More Contrarian Voices

By Antonio C. Abaya

Written Jan. 28, 2008

For the Standard Today,

January 28 issue

The wonders of the Internet. My article of Jan. 25, Contrarian Voices, was sent by email to my e-distribution list on the evening of Jan. 25. Within hours, I received from Marc Morano of the US Senate (marc_morano@epw.senate.gov) an electronic copy of the US Senate Report: Over 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007, which had been originally released on Dec. 20, 2007.

Says the Report in its Introduction: “Over 400 prominent scientists from more than two dozen countries recently voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming. These scientists, many of whom are current and former participants in the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), criticized the climate claims made by the UN IPCC and former Vice-President Al Gore……

“This blockbuster Senate report lists the scientists by name, country of residence, and academic/institutional affiliation. It also features their own words, biographies, and weblinks to their peer-reviewed studies and original source materials as gathered from public statements, various news outlets, and websites in 2007…..

The Report went on to say that “This new Report details how teams of international scientists are dissenting from the UN IPCC’s view of climate science. In such nations as Germany, Brazil, the Netherlands, Russia, New Zealand and France, scientists banded together in 2007 to oppose climate alarmism…..

“This new committee Report, a first of its kind, comes after the UN IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri implied that there were only ‘about a dozen’ skeptical scientists left in the world. Former Vice-President Gore has claimed that scientists skeptical of climate change are akin to ‘flat Earth society members’ and similar in number to those who ‘believe the moon landing was actually staged in a movie lot in Arizona’”…..

“The distinguished scientists featured in this new Report are experts in diverse fields, including climatology, geology, biology, glaciology, bio-geography, meteorology, oceanography, economics, chemistry, mathematics, environmental sciences, engineering, physics and paleo-climatology. Some of those profiled have won Nobel Prizes for their outstanding contribution to their fields of expertise and many have shared a portion of the UN IPCC Nobel Peace Prize with Vice-President Gore…..

“The voices of many of these hundreds of scientists serve as a direct challenge to the often media-hyped ‘consensus’ that the debate is ‘settled’……

The Report also raises the point that “The notion of ‘hundreds’ or ‘thousands’ of UN scientists agreeing to a scientific statement does not hold up to scrutiny……The most recent attempt to imply that there was an overwhelming scientific ‘consensus’ in favor of man-made global warming fears came in December 2007 during the UN climate conference in Bali. A letter signed by only 215 scientists urged the UN to mandate deep cuts in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. But absent from the letter were the signatures of these alleged ‘thousands’ of scientists……

“In addition to the growing number of scientists expressing skepticism, an abundance of recent peer-reviewed studies have cast considerable doubt about man-made global warming fears. A November 3, 2007 peer-reviewed study found that ‘solar changes significantly alter climate.’ ……

“A peer-reviewed study by a team of scientists found that ‘warming is naturally caused and shows no human influence.” Another November 2007 peer-reviewed study in the journal Physical Geography found “Long-term climate change is driven by solar insolation (did they mean ‘insulation’ ACA) changes……” Etc. etc.. Among the scientists cited and quoted in the Report are:

Israel – Dr. Nathan Polder, professor of Dynamical Meteorology and Physical Oceanography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem: “First, temperature changes, as well as rates of temperature changes (both increase and decrease) of magnitudes similar to that reported by IPCC to have occurred since the Industrial Revolution (about 0.8C in 150 years or even 0.4C in the last 35 years) have occurred in Earth’s climatic history. There’s nothing special about the recent rise.”

Netherlands – Dr. Henrik Tennekes, a scientific pioneer in the development of numerical weather prediction and former director of research at the The Netherlands’ Royal National Meteorological Institute. “I find the Doomsday picture Al Gore is painting – a six-meter sea level rise, 15 times the IPCC number – entirely without merit….I protest vigorously the idea that the climate reacts like a home heating system to a changed setting of the thermostat: just turn the dials, and the desired temperature will soon be reached.”

Brazil – Chief Meteorologist Eugenio Hackbart of the MetSul Meteorologia Weather Center in Sao Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul. “The media is promoting an unprecedented hyping related to global warming. The media and many scientists are ignoring very important facts that point to a natural variation in the climate system as the cause of the recent global warming….”

France – Climatologist Dr. Marcel Leroux, former professor at the Universite Jean Moulin and director of the Laboratory of Climatology, Risks and Environment in Lyon. “Day after day, the same mantra – that ‘the Earth is warming up’ – is churned out in all its forms. As ‘the ice melts’ and ‘sea level rises,’ the Apocalypse looms ever nearer! Without realizing it, or perhaps wishing to, the average citizen is bamboozled, lobotomized, lulled into mindless acceptance…Non-believers in the greenhouse scenario are in the position of those long ago who doubted the existence of God…fortunately for them, the Inquisition is no longer with us…”

Norway – Geologist/Geochemist Dr. Tom Segalstad, a professor and head of the Geological Musuem at the University of Oslo and formerly an expert reviewer with the UN IPCC. ”It is a search for a mythical CO2 sink to explain an immeasurable CO2 lifetime to fit a hypothetical CO2 computer model that purports to show that an impossible amount of fossil fuel burning is heating the atmosphere. It is all a fiction.”

Finland – Dr. Boris Winterhalter, retired Senior Marine Researcher of the Geological Survey of Finland and former professor of marine geology at the University of Helsinki. ”The effect of solar winds on cosmic radiation has just recently been established and, furthermore, there seems to be a good correlation between cloudiness and variations in the intensity of cosmic radiation. Here we have a mechanism, which is a far better explanation to variations in global climate than the attempts by the IPCC to blame it all on anthropogenic input of greenhouse gases.”

India – B. P. Radhakrishna, President of the Geological Society of India. “We appear to be overplaying this global warming issue as global warming is nothing new. It has happened in the past, not once but several times, giving rise to glacial-interglacial cycles.”

Poland – Physicist Dr. Zbigniew Jaworoski, chairman of the Central Laboratory for the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Radiological Protection in Warsaw. “We thus find ourselves in the situation that the entire theory of man-made global warming – with its repercussions in science, and its important consequences for politics – is based on ice core studies that provided a false picture of the atmospheric CO2 levels.” (My article Contrarian Voices was based largely on Dr, J’s paper “CO2 – The Greatest Scientific Scandal of Our Time”)

Australia – Dr. Ian Plimer, professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Adelaide. “There is new work emerging even in the last few weeks that shows we can have a very close correlation between the temperatures of the Earth and supernova and solar radiation.”

Denmark – Space physicist Dr. Eigil Friis-Christensen, director of the Danish National Space Centre, a member of the space research advisory committee of the Swedish National Space Board, a member of a NASA working group, and a member of the European Space Agency. “The Sun is the source of the energy that causes the motion of the atmosphere and thereby controls weather and climate. Any change in the energy from the Sun received at the Earth’s surface will therefore affect climate.”

Belgium – Climate scientist Luc Debontridder of the Belgium Weather Institute’s Royal Meteorological Institute. “CO2 ia not the big bogeyman of climate change and global warming. Not CO2 but water vapor is the most important greenhouse gas. It is responsible for at least 75% of the greenhouse effect. This is a simple scientific fact, but Al Gore’s movie has hyped CO2 so much that nobody seems to take note of it.”

Sweden – Geologist Dr. Wibjorn Karlen, professor emeritus of the Department of Physical Geography and Quarternary Geology at Stockholm University, critiqued the Associated Press for promoting climate fears in 2007. “Another of these hysterical views of our climate. Newspapers should think about the damage they are doing to many persons, particularly young kids, by spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate.”

USA – Dr. David Wojick, a UN IPCC expert reviewer and co-founder of the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie-Mellon University. “In point of fact, the hypothesis that solar variability and not human activity is warming the oceans goes a long way to explain the puzzling idea that the Earth’s surface may be warming while the atmosphere is not. The GHG (greenhouse gas) hypothesis does not do this. The public is not well served by this constant drumbeat of false alarms fed by computer models manipulated by advocates.”

There is just enough space to insert the caveat that it is possible that the senator/senators who drafted this Senate Report received financial encouragement from the Oil Lobby to downplay the UN IPCC – Al Gore Religion of man-made Global Warming. In the US system of governance, that is how policies are formulated and translated into law. Even our Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri claims the Oil Lobby is financing those who question the wisdom of his Bio-Fuel Act..

But it is doubtful if the Oil Lobby made similar approaches to the hundreds of scientists worldwide who did not/do not worship at the man-made Global Warming altar. Speaking for myself, this contrarian view of Global Warming is not a license to burn fossil fuel with greater abandon (since we cannot stop global warming and climate change anyway).

It is instead an additional encouragement for the search for alternative sources of energy other than oil, so that the world can be free of the eye-gouging by oil-producing countries and the greedy oil companies, which have had the world over a barrel (pun intended) since the 1970s. Like Mike Huckabee, I look forward to the day when we can tell ‘them’: “You can keep your frigging oil.”.

And since 1995, when I was given a briefing on it in Irvine, California, I have been advocating hydrogen fuel cells as the energy source of the future. The future is now upon us: from 2008 to 2010, hydrogen fuel cell cars are to be mass-produced by Honda, BMW and Daimler-Chrysler. *****

Reactions to tonyabaya@gmail.com. Other articles in www.tapatt.org and in acabaya.blogspot.com

RX to "GMAs Successes"

Reactions to “GMA’s Successes”

Tony, My answer to your $64,000.00 Question at the end of this article is - Governor Fr. Ed Among Panlilio.

Bert Peronilla - an avid reader, (by email), Jan 17, 2008

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Dear Tony, Thank you for the article.
While GDP grew under PGMA so did poverty rise to unprecedented levels.
Our biodiversity and natural capital has been destroyed and has become unstainable.
With her move to s mine the countries mineral resources at the expense of biodiversity and our rich natural capital our economy will collapse.

Already the signs are there. The findings of the UNIPCC on Global Warming has not been adopted by the government. (Do you know of any government that has adopted it? ACA) Development and GDP is paramount to her legacy and for what and Who?
The IMF-World Bank has dictated policy for this administration. Never in our history have we had so many poor, so little hope, so much crime, so much abuse of human rights, so many silent citizens who just live from hand to mouth.

We have NO GNH-Gross National Happiness. We are a nation who's citizens want to leave the country. Our moral fiber is gone and the country has been sold to the highest bidder. The perception is that crime does pay. And our people and children are adopting this.

The end of the real Filipino Patriots who will stay and die in our beloved Philippines.
The numbers mean nothing to us. We have no food but GMOs. We are short of water and clean air. Our natural capital is degrading. Like Rizal,s Ultimo Adios. Farewell my beautiful Country. Best,

Tony M. Claparolls, (by email), Jan. 17, 2008

(You sound like you are about to commit suicide. Are you serious? ACA)

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Dear Mr. Abaya, You are exactly right that we are not necessarily laggards when it comes to Agricultural Science and Technology. In fact, we are hosting a world-class research institution dedicated to rice research in IRRI, at Los Banos. The problem is our humongous population ( 89 million), which any cutting edge technology cannot neutralize. It is exacerbated by our relatively small land area as compared with those rice exporting neighbors( Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia etc), which has vast tracks of lands planted to rice and other crops. See a map, and you will see the vast cartographical difference in size between the Philippines, and Thailand for example.

I don't know why the clergy and the rest of the reactionary wing of the Church cannot see this. Can you clarify, why they cannot see?

(It is based on the false premise that the Church never changes its doctrinal position. In actual fact, it has. But that’s another story. ACA)

Other than the Morality aspect, I want to pose a question to those presidential wannabes: Who among you has the balls to buck the Church when it comes to population issues and other secular matters ? The one with the balls, gets my vote. Sincerely yours,

Auggie Surtida, (by email), Tigbauan, Iloilo, Jan. 17, 2008

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Dear Tony, I agree with you completely.

Here (below) is a related article that might be of interest to you. I e-mailed it to one of the leading newspapers but I think the article did not interest its editors, or, it was buried in the hundreds of e-mails. Or, they are still considering it for publication.

I proposed two Balikbayan Villages to Malacanang and they are being studied. This afternoon, two key people of former President F. Ramos met with my group to discuss the 44-hectare Balikbayan Village in Fort Bonifacio. The much smaller Balikbayan Village is in historic Kawit, Cavite.

Let us dream about making the Philippines the retirement capital of the world.

More than 22 years ago, we dreamed of kicking out Marcos. A sympathetic friend, also a colonel, advised me not to bang my head against the wall. When EDSA I succeeded, we just smiled at each other the first time we met after the peaceful People Power. More power to you.

Col. Hector (Tarzan) Tarrazona (Ret.), (by email), Jan. 17, 2008

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Tony Meloto has the moral leadership to lead the country as its president considering that his achievements to help the poorest of the homeless poor are much more than all of the presidential wannabes put together.

Cesar M. de los Reyes, (by email), Jan. 17, 2008

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True but she's smarter than them on economics and planning... Let alone the international outlook and great with ambush interviews. Period.

re: The $64,000 Question is: who among the actual or potential contenders can provide the MORAL LEADERSHIP that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has so spectacularly
failed to provide?

Answer: Tony Meloto - for president; Fr. Ed Panlilio - for vice-president

OR

Fr. Ed Panlilio - for president; Tony Meloto - for vice-president

****** Filipinos should try this tandem. Flatly better than Erap and any 2010 presidential wannabes *****

This tandem is powerful and popular! And people know there's positive result aftwards that will catapult our nation higher than any Philippine government. The economic and transparency will overshadow the population issues. Canada and Australia are even
scrambling for more population due to vast resources. I know, I know, Philippines is a tiny place for gazillion people but corruption-free government can give more jobs and save the people and country. The Pork Barrel should be monitored in a magnifying glass
like the quarry issues in Pampanga.

LF, tatski007@yahoo.com, Jan. 17, 2008

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Between 1983 and 1984, the peso-dollar exchange rate went from an average of 11 to 17 (which if I recall, the actual rate touched something like 21), not 20 to 60. The rate has never reached 60 pesos to a dollar.

You can see this statistics at this website: http://www.bsp.gov.ph/statistics/statistics_online.asp

Robby Villabona, (by email), Jan. 18, 2008

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Tony, I agree with you in your analyses. The more OFWs leaving the country, the more dollar remittance politicians and government officials can steal. That is why they are doing everything to stay there, including killing those who oppose their ambitions.

This does not include the value of door-to-door boxes at the minimum of $300/per box, the balikbayan tourism dollars at an average of $3,000 to $5,000/per person when they go home to visit their families. Also of the investments they make in small business and the houses they buy or built for their families.

Above this, the immigrants 30 years ago are retiring staying in the Philippines for 4 to 6 months to avoid the bitter winters. At only $1,000 a month for six months is $6,000. Multiply this by the thousands who are coming, that is a lot of money. I have also seen many retirees from foreign countries married to Filipinas who love the weather and the people and would rather spend their last years in the Philippines than the cold country they came from. Labor, food, shelter are cheap there, people understand English, hospitable, friendly.

So no matter who the leader will be, crook or not, the Philippines will progress. Hopefully we get an moral, competent leader with a great vision who can inspire and motivate our people to greatness, someone who does not claim all the good things that are happening to herself/himself.

Rodel J. Ramos, (buy email), Toronto, Canada, Jan. 18, 2008

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Sir, Good day for reading a nice article.

However, may I point out that the power outages at the end of Pres. Aquino's term was due to the mothballing of the entire NAPOCOR 25 year plan, not just the nuclear power plant. Aboitiz purchased gas turbines (in Sucat and Bataan) to make up for the shortfall.

I visited a working Calaca power plant when I was a student in 1988. But Masinloc was one of the plants affected by the scrapping of the NAPOCOR plan. It was FVR who put Masinloc back on the program. Keep writing Sir !

Robbie Tan, (by email), Jan. 18, 2008

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This is an excellent, well thought-out piece.

Mayo (Mario Antonio C. Lopez), (by email), Makati City, Jan. 18,. 2008

Assistant Dean, Center for Development Management

Asian Institute of Management

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Tony, You are absolutely right that the dismal economic growth in 1992 and 1993 during the term of then President Fidel V. Ramos was due to the Power Crisis that was brought about by the inept Aquino Administation. In fact, the adverse effect of the daily 8-hour power outages was already reflected in 1991 with the negative growth of 0.6% as compared to 4.4% GDP growth in 1990. Prior to the December 1989 coup of Col. Gringo Honasan and Capt. Danilo and the subsequent Power Crisis, the Philippine economy grew by an impressive 6.8% in 1988 and 6.2% in 1989.

Again, you are correct that the Power Crisis in the early 90s was caused by the mothballing of the 620-megawatt (MW) Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) and the absence of a replacement capacity that the Calaca and Masinloc power plants of 300 MW each were supposed to provide.

However, the decision to mothball the BNPP was not a "concession to the anti- US bases and anti-nuclear agitation of the Communist movement." It was a decision reached by Presdient Aquino and her Cabinet whose members unfortunately have No Technical background. They were mostly lawyers, businessmen and economists.

(But, Rick, the loudest oppositors to the nuclear plant was an organization called Nuclear-Free Philippines [or something like that] and it was led by Communists. Cory and her Cabinet were reacting to their pressure. ACA)

When then NAPOCOR President Ernie Aboitiz was making his presentations to the members of Cory's Cabinet on the BNPP issue, it was probably only DoTC Secretary Rainerio "Ray' Reyes who has engineering background. Ray Reyes later told me that there was any appreciation on Ernie's presentations. One funny thing he told me was then Executive Secretary Macaraig (a lawyer) was just eating a lot of peanuts during the deliberations ("Kain lang ng kain ng mane!).

The "commissioning" of the Calaca and Masinloc power plants were Not "blocked by environmentalists." Rather, the actual construction was delayed due to the non- issuance of the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) by the DENR leadership headed by then Sec. Fulgencio Factoran, Jr and his ilk at the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) headed the Director Delfin Ganapin. The DENR sat on the ECC applications of these power plants for several years. It was only when the Power Crisis emerged that the President Aquino acted swiftly and exempted the two plants from the inane ECC requirements. Best regards.

(But, Rick, bureaucrats do not sit on papers for several years for no reason at all. They were reacting to pressure from environmentalists, of whom Dir. Ganapin himself was one. ACA)

Rick B. Ramos, (by email), Santa Rosa, Laguna, Jan. 18, 2008

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Mr. Abaya, This is one of the best columns written on the subject. Sincerely,

Gabriel Ripoll Jr., (by email), Jan. 18, 2008

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You are correct that the economy performed better under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo than her predecessors since President Marcos. And there's no doubt that this is one of the most significant factors why the opposition cannot topple her governance. And despite noise about destabilization, PGMA will finish her term of office.

The country is now reaping the fruits of Arroyo administration's Medium Term Development Plan as elucidated to us by GMA's chief economist - former NEDA Director General Romulo Neri in his speech before Pasay Rotarians many years back.

But it is also fitting to honor one of the country's humble servants with a brilliant mind - then Labor Minister Blas F. Ople who was the architect of the government's policy on migrant workers and Labor Code. Ople's exceptional foresight and networking with his counterparts abroad, particularly in Middle East countries during the 20-year reign of President Ferdinand E. Marcos should also be recognized for the influx of US$14.7 billion remittances in 2007 from OFWs now known as the Global Filipinos.

In my recent tete-a-tete with former Senate employee Jesus Gaspay, Mano Jess to his friends and a former aide to Sen. Arturo Tolentino, Marcos and Ople in that order, proudly declared over a cup of coffee that the latter was an intellectual giant. A rennaisance man in governance, Ople's government posts spanned from the administrations of Magsaysay (Special/Technical Assistant to Labor & Agriculture Secretary, 1954-57;) Marcos (SSS Administrator -1965 & Labor Secretary 1967-78 & concurrent Minister & Assemblyman 1978-1986); a Pres. Corazon Aquino appointee as Commissioner who helped drafted the 1987 Constitution, Ramos & Estrada as a Senator and GMA as Secretary of Foreign Affairs under whose watch the country was elected in the UN committee protecting the global migrant workers.

Ngunit higit sa lahat, dapat nating pasalamatan at bigyang halaga ang ating mga kababayan na namumuhunan ng dugo at pawis sa ibang bayan upang maitawid ang kanilang mga mahal sa buhay sa kahirapan at kawalang oportunidad na kumita ng sapat para sa pabahay, edukasyon, pagkain at kalusugan sa sarili nilang bayan. Long live the Global Filipinos!!!

Niel Enrile Narca, (by email), Jan. 18, 2008

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This column could at least balance the hard line oppositionists we have in the country.

I personally believe that there are victories under her term. Your column even failed to mentioned that some of the outbreaks in Asia, Birdflu and others, were contained by the govt. There were hits of the viruses in the country, but nothing compared to the neighboring countries.

Another is the improving landscape of Metro Manila, with the proper order on buses along EDSA, courtesy of Bayani Fernando. Totoo naman eh.

Actually, good things happened under her administration.
A big however, is that the issues about her are really DAMNING.
Ok lang sana kung magkamali eh, but to be corrupt is a totally different thing.
Also, together with her allies, was the bastardization of the congress, military and the judiciary.

Buti nga, d nanalo ang mga ulol nila Pichay and Mike Defensor eh.
I just hope that GMA will use the final years as good epitaphs of her presidency.
Yun nga lang, wla din political will ang ale.

Mike Delgado, (by email), Jan. 18, 2008

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Tony, If it is moral leadership that yuo are looking for, please omit the existing list of senators, although I may consider Richard Gordon because of his proven ability to inspire people to be stake holders in the community's future - the subic experiment.

I would have liked Mar Roxas but his recent populist pronouncements on the EVAT sickens me to the gut. You must put some weight on GMA's headstrong proclivity
for raising the tax effort. She identified the fiscal balance as a key result area that the financial world scrutinizes so she zoomed in on that, ignoring all other criticism. For me, that takes guts. None of the past presidents have given the revenue picture more focus than her. She should even do more in this area by deploying a more resources to tax collection.

This country can only move forward if we remove the disincentive to productivity represented by the income taxes, i.e. cut the income tax and do not relent on
consumption taxes.

The reason Mar Roxas's comments sickens me is the EVAT on petrol benefits Expedition or SUV riding people like him more than it does the genral public, PISTON and other jeepney drivers notwithstanding. If we start monkeying around to subsidize petrol prices
relative to other goods and services in the economy, we will only dig a deeper economic pit to sink our mess. The price system is the most efficient and fair mechanism to distribute resources, be it petrol or food prices. The treatment should be equal or we all die.

The way I see it, if we have another populist president, we will all perish. Yes, we need moral leadership but let it not be without the adequate intelligence quotient and economic understanding.

Gus Cosio, (by email), Jan. 18, 2008

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Dear Tony, You gave credit to GMA on her handling of the country's GDP yet criticized the modest gains made by her administration on certain parts that make up the Gross Domestic Product. You also raised the issue of moral leadership. In life you win some and you lose some. In my mind moral authority or moral leadership is quite difficult to define. Show me a heroic leader who has taken his people away from the path of "politics without principle, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, commerce without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice" On what standards could we judge a person then that he or she is a moral leader?

Dr. Nestor P. Baylan, (by email), New York City, Jan. 18, 2008

(By your stratospheric definition of moral leadership, not even Jesus Christ or Lee Kwan Yew might pass muster. I will settle for someone who does not steal the people’s money, does not lie to his/her own publics, and does not cheat in elections. ACA)

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Your- "This means that she can be replaced by such reasonably qualified wannabes as Mar Roxas, Manuel Villar, Richard Gordon, Loren Legarda, or Panfilo Lacson – even by Governor Fr. Ed Among Panlilio or Antonio Meloto – and the economy would still chug along at least at the same pace as it does today, as long as whoever succeeds her enjoys the $10-$15 billion windfall from workers’ remittances."

