Lim, Loi Estrada, Magsaysay say goodbye to Senate

By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 05:53pm (Mla time) 06/05/2007

 

MANILA, Philippines — Senators Ramon Magsaysay Jr., Luisa “Loi” Estrada, and Alfredo Lim said their goodbyes to the Senate on Tuesday.

 

After recounting her six years in the chamber and the continuing attacks against her husband, deposed president Joseph Estrada, Estrada took off from Senator Ralph Recto’s “Honey I’m home” valedictory and said, “Erap [the former leader’s nickname], here I come.”

 

 

 

Recto, who acknowledged that he had lost his reelection bid, delivered his valedictory on Monday, the first of the last three plenary days of the 13th Congress.

 

 

 

Lim’s farewell speech was the shortest and was mainly addressed to wrongdoers, presumably in Manila, where he won as mayor.

 

 

 

“Cooperate or evaporate because I’m home, running after you,” Lim, a former police officer and Manila mayor who earned the nickname “Dirty Harry” for his tough stance and alleged propensity for taking shortcuts in battling crime, said.

 

 

 

Magsaysay’s valedictory was the most sober.

 

 

 

After thanking his colleagues and his staff during his 12 years in the Senate, and his family and friends for supporting him, he urged the 14th Congress to respond to the challenges of the times.

 

The son and namesake of a well-loved former president said the Senate must continue fighting corruption and “the systematic looting of the treasury” or face the prospect of becoming the “laughingstock of the global community” and losing Filipino professionals to foreign lands.

DAR affirms Task Fore Mapalad right to 5 hectares

Agency’s Negros officials could be sacked

By Carla Gomez
Inquirer
Last updated 07:00pm (Mla time) 06/05/2007

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman condemned on Tuesday the killing and wounding of farmers in Hacienda Velez-Malaga in La Castellana town, Negros Occidental and said the victims and their companions had all the right to enter the five-hectare plot where they were shot Monday.

 

Pangandaman said he had already awarded the property to the beneficiaries, members of Task Force Mapalad (TFM), when he came to the province on March 22.

 

“The TFM members had the right to enter the five hectares since they had already been installed there. And the guards’ shooting at them is a criminal act,” Pangandaman said.

 

He promised that the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) would assist the families of the victims in filing criminal charges against the plantation guards who allegedly fired at them.

 

The security guards fired on the farmers when they entered the five-hectare area awarded them, killing Alejandro Garcesa, 70, who was hit by bullets in the in the right and left thighs and stomach, and Ely Tupas, 52, who was hit in the right side of his chest.

 

Wounded were Rene Florendia, 27; Alan Hagokoy, 26; Jude Capitania, 32; Jobert Malayas, 25; Norberto Diamante, 47; and Andre Barcoma, 17.

 

Florendia, who was hit in the right eye, was rushed to the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Hospital in Bacolod City while the rest of the injured were released after being treated.

 

Inspector Regidor Alvarado, La Castellana police chief, identified the security guards allegedly involved in the shooting as Warren Fernandez, Ramy Sebungga and Felix Sadiaca, all members of the Cornerstone Security Agency. The three remain at large, Alvarado said.

 

The police subjected the other plantation guards, Enrique Malicsi, George Precioso and Danilo Araojo, to paraffin tests to determine if they fired guns although they were at a guardhouse and not at the scene of the shooting, Alvarado said.

 

He said police investigation found that the security guards fired at the TFM farmers, who began cultivating the five-hectare area, when they refused to leave and, instead, “a mob [of farmers] armed with bladed weapons approached the guards.”

 

Senior Superintendent Rosendo Franco, Negros Occidental police director, said the police would file charges of homicide and frustrated homicide against those involved in the shooting.

 

Pangandaman warned he would take action against the DAR personnel who delayed the delineation survey he ordered to determine the boundary of the land granted to the TFM farmers.

 

He said he would look into the reasons for the delay in the delineation and that “heads could roll.”

 

Alvarado said a platoon of Regional Mobile Group policemen and some Army soldiers provided security to the TFM farmers cultivating the five-hectare area. He said the farmers had set up a tent in the middle of the field where they intended to hold the wake for the dead.

