‘We don’t want a new Cold War in the Asia Pacific’

RP's former 5-time Speaker Joe de Venecia speaks before an international forum

Statement of Former Speaker Jose de Venecia, Founding Chairman of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP)

On His Speech and  Meetings Last Week in Beijing

June 3, 2012

For the United States, its military presence on the peripheries—the outer limits—of the Chinese mainland may be a kind of “forward defense.” Since the nineteenth century, American strategists have feared that it is from Asia that an invasion of the US mainland would threaten. The Japanese and World War II justified that fear.

Corruptions at Assessor, BIR, Register of Deeds

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

A top government official told me how an assessor of a town or city fleece a taxpayer (seller or buyer of a real property) who asked for the certification of a real property’s classification.
The classifications are residential, agricultural, and commercial.
“With the right amount given by the taxpayer, he certifies the land as residential even it is located in a commercial area,” he told me.
He explained that the government lose a huge amount of taxes that runs to thousands if not millions of pesos because a P30 thousand per square meter (PSM) of real property (land and/or building) will become P10 thousand PSM only for just a stroke of a pen by a corrupt assessor .
Then

Malacanang protects smugglers because it raises election funds?

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

An engineer from the Department of Public works & Highway commented on my last week’s column titled “Where is the money for the footbridge, DPWH?”
He explained the nuances of a program budget for the P90 million repair of the Marusay Bridge in Calasiao.
He gave a hypothetical illustration.
Program project is P120 million. The lowest bid chalked up by DPWH from a private contractor is P90 million thus a saving of P30 million for the government.
He said if the people and leaders in Calasiao want a foot bridge, the office of the mayor there could facilitate its construction through a resolution and an intercession of 2nd district Rep. Rachel Arenas and 2nd sub-engineering district chief Marietta Mendoza at the DPWH’s central office since its construction is a national government-supervised project.
He said the project is not a grant (free) from the Spanish government. It is a long term loan where ‘usually the freebies given by the Spanish government are the trusses (steels that hold the bridge above or below its platform)”.
Except the trusses, he said the rest of the materials are funded from the loan the taxpayers would pay later.
He disagreed to a previous proposal by an expert by borrowing one million pesos (from the P90 million appropriations) intended for the riprap of the Marusay Bridge for the contractor to use for the construction of the foot bridge and pay it later after Eng. Mendoza source out the one million budget.
“That is risky, I’ll not do that. What if the P1 million could not be sourced out by the DPWH?”
He feared that DPWH official would be administratively and criminally liable for that.
***
Hog raisers group said they welcome the decision of Secretary Proceso Alcala of the Department of Agriculture to sack Efren Nuestro and Jane Bacayo as heads of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) and National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS), respectively, for the unabated smuggling of cheap imported meat at the expense of backyard swine raisers particularly.
My poser: When would president Benigno Aquino III ax Custom Chief Ruffino Biazon?
For more than a year now he has yet to apprehend a smuggler of imported pork who misdeclared good meat as cheaper offal that cost our government billions of pesos in revenues.
In year 2010 alone, the government lost P2.8 billion because of smuggling, technical smuggling, and mis-declaration of good meat to offal (swine parts like heads and innards for sisig but not consumed abroad). He explained the total revenues lost due to smuggling, technical
The top ten smugglers of pork in the country have each a capital stock of P100 thousand.
This is incredible because with that measly capital they eclipsed big swine meat importers Purefoods, RFM, and Monterey in terms of the volume of importation.
A source told me that the scandalous smuggling of meats could not be stopped because Malacanang abets it. The palace, according, to my source, allowed the unabated smuggling because it gets a cut, just like in jueteng, that it saves to help bankroll the election expenses of the senatorial and other major candidates of the president’s Liberal Party in the midterm poll next year. (You can read my selected intriguing but thought-provoking columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)

Philippine and Chinese Air Forces: Tale of the Tapes

Philippine Airforce plans to purchase a squadron or 12  of the South Korean-U.S consortium made F/A-50 supersonic light combat jets.

Russian made Sukhoi Su-27

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

In case war breaks between the Philippines and Mainland China, the following are the aerial military hardware the two possess:

PHILIPPINES

Fixed-wing jets:  Two (2) from the 13 (that crashed or lack of spare  parts) ground support and jet training Italian made Aermacchi A-211,

Aircrafts: 
12 North American OV-10 Bronco attack aircraft, 39 SF-3 260FH/TP/MS, and MADSIDHING PANALANGIN (Fervent prayers by our poorly equipped air force pilots).

