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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Desperate Housewife
By Antonio C. Abaya Written on June 02, 2008 For the Standard Today, June 03 issue NOTE. This article was blocked by the usual suspects from being sent on June 3 from my zpdee.net account. In the past six weeks, President Arroyo has been launching one initiative after another, the main thrust of which is to project a new populist image of her as the Patron Saint of the Squealing Masa. Compared to her, Joseph Estrada � with his fighting slogan �Erap para sa Mahirap� � is a rank amateur. Towards the end of April, President Arroyo launched the Ahon Pamilyang Pilipino (APP), a socio-economic program which purports to give at least P500 cash dole-outs every month to 300,000 poorest-of-the-poor families in the 20 poorest provinces, for doing nothing, only for being poor. (See my article P500 per Vote, of April 30.) In addition, APP plans to give away P300 in cash per child in each recipient family, for a maximum of three children, or a total of P900 a month, plus the basic P500 dole-out. That�s P1,400 per month per poorest-of-the-poor family to 300,000 families, or P420 million a month nationwide, or P5.04 billion by the time its budget of P5 billion runs out in April or May 2009. And then, what? I asked. She cannot stop in April or May 2009. She has to keep going because millions of other poor families will clamor for their share of the freebies. And those who are already recipients will have become so used to receiving P1,400 a month for doing nothing that they will demand a continuation of their dole-outs. President Arroyo will have created a nation of mendicants who expect to be given money for doing nothing, only for being poor. And P1,400 a month � in the face of escalating prices for food, fuel, electricity and transport � is not going to buy much, certainly not enough to start a small business to give them economic independence.. Her apologists in media and Congress compare APP with the Emergency Employment Agency (EEA) which President Arroyo�s father, President Diosdado Macapagal used in the 1960s to give jobs to the jobless. Not true. EEA paid daily wages for daily work, such as sweeping the streets or cleaning the esteros, etc. The cash given out were NOT dole-outs, they were real wages for real work, much like the emergency employment schemes programmed by the administration of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Depression in the 1930s, to build highways, bridges and dams. Apologists point out that similar emergency dole-outs are being given out to the poor in several Latin American countries. True. I know that in Brazil the program is called Bolsa de Nacao, or something like that. But Latin America is not the ideal role model for the Philippines . And President Arroyo should stop trying to ape them. (The East Asian model of encouraging hard work by rewarding it is a better model.) In September 2004, she hired the advisory services of Peruvian social scientist Hernando de Soto , who had become the darling of aid agencies in Washington DC for his program of selling to squatters in Lima and elsewhere the land that they were occupying. The idea was to give squatters some equity which they can use to secure bank loans to start businesses. I do not know what success, if any, De Soto �s scheme had in raising the host countries� GDP, but the program that he suggested to President Arroyo was to sell to the squatters the land that they occupied along the 22-km long right-of-way of the Philippine National Railways (PNR), from Caloocan to Muntinlupa. In my articles Dumb and Dumber (Sept 30, 2004) and Hernando�s Give-away (Nov. 05, 2004), I critiqued the De Soto plan on the grounds that a) it would preclude the possibility of the PNR ever running a much-needed high-speed commuter rail line along these tracks, since the possibility of catastrophic derailment into the nearby squatters� shacks would be very high; b) whatever loans that the squatters would get for their 20-sqm lots would be minimal and would just be wasted in non-stop drinking and gambling. I proposed instead that squatters be relocated and organized into manufacturing co-operatives to manufacture products for which there is a real need and demand. (See my article The Co-Op Solution of Sept. 28, 2004). My objections were apparently heard and considered because the De Soto plan was junked. Instead, the government � thru Vice-President Noli de Castro - has been quietly demolishing the squatters� shanties along the PNR right-of-way and relocating the squatters to a settlement in Cabuyao, Laguna, in preparation for South Rail, the high-speed commuter rail line that will link Makati with Calamba, Laguna. Will the Arroyo administration listen to my objections to APP. I hope so. But if one examines the environment in which it is being proposed, it seems to be linked to her on-going