nosi balasi: Ambout that was a good one...i want to reveal a part of myself to you...i was a former member of TNTNM-...
jcc: Speaking of Political Butterflies, I wrote in my book: The May 2007 midterm elections of Congressmen, Senators...
nosi balasi: goods and services in question; 1) education 2) shortage of rice 3) oil prices 4) fertilizer fund 5)...
Ambuot Saimo: Transparency in government transactions? We must be dreaming. The name of the game is "PAKAPALAN". But...
nosi balasi: a friend of mine forwarded this mail to me. A little boy goes to his dad and asks, "What is politics?"...

Latest Message 18 hours, 22 minutes ago

nosibalasi : hello everyone...chill out.
guest_9928 : Impact of oil price increase There appears to be a contemporary global thinking that embraces the view that the oil game is over. Stated simply, those rounds of oil price increases – from $30 to $40 to $50 to $60 to $70 per barrel of oil – will hit $100 per barrel. And there seems to be a truism on this prevailing mindset given that oil price increases were never seen falling in the world market. In the end, there is an evolving ‘economic world war’ between the oil-producing cou
Alecks : I believe the issue is not whether we like or dislike some people in the blog. If we are to nurture a vibrant online community here, dissenting views (since we all don't think alike) will aways be a necessary given. Yet whatever differences in opinions we may have, always the greater virtue is in practicing tolerance and respect. Hackneyed as it may sound, we at the PCIJ maintain that it is okay to disagree, but let us do so without being disagreeable.
jcc : bye, really cannot get something out of this.
guest_7519 : KUULLIIIIT...!
jcc : btw, you can identify the issues and sarcasm in my post but you could hardly identify your person.
jcc : funny because you do not see the outright insult and personal diatribes dish out at me by your friend, Mr. Guest. As Jr_Lad said, i only threw garbage back when provoked.
guest_7519 : jcc, I think you're good man but the problem is that you introduced "sarcasm" into this blog by "judging" other peoples comments. Who are you to judge other people's opinion? We are free world and people can voice their opinion to a subject matter no matter how wierd it is. Voltaire once said, "What you're going to say maybe against me, but I'll defend you to my death your right to say it." AMEN!!
jr_lad : well, peace to both of you. i used to get into heated arguments w/ some commenters here before but i'm sober now.
jcc : or ask your other friend guest to name himself, that way you can establish your credibility.
jcc : all you can do is to name yourself the way i name my self in this blog. nothig so hard about it.
jcc : jr_lad, i think it is my fault too in raising to public consciousness personal matters brought out by guest. but as i said, i have a mischievous side of my person too.
guest_7519 : jr lad, i said those things bec. it seems jcc can't accept the truth that the "guests" here is not the same person as he imply to be. Haaay.... what can i say?
jr_lad : it seems it's really personal between jcc and guest. i find nothing wrong with jcc's comments here in the threads unless he's provoked. that's my observation. but i'm not new to this kind of animosity. it used to be this way 2-3 years ago w/ so many commenters here.
jcc : this is what i like with the guest account, he gets flustered and irritated easily.. there you are alecks, garbage is on the way.. timber !!!!
guest_7845 : He he he...it's a sad thing that there's no hospital for "tanga".
guest_7845 : Alecks, I think we can put this to rest by having our bloggers vote on whether they "like" jcc or not.
guest_34_74 : i share with the sentiments of jcc. but this is actually jcc. so you see you can tweak this digital space and make a fool of yourself in believing that you are a third party trying to share your own sentiments with yourself.
guest : i share with the sentiments of jcc but this post is actually made by jcc
jcc : how do we know that guest 3972 and guest and 1474 are not one of the same banana? but if you review this chat, i have never throw garbage at someone unless in retaliation.
guest_3972 : Alecks, I share some of the sentiments of Guest 1474. I think Mr. Camano is "too much" for this blog and should look for some place best suited to his "agenda". Virtually, he is using this site for some personal reasons. For one thing, nobody put a "link' OR direct you to his own site unless of course its an interesting story affecting our everyday lives or that of the general public or if you are a noted writer like MLQIII. Mr. Camano is mistaking this site as akin to "chat. msn.ch". I
jcc : alecks, i really have no intention of prolonging this exchange with my best friend, Mr. Guest, because there is no redeeming value in this exercise, but the mischievous side of my personality took over and tends to put more fire on someone you know is likely to get fired up. i guess i have not really grown.
jcc : alecks, btw, how do you ban a guest?
jcc : alecks, that is your editorial prerogative and i respect that. rest assured that i only throw brickbats to return the favor...
Alecks : This is the last time I'm going to issue a warning about this continued misuse of our blog as a platform for settling old scores. Any further abuse will be dealt with accordingly, either with the removal of posted comments, or worse, a ban. We've banned a repeat offender once and we won't hesitate to do it again given the present circumstances.
jcc : Last time I interview also a person with the last name Guest. He told me also that he is your younger brother and he is ashamed of your verbal diarrhea in this blog and your pathetic life. You see, you have no regard to the credulity of the readers. You think that everything you post should be believed. Support your comments with verifiable facts.
guest_7427 : Camano, you are pathetic. I once interviewed a young person with your surname. I asked him if he was related to you. "Only by birth," the young person said. He was too embarrassed to be identified with you. Now, reading your posts here, I realize why: You are a hypocrite. I see you haven't learned your lesson. No wonder your law partner was so furious with you and wanted nothing to do with you.
JCC : and i found the Supreme Court too corrupt to find me corrupt.
JCC : look who is talking? i put my person and my family in my blog so people can read through our lives and for them to determine if we are honorable or not. you hide under guest account because your life is so pathetic and would not want the public to know that behind your sanctimonious posturing is the personificatoin of lucifer himself.
guest14_74 : why? is there a cure for evil, camano? i won't call you attorney. the supreme court found you too corrupt to practice law.
JCC : bye, i have to take my meds now.
JCC : i remember your face clearly that night because you were all white, fearing that you will be locked up in a stockade.
JCC : did your wife divorce you because you have no place where to stay after you were ejected?
guest14_74 : you will always be remembered for running away and then writing a so-called book to denounce those whom you had no courage to face. poor you. termites, indeed!
JCC : thanks for reminding of my meds..:)

