Letter to Pres. Aquino and Sec. Abaya

Open Letter to His Excellency Benigno Simeon Aquino III, 

President of the Philippines

and Honorable Joseph Emilio Abaya, Secretary

Department of Transportation and Communications

Dear President Aquino and Secretary Abaya:

Between 1989-1990, we began the advocacy for a Philippine safety agency that led to the passage of the Republic Act to create the NTSB - National Transportation Safety Board.

Shown below is the reconstruction of the briefing on the need to operationalize the National Transportation Safety Board. We revised the briefing over and over again. The updating of the voluminous data on accidents over land, to include actuarial and statistical computations of the probabilities of new accidents for extended, extrapolated periods, is not included since it would be too tasking for us and we do not have the resources nor are equipped any longer to undertake the job.

In the past, we were fortunate to be working with a foreign counterpart - the Harris Corporation Florida USA, a conglomerate with over 100 companies under its wings, that allowed us to opportunity to campaign for the privatization of the then Air Transportation Office's ATS (Air Traffic Service) as well as to push for the creation of the Philippines' transport safety agency.

- Original proponents for National Transport Safety Board 1994
Read more from here

Safety on the road

Recently, one of the buses of Don Mariano Transit figured in an accident where it is reported that 18 people died (see photo below).

Photo Credit: Manila Bulletin, December 16, 2013 by Michael Varcas

The attention of everyone, especially our government officials, is most earnestly called towards past proposals, suggestions, recommendations, encouragement, admonitions, for making transport safety a key concern of the public sector.

At this time, whether or not the Philippine Government under Pres. Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino the 3rd will listen to all these unsolicited advice will be the determinant of the future of public safety on the streets of the country, sea and ocean lanes, and the Philippine air ways.

One of the hundreds of proposals on transport safety became a certified legislation of the Ramos Administration in 1994-1995. It was an executive order draft that instead was forwarded with strong endorsement by former President Fidel V. Ramos to the two houses of Congress to be made into Law due to the inclusion of a component providing for changes in users' fees and charges in the transportation industry.

Because Congress holds the power of the purse and is the only one mandated to create taxes, fees and charges that will be levied upon the public, Congress was the last stop of the proposal for transport safety. Under the late Pres. Corazon Aquino, the same proposal was submitted to Malacanang because of the need for a Philippine council on Safety - or any kind of agency concerned with Safety in general.

If we look at our Philippine Government's structure, there is a myriad of government units, offices, bureaus on safety. From the Department of Labor, Health, National Defense, Transportation and Communications, and the list goes on and on. Despite this however, or because of too many duplicating functions, there is a seeming confusion as to who will be responsible for this and that concern on Safety.

Hundreds of world, international, regional Conventions, conferences and Workshops are held all over the the globe on Safety. The United Nations, cognizant of the value and importance of the universal concern of Safety, has elevated its status consistently from low to a very high Category under the UN Structure.

Therefore a single agency, unifying at least a wide array of safety concerns and lessening the duplication and conflicts of functions of too many agencies under the bureaucracy was proposed.

Out of these proposals, at least one was favored to become law: the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) Act that came about due to the strong wording by Malacanang stating that the proposed law was part of its certified legislative agenda for the period.

That certified priority legislation under the Ramos administration, became law. Secretary Vicente Rivera, past head of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) disclosed that former Congressman Manuel A. Roxas III and Senator Franklin D. Drilon were very instrumental in making the draft bill become law.

During her tenure in Malacanang, the late Philippine President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, appointed a lady by the name of Emilia Boncodin to the post of Director at the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Eventually, Ms. Boncodin rose in the ranks and became Assistant Secretary, Undersecretary and yet was the source of complaints from too many sectors due to her insistence on ten percent (10%) commission or kickback for herself when it became her turn to be the one to release the payments to government service providers. When the supplier-contractors could not produce the cash, Ms. Boncodin will hold the payment hostage in return for a post-dated cheque or any other debt instrument, bank note that will ensure her 10% kickback will be paid.

However enormous and tremendous were the monies earned by this Boncodin in the past due to the immense, uncontrollable power of hostaging and illegal detention of the DBM, Boncodin refused and returned the enacted and signed (by President Ramos) Law creating the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to Congress.

Her reason was that DBM did not have Fifty Million Philippine Pesos (Php50-M) to cover the operationalization of the NTSB into a functional office. While amassing more than a few billions in office, Boncodin refused to fund Php50-M for the NTSB Law.  More  >  >

Speeding and bad road structures

Yahoo: CCTV shows Don Mariano Transit speeding before tragedy

From yahoo.com, a video shows that the killer bus owned by the Don Mariano Transit that took 18 lives of its passengers was on a speeding frenzy prior to the accident, the report says.

The authorities reviewing the video say the bus was running at more than 100 kilometers per hour while at the point of the accident the speed limit was only 80 kilometers per hour.

Bad road design and structure in RP

A comment by "A Yahoo User" on the video sourced from ANC, says thus:

if one where to look closely at the footage, one can see that there was water in the path of the bus. What does this mean? I believe that the swerving may be the cause of hydroplaning.that and the speed of the bus i believe could be the main causes of the bus falling

By design, the coupling of speeding vehicles and bad road designs and structures that are common in poor or developing countries are a mortal combination. Compounded with dilapidated vehicle features and parts - that as claimed by the Skyway administration was evident in the Don Mariano Transit bus unit's totally bald tires with treads wholly worn away - the accident was bound to happen.

