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House rushes pork-laden budget, then vacations

House rushes pork-laden budget, then vacations

by | Apr 15, 2023 | Gotcha

PNA photo of House of Representatives building

GOTCHA

written on September 30, 2022

 

The House of Reps rushed Wednesday night, Sept. 28, passage of the P5.268-trillion national budget for 2023. That amount is loaded with Legislative and Executive pork barrels. Congress will break for All Saints/All Souls Day, Oct. 1-Nov. 6.

House leaders patted themselves on the back for their speedy disposition of the people’s money. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had certified the budget bill “urgent.” That allowed congressmen to compress the second and third readings into one day, instead of three session days as the Constitution prescribes.

Congress’ calendar year revolves around the budget. Submitted to the House 30 days after the President’s State of the Nation, this year Aug. 22, the appropriations are supposed to be scrutinized by various committees and debated in plenary. Lawmakers then tackle other bills.

But not during breaks, like the five weeks for “Undas.” Session resumes Nov. 7-Dec. 16, then recess for Christmas Dec. 17-Jan. 22, 2023.

Of 311 district and sector congressmen, 289 voted “yes,” three “no,” zero abstention, 19 absent.

The House passed P2.25-billion confidential and P2.25-billion intelligence funds for the Office of President Marcos Jr. This repeats 2022’s P4.5-billion CIF, almost used up by president Rody Duterte before stepping down June 30.

Approved too was P2.31 billion for the office of Vice President Sara Duterte. This is nearly four times the average P639.47-million budget of former VP Leni Robredo in 2016-2022, independent opposition Rep. Edcel Lagman noted.

VP Duterte was given P500-million confidential fund for “national security and peace and order.” Only four times before were VPs given such fund: P6 million in 2019, P3 million in 2010, P6 million in 2011 and P9 million in 2012, totaling a relatively “miniscule” P24 million, Lagman added.

As secretary of education, VP Duterte was given a separate P150-million confidential fund. Kabataan party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel, aligned with the militant Makabayan bloc, said previous education chiefs had no such allocation.

Congressmen ignored Deputy Speaker Ralph Recto’s revelation last month of an unprogrammed P588 billion, separate from the P5.268 trillion. Malacañang presented the fund in lump sum, Recto told Sapol-dwIZ Sept. 10. “Only one-liners were stated, like P380.6-billion ‘support to foreign-assisted projects’ and P149.7-billion ‘support for infrastructure projects and social programs’,” he said. “More than double this year’s P251.7-billion unprogrammed fund, it is a blank check request.” To Recto’s request for details, budget officials retorted there is nothing illegal about it.

Hasty deliberations forestalled scrutinizing for congressional pork. Retired colonel Hector Tarrazona branded the P5.268-trillion budget “bloated.” “I say that because the current year’s P5.024 trillion is already bloated to accommodate the whims of the past admin,” he wrote in an open letter. “Mr. President, please stop the plunder.”

The Supreme Court in 2014 outlawed congressional pork, called at that time Priority Development Assistance Fund. Each senator then got a lump sum of P200 million a year and each congressman P80 million. The SC defined congressional pork as discretionary lump sums and similar funds that enable congressmen to implement Executive projects. Presidential pork are also discretionary lump sums that allow the Chief Executive or department heads “to determine the manner of utilization.”

Congress abolished the PDAF but continued the pork by other means. Funds are inserted in department budgets for the benefit of individuals or cabals of senators and congressmen.

Two forms of pork were exposed during deliberations for this year’s budget: one was a P28.1-billion “barangay development program” under the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict. The Department of the Interior and Local Government said then that the money was for 1,406 villages. But suspicion was that it would be used for last May’s elections. No barangay was identified, no land area or population, no amount or project detail for each. “This is lump sum,” Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas said then.

Another was P10 billion labeled as “growth equity fund for local governments.” Again no breakdown of amounts, project details and beneficiaries. Malacañang merely said then it was for fourth-, fifth- and sixth-class municipalities.

In 18 years as senator, Panfilo Lacson saved the country over P300 billion in pork that would have gone to ghost projects and employees. Many of those he exposed during budget hearings were for “flood control projects,” that is, bogus immeasurable river dredging. At least P4 billion were to be pocketed per congressional district. To hide the loot, lawmakers “parked” the money in each other’s district allocations, to be withdrawn after budget approval.

