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Scrap unreliable VCMs for credible elections

Scrap unreliable VCMs for credible elections

by | Apr 13, 2023 | Gotcha

PNA photo of vote counting machine

GOTCHA

written on May 25, 2022

 

Secret balloting, open counting. A flawed election automation violates that. Comelec chose an opaque system in 2010 then reused it in 2013, 2016, 2019 and 2022. Scientists question the process. Manipulation and malicious software are suspected. Yet laymen accept the magical results. Few candidates complain as the Automated Election Law gives them little room for it.

Doubts will stay unless the system is replaced. The tech involves secret balloting and more secret counting at precincts. Thus the transmission and canvassing of municipal, city, provincial, district and national totals are also disbelieved.

Restore manual balloting and counting at precincts, election experts and infotechnologists long advocate. Automate only transmission and canvassing. That way every voter can ensure that his and his precinct’s votes are properly counted.

There was no cheating in the old manual balloting. Precincts consisted of only 200 voters – from the same household, compound, street block. Knowing each other they dared not risk ostracism for cheating. (Vote-buying and coercion are factors external to the balloting and counting.)

Counting commenced upon close of balloting. Three teachers from the community school read aloud the ballots and marked on the blackboard a stick per vote. Party reps, poll watchdogs and voters observed. It took two to five hours, including answering questions and snack breaks. The election return (ER) was filled up and signed. (This is still done in barangay elections.)

If re-adopted, the public count can use new techs. Mobile phones can livestream the proceedings to home viewers.

In the old days, after the precinct count, ballot boxes were brought to municipal or city hall for canvassing. Goons snatch the boxes en route. At canvassing centers, moneyed candidates bribed for large-scale “dagdag-bawas” (vote padding-shaving) by the hundred-thousands or millions. Party treasurers choppered sacks of cash to the canvassers – municipal/city/provincial treasurers and Comelec counterparts. Highest bidders won. In 1995, senator Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel was the first victim of such operation.

No need to physically transport the ballots under automated transmission. Teachers will just beam the ERs for national and local canvassing. Party reps and watchdogs will send the same results to their respective HQs. Voters can check online if Comelec properly encoded the votes in their precincts. Senate President Tito Sotto has filed a hybrid election law for this purpose.

Aside from opacity, the hard and software are too costly. Leasing one vote counting machine cost P123,711 in 2016, or P12 billion for 97,000 VCMs. This 2022, Comelec leased 10,000 more for P864 million or P86,402 apiece.

Each of the 413,000 precincts needs one VCM. But due to prohibitiveness, Comelec clustered the precincts into four per VCM, each serving at least 800 voters (106,000 VCMs were used; 1,000 on standby). Lacking VCMs, voters must queue for hours in the summer heat to cast their ballot.

There are hidden costs. VCM refurbishing: P10,272.74 per unit or P1 billion for the 97,000 old units reused in 2022. Warehousing: P140 million a year. Accessorizing: P1 billion per election.

Automating only the transmission and canvassing would delete those costs. Only laptops and transmission routers would be needed at the precincts – for donation to public schools after use. Central, backup and transmission servers for canvassing are affordable.

Hybrid elections will be manageable. Five Comelec chairmen presided over the five automated elections from 2010 to 2022. No Implementing Rules and Regulations have been drafted for the 2008 AES Law. Comelec merely issues resolutions and general instructions, modified or repealed for every balloting. Result: inconsistency and breaches of that law.

In 2010, due to spotty VCM source code review, Comelec had to replace 97,000 corrupted SD cards and the same number of backup memory cards two weeks before E-Day. The random manual audit showed 0.4-percent variance from the machine count, representing more than 900,000 votes. Thereafter precincts for RMA were no longer publicly picked by tambiolo but by selection app.

In 2013, Ateneo University Mathematics Prof. Felix Muga, PhD, questioned the improbable 60-30-10 senatorial trend. From start to finish, administration bets consistently got 60 percent of votes; opposition, 30 percent; independents, 10 percent.

