Centrist Democracy Political Institute - Items filtered by date: May 2020
A GRUESOME silver lining to the coronavirus pandemic is probably resuscitating a program that past administrations decades back only paid lip service to and never had the gumption nor the political will to implement: “Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa” (BP2)! If memory serves, even Imelda Marcos, the flip side to the conjugal dictatorship, only succeeded in leaving a similar concept behind, encapsulated as a haunting slogan. It was not altruism that moved her but her overarching notions of “what could be beautiful.” It was during the 5th International Monetary Fund-World Bank Conference in Manila in 1976 when the dictatorship wanted to show a “beautiful face” as its coming-out party after the 1972 martial law declaration. Central to BP2’s concept was to decongest the slums of Metro Manila, a blight which should be hidden from sight of the world’s bankers, financiers and economists who were here for the conference. What better program than to send back these dregs of society from whence they came.

Depopulate the slums

People are therefore wary of another “balik probinsya” (back to the province) initiative sprung at this critical time involving the same slums of Metro Manila as a panacea to the pandemic. Introduced on April 24 by President Rodrigo “Deegong” Roa Duterte’s (PRRD) favorite senator, echoing similar imeldific and tired old arguments seeking to “decongest overcrowded Metro Manila, providing incentives and livelihood opportunities to Filipinos who wish to return to their respective provinces….” Same old, same old. Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go simply filled in the blanks — that the lack of urban planning and rural development is one of the reasons why the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is spreading fast in the country’s metropolis — as if it was something new. Adding further: “As soon as the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) is lifted and travel is gradually normalized, the government must encourage Filipino families to move out of Manila and other metropolitan areas. Government must provide them the means and incentives to go back to the provinces for good.”

EO 114

But what did the President really promulgate? Executive Order (EO) 114 institutionalized the program to “…ensure balanced regional development and equitable distribution of wealth, resources and opportunities through policies and programs that boost countryside development and inclusive growth; provide adequate social services; and promote full employment, industrialization and an improved quality of life in rural areas.”

This is simply a rehash of the Philippine Medium-Term Development Plan drawn up years ago. Ask the acting National Economic and Development Authority secretary; he should know. This is partly what we the Centrist Democrats have been demanding these past years — and more — which then candidate Deegong promised under the banner of federalism, which he then subsequently dropped as president. But don’t get me wrong. Many Davaoeños and Mindanawnons have issues against Imperial Manila, that for generations has been sucking the lifeblood of those in the periphery. And indeed, we want to go back to the provinces. We therefore support the BP2 but not on terms dictated by the central government, dammit! But on equitable conditions. On provisions where people from Mindanao, the Visayas and the less favored provinces of Luzon have a say. We understand, for the shortsighted, you want to get rid of the “pasaway” unable to observe physical distancing, precipitating the spread of the contagion. Fine. But this is just an elitist solution — shades of Imelda — to decongest, depopulate by sending them back, pronto, from their hovels to their probinsiya, where Covid-19 can wreak havoc, easing pressure on the imperial capital.

Bottom up and decentralization

But we people from the fringes, especially from Davao and Mindanao, have our own ideas too. To reiterate, we no longer welcome palliatives, band-aid solutions and motherhood statements. If federalism is too complicated, then we try autonomy and decentralization. Not just delegation of powers from the center — which can be rebuked on whim. It does not work that way. But if the central government advances the alibi that time is of the essence, then we negotiate. First, involve the planning of our hands-on provincial governors and key local government executives, not just the senators and congressmen and Malacañang bright boys. Any top-down planning and execution, even if the main sponsor is a Davaoeño, is bound to fail. Convert this sloganeering into real working programs by transparently harnessing the full strength of government, making sure that beneficiaries understand the ramifications for them to buy into. They need to trust that the government can make this sustainable, pouring in the wherewithal to make it worthwhile for them. And to let them appreciate that this is not an imeldific solution and that the whole process takes a little more time than that targeted to start upon the lifting of the ECQ or modified ECQ. And above all, this program is not principally to get them out of their slums, sterilize Metro Manila and throw them to the slums in the probinsya, but it is to provide them decent lives and fresh start.

