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Hail PAGASA! Hail NDRRMC!

Typhoon Tisoy (international name: Kamurri) left 17 people dead, isolated several provinces, and destroyed infrastructure and agriculture worth billions of pesos. Torrential rain submerged hundreds of villages in the Bicol region as well as in Isabela and Cagayan, floodwater rising to as high as the roof of most houses in those provinces.

The governments of Camarines Sur, Albay, Sorsogon, Quezon Province, Oriental Mindoro, Northern Samar, Virac town in Catanduanes, and Ilagan City in Isabela placed their territories under a state of calamity.

It could have been much worse. Many more lives would have been lost were it not for the timely and well-planned response of government agencies and the officials of the areas in the path of Typhoon Tisoy.

When the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) reported on Nov. 29 that the typhoon was expected to make landfall in the Bicol Region between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, the various agencies and units of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) went into action. The civil defense authorities in Sorsogon, Albay, Camarines Sur, and Catanduanes recommended the cancellation of classes at all levels on Dec. 2 and 3. In Catanduanes and Masbate, people living in coastal areas were moved to shelters. In Albay, people dwelling on the slopes of Mt. Mayon were evacuated to safer grounds.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano directed all governors, mayors, and village chiefs to stay at their posts and oversee response to the disaster that Tisoy would cause. The Philippine National Police placed all its units in Luzon and the Visayas on full alert, ready for calls for help. The Metro Manila Development Authority advised residents to take precautionary measures. Legaspi City Mayor Noel Rosal ordered all outdoor Christmas decorations taken down.

As southern and central Luzon was expected to be battered by strong winds and heavy rain, organizers of the 30th Southeast Asian Games cancelled or re-scheduled outdoor events in Subic, New Clark City, Calatagan and Tagaytay in Batangas. Officials of Camarines Sur forced residents in flood- and storm surge-proned areas to evacuate.

Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific, and Air Asia cancelled all their international and domestic flights from the afternoon of Dec. 2.

It is amazing that the NDRRMC was able to reduce considerably the number of lives lost and the amount of damage to infrastructure, agriculture, and private property given the fury and wide scope of Typhoon Tisoy and the organizational structure of NDRRMC.

The NDRRMC is a working group of various government, non-government, civil sector, and private sector organizations, administered by the Office of Civil Defense under the Department of National Defense. Its function is “to plan and lead the guiding activities in the field of communication, warning signals, emergency, transportation, evacuation, rescue, engineering, health and rehabilitation, public education, and auxiliary services such as firefighting and the police in the country.”

It is composed of 40 members that include the president of the Social Security System and the secretary of Tourism. The chairman is the defense secretary, with the secretaries of Interior and Local Government, Social Welfare and Development, Science and Technology, and the director general of the National Economic and Development Authority as vice-chairmen.

President Duterte wants a unified body dedicated to disaster risk reduction. In his State of the Nation Address last year, he urged Congress to pass a bill creating the Department of Disaster Management. He said: “We need a truly empowered department characterized by a unity of command, science-based approach, and full-time focus on natural hazards and disasters, and the wherewithal to take charge of the disaster risk reduction, preparedness and response, with better recovery and faster rehabilitation.”

There is, however, a strong objection to the separation of PAGASA from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). The DOST, which also deserves honorable mention in risk reduction and management, has been able to build PAGASA as well as the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) into well-functioning units in the overall disaster risk reduction and management system in spite of its meager resources.

In the era before weather satellites and Doppler radar, sudden and alarming weather disturbances were a way of life in the Philippines. Typhoons batter islands, particularly those lying on the western rim of the Pacific Ocean, many times during the year, sometimes in the dead of night, causing loss of many lives and wreaking serious damage to infrastructure, private property and crops. Today, PAGASA is able to track a typhoon days before it makes landfall, and even before it enters the Philippine area of responsibility, as PAGASA did when it spotted Tisoy in late November, enabling the NDRRMC to perform its function commendably.

We do not know when the knowledge we now have about typhoons could have been gained had the bill to study typhoon prospered in the halls of Congress and passed into law before the end of the 1950s. In the mid-1950s, Rep. Francisco Perfecto of Catanduanes filed a bill in Congress to address the problems caused by typhoons, his island province being frequently pounded by the furious storms. The true intent of the bill was to study typhoons with a view to dissipating their force and reducing the damage they wreak. It included provisions for funding the specialized training of personnel and the acquisition of technical equipment.

A cynical member of the House of Representatives instantly dubbed the bill as the “Bill to Outlaw Typhoons.” The press lapped up the derisive label, prompting political pundits to comment that the bill was reflective of the inanities indulged by the occupants of the Lower House. The twisted information that a member of Congress wanted to declare typhoons outlaws gained wide circulation among politicized citizens. The fact is nowhere in the bill was there any statement or even a hint to declare typhoons outlaws.

But because of the jeers that rained down on his bill and the snide remarks blown his way, Rep. Perfecto allowed his bill to die a quiet death. He retired from politics at the end of his term in 1957.