House leaders went through the motions of “explaining for public transparency.” Presented were budget matrices in grandiose words and nine-to-twelve-digit amounts. International tests of students in the past decade showed Filipinos at the bottom in Math, Science and Reading Comprehension.

The public largely accepted the annual pork-laden budgets. Hailed by poor folk were such new legislations obligating electricity firms and private schools to grant subsidies. Such discounts are deducted from private incomes, not from lawmakers.

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

* * *

Catch “Sapol” radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM)

            “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

Onion smuggling goes on against BBM’s ‘strict orders’

Onion smuggling goes on against BBM’s ‘strict orders’

by | Apr 15, 2023 | Gotcha

PNA photo of confiscated onions

GOTCHA

written on September 28, 2022

 

Onion smuggling goes on under the very nose of the Bureau of Customs.

Seven 40-footer cargo containers were sneaked into Cagayan de Oro port last July 22. The raw white onions from China were mis-declared as other food products. Customs officers at the northern Mindanao City confiscated the contraband. Bigwigs in the Manila head office trumpeted the accomplishment.

But here’s the catch. Customs-Cagayan de Oro condemned the shipment on Aug. 20 and contracted a private condemnator. Instead of crushing, burying or incinerating the stuff, the condemnator transported and sold six container loads in Davao City on Sept. 18.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has strict orders to stop agricultural smuggling. As concurrent Secretary of Agriculture, he instructed the Bureau of Plant Industry to withhold all vegetable import permits. BoC must crack down on food smugglers.

Photos and files of the contraband were provided to GOTCHA, including the condemnator’s identity.

Three containers, mis-declared as “butter/dairy spread,” was consigned to Frankie Trading Enterprises. Four, disguised as “spring roll patty,” was to Primex Export-Import Producer. Customs headquarters issued press releases about it.

Customs-CdO valued the contraband at P21 million, P3 million per cargo container. A container can carry 28,000 kilos.

White onion, controlled by cartelists, retails for P600 a kilo. The onion trafficked in Davao thus cost P16.8 million per container, or P100.8 million for the six containers.

The July 22 smuggling was the third of four that month alone by Frankie Trading and Primex. Customs reported the first on July 7, five containers of white and red onions and carrots valued at P15 million. Second was July 19, four containers of white and red onions, P12 million. Last was July 29, six containers, P18 million.

District Collector Elvira Cruz ordered their seizure. Sources could not say if all or part of those contraband were also recycled instead of destroyed.

Customs assigns seized foods for destruction to a pool of private condemnators. There was a clamor to donate the onions to charity. Customs-CdO spokesman Cris Angelo Andrade rejected it, saying the onions might be contaminated and thus hazardous to public health. “There is a BoC condemnation committee,” he told reporters July 30. “I don’t know the condemnation date.”

BPI-Region-10 supervising agriculturist Manuel Barradas explained: “We don’t know what pest and disease these might bring that would infect our other crops here in Mindanao. This would also pose human risk because we don’t know what preservatives or chemicals they used. This is a hazard to our consumers.”

Traffickers recycle through various means, mostly in cahoots with Customs. Exposed in GOTCHA 23 years ago was the doctoring of expired import permits from the Bureaus of Plant and Animal Industries, and of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. Also exposed was the 2006 sneak-in of 100,000 kilos of diseased pork from China. Customs police diverted the contraband from the condemnation dumpsite to a food processor. Rice by the shiploads was a favorite contraband.

In April-June 2022 Congress investigated the nonstop agricultural smuggling. Then-Senate president Tito Sotto named four of 22 culprits mentioned in state intelligence reports. All had been identified in inquiries since the 2000s: Leah “Luz” Cruz, operating in CdO and Manila International Container Port; Manuel Tan, CdO, Subic, Batangas; Jun Diamante, CdO; Andrew Chang, MICP, Port of Manila, Batangas.

