What Filipinos can expect in Martial Law

                              

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

What happens after President Rodrigo R. Duterte declared at 10 pm last Tuesday Martial Law in the whole of Mindanao and its islands?

Would Duterte’s pet peeve ABS CBN TV Network, the critical Philippine Daily Inquirer, and the irritating online newsmagazine Rappler.com be banned to circulate their news, that regularly assailed the president, in the islands?

Would teenagers sporting long hair, just like those rock singers, and beard and those caught in the curfew roaming after 10 o’clock in the evening and the wee hours automatically arrested and locked up just like what Dictator Ferdinand Marcos had done in the early and middle of 1970s after he declared Martial Law in September 23, 1972?

Would this scenario I heard when I was a wide eyed child in Cotabato happened? 

This after Muslim Black Shirts’ rebels (predecessor of the Moro National Liberation Front) massacred an entire Catholic Church’s parishioners, members of the military and the dreaded Ilaga (Christian extremist paramilitary composed mostly of Ilonggos), who want to retaliate tit-for-tat the carnage, flagged every passenger of plying buses, mini-buses, and public utility jeeps and body frisked and searched their belongings for any hidden firearm and asked them the incriminatory question:

Ano ang tribu mo (What’s your tribe)?

Here were the following answers of the passengers;

Passenger A: Ilonggo ako (with a real Ilonggo accent and he was given the safety exit).

Passenger B: Cebuano ako (with a real Cebuano accent and he was given safety exit).

Passenger C: Ilocano ako (with a real Ilocano accent and he was given the safety exit).

Passenger D: Tagalog ako (with a real Tagalog accent and he was given the safety exit).

Passenger E: (A Muslim, whose name if I was not wrong was Datu Udtog Ramanam Amin, who was trembling at the rear seat of the bus retorted to the intimidating query): Tagalog ako (with a thick Muslim accent that betrays him) and he was pumped with a bullet on the head.
The same scenarios ensued in other places in Mindanao.

Cops to arrested pusher: You post bail then sell our drugs

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Recently, four member of the intelligence service of the Makati City’s Police Station were entrapped by police’s Counter-Intelligence Task Force because of robbery-extortion to two lovers whom they even kidnapped and released with the conditioned that aside from the one hundred thousand pesos they gave they have to cough- out another three hundred thousand pesos for their safety and those of their love ones.

The other day I talked with two female convicts who served time at the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong.

ROGUE. Abusive and incompetent cops in the Philippines being punished by the
 National Police Chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa. Photo Credit: Panay News

They told me they were sentenced with Paragraph 3 Section 11 of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2022.

That paragraph talks about possession of less than five grams of narcotics like shabu or methamphetamine hydrochloride.

They have the same version of that police racket in Makati City.

***

Woman A said when police barged at her house in Marikina City they found a sachet of shabu in her possession. The police told her to post bail, that run up to P400 thousand, immediately so that when they arrested another pusher with narcotics, they would take a portion of the drugs so she would be selling those stuffs while she got a percentage from it.

Hardship looms for politicos, cops as Rody wages war on "Jueteng"

 By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

When I and my co radio host dropped by recently at the mess hall of a police station of a first class town in Pangasinan, the policemen there were eating silently their lunch composed of sinigang na pork and fried galungung.

WAR ON GAMBLING: Philippine Charity Sweepstakes' Small Town Lottery

 (STL) gets more territories from Atong Ang's jueteng liked game's Jai-Alai.

 PHOTO CREDIT: ABS-CBN

Since time immemorial, these viands and their equivalents are available for FREE from breakfast to supper in the more than one hundred police personnel in this town alone.

Thanks to gambling in the province where a percentage share to the chief of police and the mayor include also the free meals and even operational funds of the financially hard up cops.

Pangasinan, a mammoth province, has 44 towns and 4 cities’ police stations.
But  President Rodrigo Duterte signed on February 2 this year Executive Order (EO) No. 13 which seeks to "intensify" the government's fight against illegal gambling.

