Sapping ‘Inner Resources’

By Juan Mercado
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:22:00 04/03/2008

“Government must be held accountable … at every point of its stay in power,” and beyond the 2010 elections, says the eight-point “Action Program,” drawn up by the Commission on the Social Apostolate of Jesuits in the Philippines. “Democracy cannot be confined to the single act of casting a vote. [It is a] continuing process of citizen participation.”

Neither can “the search for truth be sacrificed in the name of stability,” insists the new “Guidelines for Communal Discernment and Action to Address the National Crisis.” Unresolved issues further sap institutions of credibility. Their persistence reinforces today’s “culture of impunity.”

Today, there’s a “deepening distrust of political leaders and institutions.” This flows from scandals and cover-up for short-term political survival. “There is a real danger that citizens will become disempowered and disengage themselves from politics.” Frustrations can also spur insurrectionary and other unconstitutional options.

“Moral outrage … is critical for a committed response” that must consider long-term consequences, it adds. Rebuilding trust in institutional mechanisms of accountability is urgent. This could “lead to the transformation of the present culture of one-sided dependency on leaders… Generations of patronage have led Filipinos to depend disproportionately on those who have more resources and more power.”

Click here to read full text.

Hard, Long, & Broken to the Max of 4%

Kumain ng binlid
By Ellen Tordesillas

May litrato sa Malaya noong Miyerkoles ng mga sakong bigas mula sa Estado Unidos na nire-repack sa National Food Authority. Ang nakalagay “U.S No. 2 quality long grain, 4% broken”.

Kapag sinabing “broken”, may halong binlid. Yung maliliit na bigas. “Broken” ang tawag kasi parang yun ang mga basag na bigas. Kapag four per cent, good quality pa yan. Ibebenta ng NFA ang 4 per cent broken ng P25 isang kilo.

Ngayong linggo, darating ang panibagong importasyon galing ng Amerika.Twenty-five per cent broken. One fourth ng isang sakong bigas ay binlid at ibebenta ito ng P18 bawat kilo.

Sa normal na panahon, ang binlid ay ginagawang pagkain ng baboy. Nilulugaw yun dahil mahirap saingin. Dahil nga basag na mga bigas, basa yun kapag sinaing.

Click here to read full text.

----------
Eh baka itong mga bigas na ito ay standby stocks ng mga Kano na pang emergency relief kung may biglaang kalamidad sa mga 3WC's (3rd World Countries). Baka kilos-pagtulong ito ng mga Kano sa atin pero ginaw'an lang ng ibang dating para hindi mapahiya at magmukhang kawawa ang pamahalaan natin. Baka libre pa nga itong inaalok ng mga Kano sa ating pamahalaan.

Samantala, maligayang pagkain ng lugaw sabayan ng ulam na adobong baboy.

Government Urged to Review RP-China Deal

By Roy Lagarde
CBCP News Online

MANILA, April 2, 2008—A senior member of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) urged the government to review an agreement that allows China to utilize 1.2 million hectares of idle and under-utilized land in the Philippines.

Cagayan Archbishop Antonio Ledesma said that while the government has suspended the deal, the fear that it might be implemented again is still reigning.

Ledesma said the agribusiness deals that the government has ventured with China are “highly questionable” because it perils the country’s food security.

He said that the lack of transparency in the signing of the agreement was also “palpable” with stakeholders.

Such transactions, he said, would negate or undermine the country’s agrarian reform program and would even endanger “our fragile” environment.

“The RP-China agribusiness ventures were rushed in the guise of economic progress and in the name of bilateral economic cooperation, and should be reviewed,” Ledesma said.

In the agreement, China will help the government in the development of infrastructure projects in the identified 1.2 million hectares.

Because it is a lease agreement, China will bring technology management and take over the land, and implement their priorities.

Ledesma underscored that such agreement is disadvantageous to the country and to the millions of farmers who might be affected.

Department of Agriculture secretary Arthur Yap suspended in September 2007 the 1.2 million-hectare deals.

But still some local government units and special government agencies are trying to identify and consolidate thousands of hectares of land, which the Chinese investors can take over.

The bishop then urged the government to just fast track its implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program instead of pushing for the said agreement.

He said officials should strengthen agrarian reform communities to make them more productive and improve the food productivity capacity of the agriculture sector.

Ledesma said the government must let the people freely determine their path to development.

As needy farmers, the prelate said, have no resources, financial or otherwise, they have to remain mainly on the assistance of government.

“We encourage our government to provide opportunities that would allow every person’s true worth to flourish and enjoy the fullness of human life,” he said.

“A step towards such realization would be for government to develop with the people a new development paradigm that shall protect for the rural poor our food sovereignty and our environment,” he added.

Ledesma is the chairman of the National Rural Congress II set to be held this year—a CBCP initiative aiming to look into the fundamental causes of rural poverty.

It also pushes for CARP review to other social justice issues affecting farmers, small fishermen, indigenous communities and rural women.

The CBCP reconvened its NRC after 40 years to look closely into the government’s CARP and the end of the program by June.

The NRC-II is now conducting consultations at the diocesan level to have a full grasp of the land reform situation at the grassroots.

Yet Another Trace of Corruption in the DA

"Swine scam" dwarfs 2004 fertilizer scam, lawyer says.
ANC, ABS-CBN News Online

An anti-corruption crusader on Tuesday accused the Office of the Ombudsman of doing nothing on the case of another agricultural fund scam allegedly involving Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn "Jocjoc" Bolante, who is still in the US.

In an interview with Korina Sanchez in the ANC show, “Korina Today”, public interest lawyer Harry Roque of the UP College of Law said this new anomaly, which he called the “swine scam”, is worth at least P5 billion or much bigger than the P721-million fertilizer anomaly used to fund the Arroyo administration's 2004 election war chest.

“In 2005, the COA (Commission on Audit) recommended that actions be taken against those who were found remiss in the discharge of their duties [regarding the swine scam]. Until today, we did not hear about this controversy,” Roque said.

Roque said Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez should have ordered an investigation into the swine fund scam three years ago, when COA furnished her office of its recommendations.

“Certainly the COA reports are posted on the Internet and furnished to the Office of the Ombudsdman. I do not understand why years later, she had not done anything against anyone involved considering the staggering amount of monies involved,” the crusading lawyer said.

Fertilizer scam looks peanuts

Roque said the P721-million fertilizer anomaly involving Bolante "looks like peanuts" compared to the swine scam, which was also implemented in the election year of 2004.

Bolante said that according to a COA report, the Department of Agriculture (DA) and government-owned Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. (QuedanCorp) were involved in a P1.1 billion worth of unrecorded receivable or “ghost deliveries” of swine to marginalized farmers in 2004.

QuedanCorp, a government-owned money lending agency for marginalized farmers, acted as the program distributor.

Click here to read full text.

----------
Where is JocJoc? He is "hiding" in America to evade investigation!

Now it is getting more clear why the Lord is allowing this "food crisis" to happen in the near future -- because corruption is also prevalent in the DA.

What about the other agencies of the government? Surely there are many, but where else can we seek for justice? Our justice system itself is also beginning to be corrupted by the "experts".

Lord, unless you show us the right way, when can the oppressed have true justice nowadays?

Read, Inside Story: SC Justices had pre-determined votes on Neri case.

[Psalms 37:7-10] Rest in Yahweh, and wait patiently for him. Don't fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who makes wicked plots happen. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath. Don't fret, it leads only to evildoing. For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for Yahweh shall inherit the land. For yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more. Yes, though you look for his place, he isn't there. But the humble shall inherit the land, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.