And the only logical conclusion is to haul Dutae and his cohorts to jail, while they are tried at the Hague and let this be an important lesson for Filipinos--which the Philippine government (including our Philippine courts) are thoroughly ill-equipped to impart.
And because Rappler is one of the few entities in Philippine media that has the courage to call-out Dutae's abuses, the Philippine government under Dutae's dictatorial rule is doing its best to silence Maria Ressa. It's that simple and the solution is equally simple . . .
JAIL DUTAE AND HIS CRONIES!!!
Anything less would be a travesty of justice.
Thursday, June 25, 2020
Wednesday, June 17, 2020
PokPok
Former senator Tessie Aquino-Oreta died on May 14, 2020. She was 75.
Her son, Malabon Mayor Lenlen Oreta, announced her death in a Facebook post on May 15, which included the following statement that is expected from a member of the family.
"Former Senator Tessie Aquino-Oreta was a public servant who devoted her life to the country and her adopted hometown of Malabon. She was a loving grandmother, mother, and wife and a friend to those whose lives she touched."
I suppose the country should be grateful to Tessie for her utter lack of shame in flaunting the mockery of the impeachment trial of ERAP by a majority of senators (including herself) kissing the ass of the plunderer, which earned her the ignominious title of "Dancing Queen." The masses had a more pointed label in the vernacular, "PokPok" or whore, which is really quite appropriate as she sold-out the people she was supposed to represent in exchange for even more political patronage from a plundering president.
Not surprisingly, Senate President Sotto, who embodies the very essence of "form over substance," will honor Tessie through a senate resolution, which will most assuredly exclude any reference to Tessie's contribution to the outster of ERAP. However, I cannot and will not honor Tessie, even in death, because she was NOT an honorable public servant. Tessie was a public disgrace.
And speaking of remembering our dearly departed, I recall a rather long-standing (albeit macabre) joke with my father, who peacefully passed-away in his sleep at a ripe old age. It involved a list of ten individuals that would or should die before him, much like one of those "top ten" lists of David Letterman.
Because we are on the subject of dishonorable public servants, I have the following aspirational "top ten" list of plunderers and super-crooks, who would or should be getting the utmost personal VIP treatment at the moment of their demise.
I'm talking about no less than the Prince of Darkness himself handholding these individuals to hell by way of a private jet or limousine together with an escort of kotong cops as far as the eyes can see, each having the brightest and loudest "wang-wang" lights and sounds to catch everyone's attention.
Platinum skewers and artisan earthen ovens to ensure the most intense pain and suffering as they are seared in flames for all eternity.
Without further ado, MP's top ten list of plunderers and scumbags currently at the pre-departure area destined for hell (hopefully very soon) are:
1. Juan Ponce Enrile, 96
2. Imelda Marcos, 91
3. Estelito Mendoza, 90
5. Bobby Ongpin, 83
6. ERAP, 83
7. Binay, 78
8. Dutae, 75
9. First Gentleman, 74
10. GMA, 73
Rest assured, I will be toasting the following as each of you take your last breath in our earthly realm:
May your children and children's children and so on be punished a thousandfold for your crimes against the Filipino people and may you witness each of your progeny throughout the ages experience unspeakable suffering while you fulfill your own sentence of eternal damnation.
Looking forward to your grand send-off to hell soon!
MP, May 27, 2020
Postscript
17 June 2020. Boss Danding is dead. Ladies and Gentlemen, the countdown has begun. One down, nine more to go. Malamang ito ang sinisigaw ni Boss Danding ngayon, . . .
"Hoy, tabi diyan at halikan niyong puwet ko. Mayaman ako, makapangyarihan ako. Marami akong querida at mga bastardo. Mas marami pa akong pinapatay at gamit ko pa ang pulis. Ninakawan ko kayo ng limpak-limpak na salapi habang nakasubsob ang nguso niyo sa kahirapan. Naghari-harian ako. Inapi, binusabos at inalipin ko kayo. At ngayon, sa araw ng aking kamatayan ay lubos na karangalan ang dulot sa akin ni Satanas na maski isang saglit ay hindi niya ako mabitawan. Lahat kayo luhod at pansinin niyo ako at ang kahaba-habang "wang-wang" patungong Impyerno."
Thursday, June 4, 2020
Dutae's Anti-Terror Bill
For such a time as this
A statement of One Faith. One Nation. One Voice. on the proposed Anti-Terrorism Law
For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.” (Esther 4:14, NRSV)
Queen Esther knew she had encountered a time for daring courage. Her people were under imminent threat of destruction.
With the Anti-Terrorism Bill speeding toward becoming a law, we, Church leaders must speak out and vehemently oppose its passage on the following grounds:
1. An overly broad and amorphous usage of the term terrorism, which will surely be utilized by state forces for attacks on dissent and
curtailment of human rights and civil liberties.
2. A weakening of the judicial system and the constitutionally enshrined function to check-and-balance the actions of other branches of government, including state forces under the executive branch.
3. Allowances for surveillance, wire-tapping, and invasion of privacy of any individual on mere suspicion of being an alleged terrorist, even without any evidence of wrongdoing.
4. Warrantless arrests and detention of persons for a period of fourteen days without charges.
5. A removal of financial penalties to be awarded to persons detained under false pretense as well as other safeguards against abuse by police officers and soldiers, thus increasing the likelihood of gross impunity for misconduct by state forces.
We believe that the Anti-Terrorism Bill will insidiously strip away respect for human rights and other civil liberties. A thriving democracy upholds freedom of speech, the rights to assembly and association, the right to expression of beliefs, and other inalienable rights of our people.
Church people have sought to model right conduct and democratic discourse, even as we have also endured insults, false testimonies, and malicious bullying from the current dispensation in these last four years. We have expressed alarm over the recycled military men, who have occupied many high-level posts in the national government. We have expressed our criticisms on the curtailment of civil liberties, the attacks on legitimate voices of dissent, the failures in upholding Philippine sovereignty and interests, and the widespread killings and human rights violations that have gripped this country. Now we have continued to speak out against the warrantless arrests of thousands under a noxious use of Article 151 of the Revise Penal Code “Resistance and Disobedience to Persons of Authority or their Agents,” during more than two months under ‘lockdown.’
With the passage of the Anti-Terror Bill looming, we are like Queen Esther who is compelled to step forward and expose the sinister plot to destroy her people. This bill will cause a further shrinking of democratic space and weakening of public discourse that will be detrimental to our nation. Likely to be misused and abused by those who wish to “lord it over” the Filipino people, obliterate opposition, and quell even the most legitimate dissent, the Anti-Terrorism Bill is ominous with features that reek of the dark days of the Marcos martial law. The militarists have the ear and possibly the heart of the legislature.
We are speaking, even as we recognize that to do so is dangerous. For such a time as this, to remain silent only assures the impending destruction and abuse of our people.#
Signed:
Most Rev. Broderick S. Pabillo, D.D., Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Manila
Most Rev. Gerardo A. Alminaza, D.D., Bishop of San Carlos & Co-convenor of Church people & Workers Solidarity
Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza, General Secretary, National Council of Churches in the Philippines
Most Revd. Rhee M. Timbang, Obispo Maximo, Iglesia Filipina Independiente
Bishop Emergencio Padillo, United Church of Christ in the Philippines
Bishop Joel Porlares, Ecumenical Bishops Forum
Br. Armin A. Luistro, FSC, Provincial Superior, De La Salle Brothers in East Asia
Dr. Marita Wasan, Past President Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas
Dr. Edita Burgos, D.Ed. Co-convenor, Ecumenical Voice for Human Rights and Peace
Sr. Mary John Mananzan, OSB
Sr. Rosalind Tanhueco, OSB Justice Peace and Integrity of Creation
Sr. Mary Jane Caspillo, MMS Coordinator for Mission Medical Mission Sisters Unit Philippines
Sr. Rowena Pineda, MMS, Chairperson Sisters Association of Mindanao (SAMIN)
Sr. Ma. Lisa Ruedas, DC, Justice Peace and Integrity of Creation
Fr. Rolly de Leon, Promotion of Church People’s Response
Fr. Noel Gatchalian, SVD
Rev. Marie Sol Villalon, Program Manager Human Trafficking & Migrant Ministry, United Methodist Church
Ms. Jenny Ferariza-Meneses, Co- Coordinator, Association of Women in Theology
Deaconess Rubylin Litao, Rise Up for Life and for Rights
Ms. Jean Mae C. Arguta, General Secretary , Kalipunan ng Kristianong Kabataan (3KP), and many more...
National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL) Statement, 01 June 2020
Concerned Lawyers for Civil Liberties (CLCL) Press Statement, 02 June 2020
Dutae's Anti-Terror Bill is now a foregone conclusion. He doesn't even have to sign the bill into law. He just needs to sit on his ass for 30 days and the bill automatically becomes a law. It is another public distraction, another attempt to change the conversation, another ruse to divert the attention of the people from the ineptitude and corruption of Dutae and his cronies at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Far worse, it's another frightening sledgehammer in Dutae's growing arsenal to completely and absolutely quash any opposition and dissent.
The entire Christian Church community is against the Anti-Terror Bill, except perhaps for Mike Velarde of El Shaddai, which is a Catholic cult. Definitely one of the "confidently ignorant" sectors of our society and therefore doesn't count.
The entire business community is against the Anti-Terror Bill, except perhaps for Dennis Uy (among other business cronies of Dutae), who are assuredly raking it in with sweetheart government contracts, behest loans in-the-making, among other corrupt scams at the expense of taxpayers and/or consumers.
A bunch of lawyers are against the Anti-Terror Bill. I can't say the entire legal community because most of them have evolved into glamorized bagmen or bagwomen funneling massive (and I mean enormously massive) amounts of bribes to all branches and all levels of government, which is today a major component of the criminal underground economy that is the bread and butter of Dutae et al.
Mga traydor at tangengot ng ating lehislatura
At this time when the whole world is held hostage by the coronavirus pandemic, waiting for a vaccine that may or may not be available by next year, the single most important matter the government ought to be focusing and concentrating our (taxpayer) resources (especially the P275 billion emergency funds provided in the Bayanihan Act alluded to by Jody Santa Maria above) is on TARGETED MASS TESTING (and the corresponding contact tracing and targeted quarantining), so we have useful and actionable information to contain the pandemic while we try to jump-start the economy and resume with our lives as normal as possible--at least until such time a vaccine is available and administered to the general population. Yet, our hard-earned taxes are being dissipated on all sorts of useless palliative Dutae initiatives that merely create opportunities for more government corruption in our greatest time of need.
The fact is, the people's rejection of the Anti-Terror Bill highlights a far more fundamental issue than Dutae's ineptitude, corruption and perverted priorities. Today, more than ever, there is an underlying and unspoken sentiment that most Filipinos, including those who were stupid enough to vote for Dutae (which seems like a lifetime ago given the nearly absolute destruction of our government and democratic institutions, our national pride and dignity, and even our most fundamental sense of decency since Dutae's stint at Malacañang), are much too afraid to utter.
The entire Philippine government under Dutae cannot be trusted to do the right thing on all-fronts and at every level of governance, which he has transformed and continues to pervert for the sole and exclusive benefit of Dutae, his Coalition of Plunderers (aka Magnanakaw Inc.) and Emperor Xi Jinping.
