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If China gets Taiwan, Phl seas will be next

If China gets Taiwan, Phl seas will be next

by | Feb 8, 2023 | Gotcha

Google Maps

GOTCHA

Luzon’s northernmost Y’Ami Island is only 165 miles from Taiwan. China’s planned invasion of Taiwan threatens Philippine security. The Chinese Communist Party will gain control of nearby air and naval bases. From there it can grab more Philippine reefs, isles, fishing grounds and offshore minerals.

Taiwan’s conquest is a CCP goal. So is South China Sea occupation. A Beijing law obligates CCP to retake Taiwan as a renegade province. Another law authorizes the China Coast Guard to fire at, board or expel foreign vessels from the SCS. The laws spring from the CCP’s concocted ownership of surrounding seas supposedly stolen by imperialists last century.

Taiwan and Luzon form part of the CCP’s First and Second Island Chains of Defense. Since 1989 China has occupied, fortified or blockaded nine features in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. These are Panganiban (Mischief), Kagitingan (Fiery Cross), Zamora (Subi), McKennan (Hughes), Calderon (Cuarteron), Mabini (Johnson South) and Burgos (Gaven) Reefs; Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal and Sandy Cay within Pag-asa territorial waters.

In 2016 President Duterte halted joint Phl-US patrols and exercises in Philippine EEZ within the SCS. He also set aside The Hague’s outlawing of China’s sea expansionism. Those emboldened China to escalate aggression. Give the bully an inch and he’ll take a mile.

The CCP buttressed Panganiban, and stationed fighter-bombers at Kagitingan and Zamora. Coast guards machinegunned Filipino fishers away from Panatag and Sandy Cay, and menaced oil drillers at Recto (Reed) Bank. A Chinese maritime militia steel trawler rammed an anchored Filipino wooden boat nearby. Two years in a row, hundreds of Chinese trawlers swarmed Julian Felipe (Whitsun) Reef.

China taunted Filipino sailors. In 2019, a warship aimed weapons at a Philippine patrol near Malampaya offshore rig. Two others zigzagged then stopped within Tawi-Tawi territorial waters at Sibutu Strait. In 2022, a spy ship trespassed inner waters between Palawan and Panay. In November, near Pag-asa, two gunboats cut a Philippine vessel’s towline of Chinese rocket debris. Last week, a gunboat and two militia trawlers shadowed a Philippine Navy vessel at Recto.

All the while Chinese coast guards harassed Filipino civilian boats resupplying Marines at Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal. Squadrons barged into Philippine airspace. Reconnaissance craft scoured Benham Rise for submarine routes.

Manila’s recourse is to find common cause with defense ally America. Washington aims to avert or repel CCP occupation of Taiwan. Being rushed is relocation to Arizona of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s specialty chips factory. Okinawa and Guam are prepped as watch and stage-off points near Taiwan. Four new US temporary bases inside Philippine camps will complete the circle.

Washington also wants SCS kept open for $5 trillion in annual global commerce. In 2019, US defense chief Mike Pompeo warned China against annexing any more SCS features from the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Malacañang has located the four bases. One will be in twin sites in Cagayan facing Bashi Channel, the narrow passageway between Taiwan and the Philippines to and from SCS and the Pacific Ocean.

Second is in Isabela facing Benham.

Third is Zambales, 123 miles from Panatag.

Fourth is Palawan 120 miles from Panganiban. China’s outposts in Panatag and Panganiban are 700 miles from its mainland.

The four will complement five existing US bases. One is an infantry reservation in inland Nueva Ecija; four are airbases in Pampanga, Palawan, Cebu and Cagayan de Oro. All nine operationalize the 2014 Phl-US Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

Taipei and Manila used to view Beijing’s threats separately. The two issues have now joined.

As Defense Secretary Carlito Galvez told senators Sunday: “[Our] mandate is to secure and defend sovereignty and sovereign rights, such as freedom of our people to fish in our own waters. The Philippines shares the vision of like-minded nations to ensure freedom of navigation and a peaceful, stable and free Indo-Pacific.”

