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MIA rehab a misdeal; pursuing it only stinks

MIA rehab a misdeal; pursuing it only stinks

by | Nov 27, 2020 | Gotcha

GOTCHA

MIA rehab a misdeal; pursuing it only stinks

Image by Stela Di from Pixabay

Manila International Airport rehab stinks of graft

The Manila International Airport rehab is turning into a misdeal. Too many wrongs were made in the contracting. It is following the path of government’s worst fiascos. No amount of legal patch-ups and PR diversions can cure the infirmities. Pursuing it will only stink – in the midst of the administration’s supposed final push against corruption.

Last week the National Economic and Development Authority’s top officials junked the P109-billion rehab proposal. Finance Sec. Carlos Dominguez and Economic Planning Sec. Karl Chua found many deficiencies in the offer of Megawide Corp. They told endorser Transport Sec. Arthur Tugade that Megawide’s submissions were incomplete. Lacking too were evaluations by the Dept. of Transport and MIA Authority.

Dominguez and Chua co-chair the Investment Coordinating Committee of NEDA. The ICC approves what goes to the NEDA Board for finalizing. The President chairs the NEDA Board.

Dominguez and Chua told Tugade in a letter Nov. 19 “to ensure that all requisite documents, as specified in the attached ICC checklist of documentary requirements for the unsolicited proposal … are complied with by the private proponent in form and substance.”

The ICC co-chairs added that DOTr should evaluate any proposal in accordance with law. That is, the Amended Build-Operate-Transfer Act and its implementing rules and regulations. It was necessary “prior to the endorsement or re-submission of the unsolicited proposal for ICC-NEDA Board action,” they wrote.

Megawide’s prospective sources for financing the project are not guaranteed to materialize

Finance Sec. Carlos Dominguez & Economic Planning Sec. Karl Chua

Manila International Airport rehab stinks of graft

The IRR is specific. DOTr, as sponsor agency, should have first determined if Megawide was qualified legally, technically and financially. Thence it should have turned in complete papers.

Foremost of the defects was financial. Megawide had only P18-billion equity as of December 2019. This was way short of that 30-percent equity, or P32.3 billion, required for the P109-billion rehab.

Two days earlier, Nov. 17, Economic Planning U-Sec. Jonathan Uy already told DOTr U-Sec. Ruben Reinoso the same. Not only was Megawide’s net worth too small for a project that big. It was also wrong to base the 30-percent capital requirement solely on the initial expenses for the rehab. The entire 20-25-year period should be computed. That’s because the contractor still has improvements to fulfill even during the operation stage, when it will increase passenger and other airport fees.

Dominguez and Chua reiterated to Tugade: “The prospective sources of (Megawide’s) financing for the project’s succeeding phases, such as the issuance of treasury shares and preferred shares, projected increase in retained earnings and cash to be generated, are speculative and not guaranteed to materialize. Hence, the financial capability of Megawide is mostly hinged on uncertain sources.”

Next day, Nov. 20, Megawide sought to solve those matters. It elevated technical consultant GMR airport operator of India as 40-percent consortium partner. With GMR, it then declared to be jointly and solidarily liable for any project missteps.

Dominguez and Chua returned Megawide’s deficient offer to Tugade. They left the door open to “resubmission” if all requirements are completed. This encourages DOTr deal packagers to follow up the lacking papers.

But Rep. Jericho Nograles says it’s no longer feasible. The law was not followed from the start. To submit papers piecemeal, every time the NEDA screeners found deficiencies, is yet another error, he says. The prudent option for DOTr, following the Dominguez-Chua letter, is to “ministerially” return the proposal to Megawide. To do otherwise is giving unwarranted benefits to a favored party, he says: “That’s graft.”

Already Nograles is going after the MIA Authority for “according special treatment”. General manager Eddie Monreal gave original proponent status (OPS) to Megawide last July despite lacking papers and scrutiny. Dominguez and Chua discovered the deficiencies, Nograles pointed up to Monreal in a letter last Monday, Nov. 23.

