St.

Jude College - Dasmarias

URC Ave., Salitran IV, Salawag Dasmarias, Cavite

Philosophical Analysis
(Broadsheet)

Submitted By: Kate P. Purificacion

Submitted To: Sir Leo Marko F. Azucenas

August 16, 2013

Name of Broadsheet: Philippine Daily Inquirer Date: August 01, 2013 Columnist: Letty Jimenez Magsanoc Article: Padrinos

Retired general Danilo Lim spoke of powerful forces preventing reform from taking root in the Bureau of Customs. How powerful? Enough to dissuade the former Scout Ranger from naming names. Another ex-soldier, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, said he was certain President Aquino knew who the padrinos pulling strings in the controversial agency were, and called on the President to name names, too.

This sounds like a dangerous game of one-upmanship, but in fact Trillanes has a point. Identifying who the real powers are in Customs would be a vigorous step in the right direction.

But identification alone is not enough. Proof must be presented, yes, but beyond that, naming names would be tantamount to declaring open season on powerful individuals; the President, or indeed anyone else who dares, must be prepared for the certainty of conflict. If the padrinos in Customs are named, the intensity of the infighting among the political class will make the political

skirmishing over the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona look like a bloodless video game.

Already, a senator has gone on record to say he has indeed been calling up Customs officials, but only to complain about inefficiencies or instances of corruption. We can expect more strategic denials in the future, from other highly placed politicians or highly influential businessmen. They may be completely innocent; they may be intricately implicated in the corruption in Customs. But they have mastered the political game as it is played in the Philippines, enough to know that all they need to do is ride out the bad publicity, and things will return to normal.

That is why naming names is important; it fixes the identity of those very people who have turned the agency into the icon of incompetence and corruption denounced in the State of the Nation Address. And that is also why Lim missed a real opportunity to fight for the reform he champions; unlike President Aquino, he can speak from his personal experience with these padrinos.

We realize that some padrinos change from administration to administration; how many Filipinos have heard horror stories about one influential individual in the previous government directly calling the shots in the agency? Lim, then, can

offer a specific kind of testimony: the time-bound kind, which demonstrates how even corruption in Customs follows a cycle.

Even Trillanes must have based his unlikely challenge to President Aquino on certain knowledge. He can name names, too, offering another kind of testimony: the one from reputation. It may even be that some of those he has heard convincing details about are old, familiar namesthe ones who have been around for decades. Think of the service he will render the country.

But Lim, Trillanes, even Mr. Aquino must prepare to do battle; the padrinos are where they are precisely because they know their way around power.

The truth is: In the Customs context, money is not the root of all evil though there is certainly a lot of money to do evil with. Rather, it is patronage that is the source of corruption.

The padrinos serve as gatekeepers; their nominees win the right posts. They serve to protect those they have nominated, from reassignment or the occasional anticorruption initiative. They serve as guarantors of those they protect, assuring them of steady extra revenue. They even serve as financiers for political campaigns.

These powerful forces must be exposed for who they are. Lim, Trillanes, even the President are faced with the opportunity of a lifetime.

Name of Broadsheet: Philippine Daily Inquirer Date: July 31, 2013 Columnist: Letty Jimenez Magsanoc Article: Reverberations

Many of the victims were visitors, convention delegates from around the country. Perhaps that is why the blast that shook Cagayan de Oro and killed eight persons and injured 46 others at a popular nightspot last Friday continues to reverberate. It struckit still janglesa common nerve. A week since the tragic incident, however, we still dont know who did it, and why it was done. This silence from the investigating agencies is almost deafening.

Aside from those two essential questions, others also need to be asked. Here are three related sets.

First: Two days after the bombing, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas noted that the explosive was really different because it did not have shrapnel or metal parts like in grenades or claymore mines. The physicians who prepared the autopsy report had not found any. In other words, the bomb was not a mortar round or an artillery round, which was set off by a detonator, because no metal parts

were recovered. It did not contain nails, glass shards or metal balls, which are usually placed inside a bomb to hurt people.

Why, then, did the officer in charge of the Armys 4th Infantry Division, based in Cagayan de Oro itself, say initial investigation showed that a mortar round had been used? Perhaps we can attribute Brig. Gen. Ricardo Visayas statement to initial confusion. But where did his sense of certainty come from? It is made of mortar but we cannot say what type of mortar, and the investigators are trying to determine if its a 60mm or an 80mm type of mortar and they are evaluating the fragments recovered, he said the day after the bombing. Then he added, in a mix of Filipino and English: This is the style we usually get from armed Moro rebels in the past, but its not fair to attribute this to any rebel group.

