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DTI says Price Act fines do not deter violations

THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said Thursday it will seek amendments to the Price Act to upgrade the prescribed fines for price manipulation and other violations.

Trade Undersecretary Ruth B. Castelo said at a Senate hearing that fines prescribed by the law, ranging from P5,000 to P2 million, are sufficient to deter violations.

“Hindi natatakot ang tao (People are not daunted) because they can always pay P10,000 and then commit the violation again, especially big retail stores,” Ms. Castelo said.

The Department recommended a minimum fine of P50,000 and the maximum to P2 million for price manipulation and P3 million for violating price ceilings.

Republic Act No. 7851 currently penalizes individuals found guilty of hoarding, profiteering and cartel activity with five to 15 years’ imprisonment plus a fine of between P5,000 and P2 million.

Violators of price ceilings are currently liable to be sentenced to one to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of between P5,000 and P1 million.

Ms. Castelo said there may be a need to reconsider the suggested retail price (SRP) and make it mandatory to allow the DTI to apprehend retailers selling above the SRP.

The law “does not give us authority to apprehend, penalize or catch violators,” she said.

“We don’t know if we need to change the term suggested or make it mandatory at least for basic and prime goods.”

The committee was tackling Senate Bill No. 1454, which seeks to expand coverage of goods that are subject to automatic price controls, to include personal protective equipment and medical devices.

The bill also proposes to consider an epidemic, pandemic or any form of public health emergency as among the conditions that would trigger automatic price controls.

Ms. Castelo proposed to include other basic commodities in preparation for disasters that may hit the country. She also proposed to include prime commodities to those subject to automatic price controls.

She said a new crisis may erupt which will force further amendments. “In preparation for the big one, ‘yung mga emergency na darating sana (and other emergencies that may take place) we’ll be ready,” she said. — Charmaine A. Tadalan

Special session proposed to pass CREATE bill, other critical measures

A LEGISLATOR has asked President Rodrigo R. Duterte to seek a special session of Congress in order to pass “critically-needed” measures to boost the economy, such as the proposed Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE).

In a statement Thursday, Albay Representative and House Ways and Means committee chairman Jose Maria Clemente S. Salceda said that the House intends to pass its stimulus recovery program before it adjourns, and that it has already “done its duty of passing the old version of CREATE, which is CITIRA (Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act), and will in fact adopt the Senate version if they pass it on Monday or Tuesday next week.”

“We have to get both of these measures done now. I would of course prefer to have them approved for the President’s signature next week, but if we cannot, the best alternative is a special session,” he said.

The CREATE bill is the revised form of CITIRA, which accelerates the timetable for reducing the corporate income tax to 25% from the current 30%.

The tax rate will be further reduced by 1 percentage point annually beginning 2023 until 2027. In CITIRA, the bill proposed to gradually reduce the rate until it hits 20% in 2029.

The tax reductions were accelerated due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis. The bill is now positioned as a means of attracting investment from foreign companies looking to move out of China.

Mr. Salceda estimates that about $12 billion in foreign investment has been foregone due to the two-year delay in passing corporate tax reform legislation, which was approved by the Cabinet in January 2018. He added that a delay in the passage of an “adequate” economic recovery plan costs the economy up to P100 billion in new economic activity every week.

“Every single week that we are unable to pass an economic stimulus plan and the corporate tax reform costs us hundreds of billions of pesos in foregone opportunities every week. At that rate, hindi na po kayang palagpasin pa hanggang July (It cannot wait beyond July). June is the time to get them enacted, so that we can still reap the benefits in the second half. Kami po sa House (We in the House) are confident that if we have to, we can get both approved by June 3. If the Senate cannot, the President should extend session and not terminate until they get both passed,” he said.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said that the tax reform package entrusts in the private sector the funds and resources needed to “fire up the economy and quickly bring back the country to the path of high and inclusive-growth.”

“There is no better time to reform our corporate income tax system, and modernize our fiscal incentives system than now. This could be the most important economic reform in decades. As statements of our partners in industry and civil society show, the economy can no longer bear any delay in this reform. Now is the best time to do it,” Mr. Dominguez said in a statement Thursday.

Mr. Dominguez said that 5% CIT reduction is expected to reduce government revenue by P42 billion in the second half of the year if CREATE is implemented by July, and by another P625 billion over the next five years. The tax cuts are expected to fuel economic activity as businesses, especially micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), retain more funds to support their operations and keep employees at work.

Business groups on Thursday expressed their support for the immediate passage of CITIRA, saying that the measure will be a “life-restoring boost to market confidence, providing the most direct, cost-efficient and instant relief to businesses suffering from business reverses due to COVID-19.”

“The instant 5% tax savings by July is a direct infusion of financial assistance to businesses, giving them more resources to retain employees and to keep up with financial difficulties. As an investment- attracting move, the CIT cut drastically alters, for the better, the financial prospectus of the Philippines,” according to the joint statement of 32 groups.

Aside from the tax cuts, CREATE also extends the sunset period for current incentive recipients from two to seven years; lengthens the effectivity to five years of the net operating loss carryover (NOLCO) for non-large taxpayers from the current three years; and grants discretion to the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) to recommend to the President longer incentives and additional non-fiscal incentives for critical investments.