Documents indicate that Monreal got the MIA board to approve the OPS on say-so of DOTr higher-ups. They were remiss in their duty to evaluate the unsolicited proposal, Nograles says.

The OPS is a crucial privilege under the BOT Law. It gives the unsolicited proponent first crack at bagging the project contract. All others must best its offer via Swiss challenge. In case of a superior offer, the original proponent can simply match it and still retain the deal.

​

Legislators saw more MIA violations, such as the lack of stakeholder consultation

Manila International Airport rehab stinks of graft

Granting the OPS without full study violates Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, Nograles says. That section defines as graft: “Causing any undue injury to any party, including the Government, or giving any private party any unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference in the discharge of his official administrative or judicial functions through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence. This provision shall apply to officers and employees of offices or government corporations charged with the grant of licenses or permits or other concessions.”

Megawide’s proposal is to rehab and operate the aging MIA for at least 20 years. The offer was made as far back as March 2018. A consortium of seven conglomerates had beat it to the OPS then. That super-consortium backed out last July after DOTr rejected pleas to redo the terms in light of the pandemic and economic slowdown. The first OPS was rescinded and the second granted within days. Nograles sees undue haste that left no room for thorough review.

Other legislators saw more violations. One was the lack of stakeholder consultation, according to Cong. Jesus Suntay. MIA’s 14,000 employees were slated for dismissal. When this hit the headlines in October, Megawide offered to absorb them.

Nograles has sought investigation by President Duterte’s new mega task force against corruption. Other MIA stinks are expected to surface, like cash shortages, overpriced contracts, lavish life styles and human and drug trafficking.

 

*   *   *

Manila International Airport rehab stinks of graft

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Here’s how the emergency banca repairs will be made

Here’s how the emergency banca repairs will be made

by | Nov 23, 2020 | Gotcha

GOTCHA

Here’s how the emergency banca repairs will be made

Image by Florian Berger from Pixabay

Repair typhoon damaged Philippine boats

Fish are still there for the catch. With bancas fixed, fishers can set out to sea anew to feed their families and communities. That exigency confronts Pacific coastal Bicol. Typhoons Rolly and Ulysses wrecked tens of thousands of artisanal fishing boats. Environmentalists Asis Perez and Norbert Chingcuanco are stockpiling repair materials. As soon as dirt roads are passable, marine plywood, epoxy and rust-resistant copper nails will be distributed to isolated villages.

Fishers’ homes will be visited to assess boat damage on the spot. The broken segments will be measured, and the exact plywood replacements sawed and handed over. Neighbors will help sand, glue and nail up the boat. No time lost, no overhead cost, repair kits are conserved. Then onto the next fisher’s hut. From restored earnings, beneficiaries can later pitch in for marine paint to top off the repairs.

Asis and Norbert will do away with the slow conventional way. That entails first tedious list-up of fishers, then written damage reports. Only then will repair kits be doled. By then fishing villages will be starving.

The aim is to get them back on their feet in no time, Asis says. Unlike farmers who lost their crops, the fishers simply need to refit to sail and fend for themselves. Food relief is coming in trickles.

From experience, Asis estimates each repair to cost P2,000-P3,000. He was Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources head when Super Typhoon Yolanda battered the Visayas in 2013. At once 25,000 bancas were fixed. Another 8,000 new ones were molded from fiberglass on-site in worst hit but reachable barrios. “Project Ahon (Arise)” somehow staved off hunger.

Funds are being raised for fiberglass boats. “No more cutting of trees,” says Asis, a longtime forest conservationist

Atty. Asis Perez

Legal Adviser, Tanggol Kalikasan

Repair typhoon damaged Philippine boats

No longer in command of government resources, Asis cannot replicate those numbers today. With donations, he and fish-entrepreneur Norbert target to help at least a thousand fishers. Materials suppliers are giving substantial discounts as contribution. The fund drive is called “Mini Ahon, Part-2”.

