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Shortage, food inflation to push up living expenses

Shortage, food inflation to push up living expenses

by | Apr 14, 2023 | Gotcha

Photo from PNA

GOTCHA

written on September 7, 2022

 

“Bahay Kubo” vegetable prices spiked P10-P100 per kilo last week. Eggplant, tomato, gourd, squash, radish, mustard, beans, cabbage, lettuce are becoming unaffordable. The ”-ber months” of the long Filipino Yuletide have just begun. Data indicate worse times ahead.

Five years of bad governance have clobbered the vegetable and fruit sector. Over-importation and unabated agri-smuggling drove many planters out of business. Weather disturbances, tripling of fertilizer rates and costly transport fuel and warehouse electricity finished off the stragglers. Rosendo So, chairman of Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura, does not see production recovering soon.

Spices are expensive – if one can find onion, garlic, ginger and chili at all. Few grew red onion this season, says Ronnie Ringor of Pangasinan. White variety sells for a staggering P450-P500 a kilo.

Last summer the government let the import cartel flood Luzon with cheap Indian shallot, the first time since 1946. With no storage support, Mindoro farmers had to burn nine million kilos of rotting produce. The cartelists were identified in two Senate hearings last June and again last week. Government has not put them behind bars for no-bail, life-term economic sabotage.

Over-importation and meager assistance for fertilizer and transportation have discouraged corn growers. Drop in harvest set off a chain reaction.

Philippine corn is the best poultry feed, says Elias Inciong, United Broiler Raisers Association president. With supply scarce, they had to turn to pricier foreign brands. The long humid summer further stunted chickens due to poor appetite.

Only a few raisers remain. Last July’s sudden shortage of chicken breast and thigh in restaurant chains can recur. Agriculture officials justified the imports as “pro-consumer.” The Bureau of Animal Industry permitted 212.4 million kilos from abroad in the first seven months of 2022. Yet since July, consumer prices jumped P20 per kilo per month, from P180 to P220.

Pork imports also rose 19.4 percent to 397.9 kilos. But tariffs were slashed to only 15-25 percent, again purportedly for consumers. The tariff cut left the government with little cash to buy and bury diseased stocks from backyard piggeries. African Swine Fever continues to spread in Luzon. Ham makers and meat processors are petitioning for price increases, trade officials said Monday.

 

Fish prices are rising. Bangus began to retail P20 more per kilo Sept. 1 due to feed scarcity. Hog raisers oppose the import of processed animal protein, the superior fish fattener, from ASF-infested countries. Bangus and tilapia growers counter that the ASF virus is destroyed because PAP is prepared at 70 degrees Centigrade or higher. The Dept. of Agriculture must referee the debate, aquaculturist Norbert Chingcuanco says. Meanwhile, Taal volcanic rumblings can disrupt tilapia harvest.

Expect 20-25 percent inventory drop in canned sardines, adds Roderic Santos, Association of Fresh Fish Traders president. Bulusan volcano’s eruption last June marred fishing in Bicol. Stronger habagat (southwest monsoon) and costly fuel disheartened fishers there and in Samar-Leyte. Commercial fishers stay home at the slightest inkling of losses from full moon, heavy rains, current and distance. Supplies to three sardine canneries in Luzon are down. Reports are awaited from Zamboanga counterparts.

Senators are investigating last month’s 300,000-ton sugar import mess. Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez and sugar regulators blamed each other for it.

Obvious from testimonies is that government, again invoking consumer welfare, has been importing more industrial sugar than for home use. Sugarcane millers claim that domestic production is 400,000 tons short due to usual poor farming and last December’s typhoon. But Customs raids of seaports and warehouses yield millions of sacks, notes SINAG’s So. The raids turned out to be false alarms of smuggling and hoarding. Fifteen-day delays in sugar stock unloading and trading have increased demurrage and storage costs, which will likely be passed on to buyers.

In 1997 president Fidel Ramos, Senate president Ed Angara and Speaker Joe de Venecia enacted a visionary Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization. Later presidents and Congresses ruined the industry. Machineries for farmer cooperatives were procured at overprice. Ghost river dredging, allegedly to avert farm flooding, became pork barrel fronts. Up to 1990 the Philippines was self-sufficient in salt; by 2008 it was importing 80 percent. Today the 7,641 islands buy 93 percent from abroad.