“We humbly request the Senate and the House of Representatives to move quickly and decisively to push CREATE forward and ensure its passage urgently, ideally before Congress adjourns on June 3. Any further delay comes at the risk of losing more jobs and hemorrhaging more investments,” according to the joint statement. — Genshen L. Espedido

Higher demand seen likely to pull up June WESM prices

PRICES at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) are likely to increase with demand expected to pick up as industries and commercial establishments set to resume operations in June, its operator reported.

Based on the projection of the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP), the trading price may rise to as much as P4.27 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) next month when businesses in Luzon and the Visayas are expected to restart 70% of their operations under general community quarantine (GCQ).

It projected peak demand at 13,368 megawatts (MW), against a stable average daily supply of 14,970 MW.

“With an increase in demand, we need more production from the next available plant. Given ‘yung offer behavior na nakikita namin ngayon (Based on the offer behavior we are seeing), the projected price with this kind of aggressive demand… tataas ng kaunti (will slightly increase) to P4.27,” IEMOP Chief Operating Officer Robinson P. Descanzo told reporters.

Between March 26 and May 26, IEMOP recorded an actual average price of P1.77/kWh with average daily supply at 13,340 MW and peak demand at 11,567 MW.

Should only 60% of industrial and commercial operations resume in June, the price is expected to settle at P1.85/kWh, or P0.11 less than the average price in May, with peak demand at 12,153 MW and the same stable average supply.

IEMOP assumed a stable supply in the month due to the expected increase in the contribution of hydropower plants in the generation mix and cooler temperature.

The outlook also considered a scenario of a power plant outage resulting in the loss of over 1,000 MW.

During the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) between March 15 and May 15, power demand declined 15% to 10,053 MW from the pre-lockdown levels.

After most of the country transitioned into a more-relaxed quarantine on May 16, demand almost returned to the level recorded between Feb. 26 and mid-March, which was about 11,144 MW.

“Overall, during the ECQ period, bumaba iyong demand natin (demand fell) by almost 15% compared to the pre-ECQ levels. Then in the post-ECQ period nag-increase na gradually ‘yung demand (demand increased gradually),” Mr. Descanzo noted.

Meanwhile, power supply fell by 200 MW in May following multiple power plant outages and the transit of Typhoon Ambo.

This led to a tighter supply margin of 2,356 MW with supply at 13,226 MW and a total system requirement, or the combination of demand and reserve levels, of 10,870 MW. This compares with April’s 3,789 MW margin.

Coal remains the most utilized energy source during the quarantine despite a lower utilization level of 53%, compared with 70% of capacity used before entering the lockdown phase. — Adam J. Ang

Philippines posts record hike in coronavirus infections to 15,588

By Vann Marlo M. Villegas , Reporter

HEALTH authorities reported a record increase in coronavirus infections on Thursday, just as Manila, the capital and nearby cities expected the government to ease an 11-week lockdown — one of the longest in the world — starting June 1.

The Department of Health (DoH) reported 539 new cases, bringing the total to 15,588.

The death toll rose to 921 after 17 more patients died, it said in a bulletin. Ninety-two more patients have gotten well, bringing the total recoveries to 3,598, it added.

Of the 539 new cases, 330 came from Metro Manila, 55 from Central Visayas and 99 from the other regions. Fifty-five were returning Filipino workers from overseas.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire traced the record increase to more validated cases.

“We expect the cases to increase in the coming days because we continue to validate cases,” she said at an online news briefing.

Ms. Vergeire said earlier in the day the government had ordered local laboratories to fast-track testing and clear almost 4,000 backlogs.

She also said the Philippines needs more than P11 billion to hire workers who will trace people who may have been in contact with a coronavirus-infected patient and prevent further spread.

The country, where infections have reached more than 15,000, needs more than 120,000 contact tracers in the next three months, Ms. Vergeire said.

The World Health Organization has recommended one contact tracer for every 800 people.

“We have 38,000 plus contact tracers now,” Ms. Vergeire said. “We still need 95,000 more.”

She earlier said contact tracers should ideally be a nurse or someone in the healthcare profession.

Contact tracers are expected to gather data, interview people and assess the health of contacts.

DoH is discussing the hiring of the workers with the Department of Interior and Local Government.

The virus has sickened 5.8 million and killed about 358,000 people worldwide, according to the Worldometers website, citing various sources including data from the World Health Organization.

Metro Manila ready for further lockdown easing, Palace says

THE PHILIPPINE capital and nearby cities are ready for further lockdown easing, the presidential palace said on Thursday, as President Rodrigo R. Duterte was set to announce his decision on the matter last night.

“The National Capital Region is ready, based on the data that we have seen, but that really depends on the cooperation of everyone,” presidential spokesman Harry L. Roque said at a news briefing on Thursday.

An inter-agency task force made up of Cabinet secretaries met on Wednesday to discuss the lockdown in Metro Manila that started on March 17.

Mr. Duterte locked down Luzon island in mid-March, suspending work, classes and public transportation to contain the pandemic.

The lockdown in some areas has since been relaxed, while Metro Manila, where infections are largely concentrated, remains under an altered quarantine until the end of the month. Some businesses have been allowed with minimal workforce.