efforts to remain in power beyond 2010. Witness the ChaCha Road Show launched by Albay Gov. Joey �Bitch� Salceda last Feb. 11, to push for a shift to the parliamentary system of government. Witness the recently launched (by Sen. Pimentel) road show to promote a shift to a federal form on government before the end of PGMA�s term in 2010, a Trojan Horse calculated to make sure that she has, not one, but two avenues towards that goal. But aside from the APP, she also gave the signal to Winston Garcia, president of the GSIS, to launch an attack against the Lopez family and blame them for the high cost of electricity in the Meralco franchise area. This shifts public anger over high power rates to Meralco, even though much of those high rates are due to the EVAT collected by government on power consumption, and on the royalties government collects on the extraction of gas from Malampaya. Having apparently lost Round One to Meralco and the Lopezes, President Arroyo persists in projecting herself as the New Patron Saint of the Squealing Masa by launching last week yet another populist scheme. This time, she has set aside another P2 billion to help poor families pay their electric bills. Under this scheme, families who consume 50 kWh or less of electricity a month and pay about P212 for it will be entitled to a subsidy of P1,000 a year or less than P100 a month. As with the APP, this will be a cash dole-out, when the more business-like and corruption-free method would be for Meralco to issue a credit memo in favor of the consumer, and for Meralco to bill government for it. But this would not have the physical impact of a cash dole-out, specially when the time comes to buy the masa�s signatures for the ChaCha referendum in 2009 and the parliamentary elections in 2010. And who can forget the ill-conceived attempts two weeks ago to make texting free, which would have endeared PGMA to the squealing, texting masa, until the telecoms threatened to shut down the service entirely, rather than provide it for nothing. And then her order last week to state schools and colleges not to raise tuition fees this June, when in fact they already have, as early as last February.. It may be that President Arroyo has genuine concern for the poorest of the poor, but these apparently last-minute, off-the-cuff initiatives show the absence of well-thought-out forward planning on her part. These seem more like the erratic moves of a Desperate Housewife preparing for some hanky-panky soon. ***** Reactions to [email protected]. More articles in www.tapatt.org and in acabaya.blogspot.com. . To subscribe, send as blank email with the subject heading Subscribe. To unsubscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Unsubscribe. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to �Desperate Housewife� GMA�s Noah�s Ark Subsidy Corruption at NFA On the Evangelicals NOTE: Transmissions to yahoo.com, mydestiny.net and aol.com addresses are sometimes blocked or delayed by the servers for reasons of their own. If you are suffering these blocking or delays, we suggest you move to a gmail or a hotmail address. Aye, but there's the rub. All that Madame Desperate Housewife has been doing since she sashayed to the Palace by the Pasig is to create image after image. It's like Made DH erases her face and puts on a ton of make-up and, voila, a different image! Funny things is that you know it, they know it; but what the heck are you and they doing about it? Rosalinda Olsen, (by email), Norway , June 03, 2008 (I�m informing my public about it. What are YOU doing about it? ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Desperate Housewife, I wonder what PGMA plans to do next to keep the starving and unemployed poor from storming Malacanyan Palace the way the mobs of Paris stormed Versailles? (You mean the Bastille. Versailles is about 50 kms southwest of Paris . ACA) Bread and circuses? Chariot races and gladiator fights? Will she not give money to the soldiers in her legions so they will not displace her with general as emperor? She does not seem to know history and its lessons. Maybe she does not read her articles and those of other critics. Jose Dado, (by email), June 03, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, As usual, your article is presented with in-depth analysis and that I learned about who is Social Scientist Soto from your article and the internet search that I made. Under the Ahon Pamilyang Pinoy (APP), the grant of P500 per month plus P300 per child for maximum of 3 children per family or P1,400 for the 300,000 families or a total of P5.04 B, will be made available to 15% of the total of 1.914 million families (2006) who are living below subsistence level and this is equivalent to about 1.7% of the total families of 18 million in 2007. My observations are as follows: 1. The effect of this is the reduction of subsistence incidence among families which was 11% in 2006. But the total poverty incidence among families will not be reduced. 