Acting no more

Two days ago, the Commission on Appointments finally confirmed the appointment of Raul Gonzalez as justice secretary of the country. It took more than four years and 19 deferments before Gonzalez could lay claim that he is the justice secretary. He would no longer have to affix the word “Acting” before his position.

What made the members of the Commission, notably Senators Panfilo “Ping” Lacson and Jinggoy Estrada, to withdraw their opposition to the confirmation of Gonzalez? I’d venture into the realm of speculation, and I think it has something to do with the 2010 elections. it is no secret that Lacson has presidential ambitions, and Estrada’s name is being mentioned as a probable vice presidential candidate. Gonzalez is the self-proclaimed “king” of Iloilo City, and these two opposition senators are perhaps banking that he would be kind to them when the day of reckoning comes.

Another possibility is that Lacson and Estrada have grown weary of seeing the puffed face of Gonzalez before the commission, and it is highly possible they don’t want to prolong the agony that has afflicted the justice secretary. Perhaps, in their minds, Gonzalez continues to carry out his program of oppression and persecution against perceived enemies of the administration, so they might as well give him title as “the” justice secretary who should be blamed for all this.

Definitely, Lacson and Estrada could not say that Gonzalez has demonstrated the intellectual acumen, principled probity and effectiveness in enforcing the law as basis for the confirmation. Gonzalez is a big reason why the justice system in the country has almost lost its credibility. The Filipino people have little faith in justice.

Snagged by politics

There was a beautiful article in the May 29, 2008 edition of the Philippine Daily Inquirer by Butch Hernandez, a leading advocate for quality education in our public school system, about the outstanding project being undertaken by spouses Nonong and Eileen Araneta to improve basic education in their hometown of Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo.

The article is entitled “Quality education, one barangay at a time” and features the efforts of the Araneta couple to improve teaching capabilities in far-flung barangays of the municipality known as the “Cradle of Football” in the country, provide better learning resources, and helping build classrooms to address the chronic problem of overcrowded classes.

What the author doesn’t know is that the laudable project of the Araneta couple faces the bleak prospect of being stopped dead in its tracks, not because there are not enough generous benefactors to put up the money, but because the incumbent mayor of Barotac Nuevo, Hernan Biron, feels insecure that a prospective political rival is doing a lot of good for public education.

With the influence of his son, Rep. Ferjenel Biron (4th district, Iloilo), the elder Biron has gotten the Division Schools Superintendent, Dr. Raymundo Lapating, to prevent the project from proceeding with its activities. Biron would rather see public education in his municipality remain in its deteriorated state rather than allow the Aranetas to gain accolades because of their concern for the plight of the poor.

Correctly, the Aranetas recognize the pivotal role that education plays in empowering the children of the poor to escape the clutches of poverty. It doesn’t matter much that these kids go to school barefooted provided the learning instruction they get are at par with the better schools in Iloilo province. After all, education is, in the words of Nelson Mandela, “the great leveler”. It allows the children of poor farmers to compete with children of rich parents on a level playing field.

But Biron would have nothing of it. And Lapating has willingly become a co-conspirator in this plot to frustrate the philanthropic work of the Aranetas just so Biron won’t feel threatened. Lapating would rather please Rep. Biron than see the quality of education in Barotac Nuevo improve.

This act of Lapating could be described as nothing less than betrayal of the public trust. The people of Iloilo look up to him as the champion of education, and yet he gladly swings to the music of the Biron political family to snuff out an initiative to help the poor get out of poverty. His misconduct has not escaped the attention of his superiors in the Department of Education. Already, an assistant secretary at the department has directed him to explain why he stopped this project which is under the auspices of the “Adopt-a-School” program of the DepEd.

The DepEd should step into the picture and compel Lapating to lift his barricade to the project. Biron, for his part, should even welcome the project, because the Aranetas are helping him carry out an obligation that belongs to him in the first place. He has no ability to think of such projects, and he should be happy that concerned private citizens are plugging the gap for him.

Broadcasters with no credibility, Part II

The beauty about WordPress and other blog sites is that one gets to know which posts get the most “hits” or views. To my surprise, one of the most active posts is one entitled “Broadcasters with no credibility”, which was a discourse about two young broadcasters, Rhoderick Tecson and Novi Guazo, formerly top stars of Bombo Radyo, but now struggling to make an impact with another station.

This is an indication that many Ilonggos are interested to know more about Tecson and Guazo, especially that they have the distinction of having fallen from the top in the popularity ratings to the bottom of the pit. And it happened that this morning (May 29), I had coffee with a Bombo broadcaster who knows the true character of these young broadcasters.

