Autonomy consultations to go on

BAGUIO CITY, March 09 – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan said autonomy grassroots consultations is the responsibility of everyone who understands the real essence of self-governance and that it should not be made an excuse to derail the passage of the enabling law in Congress.

“House Bill 5595 which is authored by five Cordillera lawmakers and had hurdled the committee level in the House of Representatives should serve as the basis of grassroots consultations to be conducted in the different parts of the region by responsible local officials and interest groups. Its passage into law should not be derailed by the interest of a few who are obviously against autonomy because of patriarchal concerns,” he stressed, adding that results of consultations could be incorporated in the measure anytime in order to satisfy the wishes of concerned sectors.

According to him, the contents of HB 5595 were culled from the inputs of a series of provincial, city and municipal consultations done region-wide by responsible and dedicated local officials and volunteers who painstakingly participated in numerous sessions conducted by the drafting committee to come out with a consolidated version acceptable to almost all sectors.

Domogan cited the bill will serve as a basis of the consultations to be conducted in the different provinces, municipalities and barangays and the results will also serve as the basis on what are the amendments to be introduced in order to help satisfy the clamor of the greater majority of Cordillerans for autonomy.

The chairman of the Third Autonomy Drafting Committee (TADC) said it is unfair for some officials to allege that there was no proper consultations done before the finalizing the contents of the pending bill considering that there were sufficient consultations done as shown by the records of the TADC and the Regional Development Council (RDC).

“Instead of insisting on our parochial interests, let us continue performing our duties to consult our people on autonomy and not to sabotage our efforts to achieve regional autonomy,” he said, citing active involvement and participation should be mandatory among local officials to avoid sowing confusion among people that will affect the renewed quest for self-governance.

Earlier, the House committee on local governments approved at the committee level HB 5595 which seeks to create the Cordillera Autonomous Region pursuant to the provision of the 1987 Constitution that mandates the creation of autonomous regions in the Cordillera and in Muslim Mindanao.

“If some provinces like Mountain Province, Kalinga, Ifugao and Baguio City were able to conduct consultations relative to the renewed quest for regional autonomy, why can’t other provinces do the same so that their conscience will be clear that they have done their part to listen to the plight of their constituents,” Domogan said, citing that achieving autonomy will not benefit the present generation but instead will benefit of “our children and our children’s children.”

Domogan challenged concerned sectors to emulate the initiatives undertaken by the private sector to do their own consultation with their respective sectors and come out with valid issues and concerns that must be addressed by the autonomy bill.

In a related development, some expressed fear of the possible regionwide rejection of the third attempt to establish an autonomous region for the Cordillera is feared following the recent approval of the third autonomy draft that was approved in toto in “no less than five minutes” by the committee on local government in congress last month.

This recent development caused Benguet leaders led by Rep. Ronald M. Cosalan and Governor Nestor B. Fongwan, together with members of the provincial board, municipal mayors and other concerned citizens to meet last week and strategize massive grassroots consultations to avert possible rejection.

Cosalan said he has written the committee in congress to reconsider its move saying “the committee can not just simply give five minutes to a bill that will affect the future life of hundreds of thousands of Cordillerans.”

A meeting was scheduled in congress where amendments to HB 5595, the Cordillera Autonomy Act, may be inserted by Cosalan and Abra Rep. Joy Bernos before plenary discussions and final approval on the floor.

“Rep. Bernos and I stressed that we are not against autonomy or against the bill but we want to introduce amendments before any plenary discussion,” Cosalan added.

The Benguet Capitol meeting chaired by Vice Governor Crescencio C. Pacalso was attended by autonomy advocates Dr. Gil Bautista, co-chair of the Cordillera Regional Development Council (RDC), and former Vice Governor Edna C. Tabanda, RDC private sector representative.

Fongwan said he was thinking all along that the bill will be discussed in the committee level but was also surprised why it was approved in toto.

“Just like Congressman Cosalan, I also fear that the bill might be rejected again that is why I agree with him that we should put provisions advantageous to Benguet, consult the grassroots and not only a few, before it is put to a plebiscite,” Fongwan said.

For the provincial board members, they expressed the common observation that two past plebiscites overwhelmingly rejected the autonomy bills simply because the people have not read the provisions.

Some Benguet provincial and municipal officials in the meeting also gave a parallel personal observation that based on their limited survey, if no widespread public consultation will be conducted, the bill will be rejected in Baguio City, Mtn. Province, Abra, and even in Kalinga.

Asked about what would happen to the provinces that would not opt to join an autonomous region, Cosalan said, Section 163b that says the provinces that will vote unfavorably in the plebiscite will revert back to their mother regions, “serves as a threat to Cordillerans more than a uniting force.”

“I will introduce an amendment to that provision so that those who will not opt for autonomy can constitute a regular region. If that provision can not be amended, I will file another bill to that effect to give a choice to Cordillerans,” Cosalan explained.

On the other hand, RDC co-chair Dr. Bautista who agreed that more grassroots consultations should be conducted said, the RDC chose regional autonomy as the more positive move that would boost development in the region because the Cordillera always received the smallest budget share from the national government.

“Budget allocation for the regions was always based on population. In addition, our priorities in the region were not being followed (by the national government),” Bautista informed the body, explaining further that development would be faster in a regional autonomous set up.

He clarified that the budgetary provision for a P10 billion annual budget for the first five years and P5 billion annual budget allocation for the next five years were “not picked out of the blue.”

Cosalan meanwhile said, other regions would be affected and would surely complain if a big chunk of money will be cut from the national budget

But Bautista explained, “these are the same amounts allocated to the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). If Mindanao deserves P10billion annually from the national government, why don’t we deserve it?” **By Dexter See and March Fianza

Local election results

Partial unofficial election results can be viewed here for those who are interested to know who will likely to win in the gubernatorial race in Kalinga.

