No Double-Jeopardy: De Lima can re-file case vs. Duterte

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

Controversial Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte

Hindi ko maintindihan itong end game ng China, iisa lang ang aircraft carrier na obsolete pa (from Ukraine) versus 11 big carriers from the United States. Tapos more than 1000 kilometers ang layo ng Mainland China sa Spratly, so for me it would be expensive sa mga fighter jets nila because of the lengthy flight .

 It would be deja vu Lufwaffee (German Airforce) whose jets became shooting ducks from Great Britain's airplanes in World War 11 since they have to have that hair raising trips sa English Channel. Or Falkland War  in 1982 like those U.S made A-4 Sky Hawk jets ng Argentina obliterated on the air by the British Harrier jump jets. Kung nuclear war, sigurado matutunaw ang Mainland China and ma preserve ang U.S mainland kasi wala pang capability ang China to launch her Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) to the U.S. But people in Palawan and Pangasinan and even in Australia are vulnerable to the Chinese nuclear capable Russian made Xian H-6K jet bombers that could kill all if not most of the people in these areas.

Son of a gun, calling for the Aegis' Anti Ballistic Missiles Defense System on warships and anti- warheads Patriot missiles of the Americans!

***

After Presidential material Senator Grace Poe breathes like an albatross at the back of the neck of controversial presidential wannabe Vice President Jojo Binay as based on Poe’s phenomenal survey spikes, the Binay’s camp had been witch hunting Poe as not qualified to become a candidate for the No.1 Office. Their arguments anchored on the senator renouncing her Filipino citizenship by becoming a U.S citizen before thus he disenfranchised herself to become a natural born citizen. 

 Natural born is a requirement if ones run for Congress, Vice Presidency, and the Presidency.
While Cesarean Born, er, Naturalized Citizen are for those who want to run for the elective  posts in the local government units. 

But Poe’s supporters had been citing then Pangasinan Congressman Teddy Cruz, best friend of my media colleague Harold “The Bagman” Barcelona, Case to thwart the arguments of Poe’s critics.

The case of then Congressman Teodoro Cruz, a former U.S Marine, however was covered by Commonwealth Act No. 63 when he lost and acquired his natural born citizenship thus he remained a congressman. Cruz’s argument, after he was petitioned by his congressional rival Antonio Bengzon III, was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2001.

 Grace Poe does not have to worry about being "Natural Born" to qualify for Congress and the Presidency. She was already covered in year 2003 by Republic Act 9225 (An Act Making the Citizenship of Philippine Citizens Who Acquire Foreign Citizenship Permanent). It was the same law being quoted by many former foreign citizen Filipinos who were mayoralty and gubernatorial bets in the 2010 and 2013 elections.

The law says in  Section 3: “ Retention of Philippine Citizenship - Any provision of law to the contrary notwithstanding, natural-born citizenship by reason of their naturalization as citizens of a foreign country are hereby deemed to have re-acquired Philippine citizenship upon taking the following oath of allegiance to the Republic:

"I _____________________, solemny swear (or affrim) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines and obey the laws and legal orders promulgated by the duly constituted authorities of the Philippines; and I hereby declare that I recognize and accept the supreme authority of the Philippines and will maintain true faith and allegiance thereto; and that I imposed this obligation upon myself voluntarily without mental reservation or purpose of evasion.”

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Whenever I am in the cities of Davao, Iloilo, Baguio, and Cebu I see to it I bought all the local newspaper there for comparison with the almost 30 Pangasinan based tabloids that include the fly-by-nights that rear their ugly heads and revolting English grammars whenever election is around the corner.

Masinloc mayor hits Chinese’s Navy presence in her water

“It’s not only the problem of my town; it’s the problem of the entire country”

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

MASINLOC, Zambales – The presence of Mainland Chinese in the West Philippine Sea is not only the problem of the fisher folks here but the people of the Philippines,’ declared by this coastal town Mayor Desiree Edora.

BLOCKED. Mainland Chinese Coast Guard Cutter blocked in 2014 the path of  the
Philippine boat that would supply provision to a Marine detachment embedded in a
dilapidated World War 11 era ship at Second Thomas Shoal.

She said those fishermen chased by the motor boats of the Chinese Navy are not only from here but fishermen from Sual, Bolinao, and other towns of Pangasinan.

She said the aqua rich Bajo de Masinloc in Scarborough Shoal where the Chinese Navy has strong presence is 15 to 18 hours ride in a small boat in fair weather from here.

The water around the Bajo de Masinloc (Under Masinloc in English), she stressed, has been the bread and butter of more than 2000 fisher folks here.

This town has 47,000 populations.

Edora said the stand-off with the Chinese, who travelled 467 miles from Mainland China, started in 2012.

Fishermen here have been reporting to Edora sightings not only of the Chinese but Vietnamese trawl fishers who exploit the water of Scarborough Shoal, a part of this town since the time of the Philippines Spanish colonizer in the 18th Century.

