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As some of you probably have noticed, WordPress.com has not been her usual speedy self today. The technical reasons for this are somewhat complex, but it boils down to some network problems with a couple of our bandwidth providers.

Last night they attempted to complete a upgrade to their routing infrastructure and during the maintenance some related hardware failed causing the downtime yesterday/early this morning. We are still combing through the logs, but it looks like we suffered from 2 simultaneous network outages in 2 different datacenters, making things even more difficult.

I have been working with our providers throughout the day to attempt and fix the various networking oddities we have been seeing, but they have been unable to. As a result, they have scheduled another maintenance from 5AM to 10AM GMT on Sunday 8/26 so they can revert the changes (upgrade) from last night. This will hopefully correct the myriad of issues we have been dealing with over the past 24 hours and bring everything back to normal.

We have been working throughout the day to move various things around so that the impact to the site during the maintenance is minimal, but you may experience some issues as the traffic is re-routed around the links which are undergoing maintenance.

Thanks again for bearing with us and things should be back to normal in no time.

Posted: Sunday, August 26th, 2007 at 3:03 am

EDITORIAL

Wasted lives

Inquirer
Last updated 01:04am (Mla time) 08/21/2007

There never was a good war nor a bad peace. — Benjamin Franklin

 

If the government is thinking of the greater good of Mindanao and the country, it had better call off the all-out offensive that has been launched by its hawkish generals in Sulu and Basilan. If it has to go after the Abu Sayyaf bandits that killed 14 Marines and beheaded 10 of them, it should conduct small, commando-type operations instead of set battles. Decades of encounters with Moro separatists and bandits have shown that conventional warfare does not work well in Mindanao.

 

Church and political leaders, civic and women’s groups have lamented the waste of lives in Mindanao. The latest to die on the government side were 10 Marines and five junior officers who, reports said, were mowed down “like sitting ducks” by the Abu Sayyaf after they ignored their guides’ advice on what trail to take.

 

What is strange is that, as disclosed by an Army officer on condition of anonymity, the encounter was “considered part of their training in close-quarters combat” and “was just a test mission.” What? Are the generals playing with the lives of soldiers, sending them on “test missions” to find out which tactic will work against the Abu Sayyaf? If this is true, this is the height of callousness and insensitivity on the part of these desk-bound generals.

 

Many lives have been wasted in the all-out offensive against the Abu Sayyaf. And most of the victims have been soldiers in the flower of their youth. Their deaths bring to mind what US President Herbert Hoover said about war: “Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die. And it is the youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow, and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war.”

 

Actually, no one wins in a war; everyone is a loser. The casualties lose their lives or some of their limbs. Wives become widows; children are left orphans. Their fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters all grieve for them. The world of the soldiers’ families is turned upside down.

 

An all-out war is bad not only for the families of the soldiers, but also for the regional and national economy. Senators last week said that an all-out war could cost the government P1 billion a month. Think of what P1 billion could finance to improve the lives of the people in Sulu and Basilan, two of the most underdeveloped places in the South. One billion pesos could pay for more low-cost houses, schools, hospitals, roads, bridges and livelihood programs.

 

Joseph Gloria of the Social Watch Philippines-Mindanao last week said that the all-out offensive in Sulu and Basilan is further setting back the eradication of poverty and other Millennium Development Goals in Region 12. He added that in a conflict, the most affected are the children because when wars erupt, people take refuge in the nearest schools and deprive the children of places for their education.

 

Already, 15,000 people have been “affected” or “displaced” by the hostilities in Sulu and Mindanao. The government officials’ terms — “affected” and “displaced” — do not fully convey the depth of suffering and fear of uncertainty that the people affected by the war are feeling. Truly, as writer Arthur Koestler once said, wars consist of only 10 percent action and 90 percent passive suffering. And it is mostly the women and the children, aside from those who die and are maimed at the front, who greatly suffer.

 

As of last week about 9,000 soldiers had been committed to the all-out offensive in Sulu and Basilan. Nine thousand soldiers going after what — 150 or at most 200 — Abu Sayyaf bandits reinforced by some rogue guerrillas belonging to the Moro National Liberation Front. The imbalance of forces is very overwhelming in favor of the government, and yet up to now the encounters have resulted only in the massacre of young officers and soldiers. Clearly, the situation shows again that conventional warfare, set battles will not turn the tide in Mindanao.

