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While the show goes on DIE HARD III Herman Tiu Laurel 02/06/2012

Monday, February 6, 2012

While the show goes on

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
02/06/2012
While the impeachment show goes on, the thieves are getting away with highway robbery right before the noses of the people. As it has been for the past two-and-a-half-decades, the target of the gigantic burglary are the crown jewels of the nation in the energy sector, this time focused on Mindanao’s electricity sector. Our Mindanao power consumer crusader and second generation power distribution company entrepreneur Mr. Uriel “Jojo” Borja of Iligan Light and Power, called us during the weekend that a two-hour “power curtailment” hit Iligan City last Saturday; but he railed that the Department of Energy (DoE) should already send the power barges 101, 102, 103, 104 to provide emergency power to Mindanao to avoid the power predators’ scheme to justify contracting new power generation capacity at double the cost per kilowatt hour to the present Mindanao power supply for the next twenty-five years.

Current power generation cost in Mindanao averages P2.60/kwH, but if the DoE and Psalm have their way, this will rise to around P 5/kwH, equal to Luzon and Visayas’ generation rate. Mindanao power traditionally cost only half that of other parts of the country because the bulk comes from hydroelectric power plants such as Agus-Pulangui. However, experts have said that the government agencies’ management of these hydroelectric dams and power plants, are failing to optimize its capacity by planned incompetence or willful negligence of corporatists named to head the DoE. Dredging and desilting have not been religiously done, reducing the capacities of these dams; while scheduling release and use of its water reserves for power have been invariably and suspiciously badly timed, exhausting them just as seasonal shortages are expected — seemingly to justify the frequent “red alert” the DoE issues of impending power curtailments.

Since 2009 the DoE has been issuing Mindanao power “red alerts,” citing expected rainfall deficits to be brought about by La Niña or El Niño. But, as Jojo Borja has been reporting, the rains have been coming every year, defying the predictions of the DoE. Last year was also supposed to be dry for Mindanao but Sendong came and devastated Cagayan de Oro and Iligan with a deluge resulting in murderous landslides.

Several weeks ago I wrote and disputed the power shortage “red alert” the DoE and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP, the private company that took over government’s transmission grid). Some people attribute the brownouts in some areas to lack of power transmission connections, but Borja does not see any real power supply shortage. What shortage there is are only short term and seasonal shortages that does not justify contracting new, overpriced power plants.

Napocor has power barges idle in Luzon waiting to be utilized for emergencies but the DoE secretary Almendras announced again last week that these power barges PB 101, 102, 103, 104 will be sold off by March 2012. To a normal, rational and logical mind Almendras’ plan is absolutely ridiculous. Almendras’ plan will cause the same tragic result as the 2009 sale of power barges 117 and 118 to the Aboitiz’s Therma Marine group for $ 30M which it turned around and revalued a few months later at $ 70M and used as its rate base for supplying emergency power to Mindanao — horrendously raising the power cost to consumers. Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro has objected to the sale of the power barges in 2009 and continues to object to the present hurried sale. He called for the four power barges still owned by government to be transferred to Mindanao to provide emergency power at the lower cost that Napocor provides, but the DoE is deaf to the plea.

Apart from insisting on selling the four power barges in March, Secretary Almendras of the DoE has opened the way for new power plants to be contracted and set up in Mindanao reminiscent of the IPPs in Luzon of the 90s during Ramos’ time. These will have “take or pay,” Power Purchase Agreements that consumers will see tacked on to their bills whether they use the electricity capacity or not — paying for the next 20 or 25 years. The scam that was inflicted mainly on Luzon in the mid-90s that saddled the country with $18-B Napocor debt, which reamins the same despite 90 percent Napocor assets privatized, is being inflicted on Mindanao this time. There is clearly a well established modus operandi in all this that involves the conspiracy of the international finance Mafia, the corrupt political authorities using the 10-year old Epira.

The Epira law bans government from the electricity generation service. Hence, the IPP power plants bought 10 to 20 years ago transferred to government will have to be sold off dirt cheap. The oligarchs who set up the original exorbitant IPP (independent power plants) will now be the one to buy those same power plants for a song.

We appeal to our dear Filipinos consumers and taxpayers: Wake up to the systematic and massive plunder we are constantly victims of by the conspiracy of the ruling oligarchs and their political agents in the two houses of Congress. Let us not fall into the trap of being mesmerized by political comedies and drama they are staging to distract the nation for their failure to protect the people from the avarice of the present ruling class. Let’s never be distracted again by the weapons of mass distraction the political theater provides; these trapos who spend hours daily grandstanding but give nary a day to hear and inquire into the Philippine scam of the century — the power rip off occurring daily in our midst.