Hailing the CdO confiscations, Customs Acting Commissioner Yogi Ruiz said on Sept. 22 that “eliminating agri-smuggling, along with drugs and guns,” is his priority as instructed by the President. “We have a legacy to continue, one started by the previous admin. We have a good foundation in the Bureau because for the past six years, there was a strong leadership at the helm.”

The Duterte admin had three Customs chiefs, the first two removed in the wake of large-scale shabu smuggling at the Port of Manila. Formerly with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Ruiz joined Customs in 2017 as director of Enforcement and Security Services. In Manila the following year, over a ton of shabu hidden in four giant magnetic lifters were sneaked past Customs into a warehouse in Cavite.

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

* * *

Catch “Sapol” radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM)

            “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

Colonel pleads to Marcos Jr: Please stop the plunder

Colonel pleads to Marcos Jr: Please stop the plunder

by | Apr 15, 2023 | Gotcha

PNA photo of congress

GOTCHA

written on September 23, 2022

 

Congress has been branded “the Philippines’ biggest criminal syndicate.” Taxpayers bear the government budget bloated by pork barrels. With the P13.02-trillion national debt, each Filipino is in hock by P112,600. Since the proposed budget and debt repayments come from Malacañang, only the President can stop the bleeding. Warrior-intellectual Hector M. Tarrazona pleads for Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to stop the plunder.

Retired colonel Tarrazona, 78, was a scholar of the Asian Institute of Management, where he earned his Master in Development Management degree in 1991. He was a financial and management consultant and a former Air Force F-5 jet fighter pilot. A member of Philippine Military Academy class of 1968, he participated in the 1986 People Power Revolution. Following is his “Open Letter to the President”, September 2022, printed with permission:

“As a concerned Filipino citizen, I write because of an urgent need to stop the continuous plunder of our taxes and government-borrowed money.

“In the last 57 years we have seen two of our past presidents listed second and tenth most corrupt world leaders by Transparency International Global Corruption Report, 2004. One allegedly embezzled $5 billion to $10 billion, while the other $78 million to $80 million. The Sep. 30, 2013 cover of BizNewsAsia magazine headlined ‘The Philippines’ biggest criminal syndicate’, referring to our senators and congressmen. And on May 26, 2014 the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that ‘Twenty senators, 100 congressmen, and all of their agents in the pork barrel transactions were named in the affidavit of Janet Lim Napoles submitted to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.’

“In 2020 the national budget deficit was P1.37 trillion, followed in 2021 by another deficit of P1.67 trillion. Despite these alarming historical figures, the proposed very bloated national budget for 2023 is P5.268 trillion, higher by 4.9 percent than the P5.024 trillion in 2022. I say very bloated because the current 2022 budget is already bloated to accommodate the whims of the past administration.

“House of Reps Deputy Speaker Ralph Recto questioned the P588-billion unprogrammed appropriations in the proposed 2023 budget. On Feb. 14, 2019 The Philippine STAR reported that, ‘Senators and congressmen will share a total of nearly P99 billion in pork barrel this year – that is, if President Duterte ignores the appeal of anti-pork Sen. Panfilo Lacson to excise fat in the administration’s proposed P3.757-trillion budget.’ All this happened despite the 2013 Supreme Court declaration that pork barrel is unconstitutional.

“With the above observations, please stop the plunder (especially in the form of pork barrel, PDAF, insertions, unprogrammed appropriations or any other creative name) of our taxes and government-borrowed money. In addition, please direct the Department of Budget and Management to use the ‘zero-based budgeting’ in the preparation of the national budget with detailed itemized expenses. It’s not too late to do that, to reduce the 2023 national budget by 20 to 30 percent. This prudent measure matches the low government revenues during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You have a golden opportunity to make history by stopping the insatiable greed of some people in government. This patriotic act will somehow assuage the feelings of betrayed taxpayers who bear the P13.02-trillion national government debts – a burden of P112,600 on every Filipino.

“I wish you more wisdom and the best of health during these challenging times.”