In the face of burgeoning mishaps not only in the Metro Manila but in other areas of the country due to accidents like the Don Mariano Transit bus' plunge into the netherworld, government must be concerned not only with the implementation of laws, rules and regulations similar to the Congress-Senate approved National Transportation Safety Board Act but also the strictness of parameters for approving and performance-assessing the quality of the country's road network.

As our advocacy has pointed out in the past, in Tokyo, Japan, it was observed that a speeding car in a heavy downpour of rain at night, in a toll bridge, appeared to be travelling on almost dry road that was clear even to the average eye aided by vehicle lights. This is reportedly due to the fact that the structure of Tokyo's roads is characterized by multiple layers.  More  >  >

Letter to the President and DOTC

Open Letter to His Excellency Benigno Simeon Aquino III, 

President of the Philippines

and Honorable Joseph Emilio Abaya, Secretary

Department of Transportation and Communications

Dear President Aquino and Secretary Abaya:

Between 1989-1990, we began the advocacy for a Philippine safety agency that led to the passage of the Republic Act to create the NTSB - National Transportation Safety Board.

Shown below is the reconstruction of the briefing on the need to operationalize the National Transportation Safety Board. We revised the briefing over and over again. The updating of the voluminous data on accidents over land, to include actuarial and statistical computations of the probabilities of new accidents for extended, extrapolated periods, is not included since it would be too tasking for us and we do not have the resources nor are equipped any longer to undertake the job.

In the past, we were fortunate to be working with a foreign counterpart - the Harris Corporation Florida USA, a conglomerate with over 100 companies under its wings, that allowed us to opportunity to campaign for the privatization of the then Air Transportation Office's ATS (Air Traffic Service) as well as to push for the creation of the Philippines' transport safety agency.

- Original proponents for National Transport Safety Board 1994

Read more from here.

Aquino government moro-moro

The zarzuela continues. This supposedly "good-intentioned" Senate Hearing, in aid of Demolition, succeeds as a major public relations campaign of world wide magnitude. As a play, the entire production does not rate even a low D grade. It was too transparent to be stage managed, with Madam Janet Lim Napoles talking to her friend-senators as if they were long-lost friends. She does not even use the respectful address of Your Honor and never leads her statements with Mr. Chairman of the Committee.

Madam Napoles was in the Senate at her best element. She even complained that she must be given her free lunch time.

Led by Senators TG Guingona, a known substance abuser and Peter Alan Cayetano, a man insanely driven by the ambition to rise above the person who fed his young models-loving father from the palm of his hand (called Tanda by Sen. Miriam Santiago, ex Judge and former Cory appointee as well as collector of about a half-million pesos bribe per head now ensconced in Switzerland from the lion's share of undocumented 4 million chinese in the Philippines during the 1986 installed revolutionary regime), the drama goes on attempting to be the best Pitong Komikera-Komikerong Itlog show in this part of the globe.

The lady from Lima was also present, hubnubbing with Sen. Santiago during recess with Sens. Cayetano and Trillanes trading ideas from time to time during the interregnum when the Great Madam money giver to presidents, politicians and bureaucrats and money grubber, in the league of Mr. Zaldy Co and Mr. Edwin Gardiola said Time Out, I Have To Eat Lunch. Missing the action was the real lawyer of Madam, Atty. Fred Villamor, for whom the lady of Lima lawyered for Madam Napoles, being an obedient , willing partner with or without her underwear.

The useless debates centered on the scripted silence of Ms. Napoles and the supposedly honest, "credibility of the truth" statements of Benhur Luy, as well as other Napoles underlings. Even President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino the 3rd did not bother to listen to any of the burdensome, inane and previously scripted talk flying freely at Senate. The turd had prepared speeches to media about the bagyo - super typhoon Yolanda. The Madam continuously denied everything while Brain dead Miriam Santiago became her tutor in how to deny everything in the most decent, legalistic manner: "I refuse to answer, I invoke my right against self-incrimination."

On occasion, at least once or twice, it was mentioned that the famous NGO (non-government organization) and PO (people's organization) community organizer, Madam Napoles, even used the dead to populate her NGOs and POs. From her probably great gratitude to the dead, she possibly bought beautiful Heritage Park lots for her benefactors - Senators, Presidents, Congresspersons, the President's top men and women, local officials and national budget bigwigs.

A multi-million several days' partying and catering marks the visit of Ms. Janet Lim Napoles to the Heritage Park in Global City aka The Fort. The Inquirer reports that the Heritage Park mausoleum dedicated to Ms. Napoles' mother even became a tourist spot recently after this same newspaper broke the news on the Napoles fund scam:

Napoles Mausoleum in upscale Taguig now a tourist spot 

The luxurious two-story Lim-Napoles mausoleum at Heritage Park in Taguig City has become a “tourist spot” after the Inquirer broke the exclusive stories on Janet Lim-Napoles as the alleged mastermind behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

Those laid to rest in the upscale memorial park must be turning in their graves.

Janet Lim-Napoles, alleged pork barrel scam mastermind, owns around 280 square meters of “lawn and estate lots” at Heritage Park in progressive Taguig City, according to an insider privy to the sale of the lots.

It was at Heritage Park that Napoles made her voluntary surrender to presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda on Aug. 28.

“The lots were under different names, but it was Ms. Napoles who paid for 200 lawn lots and eight family estate lots,” where the mausoleum now stands, said the source who spoke to the Inquirer on condition of anonymity.

“She bought all the adjacent lots of her mother’s mausoleum because she said she wants space for catering and tents when they celebrate All Souls’ Day as well as the death anniversary and birthday of her mother,” the source said.

