Facebook Instagram Linkedin Twitter Youtube
Home Blog Page 11278

Navigating a new chapter in the US-Philippines’ ‘Long Friendship’

In the Philippines, nearly a year after President Trump first sketched his Free and Open Indo-Pacific policy at the 2017 APEC CEO Summit, uncertainty about how the United States will operationalize its vision lingers. Beijing’s vaunted infusion of capital, and influence across all dimensions of Philippine society, including through its multi-billion dollar investments into key Build, Build, Build infrastructure projects, has amplified this uncertainty. Indeed, the common refrain in Manila is that while the United States remains a good friend, China will always be the Philippines’ watchful, at times menacing, northern neighbor.
As the United States operationalizes its Indo-Pacific policy, it will need to ever more conscientiously strike a balance between providing assurances of the durability of US commitment to the region and encouraging Philippine autonomy, particularly amidst Chinese incursions. The United States will also need to grapple with how best to promote its positive agenda for a rules-based order in a way that not only safeguards its own interests but also directly appeals to the aspiring middle classes of the Philippines and beyond.
The Indo-Pacific framework, at its core, underscores the shift in the global economic center of gravity and other dramatic changes that are afoot both in the Philippines and across Southeast Asia. Yet, despite the sharp contrast between today’s mercurial leaders and their predecessors, the elements of continuity in policy dwarf elements of change both in the United States and the Philippines. Across the diplomatic, economic, and security domains, the American commitment to the rule of law, freedom of navigation, sustainable economic development, and good governance both in the Philippines and the region writ large remains stronger than ever before.
Diplomatically, the United States’ Indo-Pacific policy in Southeast Asia is predicated on ASEAN centrality, as the Deputy Secretary of State recently highlighted at the ASEAN Ministerial meeting. At the same time, while ASEAN is most powerful when it speaks with a unified voice, there is also growing utility in minilateralism and more nimble, ad hoc cooperation below the ASEAN level. The Philippines’ trilateral air and maritime patrols with Indonesia and Malaysia in the Sulu and Celebes Seas offer a case in point. Moving forward, the United States should not only support ASEAN cohesion but also smaller, effective coalitions of the willing to showcase American and regional commitment to a rules-based order.
Within the realm of security engagement, the Indo-Pacific policy puts down a marker for the peaceful resolution of disputes and as a potential hedge against major power assertiveness. That assertiveness has been on display most prominently in the South China Sea, where Beijing has coupled unsurpassed militarization of artificial land features in the Spratly Islands with sharp condemnations of nations exercising freedom of navigation. While Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi once predicted that the idea of an Indo-Pacific Region would “dissipate like ocean foam,” the opposite is likely to be true.
Building naval, air, and coast guard and law enforcement capabilities of littoral nations around the Indian Ocean, South China Sea, and Southwest Pacific lies at the heart of the United States’ security commitment to the region. The foundations for this approach were laid down by the Obama administration’s effort to fashion a principled, inclusive network. But the Trump administration is seeking to go further. This entails pursuing more group sails and closer joint training and exercises, as exemplified by the increase in the number of joint events that General Galvez and Admiral Davidson have proposed for 2019. Critically, the United States must cast its objectives, not in the divisive terms of geopolitical competition, but rather, as a bulwark against the more elemental challenges that stem terrorism, political violence, illegal trafficking, natural disasters, and other humanitarian crises.
Finally, on the economic front, unleashing US private sector investment is a key part of the equation for sustainable — rather than predatory — economic development, but this requires stronger institutional frameworks. Now that talks are underway for the US-Philippine Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, the United States must work expeditiously at forging a bilateral FTA as soon as possible. To withstand future political debates, a US-Philippine Free Trade Agreement must add substantial economic and strategic value. A sustainable FTA must help the 25 percent of Filipinos who live in poverty and the 10 percent in danger of sliding back into it by stimulating business and job creation. A bilateral FTA should also raise labor and environmental standards.
The United States should also proactively identify overlapping interests among like-minded countries — across the Indo-Pacific, Europe, and beyond — to harness targeted investments in key energy, communications, and other infrastructure projects within the framework of the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025.
Today, in many ways, the United States and the Philippines are living out the conclusion of Stanley Karnow’s masterful book, In Our Image. After retracing a century of history, ending with Cory Aquino’s peaceful accession to Malacañang, he opined that “both Americans and Filipinos implicitly understood that, however lopsided, thorny, and at times frustrating their ‘special relationship’ might be, it reflected a century of shared experience.” Indeed, regardless of the political changes that are afoot in Washington, common values and shared interests between the United States and the Philippines will continue to draw the two countries closer together in the years ahead. As Trump himself waxed poetic in Danang in 2017, the US Indo-Pacific dream rests on “a beautiful constellation of nations, each its own bright star, satellites to none.”
 
