We Could Pay Up 5% Of Our International Debt

I have not minded yesterday’s SONA by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo although I was aware of it as early as Friday last week. This is somehow very unexpected of me since in years past, I have always been mindful of every SONA speech given, even as early as the Aquino administration. In fact, I had made it a point often in the past to be at home near the time when the speech is about to begin. But this year, I just woke up this morning and as I logged in to surf for the news, I was a bit surprised at myself upon realizing that in fact, yesterday afternoon, when President Arroyo had given her SONA, I wasn’t mindful about it. I could not easily explain why upon such realization, I felt some weight taken out of me, like a thorn snatched from my inside, just like perhaps how one alcoholic feels on the very day he or she had finally kicked out excessive drinking (a bad habit), or any drinking of any alcoholic beverage for that matter. That is, I felt lighter upon realizing that for this year, I haven’t got already the inclination to watch a speech that many says is merely full of promises, but empty in action.

So this year, I felt like I kicked a bad habit and did not watch the SONA live for the first time in more than a decade. It used to be that SONA watching had even became some kind of a ritual for me, like bird-watching or whale watching, making sure every time that I’d be home early in the afternoon and cancel whatever itineraries I have, those that weren’t ultimately urgent, and I would fix myself a sit in front of the television, and the boiling water always constantly heated and reheated for an afternoon tv watching marathon with mugs after mugs of hot black coffee, anticipating how the whole nation would be glued for an annual speech many says is merely full of words but empty in action, and seeing in my mind’s eye the costly gowns the ladies would be wearing, like it was Oscar awarding night, and how the men would be clapping at every pause or slow respite in the president’s oral masturbation, or how they would pretend to be clapping.

In every SONA event, I always have that feeling that if someone—-perhaps, the sergeant-at-arm on duty for that day or the head security—-would take a sack (or sacks) and carry it around the SONA audience—-around senators and congressmen and congresswomen, governors, mayors, generals, heads of offices, colonels, tycoons, media bigwigs, pharmaceutical company executives, political advisers, political minions, exporters, importers, university professors, franchise holders, athletes, world boxing champs, actors and actresses, holymen…no…not holymen—-and collect all Gucci bags, Rolex watches, Bangkok jewelries, diamonds, Italian leather shoes, Italian leather women’s shoes, Armanis and any other thing that glitters and worn for that day—-I have a great feeling that we could pay up about 5% of our international debt right on, at that very moment, or perhaps build-up a huge housing project for ten thousand families, or feed all the hungry children living in the streets—-right here, right now….RIGHT ON THE SPOT.

BUT RIGHT NOW—-just allow me to enjoy this newfound feeling of being able to escape a bad habit; of listening to a speech many says merely full of words but empty in action.

Would The National Broadband Network Possibly Be Beneficial To Us?

It has become such a full-blown issue. The first time I heard about the NBN-ZTE controversy, I felt like it was just merely yet another jar that the administration people had gotten their hands into—-and being caught yet once again. For certain, the ZTE issue becomes now an unfastened Pandora’s box, and everything now is in wide disarray. In fact, this issue finally became the source of an impeachment proceeding to be filed against COMELEC Chairman Benjamin Abalos, just when he is about to retire from public service. Imagine a cyclone approaching land-base and then the destruction it leaves behind when the faintest wind finally stopped.

It is worth noting at this point how the whole shenanigan had started and progressed into the huge mess that it is right now. GMA News offers this very concise timeline of the ZTE deal, from the time it was offered by the government of China towards the time it was brought to the public eye as a full-blown controversy.

Bingskee over there at Warmstone had presented how the deal was so flawed in its conception that it is actually in direct violation of eight important laws, including the BOT Law and the Anti-Graft and Corruption Law. Being such, it is most probably a contract null and void from the beginning.

The main question or questions that the Senate hearings seem to have aimed at is whether or not the contract was in violation of established government policies and laws, especially the procurement guidelines set in such mode of governmental undertaking. Senator Francis Escudero was at his sharpest this afternoon and was in fact so effective in digging up mud, slowly but surely establishing the defects of the whole NBN-ZTE deal, being so haphazard in its preparation and hugely flawed in its execution.

Considering the amount involved (approximately $329.5 Million), the contract signed by DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza with the government of China had not obtained proper documentations such as the DOJ and DBM advises as well as approval from the Government Procurement Policy Board.

Despite that direct contracting is allowed within our governmental system, such is tolerated merely on very special circumstances like the procurement of necessary goods in times of urgency, such rice shortages due to calamities and the like, and only if it is done through a government-to-government agreement, thereby obtaining the character of an executive agreement (mostly undertaken through memorandum of agreements) and bidding and other regular procurement procedures would be set aside and done with in this manner.

Such is the general rule on special procurements done by the government. An example of this circumstance is the implementation of projects by World Bank and the International Bank of Rural Development Bank here in the Philippines, where mostly performance of contracts are done through sub-contracting and where bidding procedures are skipped in order to avoid any delay, selecting merely contractors from an accredited list. Other situations where public bidding is avoided is when the transaction is in consonance with a signed treaty or if the goods are for use by foreign-funded projects.

In the situation at hand, the ZTE contract is for procurement of infrastructure and not of goods as specifically pointed out by Senator Escudero, thereby very far from the safe embrace of executive agreements. It appears now that the contracting parties here have merely circumvented certain restrictions by using the special characteristic of an executive agreement.

Going to other matters, there is one salient issue that the Senate hearings have not so far tackled so thoroughly, or not even a slight indication to it. It should now be a question—-while the ZTE deal is under suspension from Malacañang and TRO’d by the Supreme Court—-of whether or not a National Broadband Network is necessary and very beneficial to the government and to the State as a whole. Former NEDA head Romulo Neri cited it’s very huge rate of return (at 29%) as a very strong motivation to procure it. Aside from that, the DOTC justifies it through a projected 3.6 Billion pesos yearly since the government is presently spending about 4 Billion pesos in telecommunication bills each year. The broadband network would also allow better interconnectivity among various governmental agencies and would allow the smooth and hassle-free implementation of new online services such as those being implemented by GSIS, where loans and other benefits could be obtained by just logging into the Internet and acquiring the proceeds from an ATM-like machine. One aspect of the planned infrastructure that the DOTC is highlighting (in its justification of it) is its VoIP capability that could save the government in long-distance expenses. In fact, it is foreseen that even the lowly barangay level government unit would be able to have access to inter-agency connectivity—-broadband and VoIP at that.

Of course, the private sector would frown on this as it would be losing from the income it usually generates from government activities. But that is beside the point if for example it is primordial for the government to be so effective in its communication and at the same time save on expenses. What would be a major issue by then is if ever the government—-with an infrastructure like the National Broadband Network—-would steal away business from private telecommunication companies, and while the constitution specifically forbid this kind of setup. With the NBN, it is projected that the government could be able to offer very low broadband rates to the public and beat the existing prices currently offered by private companies. Of course, this would particularly be beneficial to the ordinary Internet users, having access to very affordable broadband services. At present, the rates of broadband connection are far from being affordable to the average income earners.

Even Singapore is ambitioning of having a blazing speed Internet broadband network. But over there, the Singaporean government would be tapping the private sector to spearhead the installation of such and would merely be interfering in the initial stages—-unlike the NDN deal, where the government plays an active role in its operation.

The NBN would somehow be very beneficial by making available a much cheaper and faster connection into the Internet by government agencies, and possibly by the public in general.

CHED Chairman Neri was right to suggest that any procurement of such infrastructure in the future (in case the ZTE deal would be scrapped entirely) should be done through proper public bidding, in order that the government may gain mostly from it and not be worried with overpricing and substandard implementation as what is feared with this ZTE deal.