So I decided to write this post and reveal more insider information about Tecson and Guazo.

From the time he was in college, Tecson’s reputation as a “hanginon“, or eccentric, was already well established. “He would often sit alone in a corner, sipping coffee, and not talk with anybody,” one UPV alumnus told me.

This personality appears to have deepened when Tecson was named an anchorman of the Bombo Radyo Iloilo, the acknowledged leader in the broadcast industry in the city and province. Tecson began to exhibit symptoms of an egomaniac, never missing the opportunity for self-praise.

His former boss, Bombo area manager Warren French, couldn’t help but notice that oftentimes, Tecson would broadcast supposed text messages addressed to him, all flattering to him. “Kanami sang imo tingog (your voice is so nice)”, one message supposedly said. “I love you,” another supposed message said. “ka guapo sa imo (you are so handsome),” still another floated over the airlanes.

A normal person would normally shun such messages, even if indeed these were sent to him. Tecson’s behavior aroused the suspicion’s of his boss, who secretly went into the computer database after the broadcaster ended his program and searched through the text messages sent during the program.

To his surprise, there was no a single such message that massaged the ego of Tecson! He was just making it all up! He was manufacturing fictitious text messages to make it appear he has become the object of adulation among his listeners! The management of Bombo took note of this errant behavior, and this became a major factor for the eventual termination of Tecson as anchorman of the station.

His partner, Novi Guazo, suffers from the same affliction: he is constantly trying to compensate for his toad-like face by exerting every effort to sound macho and sound handsome. He never tires of self-adulation.

It didn’t take long for Bombo management to discover the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personalities lurking in these two broadcasters. And Bombo management saw that the commentaries they were making were mostly founded on lies. The survey ratings of these two began to drop precipitously, and the company’s chief executive officer, Dr. Rogelio Florete, quickly showed them the exit door.

That was how Tecson and Guazo fell from their perch as top-rated broadcasters. From the tower, they fell to the ditch, where they continue to wallow, trying ever so hard to attract listeners, but never quite succeeding in lifting the ratings of their programs. After almost two years after they were unceremoniously kicked out of Bombo, they are struggling to win back audiences. Less than 10 percent of the radio audience bother to listen to them.

Credibility is the broadcaster’s greatest asset. A broadcaster’s popularity depends heavily on this precious commodity. Those who insist on telling the truth and nothing but the truth capture the biggest share of the radio listening audience. Broadcasters like Tecson and Guazo settle for the crumbs.

This could be the reason why, no matter how hard they hit Iloilo governor Niel Tupas, often for many days on end, the latter still won by an unprecedented landslide in the 2007 local elections. It’s either an overwhelming majority of voters don’t even listen to them, or their credibility have fallen to zero such that nothing that they utter over the airlanes hardly made an impact on the decision of voters.

Police visibility (How Razon bungles the job)

The idea of PNP director general Avelino Razon about police visibility is to personally conduct checkpoints, with media in tow for the photo ops, and show the public that the country’s top cop means business when it comes to law enforcement.

Unfortunately, this approach to law enforcement will not frighten law breakers and criminals. It’s like Razon’s photograph arresting criminals posted in every lamp post to deter criminality. The crooks will only laugh and sneer at him. Police visibility means uniformed policemen actually walking the beat or cruising commercial and neighborhoods in patrol cars. It is not a public relations job.

On Thursday, a huge traffic jam reportedly developed near Roxas Blvd. in Manila when Razon, accompanied by Metro Manila police director Geary Barias, started stopping vehicles found in violation of the prohibition on the use of commerative plates.

This section of Manila is one of the busiest thoroughfares, and Razon certainly exercised poor judgment in choosing that area to carry out his public relations stunt. I can just imagine the curses and insults against him by thousands of motorists stuck in traffic for a long period of time. Instead of helping bring about a smooth flow of traffic, Razon’s antics caused a big obstruction.

That this approach is ineffective in crime deterrence is also proved by the torching of several buses inside its terminal compound in Quezon City, which is not too far from Camp Crame, the national headquarters of the Philippine National Police.

That act of arson was a direct slap on the face of Razon and the police.

The culprits sent a strong signal to the police that they can do what they want with impunity, unafraid of police authorities.

Of course, there’s also the Cabuyao RCBC branch massacre, where armed robbers not only took the money, but also executed 10 people inside the bank with a bullet into the head. It was gruesome, and its happening does not inspire confidence in a public that doubts the ability of the police to protect their safety and security.