Had Rep. Perfecto’s bill been made into law, perhaps the staff of the weather bureau would have gotten to know more about the behavior of typhoons by the beginning of the 1970s. A super typhoon, Yoling, hit Metro Manila on Nov. 19, 1970. Fortunately, it raged in the morning of that day when people were up and about. Power would not be restored in many parts of the metropolis until 10 days later, causing many people to miss the telecast of Pope Paul VI’s visit on Nov. 27.

Perhaps damage to property could have been reduced and many more lives saved if Yoling had been tracked before it entered the country’s area of responsibility and people warned of its potentially destructive force to enable them to secure their property and ensure their personal safety.

But the DOST has been making up for lost opportunities. It has made PAGASA what the late Catanduanes Rep. Perfecto may have envisioned it to be. PAGASA played a major role in reducing the destruction of Typhoon Tisoy as it did when typhoons battered the country in recent years.

Hail PAGASA! Hail NDRRMC!

 

Oscar P. Lagman, Jr. is a retired corporate executive, business consultant, and management professor. He has been a politicized citizen since his college days in the late 1950s.

The political economy of human rights

“Can rights and values be universal if they seem, even after lengthy explanations of the communitarian case, to be rationed by a subset of rules about sovereign boundaries? Perhaps we should agree to think of rights and values as limited resources…” — Jeremy Harding, “Europe at Bay,” London Review of Books 34(3), 2012

The above quote was from an essay written in 2012, a year when migration “crises” were being debated worldwide. The right of asylum was being delegitimized by global right-wing propaganda claiming such asylum policies are being exploited. This tore at the heart of a presumed consensus: that which says that nations must extend aid and mercy to people fleeing violence and oppressive governments.

Many governments failed to defend this principle. Four years later, 2016, saw the catapulting of authoritarians and demagogues trading on “populist” rhetoric to high offices worldwide — our own current President included.

It might be odd to open a column in this pessimistic way — especially as today is International Human Rights Day. The day commemorates the United Nations’ adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR): a document detailing the inalienable rights of all human beings, exhorting the nations of the world to adopt such standards in their government policies. The document has held up to scrutiny and valuation for the past 71 years. Nearly all global governance institutions and democratic movements worldwide stand by it, invoking its contents and guidance in crafting their agendas and advocacies.

Yet the existence of the Declaration also belies a bitter truth. It has not wholly guaranteed the protection, enactment and actualization of such rights in all countries. The institutions supposed to promulgate its contents, sovereign-nation states, keep invoking national sovereignty to continue repressive internal security policies. This, ultimately, is at the heart of the crises denying and violating peoples’ basic rights to live.

Many nation-states, especially ones under the sway of personalistic and patronage-led regimes, ignore, dismiss or wilfully violate international human rights. They rely on their party and personal machineries to spin and delude their populations towards ignoring, dismissing, or fully antagonizing the entire discourse that seeks to protect them and their quality of life.

Southeast Asian nations continue to garner criticism specifically for being guilty of this. It was once hoped that the regional platform of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) would open more opportunities for cross-cultural and cross-country empowerment and advocacy. This was the premise of ASEAN’s Vision 2020 Charter, promoting the formation of a single ASEAN Community that would promote closer and interlinked governance standards along political-security, economic, and socio-cultural lines.

Yet its long-critiqued “non-intervention” principle continues to maintain the status quo of preventing cross-country accountability, as well as regional opportunities to address human rights violations. It probably does not help that nearly all ASEAN member-states have been guilty of human rights violations under the guise of promoting social and ethnic cohesion, “discipline” and crackdowns on political dissent/opinion. In his combative 2004 essay “Who Is the Subject of the Rights of Man?,” the French philosopher Jacques Ranciere criticized contemporary attitudes on human rights discourse, which assumed that the presence of international standards guaranteed their adoption. In his view, this has led to the neutralization of human rights discourse, rendered impotent as “the rights of those who cannot enact them, of victims whose rights are totally denied.” Ranciere argues that only peoples and communities who dare “use,” invoke, and fight for these rights — even in direct opposition to political authority — could be expected to enjoy them.

This is easier said than done, especially if one lives in a country where spaces for freedom of movement, speech, and opinion have been stymied. Yet the reality of globalization and an interconnected world has not only allowed for the spread of news coverage and ideas. It has allowed for collective global realization, as well as coordination of global common agendas.

What could be done to address this backlash against the extending and expanding human rights worldwide?

The past holds lessons in how to achieve these. This year, 2019, is also the 20th anniversary of the “Battle of Seattle.” Protest actions by movements in Seattle against the 1999 World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference were followed by solidarity demonstrations worldwide, leading to the collapse of trade negotiations. It spirit still seems to be alive today, if the growing worldwide protests and advocacy by the youth against climate change are any indication. Last Friday, Dec. 6, famed Swedish youth activist Greta Thunberg led nearly half a million people on the streets of Madrid.

