THE UGLY FACE OF POLITICS (OR AN OPEN LETTER TO RONA CANOY)

My dear Rona,

Our animated discussion last night at VIP Hotel in between your Board Meeting and our Toastmaster’s Educational Session has egged me to write you this open letter. It’s amusing to hear you explain how running into public office came into mind after Butch Canoy was referred to by this paper as the son of Reuben Canoy.

But I was deeply disturbed by how you see things happening in our local politics. The ideals of good governance and the idealism that you have nurtured deep inside still appears ardently aflame. Yes, you want to push for a higher level of politics.

The stark realities appear to point in a different direction. But as you said, if you present yourself and show them true leadership, then losing or winning in the electoral race becomes an irrelevant issue. Of utmost importance is that you have shown everyone a better option.

Winning a seat in the City Hall or in the Halls of Congress, however, is done by the old crop of politicians at all costs. In doing so, the electoral process becomes so sullenly soiled by dirty tricks and in the end, we are left with undesirable leaders.

In Bobby Balinado’s perception, “politicians at present are looked upon with so much disdain.”

Here are my observations on how the political game is played. First, you need money. Oodles and oodles of money. Sacks of small currencies like 20’s and 50’s for the mo­ñedors. Watchers. Purok Leaders. Campaign staff. Transport. Campaign materials. Radio and TV ads. Mobilization expenses for nightly sorties. And finally, more money for those who want their votes to be bought like a cheap commodity.

You would also need an organizational structure, which is referred to as the “machinery.” It is designed to reach the last voter in the community. In fact, it would best serve you if you organize in small patches, showing them your platform of government and the direction to where you will lead our city.

However, some of the politicians have organized the vast masses, especially those in poverty stricken areas, through brainwashing sessions and cultist rituals. The leader then would be presented as a benevolent patron who would redeem them from their sorry state. That way, those unlettered would start revering their cult leader as a demigod. To complete the “machinery”, there is a need for a candidate to align himself or herself with National Group for added resources.

To spice up the campaign, there will be a need to hire entertainers if only to easily mobilize the crowd.

In the end, our election has become a carnival and no longer a decent exercise of choosing an intelligent and sincere person like you into office.

Most of our politicians regard politics as a business endeavor. They measure the amount they need to spend to buy votes, to finance the teachers and to bribe the COMELEC in order to bag their desired position. But beforehand, they have already measured the amount of taxes that the City Hall would be able to collect. They then put into their minds that the money they would be able to stash from our coffers from all the transactions and other dirty deals is a return of their “investments.”

It is of no wonder why Dongkoy declared that he will spend all the money to be collected by the City Hall before leaving his post. He will also leave us with billions of debts from Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP).

You may then ask, what about the issues on inefficiency, corruption and other illegal activities that have been done by those leaders who want to be re-elected? These are merely side issues and they do not really count. Our government has apparently no political will to punish our corrupt leaders except if they are on the other side of fence.

So where do we go now?

We still fight Rona. We present ourselves and maybe one day not far from today, our children will not blame us for complacency, decadence and apathy.

I hope these thoughts will somehow guide you in your new journey as you confront the ugly face of politics.

Sincerely yours,

Manning

CLEAN, SAFE … AND COAL?

No Siree! There can never be a CLEAN and SAFE coal-fired power plant anywhere in the world and our coal-fired power plant is no exception. The paid TV ads amounting to several million pesos in ABS-CBN of STEAG Coal-Fired Power Plant in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental is misleading. Not only that it is misleading, it is also deceitful and cleverly designed as a deodorizer.

The phrase “clean and safe coal-fired power plant” is contradictory in terms, a foul smelling oxymoron.

In the recent issue of Sierra, a magazine distributed to Sierra Club members, a worldwide group of environmentalists, it declared that, “Despite the industry’s hype, there’s no such thing as clean coal (power plant)”.

In the United States alone, though coal-fired power plants generate more than half of the electricity and about 22% of the energy produced, it contributes to the 36% of the over-all release of carbon dioxide, the main culprit in global warming. How could that ever be clean?