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House facelift to cost taxpayers P1 billion; fund source a puzzle

Posted by: Alecks P. Pabico | July 26, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Filed under: Image Galleries, Congress Watch, Governance, Investigative Reports

THE Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism’s latest report looks into the massive renovation project at the House of Representatives in time for the eighth state of the nation address (SONA) of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Nograles says the long years of disrepair of the Batasan complex have made the renovation project necessary.

Six months on the job, Nograles is showing that more than the substance of reforms he pledged in February after ousting long-time Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. with the backing of lawmakers loyal to Arroyo, he is given to form and big spending.

While initial reports placed the tag price at P200 million, the PCIJ discovered that the prettified House will actually cost taxpayers some P1 billion.

It is also not sure where the P200 million Nograles requested and secured from Arroyo was sourced as there is no allocation in the 2008 budget for the House renovation project. A senior budget official says the agency had not issued a Special Allocation Release Order (SARO) for the House.

Read on at pcij.org.

(Photos taken by Tita Valderama)

batasang pambansa, gloria macapagal arroyo, house of representatives, prospero nograles, sona, state of the nation address

A politician at the helm of NEDA

Posted by: Alecks P. Pabico | July 25, 2008 at 9:06 am
Filed under: Governance, In the News

WILL this be the end of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) as we know it?

At a forum at the University of the Philippines School of Economics in October last year, Professor Solita Monsod, the first post-Marcos NEDA director general who served under the fledging administration of Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, issued a stern warning to the public as the agency reeled from the public perception it had become a rubber stamp of Malacañang. This was amid the fallout from the scrapped controversial national broadband network (NBN) deal. (see Has NEDA Gone Nada?)

Ralph Recto [photo courtesy of Senate website] If NEDA is worth saving at all, Monsod had said then, it is imperative to ensure that the right person heads it, implying that an economist should again be put on top of of the country’s premier social and economic development planning and policy coordinating body.

Seeing how NEDA’s independence and integrity had been compromised in the process of approving the $329-million NBN project under then director general Romulo Neri, Monsod, however, pointed to an even graver threat. “It’s the beginning of the end of NEDA,” she said, “when it’s headed by a politician.”