In 2016, VP candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. alleged fraudulent count in his election defeat and protest. That year too, Sen. Richard Gordon had to ask the Supreme Court to force Comelec to issue voter receipts, as required by the AES Law that he authored.

This year, at least six law provisions were unmet. The required digital signatures of teachers were only partially used. Unexplained was the 68:32 presidential trend from start to finish. Also that the winning president and VP candidates each got more votes than the first ranking senatorial aspirant. A first in Philippine elections.

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

Okay, city boys, start planting, raising fish

Okay, city boys, start planting, raising fish

by | Apr 13, 2023 | Gotcha

stock image

GOTCHA

written on May 20, 2022

 

City dwellers are mocking Agriculture Secretary William Dar. With looming global food crisis he exhorted Filipinos, including urbanites, to plant, fish and raise animals. Cosmopolites are adept in trades and professions, but inexpert in farming, aquaculture and livestock. They live in cramped apartments or condos. “Where will I raise my favorite foods – shrimps and pork?” quipped a broadcaster. Most cities forbid raising of food animals.

The only farmers, fish and animal raisers in cities are those who fled rural penury. They’ve turned to odd jobs. Wives work as housemaids. Dar’s four years of agricultural over-importing drove them out of work. Smuggling of grains, vegetables, fruits, fish, pork and poultry further worsened their plight. National and local governments took too long to help them rebuild homes, farms, fishpens, boats and barns wrecked by typhoons. The average age of Filipino farmers is 60.

Dar attributes the impending food shortage to the pandemic, the Ukraine war and surging oil prices. COVID-19 slowed down global trade, including of farm machineries, animal feeds and ingredients, aquaculture and fishing implements.

The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to fertilizer shortage worldwide. Fertilizer’s main component is nitrogen derived from natural gas, of which Ukraine is among the largest producers. With Ukrainian gasfields idled, farmers around the world are stockpiling what’s left.

The war delayed the planting of wheat, of which Ukraine again and surrounding countries are the main producers. The UN forecasts a global shortage. People will shift to other grains as staple, primarily rice. Rich countries will buy up stocks from India and Southeast Asia. Poor Philippines will be elbowed out of the queue. ASEAN friends will be unable to help. Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar, the usual rice suppliers to the Philippines, are suffering reduced harvests. Thirteen dams in China divert water from the Mekong River, greatly reducing farm and fishpond output in the delta and other plains downstream.

Fertilizer rates in the Philippines already had doubled before the pandemic. Hardly any help came from the government. The Ukraine war further pushed up prices. Still no action. The Rice Tariffication Law of 2019 failed to bring down prices to pre-2016 levels, the Federation of Free Farmers laments.

When African Swine Fever struck Luzon, Dar massively imported pork but at reduced tariff. Ignored were hog-raisers who needed the collections to cover their costs of replacing diseased stocks. When poultry prices rose due to expensive feeds and electricity, Dar massively imported chicken, again at low duties. The domestic industry suffered.

At the onset of the 2021 yearend fishing ban, Dar insisted on importing fish from China, hundreds of thousands of tons. Opposition from commercial fleet owners, artisanal fishermen and fish growers was ignored. Pens and ponds were brimming with tilapia and bangus good for seven months. When Super Typhoon Odette hit the Visayas and Mindanao in the first quarter of 2022, Dar again insisted on importing more fish from China, supposedly “to increase production.” No one thought of helping fisherfolk repair broken bancas.

Vegetable smuggling from China demoralized local growers. They had to throw away millions of kilos of produce because of the unfair competition and costly transportation. In the ensuing Senate investigative hearings, all snubbed by Dar, he was revealed to be applying for reappointment in the next administration. He now hails as doable that next admin’s promise of P20-rice, something he never achieved to begin with.