The Philippines must import 2.9 million tons of rice per year. International prices are high due to floods, wars and droughts. Food inflation will push up other costs of living: transportation, utilities, medicine, housing. If President Bongbong Marcos as agriculture secretary is able to avert food shortage, he will get no thanks since he’s expected to do that. If he fails…

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

As rice shortage looms, farmers remain unaided

As rice shortage looms, farmers remain unaided

by | Apr 14, 2023 | Gotcha

PNA photo of Filipino farmers

GOTCHA

written on September 2, 2022

 

Expect low rice harvest and high prices as usual this Christmas. The Philippines must import 2.9 million tons – 58 million sacks. That won’t be easy. The Ukraine war and weather disturbances have cut other countries’ grain productions.

The government can only depend on Filipino farmers. Yet it has not fully handed out the small cash incentives for 2021 to many of them. And it still has to start distributing the aid due this 2022.

More than 400,000 planters have yet to receive P5,000 each in Rice Farmer Financial Assistance for 2021. The cash should have been given out in September-October last year, former agriculture secretary Leonardo Montemayor laments. The government-owned Land Bank will begin paying only this week, and only to 91,000 in Ilocos, Cagayan, Central Luzon and Western Visayas. The rest will have to wait as the bank sorts out paperwork.

The RFFA recompenses farmers for income lost from the flood of imports starting 2020. Only a little over a million are eligible, those who own less than two hectares; half a million others won’t get aid. The Development Bank of the Philippines has paid RFFA to 600,000 others as of last June.

Another P5,000 each for 2022 has yet to be distributed to the million-plus small farmers, says Montemayor, Federation of Free Farmers chairman. That’s on top of the seedling and fertilizer aid under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Program. Government already has the money for it – from rice import duties collected starting mid-2021.

 

It will have a hard time sourcing the 2.9-million-ton shortfall from abroad. That’s in addition to 508,000-ton emergency stocks, good for 15 days, it must store for typhoons, earthquakes and drought.

China’s northern wheat lands suffered floods in the first half of 2022, then a 70-day heatwave in southern rice fields. It will import six million tons of rice to offset its poor harvest. Drought ruined wheat crops in America and India, forcing international buyers to shift to other cereals, principally rice. But India’s rice harvest has dropped by 10 million tons.

Harvests in Thailand and Vietnam, the Philippines’ main suppliers, are expected to increase. But rich countries will also line up at their export doors and likely elbow out poor Philippines. Playing up ASEAN neighborliness can only do so much. Singapore and strife-torn Myanmar also need rice. All ten ASEAN members, plus Korea, Japan and Timor, are storing up in case of war between China and Taiwan.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February delayed the latter’s wheat cropping as one of the world’s largest suppliers. Disrupted too was planting in neighboring Poland and Belarus. Nitrogen fertilizer, derived mainly from natural gas, fell due to economic sanctions against Russia, the world’s largest producer. Deliveries were stuck in Black Sea embargos. The world shifted to costlier potassium and phosphate fatteners.

Fertilizer prices have tripled in the Philippines, crippling not only rice farmers. Planters of corn, sugar, vegetables and fruits also groan.

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

US Army marker proves that Scarborough is ours

US Army marker proves that Scarborough is ours

by | Apr 14, 2023 | Gotcha

Photo from Wikipedia

GOTCHA

written on August 31, 2022

 

On a rock in Scarborough Shoal is a Philippine territorial marker. The concrete cylinder is 20 cm in diameter and a meter long, but only 15 cm protrudes. On the brass cap is embossed “USAMSFE.” The US Army Map Service-Far East embedded it there before the 1946 birth of the Philippine Republic.

That marker proves that the Shoal, also called Panatag and Bajo de Masinloc, 123 miles off Zambales, is Philippine boundary. By a series of Spanish and American official acts and documentation, jurisdiction transferred to Manila.

Filipino geodetic engineer-astronomer Dante Yglopaz, 84, knows the marker well. He is the only surviving member of the Scarborough survey 61 years ago by USAMSFE and the Bureau of Coast and Geodetic Survey. That week-long research pinpointed the exact longitude and latitude of the Philippine border.

