The tragic Bangladesh disaster

The sad image of a final embrace in the rubble of the Bangladesh garment factory disaster.

The photo posted here in the wake of a frantic search for survivors after the eight storey Rana Plaza complex collapsed speak volumes of how tragic an accident can be when it occurs in third world countries.

The complex apparently housed five garment factories for Western retailers who have taken advantage of the impoverished country’s cheap labor and goods produced.

It is said that Bangladesh’s $20-billion textile industry accounts for nearly 80 percent of the country’s exports.

One could just imagine, therefore, how full and busy the factories were with workers trying to earn their meager salaries when the building collapsed.

The disaster near the capital Dhaka is said to have been triggered when generators were started up during a blackout.

For running generators to cause the collapsed of an eight story building could only mean that, structurally, the building was not strong enough and the materials used were inferior, brought about from cutting costs in all floors at the expense of safety.

The tragic accident was bound to happen sometime, as it did on April 24, when the whole structure could not finally withstand the vibration the generators were causing.

One can only blame the unscrupulous owner of the building and the equally corrupt contractor.

The death toll has climbed to over 1,000 already after rescuing a woman who survived 17 days buried in the rubbles.

Following the April 24 disaster, it has been reported that the Bangladesh government has shut down 18 more garment factories for safety reasons.

More on Erap and his Manila mayoralty quest

Manila mayoralty candidate Joseph “Erap” Estrada

As if the Sandiganbayan’s (rough translation: People’s Advocate’s) decision against former president Joseph “Erap” Estrada was not enough for people to shun him if he runs again for any public office, after the court ruled him as guilty of plunder and sentenced him to reclusion perpetua, now comes another damning article that should awaken the Manila and suburbs electorate as to why they should repudiate Erap’s candidacy as Mayor of Manila.

To this day I wonder why Filipinos continue to believe that a person like Estrada has the moral ascendancy to hold public office even if he was booted out unceremoniously from the presidency and declared guilty of plunder, as charged.

That he was pardoned by former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is immaterial. It does not change what so ever the verdict. Most importantly, it won’t change who Estrada is as a person.

What I am sharing with you here is my rough translation of an article, Ibalik si Lim na Mayor ng Maynila, written by Atty.  Jay de Castro in his column, Magkaisa para sa bayan, which you can read in this link: http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php/opinion/48924-ibalik-si-lim-na-mayor-ng-maynila-erap:

Re-elect Lim as Mayor of Manila – Erap

“I could never forget Mayor Alfredo Lim. That is why, today, I am asking for your valued support for our friend, Mayor Fred Lim, as mayor in this coming election.

Mayor Fred Lim has already been tested here in Manila. He has a long experience. He is true to his obligations. He cannot be bought. He could not be bribed. He has principle, he has conviction, and he is not afraid! When he was serving as Mayor of Manila, never has his name been involved in any anomaly.

During Mayor Lim’s term, the law is for all. There is no rich, nor poor, everybody is treated equally. That is why for the future, for progress, and most of all for peace in the city of Manila, let us re-elect Fred Lim as Mayor in the city of Manila.”

What have been said above are all words of former President Joseph “Erap” Ejercito Estrada, when he endorsed the candidacy of Mayor Alfredo S. Lim as Mayor of Manila during the 2007 Manila mayoralty elections.

 In all of Erap’s pronouncements and beliefs in Lim, why has the direction of the wind changed and the former president is now challenging and attacking the good leader of Manila?

Do you know that the cause of this is due to garbage only? That’s the truth and that was admitted by Erap himself during his interviews on TV.

Last year Erap asked Mayor Lim for the contract of the collection of garbage for the whole city of Manila. This contract involves hundred of millions of pesos yearly.

When Lim told Erap that the hauling of the city garbage has been awarded already to a contractor and that there were still some months left in the contract, and that the contract is done by public bidding yearly, Erap got mad and said that in their city in San Juan, whomever the Mayor wants the contract to give, it goes, and it is followed.

Lim said that they are just following the law in Manila, and if Erap wants to get the contract of the garbage, that he should let his contractor participate in the bidding and if he could offer the lowest bid then the contract will be awarded to them.

Lim’s refusal did not sit well with Erap and for him to follow the laws on public bidding and this is why he decided to run against Lim so that he will win and will be 100% in control of the millions of pesos garbage contract and the other contracts made by the country’s capital.

So there you are and let’s stop fooling ourselves.

Let us stop recycling clowns, nincompoops, swelled heads, pretenders and corrupt operators for we only end up as the big losers.

 

Marcos daughter is beneficiary of secret offshore trust

From being booted out to being installed back in power: Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr, Rep. Imelda Marcos and Gov. Imee Marcos

So what else is new?