Filipinos suffered rice shortage in the early years of martial law, 1973-74. Rich and poor queued to buy stocks mixed with ground corn. To avert a repeat, Dar wants to increase the National Food Authority buffer stocks from seven to 30 days. Good idea. A city boy planting rice in his living room would take a hundred days to harvest.

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

Last credibility check: random manual audit

Last credibility check: random manual audit

by | Apr 13, 2023 | Gotcha

PNA photo of vote counting machine

GOTCHA

written on May 18, 2022

 

Was there fraud in the presidential and VP election? At least 1,800 vote counting machines (VCMs) broke down on E-Day, affecting 1.44 million voters. Comelec count was unusually fast. An hour after the close of balloting, 8:02 p.m., its transparency server tallied 20.05 million votes, representing 37.96 percent of votes cast (80.38 percent turnout, or 52.81 million of 65.7 million registered voters).

At once the votes of the two leading presidential candidates flattened at a ratio of 68:32 and continued till end of count. Possible in a landslide. But also at 8:02 p.m. a flat curve emerged till the end in the close fight between the third and fourth candidates. Same with the top two VP candidates. Highly improbable, mathematicians cite the Law of Large Numbers.

Given bailiwicks and varying voter patterns per region, candidates’ curves should first fluctuate then flatten in the end. Foolish to claim that pre-election surveys showed such results. Elections validate surveys, not the other way around.

Yet those are not evidence of fraud. At best, they’re only clues.

But set aside partisan passions. Forget who won or lost. Listen to what info-technologists and election experts say. Voters will see that May 9 was a flawed automated election – again. As in 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019, provisions of the Automated Election Systems (AES) Law were unmet.

That law provides for an unbroken chain of safeguards and processes. “But there were too many gaps,” says Nelson Celis, PhD, of AES Watch. Among these were in:

(1) Digital signatures – Last March 23 Celis and National Press Club president Paul Gutierrez petitioned the Supreme Court. “Command the Comelec to assign digital signatures (passcodes) to the three election inspectors per precinct.” This was after Comelec said only those in Metro Manila, Cebu City and Davao City would be assigned passcodes from the roster of the Dept. of Information and Communications Technology. In the rest of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao only the chairmen were to be given passcodes, not the two others. For authentication, three digital signatures must be keyed in to boot each of the 106,000 VCMs and transmit election returns (ERs). With only one signatory, any fraud can happen at precincts. The SC issued no mandamus.

(2) Monitoring of ballot printing and SD (secure digital) card formatting – Citing pandemic restrictions, Comelec disallowed monitoring by party reps and election watchdogs until after 70 percent of ballots already were printed. Pray that the ballots were untampered. One Filipino info-technologist reported to Comelec on March 22 when refused entry to witness the SD card formatting at the VCM warehouse. No action taken, Celis says.

(3) Documented results – Section 11 of the AES Law requires Comelec to release six findings 90 days before E-Day or Feb. 9. Those are: field test and mock election; audit of accuracy, functionality and security controls of AES software; source code review of VCMs, transmission router, consolidation/canvassing system; certification that the source codes are kept in escrow at the Bangko Sentral; certification that the reviewed source codes are those used by the equipment; and a continuity plan to avoid failure of elections at voting, counting or consolidation. Comelec resolved to release these only on May 6, three days before E-Day, stating that some findings were received only the previous day. It posted the resolution on May 11, two days after E-Day; the links to the findings cannot be opened or accessed. No Filipino IT expert was able to review it.

(4) Source code review of central, backup and transparency servers – A reputable international body must certify the source codes, in this case Pro V&V of America, 90 days before E-Day. Comelec must release details for scrutiny by Filipino experts as it did in 2010 with then-certifier SysTest Labs. Only then can Comelec issue a trusted-build, or executable file to run the VCMs and servers. Comelec issued a trusted-build in January and revised it in February. Source code reviews went on till April. “Reviewers say there were third and fourth revisions,” Celis remarks.

