Obscene

Philippine Daily Inquirer

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THE NEWS that Malacañang has slashed the subsidies of government-owned and -controlled corporations in the proposed P1.645-trillion national budget for 2011 is the first concrete response by the government to the problem of runaway salaries of GOCC officials.

From P32.3 billion this year, the proposed subsidy has been cut to P23.3 billion. The difference—as much as P16.016 billion—is a huge amount, and represents a welcome dose of fiscal sanity in a system that looks very much like institutional highway robbery.

It’s a good initial step, but Malacañang must not stop there. The revelation that executives and employees of these GOCCs are the highest-paid workers in the government payroll prompts the question: What do they need the government subsidies for?

The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, for instance, must have, in Sen. Franklin Drilon’s wry formulation, run out of letters of the alphabet to call its laundry list of bonuses. The perks come with the most commonplace names, but the amounts they guarantee, and the fact that they repeat themselves in ever more desperate-sounding variations, ensures the generosity of the largesse. Just for the holiday season, the MWSS dispenses three kinds of bonuses to its board of trustees: the Traditional Corporate Christmas Package (TCCP), Traditional Christmas Bonus (TCB), and Additional Christmas Bonus (ACB).

 Pray tell, how are they different from each other? There are also bonuses for such milestone events as the “anniversary of the privatization of MWSS,” “family week celebration” (separate from the “family day” bonus) and “government corp/employees week,” on top of the “collective negotiation agreement incentive,” “rate rebasing incentive,” “educational assistance” and “additional educational assistance,” among other things.

Since the MWSS and other firms like it are swimming in so much money that they have to employ absurd nomenclature to justify giving the cash away, why do they still receive subsidies from state coffers? Ah, their executives will tell you: because their charters say so. GOCC charters not only grant these companies fiscal and administrative autonomy, they also require the government to provide automatic allocations for them in the national budget.

And there is the gaping loophole Congress and Malacañang must plug if they are serious about reining in these outrageous emoluments.

The Department of Finance has also announced it is studying the creation of a centralized body that will streamline GOCC operations. Any office established for such purpose will have its work cut out for it. Its first task is to find out whether maintaining all these corporations at crippling government expense is still worth it. Part of the 158 or so GOCCs “are no longer operating,” Finance Undersecretary Jeremias N. Paul Jr. said. Why hasn’t anyone looked into abolishing such costly deadwood?

Congress, too, must revisit the charters of these organizations, and root out esoteric provisions that, over the years, have only managed to shield these companies from the glare of public accountability and transparency. The defense that such charters exempt GOCCs from the ambit of regular governmental oversight has allowed these corporations to make short shrift of the normal rules on rational pay and auditing practices, directly giving rise to the problem of astronomical bonuses.

A memorandum order issued by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2001, for example, explicitly barred any GOCC executive from receiving salaries twice the regular pay of Cabinet secretaries (about P69,000 monthly, gross). But documents submitted to the Senate show that board members of the Government Service and Insurance System were paid as much as P6 million each annually, or P500,000 every month. Their work? Attending two board meetings a month.

Officials of the Social Security System were even more handsomely rewarded for their efforts. Four of them reportedly raked in millions as designated board members of Philex Mining Corp., where the SSS holds some P14.3 billion in investments.

What happened to the GMA memorandum? Ignored just like that?

This is unacceptable—a completely anarchical state of affairs that, in time, would drive the country to penury. Obscene is the word, and that describes both the staggering amounts that have changed hands, and the people who have had no compunction receiving them.

Published in Philippine Daily Inquirer August 28, 2010.

Francis Kong’s winning attitudes for success

BUSINESS OPTION

By FLOR G. TARRIELA

August 23, 2010, 3:32pm

At the recent PNB’s Business Managers convention for all the managers of its 324 branches, motivational speaker Francis Kong spoke on the “Winning Attitudes for Success.”

Francis’ engaging talk identified some winning attitudes of an excellent salesman to the business managers:

1. Always make good impressions. Be a sight for sore eyes.

Excellent sales people create make good first impressions. They arrive on time. They are genuine, pleasant, and easy to talk with. The best salespeople have a neat and well-groomed look about them.