Dr. Patrick M. Cronin is Senior Director of and Kristine Lee is Research Associate with the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) in Washington, D.C.

If Pinoys could walk on water

There is a caravan of an estimated 4,000 men, women and children from Central America hiking hundreds of miles from their home countries to Mexico and from there to the United States. The “invasion” is one of the main themes of the alarmist rhetoric of President Donald Trump in his desperate effort to drive his voter base to the polls to save the Republican party from decimation in the November 6 mid-term elections.
To spice up his horror stories, Trump has added on the lie that “Middle Eastern terrorists” are mixed in with the refugees, warning that this could mean a wave of bombings and killings once the caravan crosses over into US territory.
In truth, the refugees are planning to seek asylum in America, a legal process that US immigration laws allow. Of course, a large percentage of those seeking asylum are subsequently disapproved and are either forced to return to their homelands or to seek refuge elsewhere. They are reminiscent of the thousands of Vietnamese boat people who fled their country following the fall of Saigon. The refugees may also be likened to the thousands who fled Cuba, after Fidel Castro’s revolucionarios took over Havana.
Mercifully, Trump has not also claimed that Filipino illegal aliens are also among the refugees. However, the spectacle of thousands desperately trying to enter the US has given rise to the joke that if Pinoys could walk on water, a large percentage of the 100 million-plus Filipino population would make their way to America, too, as well as to Canada, Australia, Europe and the wealthier countries in Asia.
Faraway places with strange sounding names — as the lyrics of the song go — have always held a fascination for our people. The reason is that, to use well-worn clichés, the grass always looks greener on the other side, and America and the other great cities of the world are perceived as “lands of milk and honey.”
Some 10 million Pinoys are said to be working overseas, and this number probably does not include the 4 to 5 million naturalized citizens, green card holders and TNT’s (Tago Nang Tago) in the US. The reason for the diaspora is mainly economic. Not enough jobs and not enough wages to feed the family are said to be the principal motivation for wanting to work overseas.
Of course, many eventually realize that they could have been much better off at home in the Philippines, back in their native provinces, if they had been willing to work as hard as they are forced to work in strange lands, just to be able to survive. For some, this is in addition to the harsh treatment that they have to bear under their foreign task masters.
Quite frankly, the situation is not as bad in the Philippines as the usual critics (mainly fellow Pinoys) portray it. Aside from the advantage of having families and friends to run to, anyone willing to work with his hands can actually scrape up enough to live on in the provinces (surviving in Metro Manila is another matter altogether).
But even the hardships in Manila are not as bad as the reasons for the horde of refugees fleeing Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, wanting to seek asylum in America.
In a June 2018 article for the Atlantic, journalist Sofia Martinez wrote: “The killing of a loved one. An attempt at gang recruitment. A rape. Harassment by a police officer. A death threat over an outstanding extortion payment. Amid the justified uproar at the Trump administration’s policies on America’s southern border, often lost are the reasons many Central Americans leave their homes, and are prepared to brave the perils of the journey north, in the first place. Families arriving at the border from countries like Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala leave behind a myriad of stories, many of them connected to their homelands’ plague of armed violence.”
For sure, the Philippines is not the land of opportunity that America is, but neither is it the killing fields that the refugees from Central America characterize their homelands. And while President Rodrigo Duterte has been portrayed by his critics as a murderous monster, with former PNP Chief Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa as a blood-thirsty executioner, the Philippines is a whole lot safer than those countries that the fear-stricken members of the US-bound caravan are fleeing from.
According to media reports, families in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are caught between two deadly groups. On one side are such gangs like the Mara Salvatrucha (the MS-13 that Trump has been telling doomsday stories about) and, on the other side, are the police, specifically the anti-gang task forces.
The police are said to indiscriminately round up young men in poor areas, in the government’s efforts to contain the gangs. If this reminds you of the tokhang in the early months of Duterte’s war on drugs, you wouldn’t be wrong. Indeed, so many bloody crimes are committed by the authorities in the name of “restoring peace and order.”
On the other hand, it is said that the Central American gangs have become so pervasive and powerful that the police and government authorities privately admit that they are no match for the criminals. These gangs are constantly recruiting boys and forcing them into lives of crime or are making sex slaves of young girls.
The Atlantic article relates how, in countries like El Salvador and Honduras, “parents living in what are popularly known as ‘red zones’ — usually communities plagued by gangs — have to spend hard-earned money on private transport or after-school programs to avoid their kids coming into contact with criminal groups.”
The article quotes the parents: “It’s really complicated for us [the parents]… because we need to work more hours to pay for the security of our children and also spend enough time at home to talk with them and make sure they are not hanging out with the wrong people.”
“In El Salvador,” the article continues, “where there are around 65 thousand active gang members, with a social support base of half a million people, boys from 12 years up are prime targets for recruitment. Girls can also be targeted at an early age, either to be sexually abused or to become gang members. The eventual fate of a girl — whether she is left alone, harassed into joining the gang, or forced into becoming a sex slave — depends entirely on the local leaders, or palabreros, who run the local cells or clicas (cliques) of the two largest gangs, MS-13 and Barrio 18.”
In sum, we Filipinos are so much better off, in spite of our meager means and in spite of official corruption and incompetence, than the unfortunates in Central America — and in other parts of the world. I once wrote in a documentary script that the Philippines is so rich in natural resources that if we throw a net into the sea, we will catch a fish, and if we stick a seedling into the soil, we will grow food to eat. We just need to use our head, work hard and (as I said in an earlier column) be willing to plant kamote.
In other words, we don’t need to be able to walk on water.
Comparing the plight of our fellow Filipinos to that of the people in Central America, I am reminded of a saying I chanced upon in Cursillo: “I complained because I had no shoes… until I saw a man who had no feet.”
 