Turns out it was not fair at all to declare the bomb was a mortar round; what was Visayas purpose in his passive-aggressive raising of the Moro scare?

Second: Early in July, the Canadian, Australian and American embassies issued adverse travel alerts, advising their citizens not to travel to any part of Mindanao. The US travel advisory included the cities of Davao, General Santos and Cagayan de Oro, even though these areas were seen as generally more controlled. It also noted that US Embassy employees must receive special

authorization from embassy security officials to travel to any location in Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago, including these urban centers.

Did the perpetrators behind the July 26 bombing show up on the US security radar? While it is only right that the Philippine government should protest blanket travel advisories that cover inordinately large areas (any location in Mindanao?), it is also only prudent for the Department of the Interior and Local Government to reconsider the basis of the travel alerts and request the three embassies for a briefing.

Third: Despite Cagayan de Oros longstanding reputation for being safe, the heavy hand of violence has visited the popular convention city from time to time. Perhaps unknown or unremembered by many, two mysterious blasts shook the city late last year.

On Oct. 11, 2012, two bombs were found outside Maxandrea Hotel near Cogon Market. The second bomb was defused, but the first exploded, killing two civilians and wounding two of the policemen who had responded to the early morning call to investigate an unusual package.

On Nov. 21, a grenade attached to the door of a financing company exploded when the firm opened for business, wounding eight victims, including two

policemen who happened to be passing by at the exact moment of detonation.

What has happened to the official investigation into these incidents? Even more important: Do they have any clues to offer about the July 26 bombing? At the time, sketchy reports suggested that the Oct. 11 blast did not involve mortar rounds either.

But even if the 2012 bombings have nothing to do with the big one last Friday, the state of the investigation into the incidents or the lack of resolution in the cases still bears important consequences. Are the police in the city up to the job (and deserving of the citys enviable reputation for general safety)? Are certain groups using the traditional openness of the city to test new modes of attack?

The 2012 bombings quickly faded from national consciousness, in part because the victims were the citys own residents. We hope that the national attention that is now focused on Cagayan de Oro will help solve the mystery, not only of the bombing last Friday, but also of the explosions last year.

Name of Broadsheet: Philippine Daily Inquirer Date: July 30, 2013 Columnist: Letty Jimenez Magsanoc Article: Starting them young

Should the Sangguniang Kabataan be abolished? Its getting harder and harder to find good reasons not to.

The latest reports on the ongoing registration for the SK and barangay elections in October underscore how compromised this supposed training ground for and official showcase of the countrys young political elite has become. In the Visayas, from Tacloban to Cebu, hundreds of registrants were reportedly trucked to the Commission on Elections offices aboard barangay-owned vehicles or private buses, provided meals, and promised money in exchange for supporting specific SK aspirants.

Everything was preplanned, down to the paraphernalia to be used by the registrants. In Cebu City, a candidate for SK councilor was seen bringing a box of ball pens, stamp pads and registration forms, said a report in this paper. Likewise, in Jaro town, Leyte, a barangay official whose daughter will run for SK admitted that she escorted would-be SK voters to the local Comelec office.

And she wasnt bashful about it: Lets be practical, she declared. I want to ensure the win of my daughter.

Given that mindset, and the example the mother is setting before her child, is it unreasonable to expect that the young womanor any other SK candidate exposed to such slick tactics, for that matterwould inevitably end up as dishonorable as her parent-mentor? The setup, in effect, has become the breeding ground for that vile species that has been the bane of this country for so long: the devious, wheeling-dealing politicobut worse, in this case, because the specimens being corrupted are in the bloom of youth, the so-called hope of the motherland waylaid so early by the warped example of their elders.

The most odious result of the SKs contamination by the sleazy hand of politics is the transformation of this once-promising platform for young leaders and bright political aspirants into the plaything of local dynasties, where the sons and daughters of families in power are made to learn a variation of that famous dictumthat politics is addition, and better start counting early.

Scratch a congressman, mayor or governor, and youre likely to find such early tenure in their hometowns supposed youth legislature as the launch pad for their entry into the big league. How, for instance, did Junjun Binay become mayor of Makati? First by serving as SK president in 19922001, where he learned

the ropes under the mentorship of the longtime mayor who was also his father, now the vice president of the republic.