Officials have yet to detail the number of displaced fishers. In Kalabangga district alone in San Miguel Bay, at least 5,000 bancas were damaged, Asis quotes the fisherfolk cooperative. The bay encompasses Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur provinces. Initial news from Catanduanes Island reported about 10,000 ruined boats. Fishers groups in Lagonoy Gulf, Bicol Peninsula; Polillo Island, Quezon; and Dinggalan, Aurora have also sent distress calls.

“What Typhoon Rolly partially damaged, Typhoon Ulysses finished off,” shudders Lorrybel Nachor, Executive Director of Coalition for Bicol Development. The two howlers struck on Nov. 1 and 11. First roofs were torn off homes and shops. Then floods engulfed communities. Farm crops were ruined, fishing bancas smashed. Nearly 200,000 families evacuated to schoolhouses.

Launched last Monday, “Mini Ahon, Part-2” can so far cover 500 repairs. Donations have poured in from as far as California and New Jersey. “There’s joy in giving,” Norbert says. “Even tilapia raisers in Taal Lake, Batangas, on the other side of Luzon, though hard-hit by Typhoon Quinta, readily gave P150,000.” The NGO Tanggol Kalikasan will render a full accounting on its Facebook wall. It is registered with the Bureau of Internal Revenue for tax-credit donations.

After the rush repairs, Asis and Norbert intend to raise new funds for fiberglass boats. “No more cutting of trees,” says Asis, a longtime forest conservationist. Wooden boats last only five years; fiberglass at least 25. “With nearly 300,000 registered bancas nationwide, 6,000 need to be replaced every five years,” Asis says. With built-in floaters, fiberglass versions are unsinkable. Very usable in the West Philippine Sea against trespassing Chinese coastguards that water-cannon Filipino fishers. There are makers in Navotas, Metro Manila.

Donations welcome to “Mini Ahon, Part-2”: Tanggol Kalikasan Inc., Banco de Oro, 004210079580. Please Private Message Norbert Chingcuanco’s Facebook wall for proper accounting.

* * *

Repair typhoon damaged Philippine boats

There’s hope yet for the Bureau of Customs. It won gold for compliance in the Performance Governance System. That’s a leap from where it came — the pile of crookedest agencies around.

The BoC stinks inside and out. Various administrations attempted cleanups top-down. A few changes here and firings there. But BoC kept sliding back.

This time reforms are coming from middle managers, supervisors and staff. Goals are set and scorecards kept on section and individual output. The aim is to professionalize the politicized, factionalized organization. In four years it should be modern and credible.

How? Full automation, including no-contact transacting and customer care. Universal risk consciousness. Strong internal controls. BoC chief Rey Leonardo Guerrero proposed those strategies. Deputy Collector Lourdes V. Mangaoang heads the 11-member transformation core team. The Office for Strategic Management heads the strategy execution. PGS guidance and grading is by the Institute for Solidarity in Asia.

In passing PGS’ Stage-1 Initiation this time last year, BoC also got highest rank. The revalida panel for Stage-2 Compliance commended BoC’s top performance. Panelists were ISA trustee Alex Lacson, Usec. Emmanuel Bautista, Asec. Mary Jean Pacheco, Asec. Dakila Napao, Ryan Evangelista, and Gov. Dakila Carlo Cua.

Next hurdles: Stage-3 Proficiency, and Stage-4 Institutionalization. If rank and file stand steadfast, BoC’s stink can become luster.

* * *

Watch out for the launch of “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government”. The book compiles my columns on corruption in recent years. As well, the illegalities and obsequiousness that encouraged China sea aggression.

 

*   *   *

Repair typhoon damaged Philippine boats

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Presidential aides should stop feeding Duterte’s insecurities

Presidential aides should stop feeding Duterte’s insecurities

by | Nov 20, 2020 | Gotcha

GOTCHA

Presidential aides should stop feeding Duterte’s insecurities

Image by Thomas Wolter from Pixabay

Power-hungry aides feed Duterte’s insecurities

Presidential aides should stop feeding their boss’ insecurities. Malice incites more malice. They make him lose equanimity. Their own inadequacies are exposed. Distrust and despair spread. Filipinos lose.

