GANITO NA MAGIGING HITSURA NATIN KAPAG WALA NA TAYONG MAKAIN!

GAGAPANG NA MGA PILIPINO SA KABULOKAN NG BUHAY

   ETO ANG GAGAWIN NI PNOY SA INYO

ITO BA ANG DAANG MATUWID NI PNOY???

BASAHIN NATIN!!!

HARAPAN, GINAGAGO TAYO NG MGA ITO. 


FROM MANILA TIMES

by RIGOBERTO TIGLAO

Doing research on some other topic, I stumbled on what at first I thought were outdated information. But the info turned out to be accurate—and troubling.
The conglomerate Philippine Investment Management Inc. (Phinma) listed as one of its board members Jose Cuisia. Isn’t he our current “Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States, with concurrent jurisdiction over the Virgin Islands, Grenada and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico?”
Yes he is. And not only that, our ambassador is presently active in nine other firms, which certainly aren’t just mom-and-pop outfits.
He is vice-chairman in the Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co., in which he had been CEO for a decade until its American owners, AIG, went bankrupt and had to sell out to Asian investors. He is also vice chairman of the company, which is at the core of Henry Sy’s empire, SM Prime Holdings.
He is a director of the Ayalas’ Manila Water Co., in cement conglomerate Holcim Philippines, in call-center firm Integra Business Processing Solutions, in property firm ICCP Holdings, and in Beacon Property Ventures.
I nearly fell off my seat reading this information: Cuisia is chairman of The Covenant Car Co.
Cuisia20131021
Why do I find that shocking? The Covenant Car Company is the sole importer and distributor of the US company Chevrolet’s cars in the Philippines, and I’m certain Cuisia doesn’t know much about the car business.

Its Filipino stockholders might as well have put up a neon sign at their showrooms: Trust us, our chairman is the ambassador to the US, and he sees the Chevrolet chairman often there.
With that number of directorships in major firms, Cuisia is obviously raking it in while he is our underpaid ambassador to the US. Strangely though, he seems to have become exempt from BIR rules since he became ambassador in 2010. Reported as the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s 55th biggest taxpayer in 2009 and paying P13 million in taxes, Cuisia has completely dropped out of the lists for 2010, 2011, and 2012.

Is Cuisia’s continuing employment in private firms while he is the Philippine ambassador to the US legal? If it is, is it proper?
I’m sure that The Covenant Car Co., Phinma Life, SM malls, Manila Water, and Integra Business Processing Solutions would have one way or another have business dealings in the world’s biggest economy.

Does having the Philippine Ambassador to the US as its chairman, vice-chairman or director give that company an unfair edge to its competitors? Or is Cuisia violating in principle the civil service code’s prohibition on conflict-of-interest situations of civil servants employed in private firms?
(The only other civil servant I know who is as busy as Cuisia in private firms is Social System Chairman Juan Santos, who sits in the board of Philex Mining and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. where the SSS has shares in and in seven other major corporations, including Phinma and First Philippine Holdings.)

But the really important question is not even the legality and morality of a Philippine ambassador busy in ten private companies.
The US is the most important country we have diplomatic relations with. That’s an understatement. As a nation, we’re depending on the US for our security, and after ranting at China, and bad-mouthing it as a bully, our foreign secretary right after would sheepishly glance at Uncle Sam to be assured that it will defend the country if the Chinese really gets pissed off.
The US is also where we have the biggest population of migrant Filipinos, whom we can tap as a powerful lobby group for our national interests, as American Jews have done for decades. As a nation we also have the responsibility to assist them in preserving their Filipino heritage.

Our ambassador represents both the President and the entire country in the world of nations. He can’t be often absent in that job making money in the Philippines.
But maybe his membership in these firms’ board is just titular, and his involvement is through Skype or some of kind of teleconferencing.

Nope. Cuisia is even chairman of Phinma’s compensation committee and a member of its board’s executive committee. In SM Prime, he is chairman of its Risk Management and Audit Committee, and member of its Nomination Committee.
Cuisia has religiously attended in the Philippines each and every meeting of the board of the companies he is a director of, so that he is out of his US post from three days to a week every month.
Our ambassador to the US is not within his area of jurisdiction and travels to the Philippines for several days every month. Does the foreign affairs department pay for Cuisia’s first-class fare or is it the firms he is involved in?
I was surprised over Cuisia’s continued board memberships as I had the impression that this was forbidden, either by civil regulations or by practice in the foreign affairs department.
I remember there were magnates who wanted to be ambassadors during President Arroyo’s term, but who later on declined after being told they would have to take a leave from their companies. Tycoons Jaime Zobel de Ayala and Edgardo Espiritu had to take a leave of absence from their businesses when they served as ambassadors to the United Kingdom
Cuisia’s monthly travel to the Philippines is actually quite a remarkable feat.

