It all began when Philippine Star columnist Billy Esposo wrote about a letter sent by someone from Tondo, who claims having remembered the Villar brothers going to a Catholic private school (Santo Nino or Holy Child), and being fetched by a stainless steel owner-type jeep (we used to call it “nikilado”). I remembered that sometime in 2007, when I was personally mulling over the probability of running for vice-mayor of Manila in the Lim ticket, I was invited by a high school chum to attend the birthday party of a barangay chairman in North Balut, whose residence was in the main road of San Rafael Village in the boundary of Tondo and Navotas.
Now I happen to be familiar with the place. A high school classmate resided there, and when we were in our junior and senior years, some of us would go there for the fiesta. Then, and in 2007, it was a gated subdivision, with security guards posted at the entrance. The houses in the subdivision were those of the upwardly wealthy, at worst B income level, even A, except that likely they were not paying the right income taxes. The residents were mostly wealthy merchants or businessmen who made their pile in Divisoria, or the fishing enclave that was, and is, Navotas. My high school classmate’s father had a trucking and stevedoring business in North Harbour.
Back to the barangay chairman’s birthday celebration in 2007. I was introduced to a lady who was the husband of Cesar Villar, the brother of Sen. Manny Villar, then running for re-election. Cesar was a student of mine in college, when I taught some economics subjects. He was also working in the staff of then Senate President Manny Villar, until he succumbed to renal failure three years ago.
Then Manuel B. Villar Jr., who is running for president of the land now, came out with his ad about “Panata”, where he promises that he will once and for all end poverty ( “Panata ko…Tatapusin ang Kahirapan”). In that spiel, he starts by personally, on your face, and with a picture of him and his brother, asking: “Nakaranas na ba kayong… mamatayan ng kapatid dahil wala kang perang pampagamot, wala ka namang magawa?”
My first impulse was one of sympathy. Dalawa na palang kapatid ni Manny Villar ang namatay, I thought, knowing that my college student Cesar died in 2008. Later, Billy Esposo invited me and some other writers to his office, where he showed us facsimiles of the death certificate of Manny’s deceased brother, the one adverted to in his television commercial. I have seen since the certified true copy issued by the National Statistics Office.
Daniel Villar y Bamba died of cardiac and respiratory failure brought about by complications arising from leukemia. He did not die because, as his brother Manny claims, “walang perang pampagamot”. Leukemia was incurable then. Whether rich or poor, leukemia was a death sentence, a great leveller even. George H.W. Bush had a daughter, George W. Bush, who died of leukemia in Houston, Texas. And President Bush was already very rich at the time. Anderson Hospital in Houston was, then and now, the world’s leading cancer treatment facility. But in 1962, neither chemotherapy nor bone marrow transplant were provided by medical science. Had Manny Villar simply said, in his “panata”, that “wala ka namang magawa”, that would have been true, because cancer of the blood cells was incurable. But he clearly said, “wala kang pera” as Danny’s cause of death. In fine, Villar blamed his poverty, or more correctly, his parents’ poverty, as having caused his younger brother’s death. Not only does Villar lie so brazenly; he mocks his parent’s memory; he defiles his brother’s memory by making a tall tale about an unfortunate experience.
Danny Villar was 3 years and 8 months old in October of 1962, and was confined at the FEU Hospital for 13 days prior to death. His body was transferred from FEU Hospital to Funeraria Paz. Those details are written on the death certificate.
The middle class have to scrimp, then and more so now, to be able to afford a private hospital. Many cannot even afford PGH or San Lazaro, which are public hospitals, because they have to buy IV fluids and medicines yet. Funeraria Paz, then and till now, is a rich man’s mortuary. The near and cheaper funeral parlors then were Tres Amigos and Vasquez in Sta. Cruz, Manila. The truly poor, then and now, would park their dead inside their hovels, or in the streets, shielded from sun and rain by makeshift tents, and hoping equally poor neighbours would dig deep inside their alcancias to have enough to bury their dead.
But what struck us was the address in the death certificate. It was Bernardo Street, San Rafael Village, Navotas. I sent a friend to see Mayor Toby Tiangco of Navotas, but instead he got to talk to the brother who is now running for mayor, who would not cooperate. “Mahirap na…baka manalo pa ‘yan, kawawa kami”, said Toby’s successor. Still, persistence paid off. We secured first the TCT of one Arnaldo Borres, an Ilonggo whose business is fish trading. He bought the property from Manuel Villar Sr. and Curita Bamba in 1987, who before 1962 were already wealthy. They owned two adjoining lots of 280 square meters each, for a total of 560 square meters. On it was built a two-storey house, one-and-a- half we used to call it, which was like the houses you would see in Philam Village in QC or even San Lorenzo in Makati in the early sixties. The same house stands to date, and we took pictures of what is definitely a wealthy man’s house, upper middle class at least. The same security guard outpost that I saw in my high school days and in 2007 stood there too.
We got likewise the TCT of Manuel Villar Sr., and upon its back was annotated an encumbrance of 16,000 pesos with GSIS. This confirms the fact that Manny Villar’s father was a government employee (Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources), while his industrious mother, Curita Bamba was a seafoods dealer. That he borrowed 16,000 pesos at the time to build his house and mortgaged his 560 square meter property. This shows that the Villars were upwardly mobile, even rich. Do you know any poor urban dweller who owns 560 square meters of urban land, and has a “materiales fuertes” residence in a gated subdivision?
I called up my high school chum who lived in San Rafael Village, and asked him if he remembers how much they paid for their lot in 1960 when they transferred there from their Juan Luna St. digs. They owned three adjoining lots, he said, a total of 780 square meters, and he recalls his father saying it cost about a hundred thousand pesos. (In the early 60’s, a Mercedes Benz cost 10,000 pesos; a Coke was 15 centavos; a kilo of pork was 6 pesos). The minimum wage then was 120 pesos a month (you read right, a month) which is the equivalent of three hours of work these days. And mind you, Manuel Villar Sr. was a government employee, a budget officer at that.
My grandmother’s poor family used to bring patis, bagoong alamang and sukang Paombong from their small Malolos house to San Pablo City during the early 90’s. Later, when my mom was born, Lola Ines already had a thriving seafoods dealership in San Pablo City in Laguna, that afforded the family to send my mom to medical school at the University of Santo Tomas. Before the war, my grandparents virtually controlled the fish wholesale business not only in San Pablo, but neighboring towns like Alaminos, Nagcarlan, Calauan, and Tiaong, Dolores in Quezon. By the time I was four, we had a brand new air-conditioned Cadillac (General Motors) to replace our Plymouth (Chrysler).
Yes we had poor origins, but I guess like Villar’s enterprising parents, Mang Manuel and Aling Kuring, sipag at tiyaga got them upwardly mobile, like any other Filipino parent who could only wish the best for their kids, and work hard to provide well. Manny Villar and his siblings are fortunate they had such industrious parents. Which is why when he pretends to have been poor at birth and beyond, he mocks his parents’ noble efforts and desecrates the memory of his father as well as brother.. What kind of character does Manuel B. Villar, Jr. possess?
Parenthetically, when Manny was running for congressman of the lone district of Las Pinas, he never capitalized on his being poor, my Las Pinas friends tell me. He was after all married to the richest family in town, whose patriarch was for the longest time the mayor of this suburban town, now city. Was he then hiding his simple origins, afraid that people might say he just married into great wealth? What kind of character does Manuel B. Villar Jr. possess?
Portraying oneself as being poor is a lie, a “fantasy” as Billy calls it, and an “awesome claim” as Winnie wrote in her Saturday Inquirer column. It fools the poor into believing that he empathizes with them, that he knows how it feels to be poor. It plays on the emotionalism about our “great divide” between the few who are rich and the many who are poor. But using one’s dead brother to further political ambition is gross, ghoulish, and in the same tradition as Dona Gloria Macapagal de Arroyo, betrays a penchant for, nay, a habit, to LIE.
“Capaz”, my Lola would say, of worse things, like striking a deal to become a Villarroyo.. As Susan Roces, widow of FPJ, correctly puts it --- “Ang sinungaling ay kapatid ng magnanakaw”.
* * *
The May 10 elections, and our choice for the top leaders of the land, is a watershed for our democracy, and crossroads in attempt to escape from a system which oppresses us all because it is presided over by greedy and abusive power.
We need a president we can TRUST, above all other qualities.
How can you trust a man who blatantly lies about a brother’s death, and would countenance faking poverty to fool the people?
Pekeng mahirap. Pati kaawaawang kapatid ginamit. Hindi ka ba kinikilabutan sa pinaggagagawa mo, Money Villarroyo, este, Manny Villar Jr. pala?
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Turning Villarroyo orange
Conjure in your minds the green balimbing turning orange. Money Villarroyo three weeks ago in Davao used the pongkan as symbol. Except that he’s unfamiliar with the Davao pongkan. It hardly turns orange. Davao pongkan is green, just like its mandarin oranges. Must be the climate. When Hans Menzi yet had his citrus farms in Mati and elsewhere in Davao, he procured in the seventies what agricultural technologists called a “de-greening” facility, where green pongkans and mandarins, including the native-bred Valencia oranges were placed in some kind of machine that neutralized the green fruit pigmentation and turned them into a pale yellow. Later, with the use of food-safe colour dyes, Menzi turned Valencia and mandarins into orange. Parang “Sunkist” the then “stateside” and expensive orange brand.
Villarroyo’s symbol should really be the balimbing (starfruit) . But wonder if a balimbing can naturally turn orange? No, they turn into a pale yellow when they are over-ripe. And from a sour taste, the balimbing metamorphoses into bland, even “mapakla”. While in Davao, Villarroyo proudly declared that “many Pa-La-Ka’s will soon swear into his Nacionalista Party”. A week or so before, Gov. Erico Aumentado, along with his vice-governor, Julius Herrera who is the Villarroyo candidate to succeed him, called his mayors to a grand show of “loyalty” to the NP presidential candidate. Aumentado may not be in the league of Jocjoc Bolante as far as being an icon of corruption, but they are now both declared Villarroyo loyalists. Bolante for governor of Capiz and Aumentado to join Gloria and Mikey, Dato and Iggy in Congress. Aumentado would likely be deputy speaker for the Visayas once more, under “Speaker” Gloria Arroyo come July 26, IF…
The other day, Joe Zubiri, the governor of Bukidnon and erstwhile Pa-La-Ka loyalist, also shed off his green pigment and turned flaming orange, along with his mayors. In 2007, when it became clear that his son Migs was fighting Koko Pimentel for the last slot in the senatorial derby, Manong Joe went to Andal Ampatuan Sr. and asked for succour. Ampatuan Sr. got permission from Malacanang, and true enough, the Maguindanao factory where Lintang Bedol was the Ampatuan encargado, produced for the young Zubiri the margin needed to overcome Koko.
Now Koko’s father Nene and his sister Gwen appear in television ads of Money Villarroyo, the latter in fact hoping to precede her brother as senadora, in the tradition of Alan Peter and Pia, the Cayetano loyalists of Villarroyo. What happens now to Koko’s case at the Senate Electoral Tribunal? Who will a (God forbid) Pres. Villarroyo favour --- old “reliables” (ropa vieja) like Nene and his brood, or new balimbings like the Zubiris?
Since Migs is a fairly decent chap, he must be crushed. Which is why he has declared that his heart remains with kawawang Gibo, and the latter bravely says he will expel Zubiri from Pa-La-Ka. Ha, ha, ha.
Not to be outdone, the Garcias of Cebu, minus Gwen la gobernadora, have shed off their green skins and moulted into bright orange. When Gwen will likewise join the orange wagon is just a matter of time. Meantime, to show that she has enough “palabra de honor”, she will hold a huge rally to support Gibo in Argao, Cebu over the weekend. Doesn’t Gibo or Nikki Prieto-Teodoro yet see through all these? That the Garcias would not do anything without securing approval from their patroness, La Dona Gloria?
In fact last Monday, the country’s most powerful gentleman tendered a belated birthday luncheon for his special friend, a lady stock broker. Bankers and big businessmen close to both were invited. There, the powerful gentleman bared the latest findings of their in-house survey, with Noynoy Aquino 11 points ahead of Money Villarroyo, and their certified Pa-La-Ka candidate Gilbert languishing still in single-digit territory.
One of those in attendance was Winston Garcia of GSIS, who then proudly told his patron that their family in Cebu would soon announce their switch to Villar. “On or before the start of the local campaign (March 26)”, he promised. And the powerful gentleman nodded happily.
Yesterday, the broadsheets proclaimed the great switch to Villar, which Winston on Monday promised the powerful gentleman. Villarroyo, mismo!
But the dishonourable Villarroyo proclaims on television how “Opo! Oposisyon” he and his pack are. With Gilbert Remulla of the land-grabbing clan invoking how he hates mandaraya’s (bati na kayo ngayon ni RR?), and Adel Tamano defaming the memory of the late FPJ by invoking the poor victim of electoral cheating, just to disprove that his new boss, Villar, is not in reality a Villarroyo. He, he, he.
So does this mean Winston, who has been lording it over the multi-billion pension funds of government employees for the last nine years and a half, will remain as the lord and master of GSIS if Villarroyo wins? Most likely, unless he has his sights on replacing Romy Neri at SSS.
My friend, the multi-awarded writer Krip Yuson sent me an SMS after reading about the great switch, and it read: “Nagsanib-sanib na ang mga mandurugas. Kakuntsaba ng palasyo ang mga trapong nanganganib mawalan ng kapangyarihan….Lumaban tayo gamit an gating mga puso. At ipakitang ang marangal na Pinoy ay ‘di mabibili.”
First Jocjoc Bolante. Then Aumentado. Then Zubiri. Now Garcia. Will Garci and Abalos be far behind?
Some did their Judas act on Gibo before Holy Week. Many more will prefer to do their Judas acts after Semana Santa. And all of them with the nihil obstat or the secret imprimatur of Dona Gloria y su esposo.
* * *
Another friend, a retired colonel who was once one of FVR’s most trusted managers, and whose integrity has been unquestioned, sent me this funny text message:
“We need a land grabber to get Sabah. Vote Villarroyo and get Sabah back”.
Oo nga naman.
* * *
Just as we were writing this article, word came from the radio that the country’s most powerful gentleman was rushed to St. Luke’s Hospital at The Fort. Even if he hates this writer as much as I dislike him, I will not wish him ill.
As we approach Semana Santa, let us all pray for the benighted land.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Friday, 26 March 2010
Villarroyo’s symbol should really be the balimbing (starfruit) . But wonder if a balimbing can naturally turn orange? No, they turn into a pale yellow when they are over-ripe. And from a sour taste, the balimbing metamorphoses into bland, even “mapakla”. While in Davao, Villarroyo proudly declared that “many Pa-La-Ka’s will soon swear into his Nacionalista Party”. A week or so before, Gov. Erico Aumentado, along with his vice-governor, Julius Herrera who is the Villarroyo candidate to succeed him, called his mayors to a grand show of “loyalty” to the NP presidential candidate. Aumentado may not be in the league of Jocjoc Bolante as far as being an icon of corruption, but they are now both declared Villarroyo loyalists. Bolante for governor of Capiz and Aumentado to join Gloria and Mikey, Dato and Iggy in Congress. Aumentado would likely be deputy speaker for the Visayas once more, under “Speaker” Gloria Arroyo come July 26, IF…
The other day, Joe Zubiri, the governor of Bukidnon and erstwhile Pa-La-Ka loyalist, also shed off his green pigment and turned flaming orange, along with his mayors. In 2007, when it became clear that his son Migs was fighting Koko Pimentel for the last slot in the senatorial derby, Manong Joe went to Andal Ampatuan Sr. and asked for succour. Ampatuan Sr. got permission from Malacanang, and true enough, the Maguindanao factory where Lintang Bedol was the Ampatuan encargado, produced for the young Zubiri the margin needed to overcome Koko.
Now Koko’s father Nene and his sister Gwen appear in television ads of Money Villarroyo, the latter in fact hoping to precede her brother as senadora, in the tradition of Alan Peter and Pia, the Cayetano loyalists of Villarroyo. What happens now to Koko’s case at the Senate Electoral Tribunal? Who will a (God forbid) Pres. Villarroyo favour --- old “reliables” (ropa vieja) like Nene and his brood, or new balimbings like the Zubiris?
Since Migs is a fairly decent chap, he must be crushed. Which is why he has declared that his heart remains with kawawang Gibo, and the latter bravely says he will expel Zubiri from Pa-La-Ka. Ha, ha, ha.
Not to be outdone, the Garcias of Cebu, minus Gwen la gobernadora, have shed off their green skins and moulted into bright orange. When Gwen will likewise join the orange wagon is just a matter of time. Meantime, to show that she has enough “palabra de honor”, she will hold a huge rally to support Gibo in Argao, Cebu over the weekend. Doesn’t Gibo or Nikki Prieto-Teodoro yet see through all these? That the Garcias would not do anything without securing approval from their patroness, La Dona Gloria?
In fact last Monday, the country’s most powerful gentleman tendered a belated birthday luncheon for his special friend, a lady stock broker. Bankers and big businessmen close to both were invited. There, the powerful gentleman bared the latest findings of their in-house survey, with Noynoy Aquino 11 points ahead of Money Villarroyo, and their certified Pa-La-Ka candidate Gilbert languishing still in single-digit territory.
One of those in attendance was Winston Garcia of GSIS, who then proudly told his patron that their family in Cebu would soon announce their switch to Villar. “On or before the start of the local campaign (March 26)”, he promised. And the powerful gentleman nodded happily.
Yesterday, the broadsheets proclaimed the great switch to Villar, which Winston on Monday promised the powerful gentleman. Villarroyo, mismo!
But the dishonourable Villarroyo proclaims on television how “Opo! Oposisyon” he and his pack are. With Gilbert Remulla of the land-grabbing clan invoking how he hates mandaraya’s (bati na kayo ngayon ni RR?), and Adel Tamano defaming the memory of the late FPJ by invoking the poor victim of electoral cheating, just to disprove that his new boss, Villar, is not in reality a Villarroyo. He, he, he.