(Tune to 1098AM, DWAD, Mon. to Fri. 5-6pm; watch GNN HTL edition of TNT, Destiny Cable, Saturdays 8:15pm and replay 11:15pm: “The struggle against the Rule of Farce”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our radio and GNN shows)


(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu-Laurel)

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120206com5.html

Syria vote: US ‘appropriated’ UN power (w/ Video)



Syria vote: US ‘appropriated’ UN power

While officials in Washington tirelessly admonish Russia and China for blocking another resolution on Syria, Rick Rozoff of the Stop NATO group tells RT that the UN has been hijacked by the US and NATO.

­On Saturday, the United Nations voted on a resolution on Syria, drafted by Morocco. In the end of the day, the document was vetoed by Moscow and Beijing. This move provoked a wave of anger from the West, with most harsh rhetoric heard from the US; American Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said Washington was “disgusted” by the veto, while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the vote a "travesty."‎.... MORE
SourceRT.com

URL: http://rt.com/news/syria-us-vote-russia-547/

On 113th year of Filipino-American war: groups protest increasing US military presence

On 113th year of Filipino-American war: groups protest increasing US military presence


By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Members of various peoples’ organizations surprised the police guarding the roads leading to the US embassy in Manila Saturday when they marched to protest the US government’s plans to increase troop deployment in the Philippines.The protesters also remembered that on this day 113 years ago, the US government launched war against Filipinos. The protesters pressed the Aquino and the Obama governments to return to the Philippines the famed Balangiga bells which the US soldiers carted away to the US a century before.

Groups critical of US imperialism have always been barred from marching even to the vicinity of the US Embassy at Roxas Boulevard in Manila. But on Saturday they managed to get around the police and hold a program right in front of the gates of the US Embassy, to explain to their members and to passersby why the increased US troops mean deeper trouble.

The US already has 600 troops stationed in the Philippines for the last 10 years, not counting the periodic joint military exercises. But it is projected to increase in 2012 as the US government has announced plans to redeploy more of its troops into the Asia-Pacific region. In the face of protests in other Asian countries and here, the US embassy officials “assured” Filipinos that it is not reestablishing its military bases. But leaders of progressive groups are not biting, as they pointed to the US track record at basing its troops in the Philippines, first under a Military Bases Agreement, then under the Visiting Forces Agreement.

The protesters also denounced Philippine president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino for behaving like “a puppet of the US imperialist,” as shown in his immediate readiness to welcome more US troops into Philippine soil and waters. Reminding Aquino of his promise during the election campaign and on his second month as president, that he would order a review of the Visiting Forces Agreement, the rallyists asked why Aquino has not done anything yet to even start the review. It has been two years since Aquino announced the call for review.


Progressive groups mark the 113th year of Fil-Am war with protests vs increased US military presence in the region.(Photo by Marya Salamat / bulatlat.com)
Aquino’s foot-dragging at holding a VFA review contrasts starkly with his quick rolling out of the red carpet for the arriving US troops. In preparation for more of them coming, “many indigenous peoples and Moros are already being driven away now from their lands,” said Kakay Tolentino, spokeswoman of the Katribu Partylist, during the rally in front of the US Embassy.

The other day, the combined forces of Philippine and US troops launched an air strike targeting Moro communities though officially targeting “terrorists,” Tolentino said.
Last December, she added, Aetas reported to the Katribu Partylist that 5,000 US troops had landed and conducted military exercises in Fort Magsaysay and former Subic naval base.
For driving out the Filipinos from their lands and livelihood, the US troops should not have been allowed to visit and stay here, Tolentino concluded. She urged the public to oppose the Aquino government’s decision to welcome increased US troops.

No.1 threat to women and children

Joms Salvador, deputy secretary-general of the women’s group Gabriela, declared during the protest at the US embassy in Manila that the US troops are the “number 1 violator of Filipino human rights and dignity.”
“During the time the US troops (clearly) had bases here, thousands of cases of rights violations committed by US soldiers had been reported and filed. In fact, when the US bases were shut down, there were 400 pending cases of rape and sexual molestation of women and children,” said Salvador. But not one of these cases was resolved, she said..... MORE

SourceBulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/02/05/on-113the-year-of-filipino-american-war-groups-protest-increasing-us-military-presence/

Castro unveils memoirs

Castro unveils memoirs


Veteran communist Fidel Castro has launched his memoirs in the Cuban capital, Havana. The book, which shines a light on the early life of the leader of the Cuban Revolution, is tipped to become a bestseller.