Ambassadors are required to get an approval not only from the foreign affairs secretary but also from the President or the Executive Secretary when he leaves his post.
Not only that. The foreign secretary has to formally issue a document appointing a chargé d’affaires, or the official in charge of the Embassy while he ambassador is away. Not only that. The embassy has to report to the State Department (or the foreign affairs ministry in other countries) that the ambassador is not in the country, and that the chargé d’affaires will temporarily represent the nation. I doubt if Cuisia bothered with these required documentation.

All these paper work only emphasizes the fact that part of an ambassador’s job description is that he can leave his post only for official reasons or in an emergency. I wonder how Cuisia justified his board meetings with Phinma, SM and the other eight companies as “attending to official matters.”
An ambassador’s job is actually a very demanding one if one takes his work seriously. Filipino organizations demand the personal presence of the ambassador in their social activities. You can dismiss these as petty events, but one can also see these as opportunities to strengthen your links to the Filipino community you also represent in that land.

The Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 in effect even gave our ambassadors a new, demanding duty of protecting OFWs in their posts, a job no other country has asked of their ambassadors.
What also makes an ambassador’s work practically limitless is the fact that to pursue the country’s interests, he has to make friends with the elite of the country he is covering, and this requires unending invitations to them for lunch or dinner. These requires the patience and energies of a salesman, since a single addition to an ambassador’s stock of friends would be another source of support when the Philippines need something from that host government.
Having a part-time ambassador is even a bit of an insult to the country he is posted in, as it sends the message that it is not that important a nation that it is not a full-time job for our ambassador, who will be away a week every month. I wouldn’t be surprised if Americans think of us so poor that we have to allow our ambassador in the US to make money in private firms while he is in his post.

No wonder we aren’t getting anything really substantial from the US, other than their empty blah-blahs supporting our saber-rattling against China, no wonder our embassy can’t even lobby successfully for the US president to visit our country.

tiglao.manilatimes@gmail.com
www.rigobertotiglao.com and www.trigger.ph

mga kababayan! BASAHIN!

PhilHealth officials, workers get P1.44B in bonuses despite huge shortfall — CoA

• Written by  Tribune
• Tuesday, 15 October 2013 00:00

Despite posting a P3.8 billion shortfall in its reserve fund requirement in 2012, officials and employees of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) took home fat paychecks with 22 different bonuses and allowances totaling P1.448 billion.
A report released by the Commission on Audit (CoA) last Oct. 10 stated this which also disallowed all the said bonuses “for lack of legal basis.”
The government auditors said in its report the PhilHealth management has ignored repeated warnings to stop paying its personnel unauthorized stipends based on mere resolutions passed by its Board of Directors.
According to CoA, they have issued notices of disallowance and denial of consolidated appeal of PhilHealth management by the cluster director of Corporate Government Sector (CGS-CoA), management continuously granted the benefits and allowances without obtaining the required approval of the Office of the President.
The fat pay checks of officials and employees included productivity incentive allowance/bonus worth P272.006 million; anniversary bonus, P33.4 million; rice benefit, P106.27 million; educational allowance, P278.89 million; Christmas package, P234.05 million; nominal gift, P10,000; shuttle service assistance, P134.53 million; labor management relation gratuity, P156.92 million; birthday gift, P39 million; medical and mission critical allowance, P23.33 million; corporate transition and achievement premium/grocery allowance, P104.4 million; representation expenses, P32.5 million; and rewards and other claims, P24.74 million.
Likewise, even contractors of the agency were granted “special events gift,” P743,500; project completion benefit, P1,705; gratuity/Christmas package P1.46 million; sustenance gift/rice allowance, P788,400; recognition gift P1.1 million; efficiency/productivity gift, P735,540; alleviation gift, P1.9 million; transportation assistance, P925,748; and medical and mission critical allowance, P68,681.
Not only the top level officials took home the perks because the same incentives were given the same although there was already a warning about the questionable nature of extra-compensation.
“Regional management commented that they extended the benefits by order of the PhilHealth Head Office …(and) that unless there is an order coming from the commission proper denying their appeal, they would continue to grant the same,” auditors said.
But even as PhilHealth personnel took home fat paychecks, CoA reported that the agency posted a whopping P3.68 billion shortfall in “retained earnings (RE)” for 2012, hitting only P115.08 billion against the reserve fund requirement of P118.76 billion.
The CoA warned the viability and sustainability of the National Health Insurance Program is at risk due to the further decline in the RE balance.
The drop was attributed to health cost claims that went up to P12.24 billion last year compared to members’ premium contributions which increased by only P10.57 billion.
Likewise, personnel services and maintenance and other operating expenses went up by P410 million.