Such movements and actions are only possible when there are enough infrastructure, institutions, environments, and cultural development to support them. Civil society organizations should be allowed to grow organically via community organizing and empowerment — not imposed, sanctioned, or mobilized by state fiat. Resources and public funding for such should not be withheld, and people should be educated towards their purpose (that they may make the choice of funding and supporting them themselves).

International support and funding, for that matter, must be made available and easier to mobilize and access. At the same time, such organizations, movements, and advocacy groups must continue to maintain the highest of standards, transparency, and accountability. In these times of crises, they cannot afford to lose credibility — not when governments are pouncing at every opportunity to delegitimize them.

No people kept their rights and way of life without fighting to protect them. No society should be consigned to such misery and deprivation that they cannot even stand up for themselves. No more should we allow human rights to be treated as scarce, exclusive and limited resources — if we are to give substance to our dreams of global progress.

 

Hansley A. Juliano serves as Lecturer to the Department of Political Science, School of Social Sciences, Ateneo de Manila University. He teaches and writes research on democratization, Southeast Asian politics and social movement issues. He is also engaged in research and advocacy for key sectoral issues (such as labor rights and agrarian reform).

Commentaries on the One Person Corporation under the Revised Corporation Code

(First of five parts)

Section 116 of the Revised Corporation Code (RCC) defines a “One Person Corporation” as a corporation with a Single Stockholder, who must either be a: (i) natural person; (ii) trust; or (iii) estate, and which shall be governed by a special set of provisions under its Chapter III, Title XIII. However, as will be demonstrated in the discussions below, it would be easier to view the Single Stockholder in a One Person Corporation (OPC) setting as simply a natural person.

By way of comparison, if the close corporation reflects the commercial medium of an “incorporated partnership” introduced into the Philippine setting by the old Corporation Code, then the OPC should be viewed as a new corporate medium of “incorporated sole proprietorship” introduced under the RCC to promote the ease of doing business (EODB). The provisions of Chapter III, Title XIII seek to extend the commercially advantageous features of separate juridical personality and limited liability to entrepreneurs and proprietors of micro-, small-, or medium-enterprises (MSMEs), and to promote the EODB.

The OPC is primarily a “for-profit” corporate vehicle and generally cannot be employed by a natural person as a means to practice a profession, unless expressly allowed by a special law. Although theoretically there can be a nonstock corporation with a single member, such an institution would not fall within the ambit of Chapter III, Title XIII of the RCC.

‘NATURAL PERSON’ AS THE SINGLE STOCKHOLDER
Although Section 10 of the RCC (Number and Qualifications of Incorporators) expressly provides that “a person, partnership, association or corporation, singly …may organize a corporation for any lawful purpose or purposes,” it nevertheless provides in its last paragraph that “A corporation with a single stockholder is considered a One Person Corporation as described in Title XIII, Chapter III of this Code.” However, not all corporations with a single stockholder would fall within the definition of an OPC that shall be governed under Chapter III of Title XIII, since Section 116 provides essentially that only a natural person may form an OPC.

a. OPC is Organized as a Stock Corporation. The language of Section 10 referring to a single stockholder, as well as the provisions under Chapter III of Title XIII clearly provides that an OPC can only be organized as a stock corporation with a single stockholder.

To illustrate, although Section 10 allows for a single incorporator, and the amendment reflected in Section 22 allows the Board of Trustees to be constituted of only one member even for nonstock corporation, nevertheless, when a single natural person incorporator organizes a nonstock corporation with a Board of only one member, such a nonstock corporation cannot be considered as governed by Chapter III of Title XIII of the RCC, but rather by Title XI that governs primarily nonstock corporations.

b. A “Natural Person” as the Single Stockholder Acting as Nominee. When an OPC is organized by a natural person, there is no provision in Chapter III of Title XIII to indicate that it would not qualify to be an OPC when the Single Stockholder is holding such shares as a nominee for another person or persons, or even when he/she holds the shares as nominee of a corporation or any other juridical entity.

This position is bolstered by the fact that Section 116 provides that a “trust” is qualified to be the single stockholder, even when the trustee clearly holds the trust properties for the benefit of several beneficiaries, or, for that matter, for the benefit of a juridical entity.

c. A “Trust” as the Single Stockholder. A trust arrangement is not a juridical entity, and having no “capacity to contract” as such, cannot legally assume the role of the Single Stockholder who holds title to the shares in the OPC.

What Section 116 must mean is that the trustee of the trust property, when he/she is a natural person (since a trustee can also be a juridical person) can qualify to incorporate the trust estate into an OPC, with the trustee as the Single Stockholder, even when expressly stating that he holds the shares in the OPC as trustee for the benefit of an identified beneficiary or beneficiaries.