The source said the Lim mausoleum is the burial site of Magdalena Luy Lim, the mother of Napoles, who is now detained at Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa City, Laguna province.

“It is complete with amenities and furnishings of a high-end condominium unit,” she said.

‘Tourist spot’

The two-story dark grey mausoleum adorned with Halloween trimmings on the ground became a “tourist spot” after the Inquirer broke the exclusive series on Napoles’ illegal transactions using public funds, according to the source.

“Madami nagpapicture (A lot of people are having their pictures taken at the grave site), especially now,” the source said.

The lowest value for a lawn lot based on Heritage Park’s latest price list is P95,000 at 1.2 sq m and a family estate lawn cost around P4.6 million at 4.9 sq m.

“The worth of Napoles’ lots alone could reach around P30 million, but the cost of the construction of the mausoleum we do not know,” she said.

She added that government people who claimed they were with the Commission on Audit had also visited the mausoleum.

Said the source: “For the past four years, at least three times a year, they held a party complete with 24-hour catering and air-conditioned tents.

“Usually, the party preparation began on Oct. 30 and the party lasted three days, until Nov. 1. It was a festive costume party and the kids were given chocolates and candies.

“There were nuns and lots of people arriving and going during the celebration. Plenty of cars.”

Party’s over

Emy, a dirty ice cream vendor who claimed she supplies the ice cream for Napoles every Nov. 1, showed up yesterday at the mausoleum, but was turned away by a man named Marco, because “there was no party today (walang party ngayon)”.

Emy said she saw the developments of Napoles’ case unfold on TV but she took the chance and brought ice cream to the mausoleum but was told that no party guests were coming over.

“Madame Jenny (as Napoles preferred to be called), who was good to us, paid us P6,000 for the ice cream and gave a P1,000 tip,” Emy told the Inquirer.

Another family who had relatives buried near the mausoleum told the Inquirer that they “kind of missed the fanfare, because they even had a stage there once and some concert, plus free food.”

“We did not know who she was. We were told when we asked that the owner was a Chinese businesswoman very close to Erap,” the neighbor said, referring to former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada. Read More >>

Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

The administration is making the people of the Philippines look stupid and tickling the entire nation to emotional highs using a badly written script played by a drug addict, a highly ambitious imbalanced person, a mental retard called the turd, a brain damaged collector of undocumented chinese bribe money, a fat frog looking principal actor, among a coterie of what Madam Senator Brenda calls cockroaches and assholes (public relations experts and specialists).

At the same time, a super typhoon waits to ravage the entire country with storm surges and possible numerous deaths, damage to crops, property and countless losses and sorrows for millions of people in the land. Still the people are being occupied with the stupid spin of media doctors and drug addicts, brain damaged solons and a turd also using drugs to pacify his reported Asperger's Syndrome. God bless the Philippines that is growing stupider everyday while the fatted cows in government and in their plush business offices keep laughing at all of us.

If the awful drama continues, a crippled duck might soon get kicked out of the duck pen.

A Letter Inviting GeoHazard experts to Manila for a Conference

December 9, 2013

Dear Sir / Madame,

Greetings!

This is to formally invite your attention to our determination to hold the international conference on geohazard mapping and relevant environment issues. Our group decided to launch a campaign in 2009 for sustainable crisis hazards mapping and relevant environmental concerns after returning from Mindanao, Philippines following the end of the effort in ending the highly expensive hotel billeting by Juma’a Abu Sayyap of selected staff members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from Switzerland (Andreas Notter), Italy (Eugenio Vagni) and Philippines (Mary Jane Lacaba).  More  >  >

Reconstruction and Recovery

The World Bank says that timely reconstruction will help lessen the impact of super typhoon Yolanda. Before we digest these words, it is also significant to look back into the past.

There was a time in fairly recent past when NBC news anchor Brian Williams sounded like a broken record repeating the words over and over again that: Aviation in the United States of America is dying. This is now true with Philippine air line companies and selected several other businesses in the Philippines right at this very moment.

During the post-Yolanda period, only at least one air line company that very enterprisingly lowered its passenger rates (presumably including for cargo) per seat-mile, notwithstanding that the Philippine government ordered that a number of fees and charges being levied in the aviation sector will be waived, among other behests in order to lessen the burden for victims of the calamity and those that had to fly to ground zero to participate in disaster relief and recovery operations . . . .

Dire is a weak description for the situation that a select number of businesses in the Philippines are in right now. More > >

For you UN Secretary General Ban: A letter from us

#Yolanda, Arroyo, Ban Ki Moon, Bautista-Horne, cold shoulder, defense, DND, Forest Ranger, government, intelligence, Margareta Wahlstrom, satellite, shame, Tacloban, UN Philippines, United Nations

Open Letter to the United Nations


November 21, 2013

HIS EXCELLENCY
BAN KI MOON
Secretary General
The United Nations
UN Headquarters
First Avenue at 46th Street
New York, NY 10017
USA


Dearest Secretary General Ban:


Our warmest greetings!

Kindly please understand, I had seriously debated on whether to send this communication to you or not. I decided on going through with it since I believe that the result would turn out for the better. Nothing that transpired in the past has diminished nor degraded my respect and love for the UN. I have no intention in demeaning anyone's position or creating anything negative between myself, my group and the UN even if that can't be helped, but this has to be done, and I shall humbly embrace the consequences of my act.