 

About 100 TFM members also staged a picket outside the Provincial Agrarian Reform Office in Bacolod City on Tuesday to demand the completion of the segregation survey of the 53 hectares at Malaga awarded by DAR to 57 beneficiaries.

 

On Tuesday, an opposing group justified the shooting, saying the security guards shot at the farmers who had turned into a “mob.”

 

Roger Miravalles, spokesperson of Hacienda Malaga Independent Workers Union, said they had nothing to do with the shooting of the TFM members since the blue guards were involved.

 

The union has been at odds with TFM, claiming that DAR gave the prime lots to TFM beneficiaries to the disadvantage of union members.

 

Miravalles said the entry of the farmers into the five-hectare area should not be allowed because of a pending complaint for contempt before the Supreme Court.

 

Danilo Ramos, secretary general of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Peasant Movement of the Philippines), said the attack on the farmers showed that the 19-year-old Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was useless.

 

“In fact, the land supposedly given to farmers under the CARP is still not secured because the Department of Agrarian Reform normally cancels them to serve the interest of landlords,” Ramos said.

 

He claimed emancipation patents, certificates of land ownership award and certificates of land transfer have been reduced into mere coupons.

 

“This is what is happening now in Hacienda Velez-Malaga, and it has happened before but in different guises like that in Hacienda Looc in Nasugbu, Batangas and Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac,” said Ramos.

Agrarian reform chief calls in Negros troops

 

By TJ Burgonio
Inquirer
Last updated 03:03am (Mla time) 06/06/2007

 

MANILA, Philippines — Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman on Tuesday condemned the killing of two land reform beneficiaries and the wounding of six other farmers in a sugar plantation in Negros Occidental province and asked police and military authorities to send more troops to the contested Hacienda Velez-Malaga.

 

 

 

In a strongly worded statement, Pangandaman said the farmers had every right to enter the property since it was already awarded to them. He ordered the Department of Agrarian Reform’s legal office to assist the families of the victims in the filing of charges and to “do its best to bring all the perpetrators to justice.”

 

 

 

The two farmers gunned down by security guards of the hacienda were among 57 of over 100 beneficiaries of a land grant under the government’s agrarian reform program who Pangandaman had personally installed last March, two months after they staged a hunger strike in front of his office in Quezon City.

 

 

 

Pangandaman also warned that “heads would roll” in the provincial DAR office if he found that they had delayed the survey he ordered to determine the boundary of the land granted to the farmer-beneficiaries.

 

 

 

‘Cold-blooded murder’

 

 

 

Although police officials said they were readying homicide charges against the hacienda guards, Pangandaman described the killing as “cold-blooded murder.”

 

 

 

“Enough is enough,” Pangandaman stated, warning that the government “would not allow anybody to scuttle the gains of land reform.”

 

 

 

The farmers organization Task Force Mapalad (TFM), however, blamed the violence on the government itself, including the DAR.

 

 

 

The TFM, to which the Hacienda Velez-Malaga beneficiaries belong, has alleged that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s brother-in-law, Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo, has been using his influence with Malacañang to scuttle the installation of the farmers in the plantation because of his supposedly close ties with hacienda owner Robert Cuenca.

 

 

 

The family of one of the slain farmers on Tuesday issued an appeal directly to the President to step into the dispute and put an end to their woes.

 

 

 

“Whoever did this should be put behind bars,” said Clarita Garcesa, 67, widow of 70-year-old Alejandro Garcesa, in a briefing at the Sulo Hotel in Quezon City.

 

 

 

“President Macapagal-Arroyo should put an end to the suffering of the farmers of Hacienda Velez-Malaga,” said Clarita’s daughter Mary Ann.

 

 

 

DAR’s ‘incompetence’

 

 

 

Florenda Hilario, sister-in-law of slain farmer Ely Tupas, 52, appealed to the President to replace Pangandaman “with somebody who can implement agrarian reform not only in Negros Occidental, but in the rest of the country.”

 

 

 

“Agrarian reform isn’t happening because of DAR’s incompetence, and its fear of Cuenca,” she said in the same briefing.