Again, when the natural person incorporates an OPC in his name as the Single Stockholder, expressly stating that he holds the shares as trustee for an identified beneficiary, this should not disqualify the corporation from being an OPC governed by Chapter III of Title XIII, since the provision itself allows a “trust” to be incorporated as an OPC, regardless of the trustor/beneficiary of record. It is only when the trustee is a juridical person that it cannot incorporate the trust properties into an OPC with the trustee-corporation itself as the Single Stockholder.

d. An “Estate” as the Single Stockholder. Section 111(a) (on Articles of Incorporation) states that “If the single stockholder is… an estate, the name, nationality and residence of the… administrator, executor, guardian, conservator, custodian, or other person exercising fiduciary duties together with the proof of such authority to act on behalf of the… estate” shall be contained in the OPC’s articles of incorporation.

An “estate” cannot lawfully become a stockholder of any corporation, because it has no “juridical capacity to act”; only persons with capacity to contract may own properties (i.e., shares of stock) or become parties to contractual relationships (i.e., as subscriber to the shares of stock of a corporation). It may be true that the OPC may assume the name of the estate, say “Estate of the Decedent Juan dela Cruz, OPC,” but the Single Stockholder of record would be the fiduciary holding legal title to the estate properties.

What Sections 116 and 118(a) must mean when referring to an “estate” which may form an OPC is that whoever is the fiduciary holding title to the estate (whether as an administrator, executor, guardian, conservator, etc.) may validly incorporate the estate into an OPC, with a fiduciary natural person as the Single Stockholder of record. Again, such a fiduciary must be a natural person to constitute the corporation an OPC governed by Chapter III of Title XIII of the RCC.

As in the case of a trust, the single stockholder may validly indicate that he/she holds all of the shares in the OPC as fiduciary of an identified estate beneficiary. In the case of the conservator, he actually holds the title to properties that pertain to a corporate entity.

ENTERPRISE OR BUSINESSES THAT MAY BE PURSUED THROUGH AN OPC
If one were to evaluate the various provisions of the RCC, we can deduce the following rules on the types of enterprises or undertakings that may be pursued through the medium of the OPC, thus:

a. Practice of a Profession. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 10, a natural person can pursue the practice of his profession through an OPC (or an ordinary corporation) only when authorized by the special law that governs the practice of that particular profession.

An example of such a special law would be the Architecture Act of 2004 (R.A. 9266) that allows the registration with the SEC of architectural professional corporations.

b. Service Company. A natural person can pursue the rendering of his/her services, other than in the practice of a profession (i.e., a service that is not regulated by the Professional Regulations Commission), through an OPC which thereby retains him/her as an employee or a consultant.

c. Holding Company. Aside from the express power granted to a natural-person-trustee or natural-person-fiduciary to incorporate the trust properties or the estate into an OPC, there is no prohibition in Chapter III of Title XIII, for an OPC to be organized by a natural person Single Stockholder, not to operate a business, but merely to hold title to properties, real or personal; EXCEPT:

(i) When it comes to holding title to private lands, where the single stockholder must be a Filipino citizen; and

(ii) When holding shares in a corporation engaging in a nationalized business or industry, where, if the Single Stockholder is a foreigner, the amount of equity held in the corporation should not exceed 40% of the voting capital stock, nor more than 40% of the entire outstanding capital stock

d. All Other Lawful Business Enterprises May Be Pursued Through an OPC by the Single Stockholder; EXCEPT: As expressly provided in Section 116: (i) Banks and quasi-banks; (ii) Insurance, preneed and trust companies; (iii) Publicly-held and Publicly-listed companies; and (iv) Non-chartered GOCCs

e. Businesses Vested With Public Interests. Although not expressly stated in Chapter III of Title XIII (unlike in the case of close corporations), an OPC cannot be organized to undertake any business that has been classified by the SEC as being “vested with public interests,” because such classes of corporations are required to have at least 20% of the Board constituted of independent directors, which requirement an OPC, by its very nature, cannot legally comply with.

f. Mining and Oil Companies, Stock Exchanges, Public Utilities. If close corporations are expressly disqualified under Section 95 from engaging in these types of business, then policy considerations should also disqualify the OPC from engaging in such business activities.

(The article reflects the personal opinion of the author and does not reflect the official stand of the Management Association of the Philippines or the MAP)

 

Cesar L. Villanueva is Chair of the MAP Corporate Governance Committee, the Founding Partner of the Villanueva Gabionza & Dy Law Offices, and the former Chair of the Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG).

cvillanueva@vgslaw.com

map@map.org.ph

http://map.org.ph

Employment and e-cig ment

The good news in the country’s labor force survey reported by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is that unemployment rate has significantly declined, from 6% in October 2014 to only 4.5% in October 2019. The underemployment rate has also declined to only 13%.

The bad news is that the labor force participation rate (LFPR) is declining, from 64.3% in October 2014 to 61.5% in October 2019. Declining LFPR means people are less optimistic, less confident that they will be hired or they can hire themselves, so they postpone seeking jobs or entrepreneurship and pursue more studies, training, or bumming around. Those who join the labor force are more confident, more skilled and that partly explains the lower unemployment and underemployment rates (see Table 1).

We should still aim for a 2.5% or below unemployment rate. That number can be considered as “full employment” as the 2.5% are considered as short-term “voluntary unemployment,” like people who are offered a P20,000/month job and refuse to take it as they wait for P25,000/month or higher job offers.

