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Movie for a cause set today

Pinoy Abrod
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Movie for a cause set today

 

Friday, December 15, 2017

Fundraising. Screening of Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi is set at 7 p.m. at the SM City Cebu Digital Cinema 8. It is a fundraising event. (Contributed Foto)

THE Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) Central Visayas Chapter will hold another fund-raising activity to cheer up the medical ward patients of two government-run hospitals in Cebu City this Christmas.

Dr. Toom Vatanagul, past president of PCP Central Visayas, said that his group will sponsor a block screening of Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi at 7 p.m., today, Dec. 15, at the SM City Cebu Digital Cinema 8.

“This is for the benefit of our chapter’s Christmas caravan project for the medical ward patients of Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center and Cebu City Medical Center,” he said.

PCP, a society composed of internists in the country, held a similar fund-raising activity last year with also the ward patients in VSMMC as beneficiaries.

For ticket reservations, one may contact Dr. Vatanagul at 0917-7200048 or Cora Bacus of PCP-CV secretariat at 0933-5708274.

Published in the SunStar Cebu newspaper on December 15, 2017.

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No government work on Dec. 26, Jan. 2

Pinoy Abrod
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No government work on Dec. 26, Jan. 2

MANILA, Philippines — There will be no work in government offices on Dec. 26 and Jan. 2 next year.

President Duterte issued memorandum circular no. 37 in addition to the regular holidays declared on Dec. 25 (Christmas Day) and Jan. 1, 2018 (New Year’s Day) “in order to give the employees of the government full opportunity to celebrate holidays with their families and loved ones.”

In the one-page order, Executive Secretary
Salvador Medialdea said the order covers government offices, including government-owned and controlled corporations, government financial institutions, state universities and colleges, local government units, and other agencies and instrumentalities.

However, Malacañang said agencies whose functions involve the delivery of basic and health services, preparedness/response to disasters and calamities, and/or the performance of other vital services shall continue with their operations.

“The suspension of work in other branches of government and in independent commissions or bodies, as well as in private companies and offices on the said dates, is left to the sound discretion of their respective heads/management,” Medialdea said.

The Supreme Court (SC) had earlier suspended work in courts also on Dec. 26 and Jan. 2, allowing court workers to enjoy an extra day of quality time with their families and loved ones.

Headlines ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1

In its official Twitter account, the SC suspended operations in courts nationwide on Dec. 26, which is the day after the Dec. 25 Christmas Day; and on Jan. 2, 2018, the day after New Year’s Day.

The SC made the announcement in light of “Proclamation No. 50 (s. 2016) and 269 (s. 2017) declaring Dec. 25, 2017 (Christmas Day) and Jan. 1, 2018 (New Year’s Day) as regular holidays and to allow officials and employees of the judiciary adequate opportunity to celebrate the holidays with their families, the Chief Justice has authorized the suspension of work in all courts nationwide on Dec. 26, 2017 (Tuesday) and Jan. 2, 2018 (Tuesday).”

PUV modernization should not burden drivers, commuters – IBON

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In a Senate hearing following jeepney drivers and operators’ cancellation of a nationwide transport strike, research group IBON said that public utilities vehicle (PUV) modernization should be socially just. The group pointed out that the Duterte administration should be able afford to undertake jeepney modernization without jeopardizing jeepney drivers’ livelihood and commuters’ access to this mode of transportation. The bottomline is for the government to not relegate the duty of providing this important public service to the profit-seeking big corporate sector, IBON said.

A Senate hearing on transportation concerns was convened by Sen. Grace Poe, chairperson of the Committee on Public Services. Come January 2018, the Duterte administration is slated to implement PUV modernization, which involves replacing jeepneys with ‘compliant units’ such as Euro-4, electric, solar or hybrid vehicles.

In a position paper, IBON said that PUV modernization should be under a comprehensive mass transport plan of a State-run, nationalized mass transport system that ensuresthe welfare of the riding public and overall social and economic benefits. The group however noted that the Department of Transportation (DOTr) is rushing implementation of the program without the prerequisites of route rationalization and undergoing a pilot phase. The group also queried on DOTr assumptions that (1) switching to ‘compliant’ vehicles will result in increased drivers/ operators’ revenues, (2) Euro IV vehicles are fuel efficient; and that (3) ‘compliant’ vehicles have zero maintenance cost.