Greg B. Macabenta is an advertising and communications man shuttling between San Francisco and Manila and providing unique insights on issues from both perspectives.
gregmacabenta@hotmail.com

The politics of personality

By Tony Samson
WE DO NOT HAVE party politics. Ideologies or political platforms seldom define parties and the members they attract. After the proliferation of our multi-party system, the party acronyms have become a blizzard of alphabets in various dialects, which also include party list agglomerations and citizen action groups. Remember the August 21 Movement (ATOM)? Always, the party is defined by who organized it and the candidates it is promoting, including common ones from yet other parties.
We do not have think tanks promoting policy statements and position papers on national issues, say in the continuum of conservative, populist, or liberal perspectives. What we have are economic forecasting groups, political analysts, pundits, and polling organizations. One survey group shows that over 65% of the population embrace dictatorship as a preferred form of government — this is announced without bursting into maniacal laughter.
It is often expediency that determines political action. Appealing to a politician’s nationalism is pointless. Still, even self-interested moves (for charter change, for example) are cloaked with the rhetoric of democratic ideals, the public’s right to know, the search for truth, the need to devolve power to the people, and an assortment of high-minded principles, to put proponents, with their hidden agendas, in the company of patriots.
Political parties are porous, as groupings are identified with specific political players. As in change of management, so with elections, there are winners and losers. Guess which political party gains more adherents when the dust settles? Photos of mass oath-takings of new members soon follow.
A change of administration every six years introduces a new set of power players and their business titans in the making. Even in mid-term elections such as the one coming up in May, new alliances may be formed which again affect the groupings. Since political alliances are temporary and driven by mutual convenience rather than a common ideology, there are always members joining and leaving.
Media are obsessed with political news, several notches above murders, car pile-ups, celebrity break-ups, and snatched cell phones. Even independent media can be dragged into the spin zone of politics. A narrative like students from elite universities being recruited for an uprising, and suddenly advocating the abolition of private property just because they are noisy critics of inflation and curious about medical check-ups can acquire a life of its own… until it is withdrawn as a threat. Let’s change the month. It’s November already.
The working press likes to catch off-the-cuff remarks from the top. Stories that make the suits nervous (the economy has become lethargic) get front page treatment. Media love the underdogs, naturally sympathetic to unions and their perennial plea for increasing the minimum wage, spinners of conspiracy theories, street marchers against the slow rehabilitation of war-torn cities no matter how few, and any group that can provide a sound bite that rattles the plates.
The frequent recourse for businessmen is to find key players whose narrow interests coincide with theirs, and who understand the effects of inflation. Politics and its impact on economics mobilize business groups, which promote private enterprise and the wisdom of markets, to plunge into politics if they mean to change things. There are no business parties, only management associations. Still, business personalities are sometimes lured into politics, and often lose in elections. They need to acquire the common touch.
Corporate politics too adheres to the personality-based model. With a change in management from an acquisition or the poaching of a senior executive from competition or an unrelated industry, there follows a tectonic shift of allegiances. There are the old guards who are largely ignored and dismissed as defenders of the status quo — we need to embrace change. And the new faction, including switchers from the first group, sometimes referred to as “posterior moochers,” will constitute the new power structure. Peripheral groups of kibitzers form around extracted stories from coffee servers, secretaries, security, and doctors — is that really just an allergy?
The politics of personality is extensive. Friends of friends, cousins of cousins, neighbors of parents, neighborhood associations, and old school ties define a shifting power structure. Our culture is personality based, where “know-who” trumps “know-how.”
Getting difficult things done involves influencing the appropriate personality, hopefully a better one than a rival can come up with. When an awaited decision comes out, the loser needs to accept that… it’s nothing personal.
 