2. The grant is just meant just to help the poorest of the poor in their plight. But given the attitude of the poor Filipinos as experienced by the NGOs working in partnership with poor communities, the grant when not closely monitored and the beneficiaries are not properly organized, might be used for purposes other than meeting the basic needs: food, medicine, and education. 3. I think, President GMA has a lot of talented advisers about economics and she herself is a top economist and that the DSWD�s head, Dr. Cabral, knows the level of Filipino values in terms of provision of grants. They know this will not make the beneficiaries become productive to be able to increase their income and contribute to the growth of the GDP. The granting of money is no different from giving money during elections like in 2004 and 2007 in which 3-digit billions of pesos that were spent and not just the one-digit P5 billion as allocated. But this type of grant or social loan makes the Filipino poor people developed further the culture of tolerance for corruption. At any rate, this is good for the government since spending will increase the GDP. If President GMA and Dr. Cabral are not holding positions in government, they will surely criticize the APP. 4.Perrtaining to cooperatives, this is a failure in the Philippines whose reasons are so many and one is that Filipinos particularly those in urban areas and even in the United States are divided and so divisive as articulated in the recent column titled �ONE � a Filipino movement� by Jose Montelibano, Jr. of the Philippines Daily Inquirer. There are several successful coops in the country but the members are not usually the poor families. (The fact that, as you admit, some co-ops are successful, while others are not, is not a logical premise to conclude that ALL co-ops are or will be failures. The rational next-step is to learn from the successful co-ops why they have succeeded, and then incorporate those success ingredients in other co-ops. There is actually a master�s thesis io UP Diliman by a Ms. Doronila, that examines why some co-ops have succeeded., while others have failed. ACA) 5. I am not saying that the Filipino people, particularly the poor, are not capable to develop their knowledge, skills, and attitudes but this will require decades of hard work organizing by the NGOs and government because the Filipinos have developed the culture of tolerance for corruption that had been propagated by the politico-economic elite class from their foreparents during the Spanish rule up to the present breed who continue to control the countrys politico-economic system. Thanks and more power to you. (Corruption, nepotism and feudalism have been part of our Malay culture even before the Spaniards came. ACA) Edmund Enderez, (by email), June 03, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear ACAbaya, Ako ay malungkot at lubos na nanghihinayang sa 5 Billion Pesos na ipamimigay lang ni Gloria under her APP Program sa poorest of the poor families sa loob ng isang taon, mula ngayon hanggang 2009, para sa 300,000 families. Mawawala lang ang perang ito pagkaraan ng isang taon. It's pure dole-out. Walang impact. It promotes laziness. Meron akong livelihood program idea na being implemented by my local volunteers in a small scale. They are described fully well at www.freewebs.com/piglets-unlimited. Iyang P5Billion na yan ay malaking tulong sa mga tao, kung yan ay gagamitin sa LOAN-A-PIGLET RECYCLE SYSTEM on the basis of 2 piglets payback to be recycled to other families. On first generation of pigs, one piglet will be refunded to the government. Hindi lang sa babalik sa gobierno ang P5Billion, kakalat pa ang dispersal ng piglets by 20 times na pamilya at the 3rd year. For example, P5Billion divided by P2,000 piglet cost = 2,500,000 families. 1st year - 2,500,000 families or piglets - govt loan (not doleout) 2nd year - 2,500,000 piglets (loan refund) @P2000 = P5Billion recovered by govt. 2nd year - 2,500,000 families or piglets (recycle) 3rd year - 5,000,000 families (recycle) 4th year - (it doesn't even end here)(kung babantayan habang panahon) Total families benefited - cumulative - 10,000,000 Divide this by one-time initial loan of 2,500,000 piglets/families = 20 times growth Ang original loan ay ginamit lang to stimulate the first dispersal. In effect, ZERO ang investment ng gobierno. Dahil sa ang growth ay LEAPS AND BOUNDS, I suggest na One Billion Pesos lang ang gamitin dito, or even less. Siguro yung other Four Billion Pesos puede ng dole-outs in the form of animal feeds & medicines for the piglets. Sana lang meron tayong member o reader dito na who can whisper to Gloria or his Agriculture Secretary about this program. Writing to them remains unanswered. Jobo Guerrero Elizes, (by email), New York , June 03, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Copy furnished) Job, Nice try. Did