All humans have fears. Kings, presidents, CEOs are not exempt. The burden of responsibility magnifies self-doubts in the mind of the leader. “It’s lonely at the top,” said American entrepreneur, author, podcaster Tim Ferris. “Ninety-nine percent of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for ‘realistic’ goals.”

During President Rody Duterte’s taped national address in the aftermath of Typhoon Ulysses, an aide was overheard whispering to him. Supposedly a group of students at UP-Diliman were asking “#NasaanAngPangulo?” at the height of the howler. Irked, Duterte threatened to cut the state university’s funding if they went on campus strike. His spox later had to clarify that the President apparently confused the UP uproar with that in nearby private Ateneo. Still, what did the whisperer gain? She likely thinks she became close to the President’s heart. But does she realize the disappointment of tens of thousands of other UP students, professors and staff, including at the Philippine General Hospital, at the prospect of less subsidies?

It was like how Duterte earlier upbraided pandemic medical frontliners. He had confused them with artists singing a Tagalog translation of “Do You Hear the People Sing?” whom he in turn confused with social media hecklers for him to resign. Apparently the daily political-intelligence briefers are giving Duterte a bum steer. What’s their agenda?

Power is coveted, sought and tightly held on to. From the animal kingdom to all human societies, power is the currency of success.

M. Ena Inesi, Assoc. Professor at London Business School &

Adam D. Galinsky, Chair of Mgt. Div. at Columbia Business School

Power-hungry aides feed Duterte’s insecurities

And which aides murmured to him that Vice President Leni Robredo was upstaging him in disaster rescue and relief? All the latter did was help typhoon victims in her limited means. But false whispers provoked Duterte to malign the woman for 20 minutes on national television. The whisperers again likely think they’ve become the boss’ favorites. But they distracted him from using the vast resources of the presidency for emergency action. They antagonized victims and aid donors witnessing the No. 1 official fulminating at the No. 2.

Leaders need A-1 info and advice to make sound judgments. But courtiers harbor personal agenda and can lead to the leader’s downfall, as Rasputin did. “Power is coveted, sought and tightly held on to,” wrote management professors M. Ena Inesi and Adam D. Galinsky. “From the animal kingdom to all human societies, power is the currency of success.” That’s why aides strive to be more proximate to the center than they already are. If fooled by the courtiers, The Prince ultimately is answerable, Machiavelli said.

The well-meaning will tell the leader like it is, in proper context. They will help him overcome insecurities. Psychologist Ellen Hendriksen, PhD, prescribes three antidotes:

  • Avoid emotional reasoning. Don’t mistake feelings for reality. 
  • Stop reading minds. It makes you think others are judging or rejecting you.
  • Don’t take things personally. Most likely it is nothing about you.

To those, spiritual advisers add the factor of the Almighty. They help leaders find solace in the Bible, Koran or Talmud. The devil capitalizes on one’s fears and self-doubts to sow division and discord. Leaders need grounding on a Supreme Being.

Duterte’s predecessors had their ups and downs. Cory Aquino got piqued and sued an opinion columnist for libel. Losing the court case pulled down her political stock.

Fidel Ramos tirelessly won over business and political critics via dialogue. One time he even alighted from the presidential limo to chat with youth protesters. His forehead bled when a placard accidentally hit him. Unperturbed, he simply wiped his wound with a hanky and explained his side of the issue. That won him admiration for sincerity.

Friends recruited a retired management coach to help Joseph Estrada sort out complex state matters. But the adviser quit, unable to stand the “midnight cabinet” of presidential drinking and mahjong buddies, who led to Erap’s downfall.

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo excelled by picking the brains of specialists. She simplified her leadership style thus: “Do your best; let God do the rest.”

Noynoy Aquino deftly defied Chinese sea expansionism. But reliance on an inept economic team blinded him from the spreading corruption. The “#NasaanAngPangulo” clamor began during his tenure with the massacre of the SAF-44.

