NASAAN NA ANG PERA NG TAONG BAYAN???

            YOU'RE NOT JEWISH, ARE YOU??

              OR JUST A PLAIN MISER???

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Doing research on some other topic, I stumbled on what at first I thought were outdated information.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.

FORMER COMMISSIONER NG IMMIGRATION ISANG EXTORTIONIST

                                               - - - - -
NATAKASAN NG TATLONG BESES UNDER HIS MANAGEMENT KASI NAGPABAYAD PALA! 

ANG MGA TAUHAN NIYANG SI CAPTAIN TALAROC AT MAJOR OROPEL AY KAPWANG MGA EXTORTIONISTS. IN CONNIVANCE WITH FORMER "MAGDALO" SOLDIERS WHO HAD BEEN ABSORBED AS EMPLOYEES, THEY EXTORTED MONEY FROM A WANTED KOREAN AND ANOTHER FOREIGNER WHO WERE ABLE TO ESCAPE THE BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION.

KAYA PO FORCED RESIGNATION NA SI RICKY DAVID. HE WAS AFRAID THAT PNOY WOULD DISMISS HIM IN "PUBLIC".

KAWAWANG UNGGOY ACCORDING TO OUR INFORMANTS. 

MAKALUNOS.

DISBURSEMENT ALLOCATION PROGRAM - DAP

The paragraph in question reads: “No law shall be passed authorizing any transfer of appropriations; however, the President, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and the heads of Constitutional Commissions may, by law, be authorized to augment any item in the general appropriations law for their respective offices from savings in other items of the respective appropriations.”

"By Law" means it has to pass through Congress FIRST before any money or savings be appropriated by the President. In the absence of any law or authority from Congress, then the act of PNOY and ABAD appropriating the savings or money as "Disbursement Acceleration Program" or DAP to bribe senators and congressmen in the impeachment trial of a former Chief justice is considered illegal, immoral and unconstitutional. 

This is already tantamount to PLUNDER, LARCENY, GREED AND CORRUPTION AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS AND BETRAYAL OF THE PUBLIC TRUST. 

THERE SHOULD BE AN IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDING AGAINST THE PRESIDENT. 

THE PRESIDENT DID NOT ASK PERMISSION FROM THE CONGRESS, ERGO, FROM THE FILIPINO PEOPLE AS HIS BOSSES. AND SO WHAT HE COMMITTED WAS A CRIME AGAINST THE HARDWORKING FILIPINO PEOPLE AND OF THIS STRUGGLING NATION.

LET THE FILIPINO PEOPLE RALLY TO CALL FOR THE IMPEACHMENT OF THE PRESIDENT.

WE WANT CONVICTIONS! FROM SENATORS DOWN TO CONGRESSMEN!

DO NOT SPARE THE MEMBERS OF THE LIBERAL PARTY. THEY ARE NOW COVERING UP FOR PNOY!

NAPAKA WALANG HIYA

HIRAP NA NGA ANG ATING BANSA NAG- PAUTANG PA SILA NG 1 BILLION DOLLARS SA EUROPA!

WHY SHOULD WE BAIL THEM OUT???

This guy, who belongs to the Elite Rich Club of FORBES PARK and MAKATI CIRCLE took it upon himself to extend 1 BILLION DOLLARS worth of LOANS to the IMF Europe.

THE NERVE OF THESE PEOPLE TO GIVE MONEY TO OTHER COUNTRIES CONSIDERING THAT MANY PEOPLE ARE HUNGRY AND JOBLESS IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY!

Mga putang-ina talaga!

 Mga aso ang pagkatao. 

Ang daming mahirap at gutom sa Pinas.

GREEDY VULTURE

GINA, YOU ARE LIKE THE REST OF THEM. SWAPANG AT HIPOKRITA KA RIN PALA!

SANA TADTARIN KA NG MGA TRIBAL PEOPLE NG PALAWAN.

LANDGRABBER!