So does this mean Winston, who has been lording it over the multi-billion pension funds of government employees for the last nine years and a half, will remain as the lord and master of GSIS if Villarroyo wins? Most likely, unless he has his sights on replacing Romy Neri at SSS.
My friend, the multi-awarded writer Krip Yuson sent me an SMS after reading about the great switch, and it read: “Nagsanib-sanib na ang mga mandurugas. Kakuntsaba ng palasyo ang mga trapong nanganganib mawalan ng kapangyarihan….Lumaban tayo gamit an gating mga puso. At ipakitang ang marangal na Pinoy ay ‘di mabibili.”
First Jocjoc Bolante. Then Aumentado. Then Zubiri. Now Garcia. Will Garci and Abalos be far behind?
Some did their Judas act on Gibo before Holy Week. Many more will prefer to do their Judas acts after Semana Santa. And all of them with the nihil obstat or the secret imprimatur of Dona Gloria y su esposo.
* * *
Another friend, a retired colonel who was once one of FVR’s most trusted managers, and whose integrity has been unquestioned, sent me this funny text message:
“We need a land grabber to get Sabah. Vote Villarroyo and get Sabah back”.
Oo nga naman.
* * *
Just as we were writing this article, word came from the radio that the country’s most powerful gentleman was rushed to St. Luke’s Hospital at The Fort. Even if he hates this writer as much as I dislike him, I will not wish him ill.
As we approach Semana Santa, let us all pray for the benighted land.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Friday, 26 March 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
The Bank responds
Last Friday, March 19, we wrote about “The curious case of our legal tender”, which asked why the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has been importing in increasingly large quantities, hundreds of millions of our banknotes, despite the fact that we have a huge security printing facility built as early as 1976 by Ferdinand E. Marcos. The then state-of -the-art machines have been in use since then, but because the volume of our demand for banknotes has increased on account of our booming population, on top of the fact that the humid and hot climate in this country renders our banknotes soiled much too easily, the by now 33 year-old machines need replacement.
After the Arrovo banknotes fracas, where Dona Gloria’s “illustrious” surname was misspelled by a foreign printer, the Bank initiated studies which would set the terms and specifications for the purchase of new printing equipment, considering that the machinery purchased in 1976 had long and well-served its fully depreciated purpose. An invitation to bid was issued on October 2009, but quietly withdrawn two months thereafter. Meanwhile, last February, the BSP announced that they would demonetize the current peso bills, and re-design the same, with new issues to be released to the public on November 2010. The BSP likewise stated in a news report that 702 million banknotes would be initially issued.
In welcome quick fashion, the Bank, writing through the Director for Corporate Affairs, Ms. Fe de la Cruz, responded and said:
“It is not true that the BSP is retiring all peso bills by November this year.” (I never said demonetizing the banknotes mean instant retirement of all peso bills. I fully understand that demonetization requires a phasing-out process). “While the BSP plans to start issuing new banknote designs with upgraded security features by December, the present banknotes…will remain legal tender for at least three more years”, the BSP states. Fine.
“And because it is true that it is more economical for us to print our money than to outsource it, the BSP is investing in new printing and minting equipment. BSP’s bidding for new printing equipment has not been abandoned but simply deferred…because new information regarding printing technology came in…(we) will proceed with the bidding for new printing equipment as soon as the revisions…are completed to reflect the latest innovations in printing technology. We want to make sure that we will get good value for our investments”.
But of course the Bank ought to husband public money properly. It is after all the fiduciary trustee of the Republic. Which is why it baffles me up to now why the same Bangko Sentral under a different leadership allowed a 1.5 billion peso loan to Capitol Development Bank in April 1998, and later accepted as payment in kind, titles to disputed property the provenance of which originate from the time when Mickey Mouse legal tender was in fashion, and where Commonwealth Act 141, as amended, declared the nullity of land transfers during the Japanese occupation. Now while the Bangko Sentral is not the issuer of Mickey Mouse money, which is what our lolo’s and lola’s called wartime-printed banknotes, surely the Bank should forgive our inquiry into their acceptance from the Villar’s bankrupt bank of Mickey Mouse land titles the date of preceding transfer of which occurred in July 25, 1944? Thus far the BSP has remained silent on our inquiries in this space, which is why we are particularly elated that in the “curious case of our legal tender”, they responded within the same day. Hurrah!
But the Bank reasons that “outsourcing as means to meet demand for currency is an established global practice”, and mentions Singapore, Finland, Brunei, Sweden, Bahrain, Peru, Luxembourg, Kenya, Kuwait, Sri Lanka and Qatar, as if to question my claim in that article that the Philippines and Nigeria, “among the world’s populous countries” still outsource their banknotes.
Vamos a ver. Isn’t this a case of comparing apples and oranges? Singapore, which is all of 272 square miles, has a population of 4.9 million people. It’s just slightly bigger than our National Capital Region, which has about two and a half times more people, at 12 million souls! Huge Finland has 5.3 million; Sweden in the same continent, has 9.3 million. Luxembourg has less than half a million inhabitants. Neighboring Brunei is all of 398,000 people. Qatar is 1.5 million strong, and while Kenya with 39 million and Peru with almost 30 million are bigger than these, the Philippines is now all of 93 million peso-using people, and counting. Oil-endowed Nigeria, has its naira, the currency in use of its 154.7 million inhabitants.
In ending her one-page letter, Ms. De la Cruz claims that the Bank is “proud of the security plant complex that is operated by an all-Filipino team…(and) once we get new printing equipment, we shall be able to raise our capacity to match currency demand, with room for growth”.
Indeed, the Bank ought to be proud of the well-trained professionals who man their security plant complex. Which is why those people wonder why in heaven’s name their fully depreciated though reliable 30-year old printing equipment have not yet been replaced, despite an earlier tender invitation. They too would want to see the Philippine peso as counterfeit-proof as the leading currencies of the world’s, with some of the very best in our neighboring Asean countries.
The Bank’s response makes us again curious. Why are they in a rush to redesign our currency? Why is there any compulsion to print newly-designed legal tender to be issued in November or December of this year? It is now March 25, and by noon of June 30, which is less than a hundred days distant, a new president is supposed to take over. And that new president, who will of course sign our currency as its legitimate and duly-constituted head of state, may want to have a say in the design of the currency. For starters, he may want to fully do away with those useless 5, ten and 25 centavo coins which can hardly buy anything. Or he may want to do away with the 20-peso paper note, and replace these with coins, just like our ten pesos. He may want to change the way history is depicted in our banknotes. He may even want to make our currency more feng-shui acceptable, removing the “manunggul” or redesigning the “nakapangalumbaba” and sad face of Ninoy Aquino, considering what a streak of bad luck this benighted land has been having.
Why must the Bank officials take it upon themselves to re-design our legal tender in the last few remaining weeks of the “Arrovo” administration? As much as Gloria Macapagal Arroyo wants to rule beyond her political grave, she likewise wants to inflict her re-designed and still signed currency upon the next president?
Or are some quick-buck artists just making a last two-minute deal in outsourcing banknotes? Even more curiously, are the same quick-buck artists trying to launder someone’s dirty money? Certainly not Governor Amando Tetangco, whose personal integrity and probity I have yet to find reason to question.
The Bangko Sentral, like the Supreme Court, operates under a virtual shroud of secrecy. What happens in deliberations of the Monetary Board for instance are hardly ever made public, and only hum-drum results are reported, even if their decisions impact greatly upon the economy. Of recent memory, the Central Bank had to be transmogrified into the Bangko Sentral by legislative fiat, the usual recourse policy-makers of the Republic undertake when its financial institutions founder under the weight of wrong policies compounded by questionable operations.
Questionable operations as when the Bank cavils to political pressure, as seems to have been the underlying reason for its having accepted spurious titles in payment for emergency loans given to an already hopelessly insolvent bank owned by an extremely powerful man. And now, another curiously questionable practice of continuing to outsource our currency for years and years on end, while keeping its printing assets at less than optimum production capacity.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Thursday, 25 March 2010
After the Arrovo banknotes fracas, where Dona Gloria’s “illustrious” surname was misspelled by a foreign printer, the Bank initiated studies which would set the terms and specifications for the purchase of new printing equipment, considering that the machinery purchased in 1976 had long and well-served its fully depreciated purpose. An invitation to bid was issued on October 2009, but quietly withdrawn two months thereafter. Meanwhile, last February, the BSP announced that they would demonetize the current peso bills, and re-design the same, with new issues to be released to the public on November 2010. The BSP likewise stated in a news report that 702 million banknotes would be initially issued.
In welcome quick fashion, the Bank, writing through the Director for Corporate Affairs, Ms. Fe de la Cruz, responded and said:
“It is not true that the BSP is retiring all peso bills by November this year.” (I never said demonetizing the banknotes mean instant retirement of all peso bills. I fully understand that demonetization requires a phasing-out process). “While the BSP plans to start issuing new banknote designs with upgraded security features by December, the present banknotes…will remain legal tender for at least three more years”, the BSP states. Fine.
“And because it is true that it is more economical for us to print our money than to outsource it, the BSP is investing in new printing and minting equipment. BSP’s bidding for new printing equipment has not been abandoned but simply deferred…because new information regarding printing technology came in…(we) will proceed with the bidding for new printing equipment as soon as the revisions…are completed to reflect the latest innovations in printing technology. We want to make sure that we will get good value for our investments”.
But of course the Bank ought to husband public money properly. It is after all the fiduciary trustee of the Republic. Which is why it baffles me up to now why the same Bangko Sentral under a different leadership allowed a 1.5 billion peso loan to Capitol Development Bank in April 1998, and later accepted as payment in kind, titles to disputed property the provenance of which originate from the time when Mickey Mouse legal tender was in fashion, and where Commonwealth Act 141, as amended, declared the nullity of land transfers during the Japanese occupation. Now while the Bangko Sentral is not the issuer of Mickey Mouse money, which is what our lolo’s and lola’s called wartime-printed banknotes, surely the Bank should forgive our inquiry into their acceptance from the Villar’s bankrupt bank of Mickey Mouse land titles the date of preceding transfer of which occurred in July 25, 1944? Thus far the BSP has remained silent on our inquiries in this space, which is why we are particularly elated that in the “curious case of our legal tender”, they responded within the same day. Hurrah!
But the Bank reasons that “outsourcing as means to meet demand for currency is an established global practice”, and mentions Singapore, Finland, Brunei, Sweden, Bahrain, Peru, Luxembourg, Kenya, Kuwait, Sri Lanka and Qatar, as if to question my claim in that article that the Philippines and Nigeria, “among the world’s populous countries” still outsource their banknotes.
Vamos a ver. Isn’t this a case of comparing apples and oranges? Singapore, which is all of 272 square miles, has a population of 4.9 million people. It’s just slightly bigger than our National Capital Region, which has about two and a half times more people, at 12 million souls! Huge Finland has 5.3 million; Sweden in the same continent, has 9.3 million. Luxembourg has less than half a million inhabitants. Neighboring Brunei is all of 398,000 people. Qatar is 1.5 million strong, and while Kenya with 39 million and Peru with almost 30 million are bigger than these, the Philippines is now all of 93 million peso-using people, and counting. Oil-endowed Nigeria, has its naira, the currency in use of its 154.7 million inhabitants.
In ending her one-page letter, Ms. De la Cruz claims that the Bank is “proud of the security plant complex that is operated by an all-Filipino team…(and) once we get new printing equipment, we shall be able to raise our capacity to match currency demand, with room for growth”.
Indeed, the Bank ought to be proud of the well-trained professionals who man their security plant complex. Which is why those people wonder why in heaven’s name their fully depreciated though reliable 30-year old printing equipment have not yet been replaced, despite an earlier tender invitation. They too would want to see the Philippine peso as counterfeit-proof as the leading currencies of the world’s, with some of the very best in our neighboring Asean countries.
The Bank’s response makes us again curious. Why are they in a rush to redesign our currency? Why is there any compulsion to print newly-designed legal tender to be issued in November or December of this year? It is now March 25, and by noon of June 30, which is less than a hundred days distant, a new president is supposed to take over. And that new president, who will of course sign our currency as its legitimate and duly-constituted head of state, may want to have a say in the design of the currency. For starters, he may want to fully do away with those useless 5, ten and 25 centavo coins which can hardly buy anything. Or he may want to do away with the 20-peso paper note, and replace these with coins, just like our ten pesos. He may want to change the way history is depicted in our banknotes. He may even want to make our currency more feng-shui acceptable, removing the “manunggul” or redesigning the “nakapangalumbaba” and sad face of Ninoy Aquino, considering what a streak of bad luck this benighted land has been having.
Why must the Bank officials take it upon themselves to re-design our legal tender in the last few remaining weeks of the “Arrovo” administration? As much as Gloria Macapagal Arroyo wants to rule beyond her political grave, she likewise wants to inflict her re-designed and still signed currency upon the next president?
Or are some quick-buck artists just making a last two-minute deal in outsourcing banknotes? Even more curiously, are the same quick-buck artists trying to launder someone’s dirty money? Certainly not Governor Amando Tetangco, whose personal integrity and probity I have yet to find reason to question.
The Bangko Sentral, like the Supreme Court, operates under a virtual shroud of secrecy. What happens in deliberations of the Monetary Board for instance are hardly ever made public, and only hum-drum results are reported, even if their decisions impact greatly upon the economy. Of recent memory, the Central Bank had to be transmogrified into the Bangko Sentral by legislative fiat, the usual recourse policy-makers of the Republic undertake when its financial institutions founder under the weight of wrong policies compounded by questionable operations.
Questionable operations as when the Bank cavils to political pressure, as seems to have been the underlying reason for its having accepted spurious titles in payment for emergency loans given to an already hopelessly insolvent bank owned by an extremely powerful man. And now, another curiously questionable practice of continuing to outsource our currency for years and years on end, while keeping its printing assets at less than optimum production capacity.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Thursday, 25 March 2010
Reaction to Dumagat Story
Dear Mr Lito Banayo,
First of all I would like to greet you good day. I ve read your columns both with Abante and Malayo with regards to the above mentioned subject and became interested because what you have been writing is almost the fate of our country. This must be the main reason why Manny Villar will do everything in terms of money to prevent the Dumagats to be given a time to air their case thru Radio. I have seen a footage shown by GMA 7 but not on Radio. As we all know radio is part of every poor families most important household appliances and even taxi drivers tune to radio program such as DZRH, DZBB of GMA and DZMM of ABS-CBN.
Question that have been coming back to my mind is the credibility of our Media, Radio and TV. I do not mind about the print because the poor people cannot afford to read newspapers. I remember the first time that the Dumagats went to Quezon City last month, nobody from Radio, TV and print media pick this up except you. I read you article with Abante and Malaya back in Muscat Oman where I have been working as an OFW..
I doubt if the Dumagats will be able to raise their grievances thru Radio because Manny Villar will surely pay the radio reporters in huge amount or will promise Genny Lopez of ABS-CBN something in the future if he get elected which surely he cannot say no. Also the Lopez Family has to play safe because of their various business.This is just a small special favour they are giving to Manny Villar plus the huge advertising revenue that they are getting from him.
This is really boils down to the Dumagat Farmers of Norzagaray will really hit Manny Villar very hard, His pro poor slogan will become moot and academic because the poor people in the provinces will hear the voices of the Dumagats and he will lost a lot of votes. The NCR, Region 3 and 4 majority will be Noynoy. Bulacan where my family live is Noynoy province,
I am an OFW for the last 23 years and I will just have to migrate if Manny Villar and GMA will play dirty tricks to win this coming election . If they succeed ,our country will surely follow the path of most of the African Nations which have been plagued by endemic corruptions.
It ashame that with all the skills and talents of the Filipinos we are still a poor nation. I have been asked by my Australian immediate superior before why we are not improving economically inspite of our capability to work with dedication, and I told him the truth, corruptions.
That is the main reason why Iam supporting Noynoy, his main task is to do a major surgery in our society if we want our country to grow econmically but we should follow the path that the Koreans have done. They punished their past presidents for the wrong deeds that they have done just to show to every Koreans that is wrong to steal money from the govt.
Rgds
Tony B. Soliman
First of all I would like to greet you good day. I ve read your columns both with Abante and Malayo with regards to the above mentioned subject and became interested because what you have been writing is almost the fate of our country. This must be the main reason why Manny Villar will do everything in terms of money to prevent the Dumagats to be given a time to air their case thru Radio. I have seen a footage shown by GMA 7 but not on Radio. As we all know radio is part of every poor families most important household appliances and even taxi drivers tune to radio program such as DZRH, DZBB of GMA and DZMM of ABS-CBN.
Question that have been coming back to my mind is the credibility of our Media, Radio and TV. I do not mind about the print because the poor people cannot afford to read newspapers. I remember the first time that the Dumagats went to Quezon City last month, nobody from Radio, TV and print media pick this up except you. I read you article with Abante and Malaya back in Muscat Oman where I have been working as an OFW..
I doubt if the Dumagats will be able to raise their grievances thru Radio because Manny Villar will surely pay the radio reporters in huge amount or will promise Genny Lopez of ABS-CBN something in the future if he get elected which surely he cannot say no. Also the Lopez Family has to play safe because of their various business.This is just a small special favour they are giving to Manny Villar plus the huge advertising revenue that they are getting from him.
This is really boils down to the Dumagat Farmers of Norzagaray will really hit Manny Villar very hard, His pro poor slogan will become moot and academic because the poor people in the provinces will hear the voices of the Dumagats and he will lost a lot of votes. The NCR, Region 3 and 4 majority will be Noynoy. Bulacan where my family live is Noynoy province,
I am an OFW for the last 23 years and I will just have to migrate if Manny Villar and GMA will play dirty tricks to win this coming election . If they succeed ,our country will surely follow the path of most of the African Nations which have been plagued by endemic corruptions.