Does it surprise you that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), in a report published by the Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), has uncovered financial documents showing that Imee Marcos, daughter of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, and presently governor of Ilocos Norte, is a beneficiary of a secret offshore trust?

Former Senator Rene Saguisag, the outspoken human rights lawyer during the Marcos dictatorship and a spokesman for President Corazon Aquino, who succeeded Marcos in 1986, described it aptly, saying, “like father, like daughter.”

“Fruit never falls far from the tree,” he added.

This was, of course, in reference to the same method practiced by the dictator and his wife, Imelda, in the 1970s when they resorted to stashing their illegally accumulated assets/wealth outside of the country to protect it from being known by the whole world or questioned, and/or taken away from them in case the fall from power – as it did happened to them.

This offshore entity called Sintra Trust, of which Imee Marcos has been found to be a financial adviser, is said to have been formed in June 2002 in the British Virgin Islands. Other beneficiaries are said to be the three sons of Ms. Marcos with estranged husband Tomas Manotoc.

Now, the question is: Will this anomalous discovery jeopardize the political future of the Marcoses, who are once more in their respective seats of power (Imelda as congresswoman, Ferdinand Jr. as Senator and Imee as governor), since they have failed to mention their hidden offshore assets in their annual Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN)?

Are you kidding me?

It is precisely why they all came back to the country and hoodwinked the masses of people to vote for them as public servants because they wanted to make sure that anybody challenging their hidden wealth will never progress.

It is not an offshore asset protection for nothing. The Marcoses knew where to go for guardianship and safety of their assets – whatever they may be.

This is why when interviewed on ABS-CBN television on this issue Ms. Marcos referred inquiries to her lawyers. “Let’s leave that aside for now and let the lawyers take care of it,” she said curtly.

Andres Bautista, head of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), the body tasked with recovering the billions of dollars the Marcos family stole during his 20-year rule, said that his office would look into the allegations as it is their duty to investigate.

If you ask me, I would rather that Bautista already stops going after the Marcos hidden wealth. The time to dissolve PCGG is now.

It is simply a waste of money maintaining an organization that has done so little for so long a time and for the many hapless martial law victims who are mostly dead by now.

And yet, for that, the Marcoses are forgiven!

Only in the Philippines can this happen.

Ombudsman verdict on suspended Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia

 

Cebu suspended Gov. Gwen Garcia found guilty of grave misconduct by the Ombudsman

The Office of the Ombudsman has found suspended Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia guilty of grave misconduct for approving the purchase of the 24.9-hectare parcels of lot, now famously known as the Balili property, in 2008.

Pegged at P99.7 million, the Cebu capitol allegedly already paid P98.93 million for the 11-parcel land, of which 19.7-ha is underwater.

The decision stated that the transaction was tainted with irregularities as the Provincial Government at that time had no available funds specifically appropriated for the purpose of “providing a good opportunity for the Province of Cebu to develop and cater to the needs of interested investors.”

It said 50% of the total payment made by the Provincial Government “actually came from the [P50M] budget of the province not specifically earmarked for that purpose but for site development and housing program under social services”.

The verdict, however, was meted with a caveat, when Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales said Garcia could no longer be sanctioned because of her re-election in 2010.

The country’s jurisprudence states that “a re-elected local official may not be held administratively accountable for misconduct committed during his prior term of office.”

“The rationale for this holding is that when the electorate put him back into office, it is presumed that it did so with full knowledge of his life and character including his past misconduct. If, armed with such knowledge, it still re-elects him, then such re-election is considered a condonation of his past misdeeds,” the High Court’s decision, anchored on what is commonly known as the Aguinaldo Doctrine, states.

While Garcia may be thumbing her nose at the Ombudsman over a verdict that does hold water anymore, she is still, however, facing graft and technical malversation charges before the Sandiganbayan over the same controversy.

It is not a double whammy after all. But, just the same, it does not make her least guilty of the charges.

What is even worst is that her reputation is badly tarnished and the people know her better now. This is going to be a big issue that won’t leave her at peace for as long as she is in politics.

Her political career may not be at risk, but for sure, for the Cebuanos, she is a marked woman.

 

 

Marcos son clears family on compensating martial law victims

 

This is about a measure called the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2012, which has been ratified by the Senate and House of Representatives and now sent to Malacañang for President Benigno Aquino’s signature.

The measure seeks to grant reparation to victims of human rights violations during the martial law era using the P10-billion Marcos ill-gotten wealth, which was transferred to the Philippine government by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court (SFSC) in 1997.