In the beginning, perhaps, the Sangguniang Kabataan raised hope that it would serve its purpose well. Established as a replacement for the despised Kabataang Barangay under the regime of Ferdinand Marcos, the SK as created by the Local Government Code of 1991 aimed to involve the youth in public governance by giving them the opportunity to serve their communities through programs they themselves created and ran, and that helped harness their energies and passions.

But all in the spirit of volunteerism, said Caloocan Rep. Edgardo Erice, a onetime member of SK who has filed a bill seeking its abolition. The early SK had no budget from the local government and was run by volunteers, recalled Erice. In time, however, because of their close proximity to the down-and-dirty business of real-world politics, the group of impressionable youth also proved to be a constituency ripe for manipulation.

With money and attention lavished its way, the SK became the logical first choice target for local politicians seeking a higher position, said Erice. Now, the School ng Korupsyonas he calls the grouphas, sadly speaking, become both a tool and a vehicle for the proliferation of corruption.

It remains of crucial importance for the voice of young Filipinos to be heard in governmental affairs. The SK, however, appears to be no longer the best vehicle for any such program of youth empowerment, if it ever was. Over the years, reports of irregularities in its ranks have come to rival the worst shenanigans in governmentfrom the SK national federation president haled on corruption charges before the Ombudsman in 2010, to political clans hijacking the group for both short-term electioneering activities and long-term dynastic plans, and now the wholesale adoption by SK candidates themselves of the trademark hakot of their political elders. Such precocious dirty tricks need to be nipped in the budpermanently.

Name of Broadsheet: Philippine Daily Inquirer Date: July 29, 2013 Columnist: Letty Jimenez Magsanoc Article: Port Privatization

For a country with more than 7,100 islands, one would expect a developed interisland shipping sector. Yet that is not the case with the Philippines. Aside from the lack of political will on the part of previous administrations, the unusual role played by the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) as regulator of the industry, developer of ports and competitor of the private sector in maritime trade and port services has been blamed for the poor state of interisland transportation.

Government ownership of some 100 ports across the country has also led to the eventual degradation of many of them due to the perennial lack of public funds to sustain and modernize these facilities. Yet every administration knew that privatization is the answer to having a developed port network. Just recently, the chambers of commerce of south Luzon reiterated the call to modernize and develop the various ports across the country. But first, they said the government had to level the playing field in the ports sector by ending the multiple and conflicting roles of the PPA.

Members of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) from Regions IV-A (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), IV-B (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) and Bicol have asked the Department of Transportation and Communications to amend the PPA charter and leave the agency only with its regulatory function. An amended PPA charter will signal to investors that they can expect fair competition in developing and operating ports, said PCCI president Miguel Varela. A level playing field will be an incentive for large infrastructure projects because investors will feel predictability in their operations if the government regulator is not a competing developer of ports at the same time.

They also asked the DOTC to privatize the ports under the PPA. In 2010, the PPA said it would privatize at least five state-controlled ports as part of the Aquino administrations public-private partnership (PPP) program. The first targets included the ports in Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, Ozamiz and General Santos as well as the roll-on, roll-off (Ro-Ro) ports covered by the so-called nautical highway that connects Luzon to several islands in the Visayas all the way down to Mindanao.

While some of the ports are now run by private cargo-handling operators, the privatization effort for many other facilities remains delayed. The government can do some catching up if it can fast-track the privatization of the major port

of Davao. Earlier considered as one of the possible links in the Ro-Ro shipping network of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Davao port failed to make the cut because of its dilapidated condition. This moved the government to draft last year a modernization program costing anywhere from P3 billion to P5 billion through the PPP program. Two local private sector firms global player International Container Terminal Services Inc. and Asian Terminals Inc.have expressed interest in the project. Bidding was earlier scheduled for the middle of 2013, but no official word has yet been announced on when the actual bidding will be held.

An efficient network of ports is very crucial. Being an archipelago, maritime transport plays a very vital role in developing the regions, where poverty remains high. Ports are very important as these serve as gateways to towns and cities in transporting people and in trading goods and services.

The country has a creditable record in the privatization of essential services, with the water distribution previously handled by the state-owned Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System the most successful example. Over the past years, the governments track record in port privatization has been limited to a few major facilities, among them the Batangas Port, the Manila North Harbor, the Manila International Container Terminal and the Manila South Harbor.

