Editorial Samples Form INQ

EDITORIAL
Is terminating Tokhang enough?
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:16 AM October 14, 2017
Ten people were reported to have been killed in separate incidents by unidentified gunmen or in police
operations all over Metro Manila on Wednesday. A barangay captain in Tondo was shot by two gunmen on a
motorcycle at 8 p.m. Earlier that day, also in Tondo, three men allegedly shot it out with cops in a buy-bust
operation, though CCTV footage seemed to show no such firefight in the alley where the suspects were found
mortally wounded. The victims were dead on arrival at a hospital; their relatives disputed the polices
nanlaban (resisting arrest) claim. The footage also showed one of the cops redirecting a CCTV camera away
from the police operation.
In Malabon, Pasay and Quezon City, killers riding tandem on a motorcycle also struck. A cardboard
sign was thrown beside the body of the victim in Tramo, Pasay, with the handwritten words: Marami pa ang
susunod na mamamatay Umiwas na kayo sa droga (Many more will die Stay away from drugs).
The families of these latest casualties join the many thousands of others all over the country who have
been orphaned and left bereft by the violent death of family members under the governments draconian war
on drugs. But the survivors must feel doubly anguished at the news that, merely hours after the lives of their
loved ones were snuffed out, either by emboldened unidentified killers or the police, Malacaang would
declare an end to Operation Tokhang, the controversial centerpiece program of President Dutertes
administration that has spawned the wave of extrajudicial killings swamping the country.
On Thursday, the Philippine National Police announced that it was officially terminating Operation
Tokhang after Mr. Duterte ordered that all antidrug operations be henceforth handled by the Philippine Drug
Enforcement Agency (PDEA). It was the second time in 14 months that Operation Tokhang was suspended.
Late in January, responding to the outrage generated by news that cops on a supposed drug raid had kidnapped
and then murdered a Korean businessman right inside Camp Crame, the headquarters of the Philippine
National Police, Malacaang said it was halting the program in order to first root out rogue cops.
The spate of killings appeared to decline during the lull, but some five weeks later, Operation Tokhang
was resumedwith apparently greater vigor. The bloodbath that occurred as the year wore on proved to be
bigger and more gruesome in scope32 dead in one blow in Bulacan, for instance, followed by the successive
killings of teenagers whose deaths, per CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts, didnt jibe with police claims
that the young victims resisted arrest and had to be put down.
Despite the public outcry, and Malacaangs efforts at damage control by promising a thorough
investigation into these incidents, Operation Tokhang seemed secure, and was even being escalated. The
Department of Interior and Local Government and the PNP jointly proposed the dangerous move of installing
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drop boxes in barangays nationwide that would allow residents to anonymously report alleged drug users
and other criminal elements in their neighborhoods.
That proposal, thankfully, has now been dropped, in line with Operation Tokhangs disbanding. It took
a steep drop in the Presidents survey numbers to jolt Malacaang and make it see the publics increasing
restiveness at the terrible costs of the war on drugs. PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino has now vowed a
less bloody campaign by his office, an implicit admission of how the PNPs abuses and heavy-handedness
have boomeranged on the administration.
But, at this late, blood-soaked point, is terminating Operation Tokhang enough? Activist Renato Reyes
Jr. brings up an important reminder: There must be accountability in the deaths of thousands of drug suspects
and innocents. There can be no moving on from the carnage that the war on drugs has created if there is no
justice.
EDITORIAL
Where everyone lives in fear
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:16 AM October 07, 2017
Destabilization has been used so many times in the political realm that it is now as fatuous and
meaningless as that other favorite term by politicians, demolition job. It would seem like whenever an
administration finds itself under siege by a critical public and under pressure to account for its conduct, its
reflex move is to play victim and claim a grand conspiracy in the citizenrys demand for better governance.
For example, among many instances in her tumultuous nine-year tenure as president, Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo cried destabilization in 2006, when the Senate used the budget hearings then to try to seek answers
about how public funds were being spent in the light of various controversies involving her administration.
The controversies included the P728-million fertilizer fund scam and the overpriced $500-million Northrail
project. But rather than clearing the air on these questionable transactions, Arroyo chose to employ the
political feint of sidelining the issues and claiming that the senators were politicizing the budget proceedings to
destabilize the administration.
The administration of President Benigno Aquino III leaned on the same ploy when it found itself
having to answer uncomfortable questions after the Supreme Court struck down and declared partially
unconstitutional its Disbursement Acceleration Program. In a bit of preemptive narrative framing, then
Malacaang ally Sen. Antonio Trillanes sounded an alarm about an alleged cabal of retired generals linked
with the previous administration that, he claimed, was plotting to take advantage of the volatile situation to
launch destabilization moves against the government.
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These days, against the backdrop of a public increasingly weary of a mismanaged war on drugs and
wanting answers on the unresolved P6.4-billion smuggling of shabu through Customs, among other
flashpoint issues, the term is back in fashion.
For one, and earlier on, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre accused Senators Bam Aquino and
Trillanes of plotting with the Maute terrorists to attack Marawi City as part of an alleged plot to destabilize the
Duterte administrationa charge swiftly debunked. He has also denounced the yellowsthe catch-all term
for anyone seen by the Palace and its supporters as on the opposing sideas engaged in a conspiracy to oust
the President. Aguirre has even lent his presence and the seal of his office to a newly formed group called the
Citizens National Guard, which is egging people to join its ranks against other groups it deems enemies of
the state.
Movements like these are important, Aguirre said, in case there is a destabilization plot Among
the five enemies of the state the shadowy group listed: Islamic State terrorists, the Communist Party of the
Philippines and the New Peoples Army, drug syndicates, foreign intelligence agencies generating
international support for regime change, and the seditious political opposition (Yellowtards).
Alarmingly, Solicitor General Jose Calida has warned not just the so-called Yellows but groups of
various forms and colors that attacks on the government constitute subversive activities and we can send
them to jail for that.
Is dissent by the citizenry now destabilization, even subversion?
In 1950, US President Harry Truman warned: Once a government is committed to the principle of
silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly
repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone
lives in fear.
Why are government officials branding dissenters, opponents and anyone with legitimate concerns as
enemies of the state and subversives? It is these tactics of fear and intimidation that are destabilizing
Philippine democracy.
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OPINION / EDITORIAL
Busyness in Congress
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:18 AM September 16, 2017
How many laws were passed by Congress in the last six months of 2016? Per government records,
exactly two: the 2017 national budget and the postponement of the barangay elections.
In the House of Representatives, according to its Bills and Index Division, out of 5,360 bills proposed,
only 321 were processed, equivalent to around six measures for each working day. One of the biggest tasks on
which the hardworking legislators invested precious time was not a law but a resolution: the House panel
report supposedly shedding light on the drug syndicates apparently still in fine fettle in the New Bilibid Prison
that, not incidentally, was also the basis for the public crucifixion and eventual detention of the
administrations then public enemy No. 1, Sen. Leila de Lima.
The public is yet to recover from the shock over the essential defunding of the Commission on Human
Rights with the Houses vote to allocate it a budget of P1,000 for 2018, which is well in line with
Malacaangs repeatedly expressed contempt for the office and its mandate. (The President had, at one point,
threatened to order the shooting of human rights workers.) Also on the Houses plate are the duly endorsed
impeachment complaints against three public officials in charge of offices critical to the operations of the
democratic space: Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales and
Commission on Elections Chair Andres Bautista. Now there are reports that the President is preparing to ask
Congress to act on apparently yet another priority issue: the crafting of a law that would grant the family of the
late dictator Ferdinand Marcos immunity from suit, in exchange for the return of a portion of the wealth they
had plundered from the countrys coffers.
The way it looks, the body politic is lurching from one controversial matter to another: Congress
busyness is like multiple fires being stoked to blazing and now taking much of public attention that should
actually be focused on issues of crucial importsuch as, for instance, the P6.4-billion worth of smuggled
shabu (crystal meth) that incredibly made it past the scrutiny of the Bureau of Customs. Its an issue which
the Senate has gone into knots tackling, resulting in a sideshow of fireworks among certain senators, but which
the House, otherwise quick to the draw, has shown a strange reluctance to take up with zeal and grandstanding.
Neither have Malacaang officials displayed any emphatic will to get to the bottom of the explosive issue,
preferring instead to entertain the public with regular jabs at its bete noire of the moment, Senators Antonio
Trillanes and Risa Hontiveros.
But social media is abuzz over it, and at least one perceptive netizen has noted, Kung galit ka sa
drugs, hindi ba logical na unahin mo (If you truly detest drugs, isnt it logical to prioritize), with all your might
and power, to investigate the P6.4B shabu importation?
Indeed, this is the question of the hour.

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Fiasco
Alex Magno (The Philippine Star) | Updated October 14, 2017 - 12:00am
Akbayan organized the stunt. President Duterte fell for it with disastrous results.
The leftist group brought in a seven-member delegation of something called the Progressive
Alliance. They were trotted about as parliamentarians from the European Union (EU). The group issued a
strong statement condemning the Duterte administrations bloody war on drugs.
Duterte reacted with rage, interpreting this as a brazen intrusion into our internal affairs. He then
launched into an expletive-laden rant against the EU, ordering his Finance Secretary not to accept assistance
from the regional grouping and daring the ambassadors to immediately leave the country.
The rant, incoherent as it was angry, sent shockwaves internationally. It likewise sent our responsible
government officials into a frantic effort to contain the damage inflicted by the Presidents words. But the
damage might not be completely undone.
Duterte was seriously misinformed, it turns out. The EU clarified that the Akbayan-hosted delegation
was not an official undertaking of the regional grouping. That delegation did not represent the views of the
EU. This was a group of impostors Akbayan used to amplify its own political positions.
I am not sure how we could walk back this diplomatic fiasco. This is not the first time Duterte
embarrassed himself, and the country, by going on a rant with incomplete facts. Sadly, this might not be the
last.
Once it was common to liken Duterte to Donald Trump. The more precise analogy might be to Hugo
Chavez and his clone Nicolas Maduro. Both men regularly performed like buffoons on the international
stage.
CSW
This recent incident highlights the need to make corrections in the way the Duterte presidency is run.
On the part of the President, he probably needs some exercises to improve anger management. He
needs to avoid making off-the-cuff remarks and rely more on prepared staff inputs.
We now know the Office of the President is largely a one-man show. A coterie of assistants timidly
follows Duterte as he weaves through his day, improvising as he goes along. Because the President disdains
prepared texts and relishes stream-of-consciousness monologues, his staff prepares nothing for him. This is,
as we have seen, a dangerous routine.
Discussing this latest fiasco with a group of businessmen and public intellectuals the other night, we
arrived at the conclusion that Duterte urgently needs a chief of staff. This is similar to the role played by
General Kelly in Trumps White House.
The chief of staff will oversee preparations for the Presidents engagements, make sure he is on
message and help craft the policy agenda for the leaders articulation. The chief of staff should have enough
gravitas to tell the President he is wrong when he is.
Those of us who served former president Fidel Ramos dreaded three letters most: CSW scribbled
angrily in red across the text of some badly prepared memo handed him. The three letters were initials for
completed staff work. This meant that, at every instance, the Presidents staff must have all the facts and
all the options ready on every issue that crops up during the day.
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Duterte must adopt this discipline and build the staff support to make it possible. He is, after all,
President of the Republic. Every word he utters is policy. Every threat he makes, such as sending EU
ambassadors packing in 24 hours, is taken with utmost seriousness.
One misspoken word and he could send the stock market crashing. A poorly formulated utterance
could precipitate a diplomatic incident. Weak grasp of the facts could make him appear like a buffoon.
DOTr
The powerful Commission on Appointments rejected five of the original appointees to the Duterte
Cabinet. One, the DICT secretary, has resigned for reasons still unclear. All these suggest President Duterte
might have put in more sagacity in the personnel choices he makes.
Word on the street has it that DOTr Secretary Art Tugade might be next on the chopping block
notwithstanding Tugades long friendship with Duterte dating back to their San Beda days.
Tugade, according to reports, got the presidents goat when he asked the President for P76 billion in
additional funding even as his agency held on to P86 billion in unspent budget allocations. Before that,
delegations of businessmen arranged to meet with the President to complain about the transport secretary.
To be sure, there are a million problems on Tugades plate. The agency has so far failed to bring
tangible relief for the frontline woes affecting millions: timely issuance of vehicle license plates and
registration stickers, prompt release of drivers licenses and palpable alleviation of street congestion. Most
prominently, the agency has yet to arrive at a meaningful resolution of problems plaguing our commuter
trains. We have to mention too the delayed action on big-ticket projects such as airports and ports.
The DOTr seems to have become a purgatory of inaction even as the agency is expected to spearhead
the modernization of the countrys infrastructure. Many are now convinced the problem lies with the agency
head no less.
In addition to poor performance on the job, a number of anomalies committed during Tugades
tenure as chairman of the Clark Development Corporation have been unearthed. Among these are: the
approval of the P7-billion Capillon Development Project done without public bidding and the arbitrary
cancellation of the $8-million Hollywood Park Development Corporation project allegedly because one of
Tugades close associates was interested in the parcel of land to be used for this.
A list of things derogatory to Tugade has been submitted to the President for his consideration. He
may choose to act on it.
Bringing clarity and order in the war on drugs
BY THE MANILA TIMES ON OCTOBER 13, 2017EDITORIAL
Through the expedient of giving the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) the lead role in all
operations in the war on illegal drugs, President Rodrigo Duterte may have found the right response to the
many issues bugging his presidency and the drug war.
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The new directive is contained in a memorandum the President signed on Oct. 10 but was made public only
on Oct. 11. In the memo, the President ordered all concerned government agencies, including the Philippine
National Police (PNP), to immediately transfer all case files on the drug campaign to PDEA.
The Presidents memorandum said, I hereby direct the NBI, PNP, Armed Forces, Bureau of
Customs, Philippine Postal Office and all other agencies or any ad hoc anti-drug ask force, to leave to the
PDEA the conduct of all campaigns and operations against all those who, directly and indirectly, and in
whatever manner or capacity, are involved in or connected with illegal drugs pursuant to RA 9165 and bring
order in the campaign against illegal drugs, thus, pinpointing precise accountability.
Elaborating, the Commander-in-Chief noted that the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Law already
states that while it does not decimate the investigative powers of the NBI and the PNP on all crimes
provided for in their respective organic laws, the PDEA should be the lead agency when the investigation
being conducted by the NBI, PNP or any ad hoc anti-drug task force is found in violation of RA 9165. This
Act is known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Law.
Prior to the issuance of the memorandum, the PNP was implementing an anti-drug operation dubbed
as (1) Oplan: Double Barrel, which has two parts: going after high-value targets or big-time drug dealers,
and (2) Oplan: Tokhang wherein policemen knock on doors of houses of suspected drug dependents. Many
of the controversies have arisen from these campaigns.
The PDEAs powers as stated in RA 9165 include: carrying out a national anti-drug campaign
program, such as drug law enforcement, as well as control and prevention campaign, with the assistance of
concerned government agencies; administering oath and issuing subpoena and subpoena duces tecum
relative to the conduct of investigation involving violations of RA 9165; arresting and apprehending, as well
as searching all violators; and seizing or confiscating effects or proceeds of the crimes as provided by law
and taking custody of the effects or proceeds.
The language of the law encompasses many of the activities that the PNP and other agencies have
undertaken under the drug war. By now shifting the focus to the work of the PDEA, the President has rightly
identified a clear line of accountability in the campaign against illegal drugs.
We endorse this policy, not only because we have advocated it in an earlier editorial but because by
this means, the government can bring clarity, order and responsibility in the drug war.
By this means, it can also answer many issues that have been bugging it for nearly a year, such as:
1. Incoherence and violence in the war on drugs;
2. Alleged violations of the rights of victims in the drug war.
3. The clamor of international groups and institutions for an end to the drug killings.
As a result of the memorandum, action from all concerned was quick. The PNP spokesman said the
PNP would not object to playing a secondary role in the war on drugs.
We will follow the order of the Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief, the spokesman said.
The PNP-Drug Enforcement Group (PNP-DEG) conceded that the order of the President made its
police division only secondary in the battle against illegal drugs. Rest assured, we will abide, submit,
support and follow the directive of [the President]to the letter, the PNP-DEG chief told The Manila Times.
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This is as things should be. Hopefully, the other salutary expectations from the Presidents order will
follow. By leading the anti-drug campaign with purpose and direction, the PDEA will bring order and clarity
in the war on drugs.
The unpredictable, unpreventable Vegas tragedy