Mr. Roque said even if the lockdown is shifted to a more relaxed general community quarantine, the government could always order a stricter enhanced community quarantine if it’s shown that the infection rate has quickened.

Roque said the government was confident that Filipinos would observe health safety measures even if the lockdown is eased. — Gillian M. Cortez

Senators seek to extend Duterte’s special powers

SEVERAL BILLS seeking to extend the validity of a law giving President Rodrigo R. Duterte special powers to fight a coronavirus pandemic have been filed at the Senate.

Senator Juan Miguel F. Zubiri filed a bill that will extend the effectivity of the law, which will expire next month, until September.

The law allowed the President to realign the budget for anti-COVID-19 measures. Under the law, low-income households were supposed to get as much as P8,000 in monthly cash aid for two months.

There is a need to “provide emergency support for vulnerable groups and individuals, expand medical resources to fight COVID-19 and finance emergency initiatives to keep the economy afloat.” Mr. Zubiri said in the bill’s explanatory note.

Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III on Wednesday said the chamber would approve the extension before the session adjourns on June 3.

Senator Ralph G. Recto also filed a bill that pushed for the extension until Sept. 30.

His measure provides for a P600-billion reserve budget for economic recovery. It includes P30 billion worth of emergency subsidy to workers, P20 billion for a cash for work program, P20 billion for prevention and control of other diseases and P10 billion for mass testing.

It will also include a P70-billion funding for capital infusion to state-owned banks, P80 billion for programs for health and displaced workers and P20 billion for the farm sector.

Also yesterday Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said at a forum economic managers wanted to keep the flexibility given to the government under the law.

Meanwhile, the Senate finance committee will hear economic stimulus and recovery bills on Friday, starting with a consultation with the private sector.

Senator Juan Edgardo M. Angara, who heads the panel, said the committee would try to adjust the law on special powers if needed.

“We’ll take a look at what is working and what needs tweaking if any,” Mr. Angara said in a statement. — Charmaine A. Tadalan

#COVID-19 Regional Updates (05/28/20)

DA assures adequate food supply in SOCCSKSARGEN region

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) assured that the SOCCSKSARGEN region — composed of the provinces of South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and Sarangani, and General Santos City — has enough food supply amid the coronavirus pandemic. In a statement on Thursday, DA Region 12 Director Arlan M. Mangelen said there is sufficient supply of food commodities such as meat, rice, and other major crops. “Our rolling market, Kadiwa on Wheels, is going around the SOCCSKSARGEN region to sell agricultural goods to low-income households at low prices,” he said. The agency has also distributed rice and corn seeds, livestock, and vegetables seeds for backyard farming to boost production. Mr. Mangelen added that farmer beneficiaries will be provided with crop insurance, particularly on rice. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

Returning residents in Eastern Visayas, Bangsamoro test positive for coronavirus

THREE new coronavirus cases were reported in Eastern Visayas on May 28, including two who recently returned to their hometowns under the government’s back-to-the-province countryside development program. “We will get the bus manifesto where these two passengers rode for contact tracing. These beneficiaries of the Bagong Pag-asa Balik Probinsya Program have been swabbed upon arrival here in the province last May 21… We would like to appeal to other stakeholders to please observe proper flow of reporting and announcement of results to avoid panic and misinformation to the public,” Department of Health Regional Director Minerva P. Molon said in a streamed briefing Thursday. As of May 27, the region had 28 confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases, with 20 recoveries and no death. In the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), 11 new cases were recorded, all part of a group of 16 students who recently came home after being stuck in Cebu City due to the lockdown. BARMM Health Minister Safrullah Dipatuan assured the public that the students, including the four who tested negative, are staying in the government’s isolation facility. “Hindi sila pinayagang makauwi agad. Sila ay na-quarantine sa loob ng 14 na araw (They were not allowed to go home immediately. They are under quarantine for 14 days),” Mr. Dipatuan said in a virtual briefing. There are now 23 confirmed cases in the Bangsamoro. Both Eastern Visayas and BARMM are among the regions that recently had their own testing facilities operational, allowing for faster releasing of results. Local governments around the country, several of which have zero and many with low coronavirus cases, are currently managing the return of residents stranded locally, overseas workers, and beneficiaries of the Balik Probinsya program to avoid local outbreaks. — MSJ

Nationwide round-up

Laboratories told two clear testing backlogs by Thursday


THE Department of Health (DoH) has instructed all accredited coronavirus laboratories to finish the testing of all pending samples by Thursday, following instruction from the Office of the President.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario S. Vergeire said on Thursday there are 3,683 pending results from the more than 12,000 samples submitted from more than two weeks ago.

She said they met with the laboratories last Monday and instructed them to reduce backlogs in two to three days.

“Binigyan namin sila ng (We gave them) strategies on how to do it and yesterday we saw the progress already, nabawasan na tayo ng (we’ve reduced) almost 40% of the backlogs that we had last Monday,” she said in a virtual briefing.

Ms. Vergeire said they target to bring the backlogs to zero by Thursday.

She also noted that testing slowed down early this week due to problems in supplies, which has already been sourced out.

Three laboratories — the Bicol Medical Center, the UP-National Institutes for Health, and Lung Center of the Philippines — have also resumed testing Monday after a halt in operations.