HELP THE TEACHERS

KAMI AY NAAWA SA MGA TEACHERS. 

ESPECIALLY THE PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS.

MASYADO NILANG INABUSO.

BALLSY AQUINO EXTORT TRY

BALLSY AQUINO - EXTORTIONIST NG MRT CZECH-DEAL!

MAG-ASAWANG BALLSY AT ELDON CRUZ - KUNWARI PUPUNTA SA CZECHOSLOVAKIA PARA BUMISITA NG MGA "RELIGIOUS" SITES. YUN PALA, MAY MGA PLANONG MAG-"MIDDLE MAN" NG MRT DEAL NI PNOY AQUINO.

 THEN THEY BECAME SURPRISINGLY SILENT. WERE THEY DISCOVERED BA???

INIWAN

"Bakit niyo naman kasi iniwan si Mister President??"

"Eh hindi naman kasi ako pumapatol sa mga immature at may pagka-idiot."

"Nakita ko kasi itlog niya, eeehhh masyadong maputi. Kadiri!"

"Masyado siyang tsismoso at intrigero. Daig pa niya ang TV Reporter."

"Ako??? Laki raw kasi ng butas ng mga ilong ko. Natakot ata."

EVEN OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IS NOT SPARED BY PNOY

State colleges, universities protest P146-M budget cut

By Tarra Quismundo
Inquirer Bureaus
 

5:52 am | Saturday, September 24th, 2011 

 

‘HISTORIC SHOW OF RAGE’. UP students march to Don Chino Roces (formerly Mendiola) bridge in Manila to protest the budget cuts of state universities and colleges. Other Metro schools involved are Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology and Philippine Normal University. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

Students of state universities and colleges (SUCs) led by the University of the Philippines (UP) on Friday walked out of their classes and conducted protest actions in Luzon and the Visayas against cuts in subsidy.
“UP is a state university and cutting its allocation can be considered abandonment. That is why we are staging this strike,” said Mark Simbajon, spokesperson of the League of Filipino Students (LFS) in Tacloban City.
In Baguio City, about 600 students and teachers of UP Baguio blocked the noon traffic for 10 minutes by lying in the middle of Session Road.
The protesters, representing almost 40 percent of the UP Baguio population, were led by three college deans and professors.
At the Don Chino Roces (formerly Mendiola) Bridge in Manila, more than 1,000 students staged what they called “a historic show of rage.”
The students were from UP Diliman, Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), Eulogio “Amang” Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology, and Philippine Normal University.
They were joined by members of LFS, College Editors Guild of the Philippines; the party-list groups Anakpawis, Bayan Muna Alliance of Concerned Teachers and Gabriela; and the labor alliance Kilusang Mayo Uno.
“This day is the culmination of the weeklong … protest activities against the social services cutback. The P146-million cut on the budget for [SUCs] will lead to higher tuition rates and bloated miscellaneous fees, making education a privilege exclusive to those who can afford [it],” Vencer Crisostomo, spokesperson of Kilos na Laban sa Budget Cuts, said in a statement.
Crisostomo warned that the congressmen passed the budget “like a thief in the night” when everyone was asleep, and that the Senate was sure to do the same.

Standstill in quality
As the students held their protest actions, the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) expressed support for calls to raise the budget for public tertiary education, saying the proposed 2012 allocation would serve only as a “survival budget.”
CHEd Executive Director Julito Vitriolo said SUCs would be unable to afford “ambitious projects” to raise their quality on the proposed P26.1-billion budget for some 110 schools.
“Because there is no dramatic increase in the subsidy, there is a standstill in quality… It is only enough for their subsistence,” Vitriolo told the Inquirer.
“The budget is just to maintain a certain level. It’s not even a development budget. It’s a survival budget. It’s not the kind of budget that could dramatically improve [the quality of education in SUCs],” he said.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) had said the proposed budget for SUCs was already higher by 10.1 percent from the current year’s P23.7 billion.
Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said the Aquino administration had raised the aggregate budget for SUCs from P23.7 billion in 2011 to P26.1 billion in 2012.
Abad said this amount included P23.6 billion, inclusive of automatic appropriations itemized per SUC, a standby fund of more than P2 billion under the Miscellaneous and Personnel Benefit Funds for unfilled positions in SUCs, and an additional P500 million under the CHEd for SUC development.
The P26.1-billion proposal is still facing deliberations in Congress.

