Top General coddles Chinese Drug Lords

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

My posed last Tuesday at the Stadia in Dagupan City to Liberal Party’s vice presidential bet and Sorsogon Congresswoman Leni Robredo: “Bong Bong Marcos in the latest survey of Social Weather Station breathed behind the neck of Senator Chiz Escudero for the vice presidential race. Kayo No. 3. Weeks ago tinanong namin si Chiz Escudero na si Senator Alan Cayetano spent almost 400 million sa TV ads, Bong Bong P103,429,000 kayo P92 million. Si Chiz, P30 thousand pa lang. Sabi ni Chiz ‘di pa daw siya nag papa TV ads kaya hinde siya alarmed sa latest polls. Paano ngayon iyan pag gumastos na si Sen. Chiz sa ads at dadalhin niya si (wife and actress) Heart Evangelista sa sorties all over the country, ‘di ba kayo threatened diyan sa ka province mate ninyo?

Philippines police officials promoted to general rank. Photo Credit: PNP

One of the answers of Robredo, a widow and pretty faced lawyer, was she runs scared in this election.
After the press conference, I bumped into former 5-time Speaker Joe de Venecia.

“Did you like my question to Congresswoman Robredo”

 After he nodded, I told him in a serious demeanour:

 "Wala iyong tanong na iyon Speaker, mas matinde ang tanong ko kay Congressman Manny Pacquiao sa Manila".

 "What did you ask him?" he curiously posed

 I told him when I asked Pacquiao about the status of the Peace and Order situation in Mindanao he told me: "Many Fish like tuna but No Order".

 Old and gasgas na joke iyon, pero first time ata ni Speaker madinig, he had a good laugh.

 Sabi ng mga media men around, first time nilang nakita si Speaker Joe na tuwang-tuwa sa joke na iyon.

Here the second jab to the boxing icon that I told the five times House of Representatives’ top man.

"I told Pacquiao that what I asked was not the Fish but the Violence in Mindanao".

 "What did he tell you?"

"Grabe sir, he said he could not even play the piano and lyre what more of the violin," I said.

The Speaker had a guffaw.

Sammy Losala, broadcaster of DWPR, said we only saw Speaker Joe serious and preoccupied shepherding members of the rambunctious Congress when he was building the Rainbow Coalition to expedite the urgent bills of President Fidel V. Ramos on liberalization of the transportation and telecommunication industries so every Filipinos avail of cheap telephone and air and sea fares, and others but not at this moment that he saw de Venecia heartily enjoying my antics.

***

 I found myself lately in a meeting with I.T or information technology experts in Pangasinan. I was invited by Abono Partly-List Chairman Rosendo So so I could get tips on how to spruce up our blog northwatch.news from computer “whiz kid” Wilson Chua of Bitstop’s Computer, region's finest and fastest Internet service provider (ISP), who branched out in Singapore.

I told Chua that when I taught at a university in Manila I heard at my favourite jazz FM station there 105.1 Cross Over that it was being hosted by Bitstop in Dagupan City.

“That was 2002, and I was amazed and proud that FM stations in Manila were hosted by a Dagupeno City,” I told Chua.

Chua retorted that half of the FM stations in Manila patronized his computer hosting business.

“When I taught at Lyceum 20 years ago, I saw that Sunday Punch Newspaper had its internet version when internet news during that time was still Greek to almost everybody in the Philippines,“ I said.

But this one got my interest.

I asked Chua why he migrated to Singapore.

He said that the personal income tax annually of an individual there is pegged as low as 2% while the same tax in the Philippines bills a taxpayer by 32%.

“Malaki ang diperensiya, may time nga sa Singapore na every time the government collects more revenues, it gives amnesty to taxpayers that for one year they are exempted to pay the income tax,” he told us.

Now I know why Singapore has a gross domestic product of U.S $307.9 billion (2014, World Bank) despite a population of 5,470,000 (2014, World Bank) only while our country has a U.S $284,800,000 GDP in spite of the alarming rabbit liked 99.14 million population (2014, World Bank).

I believed that foreign direct investors go to Singapore to put shops there because incentives to foreign and local businessmen are better.

Chua answered me that Singapore has an economic policy of 100% foreign ownership of business there.

Chua deplored that one of the factors that discourage investors to pour their capitals in the Philippines is a law that says employer is obliged to pay for the whole hospitalization of a worker for a particular ailment.

“That’s not good to investors. They would be discouraged to invest in our country,” he said.

As what I told recently presidential bet and Senator Grace Poe who agreed on my observation (click news and video interview here ) that 100% foreign ownership was the linchpin why Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and China generated more jobs not only to their people but to outsiders.

 ***

As we waited for the tickets of the Liberal Party to arrive at the world class Stadia owned by Dagupan City Mayor Belen Fernandez, I told veteran media men that the eldest daughter of detained Marine Lt. Col. Ferdinand Marcelino, who was arrested lately inside an apartment with P383 million shabu stocks, is the god daughter of my youngest brother who left the Philippine Military Academy as military professor and try his luck at the United States.

We talked about the unabated proliferation of illegal drugs when one of the radio men told me about the hundreds of millions 10 steel barrels raw shabu hoards by the police at the sea water of Infanta town in Pangasinan where he said involved a top police general and top government official.

Here’s the excerpt of that discovery written by Eva Visperas, a Pangasinense, of the Philippine Star:

Elpidio Marcos Navaroza, 54, head of Barangay Bayambang at Infanta, Pangasinan,  had tipped off authorities about the presence of Chinese nationals here, leading to the seizure of steel barrels containing 425 kilos of shabu considered one of the biggest hauls in the country on Nov. 5, 1999.

Then President Joseph Es-trada even personally went to Lingayen town, the provincial capitol, to inspect the confiscated illegal drugs and gave Navaroza a huge cash reward.

Here’s what the veteran media man told me:

“The provincial director then was crowing to the media on that discovery. But later he was barred by a PNP high official to join the press conference in Infanta because of his blabber that caused national attention on the hoard. His helicopter was redirected to land at Zambales and not to the area where the drugs had been presented to the media”.

He said they (media men and others) sensed something suspicious on the absence of the director. Despite his and his men's exemplary accomplishment of the finding of that countless millions pesos drugs, the PNP hierarchy was smarting on his media bravado on the drugs.

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)