The article entitled “Can Coal Be Clean?” authored by Marilyn Berlin Snell in Sierra also stated that coal-fired power plant in the United States contributes to twenty-four thousand (24,000) premature deaths a year. How could that ever be safe?

The TV ads of STEAG also claims EFFICIENCY, but it did not show us how. It’s a despicably barren claim. If STEAG shows us that they are operating in an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC), then we might be convinced of its efficiency.

In such a system, “crushed coal is mixed with oxygen and water in high-pressure gasifier to make ‘syngas”, a combustible fuel that produces extremely low emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury, and particulates. In contrast to the pulverized-coal technologies, the IGCC method uses less water, generates less solid waste, and can concentrate carbon dioxide emissions, making carbon dioxide easier to capture and store”.

Apparently, the STEAG plant in Villanueva is not among the IGCC power plants. Moreover, I have not heard of any claims from STEAG officers that they are in the process of “carbon dioxide capture and storage”, a system where the plant would find ways “to corral the carbon dioxide emitted by the coal industry, transport it, and ‘sequester’ it deep in the ocean, underground coal seams, or saline reservoirs”.

This process would drastically reduce the carbon emissions but would necessarily raise the cost of coal power. Thus, this leads us to the challenge posed by Task Force Macajalar Spokeperson, Bencyrus Ellorin.

After a long conversation with Banker-Economist, Sixto Roxas, they came up with the big challenge to the owner-operator of Coal-Fired Power Plant to secure the lives and limbs of the residents of the nearby places, including the environment by securing an insurance policy from a reputable insurance company like the Lloyds of London.

With such procurement of insurance policy, the community will be assured that STEAG is really looking at their welfare. Besides, STEAG has been boasting that it is spending Thirty Million Pesos in community development projects if only to appease the community that it is really taking care of them and the environment. With a reputable insurance company assessing future risk, people’s health and the ecology and thereafter, paying the premium, the community will lay assure that they are in good hands. Yet, I doubt if STEAG will readily stand up to the challenge.

Nevertheless, it is about time for our government especially those who kowtow with STEAG to start studying the taxing system for coal-fired power plants. Coal burning for energy generation imposes severe health and environmental costs that are not factored into the cost of producing electricity.

Government may well subsidize for such social costs. This had already been done in Norway and Sweden. The European Union, including Germany, is actually debating about the taxing system involving fossil-fuels, among them, coal.

STEAG State Power Inc. President Andreas Rubin may be partly right when he said, “We may not be able to change the world with this project but at least we can make a difference in the lives of the people who live near us”. But the change will surely be for the worse and the change in the world would be for the worsening of global warming.

The glaring fact remains that a coal-fired power plant can never be clean, safe and could hardly be efficient. It will only happen, according to Sierra, “when pigs fly”. In tagalog, “Pagputi ng uwak!”

WHISPERING HOPE

Cheers of awe on fireworks displays seen on the boob tube all over the world and the deafening little dynamites of firecrackers in the neighborhood welcomed 2007. Almost a thousand people were injured during the merrymaking but no one died according to news reports. Despite the elaborate fireworks and the injuries sustained by many, the year-end celebrations seem to have become so trite, so ordinary and have turned into a mere respite for the grueling days to come.

Nonetheless, 2006 was a rather bleak year that so many of our countrymen continuously seek their luck abroad. In my own family, four out of seven siblings are now working in the U. S. and Canada with their families. Our Christmas had become virtually a “cyber” Christmas as we greeted each other either through telephone or the webcam. There no longer were warm embraces and kisses during “media noche”.

Yet, there appear more reasons to hope for this year than to wallow in helplessness. There are telltale signs of character changes forced by the issues and events that surround our people. Some groups are beginning to be emboldened in speaking for this country as they witnessed PGMA despicably breaching our sovereignty when she spirited out rape convict U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith from the Makati City Jail in the dead of the night without any court order.

The big storms are also over now. Typhoon Milenyo and Reming that snuffed the lives of many in Bicol Region have even strengthened many in facing natural calamities and we see them now rising from the rubbles.

We see the vast majority of people in destitution, financially struggling inch by inch into a more dignified living. The peso, getting stronger in value, may also be indicative of a rising economy.

The churches from different congregations and sects have been awakened, now taking the streets as their virtual pulpits to speak for truth and justice.