 

It is not too late to de-escalate the hostilities. If the Marines have to avenge their slain and beheaded comrades, so be it. But limit their activities to surgical operations that will not affect entire islands. Macho warriors cannot forget the Old Testament maxim of “a tooth for a tooth” and “an eye for an eye.” And it is always easy for generals who stay in the comfort of their airconditioned war rooms to wage war and play with the lives of their men. But the morally courageous stand is to call for the reduction of hostilities and to work for peace.

Plum

ANOTHER INQUIRER PLUM. Outstanding Feature Story for Print winner, Inquirer Central Luzon correspondent Tonette Orejas, with Inquirer Publisher Isagani Yambot, who received the Outstanding Photograph award won by Edwin Bacasmas during the 2007 Lasallian Scholarum Awards at The Peninsula Manila in Makati. INQUIRER/ERIK ARAZAS

Military has become a laughingstock

By Ramon Tulfo
Inquirer
Last updated 03:34am (Mla time) 08/02/2007

Moro rebels are probably laughing themselves hoarse, up to now, after policemen trying to serve warrants on many of them in Basilan Tuesday went home empty-handed.

 

The cops, armed to the teeth and backed up by 5,000 or so Marines and Army troops, were sent to the camp of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) near the scene of the ambush two weeks ago.

 

How could the government expect to arrest MILF rebels who beheaded and mutilated the dead Marines when it vacillated in taking immediate action against the perpetrators?

 

The perpetrators were given more than enough time to escape. They probably merged with the local populace or are now hiding in other provinces.

 

The soldiers, who wanted to avenge the deaths of their comrades, are demoralized.

 

Nagmukhang tanga ang mga sundalo.

 

* * *
My military sources in Basilan are wondering why the government has not confronted Rep. Wahab Akbar, former Basilan governor, on the alleged participation of his men in the ambush and beheading.

 

Two of Akbar’s men were included in the warrant of arrest, but they are not members of the MILF or the Abu Sayyaf as the government claims.

 

No Abu Sayyaf bandit took part in the ambush and mutilation, according to my sources.

 

The MILF allegedly conspired with Akbar’s men in ambushing the Marines, but reportedly left it to the men of the political kingpin to do the job of finishing off the prostrate soldiers, some of whom were still alive.

 

* * *

 

How come there is no investigation of the allegation in this column, quoting sources in Basilan, that a top honcho at Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) ordered the planes and helicopters sent to reinforce the beleaguered Marines back to base?

 

Intramurals within the Philippine Marine Corps allegedly caused the fiasco in Basilan.

 

The top Wesmincom officer also is allegedly a close friend of Akbar. He probably was called by Akbar on the phone and told to hold off the air support.

 

Is the Armed Forces afraid to conduct the investigation because it might open a can of worms?

 

* * *

 

Imelda Marcos and her son, Ilocos Norte Rep. Bongbong, are government witnesses against billionaire tycoon Lucio Tan on the recovery of the late strongman’s alleged assets in Tan’s companies.

 

The Marcoses claim to own 60 percent of the assets of Tan’s nine firms.

 

Only the old gullible, or those who were born after the Edsa I Revolution, would believe the Marcoses.

 

During their time, the Marcoses allegedly had assets in every company in the country that was earning, and would ask, nay demand, part of a company that was earning.

 

There was a joke during those unlamented years that Marcos was engaged in the mining business: “This is mine, that is mine; everything is mine.”

 

Who could refuse the Marcoses at that time?

 

* * *

 

Who was that customs official who dilly-dallied granting visitorial powers to the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) so it could inspect big car shops selling luxury cars?

 

Visitorial powers, vested solely in the Bureau of Customs, means government agents can visit a store selling imported goods to see if correct taxes and duties were paid on the goods.

 

When finally the customs bureau granted the PASG’s request for visitorial power, it was too late. All the big shops selling luxury cars were empty when the PASG agents came.

 

The customs official is apparently in cahoots with car smugglers.