One recent issue that can have an adverse impact on employment — on the manufacturers, shops, and sellers — is the vaping ban, or heavy regulations and higher taxation of e-cigarettes and tobacco substitutes like vaping products.

We often hear many “crisis” and catastrophe stories — climate crisis, plastic crisis, non-communicable diseases (NCD) crisis, sugar/obesity crisis, tobacco crisis, vaping crisis, etc. Most if not all are exaggerations. If any or all of them are true, people should be living shorter, sicklier lives. Far out as people now are living longer, healthier, and wealthier as shown by the rising life expectancy.

When more people die of NCDs, that is good news. That means less people die of communicable and infectious diseases, less people die of wars and violence. More people though can die of injuries and accidents as people are now more mobile across islands and countries. Death by injury in the Philippines is declining but is higher than those in Japan, Singapore, and Indonesia, but lower than those in South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam (see Table 2).

“Harm reduction” is being done to mitigate injuries and diseases as people do what they want without harming others. Like helmets and body protection for cyclists and motorcycle riders, low alcohol content drinks like beer vs “high octane” hard drinks, and using vapor/heating instead of burning nicotine.

Dr. Carrie Wade, Director for Harm Reduction Policy, R Street Institute in Washington DC, USA, has good scientific research work on the biological mechanisms of opioid and drug addiction, addiction as a disease, and how the neuroadaptations of an addicted brain can result in destructive behaviors. She believes that “harm reduction practices can shift really risky behaviors to more neutral behaviors, decrease disease transmission and health care costs.”

In a paper, “E-Cigarette Bans Come at the Expense of Public Health,” she wrote, “Is it right to ban a largely successful quitting tool at the expense of people who benefit from it? Policymakers need to recognize that not all tobacco products are created equally, and it doesn’t make sense to prohibit and overly restrict safer alternatives when fatal ones are cemented in the landscape of our laws, economy and culture.”

If the nanny state is to be consistent in protecting people from themselves, it should also impose more regulations and prohibitions on sky jumping, rock climbing, downhill bicycle and motorcycle riding, and many full contact sports. Since the nanny state is not consistent, it should reduce its appetite for more regulations and prohibitions and recognize that people own their body, not the state or NGOs. There should be more personal, parental, and civil society responsibility in public health, not more state command and control.

 

Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. is the president of Minimal Government Thinkers.

minimalgovernment@gmail.com

The committee rules

By Tony Samson

JOB DESCRIPTIONS are supposed to define one’s role, accountability, and sometimes the resources to be made available. (You are not entitled to any information or funds.) Anyway, no matter how a subject performs the duties specified in the job description, he still needs to serve in some committee.

The committee is an assigned group formed to tackle multi-functional issues. It serves to elicit different points of view and eventually gain consensus on the way forward. A committee can become more dominant in the organization than even a supposedly powerful position, as more and more decisions require different groups.

Committees are established by a memo defining its mandate and composition. They are sometimes created to address a crisis, say, the hacking of the ATM system; or a routine cross-functional project like cultural transformation or managing an international sports event.

Committees are also called “task forces,” when announced in a press conference. The latter implies urgency and single-mindedness, and probably a defined operating life.

A chair (or a co-chair) is designated, using furniture rather than the one using it, to adhere to political correctness on gender inclusivity. A specific task is assigned which may or may not define the agenda for meetings.

There is no limit to the size of a committee. It is usually less than 20 but more than two. Less than three members constitutes a conversation which does not merit the serving of snacks.

The secretary of the committee is called the secretariat even if she is just one person. She coordinates the schedules of committee members, books the venue for the meeting, borrows the projector, determines the menu for lunch, and lines up presenters who wait outside for their turn. She e-mails the agenda and takes the minutes of the meeting.

Minutes are prized by committees. Drafts are checked for accuracy and used as instruments of power. Minutes reflect the thinking of the committee and the decisions taken by the group in terms of “next steps.” A camel may be a horse designed by a committee — but it is still important to check the minutes on who put the humps there, and more importantly who gets to ride the beast.

Some details of the meeting, including melodramatic observations are usually left out. (His forehead was beaded with sweat, and his voice faltered, as he tremblingly accepted the committee’s decision.) The minutes record succinctly what happened — the decision to dispense with a corporate orator was passed.

Rarely does a committee publicly rid itself of a specific member. No memo is issued to say that Mr. V is no longer a member of the Committee of Committees (CoC) due to a loss of trust. For the next meeting, the secretary simply fails to notify the person concerned on when the next meeting will take place. And there is one less cup of coffee served.

Occasional texting during meetings is allowed. Active participation is occasionally expected. This can take the form of vigorously agreeing with the chair, but not too forcefully, so as not to embarrass him. Now and then, asserting an opinion may entail interrupting someone and speaking loudly, but only until the Chair throws dagger looks in the direction of the noise, or someone moves to adjourn the meeting.