Dutae et al cannot be trusted on the P275 billion emergency funds for the coronavirus pandemic. The government has passed the buck on the already much-delayed testing in the country to the private sector. In other words, Dutae screws-up and then shifts the responsibility and the expense of targeted mass testing to the private sector to fix the problem--in essence, a "do nothing" herd immunity approach to the pandemic. Dutae has given the marching orders to the private sector to get the economy going but left to their own devices to address the pandemic, while he goes through the motions of "protecting" the people as he pockets the P275 billion emergency funds. It's just like his runaway intelligence budget at an all time record-high in the entire history of the Philippines of P8.28 billion in 2020, which pays for whatever he wants, including prostitutes he cannot screw because of his erectile dysfunction and thousands of trolls to spread lies, misinformation, fake news, propaganda, shift the blame, change the conversation, etc. without any accountability to taxpayers. The P275 billion emergency funds just raises the level of corruption and lines the pockets of Dutae et al exponentially.
Dutae et al cannot be trusted on the "New Normal" or "Better Normal" Bill, which has diabolical implications of "postponing" the next presidential elections in 2022. It doesn't take a genius to decipher a political maneuver straight out of the Marcos playbook.
Pero hindi makikinig si Dutae sa simbahan, sa mga mangangalakal at industriya na nagpapatakbo ng ating ekonomiya, sa mga mamamayang may pang-unawa. Mas urgent daw yung Anti-Terror Bill.
Surely, there is a special place in hell for Dutae et al. Laway-na-laway na si Satanas sa dami at kalibre ng masahol na kaluluwang mapipitas niya sa panahon ni Dutae.
DUTAE CANNOT BE TRUSTED.
THE SENATE CANNOT BE TRUSTED.
THE LOWER HOUSE CANNOT BE TRUSTED.
THE SUPREME COURT CANNOT BE TRUSTED.
The entire Philippine government under Dutae cannot be trusted to do the right thing on all-fronts and at every level of governance, which he has transformed and continues to pervert for the sole and exclusive benefit of Dutae, his Coalition of Plunderers (aka Magnanakaw Inc.) and Emperor Xi Jinping.
Dutae et al cannot be trusted on the P275 billion emergency funds for the coronavirus pandemic. The government has passed the buck on the already much-delayed testing in the country to the private sector. In other words, Dutae screws-up and then shifts the responsibility and the expense of targeted mass testing to the private sector to fix the problem--in essence, a "do nothing" herd immunity approach to the pandemic. Dutae has given the marching orders to the private sector to get the economy going but left to their own devices to address the pandemic, while he goes through the motions of "protecting" the people as he pockets the P275 billion emergency funds. It's just like his runaway intelligence budget at an all time record-high in the entire history of the Philippines of P8.28 billion in 2020, which pays for whatever he wants, including prostitutes he cannot screw because of his erectile dysfunction and thousands of trolls to spread lies, misinformation, fake news, propaganda, shift the blame, change the conversation, etc. without any accountability to taxpayers. The P275 billion emergency funds just raises the level of corruption and lines the pockets of Dutae et al exponentially.
Dutae et al cannot be trusted on the "New Normal" or "Better Normal" Bill, which has diabolical implications of "postponing" the next presidential elections in 2022. It doesn't take a genius to decipher a political maneuver straight out of the Marcos playbook.
Dutae et al cannot be trusted with any form of amendment to the Philippine Constitution, much less his cockamamie push for Federalism, which is currently being resuscitated through an online campaign during the thick of the pandemic.
Since the day he assumed office in Malacañang, he has consistently proven himself to be the stooge, whore and bitch of the Coalition of Plunderers (aka Magnanakaw Inc.) and Xi Jinping. At our time of weakness during this debilitating pandemic, Dutae et al are doubling-down and fully exploiting the situation to further consolidate and concentrate power to completely and absolutely oppress the Filipino people. Anti-Terror Bill, Better Normal Bill, Federalism . . . all designed to enslave the Filipino and keep Dutae et al in power indefinitely.
DUTAE ET AL CANNOT BE TRUSTED--PERIOD.
Since the day he assumed office in Malacañang, he has consistently proven himself to be the stooge, whore and bitch of the Coalition of Plunderers (aka Magnanakaw Inc.) and Xi Jinping. At our time of weakness during this debilitating pandemic, Dutae et al are doubling-down and fully exploiting the situation to further consolidate and concentrate power to completely and absolutely oppress the Filipino people. Anti-Terror Bill, Better Normal Bill, Federalism . . . all designed to enslave the Filipino and keep Dutae et al in power indefinitely.
In the meantime (even in the absence of the Anti-Terror Law), Dutae's lackey's in Congress continue to drag their feet on the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN and the local courts press-on with the bogus cases against Maria Ressa of Rappler, who was named a "Person of the Year in 2018" by Time magazine and who just recently delivered the commencement speech at Princeton University (2020), a similar distinction to her commencement speech at Columbia University last year (2019).
Why do such distinguished globally respected institutions (academic and otherwise) have such a high regard for Maria Ressa? Conversely, why are Dutae et al treating her like shit for being a beacon of transparency, accountability, good governance and press freedom?
On June 5, 2020, in a clear act of overkill in the guise of protecting the public during the pandemic, cops arrest eight (8) individuals peacefully protesting the Anti-Terror Bill at the UP Campus in Cebu. Hindi pa batas ang Anti-Terror Bill, ganyan na umasta ang polis ng Cebu. Watch the video, which is just a prelude to more Dutae abuse and oppression in the days and years to come. In essence, it's Martial Law all over again so that Dutae et al can remain in power indefinitely.
Sounds familiar, right? Something similar happened over the course of twenty plus (20+) years during the Marcos Dictatorship. We, the people, were fed-up and, while it took us years to muster the courage and get organized, we finally toppled and ousted the Marcos Dictatorship in 1986 through a peaceful and uniquely Filipino phenomenon, known all over the world as "People Power." That was thirty-four (34) years ago, when I was proudest to be a Filipino. Unlike today, when we are once again cowering in fear like helpless surfs in the medieval ages, terrorized by Dutae et al and the entire government system under their complete and absolute control.
With plenty of help and guidance from the Marcos family, Dutae et al managed to recreate the Marcos Dictatorship shortly after Dutae took over Malacañang in 2016. We have been experiencing the "fruits" of this diabolical government revamp at an alarming rate of frequency and intensity since Dutae assumed the office of the presidency. The Anti-Terror Law will be another significant feather in Dutae's cap as he continues to institutionalize ever increasing draconian measures, policies and laws until the Filipino is completely subjugated and enslaved--where the state becomes a punitive entity of taxation that feeds the rapacious appetite of the Coalition of Plunderers (aka Magnanakaw Inc.), among other political dynasties in the country. Dutae et al's machinations are nearly in full bloom and will be poised to frustrate the next national elections in 2022 (i.e., massive vote buying and cheating, outright cancellation of elections and/or whatever they can get away with) to ensure they remain in power indefinitely.
Thirty-four (34) years constitutes nearly two (2) generations of Filipinos. Based on the 2015 census of the Philippines, nearly 70% of the total population of 101 million were 44 years old and below. That's 58% the Philippine population who were not yet born during the People Power Movement in 1986 and another 12% of the Philippine population who were too young to appreciate the importance of the same. I am among the 30% of the Philippine population who called-out the Marcos Dictatorship and stood our ground in the People Power Movement. People Power is enshrined in the Philippine Constitution today, regardless of the relentless efforts of Dutae et al to minimize and eradicate the same from the consciousness of the younger generations of Filipinos. We have the right to invoke People Power when the government has failed its constituents, which is as clear as the light of day under Dutea et al today. Hence, I say to the 70% of the Philippine population, rise-up and reclaim your future soonest. The battle is now in your hands.
Admittedly, it took my generation many years to finally oust the Marcos Dictatorship. So, it may not be fair to expect the younger generations of Filipinos to pick-up and go at a drop of a hat--even though the situation today is so dire that it actually calls for immediate People Power. At the very least, make sure the national elections in 2022 happens and protect its integrity with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your soul. This may be your last opportunity to manifest People Power by voting-out Dutae et al, the Coalition of Plunderers (aka Magnanakaw Inc.), among the many plundering political dynasties in the country and residual elements thereof. Failing which you will be cementing the oppression and enslavement of your generation and those after you.
In closing, I quote in full the article of Rappler reporter, Patricia Evangelista as follows:
I’ll tell you what terror looks like.
Four years ago, I stood across a house where five men had been killed. The families crowded outside. There were many people in that narrow alley, mostly women. Please, they pleaded, tell us who the dead men are. The cops refused, yelled at one mother, shoved another daughter. Then it rained, hard and heavy. People ran. The cops laughed. See, said one cop. He pointed at the sky. See, God is listening to me.
Three years ago, I went door to door to speak to families whose sons had been killed. They named a police officer. They called the deaths executions. One father refused to put his name on the record. His wife told me to use hers. She said it was the least she could do for her dead son.
Two years ago, I sat across vigilantes who told me cops gave them orders to kill. I couldn’t interview the cop they named, because the cop refused to comment. I couldn’t find the families of the dead. They had gone into hiding.
Isn’t that strange, one vigilante asked me, that it’s the families of the dead who have to run?
Last year, I spoke to a woman whose son had been shot by the police. Witnesses said he raised his arms. Please, he said, arrest me instead. The woman filed a case. The cops tried to settle. She refused, even as her own frightened family begged her to move on. On the day the courts decided in her favor, she went to her son’s grave with a copy of the resolution. She read him every word.
I don’t live with terror every day. They do. They have for years. One wake was empty of mourners, because every neighbor was afraid to be seen paying respects. One teenager quit school to trail her mother, terrified Mama would be shot next. A woman who had already buried one son stood guard outside a police station until dawn. Another of her sons had been arrested, and she was afraid he wouldn’t live through the night.
This government would like to tell us terror is a function of guilt. Do not be afraid of the new law, they say. Only terrorists have reason to be afraid. Trust the cops. Trust us to know who the enemy is. Trust us to define what public safety requires. The law is on your side.
Terror is a complicated word, but I’ll give you the other word for it, one less bound by politics and privilege. The word is fear. Fear makes you faint in a police office, in front of your sobbing son. Fear comes when you’re kneeling on a linoleum floor mopping up your own boy’s blood, saying sorry you can’t fight back. Sometimes it makes you apologize to coffins and withdraw witness statements and refuse to testify. Sometimes it stops you from asking questions. Or writing Facebook posts. Or sharing the story of a boy who said, please, arrest me instead.
Isn’t that strange, a killer once asked me, that it’s the families of the dead who have to run?
The old laws didn’t protect these families from terror. The new law, enforced by the same people under whose watch thousands were killed, will make everyone else who dissents a possible target. The government is correct that this new law is about terror, but it isn’t one that will end it.
I write this as protest. I say no too.
#junkterrorbill
Makapangyarihan ka ngayon, Dutae, pero darating din ang araw mo. Hindi na mauulit ang pagtakas ng mga Marcos noong pinatalsik sila. Hindi ka pakakawalan at mauunawaan mo ang tunay na sinaloobin ng Pilipino.
Postscript
Terrorist Anti-Terror law—Duterte’s declaration of martial law
By the UST VARSITARIAN, Sunday, June 7, 2020
THE DUTERTE Congress has railroaded the passage of the Anti-Terrorism Bill so that it is only a matter of time for the douchebag from Davao residing by the filthy waters of the Pasig to sign into law the institutionalization of state terrorism against the people. Vaguely worded and loosely defining terrorism as to encompass just about any act or speech of dissent and disagreement toward an onion-skinned government intolerant of criticism and easily pricked, as evidenced during the lockdown when police enforcers manhandled and even opened fire at violators or when Duterte fumed at critics complaining about his incompetence and arbitrariness, the new law will surely be a further millstone around the neck of the nation.
It is true that terrorism is a serious problem and that it should be checked and eradicated. However, it is also a fact that the bill once enacted could be weaponized and turned against the people it is meant to protect. And make no mistake: in a dictatorial regime like that of Duterte that has successfully labeled, incarcerated and silenced his most vocal critics, that thought is not far from becoming a reality.
