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What if P44-B smuggling loot were spent for our children

What if P44-B smuggling loot were spent for our children

by | Mar 15, 2023 | Gotcha

Customs and Agriculture enforcers continue to seize smuggled sugar, but Malacañang hasn’t sold it in Kadiwa stores

GOTCHA

Malacañang secretly granted to only three sugar importers the privilege to bring in 440,000 tons in 2023. Costly sugar will result from that government-sponsored cartel. Consumers already are suffering P140-a-kilo retail price.

Customs valuates contraband sugar at P100,000 per ton. Meaning, Malacañang’s favored three will rake in P44 billion.

Imported sugar is only P40 a kilo at warehouse, traders say. That includes P20 purchase from Thailand, shipping, hauling and storage. For every P10-a-kilo markup on its 440,000 tons, the cartel pockets P4.4 billion. So, at the prevailing P140 a kilo retail, it will profiteer P44 billion. The traders’ calculation matches that of Customs.

If used instead for children’s benefit, what can that P44 billion do?

(1) It can nourish the two in every five youngsters 5 years old and below who are stunted, underweight and wasting. From Unicef figures, that would be 4.8 million out of 12 million who can be given a fighting chance if fed right.

(2) P44 billion is one-fourth of the P194.6-billion outlay for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. Government is unable to increase that fund to benefit more than 4.4 million indigent households. 4Ps enables pregnant mothers to seek natal care, regularly bring children 0-5 years old to health centers and ensure school attendance of those 3-18.

(3) Infants and toddlers can be vaccinated against TB, hepatitis-B, diphtheria, pertussis, flu, polio, pneumonia, meningitis, measles, mumps and rubella. Also, deworm, delouse and check teeth and eyes of kindergartners and grade schoolers. Plus, vitamins and supplements.

(4) At P300,000 each, 147,000 new classrooms can be built. Present shortage is 91,000 and rising. The lone schoolhouse in the westernmost island of Pag-asa remains wrecked 15 months after Typhoon Odette.

(5) At P3,300 each, 13.3 million smartphones can be lent to grade schoolers as learning aids.

(6) At P9,700 each, 4.5 million laptops can be lent to high schoolers.

(7) At P2 billion each, 22 children’s hospitals can be built and equipped. Only Metro Manila has one at present.

(8) Children’s books, plays, educational shows and toys can be produced to enhance learning.

(9) Campuses can be fitted with biology, chemistry, physics and speech labs to improve science and communications learning. Children can be honed in high-tech.

At P120,000 each, 367,000 dwellings can be built to kick off a five-million mass housing program. Collateral for 100,000 e-jeepneys and e-tricycles can be subsidized, redounding to cleaner air. More railways, bridges and roads can be paved. Overdue allowances of health workers can be paid.

Air and seacraft can be procured to patrol territory and maritime jurisdictions. Areas torn by insurgency and separatism can be developed.

The 440,000-ton sugar import this year is for buffer against typhoons and domestic harvest shortfall. As well, to bring down retail prices. Yet it hasn’t. Malacañang is not even selling cheap in Kadiwa rolling stores smuggled refined Thai sugar.

Last week Customs seized 1,508 tons smuggled into Port of Subic. That’s in addition to 16,000 tons in December. Another 4,000 tons were confiscated January in Batangas. And 23,800 tons also in January at Manila International Container Port. The Department of Agriculture Inspectorate and Enforcement unit initiated all interdictions.

Agriculture Senior Usec. Domingo Panganiban selected the three importers last Jan. 13. He claimed authority from Executive Sec. Lucas Bersamin and President Marcos Jr. as concurrent Agriculture secretary. He preempted the Feb. 24-28 selection by the Sugar Regulatory Administration, which has sole legal power to do so.

Cartelists also control spices. Onion prices soar at P150-P180 a kilo. While down from atrocious P800 last Christmas, it has yet to revert to the P35 world price. But planters are groaning that the cartel buys from them at only P10 farmgate.

Imported garlic retails at P140 a kilo; pungent local variety at P400. That’s despite Congress’ exposure of price manipulators and smugglers. Agriculture officials say farmers must be encouraged. Yet last September, Panganiban scorned decades long Batanes garlic producers for “planting without thinking of where and how to market.”