The following are IBON’s recommendations for socially just PUV modernization:

  • A palit jeepney program wherein the government subsidizes the cost of acquiring new units, allowing small drivers/ operators to trade in their current jeepneys for a new unit. It starts with (a) government’s transparent audit of all registered PUJs to identify units for rehabilitation; (b) central procurement of all replacement units at a scaled down price; (c) distribution of jeepneys to existing associations/ cooperatives as collective managers and operators; (d) reasonable payment mechanisms
  • Phased implementation which sources funds from the realignment of budget items in the General Appropriations Act. Government could procure the first 70,000 of over 230,000 units, for instance, in 2018, by realigning some Php61.805 billion from redundant Special Purpose Funds, unobligated amounts from agencies such as the DOTr, Department of Trade and Investments, Department of Interior and Local Government and the Department of Finance; and subisidies for the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS)
  • Government as investor in jeepney modernization and partner of driver/ small operator cooperatives to limit franchises to genuine cooperatives or associations, ensure support services, employ a regular maintainance program at no or minimal cost to the cooperative, and capacitate cooperatives in traffic education and skills building
  • Industrial policy towards the development of a truly domestic PUV manufacturing

IBON also said that for commuters to not be hounded by fare hikes, government should craft a fare-setting policy for PUVs and other mass transport that is not market-based but founded on the principle that public transportation is a service that has to be reliable, safe and affordable. Government should also not employ the users pay policy/ cost recovery that it applies to public utilities such as mass transport, IBON said.

The group stressed that public transport should be modernized but not in a way that displaces livelihoods, and compromises commuters in favor of narrow big business interests.###

Commuters’ Forum on Jeepney Modernization

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​(Exact UP Diliman venue to be specified soon)​
​​The Duterte administration’s jeepney modernization program threatens to replace some 250,000 old-type jeepneys. The program slated to commence in January 2018 will phase-out old-type jeepneys and replace these with Euro-4, electric, solar or hybrid vehicles. Jeepney operators are being encouraged by government to avail of the new jeeps for which small jeepney drivers will be compelled to cough up a huge amount daily. Jeepney drivers oppose this jeepney phase-out because it will imperil their livelihood. According to PISTON, the program is designed to benefit big business that will be selling the new-type jeepneys.

Commuters meanwhile wish to register their opposition to government’s jeepney phase-out campaign as the sale of foreign-manufactured machines wil most likely jack-up jeepney fares at the expense of mostly minimum- or low-income jeepney riders. Government’s re-routing scheme also has yet to be revealed to the riding public. There has so far been no consultation of stakeholders as this route rationalization plan is being crafted.

The jeepney modernization plan is flawed since government’s duty to ensure a safe, efficient, affordable and reliable transport system is passed on to profit-seeking corporations at the expense of small jeepney drivers and commuters. According to consumer groups such as SUKI, commuters’ riding experience with existing privatized transport modes already shows that it has not only been costly but wrought with breakdowns and inefficiencies, as in the case of the Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT3).

There is an urgent need to articulate this to the public and to beef-up the call for a nationalized mass transport that prioritizes public welfare over corporate want.

​This forum follows a Senate hearing on transportation concerns.​

TRAIN’s oil, sweet beverage levies to raise prices, worsen poverty

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The Duterte administration’s tax program, particularly the fuel excise and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) tax, will cause price hikes and aggravate Philippine poverty, research group IBON said. The Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) will most likely make the burden heavier for the 22 million officially extremely poor Filipinos and more than 60 million living on Php125 or less per day, said the group. According to IBON, government’s alleged concern over recent poverty estimates should translate to a genuinely progressive tax program.

IBON said that despite some Senate amendments of the House-approved version of TRAIN, the tax program’s generally anti-poor facets remain. For instance, new taxes on oil products and SSB have been maintained albeit revised from the House to the Senate versions. From these two sets of new taxes alone, price hikes on a wide range of ordinary consumer goods loom, said IBON.

The group noted that under the last publicly available Senate version of TRAIN, for the first year, lubricating oils and greases, waxes and petrolatum, naptha, regular gasoline, pyrolysis gasoline, and the like, and unleaded premium gasoline will be taxed with Php6.00 per liter. Processed gas, denatured alcohol, diesel fuel oil, asphalts, and bunker fuel oil will be levied Php1.75 per liter. Aviation turbo jet fuel meanwhile will be taxed with Php4.00 per liter, and liquefied petroleum gas, Php1.00 per liter. These levies are scheduled to increase in the succeeding years.