The vagueness of the bill should be a cause for concern for every Filipino who cares for democracy and liberty in the country. It gives a shadowy Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) the authority to arrest people and groups which it designates as “terrorists” without warrant and detain them without charge for up to 24 days. In addition, it also has the power to access private information through wiretapping calls, intercepting emails and text-messages and intruding into private communication. One could be incarcerated for 12 years for “inciting” to terrorism, whatever that means.
With a president who has the habit of branding randomly his enemies as criminals and insurgents through his bizarre matrixes and self-serving red-tagging, we already have an idea where the bill is headed. To be sure, although the bill states that “terrorism shall not include advocacy, protest, dissent, stoppage of work, industrial or mass action, and other similar exercises of civil and political rights,” it in no way guarantees that people who are critical of the government, would not be suspected of destabilizing or “terrorizing” government, especially since Duterte has always shown his aversion to any criticism of his abusive rule and his propensity to tag any opinion contrary to his as “destabilizing.”
A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER
Statement of Concerned Members of the Faculty of the University of the Philippines College of Law
Much has been already said about the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020. As concerned faculty members of the University of the Philippines College of Law, we add our voices of dissent to the growing chorus.
The words etched in marble at the lobby of Malcolm Hall proclaim that our objective is not only to teach law and make lawyers but “to teach law in the grand manner and to make great lawyers.” These are words of personhood, of purpose, of passion, defining who we are and what we are about. These are words that impel us to continue to speak out, to explain, to dissent, if necessary, and, in so doing, continue to teach generations of lawyers and advocates taught in the grand manner and form them to be great lawyers. These are words that must not remain etched only in marble but must continue to be graven in the DNA of every lawyer that we teach and train, form and mold.
And so, we say NO to the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020!
The Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020 poses a clear and present danger to constitutionalism and the rule of law. Some of its provisions are unconstitutional; for instance, those that pose a chilling effect on free expression and the right to organize and assemble, those that authorize executive orders for arrest and prolonged detention beyond what the law and the Rules of Court provide, those that define broadly yet vaguely the acts that are criminalized. Some provisions are experiments in suppressing lawful dissent and principled advocacy; for instance, the exception to the proviso in section 4 that protects legitimate exercise of civil and political rights, the inclusion of a new offense of “Inciting to Terrorism.” Yet others are violations of the separation of powers; for instance, the power given to the Anti-Terrorism Council, a purely executive body, to exercise the exclusively judicial power to order an arrest as well as to make a conclusion that a person is a terrorist (even on a prima facie basis) for purpose of arrest and detention. Some of the more important provisions protecting the citizenry against unwarranted arrests and charges have been removed, resulting in less, not more, checks and balances against a law that seeks to confer tremendous power on the executive branch. In the midst of a pandemic that has made our people’s lives even more difficult, more fearful, and more uncertain, the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020 provides even more reason to be fearful and uncertain.
As teachers of the law but more importantly as citizens of this country, we continue to look to our true north—the Constitution, which is the bedrock of our citizenship and the people, whom we serve. We ask that the officials who advise the President on constitutional and legal matters take their duties seriously, advise the President of the grave constitutional objections and serious implications of the Anti- Terrorism Law of 2020, and for him to veto the law.
Quezon City, 11 June 2020
Postscript
Terrorist Anti-Terror law—Duterte’s declaration of martial law
By the UST VARSITARIAN, Sunday, June 7, 2020
THE DUTERTE Congress has railroaded the passage of the Anti-Terrorism Bill so that it is only a matter of time for the douchebag from Davao residing by the filthy waters of the Pasig to sign into law the institutionalization of state terrorism against the people. Vaguely worded and loosely defining terrorism as to encompass just about any act or speech of dissent and disagreement toward an onion-skinned government intolerant of criticism and easily pricked, as evidenced during the lockdown when police enforcers manhandled and even opened fire at violators or when Duterte fumed at critics complaining about his incompetence and arbitrariness, the new law will surely be a further millstone around the neck of the nation.
It is true that terrorism is a serious problem and that it should be checked and eradicated. However, it is also a fact that the bill once enacted could be weaponized and turned against the people it is meant to protect. And make no mistake: in a dictatorial regime like that of Duterte that has successfully labeled, incarcerated and silenced his most vocal critics, that thought is not far from becoming a reality.
The vagueness of the bill should be a cause for concern for every Filipino who cares for democracy and liberty in the country. It gives a shadowy Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) the authority to arrest people and groups which it designates as “terrorists” without warrant and detain them without charge for up to 24 days. In addition, it also has the power to access private information through wiretapping calls, intercepting emails and text-messages and intruding into private communication. One could be incarcerated for 12 years for “inciting” to terrorism, whatever that means.
With a president who has the habit of branding randomly his enemies as criminals and insurgents through his bizarre matrixes and self-serving red-tagging, we already have an idea where the bill is headed. To be sure, although the bill states that “terrorism shall not include advocacy, protest, dissent, stoppage of work, industrial or mass action, and other similar exercises of civil and political rights,” it in no way guarantees that people who are critical of the government, would not be suspected of destabilizing or “terrorizing” government, especially since Duterte has always shown his aversion to any criticism of his abusive rule and his propensity to tag any opinion contrary to his as “destabilizing.”
A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER
Statement of Concerned Members of the Faculty of the University of the Philippines College of Law
Much has been already said about the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020. As concerned faculty members of the University of the Philippines College of Law, we add our voices of dissent to the growing chorus.
The words etched in marble at the lobby of Malcolm Hall proclaim that our objective is not only to teach law and make lawyers but “to teach law in the grand manner and to make great lawyers.” These are words of personhood, of purpose, of passion, defining who we are and what we are about. These are words that impel us to continue to speak out, to explain, to dissent, if necessary, and, in so doing, continue to teach generations of lawyers and advocates taught in the grand manner and form them to be great lawyers. These are words that must not remain etched only in marble but must continue to be graven in the DNA of every lawyer that we teach and train, form and mold.
And so, we say NO to the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020!
The Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020 poses a clear and present danger to constitutionalism and the rule of law. Some of its provisions are unconstitutional; for instance, those that pose a chilling effect on free expression and the right to organize and assemble, those that authorize executive orders for arrest and prolonged detention beyond what the law and the Rules of Court provide, those that define broadly yet vaguely the acts that are criminalized. Some provisions are experiments in suppressing lawful dissent and principled advocacy; for instance, the exception to the proviso in section 4 that protects legitimate exercise of civil and political rights, the inclusion of a new offense of “Inciting to Terrorism.” Yet others are violations of the separation of powers; for instance, the power given to the Anti-Terrorism Council, a purely executive body, to exercise the exclusively judicial power to order an arrest as well as to make a conclusion that a person is a terrorist (even on a prima facie basis) for purpose of arrest and detention. Some of the more important provisions protecting the citizenry against unwarranted arrests and charges have been removed, resulting in less, not more, checks and balances against a law that seeks to confer tremendous power on the executive branch. In the midst of a pandemic that has made our people’s lives even more difficult, more fearful, and more uncertain, the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020 provides even more reason to be fearful and uncertain.
As teachers of the law but more importantly as citizens of this country, we continue to look to our true north—the Constitution, which is the bedrock of our citizenship and the people, whom we serve. We ask that the officials who advise the President on constitutional and legal matters take their duties seriously, advise the President of the grave constitutional objections and serious implications of the Anti- Terrorism Law of 2020, and for him to veto the law.
Quezon City, 11 June 2020
FROM THE COLLEGIAN.
You might not hear from us again. Should things go ever more wrong in the country, reading the Collegian would soon count as a terroristic act. If that doesn’t concern you, you can go ahead and ignore this post. But if you believe this moment demands bold and independent journalism, please read on.
Over the past several months, we have made it a point to continue delivering accurate and balanced coverage. There is so much information to sift through right now, so much we need to know to keep our families and communities safe and involved in national affairs at the same time. Amid the government’s concerted effort to sow even greater confusion, the Collegian knows that its commitment to tackling difficult stories has perhaps never been more pressing than during this period of disquiet.
For the first time in the publication’s history, the Collegian releases a 48-page special issue featuring over a hundred articles, photographs, and illustrations produced over a three-month period since the pandemic hit. Our usual 12 pages of newsprint just would not suffice to yield ample space for sectors that have had to endure governmental inaction and abuse of power during this crisis.
We cast a spotlight on health workers, among the country’s essential workers who are still non-essentially compensated for, and other frontliners who are just as brave and burdened, from farmers and the urban poor to security guards and janitors. Theirs are stories our journalists have raced to report, lest they go untold, lest the power brokers liable for their suffering get off the hook despite their failures and ineptitude.
We believe that these stories need to be told over and over again. Most of these articles have been posted online, but, recognizing the limitations of the platforms we have on Facebook and on Twitter, we have thought to produce a digital issue, which comes in handy for readers to look back on in the future.
This project has been daunting and ambitious. We are counting on you to read and reflect on the stories in this issue. It is thanks to you that we are able to imbue our efforts with meaning and common cause, and we encourage you to share this with anyone who would enjoy it. Better yet, join us. The Collegian opens its doors to writers and artists who wish to partake in the publication's 97-year tradition of seeking and reporting the truth.
This issue bears testament to that endeavor and to how the people have fiercely responded to state-sponsored terror. Like you, we fear our political landscape will grow even more dire in the weeks ahead. But the Collegian vows to remain steadfast in helping create an informed citizenry through fearless and critical journalism, in standing alongside the marginalized—no matter the stakes.
You deserve no less.
Access the full copy of the Collegian's Special COVID-19 Issue here: https://bit.ly/2BOa9wx
#SolusyongMedikalHindiMilitar
You might not hear from us again. Should things go ever more wrong in the country, reading the Collegian would soon count as a terroristic act. If that doesn’t concern you, you can go ahead and ignore this post. But if you believe this moment demands bold and independent journalism, please read on.
Over the past several months, we have made it a point to continue delivering accurate and balanced coverage. There is so much information to sift through right now, so much we need to know to keep our families and communities safe and involved in national affairs at the same time. Amid the government’s concerted effort to sow even greater confusion, the Collegian knows that its commitment to tackling difficult stories has perhaps never been more pressing than during this period of disquiet.
For the first time in the publication’s history, the Collegian releases a 48-page special issue featuring over a hundred articles, photographs, and illustrations produced over a three-month period since the pandemic hit. Our usual 12 pages of newsprint just would not suffice to yield ample space for sectors that have had to endure governmental inaction and abuse of power during this crisis.
We cast a spotlight on health workers, among the country’s essential workers who are still non-essentially compensated for, and other frontliners who are just as brave and burdened, from farmers and the urban poor to security guards and janitors. Theirs are stories our journalists have raced to report, lest they go untold, lest the power brokers liable for their suffering get off the hook despite their failures and ineptitude.
We believe that these stories need to be told over and over again. Most of these articles have been posted online, but, recognizing the limitations of the platforms we have on Facebook and on Twitter, we have thought to produce a digital issue, which comes in handy for readers to look back on in the future.
This project has been daunting and ambitious. We are counting on you to read and reflect on the stories in this issue. It is thanks to you that we are able to imbue our efforts with meaning and common cause, and we encourage you to share this with anyone who would enjoy it. Better yet, join us. The Collegian opens its doors to writers and artists who wish to partake in the publication's 97-year tradition of seeking and reporting the truth.
This issue bears testament to that endeavor and to how the people have fiercely responded to state-sponsored terror. Like you, we fear our political landscape will grow even more dire in the weeks ahead. But the Collegian vows to remain steadfast in helping create an informed citizenry through fearless and critical journalism, in standing alongside the marginalized—no matter the stakes.
You deserve no less.