After tropical cyclone Haiyan aka Yolanda, not a surprising lot of relief organizations are now helping in Tacloban, in the towns of Leyte, Samar, Cebu, Bohol, Capiz, Aklan, even parts of Mindanao. Entire states committed volumes of resources to come to the aid of the Philippines. As published in the media, the Philippine Government stated that the affected areas include nine (9) Regions in the entire archipelago that consists of seventeen (17) Regions, with three (3) Regions being small and newly created divisions that were fairly recently separated by Special Law (CAR, ARMM and Caraga). It is presumed that all of these relief organizations and representatives of their own countries are operating out of the goodness of heart and the desire to be of sincere help to the people of Tacloban City, the municipalities of Leyte, Samar, Cebu, Bohol, Capiz, Aklan, portions of Mindanao. Although some are at a loss to convince others of their intentions: "just wait... in due time we are convince you of our legitimaty."

Some of these relief organizations are part and parcel of the United Nations organization. Be that as it may, most or all of these organizations anyway, under the principle that all states are municipalities embraced by the founding charter of League of Nations that is now the United Nations, are governed under the auspices of the august body that you head. The people of Tacloban City and the rest of the areas affected by the tropical cyclone Haiyan aka Yolanda, are grateful for all of the help of the UN, the honorable member states under it and the public sector as well as private relief groups that are now helping. More > >

Proposed revision of Senate Bill for Bohol-Cebu-Negros Rehabilitation

A proposed bill (text shown below) for the reconstruction and recovery of Bohol-Cebu and Negros Oriental that suffered from enormously damaging, killer earthquakes enjoins the government to create the Bohol-Cebu-Negros Reconstruction Commission and to allocate no less than Philippine Pesos Thirty Billion for this and other purposes.

This site proposes the bill to be revised to include all of Visayas but to take care of affected areas only, particularly those provinces in Eastern, Western and Central Visayas affected also by typhoons.

The proposed budgetary allocation be changed from PHP30-Billion to Philippine Pesos One Hundred Fifty Billion (PHP150-B). The law must also be made retroactive.

Any actions respective to the current response to the damage and other effects of calamities such as what is happening now in Tacloban City where thousands are dead, hundreds of thousands are hungry, there is killing, looting, anarchy in the streets, relief is short, power and communications are down, everything has gone haywire, must be charged to the funds of this Commission.

However, the Philippine Legislative Branch must go to work soon and fast. Any waiting on the wings, any slippages as had been done and now being regretted by the Executive Branch, should be avoided. The concerned are admonished to act now for the welfare of the people.

Resolving an Invisible Crisis

It is not bandied about, but there is a hidden crisis that has been lingering for a long, long time concerning the set policy and general behavior of the Philippine banking community to entrepreneurs in the country.
Right photo: Credit cards. Source: www.theguardian.com

Selective servicing is done by the banking industry, allowing only a meager few to avail of decent credit, while a lot of loose change is happily spread over a wide base by banks through the credit card system. The banks promote their credit cards and special incentives by making the card holder salivate at gifts and rewards to be obtained freely if and when the holder increases purchases.

A large number of law firms and collection agencies all over the country have benefited up to 45% commissions share for recovering long lost debts for credit card companies and banks. 

The question is, when all over the world especially in the US Army, people start shying away from using credit cards because it buries one in serious perpetuating debt burdens, more if you are not scion or heir to the tycoons in Forbes' List, Philippine banks are obsessed with selling that product: the plastic money. 

And 99% of members of the Bankers' Association of the Philippines are racing against each other in selling insurance and pension plans without letting the enterpreneur class to succeed. ( Please see source article here. )

However when it comes to slightly bigger credit, the bank will sit on the application of the borrower and not grant the loan if and when a small justification can be found. If the depositor and borrower is a billionaire or a drug lord, criminal with a sack of money and roomful of funds still waiting to be counted at his hideout, the response is quick and the banker can even cite the Holy Bible at Matthew 13:12: "They who have, therefore they shall be given more."

Not necessarily a good way to do business but the banks have kept the policy close to their hearts and will never part with this ruthless way of dishing out rejection after rejection. Even the simple opening of a checking account is a complete hurdle if one is not rich or a criminal.

For eons the proliferation of fixers, in many banking institutions similar to those circulating among government offices and officials like Janet Napoles, Edwin Gardiola, Zaldy Co, have been victimizing bank clients or prospective clients. These fixers are a sick sight in banks and a horrible bane to Philippine banking.

A large number of these fixers will give their victims a line such as: "I am only teaching bank executive/bank officer the ropes. I know more banking than he/she does." Many are stupid enough to fall for fixers, but what can the victims do?

Bank requirements are too restrictive and the length of time to process the transaction with a client is rationalized as "the least possible time to extend and release a loan is 30-45 days." That is one dampener, and if it does not discourage businessmen right away the poor client will realize that 30-45 days processing can even go up to 365 days or more, if the constricting policy to take as many credentials and other documentary bona fides is not complied at soonest possible time.

To make things worse, bankers can essentially also be inutile especially if they don't have the adequate stock knowledge with which to perform their jobs. So the client is placed on a hanger and awaits to be ironed when the plate gets hot, which it might never ever when there is no intelligence to power the device. Furthermore, according to Quest for Change:

In a world where there is no plus side to very small revenue or cash accumulation, bankers are inclined to accommodate rich clientele and Alvin Toffler's dark characters who form the other side of the coin of that phenomenon in modern times that he calls rapid wealth creation: criminals, underworld, terrorists, drug kingpins and the like.