Oh yeah sure!! If it does not make any difference at all as to who (among those I named. ACA) will run the country as long as the $10-$15billion windfall is on-- then why even bother replace her? (In case you haven’t heard, there are such things as constitutional term limits, which she has been deviously trying to circumvent since 2006. ACA) And talking about " Moral Leadership"-- which political leader possess such ABSOLUTELY "lily white" nebulous qualification? AND just "what and whose" standard of morality will be applied as the yardstick? Yours? (Of course, in my column, it will be MY standard of morality. There is nothing to prevent you from starting your own column and articulating YOUR own standard of morality. ACA)

Ay yay yay!!!!-- Okay it seems that GMA just can't do anything right (Don’t you know how to read? I just gave her full credit for the success of the call centers and partial credit for moderate success in tourism. ACA)-- so what about you? (Well, what about YOU?)

Why don't you run for the presidency of the country? You are a Filipino of legal age, educated, seemingly erudite enough to write newspaper columns, highly opinionated on how things should be run and I suppose have the qualification to give the "moral leadership" that you are asking for.from GMA and other candidates! Go for it and let's see your mettle! I might even vote for you!!!

Alexander Po, (by email), Jan. 18, 2008

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Dear Tony, I think you are the first GMA critic to give her credit for the success of her economic program. All the rest look for concrete evidence - "why do people not feel it?"

It may not be a huge success as you rightfully pointed out that a big factor for her high percentage is the OFW remittances. Nevertheless, the results will prove she is indeed working and trying to lift the economy up.

GMA's predecessors did not fare as high because they, with the probable exception of Cory, were more concerned with how much they could gain from the office than how the office could help the people. GMA need not worry about that. Mike has it taken care of.

As far as moral leadership, again, I think it was only Cory who had it. All the others, past, present, and future sorely lacked, lack, and will be lacking that golden quality.

I hope somebody proves me wrong.

victorts@comcast.net, Jan. 18, 2008

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I agree with your assessment regarding Arroyo's economic "success" and the fact that she is not indispensable, contrary to what has been touted by her supporters.

One of the legacy of the Marcos regime is the OCW phenomenon, an economic policy to solve unemployment at home. It was a temporary measure then, but has become a permanent policy of this government. Bagong Bayani? This is just a government spin to hide the fact that it has failed to provide jobs for millions of Filipinos. The OCWs choose to go abroad and leave their families behind in order to provide their families with a better life. They did not work abroad because they were being patriotic, they work abroad for economic reasons!

I hope that the next president will be someone who would really consider the plight of the Filipino first before their own vanity and pride. It could either be Roxas or Villar, Both are economic wizards in their own right. I am leaning more towards Villar because of his success in his business enterprises, but Roxas works as well for me.

Zeny Ligan, (by email), Cebu City, Jan. 18, 2008
UP Cebu

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Tony, I'm not so sure I will credit GMA with economic successes even if she is a PhD economist. She is lucky. Staggering amounts of OFW remittances flood the
Philippines improving our BOP and current account and of course the consequent lowering of interest rates, costs of imports, etc. The inflow can also be seen from a negative perspective. That the country is doing so bad under GMA that Filipinos would rather go overseas and leave their families (leading to a host of other problems actually too) although many others migrate altogether.

The EVAT is killing the small income earners! Massive corruption courtesy of leadership by mis-example is draining what would have been developmental funds benefiting the marginalized masses and discouragingforeign investors.

Yes, the economy is growing but it is despite GMA and not because of her. I still think she should have resigned and then she would have led by good example -- becoming a moral leader than an immoral one.

For some who say it would have been worse without her and with Noli, I say: "We do not know that!" Plus, I am a Christian and I believe moral values come first before pragmatic cunning when it comes to achieving our goals. In fact, to me the preservation of our
values is the end-state and thus it includes the methods we use. Machiavellianism is a lion's den. Regards,

Dr Dennis Acop, (by email), Jan. 18, 2008
US Military Academy ‘83

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I am intrigued by your conclusion that GMA deserves full credit for the success of Call Centers. Call centers have thrived in the Philippines because we can speak English with a fairly neutral accent, have a good number of college graduates with no alternative employment opportunities, and our cost of labor is much lower than in developed countries. Ergo, GMA taught the Filipinos to speak English, made sure that they could not find other jobs, gave them a college education, and managed the economy so that workers could not be paid decent wages.

I like your columns, Mr. Abaya, for their sobriety, but can you please tell me what specific steps did GMA undertake to develop call centers? I have been involved in the industry and as far as I could tell, she was not a positive factor in any investment decision.

Alfredo de Borja, (by email), Jan. 19, 2008

(President Arroyo’s immediate predecessor, Joseph Estrada, was clueless about information technology. It was GMA’s Midterm Development Plan that specifically focused on IT as one of three areas for development. That it actually succeeded was not due to chance. I believe in command responsibility. If we criticize her for all the failures that happen during her term, we should in fairness give her credit for the successes. It does not mean GMA taught the Filipinos to speak English, etc and all your sarcastic add-ons. ACA)

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Dear Tony, As usual, a good report on a comparison of the performances of recent Philippine Presidents. Just a few minor points:

1. The increase in OFW remittances may also have been because of (a) improved bank efficiency and reduction of cost to transfer funds resulting in the reduction of funds being sent here thru the "padala" system. (b) improvement of the peso vs. dollar encouraged the OFW to send more $s to the beneficiaries

2. It would be interesting to see how the Philippine GDP performance during those periods you mentioned compared to those of our ASEAN neighbors. A case in point is during the Asian crisis, the Philippines had performed better than a number of its neighbors.

3. I wonder if ASEAN, particularly the Philippines, has shown an improvement in the Gini coefficient--a ratio income for the poorest and richest sectors of society (Split by Decision -- Newsweek Magazine Nov. 12, 2007 issue). My guess is it has deteriorated.
Regards

Fritz Maramba, (by email), Jan. 19, 2008

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Dear Tony, I am one of your faithful readers. And I agree with you in
many of your articles. That is why you are one of the most read opinion-makers
in our country. Thank you, Tony, for your well written articles. Many of them are
still in my Inbox.

On the subject re: GMA successes: In our country, when something goes wrong, we blame GMA. The political opposition and the mass media are quick to point the blame to GMA when anything negative is reported to the media, especially the sensational
ones.

But when we read good news or positive development such as higher GDP growth, tourism boom, record highs in the financial fronts, bigger foreign investments, Phil currency appreciation, stock market bull runs, real estate boom, bigger tax collection, lower budget deficit, success in call center business, successful privatization, large infrastructure development projects, new highways, better ports (except NAIA 3) hundreds of bridges, etc. opinion makers and the opposition look the other way. They would say "No, it's not GMA who did it. She is not responsible for it. It's just a coincidence. She had nothing to do with it. That one is too small."

But Aquino, Ramos and Erap were not able to do as much during their watch. Of course they have their own reasons for their failure. But GMA did better despite more noisy opposition and antagonistic press. Aquino failed despite the affection showered on her by our people, the press, and the international community. Ramos produced little growth despite of his machismo and hard work.

On Erap's term - whatever little growth produced in this period, we know its Angara and Zamora who were running the government because Erap was either drunk or busy collecting jueteng money. So let's not talk about his term. His term is the most embarrassing period in our history. His conviction in his plunder case speaks well of his
term.

The OCW contribution is about $14B to $15B. It is much higher than previous years because (1) more qualified Filipinos are working abroad. And they earn higher income.(2) Because of the appreciation of the Phil peso, OCW's have no choice but to send their dollars home and exchange with Phil peso, causing the peso to appreciate even more. (3) And this process is now is done thru the modern banking system and not thru the black market. The black market has no business when the peso appreciates. (4) GMA started the Peso appreciation after the EVAT law was successfully passed, despite strong
opposition from the opposition politicians, activists, and the opinion makers/doomsayers
in the mass media.

(The appreciation of the peso is due largely to the weakening of the US dollar, not to the EVAT. ACA)

The success of the call center business is not a small one. Its a $4B industry and still growing fast. Its multipier effect on the economy cannot be underestimated. It is one of the main drivers of real estate and telecom booms in recent years. Taxes from these call center companies, their workers, and their building owners are significant contributors in the government coffer.

On Filipino migrating to other countries - lets not attribute this to GMA's "failure". For example, New Zealand (where I live now) is a first world economy, but New Zealand citizens/residents also migrate to Australia and USA. There is much shortage of
workers here due to brain drain. I am not so sure of the figure, but some Kiwis
say about a million NZ citizens (out of 4 to 5 million) are working and living in
other countries.

Last year alone, more than 74,000 residents (about 2% of 4 million) left to work abroad. Many Japanese, Koreans, Australians and European are also working abroad, and we don't say that their governments failed them. This is the effect of globalization. There are now 8 to 10 million Filipinos (out of 90 million) living abroad. People and capital are now globalized. My humble opinion is that if more and more Filipinos participate in this globalization of labor, our people and country will benefit so much. Nationalism issue? I don't think we are less nationalistic than the Japanese if we work abroad. Even nationalistic Japanese, Koreans, Kiwis, work abroad. It's the salary, and nothing else.

(Do not forget that the vast majority of Japanese, Koreans, Australians and Europeans who work abroad are expat executives of multinational corporations. On the other hand, the vast majority of Filipinos working abroad – who earn only US $300 to $600 a month – do so because they could not find good-paying jobs in our domestic economy.

(And they could not find good-paying jobs in the domestic economy because of the failure of Philippine national leaders, starting with Ferdinand Marcos, to build an export-oriented economy as were built by the leaders of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore in the 1970s and 1980s; and by the leaders of Malaysia and Thailand in the 1980s and 1990s. See my article Why We Are Poor (Dec. 14, 2004):

http://www.geocities.com/dapat_tapatt/whyarewepoor.html

(And do not forget that the Japanese, Koreans, Australians and Europeans working abroad do not make up 10% of their countries’ populations. The Filipinos working abroad do. ACA)

Sa dami ng magagaling na Pinoy, palaging naming may maiiwan para magpatakbo ng ating mga opisina, mga planta as eskwela. Some have to go out and take advantage of
the big salaries abroad and bring home dollars. Our national heroes such as Rizal, Lopez-Jaena, Del Pilar and the Luna brothers, will not be intelligent and enlightened reformist if they did not work and studied abroad.

GMA is not a perfect president, but she is hardworking, intelligent and resilient. It is easier to blame her for the misery of many Filipinos, than to blame ourselves. Successful Pinoys also started from humble beginnings. But they overcome poverty - thru hardwork, entrepreneurship, education, and/or working abroad. Those who are left below the poverty line must also strive to overcome their hardship by working harder, getting an education, and be responsible for themselves and their families. Lets stop our dependence on dole outs, but rely on ourselves more. Charity belongs to the old, the sick and the
very young. But able-bodied Pinoys must educate themselves, work and be productive. Then together we can rebuild our country. Of course we need a good leader all the time, but we must do our share as well.

Tony, thank you for your time in reading my long letter. Your good articles inspire me to write a long letter like this. I hope this is welcome. For me, you the best Pinoy columnist.
May God bless you, our country more.

Ody Lumanglas, (by email), Auckland, New Zealand, Jan. 19, 2008

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Tony - You are right. Without MORAL LEADERSHIP, our people will continue to emigrate to earn their living. President Magsaysay was not as brillant as other presidents before and after his short tenure, but he provided moral leadership and people were willing to die for him and his ideas. Today this qualities could provide the engine for change in our land. Now we ask ourselves: Who among the Wannabes aspiring for the Presidency can provide this basic values?

Let us find out if our people will learn from their past mistakes. But foremost, the so-called middle class must come forward and make their choice without fear or favor, because the future generations of our people will find them wanting otherwise.

Jose Regino, (by email), Zamboanga City, January 19, 2008

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Dear Tony: I do hope that Senator Pimentel's statement that "PGMA's days are numbered" proves to be prophetic.

She has made the lives of a majority of the Filipinos miserable with her harsh economic policies (specially the imposition of EVAT on gas products and electricity).

The only sector of society benefiting from her ruthless administration is the business sector, specially her cronies and admirers.

Her megalomaniac belief that she is the "best president the Philippines ever had" coupled with her callousness to poverty and hardship having been born with a silver spoon does not make her a good leader. A good leader must be sensitive and compassionate to the cry of the masses.

I do believe that she has no intention of leaving the presidency beyond 2010 which is why she is persistently pushing for a Con-Con to mangle the Constitution and perpetuate herself in power as Prime Minister. She has already began her demolition job on Speaker Jose De Venecia who poses a major obstacle to her premiership ambition!

God save the Philippines! Very truly yours,

Fernando A. De Sequera Jr., (by email), Jan. 20, 2008

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Dear Manong Tony, I just read your January 17, 2008 article. I agree that our economic growth was largely due to the remittances of our OFW's. A number of good friends just returned to Manila after a 5-day tour of Ilokoslavakia, as the late Manong Max would say, and I saw the evidence along the way, especially in La Union, Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte. Thanks to the efforts of, among others, the late Ka Blas Ople, one the pioneers in helping our poor brethen in finding jobs abroad during his stint as Labor Secretary during the Marcos regime.

There are, however, a number of things that this administration have done that contributed to this growth. I wish that I could enumerate them now but there are more important things that I should attend to. Sa ibang araw na lang. Pit Senyor! God bless.

Jerry A. Quibilan, (by email), Jan. 20, 2008

Crusaders for Peace, Prosperity, Unity, and Love

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The thing is that, Mr. Tony, para kaming ginisa sa sarili naming mantika eh! Dahil sa dami na ng OFW that creates a windfall of remittances which brings to a tremendous appreciation ng Peso against the Dollar. Kaming mga OCW rito sa Saudi Arabia ay bumagsak ang value ng sweldo for as much as 27% na dahil sa continued appreciation ng Peso.

What makes it further worst for us ay dahil naka peg up against the Dollar ang Saudi Riyals and the rest of Middle East Countries except Kuwait I think. Sinabayan pa ng inflation rate rito of about 25% this year. Grabeh na ang financial effect sa amin. Our family back home is the one suffering the consequences. I agree of what you’ve stated that “In fact it can be said that the increase in workers deployed abroad – about one million a year – is due to her failure, and the failure of her predecessors, to create enough jobs in the domestic economy, forcing millions of Filipinos to seek employment abroad.” - Thank you, Mr. Tony and More Power to you.

Richard A. Pala, (by email), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 21, 2008

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Target: 100 Balikbayan Villages in 2012

By Col. Hector (Tarzan) Tarragona (Ret.)

Email Address - htarrazona@yahoo.com

Globalization has made easy the consumers’ access to goods and services worldwide. It is a phenomenon that cannot be stopped and a reality we must accept and harness to our advantage.

We have already been enjoying the benefits of globalization for decades. If it were not for the 8 million OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) who have been remitting about US$14 billion annually, our economy could have collapsed long time ago.

The OFWs and balikbayan deserve the honor and respect of the rest of us Filipinos who have been benefiting, directly or indirectly, from the fruits of their hard work and sacrifices in countries whose people are not always friendly or sympathetic to them.

We can never go wrong if we, as a grateful nation, would give our modern-day heroes special attention. The least that we could do for them would be to make their departure and arrival comfortable, hassle-free, inexpensive, and speedy. When they would come home for good we should have a special place for them to retire so that they would enjoy the remaining years of their life and, at the same time, share with us the knowledge, experience, and wisdom they had learned from other countries.

It is along the idea of providing efficient services for, and honoring our beloved OFWs and balikbayan that the concept of a Balikbayan Village is being studied by Malacañang since November 2007.

The first proposed Balikbayan Village project would be in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City on a 44-hectare area. It would have a one-stop center that would house the extension offices of all government agencies with priority given to those that would be needed to process the papers of Filipinos applying for work abroad.

Foreign embassies, travel agencies, airline companies, banks, and local and multinational corporations would also be given priority to have extension offices at the Balikbayan Village.

More than 5,000 condominium and condominium-hotel units for permanent residents, transient occupants, and guests would be constructed. There would be restaurants, fine dining areas, fast food center, supermarket, shops, department stores, barber shops, beauty saloons, multi-purpose hall, function rooms, seminar rooms, lecture rooms, chapel, movie houses, medical and dental clinics, and other facilities and amenities.

For the lover of sports, the best part of the Balikbayan Village would be an executive golf course with sports facilities and a luxurious clubhouse.

In short, the Balikbayan Village would be a self-contained place that would provide all the services and goods needed by the OFWs and balikbayan, businessmen, investors, tourists, retirees, visiting students, and other guests. It would also serve the needs of the people from the provinces coming to Manila to transact business with the government and private corporations.

Transacting business or residing at the Balikbayan Village would mean a lot of savings in terms of time, money, effort, and energy consumption.

About five to ten minutes from the Manila International Airport, the Balikbayan Village concept in Taguig City could be replicated in 99 strategic places all over the country. At an average cost of P2 billion each for the 99 Balikbayan Villages, the total project cost, excluding real estate but including the P17 billion project cost of the 44-hectare Fort Bonifacio Balikbayan Village, would be P215 billion. This would generate total revenues of about P350 billion in a period of about four years. The impact of the project on the supply of construction materials, labor services, professional services (of architects, engineers, and other professionals), and other goods and services related to the project would be a total business of P860 billion, assuming that the multiplier effect would be four times the construction cost.

The P215 billion total cost would build commercial and other facilities including about 100,000 condominium and condominium-hotel units that could accommodate 200,000 retirees and guests at any one time with two persons per room. With 100,000 permanent residents and another 100,000 transient occupants and guests, the above project could be easily filled up from the 8 million OFWs who would opt to retire at the Balibayan Villages. This would mean that 1.25% only of the 8 million OFWs would be needed to fill up their 100,000 capacity share of the 100 Balikbayan Villages. If they would invite some friends and acquaintances from their places of work to retire in the Philippines, the 100,000 units would not be enough.

It would be preempting too much if the sources of financing, profitability, marketing strategy, exact location, and viability of the 44-hectare Fort Bonifacio Balikbayan Village Project would be divulged in this paper. The stakeholders were provided copies of the proposal and they know exactly what I am talking about. As of this writing (January 4, 2008) the proposal was referred by Malacañang to the Department of National Defense for comments.

The retirement business, which is among the businesses hosted by the proposed Balikbayan Villages, could be our country’s niche in a highly competitive global market. The prohibitive cost of retirement in the first world countries would make the Philippines an excellent choice of the Americans, Europeans, Japanese, and other nationalities as their retirement home. Compassionate people, beautiful natural resources, conversance of the English language, and lower cost of services are our competitive edge.

If you are a (lonely) Filipino or former Filipino in a foreign land, you could help in preparing and building the Balikbayan Villages by investing your money in them. Then you could opt to retire in your place of birth where the love, care, and concern of your fellow Filipinos could not be matched elsewhere outside the Philippines. As a bonus you would get the best value for your money. You could buy two units, live in one and get income from the other. Or, you could simply visit once a year and let your unit(s) do the earning for you during your absence.

With all the problems we are facing as a nation, this is the best time to unite, put our act together, and compete fiercely to get the most benefit from the globalization phenomenon. ******

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Contrarian Voices

By Antonio C. Abaya

Written on Jan. 23, 2008

For the Standard Today,

January 24 issue

This column is called ‘On the Other Hand’ because it is hospitable to serious opinions, aside from my own, that question or deviate from the conventional wisdom. And that includes opinions on current environmental issues.

Global warming and climate change have acquired such an infallible cachet of a Revealed Truth that we may have forgotten that there are serious reservations from serious thinkers who have contrarian views about the matter.

Reader Jun Valenzuela of Naga City referred me to the following website:

http://thereconstitutionrevolution.blogspot.com/2007/07/suvs-on-jupiter-warming-trend-solar.html.

The website belongs to one Paul Joseph Watson who claims (in Nov. 16, 2006) that global warming and the resultant climate change are not due to human activity i.e. the burning of fossil fuels – as the high priests and gurus of the New Religion claim – but are natural cyclical phenomena caused by the evolution of the Sun.

Watson cites data and reports in www.space.com that purportedly demonstrate that a) global warming is occurring in the thin atmosphere of the ex-Planet Pluto as it moves farther from the Sun on its long elliptical orbit; and b) that the Planet Jupiter is in the midst of global warming that can raise its surface temperature by 10 degrees F.

Watson also cites a report from the Current Science and Technology Center of the Museum of Science in Boston (www.mos.org/cst) that the polar ice caps on Mars are melting, in much the same way that the polar ice caps on Earth are melting.

NASA, as cited by Watson, reports that its Cassini spacecraft detected on Nov. 9, 2006 a massive hurricane on the surface of Planet Saturn’s south pole, nearly 5,000 miles across, which could be a sign of climate change on that planet. (www.saturn.jpl.nasa.gov)

Global warming has also been detected on the Planet Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, since 1989, according to astronomer James Elliot of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (www.scienceagogo.com)

Watson also cites an Associated Press report that solar radiation reaching the Earth is 0.036 percent warmer than it was in 1986, according to a study to be published in the Geophysical Research Letters journal.

Finally, Watson cites a London Telegraph report that purports to explain Global Warming: the Earth is getting hotter because the Sun is burning more brightly than at any time during the past 1,000 years. (www.telegraph.co.uk).

I do not know the academic and professional credentials of Paul Joseph Watson, but the scientific sources and journals he cites are impressive enough. The credentials of Zbigniew Jaworowski, MD, PhD, DSc., of Poland are even more impressive.

According to the bio-data attached to a paper that appeared in March 16, 2007 issue of the journal Science – forwarded to me by American environmentalist Alexandra York – Dr. J is a senior adviser at the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection in Warsaw. In the winter of 1957-58, he measured the concentration of CO2 in the atmospheric air of Spitsbergen Island (Norway).

From 1972 to 1991, he investigated the history of the pollution of the global atmosphere, measuring the dust preserved in 17 glaciers: in the Tatra Mountains in Poland, in the Arctic, Antarctic, Alaska, Norway, the Alps, the Himalayas, the Ruwenzori Mountains in Uganda, and the Peruvian Andes.

Dr. J’s paper is titled “CO2: The Greatest Scientific Scandal of Our Time” and is a counter-argument against the thesis personified by Al Gore, that CO2 – specifically CO2 generated by human activity – is to blame for global warming and climate change.

He argues that a more important greenhouse gas is water vapor naturally present in the atmosphere, which contributes some 95 percent in the total greenhouse effect. He claims that 97 percent of total CO2 is from natural emissions; human activities contribute only 3 percent.

As anyone who has watched Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth knows, his thesis is based on ice core samples extracted from a glacier in Antarctica which seem to show that CO2 levels from as far back as 650,000 years indicate low concentrations until the modern era, especially since the 1970s.

Dr. J, who knows about ice core samples, says ice cores cannot be regarded as closed systems, and that low pre-industrial CO2 concentrations are an artifact caused by more than 20 physical-chemical processes operating in situ. For example, according to Dr. J, in cold water, CO2 is 70 times more soluble than nitrogen, and more than 30 times more soluble than oxygen. Therefore, CO2 trapped in ice cores ages ago have long been dissolved in the surrounding ice and snow, and cannot be regarded as valid indications of CO2 levels in the past.

Dr. J also claims that environmentalists who point to ice core samples to prove their thesis, have deliberately ignored more than 90,000 direct measurements of CO2 in the atmosphere, carried out in America, Asia and Europe from 1812 to 1961, though the data were published in 175 technical papers.