Yglopaz likens the marker to a “mohon” (stone boundary) of a lot. Marked “BL” (Bureau of Lands) it denotes the State’s demarcation authority.

Yglopaz was 23 when he served as the survey’s assistant astronomer in March 1961. The venerable engineer Felipe F. Cruz, whose firm the USAMSFE contracted, acted as documenter. Felipe Caddauan of Ilocos was main astronomer; Victor Henry Baledia of Negros Oriental, radioman.

They sailed two days and one night from the BCGS headquarters in North Harbor, Binondo, Manila. Captain Frisbitero skippered the ten-man crew of the steel vessel “Pathfinder.” Anchoring a distance from the treacherous reefs, they rowed boats to unload equipment on an old steel-framed shed beside the marker, as USAMSFE instructed.

Wall-less, only a GI sheet roof shielded them from sun and wood-planks from water, with latrine at the far end. Gear consisted of a book charting the position of 55,000 stars, electric chronograph, chronometer, radio, mechanical adding machine, heavy-duty truck batteries, kerosene stove and Petromax lamps. No calculators or GPS then. At night they timed the moon’s occultation of 30 to 50 stars; at day they computed and logged their findings. They worked, ate and slept on the small space as wind splashed seawater on them.

Their study was submitted to USASMFE headquarters in Tokyo, later moved to Honolulu. Sadly, Yglopaz’s personal journals and photos of the expedition were ruined by storm Ondoy’s mud and floods in his Marikina home, 2009.

 

Yglopaz joined other USASMFE surveys, 1959-1965, with Caddauan, Baledia and alternate astronomer Ernesto Calpo of the Weather Bureau. They survived poisonous snakes and blood leeches in Sulu, Palawan and Babuyan Island mountaintops. Then, on to South Vietnam to plot the coordinates of the southernmost tip to the demarcation line with the North. Onto Kwajalein, Saipan, Guam, Sydney, Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. Also the US mainland: Sacramento, Reno, San Francisco, where they and Cruz were locked down at The Presidio base during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Yglopaz wonders if China, which grabbed Scarborough in 2012, has destroyed the USASMFE marker. “In 1961 we didn’t see any navigation lights” in the 15,000-hectare lagoon, he recounted in Sapol-dwIZ last Aug. 27 and a follow-up interview Aug. 29. “No fishermen, and US or Philippine patrols either. And certainly no Chinese ships.” About China’s nine-dash line claim encompassing the Shoal, he said: “Ngayon lang ‘yan. Wala ‘yan noon. Narinig ko lang ‘yan nu’ng presidente na si Noynoy Aquino.”

“Kung ipaglalaban sa court, tapos may witness na pupuntahan yung shoal, at kung hindi pa nila giniba ‘yong corals du’n, sigurado nandoon pa ‘yong concrete monument,” he stressed. “That would physically locate the boundary of the Philippines. Ito na ang living proof na sa atin ang lugar na ‘yon.”

Ex-president Rody Duterte’s defeatism saddened Yglopaz: “He shouldn’t have publicized that we can’t fight China because it is strong and we are weak. Even if it takes 110 million Filipinos, we should not give up. Since the time of Lapulapu, we never surrendered. In Bataan in 1942 when the Americans planned to lay down their arms, Filipinos wanted to fight on.” Spoken like a true but unsung hero, very much a part of Philippine history.

Biographical notes on Yglopaz: Born in Iligan July 28, 1938. Graduated from Manuel L. Quezon University, October 1959. Joined FF Cruz Co., November 1959. Worked for Weather Bureau, 1965-1975; headed the observatory in UP-Diliman, where he trained students and airline pilots in navigation. Studied Computer Science, Australia, 1975-1979. Among the first overseas Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia, 1979-1989. Joined Kessler Consultancy-Manila, then formed his own geodetic surveying company.

Twice widowed: Nora Miciano of Pinamalayan, Mindoro, UP Diliman and Red Cross social worker; Nimfa Montejo of Cagayan de Oro, geodetic engineer. Offspring: Hanna Maria, Spanish professor at UP; Ma. Helena, hotel-restaurant management, UP; Ma. Teresa, English professor, UP; David, physicist, UP, headed geothermal projects, Energy Development Corp.