Based on the legal suit by the administration of former President Corazon C. Aquino in the late 80s, the SFSC allowed the remittance of  the alleged Marcos ill-gotten wealth amounting to $625 million to the Philippine government of which P10 billion was set aside by the Honolulu court for the supposed 10,000 human rights victims.

This may be worthless now for those already dead after long years of suffering and longing for it, but for those who endured the times agonizing over the brutal experience, this compensation will, perhaps, add a few more years of their existence and whatever amount is left can provide for the health care, education and assurance of funds for those he will be leaving behind.

It will be noted, however, that Sen. Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., son of the late dictator, never participated in the committee hearings, saying, “I cannot be seen to be objective about the subject ever.”

He went on to say that, “In all the cases between claimants, we no longer have a legal personality in those actions. We do not send lawyers, we do not appear as a party, so it’s between the claimants and the Philippine government now.”

And rightly so. In fact, there is nothing we can do in that aspect. Since their return from exile in the 1990s, they picked up where they have left off and they are now back with a vengeance wielding power and influence, what with the shoe-famous Imelda, a congresswoman, son and namesake, Ferdinand Jr, a senator, and daughter Imee, a provincial governor.

All these, thanks to the absurd political orientation and distorted ethical values, not to mention, short memory of Filipinos.

But, despite all these irrationalities, the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2012 proves the fact that this dark history of our country happened and it invalidates, nay, debunks, all claims by the Marcos heirs that martial law saved the Philippines from a communist takeover or that martial law was for building a new society.

For all of us who have been witnesess to the greed, corruption and atrocities committed by the despot, Selda, the former martial law detainees’ organization, could not have said it any better: “More than the monetary compensation, the bill represents the only formal, written document that martial law violated the human rights of Filipinos and that there were courageous people who fought the dictatorship.”

The same sentiment was expressed by Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights and the principal sponsor of the bill, when he said: ‘This is a first of such human rights legislation in the world where a state recognizes a previous administration’s fault against its own people and not only provides for, but also actually appropriates for reparation.”

 

Disgraced presidents in politics

 

When I read yesterday what Yahoo! News Philippines said about former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) being under arrest yet ‘working,’ I said, who cares?

But, the reason why I am writing about it is because I simply want to point out how flawed the electoral and justice systems are in our country in allowing discredited and disgraced former presidents to run again for public office.

It is because of this defective system or perhaps for being luckless and suckers, too, that we, or at least some Filipinos, continue to be subjected to political chicanery by people like GMA and Joseph Estrada.

More than what they are doing now or what they intend to do next is not what matters really.

What is significant to remember is what these people have done in the past – what ignominy they have committed to the country and its citizens that caused them to be disgraced and even had them put under house and/or hospital arrest.

This is what matters most and yet here we are approvingly reading about them and looking at them as if it the most naturally thing to do – resurrecting themselves in the political arena after being scorned and humiliated by the people.

Reentering the political arena after having reached the pinnacle of power, especially after having been described as despicable during their presidency, is not about having a hide as thick as that of a rhino’s.

But, it is about the ever present wretched attitude to keep on hoodwinking the gullible Filipinos for as long as they can so they could continue their unfinished business of using their power and influence in pursuing their corrupt practices and other political agenda.

There is no vehicle more convenient to facilitate ill-conceived machinations with cohorts than riding the political merry-go-round. Why choose to be else where when this is familiar grounds?

And so we see former President Estrada filing his candidacy and running against Mayor Alfredo Lim of Manila. Hasn’t he been Mayor of San Juan already a long time ago?

Well, nobody can deny that it is a virtue to serve people. Serving with decency is like serving God, but not when you are serving mammon, too. It is just too complicated and Erap’s life has been full of complication.

As for GMA, her being able to perform her legislative duties despite her being incarcerated does not change the impression of her as a corrupt person.

She is what she is – a disgraced leader.

 

The Atimonan killings

Bullet riddled vehicle at the crime scene

It is crimes like the now infamous Maguindanao massacre and the latest Atimonan killings that Filipinos cringe in disbelief, apprehension and shame.

Disbelief that even among police officers, they find themselves in each others cross-hairs, for one reason or another.

Apprehension that if police officers can easily and brazenly kill their own comrades, then whom shall we trust to protect us?

Shame that the country is once more put in the spotlight, depicting it as still belonging to the ‘wild, wild west,’ which doesn’t really augur well in our desire to be a reputable nation worthy of foreign investments and a tourist destination.

Is this a product of being poor and a struggling nation?

Is this a result of a nation that indulges in too much politics and having political leaders lacking in scruples?