The true state of the nation

The true state of the nation
By Fernando Fajardo
Cebu Daily News
Last updated 04:17pm (Mla time) 07/25/2007

On her seventh SONA, I expected PGMA to start with a clear statement of the actual condition of our people, as seen from the vantage point of one sitting in the highest position of the land for more than six years already. Is the situation good or bad? Is the nation strong or weak? Where are we strong? Where are we weak? What opportunities can we seize to make us stronger? What pitfalls must we avoid?

 

Having thus shown the state of the nation, only then would I expect the President to report on her past accomplishments and what she intends to do more to improve our life in the future. But in reporting, she must not only list the projects that she completed or intends to complete in the future but also show to what extent the actual condition of our people had been improved or will be improved by what she did before or intend to do in the future.

 

What we got from last Monday was far from this. Without even looking at the seriousness of the depravation of our people, she wants to lead us into First World status in 20 years.

 

Even at an enhanced rate of 6 to 7 percent GDP growth yearly, that is impossible to achieve. This is especially true with our uncontrolled rapid population growth and low savings and investment rates. Even then, joining the First World is far from the minds of our people, whose only desire is to get a descent job and be lifted out of their poverty. That is what PGMA failed to do in her first six years. How could the next three years be different?

 

Thinking perhaps that she had mesmerized us with her “super projects,” PGMA then concluded: “The state of the nation is strong.”

 

The nation, my dear, is as strong only as the weakest of its members, no matter what the occupant in Malacañang desires. Make not mistake about this. The true state of the nation is weak, not strong. In what sense is the nation weak? It is in the sense that up to now more than a third of our people are still in poverty, unemployed, underemployed, or disguisedly employed, and that in most of the areas outside NCR and its adjacent areas, Calabarzon and the Subic-Clark corridor, very little output is produced to contribute to the GDP.

 

To be specific, in 2000, the bottom 30 percent of our people only got less than 8 percent of the total income of the nation while the upper 10 percent cornered close to 40 percent. In the same year, about half of the GDP was accounted for only by the NCR and its two adjacent regions. What is it now or after six years of PGMA? Can she claim that she now has changed these figures in favor of our poor people and depressed regions? If she did, it would have been written in bold letters in her SONA. It was not there, and instead we heard promises, plenty of them.

 

Look at this also. By changing the definition of the unemployed, PGMA literally succeeded in bringing down the unemployment rate from 10 to 11 percent to 7 or 8 percent of the labor force. But this did not erase the fact that the other 3 or 4 percent remained jobless or had stopped looking for work out of frustration. Add to this our OFWs, who reportedly account for about 10 percent of our work force, and you can see how dismally we performed in our effort to provide the very first thing that everyone needs in order to move out of poverty – a decent and secure job.

 

After successfully passing the expanded value added tax, PGMA in her SONA last year, exclaimed, “We have money!” She then went on to give the first list of her super projects, as if the lack of them was the only thing that is keeping us from developing. No sooner had the first half of the year ended, however, when PGMA realized that her collection target had not been met as planned. Her solution was to fire the BIR Commissioner while some of her subalterns now talk of passing more tax laws.

 

What PGMA did not do was find the truth about our poor tax collection rate, which in the country is caused more not by the lack of tax laws or the color of the BIR commissioner’s face, but by the failure of her whole government machinery to catch and jail many of the big-time smugglers, tax evaders, and cheats among her tax collectors and the private sector, many of whom she cannot also afford to hurt for their contribution to her continued stay in office.

 

What has the President also done about graft and corruption and the ineptness of her subaltern’s execution of her various projects? The decorative lampposts installed in Cebu for the Asean Summit was priced many times over its true cost. The same goes for the liquid fertilizer distributed to the farmers during the 2004 election. So how many times are her super projects being overpriced over their true cost? Who gets most of the kickbacks?

 

Finally, despite countless repeated promises to open it, NAIA Terminal 3 remained closed until now. In her SONA last Monday, PGMA says it suffers from structural defects. After many years of idleness, why say this only now? Are the super projects not going to suffer the same fate?

Why business shuns the south

By Fernando Fajardo
Cebu Daily News
Last updated 05:37pm (Mla time) 07/18/2007

City Hall wants business to go south instead of the Banilad-Talamban area in the north. They will, but only if the conditions in the south are right. In business everything is about location. Put your business in a wrong place and it will not be long until you will fold up.