It ashame that with all the skills and talents of the Filipinos we are still a poor nation. I have been asked by my Australian immediate superior before why we are not improving economically inspite of our capability to work with dedication, and I told him the truth, corruptions.
That is the main reason why Iam supporting Noynoy, his main task is to do a major surgery in our society if we want our country to grow econmically but we should follow the path that the Koreans have done. They punished their past presidents for the wrong deeds that they have done just to show to every Koreans that is wrong to steal money from the govt.
Rgds
Tony B. Soliman
Monday, March 22, 2010
Beyond her political grave
The legal “holy of holies”, the Supreme Court, upon a vote of 9-1, with 3 inhibitions and 2 saying the case was premature for a decision, ruled that a dying regime’s illegitimate leader could yet appoint, in midnight precision, a new Chief Justice. The decision, announced last Wednesday morning, was the last straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. It is the final proof that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who usurped the presidency from Joseph Ejercito Estrada, and forthwith cheated the people of their choice of a leader in 2004, will never be the fat lady to sing the last aria of a tragic political opera that the people of this benighted land have been suffering in patience for the last nine years two months and three days.
The nine justices overturned more than half a century of jurisprudence against midnight postings by an outgoing President. They likewise overturned a fairly recent 1998 ponencia by then-CJ Andres Narvasa that a President may fill up court vacancies unless barred. That was a unanimous decision where the Court included three later Chiefs: Hilario Davide, Artemio Panganiban, and the incumbent Reynato Puno.
The ruling was rushed two months before the seat would become vacant with Puno’s retirement on May 17. Parenthetically, the ruling would allow their Dona Gloria to fill up the vacancy as associate justice of whomsoever among the present fourteen associates she decides to elevate to the post of Chief. Had the ruling come after May 17, there might already be a President-elect from the automated May 11 election. Dona Gloria would look even more evil if she persisted on naming a new CJ instead of letting her successor do so. But of course, neither Dona Gloria nor her nine toadies care about public opinion, neither the judgment of history.
Clearly, she wants to rule beyond the Constitutionally-mandated terminus, defined as noon of the 30th of June, 2010. By then she shall have abused her office for nine years, five months and ten days, political longevity out-spanned only by the authoritarian Ferdinand Marcos. Her misrule has been adjudged by many as the worst ever by any president, bar none. Using the shibboleth of a working democracy, unlike Marcos who bared brass knuckles and all under military rule, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has succeeded in destroying the credibility and stability of every political institution, and tarred even our religious institutions with her shameless use of money, not unlike the dark days when Church intercessions were bought by gold and estates.
She is the first incumbent president ever to run for lower office, as representative of the second district of Pampanga. Others before her sought the anonymity of retirement from public life, whether Cory or Fidel V. Ramos. Before them, every other president either died in office or was defeated for re-election. In the case of the authoritarian Marcos, he was forced to leave Malacanang and was flown by the Americans to Hawaii. GMA is taking along with her the cabinet that served her. Some are running as elective representatives of their districts; others have shamelessly inserted themselves as “marginalized” party-list nominees. She will be joining an “elite” lower House known for its rapacious capacity to transact law for favours, of which expectedly two of her sons and one brother-in-law will yet be members.
Speculation is rife that she will be chosen Speaker of the lower House by the power of her money, her residual influence (also a function of money and past favours), and the reluctant benediction of her “secret” chosen successor, Manuel B. Villar, otherwise called Money Villarroyo. Her ostensible candidate, Gilbert Teodoro, has nonchalantly resigned himself to this eventuality, stating that the issue of the speakership post June 30 will be decided by a party, their party, that she and not he controls. Whether or not he will be his own man (and I have confidence in his ability to rise above the handicap of present perceptions) is of no moment, because it is well nigh impossible for him yet to catch up, unable to shuck off the stigma of her political company. The matter would of course change if Noynoy Aquino wins the presidency, and/or is allowed to win the presidency and be peaceably proclaimed as such. He would not brook her elevation to the speakership, and nobody in the new Congress, not even her toadies, would dare defy a duly elected president’s rejection of their purchased “choice”.
Which is why she will try her damnedest best to elect someone else, and that will clearly be Money Villarroyo. Whether she would succeed or not would be the litmus test of our people’s political maturity, as much as it would require the Aquino camp to muster everything it could to warn the public, and foil this pre-conceived outrage. That is also the reason why Aquino’s numbers should be far higher than Villarroyo’s, so that only a naked and brutish last-ditch attempt can foil the people’s will. And for that, the evil-doers will have to face the wrath of the people. It happened in 1986, and Cory’s son just might be the one to do a reprise.
Already Dona Gloria has her loyalists ensconced in the echelons of the military and the police, institutions legally allowed to use violence and force to protect the State. Whether they define State as Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in the manner of Louis XIV’s infamous pomposity ---“L’etat, c’est moi” or decide upon hors de combat to protect the people instead, remains to be seen. Would they allow themselves to be used, as they had been in that dark chapter in our history better known as “Hello Garci?” or would they redeem their institution from the pits, as Enrile and Ramos, Honasan and Sotelo, and many others in 1986 did? Vamos a ver.
Last Friday, her deputy spokesperson speculated openly that if there should be a failure of elections, a military junta shall come in to fill the political vacuum. Now the question is: did Charito Planas overhear that somewhere in the bowels of the palace beside the stinking river? And did she, naïve as she has always been, blabbered it as fair warning against the enemies of her Dona? Or, in more sinister fashion, did Malacanang’s snakes really pose a trial balloon, the better to test reaction, or to condition minds, and deliberately used the naïve Planas, whose takes on a lot of issues most observers would consider a joke?
Whereupon her other spokesperson, Ricardo Saludo, clarifies the morning after. There won’t be a military junta because in the first place there won’t be a failure of elections, he reasons. Cold logic perhaps, but Saludo dispenses with the verity that his Dona’s Comelec is fumbling all over the place with their Venezuelan experts running the automated show. Saludo himself talks of a “worst case scenario” where “only” 30% of the precincts will resort to manual voting. He, he, he --- 30% lang. They succeeded in garcifying the results of the 2004 elections with just over a million votes, which at the time represented less than 3% of the voters.
Meanwhile too, GMAhas packed the civil service with her toadies and courtiers, most especially in positions with fixed terms of office. She has recycled her health secretary to become the chair of the Civil Service Commission for a post of seven years, outlasting the term of the newly-elected president in May. She has added one more loyalist to the Monetary Board, there to partake of largesse and participate in deciding monetary policy for the duration of the new president’s term. She has a subservient Ombudsman who claims she will be there for two more years. In the recently-invented Mindanao Development Authority, she has recycled her ineffective press secretary and even more ineffective peace adviser as its head for the next six years. And many others, all signs of loading her bases because whatever the outcome, or whether or not there is any outcome after May 10, she has levers of power to pull.
Sin delicadeza y ningun propriedad. The antigos would ascribe it to a “falta de urbanidad”. Even her father Diosdado would have recoiled at such gall. When his predecessor Carlos P. Garcia appointed the brilliant Dominador Aytona to become governor of the Central Bank, Macapagal got a truly fair and impartial Supreme Court to declare Garcia’s “midnight appointment” constitutionally infirm.
But not the present Court, packed with those she appointed despite checkered careers in the public service, or mediocre legal acumen. Theirs to pander to her wishes. Theirs to follow every command. Theirs to twist interpretation of the law according to her best lights.
And so, the Judicial and Bar Council would have to submit to her a list of nominees a week or so before May 17 (why not make it on Monday, May 10, or the day after?). Dona Gloria would forthwith appoint “her” chief magistrate, and his would be the task to give legal imprimatur, as head of a Court filled completely by her assigns (with the exception of two who seem to understand that the oath they took is to the Constitution and inferentially to the sovereign people, and not to the appointing authority), to whatever designs she may have beyond her political grave. That Court headed by her Chief Toady would be expected to protect her from prosecution for the unspeakable plunder her misrule has effected. It would likely sustain all the controversial midnight deals that her government has been cutting with every money launderer and every carpetbagger in town, selling off the few remaining jewels of the Republic with stealth. Worse, that Court headed by her Chief Toady would be expected to declare “nihil obstat” to whatever she, as “Speaker” of the lower House would want them to sustain.
And so shall impunity reign, forever and ever. So shall the rule of law be mocked once again, as it had been mockery for the past nine years and more, save for a few brilliant episodes.
This shameless woman wants to live beyond her political grave. And unless the people stop her overwhelmingly, on May 10, 2010 and thereafter --- by whatever it takes --- she and her acolytes in the coven of evil just might succeed. And the Court shall be reduced to a hallelujah chorus, endlessly croaking the strains of Handel’s Messiah … “Hallelujaaaah”, as in a dirge to democracy.
The fat and squat lady will finally get to sing her aria, to the melancholic cadence of Chopin’s “Funevre”.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for 23 March 2010
The nine justices overturned more than half a century of jurisprudence against midnight postings by an outgoing President. They likewise overturned a fairly recent 1998 ponencia by then-CJ Andres Narvasa that a President may fill up court vacancies unless barred. That was a unanimous decision where the Court included three later Chiefs: Hilario Davide, Artemio Panganiban, and the incumbent Reynato Puno.
The ruling was rushed two months before the seat would become vacant with Puno’s retirement on May 17. Parenthetically, the ruling would allow their Dona Gloria to fill up the vacancy as associate justice of whomsoever among the present fourteen associates she decides to elevate to the post of Chief. Had the ruling come after May 17, there might already be a President-elect from the automated May 11 election. Dona Gloria would look even more evil if she persisted on naming a new CJ instead of letting her successor do so. But of course, neither Dona Gloria nor her nine toadies care about public opinion, neither the judgment of history.
Clearly, she wants to rule beyond the Constitutionally-mandated terminus, defined as noon of the 30th of June, 2010. By then she shall have abused her office for nine years, five months and ten days, political longevity out-spanned only by the authoritarian Ferdinand Marcos. Her misrule has been adjudged by many as the worst ever by any president, bar none. Using the shibboleth of a working democracy, unlike Marcos who bared brass knuckles and all under military rule, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has succeeded in destroying the credibility and stability of every political institution, and tarred even our religious institutions with her shameless use of money, not unlike the dark days when Church intercessions were bought by gold and estates.
She is the first incumbent president ever to run for lower office, as representative of the second district of Pampanga. Others before her sought the anonymity of retirement from public life, whether Cory or Fidel V. Ramos. Before them, every other president either died in office or was defeated for re-election. In the case of the authoritarian Marcos, he was forced to leave Malacanang and was flown by the Americans to Hawaii. GMA is taking along with her the cabinet that served her. Some are running as elective representatives of their districts; others have shamelessly inserted themselves as “marginalized” party-list nominees. She will be joining an “elite” lower House known for its rapacious capacity to transact law for favours, of which expectedly two of her sons and one brother-in-law will yet be members.
Speculation is rife that she will be chosen Speaker of the lower House by the power of her money, her residual influence (also a function of money and past favours), and the reluctant benediction of her “secret” chosen successor, Manuel B. Villar, otherwise called Money Villarroyo. Her ostensible candidate, Gilbert Teodoro, has nonchalantly resigned himself to this eventuality, stating that the issue of the speakership post June 30 will be decided by a party, their party, that she and not he controls. Whether or not he will be his own man (and I have confidence in his ability to rise above the handicap of present perceptions) is of no moment, because it is well nigh impossible for him yet to catch up, unable to shuck off the stigma of her political company. The matter would of course change if Noynoy Aquino wins the presidency, and/or is allowed to win the presidency and be peaceably proclaimed as such. He would not brook her elevation to the speakership, and nobody in the new Congress, not even her toadies, would dare defy a duly elected president’s rejection of their purchased “choice”.
Which is why she will try her damnedest best to elect someone else, and that will clearly be Money Villarroyo. Whether she would succeed or not would be the litmus test of our people’s political maturity, as much as it would require the Aquino camp to muster everything it could to warn the public, and foil this pre-conceived outrage. That is also the reason why Aquino’s numbers should be far higher than Villarroyo’s, so that only a naked and brutish last-ditch attempt can foil the people’s will. And for that, the evil-doers will have to face the wrath of the people. It happened in 1986, and Cory’s son just might be the one to do a reprise.
Already Dona Gloria has her loyalists ensconced in the echelons of the military and the police, institutions legally allowed to use violence and force to protect the State. Whether they define State as Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in the manner of Louis XIV’s infamous pomposity ---“L’etat, c’est moi” or decide upon hors de combat to protect the people instead, remains to be seen. Would they allow themselves to be used, as they had been in that dark chapter in our history better known as “Hello Garci?” or would they redeem their institution from the pits, as Enrile and Ramos, Honasan and Sotelo, and many others in 1986 did? Vamos a ver.
Last Friday, her deputy spokesperson speculated openly that if there should be a failure of elections, a military junta shall come in to fill the political vacuum. Now the question is: did Charito Planas overhear that somewhere in the bowels of the palace beside the stinking river? And did she, naïve as she has always been, blabbered it as fair warning against the enemies of her Dona? Or, in more sinister fashion, did Malacanang’s snakes really pose a trial balloon, the better to test reaction, or to condition minds, and deliberately used the naïve Planas, whose takes on a lot of issues most observers would consider a joke?
Whereupon her other spokesperson, Ricardo Saludo, clarifies the morning after. There won’t be a military junta because in the first place there won’t be a failure of elections, he reasons. Cold logic perhaps, but Saludo dispenses with the verity that his Dona’s Comelec is fumbling all over the place with their Venezuelan experts running the automated show. Saludo himself talks of a “worst case scenario” where “only” 30% of the precincts will resort to manual voting. He, he, he --- 30% lang. They succeeded in garcifying the results of the 2004 elections with just over a million votes, which at the time represented less than 3% of the voters.
Meanwhile too, GMAhas packed the civil service with her toadies and courtiers, most especially in positions with fixed terms of office. She has recycled her health secretary to become the chair of the Civil Service Commission for a post of seven years, outlasting the term of the newly-elected president in May. She has added one more loyalist to the Monetary Board, there to partake of largesse and participate in deciding monetary policy for the duration of the new president’s term. She has a subservient Ombudsman who claims she will be there for two more years. In the recently-invented Mindanao Development Authority, she has recycled her ineffective press secretary and even more ineffective peace adviser as its head for the next six years. And many others, all signs of loading her bases because whatever the outcome, or whether or not there is any outcome after May 10, she has levers of power to pull.
Sin delicadeza y ningun propriedad. The antigos would ascribe it to a “falta de urbanidad”. Even her father Diosdado would have recoiled at such gall. When his predecessor Carlos P. Garcia appointed the brilliant Dominador Aytona to become governor of the Central Bank, Macapagal got a truly fair and impartial Supreme Court to declare Garcia’s “midnight appointment” constitutionally infirm.
But not the present Court, packed with those she appointed despite checkered careers in the public service, or mediocre legal acumen. Theirs to pander to her wishes. Theirs to follow every command. Theirs to twist interpretation of the law according to her best lights.
And so, the Judicial and Bar Council would have to submit to her a list of nominees a week or so before May 17 (why not make it on Monday, May 10, or the day after?). Dona Gloria would forthwith appoint “her” chief magistrate, and his would be the task to give legal imprimatur, as head of a Court filled completely by her assigns (with the exception of two who seem to understand that the oath they took is to the Constitution and inferentially to the sovereign people, and not to the appointing authority), to whatever designs she may have beyond her political grave. That Court headed by her Chief Toady would be expected to protect her from prosecution for the unspeakable plunder her misrule has effected. It would likely sustain all the controversial midnight deals that her government has been cutting with every money launderer and every carpetbagger in town, selling off the few remaining jewels of the Republic with stealth. Worse, that Court headed by her Chief Toady would be expected to declare “nihil obstat” to whatever she, as “Speaker” of the lower House would want them to sustain.
And so shall impunity reign, forever and ever. So shall the rule of law be mocked once again, as it had been mockery for the past nine years and more, save for a few brilliant episodes.
This shameless woman wants to live beyond her political grave. And unless the people stop her overwhelmingly, on May 10, 2010 and thereafter --- by whatever it takes --- she and her acolytes in the coven of evil just might succeed. And the Court shall be reduced to a hallelujah chorus, endlessly croaking the strains of Handel’s Messiah … “Hallelujaaaah”, as in a dirge to democracy.
The fat and squat lady will finally get to sing her aria, to the melancholic cadence of Chopin’s “Funevre”.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for 23 March 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
The curious case of our legal tender
The curious case of our legal tender
Sometime in 2006, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas issued new banknotes. Few realized then, until somebody noticed that for the first time in our history, the name of the president of the benighted republic was misspelled. Instead of Arroyo, the name “Arrovo” was printed. Our legal tender bears the signatures of the president, no matter how illegitimate, and the governor of our central bank.
Embarrassed at such a monumental gaffe, the Bangko Sentral ordered the recall of the “Arrovo” bills, and it was only then that they explained that it was a printing error. You half-expected that heads would roll in the sprawling printing and mint facility of the Bangko Sentral on East Avenue. But no. Because they did not print those Arrovo bills. They were outsourced from some foreign country.
In 1976, then President Ferdinand Marcos ordered the construction of one of Southeast Asia’s most modern security printing facilities located along East Avenue, Quezon City, where the then Central Bank printed our legal tender as well as mint our metal coins. The Bank ordered security printing equipment from a European maker, the acknowledged leader in the field of banknote printing machines. Sometime in 1983, the machines were reconditioned and retro-fitted to incorporate more sophisticated features. But due to wear and tear over the past 32 years, they have been printing only the lower-denomination banknotes while the Bangko Sentral outsourced the printing of the higher denominations.