Access the full copy of the Collegian's Special COVID-19 Issue here: https://bit.ly/2BOa9wx
#SolusyongMedikalHindiMilitar
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
Mabuhay si Coco Martin! Starve a Troll Today!
Coco Martin, ipinaabot ang mensahe ng kanyang kapwa artista.
Typical response of Dutae troll, lihis at walang kinalaman sa issue ng pag-aabuso ni Dutae sa kapangyarihan ng gobyerno. Coco's gay kissing scene in the video was superimposed on the video message of Coco, as if that changes the truth and substance of Coco's message.
It is time to take back the internet, STARVE THE TROLLS!!!
Typical response of Dutae troll, lihis at walang kinalaman sa issue ng pag-aabuso ni Dutae sa kapangyarihan ng gobyerno. Coco's gay kissing scene in the video was superimposed on the video message of Coco, as if that changes the truth and substance of Coco's message.
It is time to take back the internet, STARVE THE TROLLS!!!
One Cluster-Fuck After Another . . . Dutae Talaga!
Monday, May 11, 2020
Dutae's Trolling Strategy
Arguably, the most important issue to address today (correction, yesterday) is testing and tracking, and how this is going to get our economy moving again. As of April 12, the number of people tested in the Philippines stood at 33,814--far short of the 110,000 in Vietnam, which has 265 coronavirus cases and no reported deaths. (Reuters)
The Philippine government claims it is aiming for 8,000 tests daily in hotspots throughout the country but is way behind this target and is excruciatingly opaque in disclosing its progress (more like, lack of progress) on this front. In fact, even the Philippine government target of 8,000 tests daily is itself woefully inadequate.
In terms of global best practices on COVID-19 testing, KULELAT na naman ang Pilipinas sa ilalim ni Dutae.
 |
| Thoroughly delayed and inadequate COVID-19 testing in the Philippines |
No wonder Dutae trolls are trying to distract the public consciousness by constantly plugging the ABS-CBN shutdown in social media. That's because Dutae has screwed-up on the COVID-19 pandemic from the outset and is unable to extricate the country from this awful situation. Marami pa ang mamamatay at mas marami pa ang magugutom dahil sa kapalpakan ni Dutae. Pag-usapan na lang natin yung ABS-CBN.
Saturday, May 9, 2020
TAXATION IS THEFT
I wish I could take credit for the simple yet brilliant assertion that taxation is theft. I read it in some nondescript location on the web, which you will find by googling the subject matter. It is not clear who wrote it but I am grateful to the author. In my enthusiasm to spread this revelation (i.e., taxation is theft), I have been emboldened to attempt to improve the author’s flow of logic. Hence, I have taken the liberty of making minor edits to the piece. It reads like a mathematical proof as follows:
My contention is that taxation is theft. Taxation is the extortion, by violence or threat of violence, of the funding necessary to run the government. I’d like to present a little evidence, in the form of definitions, as to the fact that taxes are indeed a form of extortion.
1 Tax, noun, a sum of money demanded by a government for its support (underscore mine)
Note: the word used in the “tax” definition is not “requested,” not “desired,” but “demanded.”
That reveals an interesting fact: taxes are not voluntary.
2 Extort, verb, to wrest or wring (money, information, etc.) from a person by violence,
intimidation, or abuse of authority; obtain by force, torture, threat, or the like
What happens when you say “no” to the tax man?
3 According to Wikipedia, “Tax evasion is a crime in almost all developed countries, and the guilty
party is liable to fines and/or imprisonment.” (underscore mine)
Key words: fines and imprisonment
4 Fine, noun, a sum of money imposed as a penalty for an offense or dereliction
5 Imprison, verb, to confine in or as if in a prison
What happens if you decide not to pay taxes?
6 They (the government) will take more money from you and/or throw you in a cage.
What happens if you decide not to pay the fine and/or refuse to go to prison?
7 They (the government) will use force to make you comply. (underscore mine)
To use force is to obtain by force is to extort; see 2 above
8 Hence, taxation is extortion. Taxation is theft.
Contrary to the above conclusion that taxation is theft, Adam Lee (an atheist writer and speaker living in New York City) writes:
“Libertarians say that taxation is like theft because it takes property from the unwilling. What they ignore, time and time again, is the crucial role of democratic consent. Taxes are not arbitrary impositions decreed by a faceless government. Rather, taxes are the dues we pay in exchange for membership in a society and access to all the services it offers.” (underscore mine).
The operative phrase that allegedly endows the government the authority to impose taxes is “the crucial role of democratic consent.” Yet, I am not aware of any instance in the brief democratic history of the Republic of the Philippines in which the single most important issue of taxation was ever put to a direct vote by the people.
In the first place, the Philippine revolution (which was voluntarily funded by Filipinos) around the end of the 19th century sought to overthrow the oppressive Spanish colonial government, including the oppressive taxes of the same. Unfortunately, our efforts then were usurped by the Americans, who took over the role of the Spanish colonial government.
When we were finally “granted” independence, the Philippine government took over the American colonial government structure, the formation of which Filipinos had virtually no say. Yes, there was a semblance (a mock-up, really) of a representative government during the transitional period prior to the establishment of the Republic, when the Philippines was a Commonwealth of the United States. However, the crucial matter of taxation was never vetted with the population at large, much less subjected to a democratic consent. Even if, hypothetically, taxation was subjected to some form of vetting then, Philippine democracy was at its infancy and our so-called representatives were simply inclined to plagiarize the Constitution of the United States and most everything that came along with it, including taxation—hardly a persuasive scenario of democratic consent.
Thus, we've established that taxation is theft by its very definition and we've also disabused the notion that there was ever any democratic consent to the imposition of taxes in the Philippines.
What follows is a cursory review of certain government services or so-called public services that have previously been the government’s responsibility and basis upon which to impose such fulsome taxes on its allegedly consenting constituents, the more recent privatization of most of these public services and what the Philippine government is actually delivering (or, more appropriately, NOT delivering) today, thereby exposing a glaring anomaly of double-dipping, over-charging and government parasitism--leading us full circle to our thesis that taxation, particularly in the Philippines, is highway robbery.
Electricity Services
In the past, electricity services in the Philippines were provided in the form of an integrated government monopoly (i.e., the National Power Corporation or NPC) in which generation, transmission and distribution were mostly controlled by the government. It is a capital intensive sector which has been and continues to be thoroughly mismanaged by the government (e.g., responsible for the graft-ridden, over-priced and unutilized Bataan Nuclear Power Plant) and culminated in daily and extended blackouts throughout the Philippines in the early 1990s. In the hands of the government, the electricity sector has been a major drain on taxes and a major contributor to the ballooning national debt. To illustrate, in 2001, NPC incurred over 20% of the total national debt (i.e., US$9.36 billion of the total government debt of US$46.31 billion).
NPC . . . You’re Fired!
The good news is, NPC has actually been fired--most of NPC at least. In 2001, the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of the Philippines (EPIRA) became law, which resulted in the privatization of most of the assets of NPC and the deregulation of the power sector. This means that taxpayers are no longer required to fund most of NPC. A major tax burden had been plugged by EPIRA about twenty (20) years ago, yet our taxes have NOT been reduced.
In addition to this glaring anomaly in taxation, EPIRA was practically drafted by the most influential vested interest in the Philippine power sector, the Lopez Group, which had by then recovered Manila Electric Company (MERALCO) from the government. EPIRA allowed cross-ownership between power generation and power distribution, permitting the Lopez Group to self-deal by way of selling electricity from subsidiary power generation facilities to a subsidiary power distributor at the expense of the consumer. Like all profit-oriented enterprises, the Lopez Group acted to protect its business interest. Also true to its lazy, incompetent and corrupt form, the government dropped the ball and lost a major opportunity to establish a truly competitive electricity market that would benefit consumers.
To make matters worse, when the Lopez Group lost control of MERALCO and the legislature could finally plug the said cross-ownership loophole in EPIRA, the lawmakers sat idle while another business group (the Suharto-Crony Salim Group of Indonesia through the money laundering enterprise of Manny Pangilinan) took control of MERALCO and set-up their own power generation enterprise to continue self-dealing at the expense of consumers. Hence, the government lost another major opportunity to establish a truly competitive electricity market. In the absence of true competition in the power generation sector, it is no wonder the electricity rates in the Philippines are among the highest in Asia.
To wit, the government ran our entire power utility infrastructure into the ground, contributed substantially to the hemorrhaging national debt, brought in the private power sector to fix its problems (albeit at a premium price to consumers), and sat idly while vested interests promulgated legislation and policies that limit true competition in power generation at the expense of consumers.
It takes several decades to mess-up such a critical sector in an economy and the government did just that with the Philippine power sector over the past 60 years and counting.
Government should be out of everything in the power sector except in regulation. Exponentially LESS taxes (as there should be no more taxes for power-related infrastructure) should be invested in improving the skills, competence and integrity of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), which remains a weak and reactionary political lapdog at its current stage of evolution.
Fire the Residual NPC (NPC-SPUG and RECs)
What is left of NPC is the Small Power Utility Group or SPUG, which is mandated to supply electricity to far flung islands / areas and highly subsidized by our taxes and electricity rates. Similarly, the 121 rural electric cooperatives or RECs (as of July 2018), under the oversight of the National Electrification Administration (NEA), which are mandated to distribute electricity in rural areas and also highly subsidized by our taxes and electricity rates, remain firmly entrenched. In essence, while most of NPC had been fired under the EPIRA, the “residual” SPUG and RECs (Residual NPC) continue to operate like 121 mini-NPCs all over the Philippines, providing mostly substandard services to its rural customers while surreptitiously squandering taxpayer and consumer subsidies.
The subsidy in the form of the Universal Charge for Missionary Electrification (UC-ME) shouldered by Filipino consumers for electricity services rendered in off-grid areas is expected to balloon to P28.373 billion by the end of 2021. “Based on the current policy of uniform subsidy per kilowatt-hour of electricity consumption in off-grid areas, the total annual UC-ME requirements is estimated to increase from the 2011 level of P7.784 billion to P28.373 billion by end of 2021,” said the Department of Energy (DOE) in a notice. This translates to an increase in consumer subsidies of 365% over a period of 11 years, which does not even include the subsidies from our taxes. Clearly, this bottomless pit of subsidies in the electricity sector needs to be plugged.
In an article published by the Business Mirror dated July 8, 2018, 87 (out of 121) RECs get NEA’s “AAA” grade. The AAA rating is the highest score given by the NEA to RECs that indicates the power distributors’ full compliance on 4 parameters; namely, financial, institutional, technical and reportorial requirements.
The only reason to grade these RECs is to determine if they are attractive enough to be privatized and cut-off from any form of taxpayer and/or consumer subsidy. Assuming the above grading system of NEA is credible, then well done. Now it’s time to privatize these “AAA” rated RECs and their respective SPUG generating assets--but NOT to the same entities to prevent self-dealing between generation and distribution. This would also be an opportune time to plug the self-dealing loophole in EPIRA and finally disallow any cross-ownership between power generation and power distribution to establish a level playing field in power generation.
If these “AAA” rated RECs are truly viable entities, then the private sector would acquire them (and the SPUG generating assets selling power to RECs) and the government should remove all subsidies associated with these privatized assets that will result in the privatized SPUG generating assets and privatized RECs to reflect the true cost of electricity to consumers under a rational and transparent regulatory regime. Thereafter, the NEA should focus on shaping up the remaining 34 RECs to achieve the AAA rating--for subsequent privatization and elimination of subsidies, which should result in the complete dissolution of the Residual NPC and less taxes.
The good news is, the DOE is actually planning to phase out consumer subsidies for off-grid areas over a period of 2 to 5 years, depending on the purchasing power of the consumers in a particular off-grid area. The phase out of consumer subsidies would be 50% each year for “rich areas” and 20% each year for poorer areas.