* * *

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Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

Pinoys practicing how to live rich

Pinoys practicing how to live rich

by | Feb 3, 2023 | Gotcha

DepEd Laptops – PNA

GOTCHA

We’ll be an upper middle-income country this 2023, Marcos Jr. beams. Wow, next step: high-income.

We Filipinos have always wanted to be rich. We’ve been practicing how to live rich.

Only last Christmas we were buying onions at P780 a kilo, 22 times the world price. Yayamanin!

Before that, we splurged on laptops for 68,500 public school teachers. We weren’t content with low-end models that went for only P35,046.50 apiece. We opted for high-end, P58,300.

Never mind the gadgets’ slowness, taking an hour or so to boot. We had to enrich the pobresito suppliers. Never mind that only 39,583 teachers received freebies. The 28,917 others can buy their own. We’re rich, right?

And before that, we lavished P42 billion on pricey pandemic supplies. One-third went to Pharmally’s Chinese traders. They worked so hard while we rich folk idled in lockdowns.

World Bank defines upper middle-income as economies with GNI of $4,096 to $12,695. In today’s weak P54:$1, that’s P221,184 to P685,530 annual income per Filipino. Peanuts for the Customs clerk who drives a Porsche.

Only last 2021 we were lower middle-income. Per capita was only $3,640 or, at P50:$1 then, P182,000. Que barbaridad, barato!

If we’re to be upper middle this year, we should stop thinking mendicant. Department of Health must reject COVAX’s one million free bivalent COVID-19 jabs. Following the law of self-fulfilling prophecies, thinking poor will make us poor.

Our economy in 2022 grew 7.6 percent, highest in 46 years. We outdid our ASEAN neighbors, Malacañang trumpets. O, ‘di ba?

Don’t listen to naysayers who remind that the 7.6 percent came after our economy’s worst contraction since the War. Or, that the top nine Filipino oligarchs are wealthier than our population’s bottom half, 55 million of us 110 million.

We’re so rich we can give away fish to Hainanese who can afford only steamed white chicken. Tatay Digong let them trawl in our West Philippine Sea exclusive economic zone. No limit in catch volume, area or duration. Our 350,000 WPS fishermen stay ashore, lest their anchored wooden boats get in the way of Chinese steel trawlers.

We’re letting Chinese into our East Philippine Sea EEZ too. Last week our coastguards rescued seven of them whose crippled vessel drifted for days in waters off Guiuan, Samar. “As a responsible member of the international community of civilized maritime nations, we render aid to all judicious users of the seas within our search and rescue region,” we brag.

Those seven were not poaching in but “judiciously using” our 13 million-hectare Benham Rise. Off Guiuan is Homonhon Island, where natives 500 years ago welcomed and fed Magellan and crew. We’re hospitable to foreign tourists, even rowdy ones.

We’re so rich we throw away P9 billion on shady voting machines that reinstate political dynasts every election. Plus, P180 billion a year in ghost flood controls for them to pocket instead of solving deadly deluges. We’re establishing a Maharlika Investment Fund with which to squander our wealth. After which, we’ll have Charter change to keep the dynasts in office forever.

* * *

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

Na-budol: 8 ‘appointees’ scammed in fake positions

Na-budol: 8 ‘appointees’ scammed in fake positions

by | Feb 1, 2023 | Gotcha

(PNA photo blurs out faces of the eight “appointees” talking to Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Guevara)

GOTCHA

written on February 1, 2023

 

It’s the sign of the times when scammers are themselves scammed.

Eight would-be presidential appointees paid big sums to be sworn into office last Friday. But to their chagrin, there was no such scheduled event at Malacañang.

They’d been had.

The eight arrived as a group at 2 p.m. They had received notices from supposed Palace Undersecretary Eduardo Diokno and Asst. Sec. Johnson See. President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. purportedly was to lead their oathtaking.

Why they had paid for the positions is obvious. They intended to bask in glory and make money out of being ambassador to The Netherlands, Transportation assistant secretary, Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority board member, Clark International Airport Corp. president and chief executive officer, Early Childhood Care and Development Council executive director and vice chair, Clark Development Corp. director and Port of Batangas manager.

An evildoer can use any public office for personal gain. A signature, a procurement, even delaying document release can be profitable. Murmurs hound Marcos Jr.’s admin about greedy officials extorting hundreds of millions of pesos in exchange for key positions.