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change regards the last 50 years as the warmest period in the past 1,500 years and blames this on the burning of fossil fuels. This monothematic line of reasoning, says Dr.J., does not take into account the astronomical evidence that these last 50 years had had the highest solar activity of the past several thousand years.

The new science of cosmo-climatology has documented, since 1961, a close relationship between solar activity and the surface temperature of the Earth. Later studies have shown that the main mechanism by which cosmic factors regulate our weather are cosmic rays penetrating the atmosphere.

Cosmic rays, says Dr.J, rule the climate by producing an ionization of air molecules at the rate required to have a measurable impact on clime. Ionization – the process by which electrons are stripped from or added to an atom’s outer structure, making it more ready to combine with another ion – helps create condensation nuclei in the troposphere, the lowest region of the atmosphere.

During low solar activity, says Dr. J, more cosmic rays penetrates into the troposphere and more clouds are formed, which act as an umbrella to protect the Earth against solar radiation. Conversely, during periods of high solar activity, less cosmic rays penetrate into the troposphere and less clouds are formed, allowing more solar radiation to hit the Earth’s surface.

(To which let me add that when I was in my teens, shortwave radio was one of my hobbies. I learned even then that solar flares, which come in 11-year cycles, disturb radio reception because the troposphere, against which radio waves bounce to allow them to go around the Earth, were affected by solar activity.)

“Human beings may be responsible for less than 0.01 degree C of warming during the last century. The hypothesis that the currently observed Modern Warming is a result of anthropogenic (‘man-made’) CO2, and of other greenhouse gas emissions, is a myth.”

Can we believe all this? Dr. J’s assertion that global warming and climate change are due largely to solar activity coincides uncannily with the independent observations culled by Paul Joseph Watson from different scientific sources, that global warming was/is also occurring in the planets Pluto, Jupiter, Mars, Neptune and Saturn. It does look much more than coincidental.

So should the world abandon all efforts to find energy sources other than oil? Of course, not. Whatever the truth or untruth about these contrarian views on global warming and climate change, I share the possibly politically incorrect sentiment expressed last month by, of all people, Republican presidential wannabe Mike Huckabee who said: “I look forward to the day when we can say to the Arabs ‘You can keep your oil!’”

It would have sounded more emphatic with an expletive inserted. *****

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'Weep like a Woman'

By Antonio C. Abaya

Written on January 21, 2008

For the Standard Today,

January 22, 2008

By the year 1482, the Moorish caliphate in the Iberian Peninsula (what is now Spain and Portugal) had shrunk to a small perimeter around the city of Granada in southeastern Spain.

At its zenith, the Muslim armies from North Africa that had invaded the Iberian Peninsula in the years 711 to 718 AD, had conquered most of what are now Spain and Portugal, and had sallied forth into France, where they were finally defeated and driven back by Christian armies led by Charles Martel in the Battle of Tours in the year 732. AD.

The Muslim occupation of Spain and Portugal lasted for several centuries leaving an indelible imprint on Iberian culture and civilization. To this day, many modern Europeans sniff that “Africa begins at the Pyrenees.”

But by the end of the first millennium (1000 AD), incessant quarrels and fighting among Muslim chieftains – a common enough phenomenon that persists to the 21^st century – allowed the Christian kingdoms to fight back and recover lost ground.

By the year 1482, the Christians had re-conquered the kingdoms of Toledo, Sevilla and Cordoba.. In the year 1492, when the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus – Cristobal Colon – was sent by the Spanish king on his epochal voyage to the Americas, the Christian kingdoms of Aragon and Castille, reunited by the marriage of their sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, fielded their combined armies and defeated the quarreling Muslims in Granada.

The last Muslim caliph in Iberia, Boabdil, was sent weeping into exile back to North Africa. Legend has it that his aged mother bitterly reproached him: “Weep like a woman for the city you would not defend like a man1”

Seven years ago, on a scale not quite as grandiose as the events that unfolded in Iberia in 1492, a pretentious rajah – historically the inheritor of the Muslim outpost of Maynilad – also gave up his throne on the banks of the Pasig River as a band of unarmed street demonstrators noisily descended on his Alhambra.

His son, the Datu Jinggoy, was weeping openly, and Rajah Erap was teary-eyed, as they and their entourage boarded a motor launch to the rear of their Alhambra that would take them to the relative safety of not quite North Africa, but their scruffy ancestral fiefdom of San Juan.

History did not record Erap’s aged mother saying anything quotable during the Teary Escape, but she could just as justifiably have uttered the same humiliating lines hurled at Boabdil in 1492: “Weep like a woman for the city you would not defend like a man.”

Whatever happened to Filipino Machismo so often personified – or so I am told – by Erap in his Tagalog movies? Why did he not stand his ground and defend his Alhambra to the death? What was he so afraid of from an undisciplined but unarmed mob?

He had his heavily armed Presidential Security Group janissaries, backed up by armored personnel carriers, who would have sent the unarmed mob scurrying for cover with a few shots fired in the air. They may have stopped being under the command of Erap after AFP Chief-of-staff Gen. Angelo Reyes had “withdrawn his support,” but surely Erap’s magic would still have worked wonders with the masa of whom the soldiers were a part...

By ignominiously fleeing from the seat of power, Erap gave the Supreme Court the excuse to concoct what only Filipino lawyers could have invented, namely that he had “constructively resigned” from the presidency, thus justifying swearing in his vice-president, Gloria Arroyo, as the new president.

Barely five months later, in May 2001, another unarmed mob descended on Erap’s former Alhambra, egged on by the likes of Juan Ponce Enrile and Miriam Defensor-Santiago, this time seeking the “constructive resignation” of Gloria.

But unlike the easily frightened Rajah Erap, the steely-nerved Gloria, who has all the intimidating persona of a Girl Scout selling cookies, stood her ground and, in effect, stared the mob eyeball-to-eyeball until they blinked.

By hastily abandoning the seat of power without a fight in January 2001, Erap showed himself to be a coward, the exact opposite of the two-fisted Macho Man he liked to portray in his movies and, no doubt, his personal fantasies.

Of course, Rajah Erap was following in the footsteps of another Filipino Macho Man, Rajah Ferdinand, who famously but falsely promoted himself as the Most Decorated Filipino Soldier in World War II, with most of his medals awarded to himself decades after the War, when he was already senator……who also abandoned the seat of power without a fight in February 1986.

Erap says Jan. 20 2001 was the “death of democracy in the Philippines.” That would have been convincing had he stood his ground and fought heroically to the death. Instead, he “weeps like a woman for the city he was not man enough to defend.” *****

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RX to "On Biofuels and Glorietta"

Reactions to “On Biofuels and Glorietta”

More Reactions to “Presidential Fever”

On Gov. Fr. Ed Panlilio

Tony, Your astute observation plus your professional background as chemist give more credence and make more sense of the Glorietta 2 blast than what I can make out of the police report.

Cesar M. de los Reyes, (by email), Jan. 15, 2008

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Tony: For your information, I filed last December 10, 2007 House Resolution No. 376 “DIRECTING THE COMMITTEE ON ECOLOGY, COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND THE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE AND FOOD TO CONDUCT AN INQUIRY, IN AID OF LEGISLATION, ON THE CURRENT BIOFUELS PROGRAM AND REVIEW ITS IMPACT ON ENERGY SECURITY, CARBON EMISSIONS, GLOBAL WARMING AND FOOD SECURITY.”

On December 11, 2007, the following day, I had a little exchange with Senator Migs Zubiri at the LEDAC meeting in Malacanang in the presence of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Sen. Zubiri opened the discussion on biofuels when he urged that the DOE rebut the article in the Inquirer that day which was unfavorable to biofuels. I then responded by cautioning about allocating too much resources on biofuels in view of the negative studies made by experts, as mentioned in my House Resolution.

The wonder of the internet! I can see what you can see there and vice versa... it's an equalizer between two different worlds.

Looks like the need to review and revisit the wisdom of biofuels is gaining momentum.

Zubiri's problem is that his family is in the sugar production industry. I don't have that conflict of interest.

Thank you for joining the debate in biofuels. Best regards.

Roy (Roilo Golez), (by email), Jan. 15, 2008

Congressman, Paranaque City

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Thanks for sending me your articles, Tony. I have a theory which you might wish to ponder on.

You do know that Ayala 2 is one of the older parts of the Mall, right? It's probably up for renovation. But, I suppose that there was resistance from the long time tenants, esp. the restaurants operating there, to move to another location while that section will be renovated.

What if? Ayala hired some goons to figure out ways to create some damage that would render that section inoperative until further notice? (And what evidence do you offer to support this theory? ACA)

There were supposedly traces of "RDX" which is a component of c4. What if, it really was c4, but in a very mall quantity just enough to create a crater or something minimal but enough to close down the place? Unfortunately, the small amount of c4 may not have considered the cooking gas tanks all parked underground. This may point to the conclusion that those who planted the c4 were amateurs because if you watched the movie of Stallone and Stone, the Specialist, the bombs could be targeted properly, if done by an expert.

Why was it done in broad daylight amidst many people? So that they could blame the terrorists.

So the theory is, bomb explodes, blame terrorists, renovate using insurance money.
If Ayala weren't really guilty, why would they pay the families, give them houses, etc.? Their insurance company would probably pay for all the damages which includes 3rd party liability.

And you're right about the methane gas coming from the septic tanks. You will need decomposing manure the size of Smokey Mountain to create that kind of an explosion (if at all).

Lawrence See, (by email), Jan. 15, 2008

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Tony, Your theory seems more plausible. Regards,

Toti Chikiamco, (by email), Jan. 15, 2008

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Tony, Your evaluation of the Glorietta blast is brilliant. It sounds very objective to me, particularly the need to exhume and autopsy the victims. I hope the relatives of the victims will agree for the sake of public interest and welfare. I wish other media people were as cerebral.

Gus Cosio, (by email), Jan. 15, 2008

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Hello Tony! I still say we have to go into bio-fuels if we are to avoid paying exorbitantly for our energy. The other alternative energy sources are simply more more "iffier"; none of which can be used to run our vehicles given the state of technology and economy. What I mean is that electric cars which can probably use wind, solar, nuclear and other sources of energy are already in market but these still are light-years from mass consumption.

The Nobel laureate says that burning forests to plant bio-fuel crops is counterproductive. I say that there are hardly any forests left in the country and that one does not have to burn trees to plant these crops. The laureate probably overestimated the extent of our forest resources. What we should do is plant bio-fuel crops, say coconut or sugar cane, in idle or marginal areas, which can be used for energy and for food. These plants have been with us since time immemorial so no one should complain if we plant more of these; ditto for sweet corn.

Will bio-fuel plants reduce the areas planted to food crops thus decreasing our food supply? Not necessarily. Rice lands will continue to be rice lands unless the government does something stupid like reducing subsidy to palay prices, in which case the farmers will switch to other crops regardless of these being bio-fuel crops or not. There will even be increased supply of products such coconut oil and sugar as crops from which these are derived are planted to more areas.

You mentioned the increased price of pan-de-sal and implied that this was due to reduced area planted to wheat worldwide. That could be one reason but there may be others more influential to setting wheat prices, such as climate, cost of production including energy, and increased demand especially from fast-developing countries like China and India and even the Philippines with its poor population with Western taste.

Bio-fuels have the advantage of being renewable and unlike crude oil, can be produced within the country. As to its economic viability, I think this is for the market to decide. No one will plant bio-fuel crops if there is no profit to it or it deprives them of planting more profitable non-biofuel crops. In this times of rocketing fossil fuel prices, it will be criminal for the government to ignore the prospects of alternative energy sources, in particular bio-fuels. Is rushing into bio-fuels counterproductive? Rushing into anything is generally counterproductive but in this case we are already very much behind. The Americans are already very much into this long ago; the Brazilians are nearing self-sufficiency in energy thanks to bio-fuels; and even the oil-exporting Malaysians and Indonesians have long rushed into bio-fuels as evidenced by their massive planting of the bio-fuel plant oil palm.

Herminigildo Gutierrez, (by email), Jan. 16, 2008

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I'm not so sure about bio-fuels being counterproductive, but as for jatropha plants and palm trees, only the seeds are converted into bio-fuel... the plants and trees remain as such, nothing is killed. So they will still emit some oxygen into the air.

As for plantations, I'm also not certain whether forests are cleared to make way for such production, but there is enough barren land in the country that can be used as such. I don't think it's necessary to do the kaingin method to keep the land fertile.

However, I do agree that the individuals responsible for such an endeavor must pursue further studies on the matter.

If the rest of the world is supporting bio-fuel, and this one study says its counterproductive, what are the odds that Dr. Michel is correct? If Greenpeace, WWF, Haribon, Klima, and so many others advocate bio-fuel, bio-diesel, and other alternate sources of energy, then this study is questionable. We are running out of fossil fuels, so if fuel cell, electric, and solar powered cars are in production then we can deviate from bio-fuel. Not unless more alternative ways of transportation is provided.

Thanks for your emails, Tony. My two cents.

Crissie Malay, (by email), Jan. 16, 2008

(According to a report by James Kanter in the Jan. 16 issue of The New York Times, European Union officials are preparing legislation that will ban imports of certain bio-fuels, principally palm oil from Southeast Asia, soy from Latin America, ethanol from Brazil. “Not only is native vegetation, including tropical rain forests, being chopped down in places to plant bio-fuel crops, but fossil fuels, like diesel for tractors, are often used to farm the crops…..In Indonesia, more than 18 million hectares of forests have already been cleared for palm oil development….” ACA)

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Mr. Abaya, I am a Registered Electrical Engineer (REE) and here is my take on the report of the Glorietta explosion.

The report mentioned gases and more gases. However, for these to explode, you need ignition. The PNP report mentions something like 'an electrical source' igniting the gases.

As Pinoys continually hear about this shortcut on fire causes: 'faulty electrical wiring', I am not surprised to hear about this excuse being used again.

Nobody checked the electrical equipment that 'caused' the ignition. What if these equipment are rated as Class 1 (i.e. made to operate in dangerous gas filled areas')? Now this whole excuse falls apart.

Robbie Tan, (by email), Jan. 16, Jan. 16, 2008

(Leaking gases or a gas build-up can also be ignited by a cigarette, cigarette lighter, an old model cell phone, or an acetylene welding torch. ACA)

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Dear Mr. Abaya, Your article from the Standard Today dated 14 January 2008 is very enlightening. Logically right and I think for the people like media and government think the way you think, I feel that there is no throwing mud with each other and spending peoples money on nonsense investigations.

I feel we do not need those experts from others countries and pay them a handsome amount for their services. Filipino are the best thinkers, best scientist if only they use these given talents progressively.

Bottom line is I love your article. As I said, it is enlightening. Wish there are more people who are like you.

Francisco Sobrevega, (by email), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 16, 2008

Project Controls & Estimating Division/PS&CD, Aramco

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But of course, Jewish people are known all over the world to not part with their money so readily. If the Glorietta blast was an industrial accident, as the experts ruled,. its owners would have to pay very dearly. Hence, the Ayala minions are fighting tooth and nail to have it officially declared a terrorist act. And who do you think will win?

These people always get away with their hocus pocus. Remember Alabang Golf and Country Club, a share of which you used to own? Its prospectus touted the designer of the golf course would be the famous and illustrious golf designer Robert Trent Jones.

Because Ayala made a lot of short cuts in order to save a lot of money, Mr. Jones withdrew his name as its designer, hence its 2,800 buyers were left with a generic golf course and had to put up their own money to complete the golf course. In spite of several lawyers among its members, nothing happened and Ayala Corporation snickered all the way to the bank. I bet it will get away with this one, too. Warm regards,

Dodong Almario, (by email), Jan. 17, 2008

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Dear Tony, Your "chemical expertise" is very correct The theory of accumulated gas out of the waste is very weak. And this not only because of the needed time for waste to create enough gas. It is also hard to believe that for several days nobody has been going there and opening the door, as everyone would have realized the existence of such gas.

But even if the main explosion has been LPG, it would only need a small "bomb" for to damage LPG tanks to create the big explosion. This would explain the two explosions and also the previously reported existence of RDX residues. A small explosive device can be made easy, it does not even need to be terrorists. It also would allow the theory that it has been a ploy by military to shift public attention from the 500.000 Peso payout at Malacanang.

Just a hand grenade would have been enough to crack LPG tanks. Probably there will never be a real correct finding anymore, which leaves the problem of the pronounced finding of RDX by the government investigators but which then has been totally reversed. This, even there was the statement of PNP that the residues are chemically investigated for to find if it is from military or from mining C4.

Siirius.3000@gmx.net, Germany, Jan. 17, 2008

(Of the two explosions, the second was weak. My theory is that the first blast was from LPG cylinders near the basement entrance, the second from the accumulated methane gas in the basement/sub-basement area. Of course, it is possible the LPG cylinders were made to explode by a grenade. But that would make three explosions, not two. And you would have to produce grenade fragments to prove that theory. ACA)

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Pretty interesting stuff! That's what I like in your writings. You always write important issues with facts and suggestions! You, the man!

Re: Bio-fuels Again, as what I've said before for the Hydrogen fuel.. How much are we talking about? And what's the difference between Bio-fuels and Hydrogen in terms of
national budget fund and saving 80 million people? I mean, here and now? As in. the quickest possible answer to this high level problem? Tiny Philippines can't do much damage (if we choose Biofuel) than the superpower nations like China, USA, Australia, Russia, UK, France and others. Biofuels are much of a choice "here and now!" Please base the idea on the kind of economic strength we have in the Philippines. We
should NOT level ourselves with Sweden and Iceland because it takes multiple life-times to be at their level right now economically. Make suggestions simple and affordable that's within our pesonality:)

Arroyo and Gloria, are you listening?

Use existing resources. Look around. coconut, corn and jathropa, sun, hydro, wind. anything that the mother nature give this tiny tropical nation.

As far as plantation stuff, Jathropa can grow in any soil even in rocky lands. I don't think we can plant rice there. I don't know if we can mix Jathropa leaves with Pichay leaves sa tinula. So, there's no human consumption competition as well as the agriculture lands.

Brazil is doing this Biofuel stuffs and they're successful. It's proven already! Your idea of Hydrogen fuel should be implemented by the rich nations like USA and Australia because they have the money, power and influence.

Re: Glorietta No idea about the technical stuffs. All I know is the Ayalas are trying very hard to get insurance stuffs.. Because if they can't prove anything.. There are no insurance, no new building and no customers. It's business. the same thing with the previous coup stuffs:) The Philippines's future is dictated by the few.. The powerful business groups and Catholic Church. The great pawns are batallions/infantries of
squatters and AFP. Nowadays, there's no way, it's People Power (Masses) since most of them were being paid to rally…...

LF, tatski007@yahoo.com, Jan. 18, 2008

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(Forwarded) Thanks for forwarding this.

Aside from the comment that plants store less than 1% of solar energy, unfortunately the comments of Dr. Hartmut Michel were not supported by numbers. For his argument regarding biofuels to be irrefutable, all input and expected output must be considered. Whether plants store 0.1%, 1% or more is really immaterial from the point of view that solar energy will come from the sun whether we use it or not. The point is that humans have to use whatever energy can be stored.

The question redounds as to the best way to capture any available energy source. Available options are mineral oil, natural gas, biofuels, wind power, geothermal energy, water containing potential energy by virtue of its location, ocean waves and photovoltaic cells, among others. It took many, many years for mineral oil and natural gas to form. Humans have been extracting these hydrocarbons for decades. The consensus brought home by stark reality is that it is becoming more and more expensive to find these sources and then to economically convert them into usable forms of energy. Since it took a very long time for these energy sources to form and humans used them up in mere decades, these are not renewable sources of energy. Hence the need for alternative energy sources.

The energy available through wind movement has been captured in Ilocos. Along vast tracts in California and other places, wind power is similarly captured. Geothermal energy is captured in Luzon, a source of pride for me, and in other places. Photovoltaic cells are used in the Philippines and elsewhere. The energy of water trapped in dams has been converted to electrical energy. There have been attempts to use the energy of ocean waves but there does not appear to be successful use of this on a large scale. Biofuels are used in Brazil and the US. Brazil has successfully used alcohol as a viable alternative to gasoline. Low percentages of ethanol have been successfully blended into gasoline in the US for at least a couple of decades. Both Brazil and the US have vast tracts of land where conversion of crops into bio-fuel is possible.

Note that Brazil has the advantage of getting more solar energy per unit area of exposed surface than countries closer to either the North Pole or the South Pole. Although the Philippines does not have the land mass of either Brazil or the US, like Brazil and other countries in the sun belt it does receive more intense solar energy per unit area than countries closer to the Poles.

Prof. Michel suggests using direct conversion of solar rays to storage batteries. That is not a novel solution. Many have tried that route. As mentioned, the Philippines in fact uses photovoltaic cells but the energy thus captured is but a small portion of total energy consumption. In the 1990s, photovoltaic cells had lifetimes of 1 to 4 years. At that time, it was thought that there was a net loss of energy in using them. Present day photovoltaic cells last significantly longer and do produce net energy vis-a-vis the energy needed to produce them. The decision to utilize them requires studies of the cost needed to produce and effectively utilize them at the scale of energy utilization which the country needs. If there is any net energy gained in any system, its ultimate deployment depends upon economic factors .

The utilization of bio-fuels in the Philippines and other countries which lie near the equator or countries which compensate for the lack of intense solar radiation by having large tracts of land available makes sense if there is a net energy saving derived from using such renewable energy. If in fact the solar energy captured by plants is sufficient to meet significant energy needs and if there is a net energy gain when using such fuel, irregardless of the percentage captured, shouldn't the development of the technology be pursued?

While the conversion of corn, sugar cane and other food crops have raised the price of those commodities, these increases in prices must be weighed against price increases in traditional energy sources like mineral oil and natural gas. Since about five years ago, prices for gasoline, diesel fuel and bottled natural gas have more than tripled. Chances of such fuel prices tumbling down are dim. The rise in prices of food commodities therefore must be viewed in light of parallel and possibly higher rising costs of fuels which the ordinary person utilizes. An attractive option is conversion of biomass into energy.

Biomass in the form of bagasse, rice straw, coconut husks, corn stover, wood including sawmill dust, used paper and all forms of materials containing celluloses can in principle be converted into ethanol. Wastes from piggeries and wet markets have been succesfully converted into usable fuel gas. This means that food crops need not be the only sources of bio-fuel.

Critics can rightly claim that ethanol does not contain as much energy as gasoline, diesel or natural gas on a per molecule basis. This is because ethanol already contains one atom of oxygen per molecule of ethanol. By contrast, gasoline, diesel oil and natural gas contain carbon and hydrogen (plus small amounts of additives). When hydrocarbons such as gasoline, diesel oil and natural gas are oxidized, i.e., burned, the hydrogen and carbon they contain are converted into water and carbon dioxide. But the disadvantage inherent in ethanol can be removed if the oxygen it contains can be removed and a new form of hydrocarbon fuel made.

In short, rational thinking would point to examine all viable options and subsequently utilize the best ones. It would not serve Philippine interests if we simply took the opinion of one person, even if that person had all the degrees and honors that this world can bestow upon individual brilliance. It behooves us to look for pragmatic solutions. It just does not make sense to throw away the competitive advantage that the Philippines happens to enjoy by being luckily located such that it receives more solar energy per unit area than countries such as Germany where Prof. Michel comes from. Sen. Miguel Zubiri has taken a step for the Philippines to minimize dependence on expensive, imported mineral oil.