In case the Department of Justice succeed in stopping the Meridiane Vista Gaming Corporation (MVGC) - a jueteng like number gambling game – these free meals for the police – whose lower ranked received  a government salary of P21,000 a month and its highest ranked a Superintendent, equivalent of a Lieutenant Colonel in the military, got more than a hundred fifty thousand that includes his monthly salary and monthly share from gambling - would come to an end.

Can the determined Chairman Jose Jorge Corpuz and General Manager Alexander Balutan, both PMYer, of the Philippine Charity Sweepstake Office (PCSO) and the gung-ho Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aquirre stop Atong Ang’s MVGC in controlling the ten billion pesos a year number games in the country that did not pay a tax to the Bureau of Internal Revenue?

Poe should be clear if she wants to be president

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

One of the major reasons why Senator Grace Poe was overtaken in the polls by presidential rival Rodrigo Duterte more than a month before the May 9, 2016 national election was because the feisty mayor was unequivocal that he would see dreaded drug pushers dead.

 16 million voters, gee whiz, applauded Duterte whenever he threatened in that hustling  to turn red Manila Bay with the very blood of his pet peeve the narcotics peddlers.

FLIP-FLOPPED. Then presidential rivals Rodrigo Duterte and Grace Poe were the only candidates
in the Second Presidential Debate in Cebu who raised their hands that they were for Death Penalty
in case they win the May 9, 2016 Election. Duterte won that election while Poe, an incumbent
senator, just like in her 2013 senatorial run volte-face as anti - death punishment advocate.
PHOTO CREDIT: PHILIPPINE STAR

"Manalo ako kasi because of breakdown of law and order (I will win because of the breakdown of law and order). I do not want to commit a crime but if by chance, God will place me there, magbantay kayo. Yung 1,000, magiging 100,000. Diyan mo makita tataba yung isda sa Manila Bay. Diyan ko kayo itapon (The 1,000  dead drug pushers would become 100,000. The fish at Manila Bay would go fat because I am going to feed you there)".

The crowd cheered wildly every time he repeated this pledge.
He added his vitriol with the following:

 "Pag ako ang pinagbigyan ng Diyos maupo diyan, mismo ang Diyos, iiyak yan. Tingnan mo (if God allows me to be president God will weep for what I would do to narcotics pushers)," he told a group of  applauding transport operators and drivers in Paranaque.
I saw too how the multitude in Dagupan City turned gaga whenever he declared with tongs and hammer this kind of pronouncement.
"Delikado si Grace Poe dito," I told myself in the sideline.

Poe volte-face on the death punishment.
 In 2013, as a campaign promised for her senatorial run, she told the hoi-polloi she was anti-death punishment. In the 2016 election she said she was pro-death punishment.

In my March 11, 2017 interview with her, after the Induction and Turnover Ceremonies of the JCI Dagupan Bangus Chapter in Dagupan City, she told me she was against death penalty.

Declining numbers of newspaper buyers

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Danny, who owned one of two main newsstands in Dagupan City, told me that newspaper business declines.

My city has a population of 171, 271 according to the 2015 Census. Besides its population this Bangus City has been a watering hole of people in the towns of Central Pangasinan who probably buy their newspapers here.

 “Dati rati nakakabenta ako ng 30 (Philippine Daily Inquirer) pero daily average ko ngayon 15 lang ( I used to sell 30 Philippine Daily Inquirer’s newspapers in the good old days but now I can sell only 15 dailies for an average)," Danny cited

When I asked him how Inquirer’s rivals Philippine Star and Manila Bulletin fair, he told me Philippine Star , majority owned by MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., a media conglomerate controlled by PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan, and Manila Bulletin averagely sell eight and four copies a day, respectively.

“Pero ang Bulletin pag Sunday marami bumibili dahil sa job advertisement,” he said.

He told me that the number one community news in the city sells only 20 copies in a week in his stand.
 