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

Every Panganiban sugar landing can fetch life term

Every Panganiban sugar landing can fetch life term

by | Mar 10, 2023 | Gotcha

February 27 memorandum of Usec Panganiban

GOTCHA

Customs and agriculture career officers are in a bind. Last Feb. 9 they confiscated shiploads of Thai refined sugar in Batangas that had no permit. But on Feb. 27, Agriculture Senior Usec. Domingo Panganiban ordered the contraband released on doubtful grounds. He invoked authority from President Marcos Jr. and Executive Sec. Lucas Bersamin.

Should the officers obey Panganiban against their sworn duties?

If they do, they can be accomplices to economic sabotage. And plunder. Their careers will be ruined.

Same with Panganiban’s three fellow Sugar Regulatory Administration board members if they sign the sugar release.

Economic sabotage, a no-bail heinous crime, fetches life imprisonment. Same with plunder. Years of tedious trial is punishment enough. Let alone tarnished reputation and family dishonor.

Agricultural smuggling is economic sabotage. Threshold is P1 million worth of sugar, corn, pork, poultry, garlic, onion, carrots, fish, vegetables; or P10 million rice.

Three elements constitute plunder. One, series or combination of crimes. Two, P50-million minimum amassed. Three, personal benefit.

The Feb. 9 sugar shipment was deemed smuggled, in breach of the Tariffs and Customs Code.

The last import under SRA Sugar Order No. 2, of Sept. 13, 2022, should have arrived by last Nov. 15. Only on Feb. 15, 2023 did SRA issue Sugar Order No. 6, effective after three days, Feb. 18. It set five days, till Feb. 23, to accept and evaluate sugar import bids. Then another five days, till Feb. 28, to award the winning importers. Only thereafter may new sugar arrive.

The 1986 SRA Act was also violated.

Panganiban admitted to have issued a secret memo as far back as Jan. 13. In that memo he authorized private firms All Asian Countertrade, Edison Lee Marketing and S&D Sucden to import 240,000, 100,000 and 100,000 tons, respectively. He preempted the SRA which has sole power to award sugar import permits. Usurpation of authority.

Citing his Jan. 13 secret memo, Panganiban ordered SRA on Feb. 27 to issue import permits, covering the Feb. 9 contraband.

That broke the legal requirement to publicize all executive orders, including Sugar Order No. 6-2023, with the U.P. Law Center’s Office of the National Administrator for Registration.

Also broken was the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. Specifically: Section 3a, “Persuading, inducing or influencing another public officer … to violate rules and regulations … or allowing himself to be persuaded, induced or influenced.”

Section 3e, “Causing any undue injury to any party, including the Government, or giving any private party any unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference … through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence.”

Customs values at P100,000 a ton of trafficked refined sugar. The 6,500 tons in Batangas amounted to P650 million – 650 times the P1-million threshold for economic sabotage. Also, 13 times the P50-million threshold for plunder. It came in three ships.

The 440,000 tons, or 8.8 million sacks, will come in 200 more ships. Each landing will mean more counts of economic sabotage and plunder.

Proof of personal gain will come from the annual Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth of the officials involved. As well, from the income statements of the three companies. Plus, lifestyle checks.

Three sugar planters associations are howling against Panganiban’s “legitimizing” of the Batangas contraband sugar. Farmer leader Leonardo Montemayor urges them to question it in court. Senator Risa Hontiveros calls the Jan. 13 Panganiban memo “government-sponsored smuggling.” The Senate Blue Ribbon committee has yet to hear it.

The ombudsman can investigate on its own and file a case with the Sandiganbayan. Ex-senator Ping Lacson has long exposed the antedating of permits to cover smuggled produce.

How will Filipinos, suffering from soaring sugar retail prices, benefit from prosecuting the officials? Simple. Sell cheap all the seized sugar at Kadiwa rolling stores in indigent communities. Maximum price: P50 per kilo, half the prevailing rate. Better still, only P20 per kilo, the known sugar acquisition price from Thailand.

