Why foreign investors shun the Philippines?

Philippine former president Fidel V. Ramos (extreme right) agrees with the author's (center) observation on the inequitable business partnership between foreign investors and their Filipino counterparts as provided by the Philippine Constitution

BY MORTZ ORTIGOZA

In a recent conversation with former President Fidel V. Ramos at the Lucap Wharf (after he scuba dived at the Hundred Islands) in Alaminos City, he agreed with my observation that our country needs to liberalize the 60-40 percent, 70-30 percent, and even 100 percent business equities in the 1987 Constitution  in favor of Filipinos.

“I agree with it, and we should also change the system of government from presidential to parliamentary,” he told me after I cited how incompetent leaders like Greece’s George A. Papandreou and Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi were replaced by technocrats to avoid their countries spiraling into the economic morass.

But look what I found here!

It is the latest survey conducted by business TV channel CNBC that the Philippines is among the worst in Southeast Asia to conduct business in and the 4th worst in the world  according to top business executives who were interviewed.

CNBC, on its poll titled “The World’s 10 Worst Countries for Business” published on November 3, 2011, said the Philippines attains only 2.5 percent of the $76.5 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI) that flowed to the 10 member-states of the Association of South East Asian (ASEAN) in 2010.

The prestigious business TV channel wondered why this happened despite having a massive untapped mineral water, a long geographical South East and North Asia neighbors, and a large English speaking population, the country still failed to stir the economy to significant growth.

The culprits, according to CNBC, are the country’s unpredictable legal system, violence, and bureaucracy.

“Its ease of doing business ranking from the World Bank fell a further two spots this year from 2010. The country also ranks among the lowest when it comes to starting business and resolving insolvency, with the latter taking more than five and a half year, compared with an average one year and seven months in OECD countries,“ its says.

***

That’s why BIR Regional Director Arnel Gubala was all praises to the South Koreans when he told me how that country (where he attended career schooling) has dusted- off Japan, Hong Kong, and the United States in terms of development in infrastructure landscapes.

He said that the Korean government invites member countries of East Asia for them to learn for free about taxation, economics, ecology, etc

He lamented that when he asked foreign participants in a mammoth five- star- hotel- liked government seminar and facilities where the Thais, the Vietnamese, and the Malays are, he was told that they were not around because they concluded their schooling there as they were in a higher category compared to our country.

“I could only shake my head when I learned that Philippine delegates were with delegates from Cambodia, Burma, Sri Lanka, and Laos,” he told me.

Talagang Laos na tayo, sir!

Those Thais and Malaysian used to learn from us in the 1950s and 1960s but have long dusted us now in the number games of Foreign Direct Investors.

“Don’t you know that the Korean hosts told us they copied the taxation of the Philippines in 1970s under (former president Ferdinand) Marcos and look where are they now? They are now part of the top ten richest countries in the world!” Guballa zealously explained to me. (You can send comment at totomortz@yahoo.com).