What to do

Since BP2 is predicated on post-lockdowns, the government must therefore focus on the prompt and safe reopening of the economy. Vietnam, New Zealand, Taiwan and even South Korea managed their morbidity through a particular accepted system, recommended by the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “testing, tracing, and treatment (isolation/hospitalization).” This is where the Deegong should focus his energy, money and resources now as top priority. Put BP2 as an adjunct.

Lockdowns have proven to be effective up to a certain point, beyond which they become counterproductive. Studies show that in our eight-week lockdown, approximately 32 million workers were out of jobs and household expenditures, accounting for 68 percent of the economy, estimated at P2 trillion, are taken off the economy (Tony Lopez, CEO Biz News Asia). The government is running out of cash. In short, for the 800 Filipino deaths so far, the economic costs are staggering, driving the living to miserable lives, possibly lifelong poverty, business bankruptcy and, perhaps to some, despair and suicide. The government must carefully weigh the trade-off — survival of the 105 million Filipinos as against an acceptable percentage of morbidity. This is President Duterte’s call. No one else’s. In the recognized concept of triage, the leadership must so decide to sacrifice a lesser number for the greater good. Has the Deegong the stomach to allow 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 deaths to save 105 million souls?

The presidency at the top is a lonely job. Duterte’s type of alpha male leadership is not conducive for his subalterns to advance workable ideas. Creative ideas I fear are not generated during this critical juncture, as they need to undergo the crucible of debate by people who have the courage to confront him. Doable and creative ideas are fought upon and shaped, not imposed. PRRD by these precepts is exhausted and approaching his level of incompetence. The Filipino audience has been witnesses to his TV performances of late, showing him distracted, making him vulnerable and susceptible to slogans like BP2 — an appropriate solution for a long-term problem with an even longer gestation period. What is needed are solutions to problems of the here and now… not of later. I fervently hope Duterte sees his way clear through this.
Published in LML Polettiques
Wednesday, 13 May 2020 07:11

PHYSICAL DISTANCING

Editorial cartoon.
Published in News
Wednesday, 13 May 2020 07:09

The 2022 trigger

ALL politics, in any jurisdiction, is back to the drawing board. We cannot campaign the traditional way simply because of physical distancing, masks and shields, and “no” to huge gatherings. In the United States, it’s now peer-to-peer and the tele-town hall that are driving the gatherings, but very online — another chapter of the e-Campaigning initiated by the Obama campaign circa November 2008.

Congress, with a lead time of two years before May 2022, must be able to scope the landscape: how do you do general registration, how will campaigning be by February 2022 and how would election day be? These are not easy questions for the simple reason that the election body is really in a legacy system that does not understand or chooses not to understand data, systems and analytics. Since 2010, when we started the automated election, not a single chair has reported to Congress on the demographics and psychographics of Filipino voters as an aggregate and as broken down by regions, provinces, cities, municipalities and barangay (villages). They do not even do a 100-percent closedown of an election cycle, ensuring that every vote is reflected in the main tally board. Data on votes are more complete at the local level and it seems that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc will just adopt the norm of previous years with the reasoning that the local Comelec failed to submit a complete report and that those who need data should go to the local level.

The worst part is when you request for an updated Registered Voter File, Comelec Central will give you a photocopy, spending for the cost per page and it is not even in Excel format. The Comelec is so archaic that big data and data analytics is not a priority.

Decades back, Peter Wallace and I advocated for voting by smartphones, but this was rejected at the time. Today, mobile is king. Just look at the Philippine data in “We Are Social 2020”: there were “173.2 million mobile connections in the Philippines in January 2020. The number of mobile connections in the Philippines increased by 38 million (plus 28 percent) between January 2019 and January 2020. The number of mobile connections in the Philippines in January 2020 was equivalent to 159 percent of the total population.”

Mobile is the most democratic tool in the country because the internet has equity issues when it comes to 60 percent of Filipinos who are in rural Philippines. The “last mile” has not been connected to the grid. It would seem it is not even a priority for government, much more the telecommunications companies, which look at bottom lines to determine interconnection. In January 2020, internet users numbered 73 million and a penetration rate at 67 percent.

