Debt, Debt and More Debt

I was pretty young when I was first acquainted with the debt that the Philippines has.  Actually, I wouldn’t really use the word “acquainted” since the discourse on the matter was not even thorough.  It was merely one of my sisters mentioning that we have a debt and that Marcos was the one who perpetuated it.  (Hands off on that one)  Anyway, it was really a random conversation but it was instrumental in changing my perception regarding my citizenship as a Filipino.  Even as a child who dines in a marble dining table (I am not joking), I believe I was poor.  I am a Filipino and our government has an immense debt.  Therefore, I am at debt too.

Years passed and the people around me continued to open my eyes to the economic situation of the country.  I remember a teacher in high school who was obsessed with news.  She makes us report before we start class and she practically thrives in bad news that involves the government.

My cynicism grew and with it came my skewed discernment about the status quo.

Fast forward to 2011, my assertions pretty much remained the same.  I am not as active politically as I used to, especially where mobilizations and campaigns for economic reforms are concerned.  Nevertheless, I am still at a point where I am irrevocably disconcerted with the efforts of the government to keep the country from going to the dogs.  At present, I am particularly irate at privatization issues, which continue to bleed us dry.

Water and power issues are two significant cases in point.  Water and power is privatized and the consequences of that move are carried by the people.  We are immensely burdened by these issues as corporations make money out of our necessities.  It is evident that there is water pollution and water shortage to deal with.  There is also power shortage in Mindanao in 2010.  And perhaps that shortage will also reflect in Manila in the coming years.  These issues plague us collectively and yet government intervention is scant.  These important issues were not being properly addressed not merely because of a lack of prowess on the part of the powers that be.  Fact is, the government cannot take charge of these key issues because they do not have the same authority that they used to.  Water and power is privatized and as such, the responsibility does not fully belong to their hands anymore.

Let us try to put things in the proper context.  When the government decided to privatize water and power, its mind was set on doing the math.  Taking its hands off these two basic services would be parallel to less overhead costs.  Thus, we can save up and instead use the appropriated cost on other basic social services and on debt servicing.  What the government failed to anticipate is that not all plans of actions that look good on paper will be translated to such ideal results when applied in a practical setting.

That said; look at the common people’s way of life.  Where are we now?  Some groups are fighting more privatizations as this is essential in trying to keep our heads up as a nation.  Significant efforts are being exerted and I think the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) has won legal issues on this regard.  But we are still a long way from sweet victory.  The battle is just beginning.  We need the understanding and cooperation of the executive, legislative and the judiciary because they can tweak things up in favor of the Filipino people.  The question is, do their interests cover ours?

Random Thoughts on IPE

The integration of the financial markets of nations and states worldwide is undeniable and this reflects the status quo in the international community, especially where politics and economic are concerned.

The global financial crisis that has started in the United States has evidently scorched the entirety of the international community. This, of course, can be seen as the result of the interconnectedness between the global financial market and the United States. More than anything else, this phenomenon perfectly epitomizes the advent of the merging of the economies of the states and nations in the world. It inherently creates a connection with the theory on International Political Economy.

In a statement, Saskia Sasssen mentioned that there has been ‘a growing consensus among states to further the growth and strength of the global economy. This is seen in the way that the financial markets all over the world had somewhat become intertwined. It is only to be expected, therefore, that the decline of the economy of the hegemon has ultimately affected the rest of the world. In another statement, Sassen said that the view that states and international economic actors are inextricably opposed entities, both seeking dominance in the world political economy, provides an inadequate understanding of the relationship between states and markets, politics and economics.

The premise that the economies of states and nations are more integrated as ever in this day and age further explains why the rest of the world was direly affected by the global financial meltdown. Even as the downturn merely began in the US, its effects have inevitably led to a bank crisis and to unemployment worldwide.

In a recent study conducted by the UN, it was cited that middle-class families in the Philippines are not directly affects ny the global financial crisis. I was a little pensive at this statement; nevertheless, I chose to shut my mouth. As sheer fortune had it, a researcher from India pointed out that middle-class families in the Philippines are seemingly unaffected because the income-earners of these families have opted to take on two jobs and to get longer hours of work to sustain a decent living.

In this regard, pray tell how international political economy is not deemed relevant in our political and economic standing, as well as in the depth of family values that we are inculcating in the mindset of the young generation.

Water Crisis and the Blame Game

Water concessionaires say that the long dry spells that we have had causes the inadequacy of water supply from the Angat Dam, which, in turn, causes our water shortage in Manila.

Angat Dam representatives declared that the National Power Corporation is at fault, specifically because it mismanaged the Angat Dam reservoir.  They further pointed out that the Napocor team that takes charge of the reservoir is understaffed (read this:  very inefficient).

On its part, the Napocor blames the people for abusing our natural resources, which contributed to water shortage.