(5) Check of ERs versus transparency server – The tally of precinct ERs must jibe 100 percent with the transparency server because all came from the same 106,000 VCMs. But because of gaps in the four above processes, there could be variants. Watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting did report 1.6 percent difference between its tally and the Comelec server. That represents 1,696 precinct VCMs or 1,356,800 votes. Could there be more, asks former DICT secretary Eliseo Rio.

(6) Random manual audit (RMA) – Ballots in 759 precincts, one per district or 607,200 votes, are to be manually checked against the ERs. Those must be chosen publicly by tambiolo at the close of balloting. Precinct inspectors must then commence audits, observed by party reps, watchdogs and voters. Since 2013 the selection has been behind closed doors. This 2022 Comelec did it via an Automated Random Selection Program in a laptop. Celis and Rio doubt if the ARSP source code was reviewed at all. The RMA is being held in a Manila venue. Comelec gave field offices two to five days to send over the ballot boxes. Who will transport the boxes? Are those properly sealed and padlocked? The RMA supervisor, watchdog National Citizens Movement for Free Elections, does not know the logistics firm; nor does it hold the padlock keys. “The teacher-auditors are in a bubble; they’re incommunicado,” says Namfrel chairman Gus Lagman, also former Comelec commissioner.

All these dent the credibility of Election 2022.

But there’s a remedy. Publicly re-select the 759 precincts. To shorten the time, prepare one tambiolo for each region. Open the audit to the public.

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

Start pimping our women to Chinese opportunists

Start pimping our women to Chinese opportunists

by | Apr 13, 2023 | Gotcha

stock image

GOTCHA

written on May 11, 2022

 

We elected China’s candidates. We voted plundering dynasts. Now suffer the consequence.

We ignored the telltales. He entertains Chinese commissars at home. He rejects sea patrol helicopters and boats. The running mate echoes her father’s acquiescence to China’s Communist Party. She intends to be Defense secretary to continue it.

Our fishermen will remain unprotected. Chinese maritime militia will drive them away to poach more fish. China warships will occupy more Philippine reefs. Partnering with the presidential crony, China’s National Offshore Oil Corp. will take over Malampaya gas field.

Six years of Malacañang obeisance emboldened 3,000 Chinese spies to infiltrate our communities, industries, universities and media. We witnessed Chinese fly-by-nights pillage P42 billion in overpriced pandemic supplies.

Pharmally was prime proof of the infiltration and pillage. Exposed in Senate hearings, it was financed by a Chinese state agent-presidential pal. The Filipina wife of another Chinese principal in Pharmally, she who wakes up to find another brand-new limousine in her garage, ran for Congress. Yet 83 percent of us hailed admin’s pandemic response.

Money-worshippers, we sold our votes. Chinese opportunists will take our women as mistresses. They will be their front to own land, utilities, mines and retail shops. We might as well pimp to them our daughters, wives, sisters and young mothers. We can then snort their shabu.

“Stop crying like a woman for what you could not defend as a man,” Aixa al-Hurra (the honored) berated her son Boabdil, the vanquished emir of Granada.

We put back Manchurian Candidates in our legislature, provincial capitols, city and municipal halls. From there they can continue abetting agricultural over-imports from China. Tariffs will be slashed lower than ever. Smuggling will thrive.

Never mind that our grains, vegetable, fruit, hog and poultry growers go on losing from unfair competition. What’s important is for China’s lackey-electees and bureaucrats to profiteer.

The dynasts’ only motive is plunder. Like traitors during the American and Japanese regimes, they collaborate with Chinese communists in order to retain power. They will fragment into fiefdoms, the easier for the CCP to rule.

We had a chance for change. We blew it. Despite lack of six documented test results, we accepted Comelec’s certification of the automated election system.

Now bear what will come. Global ostracism. Emigration of the thinking class. Worse malnutrition, miseducation, misrule. Inflation. Joblessness. Higher taxes and public borrowings. Distrust of government. The price of rice will drop to the promised P20, but only for a fistful.