It is time to speed up the privatization of as many ports nationwide as possible. There is no doubt that these facilities can be better handled by private investors with the money and expertise to operate them efficiently. In 2010, PPA General Manager Juan Sta. Ana said: We subscribe to the basic notion that the private sector is the engine of growth. For this reason, we should continue to encourage more private-sector participation in the management, operation and

development of ports. Time to follow these words with action.

Name of Broadsheet: Philippine Daily Inquirer Date: July 28, 2013 Columnist: Letty Jimenez Magsanoc Article: Abolish Customs?

The harsh words were President Benigno Aquino IIIs. Its like the Bureau of Customs is competing to be incompetent, he said in his fourth State of the Nation Address. Instead of collecting the right taxes and stopping contraband, it seems they [Customs personnel] are ceaselessly letting trade slip through, as well as illegal drugs, arms and other such into our territory. The question is: Is the President now open to the trial balloon Customs Commissioner Rozzano Rufino Biazon floated last April, that of abolishing the bureau in its entirety?

Upon hearing incompetence

the in

Presidents the Bureau

harsh language against corruption and of Immigration, the National Irrigation

Administration and Customs, Biazon immediately offered to resignin a decidedly post 20th-century way, by sending President Aquino a text message. Aquino reaffirmed his confidence in Biazon, also via SMS.

Emboldened by the Presidents new expression of support, Biazon late last week ordered all 17 Customs collectors to vacate their posts, to prepare the way for a

revamp. Its logical that we start with the district collectors. Providing new leaders in the collection districts will at least give a fresh start on how to institute reforms down the line. We will focus next on the examiners, assistants as well as other personnel in the bureau, Biazon said.

This is a major initiative; the Customs collectors represent the countrys 17 major ports of entry (among them, the Port of Manila, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the Manila International Container Terminal) and as such (together with the 37 subport collectors) may be the most important officials in the Bureau of Customs.

Biazon acknowledged the popular perception: There are 17 collection districts, 17 kings and subkings. But he said he did not subscribe to that view: I dont acknowledge or recognize kings, theyre collectors under the authority of the commissioner.

We will find out soon enough whether these are mere brave words, or whether Biazon has sufficient political will to remove underperforming or corrupt collectors. Under the law, his appointments are subject to the approval of the finance secretary, but in reality, the choice of which collectors are removed or retained is Biazons.

If all or most of the 17 are merely reassigned to other collection districts, then we can expect nothing much from this so-called revamp; it will be merely cosmetic.

A good performance record is definitely a plus factor, Biazon said, identifying the criteria he will use to choose the new collectors. Well also check if they are [the] subject of complaints, their level of notoriety, among other things.

Perhaps he should also check with the President. When Mr. Aquino assailed those officials in Customs for whom the only thing that matters is getting rich, surely he must have had some persons specifically in mind?

But even assuming that every single corrupt or incompetent official in the bureau has been identified and replaced, there is no guarantee that the agency will work as designedbecause it remains subject to the very powerful forces that retired general Danilo Lim referenced when he tendered his resignation as a deputy Customs commissioner.

These forces, Lim said, prevent genuine reforms from taking root in the agency. But the former coup plotter and elite soldier stopped short of naming names.

Any consumer of the news can make a guess: Could these powerful forces consist of the Presidents own Liberal Party perhaps, or Vice President Jejomar

Binays busy United Nationalist Alliance, or ex-Senate President Juan Ponce Enriles unrivalled political network, or the politically influential Iglesia ni Cristo, or powerful businessmen, or indeed all of the above? The ordinary citizen is reduced to guesswork, because no one, not even Lim, would say.

Thats a shame. Lim can render real service to the country by talking straight and telling us exactly what he knows. Information about who pulls the strings in Customs is by itself a necessary reform.

Necessary, but insufficient. Judging from President Aquinos own scathing remarks, the culture of the Customs agency is rotten to the core. A revamp or two, no matter how high up, will not be enough. Its time to reconsider the idea of abolition.

Name of Broadsheet: Philippine Daily Inquirer Date: July 27, 2013 Columnist: Letty Jimenez Magsanoc Article: Missing

The third class town of Donsol in Sorsogon had made a name for itself because of the butanding (whale sharks) that congregated in its waters at certain times of the year, so much so that its very name became almost synonymous with the gentle giants.

Local and foreign visitors set out in boats to catch a glimpse of or interact with the butanding, the largest of all fish. Some of the creatures became veritable stars: Putol with the missing tail fin; Nognog, a stand -out by dint of being darker than the others; Kuping with the folded back fin; and the obviouslynamed Puti.