Barely half the need
But Rep. Raymond Palatino of the party-list group Kabataan said the proposal was at P21.8 billion, or barely half of what SUCs actually required for effective operations in 2012.
The National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) said roughly 50 SUCs would suffer cuts of up to P569.8 million under the 2012 budget, per its estimates.
For instance, NUSP said, Malacañang’s proposed P5.54-billion budget for UP in 2012, already higher than this year’s P1.39 billion, was still far from the estimated P18 billion that the UP system would need to properly run its campuses nationwide.
As for PUP, its proposed P737-million budget is less than half the P2 billion it would need to educate some 65,000 students across the country, NUSP said.
Estimating that SUCs should receive a total of P45.8 billion in 2012, Palatino filed this week a petition at the House of Representatives’ committee on appropriations seeking a P24-billion raise in the tertiary education budget.
Budget pie limited
Cuts in subsidy come amid increasing enrollment in public tertiary schools, a trend CHEd has observed in recent years as students move to state schools with the rising cost of tuition in private institutions.

“We support the call of members of Congress, the House of Representatives, lobbying for increase in the budget. But to get it, we’ll have to go through the bicameral committee,” CHEd’s Vitriolo said.

“The [budget] pie is limited to a certain size and more and more schools are sharing it… Enrollment is increasing but the size of the pie remains the same so the budget is diluted,” he said.
The London-based research and ratings firm Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) recently released its world university rankings, where no Philippine school made the top 300.
Only four schools—UP, Ateneo de Manila, De La Salle University and the University of Santo Tomas—barely made it to  the top 600 list. NO SUC save for UP made the list as QS noted the declining state spending on education.
Cause for alarm
“What’s a bit alarming is that, for instance, in the case of UP, they want to pursue projects to be able to compete in the world rankings [of top universities], but they cannot pursue ambitious projects with limited funds,” Vitriolo said.
He said the budget for SUCs was calculated based on the principle of “normative financing,” where spending priority was given to performing schools while cuts in the operating budget were made on underperforming schools.
“It’s performance-based. So it depends on your research output, enrollment, passing rate in licensure exams,” Vitriolo said.
He said plans were underway to rationalize the system of tertiary education, such as the “clustering and amalgamation” of SUCs in certain regions with a number of institutions offering the same courses.
He said schools in northern Luzon, the Cordillera Administrative Region and Northern Mindanao were already “warm to the idea” of amalgamation, which aims to more efficiently distribute and maximize limited state subsidy.
3 times higher
Prof. Celia Austria of UP Baguio’s College of Science said the deans were backing the protest action owing to a statement earlier made by UP president Alfredo Pascual that while the cuts in the proposed 2012 UP budget appeared deep on paper, what the DBM had removed from the allocation was three times higher.
Austria said UP Baguio was able to squeeze funds from savings when contractors were hired for unfilled positions. “Contractors are paid less, so what is saved from the salary allotted for their positions is realigned to pay for operational costs. But the DBM under Budget Secretary Abad does not even allow this practice,” she said.
At UP Los Baños in Laguna province, around 500 students, teachers and university employees joined the protest rally, according to Ma. Cristina Madeja, chair of the student group Sakbayan.
Humanities instructor Laurence Castillo, 21, said he took part in the rally.
“Some teachers dismissed their classes so the students could join the protest,” Castillo said. “We in the academic union support the call for a higher state subsidy for education. [Budget cuts] may mean lower benefits for us but the students suffer more because these may mean higher tuition for them.”
The UPLB students held a program while around 100 of them joined the mass “planking” in front of the Oblation statue.
They also burned a makeshift coffin symbolizing “that Philippine education has died,” Madeja said.
Shifting the burden
In the Visayas, over 1,000 students of UP Tacloban also marched on the city streets to protest the cuts in the SUC budget.
Around 600 students of UP Visayas, Western Visayas State University (WVSU), and Western Visayas Colleges of Science and Technology marched from their campuses and converged at the Iloilo Capitol grounds for a rally.
They were backed by school administrators and employees.
“We decry [President] Aquino’s shifting of the burden of subsidizing education from the government to the students and their families,” said Krisma Nina Porquia, officer of the WVSU Student Council.
“By gradually reducing the budget for SUCs, his government compels school administrations to implement austerity measures and tuition and other fee increases,” she said.
But Abad said in a statement: “Clearly, the state subsidy for SUCs is higher next year. But more important than the increase, this proposed budget supports the development of SUCs as responsive to the government’s five priority areas for growth and employment.”
He said these priority areas were agriculture and fisheries, tourism, general infrastructure, semiconductors and electronics, and business process outsourcing.
Abad said Mr. Aquino had directed CHEd “to work together” with SUCs, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and the labor department “to align their curricula to these priority areas.”
“There is an immense opportunity in these areas but they are lacking in qualified manpower,” he said.  With reports from Norman Bordadora and Jeannette I. Andrade in Manila; Vincent Cabreza with contributor Markfil Tersol, Inquirer Northern Luzon; Maricar Cinco, Inquirer Southern Luzon; and Nestor Burgos Jr., Joey Gabieta and Jhunnex Napallacan, Inquirer Visayas
Total Allocation of NG Expenditures