Photo: FreeFoto.com

Hope Arises For Sumilao Farmers

Even without the prodding of a dear blog friend in Schumey, I would have notice it just the same. Last night, the issue on the plight of the Sumilao marchers were all over the news and with the involvement of important entities like Ateneo de Manila University, this protest march becomes not just another protest from farmer-beneficiaries supposedly qualified to be privileged under the government’s agrarian reform.

The Sumilao Marchers’ case contains a very painful circumstance where lands that have already been previously distributed were taken away by virtue of a reversal of judgment by none other than the Supreme Court of this nation, and involving such finality after the Department of Agriculture, the main agency who is supposed to protect and bolster the interest of farmer-beneficiaries under CARP, have failed and have been neglectful in motioning for a consideration, thus resulting to the cancellation of certificates of ownership that were already previously issued. It’s a painful situation we got here. Taking away what already have been given. Losing what was already gained.

The land involved here is the 144-hectare property owned by certain Norberto Quisumbing, which in 1994 was distributed to 165 Sumalio farmers in Bukidnon after then DAR Secretary Ernesteo Garilao denied the conversion application by Quisumbing.

This DAR distruibution order was then challenged before the Office of The President and thereon it was decided that conversion was allowed and when DAR lapsed in challenging this decision by Malañang, the Supreme Court ruled with finality that the certificates issued to the Sumilao farmers be revoked, making way for conversion.

11 years hence, no conversion had occurred and in fact, the land in question was sold to San Miguel Corporation in 2002—-in clear violation of the conversion plan approved by the Office of The President. With this very clear and blatant violation of the conversion plan in question, hopes now arises for the Sumilao farmers, citing such failure of the condition for the exemption from CARP coverage of the Quisumbing property, and without the realization of the conversion plan, the farmers may bring this up with the appropriate legal venue, along with a new issue, separate from the one or ones decided with finality by the Supreme Court, this time bringing to issue such failure of condition precedent.

With this, I hope the Sumilao farmers would get proper and sufficient legal representation in bringing up this issue. And may they succeed.

Read more of the Sumilao Farmers’ case at Gary Lazaro’s blog.

Rice and Fall

The rice shortage that the country is experiencing at present makes us the world’s largest importer of rice—- at over 2 million metric tons each year. Now at least, we can say that we are keenest in the world at certain something aside from being the most corrupt.

After signing a deal with Vietnam, the government is still negotiating with Thailand for an additional horde in the coming days, proving altogether that indeed, the rice shortage we have right now is too real for comfort.

According to Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, the present rice supply that the government has, through the National Food Authority, would last 57 days. I don’t know if that figure is healthy or not, 57 days is just days, what if in the 58th day there’d be no rice, then that’ll mean mayhem and turbulence in our streets of the meanest kind, much worse than in Indonesia or in Egypt where the military there had to stop militarizing and make bread just to put up with low bread supply and high bread demand among the Egyptians.

If on the 58th day, there’d be no enough rice within our reach, then I think the rice shortage would be far more malevolent cause for pulling down the government than the ZTE Controversy and Hello Garci hullabaloo combined, as people would surely packed the streets and demand an ouster, heads would roll for certain.

The government should do something drastically. I couldn’t believe that someone who look so smart or speak so eloquently such as Mr. Arthur Yap heads our Agriculture Department and yet the present rice shortage becomes like a menace that just came out of nowhere, like a miracle, or a flash of lightning and Mr. Yap says, “What was that?” He couldn’t be that naïve I am pretty sure.

Aside from all the patent reasons, like palay lands being converted to malls in tens or hundreds of hectares each year, the youth in the rural areas becoming nurses or call center agents rather than being rice farmers, low selling prices for the rice farmers, even the ever increasing scarcity of rainfall (due to climate change)—-the government should look inwardly towards its own turf. The National Food Authority should reinvigorate itself and clean up some of its mess and help straighten out the kinks in the rice supply chain, to not allow cheap smuggled rice to flood the market, or otherwise local rice traders would have less notion to put up stores for the golden grains and close shop instead. And of course, hoarding among our suppliers is a perennial problem.

And perhaps, Mr. Yap should seek some sort of regulations or legislation curtailing or minimizing the conversion of huge palay lands into malls or factories. In other countries, they prohibit excessive construction of golf locations as it consumes water in a very gargantuan manner, harming the environment in the process. I am sure we could do that here concerning our rice farms becoming malls.

Re-invigorization of the Public Sector

(This is the content of a reaction paper I submitted today for my subject in graduate school, PA 201 - Theory & Practice of Public Administration)

I do not mean re-engineering or even re-structuring. Maybe all we need is merely to invigorate the government system in order for it to achieve the maximum efficiency that is expected of it.

We have tried such modes of re-invention as re-engineering and re-structuring, at great cost in time and money, and yet improvements have not been substantial or palpable. The public continues to languish in long queues every time a license or a passport is needed. Bribes are ever pernicious, and even more open today, like it is not anymore a secret that should be tucked inside the pocket or a key thrown into the deepest ocean.

The public continues to encounter ugly faces of public servants seemingly tired of their day job and daydreaming of life in beaches almost all day long. At the slightest error, the public who is merely seeking public service get squirmed at by those who are especially employed by the government in order to serve the public, and in order that the common person have the convenience that the government owes them.

What is the aim of the public sector now? This is one vital question that should be addressed before everything can be settled. Is the public servant merely holding position just in order to make a living? He or she should rather be selling vegetables or meat in the market, at least thereat, there would be wider potentiality for the improvement of wealth. Nobody could really get rich in the government service, even serving for a long time.

Is the public servant merely holding position for social status and pride? He or she would rather be joining pageants and spectacles on television, for he or she would be known better there.

The public office is a public trust. This dogma had even been institutionalized in our most fundamental set of laws – our Constitution – and this is most encompassing of all, where no one should be allowed to forget the essence of public service, which is in order to serve the people, and not merely for self aggrandizement.

In view of the foregoing issues, therefore it is but time to realigned our views about the public sector, starting from the people within it. That for every employee of the government, whether national or local, every time he or she sees an individual, riding a Mercedes Benz or wearing no shoes and in tattered clothes, it should not matter, because that person, whether rich or poor, famous or unknown, is the very public sector he or she is aimed to serve.

In this manner, improvement of government service and the government system could be initiated, entering its nascent stages.

Despite the improvements in work environment, like air-conditioned areas, new buildings, expensive vehicles and increase in pay and bonuses, government service remains the same old horse, who is lackluster in movement, lacks dynamism and most of all, deficient towards its main aim of serving the public dutifully and with vigor. The government remains a system that is prone to stagnation and inefficiency, misappropriation, abuse of authority and lack of direction.

We have tried re-engineering the government system in the past and yet even the best re-engineers couldn’t tame the wild river that is the Philippine government system. Maybe we need a rocket scientist for this. We have tried re-structuring but even if our re-structurers could build a pyramid or an Eiffel Tower out of a molehill, the government system remains an ancient nipa hut.

Maybe it’s time that we should try re-invigorization.

It’s not as complicated to do as re-structuring does or as expensive as a re-engineering would demand. It only takes will, political will and cooperation from the people in the system. There are a number of factors that would be put in focus in this aim of putting the government service in the right track, one is leadership, two is awareness, three is competition, four incentive, and five public choice.