Vultures at DepEd

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

The sights in Alaminos City, as seen on TV lately, were heart wrenching.
An older brother Lyndon Milan mowed with his M-16 assault rifle and a single shot from his .45 caliber pistol a younger brother police Supt. Lloyd Milan and his wife Cherryl.
Then the remains of the victims were seen being shipped to the southern province of the country Surigao, the home province of Cherryl.
The dead Milans’ 13 year-old eldest son told the TV reporter that his father’s mother, sisters, and brothers conspired to kill his father.
Lyndon used to be my co-faculty in college. We had some warm chit-chat at the City Hall of Alaminos, where he worked, a week before the carnage without me knowing the gruesome incidents that await a week later.
The kin of his father did not show-up during the entire wake.
A “distressed” Mayor Nani Braganza quipped how Alaminos City lost a first potential general in Colonel Milan.
The slain police officer was a graduate of the Philippine National Police Academy.
His and his wife’s death, according to my source, started when his parents’ fishpond was mortgaged to him.
***
If you enter the office of Assistant Superintendent Dr. Shiela Marie Sison-Primicias , you will see three columns of pictures on a long bond paper posted at the glass window of her office for all to see.
Column 1 is about two dirty comfort rooms in her division office called Pangasinan-1 in Lingayen, Pangasinan.
Column 2 is a photo of a refurbished well-tiled spic –and-span comfort rooms after the old comfort rooms in Column 1 were renovated by Dr. Primicias in her 36-day brief stint as OIC superintendent of Pangasinan-1.
This after Dr. Aurora Domingo, Superintendent of the Division, went for a two-month vacation in the U.S.
What infuriated Dr. Primicias and those who dropped at her office were the photos at Column 3.
All of those tens of thousands of pesos worth of renovated comfort rooms in Column 2 were in rubbles as if they were bombed by the NATO forces in Libya.
***
The person responsible for this demolition should be sued with criminal acts. This is not only Malicious Mischief. This is taxpayers’ money that went down the drain because of stupidity.
As you know there is internal “squabbling” among Dr. Domingo, Dr. Danny Sison, Dr. Primicias.
Kung sino man sa inyo ang nag-utos na ipa-demolish iyan dahil mi mga away kayo diyan, sana naman iniisip niyo na ang dinamay niyo ay government funded project.
Managot kayo!
I am calling the attention of DepEd. Secretary Ermin Luistro, Governor Amado T. Espino, and chairman of Education Committee (and the saving grace of the provincial board) Board Member Ming Rosario to investigate and mete penalties on those who were involved on the outrageous acts there.
***
The names for new positions for teachers given by Sec. Luistro to Dep Ed ­are now mostly coursed through congressmen instead of the division offices of the education department.
This new policy is to avoid corrupt division superintendents who sell these new items to willing teacher applicants.
According to my source, Dep Ed central office finds it safe against corruption- hold your breath -to give these quotas to congressmen.
My other source told me that a school superintendent could sell each item up to P135 thousand to P150 thousand for an applicant.
But if it is given to a solon, the lawmakers would just give it to the son or daughter of his supporter who are board passer and who are included on the rank’s lists of principals.
He said that bigwigs at DepEd central office know that these applicant- protégée of the solons are not fleeced — even if they are listed at the bottom part of the ranking of their application.
Under the” Matuwid na Daan (Straight Path)” of President Benigno Aquino, Jr., a congressman is given up to 50 quota while a superintendent is given only a measly ten quota for new positions.
***
A division that covers up to four congressional districts is given up to 200 new positions through the lawmakers.
A lowest rank public school teacher now receives P19 thousand a month pay.
With a bill now being deliberated in congress, this amount would balloon to P32 thousand a month, according to a high ranking education official.
With a handsome sums dangled to would be applicant in the public school, vultures like these superintendents and principals proliferate.
(You can read my selected intriguing but thought-provoking columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com).

Paquiao vs. Marquez 3: Analysis

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

When Juan Manuel Marquez duke it out with Floyd Mayweather Jr. at Welterweight in September 2009 he brought there his punching speed but lacked the power that incessantly snapped out the head of Manny Pacquiao when they fought in their first two matches.

When Pacquiao fought Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito at the catch weights of 147 (welterweight) and 150 (Junior Middleweight) in November 2009  and  November 2010, we saw how his right hand has been  transformed by Freddie Roach and Alex Ariza into a  rocket-launcher-carrying Fedayen combatant.

It Knocked down Cotto with a hook in the third round, while it re-arranged grotesquely Margarito’s face on the entirety of the one-sided beating.

Although the bobbling and weaving Floyd has amazingly outclassed the confused lil’Juan (whose punching powers have been lost to pickpockets in Distrito Federal in Mexico during that fight), Pacquiao’s  much heavier power punches would be a factor to weaken and destroy him.

What Manny should do in this rubber match?

Cover his face with his gloves, steamrolls Marquez by target shooting him with his right punches just like in Cotto and Margarito. Emulate Joel Casamayor (Marquez opponent in September 2008) strategy in counter punching by hitting him with a shoulder right straight. Then Manny docks and hit Marquez with his lethal left hook to the chin just like what he did to him in their rematch that saw the latter staggered and crashed like crazy on the dais.

 If the least powerful and over-the –hill Casamayor has done this to Marquez, why not an improved, fast, and furious Pacquaio?

Cut the absconding Marquez to the right with the Manila Ice’s right hook as Dinamita back tracks clockwise because he avoids Paul McCartney’s right hand located “Bang-Bang Silver Hammer”.

Pacquiao’s vulnerabilities

Every time he turtle-shield, he left an opening between his two elbows that become a welcome hole to what a rapist to his victim.

You asked Joshua Clottey and Cotto what “hath you done my sons” to this hole with their uppercuts. Man, it jerks up the head of the Filipino congressman.

In the thick of an exchange, Manny allowed his left face to be exposed to counter as he has the tendency to lower his left glove after unleashing it.

He should watch the treacherous “45”. A technique trainer Nacho Beristain employed where his fighter trigger a flushing left hook to the kidney and a deadly right straight to the right face

Comparative Advantage of Pacquiao to Marquez

If Manny is 32 year-old, Marquez is already 37 years old.