In our city, a new mayor will take his oath of office in July 2007. Our new mayor, whoever he may be, is expected to finish the two bridges in Puntod and in Carmen. Thus, we see an end to the endless traffic jams that we experienced during the Christmas season.

We will also have a new congressman who, I suppose, will be a lot better than the person who betrayed us and tried to desecrate our present Constitution. Tinnex will also end his governorship in Rotary District 3870 after he was adjudged by many to have flunked the well-established Four Way Test of Rotary International.

Incidentally, the Four Way Test was an ingenious tool in changing the characters of Americans during the Great Depression (1930s) other than the “Big Deal” of the late Pres. Theodore Roosevelt that led to its booming economy.

Should the opposition congressmen swell in numbers after the election, we will see the President being abdicated through impeachment. A new leadership may usher a new era of good governance.

But the darkness is not yet over. Political turmoil and the prospects of bloody, dirty and fraudulent elections still hover in the air. The tempest of the two-century old war in Muslim Mindanao and the guerilla warfare waged by the NPAs still bedevil our nation.

They say the darkest point of the night is immediately before the sunrise. In the dusk, there is a muffled voice of a whispering hope in our hearts that tells me our sorrows will be appeased and rejoicing will follow in the coming days.

In our little way, we need to take our own part in ensuring that a bright new day will come. We have to seriously assume the roles we have opted to take in life.

In the end, it is up to each of us. Let us not think too big a leap for this year. As the forwarded message of Atty. Oka Musni on New Year’s Eve goes:

“Sometimes, we put too much passion on the biggest dreams and priorities in life that we fail to love the smallest pleasure in simple things. We search so much for the right choices, for the right person (politician), for the right paths (P.I./Con-Ass/Con-Con) to walk through, for the right time, and for the right reasons. But life is not about searching for the things that can be found. It is about letting the unexpected happen and finding the things you never searched for.”

As we say goodbye to 2006, let the good things we experienced inspire us to a better 2007. I am wishing you a very prosperous, fruitful, successful, healthy, blessed, happy, fulfilling, satisfying, challenging New Year!

SUPER ULTRA MEGA NINCOMPOOP

Intently following the proceedings in the Lower House of Congress on the desire of the majority Congressmen to push the Charter Change can be a cause for the upsurge of one’s blood pressure.

The minions of rabbit-eared Yoda-looking De Venecia mangled its own house rules by amending its various provisions thereby making it convenient for them to pass the proposal for a Constituent Assembly. According to Cong. Roilo Golez, the House Rules adopted for the approval of the proposal on constitutional revision has become a lot easier than the process in naming a street.

The rules had been so relaxed despite the fact that this involves changing the provisions of the fundamental law of the land. Apparently, the changes in the rules of the proceedings have been so designed in railroading the passing of the Resolution.

The majority represented by Speaker Joe De Venecia, Nograles, Lagman, Villafuerte and now our very own Congressman, Tinnex Jaraula, were found to have played so many tricks if only to attain their desired end.

However, they stumbled along the way as according to Minority Floor Leader Chiz Escudero “haste really makes waste”. In order to gag the mouths of the Opposition, all of their legitimate objections were brushed off by the Acting Chairman not realizing that millions of T.V. viewers were observing them until the wee hours.

Early dawn of Wednesday, our very own representative Tinnex Jaraula was found to have started reading a different resolution not even known to the Congressmen themselves. He had evidently vacated his very own proposal that was approved to be resolved or turned down, in utter derogation of the house rules.

Like the People’s Initiative, this process to convene the Constitutional Assembly (Con-Ass) for Charter Change (Cha-Cha) has become a grand deception of the Filipino people. One really wonders why the majority Congressmen are adamantly pushing the Cha-Cha through Con-Ass when SWS Survey has already showed that the great majority or 67% of our people have already voiced out that at present, they do not want any revision or amendment to our Constitution.

The rumors that this is done for three reasons is unfolding as a reality, namely: (1) in order to prevent the clamor for the Impeachment of PGMA, especially if opposition congressmen will win in the 2007 elections; (2) the Con-Ass is also designed to let the “graduating” congressmen continue their office; and (3) Finally, it is further designed for the President to perpetuate her reign in power beyond 2010.