By 2007, the Bank’s outsourcing of our banknotes printing already reached record levels, as much as 900 million pieces per year. The yearly estimated cost ot outsourced currency printing is between 35 to 40 million dollars. It was at the time that the Bank conducted studies about the possible purchase of new printing equipment. The same had also become imperative because additional security features characterize modern banknotes (look at Thailand’s baht banknotes, for instance). The Philippines’ legal tender can be so easily counterfeited, that time and again, the public is fooled by illegal tender passed on by con-artist syndicates.
Outsourcing the printing of our legal tender costs the BSP, and therefore, the people of the Republic, a lot. At say, fifty US cents apiece, 900 million pieces translates into 450 million dollars, or about 20.7 billion pesos per annum. Recently, the Bank announced that it intends to demonetize our present banknotes and re-design the Philippine currency with new banknote sketches, including one where both slain democracy martyr Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. and his widow, people power icon Corazon C. Aquino, first President of the Fourth Republic, will be featured together. The Bank says these notes should be ready by November 2010, and some 702 million pieces of these new banknotes will be initially released.
702 million at 50 US cents equals 351 million American dollars, or 16 billion pesos at present exchange rates. Question is, if these machines need to be replaced, and the Bangko Sentral did studies in 2007 for the acquisition of new printing equipment, and they have been importing our legal tender in increasing volumes since 2000, then why in heaven’s name don’t they order the equipment and save a lot of money, aside from ensuring strict quality control standards and security? After all, “Arrovo” was a foreign outsourced printer’s egregious error, not the BSP mint’s.
Curiously, sometime in October last year, the BSP published an invitation to bid for a complete line of banknote printing equipment, with an approved budget of US 56,800,000.00. That 56.8 million pesos translates to only 2.6 billion pesos, much less than the 16 billion or so that they would need to outsource the printing of 702 million banknotes they are rushing for their self-imposed November 2010 deadline. 16 billion is still much, much more than the cost of a new line of printing equipment. What gives?
Simple arithmetic and no logarithms are required to show that it would be much cheaper for the Bank to procure new equipment to print our currency locally, rather than having it printed by various foreign entities which entails security risks. The Philippines and Nigeria are about the only populous countries in the world who still outsource the printing of their banknotes. Well, Nigeria and the Philippines are among the world’s notoriously corrupt countries, according to perception indicia from almost all multinational groups.
Strangely though, the invitation to bid published on October 26, 2009 was cancelled in December 2009, and last month, the Bank announced its intention to demonetize our present set of banknotes, to be replaced by imported banknotes starting November 2010.
Curiouser and curiouser, eh?
Who in the Bangko Sentral wants to keep importing and importing, instead of printing our bills at the East Avenue facility? Are representatives of foreign printing firms lobbying intensely so they keep making a pile out of our needs? Or is there a possibility of some money laundering going on? Hindi naman sana.
Meanwhile, the Bank continues to maintain their plant which though it has served us well through 32 years, requires huge overhead and maintenance costs, not to mention salaries of well-trained personnel who are idled by a breakdown of old equipment.
There is no reason why the Philippines can’t print its own paper money when all member nations of the Asean --- Laos and Cambodia included, have their own printing equipment to manufacture their own currencies.
Oh well, that’s the Arroyo government for you. It has a Bangko Sentral whose governing board, the Monetary Board is packed with her favourites, and though run professionally by highly-skilled middle management, curiously practice cost-inefficient methods of sourcing our legal tender.
She has destroyed the credibility of most every institution --- a subservient legislature, a judiciary packed with misfits and about to be headed by a super misfit appointed “like a thief in the night”, a supinely ineffective bureaucracy, an election commission which has graduated from inability to count manually to inability to count using machines, a military and police institution where promotions are a function of subservience to political demi-gods, And even non-governmental institutions such as religious institutions and media, have become so tainted with corruption. The legacy of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Pati ba naman Bangko Sentral?
This reminds me of how the Bank was given Mickey Mouse titles by one who would be president of the land, in exchange for some 1.5 billion pesos in emergency loans to save a bank that eventually turned belly-up anyway. Ask the Dumagats and the “remontados” of Norzagaray.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Friday, 19 March 2010
Sometime in 2006, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas issued new banknotes. Few realized then, until somebody noticed that for the first time in our history, the name of the president of the benighted republic was misspelled. Instead of Arroyo, the name “Arrovo” was printed. Our legal tender bears the signatures of the president, no matter how illegitimate, and the governor of our central bank.
Embarrassed at such a monumental gaffe, the Bangko Sentral ordered the recall of the “Arrovo” bills, and it was only then that they explained that it was a printing error. You half-expected that heads would roll in the sprawling printing and mint facility of the Bangko Sentral on East Avenue. But no. Because they did not print those Arrovo bills. They were outsourced from some foreign country.
In 1976, then President Ferdinand Marcos ordered the construction of one of Southeast Asia’s most modern security printing facilities located along East Avenue, Quezon City, where the then Central Bank printed our legal tender as well as mint our metal coins. The Bank ordered security printing equipment from a European maker, the acknowledged leader in the field of banknote printing machines. Sometime in 1983, the machines were reconditioned and retro-fitted to incorporate more sophisticated features. But due to wear and tear over the past 32 years, they have been printing only the lower-denomination banknotes while the Bangko Sentral outsourced the printing of the higher denominations.
By 2007, the Bank’s outsourcing of our banknotes printing already reached record levels, as much as 900 million pieces per year. The yearly estimated cost ot outsourced currency printing is between 35 to 40 million dollars. It was at the time that the Bank conducted studies about the possible purchase of new printing equipment. The same had also become imperative because additional security features characterize modern banknotes (look at Thailand’s baht banknotes, for instance). The Philippines’ legal tender can be so easily counterfeited, that time and again, the public is fooled by illegal tender passed on by con-artist syndicates.
Outsourcing the printing of our legal tender costs the BSP, and therefore, the people of the Republic, a lot. At say, fifty US cents apiece, 900 million pieces translates into 450 million dollars, or about 20.7 billion pesos per annum. Recently, the Bank announced that it intends to demonetize our present banknotes and re-design the Philippine currency with new banknote sketches, including one where both slain democracy martyr Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. and his widow, people power icon Corazon C. Aquino, first President of the Fourth Republic, will be featured together. The Bank says these notes should be ready by November 2010, and some 702 million pieces of these new banknotes will be initially released.
702 million at 50 US cents equals 351 million American dollars, or 16 billion pesos at present exchange rates. Question is, if these machines need to be replaced, and the Bangko Sentral did studies in 2007 for the acquisition of new printing equipment, and they have been importing our legal tender in increasing volumes since 2000, then why in heaven’s name don’t they order the equipment and save a lot of money, aside from ensuring strict quality control standards and security? After all, “Arrovo” was a foreign outsourced printer’s egregious error, not the BSP mint’s.
Curiously, sometime in October last year, the BSP published an invitation to bid for a complete line of banknote printing equipment, with an approved budget of US 56,800,000.00. That 56.8 million pesos translates to only 2.6 billion pesos, much less than the 16 billion or so that they would need to outsource the printing of 702 million banknotes they are rushing for their self-imposed November 2010 deadline. 16 billion is still much, much more than the cost of a new line of printing equipment. What gives?
Simple arithmetic and no logarithms are required to show that it would be much cheaper for the Bank to procure new equipment to print our currency locally, rather than having it printed by various foreign entities which entails security risks. The Philippines and Nigeria are about the only populous countries in the world who still outsource the printing of their banknotes. Well, Nigeria and the Philippines are among the world’s notoriously corrupt countries, according to perception indicia from almost all multinational groups.
Strangely though, the invitation to bid published on October 26, 2009 was cancelled in December 2009, and last month, the Bank announced its intention to demonetize our present set of banknotes, to be replaced by imported banknotes starting November 2010.
Curiouser and curiouser, eh?
Who in the Bangko Sentral wants to keep importing and importing, instead of printing our bills at the East Avenue facility? Are representatives of foreign printing firms lobbying intensely so they keep making a pile out of our needs? Or is there a possibility of some money laundering going on? Hindi naman sana.
Meanwhile, the Bank continues to maintain their plant which though it has served us well through 32 years, requires huge overhead and maintenance costs, not to mention salaries of well-trained personnel who are idled by a breakdown of old equipment.
There is no reason why the Philippines can’t print its own paper money when all member nations of the Asean --- Laos and Cambodia included, have their own printing equipment to manufacture their own currencies.
Oh well, that’s the Arroyo government for you. It has a Bangko Sentral whose governing board, the Monetary Board is packed with her favourites, and though run professionally by highly-skilled middle management, curiously practice cost-inefficient methods of sourcing our legal tender.
She has destroyed the credibility of most every institution --- a subservient legislature, a judiciary packed with misfits and about to be headed by a super misfit appointed “like a thief in the night”, a supinely ineffective bureaucracy, an election commission which has graduated from inability to count manually to inability to count using machines, a military and police institution where promotions are a function of subservience to political demi-gods, And even non-governmental institutions such as religious institutions and media, have become so tainted with corruption. The legacy of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Pati ba naman Bangko Sentral?
This reminds me of how the Bank was given Mickey Mouse titles by one who would be president of the land, in exchange for some 1.5 billion pesos in emergency loans to save a bank that eventually turned belly-up anyway. Ask the Dumagats and the “remontados” of Norzagaray.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Friday, 19 March 2010
The Law of Diminishing Returns
One of the fundamental laws of economics, taught to us even in high school, is the law of diminishing marginal returns. Basically, what it says is that when additional inputs of a factor of production, say, labour, is added to a fixed amount of another factor of production, say land, the amount of additional yield that the additions of input is able to generate, diminishes in time. So, if adding one more labourer to the fixed amount of land produces, say, 5 tons of crop yield, the third labourer may yield a disproportionate 3 additional tons. The law also applies to factory input-output ratios. At some point, adding more workers will produce less than the previously utilized workers. For non-economics students (even if you were not taught by Dona Gloria, misma), try reading more about the law from Paul Samuelson’s Economics.
The law of diminishing marginal returns could also apply to other inputs, be it genuine fertilizer, organic or chemical. It will not apply though to fake foliar liquid fertilizers applied to land, whether in the irrigated ricefields of Iloilo since converted into subdivisions, or in Norzagaray, Bulacan. Obviously it won’t, because the fertilizers are fake, or at best, diluted several times over with water. For better understanding of the ratio of fake fertilizers and the incremental output in rice yield, if any, the authority is of course one of the most celebrated icons of corruption, Jocjoc Bolante, mismo, the candidate for governor of Capiz of Sen. Manuel Villar.
The law may well apply to political spending as well. If the beautifully-crafted Money Villarroyo campaign ad and anthem (Alexander Syfu or Louie Morales? for creative advertising, as in a signature Christian Louboutin for ladies shoes or a Testoni for Don Jose Miguel Arroyo) which exploits Baseco children to proclaim Manny’s signature poverty (kuno) earned him a powerful January surge, will now the law of diminishing marginal returns begin to apply?
Signs there are that marginal returns are diminishing. The Pulse Asia survey findings based on field work done February 21-25 and released on March 5 tell us that from a 2 point whittled-down lead in its January figures (Noynoy 37, Money 35), Noynoy now has 36 compared to Money’s much reduced 29, for a spread of seven points. Has the magic spell created on the D and E classes by “Nakaligo ka na ba sa dagat ng basura” worn off, such that hundreds of millions poured into that poverty anthem, plus Dolphy’s testimonial to Money, plus millions spent to buy “free” media, now become the object of the law of diminishing marginal returns?
And is this the reason why Money’s creative people have switched to another anthem, the one you see and hear on television these days? Now the same Baseco (or is it Isla Puting Bato?) kids are utilized (did you compensate them properly, Money?) to sing a paean to the poor man’s dream, with Money Villarroyo, but of course, as the icon of hope. Except that this time, the kids are singing about getting rich “sa malinis na paraan”. Now is that being defensive on C-5, on San Pedro, on Iloilo, on Norzagaray, on NHMFC and Pag-ibig funds, on Daang-Hari at Daang Reyna, on Molino and Paliparan, on SSS and GSIS funds, ad nauseam, or all of the above? A deep-seated guilt complex working on the Money Villarroyo camp?
The new, improved (?) anthem, like the re-launch of Tide or Safeguard, even invokes the Lord God Himself, as in “nagtiwala sa Maykapal”. Hindi na kayo nangilabot?
But will throwing bad money after bad money on advertising, no matter how visually appealing, no matter how memorable the sound, keep the numbers going up? Or has the law of diminishing marginal returns caught up with the excessively obscene use of money by Money? And have the Baseco kids become subjects of that other economic law called the law of diminishing marginal utility?
Again recalling what Paul Samuelson and not Gloria Macapagal Arroyo taught us, a person’s satisfaction over the continued use of a product (or continued exposure to such, as in a TV commercial), declines in time as he consumes more and more of that product (or listens to it over and over again). The “marginal utility” of product, service or advertisement to the consumer declines as he partakes more or is exposed more often. The Tagalogs have a term for it --- “nakaka-umay”, or “nakakasawa”.
When “umay” or “sawa” sets in, then the product or service becomes a “dis-utility”, and the producer of said product or service becomes, well…inutile.
Now pray ask, when Money Villarroyo loses the election, what will happen to those poor Baseco kids? Like the junk and the garbage that their parents probably forage for survival, their plight will be discarded. They have been used. And their marginal utility to Villarroyo diminished to in-utility. For that is how it is with users.
Going back to the latest Pulse Asia reading, the trust survey of Villar seems to have nose-dived by 11 points. In January, thanks to the Baseco kids plus Dolphy, Money’s trust ratings went up, eclipsing Noynoy’s by 6 points. In the February 21-25 field research, Villar goes abysmally down by 11 points. Porque?
Has C-5 and his cowardice to face the Senate of his peers finally gotten enough traction, and the people are now beginning to realize the kind of person that he truly is? Is that why Noynoy is up by a whopping 16-point lead over Money in the National Capital Region? And despite Money’s strength in Regions 1, CAR, Eastern Visayas, Caraga and ARMM (the last three being the poorest regions of the country), Noynoy’s lead widened to 7 points over January’s statistically dangerous 2 points?
Truth is, it may be too early to tell, especially in a campaign where the search for truth is hostage to an obscene amount of ill-gotten money by Money. Take note of that humongous crowd that greeted Willie Revillame and his sexy and scantily-clad dancers as they gyrated in a fabulously set-up stage in Cabanatuan the other night. Money Villaroyo and Loren Legarda were Willie’s co-stars, and Money’s caboodle of senators Willie’s extras. The crowd roared with each Revillame inanity, and the males lapped up the sight of bare flesh. Whether these would endear Money Villarroyo enough for them to forget the way he has gypped the poor farmers of neighboring Norzagaray, we will not know until May 10, 2010.
Meanwhile, also in Cabanatuan, many of the poor people with whom Manny Villar claims he feels kinship, went there not to be regaled by the antics of Revillame and company, but to bring their medical prescriptions, or ask him for financial aid to defray hospitalization costs. A 17-year old teen-ager, convinced by the Villar commercials, went there to experience the candidate’s pro-poor sincerity. He raised 300 pesos by carrying sacks of rice for a neighbour, and used it to travel from a far-away town to Nueva Ecija’s center. He was just used.
And so, while the law of diminishing marginal returns should be operative, one can never accurately predict how an avalanche of that input called money could affect public perception as much as a secret benediction by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo can affect the outcome of the elections in favour of, or against --- Money Villarroyo.
* * *
In just about a month’s time, two of the most dedicated lady public servants passed to the Great Beyond. The first was Josie Lichauco, former transport secretary, a mentor of mine when I first entered government service in 1986. Josie was a feisty crusader against bad governance and corruption most gross, and has been at the forefront of the struggle against the present national leadership.
Last Monday afternoon, another dear colleague in the FSGO (Former Senior Government Officials), Emily Boncodin, succumbed to renal failure which triggered a cardiac arrest. Emy was one of the most competent budget secretaries the country has ever had. Her dedication and efficiency was legendary, but more than these, her integrity and simplicity was outstanding. And when she had enough of the scandals hounding the president who appointed her as DBM secretary, she resigned quietly, and went back to the UP academic community.
One would wish these two ladies could yet advise a new president cloaked with requisite moral character, so that finally we may be led out of the morass we find both polity and society entrenched in. Now, we can only pray for them, and wish they too are praying for the benighted land while in the company of the Almighty.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Thursday, 18 March 2010
The law of diminishing marginal returns could also apply to other inputs, be it genuine fertilizer, organic or chemical. It will not apply though to fake foliar liquid fertilizers applied to land, whether in the irrigated ricefields of Iloilo since converted into subdivisions, or in Norzagaray, Bulacan. Obviously it won’t, because the fertilizers are fake, or at best, diluted several times over with water. For better understanding of the ratio of fake fertilizers and the incremental output in rice yield, if any, the authority is of course one of the most celebrated icons of corruption, Jocjoc Bolante, mismo, the candidate for governor of Capiz of Sen. Manuel Villar.
The law may well apply to political spending as well. If the beautifully-crafted Money Villarroyo campaign ad and anthem (Alexander Syfu or Louie Morales? for creative advertising, as in a signature Christian Louboutin for ladies shoes or a Testoni for Don Jose Miguel Arroyo) which exploits Baseco children to proclaim Manny’s signature poverty (kuno) earned him a powerful January surge, will now the law of diminishing marginal returns begin to apply?
Signs there are that marginal returns are diminishing. The Pulse Asia survey findings based on field work done February 21-25 and released on March 5 tell us that from a 2 point whittled-down lead in its January figures (Noynoy 37, Money 35), Noynoy now has 36 compared to Money’s much reduced 29, for a spread of seven points. Has the magic spell created on the D and E classes by “Nakaligo ka na ba sa dagat ng basura” worn off, such that hundreds of millions poured into that poverty anthem, plus Dolphy’s testimonial to Money, plus millions spent to buy “free” media, now become the object of the law of diminishing marginal returns?