IBON stressed that new taxes on oil will increase prices as petroleum products are widely used, with transportation accounting for more than 80% of demand as per Department of Energy 2017 data. This will affect not only the cost of travel but the cost of trade as well, leading to more fare hikes, more expensive raw and manufactured food and goods, and even higher utility bills. Add to this, IBON said, the Senate’s inclusion of a Php100 per metric ton levy on coal, which will definitely contribute to steeper electricity rates starting 2018.

Meanwhile, a Php5.00-per liter tax shall be collected on SSB using purely caloric sweeteners; Php10.00 per liter on beverages sweetened with high fructose corn syrup; and Php3.00 per liter on beverages sweetened with pure non-caloric sweeteners, or a mix with caloric sweeteners. The Senate’s version of TRAIN exempts from this list commonly bought sweetened products such as milk, natural fruit and/or vegetable juices, meal replacements, coffee, and unsweetened tea. Still, according to IBON, consumers with very little nutritional choices will have to contend with more expensive soda, fruit drinks, sports drinks and sweetened water.

Additional indirect consumer taxes will only take more money away from the pockets of millions of Filipinos with very meager incomes. The spike in prices to be caused by the retention of new taxes on oil products and SSB and the additional amount to be taxed on coal will be a scourge to the poorest 60% of Filipino households whose incomes are way below the family living wage of Php1,130.

A tax policy that burdens the poor more could not be a solution to poverty, IBON said. What can possibly help address the country’s alarming poverty levels is a tax policy that collects more from the wealthiest few. Higher direct income taxes should be collected from the richest, and indirect consumer taxes that the poorest have to bear can be reduced, said the group.

Four indicators that Duterte’s tax program is anti-poor

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Lawmakers should rethink Duterte tax program

The Senate version of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) bill remains anti-poor despite amendments. Research group IBON said this following senators’ recent approval of their version of the Duterte tax bill on third and final reading. According to the group, the Senate’s efforts to reduce the tax burden on the poor and to increase taxes on the rich do not go far enough to correct the Duterte tax program’s regressiveness and anti-poor character.

A copy of the Senate version is still unavailable. Based on media reports, IBON points out that the upcoming bicameral conference should rethink TRAIN for the following reasons:

1.       The poor are burdened by higher taxes that they can ill afford. Over half of Filipino families survive on less than Php15,000 a month including the one-third who struggle with Php10,000 or much less monthly. The Senate version of TRAIN still burdens the poor majority of Filipinos with higher costs of electricity, transportation, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), sweetened drinks, food, and other basic goods and services. This is because of: (a) higher taxes on petroleum products including diesel and LPG; (b) sweetened beverages tax; (c) imposing 12% value added tax (VAT) on previously VAT-exempt items such as shipping and energy generation; and (d) a proposed new excise tax on coal.

2.       The richest will enjoy tax cuts. The middle class deserve income tax relief but the richest 1% of Filipinos with monthly incomes of Php150,000 to over Php7,000,000 can afford to pay much higher taxes while still maintaining their luxurious standards of living. The Senate version of TRAIN however still relieves the country’s richest with lower personal income tax, estate and donor taxes. As it is, Pres. Duterte has also already promised oligarchs that corporate income tax, property taxes, and capital income taxes will be reduced with the next packages under TRAIN.

3.       Token social protection. The Duterte tax program acknowledges the additional burden on poor households and tries to cover this up with temporary cash transfers to the poorest 10 million families of Php300 per month. This is however only during the first year of the tax program. The relief from cash transfers will be gone after the first year while their tax burden even continues to increase from the second year onwards.

4.       Grand infrastructure program not for the poor. The government claims that the TRAIN will finance its ‘Build Build Build’ program which mainly benefits the poor. This infrastructure program however does not build the public schools, hospitals, housing, irrigation and factories that the majority of Filipinos and the nation need for development. ‘Build Build Build’ is mainly about flagship transport infrastructure projects concentrated in the country’s highest-income regions National Capital Region, Southern Tagalog and Central Luzon with little for the poorest regions in the rest of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

The Senate’s approval of its version of TRAIN moves the government a step closer to even greater distortion of the country’s tax system to benefit the rich and burden the poor. This will worsen already severe inequity in the country by putting more money in the pockets of the rich and taking away from the majority poor who already have so little as it is.