This come-on resulted in revenues for Donsol (pop.: 47,000) and lessons in selfsufficiency for its residents, who not only serve as guides and butanding interaction officers (BIO) but who also open their homes to tourists under the home-stay program. The Donsol folk came to rely heavily on tourism revenues of some P35 million a year. And the once-sleepy seaside town enjoyed certain

developments in the form of resorts and restaurants to cater to the tourists, as well as a now-paved main road. We were once a fifth-class town, Donsol tourism officer Nenita Pedragosa recalled at one point during the boom. Now, we are a third-class town and we are actually applying to be classified as firstclass.

That was then. From reports, butanding sightings have been steadily declining since 2011, and the four stars appear to have gone missing. Says Donsol BIO chair Alan Amanse: The bigger ones measuring 14 meters long are nowhere in sight. What has caused this regrettable turn of events? Pedragosa scoffs at the suggestion that the whale sharks have taken off for Oslob in Cebu, where they are fed by hand: Those who want to see butanding come to Donsol first. They only go to Oslob when they fail to see one here.

The theory is that the disappearance of Donsols butanding is due to a killer combination of global warming and bad sanitation. Amanse notes that the sea temperature has risen from 26-27 degrees Celsius in 2012 to the current 29-30 degrees. Donsol Councilor Rey Aquino says fishermen have overgathered the plankton that the butanding feed on, and, more urgently, the waters have been contaminated by the dangerous E.coli bacteria as a result of the building of household toilets on the riverbanks. And one more significant thing: According to Amanse, the butanding are suffering from stress because of too much

interaction in BIO-coordinated events from December to May. (During a standard interaction event, some 40 boats loaded with six tourists each come close to the whale sharks.) Fewer butanding sightings have resulted in fewer visitors. Per Amanses count, the number of tourists has dropped by 2,000 in the first half of the year, from the average of 25,000. Thus, tourism revenues are slipping.

A review of Donsols tourism program is clearly in order. The absence of the regular butanding is worrisome enough. Donsol BIOs say only two whale sharksCurly and Luckyare regularly seen in the waters. The way things are going, they may also soon vanish.

The Worldwide Fund for Nature Philippines, which had helped build the ecotourism project in Donsol, once sounded the warning that the towns growth required careful handling. The popularity of Donsol as a major destination for [butanding-watching] needs to be handled with care to ensure the sustainability of the whale shark interaction activities. The unprecedented increase in tourists wishing to experience an encounter with the whale sharks brings with it much risk and potential danger to these gentle giants, it said. It also noted that the increase in the number of visitors had led to a parallel rise in noncompliance with butanding interaction rules, and that the habitat of the whale sharks needed to be managed properly.

The story of Donsol and its star butanding is all too familiar, hewing as it does to the now-common narrative of tourism boom, unregulated development, and neglect of ecological imperatives. Lets hope that it does not end in tragedy: a case of killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

Lets hope that theres still time and space to turn things around.

Name of Broadsheet: Philippine Daily Inquirer Date: July 26, 2013 Columnist: Letty Jimenez Magsanoc Article: Exclusionist

What was KLM thinking? The Dutch airline came under fire recently for having barred an 18-year-old indigenous Filipino woman from flying to Rio de Janeiro for the flimsiest but most outrageous of reasons: She was tagged as not ready to travel despite the full documentation she presented to airline personnel.

Arjean Marie Belco of Bukidnons Talaandig tribe, whose trip was sponsored by the nonprofit group GoodX.org and its partner Cartwheel Foundation.org., was at the Kuala Lumpur airport on July 20, en route to Brazil to take part in the World Youth Day celebrations, when a KLM employee identified as a Mr. Shawa stopped her at the check-in counter. The man was doubtful about the validity of Belcos tripand would not let her on the flight even after he was shown valid travel and supplementary documents.

According to the complaint posted by Belco and her sponsors on Facebook, Shawa also let loose with disparaging comments and questionsabout why her ticket was too cheap and was just purchased yesterday, why her passport

looked new, and how much money she had, among other things. Belco was able to present bank documentation that she had sufficient travel funds; she also requested the airline to call her sponsors to confirm the trip. But she was still barred from flying.