A.R. Samson is chairman and CEO, TOUCH xda
ar.samson@yahoo.com

Why globalism is good for you

By Gideon Rachman
THE DIFFERENCE between globalization and globalism might seem obscure and unimportant, but it matters. Globalization is a word used by economists to describe international flows of trade, investment and people. Globalism is a word used by demagogues to suggest that globalization is not a process but an ideology — an evil plan, pushed by a shadowy crowd of people called “globalists.”
In his recent speech at the UN, Donald Trump declared: “We reject the ideology of globalism and embrace the doctrine of patriotism.” Last week he again denounced “globalists” at a campaign event, while the crowd bayed for the imprisonment of George Soros, a Jewish philanthropist regarded as the epitome of “globalism” by the nationalist right.
It is not just the radical right that attacks globalization as an elite project. Many on the left have long argued that the international trading system is designed by the rich and harms ordinary people.
But this right-left ideological assault on globalization is simple-minded and dangerous. It ignores the benefits that trade has brought, not just to elites, but to ordinary people all over the world. It suggests that globalization is a plot rather than a process. And by promoting nationalism as the antidote to the dreaded “globalism”, it unleashes forces that are economically destructive and politically dangerous.
Between 1993 and 2015 — the heyday of globalization — the proportion of the world’s population living in extreme poverty almost halved. International trade has helped to pull billions of people into the global middle class and turned once poverty-stricken countries such as South Korea into wealthy nations. (North Korea, by contrast, has enjoyed all the benefits of total isolation from global markets).
Mr. Trump and his acolytes argue that this Asian prosperity has been bought at the expense of the middle class in the west. But middle-class lifestyles in the west now depend, to a significant extent, on the flow of cheap goods from the rest of the world. An iPhone that was wholly manufactured in the US would cost around $2,000 in the shops — or double its current price. Competition from cheap labour in Asia and Latin America has indeed contributed to the stagnation in real wages in the US. But rather than counteract this through public policy, the current US administration has driven rising inequality through regressive taxation.
Mr. Trump and his European equivalents have also talked up the myth that dastardly globalists, like Mr. Soros, are encouraging and funding illegal migration. In doing so, they fan the paranoid fantasies that led to attacks like the mass killing that took place at a synagogue in Pittsburgh this weekend. For many anti-Semites, “globalist” has become a synonym for Jew. It should not need stating, but it is absurd to suggest that “globalists” have caused the violence in Syria or Honduras from which migrants are fleeing.
Critics of globalization have every right to start a debate about migration, trade and investment. But their “solutions” are often half-baked, and risk worsening the economic situations of the people they purport to help.
Brexit is, sadly, a prime example. The Brexiters’ complaints about the EU echo many of Mr. Trump’s complaints about “globalism.” “Europe” is blamed for uncontrolled migration, international bureaucracy and elitism. The Brexiters think of the EU as an ideological project. They ignore the extent to which European legislation is often a set of practical solutions to cross-border issues such as the free flow of goods and the establishment of common trading standards. Attacking those solutions is a bit like ripping out the plumbing in a house. Unless you have a very precise idea of what you are doing (and nobody has accused the Brexiters of that), you simply create a horrible mess.
What is happening in the UK is a microcosm of what could happen in the rest of the world if and when a Trump-inspired assault on international trade and global supply-chains gathers force. The tariffs that Mr. Trump has imposed on goods from China and elsewhere will increase the cost of living for Americans. Meanwhile, fears of a global trade war already weigh heavily on the stock market.
The biggest dangers, however, are not economic but political. By repeatedly denouncing “globalists,” Mr. Trump has encouraged the idea that America faces an unpatriotic enemy within. That, in turn, stokes the conspiracy theories that are now spilling over into violence on US soil.
The political risks are also international. The rise in economic tensions between the US and China is merging with a rise in military tensions over issues such as Taiwan and the South China Sea. Both Washington and Beijing are increasingly using the language of conflict rather than co-operation.
All this is reminiscent of the backlash against globalization in the 1930s, a process chronicled by Harold James, a Princeton historian, in The End of Globalization. Mr. James showed how surging protectionism in the 1930s went hand-in-hand with a rise in radical ideologies and a drift to war. He thinks it “highly likely” that today’s “de-globalization” will also culminate in war.
“Globalist” business people and financiers doubtless have their flaws. But at least their instinct is to see foreigners as customers, rather than enemies.