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

* * *

Catch “Sapol” radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM)

            “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

Promoting Filipino cuisine can boost agriculture

Promoting Filipino cuisine can boost agriculture

by | Apr 15, 2023 | Gotcha

PNA photo of Filipino boodle feast during the DOT and Jollibee launch of “Eats. More Fun in the Philippines” in 2019

GOTCHA

written on September 21, 2022

 

Former Senate president Tito Sotto had long ago proposed how to ensure farmers’ incomes. Make government buy at least half of all farm produce, he told Sapol-dwIZ in June. Then, sell those cheap in bulk at trading posts. Input the cost of labor, transportation and sundries in the selling price. National and local agencies won’t lose money. They would recover the initial funds and buy more goods with the rolling capital.

Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban might wish to study Sotto’s idea. He need not blame farmers for “just planting but not thinking of the market.” His Department of Agriculture will have a 40-percent budget increase of P46.5 billion next year, from P117.29 billion to P163.75 billion. That money would go a long way to helping farmers, fishers and backyard chicken and hog raisers rise from penury. Agriculture can transform from over-importing to self-sufficiency. Consumers can enjoy cheaper food.

Sotto’s plan has been tried in other lands. By building a train network, India ensured transport of produce from farm to city. This was partly responsible for decades of bumper harvests of rice, wheat, barley, rye, corn, potato, pulses, jute and sugarcane. Same with Thailand.

Thai King Bhumibol did better in the 1980s. Summoning the best Thai chefs, he requested them to write basic recipes for the most popular Thai dishes: tom yum goong (spicy shrimp soup), som tum (spicy green papaya salad), tom kha kai (chicken in coconut milk), gaeng daeng (red curry), pad thai (fried noodles), khao pad (fried rice) and pad krapow moo saap (fried pork with basil).

The King distributed the recipes to Thai eateries and communities overseas. Foreigners got introduced to Thai cuisine. The standardized recipes guaranteed the distinctive taste of Thailand.

But where to get the ingredients? The king had a ready scheme: replicate Japan’s one town-one product (OTOP) method.

He identified what crops and livestock were most suitable for each of the 76 provinces to raise. Towns were assigned specific vegetables and fruits: bean sprouts, soy, papaya, chili, onion, garlic, ginger, cassava, coconut, cabbage, lettuce, chayote, radish, sugarcane, salt, aside from rice. Cottage industries sprang up for shrimp paste, fish sauce, soy sauce and condiments. Large-scale poultry, piggery, goat and cattle-raising were encouraged, along with fish ponds and cages.

Agriculture boomed. Thai farmers became a formidable political class that can install or topple parliaments and prime ministers.

Adobo supposedly is the most popular Filipino dish for more than a century. Why Rizal never mentioned it in his many novels, short stories and essays is a puzzle, descendant Gemma Cruz Araneta wrote recently. What Rizal featured in “Noli Me Tangere” was tinolang manok (chicken stew). In chapter one, over dinner at Capitan Tiago’s house, Padre Damaso raged why he was served only chicken neck.

Sisig is becoming a global hit. Years ago, Ambassador to Washington Babe Romualdez reported how the sizzling pork cheek wowed diners across America to ask for second servings. Filipino envoys elsewhere made sure sisig was the fiesta feature.

For sisig, adobo and tinola to cross over the world, the Department of Trade and Industry suggests recipe standardization. Taking off from the book “Kulinarya,” DTI has assembled world class Filipino chefs for the task.

Foreign tourists want the taste of Filipino. Restaurateurs are only too willing to indulge them. Ten million overseas workers and five million emigrants can be ambassadors of “foodwill.”

They can serve up sinigang, dinuguan, kare-kare, lechon, humba, burong isda, bistek, longganisa, tocino. One won’t find lumpia shanghai or pancit canton in those Chinese cities; they’re Filipino concoctions. Balut and variations penoy, abnoy and maalat are attractions. Not to forget bibingka, suman, kutsinta, puto, biko, sapin-sapin, tibok-tibok, puto maya, puto bumbong, palitaw, minatamis na kaong and burong mangga. Halo-halô was originally Thai and gulaman Malaysian (gula melaka), but Filipinos perfected them.

Agriculture, trade, tourism and transport officials can get together to grow and distribute the ingredients. Food producers will have ready markets.