Razon should crack the whip and exercise true leadership. He should assign specific responsibilities. He should set goals and objectives. He should hold commanders in the field accountable for their performance.

If Razon wants to be in the headlines, then it should be to parade a long line of accomplishments in crime busting, and not just going after petty offenses such as using commerative registration plates.

Shoot to kill

The declaration of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez earlier in the week that there should be a “shoot-to-kill” order against the culprits in the barbaric and cold blooded massacre of 10 bank employees and customers at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. in Cabuyao, Laguna is very disturbing.

It is unclear how Gonzalez would justify such an action, but it certainly frightens me to contemplate policemen just shooting at plain sight any person or persons who might be suspected of involvement in the heinous crime.

Was the outrage of Gonzalez so great that he forgot he is justice secretary of a country that has abolished the death penalty?

A “shoot-to-kill” order is worse than the death penalty, because the suspects’ lives can be terminated without due process. The constitutional presumption of innocence unless proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt is being thrown out of the window. And what if the wrong person is killed?

This is a very dangerous statement for Gonzalez to make. He owes the Filipino people an apology for such outburst.

What Gonzalez ought to do is whip the National Bureau of Investigation into a professional crime-busting organization that can crack the worst crimes and bring the culprits before the bar of justice.

He can also straighten out the national prosecution service which is directly under him to make it a potent force to pin down criminals. A big reason why our law enforcement efforts are being blunted is the poor performance of our prosecutors. Many supposedly air-tight cases are dismissed in court due to incompetence, negligence or plain laziness.

Crimes like the Cabuyao RCBC massacre happen because government’s capability to combat the bad guys have become puny. The law doesn’t scare the criminals anymore.

This happened because we have a justice secretary who uses his position to harass and oppress perceived enemies of the administration. The real bad guys are free to roam around and perpetrate all kinds of crimes. Gonzalez is too busy doing other things than mend the fences in his own backyard and do what he is supposed to do — lead the justice system of the country against criminals.

Missing in action

It was so easy and convenient for Iloilo Vice Governor Rolex Suplico to claim that his anonymous witness, codenamed “Alex”, had vanished from plain sight, and his communication with the mystery guy had been cut off.

But if he thinks the public will buy his story, he’s wrong. The loopholes are too glaring to be ignored. The timing is questionable. His motives are not pure. Suplico was wrong in thinking that he could fool the people.

Was this “Alex” real in the first place?

My gut feel says it’s a hoax. Suplico just made it all up using readily-available, not so secret information, that the President had visited Senzchen, China. That visit couldn’t be classified as secret. House Speaker Jose de Venecia was there. So were about a dozen others. If pictures were taken, that could only mean the President didn’t really care that documentation of her visit was being made. Otherwise, a strict rule against taking photographs would have been enforced. As the published photos showed, the President even posed for souvenir pictures.

This “Alex” could not have been there. The man seen on television talking with his face obscured by darkness was an impostor. That’s why his details of what allegedly took place were rather spotty. All that he really revealed was that the President visited Senzchen and played golf and had lunch at ZTE and was taken on a tour of its plant. That information could have been provided by Joe de Venecia.

If Suplico’s story is true, the least he could have done was to ask “Alex” for a video of his testimony as well as a sworn statement, in which his true identity is revealed, and his presence at that visit could be established through passport records, plane tickets and other documents. Absent these, Suplico’s story could be classified as garbage.

His story of a missing witness is a tall tale intended for nursery school.

He owes the entire Republic an apology.

Scared witness?

From the start, I never believed in the story of Iloilo vice governor Rolex T. Suplico about a supposed witness to “prove” that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo “lied” when she said she learned about the infirmities in the contract between the government and the ZTE corporation.

The story was filled with loopholes, and the refusal of the witness to come out in the open and reveal his identity put his credibility under a dark cloud of suspicion.

Now that cloud of suspicion has turned even darker after Suplico, knowing that he cannot sustain his story about a witness choosing to remain anonymous, dropped hints that his witness was now scared for his life and may not testify after all.

The witness, Suplico claimed last Sunday, has noticed strange-looking men in his neighborhood, and felt that his identity was now compromised. Suplico talked about the government threatening his witness, which is a convenient excuse for his failure to deliver his product before a doubting public.

Suplico’s script is all too familiar for people who know the workings of hustlers.

Maybe he thought he could spark a public upheaval by accusing the President of lying, although nothing about the supposed revelations of his anonymous witness support that accusation.

If Suplico’s witness was authentic, the best thing he could have done was appear before the Senate blue ribbon committee and seek its protection.