And is this the reason why Money’s creative people have switched to another anthem, the one you see and hear on television these days? Now the same Baseco (or is it Isla Puting Bato?) kids are utilized (did you compensate them properly, Money?) to sing a paean to the poor man’s dream, with Money Villarroyo, but of course, as the icon of hope. Except that this time, the kids are singing about getting rich “sa malinis na paraan”. Now is that being defensive on C-5, on San Pedro, on Iloilo, on Norzagaray, on NHMFC and Pag-ibig funds, on Daang-Hari at Daang Reyna, on Molino and Paliparan, on SSS and GSIS funds, ad nauseam, or all of the above? A deep-seated guilt complex working on the Money Villarroyo camp?
The new, improved (?) anthem, like the re-launch of Tide or Safeguard, even invokes the Lord God Himself, as in “nagtiwala sa Maykapal”. Hindi na kayo nangilabot?
But will throwing bad money after bad money on advertising, no matter how visually appealing, no matter how memorable the sound, keep the numbers going up? Or has the law of diminishing marginal returns caught up with the excessively obscene use of money by Money? And have the Baseco kids become subjects of that other economic law called the law of diminishing marginal utility?
Again recalling what Paul Samuelson and not Gloria Macapagal Arroyo taught us, a person’s satisfaction over the continued use of a product (or continued exposure to such, as in a TV commercial), declines in time as he consumes more and more of that product (or listens to it over and over again). The “marginal utility” of product, service or advertisement to the consumer declines as he partakes more or is exposed more often. The Tagalogs have a term for it --- “nakaka-umay”, or “nakakasawa”.
When “umay” or “sawa” sets in, then the product or service becomes a “dis-utility”, and the producer of said product or service becomes, well…inutile.
Now pray ask, when Money Villarroyo loses the election, what will happen to those poor Baseco kids? Like the junk and the garbage that their parents probably forage for survival, their plight will be discarded. They have been used. And their marginal utility to Villarroyo diminished to in-utility. For that is how it is with users.
Going back to the latest Pulse Asia reading, the trust survey of Villar seems to have nose-dived by 11 points. In January, thanks to the Baseco kids plus Dolphy, Money’s trust ratings went up, eclipsing Noynoy’s by 6 points. In the February 21-25 field research, Villar goes abysmally down by 11 points. Porque?
Has C-5 and his cowardice to face the Senate of his peers finally gotten enough traction, and the people are now beginning to realize the kind of person that he truly is? Is that why Noynoy is up by a whopping 16-point lead over Money in the National Capital Region? And despite Money’s strength in Regions 1, CAR, Eastern Visayas, Caraga and ARMM (the last three being the poorest regions of the country), Noynoy’s lead widened to 7 points over January’s statistically dangerous 2 points?
Truth is, it may be too early to tell, especially in a campaign where the search for truth is hostage to an obscene amount of ill-gotten money by Money. Take note of that humongous crowd that greeted Willie Revillame and his sexy and scantily-clad dancers as they gyrated in a fabulously set-up stage in Cabanatuan the other night. Money Villaroyo and Loren Legarda were Willie’s co-stars, and Money’s caboodle of senators Willie’s extras. The crowd roared with each Revillame inanity, and the males lapped up the sight of bare flesh. Whether these would endear Money Villarroyo enough for them to forget the way he has gypped the poor farmers of neighboring Norzagaray, we will not know until May 10, 2010.
Meanwhile, also in Cabanatuan, many of the poor people with whom Manny Villar claims he feels kinship, went there not to be regaled by the antics of Revillame and company, but to bring their medical prescriptions, or ask him for financial aid to defray hospitalization costs. A 17-year old teen-ager, convinced by the Villar commercials, went there to experience the candidate’s pro-poor sincerity. He raised 300 pesos by carrying sacks of rice for a neighbour, and used it to travel from a far-away town to Nueva Ecija’s center. He was just used.
And so, while the law of diminishing marginal returns should be operative, one can never accurately predict how an avalanche of that input called money could affect public perception as much as a secret benediction by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo can affect the outcome of the elections in favour of, or against --- Money Villarroyo.
* * *
In just about a month’s time, two of the most dedicated lady public servants passed to the Great Beyond. The first was Josie Lichauco, former transport secretary, a mentor of mine when I first entered government service in 1986. Josie was a feisty crusader against bad governance and corruption most gross, and has been at the forefront of the struggle against the present national leadership.
Last Monday afternoon, another dear colleague in the FSGO (Former Senior Government Officials), Emily Boncodin, succumbed to renal failure which triggered a cardiac arrest. Emy was one of the most competent budget secretaries the country has ever had. Her dedication and efficiency was legendary, but more than these, her integrity and simplicity was outstanding. And when she had enough of the scandals hounding the president who appointed her as DBM secretary, she resigned quietly, and went back to the UP academic community.
One would wish these two ladies could yet advise a new president cloaked with requisite moral character, so that finally we may be led out of the morass we find both polity and society entrenched in. Now, we can only pray for them, and wish they too are praying for the benighted land while in the company of the Almighty.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Thursday, 18 March 2010
San Pedro
Hindi ito ukol sa Bibliya, o sa pagkakatanggi ni San Pedro sa Panginoong Hesus. Ito’y patungkol sa kalbaryo ng mga naninirahan sa isang 2.18 ektaryang lupa sa San Pedro, Laguna, na tinawag pa manding Paradise Park. Paraiso na sana para mga maralitang taga-lungsod na naging kalbaryo ng ilang taon. ‘Pagkat isang dambuhalang kumpanya na pag-aari ni Manny Villar at kanyang ginang ay siyang nagiging pahirap sa mga mahirap.
Ang tinaguriang Paradise Park ay pag-aari ng dating alkalde ng karatig-bayang Muntinglupa, na noong 1986 ay sinimulang i-sequester ng pamahalaan sa pamamagitan ng PCGG, bilang diumano’y ill-gotten wealth. Ang yumao nang si Argana ay kilala at kinatatakutang punong-lungsod na loyalista ni Ferdinand Marcos.
Sa lupaing iyon, na ngayon ay pinalilibutan ng mga magagarang mga subdivision, matagal nang naninirahan ang mga maralitang habol ay maibigay sa kanila ang kapirasong lupain na tinitirikan ng kanilang mga dampa, matapos na maging pinal ang pagka-sequester. Kasi, patuloy na kinukontra ng mga heredero ni Argana ang sequestration.
Pero habang ito ay dinidinig pa at wala pang resolusyon ang kaso, mayroon “lis pendens” sa titulo ng lupa. Ibig sabihin, habang ito’y hindi pa nahahatulan, hindi maaring ibenta o isanla ang naturang lupain. Ano pa nga ba at minsa’y binulabog ang mga maralita ng mga security guards ng Crown Asia, at pilit na pinalalayas at nagkademolisyon sa naturang lugar. Tatlumpung kabahayan ang winasak, at sa kanilang pakikibaka sa mga security guards, isa sa kanila ang napatay, si Quirico delos Santos, o “Ka Rico”.
Anupa’t napag-alaman nila na ang lupang tinitirikan ay naibenta diumano ni Maximo Argana sa isang nagngangalang Jose Nunez, pagkatapos ay isinanla sa Capitol Bank na pag-aari ng mga Villar.
Matapos ang anim na buwan, inilit ng Capitol, at isinalin ang titulo sa Crown Asia.
Pero, wika ng mga maralita, paanong maibebenta at maisasalin ang lupa na may “lis pendens”, na ayon sa batas, ipinagbabawal na ilipat, isalin, ibenta o maging isanla? Tila na-magic na naman ang titulo, at bakit nga ba palaging kasangkot ang mga kumpanya ni Villar sa mga “magic” na titulo?
Andu’n ang Norzagaray, kung saan ang titulong isinalin ng mga Villar, mismong sa Bangko Sentral, ay panahon ng Hapon nang maisalin, na labag sa batas? At may mga taga-Cavite na umaangal rin.
Ngayong Mahal na Araw, patuloy ang mahaba-haba nang kalbaryo ng mga naninirahan sa Paradise Park, at sila’y lubhang nangangamba, na kung si Manny Villar ang siyang magwagi at maging pangulo ng kalunus-lunos na bansang ito, e ‘di ang kanilang munting paraisong pinagsisiksikan ay magiging hindi lamang kalbaryo, kundi “paradise lost”, at kahina-hinala man ang titulo ng Crown Asia, e tiyak na ito ang mananaig ‘pagkat ang amo nilang si Manny Villar ay kokoronahan na bilang pangulo.
Ano nga naman ang magagawa ng mga taga-Paradise Park. Paano sila lalaban sa susunod na pinakamakapangyarihang tao sa bansa?
Tayo ang dapat na siyang tumulong sa kanila. Ipaglaban natin sila, at kondenahin ang hayagang pagsasamantala sa kapangyarihan ni Manny Villar, at sa kanyang tahasang paglabag sa batas.
Oo, kaya nating tulungan ang mga taga-Paradise Park ng San Pedro, Laguna. Maging ang mga taga-Norzagaray, Bulakan. Paano? Huwag nating iboto ang mapagsamantala at mapang-abuso sa kapangyarihang si Manuel Villar.
Tumutulong sa mahirap? O pahirap sa mahihirap?
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
Abante Column for tuesday, 16 March 2010
Ang tinaguriang Paradise Park ay pag-aari ng dating alkalde ng karatig-bayang Muntinglupa, na noong 1986 ay sinimulang i-sequester ng pamahalaan sa pamamagitan ng PCGG, bilang diumano’y ill-gotten wealth. Ang yumao nang si Argana ay kilala at kinatatakutang punong-lungsod na loyalista ni Ferdinand Marcos.
Sa lupaing iyon, na ngayon ay pinalilibutan ng mga magagarang mga subdivision, matagal nang naninirahan ang mga maralitang habol ay maibigay sa kanila ang kapirasong lupain na tinitirikan ng kanilang mga dampa, matapos na maging pinal ang pagka-sequester. Kasi, patuloy na kinukontra ng mga heredero ni Argana ang sequestration.
Pero habang ito ay dinidinig pa at wala pang resolusyon ang kaso, mayroon “lis pendens” sa titulo ng lupa. Ibig sabihin, habang ito’y hindi pa nahahatulan, hindi maaring ibenta o isanla ang naturang lupain. Ano pa nga ba at minsa’y binulabog ang mga maralita ng mga security guards ng Crown Asia, at pilit na pinalalayas at nagkademolisyon sa naturang lugar. Tatlumpung kabahayan ang winasak, at sa kanilang pakikibaka sa mga security guards, isa sa kanila ang napatay, si Quirico delos Santos, o “Ka Rico”.
Anupa’t napag-alaman nila na ang lupang tinitirikan ay naibenta diumano ni Maximo Argana sa isang nagngangalang Jose Nunez, pagkatapos ay isinanla sa Capitol Bank na pag-aari ng mga Villar.
Matapos ang anim na buwan, inilit ng Capitol, at isinalin ang titulo sa Crown Asia.
Pero, wika ng mga maralita, paanong maibebenta at maisasalin ang lupa na may “lis pendens”, na ayon sa batas, ipinagbabawal na ilipat, isalin, ibenta o maging isanla? Tila na-magic na naman ang titulo, at bakit nga ba palaging kasangkot ang mga kumpanya ni Villar sa mga “magic” na titulo?
Andu’n ang Norzagaray, kung saan ang titulong isinalin ng mga Villar, mismong sa Bangko Sentral, ay panahon ng Hapon nang maisalin, na labag sa batas? At may mga taga-Cavite na umaangal rin.
Ngayong Mahal na Araw, patuloy ang mahaba-haba nang kalbaryo ng mga naninirahan sa Paradise Park, at sila’y lubhang nangangamba, na kung si Manny Villar ang siyang magwagi at maging pangulo ng kalunus-lunos na bansang ito, e ‘di ang kanilang munting paraisong pinagsisiksikan ay magiging hindi lamang kalbaryo, kundi “paradise lost”, at kahina-hinala man ang titulo ng Crown Asia, e tiyak na ito ang mananaig ‘pagkat ang amo nilang si Manny Villar ay kokoronahan na bilang pangulo.
Ano nga naman ang magagawa ng mga taga-Paradise Park. Paano sila lalaban sa susunod na pinakamakapangyarihang tao sa bansa?
Tayo ang dapat na siyang tumulong sa kanila. Ipaglaban natin sila, at kondenahin ang hayagang pagsasamantala sa kapangyarihan ni Manny Villar, at sa kanyang tahasang paglabag sa batas.
Oo, kaya nating tulungan ang mga taga-Paradise Park ng San Pedro, Laguna. Maging ang mga taga-Norzagaray, Bulakan. Paano? Huwag nating iboto ang mapagsamantala at mapang-abuso sa kapangyarihang si Manuel Villar.
Tumutulong sa mahirap? O pahirap sa mahihirap?
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
Abante Column for tuesday, 16 March 2010
Department of (in)Justice
‘It is Judge Theresa Yadao’s turn to feel the vengeful wrath of these denizens of evil who lurk in Malacañang,’
JUST before she left office after the Supreme Court reversed itself and declared that appointive officials running for public office must resign, this lady called Agnes Devanadera ordered the filing of criminal charges against another lady, Judge Theresa de la Torre-Yadao for rendering an "unjust" decision against former Mindoro Occidental Governor Jose Villarosa.
In so doing, Devanadera, who is running for Congress to represent the people of the first district of Quezon, reversed the earlier findings of State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera, who dismissed the complaint of Villarosa that the judge "knowingly rendered an unjust judgment" in convicting him as the mastermind of the murder of the Quintos brothers almost 13 years ago.
Prosecutor Navera ruled that Yadao did not violate Article 204 of the Revised Penal Code on the ground that Yadao decided on "good faith". Yadao’s judgment rendering Villarosa guilty of murder was reversed by the Court of Appeals, a decision that the Quintos family ascribes to pressure exerted by no less than Malacañang. Jose Villarosa’s wife, Girlie, the congresswoman of the benighted feudal province of Mindoro Occidental, happens to be the veritable "yaya" of Doña Gloria, accompanying her in most every foreign trip, fawning and gushing over her Doña every time she finds any reason to. For extreme loyalty, never mind if everybody and his mother in the lower house of Congress (excepting the brothers Arroyo of course), snicker behind her back, she was rewarded with inexplicable promotion to Deputy Speaker, and her husband released from the detention that the Yadao decision consigned him to.
Now Jose Villarosa, whom Devanadera’s predecessor and former associate in a law firm, Hernando B. Perez, wanted to exempt from the murder case, and for which Yadao wrote that "even the rule of law must be protected from the rulers", wanted revenge. Nemo me impune lacesit (no one dares impugn me and gets away with it), Villarosa must have said, and so likely Devanadera, acceding to her Doña’s wishes, does the judge extreme injustice. Jose Villarosa’s political rival, Ricardo "Ding" Quintos has been crying for justice since December of 1997, and has appealed the CA’s reversal to the Supreme Court where it remains to this day. Guess how the SC will decide.
Yadao is also the lady judge who ruled in favor of Senator Panfilo M. Lacson and his fellow accused in the celebrated Kuratong Baleleng case, after the Supreme Court, reversing its own amended Rules of Court, re-opened the case, likely again at the behest of Doña Gloria y su esposo. Lacson is the Arroyo couple’s permanent hate object, he having been the perennial expository of scandalous corruption in their regime. Hell hath no fury than a woman, y su esposo, scorned. Lintik lang ang walang ganti.
And so, the same Department of Injustice, with the lady Agnes as its head, acted on the clearly perjured tale of hearsay spun by one Cezar Mancao y Ochoco, once Lacson’s aide in the defunct PAOCTF, admitted by the same Mancao before media and in court, as having been elicited from him by Doña Gloria’s intelligence chief in the military, Romeo Prestoza. The Devanadera-presided cabal of injustice found probable cause to indict Lacson on the basis of Mancao’s testimony, un-corroborated and in fact contradicted by another extradited witness, Col. Glenn Dumlao. And the Department of Injustice was sustained by one Judge Myra Garcia Fernandez of the Manila RTC, who issued a warrant for the arrest of the fighting senator. Lacson escaped from the web of clear persecution, and meanwhile, in true gangland fashion, where transactions have to be done "kaliwaan", Judge Fernandez, hora misma, gets recommended almost unanimously by the Judicial and Bar Council (with the singular dissent coming from Senator Francis Escudero), and forthwith appointed to the Court of Appeals, in the wee hours before the constitutional clock forbade Doña Gloria from appointing anyone. Talaga nga naman. Everything is done with stealth and precision timing (como ZTE-NBN), "like a thief in the night".
Now it is Judge Theresa Yadao’s turn to feel the vengeful wrath of these denizens of evil who lurk in Malacañang, surrounding this woman who was never elected by the people to her post, but has, with devilish cunning, survived all challenges to her legitimacy, and intends to inflict herself further beyond her political grave, upon the fate of these benighted islands.
First Yadao defied the wishes of Malacañang, conveyed both by its former justice secretary Hernando Perez, and even its former executive secretary Alberto Romulo, to go slow on the husband of Doña Gloria’s favorite yaya Girlie, and forthwith proclaimed Jose Villarosa guilty of double murder.
Then Yadao proclaimed that double jeopardy had set in on the Kuratong Baleleng case that had hounded Ping Lacson and his co-accused, a decision that once more the DOJ elevated to the Supreme Court where it awaits final judgment.
How dare this woman defy Malacañang twice over? So now, in the last days of her toadying to the wishes of her patroness y su esposo, Agnes Devanadera, who the JBC rendered several times as unfit to join the high tribunal, cavils yet once more to the vindictive desires of her masters, and serves the head of Yadao on a silver platter, just before she inflicts herself upon the lower house of Congress, in the in-distinguished company of the same mistress who has awarded her always despite arrant unworthiness.
Would that the people of Quezon’s first district (from Pagbilao in the western seaboard to Tayabas, Lukban and her native Sampaloc in the midlands, down to Mauban, Real, General Nakar and Infanta in the eastern seaboard and those typhoon-swept specks of Polilio, Patnanungan and Burdeos, not to mention lovely Jomalig) know better than to be represented by this lady of injustice.