Extraordinary is a bank manager from Antipolo who declares, "from our subsidiary bank, if you have a transaction to settle with our mother bank, I can endorse you all the way so they will provide you all the assistance you need." In the case of a bank manager of a large bank at V.A. Rufino St., Makati City, the lady manager says it is impossible to endorse a transaction or provide suggestion to the manager of another branch of the same bank. This Makati bank branch manager wants that all transactions must emanate only from her branch.

What will keep a bank manager from endorsing a client? And what will prevent the bank manager from Antipolo to continue to give positive, constructive aid to clients in linking up with other branches of his bank?

The manager from Antipolo is the epitome of the banker's public service ethic. The manager from V.A. Rufino in Makati is distinctly the portrait of the imbecile banker.

More than 70% to 80% of bankers in the Philippines suffer from a dearth of knowledge and are extremely poor in intelligence as well as wanting in intellect. No one is to blame except their headquarters office and the kind of education bankers get from the Philippine educational system that cannot afford to teach the correct nuances and shades of meaning of banking jargon.

On the part of bank headquarters, the governing policy of their banking corporations are bereft of the desire to promote broader credit to the entrepreneur population. The hard and fast rules of KYC - Know Your Customer, is extremely distorted and warped so much so that even knowing the potential depositors are thieves, murderers, drug lords, gambling lords, possibly as well terrorists fronted for by their relatives and associates, the bank manager will happily endorse the opening of banking relationship with the criminal and proceed to service that enemy of the public.

Effectively, this makes banks Public Enemy, by association, as launderers of the funds of these members of the underworld. 

Indeed, the benefit of the bank accepting as much cash and other valuables from these shady characters is tremendous, at least there should be balancing acts on the part of bank management to add a redeeming value to their inclination to accommodate and protect criminal figures. 

Compounding the situation of refusal to give away assistance to clients, is the inability of bankers to fulfill their ultimate obligation to service the customer. In many foreign-to-local transactions, if the scheme utilized is new to the Philippine banker, the transaction becomes bogged down not be the absence of interest of the banker but by the lack of fingertip knowledge and second nature skill to attend to the needs of the client.

The Middle Ages Europe, the Wild Wild West all had bankers, but not as cold and unsympathetic to the public that they served. There was a time when bankers followed a strict oath to be as efficient and kind to patrons for they are the ones that keep them in business.

That oath did not specify to service only billionaires and criminals if that will yield the most profit; in fact, many old school bankers will not touch criminal money even with a 100-foot pole. But look at Janet Napoles, Zaldy Co, Edwin Gardiola, the thieving Senators and Congressmen, the bureaucrats who stash billions of money stolen from taxpayers, all have the best service from their bankers.

Ultimately, meaningful change should happen in the banking industry. While it is all right to keep taking deposits from and giving away loans to the likes of billionaires like Sy, Ayala, Tan, Gokongwei, among others, taking the deposits of criminals needs to be done with a conscience. And plowing back dirty money as in the case of major public funds thief like Edwin Gardiola, as loans to the Gardiola shell companies and the conglomerates of his protectors, is a mortal sin. Dirty money for big loans, while at the other side of the equation nothing is for the honest or the least criminally inclined small and medium scale entrepreneurs.

If there will be a law to accuse and indict third party individuals or institutions in the commission as well as the concealing of a crime, banks will be included in the indictments and many bankers will go to jail.

That is the extent of an unseen, invisible crisis, but the public will hardly be concerned, because it is difficult to discern with just the naked eye. Yet, the entrepreneur class is a class awaiting to be empowered. If the time comes when the lowly and middling business people form groups and lobby organizations, a lot of banks will be given a difficult time surviving in an increasingly cruel environment.

hmes2013: Will there be more Negros, Bohol Killer Quakes?

Source: http://www.hazmapping.com

From over 40 casualties, the death toll has risen to nearly 100 in the Carmen, Bohol Province-Cebu City earthquake. At that figure, the Carmen-Cebu tremor can qualify as a Killer Quake. Cebu and nearby areas has to be declared to be in a state of calamity. There are limited manuevers that aircraft can make at the Cebu airport due to the cracking and opening up of the airport's runways.

The six million dollar question is: how many more incidents like those in Carmen, Bohol and Cebu City and the other ones in Leyte, Samar will we be expecting?

Were the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Philvolcs) prepared adequately enough with equipment to monitor ground movement, tectonic plate disturbance, the nearly 100 deaths could have been avoided. 27 Billion Philippine Pesos is earmarked for pork barrel in the 2014 General Appropriations Act out of a total expenditure program of 2.26 Trillion Philippine Pesos. Would it be difficult to allocate even half of that pork barrel budget for emergency preparedness, disaster risk reduction, equipment upgrade?

Past Warnings of Big Disaster

This site has been warning the public for more than four years since the time of the former President, Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Due to the total torpedoing of the private sector (Corinthian Gardens, Forbes Park, Dasmarinas Village, the owners of high rise condominiums at the left side of EDSA southbound, among others), of the program for predicting highly lethal effects of a major tremor in Metro Manila and the replication of this effort in many urban areas in the country by the same sector in collusion with some corrupt officials in the government, a large disaster and environmental hazards summit was proposed to be supported by the Philippine Government and the United Nations, among other institutions from many other sectors - including the non-profit (minus the Napoles et al NGOs).