In LEADERSHIP, I mean to say political leadership. When we all almost agree that politics and the bureaucracy could not really be separated and is intertwined almost all the time, leadership becomes a most important factor in putting vigor and integrity back into the government service. In choosing our political leaders, especially in the next election activities in the coming years, the people should now aim for leaders who have proven capacity to lead and carry an entire workforce towards the improvement of service. It starts with the people then. If the electorate fails in the first place to change our leadership from the highest level, towards the root level, then re-invigorization of the government system would remain an illusion.

AWARENESS is two-pronged, first there should be awareness or a high level of consciousness among our public servants that their holding of their respective positions is not meant for self-aggrandizement alone, as a form of livelihood above all, but in order to serve the public well, and this should become a passionate and patriotic mission in every individual that would be integrated into the government service. Secondly, there should be similar level of awareness as to the PUBLIC being the CLIENT that the government is aimed to served, (the private sector prefer to call them CUSTOMERS) and the government system is aimed at primarily serving the needs of the CLIENT, that when the client is dissatisfied, public service becomes irrelevant and inefficient in every sensible sense possible. The CLIENT becomes the reason for existence, without it, there is no public service in the first place. This way, every client that enters the halls of a government office should be served well, for the moment that no one would anymore enter the halls of government offices, is just about the time that public service should eradicated.

COMPETITION could be injected into the public sector so that improvement of service could pertain. If the public could be given a choice as to the locus of a better service that they are necessitating, then every public servant would aim to proffer the better form or kind of service. This would entail privatization or semi-privatization of some government agencies or giving the public more stake in the government system, where there is increased community involvement in public service. Competition would entail the heightened accountability and responsibility factor, where the government service would become directly accountable towards the community, that there is really not one that is indispensable, that the public would always have a better place to go when someone in the public sector doesn’t want to serve the people anymore, but only wants to receive salaries and bonuses. This is where PUBLIC CHOICE comes. This element of re-invigorization is the most complicated of all, but it could be done through medium term action plan, like say five years in the process, incrementally achieved by phases. And of course, this would entail a more detailed document and methodology. Competition also would bring forth to the adjustment of tenures in public service where at present, there is that seemingly extreme bias in favor of security of tenure, so extreme that even if a public servant would go to his or her work in drag and sleep all day, the government system could not take him or her away, resulting to mass demoralization and low-level performances. Public service should straightened out its merit system that only a good performance could lead to promotions and increase in compensation, that not one indispensable that for whenever a public servant does not want to serve the public anymore, as expected of him or her, then other more competent or more able individuals from the workforce should be recruited in his or her stead.

INCENTIVES of course remains a very important element, just like in re-structuring or re-engineering, that for every PUBLIC CHOICE of a government service, the better service would gain performance incentives, such as quota bonuses for a certain level unit of work, like for example if this government cashier had served 100 clients in a day, then performance credits and bonuses would inure or if this inspector had visited more areas or locations in a month than all the rest, he or she receives a hefty amount. It could be done in a larger scale that for example if this government agency branch had performed well in a particular year, more than the others in the same field, the whole workforce of that branch would get bonuses and be lauded with public acclaim. They do that in private sector, that’s why the private sector had been able to build the grand Makati skyline over the years, and is establishing another in Fort Bonifacio and in Ortigas, aside from the busting urban scene in Cebu and Davao, and they do not receive any subsidy from taxpayers, unlike the government service system.

The private sector had not been fraught with issues of grand corruption because employees in the private sector do not attain such level of indispensability like that in the public service, where those who performed well are credited well and remain in the service for long, while those who are lackluster and lack integrity in work is taken out of the system. And besides, if one reaches a managerial or administrative level in the private sector, one is assured of hefty compensation that is why, in recent years, managers and executives of private companies have been able to increased sales in dramatic proportions. There are a lot of things that the government service could learn from the private sector in terms of methodologies, form of work structure, incentive system, recruitment and promotion system, tenures of employees, work ethics and level of competency and most of all in their treatment of the CLIENT, which they often call as the CUSTOMER.

In public service, the CLIENT may not always be right, but for certain they are the reason for being. A population that is served better by the government, in terms of public service—- like education, licenses, security of food, public order and safety, health and welfare, livelihood opportunities, housing, job placements, communication and technology, etc.—- is a population that can make a better government and thereon, a more vibrant State.

Note: I hope Professor Rico R. Mabalod would give me a good grade for this.

Everyday, World Crisis

Everyday, the news headlines contain disturbing notes on the now-long-running world financial crisis. It was worrisome at first, but now it might border on the maddening, as stock markets across the globe tumble and decline heavily. Sooner or later, the ordinary citizen, even from as far and isolated places like the Philippines, would feel the setback in terms of financial distress, weakening their pockets and buying power.

There’s a great irony to all this; when this current global recession was still at its infantile stage, world oil prices was at its record-high of nearly $150 per barrel, but now, its down to $64. That’s a steep spiral downward don’t you think? Like it’s really not the real condition of supply and demand that’s affecting oil prices, but something beyond that, about some criteria that was not previously clear to us, man-made and unnatural.

It might not be foolish to say that if recession brings down oil prices to this very low level, then we might as well bat or wish for more and more recessions to come. It does not count, don’t you think?

Of course, recessions are really bad as unemployment rises in America so steeply and this makes the consumer power over there go down to the very minimal, and as a result exports from third world countries like the Philippines would suffer enormously. And the status of many OFW’s there might be affected as they might be sent home too prematurely or so suddenly, thus affecting dollar remittances from thereat.

Another major concern is that investments might be harder to come by, especially from America where most of the call centers here are American-owned, and we all know how the ‘telecenter boom’ had greatly improved our economy.

But it still does not count. I become worried about the worsening financial distress all over the world while on the one hand, could not help but become ecstatic with the plunging oil prices in the world market. It’s like a hot and cold treatment.

I wonder if we could have a middle point on this, like seeing the evaporation of the present gobal economic crisis and while having very low oil prices.

The problem with a burgeoning global economy is that it drives commodity prices to the ceiling and creates ‘a virtually elitist economy’ , one that is merely good for those who are financially situated to gain from the commodity boost, those that have deep pockets, like its an economic system designed for the rich and famous only, and not for the poor ones like the Philippines.

Re-Defining the Territories

In a very fluid geographical scenario of our global condition today,our lawmakers have found the time to re-examine and thereon redefine our national boundaries and re-establish firmly the full and certain content of our territory, which consist not merely that part of the earth’s surface but also the waters underneath it, the seas beyond the coastlines at 200 miles, the air above and even the caverns underneath the sea.

Article I of our Constitution, relating on National Territory states:

“The national territory comprises the Philippine archipelago, with all the islands and waters embraced therein, and all other territories over which the Philippines has sovereignty or jurisdiction, consisting of its terrestrial, fluvial and aerial domains, including its territorial sea, the seabed, the subsoil, the insular shelves, and other submarine areas. The waters around, between, and connecting the islands of the archipelago, regardless of their breadth and dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the Philippines.”

The focal point in this new baseline bill is the Philippine claim over the Kayalaan Islands or that part of the Spratly Islands being occupied by the Philippines. House Bill 3216 redefining our boundaries was put into motion as early as January of last year but somehow, it had encountered major obstructions especially from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) which had advised the Lower House to go lightly in our claim to the whole of Spratley Islands as control and patrimony over it is still being hotly disputed by our country, Vietnam and China.

