The Bureau of Internal Revenue is getting a boost from the new excise taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages, commissioner Caesar Dulay said.
It’s already helped push collections up 15 percent in January. But as Warren de Guzman reports, the agency will also have to contend with all changes as the Department of Finance pushes forward with more tax reforms. – Business Nightly, ANC, February 9, 2018
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Published
By Rey G. Panaligan and Jaimie Rose Aberia
The arraignment of Customs fixer Mark Ruben Taguba and trader Eirene May Tatad on criminal charges involving the P6.4-billion shabu shipment from China has been reset to February 23 by the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC).
RTC Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa reset their arraignment in deference to the petition for review pending with the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Taguba, handcuffed and wearing a bullet-proof vest was escorted to the court by National Bureau of Investigation agents.
Criminal charges have been filed against Taguba and Tatad for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 under Republic Act No. 9165 due to the shabu shipment in May last year.
Tatad was said to be the owner of EMT Trading and was found to be the consignee of the shabu shipment, while it was Taguba who tapped EMT Trading as importer or consignee of the shipment which was initially declared as kitchenware.
Judge Montesa had earlier ordered the transfer of Tatad to the Manila City jail.
In the case of Taguba, he would still be detained at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) facility, pending resolution of his motion to be continuously detained there.
During yesterday’s hearing, Judge Montesa directed the prosecution to comment on Tatad’s motion to quash the criminal charges against her.
The trial court had earlier ordered the arrest of Taguba and Tatad.
Taguba surrendered while Tatad was apprehended in Iloilo.
Tags: criminal charges, Eirene May Tatad, Manila Regional Trial Court, Mark Ruben Taguba, National Bureau of Investigation, Taguba’s arraignment moved to February 23
Zamboanga City should never be included in the Bangsamoro, says city Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar
BBL TALKS. The Joint Public Hearing on the Bangsamoro Basic Law Bills in Zamboanga on February 9, 2018. Photo by Camille Elemia/Rappler
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Despite assurances from senators and the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, officials of Zamboanga City still fear their city would be included in the proposed Bangsamoro region.
Senate local government committee chair Juan Edgardo Angara reiterated to the audience who attended the public hearing on proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law that Zamboanga would never be part of the new territory.
“While there is widespread acceptance, a lot of enthusiasm mula sa (from the) Basulta Peninsula, sa (in) Lanao. We realize here, there may be differences because of its history. Di na po kasama Zamboanga dun sa territories, ng Bangsamoro territories. (Zamboanga will not be part of the Bangsamoro territories.) That is the result because the BTC has been very sensitive to the sentiments of the the locals as a result of the very rigorous representation,” Angara said. His statement drew a loud applause from the audience.
Zamboanga City has overwhelmingly voted twice against its inclusion in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The senator’s pledge hardly stopped officials from expressing their strong dissent especially on certain provisions.
Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar reiterated the city’s 2015 strong position on the BBL.
“The city should never form part nor be included in the Bangsamoro – now or ever. Neither of its 98 component barangays, nor any party/zone/sitio should ever be included in the Bangsamoro – now or ever,” Climaco said with an empathic tone.
Zamboanga City 1st district Representative Celso Lobregat lamented how certain provisions of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law drafted by the BTC could pave the way for the city’s inclusion.
“How many of you have read Senate Bill 1646? Hardly anybody has read it. Unfortunately if you read, if you study and if you analyze, there are many provisions that open the door for Zamboanga’s inclusion,” Lobregat said during a Senate consultative hearing on Friday, February 9.
Second District Representative Manuel Jose Dalipe called on Congress to approve a measure that would make everybody “feel comfortable.”
“If you want things to succeed, everybody should feel comfortable about it. Walang at the back of our mind, meron bang manlalamang later on? (No one should be thinking, will they take advantage of us later?) I would like to appeal to the Senate to pass a measure that will make everybody make comfortable, not doubting each other. Kasi ang bottomline (Because the bottomline is), instead of moving forward, we will move backward,” Dalipe said.
Questionable provisions on opt-in, ‘contiguous’ territories
Fears over Zamboanga’s possible inclusion in the plebiscite remain because of the issue of “contiguity” in the proposed BBL – the same issue raised during the hearings in 2015.
City officials questioned anew the opt-in provision wherein “contiguous” areas or those areas sharing a common border with Bangsamoro can join the plebiscite through a petition by at least 10% of registered voters.
Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, who filed a different version of the BBL, said the 10% threshold is “too low.” He said he would be pushing for 30% instead.
“I think the threshold 10%.. if 10% can petititon for plebiscite or referedmum, ang laking chance matalo sya, kasi 90%, baba ng threshold.. gawin nating 30%,” Pimentel said. (At 10% there’s a big chance it will lose, because 90% maty be against it. Let’s make it 30%.)
Climaco also said if there’s an opt-in provision, there should also be an opt-out one. Earlier, the former Sulu governor Abdusakur Tan and his allies pushed for such case, saying the people of Sulu should have the power to decide whether they still want to continue being part of the Bangsamoro region.
There was also confusion over the qualification of what contiguous areas are.
“The term contiguous relative to territory should be clearly clarified and properly defined without vagueness,” Climaco said.
They also called on Congress to review the provision on the proposed Bangsamoro Waters, which would give the new region exclusive jurisdiction over waters extending up to 22.224 kilometers or 12 nautical miles from the low-water mark of coasts that are part of the Bangsamoro territory. The jurisdiction of municipal waters within the 15-kilometer mark would remain under LGUs.
“The commercial fishing industry must have free acces to the deep-sea fishihng governed only by existing regulations of the ational government, not by the Bangsamoro,” Climaco said.
She added, Zamboanga, being the Sardine Capital of the Philippines, would be “greatly disturbed” by the expansion of waters of the Bangsamoro Territory.
“[It would affect] the lives of more than 30,000 industry workers. The expansion of the municipal waters for the Bangsamoro entity will deprive the fishing industry with their fishing grounds,” Climaco said.
Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, chair fo the subcommittee on the BBL, said the Senate would approve the measure by end of March. The last hearing, he said, would be held in Manila on February 13. – Rappler.com
Published
By Czarina Nicole O. Ong
Davao Del Norte Rep. Antonio “Tonyboy” Floirendo Jr. was formally charged with graft before the Sandiganbayan due to his involvement in the joint venture agreement between the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) and Tagum Agricultural Development Company (TADECO) back in 2003.
In the charge sheet filed yesterday but was not released to the media, Floirendo was charged with violation of Section 3(h) of R.A. 3019, also known as the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
His charge is in relation to the contract entered into by BuCor with TADECO on May 21, 2003.
On July 11, 1969, TADECO already signed a contract with BuCor for the former’s right to use and develop a banana plantation of 3,000 hectares within the Davao Penal Colony, which would last 25 years.
The contract was renewed on September 26, 1979, followed by the most recent agreement on May 21, 2003.
Based on the new contract, BuCor will receive a guaranteed annual production share of P26,541,809 as well as profit shares, and it will increase by 10 percent every five years just as long as TADECO is allowed to use 5,308.36 hectares of land.
Floirendo, who was serving as the Representative of the 2nd District of Davao Del Norte from 2001 to 2004, owned most of TADECO’s shares of stocks.
He had 75,000 shares of TADECO, or equivalent to 89 percent of its outstanding capital stock at the time of the 2003 agreement.
But because Section 3(h) of R.A. 3019 prohibits local officials from having financial or pecuniary interest “in any business, contract or transaction in connection with which he intervenes or takes part in his official capacity,” the Ombudsman said that Floriendo violated the law.
Tags: BuCor, Davao Del Norte Rep. Antonio “Tonyboy” Floirendo Jr., Davao Penal Colony, Floirendo charged over BuCor-TADECO deal, joint venture agreement, Tagum Agricultural Development Company
The deeper malady beneath the Dengvaxia fiasco is being buried under the lies, theatrics and hypocrisy of various elements in the ruling and privileged classes of the present unjust and oppressive social system. The proximate cause of this Dengvaxia fiasco is corporate hijacking of the health care system with the complicity of governments, international institutions (e.g. the World Health Organization) and mainstream medicine. Profit became the primary driving factor in addressing a public health problem, not public welfare as some doctors still want to believe.
Sanofi-Pasteur, the embodiment of Big Business, seeing multibillon-dollar profits within reach and under pressure by neoliberal business competition, pushed hard for the approval and marketing of their product despite the obvious lack of scientific and commonsensical justification and total disregard of public welfare. Sanofi knowingly concealed their own finding that Dengvaxia could cause severe dengue in seronegative child recipients. They made it appear that they learned only of this finding in November 2017 when in fact their sponsored study published in September 2015 already revealed this potential danger.