The rubber match Marquez is going to do in November 12 in the U.S is not a chasing game with the Vietcong as what Mayweather has brought him in.

It would be a hell-hole.
Although he runs clockwise with Manny as part of his defense, Marquez is an offensive take-no-prisoner fighter every time he sees a chance to attack.

This style could be his Waterloo. He would be no longer dealing with a one-hand Douglas MacArthur in his hold outs in Bataan and in Corregidor. He would now be dealing with a General Herbert “Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf with all the available munitions except the roundhouse kick and the axe kick at his disposal.

This would be a war that Shane Mosley-whatever “swindled” fight plans he discussed with Top Rank - would be ashamed of.

Would Father Time and the  wars the 37 year-old Marquez had  spent with the likes of Antonio Barrera, Michael Katsidis, Juan Diaz, Rocky Juarez catches on him as he tangles with the modified, innovated, and primed Filipino superman ( except superman’s handsome face) and boxing pound-for-pound king ?

(You can read my selected intriguing but thought-provoking columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com).

Are we criminally liable for Libel?

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Libel case respondent Mortz Ortigoza. He is one of the three staff of Northern Watch Newspaper who was sued by Board Member Alfie Bince

Board Member (BM) Alfonso Bince sued me, Yolly Fuertes (Publisher), and Brando Cortez (Editor-in-Chief) of this paper recently at the prosecutor‘s office in Rosales, Pangasinan.

The case he filed was Libel. It was a result of my column “Most BMs received P40 monthly from Jueteng – BM Uy”

The P40 was ridiculous and incredible but I rectified it in my August 14, 2011 column   after some members of the Sangguniang Panlalalwigan (SP) or the Provincial Board threaten me on mass media with libel.

 I said there it was a typographical error.  I explained that what BM Danny  Uy told me and other media men in several occasions that most of his fellow BMs were recipient of the P40 thousand payola from the illegal number game jueteng.

Libel is public and malicious imputation of a crime, or of a vice or defect, real or imaginary, or any act, omission, condition, status, or circumstance tending to cause the dishonor, discredit, or contempt of a natural or juridical person, or to blacken the memory of one who is dead, (Article 234 of the Revised Penal Code).

It is a case handles by the Regional Trial Court even its penalty of up to Prision correctional medium period (4 years and two months.) or a fine of up to P6, 000 or both.

Although it shows its prison term is under the ambit of the lesser Municipal Trial Court, it probably shows that written slander is a special case because it involves special people – the journalists (aheem!).

If BM Bince wants the court to convict us, he should meet all the four (4) elements of criminal libel.

A) There must be defamatory Imputation; B) Publicity of the Libelous Matter; C) The Person Libeled must be Identified; D) There must be Malice on the Part of the Accused.

Since there was already publication of my disputed column, I’ll answer elements A, C, and D at my very best knowledge.

On Element A: There was no defamatory imputation. I wrote that article in good faith and without malice.

Bm Uy for several times has been telling me and some media colleagues with bravados that he did not receive even  a single centavo from jueteng intended monthly for  the members of the SP.

I included Uy’s statement to my column that most of his colleagues received payolas to corroborate my observation of the indifference of the SP to the government sanctioned Loterya ng Bayan (LNB).

“Is the absence of payola the reason that made members of the august body critical of the LNB?” I posed there.

What I asked it in my column it was privileged (it means no action for libel). Besides, it was in the form of a question and a matter of public interest concerning public officials.

As what Borjal vs. Court of Appeal (301 SCRAA 1 January 14, 1999 says….”Fair comments on matters of interest are privileged and constitute a valid defense in an action for libel or slander.

 I did not concoct the statement of BM Uy, there were media men and non media men who already went public by corroborating what I exposed that they heard too that Uy said that most of his colleague were recipients of the illegal number game.

On Element C : It says that the person libeled must be identified. Bm Bince was not identified as recipient of the payola in that article.

On the first row of the first (1) paragraph of my column I wrote “Recently, I overheard board member Alfonso Bince adversely commenting on the surge of Lotery ng Bayan (LNB) in Pangasinan. “Loterya ng Mayayaman, he incessantly and derisively quipped to two radio stations where he was interviewed the other week in phone patch”.

On the fifth (5) paragraph of the same row I posed “Does Bince’s dislike for LNB reflect the mentality of his colleague whose names are preceded with the adjective “Honorable”?”

“On the eight (8) paragraph of the same row I asked” Is the absence of payola the reason that members of the august body critical of LNB?”