What is disheartening is that the manner in which this Con-Ass is being brazenly manipulated by the majority Congressmen appears too gross or uncouth or in the words of Cong. Allan Peter Cayetano “napakagarapal”.

What makes it so shameful for us Cagayanons is that our very own Representative, Tinnex Jaraula, has become the major player in these manipulative and deceitful acts. He has unwittingly shown his true colors.

Proper observation of the acts of the majority Congressmen would show that they have made themselves a ship of fools who without yielding to reason would only want to please their matron PGMA. Have they virtually made themselves as the nincompoops in the lawmaking body, named by the late Teodoro Benigno, as the Cavern of Caligula?

How about our Congressman, Tinnex Jaraula, who has not even passed a single law in his eight-year stint in Congress? Has he now made himself as the Super Ultra Mega Nincompoop of them all in the desecration of our Constitution? Nong Tinnex, please don’t “CON-‘ASS’”!

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!

Two weeks ago, I was privileged to visit the booming city of Ho Chi Minh more popularly known as “Saigon”. I and a bosom friend, Atty. Oscar “Oka” Musni was invited by his brother, Nestor “Totoy” Musni to spend our birthdays there and to see and hear the sights and sounds of Saigon and the nearby places.

As we all know, Vietnam was a war torn country and was liberated from the repressive clutches of the United States in 1975. It is on its way to recovery, which beckons travelers to see it rising up from the rubbles. At present, it is rated as the second most peaceful and safe country in the world, next to Switzerland.

My journey started on the 13^th day of November from here to Manila. It did not seem to start quite right. Upon arrival in Manila, my eyeglasses broke and so, I had to hurriedly visit an eye clinic in Glorietta, Makati. As I was leaving a day after, the optometrist advised me to temporarily bring two new pairs of glasses, one for distance and the other for reading. So I arrived in Saigon with two sets of spectacles.

Since Oka went a day ahead of me in Saigon, he and Totoy met me at the airport in the afternoon of November 14. We had dinner at a deli that sells all types of ham for our baguette (french bread) sandwich. We also had fine Italian wine and spent the night laughing, joking and remembering the distant past when Totoy and I were in the Jesuit seminary. Totoy, by the way, is the only brother of Oka and they both treat me no less than a brother.

My birthday is on the 15^th of November. Oka and I woke up late and took our breakfast in the hotel nearby. Totoy had to work during daytime as a consultant of several big fishponds, so Oka and I were left to go around on our own. We decided to visit one of the famous market places, Bhen Tham Market and bought some cheap souvenirs. Thereafter, we went to the War Museum.

The war Museum exhibits thousands of photographs taken by more than hundreds of war photojournalists. Eighty-four of them died during the war. The grounds of the museum also featured various armaments, different types of tanks, big canons and huge artilleries with warheads that could reach a distance of thirty-two kilometers. The barrel itself of the largest artillery extends up to fifteen meters. Beside the big guns are war planes and choppers.

As I began to peer through the big war photographs, I cleaned up my eyeglasses (for distance) and it is so suddenly cracked. Without glasses, the pictures are just too blurry that I needed to wear my reading glasses and go so near the pictures that I want to see.

The good thing in wearing my reading glasses despite being too oddly near to what I’m looking at is that I see every detail of the pictures from one corner to another. Imagine me, hugging every big blown up picture tucked on the wall with my face about six inches away from what I’m looking at. It was like holding a magnifying glass and searching every significant part of the picture.

This went on all throughout the two buildings of the museum. And I felt a certain numbness deep inside as looking closely at the eyes of bewildered children or the scared face of a mother with her children wading through a deep river. I could almost smell the corpse of ordinary Vietnamese families in Mai lie. The bleeding flesh of the open wounds of soldier in the mud seemed to bring pain on me too. So suddenly, the pictures become so blurry again as my tears started to fall. The inhumanity that befell upon Vietcong as well as the Americans during the war was clearly made manifest in the pictures.

After seeing all the pictures, one could readily conclude that a war makes no sense at all except that it shows the cruelty of the beast inside a man. What a birthday treat that was!