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

Where to start solving the learning crisis

Where to start solving the learning crisis

by | Apr 14, 2023 | Gotcha

PNA photo of resumed face-to-face classes

GOTCHA

written on August 26, 2022

 

VP Sara Duterte’s declaration of “victory for basic education” was too soon. As education secretary, she had just re-opened schools last Monday. Her job of reversing the learning crisis has just begun. Since that crisis emerged from two decades of neglect, her six-year term may not be enough to solve it.

It can be said though that Duterte’s triumphalism contrasted the former president, her father’s defeatism. Rody Duterte had closed all schools for two-and-a-half years due to pandemic. “Never mind if this generation produces no doctors and engineers,” he justified his 7,641-island lockdown that also ruined the economy. So much for a political clan that never built a single city high school or college since reigning 30 years ago.

Neighboring countries, isolating only buildings or street blocks, resumed face-to-face classes ahead: Vietnam, May 2020, then July 2021; Singapore, June 2020, then October 2021; Malaysia, June 2020, then February 2022; Thailand, July 2020; and Indonesia, August 2021.

The Philippines resorted to online lessons and printed materials. But poor students lacked gadgets. WiFi was spotty yet costly. Doleouts from local governments, private firms and NGOs only went so far. Crooked procurers issued teachers P2.4 billion worth of substandard laptops. Plus, nothing can replace in-classroom learning where students are focused, and mentors can spot and assist laggards.

Results are predictable. International exams in 2013, 2018, 2019 and 2020 showed that Filipino fourth, fifth and eighth graders were among the poorest worldwide in Math, Science and Reading Comprehension. Primary and secondary graders can only be worse off today. 53 percent of students surveyed in August 2021 were unable to learn the competencies set by the Dept. of Education. Three in ten were unsure of finishing the schoolyear. Eighty-seven percent suffered bad internet connection. Parents complained that distance learning didn’t work.

With classes back, old problems return. Public schools lack classrooms, laboratories, desks, textbooks, instructional aids, even basic health safety facilities like water faucets. None of those were expanded during the pandemic closure. Teachers are in short supply. Enrollees this year number 28.8 million, 200,000 more than what DepEd anticipated and 1.3 million more than last year’s.

 

Private schools, traditionally better in facilities and teaching, are in the doldrums. Hundreds have shut down from meager enrollment. One that did on the weekend before school re-opening secretly had sold its campus.

Some that remain operational have resorted to sleaze, pretending to be specialists in Grades 11-12. Bribe of up to P5,000 per head is offered to a public school principal to transfer senior high schoolers to the private school. The latter in turn collects from DepEd the P18,000 subsidy per student per schoolyear. From just 100 transferees, a corrupt principal can rake in P500,000 and the private school P1.8 million.

When corruption replaces education as the mission, ignorance spreads. Unqualified teachers are hired, laboratories deteriorate. Graduates march unprepared for Algebra, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Speech and Language in free college.

Myriad other issues fester. Foremost are teacher training, curriculum revamp and campus upgrades for this age of artificial intelligence and robotics. Congress is reviving the Education Commission for problem solving and comprehensive planning.

Nutrition is linked to learning. If malnourished in its first 1,000 days – from detection of pregnancy to two-and-a-half years old – a child becomes stunted and underweight. With brain half developed, the child is likely to fall behind in learning.

There are residual concerns. Pupils pestered by hair lice, toothache, undiagnosed poor vision and hearing and hunger cannot focus on lessons. Long city commutes or rural river crossings by foot further bug them.

Duterte must fight in the next six years for a bigger slice of the budget pie. The World Bank prescribes for education four to six percent of any country’s GDP or 15 to 20 percent of public spending. The best in Philippine record was only 3.88 percent of GDP in 2020, and 12.58 percent of the national budget in 2022. Those include funds that went to the Commission on Higher Education.