Obviously, the DFA had foreseen possible diplomatic troubles with China and Vietnam if the bill had pushed through in its original form or wordings. Now finally, the bicameral committee had an approved version where the Spratly Islands are merely referred to as “a regime of islands” belonging to the Philippines.
Clearly enough, it’s a backtracking on our part as it appears to be that our government is overtly resisting conflict with China, which would not be the military kind as this would not be likely to happen, but mostly on the economic and diplomatic side. Being the fastest growing economy today, the Philippines could not afford to disengage from China and that means we have to soften our stand on Spratlys. It’s cruel to be small. We could not be so direct even with our own territorial concern.

In actuality, the Kalayaan Group of islands lays clearly within the 200 Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) as defined by the United Nation Convention on the Law of the Sea through the Archipelagic Doctrine first championed by our own former Vice-President Arturo T. Tolentino, where our territory spans throughout a line drawn from the outermost point of our territory, and everything within this line, and 200 miles beyond it belongs to the Philippines.

And the Kalayaan Islands, which was first discovered by Admiral Tomas Cloma sometime in the 1950’s and named it “Freedomland”, lays within 200 miles off the farthest western coast of Palawan. The only problem is if a group of small islands fall within the items enumerated as possession in the definition of Exclusive economic Zone, which mostly pertains to marine resources.

However, under Terra Nullus legal doctrine, a state could claim a discovered land when it was not owned by any country previous to the discovery and that this should be the strongest basis for the Philippines’ claim. China’s claim over the Spratlys is singularly anchored on their proposition that since the Spratly’s is located in the body of water generally known as the South China Sea, then therefore it belongs to them. This could be faulty when in fact the term South China Sea does not necessarily mean that it was a sea belonging to China but it was just named that way by Portugese sea navigators in the past as a point of reference for their sea travels. The islands should be “terra nullus” or “land belonging to no one” and since we were the first to have sighted it, it should belong to us unconditionally and not merely as “a regime of islands” belonging to the Philippines.

CONSTELLATION c. 2002

Substantial cognizance if I only have,
Of the house where you once forgot your name,
Intentionally, maliciously or otherwise,
I would have spared no minutes nor seconds
In order to stand before you and beside you,
And thereupon render my pleadings and other inquests,
Of which you were certain already even from the beginning
And which is a mystery no more.

I would have scoured the Earth from all ends,
Towards the East and the West, the North and the South;
Into the darkest and narrowest of caverns and underground cages,
Where fiery serpents slitter and savage beasts dwell,
Into every territories of water, into the graying Lake of Lochness,
Even into the bottomless pit of the Marianas.

I shall leave no earth unbounded and unsurveyed,
Untravelled and untresspassed, and no atmosphere unstained
By the heaviness of my desire.

Be informed finally my dear
That I have even summoned all the winged horses in the heavens
So that I may reach the farthest constellations,
To the very end where these stellar bodies remain
Unnamed and unseen even by the scooping eyes of men.

Thereupon, I shall vest title to these constellations
With names I could merely infer
By the deepness of your eyes.

 From my collection of poetry.

Chief Justice Puno and Oligarchy

Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno speaks his mind today without any let-up or anything to hold back, concise, clear and direct.

In fact, he hits directly to the bone of our national sickness by pointing at the oligarchy in our midst as the main, if not the primary culprit, as he launched today the upstart Moral Force Movement.

“The Philippines remain in the control of the oligarchs because the government is beholden to them”, Chief Justice Puno says, headlining the country’s most read newspaper.

Nothing should be truer than this. You could say, it is like seeing the sun in broad daylight, and Justice Puno has just to point that out clearly.

Puno enumerates the main problems of our nation today as “the lack of morality, the weakness of our ethics, the problem of inequitable distribution of wealth, the problem of poverty and the problem of peace and order.” And that the wealth of the nation is merely held by the rich few while the multitudes suffer.

The honorable Chief Justice shows why he is so incredibly different from his predecessor, and that is such a good thing for us. He becomes concern with morality and social imbalance and that could provide as a guiding post within the judiciary, becoming a role model to a very critical sector of our country, the men of laws.

I must agree to all his concerns and to supplement his views, I all see how vital is his role now, where the judiciary and the legal people could be imbibe to take a more participative role in nation-building, becoming agent of change and progress themselves. For all we know, lawyers and judges are certainly a congregation of sharp-minded and highly-capable individuals and our nation needs them, the people could look upto to them to keep in touch with the nation’s ails and fallings. A strong and responsible judiciary could eventually initiate a change that could spread easily towards other sectors of our society, for a nation to be strong and progressive; its laws should be strong and forceful, not lain within the hands of mischief and dire intentions, such as self-interest and nonchalance to the well-being of the public.

I am a bit concern if Chief Justice Puno should be a step beyond the realms of his public duty, for being so patently political despite being the highest ranking official of the judiciary, yet that could become lesser of our concern for a time that the Chief Justice shows extreme concern for the suffering of the people is so rare, and may not come again.

There are many talks that he might be running for the highest position of the land, and nothing should be improper in that. He is described in his Supreme Court official website profile as a man of prose and religion. I also think he is also a man of great concern to the plight of the Filipino people.

Caveman Revisited

[Note: I am kinda busy at present and at the same time, I was thinking that I might just post some of my personal favorites (in terms of blog post that is) and most I can think of is this one, “Caveman 2007”, first published on July 13, 2007 ]

By tomorrow or a day after that, as I am estimating in my mind, I might be packing my bags and bundle some important things as I would be heading for some place else, somewhere that I have been to before but somewhere not many have seen yet or have known previously.

I have decided to leave the city for good. This plan had been in my mind for sometime now and I must assure you that this very drastic move on my part is far from being hasty—-in fact it is to be done with very deep contemplation and scheming that I have etched in my mind for so long now.

I have learned before how to drive nails effectively into wood and I reckon now that I have learned such task fairly well. My grandfather used to do some carpentry work and I used to have observed him so closely doing woodwork when I was so little, putting in mind every phase of the activity, from handling so tightly the wood to be nailed and towards the part when finally the nail is about to be hammered with reasonable precision, or else the hands would be greatly harmed.

Some of my uncles are pretty good too at this kind of work that I would have no doubt that I could do it by myself, hammering nails into wood. By that, I can safely assume that I’d be able to put up a small wooden shelter all by my lonesome when I get to the place that I am planning to go as of this moment. I’ll have thatches as roofs because many have opined how it would help ensure a cooler indoor environement, especially in rural environment. Having thatches as roofs is also one situation that I have been in before, right about the time while I was so young and our family could not then afford a better place to live in, as my father then was just earning his take as a humble mailman. My mother used to tell us stories how my father—-who is a native of the far away Province of Tawi-Tawi—-couldn’t articulate so effectively the local chavacano (a broken Spanish) dialect being spoken here that in some days, while he was still learning the tricks of delivering somebody else’s letter to somebody else’s house, my mother would come along with him for she was far more proficient in the tongue spoken here and therefore could communicate more easily with the mail recipients and also was more familiar with streets names and baranggay locations here.

Now let us go back to this plan I am presently having in my mind—-no reminiscing for now. I really do have a particular place in my mind, one that is far from the honky-tonky noise of the city streets. It is a place near or at the heel of a very prominent mountain known here as the Pulongbato, a stony mountain whose façade is so majestic that it could be seen from any point in the city, from east coast and west coast, from south side and perhaps in some part of north side. It is so strong and mighty like an honorable beast that have decided to sleep for a thousand years and still sleeping as I write now.

Below this mountain is a gushing river and a forest so lush that when years ago I was trekking this area with a number of friends from college, I have almost stepped over a striped multi-colored snake, climbed two small waterfalls, fell from a low cave wall and fell into cool river water, trotted into knee deep gushing water to reach a giant stone in the middle of the river and smoked to my heart’s delight as twilight had enveloped the forest, while the trees slept hummingly like old warriors, and had even eaten eels we caught from a calmer area of the river. Nature is so varied there, and so abundant too.