THE MANILA TIMES ON OCTOBER 4, 2017EDITORIAL
Sunday nights massacre at a country music concert in the famed Las Vegas Strip is, as US President
Donald Trump described it, an act of pure evil.
At least 59 people were killed and more than 500 injured after retired accountant Stephen Craig
Paddock, 64, trained automatic gunfire at thousands of people at the Route 91 Harvest music festival from a
room on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay Hotel.
The death toll has made it the worst mass shooting in modern US history. At least one Filipino
among the concert audience has been reported injured.
The incident could also be deemed most bizarre. While Las Vegas police have secured Paddocks
caches of firearms in his hotel room and retirement home 80 miles away in Mesquite, Nevada, investigators
are having a hard time piecing together a motive.
This was because Paddock had no criminal record and was by all accounts a good citizen (albeit a
heavy casino gambler).
That he was able to smuggle firearms into his hotel room over several days came as a shock to his
brother, who pointed out that Paddock had no military background and was not a gun guy.
Moreover, he had no known association with any terrorist group. The Islamic States claim that
Paddock was one of its fighters is laughable, as is his supposed nom de guerre Abu Abdel Bar al-Amriki
or The American.
The international jihadist group was just as quick to claim credit for a mass shooting in the
Philippines in June, when sacked government employee Jessie Javier Carlos attacked Resorts World Manila.
The claim was quickly disproved. Like the Vegas attack, the Resorts World shooting was carried out by a
lone wolf.
The parallel between Las Vegas and Resorts World Manila ends there, however. The latter was a
case of criminal negligence due to a poor security setup at the hotel casino. The Vegas strip massacre was,
according to security experts, unpredictable as it was unpreventable.
Paddock, it should be noted, used at least one fully automatic rifle, which is banned in the US. At
any rate, he had modified semiautomatic weapons, which were easier to acquire.
National Review writer David French notes how very, very strange the Vegas shooting was: So, a
person whos not a gun guy has either expended untold thousands of dollars to legally purchase fully-
automatic weapons, somehow found them on the black market, or purchased and substantially modified
multiple semi-automatic weapons and did so with enough competence to create a sustained rate of fire.
This same person also spent substantial sums purchasing just the right hotel room to maximize
casualties. I cannot think of a single other mass shooter who went to this level of expense and planning in
the entire history of the United States, he adds.
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Security officials around the world should take the Vegas strip massacre as a reminder that
determined attackers are real, and an opportunity to plug the security loopholes exploited by Paddock.
The public should also realize that such incidents are hard to prevent. Still, there is vigilance, a small
effort that everyone can contribute to help neutralize lone-wolf attackers.
EDITORIAL - K to 12 for all

(The Philippine Star) | Updated May 17, 2013 - 12:00am
For millions of Filipinos, kindergarten and other preparatory courses before first grade used to give
children with financial means an early edge in academic achievements over their underprivileged peers.
With the enactment of Republic Act 10533, kindergarten is now free for all Filipinos and required for entry
to first grade.
The next step is for authorities to ensure that poverty and other problems will not keep parents from
sending their children to kindergarten and keeping them in school. The new law also makes the mother
tongue the medium of instruction up to third grade, with English being phased in at fourth grade. This
should help discourage pupils from dropping out due to language comprehension difficulties, although the
bigger reason for leaving school is poverty.
While basic education is free and compulsory, studies show that the dropout rate remains high,
starting in third grade and increasing in high school. Even if education is free, millions of families cannot
afford even the daily transportation fare, food allowance and miscellaneous expenses for keeping a child in
school. With two years added to secondary education, many students may fail to get a high school diploma.
Under RA 10533, students will be prepared to pursue either vocational courses, which offer quick
employment opportunities, or regular college courses. The government can fine-tune the program to reduce
the current mismatch between skills and job requirements in many local industries.
A lot of time, effort and resources went into the development of the K to 12 program, now embodied
in RA 10533 or the Basic Education Program law. The measure is meant to upgrade Philippine education,
whose quality has deteriorated in recent decades, and improve national competitiveness. Every effort must
be made to ensure the success of its implementation.
PNP cannot afford to bungle hazing case

BY THE MANILA TIMES ON SEPTEMBER 30, 2017EDITORIAL
To a non-legal mind, the release from detention on Thursday of John Paul Solano, one of the main
suspects in the hazing death of University of Santo Tomas law freshman Horacio Atio Castillo 3rd, came
as a shock.
How could a principal suspect, already in police custody and who could provide vital information
that could lead to the arrest of other suspects, be freed less than a week from detention?
The apprehension is understandable from the perspective that the alleged master initiator of
Castillo in the Aegis Juris law school fraternity, Ralph Trangia, left the country for the United States via
Taiwan just two days after the fatal hazing rites.
Given the resources and influence wielded by fraternity elders, all the hazing suspects pose a flight
risk. In fact, 16 members of Aegis Juris had been placed on an immigration lookout order by the Justice
department. It is only reasonable that all suspects, Solano included, are arrested and detained post-haste.
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It appears, however, that the Manila Police District (MPD) had made an early blunder when it sought
inquest proceedings on Solano.
An inquest is a summary proceeding, in which a prosecutor determines whether a suspect arrested

without a warrant should remain in detention or be released.
In such cases, the suspect is often caught in the act or was being pursued by authorities immediately
after the crime was committed, justifying a warrantless arrest.
This was not the case with Solano, the 27-year-old medical technologist who gave false testimony to
the police on the circumstances surrounding Atios death and subsequent transport to the Chinese General
Hospital in the morning of September 17.
Solano went into hiding then voluntarily surrendered to Sen. Panfilo Lacson on September 22, five
days after the fatal hazing rites that claimed Castillos life.
The rules of criminal procedure were on Solanos side. Instead of an inquest, the police should have
filed criminal complaints before prosecutors and sought a preliminary investigation, the proper course of
action.
Otherwise, the outcome could have been devastating to the case; an inquest, being a summary
proceeding, would have deprived Solano of the chance to answer the charges against him, as well as
detained him unlawfully. He could have walked away eventually because he was deprived of due process.
The Castillo case is a golden opportunity for the Philippine National Police to redeem itself from the
public outrage over the recent killings of teenagers in the governments war on drugs.
Shortcuts like the botched inquest of Solano are, therefore, unacceptable.
At any rate, the MPD can still make up for the blunder by assembling an airtight case against the
fraternity members before public prosecutors on October 4 and 9.
Acting Prosecutor General Jorge Catalan has said Solanos release did not mean he was free from the
murder and anti-hazing complaints.
The three-man panel of prosecutors, led by Assistant State Prosecutor Susan Villanueva, must be
sharp and wise in their preliminary investigation in determining probable cause for formal charges to be
filed in court.
The bottom line for justice in this case is this: An innocent hazing victim has died, and the guilty
parties must be punished.
Atios parents, Horacio Jr. and Carmina, must be assured that justice is attainable for their sons
brutal and senseless death.
The police cannot afford to make another misstep, considering they will be up against big and
influential law firms and moneyed defendants.
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Security and human rights the vital connection
More by force of circumstance than by agreement, both the Philippines and the United States tried
hard this year to bring to the attention of the United Nations the connection between human rights and peace
and security.
The US did so because of its need for a theme for its presidency of the UN Security Council; the
Philippines because of international concern for possible human rights violations in the ongoing war on
illegal drugs.
In April this year, as the United States began its three-year presidency of the UN Security Council,
the US dedicated its leadership to making the connection between human rights and peace and securitya
connection that had often been overlooked by the council in the past.
The US even pointed out then that human rights violations and abuses were not merely the incidental
byproduct of conflict, but were the trigger for conflict.
For at least a decade, the Security Council has received briefings from human rights officials within
the UN and, occasionally, from outside organizations that work on human rights. Over the last year, those
briefings have included the risk of genocide in South Sudan, war crimes in Syria, politically motivated
killings in Burundi and the atrocities committed by the Islamic State.
That April meeting essentially amounted to the first human rights briefing at the Security Council
that was not tied to a particular conflict.
This September, the Philippines, with Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano in the lead,
delivered a strong statement to address the criticisms of some countries concerning alleged human rights
violations in the drug war. The statement also intended to manifest the Philippine commitment to uphold
human rights in carrying out its responsibility to protect Filipinos from the threat posed by illegal drugs,
criminality and terrorism.
Secretary Cayetano delivered the statement during the high-level debate at the 72nd Session of the
United Nations General Assembly,
He said: The Philippines integrates the human rights agenda in its development initiatives for the
purpose of protecting everyone, especially the most vulnerable, from lawlessness, violence and anarchy.
Security and human rights are not incompatible. Indeed, the first is our duty to the other, Cayetano
said.
Without security, the most basic human rights to life and safety are constantly under attack from
terrorism, criminality, drugs and human trafficking.
Earlier, before the start of the 72nd UN session, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva
unanimously adopted the Third Universal Periodic Review Report of the Philippines, wherein the country
reiterated Manilas commitment to its human rights obligations under the international treaties it has ratified.
The Philippines also addressed squarely global concern about the governments war on drugs.
Cayetano declared that the Philippine governments campaign against illegal drugs was a necessary
instrument to preserve and protect the human rights of all Filipinos, and was never an instrument to violate
human rights.
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President Rodrigo Duterte launched the campaign against the illegal drug trade with the objective in
mind of saving lives, preserving families, protecting communities and stopping the country from sliding into
narco-statehood.
As his final message, Cayetano asked countries that are critical of Manilas drug war to respect
Philippine sovereignty and not tell it what to do.
He said: The Philippines expects its sovereignty to be respected, and the governments assessment
of threats to be accorded recognition.
Taken all together, we think this is creditable presentation and defense of the Philippine policy and
record in both peace-and-security and human rights.
Crime and punishment

BY THE MANILA TIMES ON AUGUST 30, 2017EDITORIAL
The persistence of the parents of Kian Loyd de los Santos to meet with President Rodrigo Duterte
and seek justice for their 17-year old son, in the belief he was senselessly and unjustly killed by the three
police officers in an anti-drug operation, has paid off.
It was an act of sheer desperation, on one hand, and a steely resolve to bring up their case to the
highest official of the land, on the other a high-profile crime that played out on live television and burned
newspaper headlines.
In so doing, the de los Santoses unwittingly caused the slow wheels of justice in this country to turn a
little faster and they may have helped restore the peoples faith in the Philippine judicial and penal system,
that it could work not just for the rich but also for the poor.
On Monday, the President granted the grieving couple an audience in Malacaang, promising them
due process to resolve what the Public Attorneys Office called the murder of their son, a high school
student, in the hands of three members of the Caloocan City police force on August 16.
The meeting sends the message to the men and women in uniform that they will have to account for
unlawful killings, which Duterte said in a speech on National Heroes Day, are not allowed under his
administration.
Duterte had to add that Kians death would not stop the government from cracking down on traders
of shabu and other illegal drugs in the country. He said again that under the anti-drug campaign, the police
could invoke self-defense, especially if drug suspects resisted arrest by shooting it out with the lawmen, an
affirmation of the original parameters of the crackdown.
Malacaang spokesman Ernesto Abella on Tuesday said the meeting with Kians parents was also
not meant to deflect he accusations of extrajudicial killings made by UN special rapporteur Agnes
Callamard, but to give assurances to the couple that justice will be fully served.
By agreeing to meet with the grieving victims parents and giving the mother a hug, Duterte showed
the Presidents soft side, explaining to the couple why he could not visit Kians wake as he wanted first to
know the results of the investigation.
Critics who believe that the drug-related killings are state-sanctioned, however, have blamed Kians
parents for playing into the hands of Dutertes PR defenders, by allowing themselves to be photographed for
propaganda purposes with the hug and the fist bump signature gesture of the President.
12
Still, other people see from the hug and the fist bump the desperation and vulnerability of the
victims parents, gaining for them public sympathy in the process, and thus, raising expectations that indeed,
justice will be served in Kians case in the end.
The mother, Lorenza, urged those who have vested political interests to stop using the issue of her
sons death for their purposes.
The de los Santoses are channeling their grief into productive efforts to find justice for their son, but
we may also be the ultimate beneficiary of their simple act of courage.
A day in the life of Kian Loyd