Note that he does not suggest buying expensive branded clothes especially if you cant afford it.

If you go to the client selling, you are a salesman. But if you go to your client with information that can help him, then you are a consultant. Guess what? A consultant wins over a salesman 100% of the time.

2. Like people and be likeable yourself.

Excellent salespeople are liked. They want to please their customers. They go the extra mile, learn customers' preferences, and work to educate their customers and keep them informed. Generally, before you can like other people, you need to be likable your self. One way is to have a positive attitude. Who likes to be with negative, whining and cranky people?

3. Be a good listener.

Excellent sales people carefully listen to what their prospects are saying. THEY DO NOT SELL BUT THEY LEAD THE CUSTOMERS TO BUY. They are patient with prospects--not pushy. They understand the most important key to successful selling is not THE SALE TODAY but THE RELATIONSHIP TOMORROW.

4. Behave professionally.

Excellent people will always point to the product pluses and advantages they offer but will not verbally tear down their competitors. There is no need to put the others down to be up. Focus on the positive side of your product. Respect the intelligence of your clients. Moreover, excellent salespeople never bring their problems to work and let them affect their attitudes.

5. Be product and service oriented, be an expert of the products you market.

Great salespeople know their product inside and out. They can answer even the most complicated and or trivial questions from customers without having to refer them to someone else at the company.

This is why you will never see a great salesperson who is sloppy and careless. They embrace non-stop learning. Excellent sales people devote a great deal of time improving themselves.

6. Be competitive and success driven

Excellent sales people exhibit CREATIVITY and ASSERTIVENESS. They are energetic and they have a very strong work ethic and you see them putting in more hours than their co-workers because they are extremely competitive.

They do not compete against others but they compete against themselves. They have passion.

Champions are so busy prospecting, making calls and appointments, brushing up on their presentations instead of focusing on their commissions. Losers on the other hand, use their calculators all the time to compute their estimated commissions.

Commissions for winners are just by products of their passion.

7. Be customer-focused.

One thing that distinguishes great sales people is that they are able to step outside themselves and see things from the customer's point of view. They focus on the mission of their work – which is to meet the needs of their customers. Francis said that Excellent Customer Service is simply: ‘inconveniencing one’s self for the convenience of others'

We are always selling, our products, services and even our ideas. Not only the sales people of a company has customers. Everyone in the organization, directly and indirectly, affect the final customer.

We all know that change is all around us and customer needs are changing all the time with expectations rising. To meet customer demands, we need to continuously develop and improve on products and services offered.

PNB’s 2-day business managers convention led by Retail Banking Head Joven Hernandez focused on business planning, learning and fellowship in line with PNB’s continuing thrust to develop service excellence in the organization. For the key to meet and satisfy customer is the people factor, having the right people, the most important asset of any organization.

Ms. Tarriela is Chairman of Philippine National Bank. She was formerly Undersecretary of Finance and Vice President of Citibank, N.A.

Published in Manila Bulletin August 24, 2010.

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52 Practical/Scientific Reasons to go to

Church...

besides the obvious ones.

 Reason No. 2 - Answers to Prayers

People go to church to pray and worship God, but is there any evidence that prayer works? A number of experiments have been conducted on hospital patients, showing substantial evidence for the positive effects of prayer.

One such study was conducted by R. Byrd at San Francisco General Hospital. He studied 339 coronary patients over a ten-month period. The double blind study divided the patients into two groups. The first group was prayed for by church members of various denominations (Judeo-Christian). The people assigned to prayer were given the first names of the patients and asked to pray for them regularly throughout the ten-month period. The control group was well matched to the test group as to seriousness of illness, age of patient, etc.

According to Byrd, the prayer group had "less congestive heart failure, required less diuretic and antibiotic therapy, had fewer episodes of pneumonia, had fewer cardiac arrests, and were less frequently ventilated." The patients, doctors, nurses and hospital staff had no knowledge of the purpose of the study. Subsequent studies have confirmed this result.