The bad news is, the DOE plans to have the government (i.e., taxpayers) assume the cost of the phased out consumer subsidies. Such is the convoluted half-assed policies of our government that have little regard for its already overburdened taxpayers. It’s one step forward and ten steps back.
The DOE claims it wants to encourage the private sector to develop and deploy microgrids in underserved areas of the country. Yet, it persists in keeping SPUG and RECs in the hands of the government, transferring the burden of subsidy from consumers to the taxpayers, thereby eliminating virtually any accountability on the administration of these subsidies by the government.
Indeed, ten steps in the wrong direction. It looks, sounds and feels like the electricity sector’s version of the Oil Price Stabilization Fund or the OPSF prior to the deregulation of the oil industry in the Philippines. It’s the Cro-Magnon’s regulatory black box, devoid of any logic and transparency. It was perfected suited for Philippine politicians, who manipulated and abused the OPSF to derive “pogi points” from the stupid masses at the expense of the few taxpayers--and has long been abolished by the deregulation of the oil industry in the country. Unfortunately, the very same concept is being contemplated by the DOE with respect to the Residual NPC, which will precisely prevent private enterprises from pursuing microgrids and supplying electricity to the least developed areas in the country.
Once and for all, get rid of the Residual NPC. The privatization of SPUG and RECs AND the elimination of all subsidies (i.e., consumer and taxpayer subsidies) to these privatized entities will reflect the true cost of power generation and distribution to consumers, thereby attracting private enterprises to pursue microgrids in underserved areas of the country--and provide relief to taxpayers.
Fire PSALM
Another Philippine Government Owned and Controlled Corporation (GOCC) in the power sector that has spun out of control and has become (surprise, surprise) another tax burden is the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation or PSALM, a relatively new government entity established under EPIRA to privatize NPC, “program” NPC’s remaining debt and facilitate a competitive and consumer-friendly electricity market. It has had over 18 years (as of June 2019) to fulfill its mandate and, like most government agencies, has evolved into another useless, salary-sucking, self-perpetuating bureaucratic liability--read PSALM screws electricity consumer. PSALM was not meant to exist for very long and it has clearly outlived its usefulness. PSALM should conclude its affairs immediately, close shop as planned and provide relief to taxpayers.
NGCP
EPIRA included the privatization of the transmission assets of NPC, which is now owned and operated by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP)--a joint venture between the family of Henry Sy and the National Grid of China.
In layman’s terms, the NGCP is like the sole and exclusive superhighway that permits electrons to travel through its transmission lines (like vehicles on an expressway) from the source of electricity (power plants) to distributors of electricity (foremost of which is MERALCO in the Greater Metropolitan Manila Area and other private utilities and RECs throughout the country) in exchange for a tolling fee, which is regulated by the government--in particular, the Energy Regulatory Commission or the ERC--and ultimately paid for by the consumer.
In short, the government should no longer be taxing for transmission assets and services, which are now paid for by consumers by way of tolling fees to the NGCP--a private entity regulated by the ERC. The question is, where is the reduction in our taxes?
In addition to this anomaly in taxation, the Philippine government exhibited a total lapse in judgement when it awarded the ownership, operation and franchise of the entire electricity transmission assets of the country to a joint venture essentially controlled by the National Grid of China--essentially China, which has now invaded our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the West Philippine Sea.
One could argue that the NGCP is a 60/40 JV between the family of Henry Sy and the National Grid of China, respectively, and therefore is controlled by a Filipino entity in compliance with the Philippine Constitution. However, even the business conglomerate of Henry Sy never owned nor operated a national transmission grid prior to the NGCP and thus is highly dependent on the expertise of the National Grid of China. So, think again, who is really in control of the NGCP?
As Senator Risa Hontiveros said in a privileged speech in December 2019, “Kasinungalingan ang pagsabing ‘advisory role’ lang ang Tsina. China is in charge of the nuts and bolts of our country’s power grid, with full control of operations and maintenance.”
When push comes to shove, Emperor Xi Jinping can literally give the order to “turn off” the lights in the Philippines and we won’t be able to do anything about it. Far more imperative and strategic than the sarswela of Duterte and ABS-CBN (i.e., a long-standing vendetta between the Marcos family and the Lopez family being imposed by an errand boy) is the immediate review of the legislative franchise granted to the NGCP and the need to either dilute or eliminate altogether the forty percent (40%) ownership of the National Grid of China--unless China abandons our EEZ in the West Philippine Sea. Given how much China owes the Philippines today--see US$137.5 billion Philippine Invoice to China--the shares of the National Grid of China in the NGCP could easily be offset by the government from our massive receivables from China.
Today (20 years after EPIRA), the Filipino consumer is still paying uber-exhorbitant prices for electricity due to the ultra-corrupt and grossly incompetent machinations of government over the past 60 years up to the present time. The main benefit of EPIRA (at least on paper) is NO MORE TAXES for major infrastructure projects in the power sector (a major relief in taxes, theoretically) as these projects fall squarely in the hands of the private sector, which, in turn, is exacting its pound of flesh from the electricity consumer. So be it but, in light of the substantially privatized and deregulated electricity sector, the same consumers should be relieved of paying taxes, which has NOT happened.
The government is no longer providing these vital services in the electricity sector. The government is no longer spending on this highly capital intensive sector. Yet, our taxes have NOT been reduced. Further, whatever residual is left in the public sector should also be completely privatized, devoid of any subsidies whatsoever (i.e., fire NPC-SPUG, RECs and PSALM), and provide relief to taxpayers.
The point is, electricity services, previously in the domain of the public sector and thus a major drain on our taxes, have already shifted into the hands of the private sector (i.e., privatization of most of NPC assets, deregulation of the electricity market and the reduction of subsidies thereof). The shift to the private sector should continue by way of privatizing RECs and SPUG generating assets, and winding down PSALM as originally mandated, thereby reducing further (if not eliminate altogether) the substantial taxes still allocated to subsidize the segments of the electricity sector that remain in the hands of an inefficient, incompetent and corrupt government bureaucracy. Yet, why is the government taxing us even more intensely today, even as we pay some of the highest electricity rates in the region? Where has all the tax relief gone with respect to the initial privatization of NPC and the deregulation of the electricity sector? When will the government finally complete the privatization (and eliminate subsidies) of the Residual NPC, dissolve PSALM and provide some relief to taxpayers?
Water Services
Like electricity services, water services in the Philippines were previously a government monopoly. The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) was responsible for the supply, transmission and distribution of water to customers in Metro Manila--although it was able to provide piss-poor services to only two-thirds of Metro Manila. It is also a capital intensive sector that was thoroughly mismanaged by the government and culminated in one of the highest percentages of non-revenue water among comparable institutions in the world.
According to the Asian Development Bank, the amount of non-revenue water (NRW) (water supplied but not billable due to leakage and illegal connections) was more than 60 percent. This was much higher than in Seoul (35 percent), Kuala Lumpur (36 percent) and Bangkok (38 percent), and only comparable to Jakarta. Tariffs were low and MWSS was dependent on government subsidies (i.e., taxpayers). In the 1990s, MWSS was saddled with over US$1 billion in debts owed to the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, among other lenders. It was another major drain on taxes and a major contributor to the ballooning national debt.
In 1997, the MWSS was successfully privatized with Maynilad winning the concession for the western zone of Metro Manila while Manila Water Co. won the concession for the east. Both firms absorbed the debts of MWSS and collectively invested close to P100 billion to provide water and sewerage connections. The original Maynilad went bankrupt in 2003 but was eventually taken over by a new investor in 2007. Today, 96% of Metro Manila is interconnected via underground pipes.
These days, water flows freely in our taps albeit with occasional interruptions. It is worlds away from the conditions we suffered in the 1990s. It is another example that the private sector is infinitely more competent in delivering services than the government.
Notwithstanding the tirades of Digong against the water concessionaires for winning their cases against the Philippine Government in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Singapore (Maynilad won their case in 2018, where the government was urged to pay the company P3.4 billion. Manila Water recently got a favorable ruling in November 2019, assuring the company of P7.4 billion from the Philippine government.), the more important question is, if the private water concessionaires are “milking” the Filipino consumer by charging fulsome water rates (i.e., no more subsidies from the government), why has there been no relief to the taxpayer for water services that are no longer in the hands of the government? Hence, it would appear that the real culprit “milking” the Filipino is none other than the government itself.
At least, we are getting much better water services from the private sector (albeit at a premium price) compared to the chronic water crisis in the days of the inept and graft-ridden MWSS. Indeed, if the MWSS, which has evolved into a government regulator in the water sector, was remotely competent, the water concessionaires would have lost their arbitration cases against the government. So I say to the government and MWSS, regulate the water concessionaires and protect the Filipino consumer. That’s what you’re paid to do but give us back the tax relief corresponding to the privatization of MWSS.
Telecommunications
The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) was established on November 28, 1928 by way of legislation known as Act No. 3436. This resulted in the merger of four (4) telephone companies under the operations of an American telephone company, GTE, thereby creating a private monopoly to provide telephone services throughout the entire Philippines.
By the 1930s, PLDT had an expansive fixed-line network and for the first time linked the Philippines to the outside world via radiotelephone services, connecting the Philippines to the United States and other parts of the world.
Telephone service in the Philippines was interrupted due to World War II. At the end of the war, the Philippines' communications infrastructure was in ruins. U.S. military authorities eventually handed over the remains of the communications infrastructure to PLDT in 1947, and with the help of massive U.S. aid to the Philippines during the 1940s and 1950s, PLDT recovered so quickly that its telephone subscribers outpaced that of pre-war levels by 1953.
Fast-forward to the Marcos dictatorship. On December 20, 1967, backed by the Marcos regime, a group of Filipino businessmen led by Ramon Cojuangco (a Marcos crony) took control of PLDT after buying its shares from GTE. The press release of the new owners was to bring reliable telephone services to the rural areas. However, PLDT actually stagnated and eventually became one of the many graft-ridden, thoroughly mismanaged and highly subsidized Philippine GOCCs that was typical of the era of Marcos crony capitalism.
In the 1970s, PLDT was nationalized. In 1981, in compliance with the convoluted policies of the Marcos dictatorship, PLDT purchased substantially all of the assets and liabilities of Republic Telephone Company, another failing GOCC that should not have existed in the first place.
Under this new government monopoly, service expansion was severely curtailed or practically nonexistent. In the Martial Law years, people would apply for phone service only to wait for years and years on end behind an impossibly long application backlog. It was not unheard of for people and small businesses back then to barter for a single telephone line in the black market for tens of thousands of pesos. This is in spite of the fact that during the years it was nationalized (from 1970 to 1986), PLDT was NOT paying corporate income taxes, which was essentially a subsidy to a corrupted entity that had become a milking cow of Marcos.
The incumbent Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew referred to the situation when visiting the Philippines during the term of President Fidel V. Ramos. He said, albeit in jest, “In the Philippines, 95% of the population has no telephone, while the remaining 5% are waiting for that dial tone.”
After Marcos was overthrown in 1986, PLDT was re-privatized, thereby relieving taxpayers (theoretically) the burden of subsidizing a substandard and corrupt government-owned telecom monopoly. Yet, taxpayers never derived any relief from the privatization of PLDT.
By 1995, with the passage of the Telecommunications Act and the subsequent deregulation of the Philippine telecommunications industry, PLDT had been de-monopolized and competition followed. However, given the inherently shallow market in the Philippines, most of the new aspiring entities either fell by the wayside or were acquired by dominant players, which the market has whittled down to the current duopoly of PLDT (acquired / controlled by the Suharto-Crony Salim Group of Indonesia through the money laundering enterprise of Manny Pangilinan) and Globe of Ayala. A third telecom player is being pushed by Duterte-Crony Dennis Uy with some Chinese State-Owned Telecom that will most assuredly compromise the national security of the Philippines.