you know, however, that for every thousand, nay billions of pesos that the government allocates to any kind of program, a large part of it goes to corruption rather than the intended project or beneficiaries? The Philippine government would rather play on a dole-out game rather than really uplift the condition of the poor. Not being, pessimistic, I would say na sundok sa buwan ang proposal mo though you are doing it in good faith. So, what else is new? Anyway, good luck! Butch Ramirez, (by email), June 04, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony, The poor need every centavo that can be given to them. I think that it is high time for somebody in government to give the poor a helping hand until such time that they can take care of themselves. For whatever motive GMA m ay have in helping the poorest of the poor, I am here to say that she is on the right tract. Fritz Acuna, (by email), Keller , Texas , (June 03, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dios ti agngina unay, Tony, for writing your diamonds of wisdom. 'Bolsa de Nacao' in Ilocano translate to Pocket of Theft, if my Ilocano serves me right- "nacao'= 'steal'. Marilyn Ranada Donato, (by email), Virginia , June 03, 2008 (Ha, ha, ha, Marilyn. Unfortunately, nacao in Portuguese is pronounced nasiaw, not nakaw, and it means nation, like nacion in Spanioh and nazione in Italian. Tony) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, Thanks for sharing your insightful analysis of one small mind taking one large step for Filipinokind. In the words of the greatest human being that ever lived on our planet: "stupid is as stupid does." Bobby Manasan, (by email), Burke , Virginia , June 03, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Why is it that you have to refer to the poor only in the most contemptuous terms ("the squealing masa")? Just because they have not had the superior education of people like you, they deserve no respect? Alex Menez, (by email), June 04, 2008 (Poor does not necessarily mean stupid. In the 2007 senatorial elections, millions of masa voters showed their political maturity by NOT voting for movie idols Richard Gomez and Cesar Montano and clueless celeb Manny Pacquiao, and by NOT being fooled by the advertising overkill of Prospero Pichay. These masa I respect. May their tribe increase. ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Instead of sending money to the beneficiaries, their next electric bills for the equivalent period should be paid by the government directly to the Electric Company. By doing so, the subsidy will be well-controlled and monitored. This will avoid the Swine Swindle Program wherein the beneficiaries listed did not receive the goods. Instead, the money reportedly went to the senatorial candidates of Malacanang. The money to be given as subsidy is the money of the people, thus, all controls should be set up in order that this money will not wasted again. Reggie Gazmen, (by email), June 04, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Sir Tony; I thought you were writing about the latest season of Desperate Housewives, only to laugh my head off to find out whom you were referring to. I strongly agree that all these news articles on APP and the rest of the "for show" movements to ease the poorest of the poor programs are really going way overboard. Giving away money these people didn't even work for - we might as well do the same thing and not work at all. I was raised in a family that appreciates hard work and earning based on what you worked for. Nothing comes for free. What is this government teaching our country? That's its alright to not work since we'll give you 1,500 monthly anyway, higher if you had more than three kids? There goes the population program! Now everyone who isn't working will just keep on having kids since that's 300 a month/child plus some more. (Minor correction: the max is three children. Families with six or ten children still get only P1,400 max every month, under the APP. ACA) Its obviously buying the votes at such an early stage, its pathetic. In addition to my disgust, there's a rampage of tv ads regarding "ramdam na ramdam ang asenso", oh please spare me the dramatics. Who are these people anyway? As far as progress is concerned, the people role-playing in the ads are the only ones feeling the progress while those of us in the real world are struggling everyday to keep food on the table. In the latest survey, more people consider themselves poorer this year than last year which makes me wonder how much those ad people were paid to say "ramdam na ramdam ko ang asenso". Its so pathetic. To make it worse - there's another ad by Mr. Shuli (or Shooli) and his sidekick talking about "pagbabago" and I honestly feel the ad belittled the first Edsa revolution. If you've seen it, you know what I mean because the ad talks about the Pinoy's lack of discipline in mostly everything, the corrupt practices, etc