 

 

 

Eledelyn Paclibar, 55, said on the verge of tears: “We will die defending our right to our land.”

 

 

 

The farmer beneficiaries said they decided to occupy the five-hectare part of the 56 hectares last Monday after the DAR regional officials kept postponing the conduct of the survey segregation.

 

 

 

They said they sought permission from the Police Regional Mobile Group to enter the property, but were told to wait outside for the DAR decision. They decided to enter it just the same.

 

 

 

At odds

 

 

 

It was only after several shots were fired when the policemen stepped in, they claimed.

 

 

 

Three of the guards have been picked up. Two others remained at large, according to them.

 

 

 

Roger Miravalles, spokesperson of the Hacienda Malaga Independent Workers Union — rival of the TFM farmers — said their group had nothing to do with the shooting. The union is at odds with the TFM because they feel that DAR gave the prime lots to the TFM to the disadvantage of their union members.

 

 

 

Miravalles said the entry of the farmers into the five-hectare area should not be allowed since there is a pending complaint for contempt before the Supreme Court.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, the situation remains tense. The TFM farmers have set up a tent in the middle of the field where they intend to hold the wake for their dead. With reports from Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas and Agence France-Presse

New subsidy plan perils rural private high schools

Fixing education flaws By Fernando del Mundo
Inquirer
Last updated 03:44am (Mla time) 06/06/2007

(Last of three parts)

 

Read Part 1: Education crisis deepens

 

Read Part 2: Fixing education flaws: Textbooks shot through with errors

 

MANILA, Philippines — Officials of private high schools in the provinces fear their days are numbered.

 

Concern centers on a government move to phase out the Educational Service Contracting (ESC) program hammered out with private high schools in the 1980s to help poor elementary graduates.

 

The ESC will then be replaced by the Educational Voucher System (EVS), if the Department of Education (DepEd) overcomes objections by private schools mainly run by the Catholic Church and religious groups.

 

Tested last year, the EVS will politicize the program and further erode the already dismal situation in Philippine education, critics say.

 

The ESC and EVS differ in the selection of schools and student recipients. In effect, the EVS will do away with the screening mechanism in place for almost a quarter of a century and lead to the demise of the so-called “non-elite” private high schools.

 

In a full-page newspaper ad taken out last month, the Davao Association of Colleges and Schools and the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations in Region 11 (Southern Mindanao) appealed to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to retain the ESC guidelines for the beneficiaries coming from 430,000 families nationwide.

 

The EVS conditions “do not only discriminate against private school students coming from indigent families but also cause the eventual closure of 1,970 participating private schools across the country,” the ad says.

 

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus scoffs at such claims, saying that, in fact, the plea was made by schools charging tuition of over P12,000 and they could hardly be classified as needy.

 

Increase in budget

 

“By the skin of my teeth, I have already gotten an increase in the budget,” says Lapus, raising the subsidy from P4,000 to P6,000 this year because students sent to private high schools were dropping out.

 

“They are ostracized. They have no pocket money. They have no uniforms. They have no textbooks,” says Lapus.

 

“I ask now, what is the counterpart of the private schools which are living on 40 percent of their revenues from the government. What are they contributing to the students?”

 

The ESC was implemented under a law passed in 1989 to decongest public high schools after the government’s free secondary education sparked massive transfers from privately operated facilities.

 

This was done after the Fund for Assistance to Private Education (FAPE) conducted a pilot project in the provinces of Samar, Leyte and Cotabato in school year 1982-83 and the result essentially became the ESC.

 

ESC financing came from the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE) which, in the last school year, wangled P2 billion, including about P500 million for the EVS pilot project.

 

Private high schools had accounted for 60 percent of total enrollment in the 1970s. By the late 1980s, when the free high school education program came into effect, the figure had dropped further to 20 percent. A general economic crunch also triggered the exodus to public schools.

 

Way out of tight spot

 

Without the resources to deal with overcrowding, the DepEd went into service contracting, paying for surplus facilities in private high schools to accommodate Grade 6 graduates.

 

It was a way out of a tight spot.