The DoH targets a 30,000 daily testing capacity by the end of the month.

As of May 26, there were 42 accredited testing laboratories in the country.

Ms. Vergeire on May 25 said they have identified 17 more laboratories to be licensed in the next two weeks. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas

Bill filed for free COVID-19 mass testing program

A PROPOSED law that will establish a free mass testing program for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was filed in the House of Representatives.

“The current limited testing and prioritization done by the DOH (Department of Health), poses much greater threat of infection to the Filipino population. Doing the sorely needed mass testing entails vastly improving laboratory capacity to meet the demand while addressing the backlogs, and it requires urgent action,” reads part of the explanatory note of House Bill 848 filed by the Makabayan bloc on Thursday.

The bill, which if passed will be known as the Free Mass Testing Act of 2020, seeks free testing for all suspect cases, close contacts of probable and confirmed cases, high risk communities, health workers, and other vulnerable sectors and groups.

The measure provides for a free mass testing fund for this purpose, but no specific amount was indicated.

All workers and students will also be tested before returning to work or school, while all repatriated overseas workers and incoming foreign nationals will be screened by the Bureau of Quarantine.

The measure also directs the government to establish a mass testing plan, set up a testing facility in every region, and maintain a COVID-19 database that includes all tested individuals, case status, and testing backlogs.

The bill also wants the national task force to provide all members of Congress a report every Monday, indicating the number of tested individuals per category and per region, and budget utilization. — Genshen L. Espedido

Public school enrolment starts Monday

ENROLMENT for primary and secondary public schools will start June 1, with the government trying out a remote system.

Education Undersecretary Annalyn M. Sevilla said on Thursday that class advisers are tasked to contact their students last year for registration in the coming school year.

“From June 1 to June 30, eto ang gagawin namin na enrolment (This is what we will do for enrolment),” she said.

Incoming kindergarten and transfer students, however, will have to physically register, with schools ordered to set up distancing protocols to avoid potential coronavirus transmissions.

During the enrolment, a survey will also be conducted to gather information on whether students have the necessary gadgets and access to online learning.

Education officials said they agree with President Rodrigo R. Duterte that face-to-face classes pose a high risk to children while a vaccine for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has yet to be developed.

They, however, want to push through with the planned opening of classes by August 24.

The Department of Education is eyeing the use of government broadcast systems such as state-owned PTV channel as one of the teaching tools in a planned “blended learning” system. — Gillian M. Cortez

Over 600 more Filipinos arrive home amid pandemic

MORE than 600 overseas Filipinos from the United States, Cambodia and Germany arrived on Thursday amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that has infected 5.7 million and killed more than 350,000 worldwide.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) received early Thursday morning 124 Filipinos who were stranded from the west coast of the United States. This was followed by 167 Filipinos from Cambodia.

“This was the second repatriation flight from Cambodia since the COVID-19 outbreak,” DFA said in a social media post.

Some 357 Filipino seafarers of AIDA Cruises from Hamburg, Germany also arrived on Tuesday.

Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Eduardo Martin R. Meñez said as of May 27, they have assisted 30,541 returning Filipinos since February.

Majority of these are seafarers at 20,138 while 10,403 are land-based workers.

Among Filipinos abroad, DFA said there were 2,664 confirmed cases as of May 27, including 1,400 who are still undergoing treatment. There are 334 deaths and 930 have recovered. — Charmaine A. Tadalan

Gov’t tracks illegal clinics treating foreigners suspected to have coronavirus

JUSTICE Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra said he will direct the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to locate illegal clinics in the country that treat foreigners for coronavirus infection.

“I will therefore ask the NBI and the BI to help the police in locating other similar underground clinics and the people running them, and if warranted, to file the appropriate charges against them,” he told reporters in a Viber message.

GMA News reported on May 26 that an unlicensed medical facility that treats Chinese patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was found in Makati City.

Last May 19, authorities also raided a villa at the Fontana Leisure Park in Clark Freeport that was turned into a makeshift medical facility for Chinese patients.

Two foreigners — Ling Hu, 45, the alleged owner; and Seung-Hyun Lee, the alleged pharmacist — were arrested at the Fontana raid, but released the same day without charges.

The BI on Thursday said the two have been placed under the alert list.

The four Chinese patients who underwent treatment at the illegal facility are also being located.

“Even if no criminal charges were filed against them, they can be charged for immigration law violations if we can establish that they violate the conditions of their stay in the country,” Bureau Chief Jaime H. Morente said.

The immigration chief also said that they are conducting a probe on the clandestine hospital in Makati.

BI Intelligence Chief Fortunato S. Manahan Jr. said they are also investigating if there is a connection between the two facilities. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas

American sentenced to life in jail for human trafficking

AN American has been convicted by a local court for human trafficking and sentenced to life in jail.

United States-based International Justice Mission, in a statement on Thursday, reported that David Timothy Deakin was found guilty of large-scale qualified trafficking in persons and was also slapped with a P2 million fine.

He was also ordered to pay each victim P500,000 in moral damages and P100,000 as exemplary damages.

The promulgation, done through video conferencing, was handed out by Judge Irineo P. Pangilinan, Jr. of the Angeles City Regional Trial Court.