The Shoal is only 123 miles of West Subic Bay – a former U.S Naval Base.

“Bajo de Masinloc, that name, has been written on the old maps,” she said.

Vice President Binay’s sexual tip to an associate

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Some pals and I crossed path recently into a seductive and flirty former lady employee of a legislative body in Pangasinan. One of my colleagues asked her on the rumor from employees at the August Body that she and a member of that body had sexual relationship.

She denied it but said the dad was an exhibitionist.

Philippines Vice President Jejomar Binay and his alleged mistress.

“Pag kaming dalawa lang sa office niya doon pinapakita-an niya ako ng ari’ niya (When we were alone he flashed his dick to me),” she told us.

She said it was just okay if the BM had big genital but the problem he got a size bigger than a pinky finger.

***

This refers to Mon Tulfo's column on the popularity of Senator Chiz Escudero for the vice presidency and Davao City Mayor Rod Duterte as threat to the presidential bid of Senator Grace Poe. Talking about popularity if Escudero runs as the vice presidential tandem of presidential hopeful Sen. Grace Poe, DILG Sec. Mar Roxas is more popular than him based on the April 2015 Social Weather Station (SWS) polls. Roxas was No. 2 with 12% while Escudero was far in No. 4 with 6%. I could not understand the logic of Mr. Tulfo, a Davaoeno, that because Duterte (No. 3 or 15% SWS Presidential) has not declared his intention to run for president he would be a threat to Grace Poe (No.2 with 31% SWS Presidential). But Poe and even Roxas, just like Duterte, did not yet declare publicly their moist eyes for the presidency. So in case the duo declares their ambition, their polls stocks would spike too just like what Tulfo argued on Duterte?

I observed this kind of reasoning when I asked two weeks ago Roxas Political Campaign Lieutenant Congressman Mel Sarmiento. "Dapat mag VP na lang si Roxas dahil hanggang ngayon kulelat pa rin siya sa survey, I said".

Sarmiento retorted : Kasi hindi pa siya nag-declare ng intention niya for presidency, matagal pa ang election.

 Sannamagan, even Roxas and Duterte did not declare their intention for the country's top post their everyday three times a day 30 seconder at ABS-CBN and GMA-7 TVs betray their being mum on their presidential ambition.

"Bakit pa sila nagbabayad ng milyon-milyong TV ads kada araw?

Mexico's Folly, China's Glory: Lessons Philippines could Learn

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

Have you wondered why Mexico, a spit distance to the USA, is not as rich and powerful as Mainland China which is too far away to the No.1 economic power America?

The influx of U.S businesses from the U.S mainland became the linchpin of what is the Chinese economy today - No.2 economic juggernaut of the world.

Here’s my favourite book author and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman who explained in a pedestrian manner why Mexico has been sluggish economically, and why the Chinese enjoyed its leapfrogging growth for several years.

“Mexico’s ranking in the Global Competitiveness Report actually fell while China’s rose. And this was not just about cheap wages, said (Neil) Rosen. It was about China’s advantages in education, privatization, infrastructure, quality control, mid level management, and the introduction of new technology.”

“So China is eating Mexico’s lunch,” concluded Rosen, “but more due to the Mexican inability to capitalize on success and induce broader reform than to China’s lower wage workers per se, ” stressed by Friedman.

According to the Doing Business Report, it takes, Filipinos listen, an average of fifty-eight days to start a business in Mexico, compared with eight in Singapore and nine in Turkey. It takes seventy four days to register a property in Mexico, but only twelve in the United States. Mexico’s corporate income tax rate of 34 percent is twice as high as China’s.

Rich Chinese

In terms of the length of starting a corporate business and the income tax rate, Mexico and the Philippines are almost the same.

Here’s what the Philippines could learn from China and India and avoid the folly of Mexico vis-a-avis education:

“India and China both have long tradition of parents telling their children that the greatest thing they can be in life is an engineer or a doctor. But building the schools to make that happen in Mexico simply has not been done. India and China each have more than fifty thousand students studying in the United States today. They come from about twelve zones away. Mexico, which is smaller but right next door, has only about ten thousand. Mexico is also right next to the world’s biggest economy, which speaks English. But Mexico has not launched any crash program in English education or invested in scholarships to send large numbers of Mexican students to the United States to study.

U.S plans to surround China controlled Islets in Spratly

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

When I saw at the Face Book account of MaxDefense several weeks ago the open house of American aircraft at the former U.S base Clark Airport, I rode shotgun the following day to see up close and personal the ballyhooed American airplanes I romanticized, when I was a boy, reading at  military magazines collected by my air force father.

CHINESE AIR BASE. Artist’s sketch of a Chinese air base at Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly's Group of Islands claimed by the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam. If unrestrained the Chinese would have an operational air base before year 2015 ends to host its jet fighters and bombers like the Xian H-6K bombers that could threaten with their nuclear powered missiles countries as far as Australia.