 

Instead of building schools, putting in facilities and hiring teachers, the government adopted the ESC.

 

Each student got a subsidy that began with P900. By last year, the subsidy had gone up to P4,000. Experts say that getting the private sector to join the ESC had not been easy, especially after tuition had breached the P20,000 mark with the median rate at P7,000.

 

The Davao schools expressed disappointment at the EVS guidelines, including limiting to 40 the ESC freshmen grantees per participating school, disqualifying schools charging more than P12,000, excluding private elementary school graduates as beneficiaries, and allowing participation only of private schools that are close to red- or black-coded public high schools, meaning those in impoverished areas.

 

Why ESC appeals

 

Former Education Secretary Edilberto de Jesus outlines in a paper why the ESC appeals.

 

“For the EVS, [the] DepEd identified the schools qualified to receive the voucher certificates. Any school in the ‘red zone,’ areas where public high schools lacked classrooms or teachers, could participate in the EVS,” says De Jesus.

 

“In the schools eventually selected, through a process that remains somewhat vague, the principals selected 22 students belonging to the upper 50 percent of the graduating elementary class to receive the certificates.”

 

On the other hand, in the ESC, parents had to apply and commit to cover the gap between the subsidy and the school’s tuition, says De Jesus. School committees evaluate the applicants’ financial standing and academic ability.

 

Schools in the “red zone” had to pass the qualification standards of the FAPE, which administers the project for GASTPE grants. The FAPE also conducted training programs for ESC schools, assisted them in developing learning materials and monitored student performance.

 

Reinventing the wheel

 

“Taking money away from the ESC for a voucher system essentially duplicating what it is already doing is an exercise in reinventing the wheel,” says De Jesus.

 

The DepEd is determined to push ahead with the phase-out of the ESC, whose obvious appeal is in the flexibility it allows the administration in deciding where to distribute the vouchers.

 

It could serve the function of a Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) card, says one critic, referring to the government initiative backed by P3 billion in funds from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and the Bureau of Internal Revenue, which were farmed out during the fraud-wracked presidential election in 2004.

 

Fait accompli

 

Mariano Piamonte, a member of the State Assistance Council chaired by the education secretary, says he received a “referendum” memo from the panel in March asking him to sign the adoption of voucher system and the phase-out of the contracting program.

 

He refused to sign the document, pointing out that he was being served a fait accompli. It was done without the benefit of debate in the council which is supposed to be convened at least once a year, he says.

 

The ECS is mandated by law enacted by Congress, Piamonte says. If it is changed by executive fiat, he is concerned that a new President will easily change its ground rules.

 

“We want the department to go back to the old system,” says Piamonte, who is also executive director of the Catholic Education Association of the Philippines. He says the Coordinating Council for Private Schools, the umbrella association for 3,000 schools belonging to various groups, is mobilizing to oppose the voucher system.

 

Lapus skates questions on Piamonte’s criticism. He admits that the mechanism could still be fine-tuned and emphasized that the more important thing was that with the increase in funding there will be more beneficiaries.

 

For now, the outlook doesn’t look too good for private school administrators.

a fait accompli

According to the free dictionary a fait accompli is

a decision or action which has already been made or done and which cannot be changed. The sudden change in policy was presented to the party as a fait accompli, without any consultation.

CA junks petition against media censorship on technicality

Associated Press
Last updated 00:21am (Mla time) 06/06/2007

MANILA, Philippines — The Court of Appeals agreed with a group of journalists that state regulations banning news reports or programs critical of the government amounted to censorship, but dismissed their case due to a technicality.

 

The ruling, seen Tuesday, came after a yearlong struggle by a group of journalists and press organizations to overturn orders by the National Telecommunications Commission that they claimed would censor radio and television broadcasts that may be critical of government.

 

The appellate court said in its May 30 ruling that it agreed with the petitioners, but was obliged to dismiss the petition because of “procedural deficiencies.”

 

The petition should have been filed with a regional trial court where the orders of the telecommunications commission could have been properly challenged, it said.

 

However, the panel of three judges said journalists should be able to carry out their job free from threats or censorship.

