BOI, Subic and Clark areas where a lot of investments and developments are happening," she added, noting that investments in PEZA alone have improved in the previous months.
De Lima also said that the country's labor force, among others, remains competitive as evidenced by the fact that more companies are moving their operations here.
"From the feedback we are getting from multinationals here, Filipinos have high productivity. Our workers have a competitive edge."
De Lima clarified, however, that she was not really contesting the survey results.
"These are just some comments. Surveys are good. They vary most of the time, but we still want to know." By Jesus F. Llanto With Judith Balea, abs-cbnNEWS.com
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