GoodX.org said it had contacted KLM before Belcos ticket was bought, to confirm her flight details. So what would account for the airlines action? GoodX.org thinks it was because a high-handed KLM employee profiled Belco and decided she didnt fit his idea of a typical international traveler. Arjean was denied her right to travel. This could also be perceived as a possible case of discrimination based on appearance, gender, ethnicity, nationality, age or social status, GoodX.org said in its FB post.

Belco, a BS Education student who was on her very first trip outside of the Philippines, was eventually allowed to fly and is now in Rio. In a subsequent statement, KLM said it had gotten in touch with GoodX.org and had made all arrangements needed to bring this to a good end. It also said it values all of its passengers, does not distinguish between age, gender, race, religion or lifestyle, and accepts passengers in possession of valid travel documents.

But there was no explanation whatsoever for its exclusionist behavior toward the young woman, who was not only carrying valid travel papers but was also fully

backed by her sponsors. Worse, there was no hint of remorse in KLMs statement, or a smidgen of acknowledgment that it had made a regrettable mistake.

The absence of apology is appalling. This airlines display of disregard for the rights of customers deserves the strongest rebuke. Travellers are also hereby forewarned.

All-embracing

Belcos flight to Rio de Janeiro was delayed by two days. But mercifully she made it in time as the World Youth Day festivities went into high gear with the arrival of Pope Francis, who has been electrifying the world with the radical brand of simplicity and humility that he immediately put into practice in the staid and snooty Vatican.

The former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio has brought to Brazil his back to basics spirit. His packed schedule includes not only high Masses for fervent Catholics in grandiose basilicas and appearances before tens of thousands of young faithful from the world over, but also a visit to a hospital to comfort drug addictsa gesture reminiscent of the many acts of simple kindness he has displayed in the gilded capital of Catholicism, such as washing the feet of

juvenile inmates on Holy Thursday, visiting poor migrants outside Rome, and getting off his popemobile to embrace disabled children.

Francis has also called on priests to live simpler lifestyles, declared in one homily that Christs redemption covered even the atheists, and greeted Muslims during Ramadan. For all these, conservative Catholics have not been really happy, reports the National Catholic Reporter. Thats the surest sign there is that this Popes campaign to return the 1.2 billion-strong Catholic congregation to the kinder, gentler fundamentals of its faithto become a compassionate, allembracing Churchis working.

Name of Broadsheet: Philippine Daily Inquirer Date: July 24, 2013 Columnist: Letty Jimenez Magsanoc Article: Wash it out

With unusual speed, the Philippine National Police has concluded that the deaths of the Ozamiz Gang leader and his henchman last week were probably the result of a rubout. PNP Director General Alan Purisima said administrative charges have been filed against 14 policemen implicated in the extrajudicial killings, including a superintendent.

I have already approved the precharge evaluation of those involved in the [Ricky] Cadavero and [Wilfredo] Panogalinga case because it appears in the investigation that there have been violations committed, Purisima told reporters on Tuesdayor less than 24 hours after President Aquino highlighted the case in his fourth State of the Nation Address.

The President had devoted a paragraph to incidents that continue to stain the honor of our police force. (The official English translation of the Sona offers a somewhat more literary version of the ritual speech. The paragraph in question

begins with: There are still incidents that sully our police forces honor. In the rest of the quote, below, we follow a more colloquial reading.) We must all have heard about what happened to the members of the Ozamiz Gang, Ricky Cadavero and Wilfredo Panogalinga: They were arrested, but ended up dead. Like the investigation we conducted into what happened in Atimonan, we will make sure that those policemen or whoever were involved here will be made to answerno matter how high their ranks are. Whoever are the masterminds here: Get ready. I am close to finding out who all of you are.

The Presidents language suggests that he had been recently briefed by Purisima or Interior Secretary Mar Roxas about the status of the internal investigation that the PNP conducted (which is separate from the inquiry launched by the National Bureau of Investigation, on orders of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima). It also suggests that he now considers the official response to the Jan. 6 incident in Atimonan, Quezonthe deliberate ambush at an improvised checkpoint of alleged leaders and protectors of an illegal gambling syndicate, resulting in 13 deathsa benchmark to measure future inquiries by.

From the start, the Ozamiz Gang escape-try story raised suspicions. Only a few hours after being presented by both Roxas and Purisima at a Camp Crame news conference on July 15, Cadavero and Panogalinga were killed in San Pedro, Laguna. The police escorts claimed that the two had tried to grab their

firearms, after their convoy came under attack from unknown motorcycle-riding gunmen.

