To The Point

Emil Jurado
August 20, 2010 ManilaStandardToday
It’s about time for open skies

President Benigno Aquino III, reacting to reports of misuse of public funds by officials of government-owned and -controlled corporations and other state agencies, said that an executive order was now being prepared to put a cap on salaries, allowances, representation expenses and intelligence funds of these corporations, especially those losing money.

Nobody can quarrel with that. Indeed there have been abuses. Santa Banana, there were reports that a president of a government financial institution amassed P200 million while in office. He should be made to return the money in excess of what he was due!

Actually, former President Gloria Arroyo already issued an executive order limiting GOCC officials’ salaries and other perks, especially bonuses and intelligence funds (intelligence funds for what?). This order, unfortunately, was not strictly enforced.

The ball now is in President Aquino’s court. Granting that such an order is forthcoming, who would now want to join the government? It will not be able to compete with the private sector in terms of compensation.

Unless, of course, one joins government with the intention of stealing taxpayers’ money.

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In the wake of the collapse of negotiations between Philippine Airlines management and the group of flight attendants and pilots, Malacañang has threatened to adopt the long-neglected policy which would open Philippine skies to the unlimited entry of foreign airlines.

The airline has been beset with problems: it continues to lose its shirt year in and year out and Lucio Tan’s labor woes have been worsening. Under these circumstances, PAL will likely go belly up.
From his deafening silence, Tan makes us think he may finally be ready to collapse the airline. After all, he still has AirPhil, the budget airline servicing regional routes. AirPhil is making money.

I think President Aquino should go ahead and opt for Open Skies. He should not just threaten to do so. We saw the need for this when PAL canceled numerous flights—and affected business and tourism.
For many years, a single interest—the powerful Tan’s—has held Presidents hostage. The argument against open skies has always been that if PAL could not get reciprocal rights to land on other countries intending to send flight to the Philippines, no way should Philippine skies get opened to foreign airlines.

It’s a protectionist attitude which has no place in a global community. In a world without borders, business is the survival of the fittest. Sure, many foreign airlines are subsidized (as was PAL when government still controlled it). But the airline business has become more competitive than ever.
I say it’s about time President Aquino show political will and do what is best for the national interest.

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The President did what had to be done by reading the Riot Act to two-star Rear Admiral Feliciano Angue. This came from the Commander-in-Chief after Angue complained before media about his re-assignment to Zamboanga, which he claimed to be a “demotion” from his former post in the National Capital Region. Indeed, Angue should have simply kept his mouth shut and followed his superiors’ order.

Since there’s a process in the military for airing grievances, Angue violated something very basic in the military—the chain-of-command. And the President had to do something because if such protests afflict the military, others who do not get what they want may also resort to the same actions.
It is true that politics sometimes gets in the way of promotions. But Angue should have been aware of this from the start. It’s a good thing President Aquino told Angue to shut up. But he must also look into the system of promotions because problems here can cause demoralization in the military.

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Insiders at Customs rate the performance of Commissioner Joselito Alvarez as “so far, so good.”
Well, considering the numbers that the national government expects the agency to produce, “good” will simply not cut it. To meet and overshoot his targets, Alvarez has to come up with the measures to drastically curb smuggling, and exercise political will to flush out all the rats that infest the pier zones. These elements take away from government billions of pesos in revenues.

Fortunately for Alvarez, the golf scorecard cheating issue that had initially hounded him has been relegated at the sidelines. What still hovers above him, however, is the link to former Customs Chief Guillermo Parayno, now Finance undersecretary, and Bert Lina, who reportedly still have tremendous clout over Customs operations.

Prior to his appointment to the Bureau of Customs, Alvarez was a director of several companies owned by Lina. On the other hand, Parayno was president of yet another Lina company that is a subcontractor of a firm that deals with the BoC’s Management Information Systems and Technology Group headed by a known Parayno protege, Deputy Commissioner Alexander “Balong” Arevalo.
Observers say that Alvarez could put this issue to rest if he digs deep into the operations of the MISTG which, according to those in the know, are mired in secrets stored in computer technology. Only Arevalo knows these secrets and he supposedly chooses not to share these with anyone, not even with his former boss, Napoleon “Boy” Morales. My gulay, that was one instance of an Alexander standing his ground to a Napoleon!