The people have spoken, China’s candidates claim. The voice of the people is the voice of God, we delude ourselves. But was it God’s will that the mob chose Barabas over Jesus?

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

If only children could vote, they’d plead…

If only children could vote, they’d plead…

by | Apr 13, 2023 | Gotcha

photo from Philippine News Agency

GOTCHA

written on April 29, 2022

 

“…Ayoko maging bansot, ayoko maging payatot, ayoko maging kulelat.”

Which child indeed would wish to be stunted and wasting? Who’d want to lose out on life from the start?

One in three Filipino children aged 0 to 5 are underheight and underweight. They numbered 3.4 million in 2019, although the malady has afflicted the land for three decades. A stunted, wasting child loses up to 40 percent of brain mass, reducing the capacity for language skills, memory and comprehension. That largely explains why Filipino 3rd, 5th and 8th graders in public schools rank lowest in international tests in Reading, Math and Sciences.

The impact is devastating. Stunted children have ten times less chances than others to survive common childhood illnesses. Most lose five years of schooling. Result, 40 percent lower wages as workers. Also, less healthy families when they begin a new generation.

Malnutrition is the main culprit. Filipinos are the second shortest in ASEAN. Yet this is dismissed as hereditary rather than due to poor maternal health, deprivation and child undernourishment. Malnutrition kills 95 under-5 children daily. The country loses $4.3 billion yearly, 1.5 percent of 2015 GDP, Unicef noted.

But there’s a solution. And only presidential candidate Leni Robredo espouses it, according to scientists. Being the only mother among ten contenders, she understands the family’s critical needs: right food, health care, proper schooling. Those have been her focus as development worker, congresswoman and Vice President. Dozens of nutrition and child care advocates, health professionals and educators have endorsed her.

Most basic is the First 1000 Days program. From conception to 23rd month, mother and child must be afforded necessary nutrients. The first thousand days are vital for a child’s optimal growth and brain development. Also for the mother to prepare for possible next pregnancy.

Leni’s platform banners the F1K program. She links food security and production to nutrition. VP running mate Kiko Pangilinan brings agricultural expertise. Agriculture’s objective should be public health.

Success stories are many. Peru reduced child stunting from 28 percent in 2008 to 13 percent in 2016; Brazil, from 37.1 percent in 1974 to 7.1 percent in 2006. The latter put up a social development ministry to quell hunger as socio-economic goal. The former set stunting reduction as an outcome of food abundance. By child nutrition, China boosted the average height of 19-year-old males by 3.5 inches (9 cm) and females by 2.5 inches (6.35 cm) in the 35 years to 2019, according to Lancet. India’s 16-year-old males and females grew taller by 2.5 and 2 inches from 1975 to 2015, Economist reported. Filipino females became shorter in the past 40 years, health department records show.

F1K has been replicated in Quezon and Cebu by, among others, retired Unicef officer Cecilio Adorna, economics professor Luzeta Adorna, World Bank consultant Cecilia Acuin and Nutrition Center Philippines senior researcher Ellen Villate. Signed by 170, their endorsement of Leni is in signatories (alphabetically) – Google Sheets.

Education Nation also endorsed Leni this week. The coalition of 35 organizations and 21 educators gave her platform and track record a perfect score. A job interview of Leni by the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations of the Philippines drew her stand: “One of the first things I’ll do if elected is to declare an emergency crisis. Kailangan natin ito gawin para all hands on deck tayo.” Meaning government, schools, teachers, parents, students and other stakeholders.

EducNation has been warning of a three-decades-long learning crisis. Indicators: 85 percent of 10-year-olds cannot read simple text (Unicef 2022). Grade 3 students have difficulty in reading: 56.8 percent in English, 60.9 percent in Filipino. Few Grade 5 students meet the proficiencies of their level: Reading, ten of 100; Writing, two of 100; Math, 17 of 100. To make room for next batches, Junior high schoolers are promoted despite low proficiencies: only one percent adept in Math, three percent in English, one percent in Science, 13 percent in Filipino, ten percent in Araling Panlipunan. In 12 years of schooling, Filipinos learn only six-and-a-half years’ equivalent, compared to foreign counterparts. Only half of Education graduates pass the annual teacher licensure exams; three in four are repeat examinees.