The scammers surely knew that. They also knew whom to victimize. The eight fell for it.

 

Apart from warning the public against scammers, the Presidential Communications Office gave scant details. The eight were unnamed. Likely, however, they came in their best barong and terno. Spouses and offspring must have accompanied them. Reservations and down payments could have been made for self-congratulatory banquets.

No swearing-in was in the President’s schedule, Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Hubert Guevara said. Nor were there Malacañang aides surnamed Diokno or See.

The eight were advised to cooperate with the NBI probe. Still, what befell them makes people thank poetic justice. It also reminds of “Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves.”

Like most Filipinos, Ali Baba had been victimized many times over. His greedy elder brother Cassim took over their late father’s business, leaving Ali Baba to fend for himself as woodcutter. Ali Baba came upon the cave where 40 thieves hid their loot. Overhearing the magic words, he entered the hideout when they left, took a bag of gold coins, leaving behind other treasures.

Cassim found out and pressured Ali Baba to reveal the cave’s location. Hauling off precious metals and jewelry, Cassim forgot the magic words and was trapped inside. The thieves caught, killed him and hanged his body by the entrance to scare away future intruders. Ali Baba recovered the body and hired a mortician for the burial.

The thieves realized that someone else knew their secret. Searching the town, they zeroed in on Ali Baba and attempted several times to murder him. Foiled each time, it was the thieves who ended up dead. And Ali Baba took over their hidden wealth.

If only Filipinos can triumph like Ali Baba against the corrupt.

* * *

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

What must Marcos do after 2 China incursions

What must Marcos do after 2 China incursions

by | Jan 27, 2023 | Gotcha

(PNA photo)

GOTCHA

Chinese coast guards have menaced Filipino fishermen twice within a week from President Marcos Jr.’s Beijing state visit.

First was at Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal off Palawan. China Coast Guard steel vessel 5204 and a rigid-hull inflatable craft drove away a wooden Fili-pino boat. Second was at

Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal off Zambales. Two Chinese rubber boats harassed hungry Masinloc townfolk. (Reported in this column: https://tinyurl.com/Panatag11Jan23)

Ayungin and Panatag are in the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone and 700 miles distant from China. But illegally claiming the whole South China Sea, Beijing gunboats intimidate, board, ram, water cannon and machinegun civilian boats.

Right after his Jan. 3-5 visit, Marcos Jr. trumpeted a supposed deal with China President Xi Jinping. “It’s really an agreement that China will not stop our fishermen from fishing. That’s it. Very simple.”

Learning of China’s bullying, he wasn’t so sure anymore. “Hopefully our counterparts on the other side can bring it to President Xi’s attention. A bilateral group is working on issues about [SCS]. I propose to bring that group to a higher level.”

Marcos Jr. must realize: Xi cannot be trusted. Beijing habitually reneges on accords. It signs only in pretense, to make the other side lower their guard. It then pursues secret agendas.

 

Xi is secretary general of the conspiratorial China Communist Party. Lying to foreigners and his own people – say, the exaggerated efficacy of China’s COVID-19 vaccines – is second nature. Mao Zedong said a good communist is a propagandist.

Beijing targets to seize Philippine and others’ EEZs: Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam. Diplomacy is illusory. Despite its 2002 declaration of conduct with ASEAN, Beijing has grabbed 25 SCS reefs, nine of them Manila’s. It fortified the Philippines’ Panganiban (Mischief) Reef and Vietnam’s Woody Island.

Beijing withheld from Manila results of the 2005-2008 Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking of petroleum and minerals in Philippine seabed. Using the study, it filed with the UN a nine-dash line SCS claim.

In 2012, China warships broke a simultaneous withdrawal from Panatag and chained off the shoal’s lagoon. Beijing paved a fighter-bomber airstrip on Ma-nila’s Kagitingan (Fiery Cross)

Reef. It ignored The Hague court 2016 ruling that China’s nine-dash line violates the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. It even escalated sea aggression.
In September 2016, Xi got president Duterte to allow Chinese fishers into Recto (Reed) Bank in exchange for Filipinos entering Panatag. Satellite, personal and official accounts attest that Filipinos are chased away from Panatag till today.