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

* * *

Catch “Sapol” radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM)

            “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

No time to lose: drill gas now

No time to lose: drill gas now

by | Apr 15, 2023 | Gotcha

photo from PNA

GOTCHA

written on September 14, 2022

 

The Philippines must drill for gas right away at Recto Bank. The country’s sole gas field Malampaya will run out in three years. With no huge alternative energy source, Filipinos would plunge into blackouts. Factories, hospitals, government offices, schools and malls will shut down. The economy will collapse.

Retired Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio reiterates that warning, while China is again fooling the Philippines into “joint development” of Recto (Reed) Bank. Beijing will just protract the talks, like it did in 2020-2022, to bring Manila to its knees.

“The Chinese Communist Party knows we are under the gun,” Carpio told Sapol-dwIZ Saturday. Its aim is to make Filipinos desperate at the brink of economic ruin, “so we will accept China’s illegal claim to Recto.”

Visiting Manila late August, CCP International Department Minister Liu Jianchao said the two countries are ready to resume talks on joint development. “We cannot accept that term,” Carpio said. “In its Foreign Ministry website China defines ‘joint development’ to mean it owns the natural resource, but will allow others to co-develop the area out of the goodness of its heart. Silly.”

In an earlier Memorandum of Understanding, Beijing accepted Manila’s preferred term: “joint exploration.”

“That term stresses that we have sovereignty and sovereign rights over Recto,” Carpio explained. “Our laws shall prevail. Our government already has awarded the Recto development contract to Forum Energy. We will simply subcontract part of the work to the state firm China National Offshore Oil Company.”

“Those MOU provisions were in line with our Constitution,” Carpio said. “As well, with the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration verdict.”

Manila and Beijing signed two other documents. CNOOC’s participation would have settled disputes over the West Philippine Sea, as China accepted Philippine sovereignty.

 

But Beijing negotiated in bad faith. “Before the signing of the fourth and fifth agreements, including CNOOC’s subcontract, Beijing suddenly changed its tune,” Carpio recounted. “It demanded that ‘joint exploration’ be replaced with ‘joint development’. We cannot accept that.”

Recto is a fully submerged feature in the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone. “The Constitution and international law grant Filipinos exclusivity to benefit from the resources within,” Carpio said.

It is 800 miles distant from China. “The maximum maritime jurisdiction that any country can claim is 350 miles – 200 miles EEZ plus 150 miles extended continental shelf,” Carpio explained.

Recto is 120 miles off Palawan. It holds 5.4 billion barrels of oil and 55.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, the US Energy Information Administration estimates.

Beijing claims Recto to be within its “nine-dash line,” concocted by landlubber officials in the 1940s. But The Hague ruling rubbished it.

Reacting last week to Liu, former foreign secretary Albert Del Rosario said the Philippines should proceed to drill petroleum, like Malaysia and Indonesia did last year in their EEZs. “Dialogue between two nations is always welcome,” he said. “The only good faith conduct of China is not to prevent or harass our countrymen from exploring and developing our natural resources.”

Claiming also the EEZs of Malaysia and Indonesia, China gunboats tried to stop the latter’s survey ships from erecting oil rigs. But Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta dispatched coastguards to escort their scientists. US warships held exercises nearby. The two ASEAN neighbors were able to assert their sovereignty and maritime rights even without a mutual defense treaty with Washington, which Manila has, Del Rosario noted.

Malaysia and Indonesia earn from petroleum exports. In contrast, when China harassed Forum Energy’s vessels early this year, Malacañang halted the exploration. Then-president Duterte publicized that “someone whispered to me” that Chinese President Xi Jinping would get mad, Carpio recalled.

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

* * *

Catch “Sapol” radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM)

            “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

Usec blaming farmers for bureaucrats’ failures

Usec blaming farmers for bureaucrats’ failures

by | Apr 14, 2023 | Gotcha

PNA photo of Filipino farmers

GOTCHA

written on September 9, 2022

 

Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban unfairly blames farmers for inability to sell their produce. Farmers deserve care, not castigation. They’re at the mercy of natural and man-made threats.

Typhoons disrupt enough. Floods ruin farms, as legislators pocket multibillion-peso congressional pork barrels from ghost river dredging. Department of Agriculture bureaucrats not only delay cash subsidies, they also leave planters, fishers and poultry-livestock raisers to fend for themselves in knowhow and tech. They abet cartel over-imports and smuggling, then take bribes from seedling, pesticide and machinery procurements.