 

What is wrong in the south? Part of the answer is that what is good in the north cannot be easily found in the south.

 

First is the ready availability of wide tracts of open land which made it easier to undertake major development projects intended for housing, commercial, institutional, and other related land uses. Do not forget that Banilad area was once part of the friar lands that was disposed in big chunks to the city’s rich and influential or to the government during the American Occupation.

 

The south, with San Nicolas as the center, was the home of the poor natives who were encouraged to congregate there by the conquistadores, while they and the local elites that mostly consisted of the well-placed Filipinos, Chinese, and mestizos live near and around Fort San Pedro and nearby churches. These days, if they numerous people in the south do not own the small lots upon which they build their homes, chances are that they are renting or squatting on few rich people’s land.

 

The first big project in Talamban was the construction of the University of San Carlos Technological Center. Before its completion in the late 1960s or early 1970s, few would have known what Talamban was like, or even heard of it. I myself first went to Talamban only when, as a young recruit of the USC Economics Department, I was sent there to handle engineering economics. Then, the road to Talamban was very narrow and dusty. My going there was made bearable only with free ride on the school bus.

 

The opening of the Technological Center attracted many people to invest in real estate in Banilad and Talamban. Soon, many housing subdivisions were opened, along with the establishment of many business establishments that cater to the needs of the growing number of people living in or passing through the area.

 

The next surge came with the construction of new buildings in that stretch of land where many national government offices are now found close to each other, like the NMYC-TESDA, which Capitol also wants to eject.

 

The final push came with the sale of the province-owned lot that was once a golf course of the Ayala executives. In it now is found the biggest commercial center in Cebu.

 

It goes without saying that these new developments made the land in Banilad-Talamban very expensive, making them affordable only to the rich. Thus was prevented the coming of the hoi polloi, and the rise of unorganized housing or slum areas that characterized many parts of the south.

 

The only place that resembles a slum colony in the area is Barangay Luz – actually an organized slum colony of sorts, as it was planned and prepared for the displaced poor from the city. There was no overnight invasion of the homeless there. I supposed it was opened during the tenure of President Ramon Magsaysay, from whose first lady the barangay got its name.

 

With the rich and influential residing or holding business in Banilad and Talamban, it was not long when its once narrow and dusty road was widened and paved. This made making new homes or putting up new businesses in the area doubly attractive.

 

The south was also widened, but it was done not in response to local needs but to accommodate the increasing number of busses, trucks, cars, and jeepneys that enter the city from the south and west of the province. If ever, the road-widening and growing number of vehicles passing the south road only discouraged the moneyed class from residing or putting up new business there.

 

What prod businessmen to locate in an area? The availability of land is one, but in general it depends on the nature of business. If it uses raw materials that are expensive to move and do not contribute much to the weight or bulk of the final product, it is better located where the inputs are found. If they sell products or services whose supplies or inputs are found in, or can be cheaply transported to, the market area, they are better located close to the targeted market.

 

Many firms also congregate in an area where they get some benefits from their joint presence such as attracting a bigger number of customers who are enticed with their varied offering of products and services.

 

The type of business establishments that now proliferates in Banilad and Talamban mainly provide services or products directed at the local rich or highly-paid young professionals working there and nearby. These people are not found in concentrated number in the south. That explains why, no matter what City Hall says, business is slow to develop in the south.

 

What areas in the south could have been the equivalent to Banilad and Talamban in the north when developed? Guadalupe-Banawa and Labangon-Tisa could qualify. However, while Banawa-Guadalupe shows good potentials for new business with the road widening under the MCDP, the densely populated Labangon-Tisa does not have much room for new and bigger commercial projects to come.

 

Banawa-Guadalupe is fast developing but they also do not offer much open space for new development in the scale of what we see in Banilad and Talamban. Quiot beyond Labangon would have been ideal if its road were widened and had it not been invaded earlier by the hoi polloi, preempting the development of first-class housing projects or the coming of new business in the area.

 

What about the city’s old Central Business District. Why do new businessmen shun the area? What say you at City Hall?