He could have gotten no better protection against harm than by making a public declaration, under oath, before the TV cameras, about what he knew, and then allow himself to be cross-examined.

As an anonymous witness, there was no way of ascertaining his credibility. His so-called revelations amount to nothing. Empty. It had no probative value at all. It’s strange that Suplico would anchor his accusations on such flimsy evidence.

But the truth is slowly emerging. Suplico really had no witness. He only wanted to stir the public mind and look for a political smokescreen to ward off a possible suspension. He wants to have a reason to cry “foul” and “persecution” because of his dud revelations.

I’m surprised that responsible journalists were hoodwinked into buying Suplico’s story, hook, line and sinker.

Suplico’s tall tales

I am not the President’s defender, but I think the so-called ‘bombshell’ dropped by Vice Governor Rolex T. Suplico with his anonymous witness and pictures alleging that Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo made a secret visit to the ZTE headquarters in Shenszhen, China is simply unbelievable. Here’s the press release issued in reaction to this story:

Suplico’s tall tales

The much-ballyhooed “smoking gun” presented by Iloilo vice governor Rolex T. Suplico to link President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to the controversial ZTE national broadband network deal is nothing but a diversionary tactic to ward off a possible suspension by Malacañang in connection with an administrative complaint against him.

Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel “Boy” Mejorada issued this reaction today, May 14, after Suplico claimed that he had an anonymous witness, and pictures, to prove that President Arroyo had secretly met with ZTE officials at their Shenzhen, China headquarters on Nov. 2, 2006.

“If you examine the statements made by Suplico and his unnamed witness, there is not an ounce of evidence to back the claim about a secret golf game and visit to the ZTE headquarters,” Mejorada said.

Even the pictures, Mejorada said, are highly suspicious, as these purport to show the first couple walking along the greens without any other companions in the background as what a presidential golfing party would usually take.

“The front page photograph in the Philippine Daily Inquirer has the tee in the background, and yet First Gentleman Mike Arroyo and the President, with their backs to it, are looking upward,” Mejorada, a former journalist, said.

Mejorada said with modern technology, it is so easy to “paste one’s face unto the body of another person, and it would be difficult to really say it’s not that person shown in the picture.”

“It used to be that a single picture can speak a thousand words,” Mejorada said. “Now, in this age of technology, a single picture can speak a thousand lies.”

In sum, both the statements of Suplico and his anonymous witness, and the pictures, do not amount to anything that would prove his conclusions, he said.

Mejorada said Suplico could have used this questionable disclosure as a “political smokescreen” to put Malacañang in a tight spot and discourage the Office of the President from imposing a suspension against him for alleged oppression, grave misconduct and abuse of authority.

Last Monday, Suplico submitted his answer to the administrative complaint filed by Mejorada before the Office of the President for allegedly using his position to harass the provincial administrator and take away the appropriations for the salaries and wages for his office.

Mejorada claims that Suplico “is confronted with the prospect of being slapped a preventive suspension anytime now” and employed this propaganda offensive to show that any action taken by Malacañang would be politically-motivated.

“Anybody can claim to have been personally present during that supposed visit,” he said.

He said it is hard to believe that a visit like that in a foreign country could be shrouded in secrecy that even border guards do not know about the movements of a head of state.

“Does Suplico or his witness want to tell us Mrs. Arroyo just went around without Chinese security personnel knowing about it?” he asked.

He also pointed to the claim of the witness that he didn’t know it was the ZTE headquarters which the presidential party had visited until he noticed the white uniforms of workers.

“That’s baloney!” he remarked.

“I have seen TV footage of the ZTE headquarters, and there’s a huge sign atop the building with the letters Z-T-E,” he said.

Mejorada said the whole story is clearly a work of fiction, and Suplico just took the media for a ride.

He added that Suplico is “grasping at straws to prevent an impending fall from the cliff” as he confronts the possibility of suspension. (30)

The energy crisis

No complicated graphs are needed to illustrate the fact that Iloilo province is confronted with a serious power supply crisis in the years ahead, and that there is a need to build base-load power plants that can provide a stable, and cheap, flow of electricity.

Already, Iloilo City has earned the unsavory reputation as the city with the highest cost of power in a recent survey conducted by the Asian Institute of Management on the competitiveness of major cities of the country. Power constitutes the number one cost factor among manufacturers and call center operations, and the situation in Iloilo will only discourage investors from setting up shop here.

There is also the growing frequency of the rotating brown-outs as power distributors struggle to cope with growing demand for electricity in the face of a widening supply gap.