and it ends with the sidekick showing Mr. Shuli (or is it Shooli?) a P500 bill saying there was a rally and Mr. Shuli/Shooli says "sali tayo" or "sama tayo" and leaves a young girl scratching her head. What was the ad all about in the first place? That we can rant and rave all we want but faced with a P500 bill, we break our principles? Its really a pathetic ad and a waste of people's money. I can't even believe Mr. Shuli agreed to do that commercial in the first place. I totally lost any respect for that guy with this ad. If PGMA wants to help the poor - the least she can do is give them jobs. The VP is great if his office or department already provided that many housing projects to deserving working people. Just stop the ad to save on money. I doubt it if networks really air those government ads for free as "public service". If she wants to help the poor, there are jobs outside of the metropolis - farming is one, fishing is another. Developing farm lands and planting trees in our bald mountains is another. Clean up the shores from Manila Bay to Subic . She could provide the infrastructure and teach them how to work it. This country is in dire need to recycle things - the technology is already available but no one wants to recycle because there's no "tubong lugaw" in it. There's a thousand and one jobs anyone can think of but at the rate this government is teaching the masses to be forever waiting for dole outs - nothing is going to change. Its 'easy money', these people did not work for it. She should teach people better values. I have nothing against the beneficiaries of this APP program. But the program is not what this country needs even if its help . It will help a lot of people, but at the price of what? Its a stupid Band-aid solution to a rotting wound. Teaching people to be waiting for manna from heaven to come out of ATM machines? What happens when there's nothing left? I wouldn't want to be around when that happens. Best regards, Jenny Xavier, (by email), June 04, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Sir, Just read your interesting article. One correction that probably needs to be made is the use of the name Southrail. Southrail, if they can ever get their act together, is the project to rebuild the line to Legaspi and a new section to Sorsogon. The current project to Lucena is actually supposed to be the Linkage project. If recent media reports read (keeping in mind I live in Australia so probably miss a lot) have said that Hanjin has suspended work on the Linkage project. This, along with the near cessation of Northrail work) does not look good for any Southrail project in the immediate future. What could have been President Gloria's crowning jewel to the people of the Philippines , may be her greatest failure. I hope not. Best wishes Brad, [email protected], Australia , June 04, 2008 Philippine Railway SIG http://philippinerailwayhistoricalsociety.blogspot.com (True, South Rail is supposed to go all the way to Sorsogon. But the Makati-to-Calamba portion of that line is/was supposed to be used by a commuter rail line that would connect Makati to the Ayala villages in Santa Rosa and Calamba. About ten years ago, I had a briefing from an American engineer hired by Ayala to design that line. But Ayala seems to have withdrawn from that project. It does not necessarily mean that project has been abandoned. ACA) . wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, I just got back from my two-week visit of the Philippines . While it was a great time with friends, many disturbing things came to my attention while watching local television programs during my rest period. Then I saw testimonial ads from recipients of the poor of the poorest complements of Madam Arroyo.. Frankly, I hate to use this phrase as I find it demeaning and self-serving. Seeing these ads obviously left a bad test in my mouth because the dole outs simply and psychologically is seemingly endorsing the idea that being poor is okay. Well, it is not okay. It is not God's will either, or a victim of circumstances. It is a choice these people make rather than critically doing something to uplift their plights. It may appear I am an elitist of sort. A bleeding heart I am not. No, I am a survivor and has developed survival instincts. I will never allow myself to be poor and accept benevolence. It may for a short time but not with acceptance of permanency. I will do something to up myself from being destitute. Yes sir, I will. That difference is pride. I know about aggressively resolving poverty. I had a four-year experience and exposure with the anti-poverty program in San Francisco , California in the seventies as director of finance. The program was an offshoot of the 1964 Blacks civil rights movement to train Blacks to be employable. Later the arms were extended to include other minorities such as Latinos, Filipinos, Chinese, Japanese, Pacific Islanders and others. The bulk of