Duterte would do well to shun yes-men. They only infect him with a siege mentality, as if the whole world is against them. They seem to disbelieve the surveys showing 90-percent approval for the President. Maybe he should ask them why.

*      *      *

My latest book compilation of columns has been completed. “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is about corruption and illegalities that encourage China sea aggression. Watch out for the launch.

Power-hungry aides feed Duterte’s insecurities

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Why not tax ‘e-sabong’? It grosses P1.5 billion a day

Why not tax ‘e-sabong’? It grosses P1.5 billion a day

by | Nov 18, 2020 | Gotcha

GOTCHA

Why not tax ‘e-sabong’? It grosses P1.5 billion a day

Image by ภาณุวัฒน์ ตรีคุณากรณ์ from Pixabay

Tax e-sabong, it grosses billions a day

The new online gambling craze “e-sabong” rakes in a staggering P1.5 billion a day. It is largely untaxed. Finance officials are squeezing only the usual sources of gaming revenues.

Taxmen had better wise up to the new cash cow. Casino and offshore gaming are down due to the pandemic. So are horseracing, lotto, small-town lottery and sweepstakes. Government thus can collect from them only a fraction of what it used to. On the other hand, “electronic sabong” suddenly is popular, also precisely due to COVID-19. Taxmen can make up for the shortfall, if they only figure out how.

The P1.5 billion comprises gross daily bets in live online cockfights. There are two major platform operators, plus a slew of small copycats, sources say. As the operators conservatively net ten percent or P150 million a day, they earn P55 billion a year. If that income is levied the usual one-third, the government can collect an extra P18 billion. That’s just for starters. More taxes can be taken from e-sabong service providers, like government did before the economic slump from casino and offshore gaming ancillaries.

E-sabong is deemed illegal. A 1974 law allows “cockfighting… only in licensed cockpits during Sundays and legal holidays and during local fiestas for not more than three days.” The Philippine National Police frequently warns the public against betting, or else face arrest. The implementing rules need revision. A way must be found to put e-sabong under state regulation by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. Until then, Pagcor must crack down on it. The Bangko Sentral and the Anti-Money Laundering Council have been asked to look into earnings of operators.

Regulating and taxing e-sabong is the only way. Bettors can be protected; government can earn revenues.

Tax e-sabong, it grosses billions a day

           Still, e-sabong thrives 365 days a year. It has been around for a decade, but became a hit due to pandemic precautions. Aficionados need not crowd into cockfight arenas, but watch via smartphone. Avoiding coronavirus exposure, they bet online from a few thousands to millions of pesos. The odds are the usual parehas, walo-dies, walo-anim, onse, tres, sampu-anim or doblado.

Sources detailed the cash volume. Conservatively P5 million in bets are placed per sultada, or fight to the death. A sultada lasts about five minutes, to make 12 fights per hour, grossing P60 million. The games run for ten hours a day, for P600 million gross. That’s only for one online operator. Multiply that by three – two major operators and the combined take of the small ones – and the total daily bets reach more than P1.5 billion.

How is the money divvied up? Ninety percent goes to winner payouts. Operators keep ten percent, or P150 million a day. Part of that goes to any of the 1,634 cities or municipalities that allows e-sabong, videoed in any of the roughly 2,000 cockpits nationwide. Not to forget, the usual grease money to make law enforcers look the other way.

Regulating and taxing e-sabong is the only way. Bettors can be protected; government can earn revenues. For more than a century the government forbade jueteng, to no avail. Subsuming jueteng in 2006 into the charity sweepstakes’ small-town lottery has made billions for the government. Bribes to crooked mayors and cops have become official allocations for local governments and the police.

         No more taxes can be squeezed from POGOs, Philippine offshore gaming operators. Pandemic lockdown choked the live card gaming that caters only to offshore Chinese bettors.