WEDNESDAY, August 16, 2017, was supposed to be another day in the life of Kian Loyd delos
Santos, 17, of Caloocan City. It turned out to be his last as he was fatally shot before 9 p.m.
Instead of ending up in a pile of statistical data on the campaign against illegal drugs, Kian
metamorphosed into a voice and a face symbolizing the countless innocent victims of extrajudicial killings.
The police tried to paint a picture of a family mired in the illicit drug trade. But the initial campaign
to wrest public opinion on the side of the perpetrators and tarnish the reputation of a family to justify murder
in the name of the law failed.
The cry for truth and justice resonated deep and loud into the psyche of a nation reeling from shock
and awe at the brazenness of the police in killing the boy.
One of the slugs came from the gun of one of the police officers involved in anti-drug operations that
night in Caloocan City. The police claimed Kian was a drug courier, an allegation his family, friends and
neighbors denied as senseless, baseless and a lie.
The forensic consultant hired by the Public Attorneys Office said there was intent to kill the victim
as the bullet wounds were mostly fatal.
Sen. Grace Poe caught some inconsistencies in this gruesome killing during the Senate hearing on
Thursday. The PAO-sponsored autopsy revealed three bullet wounds in Kians body, the police autopsy
found only the two bullet wounds in his head.
The way I see it, the PNPs (version) was lacking the one in the back, PAO chief Persida Acosta
told the senator.
But only one body was autopsied, wasnt it? the senator noted.
Yes. This was the body of Kian. Even on his T-shirt can be seen the hit in the back, the PAO chief
replied.
The lifeless body of the senior high school student of Our Lady of Mount Carmel College in
Caloocan City was in a fetal posture, his face on the filthy ground.
A .45 caliber pistol was supposedly found in his left hand. The police claimed they were fired upon
and so they shot back.
But Kian was right-handed, Senator Poe pointed out.
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The police claimed that the boy caught on CCTV being dragged by the police before 9 p.m. in Kians
neighborhood was not Kian, contrary to witnesses testimonies, but a police asset. A close examination of
the CCTV footage would show the supposed asset was wearing shorts similar to the shorts Kian was
wearing that night.
His mother, Lorenza, told the Senate she used to sell plasticware in Balintawak with her children.
She went on to narrate a day in the life of Kian. He would spread out their goods in the market at 6 a.m. At
12 noon, Kian would call her to relieve him and he would go home to cook and take a bath before going to
school. At 7 p.m. he would return and help tidy up their goods and close shop before going home to watch
his favorite TV series, Ang Probinsiyano, about a police officer going after a syndicate to avenge the
death of his brother.
His dream was to be a policeman, his mother told the Senate.
The night he was killed, a witness said Kian begged the police officers to let him go because he was
supposed to study for an exam in the morning.
The atrocity perpetrated by the police in the killing of Kian is condemnable. This case is so brutal the
three men in uniform couldnt even be defended by the PNP chief and the President himself.
Abolish hazing, initiation, frats in schools

To a society now inured to daily street killings and other violent crimes, news of the death of
University of Santo Tomas (UST) law freshman Horacio Tomas Castillo 3rd still came as a shock. This is
because of the senselessness of his death arising from a rite of initiation into a fraternity that is supposed to
be founded on brotherhood, support for justice and the law.
Sadly, Greek-letter fraternities in the country have gained notoriety for their violent hazing rites,
through which young men gain approval from their more senior brethren and full membership to an
exclusive circle.
These elitist organizations deride those who refuse to join them as barbarians, which in reality is a
supreme irony. Barbarian is the most appropriate word to describe what happens during a fraternitys hazing
rites.
The bloated body of Castillo, 22, bore hematomas on both arms, and had bruises and burns from
candle wax and cigarettes all over. So serious was the bodily trauma that Horacio, or Acio to his parents
and friends, had a massive heart attack.
They are animals, said Horacio Castillo Jr., Acios father, of those behind his sons death.
Indeed, no parent should have to bury their children.
Another supreme irony is Republic Act (RA) 8049, or the Anti-Hazing Law, which is inappropriately
named because it does not really ban hazing, but only regulates it.
In the law, hazing is defined as an initiation rite or practice as a prerequisite for admission into
membership in a fraternity, sorority or organization by placing the recruit, neophyte or applicant in some
embarrassing or humiliating situations, such as forcing him to do menial, silly, foolish and other similar
tasks or activities or otherwise subjecting him to physical or psychological suffering or injury.
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Hazing, physical or psychological suffering or injury included, is allowed, provided school
authorities or heads of organizations are informed seven days before initiation rites are held.
Section 4, pertaining to penalties, is ridiculous; the severity of sanctions depend on the degree of
physical harm, when there should be zero injury to any neophyte undergoing any form of initiation.
The law is so weak fraternities and other student organizations continue to hold hazing rites,
sometimes kept under wraps from school administrators. This was likely what happened in Aegis Juris, the
UST law fraternity that recruited Acio.
No wonder there has only been one conviction, out of dozens of cases, since RA 8049 was passed by
Congress in 1995 life sentences meted on two fratmen in connection with the death of a UP Los Baos
student in 2006.
In the 1991 Lenny Villa case, charges against three suspects in the death of the Ateneo de Manila
student were even dismissed.
The lack of justice in nearly all hazing cases necessitates a complete overhaul of RA 8049.
If they cannot be restricted to academic and philanthropic pursuits, fraternities and similar
organizations should be banned from all campuses. Any form of hazing should likewise be banned, not
merely regulated by school authorities.
In fact, the whole concept of initiation rites, especially in the school setting, should be re-examined,
with activities that do not promote character-building and civic-mindedness, such as humiliating tasks and
psychological torture, prohibited.
Fraternities, hazing and initiation especially those that lead to senseless deaths such as Acios are
things we can all do without.
Staying on track against the bird flu virus

The government must stay on the right track in the fight against the avian influenza outbreak without
letting go until the A virus is eradicated because this scourge will not go away overnight.
Swift action is vital, as what the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Animal Industry had
done, setting up a 1-kilometer quarantine radius and a 7-km control area. Immediately they culled the birds
within the quarantine area in San Luis, Pampanga, where the outbreak first evolved, and in the towns of the
adjacent province, Nueva Ecija, where the second outbreak came about as confirmed by Agriculture
Secretary Emmanuel Piol early Friday.
The Agriculture department has rightfully asked the Armed Forces of the Philippines for personnel
support in depopulating the quarantine zones of sick and highly likely infected birds.
The quarantine teams had been immediately established even before the laboratory tests confirmed
the presence of the virus.
To stay on track, the authorities should also avoid making premature declarations such as, that the
scourge has been licked or is about to end, especially at this juncture when the outbreak is in its early stages
and the data on the particular subtype whether it is of the highly pathogenic H5 strain that is transmissible
to humans has not yet even been determined.
15
The majority of human cases of A(H5N1) and A(H7N9) infection have been associated with direct
or indirect contact with infected live or dead poultry. Controlling the disease in the animal source is critical
to decrease risk to humans, as the World Health Organization said in a 2016 bird flu fact sheet.
To stay on track, Mr. Piol also needs to avoid making daring and emotionally charged statements
live on national television that he would resign if the outbreak spread to the Visayas and Mindanao.
But by stating so, the Agriculture secretary has put himself in a difficult, precarious lame-duck
position. Instead, Mr. Piol needs to assess the situation squarely and continue finding and applying the right
solutions and interventions, because this bird flu scourge has the potential of spreading or staying on for
years. The country needs Mr. Piol to stay the course without flying away from this fight against the bird
flu.
The outbreak in China has remained a risk since 1996, with human infection cases soaring again this
year. In Hong Kong, where the first case of human infection from bird flu was reported in 1997, the disease
inflicted another victim again early this year as the South China Morning Post reported that a 10-year old
boy tested positive for H7N9 bird flu after visiting the mainland, quoting the Center for Health Protection of
the Department of Health, making him the fourth such case in the city this winter.
The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, citing the most recent report from the WHO,
says that 23 more human infections with the Asian H7N9 bird flu brought the total number of such
infections during the current fifth epidemic to 688.
This is the largest epidemic of Asian H7N9 human infections in China since this virus emerged to
infect people in 2013, the CDCs May 2017 report noted.
So far, the birds being culled in San Luis in Pampanga and in the towns of Jaen and San Isidro in
Nueva Ecija boil down to less than 1 percent of the countrys total poultry and duck population. The culling
involves 500,000 birds within the quarantine and control zones in San Luis, and an estimated 107,000 birds
in Nueva Ecija.
As of January 1, 2017, the total chicken inventory in the country was estimated at 175.32 million
birds, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed, while the duck inventory totaled 10.84 million.
I am hoping and praying that Jaen and San Isidro would be the last of our AI problems, Secretary
Piol said in a recent Facebook posting on the avian influenza.
As long as the government stays on the right track in this fight, the nation should be and will be 100
percent behind it.
How prepared are we?

A STRONG earthquake that rattled Batangas and other parts of the country, including Metro Manila,
this month should be an equally strong reminder for government authorities to keep the public abreast of
what actual contingency measures it has prepared in case the so-called Big One strikes.
If this supposedly super earthquake that would be generated by the West Valley Fault visited the
Phil-ippines, what could we expect from the Duterte administration beyond the duck-cover-and-hold drills
that in some places are not really taken seriously?
Stay calm. Dont panic. The situation is under control.
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These are tired and untested assurances that would do little to calm people when the lights go out and
the faucets run dry.
They would also be of little help when mobile phones go silent, or prices shoot up.
The supposedly soothing words would not be able to steel hospitals and other medical services pro-
viders into saving as many lives as possible and volunteer workers into alleviating the suffering of the dying
and the injured.
In the streets, we can expect chaos and discipline will be the first to go out the window once govern-
ment troops begin trying to impose order in the face of, among others, looters and other criminals out to prey
on rich Filipinos and stores and other business establishments.
We could also expect evacuation centers to be crammed with people seeking shelter from the cold,
the fear, the truth that they had been removed from their comfort zones.
Has the government come up with a list of possible temporary homes for the displaced?
Does it even have an idea of how many possible evacuees there would be?
How long will food supplies last and who gets them and at what cost?
Or, would the government just take its cue from Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado of Bulacan that ulti-
mately it is prayers and the love and mercy of God that can prevent this horrible disaster, for in-stance, of
the Angat dam in his province collapsing as a result of the Big One?
The horror of it is unimaginable. The dam is located in the steepest slope of the mountain. Once it
breaks, huge boulders, illegally cut logs and debris will cascade downstream and will wipe out every-thing
in its path toward Manila Bay, he said early this month.
According to Alvarado, he had foreseen the problem of Angat eventually conking out, the reason
why he suggested that the dam be strengthened and rehabilitated.
He made the suggestion almost a decade ago and called attention to it during a privilege speech be-
fore the Sangguniang Panglalawigan in September 2009 when he was the vice governor of Bulacan.
At the time, Alvarado said, the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage System insisted that the solution to
the problem with Angat Dam was the Laiban dam project but this project was shelved by President Corazon
Aquinos administration in December 1989 to give priority to more practical projects such as theAngat
Water Supply Optimizing Project and the Umiray-Angat Transbasin Project.
The good news, according to the Bulacan governor, is that the new operator of the damAngat Hy-
dro Corp.is undertaking the repair and rehabilitation of the aging Angat dam.
Let us pray, if that were possible, that repairing and rehabilitating the dam that is just a few towns
from Metro Manila would stand up to the presumed mother of all earthquakes.
If it does, then at least Metro Manila (NCR or the National Capital Region) will have water flowing
from its taps as the region and possibly other areas of the country reel from expected aftershocks.
Seriously though, we believe that prayers can move mountains.
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Nothing less than our utmost in fighting bird flu
How the bird flu virus found its way to San Luis, Pampanga, some 64 kilometers north of Manila,
seems irrelevant now. The fact is, the Department of Agriculture has confirmed an outbreak of avian flu,
first detected in April in Barangay San Agustin.
Because the A(H5) strain of the virus is highly contagious and could easily decimate the poultry
population of Luzon, the Bureau of Animal Industry has declared a 1-kilometer quarantine radius from San
Agustin, and a 7-km control area.
Even if there are no confirmed cases of human infection in the country from this bird flu outbreak so
far, the Department of Health has stepped up its surveillance on human flu-like illness in light of the human
influenza outbreaks in Hong Kong and India earlier this year.
The objective is to check if there has been any human case of infection particularly among those who
may have been exposed to the virus in the affected areas. Any person who becomes sick with fever and/or
sore throat/cough and had exposure to these dead chickens should report to the local health center or nearest
hospital for laboratory confirmation, the Health department said.
The persons most highly at risk are the poultry farm owners and workers. The poultry industry is a
major economic activity in Pampanga, and Gov. Lilia Pineda has declared a state of calamity in the province
of more than 2 million people.
For avian influenza viruses, the primary risk factor for human infection appears to be direct or
indirect exposure to infected live or dead poultry or contaminated environments, such as live bird markets.
Slaughtering, defeathering, handling carcasses of infected poultry, and preparing poultry for consumption,
especially in household settings, are also likely to be risk factors, according to the World Health
Organization (WHO).
The government must not take the situation lightly. It must devote a significant number and amount
of human and financial resources to stop the bird flu from spreading beyond the 7-km control zone and keep
the population in check, before it could evolve into an epidemic with devastating consequences on the
human population and the economy.
In the November 2016 Avian and other zoonotic influenza fact sheet, the WHO could not be more
explicit about the dangers of a bird flu outbreak.
To date, although human-to-human transmission of these viruses is thought to have occurred in