Let us give him and his fellow legislators, our government officials in the energy sector, our scientists and entrepreneurs an opportunity to come up with viable solutions. After all, in time, perhaps in the not too distant future, possibly within the lifetimes of people who now populate Earth, oil from the Middle East, Russia, Venezuela and all the oil exporting countries would be prohibitively expensive. Wouldn't it be nice if at some future time, the Philippines, continuing to receive the sun's rays finds ways to economically capture solar energy and becomes an energy exporter?

Does the possibility of the Philippines becoming one of the new leaders in energy sources bring smiles to our collective faces? How does the prospect of the Philippines becoming the next Saudi (in terms of energy producing capability) sound? After all, the Philippines can expect to receive large amounts of solar energy for a very long time. Please do not take my comments to denigrate the idea of Prof. Michel. If in fact there are practical, cost-effective ways to produce photovoltaic cells which meet energy needs, by all means let us evaluate that possibility and integrate it in our energy grid. As has always been the case, there are many ways to skin a cat.

Ben Peczon, (by email), Jan. 20, 2008

(CEPALCO in Cagayan de Oro operates the biggest solar farm operating in the Third World. It occupies an area of one hectare, surrounded by another hectare to protect it from vandalism. It cost $5 million to build, but it generates less than one megawatt of electricity. Solar energy is not applicable for large towns and cities, only for small users or for individual buildings, houses, factories, or communities. ACA)

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More Reactions to “Presidential Fever” (Jan. 08, 2008)

WOW, thanks a lot, Ton.

Willie Villarama, (by email), Jan. 14, 2008

Former Bulacan congressman and governor

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Dear Mr. Abaya, I did not receive on my e-mail your articles on 'Presidential Fever,' 'Rizal: Underserved Adjectives," and "Post Office Thievery."

I got the 'Wayang in Bali,' 'Most Corrupt President,' and 'Classical Music for 2008.'

The latest e-mail I got from you was this one and before that was your article entitled: 'Son of Cha-Cha.' Just for your info and keep on writing those thought-provoking pieces of yours. Thank you.

Rey Gambe, (by email), Calamba, Laguna, Jan. 14, 2008

(For articles that you or other readers may have missed, please access my website www.tapatt.org or my blogsite acabaya.blogspot.com.

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Tony, If Tony Meloto becomes president, it would be like doing a Lee Kuan Yew for our country. He can be our answer - an honest, honorable man who would be there to serve his country. But would he run for president? I don't think so, unless he's pressured to be our savior. It's not really a far-fetched idea considering the great number of Couples for Christ members, apart from the intelligent voters among us. We should be worried if Mike Velarde would run because the guy might win on the strength of the size of his El Shaddai congregation. Best,

Yett Montalvan, (by email), Jan. 14, 2008

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On Gov. Fr. Ed Panlilio

Dear Tony, I want to share with you this LTE which I sent to Inquirer and Phil. Star. I am not sure whether they will publish it. More power to you,

Arnold van Vugt, (by email), Cagayan de Oro City, Jan 12, 2008

LETTER TO THE EDITOR (Jan. 10, 2008)

Priests in politics

The other day there was a news report that said that bishop Leonardo Medroso of Tagbilaran was cautioning other priests against doing a Gov. Ed Panlilio. ‘There is no more need to enter politics,’ according to Medroso. I think the good bishop is wrong, and so are all the other bishops who say the same. They talk as canon lawyers more than as good shepherds when they say this. But even Canon Law allows priests to take action in situations when the well-being of the laity is in danger. Except for Canon Law there is no biblical or theological basis whatsoever for saying that priests cannot run for a political position. It is a purely disciplinary law, the same as it does not allow a priest to get married. If they would, may be too many priests would run for a political office, or for that matter, would get married. Even Jesus of Nazareth was an ordinary carpenter.

The bishops have imposed a too harsh penalty on Fr. Panlilio by putting him on suspension. He cannot exercise his priestly ministry? Why not? Is there a contradiction between the two ministries, the priestly and the political? Fr. Panlilio has shown as a priest that moral leadership is possible, even in the extraordinary circumstances of Pampanga. Clearly he is driven as a priest by the power of the Holy Spirit. I agree with the suggestion of Fr. Panlilio that bishops and priests should prepare lay people for responsible politics. But it is not only Pampanga that is in extraordinary circumstances, but the whole country of the Philippines as well. Not only the people of Pampanga are in moral danger but all Filipino people are indeed in moral danger. It would not have been that way if only the bishops as one would have exercised their God-given role of prophetic witnesses.

I would like to quote here a few words spoken by the late Archbishop Romero of San Salvador thirty years ago: ‘It is very easy to be servants of the word without disturbing the world; a spiritual word, a word without any connection with history, a word that could sound in any place of the world… Such a word has no problems, doesn’t call for any conflict. What really calls for conflicts and persecution, what really is a sign of a true Church, is the Word that proclaims and denounces, burning as the words of the prophets. The Word that announces to the people of God the wonders of God, the Word that accuses of sin those who obstruct the Kingdom of God, so that they may tear out this sin from their hearts, from their political structures that oppress, corrupt and harm the rights of God and of mankind.’ Blazing words spoken on December 10, 1977!

If the bishops as one would have spoken that prophetic Word, the country today would not be in such a miserable condition, our political system would not have been that corrupt and, most of all, our president would not have been able to continue her reign of deceit and terror.

Arnold van Vugt

P.O. Box 237, Cagayan de Oro City

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GLOBAL FILIPINO NATION SUPPORTS GOV. ED PANLILIO'S MINISTRY OF POLITICS AND GOOD GOVERNANCE

There is a convergence of the goal and strategic directions of the Global Filipino Nation and those of Gov. Ed Panlilio of Pampanga.

The goal of the Global Filipino Nation is effective governance in the Homeland.

Gov. Ed Panlilio has demonstrated that the pursuit of politics could be a clean process, a Ministry of Politics and Good Governance, without the support of special interests and vote buying.

Victory involved the voluntary and offered use of the personal resources of the people, and formally accounting for all political contributions – reversing the opaque practice in Philippine politics.

The centerpiece of Gov. Ed Panlilio candidacy and tenure is effective governance, anchored on good leadership and good governance: inter alia, leadership by example, earned trust, credibility, a vision and rational program for constituents, performance, responsible citizenship, and modest and moral lifestyle.

Within his first 100 days, among others, Gov. Ed Panlilio:

• · Introduced transparency, accountability, integrity and performance in public office;

• Rationalized the evaluation and funding for projects at the provincial and town level;

• · Initiated steps to streamline and tighten operations of local government units;

• · Raised by a significant multiple the level of quarry income; and

• · Attained notable strides in activities relating to health care, education, agriculture and aquaculture, livelihood, and others.

Gov. Ed Panlilio has kindled a light of hope that public service can be honorable and meaningful to the lives of the citizenry.

There are elements that are bent on preventing Gov. Ed Panlilio from continuing to pursue his good governance goal – but they shall not prevail over the will of the people.

The Local Government Code grants a Provincial Governor supervision power over mayors, defines the grounds for disciplinary action that could be brought before the Ombudsman or the Sangunniang Panlalawigan, and empowers the Governor to impose preventive suspension.

The Global Filipino Nation strongly supports Gov. Ed Panlilio's leadership and program of government.

The worldwide community of Filipinos – at home and abroad – will take all steps necessary to prevent special interests and traditional politics from destroying Gov. Ed Panlilio's Ministry of Politics and Good Governance.

The people have spoken. Let their word be enshrined forever.

GLOBAL FILIPINO NATION

(A multi-sectoral association committed to effective governance in the Homeland, composed of overseas Filipino organizations and leaders, their onshore families and onshore Filipinos, located in the Philippines and countries with Filipinos.)

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RX to "Son of ChaCha"

Reactions to “Son of ChaCha”

GMA and Nora Aunor

Benevolent Trapo JDV

Jesse Robredo of Naga City

Hi Tony, Thanks a lot of your email, looking forward to treat you to a steak dinner in Florida! May we know who is the most likely winnable candidate of 2010? Villar, Roxas, Golez, De Castro, Legarda, Estrada, Lacson? The opposition should field only one so us not to dilute the votes. God bless you! Blessings,

Gerry Garay, (by email), Clermont, Florida, Jan. 10, 2008

(I wish I knew but, as things now stand, it will likely be GMA. ACA)

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Dear Tony: GMA can cha-cha her way to a prime minister while all her tutas are following licking and slobbering her heels in pure abandon. What a crapola scenario. Only immoral and mindless-bankrupt people can do the evil dance and feel no guilt what so ever.

But you know what? I can say this much, a dog, is a dog, is a dog. (I will be civil and not use the b----- word) Sure, a dog can wear sheep's clothing but smells like a rat just the same.

Where is the country's priorities in GMA's scheme of things? And how about the Filipino people? Selfish, selfish, selfish. Plain Silly and Don't let it happen. People revolt! Go organize! Don't take any more crap.

Oscar .Apostol., (by email), Roseville, CA, Jan. 10, 2008

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Hi Tony, you're right on. I, too, have consistently maintained that we're headed that way. The premises are being meticulously laid to justify some form of authoritarian rule to sweep cha-cha with the least possible resistance (violence, terror, economic crisis,, peace settlement, etc).

Officially declared authoritarian rule may or may not be necessary, depending on the public's disposition, but it is an option. Anyway, there are other ways of skinning the cat, so to speak, as we can see from its Machiavellian track record, and it will continue to explore the potentials for term extension and push the margins of tolerance. The bottom line is hard power and personal gain, nothing more, nothing less. - Regards,

Raffy Alunan, (by email), Jan. 10, 2008

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Dear Mr. Tony Abaya, With due respect for your contention and fears for CHACHA, I think you have under-estimated the power of the noisy opposition to make a powerful drive against placing a provision disallowing a former chief executive from the old constitution to run for MP. We suggest that a full blown drive to educate the masses about the pros and cons of the suggested provision be fully ventilated before a referendum be taken and an election for MPs be made.

All we are asking is for the form of government be changed to be responsive to the exigences of the times. We are left in a bind in the provisions of the current constitution where most of the provisions are parliamentary but the salient structure is presidential. It is a square peg in a round hole.

Rest assured that a thorough education of the masses and the equally thorough ventilation of the provisions will make the framers more responsive to the clamors of the masses and the safeguards provided against the abusers of power. This is our only chance to restructure a resposive government rather than go on with a very irresponsible kind of government functionaries ( especially Senate and House of Representative). The party-list system provides for double/multiple representation of sectors in Congress. They have already district representation and they are represented again by sectors. Any big religion can one day dictate to the government it protects to overran any safeguards that the constitution has.

I hope you understand my concern and may clarify the issues brought up. Thank you,

Edgar S. Tubianosa, mctobby@yahoo.com, Jan. 10, 2008

(But who are you, and what organization do you represent, that you can confidently say “Rest assured that….” Are you in a position to overrule President Arroyo, FG Mike Arroyo, Sec. Ronaldo Puno, and Sec. Edgardo Ermita….who are the ones who will choreograph the moves in this direction? ACA)

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Dear Tony, You have been writing that Antonio Meloto of Gawad Kalinga would make a good President and I think I know why. Outside of being scrupulously honest, I think you see him as an excellent manager.

High-quality managerial ability has never been the principal characteristic of our Presidents, present and past. It's about time we had a first-rate executive as Chief Executive similar to Paeng Salas, championed by his Salas boys as "the greatest President the Philippines never had." Incidentally, a good number of "Salas boys" became congressmen, Cabinet members, justices, judges, fiscals, journalists and economists. Above all, Salas set a good example.

An emerging Salas-like political personality is Jesse Robredo, incumbent Mayor of Naga City who is mentioned in the article below. He may shape up to become President. A thrifty man, Robredo has proven his managerial skills by running a city which is increasingly becoming prosperous during his administration. Of the four outstanding Local Executives cited in the article, he is the only one who does not belong to a political dynasty.

Robredo garnered high marks for excellence in all aspects of local governance — fiscal, education, health, social services, civil works, tourism and the environment. But he claims that public confidence was earned through collective effort. His managerial style may be defined as participative planning particularly with the help of the Naga City People's Council made up of non-governmental organizations based in the city.

Should we elect a truly reformist President in 2010, Robredo would make an excellent DILG Secretary to erase the department's image as the major political tool the President uses to keep local officials in line. Instead, Robredo will be the inspiration for these officials to exercise maximum self-reliance and efficiency. Jesse Robredo cannot seek re-election as mayor in 2010.

I hope you will be able to look up the legacy Robredo will be leaving behind in Naga City and write an article about him. Yours ever,

Ben Sanchez, (by email), Jan. 10, 2008

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This is absurd.

Gus Cosio, (by email), Jan. 11, 2008

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Tony, In my previous article that came out in two Philippine broadsheets I mentioned and quoted what F.G. Mike T. Arroyo said, Filipinos are stupid to believe that his wife PGMA will quit when her term ends in 2010. Gloria, he further said, will stay in power well beyond that year and it is showing in the off and on ChaCha issues.

To my mind, if ChaCha doesn't fly the way she wants it... she might use the power of her "magic pen" to sign a Proclamation declaring Martial Law in the Philippines with the help her sip-sip Generals in active duty in both the AFP/PNP whose loyalty to her "PGMA" is just like a dog like loyalty to a master-- not to the Constitution. The power of guns and money might frightened the opposition groups and other groupings such as the professional and career non-conformist becuase PGMA might go ballistic and order her Mister-Generals in their funny looking uniforms to finally put an end to their existence. As most everyone konws, she is needs help and I told her so then, thru Bobbi Tiglao on a matter of different issues.

Hopefully, before her 2010 term ends patriotic Filipinos would be angry enough and go full speed ahead and go to the streets in big numbers to oust her from her alleged stolen sit of power not only ones but twice and maybe by then our men in uniform with their similarly angry balls will rise-up from their temporary slamber with their well pressed uniform and newly cleaned and oiled guns with more than enough steal piercing double action bullets and join the oppressed and well abused patriotic Filipinos to protect them from harms and defend the Constitution as our "modern days warriors and modern day heroes" from whatever harms the not so many one ball Gloria's Generals and few brain washed soldiers might inflict on them.

We need change and our fighting modern day warriors together with our patriotic Filipinos can effect this much needed change. From the Western Front.

Mike M. Moreno, (by email), Richmond, BC, Canada, Jan. 11, 2008

Chair-Fil-Am Fil-Can Alliance

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Dear Mr. Abaya, A Blessed and a Happy New Year to you, your family and your staff!

In revealing the maneuverings of powerful politicians in the government, even mentioning their names, you are saying that the wolverine is changing its camouflage before pouncing on the docile sheep. It's strategically and shamelessly Marcosian. If the Constitution is blocking their way, why -- change it! Use any pretense. After becoming prime minister, what is going to stop the PM from becoming a benevolent dictator.

The problem with us is, we boldly expose, we loudly complain, we furiously rant and then, after all that, we grovel.

Why don't we please offer an alternative? For example, let's call on Gov. Ed Panlilio to oppose this evil scheme. He does not have to run for President. All he has to do is to call on all governors to become examples of good goverment as inspired by the late President Magsaysay. These governors can form a formidable band of crusaders for good government instead of just being a gang of gladiators for Malacanang.

Lionel Tierra, (by email), Sacramento, CA, Jan.12, 2008

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Your GMA forever ending clause is probably giving ABS CBN the jitters. Is this probably the reason why they are accusing GMA 7 of cheating in the viewer ratings? Obvious and subtle dynamics are creating unintended effects on other matters. e.g. ABS CBN is kapamilya, erap is kapamilya. So...? Is GMA for GMA 7? Is GMA7 pro PGMA? How abbreviations and themes can create subtle plays in the minds of easily swayed people. Wala lang.

Felix Zamar, (by email), Jan. 12, 2008

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Dear Tony, I share your skepticism about the holding of a Presidential Election in 2010. Unless those who are opposed to GMA from becoming prime minister after 2010 join forces, it is likely that Cha-Cha will happen before 2010.

Among the two: People’s Initiative and approval by both houses of Congress, I think that People’s Initiative is more likely to succeed because they just need to correct/remedy its defects that made the Supreme Court invalidate it as the getting of the 5 million (?) signatures is relatively easy. I also think that approval by both houses of Congress is almost certain not to happen because majority in the Senate are opposed to Cha-Cha.

In this regard, it would be good if interested parties brainstorm how the People’s Initiative could be prevented from succeeding.

This thought just occurred to me: How about holding a negative People’s Initiative re those who are opposed to [Cha-Cha/GMA becoming prime minister] at the same time that a positive People’s Initiative (for Cha-Cha) is being undertaken by Kampi(?)? Although this may not legally invalidate a positive People’s Initiative, it could make the holding of Cha-Cha which includes the change from presidential to parliamentary unpopular and undemocratic if the number of signatures obtained by the negative People’s Initiative is much bigger than the number of signatures obtained by the positive People’s Initiative. From a concerned citizen

Nars Silverio, (by email), Jan. 14, 2008

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Dear Mr Abaya, I'm so grateful and happy about your articles and opinions sent to your email forwarded to my email by you. Interesting and mind-boggling pieces, indeed!

What bothers me, as of now, is the big question whether or not a change must be done in our system of government. To my mind it is not Gloria or whoever would be at the helm. The problem is how to get rid of the unqualified, undeserving people to win and run the affairs of our government. We cannot trust the electorate anymore than the Comelec, can we?

Are political dynasties here to stay? Will honorable seats in the Senate continue to be occupied by father and daughter, mother and son, brother and sister, actors, actresses, comedians, broadcasters, basketball players, who got there by way of populalrity.

I think an incision has to be done no matter how painful. I think a second thought should be given to charter change.

We have gone to the dogs. Should the country continue wallowing in the mud? Let's open the windows for fresh air to come in. If Charter Change and federalism will prove good, why not? Sincerely,

Lourdes Oben Santos, (by email), Jan. 15, 2008

(But suppose Charter Change and federalism do not “prove good,” we would be stuck with GMA Forever and an Islamic federal state taking over Western Mindanao, plus Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan and Palawan? What do we do then? ACA)

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GMA and Nora Aunor

Good morning Mr. Abaya.. First of all, I want you to know that I always thank God for you! You , with your brilliant mind, your boldness, and your intense desire for turning our country to a path of righteousness and freedom. I salute you and I wish I could also do something for our country and our people.

My purpose for this letter is to inquire about the monies sent by GMA to Nora Aunor when the latter was going through legal battles here in the US. Some sources told me that GMA was sending money to her thru our local Los Angeles Philippine Embassy to pay for her legal expenses. I want the GMA administration to divulge to the public as to whose money was it? or where did it come from? Was it from GMA's personal pocket? or from a humanitarian fund? or from donations? or from the public fund?

The reason I am asking is that, Nora's dilemma was of her own making.... and what ever sorry state she was or is in is not our government or our people's burden. When she (Nora) had money in her heydays... did she ever think of the poor and the needy? No! she was busy partying, getting drunk and drugged, and never cared for anyone but herself. So why now would our government financially support her on something that is immoral and a self made and self sought drug problem..... ?

I trust that you will find answers to this. Thank you and more power to you. Joining you wholeheartedly in your quest for the betterment of our beloved country,

Claire Felicen-Flores, (by email), Los Angeles, CA, Jan. 05, 2008

www.rgfentertainment.com

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In case Benevolent Trapo JDV no longer the Speaker


“Anggapoy pinili, anggapoy nilabi (No one is favored, no one is discriminated)” boomed by Speaker Joe de Venecia recently before the newly elected 140 Barangay Captains who paid obeisance to him, and of course to be sworn at his residence in Bonuan This rhythmic sounding vernacular was in reference to the one million peso he will be giving to each of them for the welfare of their village.

In the past, the Speaker was ubiquitously generous in giving goodies like a mini van to each barangay, multi-million worth of flyovers in Dagupan City, poured P 662.7 Million worth of infrastructures at the 4th District prior to the start of the May 2007 National and Local Polls, and has just pledged P 17.5 Million to bankroll the seed capital of the Micro-Finance Bank in Dagupan City. All taken or to be taken from his Priority Development Assistance Fund A.K.A Pork Barrel.


Indeed, a Lot of money if one is to compare it for an ordinary congressman who is worth only P 70 Million a year before his constituents?
But JDV is no ordinary congressman. JDV is the Super Congressman of the House of Representatives whose office is powered by a P 3.5 Billion annual appropriation from the national coffer for him to spend as he wishes.

As what the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (as posted by Alex Pabico at his Internet Blog on July 30, 2007) says: “The House Speaker is himself a source of funds with a vast discretionary largesse at his disposal. From this are mostly drawn the representatives’ monthly allowances (which can range from P50,000 to P100,000), Christmas bonuses (P100,000 to 200,000), as well as the “payoffs" for votes during Speaker ship contests and “appearance fees" (P50,000 as minimum) for attending plenary sessions to vote on crucial national bills. Under de Venecia, who has won an unprecedented fifth term as Speaker, the 14th House is not likely to veer away from the usual practice. Isn’t it high time that the public demanded greater financial accountability from their representatives?”

This gigantic perk makes even his supporters in the local level toe the line and swore their extra ordinary loyalty to him come hell or high water.
His annihilation of multi-millionaire Benjie S. Lim in the last congressional poll only attests how wide his networks of leaders and wherewithal.

But will the political seasoned JDV sustains this financial prowess after the allies in the Lower House of President Gloria M. Arroyo struck their knives at him anytime next year? In the light of the House Committee on Justice rejecting the Impeachment try filled by Atty. Ruel Pulido that eventually resulted for GMA to be insulated for any impeachment try until November 2008.

The impending House coup is borne after his son and namesake Jose de Venecia III fingered the First Gentleman to conspire with the $ 329.5 aborted broad band deal of China's Zhong Xing Telecommunications (ZTE) that was obnoxiously reeking with anomalies.
Aggravated by the Speaker acrimoniously and incessantly telling several public fora that he asked for a deadline the president of the land to carry a moral revolution that will start from the perch of government – a clear insinuation that the president herself is part of the rottenness of the
system.

As quoted by Inquirer.Net last October 23, 2007 : “Madame President, we urge you to signal your determination to use these two-and-a half years that remain of your tenure to lead this moral revolution in our public life by completing these initial reforms over these next 100 days,” he said
What add insults to injury to his paradoxical moral revolution pronouncement was it comes from a man who was the epitome of what is corruption to this most corrupt country in Asia as perceived by a political science professor who asked anonymity here in Dagupan City.

“JDV is suspected to have anomalous actuations as he was dragged into the multi-million PEA-Amari Deal (tagged as grandmother of all scams under the Ramos Administration), acquired P 15 Billion private debts from his defunct Land Oil Resources Corp., accused by Senator Juan Ponce Enrile to intervene in the multi-million North Rail be constructed by the Chinese, and a staunch defender of the pork barrel allocation” he added.

Without JDV as Speaker, without JDV holding that P 3.5 Billion yearly pork, without JDV being the Don Corleone of the House, and with JDV transform as an ordinary congressman who squirmy appropriate the measly P 70 Million Pork every year to the drooling village chiefs, consultants, contractors ,and supporters, will the said people still maintain their unconditional loyalties to the favorite son of Dagupan despite the uncertainty of whether they still get the monitorial manna they used to enjoy when JDV’s was still the highest whip of the lower house?

Or will they be vulnerable to the machination of Malacanang’s point man (who will replace JDV as the source of the proverbial dole outs in the 4th district) that will totally reduce if not extinguish any influence JDV can still hold in the politics of the said District?

Now to reiterate with gusto the innovated title of this article: What happen incase the benevolent trapo JDV is no longer a Speaker in 2008?

