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Going about it the wrong way EDITORIAL 05/03/2011

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Going about it the wrong way

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
05/03/2011
Noynoy Aquino is going about it the wrong way. The idea should not be to raise wages for the workers, but to generate more jobs for the jobless.

But clearly, Noynoy, who is now suffering a downtrend of public satisfaction and approval ratings, is out to score pogi points which in the end, may not solve his problem of dwindling popularity.

Raising the wages of workers will definitely result in more joblessness among the workers, through a closure of small- and medium-sized businesses. At the least, there will have to be a downsizing of the number of workers, given the additional cost of wage increases, which many business can ill-afford to pay. A wage increase moreover brings about distortions in pay scales, once an increase in the minimum wage is implemented. This translates to increases for virtually all the workers employed..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110503com1.html

Same style, different face FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 05/03/2011

Same style, different face

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
05/03/2011
Noynoy may end up with an Ombudsman who, in the end, may have the same fate as the resigned Ombudsman, Merceditas Gutierrez — especially if complaints against Noynoy’s allies and cronies are going to be sat upon by the new Ombudsman — as the new official will likely be protective of the Palace allies and cronies — to always be on the right side of the Malacañang tenant.

It has been proved after the resignation of Merci Gutierrez, that in the final analysis, even if the Office of the Ombudsman is a constitutional office, and with its chief having a guaranteed term of office, it is still the Malacañang tenant that can get the Ombudsman ousted — whether through impeachment or forced resignation through a barrage of presidential pressure, aided by full demonization of whoever it is that the vindictive Malacañang tenant wants ousted.

This is where the danger of the nation ever having an independent Ombudsman lies: Knowing that not toeing the presidential line can cost the Ombudsman his job — no matter the guarantees, it will be the President’s voice that the new Ombudsman will have to heed, which is why the presidential interference in such matters as impeachment proceedings, as well as constant demonization and extreme pressure for the constitutional officer to quit did nothing to strengthen the independence of constitutional offices and all other democratic institutions..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110503com2.html

Filthy toilets a blight on Asian prosperity FEATURE 05/03/2011

Filthy toilets a blight on Asian prosperity

FEATURE

05/03/2011
SINGAPORE — Fast-growing Asian economies may be flush with money but filthy toilets remain a blight across the region despite rising standards of living, with dire effects on poverty reduction and public health.

Social activists say dismal sanitation facilities are causing preventable diseases in poor communities where people would readily spend money on a mobile phone — but not on a latrine.

“I think it’s very prevalent,” said Jack Sim, a Singaporean businessman who founded the sanitation advocacy group World Toilet Organization. “The handphone is the competitor of the toilet.”

Asia has led the rebound from the 2008-2009 global recession and major institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are predicting strong economic growth in the years ahead..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110503com3.html

Japan mulls tsunami lessons for reconstruction focus 05/03/2011

Japan mulls tsunami lessons for reconstruction

focus

05/03/2011
TOKYO — Constructing taller buildings and moving towns to higher ground may be the key to rebuilding Japan’s devastated northeast coast, experts say, as the threat of future tsunamis shapes ideas for reconstruction.

It was the monster wall of water, rather than March 11 magnitude 9.0 earthquake that spawned it, which tore through towns, destroying 300,000 homes and leaving 26,000 dead and missing.

“What we agreed with Prime Minister Naoto Kan is that it is not simply enough to restore things as they were before,” said Makoto Iokibe, chairman of the Council of Reconstruction, established by Kan.

The daunting task of removing millions of tons of debris from destroyed homes and factories is the starting point for the remodelling of coastal towns in a region with an ageing population and fragile economy..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110503com7.html

Irresponsibility. Amorality VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 05/03/2011

Irresponsibility. Amorality

VIEWPOINTS
Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz
05/03/2011
No. This is certainly not but rhetoric poetry as the title might insinuate — but a downright hard-hitting reality. Yes. This is about the now infamous “Reproductive Health Bill” that is seriously dividing the Filipino people — courtesy of the Malacañang occupant and his friends.