Now, where’s the name of BM Bince here that he wrote on paragraph D of his Affidavit Complaint (AC):

 “ Thus the above column article specifically mentioning his name is benefiting from the operation of illegal number game as jueteng is  blatant lie and falsehood and constitutes   malicious imputation of   a crime which tends to cause his dishonor, discredit, and contempt from his constituents in the 6^th congressional district of Pangasinan from more than twenty (20) years and in the entire province and all possible readers of Northern watch, who by reason of which he has suffered mental anguish and wounded feelings”

Susmariosep, the allegation of Bince is an insult to the intelligence of even the ordinary readers and his constituents.

How could he accuse me and company that I dragged his name on my column when I only mentioned him on the fifth paragraph as critical of the LNB and not its beneficiary?

And that fifth and eight paragraphs were even a poser?

It means a query, a question I made not for him but to his colleagues.

You my dear readers can browse again what the fifth (5) paragraph of my column and you connect that to paragraph 8, and- son of a gun - you would be enlightened, too.

I was no longer talking about Bince there but his colleagues.

The AC of the offended lawmaker at Paragraph A was misleading and the prosecutor who would resolve the complaint should take notice.

He juxtaposed my statement on the first paragraph of row 1of my column where I mentioned his name  as critical to the LNB to  paragraph six of the same row of Uy’s statement that most if not all of his colleagues at the provincial board received P40, 000 monthly payola from  a jueteng operator.

Holly Molly, the 1st paragraph was a different topic to the 6th paragraph!

On Element D: I did write that article without malice but with a patriotic duty to unmask the hypocrisy of the members of the SP of being critical or indifferent to LNB but not to jueteng.

As what my kumpadre Edmund Burke says : “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”.

If the complaint of Bince could not meet any one of the four (4) elements then the prosecutor should throw the complaint to the waste basket like dung to save valuable scarce prosecutorial resources.

Oh, by the way Bince said on the first paragraph of his AF that he is a resident of Rosales, Pangasinan where he filed his AF.

He failed to mention that he is pubic official.

Paragraph  3 of  Article 360 of the Revised Penal Code said that were one of the offended parties is  public officer”….the action should be filled in the Court of First Instance (precursor of the RTC) where he held office at the time of the commission of the offense or where the article  is printed and first published…”.

Bince failed also to mention that he has a government funded office in Rosales. By overlooking his public position and government office at his AC, could our defense lawyers ask for the immediate dismissal in the name of jurisdiction for this harassment that took the attention already of the national and local media and other entity who mull to organize a rally by inviting personalities like Archbishop Oscar Cruz to denounce what a member of the provincial board has been doing to us?

Bince should have stated the location of his public office that could either be in Lingayen –where the provincial capitol is located, or the one in Rosales but he failed to mention it that he has one there.

Otherwise, this wannabe political columnist surmised that the case should be dismissed pronto by the prosecutor at Rosales so that we could get back to our duty to write what is true without the albatross breathing on our neck.

You can read my selected intriguing but thought-provoking columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com).

Pacquiao in Training

Trainer and Pacman's dietitian Nonoy Neri - an ilonggo who came from Negros but now stays in Davao City

One of the two very expensive BMW motor trikes of Manny . These babies were driven by his close-in from Cooyesan Hotel to either Santa Lucia or Teachers' Camp or Burnham

Lightweight no. 1 contender Linares. El Venezuelan, eh? "31 fights, 20 knockouts" he answered me
"My right hand is my power punch, while my left is for jabbing. He still learned a lot from Manny how to dance on the stuffs spread on the rubberized tracks in Baguio

With conditioning coach Alex Areza. El Columbiano, eh? I have a lengthy one-on-one take-no-prisoner-no-holds-bar interview with him on Manny's taking drugs, and Manny's not on the level of Mayweather

First time I saw this baby here in the Philippines. Have you seen the no. 8 at the SUV's plate? That's the no. of a congressman. Senators, Justices, president have their own no. too