Marcelo Ortigoza, (by email), Dagupan City, Jan. 10, 2008

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(Forwarded to Tapatt by Ben Sanchez)

Jesse Robredo: Leadership in the frontlines

By Isa Lorenzo, The Daily PCIJ,

December 28,

There are many good examples of Filipino leaders — at the local level.

The Ateneo School of Government's book "Frontline Leadership: Stories of 5 Local Chief Executives," tells some of their tales.

Incumbent Naga City Mayor Jesse Robredo, former San Fernando mayor Mary Jane Ortega, former Bulacan governor Josie de la Cruz, former Surigao del Norte governor Lyndon Barbers, and an anonymous former Visayas governor, MP, all have different leadership styles, yet their brand of management proved to be effective in running their city and provinces.

Naga City, for example, has seen increasing prosperity under Robredo's watch. "Although to attribute everything to Robredo is an exaggeration, the mayor's managerial skills and fiscal acumen have indeed been pivotal to Naga's economic boom," says the book.

Robredo is known for his people skills, which even his critics concede. "(H)is ability to deal with all sorts of people makes him a formidable political force," says the book.

One of Robredo's innovations is the Naga City People's Council, a federation of Naga-based non-governmental organizations. The council acts as a check to local government.

In addition, the city's systems, business licensing procedures and other possible transactions have been uploaded to its official website in order to promote greater transparency.

Robredo has also cultivated a thrifty image. He says that his style of leadership is collective in nature. "All the triumphs that we have achieved in all aspects of governance — fiscal, social services, education, health, infrastructure, and civil works as well as tourism and the environment — are certainly not the work of of only one man. It is a product of our collective effort with every stakeholder as a key player."

Unlike Robredo, Ortega is a part of a political dynasty. She, however, sees this as a big advantage. "While the family provides the necessary political machinery and her talent for communication provides the political tool, Ortega's performance has been one of the major factors that have kept her in office for almost a decade," says the book.

Ortega has been criticized for being too confrontational. Yet her management has resulted in a slew of awards for both her and San Fernando . Under her term, the city was named first in the Asian Institute of Management's Competitive Cities in the small cities category.

"Mayor Ortega's leadership results from a confluence of the traditional and the managerial. She is a member of a political dynasty, but her stay in power is also due to her performance as a public manager," adds the book.

De la Cruz, meanwhile, is credited for bureaucratic reforms and innovative programs on education, health, social services, and economic development. She says that she uses humility and consensus-building in problem-solving.

While de la Cruz has effective programs, these are directly attributable to her, often by means of large billboards scattered throughout Bulacan.

Barbers, for his part, is said to be a strict disciplinarian with his staff. His system of governance is often described as systematic and strategic.

The last local executive, MP, is described as having people-oriented leadership, with an emphasis on the human face. The book says that the hallmarks of her leadership practices as governor are the following: a "hands-on style of leadership and management, sense of shared accountability, consultative attitude, a service orientation, a projected presence, and concern for generating resources."

To be sure, these local executives are not perfect. Robredo has over 70 cases at the Ombudsman. Most of these have been dismissed, however, either for lack of merit or lack of probable cause.

Observers also say that because Robredo has performed so well, it would be difficult to find someone who could match or surpass his achievements. Robredo can no longer seek re-election in 2010.

Ortega has been criticized for being too frank and for being part of a political dynasty.

While de la Cruz has acquired a reputation as a reformist, some also say that she is becoming a traditional politician, especially by choosing her brother as her successor. There are also allegations that she has allowed relatives to land lucrative government contracts, and that she and her staff traveled abroad on official time and at taxpayers' expense far too often.

Barbers is also part of a political dynasty. He is perceived by some as being too strict, and his family has been accused of playing both sides of the field.

MP, also a member of a political dynasty, is said to be too accommodating.

The fact that a majority of the leaders profiled are members of political dynasties shows the influence of families in the way Filipino politicians exercise leadership, according to the book.

Despite their failings, it is clear that these five leaders have been able to carry out reforms in their cities and provinces. The book says that they exemplify a centrifugal view of leadership, and that this "allows them to look beyond themselves in the course of carrying out their tasks and responsibilities."

This also enables them to have a firm faith in the ability of others to lead the community better and to deliver results more efficiently, given the necessary tools. While many of the local executives still subscribe to traditional practices such as visiting weddings and funerals, the innovations each of them has made have allowed them to effect change. *****

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GMA's Successes

By Antonio C. Abaya

Written on Jan. 16, 2008

For the Standard Today,

January 17 issue

There should be no doubt or argument about it. The Philippine economy has done better under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo than under any of her predecessors since Ferdinand Marcos.

In the last two years under President Marcos, the economy contracted or shrunk by about nine percent. The assassination of the beloved Ninoy Aquino on August 21, 1983 spawned massive capital flight, which in turn caused the exchange rate to balloon, if memory serves, from about 20 to 60 pesos to one US dollar.

As wealthy families and investors, both domestic and foreign, scrambled to change their pesos into dollars, inflation soared to double-digit levels, the likes of which have not been known by most Filipinos now living, except during the Japanese Occupation.

This economic meltdown, combined with moral outrage over such a dastardly act, moved the usually complacent middle-class to political activism, which manifested itself in weekly street demonstrations against the Marcos Regime. The presence of a well-known figure around whom the middle-class could rally – Ninoy’s widow, Cory Aquino – gave the public protests the animus it needed, as it snow-balled into the snap elections of February 1986.

Under Cory, the Philippine GDP grew 3.5 percent in 1986. 4.3 in 1987, 6.8 in 1988, 6.2 in 1989. The coup attempt in December 1989 by then Col. Gringo Honasan and then Capt. Danilo Lim dragged the GDP down to 4.4 in 1990, and subsequently to negative 0.6 in 1991. The average GDP under Cory was 4.1 percent.

Under President Fidel Ramos, GDP grew 0.3 percent in 1992, 2.1 in 1993, 4.4 in 1994, 4.7 in 1995, 5.8 in 1996, and 5.2 in 1997. The Asian Financial Crisis that started in July 1997 dragged the GDP down to negative 0.6 in 1998 as it devastated economies all over the world. The average GDP under President Ramos was 3.1.

It should be mentioned that the low GDPs in 1992 and 1993 were due, not just to the coup attempts of Honasan-Lim in December 1989, but also to the daily power outages of up to 8-hours that plagued the economy.

And the power outages were due largely to the mothballing by President Aquino of the 620 mw Bataan nuclear power plant just before it was to be commissioned, a concession to the anti-US bases and anti-nuclear agitation of the Communist movement. The slack would have been taken up by the 300 mw Calaca plant and the 300 mw Masinloc plant, both coal-fired, but the commissioning of these plants was blocked by environmentalists.

The net effect was that thousands of businesses and industries, and tens of thousands of families were forced to buy and operate their own generators, thus creating as much pollution as, or even more than, Calaca and Masinloc put together. There is a lesson to be learned here, but I doubt if Filipinos have learned it. But I digress.

Under President Joseph Estrada, GDP grew 3.4 percent in 1999 and 4.0 in 2000, until he was deposed from office in January 2001 by a military coup d’etat pretending to be people power. The average GDP under President Estrada was 3.7 percent.

Under President Arroyo, GDP grew 1.8 percent in 2001, 4.3 in 2002, 4.7 in 2003, 6.0 in 2004, 5.1 in 2005, 5.6 in 2006 and 7.1 in 2007. The average GDP under President Arroyo was 4.94 percent. Forecasts for 2008 range from 5.0 to 6.7 percent.

(It takes GDP growth rate of at least 8 percent per annum for 20 years for an economy to reach First World status. This is the level of the achievement of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, from the 1970s to the 1990s.)

Under President Arroyo, the economy has developed an upward momentum. And the biggest element in this upward momentum is the remittances from overseas contract workers, which will reach $14 to !5 billion in 2007, compared to practically zero in the 1970s..

The corollary is that if Presidents Aquino, Ramos and Estrada enjoyed a $10 to $15 billion annual OCW windfall during their watch, the GDP during their presidencies would have been substantially higher. (If any reader has the annual figures for OCW remittances staring in 1980, I would appreciate receiving them.)

The other corollary is that if President Arroyo did not have this $10 to $15 billion annual OCW windfall, the Philippine economy under her management would not have grown as much as it has in the past five years.

This is not to say that President Arroyo did not make any substantial contribution to economic growth from her own initiatives. Far from it. Her biggest success, in my opinion, is the growth of the call center-business outsourcing industry, which now employs more than 200,000 young, urban middle-class Filipinos, and is still growing fast.

If one were to revisit her Mid-term Development Plan, which was drafted at the start of her presidency in 2001, one would note that it had three major foci: agriculture, tourism and information technology or IT. So the call-center phenomenon was an Arroyo initiative and it is a major success, for which she deserves full credit.

The passage and implementation of the EVAT. is also an Arroyo success, which substantially increased government revenues, enabling it – theoretically at least – to invest more in infrastructure and social services.

But this has its limits, which may have been reached already, judging from the frantic efforts to sell government assets, such as those in the power sector. Without the sale of government assets, the government seems to be running out of money. Economists tell us that a government’s tax collection efforts should amount to at least 16 percent of GDP.

Even with his dictatorial powers, President Marcos could manage only 9 to 12 percent. Presidents Aquino and Ramos were able to raise it to 13 to 14 percent. President Arroyo may have been the first president to raise that percentage to 15-16 percent, but apparently not much more than that, which suggest unresolved problems from chronic tax evasion and smuggling.

President Arroyo has also achieved moderate success in tourism, one of the three foci in her Midterm Development Plan. Tourist arrivals topped three million in 2007, for the first time ever. I say ‘moderate’ because Thailand drew 13 million tourists, Malaysia 16 million, in the same period.

In 1991, Indonesia and the Philippines drew more or less the same number of tourists: one million. Since then, Indonesia’s tourist arrivals have reached five million, despite the Bali and Jakarta bombings, while we are celebrating only three million. Don’t look now, but tiny Cambodia just topped two million in 2007, and Vietnam is investing heavily to develop its entire South China Sea coast into a tourist magnet..

President Arroyo’s third economic focus: agriculture is, in my opinion, a mixed bag. Even assuming that production has increased in some sectors, the stark fact remains that we are not self sufficient in such staples as rice, corn, sugar, poultry, etc and must import several billion dollars worth every year to meet domestic demand.

This by the country that set up the UP College of Agriculture in Los Banos (when the Americans were running this place), and hosts the International Rice Research Institute (also established by the Americans), both of which trained the agriculturists of Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia etc, which ironically now surpass us in agricultural production.

Perhaps the weakness of our agriculture is not a paucity of modern technology, but an oversupply of people, because of a galloping population growth rate. In the 1970s, the Philippines and Thailand had more or less the same population size: 45 million.

Because it had a population management program all these years, in 2007 Thailand had only 65 million people, while the Philippines had 89 million. By any yardstick of commonsense, it is easier to feed, clothe, house, educate and find jobs for 65 million people than 89 million.

For this, President Arroyo must share the blame with Presidents Marcos, Aquino and Estrada, for their wishy-washy attitude towards population management and their fear of offending the Roman Catholic bishops. (Only the Protestant President Ramos dared to defy the bishops on this issue.)

In summary, it can be said that President Arroyo’s relative success in managing the economy can be credited largely to the $10-$15 billion windfall from OCW remittances.

Therefore it is not accurate to claim that there is no alternative to or substitute for her. In fact it can be said that the increase in workers deployed abroad – about one million a year – is due to her failure, and the failure of her predecessors, to create enough jobs in the domestic economy, forcing millions of Filipinos to seek employment abroad.

This means that she can be replaced by such reasonably qualified wannabes as Mar Roxas, Manuel Villar, Richard Gordon, Loren Legarda, or Panfilo Lacson – even by Governor Fr. Ed Among Panlilio or Antonio Meloto – and the economy would still chug along at least at the same pace as it does today, as long as whoever succeeds her enjoys the $10-$15 billion windfall from workers’ remittances.

The $64,000 Question is: who among the actual or potential contenders can provide the MORAL LEADERSHIP that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has so spectacularly failed to provide. *****

Reactions to tonyabaya@gmail.com. Other articles in www.tapatt.org and in acabaya.blogspot.com

On Bio-fuels and Glorietta

By Antonio C. Abaya

Written on Jan. 14, 2008

For the Standard Today

January 15, 2008

Knowing that I have a degree in Chemistry (from Northwestern University), the Philippine organizers of the recently held 10^th Eurasia Conference on Chemical Sciences had asked me last December to devote a column on the conference, especially since four Nobel laureates in Chemistry were going to attend to read papers during the forum.

I agreed on condition that at least one of the four would be reading a paper related to the phenomena of global warming and climate change.. Unfortunately that was not to be the case: all the papers were on esoteric and highly technical subjects in Chemistry that would have been of no interest to the general readership of this column.

But fortunately the organizers thought of holding a Nobel Forum last Jan. 9, after the conference, to which the general public and the media were invited, and where the Nobel laureates talked about more mundane matters of current interest.

Dr. Hartmut Michel, co-winner with two other chemists of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on photosynthesis, gave some wise words of caution to the Philippine government that rushing to bio-fuels was “counter-productive.” (Philippine Daily Inquirer, Jan. 14).

“When you calculate how much of the sun’s energy is stored in plants, it is below one percent…When you convert into bio-fuel, you add fertilizer, and then harvest the plants. There is not real energy gained in bio-fuels.”

Bio-fuels include bio-ethanol (fermented from sugar, corn, cassava, etc), bio-diesel (extracted from palm, coconut, jatropha fruits), and biomass (from solid waste and agricultural waste).

“When you burn the forest (to plant bio-fuel crops), you produce too much carbon dioxide, which you cannot save in the next several hundred years. ….We should not put money in bio-fuel development. It’s counter-productive….”

Are President Arroyo and Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri listening?

Dr. Michel did not mention the other negative about bio-fuel, that when farm producers switch from food crops to higher-priced bio-fuel crops, the land area devoted to food crops is diminished and food prices go up. The world market price for wheat, for example, has gone up by 22 percent in the past six months, which is why our pan-de-sal has recently gone up in price from.P2.00 to P2.50 per piece. I wrote about this in my article of Dec. 17, 2007 titled Wayang in Bali.

http://www.geocities.com/dapat_tapatt/wayang.html

In an article in the Dec. 12 issue of washingtonpost.com, Economist Robert J. Samuelson wrote that because of worldwide divergence of farmlands from food crops to bio-fuel crops “the prices of basic grains (wheat, corn) and oilseeds (soybeans) have soared. Corn that had been selling at about $2 a bushel is now more than $3; wheat that had been averaging $3 to $4 a bushel has recently hovered around $9. Because feed grains are a major cost in meat, dairy and poultry production, retail prices have also risen. In the US, dairy prices are up 13 percent in 2007; egg prices have risen 42 percent in the past year. Other countries are also experiencing (food price) increases….”

Again, are President Arroyo and Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri listening?

Since we are talking practical chemistry here, I would like to comment on the Philippine National Police’s “final report” on the explosion that severely damaged the Glorietta 2 shopping mall in Makati City last Oct. 19. In my articles Glorietta LPG Blast (Oct. 22) and Tiptoeing around LPG (Oct. 31), I stated my opinion that the blast was caused by a gas build-up, not by a terrorist’s bomb:

http://www.geocities.com/dapat_tapatt/glorietta.html

http://www.geocities.com/dapat_tapatt/tiptoeing.html

But I disagreed and still disagree that the gas was methane. I still think it was LPG. The PNP based its methane theory on the fact that the pumps in the sub-basement – which were supposed to pump out the mostly liquid waste from the building’s toilets and restaurant kitchens to the city’s sewerage line – had malfunctioned the previous five days and thus may indeed have caused methane gas to build up in the basement. I argued in my articles that five days were not enough time for methane gas to accumulate to the volume needed to cause such a large explosion. Solid waste takes about ten days to generate methane; waste diluted by the toilets’ flush water and the kitchens’ wash water would take much longer.

The PNP claims that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Australian Federal Police and an Israeli security consultant employed by the NAIA all concurred that it was a gas explosion, not a terrorist’s bomb. But only the Israeli has been directly quoted. Why? What did the FBI and the Australians actually say in their reports? Did they disagree with the PNP on which gas caused the explosion?

The PNP also said that there were two explosions (which is correct), but that one minute and 45 seconds separated the two blasts. This long time gap seems to have been inserted to explain that the methane blast caused the standby generator’s diesel fuel – which does not vaporize or gasify at room temperature – to also explode.

But the maximum temperature in the basement and sub-basement would have been reached at the moment of the explosion, not one minute and 45 seconds later, by which time the room temperature would have gone down appreciably. Besides the lone survivor who was interviewed on ANC by Chiqui Roa talked as if the two blasts occurred one after the other, not one minute and 45 seconds apart, which is quite a long time in the sequence of events..

According to my informant, who has done contractual repair work for Ayala Land and its lessee, Makati Supermarket Corp. in the premises, there were LPG cylinders in the basement, to which the kitchens of at least three busy restaurants – Luk Yuen, Kimpura, and Peking Garden - were connected by copper tubing. Considering how busy these restaurants must have been at 1;30 pm on a Friday afternoon, it is reasonable to assume that there were at least ten restaurant-size 50 kg LPG cylinders in the basement on that day. Enough to cause the severe damage that the shopping mall suffered, plus the death of 11 persons and the injuries to 108 others.

My informant also said that all those who had done work in the premises were required by Ayala on Oct. 22 to sign a written promise not to talk to media about the incident. But, of course, that is mere hearsay. Ayala has always insisted that it was a terrorist’s bomb that blew up, apparently for insurance liability purposes.

Just last Christmas Day, a suicide bomber exploded his vehicle next to a truck delivering cooking gas cylinders in the city of Baiji in northern Iraq. The twin explosion killed 25 people, injured 88, and severely damaged buildings in the immediate neighborhood.

On June 29 in London, two Mercedes-Benz sedans, parked in the Haymarket theatre district and nearby Park Lane, were each found to contain cooking gas cylinders, plus cans of gasoline and tens of thousands of nails. That the two improvised explosive devices failed to explode – the bomber was apparently an amateur who may have made the same mistake in the wiring of the two bombs – can be ascribed to pure luck. According to British police, if the two bombs had exploded, “hundreds of people” would have been killed.

This is not say that the Glorietta explosion was set off by a bomb. In the absence of bomb fragments or shrapnel, a bomb crater and/or substantial nitrate deposits in Ground Zero, one cannot conclude that it was a bomb, especially since no one has claimed credit for it. But it does say that cooking gas – whether methane or butane/propane in LPG - can be just as lethal.

At this late date, there is still one way to determine with finality whether it was a bomb or a gas explosion.

Of the eleven people who were killed, seven died instantly, and four died from their injuries hours or days later. The four who died of injuries later were breathing the air in the vicinity during and immediately after the explosion.

Assuming their families give permission, their bodies can be exhumed and autopsied, especially the lining of their lungs, windpipes and sinus cavities, to determine what substance or substances had been deposited there. If nitrate residue is substantially present, then it was a bomb. If there is nothing but carbon ash, then it was either methane or LPG.

Neither media nor the PNP have provided a diagram to show where the 11 persons who died were at the time of the explosion.. From what I have gleaned from media accounts, two were killed by wreckage from the partially collapsed escalator on the ground floor of the mall, while two women were killed instantly by the concussion as they alighted from their taxi which had stopped at street level at the mouth of the basement entrance.

In the absence of information about where the others died, this would suggest that the full force of the blast traveled in a straight line from somewhere near the basement entrance – where the LPG cylinders were allegedly stored – and not in the basement and sub-basement where the methane gas was said to have accumulated and from where the force of the blast would have had to climb a flight of stairs and bounce off several walls before reaching the basement entrance and the taxi parked outside... *****

Reactions to tonyabaya@gmail.com. Other articles in www.tapatt.org and in acabaya.blogspot.com

RX to "Presidential Fever"

Reactions to “Presidential Fever”

Reactions to “Rizal: Undeserved Adjectives”

More Reactions to “Wayang in Bali”

More Reactions to “Most Corrupt President”

More Reactions to “Classical Music for 2008”

More Reactions to “Post Office Thievery”

Articles on Pakistan and the Financial Crisis

Tony, This reader will make a fearless forecast on who will be the president in the 2010 election: It will be Noli de Castro.

First of all, he is more politically astute than people credit him for. Look, he is on radio every weekend from 8 to 10 am; who else has that regularity of coverage. In that program he can call any cabinet member, governor, mayor, bureau director, name it and take him to task on the air. He even does it very diplomatically while sounding authoritative.
Furthermore, I think ABS-CBN will let him keep that slot until the 2010 campaign commences fro obvious reasons.

Secondly, he managed to get GMA to let him run his show in public housing, the Pag-ibig and social welfare agencies. No matter how you cut it, he has a lot of exposure among the masses and government largesse to support his image. GMA obviously lets him do that in order to keep him friendly and supportive.

Finally, (and I am sure there are still other reasons), the elecorate have this illusion that a
sitting vice president is likely the experienced candidate for the head honcho's job. That's a package that is so easy to sell plus the fact that he has managed to shy away from any controversies.

Don't underestimate this guy; he may not have displayed flashes of brilliances but I am convinced that he has been methodically planting his political seeds. Moreover, the masses can easily identify with him the way they did with Erap. Noli may just be
stronger than anyone thinks especially when the media machine of ABS-CBN gets behind him.

What we should do then is find ways and means to make him accountable to the wider media rather than exclusively to ABS-CBN. We should also set up feedback and accountability measures within business and social groupings even before he ascends to power. Transparency networks should be on his heels even now (as a matter of fact they should be on the heels of all strong front runners) to put the pressure of good governance putting forward even as early as now potential cabinet members who can do the job of
cleaning up and streamlining the bureaucracy. My thoughts.

Gus Cosio, (by email), Jan. 08, 2008

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As the drama in the U.S. primaries continues to grip every true blooded politicos in the country, the media keep on churning analyses if not yarns of impossible dreams of a number of presidential wannabes as seen in the precious pages of newspapers.

In the third quarter of 2007, I was asked in a survey thru a text message from my former editor-in-chief at the defunct Evening Paper and former press secretary, Rod T. Reyes whom I should vote for in 2010.

Unless we revert to the two-party system, throw the books at erring election officials and computerize the voting system, the Filipinos would still remain a poor victim of a rotten election process.

Niel Enrile Narca, (by email), Jan. 08, 2008

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Hi Tony Interesting about the NOEL via the current constitution for 2010.

But my bet says its pushing thru. But also I think the wannabes are just more of the same..traditional and DIRTY politics. Lets look the other way. GO and TU and LP/NP ??

NONE OF THE ABOVE (NOTA!!)

If we keep doing the same things, we end up in a worst situation. Iits proven over 30 years!! NOTA!! God bless our country!!

Eric Manalang, (by email), Jan. 08, 2008

Ang Kapatiran Party

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Hello, Mr. Abaya,
Would you know of a web page to visit to learn a bit more of Mr. Meloto?
All the best,

Gabriel Ripoll jr, (by email), Jan. 08, 2008.

(You can access the website gawadkalinga.org. Or you can google Antonio Meloto or Tony Meloto. Or you can access my article “Meloto’s Vision” in www.tapatt.org. ACA)

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Tony, Tony Meloto is our best bet. Let’s start a Tony Meloto for President Movement (TMPM). We need a leader like Tony who will inspire the rich to share their wealth, and inspire the poor to rise from poverty. Gawad Kalinga is patriotism in action. I just hope and pray that Tony will not become another trapo. That he will use the power of the presidency to rebuild our country and unite our people. TONY MELOTO FOR PRESIDENT!