Even before a witness came out (and sources inside Camp Crame began talking), the details of the story already seemed hard to credit. Why were the two criminals brought out of Camp Crame after the news conference by the same police escorts, when they were brought there precisely to be turned over to the Bureau of Correction? Why were they brought all the way to Laguna, when protocol dictates that the inquest proceedings take place in the Muntinlupa penitentiary?

Those questions tell us why the PNP has filed administrative charges against those implicated in the incident. In Purisimas words, there have been violations committed. But if the witness who saw the police set up a barricade in San Pedrowhich later turned out to be the exact spot where Cadavero and Panogalinga were killedis telling the truth, then administrative charges are not enough. If the sources in Camp Crame who call for an investigation into the manner in which the van carrying the two criminals were hit by gunfire are telling the truth, that police firearms were used, then administrative charges cannot be enough. The real question is: Why were the gang leader and his henchman, who had previously escaped but were recaptured only recently, killed after a high-profile

news conference featuring no less than the chief of the PNP and his civilian boss?

The real sullying of the honor of our police force is done by those police officers who serve as protectors or partners of criminal syndicates. To wash out the Ozamiz Gang stain, multiple murder charges similar to those filed in the Atimonan 13 case must be brought against everyone involvedno matter how high their ranks are.

Name of Broadsheet: Philippine Daily Inquirer Date: July 23, 2013 Columnist: Letty Jimenez Magsanoc Article: Rights victims in limbo

Last February, to much fanfare on the part of Congress and Malacaang, President Aquino signed into law a bill authorizing compensation of P10 billion (about $230 million) to victims of human-rights abuses by the Marcos dictatorship. For the claimants, it was a case of better late than never the fruit of 26 years of unrelenting, often lonely, struggle not only to get the Philippine government to recognize their status as primary victims of state-sponsored violence under martial law, but also, and more importantly, to redress that injustice by way of an official government act that finally enforces some measure of restitution and punishment against the Marcoses.

Nearly six months later, not one of the claimants has received his or her share of that compensation, because Malacaang has yet to appoint the members of the board that would administer the fund. Yet again, the rights victims are being made to waittheir claims stuck in bureaucratic limbo even as their ranks continue to dwindle due to old age and the ravages of the violence they endured long ago.

And now, the government seems to want to add cruelty to its neglect of the rights victims: The Presidential Commission on Good Government is opposing the $10-million settlement that the victims lawyers have reportedly forged with the unnamed buyer of a valuable Claude Monet painting believed to be part of the ill-gotten wealth of Imelda Marcos, former first lady and now Ilocos Norte representative.

The well-known artwork by the French Impressionist painter, titled Le Bassin aux Nympheas (Water Lily Pond, 1899), was sold to the buyer in 2010 by Vilma Bautista, Imelda Marcos former social secretary and confidante, for $32 million. The New York-based Bautista was arrested in 2012 for attempting to sell three more Impressionist artworks from the Marcos hoard. The buyer of the Monet, who was said to have bought the painting in good faith, didnt want to be dragged into the highly publicized case of Bautistawhose trial for art theft and tax fraud is set to start on Oct. 7 in New Yorkand thus agreed to enter into a settlement with the rights victims over the paintings ownership for $10 million.

The settlement is the handiwork of Robert Swift, the same US-based lawyer who won a $2-billion award in a class action suit against the Marcos estate in 1995 on behalf of 9,539 victims of martial-law abuses. If the agreement with the Monet buyer is successfully implemented, the remaining claimants, now down to 7,500, may get another $1,000 in compensation on top of the P43,000 (the equivalent

of $1,000) each of them received in 2011 under a $10-million initial settlement of the $2-billion judgment.

Two thousand dollars, or about P86,000. Is that sufficient to compensate for the rape, torture, mutilation and other horrific barbarities inflicted on thousands of men and women, among them the flower of the countrys youth, by agents and soldiers of the Marcos dictatorship? Is that recompense enough for families wracked by anguish over a parent, spouse, or child gone missing or driven into hiding in the face of government harassment, oreveryones nightmare in that benighted eraa loved ones mangled body?