The education department has removed History from high school and relegated it to elementary. “The topic of martial law 1972-1986 is taught only for one week in Grade 6,” laments Antonio Calipjo Go, PhD, head of Marian School-Quezon City. “Critical thinking is not fully formed at that school age, so children become susceptible to fake news and historical revisionism.”

“MaJoHa,” a teen contestant in reality show Pinoy Big Brother answered when asked for the acronym of the three priests Gomez, Burgos, Zamora garroted by Spanish rulers in 1872, stoking Filipino nationalism. “Ajajozep” replied another. The admin standard-bearer is criticized for falsifying the past; the running mate’s dynasty has not set up a city high school or college in 30 years.

Pandemic lockdowns, fears and hasty shift to online classes worsened things: 1.1 million students did not enrol in 2020-2021. One in four kindergartners was not in school. Three out of four public schools had no WiFi. One in four parents said their children learned nothing. Usually better in instruction, 1,179 private schools closed shop.

Figures from NGO Philippine Business for Education: Rating the six survey-leading presidential bets, PBEd found “Leni the only one with a detailed strategy to take us out of this mess,” said policy-advocacy manager Marco delos Reyes. PBEd president Chito Salazar added: “Let’s choose a leader who understands the problem of education and listens to all sectors. We need someone with competence, experience and character to be an Education President.” See https://www.facebook.com/100305568984268/posts/281263100888513/?d=n

 

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

Agri-smuggling likely a cover for shabu

Agri-smuggling likely a cover for shabu

by | Apr 13, 2023 | Gotcha

photo from Philippine News Agency

GOTCHA

written on April 27, 2022

 

Narcotics authorities can put two and two together. A mere P1 million worth of smuggled agricultural produce carries life sentence for economic sabotage, with no bail while on trial. Yet smugglers sell the contraband at only a fraction of domestic rates. It’s like they just want to unload the illegal goods even at no profit. Why take such inordinate risk?

Example: wholesale price of smuggled red onion, P3 per kilo; retail price of Mindoro-grown, P100 per kilo. Carrots: wholesale smuggled, P40 per kilo; retail of Benguet-grown, P140. Same with broccoli, cauliflower, white onion, celery, leeks, garlic, strawberry. It’s the market vendors and sari-sari store owners who make a bonanza. What gives?

Most of the smuggled produce comes from China. Also from China come such over-imported items that are not in short domestic production to begin with: fish like galunggong, bonito, tulingan, mackerel, sardine; chicken and pork; corn and feeds.

Could the agricultural contraband be mere cover for more profitable trafficking – say, narcotics?

The bulk of shabu (meth) originates from China too. Since the 1990s, Gen. Jose Almonte has warned of a Chinese Communist Party plot to soften the Philippine state. Foremost is by drug addiction; another is by influencing then indoctrinating Filipino officials, academics and businessmen.

Almonte was then Economic Intelligence and Investigation Bureau chief, and later national security adviser and National Intelligence Coordinating Agency head. People’s Liberation Army generals led the shabu smuggling to the Philippines and neighbors, he said. Beijing was beginning to grab 25 shoals and reefs in the South China Sea, including seven from the Philippines: Kagitingan (Fiery Cross), Zamora (Subi), McKennan (Hughes), Calderon (Cuarteron), Mabini (Johnson South), Burgos (Gaven) and Panganiban (Mischief). At first, the shabu was cooked in mainland China, later relegated to erstwhile opium makers in the Golden Triangle of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.