MAINLAND CHINA

Multi Role’s Fighter Jets:200 Chinese made Chengdu J-10, 76 Russian made Sukhoi Su-30MKK ,76 Russian made Sukhoi Su-27 Air Superiority Fighter, 180 China made Shenyang J-8 Interceptor Fighter, 350 China made, Chengdu J-7 Fighter/Interceptor,70 China made Xian JH-7 Fighter bomber.

Jet Bombers: 120 China made Xian H-6 Strategic bomber, 130 China made Nanchang Q-5 close air support
Airborne Warning & Control System: 8 China made KJ-2000 AWAC and 2 KJ 200 China made AEW&C.
***
With the proposed plan of the Philippines government to purchase a squadron (12 jets) of F-16 multi-role jets (where the latest model can cost up to $30 million or P1.3 billion apiece) to strengthen the defense of the country and make very costly any incursion of Chinese warship in case war breaks between the two countries, the question is, can the Philippines afford them?
The answer is “yes” at the expense of the government’s appropriation for social service and infrastructure!
Vietnam, who has a claim too, like the Philippines, in the South China Sea versus China and is poorer than our country, has the following modern Russian made fighter jets that are at par or much better than the U.S made F-16 Thunderbird.

VIETNAM:
24 Russian made Sukhoi Su-30 Multi Role fighter (44 more Su-30 til 2015 to build three Su-30 Fighter Regiments), 15 Russian made Sukhoi Su-27 Air Superiority fighter (that is superior than the F-16 but with the same price of $30 million apiece(or equivalent of the entire military U.S aid worth $30 million or P1.3 billion to the Philippines this year)), 144 Russian made Mikoyan MiG-21 fighter.

(Send comments to totomortz@yahoo.com)

R.P's empty tourism come-on slogan

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

I am not impressed by the government’s come-on: “It’s more fun in the Philippines!” This is empty rhetoric. We Filipinos are good only in sloganeering. How can you attract tourists, particularly deep pocketed foreigners to come to our shores and start spending their monies when a toilet bowl at Terminal 2 in Manila could not even be provided with toilet paper by airport officials ( I know this because I was a victim of this when I arrived from abroad). A hotel in Dagupan City shuts-off its water system even before midnight because its owner wanted to save power and water bills, and another hotel seems to have an air conditioners that are programmed to decrease its cooling system from cool to hell as hours pass by. Even how catchy is our country’s slogan originally coined or plagiarized (hey, are the Swiss listening?) by the wise guys at the Department of Tourism, the figures speak that in terms of drawing tourists we are still a wimp even in our backyard South East Asia.

FVR Irks by Benguet's Guv Long Speech

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

The event was the unveiling of the marker dedicated to former President Fidel V. Ramos, and the launching of the first San Roque reservoir boat at the San Roque Power Corporation in San Manuel, Pangasinan.

It was an event treated by a five-minute speech (as dictated by the event’s program we called "protocol") to each high roller government officials like Japan Ambassador Toshinao Urabe, President and Chief Executive Officer of SRPC; Mr. Froilan A. Tampingco, President, National Power Corporation, Pangasinan; Ryukichi Kawaguchi, President & CEO,SRPC;Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr. , Benguet Governor Nestor. B. Fongwan, and other luminaries.

Former President Fidel V. Ramos

But the rule did not apply sui generis to the main guest the cigar chomping former President Ramos, known by the acronym's FVR , who had been given a 15 minute allowance for his peroration.

He wowed the crowd after he gave his signature EDSA Revolution’s jump after he was introduced by SRPC’s vice president for corporate affairs and renowned master of ceremony Tom Valdez.

But FVR's bravado was doused by Governor Fongwan after the latter gnawed not only the 15 minutes allocation for the latter but even those five minute’s allotment given to the other VIP guests. Fongwan’s “kilometric” speech was probably written by scintillating Ilokoslokavia saluyot nonpareil columnist Max Soliven, hahaha!

Ang haba anak ng bakang dalaga!

With his Civil Law's prowess, the Igorot Guv's dissected the nuts and bolts of the shares of Real Property Tax and the Special Education Fund from the earning his province Benguet gets from the SRPC that were reduced from 2 % to 1.1%. He assailed how his province and his town Itogon are shortchanged in the distribution of revenues from the SRPC, and other grievances he showboated through his legal prowess.