In terms of social media use, there were 73 million users as of January 2020. The number of users in the Philippines increased by 5.8 million (plus 8.6 percent) between April 2019 and January 2020. Social media penetration in the Philippines stood at 67 percent.

And the excitement and the tandem pairing, as well as numerous floats being made prior to March 16, came to a halt with the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). The pandemic is the defining moment for any political leader, elected or appointed. How they responded, took care of their constituents, made the residents feel government is present would be the basis of that moment in time when voters realized we elected the wrong person or there can be better leaders than what we have right now. Even at the barangay level, residents are now talking of the kind of help they got at the community level and why others are getting better service compared to the rest.

And this is what politicians should remember. They are being judged right now by their constituents and they will bring that to the polls an emotional tug on the heart that cannot be changed by a narrative made solely for a 90- or 45-day campaign period. Covid-19 is the campaign. If local government units (LGUs) and national officials do not get it, they may get the ire of the community come May 2022.

Take the case of a lady mayor in Mindanao. She distributed rotting rice. The recipients are posting comments on the rice being given: “Mabaho talaga at marumi…sayang ang pondo ng pamahalaan (Really smells bad and is dirty…the government’s fund is being put to waste).” The alleged supplier is a dummy of the mayor, said to be a “small-time rice dealer whose capacity was way below the 250,000 bags the LGU procured.” Apparently, it was the second relief operation conducted by the mayor. In the first, the mayor gave 3 kilograms of cheap rice, some canned goods and instant noodles to the tune of P200 million, and not everyone got their share. The Social Amelioration Program aid distribution was reportedly a “mess, with cops threatening people not to post complaints in social media or face arrest.” The mayor also duped President Rodrigo Duterte, the mayor of Dava o City and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Emerging of Infectious Diseases by increasing the number of persons suspected of being Covid-positive from nine to 60 so their LGU could remain under enhanced community quarantine instead of graduating to general community quarantine. Why? So the mayor could continue using the supplemental budget amounting to P.5 billion that the council approved last week. And that city was under siege in the previous administration and has not recovered from it.

Covid-19 made real to Filipinos see what is wrong in the system — from a centralized government pretending to be decentralized; from how Metro Manila eats a huge allocation from other regions. Imagine, 83 percent of commerce comes from the epicenter of the pandemic. And the call for “Balik Probinsya” (Back to the Province) is being applauded by the majority because the megapolis way is not a sustainable development. When you strain capacities because of population density, a local chief executive can’t do much. Federalism became apparent to all, that having this kind of overtly central development is no way to address equity issues. Then again, a parliamentary form of government ensures one lens, one context, one solution for all, instead of asking for the immediate resignation of the health secretary just because he would not dance along with certain interests. Capacities, marks, personal protective equipment and testing kits are all felt needs globally. We are not an exception. In fact, the early lockdown helped us address the constraints and hopefully, by the new norm, we could have leapfrogged with the assistance of the private sector and our international allies and friends.

The pandemic showed to all the grit of certain local chief executives; after all, the presidency is an executive function. The senators and congressmen were left on the wayside, creating their own narratives just to maintain presence. But the people are looking not at them but at good executive leaders. Pre-Covid-19, names were ahead of some. Today, who holds the key for 2022 is the “hillbilly” from Davao City. If the country gets out without a relapse, the mayor never thought to be presidential in any quarters as defined in the old norm will be able to consolidate further and extend his administration. No relapse, a States of the Nation Address in July and a budget for economic reboot going to preelection year of 2021 has strengthened his hand to changing this country, from governance to economics and infrastructure.

Sometimes, those we never count to be leadership material turns out to be what the country needs. Some would grudgingly say yes, others will look for that audacity in the next, while the remaining would probably say they want the usual. Voters will just have to be reminded of the various crises and that trigger will define 2022.
Published in News
Wednesday, 13 May 2020 06:03

EMASCULATION OF OLIGARCHS

Editorial cartoon.
Published in News
THE ABS-CBN media behemoth is an anomaly that has made a mockery of our democracy. This started in the late 1950s, when the landlord oligarch clan, the Lopezes, added to their empire what was then a new medium, television, which proved to be more powerful in reaching the masses than their Manila Chronicle newspaper.