* * *

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

Playing around with trains, gov’t afflicts commuters

Playing around with trains, gov’t afflicts commuters

by | Mar 8, 2023 | Gotcha

Photo courtesy of DOTr

GOTCHA

LRT-1 can’t use 80 of 120 new coaches because leaky. Ordering the trains at P100 million each, the past admin had waived the requisite leak test. Factory power-hosing would have revealed waterproofing defects on roofs, sides, and underbellies for correction. Rains will harm electrical-electronic parts and riders. P8 billion wasted.

Tutuban-Calamba commuter rail can’t use nine new classy coaches too because wrong sized. Philippine National Railways first bought in 2018 six Indonesian narrow wheel coaches for the narrow-gauge tracks. PNR reordered six more the following year. But some bright boys inserted nine more Chinese coaches – all unsuitable standard gauge. P981 million wasted.

The Dept. of Transport procured 20 tunnel boring machines in 2021 at P1 billion each when Metro Manila’s subway digging needs only four. As huge as houses, TBMs drill, expel earth, and install pre-fab concrete walls. At the end of the bored tunnel, they’re left underground. The extra TBMs supposedly would speedup work. Yet resistance to home and shop demolition has delayed it four years. P16 billion wasted.

Indecision first set back the subway three years. Instead of starting at San Jose del Monte and ending at Manila airport underneath EDSA, it was realigned in 2017 from Valenzuela to Bicutan traversing Marikina fault and two flood zones. For show, DOTr announced to build and operate three stations first by 2022. Engineers foresaw impossibility since there was no space for excavated earth and pre-fab factory. Lawyer-bosses overruled them, then raised the subway budget to P355 billion.

Mindanao’s first railway to connect three Davao provinces is five years late. Initially diesel locomotives were to run on single tracks. Altered in 2019 to electric engines on double tracks, the budget ballooned from P35 billion to P82 billion. No loan was secured.

Three admins messed up railways from 2003 to 2022. $421 million was borrowed from China in 2003 for a Caloocan-Malolos NorthRail along PNR’s old line. Squatters were evicted. But technical disputes and kickbacks derailed everything. The country repaid the China loan, plus interest. Yet no tracks were laid nor trains made.

In 2011, a five-fold re-costing was proposed for Japanese funding of NorthRail. Criticisms halted it. A new 148-km rail, Clark to Calamba, was approved. A third of that North-South commuter rail construction will start only next month. Operation is set back many years.

In 2012, the then-Dept. of Transport and Communication took over MRT-3’s private concession. Fourteen-year-long maintenance servicer Sumitomo was replaced by an undercapitalized six-month-old outfit of an admin party mate. Exposed for $30-million attempted extortion from MRT-3’s Czech train supplier, the maintenance contractor was replaced by another front of the party mate.

Trains, tracks, power supplies, signaling, and stations deteriorated. Collisions, derailments, and sudden braking injured passengers. Still, another front company of the party mate was hired for P4.25-billion rehab and maintenance. Four new inexperienced “partners” were brought in: a house builder, a general merchandiser, an agricultural supplier, and a plumber.

DOTC bought 48 Chinese coaches for P3.85 billion in 2013. None were usable because overweight for the tracks and undersized for the maintenance-repair hoist. All arrived late, with no motors. Meaning they were untested at the factory for 5,000 km for durability, braking, and traction. None had onboard signaling, so were invisible from train safety monitoring screens. All have asbestos wall soundproofing, banned from use because carcinogenic.

Due to dysfunctional rails, commuters resort to short-route buses and jeepneys. Traffic jams all cities.

New Railways Usec. Cesar Chavez and PNR General Manager Jeremy Regino aim to fix the mess. They expertly had run LRT before.

* * *

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

Envy aliens who can avoid PH; pity Pinoys who are stuck here

Envy aliens who can avoid PH; pity Pinoys who are stuck here

by | Mar 3, 2023 | Gotcha

MMDA Flood Control cleaning operation

GOTCHA

He’ll never return to the Philippines, said the Thai tourist whose cash was filched by Manila airport security personnel. Not only that, he’ll tell his countrymen to never book any airline, hotel or service bearing the name of the Philippines and its cities.