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

Compel barangays to collect rainwater

Compel barangays to collect rainwater

by | Apr 14, 2023 | Gotcha

Stock Image

GOTCHA

written on August 24, 2022

 

Thirty-three years ago, all barangays were obligated to collect rainwater. Hardly any has complied. The aim of the Rainwater Collector and Springs Development Act of 1989, R.A. 6716, is simple. Reduce floods during the wet season and have water during the dry. Flooding and drought are of crisis proportion today. Won’t anyone act yet?

The Department of Public Works and Highways was supposed to pinpoint the lowest areas of every barangay. Rainwater catchments shall be dug up there. The wider and deeper, the better. Canals can be directed and drainpipes laid down onto the impoundments.

Barangays can have food. Plant vegetables and fruits around the impoundments. With surrounding soil always wet, harvest will be plenty. Seed the ponds with tilapia, carp, catfish and mudfish. Probably rock crabs and frogs too. Those will prevent the spread of mosquitoes. Use vegetable trimmings and kitchen peelings for feeds. Also manure from a chicken coop built atop the pond. Richer barangay residents can donate growth pellets.

Impoundments can be barangay recreation parks. Shade trees can be planted, and huts and umbrella tables set up. If the pond is big enough, put paddle boats. Charge upkeep fees.

Barangays can have drinking water. The Department of Science and Technology, community engineers and technology students can put their heads together. Filter chambers can be designed to clean the water. Before the final chamber can be one with clear enough water for showers, toilets and dishwashing as picnic amenities.

Water impounding has long been practiced. From the air in Australia’s arid zones, one can spot a series of giant “turkey nests” on hilltops. For irrigation, water is released into canals spiraling down the hillsides, gathering momentum, to gush onto farms. Former Rep. Felicito Payumo adopted the method in his Bataan home province in the 1980s. He was past president of Engineering Equipment Inc.

For community-level impoundment, consult for free environment lawyer Antonio Oposa. He has dug several in the subdivision where he lives south of Manila. Years ago, the Supreme Court affirmed Oposa’s case to compel national and local governments to clean up Manila Bay and surrounding rivers.

 

Malls, factories, office and residential condos, churches, schools and homes must have their own catchments. Rainwater can be collected from roofs, gutters and downspouts. From the catchments can be derived free water for firefighting, gardening, hosing cars, garages, fences, walls and windows. Such architecture was common in the 1960s. India, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand copied it.

*      *      *

The typhoon season is upon us. Floods again threaten to destroy lowland homes, shops, cars, furniture, appliances and personal records. Yet mountainside quarrying goes on. The mindset of natural resource bureaucrats is that they’re there to parcel off rock quarries for construction. To hell with the garbage-producing dwellers below.

Behind each quarry is a politico as owner or protector. In Congress, they arm-twist environment officials to shut up. Confirmation hearings of Cabinet members are ongoing.

Expect outcries due to flooding deaths. Expect the news to die down till next year’s disasters. And so it goes.

At the Marikina Watershed in Rizal thrive quarries and illegal swimming pool resorts. Having carved up the mountains, chopped down trees and diverted riverways, their armed goons control the uplands. Park rangers of Masungi Georeserve in Baras town are being shot at and mauled to scram. Their lives are in danger. “We don’t know how long we can hold the line,” reforestation foundation head Ben Dumaliang laments. He pays the rangers from modest incomes from eco-tourists in the Masungi limestone and rewilding site.

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau insists that there will always be floods in the valley of Marikina, San Mateo, Cainta and Quezon City below. Yes, but the quarries up there worsen and hasten the floods. Scientists from the National Museum, University of the Philippines, UN Development Program, International Union for Conservation of Nature and World Commission on Protected Areas said so. Same with past environment secretaries Angel Alcala, Gina Lopez and Roy Cimatu.

                                                      *      *      *

(Follow me on: https://www.facebook.com/JariusBondoc.online)

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

Quezon solidified Phl title over Scarborough Shoal

Quezon solidified Phl title over Scarborough Shoal

by | Apr 14, 2023 | Gotcha

Wikipedia photo of Scarborough Shoal

GOTCHA

written on August 19, 2022

 

In 1938 President Manuel Quezon directed Executive Secretary Jorge Vargas to review the status of Scarborough Shoal. He wanted to patrol the 15,000-hectare shallow waters surrounded by rock and reef. Only 123 miles off Zambales, the lagoon was deemed crucial for sea and air navigation. Quezon knew the maritime jurisdictional history:

• Originally called Panacot then Bajo de Masinloc, the shoal was ancient Filipino fishing ground. European and Japanese mariners charted it near Luzon. Spanish friar-cartographer Murillo Velarde mapped it in 1734 as “Punto de Mandato,” part of our territory.