We are the only country in Asia to have such a powerful oligarch as the dominant player in broadcast media, the most effective venue in the modern era for molding the masses’ political consciousness and choices.

Japan has the mammoth NHK, South Korea’s three major network are either government-run or funded, and Singapore’s broadcast and print media are subsidiaries of the government investment fund Temasek Holdings.

Here we have an oligarch clan (in ABS-CBN Corp.), a triumvirate of magnates in another (GMA7) and a foreign tycoon (Indonesian Salim in TV5).

Worse for our democracy, the Lopezes weren’t just ordinary oligarchs. They owned for many decades the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the monopoly electricity distributor in Metro Manila, whose fortunes were 100 percent dependent on government regulations.

The Lopezes’ ABS-CBN made presidential elections a farce.

While the outcome of presidential elections are determined by a complex of factors, ABS-CBN has been a dominant factor, a big kingmaker, as the masses are hypnotized by ABS-CBN as they watch the 6 p.m. news while waiting for their teleserye or comedy programs.

Santiago
Miriam Defensor-Santiago in 1992 had tapped the idealism not only of the youth, but of the masses on a scale rivaling that of Rodrigo Duterte more than two decades later. The Lopezes, though, backed Fidel Ramos, their patron Corazon “Cory” Aquino’s anointed. It was enough for a dozen or so coverage by ABS-CBN showing Santiago in a tantrum, and spreading the meme (before that word was invented) of Miriam as “Brenda” — for brain-damaged — to get the dull general win the elections.

Despite media’s portrayal of him as a dum-dum, Joseph “Erap” Estrada was politically astute and sent all his celebrity “eraps” like Fernando Poe Jr. and allegedly his studio’s starlets to the Lopezes’ to get ABS-CBN behind his presidential bid. The Lopezes also hated candidate Jose de Venecia for his alleged support of the Marcos regime.

Or, perhaps, Erap did what medieval kings did, which was to establish an alliance through their children’s marriage. We learned about that only a year after the elections, when Manuel “Beaver” Lopez Jr. married Erap’s unica hija (at least with Loi) Jackie.

The Lopezes, however, didn’t hesitate to abandon Erap — loyalty hasn’t been that clan’s strength — when the going got tough, as the jueteng and other scandals gave the Yellows and Ramos who feared Estrada would prosecute him for the so-called Centennial funds corruption, more than enough issues to stage a second People Power uprising.

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo tried very hard to get the Lopezes to her side, when she assumed power by accident in 2001. As Arroyo’s chief of staff, I attended a few dinners with Oscar and Manolo at her family’s Forbes Park home to shoot the breeze as they say, although after the main meal the two Lopezes would meet with Arroyo at her living room, with no other people there.

Arroyo
The Lopezes needed Arroyo badly at that time. While Cory was in power, they racked up hundreds of millions of loans from the Development Bank of the Philippines in the hope of quickly building up the empire they lost during martial law. However, they couldn’t seem to put their finances and even their house in order, especially after their primus inter pares Eugenio Lopez Jr. died in 1999.

That was the worst time for the patriarch to pass away as the 1998 to 1999 global financial crisis hit, and the Lopez empire had accumulated substantial foreign debt, the peso equivalent of which more than doubled as the exchange rate zoomed form P26 in 1996 to P54 by 2003.

The biggest problem though of the Lopezes involved their family jewel, Meralco, since the so-called Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) was passed in June 2001, but was implemented only starting 2007 due to delays because of the suits against it that dragged on up to the Supreme Court.

I was assigned both before the law was passed and after to help Meralco with a small group of Arroyo’s closest Cabinet members in getting their “side” into the Act and then having their side taken into account by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) that decides on how much Meralco could charge its customers.

With then Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel Roxas 2nd (who was believed to be very close to the Lopezes, his fellow Ilonggo), Energy Secretary Vicente Perez Jr. and presidential legal counsel Avelino Cruz Jr., we met several times in secret with Meralco Chairman Manuel Pangilinan and his vice president, a lady in charge of electricity economics.