Deakin was arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on April 20, 2017 in his rented house in Angeles City and was found in possession of files of child sexual exploitation material, sex toys, and illegal drug paraphernalia.

Janet Francisco, chief of the NBI-Anti Trafficking in Person Division, said they “are strongly pursuing those who abuse our children and exploit them through the internet.”

International Justice Mission National Director Samson Innocencio Jr. said the Philippine justice system should continue protecting children who “are unsafe during the lockdown.”

The Department of Justice said cases of online sexual exploitation of children increased by 264.63% year-on-year to 279,166 from March to May 2020 when the strict lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic was in place. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas

The ABS-CBN shutdown and democracy

Communication academics, media advocacy groups, human rights defenders, journalists’ organizations, artists and other professionals, and even some congressmen and senators have condemned the shutdown of ABS-CBN.

But National Artist for Literature F. Sionil Jose is among the very few writers who’re supporting the silencing of the network. The Philippine Center of PEN (Poets, Playwrights, Essayists, Novelists) International, which he organized in 1958, is itself critical of the government order, and has correctly described it as an assault on free expression and press freedom, and therefore on democracy — or what little is left of it.

Sionil Jose weighed in on the issue in a Facebook post and a patronizing column in a Manila broadsheet. He argued that “Filipinos do not really need ABS-CBN” and that its being forced off the air doesn’t undermine press freedom. Since “it does not produce goods or food,” no one should mourn the network shutdown because “it did not diminish poverty.”

Describing the network owners, the Lopezes, as oligarchs, Sionil Jose claimed that by diminishing their power, the shutdown of ABS-CBN brings the country closer to the realization of the “revolution” that he believes is the only solution to the poverty of the majority, particularly the peasantry. The “demise” of ABS-CBN, he concluded, will be “good for democracy” because it will help end the rule of the oligarchy.

An oligarchy is quite simply the rule of the few. It might well be asked if the Lopezes are among the handful of families that lord it over this country. If they are, they should have had no problem in getting Congress to renew the franchise of ABS-CBN. But the most recent developments suggest that the end of the network may indeed be imminent.

The House of Representatives has reneged on its earlier promise to give the network a provisional, five-month permit, while the National Telecommunication Commission, at the time this piece was being written, has asked the Supreme Court not to issue a temporary restraining order against its May 5 “cease and desist” order shutting down its operations. ABS-CBN executives have already alerted the company’s 11,000 employees of the distinct possibility that they will lose their jobs by August this year.

Wealth the Lopezes may indeed have, but wealth alone does not make any family part of the oligarchy. One also needs political influence at least, if not actual power.

It’s supposed to be a democracy, but the Philippines is ruled by an oligarchy — or more precisely, by bureaucrat capitalists who use their political power to enrich themselves. But whether the Lopez family qualifies as part of those few or not seems hardly at issue at this point. Throwing the oligarchs out for the sake of democratizing Philippine governance does matter, but will throwing out one oligarch make the difference? With or without the Lopezes, the oligarchy will still be in power, and Sionil Jose’s “revolution” unlikely.

What’s even more to the point is that through an orchestrated campaign that has included President Rodrigo Duterte’s repeated threat to make sure its franchise is not renewed so it will be “out,” and the mobilization of at least two agencies of the government as well as members of Congress, it is that very oligarchy that has been focused on silencing the network.

Sionil Jose’s declaration that the country won’t lose anything with the ABS-CBN shutdown provokes another question. Is the value of an entity decided solely by whether or not it produces material goods and food? Like writers such as Sionil Jose himself, the best journalists and media workers produce neither, but their work does have value.

By reporting and explaining what’s happening in their country and the rest of the world, they help their fellow men and women understand their social and natural environments not only so they can better function in them, but also to enable them to make the informed decisions that can make the difference between being slaves of circumstances or prevailing over them.

The Constitution so understands the value of the media to democratic governance, and that of press freedom and free expression, that it explicitly protects both in Article III Section 4 of its Bill of Rights. Both freedoms are the necessary complements to the people’s Constitutional right to know, which includes the prerogative to choose which medium or source of information they prefer to access, but which the shutdown now severely limits.

Sionil Jose said Filipinos “don’t really need” ABS-CBN. But the value of the reports the network used to provide over radio and free TV was plainly demonstrated during last May 14-17’s typhoon Ambo, when some of the people in the hardest-hit areas, because of the shutdown of their usual sources of information, turned out to have been unaware that a typhoon was going to smash into their communities and were therefore unprepared for it.

It is nevertheless true, as Sionil Jose points out, that, barring government intervention and other catastrophes, there are other media organizations that will continue their operations. But like ABS-CBN, those networks and newspapers are also owned and controlled by political and economic interests. The difference is that the latter are demonstrably better connected politically than the former. One had no problem renewing its 25-year franchises, and has not been the target of government intimidation and harassment.

The media are powerful institutions that can shape collective opinion, decide the agenda of public discourse, move people to action, and in general influence the ideas, attitudes and values of the multitude. Their power over the public mind makes vital the question of whether individual journalists and other practitioners are able to report truthfully and fairly those events and issues that affect the lives of billions all over the world.