Today, telecommunication services in the Philippines, which include landline phone connections, mobile phone connections, wired and wireless internet connections, cloud services, among other things, may be characterized as third-world services at first-world billing rates. Compare your actual internet connection speed versus the advertised internet connection speed you’re paying for and you’ll understand. It’s common knowledge among consumers, who have no other recourse than to switch from one shitty telecom service provider to another shitty telecom service provider.
Philippine consumers are being cheated by the current duopoly of telecom service providers in the country, due in large part to the government regulators (in particular, the National Telecommunications Commission or the NTC), who are either sleeping on the job or, worse, protecting the business interests of the telecom companies at the expense of the very consumers it’s supposed to protect.
A Monumental Swindle
The foregoing examples in the electricity, water and telecommunications sectors are analogous to other capital intensive sectors in the Philippines, such as expressways/tollways, mass transit systems and even PAL. Yes, I mean Philippine Airlines. Remember the days when PAL was like the private shuttle service of Marcos & Cronies and consistently gushing red ink at the expense of taxpayers?
The pattern of the government swindle has been quite consistent with respect to these important service sectors, previously the government’s responsibility but subsequently privatized.
Funding the Destruction of National Resources
If you think the staggering government swindle (i.e., essentially double taxation of taxpayers) vis-a-vis the privatization of key service sectors is bad, consider the fact that our taxes have also been funding Philippine government agencies like the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) under the Department of Agriculture (DA) that have permitted the rape, pillage and destruction of our forests and coastal/marine resources.
"Para kang kumuha ng martilyo at pinukpok sa sariling ulo." Translation. It's like grabbing a hammer and hitting yourself in the head.
The total land area of the Philippines is roughly 30 million hectares. In 1955, approximately 15 million hectares were covered in forests. Philippine forest land is under the ownership of the government and has been managed mainly for timber production. Usufructuary rights to timber resources have been awarded to the private sector through leasehold contracts called logging concessions or timber license agreements (“TLA”).
Poor monitoring and enforcement of such logging concessions, including kickback schemes between government officials and private concessionaires, led to the rape and pillage of such forests, thereby diminishing severely the forest resource base (and its contribution to the economy) of the Philippines and causing serious long-term environmental damage—including the destruction of aquifers, massive soil erosion and catastrophic flooding.
As of 2011, the Philippines was estimated to have less than 2 million hectares of forests left. Every year, during the summer season, it is increasingly difficult to tap into natural water sources and, during the rainy season, massive landslides occur in many denuded areas, burying whole towns and killing hundreds of individuals at a time. Downstream, prime agricultural lands are experiencing increasingly severe floods, destroying billions of pesos of crops and pushing our farmers deeper into poverty.
For more than half a century, the government, in cahoots with the political and military leadership, has systematically stolen a priceless resource from taxpayers and, in fact, is responsible for all the unnecessary loss of life, property and crops in connection with landslides and floods due to denudation.
Similarly, negligence and corruption in government has resulted in the destruction of our coral reefs, mangroves and sea-grass beds. According to The World Bank (Philippine Environmental Monitor 2005):
The World Bank reports states, “One of the consequences of this coastal degradation is the decline in fisheries catch-per-unit effort.” In other words, much more effort is required to catch much less fish today in the Philippines.
It’s one thing to pay taxes and derive no benefit. It’s another matter altogether to pay taxes for half a century and wake-up to find that your forests and coastal/marine resources are nearly all destroyed because the government agencies you have been funding to protect these resources have been making hay with the pillagers all these years.
Too Much Government/Taxation/Theft Everywhere
The very nature of taxation is theft. The particular application of taxation in the Philippines exacerbates the gravity of the theft. We can discuss at length many more examples of too much government and correspondingly too much taxation/theft in the Philippine government, ranging from the bloated police force (the increasing number of private subdivisions, industrial estates, high-rise residential and office condominiums--essentially private enclaves all over the country--that outsource and pay for their own private security services negates the need for a police force that de-facto becomes the body-guards and “wang-wang” escorts of government officials and cronies at the expense of taxpayers), the inutile military (let’s not even aspire for a military to defend against foreign aggressors; how about just crushing once and for all the local muslim extremists and the communists, which is apparently too much to ask), government banks (synonymous to behest loans--SOP during the Marcos dictatorship and now with Duterte-Crony Dennis Uy--at the expense of taxpayers; the phrase that comes to mind, “ginisa (ang taxpayer) sa sariling mantika”; there are enough private banks in the country; government should get out of banking), government media (numerous private media outlets today provide adequate public service; government media has once again become a propaganda tool of the government administration and now even China; "Wow China!" segment in Philippine government radio and China propaganda shows in Philippine government TV at the expense of Filipino taxpayers), government intelligence (the runaway intelligence budget of Duterte at an all time record-high in the entire history of the Philippines of P8.28 billion in 2020; pay for whatever Duterte wants, including prostitutes he cannot screw because of his erectile dysfunction and thousands of trolls to spread lies, misinformation, fake news, propaganda, shift the blame, change the conversation, etc. without any accountability to taxpayers), the fire department (suhol muna bago namin patayin yung sunog; in other words, bribe me first or else watch your property burn; by the way, you need to buy all of your fire protection equipment from me at twice the market price before I issue your building's fire permit), the postal service (if you want to lose a letter or package, be sure to send it through the ever reliable Philippine Postal Corporation) and, yes, even garbage collection (supplemental income for the incumbent mayor of highly urbanized cities in the country). And the list of unnecessary taxation and government waste and corruption goes on and on.
Conclusion
At every conceivable angle, the resounding and inescapable conclusion is: TAXATION IS THEFT. In particular, Philippine government taxation has been and continues to be, more than ever, an audacious self-perpetuating rip-off devoid of any democratic consent.
Albert Einstein is believed to have said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” If we, the taxpayers, do the same thing (pay taxes) over and over again, then surely we can expect the Philippine government to do the same thing (rob us, the taxpayers) over and over again at an ever increasing rate and intensity; that is, unless we are insanely hopeful that the Philippine government, out of the goodness of its heart, will miraculously evolve into a squeaky clean and efficient organization . . . in your wildest wet dreams!
As the saying goes, “Less talk, less mistakes.”
Consider “Less government, less corruption, less taxes.”
I prefer “Minimize government, minimize corruption, minimize taxes.”
Unfortunately, this is the stuff of revolutions--the bloodiest and most violent kind--because these bloated parasites entrenched within the bowels of the bureaucratic kleptocracy will not budge without a fight. At any cost, they will maintain the status quo and perpetually enslave the taxpayer, who happens to be you and me.
Beginning of Quote
My contention is that taxation is theft. Taxation is the extortion, by violence or threat of violence, of the funding necessary to run the government. I’d like to present a little evidence, in the form of definitions, as to the fact that taxes are indeed a form of extortion.
1 Tax, noun, a sum of money demanded by a government for its support (underscore mine)
Note: the word used in the “tax” definition is not “requested,” not “desired,” but “demanded.”
That reveals an interesting fact: taxes are not voluntary.
2 Extort, verb, to wrest or wring (money, information, etc.) from a person by violence,
intimidation, or abuse of authority; obtain by force, torture, threat, or the like
What happens when you say “no” to the tax man?
3 According to Wikipedia, “Tax evasion is a crime in almost all developed countries, and the guilty
party is liable to fines and/or imprisonment.” (underscore mine)
Key words: fines and imprisonment
4 Fine, noun, a sum of money imposed as a penalty for an offense or dereliction
5 Imprison, verb, to confine in or as if in a prison
What happens if you decide not to pay taxes?
6 They (the government) will take more money from you and/or throw you in a cage.
What happens if you decide not to pay the fine and/or refuse to go to prison?
7 They (the government) will use force to make you comply. (underscore mine)
To use force is to obtain by force is to extort; see 2 above
8 Hence, taxation is extortion. Taxation is theft.
End of Quote
Contrary to the above conclusion that taxation is theft, Adam Lee (an atheist writer and speaker living in New York City) writes:
“Libertarians say that taxation is like theft because it takes property from the unwilling. What they ignore, time and time again, is the crucial role of democratic consent. Taxes are not arbitrary impositions decreed by a faceless government. Rather, taxes are the dues we pay in exchange for membership in a society and access to all the services it offers.” (underscore mine).
The operative phrase that allegedly endows the government the authority to impose taxes is “the crucial role of democratic consent.” Yet, I am not aware of any instance in the brief democratic history of the Republic of the Philippines in which the single most important issue of taxation was ever put to a direct vote by the people.
In the first place, the Philippine revolution (which was voluntarily funded by Filipinos) around the end of the 19th century sought to overthrow the oppressive Spanish colonial government, including the oppressive taxes of the same. Unfortunately, our efforts then were usurped by the Americans, who took over the role of the Spanish colonial government.
When we were finally “granted” independence, the Philippine government took over the American colonial government structure, the formation of which Filipinos had virtually no say. Yes, there was a semblance (a mock-up, really) of a representative government during the transitional period prior to the establishment of the Republic, when the Philippines was a Commonwealth of the United States. However, the crucial matter of taxation was never vetted with the population at large, much less subjected to a democratic consent. Even if, hypothetically, taxation was subjected to some form of vetting then, Philippine democracy was at its infancy and our so-called representatives were simply inclined to plagiarize the Constitution of the United States and most everything that came along with it, including taxation—hardly a persuasive scenario of democratic consent.
Thus, we've established that taxation is theft by its very definition and we've also disabused the notion that there was ever any democratic consent to the imposition of taxes in the Philippines.
What follows is a cursory review of certain government services or so-called public services that have previously been the government’s responsibility and basis upon which to impose such fulsome taxes on its allegedly consenting constituents, the more recent privatization of most of these public services and what the Philippine government is actually delivering (or, more appropriately, NOT delivering) today, thereby exposing a glaring anomaly of double-dipping, over-charging and government parasitism--leading us full circle to our thesis that taxation, particularly in the Philippines, is highway robbery.
Electricity Services
In the past, electricity services in the Philippines were provided in the form of an integrated government monopoly (i.e., the National Power Corporation or NPC) in which generation, transmission and distribution were mostly controlled by the government. It is a capital intensive sector which has been and continues to be thoroughly mismanaged by the government (e.g., responsible for the graft-ridden, over-priced and unutilized Bataan Nuclear Power Plant) and culminated in daily and extended blackouts throughout the Philippines in the early 1990s. In the hands of the government, the electricity sector has been a major drain on taxes and a major contributor to the ballooning national debt. To illustrate, in 2001, NPC incurred over 20% of the total national debt (i.e., US$9.36 billion of the total government debt of US$46.31 billion).
NPC . . . You’re Fired!
The good news is, NPC has actually been fired--most of NPC at least. In 2001, the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of the Philippines (EPIRA) became law, which resulted in the privatization of most of the assets of NPC and the deregulation of the power sector. This means that taxpayers are no longer required to fund most of NPC. A major tax burden had been plugged by EPIRA about twenty (20) years ago, yet our taxes have NOT been reduced.
In addition to this glaring anomaly in taxation, EPIRA was practically drafted by the most influential vested interest in the Philippine power sector, the Lopez Group, which had by then recovered Manila Electric Company (MERALCO) from the government. EPIRA allowed cross-ownership between power generation and power distribution, permitting the Lopez Group to self-deal by way of selling electricity from subsidiary power generation facilities to a subsidiary power distributor at the expense of the consumer. Like all profit-oriented enterprises, the Lopez Group acted to protect its business interest. Also true to its lazy, incompetent and corrupt form, the government dropped the ball and lost a major opportunity to establish a truly competitive electricity market that would benefit consumers.