NOYNOY IS AGAIN BLAMING OTHERS FOR THE CHINESE BOAT-GROUNDING IN PALAWAN

Negligence at the Reef

By Manila Standard Today | Posted on Apr. 12, 2013 at 12:01am | 278 views

The guardians of the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park offered a lame excuse on the latest incursion by a Chinese vessel on the protected marine park. Even President Benigno Aquino III could not hide his pique over the incident, almost two months after a US minesweeper ran aground the protected marine sanctuary.
We are not totally blaming the Tubbataha Protected Area Management Board, the policy-making body for the Tubbataha Reefs, and the Tubbataha Management Office for the latest poaching incident that surely damaged the marine park. Budget constraints clearly prevent authorities and the agency from effectively scouring the vast atoll coral reef that covers an area of over 100,000 hectares.
The Tubbataha management board, however, is well represented by the national government, the Philippine Navy and the Philippine Coast Guard, lawmakers from Palawan province and over a dozen institutions that could plead their case for increased funding from Malacañang or Congress, if they seek so. For a body that is represented by 20 institutions, the board was amiss in its duty.
President Aquino has already promised to look into the possible liability of those tasked to watch over the reef. Tubbataha Management Office chief Angelique Songco, meanwhile, spoke of the inadequate facilities of her monitoring team. She said her team switch the radars only every three hours and that it had no resources to keep the radar equipment on for 24 hours daily. “Sometimes it’s between those three hours that our rangers are blind,” Songco said.
Malacañang, perhaps, should widen the exclusivity zone of the Tubbataha Reef, similar to what applies on the Malampaya natural gas production facility of Shell Philippines Exploration, also off Palawan island. The protected area bans vessels from going near the sensitive Malampaya gas field and enforces a no-fly zone over the production platform.
The boat that ran aground the reefs of Tubbataha was the seventh caught by Philippine authorities since 2002, as the rich ecosystem in the marine park lures Chinese poachers and other illegal fishers. The Philippines should now enforce its will over the marine park and deal with violators with an iron hand.

PERO YUNG AMERICAN WARSHIP NA GROUNDED SA TUBATTAHA, DI MAN LANG NIYA PINAG-INITAN!

DOBLE-KARA TALAGA ITONG SI PNOY.

AQUINO FAMILY OF PROSTITUTES AND GREEDY LITTLE LIARS

AKALA MO ANG BABAIT

PINUNO NG KA-HOSTESSAN

DANGER AHEAD

BIGGER TROUBLE BEHIND THE MINDANAO POWER CRISIS

Don’t take the Mindanao power shortage and the possibility of election fraud or failure lightly. There’s something much more SCARY about it.

If it can happen to Mindanao, IT CAN HAPPEN ANYWHERE else in the country, where the chances of wining of senatorial candidates of PNoy are as WEAK, or WEAKER, as the odds against them in Mindanao.

Making the issue more SUSPICIOUS is PNoy himself first declared that there will be no power problem in Mindanao come the polls.

And the next day, in total contradiction of PNoy, the Department of Energy (DoE) can categorically say this early that IT CANNOT guarantee a brownout-free election Mindanao.

Question: Whose LYING between PNoy and the DoE? If nobody is, what made PNoy issue an apparently BASELESS DECLARATION on an issue as sensitive as the Mindanao power crisis?

Believe me, Pnoy and his boys won’t admit to INCOMPETENCE/

But more importantly, if the DoE can give a grim forecast this early on the Mindanao power crisis, what will stop I from giving similar forecasts for other areas in the coming days?

The power shortage in Mindanao has been a problem since PNoy assumed office, yes. And no similar crisis has been reported, yet, in other areas.

But keep in mind, guys, that the DoE, or even Napocor, can come up with a thousand and one reasons for a sudden loss of electrical power come Election Day -- sudden breakdown of a major component in a power plant, sabotage of transmission lines, name it.  

And anybody correct me if I’m wrong, there have been NO REPORTS OF PREEMPTIVE MEASURES, like systems checks or maintenance operations, among government power plants UP TO NOW, including Metro Manila.

Earlier reports said water is being stockpiled in Mindanao hydro power dams.

Question: What about the turbines and other machines in the dams? Are these being checked or repaired already if necessary? If no, WHY NOT?

ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN ANYWHERE on Election Day, guys.