The political and economic interests of media owners are too often a major factor in the way media provide news and entertainment. But if this is the general rule, it isn’t by itself enough to justify condemnation of the entire corporate media community. What is needed is to establish what is happening on the ground, which requires content analysis of the reporting, commentary and analysis that Philippine media provide, as well as research into the extent of owner control over media content.

Media critics and analysts have so far found that ABS-CBN reporting has been relatively fair to government and other entities. Meanwhile, intervention in the operations of other media companies on behalf of the political and economic interests of their owners has been uneven. In print, some have been known to dictate what will appear on the front and opinion pages, while others leave it to professional staff to make such decisions unless a report, analysis or opinion piece is of particular relevance to advancing or compromising those interests.

These realities help explain the seeming vagaries of Philippine media performance. But what is critical at this time to understanding what’s at stake in the shutdown of ABS-CBN is the context in which it is happening. Other news organizations and individual journalists have been harassed and threatened, barred from coverage, and criminal libel and other cases even filed against them because their reportage, analysis and commentary, like those of ABS-CBN, were not to the liking of the oligarchs who rule the country.

It should be more than evident that these acts are forms of censorship. They are hardly “good for democracy.” On the contrary: despite the wealth and economic interests of its present owners, ABS-CBN’s continuing its operations is what would be.

 

Luis V. Teodoro is on Facebook and Twitter (@luisteodoro).

www.luisteodoro.com

Long-term vs short-term gains and suicidal absurdities

As we enter into the third month of our own country’s battle with COVID-19, despair is fighting for a foothold. Isolation of individuals and communities breeds depression.

The 20th century thinker Albert Camus posited that when realizing the “absurdity of existence,” suicide may be the only viable escape. So while every generation feels it must reform the world, his generation’s calling is to simply prevent it “from destroying itself.”

This pandemic has made us realize that the process of world suicide began generations ago. The perfect epidemiological storm of greed, disrespect for nature and dishonesty has fueled COVID-19’s wrath.

Addressing the proximate cause of despair, we must then strive to find — in the midst of this crisis — meaning and purpose. It is this approach that will make the pursuit of fundamental reforms, life-giving for the long haul, rather than suicidal.

For many politicians, the trade-off presented by policy choices may spell political suicide or may result in humanitarian redemption. The choice of allowing economic reopening and freer movement of people and goods across local borders might be misinterpreted as callousness towards protecting human life. On the other hand, giving a lion’s share of the budget to the health sector, prioritizing lockdown and testing for infections rather than immediately allowing commerce to resume, could alienate the business community. This choice does not bode well for 2022’s campaign contributions. The driving forces of meaning and purpose will indeed define policy choices.

In October 2019, the IMF published a discussion note entitled, “The Political Costs of Reforms: Fear or Reality.” Authors Gabriele Ciminelli, Davide Furceri, Jun Ghe, Jonathan D. Ostry, and Chris Papageorgiou, address the political economy of structural reforms beyond their economic benefits.

What kind of structural reforms did the IMF paper have in mind?

Structural reforms that count are those that reduce regulatory challenges to competition in both financial and product markets, those that open trade and financial flows and foster flexible labor markets. The IMF discussed reforms that will lead to better medium-term economic prospects — higher living standards, productivity and employment. The reforms envisioned would improve debt sustainability and enhance economic resilience to shocks such as this current global pandemic.

In this regard, the authors observed that given weak medium-term growth and limited fiscal space in many IMF member countries, structural reforms will “generate gains only in the longer term… distributional effects may be sizable in the short run.” IMF economists pointed out that the reforms are likely to produce concentrated losses with gains that are more spread out. This gives ground for anti-reformists to represent themselves as strong even as they are just few but well-funded. Politicians may then be inclined to pull out from socially desirable and long-term advocacies for fear of being voted out. It also argued that governments “may lack political capital to confront vocal interest groups.” This may prompt politicians to either delay or dilute policy changes for fear of political cost. This tendency further contributes to the inertia of reforms.

In the Philippines, our 30-year experience with economic difficulties have fostered far-ranging but longer gestating reforms. These institution-building exercises straddled several global and domestic crises and transcended presidential term after presidential term. Through the years, tenacious reform advocates in Congress, in the executive, and in the private sector, combined to achieve game-changing reforms. In turn, we have seen economic efficiency rising and total factor productivity surpassing others in the Asia Pacific region. These reforms were key to our 20 years of uninterrupted economic growth broken only by the effects of this unforeseen coronavirus pandemic.

Strong and decisive leadership could indeed make a difference between inertia and action.

It took decades and a Duterte to secure amendments to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Charter. Without these amendments, monetary authorities were hamstrung. Now, we reap the benefits of the new charter as the BSP is more effective especially during this crisis.

It took decades and a Duterte to reform the food sector. We now feel the benefits of the removal of quantitative restrictions in the rice industry in favor of tariffication as well as the overhaul of the National Food Authority.

The IMF paper also discussed the role of crisis in inducing reforms. A crisis is often a turning point and catalyst of popular support. Crisis has the potential to result in net welfare gains after deducting the loss from the crisis itself.

This kind of crisis leads to varied reforms. Economic recessions lead to trade, labor market and domestic financial liberalization in the medium term. Banking crises motivate tighter regulation in domestic finance and capital accounts.