The Political Price of Sueing Me with Libel

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Last week I was told that the provincial attorney of Pangasinan, lawyer Dindin Baniqued, has recommended the filling of a libel case against me and the other staff of this paper.
With it, so be it!
My P40 pesos, er, P40 thousand question here to the “Honorable” members of the Board who felt defamed after one of their colleagues told me that most of the members of the August Body were willing recipients of the payola from illegal gambling game jueteng:
Can you afford the political price this “celebrated” and media hyped libel case would exact on your political stocks up to your re-election or election in 2013?
Baka matalo kayong lahat, mga bossing.
Remember, some media men and other personalities have already attested in public that indeed Board Member Danny Uy uttered the same words he told me.
What priced glory this libel case you are going to marshal brings you if these guys start talking to GMA-7 and ABS-CBN TVs, and start writing or broadcasting on their outlets ?
Why go after my scalp and my colleagues in Northern Watch when you should be censuring your colleague BM Uy because of his imprudence?
***
Pamsy Tioseco, Public Relations (PR) woman of both Senator Loren Legarda and former congressman and senatorial bet Rufi Biazon, confirmed my text query if Rufi has gotten the top custom plum.
The soft spoken Rufi is a good choice. I interviewed him for several times in Dagupan City when he gunned for the senatorial derby in the 2010 election.
I saw him cool under fire when some unreasonable local media men asked him their out-of-synch contemptuous questions in a press conference called by Pamsy.
” Mortz batch mate ko Ruffy 1986 nung highschool. He is indeed a good man,” Face Booked to me by my cousin Bernadeth Elisan-Santos, now a dentist in Australia when I told her my impression of the son of former Marine ramrod and former Senator Pong Biazon.
To Rufi, boss I hope that wala ng mawawalang almost 1,910 container vans diyan sa custom as what your predecessor Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez has done.
Boss, congrats and magpa-inum na kayo ng beer.
***

I could not fathom the oral and written arguments hissed by the critics of Alaminos City Nani Braganza and Pangasinan State University-Alaminos City (PSU-AC) on the three ballyhooed degrees it offered this semester. The recent memorandum, signed by Atty. Julito D. Vitriolo, executive director of the Commission of Higher Education (CHED) in the central office in Manila, to Dr. Caridad O. Abuan of CHED Regional Office in La Union said that PSU-AC “have met all the requirements on the level of accreditation (Level II accredited by AACUP) and being identified as a Center of Development (COD) for both programs “ are enough arguments for the critics to stop peddling all their misinformation.
The last paragraph of the Memo that is being exploited by critics of Mayor Braganza and PSU President Victoriano C. Estira is immaterial.
The paragraph says “that an ocular visit of the abovementioned programs by the Technical Panel concerned before the issuance of government permit to operate such programs will be conducted by this Office to determine compliance with the requirements “
That instruction is conditional for some compliance. But it does not bar PSU-AC to offer this semester the three degrees on the Bachelors of Science in Elementary Education, Secondary Education, and in Agriculture.
It only requires, susmariosep, the PSU to comply with the requirements that the college under Dean Dr. Ellen Barcelona could easily hurdle.
So what are all the fusses about it?

Q & A: JDV’s solutions on the Spratlys problem

The author during his one of his countless Q & A with the Philippines former rabble-rousing House Speaker Jose de Venecia

Former five-time House Speaker Joe de Venecia, Jr., an eminent global expert, speaks his thoughts on the brewing issues on the Spratlys Islands in the West Philippines Sea. Political columnist Mortz Ortigoza sat with him to talk about the issue. Excerpts:

MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA (MCO): How strategic is the Spratlys for the Philippines, Mr. Speaker?
JOSE DE VENECIA, JR (JDV): Why should we sail to China (Sea to the Arab Gulf) all the way to that when we have oil and gas in our own front yard and our backyard? If we could only use (chuckled) our “coconut” (common sense).
MCO: Political and military spectators say that to discourage the incessant intrusions of China in the West Philippine Seas we have to invite our ally the Americans for a joint exploration of oil there.
JDV: The Americans will not drill for oil in the China Sea because who will invite them to drill there?
MCO: The Philippine government.
JDV: The Philippines? We are courting war with China, courting war with Vietnam.
MCO: Adm. Mike Mullen, the chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said recently at the start of his four-day visit to China that the U.S vowed to maintain her presence in the resource-rich waters. What is really the interest of the Americans in Spratlys?
JDV: The interest of the Americans is economics. So they could have a free and untrammeled navigation for being a Pacific power. Secondly, because that is one way of telling China na dahan-dahan naman kayo kasi nandito kami (you should be careful because of our presence here in the West Philippines Sea).
Thirdly, they have to show some semblance of support to the Philippines. Although as the Americans have pointed out while (other countries) threatening their allies they will go to war. (But it is different in the China Sea unless there is authorization by the U.S Congress. Because unlike the NATO agreement, an attack in England is considered as an automatic attack against the U.S, an attack on France is the same. An attack on the Philippines is an attack on the U.S. But it does not mean an immediate attack- response by the U.S. They have to consult their constitutional process first – it means to say their hall of congress.
MCO:Can’t we not use the Libyan Model when President Barrack Obama declared war against Muammar Gaddafi and support the Libyan rebels even without the imprimatur of the U.S,congress?
JDV: Well, you know in the case of Libya, there was an authorization from the Security Council of the United Nations but even the Security Council of the UN was abused and being abused by the European Power like France and Britain. Because the decision of the Security Council was really to prevent Gaddafi on harming the Libyans who want to bring down their government.
MCO: Some political kibitzers question your formula of consortium among claimant countries in the Spratly because it does not resolve first the issue of sovereignty.
JDV: Well, (former paramount leader of Mainland China) Deng Xiaoping proposed that we shall not (discuss) sovereignty for the meantime. Because if the Philippine insists on sovereignty, China insists on sovereignty, Vietnam insists on sovereignty, well there will be war. So the practical step is to shelve the issue of sovereignty, and agree on one common development on the Spratly so that Vietnam, China and the Philippines that claims for oil and gas and hydrocarbons under an equity of 1/3, 1/3,1/3 profit sharing formula that eventually would have to bring in Malaysia, Brunei, whose acreage or whose claim, in the Spratlys are smaller than that of the three. We should also invite them as part of this drilling coalition.
MCO: Does this consortium thing have something to do with our armed forces?
JDV: The weakest of these line states is the Philippines. We have no air force, we have no navy. China has a large armed forces, Vietnam now has large armed forces, a large air force, a large navy.
MCO: Were major claimants China and Vietnam telegraphed already their intention that they were amenable to your proposal?
JDV: No, no. Yes, because I’m talking to them directly.
MCO: Were they amenable?
JDV: Yes!
MCO: Is there a precedent model of your consortium’s formula?
JDV: Just like that in the North Sea after World War II, England is here (as he lifted the empty coffee cup and the sandwich of the interviewer to put on the other parts of the table to emphasize his point). This is England; the oil field is here in Ecofisk in the North Sea. They took a median line partition so the oil flows to Stavanger in Norway. The oil is in Teesside in England. And the natural gas goes to Crimea, German. I landed here in the Ecofisk which is above 20 stories high. The platforms from the sea, very stormy seas but (they were composed of) hundreds of oil wells! And siguro mga (Just like) several stories high buildings and platforms from the sea.
MCO: So nobody own these areas? The consortium owns them?
JDV: They have agreed. This part belongs to Norway! (Lifting again the sandwich and coffee cup of the interviewer by putting them to another part of the table to emphasize his point)This part belongs to England! This part belongs to Germany! In the meantime we jointly developed.
MCO: Is the North Sea’s model the only model the claimants in the Spratly’s can replicate?
JDV: Puwedi nating gawin ito( We can copy it). This is one model. The other model is that we will drill together and the profit we split. You see? So we shelve the issue of sovereignty. This is the formula that will solve the problems of China, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Therefore that will solve the problem between China and Vietnam in the Paracel. This (in) the Spratly claim, Vietnam went to war over there a dozen years ago. This is the same formula that should be used because (by) Japan in Diaoyu Strait, what the Chinese call the Senkaku Strait. This is the third formula that could be used on the Sea of Japan and the East Sea, between Japan and South Korea.
MCO: Taiwan has a claim there, too. Is it because of her being Mainland China once upon a time?
JDV: It is her being a China then. The Taiwanese claim will be jointly discuss with the two Chinas – China and Taiwan.
MCO: Some Spratlys’s watchers told me the Philippines should have the least claim than China on the disputed islets because the places there have been owned by China since the 17th Century?
JDV: Well, more than a thousand years ago, you know the Philippines do not exist on that area ruled by certain datus (tribal chiefs). We were not a nation. China was already an ancient civilization, the bigger kingdom. And so they have maps of the area, for example the Spratlys were discovered by my friend Tomas Cloma. He called it Freedom Land in 1957.
MCO: Some proposed that we amend the Constitution for the U.S to have their military bases again in the Philippines for them to guard our aerial and sea domain thus deterring the Chinese’s encroachments.
JDV: It would only put us in deep trouble. Americans are in deep trouble in Afghanistan and Iraq. What we all have to do is sit down with China and Vietnam, pag-usapan na natin ito at mag drill na. Hati-hati na lang tayo. Tapos na!(We discussed the problems with them and eventually drill oil for the equal benefits of all thus we solve the problem). The most practical and the most pragmatic!