some rare instances when there had been very close and prolonged contact between a very sick patient and
caregivers such as family members, there has been no sustained human-to-human transmission. If these
viruses adapt or acquire certain genes from human viruses, they could trigger a pandemic, it said.
Its not because this is happening for the first time in the Philippines, which in the past flaunted and
prided its status as a country free of the bird flu scourge. But the reality has shifted dramatically as avian
influenza broke out right in our backyard, in Central Luzon, four months ago. The likelihood of human
infection is not far from reality. It has happened elsewhere in the world, it can happen here.
Studies have found there are many subtypes of avian influenza viruses, but only some strains of five
subtypes can infect humans, namely, H5N1, H7N3, H7N7, H7N9 and H9N2. The specific subtype that has
hit Pampanga is still being determined.
18
The words of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piol, banning the transportation of poultry and
poultry products from Luzon to other parts of the country, setting up checkpoints within the quarantine and
control areas, and culling 200,000 chickens, quails and ducks are reassuring: the government appears to be
doing all it can to keep the bird flu from spreading beyond San Luis.
But the extent and efficiency of the measures being taken by the relevant government agenciesthe
Agriculture and Health departments and the Animal Industry bureauagainst the avian disease remain to be
seen. As we protect ourselves from possible contact with infected fowl, we also expect the government to do
its utmost in keeping the avian flu outbreak from spreading.
EDITORIAL
Footing the free tuition bill

ON August 3, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act (RA) 10931, or the Universal Access
to Quality Tertiary Education Act, to near universal acclaim. This law is yet another manifestation of
Filipino lawmakers tendency to turn the Philippines into a welfare state, with universal access to
everything from kindergarten to maintenance medicines, despite its lack of resources.
To be sure, the objectives of RA 10931 are laudable. The Philippine population has a youth bulge
that needs to be developed into economically productive citizens. Education, indeed, is needed for the
Philippines to reap its so-called demographic dividend and accelerate economic growth.
Achieving these objectives, however, do not require the overly generous provisions of RA 10931,
whose contents (the product of closed-door Bicameral Conference committee deliberations) are being
discussed in public only now.
Not only does the law mandate free tuition in all universities and colleges run by the state, it does the
same for higher education institutions (HEIs) owned by local governments.
In addition, it puts up a Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) for books, room and board, review classes,
licensure exam fees and insurance premiums, among others.
In what seems to be an afterthought, the law allows students of private HEIs to get subsidies or
student loans, deductible from their salaries once they get jobs.
Universal access is actually a misnomer. Students whose parents (taxpayers, by the way) are able
to send them to school are not entitled to free tuition.
No wonder the governments economic managers wanted the President to veto the law there are
conceptual contradictions and no one really knows how much it will cost. Pressed for a figure, Budget
Secretary Benjamin Diokno, a level-headed UP economist, made an estimate of P100 billion.
Lawmakers, the senators in particular, ignored the sound advice of Dutertes economic managers and
passed the bill. The rush to get credit one lawmaker claimed to be a principal author; he was not betrays
their principal motivation, which is reelection.
If it were otherwise, they would have passed a fully funded law. Instead they are looking for funding
sources only now. Such is the quality of lawmaking in the 17th Congress.
No one knows what the President was thinking, but he signed RA 10931 anyway, only to admit a
few days later that he did so even if he knew the government had no money for it.
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Perhaps this is Dutertes way of putting lawmakers on the spot. The may have ignored Diokno et al.
on the free tuition law for the sake of populist politics and welfarism. But when it comes to Dutertes tax
reform proposal, which is up next on the legislative agenda, senators might not be able to ignore them any
longer.
Lawmakers cant have it both ways. If Congress wants a new program dramatically expanding
government spending, they better find ways to foot the bill. Its called fiscal responsibility.
Garbage everywhere
Updated August 28, 2001 - 12:00am
By now the regular floods have probably reminded you that Metro Manila is still grappling with a
garbage crisis. Trash is piling up on sidewalks, in vacant lots, even on traffic islands. In some waterways,
the layer of garbage has grown so dense anyone who falls into the water will suffocate to death from the
trash. Clogged waterways mean bad drainage, which means massive floods.
Most local government executives are aware of the problem and are making an effort to clean up the mess.
A new problem, however, has cropped up, making proper garbage disposal even more difficult. In several
parts of Metro Manila, garbage collectors have stopped collecting waste. The reason, according to officials
of the Solid Waste Contractors Association of the Philippines, is that under Republic Act 9003 or the
Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, they can be fined for collecting garbage that has not been
segregated. A number of cities and municipalities in Metro Manila, however, have not made waste
segregation mandatory.
Several subdivisions and communities in Metro Manila have started segregating household waste. But there
are those who believe waste segregation is impossible in the slums, where most households dont even have
toilet facilities or tap water. Solid waste contractors naturally prefer to collect segregated garbage packed in
neat bags. And now with a law to back them up, the contractors cant be compelled to collect unsorted
garbage. The problem is that many slums straddle waterways vital for proper drainage, and these are the
spots where garbage accumulates.
Reports said the contractors want local governments to take the initiative in waste segregation. Local
officials, on the other hand, continue to grumble about the lack of dump sites. Metro Manila has not yet
found a new sanitary landfill and the Clean Air Act prohibits garbage incineration. The Metro Manila
Development Authority said yesterday unsorted garbage will be collected for another week, after which
households and local governments must comply with the waste segregation law. Metro Manila continues to
generate an average of 6,000 tons of garbage daily. With no immediate solution in sight, well be seeing
more piles of garbage and worse flooding.
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Disaster preparedness
(The Freeman) | Updated May 10, 2015 - 12:00am
How ready are the local government units in Cebu against major disasters? This question surfaced
during the recent dialogue with provincial officials and non-government organizations on calamity
preparedness.
During the gathering held at the Cebu provincial Capitol, it was found out that only 19 of the 50
LGUs across the province have emergency evacuation procedures ready in the event of typhoons and
earthquakes.
A report released by the provincial office of the Department of Interior and Local Government
during the meeting revealed that only 16 towns and three components cities have standby disaster
measures.
The DILG report excludes the highly urbanized cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu which have
already formulated their own disaster programs that include measures on evacuation, search and rescue,
among others.
Under the law, every municipality and town is mandated to establish a disaster risk reduction and
management office. But lack of funding leaves some LGUs without budget to appoint personnel to man such
an important office.
It cannot be denied that areas without emergency plans are bound to have massive casualty during
disasters. Therefore, there is really an urgent need for LGUs in the province to start devising contingency
measures.
Provincial and local officials should need to realize that since the province is situated in the path of
some typhoons hitting the country every year, immediate response programs should be the first on the list of
their priorities.
Past typhoons and earthquakes have already taught Filipinos that in the absence of emergency
measures, massive infrastructure destruction and high toll on human lives are always expected in an ill-
prepared locality during disasters.
The 2013 Visayas earthquake and the Supertyphoon Yolanda will always be the indelible reminders
of how costly are the natural disasters to human lives and property. That is why we have to always be
prepared because we cannot really prevent their occurrence.
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EDITORIAL - Many still don't understand the drug problem
(The Freeman) | Updated October 14, 2017 - 12:00am
Local government authorities have finally agreed to stop the shame campaign against drug suspects, which
some local officials tried testing in a few places. The campaign first involved the posting of notices on
houses that indicated them as dwellings of drugs suspects. Later it was modified by posting notices on
houses that described them as drug-free.
The reason for the cancellation of the campaign was that it tended to violate the rights of people. While there
is no dispute that the rights of people were clearly violated by the campaign, human rights shouldn't have
been made the sole measure for the initiative. Human rights, while concededly vital in every undertaking,
should be treated as a separate measure by which initiatives are weighed.
For example, it is wrong to say that the shame campaign had to be stopped because it transgressed the rights
of people. To say so obscures the many other pertinent reasons why the campaign was untenable from the
beginning. And when a particular matter is obscured unnecessarily, it deprives everyone the chance to fully
understand a problem and appreciate each and every potential solution.

In other words, to say only that the campaign was scrapped because of its tendency to violate human rights
effectively diagnoses a disease solely on the basis of one symptom to the exclusion of the many other
manifestations that indicate a potentially even greater disease. If that is the attitude to be adopted in any
future campaign, then any and all such future campaigns are doomed to fail.
There is an even more sensible and practical reason, in addition to being violative of human rights, why the
campaign just cannot go on. And it is that a shame campaign just does not work on people zonked on drugs.
These people are gone. They no longer know shame. No shame campaign can ever work on those who no
longer know what is going on in the world. And those who initiated the campaign were no better. They
clearly did not know what they were dealing with.
And yet things are going to get even worse. A group of lawyers has just gone to the Supreme Court asking it
to stop the war on drugs itself. Apparently these lawyers also just don't get it. They seem to think that if the
drug war is stopped, everything will become all hunky-dory again, as if nothing happened. Well, there is no
going back to wherever. This country is so deep into the quagmire it will be devoured whole the moment we
treat the problem as if it was as dainty as cotton candy.
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Restoring Marawi: A fitting gift for Eid
BY THE MANILA TIMES ON JUNE 26, 2017EDITORIAL
ITS been 10 years since the Muslim holiday of Eidl Fitr, or the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan,
was declared a nationwide holiday under a law passed by Congress, on the initiative of the Arroyo
administration.
The Eid, also known as Hari Raya Puasa in Malay, is a major worldwide Islamic feast, as important as the
Christian Lent, Holy Week and Easter cycle. Eid celebrates the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset
fasting observed by Muslims, which they take as an occasion to give thanks to Allah. Like the Christian
Lent, it is also marked by charity and almsgiving. Both are moveable feasts and speak of the cosmological
moorings of these two great religions.
The nationwide celebration of Eidl Fitr is a testament to the maturity of Philippine society. Filipinos now
more than ever recognize that our society, while dominated by a Christian majority, is a multicultural and
multi-religious one. It also speaks of the advances of the inter-religious dialogue fostered for decades by the
bishops and ulama. The Muslim is no longer the other.
This year, the Eid resonates even more deeply amid the destruction of the countrys most important Muslim
city, Marawi, the capital and the largest city of Lanao del Sur province that is also often referred to as the
Islamic City. The month-long siege of Marawi City by the Maute group has all but destroyed the once
beautiful city known for its high elevation, cool weather and rolling terrain. The siege has prevented the
residents of Marawi from observing Ramadan and Eid in their home communities.
President Rodrigo Duterte apologized last week to Marawi City for his declaration of martial law following
the Maute attack, and rightly so. It may have been a way of making amends for his earlier statement blaming
the wider Maranao population for allowing the Islamic State-linked Maute group for gaining a foothold in
the city and the province. But Dutertes apology, delivered in his usual extemporaneous style, was a sincere
one, and by all indications was accepted by its intended recipients. The absence of recrimination from the
Muslims of Marawi is an indication that they have understood the necessity of using extraordinary force to
crush terrorism in Mindanao.
Malacaang, it should be noted, has doubled the budget to rebuild war-torn Marawi to P20 billion from P10
billion. It would a fitting gesture for the President this Eid to go beyond his apology and ensure the speedy
reconstruction of Marawi as soon as the fighting ends. A spirit of charity should motivate the implementers
and contractors of the Marawi reconstruction to ensure that these projects are efficiently rolled out, free of
any form of corruption.
Filipinos, Christian and Muslim, meanwhile, should reflect this Eid on their shared values as a peaceful and
God-fearing people. It may be linked to the Islamic State, but the Maute group is anything but Islamic, just
as the IS has been rejected by the mainline adherents of Islam. The call to action this Eid is for both
communities to again join forces to ensure that the alien ideologies of extremism and terrorism have no
place in Philippine society.
Marawi, martial law and missing the point