Peso weakens on US-China concerns

THE PESO weakened a tad against the dollar on Tuesday as the risk sentiment worsened following renewed concerns over US-China trade relations.
The local unit closed at P53.59 versus the greenback on Tuesday, slightly weaker than the P53.56-per-dollar finish the previous day.
The peso traded within a tight range yesterday, opening the session at P53.61 versus the dollar. It dropped to as low as P53.66, while its intraday high stood at P53.54 per US currency.
Dollars traded rose to $726.23 million from the $645.25 million that switched hands on Monday.
A foreign exchange trader said the peso consolidated the whole day as it traded within “two crucial levels.”
“The intraday high and low landed near the technical level of resistance at P53.65 and the level of support at P53.55,” the trader said in a phone interview.
“I think the peso slightly depreciated as the dollar is trading stronger. At the same time, most market players are preparing for possible inflow ahead of the long weekend.”
Michael L. Ricafort, economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said the renewed concern on US-China trade relations affected global risk appetite, with renewed declined in US stock markets partly weighing on the local stock market as well as on the peso.
“US could increase amount of Chinese imports covered by the trade war to at lease $500 billion from the current $250 billion,” Mr. Ricafort said in a text message.
For Wednesday, the traders expect the peso to trade between P53.50 and P53.70.
“[The peso will trade within] P53.30-P53.50 levels in view of long weekend when there may be conversion of some remittances for holiday spending,” Mr. Ricafort added. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal

PSE index down as volume thins ahead of break

By Arra B. Francia, Reporter
THE MAIN INDEX retreated on Tuesday on thin trading as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of the long weekend.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) plunged 1.3% or 92.97 points to close at 7,016.06 yesterday, snapping its two-day climb. The broader all-shares index also ended 1% lower or 43.59 points to 4,309.80.
“Seems like the market was already prepping itself up for the long weekend with today’s muted value turnover of only P3.9B. Participants may have also been liquidating positions in anticipation of the coming holiday,” P2P Trade Online Sales Associate Gabriel Jose F. Perez said in an e-mail on Tuesday.
Turnover dropped to P3.95 billion after some 429.04 million issues switched hands, declining from the previous session’s P4.23 billion.
Investors are taking positions ahead since the PSE will be closed on Nov. 1, Thursday and Nov. 2, Friday, for All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, respectively.
Meanwhile, Regina Capital Development Corp. Managing Director Luis A. Limlingan attributed the market’s performance to the trade war between the United States and China.
“Philippines shares faltered with another threat from US on China. President Donald Trump’s administration could announce, by early December, tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports, if talks next month between [Donald] Trump and Xi Jinping aren’t fruitful,” Mr. Limlingan said in a mobile message, citing a report from Bloomberg.
Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that the Trump administration plans to announce a new set of tariffs on Chinese goods in December should talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping fall through. The two leaders are set to meet at the G20 Leader’s Conference at the end of November.
Wall Street ended another session with losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average stumbled 0.99% or 245.39 points to 24,442.92. The S&P 500 index fell 0.66% or 17.44 points to 2,641.25, while the Nasdaq Composite index plummeted 1.63% or 116.92 points to 7,050.29.
Most Asian indices closed Tuesday on a positive note due to the weaker Chinese yuan, which could indicate that Chinese exports will remain competitive despite its ongoing trade spat with the US.
Back home, four sectoral indices moved to negative territory, led by holding firms which sank 1.86% or 130.63 points to 6,875.10. Industrials slumped 1.49% or 157.74 points to 10,423.56; services shed 1.38% or 20.36 points to 1,450.95; while the property dropped 1.25% or 43.47 points to 3,434.04.
The mining and oil counter rose 0.68% or 64.82 points to 9,533.62, while financials added 0.5% or 8.02 points to 1,592.80.
Decliners outpaced advancers, 94 to 59, while 62 names were unchanged.
Net foreign selling ballooned to P939.97 million on Tuesday, more than double Monday’s figure of P391.91 million.