• The British named it Scarborough after a trading ship that ran aground in 1748. Spain’s Malaspina Expedition of 1792 pinpointed the exact location. In 1800, Admiral Alava dispatched from Cavite Captain Francisco Riquelme’s steamer Santa Lucia for further exploration.

• The Dorroteo del Archipielago Filipino, the Spanish pilot guide for mariners, detailed the findings. Entries were added to the Dorroteo in 1866 by British Commander Edward Wilds of the HMS Swallow.

• A storm wrecked the Swedish S.S. Nippon in 1913. Filipino and American vessels came to the rescue. Philippine colonial law governed the salvaging. The Bureau of Navigation recorded the events. The Bureau of Science researched the sea water’s effect on the copra cargo. Insurance litigation reached the Philippine Supreme Court in 1916.

• The 1918 Census of the Philippine Islands included Scarborough. On Dec. 6, 1937, Wayne Coy of the U.S. High Commission on the Philippines inquired with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey if any other country claimed the shoal. Replying in the negative four days later, CGS Capt. Thomas Maher suggested a re-survey plus erection of a lighthouse.

 

Vargas’ subsequent letter to Coy set off a series of official correspondence among Washington bigwigs. More so since Vargas stated that: “The Commonwealth Government may desire to claim title thereto should there be no objection on the part of the United States Government.” (International maritime lawyer Jay Batongbacal, PhD, dug into the archives a decade ago.)

Coy relayed the letter to the Dept. of War, which forwarded it to the Dept. of State.

On July 27, 1938, Sec. of State Cordell Hull told Sec. of War Harry Woodring that Scarborough had no other claimant. Further, “While the shoal appears outside the limits of the Philippine archipelago as described in Article III of the American-Spanish Treaty of Paris of Dec. 10, 1898, it would seem that, in the absence of a valid claim by any other government, the shoal should be regarded as included among the islands ceded to the United States by the American-Spanish treaty of Nov. 7, 1900.”

Hull continued: “In the absence of evidence of a superior claim to Scarborough Shoal by any other government, the Dept. of State would interpose no objection to the proposal of the Commonwealth Government to study the possibility of the shoal as an aid to air and ocean navigation, provided that the Dept. of the Navy and the Dept. of Commerce, which are interested in air and ocean navigation in the Far East, are informed and have expressed no objection.”

Acting Sec. of the Navy W.R. Furlong wrote Acting Sec. of War Louis Johnson that his department “has no objection” to the Philippine plan. Same with Sec. of Commerce Paul Frizzell after consulting the Civil Aeronautics Authority.

With all its maps encompassing Scarborough, the Commonwealth oversaw shipwreck rescues, salvaging and legalities.

The Republic starting 1946 did more. In 1961, it sent Lt. Cdr. Antonio Ventura to chart the shoal’s topography and varying depths. In 1963 the local press reported the rescue of the French Arsineo crew. That year too the Philippine Navy shelled a pirate wharf there. Philippine and U.S. joint military exercises used a corner of the shoal for bombing target. In the 1970s Filipino fishery officials, professors and students began cultivating giant clams and fan corals. Scarborough has since been renamed Panatag.

China began claiming the shoal only in 1947. It was steeped in civil war then, yet drew a nine-dash line over the South China Sea. Covered but with no longitudes and latitudes – exposing the claim’s sloppiness – were Scarborough as well as reefs of Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.

                                                      *      *      *

(Follow me on: https://www.facebook.com/JariusBondoc.online)

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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However, you may download material from jariusbondoc.com on the Web (one machine readable copy and one print copy per page) for your personal, noncommercial use only.

If you wish to use jariusbondoc.com content for commercial purposes, such as for content syndication etc., please contact us at jariusbondoconline@gmail.com.

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.