the funding went to Black centers that were considered needing the critical training and assistance. Multi million funding came from the Federal and States governments, Businesses and Private groups, individuals and Foundations. The Secret of achievements was to ensure a written plan for every proposed program was reviewed, approved, followed, tested and measured. One very interesting program was on the job training where participants were paid a minimum wage to attend classes for a period of time, graduate and become employed. Of the various groups trained it showed Filipinos, Chinese and the Japanese participants had the perfect rate of completion from class training and employment. It appeared that socio-economic factors played a major influence as to how participants perceived the value and importance of the training. You are absolutely right, Tony, that a free giveaway is sending the wrong message. There has to be strings attached, caveats and riders so these poor people understood they must learn to earn and thirst for the value of being employable. And one very disturbing observation is for them to stop having anymore babies. They must learn to be responsible parents and give their children a chance at life. Otherwise the poverty cycle will continue. At the rate the population grows the Philippine economy could not support it. The future is bleak Oscar Apostol, (by email), Roseville, CA, June 04, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Like you, I am 100% against mendicancy. Why would they be given freebies? What is wrong with working first, then get paid for the hard work? Why not let them drain the esteros which they themselves clogged? Why not clean their streets and alleys first? Why not enlist the jobless among the poorest of the poor to help in the construction, building of roads and highways and other government. projects? This practice of giving dole-outs is pathetic. It is like prescribing a paracetamol to a cancer patient. Evelina Galang, (by email), June 04, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww The Goverment would like to help the poor family.. But what's next???? A lot of peopple thinks that these steps to help the poor family is anothr way of corruption.. A lot of money will be wasted.. We need to look into a better solution.. A person should start planning for his Family right after his/her wedding.. We fail because we fail to plan & execute it.. Who to blame if the kids will not go to school? The goverment or their parents? The goverment function is to handle the country's operation.. But not to look into the problems of each family in terms of their standard of living and poverty. We design our lives and our children's future, not the goverment.. Sir Tony, I hope one day you can write about the Financial Security Planning.. God help those who helps themselves and those who plans ahead of time. Thank you and God bless.. Carlito Bautista, (by email) June 05, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww There's another scenario looming on the horizon. The scarcity of rice and the proliferation of drugs could lead to an upsurge of criminality and with the increasing aggressive operations by the NPA and the sabotaging of the forthcoming ARMM election to agitate the Muslims would be a prescription for a declaration of Martial Law. There's only one way to stop this desperate housewife and it�s the hard way. Narciso Ner, (by email), Davao City , June 05, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony: You may really be insulting all housewives by lending that title to GMA. Still, you're likely right. Hanky-panky has to be forthcoming. That's her only reason for continuing to live. Hopefully, the hanky-panky will stop soon. And yes, there will likely be blood - as well as suffering - when the trouble starts end of June. But we might as well get all that over with. And then we can start to see some progress. It will be minus many of the present players: but with the lessons learned, we may yet become the Philippines of all our dreams - and bring all our OFWs home. Tito Osias, (by email), June 05, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww HI Tony! I recall the "pustahan" at the 365 Club in 1991, initiated by JPE? He was so sure that then Pres. Cory Aquino will run for re-electiion. FVR was also suspected of extending his term thru Cha-Cha. It�s no longer surprising that some quarters suspect that GMA will find ways to stay beyond 2010. In my opinion, it is to the incumbent's adavantage that the "suspicion to stay" is kept afloat. Who would obey her/him if everyone is cocksure that he/she will be gone by the prescribed period? Personally, I believe she will relinquish power come 2010. She would be too happy already when she is able to finish her term considering how unpopular she is. Good day! Jojo Labayen, (by email), June 06, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, I could not resist