‘Idiotic’ Professor, ‘Presumptuous’ Lawyer

Who was that “idiotic” professor (who comes from a substandard university in Dagupan City) tasked by a local TV to give his analysis on President Benigno Aquino’s one year in office?
He said Aquino’s one year was economically better than the last year  of former president Gloria M. Arroyo.
By George! This guy does not read even the newspaper’s wrap of tinapa (smoked fish).
Year 2010 of former President Arroyo was an economic banner year of the country for the 2000s.
The GNP (not Gutom Na Pilipino, but the real Gross National Product) in that year was 7.2 percent.
The projection of the GNP for this year is only 4.5 percent according to the International Monetary Fund.
***
First semester of 2010 was   a campaign and national election year.
Months before the poll, politicians spent billions of pesos as if there was no tomorrow. These spending- spree bode well for the economy.
For Christ sake my dear presumptuous professor, it was a national election year where P500 and P1000 bills were just like wrappers of candies that were thrown like shits by politicians to all and sundry.
***
What Davao City Mayor Sarah Duterte has done against her mauled court sheriff was condemnable. This was premeditated for media mileage as toughie “kuno” projection. It exposes also the political greed of a politician like Duterte taking the cudgels of the squatters cum future voters against a legal court order. She should be sanctioned by the Supreme Court as unethical member of the Bar, and by the Department of Interior & Local Government as public officer.
***
I doubt if Judge Emmanuel Carpio could cite Davao City Mayor Sarah for contempt of court. First, he could probably disappear in Davao; second, his perks like gas, allowance, etc, from the City will disappear, too.
I know this dilemma. In cities in Pangasinan, even fiscals or prosecutors are indebted to the mayors’ monetary favours.
What is condemnable about this practice? These fiscals (and probably judges, too) hopped to the offices of mayors of the city and towns under their watch by soliciting monies to pay for their plane fares and hotel accommodations whenever they have seminars.
“Pinagkikita-an pa ng mga lintek na iyan ang solicitations,” a city administrator quipped to me before.
He told me three fixcals, er, fiscals who would be attending a seminar in Davao asked for P120 thousand as financial aids for their two-day seminar that has been appropriated a budget already by their office.
**
A media friend Ronel has similar experience what the sheriff has experienced in the hands of Mayor Duterte. He was slapped by the Mayor of Laoac, Pangasinan years ago for instigating ABS CBN to expose the anomalies of the mayor. He was slapped big time inside the Sangguniang Bayan’s office where the dads there were having their session.
Susmariosep, three of my friend’s molar teeth were extracted by that slap.
I told him to sue the mayor with slander by deed (kasi napahiya siya before the TV cam and the public) and slight physical injury plus moral damages.
But he did not heed my advice. He instead filed ILLEGAL PRACTICE OF DENTISTRY versus the mayor. Hanggang ngayon nahihilo ang Supreme Court what to do with his case.
***
Our country is pathetic.
First, Business World article’s (Page 1, dated March 9,  2011) entitled “Philippines snubbed as investment destination (in East Asia)” described our country as laggard.
In a survey that involved 355 senior and middle managers of firms in the region, most of whom were based in Thailand and Singapore; they said:
“Of the destinations offering the best investment prospects over the next three years were 48% ASEAN countries; China 29%; USA 6% and India 5%’; Unidentified 12%. Of the 48% ASEAN group, Vietnam was top choice followed by Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. None chose the Philippines.”
***
Second, the decision of the Supreme Court recently for PLDT to divest 24 percent of the 64 percent shares (to retain the 40 percent shares the Constitutional mandates for foreigners to own a business in the Philippines) would be a bad signal for investors to sell their stocks from the companies listed at the Philippine Stock Exchange.
PLDT chairman Manny V. Pangilinan warned the market would definitely going to plummet if the Supreme Court interpretation would be implemented by the Security Exchange Commission.
***
Tsk, tsk. This was what I was saying before. We should amend the Constitution and change that obsolete 40 percent foreign ownership of our local industries.
If the United States, China, and Vietnam have 100 percent ownership for foreign investors for their industries, why can’t we emulate them?
***
Business Czar and Stradcom ‘s top honcho Nestor Quimbao told me lately his take on this 40 percent thing, and the possibility of giving foreigners 100 percent ownership in real property.
“Hindi naman puedeng dalhin ng foreigners’ ang lupa natin pag ayaw na nila dito (Philippines)”.
He said 100 percent ownership is good for the country except to industries that involved the national security of our country.
***
Another provision that we should amend in the Constitution is the law that prohibit the return of the U.S Bases.
If you look at the disputed Spratly islets and her surrounding water they are  thousands of miles away to Mainland China, while they are “stone’s throw away” in our island Palawan.
Without any U.S air and naval blanket for our air and sea territories that include the “explosive” islets, we are vulnerable to the intrusion of these chinky-eyed Sinos. Remember they have already taken over our Mischief Reef Islets there in 1995 without even a fart from our U. S made Japanese vintage Tora-Tora (T-28 propeller powered plane).
Spratly is suspected to have one of the richest deposits of natural gas and oil in the world.
Because we are deplorably poor, we could not afford to buy a squadron of U.S made F-16 Interceptor and the latest French –made Mirage. Each, remember the word is “each”, F-16 and Mirage cost $45 Million or P1.9 billion and $ 58 Million or P2.5 billion.
Otherwise, we would just heed what Supreme Court suspended lawyer Allan “All-Knowing” Paguia who scandalously told us media men (in the inauguration of the officers of the Pangasinan Press & Radio Club, Inc.) that we just give up the Spratly without any tinge of resistance to the Chinese because they owned it since the 17th Century.
***
If Dagupan City administrator and Marine reserved colonel Vlad Mata was not writing about global issues like the militarily volatile’s Spratly’s, he was hitting the key board of his PC about socially relevant issues like cooperatives  that he submitted to think-tanks in Western Europe.
Now he is in the Netherlands for a global conference and would be country -hopping to states under the European Union.
“Next you co-author with me so you can visit these countries,” the Philippine Science High School and University of the Philippines –Diliman alumnus quipped to me.
“Geez man, I like it. The farthest place I have been was in Divisoria in Manila,” I retorted to him.
(You can read my selected intriguing but thought-provoking columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com).