Five operators and 12 service providers packed up in May after two months of standstill. Thousands of Chinese and Filipino workers were laid off. Though allowed up to 30 percent work capacity in June-September, two more POGOs served notice to close shop.

Bayanihan Act-2 hammered the last nail on the coffin. On finance officials’ advice, POGOs suddenly were slapped five-percent franchise tax. The rate was more than the operators’ retained bet earnings of 3.5 percent, from winning payouts of 96.5 percent, sources say. As POGOs folded up, so did ancillaries like call centers, food caterers, card shufflers, shuttle service and others.

The property sector also dipped. Almost 300,000 square meters or 17 percent of total office space will be abandoned by yearend, analyst David Leechiu says. Another 20-30 percent or half a million square meters will be vacated by POGOs next year.

Gone will be Pagcor’s multibillion-peso income from POGOs. From P73.42 million in 2016, Pagcor’s POGO take rose to P3.12 billion in 2017, P6.11 billion in 2018 and P5.73 billion in 2019. Gone too will be corporate and value-added taxes taken by the Bureau of Internal Revenue. As well, fees paid to the Immigration Bureau and the Labor Department.

In shifting focus to e-sabong, finance officials can learn from POGOs. Over-taxation kills the goose that lays the golden eggs.

*      *      *

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Release of dam waters during typhoon ‘criminal’

Release of dam waters during typhoon ‘criminal’

by | Nov 16, 2020 | Gotcha

GOTCHA

Release of dam waters during typhoon ‘criminal’

Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay

Release of dam waters during typhoon ‘criminal’

Stop this blabber about the Filipino being resilient. It’s becoming an excuse to belittle disaster prevention for, after all, Filipinos readily will bounce back. Not only Filipinos but all races are sturdy, proved in separate rise of civilizations. Only a frog in the well thinks otherwise; for it the sky is as big only as the mouth of the well.

Cagayan Valley folk will have nowhere to go but back up. Still that doesn’t mean those who caused last Thursday night their worst flood in 40 years can be cleared of criminal liability. The culprits ignored science. They defied law and protocol. Pay they must.

Culpability can be gleaned from the alibis. Like, as a disaster agency spokesman said, the mighty Cagayan River, onto which Magat Dam spills, was swollen from weeks of rain before Thursday’s typhoon. Too, that eight inflow rivers from Nueva Vizcaya, Ifugao, and Isabela had filled Magat to the brim. Then as dam managers said, they began releasing water from two sluices two days before typhoon, but had to open all seven sluices as it raged, lest the dam break. And, as the Palace spox said, they were not caught flatfooted because they already had prepositioned typhoon relief. The officials were looking everywhere but the imminent harm to hundreds of thousands of people downstream of Magat.

Typhoon water volume is measurable by Doppler radar and other means. A simple call to the weather bureau would have told dam managers what to expect.

Release of dam waters during typhoon ‘criminal’

           That 2020 is a La Niña year, hence extra rainy, was known since June. On Oct. 2 weathermen said the phenomenon would last not only till February, as earlier forecast, but November 2021. Using past La Niña records, dam managers could thus gradually have released more water earlier. This would have washed out to sea. As noted, Magat was filling up, and Cagayan River rising. They need not have waited for typhoon to soak the land before sluice opening.

The sluices should have been opened as early as three to four days before typhoon landfall, scientists said. After all, that’s the Magat management protocol. Besides, typhoon water volume is measurable by Doppler radar and other means. A simple call to the weather bureau would have told dam managers what to expect.

Now the dam managers are saying they issued enough flood warnings. Valley folk supposedly were alerted by radio, tv, text, and email to move to higher ground. But where, how? They opened the sluices in the dead of night. People were fast asleep when the river torrents smashed their homes.

It’s criminal negligence, the lawyer-governor of Cagayan province said. Magat down-flows have been ruining houses, farms, and shops every year.

There are other culprits: Bureaucrats tasked to preserve forests and clear the waterways. They must be grilled about flood-causing denudation and river clogging by industrial-commercial outfits.