Panganiban must know that. He was in DA and related offices 40 years, 1961-2001, before resurrecting 21 years later this month at age 83.

“They plant crops but don’t think about the market for their harvests,” Panganiban told OneNews.PH/STAR Wednesday. But did mindless planting really lead to oversupply and spoilage of garlic in Batanes and cabbage in Benguet?

No. Gov. Marilou Cayco laments that 25 tons of un-transported garlic, out of a 60-ton harvest in Itbayat island, resulted from unexpected factors. Traders in Cagayan mainland suddenly cut back on domestic buying when cheap Chinese garlic flooded Luzon.

Neglected by DA in alternative cropping, Batanes folk plant year-round typhoon-resistant root crops like garlic and turmeric. They expected brisk sales, as DA announced garlic shortage this second half of 2022. Figures were presented at a House hearing in August: 73,146-ton demand versus 37,000-ton supply. Then the spice cartel struck again, dumping Chinese garlic to retail at P100 per kilo. Its aim was to force Itbayat farmers to sell to them at rates less than production cost.

Same with Benguet cabbage. A viral video showed Jan Slay Magno of Itogon, beside Baguio City, chopping his family’s harvest for fertilizer. Better to use it as soil fattener, he said, because commercial brands were too costly and cabbage was selling at P5 per kilo, one-third the capital.

 

Interviewed on Ted Failon’s radio-tv show Wednesday, farmer-leader Romeo Wagayan of far-off Buguias confirmed the malady. Egged on by traders with some fertilizer donations, they planted cabbage, only to be duped at harvest time. Victimized too often, he discourages his three sons from farming.

DA needs new blood. Only then can it modernize soil and crop research, planting techniques and facilities, and farmer-market linkages. It can be done; I’ve seen it done in the early 1990s by young fieldmen of USAID’s Agribusiness System Assistance Program. Chancing upon La Union farmers hawking fresh tomatoes at Dagupan City plaza ridiculously cheap at P15 per bulging sack, I quickly informed my brother-in-law, ASAP-North Luzon officer. The country was only then beginning to use home computers and ordinary cell phones. He sought a few minutes for research and calls. Then he phoned back to tell the farmers in broken Ilocano to reload their wares on to the rented trucks and proceed to Urdaneta 30 kms away where they can fetch at least P50. Sadness turned into smiles. USAID replicated such feat countless times through Growth with Equity in Mindanao.

Young idealistic political appointees can lick corruption. Longtime bureaucrats won’t do it; they’re either part of the rackets or scared to fight. Are new DA officials up to it?

For decades now regulators have been allowing unnecessary imports of vegetables, fruits, corn, sugar, poultry, pork and seafoods – at low or no duties. Expired permits are recycled – technical smuggling – in cahoots with crooked Customs men. They’ve divided the territory. In piers only Customs monitors refrigerated cargo containers; off-port only DA looks into cold storages. Sleaze rages on, Congress hearings last June revealed.

La Trinidad farmer-leader Agot Balanoy spent the whole of last year exposing smuggling of Chinese carrots, chayote, broccoli, squash and gourd. Despite no bail and life terms, economic saboteurs remain scot free.

Blamed for DA’s failures, farmers will doubt Panganiban’s capability to end corruption and ineptitude. Re-entering DA with him is a former assistant secretary linked to hundred-million-peso pork barrel in 2013. At risk are DA and eight agencies’ funds, remnants of this year’s P178 billion, refreshed next year with P254 billion. Imperiled too is President Bongbong Marcos’ plan to stave off hunger and redeem the family name.

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

* * *

Catch “Sapol” radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM)

            “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

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Links to Websites other than those owned by jariusbondoc.com are offered as a service to readers. The editorial staff of jariusbondoc.com was not involved in their production and is not responsible for their content.

 

III. TERMS OF SERVICE

 

  1. GENERAL RULES AND DEFINITIONS

 

1.1 If you choose to use the jariusbondoc.com service (the “Service”), you will be agreeing to abide by all of the terms and conditions of this Agreement between you and jariusbondoc.com (“jariusbondoc.com “).