SOON enough, the Supreme Court will rule on the legality of the declaration of martial law in Mindanao.
Such questions at this juncture, however, miss the point. The legal challengers suffer from a serious
miscalculation of the situation in Marawi and the threat it poses to the rest of the country, if not the entire
Southeast Asian region. We hope that the President and the rest of government focus more on those security
issues and take measures against the plot to establish a new Asian beachhead in the global war against
terrorism.
23
For the Philippines, Marawi represents a far more serious danger than that posed by previous secessionist
movements. Unlike the MNLF and MILF rebels, the Maute group is poised to ignite a religious war here,
the largest predominantly Christian country in Asia. Even as fighting continues, the government should
counter any propaganda effort that could attract even more religious fundamentalist elements, including the
Islamic State (IS). For years now, local bandits have been raising the IS banner, presumably to attract
fighters and other support from abroad. In Marawi, they had some success. Reports have it that the
foreigners fighting there hail from Syria, Indonesia, Malaysia, and some Arab states.
Those who might dismiss these concerns as alarmist should consider that the most powerful countries in the
world, including the United States, have been waging a war on terror with no apparent end in sight. Even in
Syria, where the rebellion has been ongoing since 2011, the superpowers have been unable to obliterate
terrorism. Instead, terrorists have defiantly struck back, mainly at civilian targets in Europe and the Middle
East. They have even inspired local terrorists to copy their methods, such as beheading their captives. With
these as the backdrop, no wonder some are troubled by what might happen in the Philippines if the Maute
threat is not handled effectively.
The appropriate response to the attack was shock and awe from the police and military. A swift and
stronger retaliation could have sent a strong signal against moves by fundamentalists wishing for a toehold
in the country. What we saw instead was an inadequacy to end the problem quickly and decisively. Despite
the setbacks, there is hope.
Moving forward
Looking ahead, we commend the governments effort to reach out to its neighbors and invite greater
cooperation against terrorism. Last week, officials announced joint patrols of the Sulu Sea by the
Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, along with assistance from Singapore. The government is also using
diplomacy to gather support against this common threat. But the authorities should look beyond this region
for solutions. For instance, they could look into satellite technology that the Israelis have reportedly
developed to track ship movements in open waters, if they have not yet done so. We are not pretending to be
experts, but the point is to leave no stone unturned, so to speak.
On the other hand, the government should not make it appear that the Philippines is the party escalating the
fight. The authorities were right to downplay the assistance given by the United States. An American
presence could be counter-productive if the Maute group uses that as propaganda material.
The police and military should look beyond containing the terrorists in Marawi. Besides being vigilant
against attacks that may happen elsewhere, the government should strike back at all new threats with
sufficient force so as to send the message: we shall not yield even an inch.
Politicians and others in society should stand united against any religious fundamentalism. We hope that
those calling out the President for declaring martial law are not out to simply rack up political points. We all
should work together to realize the economic development goals planned for Mindanao, because losing it
will pull us all down. Mr. Rodrigo Duterte, the first president to be elected from there, ran on a promise to
solve the Mindanao problem. From all fronts political, economic and security he deserves our support.
His failure might just lead us to years of greater suffering.
Unlimited rice
THE statistics are staggering. According to the International Rice Research Institute, the Philippines wastes
more than 300,000 tons of rice annually. This translates to a cost of more than P20 million a day, or about
P8 billion annually.
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To put this in the proper perspective, the annual volume of rice wastage is equivalent to a third of rice
imports, an issue that is fraught with political, economic and even health considerations. All this because
Filipinos, on the average, are said to waste three tablespoons of rice every day.
But the proposal to ban unlimited rice servings in some restaurants, apparently a knee-jerk one, by Sen.
Cynthia Villar, seems misplaced. This week, in a Senate hearing on the countrys rice importation and failed
attempts to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production, these statistics on rice wastage were again brought
up, along with the ill effects of too much rice consumption on the health.
Betraying the Big-Brother or draconian tendencies many Filipino politicians have, Villar proposed to stop
restaurants from offering unlimited rice promotions to their customers. It touched a raw nerve especially
on social media, with the senator being the subject of a few memes.
On Twitter, parody accounts of local fast-food chains made fun of the proposed unli-rice ban. Its likely a
manifestation of Filipinos frustrations with the misplaced priorities of some politicos. Indeed, there are
bigger problems to tackle than restaurants unli-rice promos. As expected, Villar walked back her proposal.
Equating unli-rice to wastage is a debatable proposition. Perhaps Villar has not eaten in restaurants offering
these promos. Waiters often make it a point to ask customers how many cups of rice they need, and serve
rice only when requested. The restaurants, it seems, are aware of the likelihood of wastage, and often use
very small cups.
Needless to say, these promos are popular. To many working-class Filipinos, its perhaps the only luxury
they could afford given the rising cost of food, but one that could easily fill their stomachs. Thus, the
immediate backlash on the senator.
A more sound proposal is Senate Bill 1863 filed by former senator Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr. in
2013. It sought to penalize not unli-rice promos, but the practice among restaurants of refusing to serve less
than a cup of rice, and proposed to fine these establishments up to P100,000. To keen observers of Filipino
habit, the wastage happens with those who order more rice than they are able to consume, not with those
who are willing to pay for an extra serving.
To be sure, the solution to rice wastage is education, not Machiavellian impositions. Villar could instead
fund an extensive campaign to curb rice wastage, for instance, by emphasizing the ill effects of a high-
carbohydrate diet, among them diabetes and heart disease.
To be fair, Villar is advocating more brown rice consumption. A recent Manila Times story notes that brown
rice, or Pinawa among Tagalogs, is simply unpolished white rice, but has more protein, fiber, good fats,
vitamins B1, B2, B3, B9 and E, antioxidants and minerals than white rice.
According to the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), brown rice can help reduce the risk of
cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.
Moreover, brown rice also encourages balanced eating based on testimonial evidence, as gathered by
PhilRice consultant Cezar Mamaril, people consume less rice when they eat brown rice. People get their fill
sooner, because brown grains weigh heavier.
An issue that touchers right at the heart of Filipino culture and lifestyle deserves greater introspection, not
knee-jerk thinking. Politicians cannot simply propose to restrict the demand side of rice consumption, just
because they find it harder to deal with the supply side.
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A struggle for the future of Mindanao
ENTERING the 24th day of fighting in Marawi City, we believe it will help public comprehension of the
situation if we shift our perspectives on the struggle for control of the city and its attendant implication for
the whole of Mindanao.
Since May 23, when fighting began in Marawi, the media and the public have viewed the situation only as a
matter of clearing the Muslim-majority city of Maute rebels and ending the hostilities and the Maute
rebellion.
Relatedly, we have seen it as a test for the proclamation of martial law in Mindanao. Depending on how the
Marawi crisis was resolved, martial law would prove itself as the necessary and correct solution to the crisis.
From this perspective, public hopes have been buoyed by the repeated announcement of deadlines by the
Armed Forces that the rebellion would soon be endedonly to be dashed by the subsequent announcement
that the promised liberation would not happen according to the deadline set.
Now, the media and the public must recognize a change in how the AFP sees the situation. The AFP has
formally revealed that it is dealing with formidable resistance to its efforts to clear Marawi. Well-armed
rebel forces are fighting back. Foreign snipers appear to be holding the line for the rebels. In a major shift in
its messaging, the AFP said it will no longer set any deadlines for an end to the fighting.
This is not to say, of course, that the nation must now brace itself or settle for a war without end. This only
means that the public and the media should recognize that resolution of the Marawi crisis will be drawn-out,
difficult, bloody, and demanding of the best that our soldiery and police can give.
The incontrovertible fact that has emerged from Marawi is that what is taking place there is nothing less than
a fierce struggle for control of Marawi between 1) rebels and foreign fighters on one side who fight under
the black flag of the Islamic State (IS), and 2) the police and security forces of the Philippine republic,
which has incontestable sovereignty over Marawi and all of Mindanao and the rest of the Philippines.
Our appreciation of the situation becomes more realistic when we shift the picture to the magnitude of the
challenge raised by Maute and its foreign supporters.
The objective of the rebel forces is to create an Islamic State outpost in Southeast Asia, using the Philippines
as base.
In testimony before the Supreme Court, government lawyers spelled out what military intelligence has
learned about the extent of Maute objectives, and the essence of the plot to invade Marawi. This was a
single-minded IS operation to take control of a major Mindanao city as a stepping stone towards taking all of
Mindanao.
Ranged against this ambitious goal is the sworn duty and unflinching resolve of the Philippine military and
Philippine government to preserve and protect every inch of national territory, and the welfare, safety and
security of the Filipino people and the republic.
There should be no doubt that government troops remain focused on flushing out the Maute group in
Marawi City and defeating their challenge to the government. The AFP is already deploying a wide range of
its weaponry in the fight.
As of yesterday, more than 200 members of the Maute group have been killed; almost 60 government troops
and some 26civilians have died in the struggle for Marawi.
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This is a heavy toll. But it is light when weighed against what is truly at stake in the fighting there. The
struggle in Marawi is not just about one city and its future. In fact, it is a struggle for the entirety and the
future of Mindanao.
Que ser, ser?

KISMET. Destiny. Fate. Kapalaran.
Any one of these four synonymous words could very well sum up what Filipinos think of as an explanation
for the death and violence from Marawi to Manila that they had heard, seen or read on radio, television and
social media the past several days.
With kismet or kapalaran to hold onto in these extremely dangerous times and climes, wonder no more why
we, as a people, seem to have turned nonchalant after being shocked to the core, particularly in Metro
Manila, by a gunman firing away and burning down a part of Resorts World Manila last week.
Until the next attack or rampage by another lunatic or terrorist that we hope and pray will not visit us
anymore because our beloved country is already numb from drugs, corruption and other evils that we have
on our plate and which we have been trying to demolish, to no avail it seems.
We have always managed to move on, quite unsurprisingly singing a happy tune, as authorities continue to
clear Resorts World of debris and other signs of the tragedy and Lanao del Sur of the terrorist Maute group.
That necessity is the mother of invention appeared to have been proved false in the aftermath of the chaos
and fear.
We would have expected that public places, high and low, are guarded more strictly but they apparently are
not.
Take, for example, the rail system plying the Santolan (Pasig City)-Recto (Manila)-Santolan route that
transports hundreds of thousands of train passengers every day. Bags and other belongings of commuters
riding this line are inspected only cursorily and their owners casually waved off by so-called blue guards.
These guards have been doing this job for years as if it was the most boring thing in the world.
It is on record that train systems around the world are a prime target of troublemakers carrying knives or
bombs (think Spain and Britain) and authorities overseeing the other two rail lines in Metro Manila had
better come up with safety measures to match whatever mayhem the bad guys may have in mind now and in
the future.
We suggest that the railway authorities review the role of members of the Philippine National Police
deployed to the stations of the train systems (usually there are two who are more visible but we dont know
if more are supposed to help man the fort).
Our observation is that these policemen spend all day hunched over their mobile phones or who knows what
other electronic gadgets, mostly texting.
Another observation is that K9 units of the PNP assigned to the train stations are not permanently on duty
and thus we see their dogs only occasionally.
We recommend that the PNP confiscate these policemens mobile phones, unless its chief, Ronald de la
Rosa, can convince us that they play a make-or-break role in thwarting the sinister plans of criminal minds.
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There might be a technology out there that could prove us right, a software or whatever that could restore
deleted messages from every policemans mobile phone.
Then, de la Rosa could make these mobile phones undergo a ballistics test of sorts to see who fired away
with SMS when they should have been keeping an eye on everything that moved in their places of
assignment.
Meanwhile, a few of the malls we have gone to this week seemed to be not strictly guarded, with the blue
guards appearing to be more concerned with letting in shoppers in the shortest possible time than deal with
the long queues of people who perhaps think that malls would be extinct by the next day.
Guardians of the peace and keeper of order should brush up on how to secure the public more effectively. As
the young people would say, level up to what the lowlifes have in mind by being one step ahead of them.
Let us err on the side of caution so that we would not be blaming each other over what hit us and say that we
had not been warned.
EDITORIAL - Give K-12 a chance