But no limits were set on the area, volume and duration of Chinese fishing in Recto. In 2019, a Chinese steel trawler even rammed an anchored Filipino wooden boat and abandoned 22 fishers thrown into the cold night sea. Duterte’s admin received only $400 million out of Xi’s promised $30-billion loans.

Marcos Jr. must beware of China’s military grey zone tactics. Like, blockade of Sandy Cay within Pagasa Islands territorial boundary by seemingly innocuous Chinese fishers who are actually People’s Liberation Army maritime militia.

Beware too of Chinese influencing in foreign governments, industries, academe and media. Adept at infiltration and disinformation, Communist China can cause appointment of sympathetic defense-military officers and removal of unfriendly or pro-US ones.

Rule of Law is best in dealing with the SCS dispute’s political, economic and diplomatic complexities, former foreign secretary Albert del Rosario counsels. Marcos Jr. must stand by

UNCLOS and The Hague ruling. To enforce the latter, del Rosario suggests that Marcos Jr. bring it up constantly to the UN General Assembly.

Rule of Law can counter China’s “arbitrariness and unilateralism.” Examples: Beijing’s claim to five features in the Philippine Rise by virtue of giving them Chinese names. Or Chinese warship trespass in Philippine internal waters like Sulu Sea and Sibutu Strait. Or embedding of 3,000 Chinese spies in Filipino organizations, trades and communities.

Joint oil exploration and development must be under Philippine, not Chinese, law. Marcos Jr. must shut down pollutive Chinese mines. Better still, domesti-cally process the ore and

export the metals.
While inking modus vivendi with CCG, the Philippine Coast Guard must also install machine guns and water cannons. The AFP must revive joint patrols and exercises with allies in Philippine EEZ. Chinese harassment of Filipino scientists in Recto’s Sampaguita gas field must be repelled. The Marine outpost at Ayungin Shoal must be rebuilt.

* * *

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

Customs, agriculture bigwigs avoiding Congress hearings

Customs, agriculture bigwigs avoiding Congress hearings

by | Jan 25, 2023 | Gotcha

(PNA photo)

GOTCHA

Summon Customs and Agriculture chiefs. Subpoena full records. Require video proofs of smashing of smuggled foods. Swear attendees to truth. Televise hearings.

Lawmakers must show teeth in probing agricultural smuggling and hoarding. Niceties don’t get answers. Prices are skyrocketing and supplies dwindling of onions, vegetables, sugar, eggs and meats.

From posted farmgate rates, producers obviously aren’t the culprits. Consumers can’t be officiously insulted to “buy by the piece if you can’t afford a kilo.” Market vendors shouldn’t be jailed for modest markups beyond “suggested” retail prices.

“Why hasn’t Customs Commissioner Yogi Ruiz attended any of our agri-smuggling hearings?” Sen. Imee Marcos wondered Monday, Jan. 16. Ruiz was in Batangas personally examining contraband sugar. Low in the totem pole, Asst. Comm. Vincent Maronilla tried to explain matters like lack of intelligence and investigation of long exposed traffickers. Although a lateral transferee from the Drug Enforcement Agency, it’s Ruiz who must answer.

Ruiz was also a no-show at the Jan. 23 hearing of the House ways and means committee on agri-smuggling. On training in Japan, he was also absent the next day at the agriculture and food committee inquiry on the nine-fold increase in onion prices. It had to be canceled.

Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban has been snubbing invitations. As self-appointed agriculture secretary, President Marcos Jr. cannot be called to the co-equal Congress.

Panganiban’s seniority in rank and age – 83 – presupposes knowledge of all department works. To him report 75 under- and assistant secretaries, bureau, subsidiary and regional heads.

Having himself represented by a USec seconded from NEDA and a spokesman wasted Congress time. “Marcos Jr. must appoint a permanent secretary” with time and expertise, Sen. Grace Poe stated.

Their absenteeism leaves wrong policies and poor planning un-scrutinized, Senators Koko Pimentel and Nancy Binay noted. Rep. Nicanor Briones, Agricultural Sector Alliance party, recalled that former secretary William Dar had also boycotted Congress hearings. Congress’ oversight function is blunted. Inadequate investigations cannot aid legislation.