 

1.2 jariusbondoc.com may change, add or remove portions of this Agreement at any time, but if it does so, it will post such changes on the Service, or send them to you via e-mail. It is your responsibility to review this Agreement prior to each use of the Site and by continuing to use this Site, you agree to any changes.

 

1.3 If any of these rules or any future changes are unacceptable to you, you may cancel your membership by sending e-mail to jariusbondoconline.com (see section 10.1 regarding termination of service). Your continued use of the service now, or following the posting of notice of any changes in these operating rules, will indicate acceptance by you of such rules, changes, or modifications.

 

1.4 jariusbondoc.com may change, suspend or discontinue any aspect of the Service at any time, including the availability of any Service feature, database, or content. jariusbondoc.com may also impose limits on certain features and services or restrict your access to parts or all of the Service without notice or liability.

 

  1. JARIUSBONDOC.COM CONTENT AND MEMBER SUBMISSIONS

 

2.1 The contents of the jariusbondoc.com are intended for your personal, noncommercial use. All materials published on jariusbondoc.com (including, but not limited to news articles, photographs, images, illustrations, audio clips and video clips, also known as the “Content”) are protected by copyright, and owned or controlled by jariusbondoc.com or the party credited as the provider of the Content. You shall abide by all additional copyright notices, information, or restrictions contained in any Content accessed through the Service.

 

2.2 The Service and its Contents are protected by copyright pursuant to the Republic of the Philippines and international copyright laws. You may not modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, reproduce (except as provided in Section 2.3 of this Agreement), create new works from, distribute, perform, display, or in any way exploit, any of the Content or the Service (including software) in whole or in part.

 

2.3 You may download or copy the Content and other downloadable items displayed on the Service for personal use only, provided that you maintain all copyright and other notices contained therein. Copying or storing of any Content for other than personal use is expressly prohibited without prior written permission from jariusbondoc.com or the copyright holder identified in the copyright notice contained in the Content.

 

  1. FORUMS, DISCUSSIONS AND USER GENERATED CONTENT

 

3.1 You shall not upload to, or distribute or otherwise publish on the message boards (the “Feedback Section”) any libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, abusive, or otherwise illegal material.

 

3.2 (a)Be courteous. You agree that you will not threaten or verbally abuse jariusbondoc.com columnists and other jariusbondoc.com community Members, use defamatory language, or deliberately disrupt discussions with repetitive messages, meaningless messages or “spam.”

 

3.2 (b) Use respectful language. Like any community, the Feedback Sections will flourish only when our Members feel welcome and safe. You agree not to use language that abuses or discriminates on the basis of race, religion, nationality, gender, sexual preference, age, region, disability, etc. Hate speech of any kind is grounds for immediate and permanent suspension of access to all or part of the Service.

 

3.2 (c) Debate, but don’t attack. In a community full of opinions and preferences, people always disagree. jariusbondoc.com encourages active discussions and welcomes heated debate in our Feedback Sections. But personal attacks are a direct violation of this Agreement and are grounds for immediate and permanent suspension of access to all or part of the Service.

 

3.3 The Feedback Sections shall be used only in a noncommercial manner. You shall not, without the express approval of jariusbondoc.com, distribute or otherwise publish any material containing any solicitation of funds, advertising or solicitation for goods or services.

 

3.4 You are solely responsible for the content of your messages. However, while jariusbondoc.com does not and cannot review every message posted by you on the Forums and is not responsible for the content of these messages, jariusbondoc.com reserves the right to delete, move, or edit messages that it, in its sole discretion, deems abusive, defamatory, obscene, in violation of copyright or trademark laws, or otherwise unacceptable.