Ody Lumanglas, (by email), Auckland, New Zealand, Jan. 08, 2008

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Sir Tony, What I have in mind as an alternative in the likes of Manny V Pangilinan (MVP - Manny Vying for President) a self made man, he was an icon in the business sector, he saved those bankrupt businesses to resurrect with his proven abilities and experiences most especially his business know-how. The man behind in unifying the basketball association is the right man for 2010. Let's get out of the TRAPOS with a new color and have a new breed of leader with respect and dignity that we may be proud of as a Pilipino. This is just a thought but not a bad dream. Best regards and Mabuhay!!

Cesar D Mangalindan, (by email), Jan. 08, 2008

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Now it's on again (or it's always been on?): this Philippine national pasttime of political gaming. Presidential elections are still some years away and yet they are already betting in the political casino.

How about solving first the more urgent problems of the nation, like the problem of reduced peso income of OFW's and exporters? No, politicians are not concerned in such mundane issues; they won't make money out of them.

(Sen. Mar Roxas has proposed that the government temporarily waive the 12% VAT on oil and oil products for six months. But this has been rejected by the Finance Department on the grounds that it would reduce tax collection by P54 billion. Instead President Arroyo has proposed to reduce the import tariff on oil and oil products from 3% to 2%, and if necessary to 1%. ACA)

Our politicos will never understand why we have lagged behind our more prosperous Far East/Southeast Asian neighbors; why OFW's are always ridiculed or embarrassed by this political plague.

Elmer Sr. Fabroa, (by email), Jan. 08, 2008

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If Tony Meloto has done more for his countrymen as the head of a charitable organization than all of the aspiring wannabes combined, then why would he wanted to be one among them? Tarnish his name? There are many other vocations and jobs where one person can do most good to his or her fellow being and its not surprising that some would prefer to stay where they believe they can be of most useful.

And with a few exception, being the President of the Philippines is not one among them..

Sincerely,

Victor Sanoy, (by email), Toronto, Ont., Canada, Jan. 08, 2008

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Hi, Tony! I always enjoy your commentaries about the political moro-moro that's happening there! Now comes labu-labo among ambitious wannabes from what's left of has-been political parties and the barasuhan tactics being used by the incumbent. Masaya sana . . . . yung nga lang, ang taong-bayan ang naiipit sa sagupaan ng mga magnanakaw na politiko!

I share your curiosity as to why any political party hasn't asked Tony Meloto to be its standard bearer for the presidency. Because he's too honest, maybe? For that matter, has any political party asked Father Ed Panlilio to run for President? How come honest men are not drafted? Because they can't get any kickbacks or payolas from these honest people, plain and simple! Nakakahiya!

Rome Farol, (by email), Highlands Ranch, Colorado, Jan. 09, 2008

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Tony, You mentioned, “And there is Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro who has…………what in the name of Magsaysay has he actually done to merit the presidency?”

Believe it or not, but I happened to have read your posting as I was waiting to see Secretary Teodoro at his office this morning concerning the hullabaloo about the so-called National ID which came out after the 8 January AFP Command Conference at Camp Aguinaldo that I decided to mention to him your comment. His shocking (to me) reply: “Mr Abaya is right!”

I think the mention of Gilbert Teodoro’s name came about because of several circumstances: we are all looking for new heroes as alternatives to (rightly or wrongly) what are perceived to be traditional politicians who cannot bring us out of the doldrums; he is currently in the position that the great RM was in (followed by FVR, who in my opinion – and that of the business community -- did quite well); he was a bar topnotcher; he had a good 9-year record in the House; and so far he has been doing a good job in the short time he has been in Defense.

That his name was bandied about in media as presidentiable resulted from public statements from media men themselves during the MOPC Night as well as occasional interviews and, especially from some Congressmen who made such duly-recorded public statements during the last budget hearing in Nov-Dec (which I myself witnessed).

But whether or not Gilbert Teodoro is presidentiable today does not negate the possibility that this gentleman has the personality, the ability and the gumption to prove himself and earn that much desired approval rating from responsible and credible opinion makers, in which field you excel. I think his quick reply is quite indicative of his humble character that is much needed in government today. Keep up the good work.

Chuck (Carlos L. Agustin), (by email), Jan. 09, 2008

President, National Defense College of the Philippines

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Dear Mr. Abaya: With all the noise as to who should be the next president of this country, we ordinary citizens must pause and re-think, firstly, if we should join the political crowd and sing praises, like a knee-jerk reaction, to those whose names are paraded by spin masters as the best person to lead this nation. And secondly, if the alternatives being presented possess the character, inherent and otherwise, that would awaken the people's imagination, hence, create an atmosphere for the blossoming of our collective "will to greatness".

The current crop, having seen them in person and in some instances worked with them in one way or another, to my mind, do not possess the character that would propel this nation to greatness. They all have one thing in common, among others, they are all products of patronage politics and therefore carry heavy political baggage and political debts. Having this common draw-downs would make for a less than effective presidency. The kind that would put expediency and compromise as a rule in governance would again put us to where we are right now, a degenerating body politic, unable to move and paralyzed to explore new paths towards what a modern society should be.

What we need right now or perhaps at the turn of a make-or-break new decade is an intellectual that understands the inner desires and workings of the minds of Filipinos. One who understands the reasons why societies exist, its inner workings, and what a "social contract" is all about. One whose ideas and resolve is not only pegged on the rules of government but most importantly grounded on the rules of humane governance which, among others, include the primacy of social justice and collective equity.

That leader may already be in our midst but we fail to take notice. But I think that one leader that could lead us to the next decade is not among those being promoted or are presenting themselves. Thank you and more power! Sincerely,

Lito David, (by email), Jan. 09, 2008

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Dear Tony: Many are vying for "the franchise to rape the Filipino" in the 2010 elections. The early entrants (Roxas, Villar, Lacson, Erap, de Castro, Legarda, Gordon, Binay and Teodoro) show no new name or face. What's the use of having an election if it just further legitimizes the lying, cheating and stealing?

Tony Meloto or Fr. Ed Panlilio running would be the best way to sanitize the 2010 elections. But don't hold your breath: the present electoral system will not let anyone but a proven thief win.

In fact, what's more plausible is your scenario that we won't have a 2010 elections. And that the criminal syndicate of politicians now in place will crown GMA as the next Prime Minister after they Cha-cha.

Happy New Year, Tony! Let's eat, drink and be merry - because the Philippines will still have riches left for politicians to grab after 2010. Or maybe something else can happen to make celebrating really worthwhile.

Tito Osias, (by email), Jan. 09, 2008

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Dear Tony, The presidential aspirants who are positioning themselves for a run at the office are not giants in any field. However, one thing working for them is name recognition and that is all that matters in Philippine elections.

Having said that, let us expect another six years of hardship under the new President after Gloria.

The history of voting in the country showed more sensible choices in the sixties. Not coincidentally, the quality of education then was much higher than that of today.

It probably follows that the more educated voters are, the better candidates they vote for. The deterioration became very obvious when the people elected Erap their president. Then a parade of clowns got into the Senate that culminated in the kind of government we have now.

The best move, therefore, a set of government officials can do is to concentrate on lifting the quality of education in the Philippines. After that is accomplished, everything will fall in its proper place.

victorts@comcast.net, Jan. 09, 2008

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If Tony Meloto has the stomach for politics, and people will know his background, why not? There are still good people in our midst but they wouldn't dare crossing swords with most of the Dirty Rags out there. Our Nation is about to experience a devastating tremor if "those holding the reigns of power" will not mend their ways. I fear for our people!

Jose Regino, (by email), Zamboanga City, Jan. 10, 2008

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pedestrianobserver@yahoo.com sent you a link to the following content:

Presidential Wannabes & Nazarene Devotees
http://pedestrianobserver.blogspot.com/2008/01/presidential-wannabes-nazarene-devotees.html

The sender also included this note:

Here's a blogger's reaction to your Presidential Fever, hoping you are wrong but then again what have we got to lose: we always end up with the same bozos anyway.

pedestrianobserver@yahoo.com, Jan. 10, 2008

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Reaction to “Rizal: Undeserved Adjectives”

I also have my doubts about Rizal, being the Renaissance Man of the
Philippines. Obviously, I think it was a Spin Job, of various
historians, who hyped him as the greatest Malayan of his generation.
As a novelist, I was not even impressed by his Noli and Fili, as
compared for instance with the novels of Dumas, Hugo and Wells, etc.

Auggie Surtida, (by email), Tigbauan, Iloilo, Jan. 06, 2008

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More Reactions to “Wayang in Bali” Dec. 27, 2007)

Antonio, You wrote: to Edel Anit..

"(My question to Jesse the Veggie was: how does organic farming combat global warming, as he had claimed it did, As you can see above, he did not answer that question. Although I eat a lot of (but not exclusively) vegetables, I do not see how organic farming combats global warming at all.

(In fact trees, with their profusion of leaves 5 to 15 meters above the earth, do a much better job of absorbing CO2 from the air than vegetables, which usually rise no more than 20 to 30 cms above the ground and are harvested every three or four months, whether they are grown organically or chemically. Maybe we should eat more fruits than vegetables, if global warming is our primary concern. ACA)"

Just to clarify my point..I was not advocating organic farming. I was advocating a vegetarian or vegan diet...that includes fruits from fruit trees, beans, pulses, grains etc...I think the thread is going off the mark. What I was against was the raising of animals (organic or not) to satisfy a meat-based diet.

I know this is so radical for so many people because most have grown up thinking that they need to eat meat for protein etc. etc. And when we start talking about giving up something as personal as what our taste buds are telling us is will satisfy our cravings and keep us alive, then it is almost an insurmountable task.

Anyway I have already given you the links and I leave it up to you to decide. Good luck..

Jesse, jesses01@gmail.com, Jan.06, 2008

(My apologies. I got you mixed up with another reader who advocated organic farming to combat global warming. ACA)

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More Reactions to “Most Corrupt President” (Dec. 20, 2007)

Greetings!

It is very clear that most of the reactions came from Ramos and Gloria's TUTAS. They are trying to defend Gloria and Ramos and pilit nila SINISIRAAN, DINA-DIVERT AND DINIDIIN TALAGA NILA SI MARCOS AND ESTRADA. Are we that stupid? Naka penetrate na ANG MGA TUTA NILA RAMOS AND GLORIA. They already know that you, ACA, have plenty of fans and readers and their goal is to TRY to hide again their crimes by writing their propagandas to you.

We have to change now before it’s too late. Sooner or later, I think sooner, graft and corruption will just become normal and accepted. WE NEED CHANGE ASAP! For the future of the Filipinos! I hope before I die there would be substantial change in our morality and our government leaders. God bless our country.

Paul Garcia, (by email), Jan. 06, 2008

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Mr. Abaya, Based on the number of writers defending this administration against the 'negative perception', alam na alam mo na kung bakit nagtaas ang taya sa lotto.

Robbie Tan, (by email), Jan. 07, 2008

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More Reactions to “Classical Music for 2008” (Dec. 25, 2008)

Hi, Tony, I would also recommend 98.7 DZFE. They really play good stuff. I am a
32 year older but I realize that classical music is real music.

I tried CD's of my dads and mataas volume on our car, I feel like I’m
in the medieval times of England.

Mike Delgado, (by email), Jan.07, 2008

(I was a regular listener of DZFE when it was inaugurated in the mid-1950s, when I was a college student at the Ateneo. When they celebrated their 50^th anniversary about two or three years ago, they requested a congratulatory message from me as one of their original listeners. But I no longer listen to DFZE because my CD library has grown to be more extensive than theirs since the 1980s. It is also possible to listen through one’s computer to all-classical music stations abroad such as wqrx.com in New York, kqed.com in San Francisco, and wfmt.com in Chicago. ACA)

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Articles on Pakistan and the Financial Crisis

Hello Tony, I have been reading your column through the Makati Jaycee Senate Forum. I congratulate you for the very insightful and factual reporting you have been doing. I have taken the liberty of sending you two articles sent to me by Tony Marquez of our Makati Jaycee Senate Forum. I hope these articles may give you some additional info on your future articles. The best of the New Year to you and yours.

Boy Guevara, (by email), Jan. 07, 2008

(Boy, thank you for the two interesting articles from the EIR, one on Pakistan, the other on the global financial crisis. I have put you in our distribution list so that you get my articles direct. As you may know, I have recently written two articles on Pakistan, and I plan to write an article on the looming financial crisis. The two articles you sent would be helpful. Thank you, and Happy New Year, too. Tony)

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More Reactions to “Post Office Thievery” (Dec. 07, 2006)

Hello! Merry Christmas to you, sir, I read your article about the thief in Post office, I have the same,. I guess. My boyfriend send me card with pictures in it and it never reach me, He done this three times already and still no letter come to my house, I live at Las Pinas too, and everytime I asked the people at that post office they will answer that they know anything about it. Some people there are rude too so its hard to approach them. I want to ask help on where could I send a complain about this problem, I search on google and I found yours. Thanks so much for reading my letter. Respectfully yours,

Ana Alayu, (by email), Las Pinas City, Dec. 28, 2007

(I suggest you write a letter of complaint to the Postmaster General, Mr. Hector R. R. Villanueva, Central Post Office, Manila. He is a friend of mine. Indicate in your letter that you are sending a copy to me. That might elicit a reply from him. As you can see from the letter below, sometimes it takes one year to get results, but it seems to work. Good luck. ACA)

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Tony, You published and commented on my "Postal Thievery in the Philippines" write-up a year ago and it seems to have yielded some positive results. Nepomuceno was refunded his lost dollar checks by Bank of America, having given up on it after almost a year of waiting. Rene, my younger brother is the president of Ang Kapatiran. I introduced myself to you as "a nobody who would like to help the Philippines." I am confident that Rene thinks of himself as another one.

Bert Peronilla, (by email), Dec. 03, 2007

Re: Our Call for Peaceful Change

Things are really starting to percolate. We don't expect (unless a miracle happens) our call for peaceful change via resignation of and special election for President and Vice President to yield immediate results. However, it is expected to open the eyes of the silent uninvolved majority that there is a peaceful and constitutional alternative if and when both of them eventually resign. We hope and pray that our call gains momentum by touching the hearts of many Filipinos who have just been in the sidelines and complaining about the moral bankruptcy in our country but unwilling to lift a finger to do something about it.

Our Principles and Platform will always be our constant guide regardless of very fluid scenarios. Let's ask our friends to support our call for peaceful change. The deteriorating political situation calls for all Filipinos to stand up and be counted -- while there is still time.

Rene H. Peronilla

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Son of ChaCha

By Antonio C. Abaya

Written Jan. 09, 2008

For the Standard Today,

January 10 issue

The persistent and insistent clamor – by Malacanang, its political toadies and/or its apologists in media - for Charter Change or ChaCha must be viewed with utmost skepticism and cynicism as it is no more than a maneuver to allow President Arroyo to remain power beyond 2010, as prime minister.

Was it on Dec. 30, 2002 or 2003 that President Arroyo announced that she was NOT going to run for re-election in May 2004? Well, I wrote an article on May 22, 2003 entitled She Will Run, and she did.

In February 2005, her miniscule party KAMPI held what could hardly be called a party congress – there were less than 40 delegates - and its president, then Congressman, now Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno announced its ambition to become the dominant political party by 2007…..three years before her non-extendable presidential term ends in June 2010..

I interpreted this as a prelude to a shift to the parliamentary system of government, to allow President Arroyo to remain in power beyond 2010, as prime minister, and I spelled it out in detail in my article of May 17, 2005 entitled Prime Minister Gloria?

http://www.geocities.com/dapat_tapatt/primeministergloria.html

Well, we know what happened in 2006. There was a People’s Initiative pushed by a pro-parliamentary group, Sigaw ng Bangaw, which supposedly collected more than six million signatures supporting its advocacy. But it was junked by the Supreme Court due to some technical flaws in its process.

So also was the shameless maneuver of the Lower House under Speaker Jose de Venecia to convene itself as a constituent assembly, without the participation of the oppositionist Senate, in order to railroad the shift to parliamentary.

The shift would have given members of the Lower House three more years in office as members of an interim parliament without need of re-election, and would have given De Venecia the much coveted (by him) post of interim prime minister – his last chance to become head-of-government – until a new parliament would have been elected in 2010, with – who else? – Gloria Arroyo as prime minister. (See my article of Oct. 30, 2006 titled Trapos’ Initiative.)

http://www.geocities.com/dapat_tapatt/trapos.html

So now we come to Son of ChaCha, this time being pushed by the usual suspects without mentioning the magic word parliamentary, which has spawned so much opposition in the past.

Sometime last September or October, without anyone asking her about it, President Arroyo came out of the blue and expressed the totally unexpected opinion that we should do the ChaCha so that we have a federal form of government by the year 2012. This seems to have been the opening shot for Son of ChaCha

A month or so later, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said in a speech before local government officials that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) should be abolished as part of constitutional reforms that could be pursued in January 2008.

He said the Comelec had become “too corrupt” and had acted as “a major vehicle for cheating” in recent elections. “We have to dissolve the Comelec. And by January, we have to start talking about Charter Change again so we can dissolve the Comelec….If politics is the greatest threat to our future as a nation, the Comelec is the greatest threat to our democracy. We do not need the kind of Comelec that we have today.” (Standard Today, Nov. 29, 2007)

I would have shouted “Bravo, Bert!” were it not for the nagging perception that it was Bert’s own boss, President Gloria, who made the Comelec the “too corrupt” agency and “the greatest threat to our democxracy” that it is today. We do not need ChaCha to clean up Comelec.. All that is needed is for President Arroyo to appoint incorruptible individuals to the commission, and to convincingly and totally investigate the cheating that took place in May 2004, from which she was the main beneficiary.

That means allowing the Lower House to complete its investigation of Virgilio Garcillano and his accomplices in the May 2004 cheating, including the bureaucrats and military generals named in the Hello Garci tapes. That also means finally arresting the ever elusive Lintang Bedol, the Comelec factotum who had something to do with mysterious election returns in Maguindanao in 2007, in which administration candidates were the beneficiaries.

The only way to reduce, minimize and discourage electoral fraud is to jail the obvious culprits. There is no need the amend the constitution for that purely administrative function..

Less than two weeks after Gonzales’ weird advocacy, some admin trapos in the Lower House filed resolutions to amend the constitution on the grounds that it is verbose but short on depth and comprehensiveness, that it contains “ambiguous provisions’, that its so-called nationalist provisions hinder the nation’s march toward political maturity, and all that jazz. (Standard Today, Dec. 11, 2007) Not a word about parliamentary, even though that is the unspoken animus behind all these maneuvers.

And then there is the statement by presidential “peace adviser” Jesus Dureza that to get peace talks with the MILF going again, the government may have to resort to Charter Change to allow the establishment of a Bangsamoro federal state in Mindanao. (Philippine Daily Inquirer, Dec. 30, 2007).

Now, President Arroyo herself is claimed (by Dureza) to soon come out in favor of ChaCha for the sole (kuno) purpose of creating a federal state for the Bangsamoro. (Daily Inquirer, Jan. 09, 2008).

Apparently emboldened by the show of weakness by the Arroyo government – that it feels the need to amend the constitution just to appease their separatist goals – the MILF has upped the ante and now demands that Palawan be included in their ancestral domain, in addition to the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. What will the next demand be? That Metro Manila be included in the Bangsamoro federal state on the grounds that Maynilad was a Muslim outpost when Miguel de Legaspi and Fray Urdaneta “visited” it in the late 16^th century?

In all these orchestrated “political noises” about doing the ChaCha again, there is no mention at all of shifting to parliamentary. This is deliberate and disingenuous because of the opposition to it during the Arroyo government’s earlier maneuvers in 2006.

But there is no doubt in my mind that if and when the idea of ChaCha, for whatever stated justification, is planted and nurtured and made acceptable in the public mind through the forthcoming media blitzes, the usual suspects – the Sigaw ng Bangaw and/or its 2006 accomplice, the ULAP (Uma-asang Laging naka-Angla sa Poder), or some totally new tuta organization – will sing the expected refrain that, since we are already doing the ChaCha – to abolish the Comelec, to make the constitution shorter but deeper, to remove its nationalist provisos, to appease the Muslim separatists – why don’t we - he he he - also shift to parliamentary?

ChaCha. Son of ChaCha. The strategic goal remains the same: GMA Forever! *****.

Reactions tp tonyabaya@gmail.com. Other articles in www.tapatt.org and in acabaya.blogspot.com

Presidential Fever

By Antonio C. Abaya

Written on Jan. 07, 2008

For the Standard Today,

January 08 issue

The jockeying and posturing actually started months, even years, before, but it can be said that the presidential campaign for 2010 unofficially started last October when the Liberal Party (or what’s left of it) announced that Sen. Mar Roxas will be its standard bearer in the elections scheduled almost three years into the future.

Not to be outdone, the Nacionalista Party (or what’s left of it) announced a few days later that Senate President Manny Villar will be its standard bearer.

(Both the LP and the NP are to be congratulated for their wide-eyed optimism that presidential elections will take place in 2010. I take the cynical position that presidential elections will NOT take place in 2010. Instead parliamentary elections will be held, after a shift to the parliamentary system has been railroaded through Congress, either through another People’s Initiative or another Constituent Assembly, as was shamelessly attempted in 2006.

(President Arroyo wants to remain in power beyond 2010 – allegedly to transform the Philippines into a First World country by the year 2020 or 2027 – and the only way she can do this legally and constitutionally is by maneuvering a shift to the parliamentary system between now and 2010. I have written several articles about this since 2005. Signs are increasing that she is still on this tack. More about this in another article.)

Sen. Loren Legarda has also announced that she is eyeing the 2010 polls, and neophyte Sen. Chiz Escudero has encouraged speculation that he, too, is available, both banking on their dominant rankings in the 2007 senatorial elections.

But my gut feel is that both are mature enough to realize that 2010 is not the right time for them. Sen. Legarda, because she knows that the public will not go for another woman president so soon after Gloria; Sen. Escudero, because he knows he is too young to be eyeing the presidency. Both will more likely go for the vice-presidency instead.

Not so with Sen. Panfilo Lacson. He remains ambitious for the presidency. In the 2004 presidential elections, he came out third in a field of five, keeping a steady 10.5 to 11 percent of the votes from start to finish of the prolonged Comelec-Namfrel count. If memory serves, Sen. Lacson ran as an independent. He may be forced into this cul-de-sac again since the NP and LP have been spoken for, and so will the Lakas-CMD, the Kampi, the NPC and, possibly, the PDP-Laban (or what’s left of it.)

And then there is Erap. He has repeated his current mantra many times over that if the opposition remains disunited, he would be “forced” to run as the opposition standard bearer, as if that would shame Roxas or Villar or Lacson into abandoning their presidential ambitions for the sake of the abstract concept of “opposition unity.”

The net effect would be that the opposition will remain disunited, and Erap’s entry into the fray would make it even more disunited. Would that force Erap to abandon his own ambitions for an Erap Restoration? Very unlikely.

The only force that can dissuade Erap from his daydreams would be a Supreme Court ruling that as a former president, he cannot run for another presidential term, even if he was not able to serve out the full duration of his presidential term because he was forced out of office in January 2001 by a military coup d’etat pretending to be people power, with the active involvement of then VP Arroyo.

In the meantime, to keep his presidential embers burning and crackling, he goes out on “medical missions” to reconnect with his squealing masa constituency. And he even threatens to write a book to expose graft and corruption during his term and the term of his immediate predecessor, President Fidel Ramos.