IBON argues that real tax reform means making the tax system more progressive. This involves reducing consumption taxes on the poor rather than increasing them as currently pushed by the Duterte administration. Moreover, said the group, direct income and wealth taxes on the richest should be increased. For instance, taxing an additional 20% of the income of just the richest 182,000 families who are the wealthiest 0.8% in the country can easily yield an additional Php84 billion.

The group stressed that aside from increasing taxes on the highest income brackets, revenues earned should be specifically allocated to essential social and economic services to benefit millions of Filipinos. This should be on top of meaningful social and economic reforms that prioritize people’s welfare and national development over elite interests, said IBON.###

Gov’t assures private profits over MRT commuter welfare

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The government’s assurance of private profits from day one has led to the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 3 woes that has put commuter welfare on the line, said research group IBON.  The latest series of train breakdowns and mishaps is but the tip of the iceberg and will persist under a privatized light rail system. By assuring corporate profits, the government has neglected to ensure efficient and affordable public transport, said the group.

IBON said that the government still paid private firms with public funds even if they did not deliver on the MRT 3 line services they were contracted for. According to a Commission on Audit (COA) report, the government paid a Php54.5 million monthly maintenance fee to South Korean company Busan Rail Inc. (BURI) in 2016.  But during that same year the MRT 3 has had 2,619 incidents of train removals, 63 service interruptions and 586 incidents of passenger unloading or an increase of 20%, 26% and 164%, respectively, compared to 2014. BURI also failed to overhaul old light rail vehicle (LRVs) and replace the signaling system.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) also paid Php527.76 million to Chinese corporation Dalian Locomotive and Rolling Stock Co. Ltd for useless LRVs that are incompatible with the power supply and signaling system of the MRT 3.

Yet the public still pays despite such poor service, said IBON. Since 2000, the government reported that it has been paying Php610 million monthly as rental fees to the Metro Rail Transit Corporation (MRTC), the private owner of the MRT 3. This is to pay for a 15% return on investment and US$485.5-million loan to the project’s financiers. Around 85% of MRT 3 fares goes to servicing principal and interest payments.

The group said that the government has now granted an original proponent status to the unsolicited proposal of the MRT 3 private owners to rehabilitate, operate and maintain the line. This means that if the proposal is unchallenged and approved, the entire MRT 3 will be in private hands. Under this proposal, commuters will face fare increases after two years. Light Rail Transit (LRT) and MRT 3 fares already increased by 50-87% in January 2015.

IBON said that privatized rail transport like the MRT 3 has failed to bring about the efficient and affordable service promised by the government. The group said that it is time for the government to reverse this policy and fulfill its responsibility in providing affordable, reliable and safe mass transport. ###

Peace talks a casualty of the Trump-Duterte meeting?

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By Arnold Padilla

IBON Features – President Rodrigo Duterte’s hosting as chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit and related meetings solidified the sort of foreign policy that his administration will chart throughout its term. It is one that critics have already pointed out as still dependent on the patronage of the big powers and continuously shaped by their interests. The ASEAN events also reminded the public of how the US remains a dominant force in the region, especially in the host country even as China poses a serious challenge.

Scuttled

Pres. Duterte’s face-to-face meetings with US President Donald Trump at the ASEAN events in Manila and bilaterally on its sidelines appear to already have had an impact. Less than a week after his meeting with Trump, the country’s Chief Executive suddenly announced that he planned to classify the New People’s Army (NPA) as a terrorist group. A formal declaration of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)-New People’s Army (NPA)-National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) as terrorist would automatically terminate the peace talks between the two parties. Soon after, he also decided to end “all planned meetings” with the CPP-NPA-NDFP.

 Since August 2002, the CPP-NPA has been on the list of supposed foreign terrorist organizations (FTO) of the US State Department for representing a threat to US national security (i.e., national defense, foreign relations, and economic interests). The US maintains the list as part of its war on terror. An FTO designation, according to the State Department, “signals to other governments our (US) concern about named organizations.”