I reckoned that while I am there, I would ensconce myself in the warm embrace of Nature as Nature would show me a beauty that I have seen before but still looking for since then. I won’t go thirst there for the river that runs through it is so crystalline like diamonds in our hands. And I won’t go hungry either for even sweet bananas—-as I remember all too well now—-grow so wildly and I bet the rich riverways contains fishes that becomes so scrumptious as roasted on a brimming campfire, and the smell coming from it would just be gorgeously sublime. Out there, there’d be no time to keep up and catch up with. Industrial fumes are of no issue and the crazy sound of rushing vehicles won’t bother me no more. Could this plan of mind work? What do you think?

I had wondered deeply if ever my family would follow me there even if things wouldn’t be as easy in a sense that there’d be no school there, no fastfood to drive-by and order hamburgers and fried chickens. There’d be no education to attain there, and then no occupation to profess. And there’d be no roads to where we could drive our humble car. So perhaps, that small car would have to stay undriven for so long, or for eternity most possibly.

Could I say to them that we could have our own education there? That we can be teachers and students by ourselves? Nature is by itself an education and I can sense that it’d be an education that is similarly worthwhile, if not more propound. But I don’t think I could explain this to them efficiently and sell them the wisdom hidden beneath this idea.

And the air, yes the air there is so fresh that once I had thought of putting them in a bottle and sell it as pure purified mountain air, just like what they do to water nowadays. I have read once or had seen in a television show how in some part of Japan, air or the purified version of it had been contained by some enterprising souls there and had raked in some money for it.

The noise there could be so minimal that often, the chirpings of birds and the momentary shrieks of monkeys coming from tall shrubberies far beyond becomes calming to the senses and it is certainly the best anti-dote for stress and worry that most urban dwellers suffer and that for sure, it is a situation so ideal for those who long for peace of mind so desperately and to those who seek ultimate freedom from anxiety. Long walks in the mountain side would be a luxuriant activity and sipping hot coffee beside a cool rushing water, while the sun is just about to set into the horizon, is not a far-off idea anymore.

Ooops, I just heard City Hall’s siren wailing and it’s about time for me to go and bring my third son Yuri to school. And by the way, I was just daydreaming a while ago and none of the plans narrated here is to be carried out any time soon.

The Vicious Game Congress Is Playing Today

This new charter change hullabaloo is proving to be a fiercer attempt at amending our constitution and at creating such a political firestorm that now it’s even seriously threatening the economy as local stocks tumbled down on jitters created by all these happenstances.

I was watching Cable TV several days ago when I chanced upon a live coverage of the Congress in session, and it was this very issue that they were so absorbed in, particularly about House Resolution No. 1109, a bill intending to amend or revised the 1987 Philippine Constitution through the formation of a constituent assembly, composed of the present members of the House of Congress.

What is being contemplated is the composition of a constituent assembly—- consisting of the very members of the Congress itself—- which should be approved by at least 2/3 of the members of the Congress, voting as a whole, where even when every senator would not concur to this particular proposal, enough number of votes may still allow such plan to amend the constitution coming from among the members of the Lower House.

Currently, there are 242 members of the Lower House and 23 members of the Senate, for a total of 265 individuals all in all. Under the proposed bill, all members of Congress——that is, all congressmen and senators—- would sit in session together one day (which is being planned just before the President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would give her SONA on July 27) and vote on whether or not to proceed with the plan to form a constituent assembly for the purpose of amending or revising the constitution.

The magic number is 177, which is two-thirds of 265. It doesn’t matter if all senators would vote in the negative—-as it is presumed that most of them would have their own presidential ambitions thus making them most inclined to thwart the bill as much as possible.

If enough votes are gathered, a constitutional assembly would be convened, and such body would compose the enumeration of proposed changes. After such procedure, it would be submitted for approval in a plebiscite. (Section 1 (2), Article XVII or the 1987 Philippine Constitution)

Or, there is a more direct manner by which Congress could amend or revise our charter, by directly enacting in a bill, for changes in the provision of the constitution, and the Congress as a whole would vote for its approval, with a minimum of 2/3 votes. Still, the proposals would still have to go through the litmus of a plebiscite. (Section 1 (2), Article XVII of the 1987 Philippine Constitution)

See the full constitutional portion on amendments and revisions:

ARTICLE XVII, AMENDMENTS OR REVISIONS

Section 1. Any amendment to, or revision of, this Constitution may be proposed by:

(1) The Congress, upon a vote of three-fourths of all its Members; or

(2) A constitutional convention.

Section 2. Amendments to this Constitution may likewise be directly proposed by the people through initiative upon a petition of at least twelve per centum of the total number of registered voters, of which every legislative district must be represented by at least three per centum of the registered voters therein.

No amendment under this section shall be authorized within five years following the ratification of this Constitution nor oftener than once every five years thereafter.

The Congress shall provide for the implementation of the exercise of this right.

Section 3. The Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of all its Members, call a constitutional convention, or by a majority vote of all its Members, submit to the electorate the question of calling such a convention.

Section 4. Any amendment to, or revision of, this Constitution under Section 1 hereof shall be valid when ratified by a majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite which shall be held not earlier than sixty days nor later than ninety days after the approval of such amendment or revision.

Any amendment under Section 2 hereof shall be valid when ratified by a majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite which shall be held not earlier than sixty days nor later than ninety days after the certification by the Commission on Elections of the sufficiency of the petition.

Imagine the circuitous process and imagine the whole economic cost. Its enormous and besides we are not even speaking about the social and political cost that it might entail, at this point, when the presidential elections is just around the corner, its unimaginable.

If these congressmen only realize what kind of toy they are toying with right now, with this so vicious game, they would even be thinking about it in the first place, the amount of time and its political and economic consequences may just tear this nation into ruins once again. They should stop their being fancy about the constitution. They should seek another more convenient time, like perhaps after the 2010 presidential elections.

And besides, the constitutional provisions intended for making changes in our constitution is so general and highly-unrefined, where implementing laws or even mere guidelines have not yet been instituted.

A 2006 attempt at people’s initiative was struck down by the Supreme Court due to the lack of implementing laws that the Congress should have been dutiful enough to enact so many years ago—-but it didn’t.

One Dwarlf Tale

(This one section of an unfinished autobiography) 

You could fall in love in such tender ages this I realized when I stepped into first grade. Those feelings might have been merely infatuations. I was not sure. Nothing is so certain with emotions especially that of a child.

I could always write "C-H-A-I-R" or "U-M-B-R-E-L-L-A" when our teacher instructed us to identify things on the board. That was how Julie chose a seat beside me. She was like a leech poring into all the answers I have got on my paper while I was always ever willing to share them. She was there with her angelic face looking perpetually it seemed at my paper. In such closeness, I could study the gentle features of her face, the wide-eyed girl who also happened to be a neighbor of ours although their house was far enough that she was not with the regular kids I play with every afternoon.

Julie had a face of dolls my cousins used to play and she wore dresses like those dolls wore. With flowers and sunbeams in them embroidered like badges. Her hair was always prim and her shoes shiny. When rainy seasons came, she was the only child who carried to school an umbrella made for kids while we carry the larger ones, whose length were nearly our heights, making us looked laughable and tragic it seems.

Even in the gardening activities, I would be the one toiling for her that it felt good to be so needed while she enjoyed being so dependent. At that age, the littlest of vocabulary in our minds never allowed us much conversation that what I did was merely stare at her face and wonder how it attracts my attention so much. In the afternoon, I would go home ahead so that I could again examine her face while she walked past Hadja Saniya’s house.