Malacañang apparently paid no heed to Monsod’s unsolicited advice as Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita announced last Wednesday that former senator Ralph Recto, a defeated administration senatorial candidate in the 2007 elections, is immediately taking over NEDA as the new socioeconomic planning secretary.

gloria macapagal arroyo, malacañang, national broadband network, national economic and development authority, NEDA, philippines, ralph recto, romulo neri, solita monsod

In pursuit of openness and transparency

Posted by: Karol Ilagan | July 23, 2008 at 8:55 am
Filed under: Access to Information, Congress Watch, Governance, In the News

INVOKING executive privilege over the people’s constitutional right to know has become a trademark of the Arroyo administration.

The recent Supreme Court decisions restricting the public disclosure of information on the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) negotiations and the scandal-ridden national broadband (NBN) deal have been clear signs of the continuing struggle for transparency and accountability in governance.

The key problem, according to the Access to Information Network (ATIN), is the lack of legislation.

A growing network of transparency and good governance advocates, ATIN has been pushing for the passage of the Freedom of Information Act, which is aimed at changing the existing tradition of secrecy and promoting openness among government officials.

Read ATIN’s position paper commenting on the proposed freedom of information bills in the Senate (SB Nos. 16, 109, 576, 592, and 1578).

The bill, which recently passed the Lower House, is deemed necessary especially at “a critical time when information held by government has been the subject of conflicting claims.” The deliberation has now shifted to the Senate where a counterpart bill is pending.

Limits of the constitutional guarantee

“While our Supreme Court has confirmed that this provision (right to information) is self-executing, it is far from complete,” said Rep. Lorenzo “Erin” Tañada III, one of the bill’s main proponents. “Its effective implementation has for the past two decades suffered from the lack of the necessary substantive and procedural details that only legislature can provide.”

1987 constitution, access to information network, arroyo administration, freedom of information act, philippines, right to information, supreme court executive privilege

SC ruling on JPEPA: Shackled by ‘entropy of the old tradition of secrecy’

Posted by: Alecks P. Pabico | July 21, 2008 at 11:28 am
Filed under: The Judiciary, Access to Information, Congress Watch, Governance

“WE must overcome the entropy of the old tradition of secrecy,” counseled Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno in his lengthy argument on the petition to have the government disclose details of the negotiations between the Philippines and Japan in relation to the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA). Obviously, it was an advice that went largely unheeded as majority of his colleagues upheld for a second time the Arroyo government’s invocation of executive privilege.

Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno This time, 10 justices voted to declare the government’s claim of secrecy of the JPEPA negotiations as valid, saying that diplomatic negotiations in this particular case constitute privileged information, thus making it an exception to the right to information and the policy of full public disclosure.

In March, nine justices also overruled the Chief Justice by upholding the executive privilege invoked by former socioeconomic planning secretary Romulo Neri over three questions asked by senators investigating the scandal-tainted $329-million NBN deal. The justices, mostly appointees of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, argued that the said questions were covered by the presidential communications privilege.

Puno’s well-argued dissent on the JPEPA ruling however illustrates, rather regrettably, how most of our magistrates are seemingly shackled by archaic mindsets in this day and age. First, they appear to be out of touch with contemporary developments in international trade negotiations. Second, they also have an apparent low regard for the people’s right to information despite its elevated status as a constitutional right under the 1987 Constitution.

Read Chief Justice Puno’s dissenting opinion.

Penned by Justice Conchita Carpio Morales, the majority’s decision that diplomatic negotiations are covered by the doctrine of executive privilege is based on the traditionally held privilege of the President as the “sole organ of the nation in its external relations, and its sole representative with foreign nations.”

arroyo administration, chief justice reynato puno, executive privilege, japan philippines economic partnership agreement, jpepa, right to information, secrecy, supreme court

As inflation soars and peso slips, will Arroyo tweak 2009 budget?

Posted by: Tita Valderama | July 18, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Filed under: The Economy, Congress Watch, Governance, In the News

WITH the rates of inflation, foreign exchange and interest going haywire, preparing the government’s budget proposal for 2009 must be giving some people in Malacañang terrible migraine attacks these days.