 It is likely that Pres. Duterte’s initial willingness to negotiate a peace agreement with the NDFP did not sit well with the US. When the NDFP and government peace panels agreed to recommend the delisting of CPP founding chairperson Prof. Jose Ma. Sison as an international terrorist as part of the peace talks, the State Department maintained that the CPP-NPA is still an FTO as far as the US is concerned.  

But even before this latest declaration by Malacañang, the peace talks between the Duterte government and the communist rebels was already increasingly rocky and uncertain. This, as the President started to warm up with Trump since the controversial Republican took over the White House from Barack Obama in January this year. In May, the Philippine government unilaterally cancelled the supposed fifth round of formal negotiations just as this was about to start. Reportedly, this aborted fifth round was set to resume this weekend until, again, Pres. Duterte’s unilateral last minute cancellation.

Master’s orders

During the bilateral meeting between Pres. Duterte and Trump at the sidelines of the ASEAN meetings, the US chief executive promised to continue US military support and assistance for the fight against terrorism. The two leaders also agreed to enhance their counterterrorism cooperation through more military exercises, increased information sharing, and by addressing the “drivers of conflict and extremism”. It is likely that the US discouraged the Duterte government from continuing peace negotiations with ​the US government-designated FTO.

The amount of attention that Trump enjoyed during his visit not only from the national media but from the host itself illustrates that the neocolonial bond between Washington and Manila is far from severed. While the President may have said it in jest, his statement that he crooned at the ASEAN gala dinner “upon orders of the commander-in-chief of the United States” pretty much sums up the substantially unchanged relationship between the US and the Philippines under a Trump-Duterte regime.

In the past decade (2006 to 2016), American businesses have invested US$4.1 billion or 10.3% of the total foreign direct investment (FDI) that flowed into the domestic economy, the second biggest among all foreign investors. The US is also the second largest market for products from the Philippines, accounting for US$89.2 billion or 15.6% of the country’s total exports in the past 10 years. Furthermore, remittances from overseas Filipinos based in the US are the largest among all countries, reaching US$89.4 billion in the past decade or 40.4% of the total. Lastly, the US has also disbursed a total of US$2.1 billion in economic assistance from 2006 to 2016. In a joint statement following their bilateral talks, the US and Philippine heads of state also pledged to expand and deepen US-PH economic ties, especially in the area of free trade.

But as crucial as the economic relationship between the two countries is and while the US continues to shape the country’s economic direction, the more visible, not to say more controversial, aspect of US presence and intervention in the Philippines is in the area of military cooperation. This is characterized by the uninterrupted rotational (thus permanent) deployment of American troops in the country and the construction of military facilities to base them, the annual war exercises between Filipino and American armed forces, the frequent port calls of US warships, American participation in local military operations, and provision of US military aid. As Trump said before he left the country, he considers the Philippines “a most prime piece of real estate from a military standpoint.”

From 2006 to 2016, the US has disbursed a total of US$610.5 million in military assistance to the Philippines. The annual figures are increasing significantly in recent years. In the past three years, for example, US military aid to the Philippines is expanding by more than twice the pace of its economic aid (46.8% yearly growth vs. 20.6%). In 2016, Manila got the largest military aid (US$141.2 million) from the US Defense department among all 21 recipient countries in the East Asia and Oceania region.

This year, the US has so far provided more than Php2.2 billion in military assistance that include various military articles, based on news reports. These include the Raven tactical unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV system (Php60 million); 25 combat rubber raiding craft and 30 outboard motors (Php250 million); 200 Glock pistols, 300 M4 carbines, 100 grenade launchers, four mini-guns, and individual operator gear (Php250 million); two C-208 Cessna aircraft (Php1.6 billion); a Tethered Aerostat Radar System or TARS (about Php40 million); and 1,000 M40 field protective masks.

Biggest casualty 

And while the peace talks with the NDFP is likely a casualty of the Trump-Duterte meeting to push the US’ anti-terror agenda and justify its continued military presence and intervention in the country, the biggest casualty of a final termination of the peace negotiations (if Duterte will indeed declare the CPP-NPA-NDFP as terrorists) is the prospect of genuine social, economic and political reforms addressing the roots of armed conflict in the country. It is regrettable because both panels recognize that this is the farthest that they have gone in the history of peace negotiations.
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