THE FOUNDER OF VALUE ADDED TAXES (VAT)

RECTO IS A SPANISH MESTIZO. A DESCENDANT OF SPANISH IMPERIALISTS DATING BACK TO THE 16TH CENTURY, WHEN "INSOLENT" SPANISH SOLDIERS FROM THE GUARDIA CIVIL IN MANILA WERE THROWN INTO EXILE IN BATANGAS  TO ASSIST IN THE FRIAR EFFORTS.

RECTO MADE THE VAT LAW. TAPOS TAYONG MGA ORDINARYONG TAXPAYER AND CONSUMER ANG NAGBABAYAD NITO ARAW-ARAW. 

DI PA BA NATIN SISIPAIN ITONG GAGONG ITO?

SINVERGUENZANG PUTA!!!

Microphone Lovers

Microphone is a tool for information  dissemination and   propaganda.

      It is used for self-aggrandizement and self-congratulations.

 

It is used to spread lies. And more Lies.

 I love two, in fact.

Me, One only! Yummy noh?

Hmmmmmph! Yummy ka diyan!

THE 3 DEVILS

THE 3 DEVILS WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR TAXING US COMMON PEOPLE WITH IMPUNITY AND WITHOUT MERCY!!!

                                                     KIM HENARES

 

CESAR PURISIMA

 

FLORENCIO ABAD

REMEMBER THESE PEOPLE. BECAUSE EVEN TODAY, WE HAVE HEARD, OUR CO-EMPLOYEES IN OUR FIRM SAY THAT WE HAVE JUST BEEN TAXED AN ADDITIONAL  5% FOR OUR WITHOLDING TAXES. HALOS WALA NA KAMING MA-I-TAKE HOME PARA SA MGA ANAK AT PAMILYA NAMIN. CONSIDERING THAT WE ARE JUST ORDINARY PRIVATE AND GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES. OUR FRIENDS IN THE GOVERNMENT ALSO SAY THAT THEIR ALLOWANCES WERE CUT AND THEIR BONUSES WE REDUCED BY DBM. 

TAPOS, I-TINA-TAX PA TAYO NI KIM HENARES. EVEN IN OUR SMALL SUBDIVISION, OUR HOMEOWNERS' DUES HAVE INCREASED BECAUSE ACCORDING TO OUR HOMEOWNERS PRESIDENT, TINA-TAX NA PALA ANG HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION NGAYON DAHIL IT IS ALLEGEDLY PROFITING FROM THE MEMBERS' CONTRIBUTION. IMAGINE, WE ONLY CONTRIBUTE FOR OUR SECURITY AND GARBAGE DISPOSAL, ITA-TAX PA KAMI NG BIR. 

ULTIMATELY, WE, THE CONSUMERS, THE MIDDLE CLASS, THE PROFESSIONALS ARE SUBSIDIZING THE ECONOMY OF THIS COUNTRY SO THAT THE POOR AND USELESS PEOPLE WHO DO NOTHING BUT BEG (I'M SORRY FOR THIS) WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO AND THAT THE RICH AND AFFLUENT (LIKE ABS CBN, AYALAS, SY'S, AQUINO'S, COJUANGCO'S, ARANETA'S, ROXASES' ETC),MAY LIVE THEIR EARTHLY PLEASURES.

WHILE WE, THE MIDDLE CLASS, SLAVE.

BECAUSE AQUINO KEEPS PROTECTING THEM THROUGH POLICIES THAT ARE ANTI-EMPLOYEE AND ANTI-LABOR.

AND SINO MAY KASALANAN? DI BA SI TARANTADONG NOY AQUINO!!?

BECAUSE HE HAS A POLICY OF USING THE GOVERNMENT AND US EMPLOYEES, AS  SLAVES TO SERVE, PROTECT AND PERPETUATE THEIR BUSINESS INTERESTS.

NAG-INCREASE BA MGA SUWELDO NINYO SA PANAHON NIYA MGA FRIENDS!!?

GRABE. SOBRA NILANG TAKAW TALAGA.