Erap should know about graft and corruption during his term. He was convicted of plunder by the Sandiganbayan and sentenced to 40 years in jail, which would have been his present address had he not been given absolute pardon, only a month later, by President Arroyo, as part of her deliberate scheme to remain in power beyond 2010 – by currying favor (or so she thought) with Erap and his squealing masa, and making him sign a promise not to run for any public office (such as the presidency).

And there is Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, the darkest dark horse since Black Beauty. He also wants to be president, despite a pending case for unexplained wealth with the Ombudsman, who with his wife and two children has perfected the art of dynastic politics in his family business…er..fiefdom.

Meanwhile, presidential fever has also gripped the ruling coalition. Vice-President Noli de Castro has been acknowledged to be the strongest bet of the administration, largely by virtue of his incumbency and not much else. Sen. Dick Gordon has also been mentioned as a contender for the presidency. His dynastic tendencies notwithstanding, Gordon is an attractive choice, but GMA’s endorsement of his candidacy would be a kiss of death.

And, hello, what’s this? A whole raft of admin presidential wannabes has landed without anyone inviting them in: There is Quezon City Mayor Sonny Belmonte, the moving force (when he was congressman) behind the incredibly ugly Pabahay sa Riles tenements along the PNR right-of-way from San Andres to Caloocan. There is MMDA Chair Bayani Fernando who has made a name (as well as numerous masa enemies) for himself by driving vendors off the sidewalks, pouring kerosene on their merchandise and demolishing their illegal structures. And there is Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro who has…………what in the name of Magsaysay has he actually done to merit the presidency?

The underwhelming caliber of the admin presidential bench seems to be calculated to drive home the point to the Kampi and Lakas power brokers and financiers that the only way they can keep their privileged positions is to support President Arroyo’s drive to shift to a parliamentary system so that she can remain in power beyond 2010 as prime minister.

Meanwhile, some concerned Filipinos may wonder why the only Filipino who has actually done more for this country and its impoverished majority than all the above mentioned predatory trapos and ambitious wannabes COMBINED has not caught the presidential fever: Tony Meloto of Gawad Kalinga.

Is he, perhaps, from another planet? Or at least another world? *****

Reactions to tonyabaya@gmail.com. Other articles in www.taptt.org and in acabaya.blogspot.com

RX to "Classical Music for 2008"

Reactions to “Classical Music for 2008”

More Reactions to “Most Corrupt President”

More Reactions to “Wayang in Bali”

Rizal: A Continuing Death

Rizal 111: I am Tao

Rizal: Undeserved Adjectives?

MALIGAYANG PASKO, TOKS!

I am sure you know ! (?) that there are two super stations whatever to log in to, also gratis!

1. "accuradio.com" ! ! It has everything classical, pops anything on this planet!

2. "wqxr.com" THE New York Times 24-hour ALL classical station!

Tony Oposa, MD, (by email), Dec. 25, 2007

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Thanks, Tony. One of the best gifts I have ever seen. Merry Christmas to you and your family, and, by the way, our paper.

Gerry Geronimo, (by email), Dec. 25, 2007

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To the editors of the Manila Standard Today and Antonio Abaya.

I was saddened to read the article by Antonio C. Abaya title "Classical music for free" in which he promotes a site that "shares" copyrighted material.

The site is question is promoting piracy as the owner of the site has no right to distribute music in the way that he/she does. Wholesale distribution through the internet cannot be considered sharing. The owner of the site does not even make his/her name nor is there any contact information which, I would think, would make any reputable journalist question the source.

The Philippines does not have a good reputation when it comes to the protection of IP rights but I find it extremely disturbing that a newspaper such as the Manila Standard Today promotes breaking the law. You are also in the business of creating intellectual property and I am sure you would not take it lightly if your rights were being trampled upon.

I urge the editors to take appropriate action and remove the article and request Mr. Abaya to better check his source before tarnishing the reputation of your good paper. Regards,

Riyaz Moorani, (by email), Dec. 25, 2007

CEO, Naxos
www.Naxos.com, www.NaxosMusicLibrary.com, www.NaxosRadio.com, www.ClassicsOnline.com

Mr Riyaz Moorani

CEO, Naxos

In reply to your email of December. 25 regarding my article “Classical Music for Free” in the Manila Standard Today of the same date, I would like to comment that:

Your fears that this will promote piracy are exaggerated. The market for classical music – especially for esoteric medieval and baroque music – in the Philippines is very small as to be virtually non-existent. It is simply not worth anyone’s bother to copy these CDs and sell them in this insignificant market..

This, I am sure, was realized by your Hong Kong-based German founder – whom I met but whose name I cannot recall – when my Erehwon Bookshop (closed in 1988) was the sole (authorized) retailer of Naxos’ classical music cassettes (under another brand name) in Metro Manila in the 1980s.

However, in deference to your concerns, and because it was not and is not my intent to promote piracy, I will remove all references to the offending website from the article when it is archived in my blog acabaya.blogspot.com and website www.tapatt.org.

It may also interest you to know that my personal music library includes 37 Naxos CDs bought from various sources: amazon.com, Tower Records in San Francisco, Squires Gate Music Shop in London, HMV in Hong Kong, Delight Music (now closed) in Hong Kong, Beethoven Music Shop in Singapore, and various record retailers in Melbourne, Sydney and Helsinki, whose names I can no longer recall.

Sincerely yours,

Antonio C. Abaya

Dec. 26, 2007

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Many thanks for the musical suggestions, selections that are a welcome change from the season's usual noise. Now I know which CDs to ask for from my daughter (like yours, she's also named Carla and often sends me classical discs) --- in case I want to hear more than downloaded music. Am particularly fascinated by your recommended Berlioz work since I have another version of that piece along with his "Harold in Italy," one of my favorites. Also looking forward to hearing the Shostakovich and the medieval Aquitania.
Best wishes for the coming Chinese new Year of the Rat !

Isabel Escoda, (by email), Dec. 25, 2007

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MARAMING, MARAMING SALAMAT PO! WHAT A GREAT CHRISTMAS GIFT FROM YOU. Sorry about the caps, I type with my eyes glued to the keys. Pls, pls say hello to Gigi for me. All the best for you and your family. A most blessed Christmas.

Marilyn Ranada Donato, (by email), Dec. 25, 2007

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Dear Tony, Thank you so much for the tip on the blog that offers free classical music. I will be making use of this site-thanks to you. Music can give us a moment of comfort over all the problems that the world now bears. Merry Christmas (PS: This is one your more appreciated articles-it can give relaxation and peace.)

Guy Rodriguez, (by email), Dec. 25, 2007

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Dear Tony, Many thanks for the information and the good advices for selecting a few gems of classical music...for free! A good gift for Christmas! Thanks also to Carla who was instrumental in making this happen and letting his Dad’s culture profit to others like me. Happy Holidays to you too and your family and good health!

Paul and Madeleine Obrist, (by email), Dec. 25, 2007

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Dear Mr. Abaya, A great gift this Christmas coming from you, SIR .My sincere Christmas greetings to you, your family and your staff. GOD BLESS AND GOOD HEALTH, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Emilio Vargas, (by email), Dec. 26, 2007

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Dear Mr. Abaya, I have read your column which came out on The Manila Standard Today entitled Classical Music for 2008. I am a music lover and enjoy listening to music be it pop, jazz, classical, R&B, hip-hop, OPM, OST, etc. I have visited the link to the blogsite you mentioned in your column and it is indeed a gem of a site.

Although I am not a fan of rapidshare for file sharing, the selections in the site are simply too good to pass up. I have only one suggestion to the blog owner, he/she could have added preview links of the selections like other paid music sites. This will facilitate for easier location of music some down-loaders are not familiar with. Thank you for sharing.

Noi Ramirez, (by email), Dec. 26, 2007

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Mr. Abaya, Thanks for the wonderful holiday gift: free classical recordings. Come to think of it, good classical music MUST be given free to serious listeners (majority of
whom perhaps cannot afford the steep price of such recordings). Make the few rich aficionados subsidize their free distribution. Thanks for your sharing... Happy New Year and enjoy your deserved respite ! Regards,

Ernie del Rosario, (by email), Dec. 29, 2007

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More Reactions to “Most Corrupt President” (Dec. 20, 2007)

Tony, I do not know about GMA being the "most corrupt" but she certainly ranks way up or rather "down" there. At any rate, the distinction is not something to be proud
of unless one is himself or herself morally bankrupt / mediocre.

Dr Dennis Acop, (by email), Dec. 28, 2007

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Hi Tony, May the year ahead be a year of good news, good health and good life for all of us. God bless.

Every body knows many a government officials are corrupt from top to bottom, from elected and appointed officials, from those certified, educated or not, from policemen to Generals, from mayors to President's circle of aide. The question is What should we do? Who should do it? When should we do it? How should we do it?

Tama na! Sobra na! Bayan gumising ka na! Take care and God Bless. Sincerely yours,

Gerardo S. Fernando (by email), Vancouver, BC, Canada, Dec. 29, 2007

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Dear Tony, First of all, may I wish you a blessed New Year. It wouldn't be right to wish you a "happy" one, considering that you and I know the problems of this country will not be gone in 2008, and for as long as she is at the helm.

Many of your readers seem to think that a survey by Pulse or SWS can be "influenced" by the one who paid for the rider questions. Didn't they take elementary statistics in college? Or have they forgotten what random sampling means, and how a proper sample and a proper research design could effectively represent millions?

Anyway, if Marcos is now judged less harshly as far as corruption is concerned, it could be due to two factors: the passing of time is one. The other is what ordinary folks call --- " may nakita naming kapalit", or, there's some kind of trade-off. Marcos has infrastructure and hospitals and an LRT to boast of. There's very little to show for the 8 years and counting that this woman has been in office.

If you look at the figures for Erap, they're you're "squealing masa" still, so what's new.
The bigger problem for GMA, as I see it, is that those who believe she is more corrupt than Erap are mostly from the rich and the middle class. Note that of those who disagreed on the Erap pardon, a bigger percentage believe she is the most corrupt, as
compared to the squealing masa who agreed with her pardon of Erap.

She has lost her support base in Edsa Dos clearly, except for the following: Esperon and his military clique; Capalla, Gaudencio Rosales, Aniceto and the conservative bishops of the land for whom everything is "todo pasa" for as long as she keeps praying the rosary piously (kuno), and will not permit artificial birth control; most of her cabalen in Pampanga. When will they abandon her? In this country, nobody ever knows.

Lito Banayo, (by mail), Dec. 30, 2007

P.S. But then again you write for the Standard, which, although I admire some of its writers apart from you, has always been pro-administration, any, for that matter, but specially this one, where the owner, Ricky Razon, flits in and out of Malacanang "como parientes del presidente".

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You fellows are saying that PGMA is the most corrupt president in the history of our country, but I am saying different thing. The most corrupt president we have ever had was the late Mr. Marcos and perhaps in the world in terms of taking into consideration that the Philippines has over half of its population living under dire poverty. So, you fellows can beat your chests in anger like a gorilla because most likely you persist on what you say so. The many of you left the motherland like leaving a house of your own with falling walls and leaking roof to live in someone's concrete house and, the worst of it all you criticize your parents for not repairing the house where you were born naked.

You should either go back to the Philippines and run for public office if you think you have the better solution to uplift the living condition of the those who can not put foods on the table three times a day. So I am waiting for rebutal from anyone of you. But before I forget, let me say these words in passing: Let President Gloria finish her terms and help her instead of pulling her down because the nation is deeply suffering from "Ingitan". But make no mistake into thinking that I cast my vote for her, nay NO!

Rosauro Feliciano, ECE, (by email), Kuwait, Jan. 04, 2007

(An OFW in Kuwait)

(Speaking for myself, I do not live abroad. And my personal perception is that the most corrupt presidents since the 1970s are, in alphabetical order, Arroyo, Estrada and Marcos. Who THE most corrupt is cannot be known factually as the court cases against them are either incomplete, un-adjudicated or have yet to be filed. ACA)

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Dear Tony, In any war, including war against corruption, we do not plead
with our enemy to stop the battle. We set up your own arsenal to stop the enemy. What we need to do is set up the Grand Jury and Trial Jury systems as the common people's
arsenal against powerful grafters by filing an urgent petition with the Supreme Court to promulgate the jury systems.

Once the systems are in place, the common people, like you and me, can become sentinels against public officials in our communities. We no longer need to plead to grafters to stop their acts and instead we can indict (by the Grand Jury) or convict (by the Trial Jury) them and send to jail according to our own terms and wishes. The people have that power under Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution and it does not need any legislation in Congress to allow the people to exercise their sovereign authority. At this time, we are like crying babies, hoping that in 1000 years will find a "motherly"
president to nourish us with good govrnance and once we find one, we will again endure for another 994 years with an era of presidential grafters..

I have drafted the Jury Rules and I already submitted the same to Chief Justice Puno. All that is needed is to urge him by way of a formal petition to promulgate by the Supreme Court in accordance with Article VIII, Section 5(5) the system under the same authority in setting up of the writ of amparo without seeking authority from Congress. How
about forming a committee of around 5 energytec citizens to start the ball rolling?

And by the way, the Amparo Writ is not as effective as we think unless it will be backed up by the Grand Jury system wherein you and I, the common citizen, can indict a
disobedient amparo respondent with the crime of obstruction of justice ON OUR OWN TERMS and not on the President's or any government official's own term. Without a Grand Jury, can the Supreme Court hold the Executive, a co-equal of the Judiciary, in contempt of court for disobedience of an amparo writ? Not even once in the over 100 years of its legal existence where it was originally devised in Mexico a country
whose government is as corrupt, if not more, as the Philippine government. Without the Grand Jury system and poised to act, would President Nixon of the U.S. have resigned from office for his authorship of the Watergate scandal? I doubt it.

I would be happy to send a CD of the Jury Rules draft to any interested party by providing me his postal mailing address.

Marlowe Camello, mcamello@verizon.net, Homeland, CA, Jan. 05, 2008
Lawyer and Online Entrepreneur

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Dear Mr. Abaya, Happy New Year!!

Well, I am trying hard to like the President, because as I look at the brighter side like improving economic situation, there seems to be some reason to like her, but every time I do, scandals after scandals come out. The Pulse Asia survey to me appeared more of an
opinion of the surveyed population which of course involved subjective judgment. So many people are fed up and maybe by selecting GMA as the most corrupt, they would also like to send a message to GMA about this "perception" and hopefully she will do something to change things.

Nothing will change if they will select Marcos or Erap, they are done, and that is one
of the bias in the survey. The question seemed to be or may be interpreted the same as when it is rephrased to "Which president (from 80's up) do you like most?" which may give the same result putting GMA dead last.

But instead of taking it as a constructive criticism, she brushed it aside and deemed it merely "perceptions". But that it is also precisely the point. The people has a very negative perception of her. If she will change the perception for the better, the very same people dumping her will unite and rally behind her, support her all the way. The kind of President that we need is a person who is trusted and looked up to by the people, a respectable, clean and dignified president, not necessarily the brightest. When can we have one?

A prosperous and year of abundance ahead for you! (for me as well)

Edilberto Anit, (by email), Jan. 02, 2008

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More Reactions to “Wayang in Bali” (Dec. 18, 2007)

Tony, In response to your question:

(But even Vegans exhale carbon dioxide, and their poo, when digested by bacteria, generates methane gas. What do you ride when you go to work? A cow, instead of a polluting car? But it also exhales carbon dioxide and its dung also generates methane gas. So what's the advantage, as far as global warming is concerned? ACA)

I am quoting paragraphs from the webpage I attached (i.e http://www.goveg.com/veganism_environment.asp ).

"Raising animals for food is also a water-polluting process. One dairy cow produces more than 100 pounds of excrement per day. The animals raised for food in the U.S. produce 130 times the excrement of the entire human population of this country. Their excrement is more concentrated than human excrement and is often contaminated with herbicides, pesticides, toxic chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, and so on. These massive farmed-animal factories generally don't have waste-treatment plants. Instead, the manure is poured onto land or into giant lagoons, where it often spills over into local waterways, kills fish, and poisons the drinking water. Streams and rivers all over the middle of our country that once were clear and full of fish are now filthy and lifeless because of manure runoff from factory farms. There's an enormous "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico now, where no fish or other animals live. This is largely because of the enormous amount of animal waste that has flowed from factory farms down rivers and streams and into the gulf.

Two of the most pressing environmental issues of the day are global warming and the destruction of the rain forest. In 2006, the University of Chicago published a major report stating that adopting a vegan diet is more important in the fight against global warming than switching to a hybrid car. This is because of the enormous amount of methane and carbon dioxide produced by farmed animals. Methane is a molecule that the EPA says is 20 times more effective at creating climate change than carbon dioxide. Animal agriculture is the largest source of methane in the U.S.

As for the rain forest, most people know that the rain forest is being destroyed to create grazing space for cattle. But Greenpeace published a report in 2006 indicating that the new trend is for huge companies to clear rain-forest land to raise crops to feed to farmed animals. It specifically blamed the chicken industry for leading the way in the destruction of the Amazon.

The Web site GoVeg.com has information about all these issues.

And by the way. I do not advocate using cattle to go to work. On the contrary that will be against my ethical belief against exploiting animals.

My suggestion on going vegan is not an exclusive solution to stop global warming and I also advocate non polluting renewable energy etc. Regards,

Jesse, jesses01@gmail.com, Dec. 28, 2007

(Understood. But when rice, wheat, corn, sugarcane and other crops are harvested, and when trees are felled for logs, the inevitable vegetative waste matter left on the fields and forests do rot and they release methane gas – 21 times more contributory to global warming than carbon dioxide - into the atmosphere. ACA)

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Mr Abaya, Europe's lead to commit to a more radical CO2 emission target will be more likely a challenge to meet given the new economics of the price of crude oil going past the imaginary $100 per barrel line, or increased LNG price in the years to come. If crude oil pushes past the $100 barrier, the demand for LNG will increase which will consequently put pressure on its price to go upwards. Natural gas is the best alternative to crude oil fuels for base plant power production in the current energy technology market.

At the moment natural gas liquifaction trains are running at maximum capacity, and any disruption to its supply due to plant breakdowns (for operating at maximum capacity! a catch 22 situation if you call it that) will not help at all. More liquifaction trains are being constructed worldwide from Peru to Angola and will be on stream by 2012-2015, which is five to six years from now. In fact even 2 more LNG plants are being planned to be constructed in kidnap-prone Nigeria just to meet the anticipated demand. I guess the oil companies who will be operating the plants consider paying for ransom a small distraction versus the $billions that will be earned.

In an article in downstreamtoday.com, Russia just concluded a deal for Turkmenistan and Kazhakstan to supply it with LNG, but the price has increased to $130 per 1,000 cubic meters at the first half and $150 at the second half from last year's $100 per. Since Russia subsidizes its domestic fuel pricing, it has no recourse but to pass on the price increase to its customer, Europe.

Europe will then have to fall back to the old reliable but CO2 belching coal plants. "In Germany alone, nearly 50 percent of power production in 2005 was based on coal. Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government plans to build up to 30 new coal-fired power plants over the next decade, despite Merkel's commitment to reducing greenhouse gases. The decision by the government, however, to halt coal production by 2018, because of its costs, means that these power stations will have to be fed by imported coal, most likely Russian."

With this development, and with the U.S., China and India not committing to any cuts in CO2 emission, the Bali Agenda will not be met, and all the efforts to make it work will have been for nothing.

Fuel cells are good alternative but expensive. Like all revolutionary technology, only the military is using the most efficient models especially in submarines running very silent, thus stealthy, electric motor for propulsion. Eventually they will be released for wide spread civilian use but it may take years just like the internet from DARPANET, GPS, or the Hummer gas guzzling SUV.

Chester Montenegro, (by email), Malabo Island, Equatorial Guinea, West Africa, Jan 01. 2008

(True, fuel cells are still more expensive. But with the price of oil continually rising, and the deleterious effects of CO2 emissions now estimated to cost as much as $6.98 trillion to correct, there will be a cost convergence in the near future. The mass production of fuel cell-powered cars by Honda, BMW and Daimler-Chrysler – over which the US military has no say - in the next three years will accelerate that convergence. ACA

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Hi Tony, Just a counter reaction on your post comment to Jess the Veggie, what's the advantage of being a vegetarian and what has it got to do with global warming?, I
think you know the advantages having a background in chemistry and of course biochemistry. We just need to follow the energy trail and we will know that eating
veggie more helps in curbing out carbon dioxide and therefore global warming. If people eat more veggie, more plants need to be grown and therefore more photosynthesis, just like telling people to plant more trees. This is also what they teach in most elementary students as the kids do not pretty understand much about those complicated things
discussed in Bali. So, lets eat more veggie, besides, we are not getting any younger.
Cheers.

Edel Anit, (by email), Jan. 02, 2008

(My question to Jesse the Veggie was: how does organic farming combat global warming, as he had claimed it did, As you can see above, he did not answer that question. Although I eat a lot of (but not exclusively) vegetables, I do not see how organic farming combats global warming at all.

(In fact trees, with their profusion of leaves 5 to 15 meters above the earth, do a much better job of absorbing CO2 from the air than vegetables, which usually rise no more than 20 to 30 cms above the ground and are harvested every three or four months, whether they are grown organically or chemically. Maybe we should eat more fruits than vegetables, if global warming is our primary concern. ACA)

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Tony, I quote the relevant paragraph from Congressman Rolio Golez's linked Canberra article, just in case you did not bother to read it.

"In 1985, China's average consumption of meat was of 20kg, but per capita meat consumption had now increased to 50kg, Diouf said. This reduced the amount of grain available because 1kg of beef could take as much as 8kg of grain to produce.
The British medical journal The Lancet recently published a study suggesting a 10 per cent cut in global meat consumption by 2050 would reduce greenhouse emissions from agriculture and also improve health for rich and poor nations"

Maybe you should look into the vegetarian angle more seriously as I originally suggested.. Kind regards,

Jesse, jesses01@gmail.com, Jan. 05, 2008

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(Forwarded to Tapatt by Perry Diaz)

Rizal: A Continuing Death
by Gemma Cruz Araneta


The phrase comes from Apolinario Mabini who used it to describe Jose Rizal´s life. Mabini believed that Rizal "bravely endured the terrors of death that awaited him… thus he learned not to fear it, and had no fear when it came to take him away" Rizal was calm
and even cheerful as he was led to Bagumbayan, "…to show that he was happy to sacrifice his life, which he had dedicated to the good of all Filipinos." Mabini
concluded, " In truth the merit of Rizal's sacrifice consists precisely in that it was voluntary and conscious... God grant that they will know how to render to him the only tribute worthy of his memory-- the imitation of his virtue." Rizal lived and died for
the Filipino.

Last 30 December, Dr. Floro Quibuyen (Asian Studies Center, UP) gave the annual Rizal lecture sponsored by the National Historical Institute. He spoke about some relatively unexplored facets of Rizal's life. These are: 1) Rizal´s essay, "Filipinas
dentro de cien años", 2) his concept of the nation, 3) his Dapitan years, and 4) Rizal´s hitherto unnoticed minor study on Oceania.

Dr. Quibuyan described Rizal´s essay as ground-breaking and futuristic for no other Filipino scholar of his time had dared envision the Philippines in one hundred years. (This appeared in the Sept 1889- Jan 1890 issue of "La Solidaridad").Thorough in his analysis of historical forces—both local and global—that impinged on the Philippines
towards the 1890s, Rizal foresaw that these islands would eventually have to contend with the USA.