Investigative committees are a different type of grouping. Here, collegiality and the rules of civility are dispensed with as the sound bite is prized if the hearings are covered by media. It is seldom necessary to keep the minutes, except for consignment to the archives. It’s the grandstanding and the ambush interviews at the break that matter.

Is corporate life possible without committees? No unit is an island (consultants prefer the industrial imagery of a “silo” — spewing industrial waste) complete unto itself. A unit head needs to consult others, to reach out, give inputs, and collaborate with peers in promoting corporate goals. He needs a committee to test ideas and explore the limits of patience.

Committee work teaches humility and the compulsion to cheer a resolution to adjourn. Staying seated for a few seconds after adjournment is necessary to show that one is not rushing out too quickly. A member needs to demonstrate that committees are important, and one is loath to be torn away from them.

And then it is just a matter of waiting for the minutes of the meeting… and what they left out.

 

Tony Samson is Chairman and CEO, TOUCH xda.

ar.samson@yahoo.com

Charter body wants to ban turncoats, dynasties

A TASK force on constitutional reforms wants to strengthen political parties, ban turncoats and political dynasties as part of changes to the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

The Inter-Agency Task Force on Constitutional Reform (Core) submitted its second set of proposed changes to the Charter to the House constitutional amendments committee on Friday.

The task force said the anti-political dynasty provision of the 1987 Constitution should be made self-executing. It also wants to create a democracy fund for campaign finance reforms, and extend the terms of local government officials to five years with one re-election.

“The second set of proposed amendments cover the needed political and electoral reforms to strengthen democracy and improve governance as well the equality provisions to ensure more funds flow to the provinces and spread the benefits of economic growth to all regions of the country,” Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Jonathan E. Malaya said in a statement.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte created the task force, which is headed by Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo M. Año, and is composed of 15 government agencies.

The task force earlier asked Congress to institutionalize a Supreme Court ruling that the just share of local government units must come from all national taxes and not just from national internal revenue taxes.

The task force also proposed to transform the Regional Development Council (RDC), a counterpart of the National Economic and Development Authority at the subnational level, into a Regional Development Authority “with a regular budget and project implementation functions.”

The council is purely a recommendatory body.

The task force also supports the “foreign ownership equity provisions” now pending in Congress.

“The Philippines is constantly lagging behind our Asian neighbors in attracting foreign direct investment in part because of the restrictive provisions of our charter,” former Secretary Gary B. Olivar of Task Force Core said in the statement.

“We should be at the level of Thailand but we are way behind. If we want to generate enough employment for all, increasing foreign direct investment is the key.” — Genshen L. Espedido

High Court asked to bar 5 motorcycle taxis from operating

A COMMUTERS’ group has asked a Quezon City court to stop five motorcycle taxi companies from operating, accusing them of being fly-by-night operators that expose their customers to undue risks.

Lawyers for Commuter Safety and Protection (LCSP) asked the trial court to stop We Move Things Philippines, Inc. (Joyride), Habal Rides Corp., I-Sabay, Sampa-Dala Corp. and Trans-Serve Corp.

“Combined, thousands of motorcycles illegally booking and transporting passengers ply the roads, unduly exposing petitioners’ members to road hazards and increased risk of accidents,” the group said in its petition.

The use of motorcycle taxis is being pilot-tested in Metro Manila and Cebu City upon the recommendation of the Department of Transportations, which set guidelines on fares, speed limits and safety gears.

The Land Transportation and Traffic Code does not recognize single motorcycles to operate for public transport.

The transport agency formed a technical working group in December last year to address calls to include the two-wheeled vehicle as a legal transportation mode.

“We have requested an immediate restraining order to prevent grave and irreparable damage to the riding public in general, and to the pilot program in particular,” group member Raymond Parsifal A. Fortun said in the statement.

“Moreover, any accident during this critical period will also sabotage the pilot program,” he added.

LCSP President Antonio E. Inton, Jr. said five motorcycle companies were operating outside the six-month pilot program of the transport agency, which is set to end on Dec. 26.

He said this defeats the essence of the pilot testing and exposes the riding public to “grave” risks.

BusinessWorld tried to contact Sampa-Dala and Habal Rides for comments but their emails bounced. It also tried to reach the rest of the respondents but was unsuccessful. — Arjay L. Balinbin

Tribunal starts help desk for complaints

THE Supreme Court has started a help desk that will receive complaints from the public against judicial personnel, among other things.

The help desk will answer requests for assistance and information, queries and concerns of the public, Chief Justice Diosdado M. Peralta said at the launch on Monday.

“In the exigency of service and in order to address the needs of the general public, it is important to have an official line of communication between the judiciary, stakeholders and the general public to give attention to request for assistance and info, queries and concerns,” he said.

The project will be supervised by the Office of the Chief Justice because it is part of Mr. Peralta’s 10-point agenda.

Mr. Peralta said all queries must be answered within 15 days.

The help desk will be composed of three units — helpdesk, hotline and email.

The chief justice said he had chosen lawyers and staff from his office to man the units.

“I’ve also given specific instructions to them to submit to me weekly and monthly accomplishment reports of all the letters, communications, inquiries, and even complaints against members of the Judiciary,” he said.

