Matobato works as construction worker in P’gasinan

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

News headline recently:  “Duterte: ‘Susmaryosep,’ CIA is planning to kill me”.

Here's an excerpt of my Q & A last April with then presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte:
ME: Sir, are you not threatened by the pronouncements that the military and the U.S will harm you?

MAYOR DUTERTE: If God wants me to be there. If it’s destiny to be assassinated…hangang diyan lang ako!

Confessed hired assassin Edgar Matobato. Photo Credit: PhilNews 

ME: They are apprehensive because they said when you become president it means good bye to EDCA (Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement) and the military aid from the U.S would stop…?
DUTERTE: Who?! Mga Amerikano?!
ME: I read that on the community page of the military at Face Book.

DUTERTE: Let us see why? Are we dependent on the United States for our problem here?
Is the United States ready to die with us for us on the Spratly issue?
It we start war because talagang hinde na makapasok ang fishermen we are deprived of a rich fishing ground, and we declare war, is America, is EDCA useful to us? May pakinabang ba sila sa atin?

***

Lingayen Mayor Josefina ”Iday” Castaneda told me her first class town losses P5 million share from the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) while San Fabian Mayor Constante Agbayani and Mangaldan Mayor Bona Fe D. Parayno answered my same poser that they lost P3 million and P1.5 million, respectively.

It was my friend Agbayani, whose natural demeanors amused me, who said that the reduction of his IRA was blamed to “cadastral”, while the two lady mayors nodded their heads when I told them the depletion were probably due to the entry of the new towns in the country.

IRA, that came from taxes collected by the BIR, is likened to a pie. It is divided by recipients 81 provinces, 145 cities and 1,489 towns all over the archipelago.

That’s why brass of the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP)  have been rejoicing because new cities like Baybay, Bogo, Catbalogan, Tandog, Lamitan, Borongan, Tayabas, Tabuk, Bayugan, Batac, Mati, Guihulngan, Cabadbaran, El Salvador, Carcar, and Naga have been reverted by the Supreme Court last  August this year to municipalities.

Inclusion of these 16 cities means a loss of P40 to P100 million of IRA a year to each of the 122- member LCP.

Revives “ole” PC to fight terrorism - Duterte

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

A good relationship by the Philippines with the international community can be gleaned by the Dagupan City’s experienced.

Former Philippine Constabulary Chief
General  Fidel V. Ramos.

After the City’s mayor Belen Fernandez spoke at world ocean forum in 2015, the Procter & Gamble (P&G) through the intercessions of the U.S. State Department, International Ocean Conservancy, Asian Development Bank and United Nations pledged to give $8.2 million (Php 401 million) for this year to the premier city in Region-1 for its waste-to-worth project.

The free project is a modern solid waste facility, the first in Asia, with the eventual closure of its 50-year-old dumpsite in compliance with Republic Act. No. 9003, or the “Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.

The project, whose main purpose is to get rid of plastic and other debris in the sea of this city, will convert garbage collected daily from homes, markets, schools and factories into diesel fuel for jeepneys and motor boats as well as biogas to be used for cooking in homes and also lighting for them.

***

I heard the total package of the military and economic aid Washington gave to the Filipinos run up to P82 million.

In case our country’s leadership chooses to break diplomatic ties with the U.S and other first world countries like those in the European Union, the $8.2 million from P&G and those in the military and economic aid would no longer be available.

The experienced of Iran, North Korea, and Cuba could be an example where the White House exerted pressure for private entities like P&G to stop giving assistance to countries Washington had broken ties.

U.S should spike the measly military aid to appease Duterte

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

To those who exhort morality on the propensity of congressmen and senators to identify projects that should be the work of the executive department, that pontification is easier said than done if you’re not the president of the Philippines.

Before I discuss the rai·son d'ê·tre of this malpractice, here is a briefer to the uninitiated why the big fuzz on this:

United States military aid to an ally country are being loaded to cargo jet C-5A Galaxy.