Byrd, R.C., "Positive Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer in a Coronary Care Unit Population," Southern Medical Journal 81 (1988): 826-829.

SALN—a weapon of good governance

By Rodel Rodis
INQUIRER.net

CALIFORNIA, United States—Soon after the dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his family fled to the US in the aftermath of the 1986 People Power uprising, the Philippine comedic duo of Noel Trinidad and Subas Herrera (“Champoy”) embarked on a comedy tour of the US.

One line that always drew howls of laughter was Subas’s comment about how much he felt right at home in the US "because this is where our taxes have been spent."

Subas was referring to the widespread news in the US press that Imelda Marcos had purchased five prime Manhattan properties such as the Crown Building as well as the vast Lindenmere estate in Long Island. It was also reported that she had bought about 200 choice properties in California including at least 30 holdings in Los Angeles.

How much did Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos plunder during their two decades of rule from 1966 to 1986? Estimates may vary from $20B to $50B but suffice to say that when they began, the Philippines was one of the top economies of Asia and when their kleptocratic reign ended, the country was reduced to one of the region’s most impoverished. Despite massive evidence of their brazen plunder, none of the Marcoses have ever been convicted of corruption.

Even the $310M worth of jewelry seized from Imelda Marcos by the Cory Aquino government in 1986 was ordered returned back to Imelda by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales on June 13, 2009 because he concluded that the government could not prove that it was illegally obtained.

This was not the intent of the forfeiture law (Republic Act 1379) that was enacted on June 18, 1955. Although it has been ignored, especially during the Marcos era, the law allows the Philippine government to forfeit any property found to have been unlawfully acquired by any public officer or employee. This means that "property acquired by any public officer or employee during his/her incumbency which is manifestly out of proportion to his/her salary" can be seized by the government.

To implement this 1955 law, Congress passed the SALN law, Republic Act 3019, popularly known as the Statement of Assets and Liabilities and Net worth law on August 17, 1960 requiring "every public officer, within thirty days after assuming office and, thereafter, on or before the fifteenth day of April following the close of every calendar year (to submit) a statement of the amounts and sources of his income, the amounts of his personal and family expenses and the amount of income taxes paid for the next preceding calendar year."

Half a century later, the SALN law lies moribund because there has been no mechanism to verify the SALNs and no penalty for committing perjury in the SALNs.

An example of the weakness of this law was presented on national TV on September 3, 2009 when GMA son Representative Mikey Arroyo was asked by Winnie Monsod to explain how his SALN could show a net worth of P5 million ($100,000) in 2002 and P99 million ($2.2M) in 2008. Mikey’s answer: “You know, first of all, I got married. I received lots of gifts. Then in the election campaign, somehow, many people helped me.” Is it legal to pocket the money given by campaign donors?

In that TV interview, Mikey reluctantly acknowledged that he partly owned the property at 1655 Beach Park Boulevard in Foster City in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. Although the $1.32M residential property was listed in San Mateo County records in 2009 as owned by his wife, Angela Montenegro Macapagal, it was not listed in the 2008 and 2009 SALNs of Mikey Arroyo.

Power grab: The story behind the Jan. 20, 2001 : EDSA People Power 2 conspiracy that swept Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to power

Despite his admission, Mikey still asserted that there was no proof that he violated the SALN law.

Winnie responded: “You know what, the law is very clear. If there is a problem, when there is a question of unexplained wealth here, the burden of proof is with you, with the government employee. It can’t be that (we) have to prove that (you) are guilty. No, the government employee should prove that he is innocent. That’s precisely the whole objective of having a statement of assets and liabilities.”

Representative Mikey Arroyo, who returns to Congress as the representative of the Ang Galing party list of the marginalized tricycle drivers, technically complied with the law when he filled out his SALN forms and submitted them. But how is the veracity of his SALN verified? And what happens once it is established that he has other undisclosed (Foster City) assets?