One day she shook the entire class as she narrated to us, while we were playing in the fields, how she had a dwarf friend that she had put in the bottle. I inquired so earnestly if the dwarf was still there and she said that in fact she had spoken to one of them in the morning.

We all grouped around her for dwarf stories and she would tell them with so much energy that she had sweated sometimes.

From then on, she was so full of dwarf stories that my classmates proceeded to disregard her—- thinking she’s just full of empty tales.

Perhaps, bandwagons were a fact of life even in those tender ages I also started to sway away from her—- what with all those dwarfs.

She then became a little bitter with us and became often in argument when she was chided about the dwarfs. Until one day one of the dwarfs died—- as she had narrated one early morning in our class—- and it seemed that she was so affected by that happenstance that she never spoke again about them dwarlves and became all the more introspective and isolated.

In the second grade, she had changed classes but I continued to examine her face whenever she was around. As she grew older, the dresses she wore disappeared and started to wear jeans and t-shirts, and before we knew it, she had developed lesbian tendencies and became silent.

Farewell, Mother of Democracy

Now that the foremost modern-day icon of our democracy has passed away and in sojourn towards eternal peace, I now remember how Madame Corazon C. Aquino, plain housewife who in a matter of moments became singular bastion of democracy in our country, unifying a devastated people to yearn and ultimately strive for the freedom negated for more than two decades of repressive and ineffectual dictatorship under the late Philippine president Ferdinand E. Marcos.

I was merely in highschool years when the EDSA Revolution of 1986 occurred and despite the youngest of mind, I remember seeing her on television, then just a lean and unassuming woman, speaking for votes towards radical changes for our country, in that year’s snap presidential elections.

She spoke like a gentle mother overseeing her suffering children and truth to be told, as indeed history reminds us, as history forever endears her to all of us, she became ultimately the mother of modern-day democracy that we are all having privilege of. And to this, we must all be thankful and offer Madame Cory Aquino the highest of salutations.

I remember now also, that when in 1999, the eve of a new millennium spurred every media outfit to recollect on a decade that was, outlining the highlights of a century that saw two gargantuan world wars, the rise of new social ills such as terrorism and global frauds, epidemics, world-shaking political assassinations, newfound glories  and modern-day revolutions, I had for one took a keen observation on CNN’s graphical graffiti of events that unfolded and was so distraught that the EDSA Revolution of 1986 was not as much as put into the proper perspective as was other events of the decade, like say the fall of the Berlin Wall or the Chinese people uprising in Tiananmen Square in 1989. I reckoned that the People Power Revolution and Madame Cory Aquino for that matter, as a bastion of modern-day world democracy, the TIME’s Person of the Year for 1986, should have gained more focus and deserved more retelling than most of the events of the 20th century, as collated by the CNN news people.

In my mind, the EDSA Revolution of 1986 had brought forth and opened up opportunities for many nations of the world in those times towards the achievement of more palpable freedom and democracy, affirming in fact that a bloodless revolution like that in the Philippines could in fact be possible, and that it augured in an entirely new mindset for the entire political world, that authority of the state and governance need not be as merciless and unreasonable as was in past decades or centuries, that a new wind has finally come, where authority should indeed emanate purely from the people it seeks to govern, and that people in authority should not take possession of power when popular opinion comes to a point that it should be taken away and changed hands.

We could not point out to any evidential matter or a direct correlation of the events unfolding after EDSA Revolution in 1986, but it wouldn’t take much of a genius to note that prior to 1986, a street mass protest should be in no way to become an effectual scheme of disowning a rogue government, they always had to be military or forceful in means and methods.

But after the People Power had gained such surprising success, bringing down what could have been an immovable force in Ferdinand Marcos through mass protest in the streets, without any escalating warfare, and thereon had gained worldwide exposure, being such a phenomenon not really happening in years beforehand.

No one would admit that the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Chinese people finally braving tanks in Tiananmen Square also in 1989, was heavily influenced by the People Power Revolution in 1986. But I felt so intensely that they were.

Bringing forth a new wind of democracy throughout the world, a new era of freedom and democracy not seen ever in previous history, that at least now, the New World Order is much more acceptable and tolerable than the past Cold War Era and of course much much more appreciated than the repressive colonial years when Europe devastated the whole new territories, from Latin America and throughout Asia and Africa though economic exploitation and political enslavement.

Now we could say, that Madame Corazon C. Aquino—- and the People Power Revolution, had single-handedly reversed the Domino Effect Theory, where instead of the spread of communism that had been feared before, the EDSA Revolution of 1986 had spurred in another kind of domino effect, where one by one, socialist states had gone to the streets, from East Germany, to Ukraine and Belarus, to Georgia and China, they finally embraced the harboring embrace of democracy and of freedom.

Myanmar Gets Away with Economic Lip Service From China

For one, Myanmar has just become the most persistent customer of the United Nation Security Council today, as its sentencing of freedom icon Aung San Suu Kyi to an 18-month of reclusion has earned it another ticket towards official condemnation. It used to be Israel, staunch raiders of territories of its neighbors, Lebanon and Palestine.

Fortunately for Myanmar, veto-wielding countries China and Russia posed stumbling block to the United Nation condemnation with China issuing statements that the western world should respect Myanmar’s sovereignty. And accordingly, other neighbor countries like India and Thailand forms a belt of protection and easement with China and Myanmar rest comfortably on this. But this is pointed out to be most economic in nature as Myanmar remains to be among the few countries in the eastern hemisphere to have been able to preserved vast portion of natural resources, in terms of lumber and minerals, and definitely China depends on this so much that now it gives the global lip-service.

This must be what colonialism looks like nowadays.

Conspicuously, the ASEAN secretariat is mum on this latest political storm brewing from the land of pagodas. Perhaps, it’s starting to get tired of Myanmar’s troubled ways.

Everybody gets tired somehow. Maybe the United nation will soon get numbed on Myanmar’s irreverence that it may just leave the issue there stale and unattended, to keep a blind eye. I hope not.

Taiwan In Peril

International news headlines Taiwan’s debacle with very deadly Typhoon Morakot. For this, Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou is currently being demonized by his own people for perceived inaction and calls for his resignation is mounting steadily that he have to make clear on a TV appearance that he is ‘still’ the president of Taiwan and that he is still in control.

Typhoon Morakot was terribly vicious not because of its wind speed but of the heavy amount of rain it carries. It is a fact that a storm lashes so much harsher when it is packed with rain and water.

In a seaside area in Taiwan, on the aftermath of the deadly storm, where over 500 people died and thousands left homeless, hundreds of skinned-white logs filled the beach that one could not already see the sand. That tells the extent of damage and of ferociousness of the storm.

Women cry for their lost ones, buildings stumbling on the force of flood water, and horrendous mud burying homes and entire villages—- Typhoon Morakot becomes the harshest storm to ever hit Taiwan in 50 years.

And this somehow makes me realize that not even the most resourceful of country like Taiwan, one of the most developed economies in the world, could ever prepare for a tragedy like this, its government seemingly caught unprepared and ill-equipped for this sort of happenstance.

Could the wrath of nature be tamed? This remains a question.

Re-invigoration of the Public Sector

I do not mean re-engineering or even re-structuring. Maybe all we need is merely to invigorate the government system in order for it to achieve the maximum efficiency that is expected of it.

We have tried such modes of re-invention as re-engineering and re-structuring, at great cost in time and money, and yet improvements have not been substantial or palpable. The public continues to languish in long queues every time a license or a passport is needed. Bribes are ever pernicious, and even more open today, like it is not anymore a secret that should be tucked inside the pocket or a key thrown into the deepest ocean.