QUESTIONABLE LAND DISTRIBUTION DATA MARK 19th ANNIVERSARY OF CARP

As the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) marks its 19th anniversary, its positive achievement figures seem to indicate that land reform in the Philippines is well underway. Indeed, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is calling for a ten-year extension of CARP to 2018 in order to complete its land distribution program. But DAR’s so-called land distribution figures actually serve to obscure the true state of landlessness and rural exploitation in the countryside, according to independent think-tank IBON Foundation.

As of end-2005, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) reported that total land distribution under CARP has reached 6.44 million hectares or almost 80% of the target scope of 8.06 million hectares. 

 

But such figure should not be taken at face value due to various forms of bogus land distribution, which give a false picture of increasing land ownership among farmer-beneficiaries. For example, there are lands with registered certificates of award but which still have not yet been turned over to farmers who are still paying for their amortization. In the most brazen cases, there are certificate holders who cannot occupy their land because of outright landlord resistance.

 

Apart from reporting dubious accomplishments, DAR reports also do not reflect the distressing amount of reversals occurring for a variety of reasons. Landlords are able to exploit a legal defect in the law that limits the security of CARP beneficiaries’ claims to the lands covered. They also maneuver decisions favorable to them through technicalities such as supposed errors in data entries, in the change of documents and in the identification of legitimate farmer beneficiaries.

 

The many ways for landlords to evade CARP, even as government reports increasing land distribution, shows how this so-called agrarian reform program is less about genuinely breaking the domination of landlords and rural elites over land than undercutting peasant resistance to land monopoly in the countryside through the implementation of spurious land reform.

Thus, the DAR’s call to extend CARP for another ten years is not the answer to the farmers’ call for land of their own to till as it will only intensify the prevailing poverty and ruthless exploitation in the countryside.

DEBT PAYMENTS AT ALL-TIME HIGH:

SOCIAL SERVICES SPENDING STILL A CASUALTY OF GOVT’S INCREASING DEBT SERVICE

The Arroyo administration’s goal of achieving a balanced budget as soon as possible to reassure its creditors will, aside from new taxes, also result in further cuts in government spending for vital social services.

 

 

 

Social spending per Filipino under the Arroyo administration has in fact consistently fallen while debt servicing has consistently increased to record highs. In 2007, government allocated only P1,827 per Filipino, or P5 a day, for education, culture and manpower development. This is a 7% decrease from 2001 taking inflation and population growth into account. For health, each Filipino received only P163 in 2007, or just P0.45 a day, is a 25% decrease from 2001.

 

 

 

In contrast, total debt servicing per capita is at P7,133 in 2007 which is almost four times combined education and health spending.

 

 

 

Total debt payments of P854 billion in 2006 ate up over 87% of revenues and was equivalent to more than 14% of the gross domestic product– which gives the Arroyo government the distinction of making the highest public debt payments in Philippine history. This belies government claims that the reformed value-added tax (RVAT) would boost social service spending.

 

 

The country’s fiscal position is one of the highlights of the study presented at the IBON Midyear Birdtalk, a semi-annual forum on the national economic and political situation and trends.

The Arroyo administration’s goal of achieving a balanced budget as soon as possible to reassure its creditors will, aside from new taxes, also result in further cuts in government spending for vital social services.

 

 

 

Social spending per Filipino under the Arroyo administration has in fact consistently fallen while debt servicing has consistently increased to record highs. In 2007, government allocated only P1,827 per Filipino, or P5 a day, for education, culture and manpower development. This is a 7% decrease from 2001 taking inflation and population growth into account. For health, each Filipino received only P163 in 2007, or just P0.45 a day, is a 25% decrease from 2001.

 

 

 

In contrast, total debt servicing per capita is at P7,133 in 2007 which is almost four times combined education and health spending.

 

 

 

Total debt payments of P854 billion in 2006 ate up over 87% of revenues and was equivalent to more than 14% of the gross domestic product– which gives the Arroyo government the distinction of making the highest public debt payments in Philippine history. This belies government claims that the reformed value-added tax (RVAT) would boost social service spending.