Unbundled
We spent so many hours poring over the details of how the firm’s prices were to be “unbundled” (i.e., its costs made transparent), how the Ó“performance-based rating” system which replaced the “return on rate base” method that had been in effect since 1986, would work in practice.

While purportedly aimed at encouraging private sector investment in the power industry, the new pricing system made electricity costs in the country one of the highest in the world, while turning Meralco into a cash cow for its owners.

For some reason I don’t know though – I left Malacañang in 2005 to become the ambassador to Greece — Arroyo, or the Energy Regulatory Commission delayed the implementation of the new price system. With Meralco’s costs zooming up because of the peso’s devaluation, it was racking up so much losses to nearly keel over.

Coincidentally or not, the so-called Hello Garci scandal broke out in 2005 when Arroyo was recorded talking over the phone with a Comelec commissioner before the 2004 elections. The group of inane Cabinet members called the Hyatt 10 resigned and called for her resignation, Cory and Cardinal Jaime Sin demanded that the president step down. ABS-CBN became vicious in its attacks against Arroyo.

With their finances getting worse, the Lopezes sold Meralco to their ally, the Indonesian Anthoni Salim, in March 2009. A few months later, the ERC implemented the Epira’s pricing system. Meralco’s profits starting that year zoomed, with its dividends expanding from P1 billion in 2007 to P2.8 billion the year Salim took over and to at least P12 billion every year since 2013.

Aquino 3rd
In the 2010 elections, ABS-CBN went all-out for Benigno Aquino 3rd’s presidential bid, its huge corps of journalists throwing dirt on the main rival then, the magnate Manuel Villar, tagging him as “Villarroyo” and running “investigative reports” alleging how he got highways in Las Piñas built near the vast subdivisions he was developing. Villar ended up third, with Manuel Lopez’s in-law Estrada the runner up.

The Lopezes’ kingmaker role in the post-war era isn’t really new, as a University of California doctoral dissertation narrated:

“The Lopezes are the only family that has consistently stayed on the fringes of power since 1945, when they came to power with [Manuel] Roxas. Consistently they have been the manipulators of political balances in this country. When they abandoned Quirino and the Liberal Party in the 1950s, there was a stampede out. When they joined the Magsaysay bandwagon in the 1960s, they forced Garcia down.

“Then Macapagal came; but in two years the Lopezes were able to bring about a crisis of major proportions against him, and so bring on his downfall. And it was the Lopezes who engineered the coup of Ferdinand Marcos against Senate President Rodriguez that started his bid for the presidency. They rode with Marcos (and supported his bid for the presidency in 1965, and then abandoned him in 1969). What makes them so deadly? One: their control of media. They have one of the best radio and TV networks in the country.”

Now do you think that Sen. Miguel Zubiri’s complaint that with ABS-CBN closed he won’t be able to watch ANC in the morning anymore, the sympathy that 2,500 of its employees (per BIR figures) will lose their jobs, or the fear we won’t be informed about the pandemic anymore make any sense?

This Congress, the 18th, and this President, Duterte, the only president who won without ABS-CBN’s backing, will go down in history as oligarch-killers, as builders of Philippine democracy.
Published in News
Wednesday, 13 May 2020 05:39

ABS-CBN HAS 11-MILLION EMPLOYEES?

Editorial cartoon.
Published in News
Wednesday, 13 May 2020 03:29

A tale of 2 Covids

IN times of great peril, nations collectively behave in many ways, principally influenced by the resilience of their people, the strength of their institutions, the efficiency of their systems of governance and, above all, the demeanor of their leadership. This time of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), telescoped in five months were the sufferings, deaths, betrayals and incompetence, and exposed were the weaknesses and strengths of these four features that define a nation. This article touches on two countries — the United States of America and the Philippines — and examines the impact of the fourth element, the quality of the political leadership, personified by its two presidents, the US’ Donald Trump and the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte (“The Donald and the Deegong — lame ducks?” The Manila Times, March 4, 2020).