The WHO is also clearly complicit in the criminal behaviour of Big Pharma. Contrary to its pronouncement in 2017 that it did not recommend the use of Dengvaxia, the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) with at least two of its members connected to Sanofi, already recommended in March 2016 the use of Dengvaxia for mass vaccinations in highly endemic countries. In fact, the WHO has been a partner of Big Pharma in developing the vaccine. Before the mass vaccination in July 2016, other experts have already questioned the interpretation of the results of the supporting study by Sanofi and warned that it was too early to use Dengvaxia for mass vaccination since there was no sufficient safety data yet. Nonetheless, government officials at that time proceeded with the mass vaccination with the blessing of WHO.
Meanwhile, the public was blind-sided and was duped into accepting the vaccination program of the government. Lamentably, some privileged members of the medical profession who knew or who should have known about the rushed transactions and the lack of sufficient safety data were silent when their voices were badly needed by the endangered potential vaccinees. When the scandal broke out, political opportunism and grandstanding under the guise of inquiry took its turn and the truth became even more muddled. Some doctors are now decrying “unsubstantiated accusations by persons whose qualifications to render any expert opinion on the matter are questionable at best…”, implying that only “experts” should speak out and be listened to. They also decry the erosion of public confidence in government vaccination programs and as a result, presumably jeopardising public health. However, the same doctors have implicitly supported the position of Sanofi in the controversy which, in fact, already endangered public health. Interestingly, some of these doctors are intimately connected with Big Pharma.
Protest of Dengvaxia victims in front of the Department of Health. Photo by Kathy Yamzon/ Manila Today.
There is good reason to believe that doctors are downplaying the hazards and exaggerating the benefits of vaccination because of conflict of interest, Big Pharma conditioning, or inappropriate medical education. Even highly competent and well-meaning experts can be misled by the corporate dominated health system. The inherent danger of injecting microbial protein fragments, DNA and other foreign materials into the human body, especially in children, is well documented in the scientific literature. Dengvaxia, and in fact, all vaccines, contain such hazardous foreign fragments and materials. Investigating the potential adverse effects of Dengvaxia should not be limited to deaths associated with contracting the dengue virus but should be more comprehensive in nature.
There are many plausible biological mechanisms for potential adverse effects due to Dengvaxia. Triggering a more severe dengue disease in seronegative children through antibody dependent enhancement or similar mechanism is just one. Synergistic harmful effects, especially to the immune system, due to concomitant exposure to other vaccines is another plausible mechanism of potential adverse effects, particularly in young children. Aggravation of vaccine adverse effects with exposure to other environmental hazards (e.g. pesticides) is also another plausible mechanism that may result in acute or long-term injury, including death. All these have been documented in the scientific literature and should not be ignored.
There is also very little information about potentially hazardous foreign materials present in the vaccine. Trometamol, an alkalinizing agent used in various industrial products and cosmetics, is listed by Sanofi-Pasteur as an ingredient but with very little toxicologic information available. What is more of concern is that the Dengvaxia vaccine is produced through genetic engineering technology with uncertain but potentially serious hazards.
Long-term, comprehensive monitoring, care and indemnification of those who were oppressively vaccinated with Dengvaxia should be put in place. Historically, scientific findings on the adverse effects and potential serious hazards of vaccination have been ignored or downplayed by mainstream medicine and the dominant institutions (WHO, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) giving directions to government policies regarding vaccines and health care. This is not surprising since the advisory committees of these institutions are stacked with Big Pharma “experts”, some of whom even occupy high positions and shuttle back and forth between government and industry (revolving door phenomenon). It must be pointed out that the only “scientific studies” supporting the use of Dengvaxia are those studies done by the one who sells the vaccine, Sanofi. Given the dubious record of Sanofi and Big Pharma for fraud and other forms of criminal behaviour, there is good reason not to trust the results of their studies.
It is high time that this Dengvaxia controversy, and for that matter issues regarding other vaccinations, be subjected to public scrutiny and oversight. The public has good reason to be alarmed. The credibility and acceptability of government health programs has been steadily eroded due to myriad reasons — low budget priority, deteriorating services, privatization of hospitals and growing inaccessibility of good medical care. Now add the horror of a mass vaccination program that has endangered the lives of innocent, especially young, vaccinees.