The public continues to encounter ugly faces of public servants seemingly tired of their day job and daydreaming of life in beaches almost all day long. At the slightest error, the public who is merely seeking public service get squirmed at by those who are especially employed by the government in order to serve the public, and in order that the common person have the convenience that the government owes them.

What is the aim of the public sector now? This is one vital question that should be addressed before everything can be settled. Is the public servant merely holding position just in order to make a living? He or she should rather be selling vegetables or meat in the market, at least thereat, there would be wider potentiality for the improvement of wealth. Nobody could really get rich in the government service, even serving for a long time.

Is the public servant merely holding position for social status and pride? He or she would rather be joining pageants and spectacles on television, for he or she would be known better there.

The public office is a public trust. This dogma had even been institutionalized in our most fundamental set of laws – our Constitution – and this is most encompassing of all, where no one should be allowed to forget the essence of public service, which is in order to serve the people, and not merely for self aggrandizement.

In view of the foregoing issues, therefore it is but time to realigned our views about the public sector, starting from the people within it. That for every employee of the government, whether national or local, every time he or she sees an individual, riding a Mercedes Benz or wearing no shoes and in tattered clothes, it should not matter, because that person, whether rich or poor, famous or unknown, is the very public sector he or she is aimed to serve.

In this manner, improvement of government service and the government system could be initiated, entering its nascent stages.

Despite the improvements in work environment, like air-conditioned areas, new buildings, expensive vehicles and increase in pay and bonuses, government service remains the same old horse, who is lackluster in movement, lacks dynamism and most of all, deficient towards its main aim of serving the public dutifully and with vigor. The government remains a system that is prone to stagnation and inefficiency, misappropriation, abuse of authority and lack of direction.

We have tried re-engineering the government system in the past and yet even the best re-engineers couldn’t tame the wild river that is the Philippine government system. Maybe we need a rocket scientist for this. We have tried re-structuring but even if our re-structurers could build a pyramid or an Eiffel Tower out of a molehill, the government system remains an ancient nipa hut.

Maybe it’s time that we should try re-invigorization.

It’s not as complicated to do as re-structuring does or as expensive as a re-engineering would demand. It only takes will, political will and cooperation from the people in the system. There are a number of factors that would be put in focus in this aim of putting the government service in the right track, one is leadership, two is awareness, three is competition, four incentive, and five public choice.

In LEADERSHIP, I mean to say political leadership. When we all almost agree that politics and the bureaucracy could not really be separated and is intertwined almost all the time, leadership becomes a most important factor in putting vigor and integrity back into the government service. In choosing our political leaders, especially in the next election activities in the coming years, the people should now aim for leaders who have proven capacity to lead and carry an entire workforce towards the improvement of service. It starts with the people then. If the electorate fails in the first place to change our leadership from the highest level, towards the root level, then re-invigorization of the government system would remain an illusion.

AWARENESS is two-pronged, first there should be awareness or a high level of consciousness among our public servants that their holding of their respective positions is not meant for self-aggrandizement alone, as a form of livelihood above all, but in order to serve the public well, and this should become a passionate and patriotic mission in every individual that would be integrated into the government service. Secondly, there should be similar level of awareness as to the PUBLIC being the CLIENT that the government is aimed to served, (the private sector prefer to call them CUSTOMERS) and the government system is aimed at primarily serving the needs of the CLIENT, that when the client is dissatisfied, public service becomes irrelevant and inefficient in every sensible sense possible. The CLIENT becomes the reason for existence, without it, there is no public service in the first place. This way, every client that enters the halls of a government office should be served well, for the moment that no one would anymore enter the halls of government offices, is just about the time that public service should eradicated.

COMPETITION could be injected into the public sector so that improvement of service could pertain. If the public could be given a choice as to the locus of a better service that they are necessitating, then every public servant would aim to proffer the better form or kind of service. This would entail privatization or semi-privatization of some government agencies or giving the public more stake in the government system, where there is increased community involvement in public service. Competition would entail the heightened accountability and responsibility factor, where the government service would become directly accountable towards the community, that there is really not one that is indispensable, that the public would always have a better place to go when someone in the public sector doesn’t want to serve the people anymore, but only wants to receive salaries and bonuses. This is where PUBLIC CHOICE comes. This element of re-invigorization is the most complicated of all, but it could be done through medium term action plan, like say five years in the process, incrementally achieved by phases. And of course, this would entail a more detailed document and methodology. Competition also would bring forth to the adjustment of tenures in public service where at present, there is that seemingly extreme bias in favor of security of tenure, so extreme that even if a public servant would go to his or her work in drag and sleep all day, the government system could not take him or her away, resulting to mass demoralization and low-level performances. Public service should straightened out its merit system that only a good performance could lead to promotions and increase in compensation, that not one indispensable that for whenever a public servant does not want to serve the public anymore, as expected of him or her, then other more competent or more able individuals from the workforce should be recruited in his or her stead.

INCENTIVES of course remains a very important element, just like in re-structuring or re-engineering, that for every PUBLIC CHOICE of a government service, the better service would gain performance incentives, such as quota bonuses for a certain level unit of work, like for example if this government cashier had served 100 clients in a day, then performance credits and bonuses would inure or if this inspector had visited more areas or locations in a month than all the rest, he or she receives a hefty amount. It could be done in a larger scale that for example if this government agency branch had performed well in a particular year, more than the others in the same field, the whole workforce of that branch would get bonuses and be lauded with public acclaim. They do that in private sector, that’s why the private sector had been able to build the grand Makati skyline over the years, and is establishing another in Fort Bonifacio and in Ortigas, aside from the busting urban scene in Cebu and Davao, and they do not receive any subsidy from taxpayers, unlike the government service system.

The private sector had not been fraught with issues of grand corruption because employees in the private sector do not attain such level of indispensability like that in the public service, where those who performed well are credited well and remain in the service for long, while those who are lackluster and lack integrity in work is taken out of the system. And besides, if one reaches a managerial or administrative level in the private sector, one is assured of hefty compensation that is why, in recent years, managers and executives of private companies have been able to increased sales in dramatic proportions. There are a lot of things that the government service could learn from the private sector in terms of methodologies, form of work structure, incentive system, recruitment and promotion system, tenures of employees, work ethics and level of competency and most of all in their treatment of the CLIENT, which they often call as the CUSTOMER.

In public service, the CLIENT may not always be right, but for certain they are the reason for being. A population that is served better by the government, in terms of public service—- like education, licenses, security of food, public order and safety, health and welfare, livelihood opportunities, housing, job placements, communication and technology, etc.—- is a population that can make a better government and thereon, a more vibrant State.

(Note: This a re-post from last year.)

Growing Cult in Noynoy Aquino

I have once read that in order to be a true great leader, one must be able to transgress the boundaries of ordinariness, to be iconic and then to be cultic for one.
In other words, one has to be extraordinary.

And so with the case of Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, he has extraordinary things going on for him. For certain, it is not extraordinary measure of personality, but that of extraordinary circumstances.

At a glance, Noynoy has proffered no astonishing credential, except that the situation he is right now makes him so politically palatable and very, very viable. The recent death of her mother, Former President Corazon C. Aquino, has showed yet once again that in local shores, the political environment is often inclined to embrace the extraordinary. Well, perhaps there is no blame for even in America right now, they are still so embroiled in the extraordinary phenomenon of President Barack Hussein Obama.