Ramdam ang Kaunlaran banner [photo courtesy of pia.gov.ph]

Do Filipinos really feel progress as trumpeted by Arroyo’s “Ramdam ang Kaunlaran” banners? [photo courtesy of pia.gov.ph]

These macroeconomic assumptions for the national budget are now in a state of constant flux, and the Executive branch might need to do more than just fudge or fib or tweak numbers, to surpass two hurdles for its budget proposal: One, submit a realistic and honest budget proposal for 2009, a year before the May 2010 synchronized national and local elections. And two, submit its proposal to Congress within its August 28 deadline, or 30 days after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo delivers her eighth state of the nation address (SONA).

On both counts, two experts on the government budgeting process have raised serious doubts that Arroyo and her economic team would do well.

The experts, former budget secretary Benjamin E. Diokno and former national treasurer Leonor M. Briones, said that amid signs of an economic slowdown, the further depreciation of the peso, and the relentless uptick in oil and commodity prices, one thing is certain — Arroyo’s goal of a balanced budget in 2009 is a goner.

At a “Budget Advocacy” forum for journalists held in Quezon City Friday, 18 July, Diokno and Briones noted that recent economic events have rendered moot and incorrect all the macroeconomic assumptions prescribed for budget calls and hearings held over the last few months on the 2009 budget of government agencies.

All these assumptions, they said, have either increased or decreased dramatically, and beyond all expectations. Last June, for instance, the rate of inflation climbed to 11.4 percent, more than double the 4.9 percent recorded in January. The Arroyo administration, in its budget calls, enrolled an annual projection of four to five percent inflation this year, from 2.8 percent in 2007.

2009 national budget, benjamin diokno, gloria macapagal arroyo, leonor briones, state of the nation address

Low investment in education consigns millions to illiteracy

Posted by: Jaileen F. Jimeno | July 17, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Filed under: Governance, In the News

THE beauty of using percentages is that it hides what is absolutely ugly.

More children are dropping out of school. [photo by Jaileen Jimeno] Take the 2006-2007 net enrolment ratio (NER) data released by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB). The agency reports that the NER dropped to 83.2 percent last year, down from 84.4 in 2005-2006.

To those busy making ends meet, what’s another 1.2 percent? The number seems negligible.

In reality, though, that means some 2,208,742 children aged six to 11 did not enter grade one or return to their classrooms for further education. In 2005-2006, that figure was 2,001,668.

The NER, or participation rate, “is the ratio of the enrolment for the age group corresponding to the official school age in the elementary/secondary level to the population of the same age group in a given year,” according to the NSCB.

In simpler terms, it is the proportion of children aged six to 11 who go to school as against the actual population of six to 11-year-olds nationwide.

Under Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s regime, that percentage has been steadily dropping, erasing the much improved enrolment ratio of the past two decades, which hit a high of 96.95 percent in 1999-2000.

education, gloria macapagal arroyo, mdgs, millennium development goals, national statistical coordination board, net enrolment ratio, participation rate, philippines, social watch philippines

Romulo L. Neri: Can golf, realpolitik work at SSS?

Posted by: Alecks P. Pabico | July 16, 2008 at 12:09 am
Filed under: i Report Features, Governance, In the News

OUR latest report is a “Public Eye” profile on the man of the hour: Romulo L. Neri, who was designated by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last Friday as new administrator of the Social Security System.

Romulo Neri [photo courtesy of Senate] This new posting for Neri — erstwhile director general of the National Economic and Development Authority, and chairman of the Commission on Higher Education — has met with a mix of surprise, criticism and revulsion.

Neri had consistently invoked “executive privilege” as an excuse for his dismal silence on the role of Mrs. Arroyo in the controversial $329-million national broadband network (NBN) deal with China’s ZTE Corporation.

NBN star witness Rodolfo Noel ‘Jun’ Lozada Jr. says that apart from being an avid golfer, Neri has a good grasp of both the functions and dysfunctions of the political system. NEDA personnel say Neri is a master, too, of realpolitik, and on occasion, politicking.

The report reviews Neri’s performance record as NEDA chief, from the perspective of his deputies, staff personnel and other informed sources, as well as inquires into the credentials that Neri brings to his new job as manager of the P248-billion pension funds of 27 million SSS members.

Read on at pcij.org.

gloria macapagal arroyo, national broadband network, national economic and development authority, philippines, rodolfo noel lozada jr., romulo neri, social security system, zte corporation