 Issues merit congressional scrutiny:

• Absence of photos or videos of destruction of smuggled fresh foods, along with reports on venue, date and witnesses.

Subpoena duces tecum will compel Customs to submit those legal requirements. Burying is a must for contraband foods without sanitary/phytosanitary inspection certificates. SPSICs protect consumers from toxins and E. coli, and farms from infestations like weevil, African swine fever, bird flu.

• Sudden transfer last Jan. 17 of the X-ray Inspection Project to the Office of the Commissioner from the Deputy for Intelligence.

Vital in detecting contraband, XIP should be under Intelligence or Enforcement for efficiency, check and balance. Last time it was placed under the commissioner, tons of shabu slipped past Customs at Manila International Container Port inside magnetic lifters, 2017 and interspersed with sacks of tapioca, 2018.

• Customs decides whether or not to charge a smuggler with economic sabotage.

Such discretion must be removed, said Sen. Cynthia Villar, agriculture committee head. Customs merely inserted it in the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the 2016 Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act. Deemed as heinous, nonbailable life-term offense is smuggling of at least P1 million in vegetables, sugar, poultry, pork or P10 million in rice.

From Customs press releases, two repeat offenders are Frankie Trading Enterprises and Primex Export-Import Producer. Four times last July they sneaked into Cagayan de Oro 22 cargo containers of onions, each worth P3 million, over the threshold amount for economic sabotage. No indictment. Contrabands were condemned. No photo/video of the destruction. Worse, at least six containers were brought out of Customs in September and retailed in Davao and Surigao.

• Demand and supply miscalculations.

DA bureaus for plant, animal, fish and aquatic resources must improve data gathering on consumption and harvest. As well, on owners and contents of cold storages. If owners are also hoarders, importers and smugglers, then that’s proof of cartels, said Rep. Joey Salceda, ways and means chairman.

Misinformed on available stocks, Marcos Jr. first rejected then hurriedly imported sugar and onion. Misinformed again on the timing, he imported right when cane and onion growers were harvesting. Plummet of farmgate rates bankrupted them.

• Poor monitoring of food types and volumes that enjoy special low duties till end-2023.

Briones cited pork, for which President Duterte slashed duties to only 15-25 percent to lower consumer prices and offset the ASF epidemic. Technical smuggling ensued. Of 710,000 tons in 2022, only 300,000 were correctly declared as pork. More than 410,000 tons were mis-declared as offal (innards, tongue, cheek, brain), extenders not for public retail, subject to only 2 percent duty. “Unsatisfied with the lower 15-25 percent duty, importers-smugglers lied to enjoy only 2 percent, yet sold their contraband at high pork rates,” Briones said.

• Customs and DA resist revival of a Malacañang-level anti-smuggling task force that includes industry leaders.

Amendments must be enacted to form such a task force for food, medicines, electronics, apparel, construction materials, etc. PNP, NBI, ISAFP, PDEA will assign crack teams in support.

* * *

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

Video disproves BBM: China still barring Filipino fishers

Video disproves BBM: China still barring Filipino fishers

by | Jan 20, 2023 | Gotcha

Screenshot taken from the footage of the fishers in San Salvador isle, Masinloc, Zambales

GOTCHA

China still forbids Filipinos from fishing at Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea. A video nine days ago shows Chinese coastguards menacing them on approaching their traditional fishing ground. It belies President Marcos Jr.’s claim that Beijing “will not stop our fishermen.”

The fishers are from San Salvador isle, Masinloc, Zambales. During a respite from weeks-long torrential rains, they had sailed Jan. 11 to Panatag for food and income. They caught nothing, leaving to avoid usual Chinese machinegun fire and water cannonade.

The phone videographer requested anonymity. He and companions are with Bigkis Mangingisda that groups dispossessed fishers of Zambales, Bataan, Pangasinan and Ilocos. Ria Teves of rural NGO Peoples Development Institute shared the video.

Days ago Marcos Jr. told reporters of an accord with China President Xi Jinping to let Filipinos fish freely. “It’s really an agreement that China will not stop our fishermen from fishing. That’s it. Very simple,” he said.