  A P10 million of a hypothetical farm-to-market road or medicines, means a lawmaker got 20 percent or P2 million S.O.P or cut from a favored contractor or supplier.

This ensued because without the “pork barrel”, congressmen and senators could impeach the president.

***

In my radio program, I told my listeners that if the accusation of Senator Alan Peter Cayetano was true that the opposition Liberal Party has Plan B to oust President Rodrigo Duterte like “High Crimes”, or “Betrayal of Public Trust” as complaints, it would take one-third or 99 congressmen from the 293 members’ House of Representatives to file the Article of Impeachment or Verified Complaint to the House of Senate where it takes only 14 Senators from the two-third constitutional requirement from the 24 members’ Senate to kick out from office a sitting president.

At the latest, there are 43 opposition solons in the House while there are 14 senators who can throw a monkey wrench to the security of tenure of the president.

The 43 congressmen need 56 fellow solon to complete the 99 one-third requirement for the submission of the Article of Impeachment or Verified Complaint to the 14 senators who would hear and impeached Duterte.

But thanks heaven, we have “pork barrel” to feed the 56 congressmen not to be rambunctious but toe the line.

Looks how the 20 percent shady SOP can do to a sitting president!

***

The pronouncement of President Rodrigo Duterte that U.S Special Forces be pulled out in Mindanao shocked many Filipinos specially those who see the Americans as ally and protector against local enemies where the Yanks use their drone and smart bombs.

 Many saw how this withdrawal affects the U.S-Philippine military alliance vis-à-vis the Chinese incursion at the South China Sea (SCS).

PMA Alumni Slam Sen. Trillanes: Conduct Unbecoming

Mr. Trillanes:

We, the undersigned, condemn in the strongest terms your behaviour as a bully and your conduct unbecoming of a people's senator. More, we are aghast and purely discombobulated that as a graduate of the revered and prestigious Philippine Military Academy, you showed you are not an officer, neither are you a gentleman. What kind of manners do you have?

You are not just an embarrassment to your people, to your family, to your co-alumni, you are an embarrassment to yourself. Decency and education dictate that real men settle their differences with dignity. Even in a duel, true gentlemen face death or the chance of killing somebody with finesse.

DRUG WAR: TARGETING THE RICH

The Infamous S.O.P (Cut) on Gov't Projects

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

I told on my radio program that some members of the House of Representatives “bullied” Department of Social Welfare & Development Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, a member of the leftist organization.

Congressmen like Rudy Farinas, Bicol Party-list Rep. Alfredo Garbin, and Negros Oriental Congressman Arnie Teves lectured her that the solons have the power of the purse to appropriate funds to government departments like DSWD.

That power, according to them, allows them to identify their poor recipient-constituents.

The proverbial hog cum pork barrel that still exist
until now in the Philippines. Photo Credit:Spot.Ph

Taguiwalo, a straight shooter who despised how those solons want to have their way on public funds, told them the DSWD Memorandum Circular 9 she signed does not intend to bar congressmen from endorsing beneficiaries.

The Secretary maintained, however, that the Circular seeks to stop the practice of congressmen getting favored projects in the DSWD after she received information that there was an allocation of projects for lawmakers even after the Supreme Court scrapped the pork barrel.

“Ang point lang namin, ang DSWD ay willing makipagtulungan sa mga representative. Pero hindi po puwedeng parang may entitlement na may milyon kayo,” she told them.

The issue here, son of a gun, is simple:

Congressmen, several of them graduated with Bachelors of Laws at Ateneo de Manila and the University of the Philippines, had stooped too low by asserting themselves to identify tens of millions of projects because they want to get the 20 percent S.O.P (slang for cut) from their favorite private contractors.

This malpractice has been there since time immemorial. This practice persisted because of quid pro quo between Malacanang and Congress where Senators and Congressmen expedite the passing of the bill the President wants in exchange of the “pork barrel” where the solon can get their cut.