 

 

The country’s fiscal position is one of the highlights of the study presented at the IBON Midyear Birdtalk, a semi-annual forum on the national economic and political situation and trends.www.ibon.org

ARROYO LIKELY TO IMPOSE NEW TAXES TO AVERT FISCAL CRISIS

 

 

As the country’s fiscal position remains susceptible to another crisis, the Arroyo government will likely try to impose new taxes at the latest by 2008, according to independent think-tank IBON Foundation.

 

 

 

IBON research head Sonny Africa said that the administration might even do this earlier if its “desperate privatization efforts do not succeed in boosting enough revenues this year”.

 

 

 

“This is the inevitable result of its refusal to address revenue losses from trade and investment liberalization, revenue losses from corruption and big-time tax evaders, and grossly bloated expenditures from unconditional debt servicing,” said Africa . These are matters that the Arroyo administration cannot be expected to genuinely tackle, which is why it resorts to the only things left: new taxes and privatization of the public’s remaining assets, he added.

 

 

 

“The pressure for new taxes has even increased because of an apparently significant revenue failure in the first half of 2007,” said Africa .

 

 

 

The fiscal situation has apparently taken a drastic turn for the worse in the half of 2007. Government officially reported a deficit in January-May 2007 of P41.8 billion which is less than the P44.1 billion in the same period last year. But Africa pointed out that this does not accurately reflect the state of government finances because it is bloated by P26 billion in one-off privatization revenues, mainly from the government’s sale of its stake in PLDT. Without these one-off privatization gains the 5-month budget deficit would have actually increased to P67.8 billion or a very large 53% increase from the same period last year, he said. This would also even already be P4.8 billion higher than the official deficit target of P63 billion for the whole of 2007.

 

 

 

The proceeds from privatization in the first five months of 2007 covered up a severe revenue failure where revenues, without privatization, only increased by 4.4% from the same period in the year before. The P26 billion from selling-off government assets was needed to bring the increase in revenues up to the more accustomed 11.0% average of recent years. The issue now is how the government will deal with its problematic finances once the targeted P105 billion in earnings from its remaining big-ticket privatization is past, said Africa .

 

 

 

The government’s seeming success in reducing the national government deficit from a histori c p eak of 5.4% of gross domesti c p roduct (GDP) in 2002 to just 1.1% in 2006 was due largely to the regressive reformed value-added tax (RVAT) together with severe spending cuts on social and economic services. The RVAT which began to be implemented in late 2005 abruptly increased 2006 revenues by P76.9 billion. The combined share in the national budget of education, health and housing in turn continuously declined and, at 15.6% of the total budget in 2007, is 4.1 percentage points less than in 2001. This is barely half of the nearly 30% that goes to making interest payments on debt.

 

 

 

On the other hand, Africa pointed out that there have not been any improvements in revenue collection outside of the new RVAT and the recent big-ticket privatization. “If we take out the effects of RVAT and privatization, revenues increased annually by more or less 11% each year in the period 2003-2006,” he said. The imposition of RVAT abruptly increased revenues by some 20% in 2006 but this magnitude of increase will only register in 2006 and subsequent rates of revenue growth will still largely depend on the established revenue pattern of around 11% or so. This is a problem in itself because such revenues will not be enough to close the budget gap, he said.

 

 

 

However, the government persists in pursuing trade and investment liberalization that will only further reduce revenues. For instance the full implementation of the JPEPA which is up for ratification by the Senate in the 14th Congress could result in as much as P10.7 billion in foregone tariff revenues annually. The tariff losses from the other free trade agreements the Arroyo government is pursuing thus deserve much closer attention.

 

 

 

“The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and various international credit rating agencies have already expressed their desire for new taxes,” said Africa . “These are the early signs of a renewed bout of fiscal turmoil marked by drastic spending cuts and, eventually, higher taxes.”

 

 

 

The fiscal situation was one of the highlights of the study presented by Africa at the IBON Midyear Birdtalk, a semi-annual forum on the national economic and political situation and trends.www.ibon.org

World Day of Justice

World Day of Justice
By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
Inquirer
Last updated 02:12am (Mla time) 07/19/2007

Last Tuesday, July 17, was World Day of Justice. The day marked a milestone in the history of international law and international justice. Nine years ago, in 1998, 120 states attending the Plenipotentiary Conference in Rome adopted the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC). As of today, 139 states have signed and 105 have ratified.