But in a larger sense, is she to blame for destroying the DOJ into a bastion of injustice, when her predecessors under Doña Gloria all contributed to its lack of any credibility? Fawning toadies they all have been, willing to bend the law and spit on the rule of law, either for financial considerations, but always and ever in the service of the illegitimate Doña Gloria who uses them and abuses us all in her amoral practice of power.
***
Oh, and by the way, when Erap was yet president, and Manny Villar was yet his speaker of the lower house, (the man who would be president now on the basis of his untold billions) this writer, then presidential political adviser, was asked by Speaker Villar in a meeting at the EDSA Plaza in Mandaluyong, to kindly look on how his favorite Girlie Villarosa could be helped in her fight against the proclaimed Ricardo Quintos, father of the slain brothers. Malacañang of course did not bother, with Erap himself fully convinced that Ding Quintos after all was the victim of extreme injustice. But things turned out badly for the Quintos family after Erap fell from power and Girlie quickly buttered up to Doña Gloria. While she and her husband are ostensibly Pa-La-Ka loyalists, everybody and his mother in Mindoro Occidental knows that the Villarosas will go for Money Villarroyo.
***
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
Malaya Column for Tuesday , 16 March 2010
JUST before she left office after the Supreme Court reversed itself and declared that appointive officials running for public office must resign, this lady called Agnes Devanadera ordered the filing of criminal charges against another lady, Judge Theresa de la Torre-Yadao for rendering an "unjust" decision against former Mindoro Occidental Governor Jose Villarosa.
In so doing, Devanadera, who is running for Congress to represent the people of the first district of Quezon, reversed the earlier findings of State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera, who dismissed the complaint of Villarosa that the judge "knowingly rendered an unjust judgment" in convicting him as the mastermind of the murder of the Quintos brothers almost 13 years ago.
Prosecutor Navera ruled that Yadao did not violate Article 204 of the Revised Penal Code on the ground that Yadao decided on "good faith". Yadao’s judgment rendering Villarosa guilty of murder was reversed by the Court of Appeals, a decision that the Quintos family ascribes to pressure exerted by no less than Malacañang. Jose Villarosa’s wife, Girlie, the congresswoman of the benighted feudal province of Mindoro Occidental, happens to be the veritable "yaya" of Doña Gloria, accompanying her in most every foreign trip, fawning and gushing over her Doña every time she finds any reason to. For extreme loyalty, never mind if everybody and his mother in the lower house of Congress (excepting the brothers Arroyo of course), snicker behind her back, she was rewarded with inexplicable promotion to Deputy Speaker, and her husband released from the detention that the Yadao decision consigned him to.
Now Jose Villarosa, whom Devanadera’s predecessor and former associate in a law firm, Hernando B. Perez, wanted to exempt from the murder case, and for which Yadao wrote that "even the rule of law must be protected from the rulers", wanted revenge. Nemo me impune lacesit (no one dares impugn me and gets away with it), Villarosa must have said, and so likely Devanadera, acceding to her Doña’s wishes, does the judge extreme injustice. Jose Villarosa’s political rival, Ricardo "Ding" Quintos has been crying for justice since December of 1997, and has appealed the CA’s reversal to the Supreme Court where it remains to this day. Guess how the SC will decide.
Yadao is also the lady judge who ruled in favor of Senator Panfilo M. Lacson and his fellow accused in the celebrated Kuratong Baleleng case, after the Supreme Court, reversing its own amended Rules of Court, re-opened the case, likely again at the behest of Doña Gloria y su esposo. Lacson is the Arroyo couple’s permanent hate object, he having been the perennial expository of scandalous corruption in their regime. Hell hath no fury than a woman, y su esposo, scorned. Lintik lang ang walang ganti.
And so, the same Department of Injustice, with the lady Agnes as its head, acted on the clearly perjured tale of hearsay spun by one Cezar Mancao y Ochoco, once Lacson’s aide in the defunct PAOCTF, admitted by the same Mancao before media and in court, as having been elicited from him by Doña Gloria’s intelligence chief in the military, Romeo Prestoza. The Devanadera-presided cabal of injustice found probable cause to indict Lacson on the basis of Mancao’s testimony, un-corroborated and in fact contradicted by another extradited witness, Col. Glenn Dumlao. And the Department of Injustice was sustained by one Judge Myra Garcia Fernandez of the Manila RTC, who issued a warrant for the arrest of the fighting senator. Lacson escaped from the web of clear persecution, and meanwhile, in true gangland fashion, where transactions have to be done "kaliwaan", Judge Fernandez, hora misma, gets recommended almost unanimously by the Judicial and Bar Council (with the singular dissent coming from Senator Francis Escudero), and forthwith appointed to the Court of Appeals, in the wee hours before the constitutional clock forbade Doña Gloria from appointing anyone. Talaga nga naman. Everything is done with stealth and precision timing (como ZTE-NBN), "like a thief in the night".
Now it is Judge Theresa Yadao’s turn to feel the vengeful wrath of these denizens of evil who lurk in Malacañang, surrounding this woman who was never elected by the people to her post, but has, with devilish cunning, survived all challenges to her legitimacy, and intends to inflict herself further beyond her political grave, upon the fate of these benighted islands.
First Yadao defied the wishes of Malacañang, conveyed both by its former justice secretary Hernando Perez, and even its former executive secretary Alberto Romulo, to go slow on the husband of Doña Gloria’s favorite yaya Girlie, and forthwith proclaimed Jose Villarosa guilty of double murder.
Then Yadao proclaimed that double jeopardy had set in on the Kuratong Baleleng case that had hounded Ping Lacson and his co-accused, a decision that once more the DOJ elevated to the Supreme Court where it awaits final judgment.
How dare this woman defy Malacañang twice over? So now, in the last days of her toadying to the wishes of her patroness y su esposo, Agnes Devanadera, who the JBC rendered several times as unfit to join the high tribunal, cavils yet once more to the vindictive desires of her masters, and serves the head of Yadao on a silver platter, just before she inflicts herself upon the lower house of Congress, in the in-distinguished company of the same mistress who has awarded her always despite arrant unworthiness.
Would that the people of Quezon’s first district (from Pagbilao in the western seaboard to Tayabas, Lukban and her native Sampaloc in the midlands, down to Mauban, Real, General Nakar and Infanta in the eastern seaboard and those typhoon-swept specks of Polilio, Patnanungan and Burdeos, not to mention lovely Jomalig) know better than to be represented by this lady of injustice.
But in a larger sense, is she to blame for destroying the DOJ into a bastion of injustice, when her predecessors under Doña Gloria all contributed to its lack of any credibility? Fawning toadies they all have been, willing to bend the law and spit on the rule of law, either for financial considerations, but always and ever in the service of the illegitimate Doña Gloria who uses them and abuses us all in her amoral practice of power.
***
Oh, and by the way, when Erap was yet president, and Manny Villar was yet his speaker of the lower house, (the man who would be president now on the basis of his untold billions) this writer, then presidential political adviser, was asked by Speaker Villar in a meeting at the EDSA Plaza in Mandaluyong, to kindly look on how his favorite Girlie Villarosa could be helped in her fight against the proclaimed Ricardo Quintos, father of the slain brothers. Malacañang of course did not bother, with Erap himself fully convinced that Ding Quintos after all was the victim of extreme injustice. But things turned out badly for the Quintos family after Erap fell from power and Girlie quickly buttered up to Doña Gloria. While she and her husband are ostensibly Pa-La-Ka loyalists, everybody and his mother in Mindoro Occidental knows that the Villarosas will go for Money Villarroyo.
***
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
Malaya Column for Tuesday , 16 March 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
San Pedro
How could a piece of property sequestered by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), and a lis pendens annotated upon its transfer certificate of title, land in the hands of a corporation called Crown Asia, owned and controlled by the so-called “brown taipan”, Manuel Villar, who wants to be president of the land?
The 2.18 hectare property is in the vicinity of a swanky golf course called TAT, before that Filipinas Golf Course, and even before that, during the Marcos years, known as Holiday Hills, in the municipality of San Pedro Laguna. It straddles the boundary of the first town of Laguna with the last city of Metro Manila, and is now connected to the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) by an interchange, and to Las Pinas and Bacoor to a so-called Daang Reyna, which in turn connects to Daang Hari. Pretty good property, one must say.
It used to be titled to one Maximo Argana, remembered by many to be the feared and powerful mayor of Muntinglupa during the martial law years. When the dictatorship fell, the newly-created PCGG went after the unexplained wealth of Marcos, his cronies and other public officials. They went after Maximo Argana’s wealth, and this San Pedro property was one of them. Because Argana had meanwhile died, the PCGG attached an encumbrance upon the title, what is called a lis pendens, which means the property cannot be sold, leased, or otherwise encumbered while the case is pending. And up till today, that case pends before the Sandiganbayan.
Meanwhile, the informal settlers who had stayed in the property by tolerance or sufferance of the registered owner, Argana, had hoped that when the government finally gets full leave of the court to confiscate the San Pedro property, they could apply for land ownership under the social justice programs of the State. Their hopes brightened with the enactment of the Urban Dwellers Act during the Cory administration, otherwise known as the Lina Law.
But lo and behold! In the year 2000, a corporation called Crown Asia suddenly claimed ownership of the property, on the basis of a deed of sale executed between it and Capitol Bank. Both Crown Asia and Capitol are owned and controlled by the spouses Manuel and Cynthia Villar. Crown Asia, along with its sister corporations, had already acquired other properties in the vicinity, which it was then developing into medium and high-end housing projects.
How did this happen? There was a lis pendens on the property, and a check with government agencies, including the Office of the President shows that the Argana title should not and must not be the subject of a deed of sale, not even a contract of lease, for as long as the courts would not lift that lis pendens (or pendente lite, which means pending legal resolution of the case.
But apparently, Capitol Bank foreclosed the property from a certain Jose Nunez, who failed to pay a short-term loan, and made no effort whatsoever to restructure or re-schedule the loan, as most are wont to do, but instead, immediately had his property foreclosed by the Villar bank. And the Villar’s Capitol Bank turns around and sells the property also immediately, to Crown Asia. Seems like this is a pattern, a modus operandi of the Villar’s interlocking corporations.
In 2002, Villar’s Crown Asia posted security guards and then ordered a demolition of the settler’s houses. The demolition squad succeeded in destroying 30 houses and led to the killing of Quirico “Rico” de los Santos, a leader of the neighbourhood association of poor informal dwellers called ironically, Paradise Park. But the informal settlers resisted and they remain there to this day, their Paradise Park Neighborhood Association knocking from one government agency door to another, hoping to seek justice and their urban dwellers’ rights under the laws of the benighted land. There are now some 205 family houses walled inside the 2.18 hectare property, with no basic services such as electrical connections and water. They have to walk to buy expensive retailed water and inter-connect or share one electricity source. Guards of the neighboring walled subdivision, armed with shotguns strictly monitor their movements. They are not allowed to bring in construction materials even to repair their rickety dwellings.
Is this another racket where fake titles are produced surreptitiously, and prey on helpless landowners, such as the Dumagat and Remontado farmers in Norzagaray, Bulacan (read our articles of February 25 and 27, Malaya)? In Norzagaray, the titles issued during the Japanese occupation, which under Commonwealth Act 141, as amended, have been declared null and void, were “foreclosed” by Capitol Bank, and then paid in kind to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas which had earlier issued an emergency loan to the said Villar-owned bank of 1.5 billion pesos.
In San Pedro, property encumbered in temporary favour of the Republic of the Philippines, pending resolution of a sequestration case, is suddenly claimed by a family corporation which “bought” the property from the same family-owned bank, which in turn foreclosed the same from a person, fictitious or real, who “borrowed” a short-term loan and “failed” to pay.
But the Paradise Park homeowners are now in mortal fear of imminent ejection, should this “poor man turned billionaire”, whose heart “bleeds for the poor”, and who makes a holy vow (panata) to end poverty (tatapusin ang kahirapan), become president of the benighted land. Truly, night will fall upon the lives of these poor people “squatting” on government-owned land. Because if Villarroyo succeeds with his money, and buys the presidency come May 10, 2010, with secret help from the woman who replaced the man he impeached in 2000, then the “government” and their nemesis will be one and the same.
“Mayaman na siya. Huwag na niyang agawin sa amin ang karapatan na manirahan sa lupang hindi naman kanya”, said Aling Gloria Barrameda of the Paradise Park Neighbourhood Association , who along with some 40 other settlers marched and picketed the front of the historic Laurel House that Money Villarroyo bought two years ago, and from whence he launched his quest for the presidency.
The man who claims to have shared the tribulations of the poorest of the poor, who used to live in a single-room house with his entire family (but transferred as a kid later to a 560 square-meter property in San Rafael Village in Balut, built by his government employee of a father and his industrious fish merchant of a mother) and used to sleep in a narrow bench in Divisoria market (but was schooled in a Catholic parochial school where he and brood were fetched by a stainless steel owner-type jeep), and virtually mocks the toil and sacrifices of his truly industrious parents in order to propagandize alleged poverty, now sends his guards to confiscate property held by the Republic, at the expense of poor, landless settlers, one of whom was executed by his unknown security guards.
As Aling Gloria stated in poignant anger: “Sa ginagawa niya sa aming mahihirap, kasinungalingan ang sinasabi niyang siya ay para sa mahirap at siya ay may malasakit. Siya ang tunay na pasakit. Siya ang tunay na pahirap”.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Thursday, 11 March 2010
The 2.18 hectare property is in the vicinity of a swanky golf course called TAT, before that Filipinas Golf Course, and even before that, during the Marcos years, known as Holiday Hills, in the municipality of San Pedro Laguna. It straddles the boundary of the first town of Laguna with the last city of Metro Manila, and is now connected to the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) by an interchange, and to Las Pinas and Bacoor to a so-called Daang Reyna, which in turn connects to Daang Hari. Pretty good property, one must say.
It used to be titled to one Maximo Argana, remembered by many to be the feared and powerful mayor of Muntinglupa during the martial law years. When the dictatorship fell, the newly-created PCGG went after the unexplained wealth of Marcos, his cronies and other public officials. They went after Maximo Argana’s wealth, and this San Pedro property was one of them. Because Argana had meanwhile died, the PCGG attached an encumbrance upon the title, what is called a lis pendens, which means the property cannot be sold, leased, or otherwise encumbered while the case is pending. And up till today, that case pends before the Sandiganbayan.
Meanwhile, the informal settlers who had stayed in the property by tolerance or sufferance of the registered owner, Argana, had hoped that when the government finally gets full leave of the court to confiscate the San Pedro property, they could apply for land ownership under the social justice programs of the State. Their hopes brightened with the enactment of the Urban Dwellers Act during the Cory administration, otherwise known as the Lina Law.
But lo and behold! In the year 2000, a corporation called Crown Asia suddenly claimed ownership of the property, on the basis of a deed of sale executed between it and Capitol Bank. Both Crown Asia and Capitol are owned and controlled by the spouses Manuel and Cynthia Villar. Crown Asia, along with its sister corporations, had already acquired other properties in the vicinity, which it was then developing into medium and high-end housing projects.
How did this happen? There was a lis pendens on the property, and a check with government agencies, including the Office of the President shows that the Argana title should not and must not be the subject of a deed of sale, not even a contract of lease, for as long as the courts would not lift that lis pendens (or pendente lite, which means pending legal resolution of the case.
But apparently, Capitol Bank foreclosed the property from a certain Jose Nunez, who failed to pay a short-term loan, and made no effort whatsoever to restructure or re-schedule the loan, as most are wont to do, but instead, immediately had his property foreclosed by the Villar bank. And the Villar’s Capitol Bank turns around and sells the property also immediately, to Crown Asia. Seems like this is a pattern, a modus operandi of the Villar’s interlocking corporations.
In 2002, Villar’s Crown Asia posted security guards and then ordered a demolition of the settler’s houses. The demolition squad succeeded in destroying 30 houses and led to the killing of Quirico “Rico” de los Santos, a leader of the neighbourhood association of poor informal dwellers called ironically, Paradise Park. But the informal settlers resisted and they remain there to this day, their Paradise Park Neighborhood Association knocking from one government agency door to another, hoping to seek justice and their urban dwellers’ rights under the laws of the benighted land. There are now some 205 family houses walled inside the 2.18 hectare property, with no basic services such as electrical connections and water. They have to walk to buy expensive retailed water and inter-connect or share one electricity source. Guards of the neighboring walled subdivision, armed with shotguns strictly monitor their movements. They are not allowed to bring in construction materials even to repair their rickety dwellings.
Is this another racket where fake titles are produced surreptitiously, and prey on helpless landowners, such as the Dumagat and Remontado farmers in Norzagaray, Bulacan (read our articles of February 25 and 27, Malaya)? In Norzagaray, the titles issued during the Japanese occupation, which under Commonwealth Act 141, as amended, have been declared null and void, were “foreclosed” by Capitol Bank, and then paid in kind to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas which had earlier issued an emergency loan to the said Villar-owned bank of 1.5 billion pesos.
In San Pedro, property encumbered in temporary favour of the Republic of the Philippines, pending resolution of a sequestration case, is suddenly claimed by a family corporation which “bought” the property from the same family-owned bank, which in turn foreclosed the same from a person, fictitious or real, who “borrowed” a short-term loan and “failed” to pay.
But the Paradise Park homeowners are now in mortal fear of imminent ejection, should this “poor man turned billionaire”, whose heart “bleeds for the poor”, and who makes a holy vow (panata) to end poverty (tatapusin ang kahirapan), become president of the benighted land. Truly, night will fall upon the lives of these poor people “squatting” on government-owned land. Because if Villarroyo succeeds with his money, and buys the presidency come May 10, 2010, with secret help from the woman who replaced the man he impeached in 2000, then the “government” and their nemesis will be one and the same.