commenting on GMA's dole-out programs. I feel that majority of the middle class Filipinos would resent her efforts to salvage her political image at our expense. Having been educated in UP, we have been taught over and over how dole outs will never work in the long term. In my view, the people who are religiously paying correct taxes are the minimum wage and middle class workers (they have their tax deductions 15/30 even before they could get hold of their earnings, excluding the VAT we pay every time we buy food, gas, services, utilities, etc). It's not that altruism is a value that has no more meaning to contemporary Filipinos. I should be thankful that I am better off than most who have nothing, but we also need to survive these trying times. I am trying my best not to slide to the group living "below the poverty line" but with how things are going, it might not be too long, that I too be classified as poor. The middle class, educated Filipinos are in a bind actually. If and when they do slide to "below the poverty line," they will not be in the position to ask any assistance from the government because the middle class, educated Filipinos are not considered "poor" even if their paychecks say otherwise. We could not find a job that really pays for what our talents are really worth. Instead, we have to settle for the ones that we have today because it is better than nothing at all. A board passer with post-graduate studies, the most that I could probably earn is about 15-20K per month gross. This means I have to fit every cent to cover for housing, food, utilities and little else. Savings? I can't even think about what my family will do if I suddenly kicked the bucket. Nothing to use to even cremate my earthly remains. How pathetic can that get? What if I get sick? Government hospitals won't even take me in because I am not mendicant enough or poor enough. What to do? I am really clueless. I am beginning to believe what some disparaging comments of educated foreigners on our capabilities. We are all "over-educated Asians." The middle class is the most "kawawa" in these times because they have nothing to gain despite their contributions. To be crass about it, the government's milking cow. I think it is about time that the government thought of strengthening the middle class base. The middle class in return are capable of turning the situation around, if given the support and opportunity. The middle class are potential sources of income of lower income groups because they have the talent and capacity to think of how to generate income as well as create more jobs. The middle class can also generate more money for companies because they are the think tanks and work horses of major corporations. Sir, I apologize for my ranting but I guess that is the best I could do for now. Grin and bear the crunch, write off the angst and hope it gets into the thick skulls of our government people that they are losing the middle class to poverty if they keep up with their nonsense. Regards, Grace Santos, (by email), June 06, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww GMA�s Noah�s Ark Subsidy Plan This so-called Noah's Ark Subsidy Plan involving an unprecedented amount of almost 400 billion pesos has tantalizing goals, but should be rejected and archived immediately because it is redundant, unnecessary and could be the mother of all Trojan Horses. It is very ironic that the guy who reportedly called Mrs. Arroyo a "lucky bitch", is the author of this proposal. How lucky Mrs. Arroyo is, indeed! She is still in power despite her questionable election victory and her alleged unpardonable sins, lies and abuses. What could be their hidden agenda? Concerned Filipinos should strongly urge Congress to be more prudent in the exercise of its power of the purse and more patriotic in the performance of its oversight functions. Anyway, the Executive Department always includes budget proposals for special projects and contingencies in its annual budget request for Congress to approve. Considering the numerous anomalies and huge wastage on fraud and wrong priorities which could make Mrs. Arroyo's governance the worst, Congress should not approve lump sums proposals because such proposals are fertile sources of abuses. It should invariably give crystal-clear guidelines and impose stringent conditions in order to protect the interests of the impoverished Filipinos. Congress should only appropriate funds for priority projects, i.e. food, education, automation of election, shelter, hospitals, medicines, health services, potable water , peace and order. Congress' Oversight Committees should closely check and monitor the budget performance of Mrs Arroyo's government because failure to do so may result to misuse and misappropriation of people's money as it happened in the past many times. Congress' failure to perform well its oversight job may also be construed as an act of a coddler and a conspirator. It is very important that Congress should be proactive in overseeing the judicious utilization of public funds. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Thus, Congress should require the line agencies of government to submit periodic performance reports which should be openly discussed and reviewed regularly just like what they do in big multi-national companies. Performance review will promote transparency and will enable Congress to find early deviations to goals, misappropriations of funds and to institute additional qualitative safeguards and controls. Congress' Oversight Committees may seek the wisdom and services of prestigious private accounting and auditing firms in order to have an honest and objective review of the reports. An honest review may also uncover thieves and square pegs in round holes before it is too late. It should also require the Commission on Audit to certify the integrity of these reports and to participate in the fulfillment of its oversight mandate. Reviews should be conducted publicly with wide media coverage. I believe Malacanang and line agencies will be more judicious in the handling of funds when they know that Congress is watching and monitoring regularly the disbursement of taxpayers money . Indeed, Congress has a very important role and a very big responsibility in the appropriation and usage of public funds. Thus, we should fervently hope and pray that Congress will be patriotic and proactive at all times to fulfill its mandate and constitutional duty to protect the money and interests of the Filipino people. Reggie Gazmen, (by email), June 10, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww On the Evangelicals Hello sir, You seem to regard "Evangelicals" in the US as one political entity with a unified agenda. Those three you mentioned do not speak for all evangelicals. There are no "leaders" whom all evangelicals agree with concerning politics. Jimmy Carter is an evangelical as well as Clinton . They certainly do not love Israel . The right to dissent is a hard-won privilege that was part of the reasons for the migration of their spiritual forefathers from Europe to the New World . They have strong beliefs, but not always in one direction. There are evangelicals in the Philippines , too. They call their organization PCEC. But, like I said, they don't always agree on their politics. Nathan Monte, (by email) June 03, 2008 (Of course, not all Evangelicals acknowledge the leadership of the late Pat Robertson or the late Jerry Falwell or the very much alive John Hagee. No organization, not even the Catholic Church or the Communist Party, enjoys 100% loyalty from its members. I am talking about the majorities who do. (I suggest you google Evangelicals Middle East War etc. This is what you will see: New York Times (Nov 14 2006): For Evangelicals, supporting Israel is God�s foreign policy. (Grace Haskill�s book �Christian Zionism� What Israel wants is what God wants. (Gary North, who claims a following of 20 million adult Americans, writes that �supporting war and chaos in the Middle East is God�s will so that good Christians [and Jews who convert to Christianity] can go to Heaven without dying. (There are, literally, thousands of these articles and excerpts from books that can be googled by anyone. ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Corruption at NFA Dear Prof Abaya A friend of mine emailed this to me. I thought you might be one of the persons who might know how to deal with this information. I'm one of your "undisclosed.recipients" who avidly reads your commentaries. Thanks. Guillermo Tabios III, (by email), June 07, 2008 Hi Folks, Do you know somebody where we can relay this inside info without endangering our lives? NFA Pagadian or almost everywhere has this modus operandi: 1. They are now selling NFA rice plus P200.00/sack to rice traders so if the regular price of NFA is P800.00, the traders pay an extra (unreceipted of course) P 200.00. 2. This rice are then rebagged or mixed with other kind of rice and can be sold at a higher price. Rice here is now selling at P45/kilo even when we do not have any shortage. 3. NFA people are so entrenched that every afternoon the Management, most probably the Manager and his cohorst, give their people and staff envelopes with their share of course 4. The security guard is also into the fray. He does not allow any truck to leave the NFA compound if he is not given P0.50/bag - cheap but a truck loads around 250-400 bags so another P125-200/trip/truck multiply this to the number of trucks daily, in a month so corruption rules. 5. In NFA Iligan, the ante is only P130.00/sack and no more "royaties" for the security guard Regards, RQ OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO All reactions to [email protected] To subscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Subscribe. To unsubscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Unsubscribe. |