Malacañang has yet to detail that deal made during Marcos Jr.’s state visit to Beijing on Jan. 3-5. International maritime lawyer Jay Batongbacal, PhD, said the wording should not be a selloff.

Only 123 miles from Zambales in Luzon, Panatag is within the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone and 700-miles distant from China. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea grants coastal states EEZs for sole use.

China seized Panatag in 2012 on unfounded claim of a nine-dash line over the whole South China Sea. Gunboats chained off the mouth to the shoal’s lagoon. Thousands of Filipinos lost livelihoods in the Western EEZ.

Manila complained to The Hague arbitral court, which in 2016 trashed Beijing’s expansionism. China intensified its sea aggression.

Beijing habitually lies; Manila always falls for it. In September 2016, after a visit, then-president Duterte announced that China will no longer harass Filipinos at Panatag. A month later satellite photos showed China gunboats still controlling the lagoon, with Filipinos sailing at a distance.

 

In June 2019 a Chinese steel trawler rammed an anchored Filipino wooden boat at Recto (Reed) Bank, 120 miles off Palawan. The trespasser sped away, leaving 22 Filipinos floating in the cold night waters.

Calling it a “little accident”, Duterte justified the Chinese presence. He had allowed them into Recto in exchange for Xi letting Filipinos into Panatag – which never happened.

Senator Risa Hontiveros and former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio said Duterte had no authority to give away Philippine EEZ. No limits were set in fishing area, volume and duration. The presidential spokesman retorted that the deal was only verbal.

In mainland Zambales, a Chinese-controlled miner has been despoiling nickel ore without permit. Yinglong Steel Corp. reportedly has dug up 250,000 tons of ore worth P1.3 billion from Masinloc, Botolan, Sta. Cruz and Candelaria, up to Infanta, Pangasinan.

Residents liken Yinglong’s destructive mining to that of three Chinese firms a decade ago. Exposed in this column, Jiangxi Rare Earth & Metals Tungsten Group, Wei-Wei Group and Nihao Mineral Resources Inc. brought misery to the shore towns. Forests were denuded, hillsides leveled, rivers choked and seas polluted.

Dust and emissions from thousands of dump trucks, bulldozers and backhoes sickened townsfolk, health officials confirmed.

In 2021 Candelaria residents decried how Yinglong turned Uacon lake reddish-brown. Uacon used to be Central Luzon’s cleanest lake. The Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources discovered that mining had heavily silted three lake tributaries. The SAVE Candelaria Movement failed to eject Yinglong.

Infanta artisanal fishermen can no longer catch in the “red sea”, said PDI’s Teves. “They’re going hungry.”

Last Monday, Yinglong attempted to ship out to China 50,000 tons of nickel laterite worth P250,000. Customs and coastguards stopped the vessel from departing Masinloc wharf. It had no export permit.

Yinglong is at the center of an official tug-o-war. In March-April 2022 DENR’s Mines and Geosciences Bureau ordered it to cease. It had no environmental compliance certificate (ECC), MGB declared. It was only using an ECC issued to Westchinamin from which it acquired nickel extraction rights.

By law actual miners, not predecessors, must have ECCs. Westchinamin claims it has been paid only $850,000 of $20-million sale to Yinglong. It wants DENR to delist Yinglong.

On Dec. 23 deputy executive secretary for legal affairs Anna Liza Logan overturned MGB’s closure order. Dec. 29, DENR’s Environment Management Bureau issued Yinglong export permits.

Early this month two DENR undersecretaries, through MGB, recalled the permits. Customs seized the cargo. Yinglong cried harassment by MGB director Wilfredo Moncano. Its president Eugene Co had complained to the Ombudsman about MGB’s P10-million extortion in October 2021 for mining licenses. Yinglong paid an initial P3 million.

China uses nickel for military weaponry and spyware. Main source: Philippines, the world’s second largest nickel producer. It uses those weapons and spyware against Filipinos.

Ten years ago Masinloc civic leaders sought Supreme Court help against Jiangxi, Wei-Wei and Nihao. Carpio, as acting Chief Justice, issued a Writ of Kalikasan. Police and DENR shut down the destructive mines. Small-scale miners retook their sites from the Chinese giants.

* * *

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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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.