Coming to the current COVID-19 public health battle, the urgency of the situation comes head-to-head with planned benefits of structural health reforms which may be felt only in the future — that is, after the forthcoming elections. Without the reforms yet taking effect, the decisions to pursue them — which will always be at immediate cost — may not be popular come election time 2022.

For example, the move to establish a modern general hospital in every city and province, complete with research and testing facilities and medical personnel, is a long-term aspiration. Compared with releasing more cash transfers and launching special amelioration programs for immediate needs, “the general hospital initiative” will not intuitively win more votes at the poll. Addressing current food and financial needs is a better campaign strategy. Thus, the personal incentive to pursue long-term health structural reforms for those with 2022 ambitions is weak.

According to the IMF, slowdown in public policy inertia is influenced by uncertainty in what to do; a lack of technical expertise to craft and implement reforms, a tendency for government to allow temporary issues to resolve themselves and finally, a tendency to postpone necessary reforms.

The IMF paper concludes with four findings based on data and evidence. First, reforms do not cost an electoral defeat when done during the early part of the incumbent’s term of office. Second, real sector reforms are benign compared to financial reforms which could have political costs. Third, political costs are magnified when reforms are undertaken during periods of weak economic activity. When the economy is doing well, economic reforms enhance electoral victory while financial reforms can be harmless. Finally, even if reforms are undertaken during bad times, political costs are minimized when there is strong ownership of reforms that are considered unavoidable. Costs are also mitigated when government clearly conveys firm commitment to proposed changes.

Society can truly benefit from reforms that are “well designed, appropriately timed, and carefully implemented” based on effective communication and transparency. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain.

As our own contemporary history has shown, difficult and even temporarily unpopular policy choices driven by greater meaning and purpose will deliver us from the “absurdity of existence,” and will halt us from destroying ourselves. This requires political will, foresight, and investment in the future.

 

Diwa C. Guinigundo is the former Deputy Governor for the Monetary and Economics Sector, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). He served the BSP for 41 years. In 2001-2003, he was Alternate Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC. He is the senior pastor of the Fullness of Christ International Ministries in Mandaluyong.

Sorry, President Trump, Twitter makes its own rules

By Stephen L. Carter

MY VIEW of the dust-up between Twitter and President Donald Trump is simple: The company should treat him exactly like it would treat any other user. But I’ll also admit to a degree of concern about how it treats other users, particularly the company’s growing determination to regulate opinions expressed on its site.

Twitter, long criticized by the left for its refusal to flag or even delete presidential tweets for which a less-known user might be suspended, finally decided to add warnings to a pair of Trump posts fulminating about the possibility of fraud when ballots go by mail. Given the president’s history of tweets that are grossly offensive, actually false or both — like last week’s despicable attacks on Joe Scarborough of MSNBC, which I won’t dignify by repeating or linking to — mail-in balloting is an odd place to draw the line. But the line’s been drawn, and the president’s response is a childish tantrum, threatening to shut Twitter down.

Twitter is a private company and it gets to set its own rules. If you break them, the company can alter the terms on which it will serve you. Yes, there are arguments for treating the president differently. For one thing, there’s a case to be made for the respect due the office, whatever one’s opinion of the occupant at a given moment. For another, Trump’s every tweet receives such a level of media scrutiny that flagging what Twitter considers untruths will be redundant. And given the belief by many of the president’s supporters that the news media distort his every word, social media might be his only means to stay in touch with his base.

Those arguments are not without force, but they’re not persuasive. I’d rather that Trump used social media less, and with some semblance of dignity. If he’s going to use Twitter, however, he doesn’t get an exemption because of the office he holds.*

But that’s far from the end of the matter. I worry about the rules Twitter imposes. On the one hand, I admire the company’s efforts to help users sort between bad information and good on such issues as vaccinations, and I’m intrigued by the possibility that the platform might imitate Wikipedia in having users themselves moderate content. On the other hand, when it comes to arguments over policy and politics, I’d rather that no institution, public or private, set itself up as arbiter.

Twitter, for example, has lately adopted a policy of placing labels on “potentially harmful” tweets about COVID-19, including those that go against the advice of public health officials. But that’s a dreadful standard. In the first place, public health officials are government employees, meaning criticism of and disagreement with their edicts should be encouraged. Moreover, they can err. I’m old enough to remember being instructed in no uncertain terms not to buy a face mask.

Twitter relies heavily on expert systems to flag falsehoods, but those systems need, let us say, some further work. For instance, tweets about the silly theory that COVID-19 is spread by 5G cell towers are being slapped with warning labels — even if the tweets are about how silly the theory is.

Which isn’t to say that humans will do any better. Trying to figure out who’s engaging in hyperbole and who’s lying is a thankless task … and a highly subjective one. Even with the best will in the world, one’s biases are bound to creep into the work of evaluation.

On the right, Twitter’s supposed tendency to lean left in applying its own rules about flagging content has become an article of faith. Even should those criticisms turn out to be correct,** Twitter would still be a private company entitled to its biases. True, some think social media platforms have grown so powerful that it’s time to regulate them as public forums, but that’s not a view I share. Even if I did, the rules right now are the rules right now, and if the president wants to use the platform, he has to comply.