 

3.5 You acknowledge that any submissions you make to the Service (i.e., user-generated content including but not limited to: text, video, audio and photographs) (each, a “Submission”) may be edited, removed, modified, published, transmitted, and displayed by jariusbondoc.com and you waive any moral rights you may have in having the material altered or changed in a manner not agreeable to you. You grant jariusbondoc.com a perpetual, nonexclusive, world-wide, royalty free, sub-licensable license to the Submissions, which includes without limitation the right for jariusbondoc.com or any third party it designates, to use, copy, transmit, excerpt, publish, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, create derivative works of, host, index, cache, tag, encode, modify and adapt (including without limitation the right to adapt to streaming, downloading, broadcast, mobile, digital, thumbnail, scanning or other technologies) in any form or media now known or hereinafter developed, any Submission posted by you on or to jariusbondoc.com or any other website owned by it, including any Submission posted on jariusbondoc.com through a third party.

 

3.6 By submitting an entry to jariusbondoc.com’s Readers’ Corner, you are consenting to its display on the site and for related online and offline promotional uses.

 

  1. ACCESS AND AVAILABILITY OF SERVICE AND LINKS

 

4.1 jariusbondoc.com contains links to other related World Wide Web Internet sites, resources, and sponsors of jariusbondoc.com. Since jariusbondoc.com is not responsible for the availability of these outside resources, or their contents, you should direct any concerns regarding any external link to the site administrator or Webmaster of such site.

 

  1. REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES

 

5.1 You represent, warrant and covenant (a) that no materials of any kind submitted through your account will (i) violate, plagiarize, or infringe upon the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy or other personal or proprietary rights; or (ii) contain libelous or otherwise unlawful material; and (b) that you are at least thirteen years old. You hereby indemnify, defend and hold harmless jariusbondoc.com, and all officers, directors, owners, agents, information providers, affiliates, licensors and licensees (collectively, the “Indemnified Parties”) from and against any and all liability and costs, including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys’ fees, incurred by the Indemnified Parties in connection with any claim arising out of any breach by you or any user of your account of this Agreement or the foregoing representations, warranties and covenants. You shall cooperate as fully as reasonably required in the defense of any such claim. jariusbondoc.com reserves the right, at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you.

 

5.2 jariusbondoc.com does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement, or other information displayed, uploaded, or distributed through the Service by any user, information provider or any other person or entity. You acknowledge that any reliance upon any such opinion, advice, statement, memorandum, or information shall be at your sole risk. THE SERVICE AND ALL DOWNLOADABLE SOFTWARE ARE DISTRIBUTED ON AN “AS IS” BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. YOU HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT USE OF THE SERVICE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK.

 

  1. COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN JARIUSBONDOC.COM AND MEMBERS

 

6.1 If you indicate on your registration form that you want to receive such information, jariusbondoc.com, its owners and assigns, will allow certain third party vendors to provide you with information about products and services.

 

6.2 jariusbondoc.com reserves the right to send electronic mail to you for the purpose of informing you of changes or additions to the Service.

 

6.3 jariusbondoc.com reserves the right to disclose information about your usage and demographics, provided that it will not reveal your personal identity in connection with the disclosure of such information. Advertisers and/or Licensees on our Web site may collect and share information about you only if you indicate your acceptance. For more information please read the Privacy Policy of jariusbondoc.com.

 

6.4 jariusbondoc.com may contact you via e-mail regarding your participation in user surveys, asking for feedback on the Website and existing or prospective products and services. This information will be used to improve our Website and better understand our users, and any information we obtain in such surveys will not be shared with third parties, except in aggregate form.

 

  1. TERMINATION

 

 

7.1 jariusbondoc.com may, in its sole discretion, terminate or suspend your access to all or part of the Service for any reason, including, without limitation, breach or assignment of this Agreement.

 

  1. MISCELLANEOUS

 

8.1 This Agreement has been made in and shall be construed and enforced in accordance with the Republic of the Philippines law. Any action to enforce this agreement shall be brought in the courts located in Manila, Philippines.

 

8.2 Notwithstanding any of the foregoing, nothing in this Terms of Service will serve to preempt the promises made in jariusbondoc.com Privacy Policy.

 

8.3 Correspondence should be sent to jariusbondoconline.com.

 

8.4 You agree to report any copyright violations of the Terms of Service to jariusbondoc.com as soon as you become aware of them. In the event you have a claim of copyright infringement with respect to material that is contained in the jariusbondoc.com service, please notify jariusbondoconline.com. This Terms of Service was last updated on November 7, 2020.