Rosita to exit PAR by Wednesday

THE STATE WEATHER bureau on Tuesday afternoon said super-typhoon Rosita (international name Yutu) is expected to exit the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) by Wednesday evening at the latest.
According to its update on 5:00 p.m. of Tuesday, Oct. 30, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) also said the country may expect better weather by Thursday, when Filipinos observe the traditional visit to the dead on All Saints’ Day.
In its press briefing as of Tuesday morning, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported that the provinces of Isabela, Quirino, Northern Aurora, Nueva Vizcaya, Ifugao, Benguet, La Union, Ilocos Sur, Mountain Province, and Pangasinan were still under Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal Number 3.
The NDRRMC said a total of 364 cities and municipalities in Regions I (Ilocos Region), II (Cagayan Valley), III (Central Luzon), IV-A (Calabarzon), and V (Bicol Region), as well as the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), and National Capital Region have suspended classes due to the typhoon.
In Regions I, II, III, and CAR, 10,122 individuals or 2,928 families were preemptively evacuated, the agency said.
Twenty-four domestic flights and six international flights were cancelled on Tuesday.
According to a report by the Cagayan Valley office of NDRRMC, there is no power available in Cagayan, Isabela, Quirino, and Nueva Vizcaya. But communication lines are available.
The 18th typhoon to hit the Philippines this year, Rosita swept across the main island of Luzon on Tuesday morning with wind speeds of 140 km per hour (87 mph) and gusts of up to 230 kph, and was expected to exit in the afternoon.
The typhoon comes just six weeks after super-typhoon Ompong (international name Mangkhut) dumped massive rains on Luzon, triggering landslides that killed more than 70 people.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. — reports by Reuters and Vince Angelo C. Ferreras

Palace: Military overseeing Customs is constitutional

MALACAÑANG ON Tuesday maintained that President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s order for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to take over the Bureau of Customs (BoC) is constitutional, saying that soldiers will only be “assigned” to the bureau to “oversee” the operations there and “will not be appointed nor designated to civilian positions.”
But a legal expert sought for comment said this “assignment” is a “designation” and, therefore, is “illegal.”
“Active members of the AFP will not be appointed [n]or designated to civilian positions in the BoC. They will be assigned to the BoC to oversee that all operations are in order and ensure that all laws are strictly enforced in all processes undertaken therein,” Presidential Spokesperson and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Secretary Salvador S. Panelo said in a statement on Tuesday, Oct. 2.
Mr. Panelo was referring to the alleged conflict of the President’s order with Article 16, Section 5(4) of the 1987 Constitution which provides that, “[n]o member of the Armed Forces in the active service shall, at any time, be appointed or designated in any capacity to a civilian position in the Government, including government-owned or controlled corporations or any of their subsidiaries.”
Sought for comment, University of the Philippines (UP)-Diliman law professor Antonio G.M. La Viña said in a phone interview: “The fact that they will be assigned there, even if temporarily, and the fact that they are physically there, it’s already a designation. Yeah, that’s illegal. It’s a designation. They are given an assignment; they are being sent on a mission.”
In a press briefing at the Palace, Mr. Panelo said the President’s order is based on the state of lawlessness in the BoC, which is corruption.
“The state of lawless violence would refer to what is happening in the BoC. There is a state of lawlessness there…. It’s not just physical violence. You do violence to the Constitution, you do violence to the law. That’s a state of lawlessness,” he said.
But Mr. La Viña said, “That’s not the lawlessness that the Constitution says. The Constitution says ‘lawless violence,’ and these are riots, killings, and bombings.”
“Corruption is lawlessness, but it’s not lawless violence….Kasi kung lawlessness lang, ang daming lawlessness diba in any agency (Because if it is only about lawlessness, there are many cases of lawlessness in any agency),” he added.
Mr. Panelo also noted that “with former General Rey (Leonardo B.) Guerrero as our Customs Commissioner, coupled with the assistance of AFP Chief-of-Staff Carlito (G.) Galvez (Jr.) and his men, we are hopeful that the BoC will be finally cleansed from corruption and drug-related activities.”
For his part, Mr. La Viña said: “If corruption is really endemic, then the [solution] is for Congress to pass a law abolishing the Bureau of Customs and replacing it with a different agency. Maybe you can privatize the inspection work, but still have a specialized agency that monitors all your private inspection facilities.”
GUBAN TO WPP
In a related development, former Customs officer Jimmy S. Guban will be turned over to the Department of Justice (DoJ) on Tuesday and will be admitted to the agency’s witness protection program (WPP), Senator Richard J. Gordon said.
“Guban will now be turned over to the Secretary of Justice today. Delikado na siya dito (it’s risky for him to stay here),” the senator told reporters after the hearing on the illegal shabu shipments last August that slipped past the Bureau of Customs (BoC).
Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra also confirmed that Mr. Guban is now under WPP. “Mr. Guban has been admitted into the WPP. But that’s all I can say,” he told reporters in a text message.
Mr. Gordon said he will also recommend that Customs official Lourdes V. Mangaoang be placed under WPP as well.
Mr. Duterte had earlier ordered Mr. Guban’s arrest, but Mr. Gordon said the former Customs intelligence officer could not be arrested without a case against him.
Sacked police officer Eduardo Acierto and former deputy director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-National Capital Region Ismael G. Fajardo failed to attend the Senate hearing on Tuesday. The two former officers were allegedly behind the entry of the P11 billion worth of illegal drugs into the country.
During the hearing, Mr. Guban, in a written affidavit, claimed that he refused to facilitate the entry of a shipment that Mr. Acierto wanted out of the Bureau of Customs (BoC) after being informed that it contained illegal drugs.
He recounted that Mr. Acierto asked for his help sometime between May and July to find a consignee for the importation of several goods, including four magnetic lifters. Mr. Acierto also allegedly sought assistance for another set of goods since it was revealed that the original importer was not accredited by the BoC.
When Mr. Acierto told him that the said goods contained illegal drugs, Mr. Guban responded by saying that the BoC would apprehend the goods.
“Upon hearing, I immediately responded that it was not possible to do and I declared to Colonel that we from the Bureau of Customs would cause the apprehension of these drugs. This is my duty as government employee and as Customs Intelligence Officer,” Mr. Guban said.
“Upon seeing my sincere will and intention to have these drugs apprehended, Col. Acierto committed to me that he would help in its apprehension by providing the details of the shipment,” he added. He also said he referred Mr. Fajardo to Mr. Acierto so operations could be done on the shabu shipment.
It was through Mr. Acierto’s “staggered or piecemeal” information that law enforcement agencies were able to locate the illegal drugs inside the magnetic lifters stored at the Manila International Container Ports (MICP), Mr. Guban said.
However, Mr. Gordon expressed skepticism about Mr. Guban’s narrative that Mr. Acierto’s information helped in the discovery of the illegal drugs at MICP.
“I think that’s what they’re trying to put out from the very beginning. I never bought that because my first theory is that they wanted the big shipment out then they allowed the small shipment to be caught but I think they were really trying to get it out,” he said.
HOUSE INQUIRY
For its part, the House Committees on Dangerous Drugs is set to continue its investigation. “We will probably have another hearing when we resume in November,” Committee chair Robert Ace Barbers of the 2nd district of Surigao del Norte told BusinessWorld in a phone interview, Monday.
Mr. Barbers said the Committee intends to get the testimonies of Messrs. Acierto and Fajardo.
“Gusto namin mag-appear sila. Kailangan ang mga testimonies nila, especially Col. Acierto and Fajardo because they were implicated by Guban, by the witness,” Mr. Barbers said. (We want to them to appear before the panel. We need their testimonies, especially Col. Acierto and Fajardo because they were implicated by Guban, by the witness).
In their hearing last Oct. 24, the joint House panels on Dangerous Drugs and Good Government and Public Accountability subpoenaed Messrs. Acierto and Fajardo after their no-show in that inquiry.
Mr. Barbers said, “We want to prove kung sino ‘yung mga (who among the) BoC (Bureau of Customs), PDEA and PNP personnel (are) in cahoots with the drug syndicate….”
“We will definitely recommend prosecution against those government employees, officials that have committed malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance, ‘yun ang aming (that’s our) objective.” — Arjay L. Balinbin, Camille A. Aguinaldo, and Charmaine A. Tadalan