(The Philippine Star) | Updated June 13, 2016 - 12:00am
After several years of debates, the Kindergarten-to-12th grade scheme is being fully implemented starting
this school year. The first day of classes today is expected to be marked by protests from teachers displaced
by the additional two years of basic education as well as some parents complaining about the extra expenses.
K-12, however, is seen as a necessary adjustment if Philippine education is to keep up with more
competitive nations, which allot the same number of years to elementary and high school education.
There are valid concerns that the additional year in grade school and another in high school will be wasted
on redundant lessons. The public will hold education officials to their assurance that this will not be the case.
Teachers displaced by the additional two years must also be given assistance.
Under K-12, kindergarten has also been made mandatory and universally free in public schools. This allows
children even from low-income households to catch up with their more affluent counterparts who spend two
or three years in kiddie or preparatory schools before entering first grade.
K-12 is a key component of efforts to improve the quality of Philippine education. Over half a century ago,
the Philippines was considered a regional leader in education. A combination of factors, among them
insufficient resources plus the exodus of qualified teachers who wanted better paying jobs abroad, led to a
progressive deterioration in the quality of education.
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National competitiveness has been the casualty. In recent years, efforts have been made to correct the slide.
The outgoing Aquino administration has substantially addressed shortages in textbooks, school buildings
and rooms, and lured more teachers by raising compensation. Efforts are being undertaken to reverse the
deterioration in English proficiency.
K-12 is among the more dramatic schemes to boost the quality of education. The incoming Duterte
administration has expressed support for the scheme, which aims to improve the abilities of the nations
most valuable resource, its people. The nation must give K-12 a chance and cooperate in making it work
The bumps of K-12 and quality of education
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
THE K-12 basic education program is on its last phase before its complete implementation and yet
there are bumps and creases that need to be ironed out. Despite the praises heaped upon the program by the
administration, we know that the K-12 program of the US has not even been able to improve the basic
education system; with lesser resources here, this program will be a challenge to the future. More so because
other Asian countries are putting premium on education to become a force to contend with in the global
market of goods, services, and people. In a special chapter of Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2015,
the Asian Development Banks flagship annual statistical publication, it took note of the increase in
government spending for education in developing Asia the Philippines included. For 2014, the report said,
government in developing Asia spent over $1.2 trillion on education and $6.9 billion by households. For
sure, the Philippines rank among the biggest spenders. However, with economies in the region aspiring to
hasten the process of structural transformation, more advanced cognitive and non-cognitive skills
involving greater abstract thinking, writing and communication tasks in addition to working in teamsas
well as technical skills are needed. For jobs in high-productivity sectors, such as manufacturing and many
services, a quality secondary or tertiary education degree is especially important, the report said. The
secondary is where the stumbling blocks are, the K-12 that while being painted to be all-set to bring out
students who have the skills needed for employment even without a tertiary education, is just that, a
painting. We are still faced with a good number of students dropping out, and we havent even accounted for
the students forced to drop out because of all the calamities that regularly visit our country. Many high
school graduates from the overcrowded public schools are found lacking in reading comprehension and
math skills. Too many graduates unprepared to go on higher education and even technical vocation. The K-
12 is said to cure all those deficiencies when there is not even enough number of teachers trained for
senior high school where students are supposed to learn the employable skills. Acknowledging large strides
in expanding education access, the report still noted that skills-wise, many parts remain weak because of the
gaps in both the quantity and quality of education provided. To meet current and future labor market
demands and maintain human capital competitiveness in an increasingly globalized world, fostering
cognitive and non-cognitive skills is essential. These skills set the foundation to easily acquire new technical
skills that enable adaptation to changing labor market and occupational demands, the report said. While
technical skills are primarily important, countries are still advised not to overlook cognitive and non-
cognitive skills because technical skills are largely dependent on the industrial structure of the labor market,
which in the past decade is fast changing and automating.
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Editorial: Social media and safety
Tuesday, November 15, 2016 Ads by Kiosked Editorial Cartoon by Josua Cabrera
SINCE last week, two cities in Cebu have had to respond to social media reports about alleged
threats to their communities safety. The first involved a teenagers Facebook post about an Abu Sayyaf
team that, she claimed, surrounded a bus in Carcar City until a police team rescued the passengers. The
second focused on a supposed kidnapping in Barangay Tabok, Mandaue City. Authorities declared both
posts as hoaxes, but by then, these had circulated widely on the social networking site. Wed like to think
these posts were motivated by impulses different from those that provoke bomb jokes. We think their
sources genuinely meant to help keep their families and cities safe, and were not just out to call attention to
themselves. But because they failed to verify before posting, both sources will have consequences to face.
The first teenager has apologized for that Abu Sayyaf yarn. The second will be summoned soon by the
mayor of Mandaue City. These cases show a challenge that local officials and law enforcers now grapple
with, a difficult balancing of the need to stay vigilant, while at the same time guarding peoples peace of
mind. Its true the authorities must tamp down on fake reportsand so, must weigh the option to file
caseswhile at the same time encourage people to keep sharing information. What the authorities cant
afford to do is ignore social media conversations. In some countries, social networks have become part of
the field that state agencies regularly scan, in order to catch emerging threats. In Canada, the United
Kingdom, and the United States, public safety and intelligence agencies use social media to keep an eye on
constituents that are in danger of being radicalized. Properly informed, social media users can give public
safety agencies and rescue workers important, life-saving information. These can include the locations of
people in need of help during fires, floods and other emergencies. As we know from our experience after the
October 2013 earthquake and typhoon Yolanda the month after, social media are also valuable in organizing
relief efforts, volunteers, and moral support. It would be a good idea for law enforcers and other local
officials to reach out to their communities online, continue to educate them about the need to verify, and
help set norms so that these new, quick connections make our public spaces, whether online or off, much
safer
The President and the media

BY THE MANILA TIMES ON MAY 2, 2017EDITORIAL
THE raging give-and-take between Donald Trump and US mainstream media is an instructive guide for
leaders and media practitioners and us in the Philippines as well, in understanding the controversy over fake
news and the real contribution that the media makes to the betterment of society.
If we in the media just throw up our hands in frustration every time a top public figure hurls an accusation of
fake news against our media organizations, we would be allowing a falsehood to shape public perceptions
of our work and our organizations. The better response is to answer criticism frontally and to lay the case
before the public on what is right with the media.
It is for this reason that we bring to public attention today the recent exchange between President Donald
Trump and some leading members of the media in Washington, D.C.
In an interview aired Sunday, President Trump said one of the biggest things he learned in his first 100 days
in office is the extent of dishonesty in the news media.
Mr. Trump said that despite his accomplishments, he is the target of negative news stories that misrepresent
what he has done.
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One of the things that Ive learned is how dishonest the media is, really. Ive done things that are I think
very good. Ive set great foundations with foreign leaders, Trump said in the interview on CBS Face the
Nation.
At the time of the taping of the interview, the White House Correspondents Association was holding its
annual dinner in Washington, where the US President is traditionally the guest of honor.
Mr. Trump boycotted the dinner.
At the dinner, some stalwarts of US journalism, notably Bob Woodward of the Washington Post and of All
the Presidents Men fame, replied to Mr. Trump and his charge of dishonesty.
Woodward in his remarks said: Mr. President, the media is not fake news.
The effort today to get the best obtainable version of the truth is largely made in good faith, Woodward
said, and that any President and his administration is clearly entitled to the most serious reporting efforts
possible.
We need to understand, to listen, to dig obviously, our reporting needs to get both facts and tone right,
he said.
The press especially the so-called mainstream media comes under regular attack, particularly during
presidential campaigns like this one and its aftermath.
Members of the media at times get things wrong. Like politicians and Presidents, sometimes, perhaps too
frequently, we make mistakes and go too far. When that happens, we should own up to it.
President Trump has his point. He has not gotten the fairest coverage of his work in the US media. He is a
strong critic of the press, often blasting reporters and accusing them of biased or dishonest coverage against
him.
Woodward, for his part, speaks for many in journalism who have done good work and continue to provide
invaluable service to society, thereby proving that a free press is indispensable to a free and democratic
society.
It would be a tragedy for society if fake news were to succeed in chasing away good journalism.
The best and indisputable response is for us journalists to do our work betterto report the news honestly,
and to comment on developments intelligently and fairly.
The President and the media are not playing a zero-sum game. The best outcome is when both of them win.
War and (easy) peace

BY THE MANILA TIMES ON MARCH 25, 2017EDITORIAL
IT would be quite easy to pick a fight with anyone.
How, for instance?
Make sure you dont know when your LPG-run stove is going to die on you, thats how, for one.
If that burner does conk out just when you need your caffeine fix, be ready, for example, for the wife of your
neighbor-policeman to crane her neck over the concrete wall that separates your respective houses and cry
that you are disturbing the peace of the place where you both live.
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But what exactly did you do?
Well, since your mornings do not start until you have your cup of coffee, you fished out your unused but
serviceable charcoal-fed magic kalan.
You started a fire and smoke eventually billowed out of your supposedly environment-friendly stove, which
reputation your neighbors wife immediately shredded to pieces by complaining that you were killing
her husband who, according to her, has asthma (pretty stupid of you not to have an inkling of the travails of
her beloved).
If you have that respiratory condition, you also are bothered by paint, varnish, thinner and a million and one
chemicals, and thus the not-so-friendly woman next door maybe had the right to go to town.
Many in the entire residential village appeared to know that her husband is a policeman and so the better
part of valor for you peace-loving guy is not to engage her in a shouting match or youll never hear the end
of it from the husband whom you suspect carries a gun.
Under such seemingly life-and-death predicament, your only choice is to keep the peace and be alive for it
and be accepting of the fact that you cannot choose your neighbors, meaning you will just have to call the
LPG dealer that your future and possibly that of your family are in danger from lack of coffee unless he
delivers an 11-kilogram cylinder of liquefied petroleum gas immediately.
In other words, that woman could have died from boredom simply because you refused to, par-don the
clich, stoop down to her level.
Unmake the poor policemans wifes day and you would be the happier for it.
Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo knows or should know that she also cannot choose the President of
the Philippines by herself because she counts for only one vote.
But she can choose to cheapen the Office of the Vice President by going to the United Nations and demand
that President Rodrigo Duterte stop alleged summary executions of Filipinos.
The subtext was that if Duterte refused to budge, Robredo would, like a crybaby, embark on an impossible
mission to walk to the ends of the Earth to find the truth about the Presidents dirtier pieces of linen
(which are the countrys, too).
The Vice President can start closer to home by first taking lessons from the policemans wife, who deals
with clueless users of magic kalan with cold stares and the asthma card to be able to have it her way.
The farce that Robredo has been presenting the past few days only proves that she would rather stay in the
kitchen despite being ostensibly unable to stand the heat.
The reason, perhaps, why she cant leave the pots and pans is that she wants to try baking.
Robredo had better not come up with half-truths in the half-baked pies that she probably would serve
quarters whom the President had told to mind [their]own business.
Duterte was minding his own because if he did not, his host in Myanmar would have found it easy to pick a
fight with him if he as much as mentioned the Rohingya issue in Aung San Suu Kyi country.
He is a lawyer and so is the Vice President.
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Wanted: Peace and quiet
BY THE MANILA TIMES ON MARCH 19, 2017EDITORIAL
Malevolent forces whose avowed mission is to make your life and that of the rest of ordinary Filipinos
miserable, horrific and, in many cases, terminal not by disease but by knife or bullet, whichever is handily
available, can be found in unexpected places.
You wake up to find your trash uncollected even if you had placed it inside the regulation black plastic bag
so that, or so you thought, throwing it onto the truck would be easier for the garbage collector (but then you
realized that Christmas is still nine months away, which means that you have to cut the guy some slack).
Of course, you cant fight City Hall but, on second thought, you can but dont expect to win because it is
presumably busy with far more stinking issues, such as 15-30 employees and other creatures that only
ghost busters can wipe out from the face of the earth.
Turn on the TV set and you try not to choke on your fried tuyo and champurado at the sight of yet another
witness or scoundrel (take your pick) telling his all or tale on still yet another alleged extrajudicial killing
resulting from the governments war on drugs.
Time for a little chit chat with whoever woke up after you had your breakfast and the late riser complains
why there is no pandesal (hello, it has become expensive, according to your friendly neighborhood baker,
who cites the price of Turkish flour for the jump that he says is fuelled by inflation or smuggling or
whatever).
The office awaits you and so you walk to the nearest Light Rail Transit 2 station for the quick hop to where
you work, only to discover for the 10,000th time (no exaggeration here) that the station where you exit has
still kept the escalators and elevators not running for the last six years or so (you complain and are told that
Sorry, sir, making them operational is the responsibility of the Light Rail Transit Authority, and so you had
better shut the [expletive, anyone] up)!
Obviously, nobody is in charge or no one wants to be the go-to guy for gripes and other insinuations that
only Benito Mussolini can make the trains run on time and the station facilities serve elderly Italians in
particular).
Anyway, you just have to alight from the train and make your way to an avenue where at past midday young
and old female prostitutes offer you and other passersby good time.
Meanwhile, very young kids of these hookers suck their thumbs or drink their milk and look at you wide-
eyed as you pass by, seemingly telling you to mind your own business in the same way that their moms are
concentrating on theirs.
Surveys about Filipinos getting less hungry or more optimistic about 2017 are partly objective or partly
subjective and so pay attention and read the fine print to save yourself from disappointment orif you want
to get evenmake the pollsters eat their numbers.
Your day is not done yet and so dont think too far ahead and look forward to a good nights sleep.
The reasons are that youll never know if another beheading by the Abu Sayyaf Group will finally prompt
these terrorists to call it a day, another rape-slay of a five-year-old girl will make you scream for the death
penalty against the perpetrator, another policeman will strangle yet another foreigner for ransom, another
attack on government troops will have made the week for communist rebels, another Chinese naval ship will
be spotted on Benham Rise in the South China Sea, another member of the Davao Death Squad will
surface.
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My dear Watson, its not elementary anymore if the Philippine Islands is what you are casing.
It is a chaotic, violent, unpredictable country where drug lords and gambling lords are supposed to
proliferate, along with plunderers and other grafters including money launderers, pork scammers,
arsonists, murderers, serial abusers and killers of women and children and other scums of the earth.
Dont you worry, my dear Watson, these lowlifes are precisely the reason why the Philippine Constitution
created the Office of the Ombudsman and the Sandiganbayan.
They also explain why the Philippines has so many lawyers.
Without these scumbags, who will the solicitors defend so that justice is eventually served their clients?
Leading without a moral compass

BY THE MANILA TIMES ON APRIL 2, 2017EDITORIAL
THE Philippines can be likened to a ship, M/V Las Islas Filipinas, floundering in a choppy sea, its moral
compass gone haywire from the latest admission of salacious affairs by the Speaker of the House, an elected
public official whose position requires moral ascendancy being the fourth highest elective official in the land
after the Senate President, the Vice President and the President.
On board this mother ship, the passengers must have been gripped by the fear of getting dashed in the rocks
after realizing that they have been, once again, duped and used as mere tools in this game called politics,
only to be discarded once their usefulness expires.
In tandem with the absence of moral ascendancy in this code red situation is the lack of accountability
among public officials. What happened to the basic principles of checks and balances in government among
the judiciary, the legislative and the executive branches? Is it merely an abstract precept or an idea that may
or may not be pursued depending on the whims of the leaders in government?
In filing a graft complaint at the Office of the Ombudsman against Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo
Jr., the House Speaker was rightly claiming a high level of moral ascendancy as a graft buster in his
allegations of an anomalous transactiona land lease dealbetween the Bureau of Corrections and a
banana plantation owned by the Floirendo family.
He could have claimed an even higher moral ground than the congressman from Davao del Norte if he had
simply focused on graft and corruption and had not stooped so low as to discuss sus seres queridos or his
loved ones in public.
Instead, he enumerated them and the number of children he sired with three other women, apart from his
four children with his estranged wife.
Yes. Graft and corruption is a big deal, an issue that must be pursued until the perpetrators are made to pay
to the full extent of the law. The Speaker of the House would have been right in pursuing his case without
allowing himself to be distracted by the innuendoes about his life within the intimate confines of his
bedroom.
Cornered as an immoral public official by his own admission, he even branded his own undoing as a
distraction from the real issue that Floirendo is a supposedly corrupt public official whose Tagum
Agricultural Development Co. Inc. allegedly deprived the government of P13 billion in the BuCor deal.
34
A distraction? Well, maybe it was. But he allowed himself to be distracted, lose control of the situation and
earn the ire of the Gabriela Womens party. His admission of leading an immoral life reeks of machismo
unbecoming of a public servant, more so of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, according to
Gabriela representatives.
The House Speaker is right in pointing out that graft and corruption is the real issue at hand. He is also right
in filing a case against the Davao del Sur representative.
It is also equally true that the distraction is a real issue, because public officials, especially those elected by
the people, must stand on higher moral ground if they are to lead the people and their colleagues in the
House with conviction without abandoning M/V Las Islas Filipinas and its passengers floundering in the
high seas without a moral compass.
Time for DepEd, CHEd to man up