He’s so incensed at his ordeal. An x-ray screener picked his wallet on the conveyor tray and slipped the bills to accomplices. A companion of the victim had videoed the crime. The pickpockets took them to a room to return the money, but let them board their flight only after the companion deleted the video.

He’s lucky. Envy foreigners who can avoid the Philippines.

Pity Pinoys. They’re stuck in this hellhole they call country. To begin with, their taxes will pay the government’s P1.27-billion tourism promo that the crooks have just wasted.

Philippine airports teem with outlaws. Luggage are forced open and looted. Immigration men let unwanted aliens in and out for fat fees. Days after the Thai’s story went viral, another security screener stole a Chinese traveler’s watch. Those thieves have been with Office of Transport Security for years; their recruiter must be the gang boss.

Pinoys aren’t going anywhere. Their futures are blighted. Half the labor force is under- or unemployed. Two in five of their children are undernourished, underweight and stunted. Grade-schoolers score lowest in international math, science and reading comprehension tests. No skills for hi-tech tomorrows.

Everyday 21,000 Pinoys are able to fly to overseas jobsites. For two years or so they labor long hours to send the family money to fix the leaky roof, buy a shared mobile and be able to worship in Sunday best.

Then they return to the old squalor. Garbage in streets and waterways. Deadly flashfloods and mudslides. Forest denudation and hillside quarrying. Noise, dust, traffic, crime, corruption.

Only oligarchs and politicos become richer. The top nine tycoons’ wealth equals that of the 110 million population’s bottom half.

Oligarchs bankroll election campaigns. Politicos in turn place oligarchs’ point-men as industry regulators. Utilities are thus monopolized: transport, telecoms, electricity, water.

Cartels control food supply and prices. Wholesalers of domestic harvests are themselves importers and warehousers. At their mercy are growers and consumers of rice, corn, onion, garlic, ginger, vegetables, fruits, fish, poultry, pork, even fertilizers and feeds.

Onion retail rates skyrocketed to P780 a kilo, more than 22 times the world price. Cereals, spices, chicken, egg and meat remain costly.

A P44-billion “government-sponsored smuggling” has just unraveled. Without open public bidding, Malacañang favored with import permits only three huge sugar shippers. One for 240,000 tons worth P24 billion; two for 100,000 tons each, P20 billion for both. They can sell at the prevailing price of P100 per kilo.

At the same time the three shall control the buy-up of domestic harvest and thus dictate farmgate prices. Official orders designate the triopoly in blatant disregard of the Constitution and anguish of planters.

Political dynasts hold the presidency, vice presidency, legislature and local governments. They grant each other illegal pork barrels. Executive officials get multibillion-peso unaudited confidential and intelligence funds. Congressmen help themselves to more billions in fake flood controls. Result: hunger, disease, disaster, deaths.

Pinoys don’t even know if they truly elected those dynasts. Comelec hierarchs withhold public records of the last ballot count.

The dynasts are rushing to put relatives and gofers in a constitutional convention. The Con-con’s primary aim is to extend elective terms – for tighter economic stranglehold.

Three hundred delegates will each receive P10,000 daily stipend – P3 million a day extra burden to Pinoys – on top of meals, hotel billeting and transport. Yet economic managers vehemently oppose any wage increase, because supposedly “inflationary and bad for the economy.”

* * *

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

Sell cheap the sugar seized in Batangas

Sell cheap the sugar seized in Batangas

by | Mar 1, 2023 | Gotcha

Sugar arrivals between Nov. 16, 2022 and Feb. 28, 2023 are deemed smuggled – photo from DA Inspectorate & Enforcement

GOTCHA

Malacañang would do well to retail the sugar brought into Batangas piers. Its Kadiwa rolling stores for poor consumers would be the best outlets. That will bring down sweetener prices.

Customs is holding 6,500 tons of Thai refined sugar unloaded from three ships last Feb. 9. The 130,000 50-kilo sacks are worth P650 million. Such volume and amount are enough to stabilize inflationary rates that worry President Marcos Jr.