PARE KO'Y

PARE KO'Y, HALOS MAKITA NA NAMAN ANG POKENGKENG SA INTERNET NG KASAMAHAN MONG ARTISTANG SI MARJ.

DI KA BA MAGAGALIT NG DAHIL ABUSE OF WOMEN NA NAMAN ITO??? HA???

PARE KO'Y, BOOBS NI MARJORIE NAKITA NAMIN, DI KA BA MAGAGALIT???

PARE KO'Y, AKALA KO BA EH MAGWAWALA KA NA NAMAN KATULAD NG GINAWA MO DATI  PARA KAY KATRINA HALILI???

EH PAANO IYAN PARE KO'Y, SALSALAN NA KAMI DITO HA?

SALI KA PARE KO'Y??? BASTA IKAW, LIBRE SALSAL!!!

TAHIMIK KA AH? NAGSASALSAL KA RIN BA SA KANYA?

ANO PARE KO'Y??

DAENG SUPOG!

MGA MANOY, MGA MANAY, DAENG SUPOG INING TAONG INI!

HUWAG SUPORTAHAN!!!

UNGRATEFUL SON-OF-A-BITCH

YOU ALREADY WASTED OUR VOTES. 

WHY WILL WE VOTE FOR YOU MOTHERFUCKER???

SAKIM NA TAO

 

BUTI PA SIYA, ANG SARAP NG KAIN.

 

YUNG IBA DIYAN, DI NA KUMAKAIN. NANONOOD NA LANG SA IYO.

PATI MT APO, NINANAKAW NA NG MGA LOPEZES NG ABS-CBN

Angry power consumers in Cotabato barricade vs Lopez-owned geothermal plants

Posted by: DAVAO TODAY Posted date: May 09, 2013 In: Consumers, Headline | comment : 0 Comments and 0 Reactions

In May last year, power consumers in Cotabato province hold a big protest as they slammed the daily rotational brownouts despite the existence and operations of the Mt. Apo geothermal plants. (davaotoday.com file photo by Alex D. Lopez)

“This is a manifestation of the peoples’ anger over the recurring six to eight hours daily rotational brown-outs,” Ruby Padilla-Sison, secretary general for Makabayan-North Cotabato

By DANILDA L. FUSILERO

 
Davao Today

KIDAPAWAN CITY, Cotabato, Philippines — About 1,000 electric power consumers here blocked the road towards the Mt. Apo geothermal plants owned by the Energy Development Corporation (EDC), a Lopez-owned generation facility early Thursday.

Led by the militant Koalisyong Makabayan, the barricaders who came from the towns of Magpet, Arakan Valley, Makilala, Tulunan, Kabacan and Pres. Roxas, stationed along the intersection of national highway-Sudapin road as early as 4 AM and protested until noon today.

“This is a manifestation of the peoples’ anger over the recurring six to eight hours daily rotational brown-outs,” Ruby Padilla-Sison, secretary general for Makabayan-North Cotabato, told davaotoday.com.

Kidapawenos, she noted, “are not morons to be fooled by promises of abundant and cheap power supply from their very own Mt. Apo.”

Makabayan pressed for the immediate release of the 25 percent load dispatch from the Mt. Apo Geothermal Plants which has an installed capacity of 104 Mega-watts.

Under the Department of Energy (DOE) Act of 1992, the local government unit (LGU) that hosts a power-generating facility has a preferential right of at least 25-percent emergency load dispatch.  A Memorandum of Agreement entered into by the host-LGU with the then Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) in the early ‘90s, also provided a similar condition.

“If it’s true that we are in crisis, why then is the EDC depriving us of such right?  Is this the prize of privatization, allowing EDC to withhold our claim and rechannel our demands to the defunct PNOC?,” Sison said.

Bai Norma Capuyan, third nominee of the Katribu Partylist, echoed Sison’s statement, even recalling that they were those protested the desecration of Apo Sandawa in the ‘90s.

“They (government) used to tell us that the Mt. Apo geothermal project was of national interest, that it would benefit us.  But now the government wants us to suffer the brunt of their inefficiency in managing the power industry,” she told davaotoday.com.

The daily rotational brownout started early this year after the National Power Corporation (NPC)/Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) arbitrarily cut the power supply of the Cotabato Electric Cooperative (Cotelco) by 30 percent.  In March, the situation worsened as the 13 MW supply from NPC/Psalm was augmented with only 5 MW from the Therma Marine, Inc (TMI).  Cotelco needs 28 MW of power supply to answer the province’s peak demand.

Cotelco Manager Godofredo Homez projected that from this month to June “the situation will worsen,” as the expected allocation from the NPC/Psalm is only of 8 MW while that of the TMI contract is only 5 MW.  For months now, Cotelco is augmenting its power supply by “remarketing” the grid.