This time, can Alvarez get out of Arevalo every bit of information pertaining to the agency’s import transactions? If he takes it further and bears down on Arevalo, he would in effect be finally cutting off the umbilical cord that ties him to the influential gentleman. And Santa Banana, that could be a final giant step towards genuine reform at the BoC, and one that could be termed not merely “good,” but “truly praiseworthy”!

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GMA network has seemingly found its golden touch anew as it has successfully regained the momentum in the ratings game versus its closest rival ABS-CBN for the month of July.

Mega Manila continues to deliver solid numbers for GMA-7. Nielsen TV Audience Measurement’s Mega Manila data for July show GMA posting a 5.6-percentage point advantage over ABS-CBN in audience shares, 37.5 percent versus 31.9 percent. Among households, GMA-7 still leads ABS-CBN, 35.3 percent versus 32.8 percent.

GMA-7’s strong ratings performance in July is also visible in Urban Luzon, which makes up 77 percent of television households nationwide. Here, GMA-7 led ABS-CBN by 0.4 percent in people audience shares with 35.8 as against the latter’s 35.4 percent. It is important to note that GMA-7’s margin resulted from a noticeable decline in ABS-CBN’s share performance in the said area, where it led GMA-7 by 5.4 percentage points last June.

And though ABS-CBN is still ahead in national ratings, GMA-7 is undeniably catching up, July people ratings show GMA-7 trailing ABS-CBN by just 1.5 percentage points, 6.0 percent versus 7.5 percent.
At the rate things are going, GMA-7 is in a very good position to further eat up on ABS-CBN’s lead in national ratings, especially with its newly launched shows “Ilumina,” “Kaya ng Powers,” and “Love ni Mister, Love ni Misis.” Add to that the highly-anticipated third season of the top-rating reality show “Survivor Philippines.” GMA’s news programs and specials meanwhile remain as viewers’ most preferred source of information.

Note that Nielsen TV Audience Measurement used by GMA-7 is also used by at least 22 other companies including TV Channel—not ABS-CBN. On the other hand, only a handful, including ABS-CBN, is said to subscribe to Kantar Media, formerly known as TNS Philippines.

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It’s no exaggeration when I say that torture seems to be a police culture. In my over half a century as a journalist, having covered all beats from the police, jails, city halls, courts and on to the Department of Justice, Finance, Bureau of Customs, Immigration, the Armed Forces, the Central Bank and every economic beat, I know whereof I speak. I have seen policemen beat up suspects, especially the hardened criminals involved in rape, drugs, murder, and syndicated crimes like carnapping and kidnapping for ransom.

The idea is to make the suspects admit their crimes without giving them the benefit of the doubt. When I saw that ABS-CBN video, I was more than shocked at how cruel some people can get to others. It’s a perfect example of man’s inhumanity to fellow man.

Torture by police in the Philippines is not uncommon. It also happens in other countries. Even members of the police forces in the US, the FBI and the CIA resort to it to get confessions and results.

We may minimize them in the Philippines by a vigilant media, but how about places where media is not as present and vigilant?

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Filipinos have garnered so many awards and recognition abroad. But one recognition that has not been publicized is that of former Laguna Rep. Totoy Tingzon, regarded as the “Godfather” of Youth Basketball in the Philippines”. He helped establish the Little League organization in the early 1960s while concurrent head of the Philippine Amateur Baseball Associations and the Manila Bay Baseball League, and went on to introduce PONY International in Asia under the Philippine Tot Basketball Association.

When the 35th PONY in Asia was marked in July in Tokyo, Tingzon was supposed to have attended it as an awardee, being a co-founder of PONY Asia and a PONY Hall of Famer. Tingzon, however, could not make it because of prior commitments.