“Mayaman na siya. Huwag na niyang agawin sa amin ang karapatan na manirahan sa lupang hindi naman kanya”, said Aling Gloria Barrameda of the Paradise Park Neighbourhood Association , who along with some 40 other settlers marched and picketed the front of the historic Laurel House that Money Villarroyo bought two years ago, and from whence he launched his quest for the presidency.
The man who claims to have shared the tribulations of the poorest of the poor, who used to live in a single-room house with his entire family (but transferred as a kid later to a 560 square-meter property in San Rafael Village in Balut, built by his government employee of a father and his industrious fish merchant of a mother) and used to sleep in a narrow bench in Divisoria market (but was schooled in a Catholic parochial school where he and brood were fetched by a stainless steel owner-type jeep), and virtually mocks the toil and sacrifices of his truly industrious parents in order to propagandize alleged poverty, now sends his guards to confiscate property held by the Republic, at the expense of poor, landless settlers, one of whom was executed by his unknown security guards.
As Aling Gloria stated in poignant anger: “Sa ginagawa niya sa aming mahihirap, kasinungalingan ang sinasabi niyang siya ay para sa mahirap at siya ay may malasakit. Siya ang tunay na pasakit. Siya ang tunay na pahirap”.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Thursday, 11 March 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
“The Philippines are not for sale”
But for a few paragraphs which I deleted here for brevity’s sake, I am reprinting verbatim from a press statement issued by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on Thursday, 04 March this year. Every yet undecided voter must get to read Enrile’s statement. My own postscript to this episode follows after.
“I commend Senator Gordon for unmasking the real character of Senator and presidential candidate Manuel B. Villar as a man who thinks he can buy his way to the highest position in the land with his billions of money. “I understand Senator Gordon has come out to tell the public about the bribe attempt made by Senator Villar through an “emissary” and a “mutual friend.” I confirm that such attempt actually happened and I have no doubt about its veracity because Sen. Gordon told me about it immediately. “My recollection is that when I filed the report of the Committee of the Whole on the Ethics complaint involving the C5 controversy, having been signed by 11 Senators with myself as the author acting as Chairman, my Chief of Staff relayed to me by phone that another Senator, who Villar was supporting to replace me as Senate President, had approached Sen. Gordon to join the plot to oust me and install a new leadership in the Senate. “The approach, which came with an offer for a position of Sen. Gordon’s choice under a “Villar Administration” was turned down outright by Sen. Gordon saying “I cannot, in conscience, do such a thing, especially not to Senator Enrile who I regard as a father.” “On that same day, upon seeing Sen. Gordon arrive at the Senate session, I embraced him and whispered “Thank you, Dick. I know what happened.” At that time, he seemed surprised at my gesture and just hugged me back. “Several days after, when we were about to take up the report on the floor, I got another report that Sen. Gordon was offered, on top of the first offer for a position if Sen. Villar makes it to the presidency, was likewise offered a huge amount of money to withdraw his signature from my report. I was appalled by this report and felt it was my duty to tell Sen. Gordon that such news was circulating. I called Sen. Gordon and informed him that I will never believe that he will succumb to such a brazen act of bribery. “Sen. Gordon privately confirmed to me that such offer was indeed made and that he felt furious and insulted by the temerity and gall of Villar to think that he can be intimidated by money, much less lured by an offer for a position of power. He immediately said NO to this offer. “Later, I learned that it went even beyond that; that Sen. Villar offered “reimbursement for what Sen. Gordon had so far spent for his presidential bid with an added premium just to convince him to withdraw from the presidential race. “I have known Sen. Gordon from his younger days, and one thing I can say is that this man cannot be bought. Sen. Villar is dead wrong about Sen. Gordon. You do not put a price tag on everyone, especially not Dick Gordon. “Actually, I knew about the plan to oust me since last December. On the last day of our sessions before the Christmas break, Sen. Allan Peter Cayetano, on orders of his master, Sen. Villar, in no uncertain terms, delivered the threat to my Chief of Staff that if I make a move to gather enough votes in support of my Committee Report, Sen. Villar wants me to know that he will have no other choice but to take the Senate Presidency either for himself or for another Senator of his choice. “As things developed and the co-perpetrators of the coup plot against me began to show their real colors, I surmised that the “emissary” to Sen. Gordon and Sen. Villar’s nominee could be no other than Senator Edgardo J. Angara… “This attempt of Villar is similar to the offer made by another “emissary” to former President Estrada, our standard bearer in the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino- “reimbursement in exchange for withdrawal.” President Estrada rightly turned down this indecent proposal. President Estrada’s candidacy is NOT FOR SALE. “I had earlier revealed that Sen. Villar himself tried to bribe me into not proceeding with the investigation by the Committee of the Whole, offering me “help” for whatever it was I needed. As I said, I replied to him that I can only advice him to participate in the hearings and introduce evidence to counter the charges and evidence against him, and that I am giving him that advice for free, without any consideration. I wish to reiterate to Sen. Villar: I AM NOT FOR SALE. “If you tie all these things up with Sen. Villar’s unprecedented campaign spending for advertisements, cash give-aways to local officials and supporters, his media budget and sum it all up, then you have a complete picture of the man who is now presenting himself as the “best” alternative for the presidency. “Sen. Villar is a pretender posturing as a pleasant and decent person and using his poverty during his childhood days to project himself as pro-poor. It is as if having been once poor was equivalent to really having the heart for the poor. “Villar has to answer what he has done for the poor since he became a multi-billionaire and in his long career as a politician apart from his expensive “give-aways” , helping OFW’s, giving livelihood, building homes for the poor by shelling out money ALL FOR PROPAGANDA. “Sen. Villar must be asked what he did for the poor that he did not make sure was covered by media so he can use it for his campaign propaganda. He should be asked what social cause he has really championed as a legislator, not an ordinary one, by the way, for he served as no less than Speaker of the House and Senate President. “He should he asked how he victimized the poor and the taxpayers of this country with his financial schemes in the housing business, and about the collapse of his own bank, Capitol Bank, mysteriously leaving him richer, not poorer. “Amongst all who are now running for President, Villar stands out, indeed, as the RICHEST and one who thinks that everyone can be bought: the people through his misleading advertisements, some media people who are obviously in his “payola”, political leaders who are vulnerable to his offer to partake of his financial largesse, and all his attempts to bribe even his colleagues and fellow aspirants to the Presidency. “Sen. Villar may have succeeded to a large extent in deploying the huge fortune he acquired, perhaps some by honest means, but definitely, a large part, by the immoral use of his political position, power and clout to advance his own business interests as borne out by the evidence in Senate Ethics case and, much earlier, by the shenanigans exposed on the Floor of the Lower House by Sen. Joker Arroyo. “But on May 10, he must be taught a hard and painful lesson by no less than the electorate. He must be unmasked and rejected as a fake leader in order for the nation to redeem itself. We must clearly send the strongest message to Senator Manuel “Manny” B. Villar, as Senator Richard J. Gordon has said, that THE PRESIDENCY OF THIS NATION, THE FILIPINO PEOPLE, AND THE PHILIPPINES ARE NOT FOR SALE.”
* * *
Postscript: On Tuesday, 02 March, I was informed that Sen. Dick Gordon mentioned the attempted offer to get him out of the race in a morning radio talk show. On Wednesday, in the talk show of a rival station, Gordon repeated the story, and then some, about the financial dealings of Villar with NHMFC, and its capital infusions coming from state-managed workers’ pension funds.
I asked a confidante who happens to be a close friend of a consultant and long-time supporter of Gordon to call his friend. At the time, I had not heard that Senate President Enrile had “surmised” that Sen. Ed Angara was Villar’s emissary. I told my confidante to ask our friend from Gordon’s inner circle to make a multiple choice, and I mentioned two men who had been in Erap Estrada’s cabinet, and one who was once part of GMA’s cabinet. I know the three to be pretty active in the campaign to get Villar elected president of the benighted.
The Gordon close-in, presented with a multiple choice, blurted out the nickname of one in that multiple choice. And while Sen. Angara did serve in Erap’s cabinet, no, his was not the name blurted out. He was not part of the multiple choice to begin with.
Later in the day, text messages appeared pointing to another former cabinet member, someone who served the Marcos government. Oh, what a mix-up. But I still believe that the emissary whose name Gordon’s friend blurted out, fits the role of busted negotiator to a “T”. In any case, maybe Dick Gordon should speak out and identify the negotiator, to put the matter to rest.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Tuesday, 09 March 2010
“I commend Senator Gordon for unmasking the real character of Senator and presidential candidate Manuel B. Villar as a man who thinks he can buy his way to the highest position in the land with his billions of money. “I understand Senator Gordon has come out to tell the public about the bribe attempt made by Senator Villar through an “emissary” and a “mutual friend.” I confirm that such attempt actually happened and I have no doubt about its veracity because Sen. Gordon told me about it immediately. “My recollection is that when I filed the report of the Committee of the Whole on the Ethics complaint involving the C5 controversy, having been signed by 11 Senators with myself as the author acting as Chairman, my Chief of Staff relayed to me by phone that another Senator, who Villar was supporting to replace me as Senate President, had approached Sen. Gordon to join the plot to oust me and install a new leadership in the Senate. “The approach, which came with an offer for a position of Sen. Gordon’s choice under a “Villar Administration” was turned down outright by Sen. Gordon saying “I cannot, in conscience, do such a thing, especially not to Senator Enrile who I regard as a father.” “On that same day, upon seeing Sen. Gordon arrive at the Senate session, I embraced him and whispered “Thank you, Dick. I know what happened.” At that time, he seemed surprised at my gesture and just hugged me back. “Several days after, when we were about to take up the report on the floor, I got another report that Sen. Gordon was offered, on top of the first offer for a position if Sen. Villar makes it to the presidency, was likewise offered a huge amount of money to withdraw his signature from my report. I was appalled by this report and felt it was my duty to tell Sen. Gordon that such news was circulating. I called Sen. Gordon and informed him that I will never believe that he will succumb to such a brazen act of bribery. “Sen. Gordon privately confirmed to me that such offer was indeed made and that he felt furious and insulted by the temerity and gall of Villar to think that he can be intimidated by money, much less lured by an offer for a position of power. He immediately said NO to this offer. “Later, I learned that it went even beyond that; that Sen. Villar offered “reimbursement for what Sen. Gordon had so far spent for his presidential bid with an added premium just to convince him to withdraw from the presidential race. “I have known Sen. Gordon from his younger days, and one thing I can say is that this man cannot be bought. Sen. Villar is dead wrong about Sen. Gordon. You do not put a price tag on everyone, especially not Dick Gordon. “Actually, I knew about the plan to oust me since last December. On the last day of our sessions before the Christmas break, Sen. Allan Peter Cayetano, on orders of his master, Sen. Villar, in no uncertain terms, delivered the threat to my Chief of Staff that if I make a move to gather enough votes in support of my Committee Report, Sen. Villar wants me to know that he will have no other choice but to take the Senate Presidency either for himself or for another Senator of his choice. “As things developed and the co-perpetrators of the coup plot against me began to show their real colors, I surmised that the “emissary” to Sen. Gordon and Sen. Villar’s nominee could be no other than Senator Edgardo J. Angara… “This attempt of Villar is similar to the offer made by another “emissary” to former President Estrada, our standard bearer in the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino- “reimbursement in exchange for withdrawal.” President Estrada rightly turned down this indecent proposal. President Estrada’s candidacy is NOT FOR SALE. “I had earlier revealed that Sen. Villar himself tried to bribe me into not proceeding with the investigation by the Committee of the Whole, offering me “help” for whatever it was I needed. As I said, I replied to him that I can only advice him to participate in the hearings and introduce evidence to counter the charges and evidence against him, and that I am giving him that advice for free, without any consideration. I wish to reiterate to Sen. Villar: I AM NOT FOR SALE. “If you tie all these things up with Sen. Villar’s unprecedented campaign spending for advertisements, cash give-aways to local officials and supporters, his media budget and sum it all up, then you have a complete picture of the man who is now presenting himself as the “best” alternative for the presidency. “Sen. Villar is a pretender posturing as a pleasant and decent person and using his poverty during his childhood days to project himself as pro-poor. It is as if having been once poor was equivalent to really having the heart for the poor. “Villar has to answer what he has done for the poor since he became a multi-billionaire and in his long career as a politician apart from his expensive “give-aways” , helping OFW’s, giving livelihood, building homes for the poor by shelling out money ALL FOR PROPAGANDA. “Sen. Villar must be asked what he did for the poor that he did not make sure was covered by media so he can use it for his campaign propaganda. He should be asked what social cause he has really championed as a legislator, not an ordinary one, by the way, for he served as no less than Speaker of the House and Senate President. “He should he asked how he victimized the poor and the taxpayers of this country with his financial schemes in the housing business, and about the collapse of his own bank, Capitol Bank, mysteriously leaving him richer, not poorer. “Amongst all who are now running for President, Villar stands out, indeed, as the RICHEST and one who thinks that everyone can be bought: the people through his misleading advertisements, some media people who are obviously in his “payola”, political leaders who are vulnerable to his offer to partake of his financial largesse, and all his attempts to bribe even his colleagues and fellow aspirants to the Presidency. “Sen. Villar may have succeeded to a large extent in deploying the huge fortune he acquired, perhaps some by honest means, but definitely, a large part, by the immoral use of his political position, power and clout to advance his own business interests as borne out by the evidence in Senate Ethics case and, much earlier, by the shenanigans exposed on the Floor of the Lower House by Sen. Joker Arroyo. “But on May 10, he must be taught a hard and painful lesson by no less than the electorate. He must be unmasked and rejected as a fake leader in order for the nation to redeem itself. We must clearly send the strongest message to Senator Manuel “Manny” B. Villar, as Senator Richard J. Gordon has said, that THE PRESIDENCY OF THIS NATION, THE FILIPINO PEOPLE, AND THE PHILIPPINES ARE NOT FOR SALE.”
* * *
Postscript: On Tuesday, 02 March, I was informed that Sen. Dick Gordon mentioned the attempted offer to get him out of the race in a morning radio talk show. On Wednesday, in the talk show of a rival station, Gordon repeated the story, and then some, about the financial dealings of Villar with NHMFC, and its capital infusions coming from state-managed workers’ pension funds.
I asked a confidante who happens to be a close friend of a consultant and long-time supporter of Gordon to call his friend. At the time, I had not heard that Senate President Enrile had “surmised” that Sen. Ed Angara was Villar’s emissary. I told my confidante to ask our friend from Gordon’s inner circle to make a multiple choice, and I mentioned two men who had been in Erap Estrada’s cabinet, and one who was once part of GMA’s cabinet. I know the three to be pretty active in the campaign to get Villar elected president of the benighted.
The Gordon close-in, presented with a multiple choice, blurted out the nickname of one in that multiple choice. And while Sen. Angara did serve in Erap’s cabinet, no, his was not the name blurted out. He was not part of the multiple choice to begin with.
Later in the day, text messages appeared pointing to another former cabinet member, someone who served the Marcos government. Oh, what a mix-up. But I still believe that the emissary whose name Gordon’s friend blurted out, fits the role of busted negotiator to a “T”. In any case, maybe Dick Gordon should speak out and identify the negotiator, to put the matter to rest.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Tuesday, 09 March 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Time to take stock
It has been four weeks since the campaign for the presidency began. A third of the 90-day campaign has been spent. It is time for candidates and their handlers to take stock.
The last indicators of voting perception was taken a week or two before the firing gun blasted. And last week, as I understand, both SWS and Pulse Asia did their field surveys, and one or the other is about to publicize its findings. It may come as soon as today, or within the first days of next week. Those surveys will give the candidates a glimpse of whether their messages have resonated with the voter, and whether all they have done or not done over the four weeks since the last field research period, have made a difference in perceptions as well as voting indications.
Remember that this would just be a snapshot of the period when field work was done. In the last few days of January, SWS and Pulse Asia said that basically, Manny Villar has almost caught up with Noynoy Aquino’s earlier lead, as shown in the surveys from mid-September to mid-December. In the forthcoming survey findings, we should know whether Villar has caught up, or even surpassed Noynoy, or whether the latter had recovered his lead somewhat, and by how much.
For both candidates and their handlers, it would be time to tweak their message if the voter resonance has not been so encouraging. Similarly, it would be time to focus on ensuring that their voters can vote by May 10, and this is where the question of machinery, whether paid or voluntary, kicks in. Even as the message-keepers and the so-called spin masters continue to do their work, the other side of campaigning, which is the infrastructure, must be attended to and re-inforced.
In the Aquino camp, hobbled by what may have been a combination of deadly inaction and complacence in the early pre-campaign period, it is crunch time. Was there ever a clear message in the campaign? If not, what is the new message? And whether or not the new message has begun to sink in with the voters, whether the same has been appreciated, and by how much resonance, the February 21-25 surveys (or thereabouts), should show. The only comforting thing about the Noynoy numbers is that while the Villar upsurge has become life-threatening, there’s still plenty of oxygen to draw a re-configured strength from.
In the case of Villar, the challenge is to keep their trajectory upwards, all the way to Election Day. Their spending has been obscenely large, and they need to spend more in the coming weeks and two remaining months. But money is the least of Manny’s worries. He has stacked up enough to single-handedly finance his campaign, however dubious its provenance, which obviously the voter has not yet reconciled with his ability to deliver on his promises, if he gets elected.
Taking stock of where they are, and what lies ahead is all the more significant for those who are not among the two leading candidates bunched together. For Aquino and Villar are in a class all by themselves, numbers wise. Together, they have three-fourths of the vote, with all the seven others (not counting Vetellano Acosta who is clearly a nuisance bet, likely paid by someone just to mess things up a bit for Aquino) fighting among themselves for the other 25%. Half of that in fact, is yet cornered by the third-ranking candidate, former Pres. Estrada, who is getting 12% of the vote. Sadly for Gilbert Teodoro, the official standard-bearer of the humongous Pa-La-Ka of Mrs. Arroyo, he is languishing in the 5 to 6% area, having inched excruciatingly slow from less than a percent some nine months ago. Dick Gordon’s numbers have yet to increase significantly, although his media presence over the past month may have perked his numbers up a bit.