Covid-19 timeline

Tomes have been written on the Covid-19, tracing its esoteric pedigree from bats and snakes, to the realm of conspiracy theories. This time, facts are simply narrated on a timeline, juxtaposing the role of these two leaders, starting after the first reported death in Wuhan, China on Jan. 9, 2020, caused by a coronavirus later named Covid-19. From January 13 to 20, similar cases were reported from Thailand, Japan and South Korea. By January 23, Wuhan’s lockdown began. This contagion has spread to 46 countries, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a pandemic.

United States

By January 29, the White House Coronavirus Task Force was formed. Subsequently, Trump was informed by trade adviser Peter Navarro “that the coronavirus could cause 500,000 deaths and trillions in economic damage.” This was summarily dismissed by Trump, and Navarro was sidelined.

America, the world’s greatest economy, was the best prepared to meet the pandemic head on. Its industrial might, resources, democratic institutions and people were primed. What America needed was a spark — a leader to rally around, harnessing their strengths, inspiring them. President Trump never did rise to the occasion when imperatives so demanded, perforce analogously surrendering America’s global preeminence.

A month after China’s lockdown, the US reported 15 cases on February 26. I wrote in my April 15, column “Trump trivialized the contagion asserting it…is very well under control in the US…and when you have 15 people [infected], within a couple of days [it] goes down to zero”. Ian Johnson a writer based in Beijing succinctly stated “China bought the West time. The West squandered it.”

Thus began the daily two-hour White House CTF press conference to update the American people on the pandemic. But this turned out to be a garish spectacle of a sideshow, with Trump using it as his pulpit and undermining his scientists and experts arrayed beside him by “telling people what they want to hear, not what they need to know and do.”

A showman with credentials anchored tightly on reality TV, he cowed his own scientists and healthcare experts, reducing them to a supporting cast squirming uncomfortably whenever their president encroached into their fields of expertise. America is at war with a phantom enemy, and he fancied himself the wartime president. Except that he refused to take full command and assume responsibility. He delegated instead to state governors the strategy to wage this war. They had to figure out for themselves where and how to source their matériel — personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing kits, ventilators. Chaos ensued. He refused to enforce a lockdown leaving this matter individually to the state governors. And they did what they had to.

He disdained critical health protocols already done successfully in other countries and hammered on him by his own experts in a mantra: “testing, testing, testing – tracing, tracing, tracing — treatment, isolation, social distancing and quarantine.” Anyone who wants a test can get one, he declared. It was a barefaced lie. Only 1.07 million tests were completed in the US by end of March. His own task force recommended 500,000 and “millions” of tests per day, as necessary.

In a bizarre appearance, he usurped the role of his health experts to be the pharmacist-in-chief recommending a potential treatment, the untested drug, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin. He reprised this role later in what was regarded as an insane act by a president. On April 23, with horrified senior members of the task force looking on, Trump suggested on national TV that injecting disinfectants or hitting the body with a powerful ultraviolet light could treat Covid-19. The Lysol company had to issue a disclaimer about ingesting their product.

By March 26, the US had 85,000 confirmed cases surpassing that of China and becoming the world’s epicenter of the contagion. Then this stunning irrational declaration, “I want to reopen the economy by Easter (April 12).”

Whereupon 40 economists with the University of Chicago published their position debunking Trump’s: “Abandoning severe lockdowns at a time when the likelihood of a resurgence in infections remains high will lead to greater total economic damage than sustaining the lockdowns to eliminate the resurgence risk.”

Thereupon, Trump mandated a phased reopening of the US economy by individual states, which he promptly repudiated two days later by supporting the anti-lockdown “Liberate Minnesota, Michigan, Virginia” protests.

By April 29, the US had surpassed the 58,220 Vietnam war’s 20-year death toll. By the second weekend of May, 80,0000 Americans were dead, and there is now a new gruesome projection of 135,000 to 240,000 deaths by Aug. 1, 2020.

Philippines

It was different in the Philippines. President Rodrigo “Deegong” Duterte was hands-on from the first confirmed death outside mainland China on February 2. Within the week, the Department of Health was directed to distribute for the use of the frontline health workers PPE, masks, gloves, respirators, isolation gowns and other equipment. Between February 9 to 22, the Deegong directed the quarantine at New Clark City of repatriates from Wuhan. In a flurry of activities, the President put his Cabinet on war footing taking total control and responsibility.