I heard he ain't even a lawyer but probably an LL.B holder sans the Bar examination.

This irked President Ramos who impatiently and incessantly biting his cigar and eventually stood up and went to the seat of Benguet Vice Governor Crescencio C. Pacalso by telling him in Ilocano like “napudot ditoyon (it's hot here)" and commanded him like what U.S General George Patton did to his Colonels before launching them to Normandy to stop Fongwan’s chatterbox.

Everybody at the back seats laughed when the former president gestured by cutting his (FVR) throat to the amusement of the members of the provincial board of Benguet and other spectators.

FVR then went to have some niceties in Ilocanos with some folks at the back while the unwitting Governor Fongwan continued his sentiments and encomium.

The raucous continued when FVR came to my seat when I asked him when I would give him my news article in relation with my recent interview with him. Instead he extended his right hand and hand locked it by asking me to counter his gripped.

“You already know, Sir, I could not beat you ever since we had hand locked before,” I whispered to him as the crowd no longer looked at Governor Fongwan, who still delivered his legally loaded piece, but to our direction.

“Kahit si Manny Pacquaio surrender dito (Even Manny Pacquiao (world class boxing champion) gave up on this hand locked),” Ramos told me.

FVR then asked his close-in bodyguard to get my folder that included my article with him and my latest Q & A with former speaker Jose de Venecia on the South China Sea (See too in the next issue of this blog my Q & A with Ramos).

Thereafter the Benguet Governor, who probably sensed the demeanor of the former Commander-in-Chief to him, has returned to his seat.

When it was Ramos turn to speak, he said he would only speak in five minutes because Governor Fongwan consumed his 15 minutes allocation (crowd guffawed again). But it did not stop FVR to go 20 minutes impromptu.

He dramatically threw at the gusty San Roque wind all the three sheets of folded papers he took from his front pants’ pocket by telling the crowd he no longer need them because it would consume more time at the expense of the crowd who endured in the noontime scorching sun.

What amazed everybody about the former alumnus of West Point during the entirety of his speech?

He, clad in a long sleeve barong, spoke outside the mammoth sunbrella unmindful of the blistering noontime heat.

This made FVR a cut from the rest.

All the preceding speakers spoke under the comfort of the sunbrella. Despite the scorching sun he continued to crack jokes, reminisced how as the then incumbent president of the land he helped conceive the SRPC, and the significance of the hydro-power plant to the need of the country that reeled in the debilitating power crises then.

The chivalry made FVR a soldier's soldier.

I saw these awe in the eyes of retired and active generals, officers, and enlisted men who were there. This made him an Erwin Rommel and a Charlie Chaplain mixed into one and reincarnated susmariosep like when he treated the hoi-polloi about the great giant tilapias and the shark’s story him and former Speaker de Venecia cultured at the reservoir of SRMP.

"When I was President, Joe de Venecia narrated to me how big by gesturing the size of the mature shark to those fingerling of tilapias we threw years ago at the reservoir. You know Joe loved to exaggerate. Sabi ko naman sing laki na iyan ng pating e mas maliit naman iyong giant tilapia".

FVR brought the house down, son of a gun, with that anecdote!

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

Analysis:Why the Philippines is poor?

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

 I felt bad every time I saw on TV the celebration of the anniversary of the EDSA Revolution. Since that historic date in 1986, the economic stocks of the Filipinos went to the dogs.
We remain poor while people in neighboring Mainland China, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam have experienced economic growths catalyzed by their government led pro-business environment. Before EDSA Revolution, according to the United Nation data the Per Capita Income/ Gross Domestic Product (PCI/GDP means an approximation of the value of goods produced per person in the country, equal to the country’s GDP divided by the total number of people in the country ) in current U.S dollar prices in 1987 of these countries were the following: China ($308), Malaysia ($1,965),Thailand ($929), and Vietnam (No record), and the Philippines ($645). In 2011 or 24 years after the revolution, these countries have the following bigger and fast growing PCI /GDP: China ($4,354), Malaysia ($8,373), Thailand ($4,613) and Vietnam ($1,183). The Philippines has an anemic $2,140 of PCI/GDP as based on the PCI/GDP growth of these leapfrogging countries except Vietnam. But with Vietnam’s $1,183, it would not take some years before this former backwater but fast growing” communist” country that embraces 100 percent foreign business ownership on her shore to catch up with us.

READ MY OTHER ANALYSIS: IS THE PHILIPPINES GOING TO THE DOGS?