 

It should be noted that while celebrations were taking place all over the world, here in the Philippines a summit on extrajudicial killings attended by stakeholders from civil society, the government and the church, as well as legal experts and individuals in search for justice, was taking place.

 

Here are some pertinent facts about the ICC. The ICC is the first permanent international judicial body capable of trying individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes when national courts are unable or unwilling to do so.

 

The ICC represents one of the significant opportunities for the world to prevent or significantly reduce the deaths and devastation that result from conflicts. The Rome Statute of the ICC came into force on July 1, 2002 and since then, much has been achieved with the establishment of the court. Located at the Hague in the Netherlands, the court is now a fully-functional institution. The senior court officials are seated in place and are proceeding with formal investigations.

 

“Birthday parties” were held in many parts of the world last Tuesday and here in the Philippines, NGOs held a forum and a film showing.

 

One significant development is Japan’s formal ratification of the ICC treaty yesterday at the United Nations headquarters in New York. With Japan in, 105 states have ratified the ICC treaty. There are more than 30 other countries that have signed but have not ratified it. The Philippines is among them.

 

Last year, the Senate, the House and the Commission on Human Rights made resolutions for the ratification of the statute. But President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has not transmitted the document to Congress so that the ratification would be done.

 

Most of the world’s democracies (all but one European Union government), most of sub-Saharan Africa, most of Latin America and the Caribbean have joined the ICC.

 

The ICC budget is about 90 million euros a year and Japan will assume about 19 percent of it. Japan has also nominated a judicial candidate for election to the court in December.

 

Universal ratification and greater cooperation from governments in securing arrests are among the ICC’s important goals. The international support for the ICC shows the growing consensus that impunity on the part of perpetrators of massive atrocities will no longer be tolerated. There is a court of last resort to which the aggrieved could go.

 

The court is currently investigating grave mass crimes in four countries: Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and the Central African Republic. It has issued seven arrest warrants.

 

Later this year, the court will begin hearing the case against Thomas Lubanga Dyilo on the use of child soldiers.

 

The Philippine Coalition of the ICC is a network of individuals and organizations committed to generate support for the ICC through information and lobbying so that the Philippine government would ratify the Rome Statute. It is part of an international network of about 2,000 civil society groups that support the universal acceptance of the ICC.

 

Today the court is truly international, permanent, fully functional and becoming attuned to the cries of affected communities. It reflects the major legal systems of all geographic regions of the world and it can hold individuals accountable for massive crimes.

 

* * *

 

Good PCIJ stuff. The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) is donating hundreds of books and other publications on investigative journalism and related topics to institutions and individuals who have need for them. Please email marketing@pcij.org or call +632 9293117 for the titles and how to get them.

 

* * *

 

Good Samaritans in cyberspace. Have you ever encountered major problems with your computer, like desperately trying to retrieve files that vanished? And cried buckets?

 

My email folders containing about four years of mail (some from readers included), attachments, images and documents suddenly vanished. For two weeks all efforts to retrieve them from where they lay hidden did not work. Although I am right-brained (writers and artists usually are), I followed website to-dos in sequence and I must have earned a doctorate in computer software tinkering, but still no results.

 

I sought help from God of cyberspace and I got a response from the Pinoy blog Couch Camote of Ruben Canlas Jr. who turned out to be the CEO of Dig It All (as in digital) Solutions.

 

He and the Good Samaritans of his office (open-source advocates with strong left brains) came to my rescue and made me a charity case even though I was willing to pay an arm and a leg. It took a whole day of work to retrieve my files, but the effort was worth it, thanks to Ruben, Data and Lee.

 

As journalists we always seem to know where to find help for others in need. Then suddenly we are the needy.

 

Dig It All is mainly into website development and is on the 19th floor of Medical Plaza on San Miguel Avenue in Ortigas Center, Pasig City. Phone +632 9107788; http://digitalsolutions.ph. Their clientele is quite impressive.

 

But hey guys, you brought me in from the cold, even carried my clunky PC from the parking lot to your office, and gave me aid. May blessings rain down on you. I will pay your goodness forward.

 

Indeed, there are Good Samaritans even in the cyberhighways.