The sugar can be sold through Kadiwa at P50 a kilo, half the prevailing market rate. Motoring daily into different poor communities, the stores can limit the sale to a kilo or two per buyer. Indigents will have ample stocks.

The processed sweetener is safe for home use and agricultural biosecurity. It’s not like raw seafood, chicken, pork, vegetables and fruits that may contain toxins, E. coli, pests and disease. Thailand usually supplies Philippine sugar shortfalls. Plant industry and health officials can check for sanitary/phytosanitary packaging, shipping and storage.

The sugar arrived Feb. 9 in 260 cargo containers without the usual Sugar Regulatory Administration permits. The last shipments under SRA Sugar Order No. 2, of Sep. 13, 2022, should have arrived by last Nov. 15. New arrivals under SRA Sugar Order No. 6, of Feb. 15, 2023, should start only Mar. 1.

Customs need not go through tedious auction procedures. Marcos Jr. has authority to quicken the process. If auctioned, traders would bid low then resell high for profit. By retailing direct to consumers at half the shipment value, government is assured of P325 million income.

The sugar landing at Port of Batangas was first broadcast Feb. 13 on Ted Failon’s top-rating radio-TV show. Entry was then being facilitated through Customs “super green lane” for long-time importers.

That same day Agriculture Asst. Sec. James Layug requested newly appointed Customs chief Bienvenido Rubio for an “alert order and joint 100-percent inspection.” A warrant of seizure and detention was issued, Customs Deputy Commissioner Vener Baquiran said. Shipment consignee is All Asian Countertrade Inc., of sugar trader Michael Escaler.

The following week Senator Risa Hontiveros denounced the landing as “government-sponsored smuggling.”  Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban had authorized it as far back as Jan. 13, she revealed.

Malacañang would do well to retail the sugar brought into Batangas piers. Its Kadiwa rolling stores for poor consumers would be the best outlets. That will bring down sweetener prices.

Customs is holding 6,500 tons of Thai refined sugar unloaded from three ships last Feb. 9. The 130,000 50-kilo sacks are worth P650 million. Such volume and amount are enough to stabilize inflationary rates that worry President Marcos Jr.

The sugar can be sold through Kadiwa at P50 a kilo, half the prevailing market rate. Motoring daily into different poor communities, the stores can limit the sale to a kilo or two per buyer. Indigents will have ample stocks.

The processed sweetener is safe for home use and agricultural biosecurity. It’s not like raw seafood, chicken, pork, vegetables and fruits that may contain toxins, E. coli, pests and disease. Thailand usually supplies Philippine sugar shortfalls. Plant industry and health officials can check for sanitary/phytosanitary packaging, shipping and storage.

The sugar arrived Feb. 9 in 260 cargo containers without the usual Sugar Regulatory Administration permits. The last shipments under SRA Sugar Order No. 2, of Sep. 13, 2022, should have arrived by last Nov. 15. New arrivals under SRA Sugar Order No. 6, of Feb. 15, 2023, should start only Mar. 1.

Customs need not go through tedious auction procedures. Marcos Jr. has authority to quicken the process. If auctioned, traders would bid low then resell high for profit. By retailing direct to consumers at half the shipment value, government is assured of P325 million income.

The sugar landing at Port of Batangas was first broadcast Feb. 13 on Ted Failon’s top-rating radio-TV show. Entry was then being facilitated through Customs “super green lane” for long-time importers.

That same day Agriculture Asst. Sec. James Layug requested newly appointed Customs chief Bienvenido Rubio for an “alert order and joint 100-percent inspection.” A warrant of seizure and detention was issued, Customs Deputy Commissioner Vener Baquiran said. Shipment consignee is All Asian Countertrade Inc., of sugar trader Michael Escaler.

The following week Senator Risa Hontiveros denounced the landing as “government-sponsored smuggling.”  Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban had authorized it as far back as Jan. 13, she revealed.

* * *

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

Can police show guns of 7,000 slain ‘nanlaban’?