Responsibility for the enforcement of the SALN law rests with the Office of the Ombudsman headed by Merceditas Gutierrez, a GMA appointee who was the Ateneo Law School classmate of former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo. Understandably, she has shown no desire to investigate the Arroyos.

The Ombudsman would have to be compelled by a court order to enforce the SALN. Unfortunately, the Philippine Supreme Court—all GMA appointees—has exempted itself and the entire judicial branch from having to comply with the SALN law, a clear violation of a law enacted on February 20, 1989 (RA 6713) that expressly includes members of the judiciary as among those required to submit SALNs.

When the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) wanted to investigate reports that certain judges were charging P500,000-P750,000 to issue a restraining order or injunction, it could not obtain the SALNs of the judges because of the Supreme Court's exemption ruling.

After 50 years, the SALN law may be on life support but it isn’t dead yet. Since Congress will not likely pass any law that will put more teeth into SALN, President Noynoy Aquino should just sign an executive order designating officials in each agency of government to compile the SALNs of public officials and to review and verify them and post them online. The Department of Justice should then go after the public officials with unexplained wealth and place the onus on them to prove their innocence as Winnie explained to Mikey. That’s the way the SALN law was envisioned 50 years ago this week. It’s time to finally enforce it and use it as a weapon of good governance.

Send comments to Rodel50@aol.com or mail them to the Law Offices of Rodel Rodis at 2429 Ocean Avenue, San Francisco or call 415.334.7800

Published in Philippine Daily Inquirer August 15, 2010

Survey finds Cebu City 'most honest'

CEBU City was awarded as the most honest and transparent city among metro growth centers outside Metro Manila.

It also fared well in a survey on the quality of life, cost of doing business, dynamism of the local economy, human resources and training, infrastructure, and responsiveness of local government units (LGUs) to business needs.

Cebu City, along with Dagupan and Cagayan de Oro, was named the most competitive city outside Metro Manila in the Philippine Cities Competiveness Ranking Project 2009 (PCCRP) of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Policy Center.

Cebu City was also recognized as the Best in Disaster Preparedness, Best in the Dynamism of its Local Economy and Best in Infrastructure.

According to the AIM Policy Center website, Cebu City figured in all the award categories, which included Best Compliance with Government-Mandated Plans, Entrepreneurs’ Award for Most Supportive to MSMEs, Entrepreneurs’ Award for Most Honest and Transparent Cities, Dynamism of Local Economy, Infrastructure, and Quality of Life.

“I’m very proud of this and I’m proud our city government. At least, I have something to show to our critics and I can just laugh at them,” said former Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña, who received the award last week.

The PCCRP study was based on government data, a perception survey among business owners, and interviews with local chief executives and local business group’s representative.

It also classified the cities into three groups: metropolitan growth centers, growth centers and emergent cities.

According to the summary of findings and a report published by Newsbreak Online, Cebu City bested Davao in the metro growth center category, which refers to cities with an average of P3.05 billion total income and average population of 1.08 million.

The city received the Entrepreneurs’ Award for “Most Honest and Transparent in its Dealings” among metro growth cities.

It was credited for disclosing financial accountability, as well as using participation in its planning and budgeting processes.

Cebu City was also named the top performer in disaster preparedness.

It was commended for its City Disaster Coordinating Council, disaster preparedness plan and documents on tracking of informal settlers. It also met the minimum ratio for the number of firemen for every 100,000 residents.

The city also bested other cities for its dynamic economy, measured in terms of per capita income, number of commercial and universal banks, building construction area, membership in local chambers of commerce and industry, access to finance, level of foreign interest, number of Department of Tourism accredited establishments and historical sites.

It bested Davao City in infrastructure for the reduced travel time to its seaport, reduced travel time for road maintenance, commercial water connections, subscribed telephone lines and reliability of water service.

Cagayan de Oro, meanwhile, topped in the growth centers category, which included the cities of General Santos, Baguio, Lapu-Lapu, Zamboanga, Olongapo, Batangas, Iloilo, Bacolod and Mandaue. These cities have an average income of P1.2 billion and population 421,165.

Dagupan City is the most competitive among the emergent cities.