To make matters worse, when the Lopez Group lost control of MERALCO and the legislature could finally plug the said cross-ownership loophole in EPIRA, the lawmakers sat idle while another business group (the Suharto-Crony Salim Group of Indonesia through the money laundering enterprise of Manny Pangilinan) took control of MERALCO and set-up their own power generation enterprise to continue self-dealing at the expense of consumers. Hence, the government lost another major opportunity to establish a truly competitive electricity market. In the absence of true competition in the power generation sector, it is no wonder the electricity rates in the Philippines are among the highest in Asia.
To wit, the government ran our entire power utility infrastructure into the ground, contributed substantially to the hemorrhaging national debt, brought in the private power sector to fix its problems (albeit at a premium price to consumers), and sat idly while vested interests promulgated legislation and policies that limit true competition in power generation at the expense of consumers.
It takes several decades to mess-up such a critical sector in an economy and the government did just that with the Philippine power sector over the past 60 years and counting.
Government should be out of everything in the power sector except in regulation. Exponentially LESS taxes (as there should be no more taxes for power-related infrastructure) should be invested in improving the skills, competence and integrity of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), which remains a weak and reactionary political lapdog at its current stage of evolution.
Fire the Residual NPC (NPC-SPUG and RECs)
What is left of NPC is the Small Power Utility Group or SPUG, which is mandated to supply electricity to far flung islands / areas and highly subsidized by our taxes and electricity rates. Similarly, the 121 rural electric cooperatives or RECs (as of July 2018), under the oversight of the National Electrification Administration (NEA), which are mandated to distribute electricity in rural areas and also highly subsidized by our taxes and electricity rates, remain firmly entrenched. In essence, while most of NPC had been fired under the EPIRA, the “residual” SPUG and RECs (Residual NPC) continue to operate like 121 mini-NPCs all over the Philippines, providing mostly substandard services to its rural customers while surreptitiously squandering taxpayer and consumer subsidies.
The subsidy in the form of the Universal Charge for Missionary Electrification (UC-ME) shouldered by Filipino consumers for electricity services rendered in off-grid areas is expected to balloon to P28.373 billion by the end of 2021. “Based on the current policy of uniform subsidy per kilowatt-hour of electricity consumption in off-grid areas, the total annual UC-ME requirements is estimated to increase from the 2011 level of P7.784 billion to P28.373 billion by end of 2021,” said the Department of Energy (DOE) in a notice. This translates to an increase in consumer subsidies of 365% over a period of 11 years, which does not even include the subsidies from our taxes. Clearly, this bottomless pit of subsidies in the electricity sector needs to be plugged.
In an article published by the Business Mirror dated July 8, 2018, 87 (out of 121) RECs get NEA’s “AAA” grade. The AAA rating is the highest score given by the NEA to RECs that indicates the power distributors’ full compliance on 4 parameters; namely, financial, institutional, technical and reportorial requirements.
The only reason to grade these RECs is to determine if they are attractive enough to be privatized and cut-off from any form of taxpayer and/or consumer subsidy. Assuming the above grading system of NEA is credible, then well done. Now it’s time to privatize these “AAA” rated RECs and their respective SPUG generating assets--but NOT to the same entities to prevent self-dealing between generation and distribution. This would also be an opportune time to plug the self-dealing loophole in EPIRA and finally disallow any cross-ownership between power generation and power distribution to establish a level playing field in power generation.
If these “AAA” rated RECs are truly viable entities, then the private sector would acquire them (and the SPUG generating assets selling power to RECs) and the government should remove all subsidies associated with these privatized assets that will result in the privatized SPUG generating assets and privatized RECs to reflect the true cost of electricity to consumers under a rational and transparent regulatory regime. Thereafter, the NEA should focus on shaping up the remaining 34 RECs to achieve the AAA rating--for subsequent privatization and elimination of subsidies, which should result in the complete dissolution of the Residual NPC and less taxes.
The good news is, the DOE is actually planning to phase out consumer subsidies for off-grid areas over a period of 2 to 5 years, depending on the purchasing power of the consumers in a particular off-grid area. The phase out of consumer subsidies would be 50% each year for “rich areas” and 20% each year for poorer areas.
The bad news is, the DOE plans to have the government (i.e., taxpayers) assume the cost of the phased out consumer subsidies. Such is the convoluted half-assed policies of our government that have little regard for its already overburdened taxpayers. It’s one step forward and ten steps back.
The DOE claims it wants to encourage the private sector to develop and deploy microgrids in underserved areas of the country. Yet, it persists in keeping SPUG and RECs in the hands of the government, transferring the burden of subsidy from consumers to the taxpayers, thereby eliminating virtually any accountability on the administration of these subsidies by the government.
Indeed, ten steps in the wrong direction. It looks, sounds and feels like the electricity sector’s version of the Oil Price Stabilization Fund or the OPSF prior to the deregulation of the oil industry in the Philippines. It’s the Cro-Magnon’s regulatory black box, devoid of any logic and transparency. It was perfected suited for Philippine politicians, who manipulated and abused the OPSF to derive “pogi points” from the stupid masses at the expense of the few taxpayers--and has long been abolished by the deregulation of the oil industry in the country. Unfortunately, the very same concept is being contemplated by the DOE with respect to the Residual NPC, which will precisely prevent private enterprises from pursuing microgrids and supplying electricity to the least developed areas in the country.
Once and for all, get rid of the Residual NPC. The privatization of SPUG and RECs AND the elimination of all subsidies (i.e., consumer and taxpayer subsidies) to these privatized entities will reflect the true cost of power generation and distribution to consumers, thereby attracting private enterprises to pursue microgrids in underserved areas of the country--and provide relief to taxpayers.
Fire PSALM
Another Philippine Government Owned and Controlled Corporation (GOCC) in the power sector that has spun out of control and has become (surprise, surprise) another tax burden is the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation or PSALM, a relatively new government entity established under EPIRA to privatize NPC, “program” NPC’s remaining debt and facilitate a competitive and consumer-friendly electricity market. It has had over 18 years (as of June 2019) to fulfill its mandate and, like most government agencies, has evolved into another useless, salary-sucking, self-perpetuating bureaucratic liability--read PSALM screws electricity consumer. PSALM was not meant to exist for very long and it has clearly outlived its usefulness. PSALM should conclude its affairs immediately, close shop as planned and provide relief to taxpayers.
NGCP
EPIRA included the privatization of the transmission assets of NPC, which is now owned and operated by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP)--a joint venture between the family of Henry Sy and the National Grid of China.
In layman’s terms, the NGCP is like the sole and exclusive superhighway that permits electrons to travel through its transmission lines (like vehicles on an expressway) from the source of electricity (power plants) to distributors of electricity (foremost of which is MERALCO in the Greater Metropolitan Manila Area and other private utilities and RECs throughout the country) in exchange for a tolling fee, which is regulated by the government--in particular, the Energy Regulatory Commission or the ERC--and ultimately paid for by the consumer.
In short, the government should no longer be taxing for transmission assets and services, which are now paid for by consumers by way of tolling fees to the NGCP--a private entity regulated by the ERC. The question is, where is the reduction in our taxes?
In addition to this anomaly in taxation, the Philippine government exhibited a total lapse in judgement when it awarded the ownership, operation and franchise of the entire electricity transmission assets of the country to a joint venture essentially controlled by the National Grid of China--essentially China, which has now invaded our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the West Philippine Sea.
One could argue that the NGCP is a 60/40 JV between the family of Henry Sy and the National Grid of China, respectively, and therefore is controlled by a Filipino entity in compliance with the Philippine Constitution. However, even the business conglomerate of Henry Sy never owned nor operated a national transmission grid prior to the NGCP and thus is highly dependent on the expertise of the National Grid of China. So, think again, who is really in control of the NGCP?
As Senator Risa Hontiveros said in a privileged speech in December 2019, “Kasinungalingan ang pagsabing ‘advisory role’ lang ang Tsina. China is in charge of the nuts and bolts of our country’s power grid, with full control of operations and maintenance.”
When push comes to shove, Emperor Xi Jinping can literally give the order to “turn off” the lights in the Philippines and we won’t be able to do anything about it. Far more imperative and strategic than the sarswela of Duterte and ABS-CBN (i.e., a long-standing vendetta between the Marcos family and the Lopez family being imposed by an errand boy) is the immediate review of the legislative franchise granted to the NGCP and the need to either dilute or eliminate altogether the forty percent (40%) ownership of the National Grid of China--unless China abandons our EEZ in the West Philippine Sea. Given how much China owes the Philippines today--see US$137.5 billion Philippine Invoice to China--the shares of the National Grid of China in the NGCP could easily be offset by the government from our massive receivables from China.
Today (20 years after EPIRA), the Filipino consumer is still paying uber-exhorbitant prices for electricity due to the ultra-corrupt and grossly incompetent machinations of government over the past 60 years up to the present time. The main benefit of EPIRA (at least on paper) is NO MORE TAXES for major infrastructure projects in the power sector (a major relief in taxes, theoretically) as these projects fall squarely in the hands of the private sector, which, in turn, is exacting its pound of flesh from the electricity consumer. So be it but, in light of the substantially privatized and deregulated electricity sector, the same consumers should be relieved of paying taxes, which has NOT happened.
The government is no longer providing these vital services in the electricity sector. The government is no longer spending on this highly capital intensive sector. Yet, our taxes have NOT been reduced. Further, whatever residual is left in the public sector should also be completely privatized, devoid of any subsidies whatsoever (i.e., fire NPC-SPUG, RECs and PSALM), and provide relief to taxpayers.
The point is, electricity services, previously in the domain of the public sector and thus a major drain on our taxes, have already shifted into the hands of the private sector (i.e., privatization of most of NPC assets, deregulation of the electricity market and the reduction of subsidies thereof). The shift to the private sector should continue by way of privatizing RECs and SPUG generating assets, and winding down PSALM as originally mandated, thereby reducing further (if not eliminate altogether) the substantial taxes still allocated to subsidize the segments of the electricity sector that remain in the hands of an inefficient, incompetent and corrupt government bureaucracy. Yet, why is the government taxing us even more intensely today, even as we pay some of the highest electricity rates in the region? Where has all the tax relief gone with respect to the initial privatization of NPC and the deregulation of the electricity sector? When will the government finally complete the privatization (and eliminate subsidies) of the Residual NPC, dissolve PSALM and provide some relief to taxpayers?
Water Services
Like electricity services, water services in the Philippines were previously a government monopoly. The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) was responsible for the supply, transmission and distribution of water to customers in Metro Manila--although it was able to provide piss-poor services to only two-thirds of Metro Manila. It is also a capital intensive sector that was thoroughly mismanaged by the government and culminated in one of the highest percentages of non-revenue water among comparable institutions in the world.
According to the Asian Development Bank, the amount of non-revenue water (NRW) (water supplied but not billable due to leakage and illegal connections) was more than 60 percent. This was much higher than in Seoul (35 percent), Kuala Lumpur (36 percent) and Bangkok (38 percent), and only comparable to Jakarta. Tariffs were low and MWSS was dependent on government subsidies (i.e., taxpayers). In the 1990s, MWSS was saddled with over US$1 billion in debts owed to the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, among other lenders. It was another major drain on taxes and a major contributor to the ballooning national debt.
In 1997, the MWSS was successfully privatized with Maynilad winning the concession for the western zone of Metro Manila while Manila Water Co. won the concession for the east. Both firms absorbed the debts of MWSS and collectively invested close to P100 billion to provide water and sewerage connections. The original Maynilad went bankrupt in 2003 but was eventually taken over by a new investor in 2007. Today, 96% of Metro Manila is interconnected via underground pipes.