Can police show guns of 7,000 slain ‘nanlaban’?

by | Feb 24, 2023 | Gotcha

Duterte, left, and dela Rosa – Getty Images

GOTCHA

Were the 7,000 drug war deaths of 2016-2019 summary executions? Here’s how to check. Make the police present all the slain suspects’ guns.

Seven thousand guns would prove that drug suspects had fought back, endangered police lives and thus had to be dealt lethal force.

Government can then decide whether to bar or let the International Criminal Court probe the killings. No more chatter about ICC jurisdiction over Rodrigo Duterte or breaching Philippine sovereignty.

From the start of Duterte’s presidency a new pattern emerged. Plainclothesmen would conduct street buy-busts. Sensing the trap, suspects pull out rusty .38-caliber revolvers. Quicker on the draw, police shoot them dead.

A variation was the “tok-hang” raid. Uniformed cops would knock (katok) on slum shanties to request (hangyo) dwellers to stop peddling shabu (meth). Fighting back (nanlaban) with rusty .38s, the latter end up lifeless. Photos showed most fatalities in rubber slippers and gartered shorts in which firearms neatly were tucked.

Duterte and then-PNP chief Bato dela Rosa claimed that all were legit actions. In which case, proper procedures presumably were followed. Suspects were known beforehand. Post-operations reports were filed. Time, date, place, team leader, operatives and outcome were narrated. Plus, such details as who felled the suspects, number of shots exchanged and to what hospital or morgue the bodies were brought.

Most important, the brand and serial number of the suspect’s gun.

Post-ops reports are submitted to immediate and higher superiors, receipts properly signed and date/time-stamped. Those records should be extant.

In fatality cases, reports are submitted to PNP-Internal Affairs Service. Deaths are explained or justified. Custody is taken of firearms, unspent bullets, shells and slugs recovered from cadavers or walls and floors. All turnovers of documents and physical evidence are signed.

Assume that only one of every two suspects tried to repel arresters. There should be 3,500 .38s in custody, matched by official reports of serial numbers. If only one in every three, then there should be 2,300 firearms. If one in four, then 1,750 guns. The point is that PNP should have custody and records.

In some cases, suspects allegedly wielded grenades, sumpak (improvised shotguns) or knives. Same reporting, safe-keeping and turnover procedures.

 

Where are all those reports and seized weapons? PNP headquarters should know.

Are those papers and evidence scattered in PNP precincts and operating units nationwide? Or stored in a central arsenal?

The ICC had paused for over a year its probe of alleged extrajudicial killings. That was on the Philippine request for ample time to demonstrate that justice was served.

During that interlude the PNP must have collated data. All post-ops reports should have been reviewed, and serial numbers compiled. Firearms should have been checked against reported serial numbers, and custodies verified.

Now, can the PNP present such master file, especially serial numbers matching with firearms? If so, then the ICC need not waste its time snooping into likely justifiable killings. If not, then PNP generals must themselves welcome and secure ICC investigators.

*      *      *

Energy security top-billed Marcos Jr’s recent Japan visit. The President accentuated the construction of a liquified natural gas facility at the Lopez-owned Batangas energy complex. An 80:20 partnership of First Gen and Tokyo Gas will operate the LNG plant starting June. That will replace the dwindling Malampaya offshore reserves that presently pipes gas to Luzon.

A modified Batangas complex will receive and regasify LNG, First Gen chairman-CEO Federico Lopez announced. Tokyo Gas will assist construction, operation and maintenance, added president-CEO Takashi Uchida. After launch the parties will ink a final investment decision.

First Gen pioneers in clean renewable alternatives to fossil fuels. Its LNG plant is a step to that shift. LNG exudes 40 percent less carbon dioxide than coal and 30 percent less than oil. It doesn’t spew soot, dust or particulates, and emits insignificant amounts of harmful sulfur dioxide and mercury.

Tokyo Gas, with 130 years’ experience in energy including 50 in LNG, has 63,000 kms of pipelines. The First Gen-Tokyo Gas deal is among the first in the Department of Energy’s search for Malampaya replacements. Lopez said the LNG facility will encourage new gas generators. DOE targets such new players to produce 3,000 megawatts of electricity.

* * *

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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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.