"Filipinas dentro de cien años" began with some annotations Rizal had made to correct Antonio de Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas ( published in Mexico in 1609). Rizal described the impact of Spanish conquest on the natives of these islands as a "terrible crisis" because it changed "government, laws, usages, customs, religion and beliefs" which resulted in depopulation and impoverishment."

Rizal argued that the natives lost "confidence in the past, [while] still without faith in the
future." Because "they gave up their writing, their songs, their poems, their laws in order to learn by rote other doctrines they did not understand, another morality, another aesthetics, different from those inspired by their climate and their manner of thinking…" decline and self-degradation set in until "they began to admire and praise whatever was foreign and incomprehensible, their spirit was dismayed and it surrendered."

Dr. Quibuyen pointed out that Rizal´s wrote about "a factor which did not exist before" called "national spirit" that was finally awakened by "… a common misfortune and a common abasement" . It united all the inhabitants of the Islands and was promoted
by a "large enlightened class within and without the Archipelago" which Rizal called "the brains of the country" and that ".. within a few years it will constitute its entire nervous system and demonstrate its existence in all its acts."

In that edifying essay, Rizal argued that the road to progress could no longer be blocked, that the Philippines could no longer remain a colony as it will either be assimilated by Spain, " … with more rights and freedom or will declare herself independent after
staining herself and the Mother Country with her own blood. Either way, the advancement and moral progress of the Philippines is inevitable; it is fated ."

Prophetically, our national hero concluded that "Spain is not the only factor to be considered. In fact, because she is already on the decline, she is no longer the most crucial factor in the Philippines' future. The younger generation of Filipinos, who would
shoulder the task of building a new nation and preparing the country for the 20th century, would have to contend with the rising superpower in the Asia-Pacific region-- the United States of America." (And the rest is history!—if I may add.) .

There will be more on Dr. Quibuyen´s enlightening Rizal lecture... (gemma601@yahoo.com)

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(Forwarded to Tapatt by Perry Diaz)

RIZAL 111 - I AM TAO!

By Edwin D. Bael*

2008, because of the number 8, is said to be a year of new beginnings and resurrections; it is also the 'Year of Grace' for Catholics. But by the way things are in our country, we seem to face another year of the same: for most of us - crisis, corruption and poverty with entertainment from politico-military theatrics; for the very few - the good life. The whys and wherefores of this national situation rattle our consciousness as we try, once more, to recall and make sense of the martyrdom of Dr. Jose Rizal 111 years ago.

Was his death at the hands of a Filipino firing squad who themselves were at the mercy of a Spanish firing squad behind them, worth all his hope: Yo muero cuando veo que el cielo se colora y al fin anuncia el dia tras lobrego capuz (I am to die when I see the heavens go vivid, announcing the day at last behind the dead night) that he could one day behold his beloved joya del Mar de Oriente secos los negros ojos, alta la tersa frente, sin ceno, sin arrugas, sin manchas de rubor (Jewel of eastern waters: griefless the dusky eyes: lifted the upright brow: unclouded, unfurrowed, unblemished and unashamed!)?

One hundred and eleven years have passed and still Inang Bayan's dusky eyes are full of grief, her brows are still neither lifted nor upright - still clouded, still furrowed, still blemished, still ashamed! Paradoxically, the problems are different yet the same: nor more foreign colonizers, only the Filipino elite; no more struggle for independence, just the daily struggle for freedom from want and freedom from fear.

As generation Y would ask: what's up with that?

Could we perhaps be approaching our national problems with the same mind sets that created the problems in the first place?

If we are, could we be bound to go round and round till we die of exhaustion, like the caterpillar that follows its own tail? Albert Einstein is known to have observed: "No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it".

Gawad Kalinga stalwart Tony Meloto, in his 'Spirituality in Nation Building' speech, said: "My choices define who I am, influence those around me and affect the state of my country and my world." No one can disagree with such a statement. But one could add: My choices are marked and circumscribed by my own definitions, perceptions, beliefs and understandings of myself, my family my nation. In other words, my own definitions (beliefs) delimit my choices.

Examples of the distortive effects of such beliefs and internal definitions are provided by the classic stories of humans raised by wolves/gorrillas, or those of swans raised by ducks, or of eagles raised by chicken, or pigs raised by dogs, dogs raised by cats or lions raised by sheep. For humans exploited by other humans and made to believe their supposed inferior nature, there is no end to possible citations on the abominations of slavery and of the oppressive conditions starkly expressed in Edwin Markham's poem "The Man With the Hoe", which we can very well relate to our own "Men, Women and Children with Scavenger Hooks" in Tondo and other garbage dumps.

Is it possible we truly are of a higher, nobler nature yet have come [or made by others - more appropriately, allowed others to pressure us] to believe we are only good for a little corner of this downtrodden world (as in the song: DITO BA [sa sulok na ito])?

For we could ask, like Rizal in 'Cervantes in Argamasilla de Alba': "Miguel,Miguel [Filipino, Filipino], why does your courage surrender to the blows of fate? If the cedar of Lebanon [molave of the Philippines] defies the horrid roaring of the hurricane; if the hard rock, when the violent sea rages against it to the clamor of wrathful tritons, can stand firm: why do you, invincible genius, despair?" (emphasis provided).

In the same poem, Dr. Rizal prefigured the difficulties we now face: "I heard your groans against strict destiny; and I opened the awe-inspiring book where your tremendous fate, inscribed in ominous colors, can be seen. Thorns shall you find along the way, sown there for you by fraud and falsehood; and you shall grapple with your dark fate as the maimed gladiator grapples with death." (emphasis provided).

And then counsels a way out: "So go, Miguel, [Filipino] let your clear mind , focus of light, shine on your land to redeem a demented multitude by tearing down the dark, dark veil. And like fraught cloud, hurl expertly in your lofty flight a sizzle of lightning to tumble down the god of madness and to bring forth celestial good." (emphasis provided).

What is this "dark, dark veil" we must tear down? And whence do we get this "sizzle of lightning"?

Is the veil perhaps related to our conception of our own "pagka-tao"? Our being human?

If we try to reach back into the dawn of time, we cannot be sure, but can only grasp some straws of data: like forbears travelling across land bridges from mainland Asia, the archipelago getting settled at least 50,000 years ago [Tabon cave man was carbon-dated at 22,000 years], peoples coming in as seafarers, living as separate tribes, spawning at least 171 native languages-not dialects, practicing animism, getting influenced by Buddhism and Hinduism (Shri Vijaya,7th Century and Majapahit,13th Century), Islam (14th Century), Catholicism (16th Century), Protestantism (19th Century) and the rest of global influences up to the present---all piling on top of another, for the Filipino survives by adapting...

Yet almost all our languages refer to our being human beings or persons as "tao" or "tawo" or some phonetic variation thereof. These are the languages referred to, in the felicitous words of Dr. Rizal in "Sa Aking Mga Kabata": Ang hindi marunong magmahal sa kanyang salita mahigit sa hayop at malansang isda (Who does not love his own tongue is far worse than a brute or stinking fish). There are reportedly 13 native Philippine languages with at least one million native speakers; one or more of these languages is spoken natively by more than 90% of Filipinos and we call humans/persons/man-woman as "tao" or similar sound: Albay-Bikol: tawo; Bikol: tawo; Cebuano: tawo; Hiligaynon: tawo; Ilokano: tao; Ilonggo: tawo; Kapampangan: tau; Kinaray-a: taho; Maguindanao: tawo; Maranao: taw; Pangasinan: too; Tagalog: tao; Tausug: tau. When we say "tao" we mean some human, one with higher consciousness or noble nature. Thus we say, "magpakatao ka!" Be free, aware and responsible! When we knock on a door and say "Tao, Po!" (definitely not the equivalent of 'any body home?'), we are declaring a human being is here, not an animal or the wind! Nothing inanimate!

Did our various ethno-linguistic groups get influenced by the Chinese tradition of "tao" from their philosophical heritage of taoism? May be. But if there was that close an influence, why not use the Chinese term for persons, as in shen or gui? "Tao" in Chinese conception "can be roughly stated to be the flow of the universe, or the force behind the natural order. Tao is believed to be the influence that keeps the universe balanced and ordered. Tao is associated with nature, due to a belief that nature demonstrates the Tao. The flow of qi as the essential energy of action and existence, is compared to the universal order of Tao. Tao is compared to what it is not, like the negative theology of Western scholars. It is often considered to be the source of both existence and non-existence". That concept seems to be too big and grandiose compared to our daily usage of 'tao'.

Might not this lower level conception of "tao" be a part of the dark veil?

In Mark 12:28-31, when Jesus was asked by a Scribe as to which of the commandments is first and most important of all [in its nature]?, the Lord replied: " The first and principal one of all commands is: Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord; And you shall love the Lord your God out of and with your whole heart and out of and with all your soul (your life) and out of and with all your mind (with your faculty of thought and your moral understanding) and out of and with all your strength. This is the first and principal commandment. The second is like it and is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. (Amplified Bible)

The logic of our mind would ask: Where is the instruction to love 'yourself'? Why did Christ immediately go from loving God with all-our-all and then to loving our neighbor as we love ourselves? Shouldn't there have been the progression of loving God, loving yourself and then loving your neighbor as yourself? Shouldn't the directions of love have been up, in, then out? Why is there no distinction between the 'up' and the 'in'? And why is the second like the first?

Did the Lord, Jesus Christ, mean there really is no distinction between "the Lord your God" and "yourself" because God is within each of us? And therefore when you love God, you actually love yourself (no 'up' but simply 'in')? Thus, there can only be two commands--which are like each other--because when you love your neighbor, you also love God?

If that be so, can I dare say: I AM GOD? AND SO ARE YOU? Can each of us say, like Christ: "I and the Father are one"?

Can we conclude then that the dark veil is the wrong belief that each of us is separate and distinct from God? And that all the evil in the world are but the consequences of our ignorance of "God within" and of our insistence that God is simply out there from Whom we can ask any thing, Whom we can treat as an ATM, and Whom we can blame for every thing?

This is worth considering. After all, "all descriptions of reality are temporary hypotheses" [Buddha]. In Peter Russell's "A Scientist's Oddyssey", he found that "when mystics say 'I am God', or words to that effect, they are not talking of an individual person; their inner explorations revealed the true nature of the self, and it is this that they identify with God; they are claiming that the essence of self, the sense of 'I Am' without any personal attributes, is God".

Yet even to think of it, has been fraught with danger. Tenth century Islamic mystic al-Hallaj was crucified for using language claiming identity with God. Fourteenth century Christian priest and mystic Meister Eckhart was summoned before Pope John XXII and forced to "recant everything he had falsely taught", when he preached that "God and I are one".

Thomas Merton, a contemporary scholar and mystic, wrote: "If I penetrate to the depths of my own existence and my own present reality, the indefinable am that is myself in its deepest roots, then through this deep center, I pass into the infinite I am which is the very Name of the Almighty." St. John of the Cross, acclaims: "The soul is in itself a most lovely and perfect image of God".

A teaching from 'The Impersonal Life', Anon, states: "I AM you, that part of you who is and knows... that part of you who says I AM and is I AM... I AM the innermost part of you that sits within, and calmly waits and watches, knowing neither time nor space... It was I Who directed all your ways, Who inspired all your thoughts and acts ... I have been within always, deep within your heart."

So, can we say that when we declare: I AM TAO, we really mean I AM GOD in principle: co-creator of all that happens to me, my nation, my world?

Can we then cite our constitution that "Sovereignty resides in the people, and all government authority emanates from them" and mean it from the divine perspective of sovereignty? Therefore, can we then take any person or group of persons, natural or juridical, who seeks to undermine, defeat, modify or in any other way prevent or make difficult the full and free expression of the people's will (as in election fraud) to be perpetrators of treason or the substance thereof, because these are acts of treachery against the sovereign and designed to injure the integrity of the sovereign?

Can we then call upon the Armed Forces of the Philippines to judiciously exercise its role of being "the protector of the people and the State" ... "to secure the sovereignty of the State" against any and all who would prevent or otherwise disturb the full and free exercise of such sovereignty by the people?

Given the lifting of this veil of separateness and being at-one-ment with the Lord, can we now make sense of Dr. Rizal's exhortation of the Philippine youth?: "Look up with tranquil face, Philippine youth, on this day and shine, manifesting the grace and gallantry of your line, fair hope of this land of mine! xxxx Bearing the good light of art and science, to the battleground descend, O youth, and smite: loosen the heavy pound of chains that keeps poetic [and national] genius bound".

In the same vein, can we now appreciate Dr. Rizal's optimism about the capabilities of the Filipino in his 'Hymn to Talisay'?: "We are children that nothing frightens, not the waves, nor the storm, nor the thunder; the arm ready, the young face tranquil, in a fix we shall know how to fight. We ransack the sand in our frolic; through the caves and the thickets we ramble; our houses are built upon rocks; our arms reach far and wide. No darkness, and no dark night, that we fear, no savage tempest; if the devil himself comes forward, we shall catch him, dead or alive."

What did Dr. Rizal expect of us, who now remind ourselves of his ultimate sacrifice?

In "Hymn to Labor" he has 'The Boys' end the play with the following stanza: "... And the ancients will say when they see us: 'These are worthy, behold, of their breed!' Not by incense are the dead more honored as by sons who are glorious indeed. For his country at war, for his country at peace, the Filipino will stand guard, will love and will die!" (emphasis provided).

There is then the matter of honoring him (and other heroes passed into the great beyond) by being 'glorious indeed'.

Could we honor him with right words and right actions?

After all: "You shall also decide and decree a thing, and it shall be established for you: and the light [of God's favor] shall shine upon your ways." (Job 22:28, Amplified Bible). Moreover, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life] (Proverbs 18:21)

By the power of our tongues, let us 'hurl a sizzle of lightning' by decreeing, in full realization at the moment of utterance, the significance of our unity with the Lord God Almighty, coupled with the complete intention [you could say: New Year's resolution] of acting as such:

I AM TAO! Uncommon. Sovereign.

"Out of Time's abyss and Eternity's vast cavern I rise:

I am the New Year. Now I have come to govern".*

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About the author: Edwin D. Bael is Knight Commander of the Knights of Rizal. He was Consul General of the Philippines in Los Angeles 2000-2002. He now resides and works in San Diego, California.

Note: The English translations of Rizal's works in Spanish are quoted from "The Complete Poems and Plays of Jose Rizal Translated by Nick Joaquin".

*[Rizal's 'The New Year' - A Fragment]

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Rizal: Undeserved Adjectives?

A radical historian who constantly challenges the status quo of historicity urged yesterday future writers on the life, works and heroism of Dr. Jose Rizal to refrain from further embarrassing him with undeserved adjectives that do not faithfully reflect his true being.

Rizal had never seen a corporate boardroom in his lifetime and therefore not a businessman as portrayed by Dr. Ernesto Sibal in his book, Rizal the Businesssman. He merely hawked farm products in the sidewalks of Dapitan, according to author, professor, newspaper columnist, magazine editor and historian Dr. Frank Grego.

The national hero is not a linguist as portrayed by historians Sofronio Alip and Gregorio Zaide. He had no formal studies in linguistics and dialectics who learned Japanese because of his pursuit for the love of O Sei San in Japan; French to communicate with Nely Buosted and Gertrude Becket whom he wooed in Paris; German for his unrelenting interest to his A las Flores de Heidelberg; and Spanish because of his education in Ateneo and Universitae de Sto. Tomae.

Dr. Grego stressed that Rizal indeed carved a head of a carabao during one of his depressive days but he was not a sculptor as historified by Teodoro Agoncillo. His carving was far beyond compare with those of the Igorots’s and the wood carvers in Paete.

The national hero was not an ophthalmologist as pictured by other historians when he checked the blurring eyes of his mother. He did not undergo any ophthalmic fellowship, for he obtained a mere licentiate and not a doctorate in medicine, Grego emphasized.

“Why do they have to embarrass Rizal with these inaccurate labels in their desperate efforts to justify his proclamation by the Philippine Commission as an American-made National Hero in 1902?” Dr. Grego asked.

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RX to "Most Corrupt President"

Reactions to “Most Corrupt President”

‘Scorching Judgment’

More Reactions to “Wayang in Bali”

More Reactions to “Gender Gaps”

‘Thank you, Mr. Renaissance Man’

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

It seems that the sorry state the Philippines is in, never leaves us and just keeps on going in vicious cycles. There is nothing much left for us to do but keep on trying and hoping that we hit the right one. I am pretty sure that GMA has tried, but maybe due to inexperience and simply because she does not have what it takes to be a good president, she failed us big time.

What to do now? Just like buying a car, if you end up with a lemon, then there is no other choice left but to discard or replace it. Easier said than done, but the time is now ripe to do it. God bless the PHILIPPINES! Regards,

Noe Castanos, (by email), Toronto, Ont, Canada, Dec. 20, 2007

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I agree with your comments about the various situations that have taken place during Arroyo's term which have become the bases for the "perceptions" that people have
about Arroyo's performance in the presidency.

As you said, we can never get to the reality of things. My concern then is this: If Arroyo had better spin doctors would the perceptions have come out better? Worrisome to think about.

Renedios Marmoleno (by email), Dec. 20, 2007

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Dear Tony. I fully agree! Let GMA and her apologists commission a similar survey asking respondents the same questions and as sure as the sun rises in the East, the same results as those gathered by Pulse Asia would come into play. Merry Christmas to you and your family! God bless always and keep the pot boiling!

Jeremias Decena, (by email), Dec. 20, 2007

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Sir Abaya: While reading your article, I was of the impression that you again would explain 100% of the not so 100% reality of “perception”. Almost, but not quite. You forgot to mention that more often than not, survey results would favor the objective of, shall I say…sponsor. Unless of course the agency doesn’t take into consideration pleasing their customers as their primary business goal to stay alive in the world of business competition.

Considering the current trend and behavior of Philippine politics and these agencies track record of playing with the top tune on the billboard time and again, such exceptional attitude is highly doubtful, never mention who runs what agency. In addition, don’t forget the huge factor that the present information technology is providing which was not possible during the reign of the “not so corrupt” leaders as perceived by the survey.

Of course this latest and cutting edge available resource for spreading ones “perception” is only a tool of the new found “freedom” and “power” of the media. And again “perception” depends largely on whose pocket these influential media practitioners are playing for. But these are all normal, in a vibrant or over vibrant democracy that the Pinoy Nation is happily enjoying. Regulation is the key, I think. Well, well…it all comes back to what you said, this is only my own personal “perception” that can be somebody else’s, not only in the Philippines but around the world, thru the help of the internet.

Thanks and More Power!

Ador Ramoso, (by email), Atlanta, Georgia, Dec. 20, 2007

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Mr. Abaya, I would take a pause and greet you a Merry Christmas and a more prosperous New Year. I hope to see more enlightening articles in '08. God bless you!

Grace Santos, (by email), Dec. 21, 2007

(Thank you, and a Merry Christmss to you, too. ACA)

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GMA is making her own doing. While it is true that the people involved
in the commissioning of the said survey is questionable, however,
there is no question that GMA is into shitty agendas.

The briberies, joc jocs, garci's, manapat of the national archives,
zte, Cebu lamposts scandals, Mike Arroyo brother's riches pero the
taxes imposed was a joke and so many other issues were NEVER SETTLED.
That is where her problem starts.

Mike Delgado, (by email), Dec. 21, 2007

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Dear Tony, To the question: In your opinion, which president is the LEAST CORRUPT OR NOT CORRUPT in the history of the Philippines? The replies were: Cory Aquino (66%), Joseph Estrada (11%), Ferdinand Marcos (9%), Fidel Ramos (6%), Gloria Arroyo (5%), No Reply (3%).

I agree with the perception that St. Cory is the least corrupt or not corrupt despite the charges of Kamaganak Inc, Borloloy Bldg, etc by Ernie Maceda (of the “So young yet so corrupt” infamy of the 60s) and mis-governance leading to debilitating ‘brown-outs’ (although in fairness, a lot of those were suspected to have been triggered by her share of destabilizers led by now Senator, ‘sounds similar’, Gringo). But the fair-minded (read: not so consumed with prejudice) observer should also relate it against the time when the survey was made and the time when Pres. Cory was the darling or “flavor of the month” of our media then just coming out of the dark nightmare that was martial law. There shouldn’t be any problem understanding that.

As for the very popular Erap, (remember that he was adored by the masa as “bida” for decades), who ruled (like an Emperor) for about 2 years only but was charged in court, went though fair trial aided by the “best” (in delaying tactics?) legal luminaries and found “GUILTY beyond reasonable doubt” to have PERSONALLY amassed hundreds of millions of pesos and yet being perceived as the (far) 2^nd least corrupt? Oops! there goes your three hundred thousand (P.3M) survey. But of course you are free to swallow it hook, line and with an old rubber tire as sinker. That’s Pulse (rhymes with “False”) Asia for you. Add the fact the client was an interested party still gloating at their supposed victory in the last “dirtiest polls” (allegedly bankrolled by Erap) which was also forecasted by surveys which you and I know can be used to condition people’s minds to accept a designed end. But the TRUTH seems to contradict the surveys when practically no one showed up at The Manila Pen Moment of Truth party. The facts, simply, does not fit. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

If the claimed results were indeed the TRUE perception, but NOT necessarily THE TRUTH, then our media and the demolition team of the opposition and power grabbers- combined must have done a helluva job of character assassination indeed. Of course the alleged perception is NOT without basis. You can see that in the hundreds, maybe thousands of column inches written about them apart from copious saliva on the microphone from mouth-frothing news commentators (onli in da Pilipins when news readers make prejudiced side remarks) who must fill air-time even with inanities, asininities or simply insanities to earn their keep. But have they helped gather the evidence necessary to help file an air-tight case? No siree, for the simple reason that the objective is NOT to dig for the truth. It is to squeeze the most damaging allegations and keep the accusations in the public mind ready to be perceived as truths by minds too timid to read beyond what the media barkers dish out day in and day out. I read that “Editors are supposed to separate the chaffs from the grains. They sure do but they chose to publish or broadcast the chaffs instead”! Also, I did not realize that local Journalism and Waste Management are so related.

Do surveys always tell us the truth? Plus or minus 3% margin of error (daw) - they insist with an air of arrogance. Yes, we can say if the soup is salty or not with just a teaspoonful. But that is if you have a homogeneous mix! Whatever random sampling technique is used will only be as accurate as the homogeneity of your population which will be represented by your sample. Have they been faithful in their sampling and interpretations? Have their clients offered to help supply data “to increase the sample size”? Let’s be honest now. These maybe naughty questions but it pales when we consider the ‘noble’ MOTIVE behind the survey.

If marketing is the push to sell a product, advertising is the pull to help accomplish it. Media is the critical link in that enterprise. Let’s now hit the point. If the removal of GMA is the desired end, then a damaging survey result is designed to facilitate it.

The pattern for another ‘golpe’ attempt (or call for a ‘Snap’) is appearing too soon. Carpe diem? Por dios por santo, pwede ba wait na lang kayo for 2010?!!!

E. J. T.Tirona, (by email), Paranaque City, Dec. 21, 2007-12-23

(But no one is stopping anyone in the administration party from commissioning its own survey of people’s perceptions. One must fight fire with fire. The problem remains: which surveys will people believe in. In the 1998 presidential elections, Candidate Jose de Venecia of Lakas-NUCD commissioned a previously unheard-of polling organization with the initials FBI – I cannot recall what those initials stood for – which came out with results that showed him, De Venecia, way ahead of Joseph Estrada of the Pwet ng Masa. Of course, no one except Mrs. De Venecia and their children, took De Venecia’s FBI seriously. The actual Comelec results gave Estrada 38% of the votes, De Venecia only 17%. Time for GMA to commission JDV’s FBI? ACA).