The book, titled Fidel Castro Ruz: Guerrilla of Time, contains around 1,000 pages of stories from the former Cuban president’s childhood up to December 1958, the eve the Cuban Revolution..... MORE

SourceRT.com

URL: http://rt.com/art-and-culture/news/castro-memoirs-cuban-fidel-537/

No one to play with at school: India’s infanticide crisis FEATURE 02/06/2012

No one to play with at school: India’s infanticide crisis

FEATURE

02/06/2012
DEVDA — As the only girl in her noisy classroom of 22 boys, Padma Kanwar Bhatti is one defiant symbol of the toll exacted by India’s deadly preference for male children.

Padma, 15, lives with her parents and two elder brothers in Devda, a village of 2,500 residents in the Rajasthan state district of Jaisalmer, which has one of the worst female sex ratios in the country.

“There is no other girl in my class and there are very few girls in our village,” she says hesitantly.
Padma chooses to stare at her social science text book when asked why there are less girls and more boys in her village set in the barren lands of the Thar desert..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120206com3.html

‘Fish importation, fish ban to kill livelihood of small fishermen’ By RONALYN V. OLEA Bulatlat.com

‘Fish importation, fish ban to kill livelihood of small fishermen’


By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — Rosanna Moranto, 28, has been fishing in the freshwaters of Binangonan, Rizal since she was ten. Over the last few years, Moranto complained of a decline in their catch, at an average of one kilo per day. There are times when she could not catch any tilapia, bangus, dulong or kanduli.

Carrying some local galunggong (round scad fish), Moranto joined the picket led by Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) in front of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to protest the plan of Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) to import fish from neighboring countries and impose a ban in ten major fishing areas of the country.

“What would happen to us? We could no longer sell our fish if imported fish will flood the market. What about our families? This [fishing] is our only source of livelihood,” Moranto said in Filipino in an interview with Bulatlat.com.

Fernando Hicap, Pamalakaya national chairman, branded the BFAR’s proposals as insane as it would kill the livelihood of small fishermen and other local fish producers.

According to BFAR, about 900,000 metric tons (MT) of imported fish enter the country annually. Last year, marine product imports reached 800,000 MT, of which 60 percent is galunggong (round scad fish).
Hicap said the landing cost of the locally produced fish is P40 ($0.93) per kilo but those from China, Taiwan or Japan is only P20 ($0.465) per kilo. Hicap said institutional buyers and local fish traders will buy heavily subsidized foreign fish products because these are 50 percent cheaper than the locally produced ones which are battered by the high cost of production.

In a report by Manila Times, BFAR director Asis Perez justified the importation, citing the dwindling domestic fish catch..... MORE

SourceBulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/02/04/%E2%80%98fish-importation-fish-ban-to-kill-small-fishermen%E2%80%99/

CPP seeks independent probe into US role in Sulu air strike By Mario J. Mallari 02/06/2012

CPP seeks independent probe into US role in Sulu air strike

By Mario J. Mallari 02/06/2012

An independent investigation should be conducted to look into the supposed involvement of United States military in the air strike in Sulu province last Thursday that resulted in the killing of at least 15 Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militants, including three top-ranking leaders, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) yesterday said.

The CPP, in a statement, also expressed doubts over the claims made by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that top Abu Sayyaf commander Abu Jumdail, alias Dr. Abu; Malaysian Zulkipli bin Abdul Hir, alias Marwan, and Singaporean Muhamda Ali, alias Muawiya, were killed during the air assault..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20120206hed5.html

Noy’s FoI spares Congress from PDAF disclosure By Fernan J. Angeles 02/06/2012

Noy’s FoI spares Congress from PDAF disclosure

By Fernan J. Angeles 02/06/2012

The draft of the Palace version of the Freedom of Information (FoI) bill seems targeting on the Supreme Court (SC) and not on the congressmen.

This was so because nowhere in the draft bill that the congressmen should make public disclosure with regard to how much they would actually spend of their Priority Development Assistance Fund which is popularly referred to as pork barrel.

On the contrary, the SC, including other government agencies and institutions, should account all that it spent from its budget allocations by the Department of Budget and Management or else DBM would withhold their budgets..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20120206nat1.html

Main CJ accuser Tupas building P50-M mansion on P25,000 pay 02/06/2012

XAVIERVILLE PROPERTY COVERS OVER 632 SQUARE METERS

Main CJ accuser Tupas building P50-M mansion on P25,000 pay

02/06/2012
Lead prosecutor in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona has been found to be building a mansion at Xavierville Subdivision in Quezon City which he has reportedly kept hidden from view by getting the construction workers to cover the almost finished exterior of his two-story house covered with a long blue plastic sheet while construction is ongoing.