Wanting responses

It is reiterated that in the time of Mrs. Arroyo, only the then Administrator of the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), Ms. Elaine Bautista, now Mrs. Horn, had the small effort to make an email message to the proponents of the 2010 Disaster and Environmental Hazards Mapping Summit. And that was only because the United Nations Environment Programm (UNEP)  told the former Ms. Bautista to get in touch with HMES 2010 organizing group. At the time, concurrent to her post in MARINA, Ms. Bautista was considered a friend of UNEP and a significant point person for the Philippine Government in relation to selected UNEP concerns - particularly about emergency and assistance.

When Mr. Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino 3rd became President, the organizing group wrote to Ms. Corazon Juliano Soliman of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and Gen. Voltaire Tuvera Gazmin. Ms. Soliman did not respond. It was noticed however that several days later, Gen. Gazmin, the Secretary of the Department of National Defense gave an interview to national media.

In that interview, when Gazmin was asked about what the people should do when a disaster strikes, he replied: "Run for your lives."

Carrying the barest minimum luggage in their bodies, the poor, helpless people in above photos must have taken advice similar to that of Gen. Voltaire Gazmin's to leave and forget belongings elsewhere and to "run for your lives."

It will appear that the kind of response the government has given is exceedingly wanting in substance. It is hoped however that as a grandfather and parent, Gazmin to no fault of his own was merely showing his personal concern for the safety of the life of the average citizen. He was probably very well-meaning and was admonishing the people not to bring their television sets, beds, furniture, cash safety vaults, washing machines, cabinets, sofa, stoves with their fuel gas tanks, desk-stand-ceiling fans, air conditioners, desktop computers and refrigerators outside of their homes and instead to proceed to a more safe location and be saved in time of major catastrophe.

The head of the Philvolcs, Dr. Renato Solidum absolutely cannot be faulted and is blameless. For decades, had been ready to accept the support for equipment upgrade and modernization. Despite the billions of funds allocated to the departments of the government, the great oversight of perpetually forgetting to take care of the Philvolcs modernization programme has consistently been committed by this government.

Despite the billions lost for the personal enrichment of selected persons in our public sector and their intimate partners in very enterprising undertakings in the private sector, no one has shown keen interest in allowing the Philvolcs to finally get hold of the adequate funding for acquisition of hardware and software that will highly increase its forecasting accuracy and its earthquake trending studies and research on the major faults all over the country. Click here for more.

Sane Growth and Development

Before development happens, the integrity of society must be ensured. This includes government, the people, the various sectors, coming together or undertaking acts showing signs and semblances of convergence or confluence towards a greater goal, fortunately, for the greater good.

In case of the presence of intervening forces such as destabilization, massive corruption and decay of the state's institutions, sometimes swift solutions need to be applied to prevent further deterioration of the politic into regression. During specific events in human history where the basic nature of man was fully put to test, the worst kind of behavior among constituents of the state deplorably brought nations down.

From the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia and the cold continent vast territories were laid to waste due to the the surge of barbaric behavior among both the leaders and subjects of kingdoms and states. In the Philippines today, or even in the Americas, in Europe and elsewhere, developments like this are taking place. The decline in societal integrity threatens basic survival in the face of worsening conditions in the globe wrought by phenomena such as climate change, the onslaught of the hyper effects of maximized solar flare activity, the planetary behavior in our own Milky Way, among many others.

On many occasions in the past, often external forces were helpful in bringing about the healing of a kingdom or state. But the most poignant stirrings towards treating a nation's ills must start from within.

The people of the Philippines will suddenly come to the realization at one point, that they are going on a downward spiral that will take the entire country past the point of no return. When this happens the basic politic will gradually slide inexorably into anarchy. The hostage taking in Zamboanga City, the succeeding similar sympathetic acts in Cotabato, the breakdown of the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the deterioration of peace and order, the overwhelmingly shocking reports about horrendous overspending for unacceptable purposes, appear to be clear manifestations in the scheme of things and such events will continue to fester and like wounds that grow into serious afflictions. Without doubt, these ills could develop rapidly into irreparable proportions.

At this time, benign foreign intervention may be necessary, or forceful internal interference - as it were - as it appears that the major force steering the country has become fully corrupted enough and totally demonized by its very own doings and undoings to have any more moral ascendancy to lead. There is no alternate but for the prevailing inchoate corporate philosophy of a government gone wayward to be wholly replaced by a saner and more coherent paradigm.

Mr. Aquino at Malacanang and his cabinet has lost their precious moment and bets are off. It is time for change, and in the Philippines' case, an overhauling regime change. The people and the future generations deserve no less than that.

Source: http://shepherdlions.blogspot.com
September 17, 2013

Rationalizing severe business sector corruption

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Wikipedia photo)

Policy regime change is needed in the business and especially in the finance sector. The old paradigm of the Philippines and selected vassal type states with supplier economies, must be revolutionized. This will depend mostly on the act of the young, emerging, up-and-coming captains of industry.

The history of Philippine finance has been that of subservience and excessive docility towards superior super powers or stronger industrial economies. This cannot be the case any longer. Even with the excursion of individuals or groups like Enrique Razon to foreign frontiers, Ayala and other entrepreneurs - Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., Lucio Tan, Henry Sy, John Gokongwei to foreign enterprise destinations or missionary ports such as New Zealand, Australia, China, Latin America, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, among many others, much has to be repaired in the Philippines.

Benevolent, jump-starting credit from both the public and the private sector is close to non-existent, breeding unsophisticated but widespread corruption within the private sector; the government is most of all helpless to stem this kind of graft and corruption within the world of Philippine business. The doctrine of trust as the most important item for purchase in the Philippines is extremely prostituted to nauseating proportions. At the end of the day, private enterprise becomes the receiving end of chastisement and censure for entering into haphazardly concocted schemes that bleed the public treasury dry or siphon the blood of the average consumer publics.