Bottom line is that even if President Aquino has been showing exemplary leadership, greed and corruption is so entrenched in government, to include the military and police establishments, that it becomes the motive for committing heinous crimes and to hell with nation building and public service.

How lamentable!

That is what happened, no doubt, in the Atimonan bloodbath. The fact that it talks about the illegal numbers game of ‘jueteng’, one can only surmise that there was more to it than just apprehending or killing Victor “Vic” Siman, allegedly an operator of the numbers racket in Laguna and Batangas provinces in southern Luzon.

For how could one explain the extermination of Siman and 12 others, including members of the police and the military as well as an environmentalist?

The crime scene tells it all. It eerily belies that a shootout happened between the police force manning the check point and the alleged criminal elements.

One only has to see the bullet-riddled body of the vehicles and the amount of bullets spent on the victims and you can tell that it was meant to silence all of them.

After all, it seems like the order of battle was not intended for the jueteng lord alone, but also for those trying to protect Siman.

Or could this simply be a poor police intelligence work that bungled up what could have been a legitimate operation, resulting to collateral damages?

Smells fishy, nevertheless, but sooner or later, we will know what exactly happened in Atimonan when the NBI finishes its investigation.

Having said that, isn’t it time already that President Aquino should seriously consider appointing an anti-crime czar to closely look into the illegal activities in this country?

The Atimonan incident is enough lesson to learn from.  There is just too much noise and misgivings being mouthed between some members of the PNP, the DOJ and Executive Secretary Pacquito Ochoa’s PAOCC.

What we need urgently now is to have someone tested, competent, determined and courageous to occupy the position of an anti-crime czar who will solely be responsible and accountable to the President so we could see order in this country and people can breathe a sigh of relief.

(Please check this link out: http://quierosaber.wordpress.com/2012/09/02/lacson-is-boon-to-country-as-anti-crime-czar/)

To dance or not to dance in Cebu’s Sinulog Festival

Gwen dancing in the 2012 Sinulog Festival (photo courtesy of Flickr.com)

When it rains, it pours, so the cliché goes.

In the case of Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn “Gwen” Garcia, not only has she been suspended for six months last December 19 for alleged abuse of authority, which was the reason for defiantly barricading herself in her office, but her plea for the Sandiganbayan to lift the three hold departure orders (HDOs) issued against her also suffered a setback.

It will be remembered that the Ombudsman had charged Gwen with two counts of graft and one count of technical malversation over the Provincial Government’s anomalous purchase of the former Balili property in Tinaan, Naga City, Cebu.

It is alleged that she was behind the purchase of a 25-hectare lot for P98.9 million only to find out, upon verification, that a large portion of the property was underwater.

As if the above legal cases against her are not enough personal woes, now she is put in an even more unsettling situation – between a rock and a hard place – deciding on whether or not she will perform her ninth and last dance as head of the province in Cebu’s Sinulog Festival.

“I have always danced in the Sinulog as an offering to Señor Santo Niño,” Gwen said.

The streetdancing and grand parade to culminate this year’s Sinulog, Cebu’s biggest festival, will take place on January 20.

I used the word ‘unsettling’ because it could very well be so that if she leaves the premises, where she is holding herself incommunicado by her own volition, that she will not be able, literally, to go back and settle once more in her safe haven.

While I personally suggest that she goes dancing and enjoy the festivity because she really gloats over the focus and media attention that has been upon her for the last of her eight appearances, my hunch, however, is that she will continue to be holed up in her sanctuary and forgo the spiritual enlightenment her dancing for the Sto. Niño may have for her.

For Gwen, it is not spirituality that matters most. Not even in her dancing for we know all is purely ‘palabas’ (show-off).

For Gwen, it is political ambition and greed over spiritual and moral consideration.

Perhaps, President Benigno Aquino had the same anticipation of Gwen’s action that she will not leave the Provincial Capitol’s grounds, saying, she will be allowed to continue to lock herself inside her office.

“There is no need to make a martyr out of her. Because the provincial government is not prevented from carrying out its functions, we will just let her be,” Aquino said.

I could not agree with Aquino more, but what a subtle admonition it is to Gwen, and yet she is not getting it.

I happened to see my doctor yesterday, but before she started her examination she told me about the traffic caused by the Sinulog preparation. I, jokingly, asked her if there was traffic at the vicinity of the Capitol. Then she looked at me disbelievingly and said, “naunsa na mana siya oi”? (what the heck is happening to her?).

So my question now is: Has Gwen’s bearing and pride gone to the dogs?

Indeed, a pest of a question it is!