I was told, however, by a Philippine Air Force public information office (PIO) officer a certain Lieutenant Romero that I have to get a clearance first at the General Head Quarter at Camp Aguinaldo before I could start interviewing the Filipino and American forces who participate in the Balikatan 2015 or military exercise after I introduced myself and showed my I.D that I am a member of the Fourth Estate.

As I left the PIO, I bumped into a retired Air Force General who is a member of the Philippine Military Academy Class 1977.

I told him I worked before at the PIO of the PMA and told him PMA alumni members in Pangasinan like Congressman Pol Bataoil and Governor Amado T. Espino.

“I’m from San Jacinto, Pangasinan, too,” he said.

“So you heard about that retired general near your town whose house was raided by the National Bureau of Investigation?” I posed.

He was amused about the information I gave him.

Author looking at the United States air assets at the former U.S base Clark Airport
 during the Balikatan 2015 U.S- Philippines military exercise held last April.
Aircraft at the background are (from left) A-10 Thunderbolt or Warthog,
Vertical Short Take Off/Landing AV/8B Harrier jump jets, and  Bell Boeing V-22
Osprey titlrotor aircraft. Other aircraft not in photo are C-17 Globe Master, Lockheed
C-130 Hercules transport planes,Boeing CH-47 Chinook Helicopters, Sikorsky UH-60
Black Hawk helicopters, and others.

He told the guards at the checkpoint of the joint HQs of the Filipinos and Americans to allow me to see the U.S and Philippine air assets that were open to the public the weekend before.

“I’ll call your commander (a general), just allow him to see those planes,” he told the guards.

If the Philippine Air Force is 90% Air and 10% Force, the U.S is 60% Force and 40% Air what with the absence of its F-16 Falcons, F/A-18 Hornets, and Stealth fighter-bombers being displayed on the tarmac there.

I saw there the  U.S giant C-17 Globe Master, AV-8A Harrier Jump Jets, three C-130, Black Hawk helicopters those messengers of death you saw on the flick “Black Hawk Down” and those two stealth choppers used by the Yanks on bringing the SEAL (Sea, Air, Land) Team-6 who killed NO. 1 global terrorist Osama bin Laden at the 3rd floor of the building in  Abbottabad , Pakistan, Chinook, Bell AH-1 Cobra Helicopter, some A-10 Thunderbolt “tank killer” or Whartogs, while the PAF displayed its camouflage Italian made turbo power SF 260 Marchetti training planes, couple of Italian made jets S-211 while inside the PAF hangar I saw two dark green Poland made  W-3A Sokol combat utility helicopter, two four blades S-76 Sikorsky helicopters that were purchased during the last year of the government of ousted Strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

On that day, I saw, too, a platoon of the elite Special Action Force and their American counterparts prepared themselves to enter the C-17 for parachute jump, while American officers and enlisted personnel billet themselves in style at 5-Star Hotels there like Holiday Inn, Stotsenberg, Oxford, to name a few.

I heard that a Filipino restaurant owner billed a P50 order of chicken adobo for P100 or more for American servicemen who relished the delicacy despite of the catered American food at their air-conditioned huge tents cum mess hall.

I boldly predicted Mayweather outclasses Pacquiao

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

Please bear with my Bragging Right's antics: Thanks to diligent research and meticulous observation on the strengths and weaknesses of the richest sportsman on earth Floyd Mayweather and Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao, I did not only win against those gullible bettors, but against all odds including those boxing analysts in the Philippines, I fearlessly predicted on my TV and radio interviews and on my column Mayweather would defeat Pacquiao on their Flight, er Fight of the Century's match last May 3.


Here's the access of my analysis, Pacquiao will lose to Mayweather: ANALYSIS, that offended many Pacquiao fans (since many of these 'idiots" thought I committed treason) when I wrote the Filipino superman would be dominated and defeated by Mayweather because of his superior skills I have been diligently following since the time he was knocking out the likes of  KO artist Diego Corrales and the rugged Arturo Gatti:READ: I boldly predicted Mayweather outclasses Pacquiao 
 
**** 
Thanks to veteran Manila Bulletin and Sunday Punch's scribe Jun Velasco, who since time immemorial enthusiastically shared my takes on the ring brilliance of Maywealther. He even wrote my observation at Sunday Punch  what would happen on the biggest fight since modern boxing (Marquess of Queensberry Rules) was invented in 1867. Here's the excerpt of Jun V's column "Think about it" "On the other side, our boxing analyst Mortz Ortigoza says there’s no way our PK(Pambansang Kamao) would beat Mayweather.
Using boxing science lingo, Mortz says he is just being factual about the Yankee’s big edge — big, not small edge – over our national treasure. His computer-like analysis has impressed his audience with his blow-by-blow account, as if the match was already over.