While banks deprive the vast majority of the country of credit, the financial sector lends indiscriminately to public sector institutions that simply steal the borrowed funds or connive with private business groups or ghost, or shell non-profit service providers to divert the loans and bank the same in private accounts.

Still, notwithstanding this cruel practice of the financial sector, Big Business engage in blatant theft of intellectual property of both local and foreign IP owners, enriching themselves without regard to any kind of regulation or rule designed to rationalize fair use of property rights.

One of the greatest failures of the state stems from the lack of a strong, collective espousal of concern for one's country. The fundamental blame can be traced to this country's entire educational system that is wholly inadequate in this regard in comparison with more nationalistic, patriotic states like Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, and others. Both the public sector and the business sector work in proverbial synchronicity towards improving the nation state - all in their own niches. Compounding this problem is that the sons and daughters of the captains of industry and political elite usually grow up under the watch and tutelage of more or less illiterate baby sitters (yaya) and imbibe a culture of Mr. Nonoy Marcelo's nincompoopism, similar now to that exhibited by the national leadership.

As a classic example, in a few decades following the Second World War, Taiwan subsidized power, communication-telecommunications, among many other amenities so that business will grow. In the Philippines, both business and public sector will bleed the people dry for the use of these utilities but give way to the elite to be free of hassles in freely using and increasing their consumption of both power wattage and telecom air time.

The country plunged into the mendicancy promoting program of handing out cash to the poorest of the poor. This entailed nearly 3 billion pesos (about US70 million dollars) per year during the time former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and ballooned into 21 billion pesos or more (approximately US490 million dollars) at the present, in the incumbency of Mr. Benigno Aquino.

If credit regime policy was revolutionized and this so-called cash transfer program, including the billion peso bribes to legislators and bureaucrats were spent instead for pump-priming national credit, if only the leaders of the country were more patriotically inclined instead of exceedingly greedy, a lot of change would have happened over the last three years.

It will certainly take a mere pittance of the 2014 2.26 Trillion pesos Philippine budget to create islands of growth in the financial credit sector. But if things go on as they are, this is mere wishful thinking but without doubt a situation that could breed bigger problems in the near future. The state of want and deprivation everywhere surely will translate into bigger crimes, fuel terrorist group's recruitment efforts and spur a myriad social issues that will be difficult for any future administration to competently manage.

Then again, the same could have been hoped, if the previous regimes from the post-Marcos era to the present had entered into this kind of paradigm shift. But there appears to be no hope for the country given the kind of nincompoops pretending to run the government or acting like captains of industry in a country they will never consider to be their own love. The best next thing that could happen in the Philippines then, going back to the initial premise that the only redeeming factor are the youth and the conscientious citizens of this land, will be a full-blown, whole system resetting revolution or a self-imposed values reorientation and policy regime shift by the business sector.

Every source of decay dies of its own; however, there is absolutely no crime in removing the root of a disease even before its appointed death. Relatedly, any system can always have bugs. But no system admin would appreciate running the system with the bugs when ridding it of the problem issues will make the thing run smoother, more efficiently and make every affected end user happy.

Source: http://shepherdlions.blogspot.com
September 8, 2013

Demographics and Disaster

10,000 are feared to be dead.-

Yahoo News

When the Philippine Coast Guard began recovery operations in Tacloban, together with all the other entities participating in search, rescue and recovery, they were appalled at the huge number of dead bodies floating in the sea off Tacloban's coasts and on the streets.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction Council (NDRRMC) began with a body count of the deceased at below ten. By the morning of November 11, 2013, NDRRMC declared that the number of casualties was 255.

Around the evening Malacanang told media in a press conference that the figure has gone up to 1,700. By reckoning, the final figure cannot be less than 10,000. Spokesman Mr. Edwin Lacierda refuted the claim of 10,000 casualties...

Yahoo and other quarter's estimate that there are 10,000 that are feared to be dead is correct. More > >

Photo credit: Agence France Press; Reuters; Manila Bulletin

Yolanda: There is a lesson to all this

What is Roxas really doing

in Tacloban anyway if the

glitches and troubles in attending

to the needs of disaster victims

can't be resolved?

Elders used to say, even in darkness you will find some light, spelling hope and possibly a better future ahead. With the darkness wrought by Yolanda, it cannot be helped that somewhere we will find that light and the signs that all the suffering of the victims will somehow come to a close.

The occasion of doing micromanagement, grandstanding and other similar acts, apparently towards political ends, might ruin instead of prop up the chances of some politicians. This has contributed to making the situation darker in Leyte, other areas that were devastated by Yolanda.

In the case of Senator, now DILG secretary Manuel A. Roxas the 3rd, the desire to show exemplary performance and to do what other acts in Tacloban that he may not be able to perform with partners in Metro Manila, he had to sacrifice not being with the other member of his family, Mrs. Corina Sanchez Roxas and spend his working day as well as nights in Tacloban - or somewhere near that no man's land: His stay in Tacloban irks the people who see him there and does not bode well for his political future. (Photo credit: Inquirer news)

Ms. Corazon J. Soliman on the other hand, is compelled by her duty to at least make an appearance on occasion at disaster areas being a key member of the top brass of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) unlike Mr. Roxas who has to go to Tacloban on his own resolves and determinations.