It bested the cities of Angeles, Butuan, Cotabato, Lucena, Naga, Legaspi, Pagadian, Puerto Princesa, Ormoc, Iligan, Tagum, and San Fernando in La Union, Surigao, Tuguegarao, Tacloban and Santiago.

AIM conducted the study with support from the United States Agency for International Development and the German foundation gtz. (GAC)

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on August 14, 2010.

Manny Villar blameless?

By Solita Collas-Monsod
Philippine Daily Inquirer
01/30/2010

WHILE the Senate is declaring a moratorium on the discussion of the ethics case against Sen. Manny Villar, here are some incontrovertible facts, presented in Q & A form. The source of the information is also given.

    * Question: What roadway projects are the subject matter of the Villar ethics controversy?

      Answer:
         1. The Manila Cavite Toll Expressway Project (MCTEP), the original C-5 south extension project, linking SLEX with the Coastal Road;
         2. the DPWH C-5 Extension project (CX-5), which together with
         3. the Las Piñas-Parañaque Link Project (LPPLP), also links SLEX with the Coastal Road.

            Source: Senate Report (SR) 780.




    * Q: Is the CX-5/LPPLP project a realignment, as Sen. Jamby Madrigal describes it, or has there been no realignment, as Senator Villar’s allies insist?

      A: Technically there has been no realignment, because these are two separate roads linking C-5 from SLEX to the Coastal Road. But they are very close together and, in some areas, overlap, as can be ascertained from a site map.

      Source: interactive map available at www.gmanews.tv: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/182541/the-c5-extension-controversy-an-interactive-map




    * Q: Are there any differences between the MCTEP and the CX-5/LPPLP?

      A: Yes.
         1. The MCTEP is a joint-venture project between the government and a private Malaysian partner, with the government’s financial exposure limited to P2.68 billion for the purchase of the road right-of-way; the private partner is responsible for the construction of the project, for which tolls will be charged. The CX-5/LPPLP is a toll-free, wholly-financed government project costing P6.96 billion;
         2. The CX-5/LPPLP is longer than the MCTEP, its extra length essentially covering the LPPLP portion;
         3. The CX-5/LPPLP passes through more Villar properties than the MCTEP.

            Source: DPWH project documents cited as Exhibits A, B and TTTT in SR 780; site map from www.gmanews.tv.




    * Q: How large are the Villar company landholdings in the immediate vicinity of the questioned road projects?

      A: At least 50-52 hectares: 40 hectares in the vicinity of the LPPLP; 10-12 hectares in the area between Sucat Road and Multinational Avenue.

      Source: testimony of Anastacio Adriano Jr., senior vice president and general manager, chief operating officer of Adelfa Properties Inc. and other Villar-owned companies up to 2008; self-styled consultant and political officer of Senator Villar since August 2008. Nota bene: Senate employment records do not include his name.

      Nota bene: it is not clear whether the 50-52 hectares mentioned above include properties cited in SR 780—roughly 10 hectares in area—to be developed by Villar companies in joint venture with their owners.




    * Q: What is the involvement of Villar in CX-5 and LPPLP?

      A:
         1. The Project Feasibility Study of the DPWH for CX-5 states: “The conceptualization of and the initial release of funds for the CX-5 Project was initiated by Sen. Manuel Villar whose same efforts also paved the way for the funding of the Las Piñas-Parañaque Link Road [LPPLP]â€�;
         2. Various insertions and amendments (Priority Development Assistance Fund, read pork barrel) in the national government budget over the years 2002-2008 for CX-5 and LPPLP;
         3. Adriano (cited above), in the office of and presence of Villar, dictating to the director general of the Senate’s Legislative Budget Research and Monitoring Office (LBRMO) Villar’s proposed amendments to the 2008 budget, including a P400-million appropriation for the CX-5.

      Source: documents submitted by DPWH, lawyer Yolanda Doblon of the LBRMO, testimony of both Doblon and Adriano, cited in SR 780.