“Iyong mga Manila Times, Manila Standard Today, and The Daily Tribune tag isa lang benta ko niyan kada araw. Provincial government ang suki ko diyan,” he said.

I told him this declining number of newspaper buyers is a phenomenon not only in the Philippines but in the U.S, Europe, and Australia.

“It’s because of the internet on their mobile phones and laptops where people can read news for free on those dailies and community newspapers that caused their poor circulation,” I cited.

Besides, Inquirer, Philippines Star, and Manila Bulletin are being given for free when one patronized  fast foods Jollibee, McDonald, and Chowking.

A strategy their publishers resorted to justify the number of their circulation to attract advertisers who sell cars, appliances, others to those crowds A-B-Cs who go to these fast foods and eat.

He told me the hoi-polloi’s newspaper the screaming headlined tabloid, that used to eclipse those major dailies in sale, have suffered too to lethargic circulation.

“Iyong Abante, Bulgar depende sa headlines nila. Iyong dami ng sale nila parehas lang sa Inquirer,” Danny, who had been selling newspapers for decades, said.

***

The nephew of former five-time House Speaker Joe “JDV” de Venecia told us recently media men and former public officials at a coffee house in Robinsons- Calasiao that Dagupan City Vice Mayor Brian Lim should take his time.

“He should not run as mayor in 2019, he bids his time till 2022 when Mayor Belen (Fernandez) ends her last term,” Solo de Venecia opined.

He said that Fernandez has no heir apparent that could threaten Brian’s moist eyes on the mayoralty.
“He would be mayor in 2022,” Solo, who speaks like JDV, quipped.

But a political analyst, who asked anonymity, disagreed on the prognosis of the former Speaker’s nephew.

“The De Venecias (Speaker, former congresswoman Manay Gina, and incumbent Representative Toff) would not allow Brian to be whisked to the mayoralty”.

He said that Mayor Belen and Congressman Toff would swap posts in 2022 to frustrate Lim, an absentee vice mayor, becoming the top executive of the Bangus City.

“Brian as mayor would undermine the chance of the de Venecia’s to prolong their hold in the 4^th Congressional District. Dagupan City’s mammoth numbers of voters are indispensable to the de Venecias. Without them, the de Venecias could just kiss goodbye their future in the congressional office,” he said.

 (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)

Useless Military Check Points in Davao City

By Mortz Ortigoza

Security was tight last Saturday when I passed by Toril in Davao City when I left Kidapawan City through a public utility van.

Soldiers from Task Force Davao flagged all private and public vehicles that ingress the national highway before they reached the city proper.

“Kahit police pa ang nakasakay sa kotse pinapababa at ini-inspection ang mga bags nila,” one of the three Muslim guys who were my fellow passengers, probably college students, quipped in accented Tagalog.

A soldier in the Middle East uses a bomb detector device to check
the cars of terrorists who want to sabotage the tranquility of the area.
Filipino soldiers in bombed prone Davao City use a stick to dig the 
bags of commuters if they hid a bomb there.

They speak the vernacular in difference probably with the mostly Christian passengers in the Toyota Hi Ace Super Grandia used mostly by Mindanaons as common carrier that plies the Cotabato City- Davao City route.

***

I was dismayed about the antiquated system of the military in searching the bags of those who entered Duterte’s City Davao. Since time immemorial I’ve been observing the lack of initiatives of our government in searching the belongings of the commuters and motorists for concealed bomb that have rocked the City for several times in the past. How can a 12 inches stick, son of a gun, used by the soldiers detect an improvised explosive device (IED) in the three different checkpoint hubs they use to dig like idiots the upper portion of the stuffs in the bag? How about the taped packages and the boxes at the back of the van, trunks of the car and bus? How about if there was a bomb hidden at the lower belly pan of the motor vehicles? The government could purchase efficient detectors for these soldiers like those explosive sniffing dogs, hand held metal detector, and car security camera with motion detection device that cost only U.S $150 apiece as shown in the internet. These instruments have been used by the guards at those huge malls' SM, Robinsons, and others, plants of Coca-Cola and San Miguel Corporation, five star hotels, and other top 500 corporations in the country,” I wrote then.