There must be accountability of all those who pushed for the Denvaxia mass vaccination program of government both in the Aquino and Duterte administrations. Sanofi must be penalized for its unethical, even criminal practices, that led to this fiasco.
But more immediately, the Department of Health under the current administration must put in place a system by which Dengvaxia vaccinees can be closely monitored, health promotive measures are instituted even before they get sick, immediate and adequate medical attention is rendered should they get sick, and continuing research done to determine the cause-and-effect relationship of Dengvaxia vaccination to these illnesses and even deaths.
Politicians and government functionaries using the Dengvaxia issue to score “pogi”points with the public by appearing to champion the cause of the children placed in harm’s way but who only manage to generate more heat than light; those with an ax to grind against their political enemies; or those wittingly or unwittingly protective of Sanofi because of their ties with it and the pharmaceutical industry as a whole — they must be taken to task.
People’s trust in government health programs cannot be earned by hiding or obscuring the facts and insisting that “experts” alone can speak authoritatively on the issue. The people have good reason to resist government health programs that do not live up to their mandate of serving the people.
Only when health is in the hands of liberated and empowered citizens will public health programs be truly beneficial to the people.
BAN AERIAL SPRAY. Wilfredo Mosqueda of Mamamayan Ayaw sa Aerial Spraying (MAAS) and Atty. Mark Peñalver of Interface Development Interventions (IDIS) urge to ban aerial spraying in the Philippines, Thursday, February 8. (Robby Joy D. Salveron / davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Environmental groups here renewed their call to ban the use of aerial spraying and this time it’s not only in Davao City but the entire Philippines.
The call was made as environmentalists commemorate the 11th year anniversary of the passage of the city ordinance entitled “An Ordinance Banning Aerial Spraying as an Agricultural Practice in All Agricultural Activities by All Agricultural Entities in Davao City”.
The ordinance was passed during the term of President Rodrigo Duterte while he was then the mayor here. The Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional in 2016 after the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association Incorporated (PBGEA) challenged the ordinance.
“We are left not without any recourse because the Supreme Court declared the ordinance unconstitutional and not the banning of the aerial spraying per se,” Peñalver said.
Even with the decision, lawyer Mark Peñalver, policy advocacy specialist of Interface Development Interventions (IDIS), told reporters on Thursday, February 8, that they will continue the campaign to ban aerial spraying in the country ” because of the massive harm it brings not only to the environment but most importantly the health of the communities ” .
Peñalver explained that the SC’s ruling on the ordinance was ” because of the technical aspect and not the move to stop aerial spraying “.
One of the three points raised by the SC on the ordinance said that ” it is an ‘ ultra vires act ‘ or not within the authority of the local government unit (LGU) “.
It said the regulation and control of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals ” is a function of the Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority and not the LGUs “.
But Peñalver said they were still optimistic that their advocacy could still be pursued through legislative and executive channels, ” especially now that former City Mayor Duterte is now the President “.
“There are currently three pending bills in the House of Representative and we will draft an executive order to be submitted to the Office of the President and the FPA,” he said.
Peñalver said he hopes that the bills will be given attention since it has also been years that it was filed.
Based on the study conducted by IDIS in 2011, traces of pesticides were found in air and water samples were taken from four separate areas in Talomo-Lipadas and Panigan-Tamugan watersheds.
Dagohoy Magaway, member of the Mamamayan Ayaw sa Aerial Spraying (MAAS) said the Supreme Court decision was “selective since other cities and LGUs continue to implement their respective ordinances on the banning of aerial spray”.
“Why is it that Bukidnon and other areas were not questioned? Is it right to say that it is justice here in the Philippines is selective?” he said.
“We are fighting for our health, our lives, and they will just decide based on technicalities? Can’t it just be resolved?” Magaway added.
Peñalver said the selective decision of the Supreme Court might be a way to discourage other municipalities and cities to implement or pass an ordinance to ban such.
The groups clarified that “they are not against banana plantations but the practices that threaten the environment and health of the communities,” he said. (davaotoday.com)
WOMEN IN BULUAN. Women wear their colorful sarong as the province of Maguindanao officially kicks off the second Inaul Festival with a parade and the opening of the trade hall in Buluan town on Thursday morning, February 8. (Zea Io Ming C. Capistrano / davaotoday.com)