    * Q: Were the Villar properties bought for road right-of-way overpriced?
      A: SR 780 argues for the affirmative; PSR 1472 (the resolution signed by Villar and his allies exonerating him from all charges) argues for the negative. This calls for a conclusion of the reader.

      And to help that along, I have—based on the documented prices and acreage of the lands purchased in connection with the LPPLP—computed the weighted average prices that were paid for the Villar and related properties, and those paid for the non-Villar properties.

      The results: The Villar/related properties, comprising 23,455 square meters, were bought for P168.1 million. The non-Villar properties, comprising 11,685 square meters, were bought for P22 million. That comes to a weighted average of P7,168 per square meter for Villar’s properties, and P1,880 per square meter for the non-Villar properties. That has to be a statistically significant difference.



Given the above facts—which no one can contest, since they are based on official documents, and not on a he-says-she-says set of assertions—it has to be reasonable to conclude:

   1. Since there was already an ongoing project (the MCTEP) linking C-5 to the Coastal Road, it was totally unnecessary to build a second one.

   2. Which means that there was a waste of scarce resources. Instead of using only P2.6 billion of government funds for the first project, the government had to spend an additional P6.9 billion for the second, which practically duplicated the first, except for the additional length which happily for Senator Villar, traversed his properties.

   3. This unnecessary, wasteful project was certainly Villar’s idea. It is specious to argue that it is a DPWH project. As the DPWH feasibility study states (in black and white), both the CX-5 and the LPPLP were conceived and initially funded by Villar.

   4. Villar benefited tremendously from the second project. Certainly, his companies were paid significantly more per square meter for the road right of way (which were mostly bought from him). But that pales into insignificance compared with the tremendous increase in the values of his real estate holdings in the area—at least 50-52 hectares.


Is he blameless? Is the Pope protestant? ###

LP campaign acronym: Thank you, Lorrrd!

By DJ Yap
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—Invoking the Lord’s name in a political campaign has become standard practice in this predominantly Christian country. But what about using the name of the “Lorrrd”?

In what could be called either a political masterstroke or just plain gimmickry, Liberal Party senatorial candidates have formed their names into a rather catchy campaign acronym: “SLAMAT LORRRD.”

“That’s not just ‘salamat (thank you), Lord.’ It’s ‘salamat Lorrrd,’” said Sen. Francis Pangilinan, exaggeratedly rolling his Rs.

The acronym stands for: S-Sonia Roco, L-Brig. Gen. Danny Lim, A-Nereus Acosta, M-Martin Bautista, A-Alexander Lacson, T- Teofisto “TG” Guingona, L-Yasmin Busran Lao, O-Serge Osmeña (guest candidate), R-Ruffy Biazon, R-Ralph Recto, R-Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel, and D-Franklin Drilon.

Pangilinan, who was recently designated as spokesperson for LP’s senatorial slate, said they came up with the acronym during a recent brainstorming session.

“We thought it up” when the lineup was complete, he said.

Why rich people cannot afford many kids

Philippine Daily Inquirer

The rich cannot afford to have many children because more children will deprive them of time to make more and more money. Only the poor can afford to have many children because they trust that God will bless their best efforts to provide for their children.

If only the government would honestly use the billions and trillions of money allotted for good governance and public service, including proper infrastructure development, good education and health care, then all of us can work for a decent life. Then those who teach the morality of treating pregnancy as a disease like the proponents of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill do, and those who consider abortion simply as a process of “evacuating uterine contents,” would have no reason to force their morality on us.

A large majority of women who seek abortion are those who had failed in their attempt at contraception. Legalizing artificial contraception through abortifacients will surely lead to legalizing abortion.

Also, doctors do not have to be sick in order to treat their patients with similar cases of cancer, tuberculosis and other sicknesses. In the same way, the Church hierarchy under the infallible teaching of the Holy Father the Pope on faith and morals, do not have to have first-hand experience of married life in order to teach us about the sacredness of life and family.

—LELLA M. DE JESUS,
Commission on Family and Life,
Mary Mother of Good Counsel Parish,
Parañaque City,
email: lellamdj@gmail.com