Unlike Mr. Roxas, unless there are changes we do not expect in the future, Ms. Soliman is not running for President in 2016. Eduardo D. Del Rosario, the head of the NDRRMC, should be the one staying in Tacloban - especially if he is running for President or Senator in 2016. But that may never happen. So far, because Del Rosario is a might shy over the idea of setting up camp in the disaster affected areas, even the very presence of NDRRMC according to international observers, is not felt in Tacloban and other places where they are needed the most.

This man, Del Rosario, like his seniors Secretary Voltaire T. Gazmin and Assistant Secretary Efren Q. Fernandez, is deeply embattled in the Department of National Defense where there is an invisible battle being waged by certain ambitious persons who have made it their daily mantra to campaign for the civilianization of the defense department due to the fact that they are now in the most important positions. Some of these multi-diplomaed civilian persons hold four to five concurrent positions under the Secretary, the undersecretaries and assistant secretaries.

Another secretary, this one without portfolio, Jose Rene Almendras, a very close friend of the President of the Philippines, former President of Manila Water, is in the limelight of the post Yolanda tragedy possibly by the design of Mr. Aquino or Almendras' dream of reviving the golden days of the Almendras clan in politics. From being energy secretary to cabinet secretary, Almendras, aside from Mr. Roxas is now one one of the country's hands-on disaster response management experts. And doing a bad job with Roxas at it.

As Mr. Simeon Benigno Cojuaungco Aquino the 3rd wades through the waters of indifference over the plight of the victims of Yolanda, the share prices in the Philippine stock market plummeted, ostensibly due to the risk avoidance stance of many investors worldwide. The inside track of course will reveal that apprehensions over the Aquino regime's handling of government and the severely wanting response to Yolanda, is a main factor in the share price plunge.

There appears to be lessons in all this. Among the most critical lessons learned during the brief past few days, considering the media perception that Mr. Aquino does not fire incompetents, the following might be more sensible to sane people:

1. Roxas must return to Manila. After the Anderson Cooper faux pas of Roxas’ wife, Corina, who was merely defending her traipsing husband, Roxas should no longer be burdened with sneaking and tripping away from Metro Manila and continue with his job at DILG as Secretary in earnest.

2. As an alternative, Mr. Aquino could also replace Roxas and move him up to become the head of a new super body on trade, finance and economic development. As trade secretary, Roxas was very effective. Given that expertise, this person can scale heights beyond Mt. Everest especially in the face of our plummeting stock market performance. (If Malacanang will pay for it, www.qualitychange.org can draft the executive order creating the temporary super body and the law that will make it permanent provided that this site will be allowed to bill Mr. Aquino for these expensive assessments and tedious effort of drafting an enabling order tailored fit for 2016.)

3. To make DILG run smoothly, a civilian person, not a retired military nor police officer, with traits similar to or better than that of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte should be appointed by Mr. Aquino to replace Roxas. As much as possible, whether that person comes from alta sociedad (high society) or not, the new DILG secretary must be very down-to-earth and willing to hold hands with the people – particularly in disaster stricken areas. Roxas refused to dirty his hands in Tacloban and while he is perennially making his presence felt there, he appears not to be winning confidence by being a snub and appearing to be disinterested and indifferent to the suffering Taclobanons.

4. Almendras should share his powers with Undersecretary Eduardo Del Rosario. Almendras, with the absent-mindedness of Mr. Aquino, should also use the same power to with Del Rosario to goad the entire might of the NDRRMC to action. While Del Rosario is not an expert in disaster response, as a former figure head of the special warfare community in the entire armed forces, he should be a quick thinker, tactician and smooth operator. With the powers of Almendras (who has Mr. Aquino’s backing), Del Rosario’s fast execution, all government apparatus available and even private equipment, installations can be tapped and made to work in favor of the quickest resolution of the issues in the disaster afflicted regions of the country.

What appears to be necessary at this time, is massive mobilization. The tragedy brought by Yolanda spawned so many social problems. It is needless to mention all of these negative effects of that typhoon in this space. What appears to be in order is for Del Rosario to wage war against these social problems, treat these ills as the enemy and engage a gargantuan force mobilization to end the disease persisting in Leyte and neighboring provinces.

5. Ms. Corina Sanchez should no longer speak of Anderson Cooper even in jest. (www.qualitychange.org suggests sleep therapy and positive advice on hatred for men.)

6. The suggestions of qcfcgroup.com for a more meaningful approach to managing the relief distribution, by increasing to put in place a new paradigm for managing disaster response along with hazmapping.com's advocacy to relocate from extreme high risk areas is recommended to be followed by the government as well as Asia Health Network to increase relief goods packing centers would be a positive step to take for this regime.

7. Finally, Mr. Aquino should give importance to this man in the photo below: his appointee to the post vacated by Almendras, Secretary Jericho Petilla of the Department of Energy. Mr. Aquino can task him with providing all the support and information Del Rosario will need.

The Petilla family and the Veloso family, have almost completely replaced the Romualdezes in achieving total control and power over Leyte.

For  generations the Petillas have lorded it over Leyte, and now they have adequate power and control as well in Southern Leyte. Therefore the energy secretary, Jericho Petilla, 3-term Leyte Governor, after having benefited from the fruits of their family's being the overlord of Leyte should know the province like the back of his hand, plus it will be a way of giving back to the province what he had received in bountiful blessings in the past.

Related Topics:

For relocation away from danger zones:

Relocation from fire vulnerable areas

New Zealand: Large scale evacuation, relocation

Relocation away from landslide threat

UNICEF: Relocating families to safe areas

Comparative view:

To relocate or not to relocate