Shabu trafficking thrives to this day, notwithstanding troll hossanas to President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs. The market remains big: three million hardcore addicts. In November 2019, then-PNP Drug Enforcement Group head Gen. Romeo Caramat said each snorted one gram of shabu a week. That’s a staggering three million grams – 3,000 kilos or three tons. Value: P25 billion a week, Caramat said.

Only a fraction has been interdicted by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. From July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2019, its #RealNumbersPH reported 4,409 kilos of shabu seized. That’s only a week-and-a-half’s consumption confiscated in 156 weeks, with 7,000 killed, including lawmen.

During that same period, PDEA dismantled 14 clandestine shabu labs; hardly any remain today because they are easily detectable by foul odor fumes. Easier to sneak in shabu by various means: inside printing machine cylinders, magnetic lifters, mannequins, tea bags. In the early 2000s, shabu was interspersed with CFL bulbs, which was why those retailed at giveaway P11 apiece. Narco-traffickers recently tried tapioca starch as decoy.

So why not also smuggled and over-imported agricultural products as fronts?

Sneaking in just one kilo of shabu, the size of a kilo-bag of sugar, can fetch a street value of P8 million. What more if by the ton, P8 billion. Same risks – life term, no bail – but infinitely bigger profit. No wonder.

Additional figures derive from Senate and House inquiries. The Senate hearing was by the Committee of the Whole because of multi-departmental concerns: agriculture, health, trade, finance, Customs, BIR, justice and national security. Senate President Tito Sotto elicited that Customs confiscated 542 shipments worth P1.99 billion since 2016.

That’s only one-twentieth of the annual P40-billion smuggling of produce. “Alay lang ’yan,” party-list Rep. Jericho Nograles (Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta) told Sapol-dwIZ Saturday. “Smugglers sacrificed the nearly P2-billion shipments, for crooked officials to have something to show for it, but quietly sneaked in the higher volume.” He cited figures from Federation of Free Farmers chairman Leonardo Montemayor. Since 2013, the smugglers’ shipment declarations to Customs were invariably much lower than records from Chinese and ASEAN ports of origin. Most were even misdeclared, like white onion passed off as green for animal feed but sold to consumers. Or well-milled, long-grain rice disguised as 100-percent broken, also for feeds.

This can go on if China’s candidates for president and VP win. Leading in preferential surveys, they vow to continue present programs. Meaning retain crooked officials, bribing racketeers and kinsmen-protectors. China’s drugging of Filipinos will worsen.

 

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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Our Cookie Policy

Once you agree to allow our website to use cookies, you also agree to use the data it collects regarding your online behavior (analyze web traffic, web pages you spend the most time on, and websites you visit).

The data we collect by using cookies is used to customize our website to your needs. After we use the data for statistical analysis, the data is completely removed from our systems.

Please note that cookies don’t allow us to gain control of your computer in any way. They are strictly used to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not so that we can provide a better experience for you.

If you want to disable cookies, you can do it by accessing the settings of your internet browser.

 

Links to Other Websites

Our website contains links that lead to other websites. If you click on these links jariusbondoc.com is not held responsible for your data and privacy protection. Visiting those websites is not governed by this privacy policy agreement. Make sure to read the privacy policy documentation of the website you go to from our website.

 

Restricting the Collection of your Personal Data

At some point, you might wish to restrict the use and collection of your personal data. You can achieve this by doing the following:

 

  • When you are filling the forms on the website, make sure to check if there is a box which you can leave unchecked, if you don’t want to disclose your personal information.
  • If you have already agreed to share your information with us, feel free to contact us via email and we will be more than happy to change this for you.

 

jariusbondoc.com will not lease, sell or distribute your personal information to any third parties, unless we have your permission. We might do so if the law forces us. Your personal information will be used when we need to send you promotional materials if you agree to this privacy policy.

 

II. COPYRIGHT NOTICE

All materials contained on this site are protected by the Republic of the Phlippines copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of jariusbondoc.com or in the case of third party materials, the owner of that content. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.

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.