BY THE MANILA TIMES ON FEBRUARY 25, 2017EDITORIAL
THE Department of Education (DepEd) surely needs to take lessons in crisis management, unless of course
it considers the recent tragedy that snuffed the lives of more than a dozen young students and seriously
injured scores more as strictly a concern alone of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd).
Advertisements
It had taken the education department two days before it issued any statement on field trips, such as the one
that ended in the death of the 15 mostly information technology students of a school in Quezon City on
February 20 at a mountainous part of Tanay town in Rizal province, east of Manila.
If the reason for its silence was that DepEd Order No. 52, Series of 2003, covers only public and private and
secondary schools, then it was a misplaced posturing for the department that apparently had preferred
watching a fire eat up a neighbors house than dousing it with a pail of water to prevent the blaze from
spreading.
This department order declared that educational field trips are not mandatory for public and private
elementary and secondary school students and should be optional or voluntarily taken.
It was evidently oblivious of the factand we have this on authoritythat school administrators of
kindergarten
just like their counterparts in the public and private primary schools and high schools usually exercise what
they think is their prerogative to decide what is mandatory and what is not.
Under this practice, you can picture kids as young as four or five years old being herded to some shopping
and entertainment malls in an extra-curricular activity that only finds them sitting before computers
playing the latest cyber games.
To not allow a pre-school kid to join a field trip and bond with his teachers and classmates would not be
good for developing self-confidence at a very early age, or so it is argued, and might not spare the child from
possible bullying for being the odd kid out.
It is, therefore, in order for Education Secretary Leonor Briones to revisit DepEd Order No. 52 and make it
more inclusive and save the department from a lot of grief later when the bus carrying practically toddlers
collides with a truck.
Briones can make it easier on the department by scrapping this order that provides field trips are not
mandatory anyway.
35
Like the education department, CHEd cited a memorandum order that it reportedly issued in 2012 on
guidelines governing educational tours and field trips for college students even as it declared on February 22
a moratorium on such out-of-school learning adventures, which supposedly fall under the governments
National Service Training Program (NSTP).
The suspension supposedly would enable the commission to correct whatever deficiencies the
memorandum order might have and issue a new memorandum order as soon as possible, according to
CHED Commissioner Prospero de Vera.
In declaring the moratorium, however, the commission was conspicuously silent on allegations that the field
trips are a money spinner for some colleges and universities that allegedly charge students take-it or leave-it
fees under pain of being given failing marks for not joining such trips to, say, a resort or a camp of the
school administrators choosing.
Sadly, in this age where smartphones arguably are valued more by students than the sacrifices of their
parents that make it possible for them to tote these gadgets, field trips to the malls and other commercial
establishments will take precedence over medical missions and community immersions, among others, that
the NSTP encourages for students to enhance [their]civic consciousness and defense preparedness.
Educational tours and field trips are here to stay, unless the Department of Education and the Commission
on Higher Education get their act together if only to avoid a repeat of the Tanay tragedy.
The impact of social media

MARCH 4, 2013
In the past 5 years, social media has had an enormous influence on our everyday lives. We use it to get
the latest news converse with like-minded individuals, and even to find restaurant recommendations.
And it doesnt stop there.
Recently released statistics from the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
(AAFPRS) have revealed that social media now plays a significant role in peoples decisions to undergo
elective surgery.
The study showed that there was a 31% increase in requests for surgery as a result of social media photo
sharing, with rhinoplasty, Botox and facelifts topping the list of most requested.
It is certainly no surprise to me, as a social media addict, that such a phenomenon has begun, with the
popularity of sites such as Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest sky-rocketing in the last year alone. We are now
a society which shares more and more what we do at every point of our lives with strangers. And nor are we
afraid to admit that we may have had a little nip or tuck here and there.
While I am not adverse to sharing an amazing dining or pamper experience, there is a risk that people will
seek procedures for things they dont actually need simply to keep up with the Jones.
And as demand rises, so too will cut-price offers and deals which as we have already discussed, put our
industry at risk of becoming inundated with unprofessional opportunists who see an easy way to make a
quick buck.
That said, we should all be very proud of the industry in which we work. Since I helped to launch PRIME 2
years ago, we have witnessed the industry hit by countless criticism and scandal, but of the physicians whom
I have met and had the pleasure to work with, none have let it affect the professional way in which they
carry out their work, but have continued to raise the bar for their peers on a worldwide basis. And this is
something of which we should all be proudand most definitely share on our Facebook pages.
36
Education only ticket out of poverty
Yesterdays school opening was duly reported by all newspapers, with focus on the problems: Lack of
classrooms, lack of teachers, and lack of books and teaching materials.
There was chaos in all public schools all over the country, but that was only the beginning. A great number
of children, adolescents, and young adults are not enrolled yet. Once they are able to buy the school
uniforms, notebooks and pad papers, pens and pencils, and what have youa major hurdle for the poor
they too will troop to the schools and seek admission.
No surprise here. The poor will do everything to get an education. It is their only ticket out of their miserable
life.
The Department of Education (DepEd) expects some 20.8 million enrollees this year, a quarter of the
countrys population. However you look at it, the number is enormous, but Education Secretary Armin
Luistro, bless his bureaucratic soul, assures us no child will be turned down despite the paucity of resources.
DepEd seems to operate on autopilot every start of the school year. Its not the fault of Education officials
really. If there is somebody or something to blame it is the leaders at the highest level of government.
So far more than 19,000 classrooms have been constructed, but that is not nearly enough.We dont know
how many of the more than 60,000 vacant teaching slots have been filled, but the fact remains that the
system still falls short of the requirement. Plans are in the works for more school buildings and more
teachers next year, but there will be more enrollees by then.
It will thus take some time for the government to achieve the ideal student-classroom-teacher ratio, if ever.
The problem becomes more acute with the implementation this year of the K-to-12 system of education.
Under the law signed by President Benigno Aquino 3rd in May, it is now 12 years of basic education instead
of 10, and kindergarten has become mandatory rather than optional.
There will be 1.78 million enrollees in kindergarten, 13.3 million in elementary, and 2.7 million in high
school.
The great majority of these enrollees reflect the economic status of their parents. They are either poor
some very pooror they belong to the lower middle class. Otherwise, they would be in private schools.
We do not wish to denigrate the quality of teaching in public schools, but the fact that government officials,
elected and appointed, send their children to private educational institutions is proof enough. By the way the
officials referred to include DepEd executives.
That may be the reason why the government doesnt find the improvement of the school systemthe
construction of more classrooms, hiring of more teachers, and the purchase of books and learning
materialsa top priority.
But to give credit where credit is due, this government is doing its level best. And it is succeeding, but only
to a point. There is a great backlog to fill, and its best may not be good enough.
Then there is the structural reform that must be taken into account. There is need to change the high school
curriculum to reflect present realities. Not everyone in high school plans to go to college. Indeed a good
number will even drop out, so wouldnt it be a good idea to prepare these children for work early in life?
37
Those who have the aptitude must be given the opportunity to go to college. They wont be able to get to
Ivy-league schoolsthats for the elitebut the doors to the so-called state universities and colleges or
SUCs should be thrown wide open.
Given half a chance, even the poorest of the poor can shine in college. There is no inherent difference in
brain potential between them and the children of the rich. If anything, they are more driven and more
ambitious than those born with a silver spoon in their mouth.
The government should increase the SUCs budgetary allocations. These institutions of higher learning need
a bigger budget if they are to accommodate more enrollees, hire qualified professors and instructors, and
purchase tools and laboratory equipment.
As for the students, financial assistance in the form of grants and loans should be made available so that they
can pursue their studies without worrying about the tuition fees, the cost of books, and other expenses.
A number of winning candidates for senatorand we assume for congressman toocampaigned on the
platform of making affordable and quality education accessible to young people. Maybe they can sign away
their pork barrel to the SUCs instead of financing basketball courts and waiting sheds and other projects of
dubious utility to the community.
The farming sector must be revived at all cost

For a country with an agriculture-based economy, the government has not given farm workers all the
support they need. For the most part, small farmers as opposed to the hacienderos and big, corporate
owned farmshave been left to their own devices.
Although there have been some attempts to provide the marginal farmers with soft loans, farm-to-market
roads, education on modern farming techniques, and the like, these have not been on a massive enough scale
to make a difference.
Not this government, in particular, but just about every government or administration in general since the
post-World War II years has been guilty to varying degrees of letting down the men and women who till the
land.
While in other nations like Japan, for example, farmers receive huge subsidies from the government, this has
not been the case in the Philippines.
There is a price to pay for not prioritizing the needs of the farmers. The average income a small farmer
makes is barely enough to keep body and soul together. Certainly it would be difficult to find anywhere in
the country any small farmer living a comfortable middle class existence, complete with all the trappings of
such a life.
Mostly, they do not even live in decent sized houses that can protect them against the elements, and they
certainly cannot afford to buy brand new cars or giant flat screen TV sets.
As a result, farming has lost its attraction as a primary source of livelihood for the vast majority of the
people, especially the youth. Statistics suggest that the Philippines aging population of farmers should be a
serious cause for concern for the governments economic planners.
Depending on where the data is coming from, the average age of the Filipino farmer is either in the mid-50s
or late 50s range.
38
In other words, the average Filipino farmer is at an age where his or her health becomes an issue. That
farmer is not as strong as someone in his 20s or 30s, yet the entire country is dependent on its food supply
on the 50-somethings, who are so close to retirement age if they were working in offices, whether
government or private.
Worst of all, the vast majority of Filipino farmers still till the soil by hand, mostly with the help of their
carabaos. Unlike their US or Western nation counterparts who have the most modern farming machineries,
the poor Filipinos plant their crops on pure muscle alone.
Even in Asia, other farmers seem to be better off. The percentage of Vietnamese, Indonesian or Malaysian
farmers who are mechanized would very likely be much higher than their Filipino peers. And again, they too
would most probably be recipients of subsidies from their governments.
To be sure, not everything is totally hopeless in the country.
More and more, Filipinos have come to realize that farming is indeed an excellent option as a source of
income. There is a growing community of weekend farmers, mostly young and middle aged workers from
the cities who are enamored with the idea of working the land and earning a decent income out of the
activity.
They may raise livestock or they may plant crops. Their idea is to have the small farms that they own or
lease serve as their fallback should anything happen with their regular employers. Also, they do not discount
the possibility that they will eventually retire to their little farms, which can still earn a regular income for
them in their golden years.
Mechanizing operations
Those who take the idea of working the soil more seriously also have the option of mechanizing their
operations. For them, the present administration has a program to provide the modern equipment they need
at easy-on-the-pocket interest rates.
It would be unfair to romanticize farming in order to entice more people to go into the activity. By and large,
it can be backbreaking work. But farmers need not be told how important they are to the very survival of the
country. They provide the most basic of all our needs food.
The Philippine farming sector is presently at a crossroads. It cannot be allowed to become a sunset industry.
The present administration, and all the administrations that will follow in the years and decades to come,
must give it the attention it deserves.
For as long as Filipinos need to eat, Filipino farmers should be there to supply their needs. In return, the
farmers should earn enough to lead very decent lives.
Bring ROTC back!