These days, water flows freely in our taps albeit with occasional interruptions. It is worlds away from the conditions we suffered in the 1990s. It is another example that the private sector is infinitely more competent in delivering services than the government.
Notwithstanding the tirades of Digong against the water concessionaires for winning their cases against the Philippine Government in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Singapore (Maynilad won their case in 2018, where the government was urged to pay the company P3.4 billion. Manila Water recently got a favorable ruling in November 2019, assuring the company of P7.4 billion from the Philippine government.), the more important question is, if the private water concessionaires are “milking” the Filipino consumer by charging fulsome water rates (i.e., no more subsidies from the government), why has there been no relief to the taxpayer for water services that are no longer in the hands of the government? Hence, it would appear that the real culprit “milking” the Filipino is none other than the government itself.
At least, we are getting much better water services from the private sector (albeit at a premium price) compared to the chronic water crisis in the days of the inept and graft-ridden MWSS. Indeed, if the MWSS, which has evolved into a government regulator in the water sector, was remotely competent, the water concessionaires would have lost their arbitration cases against the government. So I say to the government and MWSS, regulate the water concessionaires and protect the Filipino consumer. That’s what you’re paid to do but give us back the tax relief corresponding to the privatization of MWSS.
Telecommunications
The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) was established on November 28, 1928 by way of legislation known as Act No. 3436. This resulted in the merger of four (4) telephone companies under the operations of an American telephone company, GTE, thereby creating a private monopoly to provide telephone services throughout the entire Philippines.
By the 1930s, PLDT had an expansive fixed-line network and for the first time linked the Philippines to the outside world via radiotelephone services, connecting the Philippines to the United States and other parts of the world.
Telephone service in the Philippines was interrupted due to World War II. At the end of the war, the Philippines' communications infrastructure was in ruins. U.S. military authorities eventually handed over the remains of the communications infrastructure to PLDT in 1947, and with the help of massive U.S. aid to the Philippines during the 1940s and 1950s, PLDT recovered so quickly that its telephone subscribers outpaced that of pre-war levels by 1953.
Fast-forward to the Marcos dictatorship. On December 20, 1967, backed by the Marcos regime, a group of Filipino businessmen led by Ramon Cojuangco (a Marcos crony) took control of PLDT after buying its shares from GTE. The press release of the new owners was to bring reliable telephone services to the rural areas. However, PLDT actually stagnated and eventually became one of the many graft-ridden, thoroughly mismanaged and highly subsidized Philippine GOCCs that was typical of the era of Marcos crony capitalism.
In the 1970s, PLDT was nationalized. In 1981, in compliance with the convoluted policies of the Marcos dictatorship, PLDT purchased substantially all of the assets and liabilities of Republic Telephone Company, another failing GOCC that should not have existed in the first place.
Under this new government monopoly, service expansion was severely curtailed or practically nonexistent. In the Martial Law years, people would apply for phone service only to wait for years and years on end behind an impossibly long application backlog. It was not unheard of for people and small businesses back then to barter for a single telephone line in the black market for tens of thousands of pesos. This is in spite of the fact that during the years it was nationalized (from 1970 to 1986), PLDT was NOT paying corporate income taxes, which was essentially a subsidy to a corrupted entity that had become a milking cow of Marcos.
The incumbent Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew referred to the situation when visiting the Philippines during the term of President Fidel V. Ramos. He said, albeit in jest, “In the Philippines, 95% of the population has no telephone, while the remaining 5% are waiting for that dial tone.”
After Marcos was overthrown in 1986, PLDT was re-privatized, thereby relieving taxpayers (theoretically) the burden of subsidizing a substandard and corrupt government-owned telecom monopoly. Yet, taxpayers never derived any relief from the privatization of PLDT.
By 1995, with the passage of the Telecommunications Act and the subsequent deregulation of the Philippine telecommunications industry, PLDT had been de-monopolized and competition followed. However, given the inherently shallow market in the Philippines, most of the new aspiring entities either fell by the wayside or were acquired by dominant players, which the market has whittled down to the current duopoly of PLDT (acquired / controlled by the Suharto-Crony Salim Group of Indonesia through the money laundering enterprise of Manny Pangilinan) and Globe of Ayala. A third telecom player is being pushed by Duterte-Crony Dennis Uy with some Chinese State-Owned Telecom that will most assuredly compromise the national security of the Philippines.
Today, telecommunication services in the Philippines, which include landline phone connections, mobile phone connections, wired and wireless internet connections, cloud services, among other things, may be characterized as third-world services at first-world billing rates. Compare your actual internet connection speed versus the advertised internet connection speed you’re paying for and you’ll understand. It’s common knowledge among consumers, who have no other recourse than to switch from one shitty telecom service provider to another shitty telecom service provider.
Philippine consumers are being cheated by the current duopoly of telecom service providers in the country, due in large part to the government regulators (in particular, the National Telecommunications Commission or the NTC), who are either sleeping on the job or, worse, protecting the business interests of the telecom companies at the expense of the very consumers it’s supposed to protect.
A Monumental Swindle
The foregoing examples in the electricity, water and telecommunications sectors are analogous to other capital intensive sectors in the Philippines, such as expressways/tollways, mass transit systems and even PAL. Yes, I mean Philippine Airlines. Remember the days when PAL was like the private shuttle service of Marcos & Cronies and consistently gushing red ink at the expense of taxpayers?
The pattern of the government swindle has been quite consistent with respect to these important service sectors, previously the government’s responsibility but subsequently privatized.
- Government used to provide the public service or some mediocre semblance of it (e.g., electricity, water, telecommunications, North and South Expressway, LRT, PAL), which required massive capital and taxation.
- Government privatizes the public service, which no longer requires taxation. However, the government does NOT reduce taxes but actually increases and intensifies tax collection.
- Private sector services improve on past public services (now private enterprises) but overcharge consumers due to inadequate and corrupt government regulatory agencies.
Hence, the taxes imposed by the government for past public services that have been privatized is nothing short of highway robbery. Adding insult to injury, the same thieving / taxing government screws-up in performing its duties, in spite of its substantially diminished role as regulators of these private enterprises. What kind of a raw deal is that for taxpayers and consumers in the Philippines?
Funding the Destruction of National Resources
If you think the staggering government swindle (i.e., essentially double taxation of taxpayers) vis-a-vis the privatization of key service sectors is bad, consider the fact that our taxes have also been funding Philippine government agencies like the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) under the Department of Agriculture (DA) that have permitted the rape, pillage and destruction of our forests and coastal/marine resources.
"Para kang kumuha ng martilyo at pinukpok sa sariling ulo." Translation. It's like grabbing a hammer and hitting yourself in the head.
The total land area of the Philippines is roughly 30 million hectares. In 1955, approximately 15 million hectares were covered in forests. Philippine forest land is under the ownership of the government and has been managed mainly for timber production. Usufructuary rights to timber resources have been awarded to the private sector through leasehold contracts called logging concessions or timber license agreements (“TLA”).
Poor monitoring and enforcement of such logging concessions, including kickback schemes between government officials and private concessionaires, led to the rape and pillage of such forests, thereby diminishing severely the forest resource base (and its contribution to the economy) of the Philippines and causing serious long-term environmental damage—including the destruction of aquifers, massive soil erosion and catastrophic flooding.
As of 2011, the Philippines was estimated to have less than 2 million hectares of forests left. Every year, during the summer season, it is increasingly difficult to tap into natural water sources and, during the rainy season, massive landslides occur in many denuded areas, burying whole towns and killing hundreds of individuals at a time. Downstream, prime agricultural lands are experiencing increasingly severe floods, destroying billions of pesos of crops and pushing our farmers deeper into poverty.
For more than half a century, the government, in cahoots with the political and military leadership, has systematically stolen a priceless resource from taxpayers and, in fact, is responsible for all the unnecessary loss of life, property and crops in connection with landslides and floods due to denudation.
Similarly, negligence and corruption in government has resulted in the destruction of our coral reefs, mangroves and sea-grass beds. According to The World Bank (Philippine Environmental Monitor 2005):
- Only 4 to 5 percent of coral reefs in the Philippines are in excellent condition;
- More than 70 percent of the mangrove forests have been converted to aquaculture, logged or reclaimed for other uses; and
- Half of all sea-grass beds have either been lost or are severely degraded.
The World Bank reports states, “One of the consequences of this coastal degradation is the decline in fisheries catch-per-unit effort.” In other words, much more effort is required to catch much less fish today in the Philippines.
It’s one thing to pay taxes and derive no benefit. It’s another matter altogether to pay taxes for half a century and wake-up to find that your forests and coastal/marine resources are nearly all destroyed because the government agencies you have been funding to protect these resources have been making hay with the pillagers all these years.
Too Much Government/Taxation/Theft Everywhere
The very nature of taxation is theft. The particular application of taxation in the Philippines exacerbates the gravity of the theft. We can discuss at length many more examples of too much government and correspondingly too much taxation/theft in the Philippine government, ranging from the bloated police force (the increasing number of private subdivisions, industrial estates, high-rise residential and office condominiums--essentially private enclaves all over the country--that outsource and pay for their own private security services negates the need for a police force that de-facto becomes the body-guards and “wang-wang” escorts of government officials and cronies at the expense of taxpayers), the inutile military (let’s not even aspire for a military to defend against foreign aggressors; how about just crushing once and for all the local muslim extremists and the communists, which is apparently too much to ask), government banks (synonymous to behest loans--SOP during the Marcos dictatorship and now with Duterte-Crony Dennis Uy--at the expense of taxpayers; the phrase that comes to mind, “ginisa (ang taxpayer) sa sariling mantika”; there are enough private banks in the country; government should get out of banking), government media (numerous private media outlets today provide adequate public service; government media has once again become a propaganda tool of the government administration and now even China; "Wow China!" segment in Philippine government radio and China propaganda shows in Philippine government TV at the expense of Filipino taxpayers), government intelligence (the runaway intelligence budget of Duterte at an all time record-high in the entire history of the Philippines of P8.28 billion in 2020; pay for whatever Duterte wants, including prostitutes he cannot screw because of his erectile dysfunction and thousands of trolls to spread lies, misinformation, fake news, propaganda, shift the blame, change the conversation, etc. without any accountability to taxpayers), the fire department (suhol muna bago namin patayin yung sunog; in other words, bribe me first or else watch your property burn; by the way, you need to buy all of your fire protection equipment from me at twice the market price before I issue your building's fire permit), the postal service (if you want to lose a letter or package, be sure to send it through the ever reliable Philippine Postal Corporation) and, yes, even garbage collection (supplemental income for the incumbent mayor of highly urbanized cities in the country). And the list of unnecessary taxation and government waste and corruption goes on and on.
Conclusion
At every conceivable angle, the resounding and inescapable conclusion is: TAXATION IS THEFT. In particular, Philippine government taxation has been and continues to be, more than ever, an audacious self-perpetuating rip-off devoid of any democratic consent.
Albert Einstein is believed to have said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” If we, the taxpayers, do the same thing (pay taxes) over and over again, then surely we can expect the Philippine government to do the same thing (rob us, the taxpayers) over and over again at an ever increasing rate and intensity; that is, unless we are insanely hopeful that the Philippine government, out of the goodness of its heart, will miraculously evolve into a squeaky clean and efficient organization . . . in your wildest wet dreams!
As the saying goes, “Less talk, less mistakes.”
Consider “Less government, less corruption, less taxes.”
I prefer “Minimize government, minimize corruption, minimize taxes.”
Unfortunately, this is the stuff of revolutions--the bloodiest and most violent kind--because these bloated parasites entrenched within the bowels of the bureaucratic kleptocracy will not budge without a fight. At any cost, they will maintain the status quo and perpetually enslave the taxpayer, who happens to be you and me.
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