Eventually, Noynoy Aquino is riding on these circumstances, the overflowing support of the people to her mother and the legacy she had left, and of course, being the son of the most patent icon of Philippine politics in the modern era. And perhaps we can add the fact that she is the sister of the most recognizable personality in Philippine television nowadays.

Columnist William Esposo in The Philippine Star wrote:

“All the present presidential candidates can only offer how much better they can govern over their rivals…Noynoy brings an ideological factor into the equation—the same ideological factor that enabled a housewife to beat the dictator in 1986.”

And besides, Noynoy Aquino had exemplified great ardor and stability in his political career so far, not disposed to enter into frays, or to meddle into issues and then be heard for it, and what is so noticeable is the lack of controversy in his midst. That by itself is extraordinary ultimately.

If he decides to run, he would surely have that privilege of riding upon extraordinary circumstances, those that could enable him to venture into cultic adulation, to be inspirational and exceptional, and win one presidential election.

Shall We Celebrate Our Huge FOREX Reserve?

I was going to blog about this current item some days ago, but I was so busy then. It was a notable report about our economy about three days ago, where our foreign exchange reserve stood at record-high 41.3 Billion in U.S. dollars. Otherwise known as Gross International Reserve (GIR), forex exchange reserve is one good indicator on the health and vigor of the economy, simply stating how much dollars or foreign currency flows into the country at a certain point.

At this level, the Philippines maintain the 10th largest reserve in Asia according to the report and about 37th in the world.

It’s a bit of a downside however to learn that other countries in Asia like Thailand (US 125 B), Malaysia (US 91.4B) and Indonesia (US 57.4B) are so far ahead of us in this aspect. But knowing that we have gained great strides in this matter is already one reason to feel uplifted, somehow.

To clarify some point, the GIR does not ultimately reflect the real account or level of an economy of a nation and remains highly debated as to its significance is assessing a nation’s actual economic strength. Too much of it could actually be harmful to the dynamics of currencies as central banks could easily masked flailing currencies resulting to the hazards of misrepresented values of items and commodities, a situation that could easily lead to explosive inflation and sharp contraction in economy.

Consider that other notable rich countries like Australia (US 40.9B) and Spain (US 27.6B) are far lower than us but for certain, these countries’ economy are so much bigger than ours.

The highest level in GIR is held by China at $ 2.1 Trillion while America is merely 20th at $ 78 Billion. Now, at least we see the gigantic irony about foreign reserves.

But all in all, GIR level is greatly indicative of our nation’s health or any form of upswing on it, in the most basic sense. America and other rich countries could well afford to maintain reasonably lower amount of reserves since their liquidity issues are not as much a problem, and besides America’s dollar remains to be the currency of choice for almost all countries, meaning all those held in reserves in many central banks across the globe emanates or is directly connected to the U.S. economy, signifying its enormous strength as a financial hegemony (giant) in the global trade.

Other forms of reserves are in gold, that’s why central banks all over the world store bullion of gold somewhere underneath their premises.

What is most significant about our GIR level is the sharp increase it had gained from last year, almost $ 10 Billion all in all, from a mere $ 32 B in 2008.

Apparently, this strong inflow of forex exchange should be credited primarily to improving remittances from OFW’s abroad (showing how they are truly heroes of this country) and some from foreign direct investment and capital.

Some sectors says and ask, “What shall we do with these dollar reserves? Shall we just store it or make use of it?”

Some even suggested that we use half of it to pay our fast accumulating foreign debts. Some say we use some of it to build houses and roads.

Maybe we can we use some of it to “keynesially”upstart our economy, increasing government spending through salary increases to the government sector, embark on huge infrastructure projects like public housing, farm-to-market roads and bridges, allowing more access to farms and other potential areas.

But doing that might just harm our economy instead, decreasing credit confidence and would make our economy more likely to be fragile against currency crisis, like the Asian Financial Crisis of 1998.

That’s one of the most important purposes of stable and wide FOREX reserves, in order to shield us from currency fragility that often hounds the global economic system, attacks that are so debilitating that it could tear down an entire economy into bits in just a matter of days.

The Darkhorse in Gilbert Teodoro

I remember how Lakas-NUCD was such a formidable political party several years ago. But that is just merely a memory today. One such manifestation is apparently the lack of talent within its midst that now it has to parade a thoroughly greenhorn nominee for next year’s presidential election.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro comes to me like a very unassuming name and one without a certain face that when the boisterous pronouncement of his nomination by Lakas came out on the morning news today, I wasn’t able to immediately put a face behind the name, despite that of course, his name had been in the current news every now and then, being defense secretary at present.

So I had to immediately surf the net and browse for his person and that was the only time I was entirely assured of his person, in name and face.

Now let me take a step backward, it seems to me that the party has some sense and wisdom after all in its selection of Mr. Teodoro for per my research, Gilbert Teodoro is actually someone who could not be faulted for wanting to aspire for the topmost position of this country. His scholarly record is impeccable, almost to a fault. He topped the bar examinations and went to Harvard for graduate studies. Definitely, we see lots of potential in this guy (to be so cliché about this) and if he becomes president, we might just as well possibly have the most intelligent president ever; although we had such a miserable experience with one. And besides, we are yet to hear anything controversial about him.

With the Noynoy bandwagon coming up so strong and so fast, Teodoro’s presidential run is at most a wild card affair.

In conclusion, Gilbert Teodoro might just be merely a face in the crowd today, but with enough effort in his campaigning, he could be the dark horse in next year’s presidential race and can give Sen. Noynoy Aquino and Sen. Manny Villar a worthy run for their money.

The Daunting Noynoy Aquino-Mar Roxas Tandem

Even Malacañang seems especially daunted with the now official Noynoy Aquino-Mar Roxas tandem for next year’s presidential elections, now that Senator Roxas has officially accepted the vice-presidential candidacy slot for the Liberal Party, presumably through the personal invitation of Noynoy himself.

Actually the team not merely daunting, what with the recent survey results out, the duo could be quite formidable—- not merely a winning team but one that could be unbeatable.

In the days of old, we used to say about up and coming politicians to be “so young and yet so corrupt”, but these two young candidates are “so young and yet so capable”.

If the two can hold their cards well, not bungling their chances just for several months from now, then they’d surely find themselves sitting in the palace by the river next year.

Well of course, none of this election thing should be considered a done deal and deemed final not unless, as they say, the fat lady sings. We still have to have an election on May of next year for one.

Despite the roaring entrance of Noynoy Aquino into the election fray, other candidacies remain to be on the radar, waiting for the banana skin that could lay to naught the Aquino-Roxas team.

For one, the administration bet in Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro becomes now a wise selection as his qualifications and intellectual capacity comes now to the forefront, his exceptional academic achievements slowly seeping into the public consciousness.

Also, Senator Many Villar – the erstwhile topnotcher in polls and surveys before Noynoy came into the scene—- is still looming large out there, still looking for that lucky break (or lucky combination) and desperately aiming to escape the stranglehold of a recent real-state controversy that had suddenly stained what was once an impeccable motive and intention to run for the presidency.

Senator Chiz Escudero on the one hand is still out there flaunting the very wide and sizable networks that he had built from the grassroots in the past several years, through frequent countrywide visits and guesting sorties, and not to forget his very brisk Internet networking activities. That aside from his well-known reputation for boisterous outcries against anomalies in the present government.

And who else, uhmn, maybe former President Estrada still holds that celebrity charisma that had catapulted him to the topmost position of this land in 1998.

It could be a wide open race, despite the ferocious strength and railroading entrance of Liberal Party’s Noynoy Aquino-Mar Roxas presidential team.