Net trust in Robredo remains ‘good’

By Charmaine A. Tadalan, Reporter
VICE-PRESIDENT Maria Leonor G. Robredo maintained a “good” net public trust despite a 2-point decline to +38 in Sept. 2018 from +40 in June.
The 3rd Quarter 2018 Social Weather Station (SWS) survey reported 59% of Filipinos having “much trust” in the Vice-President and 21% having “little trust,” with the remaining 20% undecided.
The 2-point decline was attributed to decreases in Visayas and Balance Luzon, which was offset by increases in Mindanao and Metro Manila.
According to the quarterly poll, Ms. Robredo’s net trust rating in Visayas dropped by 17 points to +34, “good” from +51, “very good,” in June 2018.
The Vice President also lost 5 points in Balance Luzon to +42 from +47 in the previous quarter, but remained within the “good” range.
On the other hand, her trust rating in Mindanao rose by 14 points, or one grade higher, to “good,” +42, from “moderate,” +28.
In Metro Manila, the Vice-President rose two points to +24 from +22 in June 2018, and she remained within the “moderate” grade.
The noncommissioned survey found Ms. Robredo maintaining her “good” rating among elementary and high school graduates and “moderate” rating among college graduates.
Her rating, however, fell one grade lower to “good” from “very good” among non-elementary graduates after decreasing by 11 points to +43 from +54 in the previous quarter.
The SWS noted the result of the trust rating survey was “directly” related to Ms. Robredo’s performance as Vice-President.
“Compared to June 2018, net trust in Robredo stayed excellent among those satisfied with her performance as Vice-President, while it stayed poor among those dissatisfied with her,” the SWS reported.
The quarterly poll found Ms. Robredo’s net trust rating among those satisfied with her performance staying “excellent, and among those dissatisfied staying “poor.”
Her rating fell 16 points to +14 “moderate” from +30 “good” among those undecided.
The SWS earlier reported the satisfaction rating of the Vice-President stayed “good,” gaining 2 points to +34 in Sept. 2018 from +32 in June.
The September survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 1,500 adults, with 600 respondents in Balance Luzon, 300 each in Metro Manila, Visayas and Mindanao, and with sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages, ±4% for Balance Luzon, and ±6% each for Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao.