With this in mind, I had no hesitation in taking the microphone last Thursday during the briefing conducted by the Department of Energy on the supply situation of power in the island of Panay.

I made it clear to the assembly that the Iloilo provincial government under Governor Niel Tupas, Sr. supports private sector initiatives to build clean-coal power plants in Concepcion, Iloilo and Iloilo City.

Iloilo is a province that could grow economically in leaps and bounds if only it had enough power supply, and cheap, too. The only way we could compete with other provinces for investments and generate more jobs for our people is to build the infrastructure for power.

I noted that the Korean Electric Power Company (KEPCO) had originally planned to build a 100-megaWatt clean-coal power plant in Banate, Iloilo, but when it encountered a hostile environment, it didn’t blink twice in deciding to pack its bags and bring the power plant to Cebu province.

Now, there are now three clean-coal power plants in Cebu, and it is definitely several notches higher than Iloilo province in terms of economic development. With its flourishing export-oriented manufacturing sector, and emergence as one of the top business process outsourcing (BPO) centers in the country, Cebu is hungry for cheap and stable power. Thus, it didn’t hesitate to roll out the red carpet to Kepco.

That hostility toward Kepco was the biggest mistake Ilonggos made. The transfer of the coal-fired plant to Cebu moved back the timetable for the establishment of a base-load plant for Panay island was set back five years.

And if the protesters against the proposed coal-fired power plants are worried about the health hazards that these facilities will bring, then my answer is simple: show me proof that the incidence of upper respiratory ailments have increased significantly in Cebu over the past 10 to 15 years.

I will bet one thing, though: the people of Cebu enjoy better health and economic benefits because of the climate of prosperity made possible by these coal-fired plants. With more people employed, they are better able to afford better nutrition for their children, send their children to school, and provide for better medical care for their families.

If there is one thing we ought to fear, it is the fear of darkness.

And that seems to be the path that the opponents of coal-fired power plants want Iloilo to take.

Should we follow that path?

Definitely, NO!

Number one law breaker

Iloilo vice governor Rolex T. Suplico is the number one law breaker in the province.

He is also emerging as the most incompetent and inept vice governor of the province of Iloilo. Though a lawyer, Suplico seems ignorant about the law. His alma mater, University of the Philippines, would be ashamed to admit he is a product of this great institution of learning.

Suplico is fond of saying that everybody has to adhere to the “rule of law”. Yet all his actions contradict his own advocacy.

For instance, Suplico violated Republic Act No. 7160, or the Local Government Code, when he broke the provisions on the duties of his position as vice governor. Under the law, the vice governor is the presiding officer of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan. As such, he is not entitled to vote except in case of a tie. That is clearly spelled out in the Internal Rules of Procedure adopted by the same Sanggunian that he heads.

On April 22, 2008, the Iloilo provincial board adopted Resolution No. 2008-073 expressing the sentiment of its members, supposedly through the required two-thirds vote, to override the veto exercised by Governor Niel Tupas, Sr. on Appropriation Ordinance No. 2008-01-b authorizing the 20% IRA Development Fund and Resolution No. 2008-044 approving the revised, modified and over-hauled Annual Investment Plan of the province.

Ten votes were reported as having voted in favor of the override. Three members cast negative votes. On the face of the resolution, the two-thirds vote requirement has been complied.

But an examination of the journal of the proceedings, as well as the resolution itself, show that there is a fatal defect that renders the resolution invalid for failure to muster the required 10 votes.

That’s because Suplico forgot about his elementary parliamentary procedures, and he forgot altogether about the Internal Rules of Procedure that states that the presiding officer is not eligible to vote except in case of a tie. Hence, his vote was invalid. It should not be counted. With that in mind, the total number of votes cast to override the veto was only nine.

This is a simple illustration of how Suplico has become the number one law breaker in the province of Iloilo. He distorts the meaning of the law. He ignores rules and regulations. He does what he wants. He doesn’t listen to the advice of experts from the DILG and DBM. Anything that is contrary to his belief and opinion is wrong.

If Suplico thinks he can get away with his breaking the law and the rules, he’s wrong.

Things will eventually catch up with him.

In fact, the deadline set by the Office of the President for him to respond to the administrative charge I have filed against him is today, May 9. As soon as he submits his counter-affidavit, the Office of the President will determine whether the evidence of guilt against him is strong enough to warrant the imposition of a preventive suspension. Well, I am confident Malacanang will find enough basis to issue that order.

Law breakers have no place in society.

We have to adhere to the rule of law, the proper way, not the Suplico way.