 

It said “no prior restraint can be imposed on the exercise of free speech and of expression, and that the freedom to communicate one’s views and discuss any matter of public concern should remain to be so without fear of punishment or liability unless there be a clear and present danger of a substantive evil.”

 

The petition was filed after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared a weeklong state of emergency in February 2006 following what the government said was a coup attempt.

 

Arroyo issued a decree that said the claims of the coup plotters “have been recklessly magnified by certain segments of the national media.” The decree gave the government powers to ban rallies, arrest people without warrants and crack down on inflammatory media.

 

Police subsequently raided the Daily Tribune, a newspaper critical of Arroyo, and troops were deployed around the two largest TV networks.

 

The telecommunications commission warned radio and TV stations of existing prohibitions on the broadcast of “rebellious, terrorist propaganda” and statements that “propose or incite treason, rebellion or sedition,” and warning of possible withdrawal of broadcast permits of those who violate the rules.

 

In their petition, the journalists said the threat of “official intervention — in the form of administrative sanction or criminal prosecution — is just as damaging to a free press as the fact of it.”

 

The petition said “prior restraints on the press are as ancient as dictators.”

 

Petitioners were not immediately available to comment on the ruling. inquirer.net

Senate OKs new charter to give UP more autonomy

By Dona Pazzibugan
Inquirer
Last updated 06:59am (Mla time) 06/06/2007

MANILA, Philippines — A new charter that grants greater institutional and fiscal autonomy to the University of the Philippines, the country’s premier university, was ratified by the Senate Tuesday, a day before it adjourns sine die (indefinitely).

 

A bicameral conference committee late Monday finished reconciling the House and Senate versions of the UP Charter Bill.

 

The bicameral conference report has to be ratified by the House of Representatives before the bill can be submitted to Malacañang for signing.

 

Small budget

 

Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan, principal author of the Senate version, said the new UP charter would avert the decline in the competitiveness of the UP and the exodus of its top professors to private schools.

 

“Many of the problems of UP are borne out of a small budget to reform and improve many of its services. With the ratification of the UP Charter Act, the university will finally be able to generate income through the use of its resources and assets which could be used to improve its curricula and salary system,” said Pangilinan.

 

Pangilinan is a former chair of the UP University Student Council and in 1988 sat as a student representative on the UP Board of Regents, the university’s highest policy-making body.

 

Among other things, the UP Charter Act will allow the exemption of the UP from the Salary Standardization Act which will enable it to increase the salaries of its teaching and non-teaching staff; tax exemptions of donations and revenues used solely for educational purposes; and greater autonomy by removing Malacañang’s power to appoint the UP president and other sectoral representatives.

 

Safeguards

 

It also provides safeguards in the utilization and disposition of UP land and other assets such as the creation of an independent trust committee that would advise the board of regents on such investments.

 

Under the new Charter, the regents can approve and enter into contracts like joint ventures, long-term leases and sale for the university to be able to raise revenues.

 

Contracts worth above P50 million would require the vote of two-thirds of the board. Other contracts worth P50 million and less will require only a majority vote.

 

11 members

 

The UP Board of Regents has 11 members: The Commission on Higher Education who chairs the board; the UP president as vice chair; the chair of the Senate committee on education, arts and culture; the chair of the House committee on higher and technical education; the UP Alumni Association president; a faculty regent; a student regent; a staff regent; and three sectoral regents.

 

“After almost 12 years in the legislative mill, we are glad that this landmark piece of legislation will finally become a law,” said Pangilinan, who has been promoting the bill since 2001.

ISAFP chief a no-show again in CHR probe

Spy chief snubs hearing on Burgos’ disappearance

By Volt Contreras
Inquirer
Last updated 02:01am (Mla time) 06/06/2007

MANILA, Philippines — Not only was the chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) a no-show for the second time at the Commission on Human Rights’ public inquiry Tuesday into Jonas Burgos’ disappearance, his lawyer also refused to take part in the hearing.

 

CHR Chair Purificacion Quisumbing chided Maj. Ser-me Ayuyao, who was representing ISAFP chief Maj. Gen. Delfin Bangit, when the lawyer questioned the legality of the proceedings.