“Dili na maasahan ang remarketing karon kay online or operational napud ang ubang probinsya nga naigo sa bagyong Pablo.  Kani tung power supply nga wala nagamit sa probinsya sa Davao ug ComVal kay nag-undergo pa sila og rehabilitation,” Homez said.

Earlier, sectoral groups like the Kidapawan City-Local Council of Women and non-government Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement petitioned the DOE for the immediate release of the city’s preferential 25 percent emergency load dispatch.  Recently, Kidapawan-Power, a broad alliance of power consumers from the business sector, professionals, youth, civil society groups, religious sectors and cause-oriented organizations convened and expressed their plans to stage a series of protest actions after the May 13 elections.  (Danilda L. Fusilero/davaotoday.com)

TRAITORS DO NOT DESERVE SUPPORT

DO NOT SUPPORT TEAM ABNOY

DO NOT SUPPORT THE CLAN OF MAKAPILI-TRAITORS

NOY IS USING ALL THE RESOURCES OF THE GOVERNMENT TO MAKE HIS ELITE FRIENDS RICHER BY THE SECOND

Lopez foundation rips off gov’t in La Mesa deal—audit

• Written by  Chito Lozada
• Friday, 12 April 2013 00:00

MWSS ends up with empty bag in agreement 
The supposed civic arm of the Lopez Group’s ABS-CBN Corp., ABS-CBN Foundation Inc. (AFI) had appropriated the La Mesa Ecopark operations as its own, denying the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) its share in a 2001 concession signed between both and the local government of Quezon City.
According to a 2011 report of the Commission on Audit (CoA), state auditors found deficiencies in both the memorandum of agreement (MoA) and memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed among the three for the operation of the ecopark which is also known as the La Mesa Resort Zone.
Under the MoA, a profit sharing of 40 percent of net income for MWSS, 30 percent for AFI and 30 percent for the Quezon City government was agreed on.
The CoA audit showed from 2004 to June 30, 2009, the La Mesa Ecopark operation earned P22 million in net income. “Based on the audited financial statements of the La Mesa Ecopark, the total income for the period 2005 to June 2009 was P20.8 million, hence the share of MWSS should be P8,3 million subject to income tax.
The CoA report, however, stated that the 40 percent share of MWSS on the net income after tax of the project “has not been remitted.”
The CoA also noted that AFI, which is headed by Gina Lopez, a member of the media business clan, had managed to obtain a greater share in the venture than either the MWSS or the QC government, since AFI deducts 15 percent from the gross revenue of the ecopark operations as management fee.
“In managing and operating the La Mesa Ecopark, AFI deducts 15 percent from the gross revenue thereof as management fees. However, no supporting document was presented to show approval by either the MWSS Board of Trustees or La Mesa Executive Board on the 15 percent management fee being charged by the AFI,” according to the CoA.
“Furthermore, with AFI charging another 15 percent management fee on gross revenue over and above the existing profit-sharing of 40 percent as MWSS share, 30 percent each for AFI and LGQC, it would now appear that AFI has a greater share in the revenues and income derived from the operations of the La Mesa Resort Zone,” according to the report.
In the ABS-CBN website, it was stated that “all income generated by La Mesa Ecopark is utilized for the continuous preservation and protection of La Mesa Watershed.”
CoA said a review of the MoU dated Nov. 23, 2001 and MoA (undated) executed by MWSS with AFI and the Local Government of Quezon City had several deficiencies.
It also cited conflicting provisions in the MoU and the MoA signed among the three relative to the Environmental Trust Fund (ETF).
“Section 1 of the MoA provides for the creation at La Mesa Resort Zone – Executive Committee (LMRZ-EC) composed of two representatives each from MWSS, AFI, and the QC government in which the committee shall take the stewardship of the Environmental Trust Fund (ETF) under the control of the MWSS board of trustees (BOT) and under the supervision of the La Mesa Executive Board (LMEB).
“However, under Section 1.a.v of Article IV of the MoU– Management and Operations Framework-the LMEB shall take stewardship and control of the ETF,” according to the report.
The CoA required the MWSS board to clearly designate the stewardship and control of the Environmental Trust Fund.
It added that section 1.2 of the MoA also provided that the LMRZ-EC will be tasked to approve and supervise the implementation of the La Mesa Resort Framework Plan and all programs and plans relative to the operation of the La Mesa Resort Zone. “However, no committee was formed since the inception of the contract,” according to the CoA.
The CoA recommended the creation of the LMRZ-EC that will formulate policies regarding the LMRZ aside from other functions and responsibilities stated in the MoA.
“Upon creation, members of the proposed body should convene regularly to address and assess the operations and concern of the LMRZ/La Mesa Ecopark,” it said.
The CoA also cited section 6 of the MoA that required all funds generated from the operation of the LMRZ should be deposited under a special account for the Environmental Trust Fund (ETF) to be opened in the name of MWSS, AFI and the Quezon City government “and any or all transactions or withdrawal involving the ETF shall be considered approved if signed and approved by at least two official representatives or signatories of either MWSS and AFI, or MWSS and LGQC.”
CoA said, however, documents showed that all accounts were opened in the name of AFI only and “transactions/withdrawals were made without the consent of MWSS.”
The CoA said that the parties involved in the agreement should comply with the provisions of section 6 of the MoA “to maintain sound internal controls by opening an account in the name of the three contracting parties.”
“All transactions shall be authorized with the consent of MWSS representative,” the CoA added.
It also cited violations of section 22 of the MoA that mentioned four requisites for the agreement to be effective which were that the MoA shall be signed by the parties; approved by proper authorities; and reviewed by the Office of the Government Corporate Council (OGCC) and ratified by the QC Sanggunian.
“Requisites 2 and 4 were not complied with. There was no MWSS resolution approving the MoA as per certification by the Board Secretariat of MWSS. Also, the contract was not ratified by the QC Sanggunian as confirmed by Mr. Francisco Mallillin to IAD Manager Bienvenido A. Sarmiento based on the report of Virgilio P. Matel, Officer-in-Charge of the Internal Audit Department during that time,” the CoA said.
The CoA said the MWSS should require the post facto approval and ratification of the MoA to enable the agreement to be fully effective.
“Otherwise, the MoA could be considered null and void,” it added.
The CoA also noted that the 40 percent share in the net income generated from La Mesa Ecopark operation (La Mesa Resort Zone) was not recorded in the books of the MWSS pursuant to section 11 of the MoA among the parties involved.
“Section 11 of the MoA requires that financial report shall be prepared and submitted by the AFI to the La Mesa Executive Board (LMEB) from its initial operation ending June 30, 2005 and the annual financial report thereafter and the income shall be distributed among the parties accordingly,” CoA added.
The AFI, however, failed to submit the annual financial report as required in the MiA.
“Finally, on Nov. 5, 2009, the Internal Audit Department (IAD) of MWSS received the audited Financial Statements of La Mesa Ecopark/Watershed Operation covering the period 2004 to June 30, 2009 or a period of five years,” it said.
The CoA noted that based on financial report, included in the direct expenses was the 15 percent management fee charged by the AFI amounting to P20.5 million for five and a half years “whereas the 40 percent  share of MWSS on the net income after tax has not been remitted as of today.”
The CoA tasked the MWSS to require the AFI to submit the annual financial report and remit the corresponding share of income to the MWSS.
“The books of account of the La Mesa Ecopark should be made available to the duly authorized representative of MWSS as required under Section 12 of the MoA,” it added.