By March 9, the Philippines had a total of 20 cases. That same evening, President Duterte went on national TV to declare a state of public health emergency, suspending all classes in all levels in public and private schools. As a sign of unity, Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo on March 12 addressed the public on Covid-19, urging government to adopt the work-from-home method, fast-track the processing of test kits and protect the vulnerable from the pandemic.

In another address on national TV on March 13, President Duterte announced the placement of the entire island of Luzon on an enhanced community quarantine — euphemism for lockdown. On March 17, he signed Proclamation 929 placing the entire Philippines under a state of calamity. Quarantine was in effect for a month, later extended to May 15.

The responses of the two presidents under similar extreme conditions say much of the type of leadership a nation desires. One is all about himself. The other, all about his people. In America today, a First World democratic country, Trump will open the economy crucial to the Americans and tangentially the November elections. The Philippines, a Third World country, the Deegong may have to declare martial law, an adjunct to reopening the economy. We need not debate as to the type of leadership needed. Covid-19 is the arbiter. Death is the prize. Who may it favor?

Published in LML Polettiques
Thursday, 07 May 2020 22:51

The invisible hands in Pogos

There are invisible hands in the Philippines and China orchestrating the activities of Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos). Pogos run transnational gambling operations through online video. Smartly dressed young Chinese female dealers preside over casino tables located in condominium offices in the Philippines while their player-clienteles are ensconced in their residences in China. Declared taxable revenues of Pogos in 2019 are estimated at $7.9 billion. The operations of Pogos are illegal in both the Philippines and China. Apparently, invisible hands have allowed Pogos to thrive in both countries despite clear violations of their respective laws.

First, under its Charter, Pagcor is authorized “to xxx license gambling casinos xxx within the territorial jurisdiction of the Republic of the Philippines.” Pagcor cannot authorize its Pogo licensees to extend their gambling operations in the territory of China. Such an act is ultra vires—outside Pagcor’s legal authority and a violation of its own Charter.

Second, in an attempt to legitimize the Pogos’ online operations in China, Pagcor in its 2018 Manual requires Pogo license applicants to submit a “license from foreign jurisdiction where the feed will be streamed to, or license of the recipient operator abroad.” Pagcor’s 2016 Rules also provide that “licensed offshore gaming operators shall be solely responsible for ensuring that no wagers would be accepted xxx from jurisdictions where such forms of gambling are prohibited.”

These conditions for the operation of Pogos can never be complied with by Pogos, which all cater to the Chinese mainland market. There is no dispute that in China all forms of gambling are illegal and severely punished. In August 2019, the Chinese embassy in Manila officially announced that “according to Chinese laws and regulations, any form of gambling by Chinese citizens, including online-gambling, gambling overseas, opening casinos overseas to attract citizens of China as primary customers, is illegal.”

Pagcor knows full well that all forms of gambling are illegal in China. If Pogo applicants submitted licenses from the Chinese government, these licenses are obviously fake. Still, Pagcor has allowed some 60 Pogos to operate in the Philippines in violation of Pagcor’s own rules.

Third, in the Philippines the general rule is any form of gambling is illegal and punishable under Article 195 of the Revised Penal Code. The exception to this rule is a special law that expressly authorizes gambling. One such exception is Pagcor’s Charter which expressly authorizes Pagcor to license gambling “within the territorial jurisdiction of the Philippines.” Pagcor’s Charter, however, does not authorize it to allow the licensee to operate outside of the Philippines. Moreover, the licensee’s Pogo license from Pagcor is void from the start because the licensee can never comply with Pagcor’s requirement of a gambling license from China. The gambling operations of Pogos, with gambling tables in the Philippines and online clientele from mainland China, thus fall under the general rule and are illegal under the Revised Penal Code.

Fourth, under the Cybercrime Prevention Act, all crimes under the Revised Penal Code “committed by, through and with the use of information and communications technologies shall xxx be imposed xxx one (1) degree higher” penalty than that provided in the Revised Penal Code.