Oka and I left the museum after taking photographs through our cell phones holding the shoulder of the bust of Ho Chi Minh.

Totoy, at about six o’clock in the afternoon waited for us in Highland Cafe at the back of a Big Opera House at the heart of the city. Highland Café is basically like our own Park Café where you can see all the motorcycles and other vehicles roving around in the middle of two streets. Despite the jarring sounds of motorcycles, the three of us managed to talk about petty things.

By the way, the population of Saigon is about seven million people while the motorcycles registered in its Transportation Office have reached a staggering number of three million. So, imagine the streets with so many motorcycles running in different directions while the cars, which are so few in number, try to find its way among the horde of motorbikes.

Totoy told me that he would spend for my big birthday dinner in Lions Beer Restaurant just a few minutes walk from Highland Café. We arrived there at about 7:30 P.M. Lions Beer Restaurant is so big, about the size of two Grand Caprice Restaurant, featuring a brewery inside.

As we sat down after being led by the waiter to our table, Totoy ordered for us dark beer at 1 liter per mug. The mug looks bigger than our ordinary pitcher. We had pig knuckles as our main dish. It tasted really good. Our conversation was so animated and the arguments on how to convert Dollars to Dong and Dong to Peso lasted till the wee hours until we decided to go back to our hotel.

JPEPA, ANOTHER GRAND DECEIT

The Supreme Court, in its decision on the fraudulent People’s Initiative, has pronounced that it is an “agenda” of PGMA. Such agenda has deceived more than six million people who were duped into signing a document for Charter Change. And yet, soon after the decision was rendered, the issue on JPEPA emerged.

JPEPA stands for Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement. It is by far the dumbest agreement or treaty PGMA has entered into.

JPEPA allows the dumping of toxic waste of Japan to the Philippines. Simply put, our country will become the garbage pit of the dirtiest and most hazardous waste at no cost at all to Japan (zero tariff).

Worse, PGMA kept the agreement secret even to the Senate which is supposed to review any treaty entered into by our country with any other country. Sen. Pia Cayetano said, “I can’t see any reason why the government should continue keeping the public in the dark on our commitments a month after the pact’s signing.”

The reality is that Japan produces more than 400 million tons of industrial waste alone every year. In simple terms, that would be about 70,000 shiploads of garbage.

In fact, in 1999, according to World Health Organization, a Japanese Company shipped 6,000 tons of waste that included used diapers, stained sanitary napkins, disposable plastic syringes and surgical gloves to our country. The incident drew complaints and prompted Japan to take back the shipment.

PGMA’s compliant cabal in the Department of Trade and Industry justified the inclusion of the toxic waste in the agreement as a “come on” for Japan to sign the agreement which they figured may not be implemented due to its illegality as it is banned by existing national and international laws. However, Atty. Jeremy Gatdula, a specialist in trade services, dismissed such hogwash reasoning. He said, when JPEPA is ratified, it could override the bans.

When interviewed on ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC), Dr. Rene Opreneo, Executive Director of Fair Trade Alliance, disclosed that JPEPA as a whole will not even substantially benefit our country. It will tie our hands in dealing with other countries due to some provisions on exclusivity.

PGMA might not have realized that the dumping of hazardous and toxic waste into our communities will endanger public health and the integrity of our ecology. Even the DENR confirmed that our environment will suffer as a consequence of the flawed agreement. But has PGMA really cared?

Now, we are facing the embarrassment of preparing amendments to JPEPA as it shows the prospects of really hurting public health and our environment.

A story had been told that a species from planet Mars recently landed in Japan. He then visited a blighted area in the Philippines. He learned that 50 years ago, we were at war with Japan. The Mars “man” had only one conclusion: “That Japan won the war!”

Such a pathetic story is not far from reality. We have truly become a country of losers due to the acts of an erstwhile economist president whose dumb decisions have placed our nation in utter disarray.

DODONG QUIJADA

Last Friday night, after attending a birthday bash of my “binata” in Nazareth, I brought an old friend, Atty. Frank Vasig, to Dos Compadres Piano Bar in Pryce Plaza. Atty. Frank Vasig went down to Cagayan de Oro from Bukidnon to attend a two-day Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) to update himself on the new laws and decisions handed down by the Supreme Court.