MALAKING ASO, KINASO!

Immigration chief faces graft raps

By Cynthia D. Balana
Philippine Daily Inquirer

1:27 am | Monday, January 28th, 2013

Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The Ombudsman has charged Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David with graft for replacing the chief of the agency’s intelligence division despite orders from the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and the Department of Justice to reinstate the latter.
The charge was based on a complaint filed by lawyer Faizal Hussin, who accused David of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act by failing to reinstate him.
The person who replaced Hussin, lawyer Antonette Bucasas-Mangrobang, was also slapped charges of grave misconduct and usurpation of public functions under the Penal Code. Both charges carry imprisonment and disqualification from holding public office.
The CSC, in its order dated Oct. 25, 2012, affirmed its earlier decision and ordered Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to reinstate Hussin to his original position as chief of the intelligence division of the Bureau of Immigration. Pursuant to the CSC ruling, De Lima had issued a memorandum to the BI dated March 22, 2012, directing David to “immediately implement the said CSC resolution and the department order.”
“Instead of complying with the CSC resolution and the memorandum of Secretary De Lima, Commissioner David, displaying an arrogance rarely seen in public service, issued a memorandum to all the BI personnel clearly stating that Attorney Mangrobang shall continue to be the intelligence chief,” the complaint said.
David assigned Hussin to the Commissioner’s Office and ordered him to seek the prior concurrence of Mangrobang for resources and assistance in the job.
Hussin said David’s act was in stern defiance of the CSC and the justice department’s order.
“If David is allowed to defy orders of the Civil Service Commission and secretary of justice, his immediate superior, nothing will come out of the daang matuwid (straight path) of the President, and others will follow suit,” Hussin said.