The operations of Pogos are without doubt illegal. The mystery is that these operations are facilitated by the easy grant of Pagcor licenses, the adoption of visa upon arrival policy, the special escorts for arriving Pogo workers at the airport, and now the resumption of Pogo operations ahead of other businesses shut down due to COVID-19. It is apparent that there is an invisible hand orchestrating the activities of Pogos in the Philippines.

In China, while the authorities have clearly declared online gambling illegal and punishable, the mystery is that Chinese authorities have not blocked their citizens from accessing the websites or IP addresses of Philippine Pogos. The infamous Great Firewall of China could easily block such access. The fact that Chinese authorities have not done so shows an invisible hand orchestrating the activities of Pogos in the Chinese mainland.

The operations of Pogos in the Philippines and China are obviously well-synchronized. What could be the quid pro quo between the Filipino invisible hand and the Chinese invisible hand in allowing clearly illegal gambling activities to flourish symbiotically in the Philippines and China?

Published in News
Thursday, 07 May 2020 22:48

ABS-CBN AT THIS MOMENT

Editorial cartoon.
Published in News
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte earlier this week pleasantly surprised many people when he offered an olive branch to the Ayala-led Manila Water Co. Inc. and the Metro Pacific-led Maynilad Water Services Inc., apologizing to the two water concessionaires for his earlier verbal attacks and thanking them for contributing to the effort to stop the coronavirus pandemic.

The implication that Duterte is willing to work out an agreeable settlement to the government’s long-running dispute with the water distributors for the Greater Manila Area is certainly very welcome and eliminates the risk of a calamitous loss of water services. The President should not, however, let his new “softer side” get in the way of resolving the deeply troubling issues that exist in the two concession agreements, and which sparked his anger in the first place.

In a public briefing on Monday night, President Duterte apologized to top Manila Water officials Fernando Zobel de Ayala and his elder brother Jaime Augusto, and Maynilad Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan for the “hurting words” he used against them in the past.

Duterte erupted at the water concessionaires late last year over the allegedly “onerous” contracts they signed with the government in 1997 to supply water to residents of Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

The President was outraged by the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Singapore, which had ordered the Philippine government to pay Manila Water P7.39 billion for the non-implementation of water rate increases for the years 2013 to 2017, based on the concession agreement requiring the government to indemnify the utility firm for losses resulting from regulatory action.

Maynilad had earlier won a similar ruling from arbitrators for a slightly lower amount of damages.

This news followed several months of controversy highlighted by a final ruling by the Supreme Court imposing stiff fines against both companies for not complying with the terms of the 2009 Clean Water Act, and several extended periods in which millions of consumers were left without water due to severe supply shortages.

Duterte threatened to charge the two concessionaires, their top executives, and former government officials responsible for crafting the concession agreements with economic plunder, and order the Department of Justice and regulator Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) to create new contracts to replace the “onerous” deals.

The crisis at least briefly raised the serious, disturbing possibility that water services to the more than 15 million customers served by Manila Water and Maynilad would be interrupted, and the Philippines would become a pariah in the eyes of potential big-ticket investors.

Duterte’s willingness to find an amicable resolution avoids that disaster, but calm and goodwill alone does not resolve the parts of the concession agreements that are definitely disadvantageous to the government and the people.

First, the issue that prompted MWSS to reject the rate increase and sent the two companies to arbitration was the inclusion of corporate income taxes in customer charges. Any new concession agreement must explicitly prohibit this.

Second, the issue behind the fines imposed late last year by the Supreme Court, the non-provision of sewerage system connections in spite of the concessionaire’s collecting the money for those capital expenditures as part of customer rates must be resolved. Ideally, the companies must be obliged to carry out that work required by the 2009 Clean Water Act; alternatively, they should provide refunds to customers for the full amount collected over a more than 10-year period.

Finally, the dispute resolution mechanism which subjects Filipino public interests to the whims of foreign arbitrators managed by a business-backed organization (the International Chamber of Commerce, in this case) must be rejected in favor of competent authorities who can fairly carry out that role here in the Philippines. The Philippine Institute of Arbitrators and the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center Inc. are excellent organizations; if they cannot serve as the dispute resolution mechanism themselves for some reason, their knowledge and guidance in creating a just solution will be of great service to all concerned.
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