Upon arrival at Dos Compadres, I saw the stage rather empty except for the organ player cum singer Dodong Quijada and a lady crooner singing familiar songs. I was a bit nostalgic as Pryce plaza was once my habitué every Saturday night in the past years listening to the Rock Beats, a band composed of not so-young yuppies singing the old tunes. Rock Beats had disbanded, I was told.

Dodong Quijada, who was once a low profile Rock Beats keyboard player, surprised us with his repertoire and held us in admiration of his songs until the wee hours. He performed with an enormous amount of talent blowing our heads off. Intently listening to him led me to question why he is still around while his talent could be sold anywhere else in the world.

So, before leaving, I talked to him for a while and he told me of all his travels around Asia. He was in Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and even Brunei. He has performed in almost all types of five star hotels like Hilton, Shangrila and Intercon. Yet, Dodong opted to be around and decided to stay despite the minimal fees he received.

Dodong’s option to stick around is quite ironical in the backdrop of our political milieu. The recent Supreme Court decision that showed the grand deceit perpetrated by PGMA could have given him a signal that the incoming years will not be well at all. This matter however did not bother Dodong at all.

The last week’s conundrum on the decision involving the alleged people’s initiative filed by the Sigaw ng Bayan and the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) does not seem to have taken a toll on Dodong. He just keeps on singing and probably continues to believe that our government will do well because of the vigilance of many. Such vigilance was made manifest by the eight justices of the Supreme Court who held on to their principles in protecting the Constitution.

Justice Carpio who named ULAP and Sigaw ng Bayan the “Lambino Group” concluded the decision with these stinging words against PGMA:

No amount of signatures, not even the 6,327,952 million signatures gathered by the Lambino Group, can change our Constitution contrary to the specific modes that the people, in their sovereign capacity, prescribed when they ratified the Constitution. The alternative is an extra-constitutional change, which means SUBVERTING THE PEOPLE’S SOVEREIGN WILL AND DISCARDING THE CONSTITUTION.

Incantations of “people’s voice,” “people’s sovereign will,” or “let the people decide” cannot override the specific modes of changing the Constitution as prescribed in the Constitution itself. Otherwise, the Constitution – the people’s fundamental covenant that provides enduring stability to our society – becomes easily susceptible to manipulative changes by POLITICAL GROUPS GATHERING SIGNATURES THROUGH FALSE PROMISES. Then, the Constitution ceases to be the bedrock of the nation’s stability.

The Lambino Group claims that their initiative is the “people’s voice.” However, the Lambino Group unabashedly states in ULAP Resolution No. 2006-02, in the verification of their petition with the COMELEC, that “ULAP maintains its UNQUALIFIED SUPPORT TO THE AGENDA OF HER EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO FOR CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS.” The Lambino Group thus admits that their “people’s” initiative is an “UNQUALIFIED SUPPORT TO THE AGENDA” OF THE INCUMBENT PRESIDENT to change the Constitution. This forewarns the Court to be wary of incantations of “people’s voice” or “sovereign will” in the present initiative.

This court cannot betray its primordial duty to defend and protect the Constitution. The Constitution, which embodies the people’s sovereign will, is the bible of this Court. THIS COURT EXISTS TO DEFEND AND PROTECT THE CONSTITUTION. To allow this constitutionally infirm initiative, propelled by DECEPTIVELY GATHERED SIGNATURES, to alter basic principles in the Constitution is to allow a DESECRATION OF THE CONSTITUTION. To allow such alteration and desecration is to lose this COURT’S RAISON D’ETRE.

The manipulative iron fists of PGMA who tried to use or abuse more than six million people have been temporarily curtailed. Yet, soon after the decision was rendered, the puppets of PGMA in Congress have again voiced out their insistence to alter or revise the Constitution for their selfish ends through Constituent Assembly (ConAss).

The deception goes on. But Dodong Quijada, in his resiliency to all these political hullabaloos, will not be moved. He knows as he keeps on singing and tries his best here in our midst; some people will be around to subvert all the maladies that have been wrought to our nation. People like Dodong give us reason to fight for a better country.