Number-coding scheme suspended

THE METRO MANILA Development Authority (MMDA) has ordered the suspension of the number-coding scheme on Oct. 31, Nov. 1, Nov. 2, and Nov. 5, the agency announced via social media on Tuesday, Oct. 30.
The suspension of the traffic scheme is in consideration of All Saint’s Day, the MMDA said.

DFA: Halloween partygoers in Saudi Arabia released

By Camille A. Aguinaldo, Reporter
THE Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Tuesday said the arrested Filipino women in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia were already released by authorities.
Earlier today, the DFA reported that some 17 Filipino women were arrested during a raid conducted by local authorities last week.
The Philippine Embassy in Riyadh stated the Filipinos were held in custody at the Al Nisa Jail in the capital after Saudi intelligence operatives raided a compound where a Halloween party was taking place. The compound was raided after neighbors complained about the noise from the party.
According to Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Adnan V. Alonto, embassy officials have also been requesting access to the detained women. He added that it was not yet clear on what charges have been filed against the detained Filipinos.
Initial information from the Embassy gathered that the organizers were charged with holding an event without a permit and for disturbing the neighborhood.
Saudi laws strictly prohibit unattached males and females from being seen together in public.
Following the incident, the DFA reminded overseas Filipino workers abroad to respect the laws and traditions of host countries. The Embassy in Saudi Arabia has also issued an advisory to the Filipino community in the country to be mindful of local sensitivities.

Palace: Facebook to help investigate online harassment of journalists

By Arjay L. Balinbin, Reporter
FACEBOOK has agreed to “coordinate” with the Presidential Task Force on Media Security to address online attacks on media practitioners in the country, according to Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Undersecretary Joel Sy Egco.
In a phone interview on Tuesday, Oct. 30, Mr. Egco, who also serves as Executive Director of the Presidential Task Force on Media, said he met with “two” representatives from Facebook’s Public Policy Division “last September” to discuss possible measures to address harassments against media practitioners on the social media site.
“Yung (The) meeting with Facebook happened immediately after noong nangyari kay (the incident involving) Julie Alipala in September, last month,” he said.
It will be recalled that the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) last month “condemn[ed] the dubious Facebook group Phil Leaks that tagged [its] former director and veteran journalist Julie Alipala of the Philippine Daily Inquirer as a terrorist supporter and accusing her of being a paid hack.”
The agreement between Facebook and the task force is called “coordination,” according to Mr. Egco. “Kasi (Because) we cannot tell them what to do and they cannot tell us what to do or what not to do.”
“So ang napag-agreehan, in case na merong complaint sa amin (We agreed that if there is a complaint), just like what happened kay (to) Julie [Ms. Alipala], we will communicate it to Facebook, and they will check with their own community standards. Kay (As for) Julie [Ms. Alipala], they found out na hindi lang (that it was not just) freedom of expression. (Those were really) threats talaga, so they took down the…post,” he explained.
“So co-complain sa amin (we will receive the complaints) and we will alert them [Facebook], then they will check. Ngayon meron pa silang (They also have a) law enforcement division…if the complainant decides to pursue charges against the [person],” he added.
The social media site, for its part, according to Mr. Egco, explained that “they have their own standards. And their standards are applied on Facebook in all countries…. Ang kanilang (Their) community standards are applicable sa lahat (to all).”
“Sabi nila (They said) , kung ang (if our) requests natin ay fit (in with their) sa kanilang standards, then there will be no problem,” he said further.
The task force, Mr. Egco also said, will have “future meetings” with Facebook to further discuss this matter. “We will invite them [Facebook] to sit down with us for them to share also about their efforts not only on media security but also all Facebook users’ security. E ca-carve out natin sa kanilang (We will carve out in their) program yung (the one which is) intended for media workers.”

1...11,27711,27811,279...13,750Page 11,278 of 13,750
© 2024 BusinessWorld Publishing.
All rights reserved.
Read our privacy guidelines
Facebook Instagram Linkedin Twitter Youtube