“Madaling malusutan ng bomba itong check points, stick lang ang pinag inspection,” I told the three Muslim guys, who a bit surprised, nodded their heads on my observation.

Since 1981, the Durian City had been staggered by bombs from mostly suspected Muslim terrorists who used the Cotabato City- Davao City route to unleash their nefarious activities.

***

Below is the list of eight past explosions to hit Davao, as reported by Rappler:

In April 19, 1981, Easter Sunday two grenades were lobbed at San Pedro Cathedral.

The bomb killed 17 churchgoers and wounded 157 people; December 28, 1993, Sunday, the San Pedro Cathedral was targeted, with three grenades thrown inside the crowded church that killed six people and wounded 151; Eight hours after the incident, a suspected Christian militant bombed a mosque. No one was hurt; May 16, 2002 an explosion occurred inside the room of one Michael Terrence Meiring, an American, at the Evergreen Hotel. Meiring identified himself as a treasure hunter, and even joked that he was part of the "CIA."; March 4, 2003, unidentified men used an improvised explosive device to bomb the waiting area at the old Davao International Airport terminal (If I was not wrong I just left the airport for Manila when the bomb exploded there – MCO), killing 22 people and wounding 155 others. The government blamed "Muslim terror groups," in particular Jemaah Islamiyah, for the bombing. American and Australian investigators took part in the police investigation of the incident; April 3, 2003, barely a month after the Davao airport bombing, another powerful bomb exploded, this time at the entrance of Sasa Wharf. The incident, which the government blamed on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), killed 16 people, including four policemen and a nun, and injured 46; February 14, 2005, at around 6 pm, an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded at the Davao City Overland Transport Terminal (DCOTT). The incident killed a 12-year-old boy and left 5 others wounded. The DCOTT bombing occurred almost simultaneously with the bombings in the cities of Makati and General Santos. The Abu Sayyaf claimed responsibility for it; September 13, 2013, at around 9 pm, two simultaneous explosions rocked movie theaters at SM City in Ecoland and Gaisano Mall of Davao in Bajada. No fatalities. A handful of moviegoers sustained minor injuries. This was followed by explosions in Cagayan de Oro City and Cotabato City in July of the same year; and on September 2, 2016, a bombing at a night market occurred in the City, causing at least 15 deaths and 70 injuries. 

***

Before I proceeded to Davao City for my 11:30 pm flight to Manila, I side tripped at Kidapawan City  from the rustic town of M’lang (town of Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol and Health Secretary  Paulyn Jean Ubial) and conferred with Mindanao's political kibitzer Luvin Candari about the electoral landscapes of the Southern Island  and the probable congressional, gubernatorial, and mayoral wannabees in the 2019 polls.
We broke breads and quaffed our brewed coffee there at AJ Hi Time Hotel, the watering hole of politicians and bigwigs of Central Mindanao, while I pressed the kibitzer for valuable information I could use on my radio and blog.

Mr. Candari, a school mate in high school, told me that Cotabato Province's outgoing governor Emmylou “Lala” Talino would be running unopposed for the 2019 congressional poll in the province’s Third Congressional District.

“What would happen to Representative Jose “Pingping” Tejada, my town mate in M’lang, he has still reelection to crack,” I posed.

Luvin said that Tejada could acquiesce to the ambition of the governor and run instead for the vice governorship under the ticket of Carmen Mayor Roger Talino, the father of Lala.

“Tejada could do nothing, he was a creation of the governor,” Luvin said.

By the way, according to then Duterte for President’s campaigner Pinol when I met him in Dagupan City, Roger came from Pangasinan.

My bilas Police Chief Superintendent (general in the military) Mariel Magaway told me that during the 2016 election campaign, a bearded man came to him while he was exchanging pleasantries with some generals.