EXAMPLE of this malady:

National Police Awardee

CARTOON: DUTERTE'S DRUGS WAR: CRIMES DROPS BY 40%

Death reasons confessed drug users, pushers yield

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – The fear of death was the main reason why two former dangerous drug users submitted recently themselves to the mayor and the police here to pledge in an affidavit to forego their habit.

JUNKIES AND DOPE PEDDLERS. Self-confessed narcotics users and pushers from the “notorious” Sitio Aling Barangay  Pantal near  Arellano Street have voluntarily surrendered to Dagupan City’s OIC Chief of Police Supt. Neil O. Miro.

The “surrenderees” have been accompanied to the police station by Pantal Barangay Chairman Julie Anne Perez. PHOTO CREDIT: Dagupan City’s PNP

“Ayaw ko pang mamatay sir, user ako gumagamit lang (I don’t want to die sir. I was only a user),” quipped by 24 years old Reggie Castillo inside the mayor’s office here to Northern Watch.

He said he is unemployed after his employer in a mall did not renew his contract.

“I used to have a job where a portion of my salary I used to buy shabu to finance my drug habit”.

Castillo, just like the other self- declared drug users and pushers surrendered to the police and this city’s mayor Belen T. Fernandez, said they used shabu or meta-amphetamine hydrochloride that can be bought for P100 toP300 per sachet.

Allan, not his real name, cited that he surrendered, too, because he feared death from death squads who roamed using a motorcycle the residences of the drug suspects before they assassinate through a 45 caliber handgun their unguarded target.

“Kasi natatakot po ako,” he quipped by hiding his head using a towel as cameras of TV stations pan on the almost 50 drug personalities who submitted themselves here.

He said he came from Manaoag but lives in Barangay Bacayao here where he used to peddle clothes.

Allan said he is presently unemployed.

“It has been a long time that I did not use shabu but the village chief included me on the list so I could not do anything”.

Crime drops by 40% in this city, thanks to Drugs War

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Naysayers who pronounced that the war on drugs launched by President Rodrigo Duterte is destined to fail, just like in Thailand, had just been rebutted by a battle scared senior non-commissioned police officer whose equivalent rank  in the military is master sergeant.

In an interview with him, he told me that not only peddling of illegal drugs in Urdaneta City, Pangasinan – known as one of the top bailiwicks of narcotics peddlers in my province, had dropped but three of its 34 villages have been declared as illegal drugs -free.

Urdaneta City Mayor Amadeo "Bobom" G.E. Perez IV excitedly told me that these dope free villages are Cabaruan, Otama, and Tipuso.

“You go to Superintendent Marcelino Desamito and asked him for more details on these three barangays,” Perez told me and his favorite media man, who drops by at his office weekly, Harold Barcelona.

Instead of Desamito, who was busy talking with some Muslim elders, we faced the police “sergeant major”  who said index crimes like robbery, theft, and others decreased by 40 percent because of the war on drugs.

“Iyong akyat bahay itong tag-ulan marami. Parang seasonal iyan e ngayon wala na.  

Wala kaming street crimes. Iyong snatching ng cellphones wala na. Tapos iyong riding-in –tandem na lupa, property ang dahilan ng patayan wala na iyan".

He suspected that those hire guns were those who were hooked on drugs. But because of the aggressive approached by the government on drugs’ traders the menace of drugs have been disrupted.

“Saka sa gabi pag patrol ka madali ang magsita kasi makikita mo hinde gaya noon na maraming pang tao sa 9 pm”.

He agreed to me that the aggressive war launched by Duterte, who already saw countless dead suspected dope peddlers and junkies, have been ubiquitous to bear fruits in all cities and towns in the country.

So who now says the drug war is a failure?

I was telling my radio listeners that the scorched earth approached by the Duterte Administration is the most effective weapon the pushers understand.

“Due process is not applicable in this country. Many drug traders could bribe in their favor susceptible policemen, prosecutors, judges and this happen since time immemorial,” I quipped.