By the way, the bill is a mighty big misnomer if not a deliberate deceit. Reasons: It is definitely not “Reproductive” whereas it categorically hates reproduction. And neither is it about “Health” because it precisely causes the implantation of potential of sickness on account of the chemical component of contraceptives in forms of pills and injections. These are even topped by the fact that there are contraceptives that in effect lead to nothing less than abortion according to medical experts..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110503com5.html

Amsterdam’s famed canal belt gets its own museum FEATURE 05/03/2011

Amsterdam’s famed canal belt gets its own museum

FEATURE

05/03/2011
AMSTERDAM — Amsterdam’s famed 17th century canal district, a major tourist draw which was added to Unesco’s World Heritage List last year, now boasts its own museum.

“The history of the canals had never been told,” said Piet van Winden, the head of the “Grachtenhuis” private museum which has just opened to the public. “They are probably the best conceived urban extension project in the world,” he said.

“Here, we set the scene, we explain the how and why,” he told AFP. “Our goal is to be a sort of gateway to the splendour of the canals. It’s then up to each visitor to discover them on foot, by bicycle or by boat.”

An estimated three million foreign tourists flock to the so-called “Venice of the North” to visit its protected canal belt, which is home to 8,000 monuments and will mark its 400th anniversary in 2013..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110503com6.html

A war in defense of the dollar? AN OUTSIDERS VIEW Ken Fuller 05/03/2011

A war in defense of the dollar?

AN OUTSIDERS VIEW
Ken Fuller
05/03/2011
Last week, this column mentioned an article by Alexander Cockburn in which it’s suggested that the Nato attack on Libya has more to do with international banking than the oil industry. However, before the promise to discuss this in greater detail is fulfilled, we need some background.

In his 2008 book, The Predator State, James K. Galbraith explains that under the international financial system devised at Bretton Woods in 1944, if the USA ran a trade deficit foreign central banks could demand payment in gold. This was not a problem for the USA, as it had accumulated much of the world’s gold as a result of two world wars, and in the immediate postwar period was able to achieve trade surpluses.

Circumstances changed in the 1960s when, with full employment and the rising costs of the Vietnam War, the USA incurred trade deficits and, thus, an accelerating outflow of gold. Richard Nixon therefore devalued the dollar and “closed the gold window,” virtually ending the Bretton Woods regime. These actions, says Galbraith, “were to make balancing the budget an obsolete policy goal, and actual budget balance something that could be achieved only on a very short-term basis.” Moreover, after 1974 the US economy was “almost never again to be in surplus with respect to the rest of the world.”

At first, the world was plunged into economic turmoil, but then Ronald Reagan’s high interest-rates, although destroying whole swathes of the US economy, created “a new dollar-based system that became the foundation of the world economy. From a purely national perspective, this would lead to huge benefits to the United States, at everyone else’s expense.”... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110503com4.html

Ombudsman to make or break Noy — JPE By Angie M. Rosales, Aytch S. de la Cruz and Gerry Baldo 05/03/2011

MINORITY NIXES SPARING AQUINO ALLIES; AQUINO ABSOLVES PURISIMA ON UNPAID TAX

Ombudsman to make or break Noy — JPE

By Angie M. Rosales, Aytch S. de la Cruz and Gerry Baldo 05/03/2011

The next Ombudsman could make or break the stay in office of President Aquino.

This was the warning issued by Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile to President Aquino in connection with replacing resigned Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez with a new Ombudsman.

At the same time, opposition stalwarts in the House of Representatives also told Aquino that he should not spare his allies and friends from being investigated and prosecuted by the new Ombudsman, but already Aquino had announced that his Finance chief, Secretary Cesar Purisima, whose tax returns were put into question by members of the Commission on Appointments (CA), as his assets in his statement of assets and liabilities do not jibe with the taxes he paid.