Victims are planning to sue for damages. Their officials must support that, not just pat their backs for resiliency and blame all on nature.

* * *

Giving is infectious. Upon receiving cash aid, typhoon victims in Batangas City at once donated a part to similarly stricken folk in faraway Bicol.

Tzu Chi Foundation Phils. organized relief for 260 poor households in Tierra Verde community. Via cash-for-work, they were to clear their lots and roads of mud and rubble, and be fed for the day. In less than a week, the neighborhood was spic and span. Tzu Chi volunteers announced how much each family was to get: P20,000. Residents wept for joy at the unexpected amount, more than two months’ wage for most of them.

Most readily re-donated P1,000. Some, P500. Others ran home to get their piggy banks.

Returning P1,000, Julia de Villa, 64, said she was touched by the compassion of Tzu Chi founder, Dharma Master Cheng Yen. A devotee of Saint Teresa of Calcutta, Julia sets aside monthly donations for a Catholic charity. She said she will now also regularly give to Tzu Chi.

Melvin Dagli, 41, recently lost his overseas work due to the pandemic. After receiving the cash aid from Tzu Chi, he went home then came back with a plastic container filled with coins. It was his family’s emergency fund. He wished to give it to typhoon victims in Bicol, “or to anyone whom Tzu Chi deems in need of help.”

Nora Abacan, 49, cried on receiving P20,000. Two months ago, her husband Dante, 55, fell ill. Dante refused to see a doctor because of unaffordable diagnostics and medicines. Nora said they will use the money to have him undergo tests. Thankful, Dante feels less of a burden to his family.

Beatrice Pajarito, one of Tzu Chi’s cash recipients, shared with other typhoon victims. Their streets and homes have been cleaned so she said it was time to give back.

Beatrice Pajarito, 24, did not expect the huge amount. Her family shared some with other typhoon victims. Their streets and homes have been cleaned so she said it was time to give back.

Esperanza Javier, 50, will buy new furniture and beddings for her family. But she also promised to share with those in need, starting with her P1,000 donation.

Susan May Calalo, 53, doled P1,000, saying: “Tzu Chi’s sincerity in sharing deeply touched me. From the news I saw the situation of our fellowmen in Bicol. We are more blessed compared to them.”

* * *

Former Fisheries agency head Asis Perez and entrepreneur Norbert Chincuangco would rather remain unnamed. But they wish to publicize the need for repair kits, P2,000-P3,000 apiece, to thousands of Catanduanes fishermen whose bancas were wrecked by typhoon.

The fishermen were hit by triple whammy: typhoons Quinta, Rolly, and Ulysses. The project is called “Mini Ahon Part 2.” If able to set out to sea again, the fishermen can feed themselves and no longer rely on relief.

Donations accepted: Tanggol Kalikasan Inc., Banco de Oro: 004210079580. Please private message or post your support on Norbert’s fb wall for proper accounting.

* * *

Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8 to 10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

My book “Exposés: Investigative Reporting for Clean Government” is available on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/Amazon-Exposes

Paperback: https://tinyurl.com/Anvil-Exposes or at National Bookstores.

Release of dam waters during typhoon ‘criminal’

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Law lets China gunboats fire at ships in SCS

Law lets China gunboats fire at ships in SCS

by | Nov 11, 2020 | Gotcha

GOTCHA

Law lets China gunboats fire at ships in SCS

Image by Abrão from Pixabay

Law lets China gunboats fire at ships in SCS

A new law is to permit China’s coast guards to fire at vessels within its “jurisdictional waters”. This steps up Beijing’s aggression in the South China Sea.

The law bolsters China’s bullying. “Jurisdictional waters” encroach Southeast Asian states’ exclusive economic zones that China’s communist rulers illegally claim.

The law exposes China’s duplicity as well. Beijing is in talks with ASEAN neighbors for a Code of Conduct in the SCS. Such CoC will not be a pact of equals. By escalating armed aggression, it is telling small neighbors it wants only docility from them.