Generally speaking, Filipino students were not too fond of the Reserve Officers Training Course (ROTC)
when it was a requirement to complete college. Pretending to be soldiers while marching and standing at
attention under the hot sun or pouring rain was not anybodys idea of fun. There was, therefore, much
rejoicing when the military training course ceased to be compulsory.
39
It is unfortunate that the program was never appreciated for what it could do for the country, specifically its
defensive capabilities. To recall, ROTC cadets formed a formidable force that fought the Japanese during
World War II. They were an integral part of the guerilla movement that never surrendered to the invaders.
In other countries such as Israel, ROTC-style citizens armies are depended upon to serve as alongside their
regular armed forces whenever there is a crisis or emergency situation, which is often.
Considering recent events that can be considered threats to national security, the government should
consider returning the ROTC program as a must subject in all colleges and universities.
All able-bodied young men and women should be made to take the course.
It has often been said that eternal vigilance is the price we pay for our freedoms. As such, citizens should not
merely enjoy their guaranteed freedoms, but must also take an active part in guaranteeing them.
Our young men, especially, should be trained in the basics of soldiering and be better prepared for the call to
bear arms against the countrys enemies, if and when the time comes.
The ROTC promotes nationalism, volunteerism, and sense of duty, which seem to be absent from todays
youth. In addition, it also promotes sound health.
At present, the country has approximately 120,000 men and women in the Armed Forces of the Philippines
(AFP), and about the same number in the Philippine National Police. In comparison, North Koreaa much
smaller country than the Philippines in terms of populationhas an army of about one million.
Imagine, then, what would happen if the ROTC program were to be revived. How many hundreds of
thousands of college freshmen and sophomores would be added to the absolute numbers of our men and
women in uniform?
Coupled with the ongoing modernization of the AFP, the country would suddenly become a military force to
reckon with, practically overnight.
A Republic of the Philippines with more than half a million police and military would be better able to
protect its boundaries, including its waters.
Sometimes, having sheer numbers is enough to send the message that the country is serious and more than
capable of protecting its territorial integrity against invaders, from whatever nation.
40
National photo-bomber Torre de Manila
While surfing the Net last Friday, I chanced upon a very interesting and quite timely news item and photos
at ABS-CBNnews.com posted by my good friend Isagani de Castro. From his post dateline Quanzhou,
China Isagani was obviously on an official trip in that city in the province of Fujian.
While on a visit in this part of China, Isagani was apparently shown on a tour that our very own national
hero, Dr. Jose Protacio Rizal has a look-alike monument as that one in Luneta. Posted along with his story,
entitled Look: Why Rizal has a shrine in China, were several photographs of Rizals monument at the site.
One of the photos showed a close-up of the monuments marker showing a brief narrative about Rizal, one
written in Chinese characters and below it the English translation. It read: (verbatim)
Dr. Jose Rizal (1861-1896)
Philippine National Hero with Roots in FuJian
Jose Rizal was a versatile writer, doctor, artist and scientist. He criticized the corruption of the Spanish
colonial government for which he was executed in Manila on December 30,1896. His death had awakened
the Filipino peoples cause of revolution.
Rizals roots are in Shang guo Village. His paternal great-great grandfather was Domingo Lamco, Ke Yi
Nan in chinese, an immigrant to the Philippines. For his noble character and heroic sacrifice in the name
of freedom for the Filipino people. Jose Rizal is highly esteemed by many Chinese worldwide who take grate
pride in the fact, that his roots can be traced to china. (sic)
Isagani did not say in his story if he was invited on an official trip or he is on vacation in China. But a
veteran journalist like him could not ignore, of course, to write about it. Isaganis discovery of Rizals
monument in China is something newsworthy and timely to share back home. He wrote:
A visitor to the Rizal Shrine here in Jinjiang, Fujian province, southern China cant help but compare it to
the Rizal Monument in Luneta amid the photobomber controversy.
Regardless of ones stand on DMCIs Torre de Manila project, Dr. Jose Rizals statue in Jinjiang county
looks more dignified without any structure in the background.
The shrine is described in the memorial wall as surrounded with blooming flowers and greenery, grand and
impressive monument.
The Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and 7 other organizations
proposed to build a Rizal Shrine here to commemorate Rizals Chinese roots.
Rizal was the 22nd generation descendant of the first generation Ke family whose roots are in Shang Guo
village in Jinjiang. Rizals great-great grandfather was Domingo Lameo, or Ke Yi Nan in Chinese, who
immigrated to the Philippines.
41
The Rizal Shrine stands as a symbol of friendship between China and the Philippines. According to the
Knights of Rizal, it is the biggest Rizal Shrine outside of the Philippines.
In 1999, then-President Joseph Estrada and then-Chinese Ambassador Fu Ying laid the foundation for the
memorial.
Construction of the Rizal Shrine here started in 2003 and was completed that same year.
1861, the year Rizal was born, was used as basis for the height of the monument 18.61 meters.
The photo-bomber controversy refers to the Torre de Manila, a 49-storey condominium building now in
the center of legal battle. Last June 16, our Supreme Court (SC) ordered DMCI Project Developers, Inc. to
stop further construction and development activities at the Torre de Manila project along Taft Avenue,
Manila.
The word photo-bomber is the latest term coined to denote someone or something that gets into the way
and distracts the view from the subject or object of the photograph.
Torre de Manila thus earned this moniker after the public first noted its towering presence overnight and
getting into the background of the Rizal monument in Luneta located just a kilometer away.
Voting 8-5, the High Court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) in favor of petitioner, Order of the
Knights of Rizal. The Rizalistas filed their petition in September, 2014 to oppose the continuing erection of
the condominium. In their petition, they alleged the Torre de Manila project violates the 1987 Constitution
on the conservation and promotion of the countrys historical and cultural heritage.
Moreover, the petitioners invoked Republic Act No. 4846, also known as the Cultural Properties
Preservation and Protection Act; and RA No. 10066, also known as the National Cultural Heritage Act of
2009. The petition likewise argued that the project violated the Manila zoning ordinance and is nothing but
an eyesore on the Rizal monument. Other groups led by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts
and concerned citizens have denounced the building as something that will devalue the Rizal monument as a
national historical landmark.
The DMCI, however, defended the development of the controversial project, citing the companys having
obtained all the required legal permits and approval of concerned agencies, including the Manila City Hall
during the term of former Mayor Alfredo Lim. The DMCI earlier decried the photo-bomb claim against
Torre de Manila as something that was photo-shopped to deliberately enrage the public.
Last Friday, DMCI got allies from the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) that issued an
official statement prodding the government to allow the Torre de Manila project to continue. The PCCI
noted the DMCI has spent P1 billion on the project and stopping it and other projects that complied with
the National Building Code could discourage investments.
Further, the DMCI admitted they have pre-sold more than 800 condo units when the SC issued the TRO. In
their recent paid ad, the DMCI claimed the Office of the Solicitor General, representing the government,
supports their legal stand on the case.
42
The High Court set on July 21 the oral arguments of the petitioners and the DMCI to help them settle the
fate of the so-called national photo-bomber, Torre de Manila.
EDITORIAL - Investing in public health

Basic hygiene should be among the basic lessons provided in grade school. But how can children follow
their hygiene lessons when they lack access to toilets and running water in their own home?
The World Health Organization and United Nations Childrens Fund reported recently that more than seven
million Filipinos do not have toilets at home and defecate anywhere, with an estimated 570,000 using
buckets and open-pit latrines.
The WHO and Unicef, in their report on countries progress in achieving Millennium Development Goals
for sanitation and drinking water, also found that about 2.3 million Filipinos still get untreated surface water
from dams, canals and rivers, while another 6.1 million get water that is not filtered or treated from wells
and springs.
Health experts have stressed that many diseases can be prevented and overall health improved, especially
among children, merely through regular hand washing with soap and water. For those with no access to tap
water in their own homes, this is not a simple activity. Even public schools in some urban centers lack
running water in their toilets.
Providing sanitary toilets to impoverished communities has been a problem for decades. A corruption
scandal over toilet communities during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos highlighted the problem. The
WHO and Unicef report shows that three decades later, theres still a lot of work ahead in giving millions of
Filipinos access to proper sanitation and water facilities.
Officials say that since 1990, about 40 million Filipinos have gained access to clean water and toilets. But
family ownership of mobile phones is higher than the number of toilets per household, according to a
lawmaker who is seeking higher appropriation for building public bathrooms, toilets and facilities for clean
water.
With state health coverage continuing to expand, providing access to sanitation and clean water can translate
into huge savings in public health care costs. This is on top of the fact that health is truly wealth: healthy
people are more productive and contribute to nation building. Investing in a nations human capital always
has guaranteed returns.
Fake rice?
HE INITIAL results are disturbing butit must be emphasizedinconclusive. More tests are required
before the Food Development Center (FDC) of the National Food Authority can say categorically that
suspect rice being sold in Davao City is syntheticthat is, fake rice. But because the NFA has already
fielded more than 20 complaints from different parts of the country about possibly fake rice, and because
grains mixed with plastic may lead to serious health problems, it is only right that the appropriate
authorities investigate the matter with dispatch.
43
Rice is not only the countrys staple food; it is, preeminently, a political commodity. That is to say, it is quite
literally a gut issue, and can make or break political fortunes. To this unchanging reality, the synthetic rice
controversy adds another complication: Persistent reports assert that the fake rice has been smuggled in from
China. The government needs to identify the source of the suspect rice as soon as possible; will Chinese
authorities help speed up the process of identification?
This and other intriguing questions may be raised at a hearing this week of the Senate committee on food
and agriculture. But the fundamental question is simpler: Is fake rice in fact being sold in the country?
According to the FDC, the sample taken from Davao City was found to be contaminated with dibutyl
phthalate or DBP, a raw material for making flexible plastic products. That is disturbing in itself; DBP is
used in the manufacture of various products, including food-containing items like plastic wraps and lunch
boxes. But the sample was too small for the NFA to reach a definite conclusion. More tests are needed,
with bigger samples (more than a kilo of rice grains per sample), before any scientifically valid conclusion
can be reached.
Now that President Aquino has ordered both the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the
Department of Justice to investigate the issue, we expect the Philippine National Police and the National
Bureau of Investigation to move speedily: to isolate the sources of the allegedly synthetic rice, to determine
the areas where it has been sold, not least to obtain adequately sized samples for immediate laboratory
testing.
The possibility now exists that with two law enforcement investigations launched, a Senate hearing in the
works, and a hearing in the House of Representatives getting underway, too, we may all get the wrong signal
and reach premature conclusions. It is easy enough for political or election-related considerations to drive
the food-security aspect out of the picture. Herewith, two reminders:
We should not raise false alarms. Former senator Francis Pangilinan, now presidential assistant for food
security and agricultural modernization, has issued a statement saying he had been informed that, for
harmful effects to be felt, one has to be ingesting DBP every day for at least three months. This is
reassuring, butin this day and agewe need the source of that information, presumably a scientist, to
inform the public himself, or herself. The government can make that person available today and for the next
several days to belabor the point.
At the same time, we should not create a false sense of complacency. We realize that a skeptical public may
find the very notion of eating raw material for plastic products, even if just once, to be sickening. It is
incumbent on the PNP and the NBI to determine as soon as possible when the suspect rice first landed in the
country, and how much of it has actually been sold.
And if the suspect rice is established to be systematically contaminated (plastic extenders have been known
to be added to food products to lower costs of production in a loosely regulated or low-standard economy),
then the police and the NBI must take the necessary next step: File the appropriate charges against those
who brought the fake rice into the country and send them to a real jail.
Read more: http://opinion.inquirer.net/86456/fake-rice#ixzz3f4e0nxWu

Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook
44
Poverty persists despite the rhetoric
ACCORDING to the latest installment of a regularly conducted survey by the Ibon Foundation, five years of
the Aquino Administrations straight path has hardly dented the persistence of poverty in the Philippines.
The survey, which the group reports was conducted among nearly 1,500 families across the country in mid-
May, reveals that 67 percent of the respondents 2 out of every 3 people consider themselves poor.
About 24 percent consider themselves not poor, while a little less than 10 percent were either unsure or
offered no response.
The results stand in stark contrast, as they almost always do, to official government estimates of poverty
prevalence. In the most recent report of the official Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES), poverty
incidence was estimated to be just 26 percent, with 10.5 percent falling below the subsistence threshold.
Government officials invariably point to differences in survey methodology as the source of the usual
discrepancy between the FIES and the Ibon survey, and to some extent they are correct.
However, experienced statisticians familiar with both have suggested that such technical differences
should only amount to differences in the results of a few percentage points one way or another. The results
of the Ibon survey, which show poverty incidence is more than double what the government claims, may not
be completely accurate (it has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percent, which the experts say is normal
for a survey of this type), but they cannot possibly be so erroneous as to differ from the government data by
an entire order of magnitude or more.
One clue to the difference is the definition of poverty used by the government, compared with what the
Ibon Foundation estimates is a realistic poverty threshold. The official government poverty threshold is P58
per person per day. At current exchange rates, that is equivalent to $1.28, very close to the $1.25 per day
threshold considered an international standard. By comparison, Ibon estimates a family of six actually
requires P1,086 per day, or about P181 ($4.00) per person.
What is important to remember, however, is that the Ibon survey does not identify poverty according to an
income benchmark, but rather peoples perceptions; one could be earning well over the established threshold
and still feel poor.
That is what should be of grave concern to the Aquino Administration and anyone who hopes to succeed
President BS Aquino 3rd. For all the rhetoric about Tuwid na Daan and inclusive growth, two-thirds of
the country still feel they are disadvantaged. And circumstances such as the lagging recovery from
calamities such as Typhoon Yolanda, the persistently high cost of power, deteriorating transportation
infrastructure, and expensive, unreliable services such as water and internet, suggest those feelings are not at
all misplaced.
That two-thirds of the Filipino people feel they are no better off and perhaps even worse off than they were
before Aquino took office should be regarded by the President and his coterie for what it is an
embarrassing shame and an indictment against his governments lack of sensitivity and attention to peoples
basic needs.
45

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Indeed, this is the question of the hour.

Bringing clarity and order in the war on drugs

BY THE MANILA TIMES ON OCTOBER 13, 2017EDITORIAL

1. Incoherence and violence in the war on drugs;

2. Alleged violations of the rights of victims in the drug war.

The unpredictable, unpreventable Vegas tragedy

EDITORIAL - K to 12 for all

PNP cannot afford to bungle hazing case

An inquest is a summary proceeding, in which a prosecutor determines whether a suspect arrested

Shortcuts like the botched inquest of Solano are, therefore, unacceptable.

Crime and punishment

A day in the life of Kian Loyd

But Kian was right-handed, Senator Poe pointed out.

His dream was to be a policeman, his mother told the Senate.

Abolish hazing, initiation, frats in schools

Indeed, no parent should have to bury their children.

Staying on track against the bird flu virus

How prepared are we?

Stay calm. Dont panic. The situation is under control.

Seriously though, we believe that prayers can move mountains.

To date, although human-to-human transmission of these viruses is thought to have occurred in

Footing the free tuition bill

understand a problem and appreciate each and every potential solution.

Marawi, martial law and missing the point

Que ser, ser?

KISMET. Destiny. Fate. Kapalaran.

EDITORIAL - Give K-12 a chance

The bumps of K-12 and quality of education

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

The President and the media

Mr. Trump boycotted the dinner.

War and (easy) peace

IT would be quite easy to pick a fight with anyone.

How, for instance?

They also explain why the Philippines has so many lawyers.

Leading without a moral compass

Time for DepEd, CHEd to man up

The impact of social media

The farming sector must be revived at all cost

To be sure, not everything is totally hopeless in the country.

Bring ROTC back!

Dr. Jose Rizal (1861-1896)

Philippine National Hero with Roots in FuJian

EDITORIAL - Investing in public health

Read more: http://opinion.inquirer.net/86456/fake-rice#ixzz3f4e0nxWu

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