Still, I find it strange that the company has chosen to draw the line at Trump’s criticism of voting by mail. On the merits, the debate over mail-in ballots is a perfectly legitimate one. Like a lot of people, I have trouble seeing how we can hold an election this fall if everybody has to wait in line as usual. But I believe in debate. Even when I’m for something, I’m eager to understand the arguments of those who disagree. I neither want nor need a parent to warn me not to pay attention.

It’s hard to make the case for unfettered debate when we have a president who refuses to stop yammering, and whose tongue (and tweets) far too often tend toward comments unguarded, offensive and inaccurate. But a principle isn’t a principle if you only apply it to the easy cases. And my fear here is the same as always: Once we start down the road of editing error and offensiveness out of the world of argument, not even Orwell knows where we’ll wind up. It won’t surprise you to learn that I’m among those who’d rather not find out.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

* And, not incidentally, the company isn’t preventing Trump from speaking to his base; at the worst, Twitter can be accused of adding a bit of editorializing when he does.

** Their favorite exhibit is the 2018 statement by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey that his company was so liberal that “conservative-leaning” employees “don’t feel safe to express their opinions at the company.” But he cited this as a problem he hoped to address.

Blinded with science but failed in economics?

“Follow the science” goes the mantra of anyone insisting that locking otherwise healthy people up is a good idea. The problem is, what science are they talking about?

Dr. Anthony Fauci currently most represents the face of “science” today, at least as far as this pandemic is concerned. And yet, the immunologist from the Jesuit’s College of the Holy Cross and Cornell University, and longtime head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has so far shown himself not immune from confusing flip-flops:

In January 2020, he declared the coronavirus disease 2019 nothing to worry about and “not a major threat” to the US, but then later advocated for prolonged lockdowns;

In February 2020, he advised people not to wear masks and then days later reversed himself;

In April 2020, he bizarrely said it’s ok for people to have sex with strangers but days later said it’s not good to shake hands; and, finally,

In May 12, he warned that re-opening too soon will cause “really serious” consequences, then just 10 days later warned if the States don’t open soon there’ll be “irreparable damage.”

Then there’s Neil Ferguson of the massively wrong Imperial College study. Because of his wildly off predictions for the US and UK (2.2 million deaths for the former and 500,000 for the latter; present estimates now range it from 130-160,000 and around 24,000, respectively), both countries embarked on policies that caused the most stringent curtailment of civil liberties in their respective histories. The Telegraph calls it simply “the most devastating software mistake of all time.”

Two unelected bureaucrats whose words liberal progressives demand we unquestioningly take as gospel truth and law. Yet reality has a way of demonstrating how unwise that is.

CNBC’s Christina Farr (“Why scientists are changing their minds and disagreeing during the coronavirus pandemic”, May 23) reported a defense of the scientists’ reversals: “It’s expected that even the highest-ranking academics will evolve their thinking — and many have done so during this COVID-19 pandemic,” and that for scientists “it’s a high mark to be able to say, ‘I’m going to change my mind’.”

Admittedly, that’s true. But it just bolsters the point that one cannot make policy solely and exclusively on the say-so of experts. Of course anything of great import is better off with expert advice but decisions or policy shouldn’t utterly and singularly be dependent on them.

First of all and as admitted by scientists themselves, data can change. That’s the nature of science. Karl Popper, who has put in as good a theory on the philosophy of science (and reality) as any, points out that “whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.”.

Or, more tritely: “Once we realize that human knowledge is fallible, we realize also that we can never be completely certain that we have not made a mistake.”

Finally, as asked at the outset here, what “science”? Science is certainly not confined to medicine or physics. The main basis for stating a field is scientific is its openness to verifying hypothesis by experiments and when people say “experiments” they usually mean “controlled” experiments (i.e., set circumstances allowing for repetitions). The making of vaccines or other drugs are good examples.

But not all experiments are controlled. There are the “natural” experiments (based on observation of the object of study without controlling variables) and “field” experiments (observation of the object in its natural setting), as well as “observational study” (drawing inferences from a sample to the population where the variables are uncontrolled by the researcher).

Disciplines like economics, law, and politics are rightly sciences as well (i.e., “social sciences”). Now, at first glance, it may seem that experiments conducted by medicine or physics come closer to reality than others. But such is illusory. Again, Popper: “In so far as a scientific statement speaks about reality, it must be falsifiable: and in so far as it is not falsifiable, it does not speak about reality.”

In the case of this pandemic, for example, to get a better grasp of the reality actually being confronted by our fellow citizens, to say “follow the science” shouldn’t exclusively mean of epidemiology alone (worthy as that field obviously is) but rather of every other “science” that affects us all.

Indeed, people can die from the coronavirus. But it’s also true that people can die from the stress of unemployment or hunger as well.

And it’s also true that impractical, arbitrary, or unreasonable laws will only result in disrespect for the law.

And that’s why decision-making is never given to experts but to elected officials. For the latter to depend completely on experts is an abdication of duty.

Unlike the unelected technocrats, the nature of political office is precisely its direct accountability to the people for the consequences of their judgment.

 

Jemy Gatdula is a Senior Fellow of the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations and a Philippine Judicial Academy law lecturer for constitutional philosophy and jurisprudence.

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