“This opens the possibility of coast guard ships using more explicit armed force in disputed areas of the SCS,” the think tank Global Security reported last weekend. Beijing’s new legislation would let coast guards use rifles and deck-mounted weapons at will.

The Chinese Communist Party-Central Military Commission, which oversees the armed forces, first proposed the law in late September. A draft was posted on the National People’s Congress website Wednesday, Global Security’s Drake Long wrote. The measure is open for comments until Dec. 3, after which Congress deliberations commence.

The new law was “designed to intimidate,” analyzed Hunter Stires, a fellow with the US Naval War College. “The CCP is telling other claimant governments that China means business. This is a signal not to challenge China Coast Guard operations in waters that are rightfully the exclusive economic zones of Southeast Asian nations.”

There is no concrete definition of ‘jurisdictional waters’. Nor does China explicitly state what areas it considers to be covered under that term.

Global Security

Law lets China gunboats fire at ships in SCS

Ostensibly the law is to use force against arms-smuggling, drugs-smuggling, hiding and abetting criminals, obstructing law enforcement and illegal economic activity by foreign vessels in China’s “jurisdictional waters.”

But China is expected to use it against legitimate fishing, exploration and patrol vessels of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. China gunboats escort poachers in the EEZs of those five countries. Its coast guards falsely claim the EEZs to be part of China’s “nine-dash line” sea jurisdiction. They machinegun, water-cannon and ram the unarmed civilian craft.

The Hague international court outlawed Beijing’s “nine-dash line” claim in July 2016. It upheld the Philippine complaint that China violated its sovereign rights in occupying Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, concreting seven reefs into island-fortresses and driving away Filipino fishermen.

The new Beijing law only formalizes what Chinese gunboats have been doing for years. Chinese maritime law enforcement claim that it is the five countries’ fishermen, operating in their respective EEZs, who trespass Chinese waters.

In 2013 four civilian maritime surveillance and enforcement agencies were placed under the China Coast Guard. Three years later the Coast Guard was subsumed by the People’s Liberation Army-Navy. The latter also organized thousands of fishing trawlers into a maritime militia to support military aggression in the neighbors’ EEZs.

“There is no concrete definition of ‘jurisdictional waters’,” Global Security noted. “Nor does China explicitly state what areas it considers to be covered under that term.”

China illegally occupies or patrols reefs 800 to 1,000 miles from its coast. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea grants littoral states 200-mile EEZs plus, if scientifically proven, additional 150 miles Extended Continental Shelf. China unilaterally claims two dozen reefs within the five neighbors’ EEZs, and well outside its own EEZ.

“The primary target of this move and China’s activity in the SCS are the (neighbors’) more than 3.7 million local civilian mariners who depend on access to the waters for their daily livelihood,” Long quoted Stires. “The Chinese Communist Party knows that it is the behavior and de facto acceptance by this large civilian population that will decide whether the UNCLOS remains in force in the SCS or is usurped by China’s hierarchical and continental vision of maritime sovereignty.”

The US State Department warned Beijing in July against any more sea aggression on its allies Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. It warned of dire consequences should Beijing persist. The US is also strengthening the Quad Alliance with Japan, Australia and India for free access to the Indo-Pacific. The British, French and Canadian navies buttress US freedom-of-navigation patrols in the SCS.

Beijing has built missile pads, airstrips and naval ports in three of the seven concreted reefs.

Law lets China gunboats fire at ships in SCS

Crucial provisions in an SCS Code of Conduct are status quo and non-military aggression. Before it is signed, Beijing intends to expand its control of reefs and waters, then claim that as start-off point for status quo. It feigns civilian Coast Guard patrols but actually is militarizing the region through its armed forces.

Beijing has built missile pads, airstrips and naval ports in three of the seven concreted reefs. It regularly lands fighters, bombers and troop transports on the artificial islands. From there its Navy and affiliated Coast Guard menace Filipino fishermen and patrol in Pagasa Island, Palawan; Recto Bank and Malampaya offshore gas field.

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Law lets China gunboats fire at ships in SCS

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