When President Aquino signed the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013 during the Edsa rites last February, it was hailed as a landmark measure that recognized the heroism of those who fought and suffered under martial law. But it is a recognition that the government has been unable to deliver so far. One would think, then, that it would welcome the justness of another arrangementsuch as the $10-million Monet settlement that could take up the slack and begin compensating the victims. But the PCGG stands in the way, insisting that the government, not the rights victims, owns the Monet painting, and thus they have no right to its proceeds a perfectly valid legal argument, and also a callous, insensitive one. This saga of injustice has lasted nearly three decades. Whatever funds are extracted from

the Marcos loot, and in whatever waywhether by formal budget allocation or through the disposal of the ill-gotten hoardthese victims deserve to finally get their due.

Until they are afforded such closure, their ordeal continuesand this countrys as well, with its collective inability, or plain unwillingness, to come to terms with its dark past.

Name of Broadsheet: Philippine Daily Inquirer Date: July 22, 2013 Columnist: Letty Jimenez Magsanoc Article: Affordable air travel

It used to be that air travel was the domain of the rich. The emergence of socalled low-cost carriers (LCCs) changed the game by opening air travel to the burgeoning middle class. However, having LCCs is just half of the picture. These budget airlines must have their own airport terminals to keep their costs low.

The government announcement last week of a plan to build a P4-billion facility beside the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 to service the requirements of LCCs is welcome news. The Department of Transportation and Communications is doing a feasibility study on a new terminal that can handle 10 million passengers a year. The study may be completed before this year ends and, if proven viable, construction can start next year. The new facility should take two years to complete and will hopefully be ready before the end of President Aquinos term in 2016. A 3.3-hectare lot beside the controversial Naia 3 is being considered for the budget terminal. The government, according to Jose Angel Honrado, general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority, also hopes to bring Naia 3 to full operational capacity by the first quarter of

2014, and the idea is to transfer all domestic budget flights to the new terminal so that Naia 3 can focus on international flights. The government is also revising the master plan for the Clark international airport to now include facilities for LCCs. If plans push through, a P6-billion budget terminal will be built starting next year for completion also in 2016. It is estimated that LCC traffic accounts for 80 percent of all aircraft movements in the Clark airport, thus the need to build a budget terminal. The DOTC has allotted P3 billion in its 2014 budget for the construction of the 45,000-square-meter budget terminal, and another P3 billion will be released in 2015 to complete it. The budget terminal will have a capacity of 4.5 million passengers a year. The DOTC had said that the new budget terminal would be an entirely different structure to look more like the Changi Airport in Singapore but linked to the existing terminal that has a capacity of two million passengers a year.

An LCC terminal is specifically designed with the needs of low-cost airlines in mind. It has simple facilities to keep construction cost low and maintenance expenses at the minimum. The concept of an exclusive LCC terminal is believed to have been pioneered by Malaysian tycoon Tony Fernandes of leading budget airline AirAsia at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in 2006. The Malaysian airport and another in Singapore are the two often cited examples of LCC terminals in Asia-Pacific.

With a stripped-down and inexpensive terminal, an airport can cut operating costs significantly, passing along the savings to budget airlines that, in turn, can extend these to passengers in the form of cheap ticket prices. Cost reductions compared to normal airports are usually in the physical building, forgoing expensive architectural design in favor of simple warehouse-like structures with low ceilings and without the moving walkways, fewer restaurants and duty-free stores, and simplified baggage handling. However, these terminals may have modern facilities such as free Internet access. Studies on LCC terminals show that costs to an airline were as little as two-thirds of the total cost of landing at the main terminal, providing a big competitive advantage to budget airlines insofar as pricing their tickets is concerned.

Supporting LCCs will definitely help the governments big push for tourismone of the economic sectors that public and private experts believe can sustain the countrys high-growth momentum. With two budget terminals coming upone at the Naia and another in Clarklocal and foreign low-cost airlines can look forward to expanding their operations to and from the Philippines. The government should also consider an LCC terminal in the Visayas and another in Mindanao to make the benefits of cheap air travel available to all people across the country.

But the government must always keep in mind that low cost should not mean poor service at the airport for passengers lured by the cheap fares of budget airlines.

Bibliography

http://opinion.inquirer.net/57925/padrinos http://opinion.inquirer.net/57855/reverberations http://opinion.inquirer.net/57793/starting-them-young http://opinion.inquirer.net/57739/port-privatization http://opinion.inquirer.net/57669/abolish-customs http://opinion.inquirer.net/57615/missing http://opinion.inquirer.net/57483/exclusionist http://opinion.inquirer.net/57351/wash-it-out http://opinion.inquirer.net/57229/rights-victims-in-limbo http://opinion.inquirer.net/57139/affordable-air-travel