PMA; Mistah vs. Mistah

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Poor Bani, Pangasinan Mayor Marcelo Navarro. His multi-million-peso projects from sources abroad, national and local levels could not take-off because of political schisms exacted by his anti-progress dissenting majority-member municipal council whom he said have sworn loyalty and heed order from Congressman Jesus “Boying” Celeste (1st District, Pangasinan) and Governor Amado T. Espino – a classmate at the Philippine Military Academy. By earning the ire of the people I mentioned, everything stops revolving in this second class town known for its pristine beaches and underground caves.
But Navarro, a former police general, did not take the stunts of those tyrannical majorities in the august body sitting down.
Just like the counter-attacked by the US Marines in the bloody November 2004 “Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah, Iraq, Navarro initiated a Recall Petition where 25% of the town’s registered voters would sign a petition and submit it to the local Commission on Election against the Vice Mayor and his willing conspirators at the Sangguniang Bayan, which stalls whatever pro-progress programs, for a special election for the Bani people decide if these negligent abusive dads deserve another term.
“I leave to the people of Bani the fate of these officials, “he told us media men in a press conference called by the Patrima media group.
“Why not sue them criminally with non-feasance (failure to perform an act) so your people would know their inaction,” I posed.
“I will not because court case drags for a while, unlike recall,” he told me.
“They (councilors) are not doing anything. Somebody is dictating to them,” he continued.
Because of this dissent his municipality was denied with P20 million in housing project that needs local counterpart fund. He deplored that probable employment and other multiplier effects for his people were prejudiced.
He said they snagged the P6 billion bio-fuel project that should be financed through a Private-Public-Partnership (PPP), P8.5 worth power plant, and others.
***
But one of my colleagues was too insistent. She pursued Navarro, a lanky mestizo skinned soft-spoken person one could mistake as an evangelist, how the rift with the governor start.
He said it started in the campaign period of the 2010 poll when he sought re-election for his mayoralty post (Navarro’s father and his brother used to be a hizzoner of Bani).

The Anatomy of Motels according to the BIR

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Days of motel owners who make mambo-jumbo with their manipulated lower assessed valued income taxes are numbered.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue has found a formula how to assess the number of couples who patronized these lucrative tryst businesses in this tropical country.

Assistant Revenue District Officer Maria Bernadette Mangaoang said that the national tax office has formulated a plan where a BIR personnel lists how many cars entered the motel everyday.

She said usually the lists are recorded on the logbook of the motel security that mans its gate.

“Hindi naman everyday may BIR. Kaya nga e kukunin na lang nila iyong average, “ Mangaoang explained.

Mangaoang said that her office that over sees 15 towns and a city in Eastern Pangasinan did not implement it since most of the motels in Urdaneta City are mostly branches of motels whose main office is either in Manila or in Dagupan City.

She said branches only pay P500 registration fee with the local BIR like RDO-6, while they remitted the bigger Value Added Tax at their main office.