The hotline will not cover Supreme Court justices. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas

Judge in decade-old massacre case praised for job well done

Chief Justice Diosdado M. Peralta — WIKIPEDIA.ORG

THE judge who heard a decade-old case involving the massacre of more than 50 people in Maguindanao province in the nation’s south has done a good job by giving all parties the chance to argue their case, Chief Justice Diosdado M. Peralta said on Monday.

“She has been doing her job very well,” Mr. Peralta told reporters, referring to Quezon City Judge Jocelyn A. Solis-Reyes, who is set to promulgate her ruling on the multiple murder case on Dec. 19.

“I think she gave especially the accused the required due process under the Constitution,” the chief magistrate said. “We have exhausted all the trial days in order to defend themselves, she has nothing to fear.”

Mr. Peralta said the judge, a former student, “has been performing very well.” He noted that Ms. Reyes is an avid reader who consulted her peers when she encountered problems during the trial.

Ms. Reyes will be given security when needed, although she has not sought it yet, the chief justice said.

The court was supposed to rule on the case before the 10th year anniversary of the massacre on Nov. 23 but it asked the high court to give it more time due to “voluminous records.”

The ambush took place when family members, supporters, and members of the media were accompanying Esmael G. Mangudadatu, who was then running for governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, for the filing of his certificate of candidacy.

New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said the Maguindanao massacre is the “worst single incident of journalist killing” in its records.

Several media earlier asked the Supreme Court to allow the Dec. 19 promulgation to be broadcast live.

In a letter, the groups said the live coverage and streaming would benefit the families of the 58 victims, 32 of whom were journalists.

Most of the victims live in the Mindanao region and do not have the means to go to Manila where the decision will be announced, according to a copy of the letter.

The letter was signed by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility and Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.

They also said the massacre trial has only been followed by the families mostly through reports and broadcasts.

The live coverage wont prejudice the rights of the accused, the groups said.

It would also allow the public to hear the ruling of the lower court, boosting “the public’s trust on transparency and accountability of court processes, particularly in how fair and just the case has been decided.”

Editors and officers and other journalists from several media networks, publications, signed the letter in support.

Those who signed were MindaNews, Philippine Press Institute, Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Mindanao Times, Philippine Star and Interaksyon, Vera Files, ABS-CBN, Mindanao Gold Star Daily/GMA News 7 Network Cagayan de Oro, News5, Rappler, Notre Dame Broadcasting Corp., Radyo ni Juan Network and The Mindanao Cross. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas

Pasig River ferry back in operation, free rides until Jan. 31

THE PASIG River Ferry Services is back in operation, providing an alternative mode of transport between the cities of Pasig and Manila. Trips on the ferry will be for free, on a first come-first served basis, until January 31, according to Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chair Danilo D. Lim. “Expect better services with additional safe and speedy boats, rehabilitated ferry stations and additional personnel,” Mr. Lim said in a statement after the relaunching ceremony on Monday in partnership with the Department of Transportation. The ferry service, managed by the MMDA, will have seven different-sized boats that can accommodate a maximum of 16, 36, and 57 passengers. Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade, in a statement, said the revival of the water transport service improves the people’s “mobility at (and) connectivity,” and most importantly, helps decongest Metro Manila’s roads.

GOOD START
The ceremony was also attended by Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, and Victor “Vico” N. Sotto. The Pasig City government owns two of the 57-seater boats that will be part of the fleet. Mr. Sotto, in a post on his official Facebook page, said: “Ang trapik at kakulangan sa mobilidad ay mabibigyan lang ng solusyon kung nagtutulungan ang mga lokal na pamahalaan sa mga nasyonal na ahensiya. Magandang simula ito (Traffic and lack of mobility can only be solved if local governments and national agencies work together. This is a good start).” The government also launched last Sunday a ferry service between Cavite and Metro Manila. It will operate to and from the Metrostar Ferry Terminal in Cavite City to the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Port in Pasay City. Another route will be operated from the Metrostar Ferry Terminal to Lawton (Liwasang Bonifacio) in Manila and vice versa. — Arjay L. Balinbin

Visayan Electric vows to cover unserved areas by 2020

VISAYAN ELECTRIC Company, Inc. targets to bring electricity to all unserved communities in its franchise area by the end of 2020. Visayan Electric President Jaime Jose Y. Aboitiz, at the recent media appreciation party in Cebu City hosted by Aboitiz Group, said this commitment is aligned with the Department of Energy’s goal of total electrification by 2022. He said they are ahead of the government’s schedule as their target areas are already 42% covered. Mr. Aboitiz also said that they have upgraded and interconnected more substations, installed additional capacity, and continue to strengthen the reliability of its network to support growing demand. For its underground distribution system project in Cebu City, he said they are almost done with phase 3 covering Imus Avenue, from Sikatuna to General Maxilom. “We will continue to build underground systems in the city,” Mr. Aboitiz said. Visayan Electric, part of the Aboitiz Power Group, is the country’s second biggest distribution firm. It serves over 447,000 consumers as of Oct. 2019 in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Talisay and Naga, and the municipalities of Liloan, Consolacion, Minglanillla and San Fernando. — The Freeman

Davao de Oro gets ‘yes’ vote

“WE ARE Davao de Oro” reads the new profile picture on the official social media page of what used to be Compostela Valley province.