Time for us to start RESERVING as many CANDLES and MATCHES,. FLASHLIGHTS,, mobile phone batteries and any other possible source of light, to help ensure the sanctity of the ballot. 30

MANILA STANDARD ARTICLE

Point of no return

By Manila Standard Today | Posted on Mar. 05, 2013 at 12:01am | 1,544 views

23

The Aquino administration has outdone itself this time.
After displaying utter unpreparedness and ineptitude in handling a crisis in sovereignty and foreign relations, the chief executive now says certain “persons of interest” funded and directed the acts of the Sulu sultan whose men sailed to Sabah and occupied a village there three weeks ago.
Things turned for the worse over the weekend when more than a dozen were killed in gunfight in Lahad Datu and nearby places.  Most of the casualties belonged to the camp of the Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III.
In Monday’s press conference held in Malacañang, President Benigno Aquino III referred to intelligence reports that the Sultan of Sulu and his followers were acting in concert with other forces – specifically those on the side of his predecessor — that wanted to sabotage the government’s peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
He also made no secret of his desire to remain in the good graces of our neighbor Malaysia.  Imagine we were in the opposite situation and a group of armed men arrived and occupied a place we administered, Mr. Aquino said. How are we supposed to act when these men point guns to our faces?
Small wonder he offered no sober words to the sultan, who banks on history and a lease agreement besides to boost his – actually, our — claim on Sabah.   Instead, after taking too long to act on or even speak about the Sabah standoff, Mr. Aquino warned the sultan that he and his men could face charges for their acts and blamed them for endangering the peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Malaysia acts as facilitator  for these talks.
To be sure, the President is not oblivious to the criticism he has been receiving on his inept handling of the Sabah issue, even way before the shooting that began Friday. Now he has found a good excuse to ties these together: “The concerted criticism points to a conspiracy,” he said.
And just like that, the President has succeeded in oversimplifying the issue and reducing the complex matter into an us-or-them situation.
Mr. Aquino’s outrageous claims have caused a stir and will likely elicit a firestorm of protest and demand for proof. Tragically, this will come at the expense of the 800,000 Filipinos in Sabah, the sultan’s supporters, the families of those who were killed in the standoff, the people of Mindanao and all Filipinos who need our leader to simply know how to handle tense episodes instead of bungling like an idiot and blaming everybody except himself.

DAKILANG EXTORTIONIST SA IMMIGRATION

HETO RAW SI JAIL WARDEN ERIC DIMACULANGAN.

ITO RAW ANG TAONG PUMAGITAN SA NAKATAKAS NA KOREANO SA IMMIGRATION JAIL KAMAKAILAN LANG. KUMITA RAW SI JAIL WARDEN ERIC DIMACULANGAN NG ALMOST 23 MILLION PESOS IN EXTORTION FEES, KA-PARTE RAW PATI MGA "MAGDALO BOYS" NG BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION.

GANITO BA ANG SISTEMA NG DAANG MATUWID NI ABNOY? PATI MGA MGA IMMIGRATION OFFICIALS NAGIGING "EXTORTIONISTS NA?"

HINDI LANG IYON, PATI RAW MGA APPLICATION NG ALIEN REGISTRATION NA MULA SA BUSINESS VISA AT CHANGE OF ALIEN STATUS, AY PINAGPEPERAHAN RAW NI JAIL WARDEN ERIC DIMACULANGAN.

MAGNANAKAW PALA ITONG HAYUPAK NA ITO!

ATTENTION OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN AND OFFICE OF SECRETARY OF JUSTICE DELIMA!!!

 INVESTIGATE THE OFFICE OF RICKY DAVID AND JAIL WARDEN ERIC DIMACULANGAN. MARAMI NA RAW EXTORTIONIST SA GROUND FLOOR NG BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION. PURO RAW TAUHAN NI ASSOCIATE COMMISSIONER RICKY DAVID AT JAIL WARDEN ERIC DIMACULANGAN ANG NAKA-FRONT SA TAO.

AT BALITA PA, KINAKANTOT MO RAW DALAWANG SECRETARY MO??? DI BA MAY ASAWA KA NA? DI KA BA NAHIHIYA SA MGA IN-LAWS MO?