(Please see About page for more speculation.  – Quierosaber)

Logging ban murder at the start of 2013

 

It has been reported that two unidentified men armed with M-16 rifles shot environment department officer Alfredo Almueda in the head at the start of 2013 as he waited at a forest checkpoint to intercept a truck carrying illegally cut logs.

It does not only signal a bad omen, but it also foretells a continuing inability of government to implement the nationwide log ban that would, God forbids, also continue to cause havoc among the many poor Filipinos living in the hinterlands from flash floods and landslides caused by typhoons.

“This attack clearly demonstrates the ruthlessness of those responsible for the rape and destruction of our forests,” Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said, condemning the latest killing.

Paje said Almueda, 59, was the victim of persistent efforts by illegal loggers to silence “environmental defenders”.

Statistics show that Almueda’s killing brings to 21 the number of environment department personnel, deputized workers and volunteers who have been killed since a nationwide logging ban was imposed two years ago.

One would think that for foresters to be described as “environmental defenders”, that they have all the means to protect the forests and themselves.

But, in fact, these government workers are said to be underfunded, outnumbered and poorly armed, who often than not are left being taunted and bullied by illegal loggers often linked to powerful businessmen and corrupt public and military officials.

It may be recalled that sometime last year, Melania Dirain, a local DENR officer in Cagayan Valley was shot dead by a lone gunman as she worked in her office. She had been credited with the strict enforcement of logging rules in the area.

The unfortunate thing about these killings is that while the perpetrators are easily identified and caught with the help of CCTVs, which Paje had ordered install in all local DENR offices, lives have not only been shattered then and there, but in the long run the environment is destroyed and more struggling Filipinos are at risk of losing their lives because of a disaster waiting to happen brought about by unscrupulous individuals.

We can only hope that the brutal killing of Almueda will finally awaken the sensitivities of both the national and local officials that they be determined in apprehending illegal loggers and those behind it and make sure they get penalized according to the law.

Unless these are done, there will always be Sendongs and Pablos to compare with.

 

PCGG ends Marcos wealth hunt

PCGG Chair Andres Bautista

“It’s a lonely job. It doesn’t win you any friends.”

With those remarks comes the skepticism, if not apprehension, of Andres Bautista, head of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), that going after the Marcos ill-gotten wealth at, this stage, is simply an exercise in futility and becoming more as mythical as the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

Needless to say that Bautista has already recommended to President Benigno Aquino that the commission tasked to recover the alleged $10 billion stolen wealth of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, which has been going on for nearly three decades now, should cease its operation and its existence abolished.

“It has become a law of diminishing returns at this point,” Bautista told the Agence France-Press in an interview at the commission’s offices.

“It’s been 26 years and people you are after are back in power. At some point, you just have to say, ‘We’ve done our best’, and that’s that. It is really difficult.”

I could not agree more with Bautista’s candid thoughts.

It is not about giving up the fight, which, clearly, could have been won earlier had the late President Cory Aquino – she who created the commission – and the heads of government that followed her, went hammer and tongs in recovering the ill-gotten wealth, while it was still fresh in the minds of the supportive world.

Rather, it is staring at the realization now that those pursued for their abusive rule and for bleeding this country dry are back in power – wealthier, influential and arrogant as ever – and are now seen as thumbing their noses at the government’s quest for justice against them.

And they may just have all the reasons to do it for, as reported, despite numerous criminal and civil cases being filed against them, none of the Marcos heirs or their cronies, who have been accused of plundering government coffers, have so far been successfully prosecuted.

Now that three Marcoses – Imelda, Imee and Ferdinand Jr. – are in politics and, thanks to their clout, it hasn’t only become harder for the government to recover more of their hidden wealth, but it has become practically impossible to find it.

So far the PCGG has recovered 164 billion pesos (about $4 billion), some invested in prime New York real estate, jewelry, and about $600 million stashed in secret numbered Swiss bank accounts.

“There is still a lot of mystery surrounding the fabled wealth, and my sense is there is still much more out there,” Bautista said.

But if there is no more money to be recovered, then the best option the government should take is make money out of the jewelries presently locked in a vault at the central bank, which international auction house Christie’s estimated to fetch up to $8.5 million.

Keeping the jewelries for tourist attraction, as planned by the Department of Tourism, is a cockeyed idea as it will only leave it vulnerable for the unscrupulous to plan evil with it. Because Imelda is fighting tooth and nail against having the jewelries auctioned, it could only mean that she thinks the 150 carat giant Burmese ruby, the diamond tiara and the other gems still belong to her.

To me, having the Marcoses back in power and not being able to succeed in recovering all of their embezzled wealth is a national fiasco and we only have to blame our short memories and our penchant of idolizing the notorious.