Aquino yesterday said that Purisima will not be undergoing any investigation, in essence, absolving him of any criminal and administrative liabilities..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110503hed1.html

SC rejects Cenpeg, upholds Comelec on source code tiff By Benjamin B. Pulta 05/03/2011

SC rejects Cenpeg, upholds Comelec on source code tiff

By Benjamin B. Pulta 05/03/2011

The Supreme Court (SC) has turned down for lack of merit a motion filed by an advocacy group seeking to cite the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in contempt over restrictions it imposed on the review of source codes for the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines of the Smartmatic consortium in the automated elections held last year.

The decision, in effect, upheld the right of the Comelec to impose security measures in allowing third-party groups to conduct an independent review of the

source code used in the automation election system (AES) provided by Smartmatic-Total Information Management Corp. (TIM) for the computerized 2010 polls.

The Center for Empowerment in Governance (Cenpeg), identified with newly appointed Comelec Commissioner Augusto Lagman, claimed the poll body acted contumaciously in imposing restrictions on the review of the source codes for the automated elections..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110503hed6.html

Newly-installed Ombudsman seen to pursue criminal raps against Merci By Gerry Baldo 05/03/2011

Newly-installed Ombudsman seen to pursue criminal raps against Merci

By Gerry Baldo 05/03/2011

The filing of the criminal charges against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez would have to be postponed until after President Aquino appoints a new Ombudsman.

According to Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas, the process could take as long as three months.

Tupas, chairman of the House committee on justice and a member of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), expressed doubts that the cases against Gutierrez would prosper under Overall Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro who is now the Ombudsman in an acting capacity.

Casimiro, he said, is also among those who is going to be impleaded in the cases that would be filed against Gutierrez..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110503nat1.html

Pantao Ragat to become durian producer in Northern Mindanao 05/03/2011

Pantao Ragat to become durian producer in Northern Mindanao

05/03/2011
Ten years from now, Pantao Ragat, one of the towns of Lanao del Norte province will become the “durian producer” in Northern Mindanao.

This is the forecast of Rep. Aliah Dimaporo, 2nd District, Lanao del Norte, as she is working hard for her environmental advocacy and even getting the support of the National Power Corp. (NPC) Watershed Management Division in providing durian seedlings to be planted near the river’s path as part of its reforestation and agro-forestry program.

According to Dimaporo, the program will benefit not only for the local farmers with additional income but also to prevent soil erosion which will benefit for its residents.

The lady legislator said Pantao Ragat can already compete with Davao City for the title as Durian Capital of the Philippines within 10 years at the start of the Agro-forestry Program if the people of this progressive community continue to plant and cultivate their durian trees..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110503nat3.html

Moreno places MPD on alert in wake of Bin Laden’s death 05/03/2011

Moreno places MPD on alert in wake of Bin Laden’s death

05/03/2011
Security alert was announced by acting Manila Mayor Isko Moreno on major US installations in the city following reports on the killing of al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden by the US troops in Pakistan.

Moreno called on MPD Director Chief Supt. Roberto Rongavilla to raise the alert level of security in and around the US Embassy on Roxas Boulevard, Manila and some of its installations in the city.

Moreno called up Rongavilla to relay the message for a heightened security alert also in other foreign-run structures in the city, including the Vietnam Embassy in Vito Cruz.

The acting mayor said all measures must be in place to safeguard against possible retaliatory moves from the groups linked to the al-Qaeda, now that their figure head was dead..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110503met7.html

MMDA approves 4-month repair of Osmeña, Buendia flyover in Makati City 05/03/2011

MMDA approves 4-month repair of Osmeña, Buendia flyover in Makati City

05/03/2011
Motorists, who are regularly passing through Osmeña Highway, would brace for four months inconvenience after the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has given the green light to the proposed repair and rehabilitation of the Osmeña/Buendia Flyover in Makati City.

Repair and rehabilitation works, however, will start after the fabrication and installation of the necessary traffic signages, along the alternate routes by its contractor Towking Construction.

This was the condition set by MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino.

“The motorists need to be properly informed about the project beforehand so that they will not be greatly affected due to the inconvenience brought by the repair,” Tolentino said..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110503met6.html

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