For these three candidates, taking stock may have to be a painful reality check. For those below them, taking stock had better be goodbye, unless they never intended to win anyway, and have carved for themselves a special purpose in running, whether it is to spread his gospel in the case of Bro. Eddie Villanueva, or have a single-minded crusade to prevent someone else from becoming president, as in the case of Sen. Jamby Madrigal.
For if the tale of the numbers show no significant increase, or worse, if the numbers either stagnate or look southward, then it may be time to accept the reality that they cannot win. They may be better qualified than the two front-runners, but clearly, getting up there is no longer feasible. For the results of the late February 2010 survey will indicate whether any more outside funding can be generated for anyone else except the two front-runners. For the other candidates languishing in single-digit territory, or stagnating in 10-12%, they will need to draw from personal fortunes, if any, because the wise money will no longer bet. For them, if they are reasonable or rational enough to see handwritings on the wall, the soon-to-be-released results may be the last chance to take a genuine reality check.
If they decide to be rational and circumspect, they may have to withdraw. They may fade away quietly to lick wounds and dream of better times thereafter, or they may endorse one of the two front-runners. Their negotiating value, if they are at all minded to, may diminish as the campaign progresses. The same however may increase as the campaign goes on, depending on the demand-side of the two front-runners, or the supply side, which is, by some streak of good fortune, someone for inexplicable reasons should sustain them by blood-letting his resources, foolhardy though that may be.
There is an absolute deadline for taking stock though. And that is the next field research, which will be on or about the days preceding Semana Santa. If by the third going to the last week of March, whose results should be out publicly in the days after Easter Sunday, the numbers of everyone else but the two front-runners are still in far distant territory, it may be time to call it quits, and thus give the public a chance for once since Marcos fell, of electing a majority president.
They will have different reasons for throwing in the towel. And there will also be so many personal reasons should obstinacy get the better of sense, and they decide to stand for imminent defeat. But when April kicks in, taking stock will be either more compelling, if one is minded to live for another day; or, it may be a political death wish.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Friday, 05 March 2010
The last indicators of voting perception was taken a week or two before the firing gun blasted. And last week, as I understand, both SWS and Pulse Asia did their field surveys, and one or the other is about to publicize its findings. It may come as soon as today, or within the first days of next week. Those surveys will give the candidates a glimpse of whether their messages have resonated with the voter, and whether all they have done or not done over the four weeks since the last field research period, have made a difference in perceptions as well as voting indications.
Remember that this would just be a snapshot of the period when field work was done. In the last few days of January, SWS and Pulse Asia said that basically, Manny Villar has almost caught up with Noynoy Aquino’s earlier lead, as shown in the surveys from mid-September to mid-December. In the forthcoming survey findings, we should know whether Villar has caught up, or even surpassed Noynoy, or whether the latter had recovered his lead somewhat, and by how much.
For both candidates and their handlers, it would be time to tweak their message if the voter resonance has not been so encouraging. Similarly, it would be time to focus on ensuring that their voters can vote by May 10, and this is where the question of machinery, whether paid or voluntary, kicks in. Even as the message-keepers and the so-called spin masters continue to do their work, the other side of campaigning, which is the infrastructure, must be attended to and re-inforced.
In the Aquino camp, hobbled by what may have been a combination of deadly inaction and complacence in the early pre-campaign period, it is crunch time. Was there ever a clear message in the campaign? If not, what is the new message? And whether or not the new message has begun to sink in with the voters, whether the same has been appreciated, and by how much resonance, the February 21-25 surveys (or thereabouts), should show. The only comforting thing about the Noynoy numbers is that while the Villar upsurge has become life-threatening, there’s still plenty of oxygen to draw a re-configured strength from.
In the case of Villar, the challenge is to keep their trajectory upwards, all the way to Election Day. Their spending has been obscenely large, and they need to spend more in the coming weeks and two remaining months. But money is the least of Manny’s worries. He has stacked up enough to single-handedly finance his campaign, however dubious its provenance, which obviously the voter has not yet reconciled with his ability to deliver on his promises, if he gets elected.
Taking stock of where they are, and what lies ahead is all the more significant for those who are not among the two leading candidates bunched together. For Aquino and Villar are in a class all by themselves, numbers wise. Together, they have three-fourths of the vote, with all the seven others (not counting Vetellano Acosta who is clearly a nuisance bet, likely paid by someone just to mess things up a bit for Aquino) fighting among themselves for the other 25%. Half of that in fact, is yet cornered by the third-ranking candidate, former Pres. Estrada, who is getting 12% of the vote. Sadly for Gilbert Teodoro, the official standard-bearer of the humongous Pa-La-Ka of Mrs. Arroyo, he is languishing in the 5 to 6% area, having inched excruciatingly slow from less than a percent some nine months ago. Dick Gordon’s numbers have yet to increase significantly, although his media presence over the past month may have perked his numbers up a bit.
For these three candidates, taking stock may have to be a painful reality check. For those below them, taking stock had better be goodbye, unless they never intended to win anyway, and have carved for themselves a special purpose in running, whether it is to spread his gospel in the case of Bro. Eddie Villanueva, or have a single-minded crusade to prevent someone else from becoming president, as in the case of Sen. Jamby Madrigal.
For if the tale of the numbers show no significant increase, or worse, if the numbers either stagnate or look southward, then it may be time to accept the reality that they cannot win. They may be better qualified than the two front-runners, but clearly, getting up there is no longer feasible. For the results of the late February 2010 survey will indicate whether any more outside funding can be generated for anyone else except the two front-runners. For the other candidates languishing in single-digit territory, or stagnating in 10-12%, they will need to draw from personal fortunes, if any, because the wise money will no longer bet. For them, if they are reasonable or rational enough to see handwritings on the wall, the soon-to-be-released results may be the last chance to take a genuine reality check.
If they decide to be rational and circumspect, they may have to withdraw. They may fade away quietly to lick wounds and dream of better times thereafter, or they may endorse one of the two front-runners. Their negotiating value, if they are at all minded to, may diminish as the campaign progresses. The same however may increase as the campaign goes on, depending on the demand-side of the two front-runners, or the supply side, which is, by some streak of good fortune, someone for inexplicable reasons should sustain them by blood-letting his resources, foolhardy though that may be.
There is an absolute deadline for taking stock though. And that is the next field research, which will be on or about the days preceding Semana Santa. If by the third going to the last week of March, whose results should be out publicly in the days after Easter Sunday, the numbers of everyone else but the two front-runners are still in far distant territory, it may be time to call it quits, and thus give the public a chance for once since Marcos fell, of electing a majority president.
They will have different reasons for throwing in the towel. And there will also be so many personal reasons should obstinacy get the better of sense, and they decide to stand for imminent defeat. But when April kicks in, taking stock will be either more compelling, if one is minded to live for another day; or, it may be a political death wish.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Friday, 05 March 2010
Not everyone is for sale
Manny Villar thinks he can buy everyone with his money. In one instance, his lawyers and land experts produced titles to property that they would develop. The titles overlapped with an adjoining property owned by the family of the wife of a fellow congressman. It was property the wife and her brothers and sisters inherited from their father, a respected former cabinet member in a bygone day. The congressman was a colleague when Manny Villar became Speaker of the House, by the grace of Erap and the grease of Villar’s money. The security guards of Villar’s real estate corporation barged into the property of the congressman’s wife, and only then did the real owners learn that their inheritance had been poached upon. The wife complained to her husband, who then approached his Speaker.
“Ah, sa misis mo pala ‘yun? Hindi ko alam…never mind, papa-ayos ko na lang”, intoned the Speaker, and days after, his real estate firms laid off the wife’s property. May ini-ilagan din pala. But wait till he becomes President.
* * *
When Juan Ponce Enrile was selected by a majority of his peers to become their Senate President, with a resolution nominating him signed by the requisite 13 in the chamber, Villar casually proposed a deal: he would just resign, and Enrile would take over. But, retain the status quo in the Senate committee chairmanships. Enrile was aghast at the effrontery of the man. Villar was virtually proposing that he turn his back on the thirteen who supported him. Enrile may be everything you want to paint him, but a double-dealer and a traitor he is not. It was no deal, and Enrile went on to become the Senate President, and from there, re-organized the Senate committees. But one thing was certain --- Enrile’s regard for the man he replaced had been so diminished.
* * *
When Villar complained that he was being accused, prosecuted and tried by the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges, which was chaired by Panfilo M. Lacson, the man who discovered the double appropriations for C-5, Lacson proposed on the floor to constitute the whole chamber as a Committee of the Whole. That caught Villar by surprise. He simply had to face the music. But he could not. His political advisers, mostly hard-boiled politicians, told him he had to present his defense before peers, but his corporate vice-presidents, who knew every sordid detail of his companies’ wheeling and dealing, transacting and abusing, advised him not to. Baka nga naman masiklat; mahirap na.
But when the hearings had begun, and the documentary evidence piled up, and a report that would inevitably show how he abused his powers and betrayed the public trust, along with profiting handsomely from C-5 was about to be completed, he sought a meeting with Enrile in a posh hotel’s Japanese restaurant.
Enrile brought along his chief of staff, a lady lawyer. Villar began by observing that Enrile would be running for re-election, and intimated that he would love to have him in his senatorial ticket. Then he segued to his ability to help. “Alam ko namang magastos rin ‘yan…” Enrile got the message. Whereupon he told his predecessor off. “I assure you I will be fair. Present your side before the Committee, and I will be fair,” Enrile averred, and then walked out.
To the chief of staff, Villar reiterated his willingness to “help”. Humihirit pa.
When finally Enrile came out with the report last January 18, signed by a majority of senators, Villar cried foul, and once again reiterated his mantra that he was being prosecuted and harassed politically, just because he would be the next president of the benighted republic. Enrile got mad, and called him a coward. Later, Enrile could no longer contain himself, and revealed the indecent proposal that Villar had made in exchange for whitewashing the investigation into his C-5 shenanigan.
* * *
Former Senate President Ernesto Maceda, Erap’s campaign manager has another story to tell. Villar had proposed that the former president withdraw from the presidential race and support his candidacy instead. In exchange, he would reimburse Erap’s expenses, plus some. Erap would have blown his top had Villar himself whispered the “deal” in his ear, so Villar, per Maceda, requested a “holy” man, Bro. Mike Velarde of the El Shaddai Movement, to whisper into Erap’s ears.
It will be recalled that the original C-5 route would pass Velarde’s property in San Dionisio, Paranaque, and for which President Estrada paid, after some haggling over the exorbitant price Velarde wanted for his road right of way compensation. The transaction cost the Republic close to 2 billion pesos. And then Villar proposed that the route be changed, the road re-aligned. The Republic spent more for the project, and Villar earned handsomely, apart from increasing the value of his properties many times over. Everything is charged to the people. The taxpayer pays, as always.
Erap refused the man who Villar thought Erap could not refuse. Velarde after all was Erap’s spiritual adviser. Villar of course denied. But Velarde was quiet. As a “holy” man, he could not lie.
* * *
Now comes Dick Gordon, who also got an indecent proposal on the first day of Febraury this year. I thought it was Villar himself who proposed, they being neighbors after all in the country’s swankiest condominium.
In exchange for Gordon voting to elect Villar Senate President once more, in lieu of Enrile, thus preventing the airing on the floor of the C-5 Committee Report, and withdrawing his presidential bid, he would generously “re-imburse”. I wrote about this incident last February, but did not have the full details. Until Dick himself blew the whole thing up last Tuesday in a DZBB interview.
The day after, in another interview, this time over DZMM, before a duo of commentators who have always tried their best to hide the dirt about Villar hidden from public notice, Gordon next talked about part of the huge provenance of Villar’s fabulous wealth, how funds of the SSS and GSIS and Pag-ibig were channelled to the NHMFC to comprise untold billions of Villar’s low-cost housing empire.
“Akala niya lahat mabibili niya…hindi mabibili ang presidency”, Dick virtually summarized. But Dick said it was an emissary of Villar who approached him. Who? Abangan daw, Dick said.
I know. Any one of two former cabinet officials of two succeeding presidents, the incumbent and the one she deposed. Wait till Dick identifies.
* * *
Villar is capable of paying every single commercial space in every single television station and every radio station in the land. Villar is capable of paying most reporters, most editors, most desk men, most writers, and depending on hefty “extras”, they would “kill” any legitimate story off the evening telecast or the following day’s front page. He can pay columnists and commentators to even print his press statement s and the spun-off propaganda prepared by his army of writers,
But not everyone is for sale.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Thursday, 04 March 2010
“Ah, sa misis mo pala ‘yun? Hindi ko alam…never mind, papa-ayos ko na lang”, intoned the Speaker, and days after, his real estate firms laid off the wife’s property. May ini-ilagan din pala. But wait till he becomes President.
* * *
When Juan Ponce Enrile was selected by a majority of his peers to become their Senate President, with a resolution nominating him signed by the requisite 13 in the chamber, Villar casually proposed a deal: he would just resign, and Enrile would take over. But, retain the status quo in the Senate committee chairmanships. Enrile was aghast at the effrontery of the man. Villar was virtually proposing that he turn his back on the thirteen who supported him. Enrile may be everything you want to paint him, but a double-dealer and a traitor he is not. It was no deal, and Enrile went on to become the Senate President, and from there, re-organized the Senate committees. But one thing was certain --- Enrile’s regard for the man he replaced had been so diminished.
* * *
When Villar complained that he was being accused, prosecuted and tried by the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges, which was chaired by Panfilo M. Lacson, the man who discovered the double appropriations for C-5, Lacson proposed on the floor to constitute the whole chamber as a Committee of the Whole. That caught Villar by surprise. He simply had to face the music. But he could not. His political advisers, mostly hard-boiled politicians, told him he had to present his defense before peers, but his corporate vice-presidents, who knew every sordid detail of his companies’ wheeling and dealing, transacting and abusing, advised him not to. Baka nga naman masiklat; mahirap na.
But when the hearings had begun, and the documentary evidence piled up, and a report that would inevitably show how he abused his powers and betrayed the public trust, along with profiting handsomely from C-5 was about to be completed, he sought a meeting with Enrile in a posh hotel’s Japanese restaurant.
Enrile brought along his chief of staff, a lady lawyer. Villar began by observing that Enrile would be running for re-election, and intimated that he would love to have him in his senatorial ticket. Then he segued to his ability to help. “Alam ko namang magastos rin ‘yan…” Enrile got the message. Whereupon he told his predecessor off. “I assure you I will be fair. Present your side before the Committee, and I will be fair,” Enrile averred, and then walked out.
To the chief of staff, Villar reiterated his willingness to “help”. Humihirit pa.
When finally Enrile came out with the report last January 18, signed by a majority of senators, Villar cried foul, and once again reiterated his mantra that he was being prosecuted and harassed politically, just because he would be the next president of the benighted republic. Enrile got mad, and called him a coward. Later, Enrile could no longer contain himself, and revealed the indecent proposal that Villar had made in exchange for whitewashing the investigation into his C-5 shenanigan.
* * *
Former Senate President Ernesto Maceda, Erap’s campaign manager has another story to tell. Villar had proposed that the former president withdraw from the presidential race and support his candidacy instead. In exchange, he would reimburse Erap’s expenses, plus some. Erap would have blown his top had Villar himself whispered the “deal” in his ear, so Villar, per Maceda, requested a “holy” man, Bro. Mike Velarde of the El Shaddai Movement, to whisper into Erap’s ears.
It will be recalled that the original C-5 route would pass Velarde’s property in San Dionisio, Paranaque, and for which President Estrada paid, after some haggling over the exorbitant price Velarde wanted for his road right of way compensation. The transaction cost the Republic close to 2 billion pesos. And then Villar proposed that the route be changed, the road re-aligned. The Republic spent more for the project, and Villar earned handsomely, apart from increasing the value of his properties many times over. Everything is charged to the people. The taxpayer pays, as always.
Erap refused the man who Villar thought Erap could not refuse. Velarde after all was Erap’s spiritual adviser. Villar of course denied. But Velarde was quiet. As a “holy” man, he could not lie.
* * *
Now comes Dick Gordon, who also got an indecent proposal on the first day of Febraury this year. I thought it was Villar himself who proposed, they being neighbors after all in the country’s swankiest condominium.
In exchange for Gordon voting to elect Villar Senate President once more, in lieu of Enrile, thus preventing the airing on the floor of the C-5 Committee Report, and withdrawing his presidential bid, he would generously “re-imburse”. I wrote about this incident last February, but did not have the full details. Until Dick himself blew the whole thing up last Tuesday in a DZBB interview.
The day after, in another interview, this time over DZMM, before a duo of commentators who have always tried their best to hide the dirt about Villar hidden from public notice, Gordon next talked about part of the huge provenance of Villar’s fabulous wealth, how funds of the SSS and GSIS and Pag-ibig were channelled to the NHMFC to comprise untold billions of Villar’s low-cost housing empire.
“Akala niya lahat mabibili niya…hindi mabibili ang presidency”, Dick virtually summarized. But Dick said it was an emissary of Villar who approached him. Who? Abangan daw, Dick said.
I know. Any one of two former cabinet officials of two succeeding presidents, the incumbent and the one she deposed. Wait till Dick identifies.
* * *
Villar is capable of paying every single commercial space in every single television station and every radio station in the land. Villar is capable of paying most reporters, most editors, most desk men, most writers, and depending on hefty “extras”, they would “kill” any legitimate story off the evening telecast or the following day’s front page. He can pay columnists and commentators to even print his press statement s and the spun-off propaganda prepared by his army of writers,
But not everyone is for sale.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Thursday, 04 March 2010
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