Residents of Davao de Oro — the second richest province in the country in terms of assets with about P19 billion based on the Commission on Audit’s 2018 financial report released in October — voted an overwhelming “yes” during the Dec. 7 plebiscite for Republic Act No. 11297, the law renaming the province.

The official tally shows 174,442 votes in favor against only 5,020 saying ‘no’.

Governor Jayvee Tyron L. Uy earlier expressed confidence that the people will ratify the name change, which he said will give them a better identity as part of the Davao Region in Mindanao. The other provinces in the region are Davao Oriental, Davao Occidental, Davao del Norte, and Davao del Sur, while Davao City is an independent local government.

Nonetheless, the provincial government actively held an information campaign in the past months to explain the benefits as well as allay concerns such as the effects on legal documents bearing the old name.

“Majority support this, we believe the plebiscite will just be a formality,” Mr. Uy said.

Last September, the 34-year old governor, on his second term after serving for three years as provincial board member, sat down for an interview with BusinessWorld at the new Dusit Thani at Lubi Plantation Resort, an upscale destination that is a first for the province, where the economy is driven mainly by agriculture and mining.

He describes the investment as a “trendsetter” for the province that comes at an opportune time as they make the name shift, a rebranding initiative to attract investors and tourists.

BusinessWorld: You now have a luxury island destination in Compostela Valley, what does this mean for the province?

Gov. Uy: It will bring economic growth, especially here in the municipality of Mabini. The employees here are mostly from Mabini, and some other parts of the province, so it creates employment, opportunities, and at the same time promoting tourism, which we are aiming for, to make Compostela Valley a rising tourism hub.

BW: How ready is the province to take that position in the tourism sector?

Uy: For one, we are focusing on our peace and development efforts because we know that we cannot invite tourists and investors if we cannot preserve peace and order. Compostela Valley was known to be a hotbed of insurgency before, now it is improving fast… In fact, even before (President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s December 2018) Executive Order 70, the whole-of-nation approach (against insurgency), we have been doing that in the province. Actually, they patterned EO 70 from our experiences, from our Oplan Pagbabago. We had an influx of ‘surrenderees’ for the last three years. It was a joint peace and development efforts on the ground. This (Dusit Thani in Lubi Plantation), they would not have invested here if magulo tayo dito (we do not have peace and order here).”

BW: What other tourism-related programs are you undertaking?

Uy: Our infrastructure, we have built roads leading to tourism sites, our waterfalls in Maragusan and Maco, these are very accessible na, all have paved roads.”

BW: What about mining, how is the clean-up of the Naboc River with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)?

Uy: The drafting of the masterplan (for the rehabilitation) is ongoing. Since our province has a lot of mining areas, but the most popular is Diwalwal, where the biggest tributary is the Naboc River, that’s why doon namin sinimulan (we started there). But we intend to do it all over the province… with the DENR. Nine out of our 11 municipalities are gold-rich and there are miners, small-scale miners under the Minahan ng Bayan (program). Diwalwal, that was one of the first, that started in the 1980s, so that is our lesson learned… We do not want to take away the livelihood, but we really need to regulate… we have to teach our miners to innovate, use processes that are safe, especially for the miners and the environment.

BW: At your age, you could be considered part of this new wave of young politicians who are leading local government units. What made you go into politics? And you are among those actively using social media as a tool for governance, what is the reason behind this?

Uy: Actually, mas mahina ang (we have less) viewers of the Website than our Facebook page for promoting activities, projects, and programs. That is why we tap social media. We have a team handling social media. I ran as (provincial board member) last 2013 because I wanted to be the committee chair on education so I can make an impact on that. Then I ran for governor (in 2016) at na-swertehan (I got lucky).

BW: Do you really think it was “luck” that won you the election? What do you think you have brought into the political scene that made people vote for you?

Uy: I think we (the young politicians) bring new ideas, creativity in the management of local governments. We are open-minded, we grew up in the social media age, the digital age, so we are more resourceful and we appreciate new technologies that we can take advantage of to deliver services. Also, the voting population, I think they are younger and they prefer fresh faces in politics.

BW: You think social media is contributing in terms of improving transparency and not just for promotion?

Uy: Yes, that is correct. That (social media) gives us pressure. Mabilis makita ng mga tao and mga kakulangan ng (People now more easily see the shortcomings of) government, so we have to respond faster, better. Before, marinig mo lang sa radyo (you only hear the complaints over the radio), now it’s actual, picturan ng isang netizen ang project mo na ‘di natapos or a dirty hospital (a netizen can take a photo of your unfinished project or a dirty government hospital), then we have to respond faster. — Marifi S. Jara

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