More millions of pesos are likely to be poured into the interiors of the Tupas mansion.

Tupas and his co-prosecutors, all congressmen, have a salary of some P25,000 monthly, and is also on the Congress’ Alpha list for tax purposes..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20120206hed1.html

NCIP execs to settle rift with tribal leaders 02/06/2012

NCIP execs to settle rift with tribal leaders

02/06/2012
Officials of the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) have admitted responsibility in the negligence of a field-based investigation (FBI) in the consultation process that has delayed the issuance of a document that would have allowed mining operations in Brooke’s Point, Palawan.

NCIP Commissioner Dionesia Banua, representative of Chairman Zenaida Pawid, made the admission on Monday last week in a meeting called by the Ombudsman aimed to amicably settle the rift between tribal leaders from Palawan and the NCIP commissioners earlier charged for inaction on the result of the consultation approving mining operations in the Palawan town..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20120206nat5.html

Relief goods arrive in Iligan remote barangays 02/06/2012

Relief goods arrive in Iligan remote barangays

02/06/2012
TUBOD, Lanao del Norte – More than a month after the deadly tropical storm “Sendong” hit Iligan City, huge quantity of relief goods finally arrived in the remote barangays here.

In the multi-sectoral relief operation, led by the provincial LGU of Lanao del Norte, 12 army trucks arrived in the interior barangay of Rogongon to deliver essential goods, food items, school supplies and rice packs to victims of the deadliest storm to hit the country for 2011.

This was the first relief operation which used a land convoy to deliver the relief assistance. In previous humanitarian operations, relief goods had to be flown in via helicopter after parts of the Iligan-Bukidnon road became impassable due to massive landslides triggered by heavy rains..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20120206nat6.html

Nabbed Chinese who killed girlfriend commits suicide inside police vehicle 02/06/2012

Nabbed Chinese who killed girlfriend commits suicide inside police vehicle

02/06/2012
A 25-year-old Chinese who killed his girlfriend committed suicide by shooting himself inside a police vehicle which was taking him to the Manila City Hall for the inquest proceedings at the City Prosecutor’s Office last Friday night.

In an interview, SPO1 Charles Duran, Manila Police District (MPD) homicide section investigator, said the incident happened at 9:10 p.m. while they were traversing Taft Avenue and Ayala Blvd.

“Nakasakay kami sa likurang bahagi ng sasakyan, nang nahulog yong mga dokumento at dadamputin ko, don hinablot ng suspek ang baril ko sabay putok sa ilalim ng kanyang baba,” according to Duran..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20120206met4.html

15 cops linked to Maguindanao massacre call for speedy trial By Arlie O. Calalo 02/06/2012 At least 15 members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) accused of involvement in the Maguindanao massacre have asked a Quezon City trial court judge to speed up their trial and resolution of the murder charges filed against them. Aided by their lawyers, the policemen, who were members of the 1508th Provincial Mobile Group-Police Regional Office in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), filed the motion before Judge Jocelyn Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court’s Branch 221. They were SPO1s Oscar Donato and Eduardo Ong; P03s Rasid Anton, Felix Enate and Abibudin Abdulgani; P02s Hernanie Decipulo, Saudi Pasulan and Hamad Nana, and P01s Herich Amaba, Esprielito Legarso, Narkouk Mascud, Arnulfo Soriano, Pia Kamidum, Esmael Guiali and Abdullah Baguadatu.

15 cops linked to Maguindanao massacre call for speedy trial

By Arlie O. Calalo 02/06/2012

At least 15 members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) accused of involvement in the Maguindanao massacre have asked a Quezon City trial court judge to speed up their trial and resolution of the murder charges filed against them.

Aided by their lawyers, the policemen, who were members of the 1508th Provincial Mobile Group-Police Regional Office in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), filed the motion before Judge Jocelyn Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court’s Branch 221.

They were SPO1s Oscar Donato and Eduardo Ong; P03s Rasid Anton, Felix Enate and Abibudin Abdulgani; P02s Hernanie Decipulo, Saudi Pasulan and Hamad Nana, and P01s Herich Amaba, Esprielito Legarso, Narkouk Mascud, Arnulfo Soriano, Pia Kamidum, Esmael Guiali and Abdullah Baguadatu..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20120206met1.html

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