The man introduced (probably saluting them) himself to him.

“Sir, kilala niyo pa ba ako?” the older Talino, the rubber and palm oil Czar of Cotabato, asked the then Colonel Magaway.

“Familiar kayo sa akin manong,” Magaway, a “mistah” at the PMA of PNP Chief Director General Ronald Dela Rosa, retorted.

“Tao niyo ako noon sa PC (defunct Philippine Constabulary) pa tayo,” the man said.

Talino, just like former Cotabato Province’s Governor Nick Dequina, that former Kabacan town Mayor, and even former U.S Defense Secretary Charles Timothy "Chuck" Hagel, was a Master Sergeant – the most senior ranked for non-officer in the police and the military.

The Talinos are likened to the Espinos in Pangasinan. They have the political machineries and wherewithal to knockout their opponents come election time.

But according to Candari, comes 2019 the electoral battle field would be exciting as former Mlang Mayor Lito Piñol, the present vice mayor and younger brother of the Secretary (bitter rivals of the Talinos for the governorship), would be duking it out with Roger and outgoing Second District ‘s Congresswoman Nancy Catamco.

“So it would be a threesome, er, three cornered fight in the province,” I quipped as I sipped my Coffee Americano and bit my tuna sandwich which were half the price compared if I went to Starbucks.
Ain't Starbucks in Kidapawan City only cheap Star Apples or Caimito in Tagalog, Luvin told me when I told him we go there.

Can Lito Piñol clash tit-for-tat versus the financial chest of Roger? I asked Luvin.

“Ya, Lito got the wherewithal of hundreds of millions of pesos what with his booming banana and palm oil businesses too,” Candari, a former leader of Duterte for President’s movement, retorted.

(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)

Is NFA’s boss Aquino a hypocrite?

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

“If National Food Authority's Administrator Jason Aquino signed the approval of the three import permits of rice while he fought for the suspension of its importation through the private sector as they prejudice the price of palay in the middle of the harvest season, was Aquino a hypocrite? My poser to anti-smuggling Samahang Industriya Agrikultura (SINAG) chair when he guested recently my radio program.

EX-ARMY MAN. NFA Administrator Jason Aquino used to be
an Army man. A graduate of the Philippine Military Academy's
Class of 1991.

Rosendo So told me Aquino has a problem.

“Iyon ang isang problema. Kung hinde mo na aprubahan lahat, huwag mo aprubahan,” he stressed.

In his squabble with a cabinet Secretary Leoncio “Jun” Evasco Jr. and Undersecretary Maia Chiara Halmen Valdez, Aquino, a PMYer and recommendee of Paulo Duterte, argued as reported by the media that the importation of rice could pull down the price of palay in the middle of a bumper harvest season in March and April this year.

Because of that rift, an angry President Rodrigo Duterte unceremoniously sacked Valdez last April 5 because she threatened the livelihood of poor Filipino farmers.

“Why only sacked Valdez, why not the principal too Evasco?” I asked myself then.

But many were jolted by Aquino’s double speaks when we learned that he had approved last March 10 three import permits of 5,400 metric tons (MT) of the staple  while these cargo ships were sailing to Cebu City and Davao City.

***

Aquino is pushing for government-to-government (G-to-G) importation of one million metric tons of rice to prepare for the supposed rice supply shortage the NFA foresees in the coming months.

Mr. So said he learned in his March 7 Vietnam visits that the Philippine government plans to import 3 Million MT from that country in the next two years.

3 million MT if multiplied to 20 equals to 60 million cavans of 50 a kilo bag of rice.

“Bakit inspite na nangyari me bagong statement na naman ang Vietnam na ang gusto pala ng Pilipinas for two years is three million metric tons or sixty million cavans na bigas. Nawala na ang 35% tariff pag pasok nito alam natin ang NFA rice, pero walang NFA price. Ang nangyari napupunta sa traders iyon,” So, a licensed engineer, cited.