In the presidential and vice presidential race, Erap and Binay respectively bested their opponents in this province.

It is very disappointing that huge sum of money and other goodies were distributed by the politicians all over the place.

Moral lessons in arithmetic

Is our government morally corrupt? I do not think so; and it is untenable perhaps for anyone to feel it really is. Judgement prudence dictates a dichotomy of the institution itself and those individuals within it. Our government institution is standing on solid grounds formed by perdurable sound political theories. Only that some, surely not all, of those individuals within it are morally bankrupt. It is the individual either who has a sense of moral mandate to preserve the integrity of the institution or has the audacity to tarnish the sanctity of the institution by which he works for his living.

Over the past weeks we heard the news. We heard scandals involving overpricing of government contracts or projects; we saw the left-leaning groups, hooligans or mobs marching along the main thoroughfares of Metro Manila, insensitive always as they are causing inconveniences to the motorists. We heard calls for moral revolution from head honchos, especially politicos - who by the way let their sons, daughters, and kins shrewdly participate in government biddings or secure government contracts notwithstanding of the prohibitive provision of law. This is a sham call for moral reformation. Finally, we heard the bomb blasts in Glorieta 2 and Batasan Pambansa; the seat of one of the most important elements of our government was not spared from shenanigans.

I am quoting this email I received last Friday, November 23, 2007. I am not sure if this is a joke or a serious thing. Whether it is meant to traduce certain politicos or give credit to a putatively moral person turned politician. The title is “A Lesson in Arithmetic”.

I'm 100% sure this income disparity is replicated in all the provinces of the Philippines.

If we had more Ed Panlilios in our government, we would be just like Singapore in a short time. Read on......

We hope we are witnessing what will be a sustained revolution in good governance in the Province of Pampanga , under its newly elected governor, Fr. Ed Panlilio.

According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer of August 26, only one month after Fr. Panlilio assumed his gubernatorial duties, the province's income from the quarrying of volcanic ash from Mount Pinatubo had reached P29.4 million. (Haulers pay a fee of P300 per truck of volcanic ash that they haul from the quarry.)

By contrast, during his predecessor Mark Lapid's term as governor, the province's income from the same quarrying operations amount ed to only P29 million a year.

This gaping variation in official incomes from the same activity should inspire a new set of textbooks in Arithmetic, especially for the school children of Pampanga.

There is nothing like local color and local situations to cultivate comprehension in young minds.

Sample problems: If Fr. Ed's provincial government can collect P29.4 million in 26 days (we assume no quarrying on Sundays), how much does it collect in one day?

Answer: An average of P1.130 million.

If Fr. Ed's provincial government collects an average of P1.130 million a day from quarrying operations, how much can it collect in one year of 313 days (365 days less 52 Sundays)?

Answer: P353, 690,000, or P354 million.

If Fr. Ed's provincial government can collect P354 million a year, and Mark Lapid's provincial government collected only P29 million a year, what is the difference in their official yearly collections?

Answer: P325 million a year.

If Mark Lapid was governor for four years and his provincial government's annual collections from quarrying amounted to an average of P29 million, how much did his provincial govt. officially collect in four years?

Answer: P116 million.

If Fr. Ed manages to remain as provincial governor for four years, and his provincial government's annual collection from quarrying were to average P354 million, how much will his provincial government collect in four years?

Answer: P1.416 billion.

What is the difference between P1.416 billion and P116 million?

Answer: P1.3 billion.

Where did this P1.3 billion go? Answer: Only God and the Lapids know. ('Lapids' is in plural because Mark, as a second generation political dynast, succeeded his own father, now Sen. Lito Lapid. We don't know how much Lito's provincial government officially collected from quarrying operations during his watch. Should be a good investigative project for media.)

If Gawad Kalinga spends an average of P75,000 per low cost house, how many low-cost houses can P1.3 billion build?

Answer: 17,333 low-cost houses.

If the average Pampanga family were to consist of five persons (father, mother, three children), how many people would be benefited by 17,333 low-cost houses?

Answer: 86,665 persons.

End of Arithmetic lesson.

Fr. Ed is to be congratulated for setting a high benchmark for collection from quarrying operations against which his predecessors have a moral obligation to explain why their collections were so low, and against which future governors will be judged by the people of Pampanga.

Volcanic ash, by the way, is a superior building material. Many of the buildings, aqueducts & monuments of the Roman Empire that have survived for almost 2,000 years are known to have been built with volcanic ash, quarried from the environs of Mount Vesuvius after it erupted in 79 AD.

We don't expect Fr. Ed's moral victory in Pampanga to be remembered for the next 2,000 yrs.

We would be happy with five, ten or 20 years, enough, we hope, to spawn a moral-revolution- by- example to save the Filipinos from their worst enemies – themselves.

GOOD LUCK Philippines !

“Therefore, the primary cause of poverty is not overpopulation of the Phil! It's because our county is overpopulated with corrupt officials.”(emphasis mine)

This lesson is formulated with impressive bravado. And yeah it maybe a lesson that does not draggily contain a dabbling joke. Neither do we simply dismiss it as mere trivial innuendos.

I might say it is a serious demonstration of truth. And the truth hurts indeed! Isn't it?

Just two weeks ago, according to an insider, a team from the Kalinga Provincial Government, mostly from the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office and other officials, visited Pampanga to observe and learn the quarry operations there. We just hope that the educational trip would not be just another waste of people's money. And by the way in Kalinga there are projects that just became white elephants and building constructions implemented by the provincial government that remain unfinished despite the fact that about tens of millions of people's money were already spent.