 

“We will note that you have a certain predilection to be uncooperative,” an apparently annoyed Quisumbing told Ayuyao after he declined to take the “witness stand.”

 

Ayuyao, who heads ISAFP legal affairs, answered in the affirmative when asked by Quisumbing if he was “objecting” to the proceedings.

 

He argued that the hearing was tantamount to an investigation where subpoenaed persons would be told to swear to their statements without being apprised of their constitutional right to remain silent or guard against self-incrimination.

 

The CHR has a standing order for the AFP and the Philippine National Police to locate the missing Burgos.

 

This is the second CHR hearing on Burgos’ disappearance. The first was held last May, and Bangit likewise missed it.

 

At Tuesday’s hearing, Commissioner Dominador Calamba raised doubt about the AFP’s avowed inability to locate Burgos dead or alive, given the resources at the military’s disposal.

 

Calamba told Ayuyao that the public might find “those excuses of yours” hard to believe. He was referring to the AFP’s claim that the license plates that witnesses had seen on the vehicle used by Burgos’ abductors were merely “stolen” from a jeep impounded in an Army camp for “illegal logging.”

 

‘Operational matters’

 

Earlier in the hearing, after Ayuyao reported that Bangit could not make it because of “operational matters” that needed his attention, the lawyer already got a mouthful from Calamba.

 

“I notice that he doesn’t attend to the subpoenas sent to him and sends lower-ranking officials. I don’t know if he has any respect for the [CHR] as a civilian office,” Calamba said, adding:

 

“That’s why you (ISAFP) are always pilloried by the press.”

 

At some point in the hearing, Quisumbing cut Ayuyao short when he again tried to speak from the sidelines.

 

The CHR chair said the panel would not recognize Ayuyao — not after he had “lectured” the commission on the propriety of the proceedings — unless he took the stand.

 

Thieves in well-guarded camp?

 

In his own exchange with Ayuyao, Calamba said in reference to the alleged theft of the license plates: “I don’t know who will buy that idea.

 

“We don’t believe that you couldn’t find Burgos with all the operatives you have.”

 

Calamba later clarified that the hearing was not intended to prosecute the military but to give it a chance to air its side, especially since media reports supposedly tended to attribute Burgos’ abduction to the military.

 

In grilling Lt. Col. Noel Clement, the former commander of the 56th Infantry Battalion in Norzagaray, Bulacan, Calamba wondered why a supposedly “well-guarded” military camp would lose impounded materials to thieves.

 

Clement said security “lapses” could occur given the size of the camp, but added that he had yet to check whether the theft occurred during his stint as camp commander.

 

“What your men do or fail to do is your responsibility, being the battalion commander,” Calamba told Clement.

 

In contrast, the commissioners appeared to be more appreciative of the report of Senior Supt. Joel Napoleon Coronel on the PNP’s investigation of the Burgos case.

 

“Unfortunately, we have not located him,” said Coronel, chief of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) for the National Capital Region.

 

He said the Burgos family had been shown “three exhumed cadavers” — unclaimed bodies buried in Bataan province — but had not identified any to be that of the missing activist.

 

Coronel also said the CIDG had “contacted” by phone military camps and other police camps, as well as the National Bureau of Investigation, to check if Burgos had actually been “arrested for lawful reasons.”

 

No inspection of ISAFP

 

But “protocol,” he said, had prevented the CIDG from entering the ISAFP compound at the military general headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

 

“Not everyone is allowed to go inside [it],” he said.

 

Coronel also said that on May 29, a security guard who witnessed Burgos’ abduction on April 28 was shown photos of two Army soldiers who had apprehended the “illegal logging” jeep in Bulacan.

 

He said the guard did not identify the soldiers as involved in the abduction.

DANCES WITH TREES

 

Professor Grace Odal-Devora of the University of the Philippines celebrates World Environment Day at the Angud installation in front of the CCP grounds. The celebration coincides with the launch of the “Tree for Life: 20M Seedlings for Planting,” a project that aims to surpass last year’s Green Philippine Highway’s planting of 800,000 trees. REM ZAMORA

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