For those of us who study international systems and the governments of third world countries, the blame game that these sectors are playing depict a classic picture of an intrastate waterdispute.

Why Water was Made Private

Water is a universal right; it necessary to sustain human life and thus, it is inherent to all of us.  In 1997, the government chose to shrink away from its responsibility of providing basic water services to its people for the pursuit of a better allocation of funds.  Yes, this privatization of water resources came up because we had to allocate it to debt servicing.  Since we have debts from the World Bank and the IMF (like you wouldn’t imagine), the government decided to privatize water, instead.  Aside from immediately materializing to monetary resources, water privatization also saved the government from the added burden of paying for the maintenance of the country’s water supply.

The thing with this arrangement, though, is that the purpose of privatizing water resources has gone to the dogs precisely because the appropriation of funds was merely distributed to the pockets of the corrupt.

Now what?

Now, as you can see, we have citizens from Malabon and Novaliches who are fighting the odds because they have had this water shortage for over a week now.  We have fires in that couldn’t be put out because even the firemen had no adequate supply of water.  Residents in Manila were told that their water supply is continuously going down.  The price of water is skyrocketing and the service we are being provided with is as poor as ever, yet the government is hands-off on this issue because the ownership of water is no longer in its hands.

The stark realities are there.  It is written clearly, in black and white.  And no matter how we try, we cannot ignore this issue.  You guys, you people in power, shouldn’t, too.

Global Governance and State Transformation. As if.

Globalization is more than just an idea; it is a reality and a way of life.  While the notion that globalization seeks only to benefit us all may have pervaded at one point or another, facts also point out that globalization is not a perfect concept.  This leads us to delve into the throes of globalization in order to validate the premise that globalization also has its drawbacks.  Among the prevailing issues involving globalization, which has a major implication in our present time, is the culmination of the idea of global govern ance.

I read an article by Sassen Saskia entitled. The Participation of States and Citizens in Global Governance.  I was supposed to read the article for academic purposes but I personal interest made me read the text again.

Hands off on the academic side of the principles involved in this article, I think what I read is categorized among those things that look good on paper but would ultimately suck when used in a practical setting.

Yeah, indeed,  It would suck, big time.  (No need to mince words here, tight?)

The idea presented by Saskin is really quite noble and if you are a utopian, you would probably believe that such notions can result to a good outcome.  But the thing is, I’m not a utopian.  I’m a realist at heart and I believe that the possibility of citizens and states participating in global governance is too farfetched.

The economic meltdown in the US has gravely affected the rest of us.  Against that background, how would you expect the citizens and states to prioritize a prosperous means for global governance when the problems that plague us cannot even force us to commit to our responsibilities as a citizen of our own nation?

In the Philippines, participation in national governance alone requires money.  Transportation and food when you are lobbying or attending a session is a very simplistic example that we can cite.  Then, there’s the problem on bureaucracies.  How would you expect the people in power to allow the average individual to have a say in national governance?

The idea that Saskin presents is that state and citizen participation plays a major role in the pursuit for the betterment of global governance.  Saskin expresses her belief that by  encouraging states and citizens to have a say on the economic affairs of the state and of the global community,  state transformation would be well within reach.  But how would that state transformation take place if national democratic societies alone are plagued with contradictions?  There are too much individual differences, too many voices raised, too many ideals, and not a single, surefire way to resolve conflicts.  So where does that leave us?

Thumbs Down on Chiz Escudero

I heard a kid shout “cheese”.  I figured he was posing for a cutie shot.  I, however, thought of “Chiz” – Francis “Chiz” Escudero.

I was a super fangirl where Chiz Escudero is concerned.   Francis Joseph Escudero used to be at the top of my crush list.  One fateful day in 2005 when I covered a rally in Ayala, I met Chiz Escudero.  The guy is unbelievable.  I met him once; I talked to him once.  He has the kind of smile that made me forget the difference between his age and mine.  He has a way of looking at you that would literally make your knees turn to jelly.  Mine did.

I remember my dad, my PHILGOCO professor and my LAWMAMED professor all taking turns on ridiculing Chiz.  What the heck – I though their negative perception about Chiz was uncalled for.  I realize just now what a coincidence it is that the three men who influenced me to enjoy politics have no respect for Chiz.  Oh well.

Chiz was still a Sorsogon Rep. when he piqued my interest.  As he climbed up from the House to the Senate, I started losing my respect for him.  I must admit that I was one of those people who were smitten by his charm and his boyish good looks.  But as I said, I don’t have high regards for the guy anymore.  For one, his family has uber close ties with the Marcoses, what with his father Sonny Escudero as a loyal Cabinet member during the Marcos regime.  Secondly, he stands by Erap.  Erap, my foot!  Chiz has a slick façade and I guess we need to have a 20-20 vision in order to see through him.  Chiz invariably has it all – the wit and intelligence, self-confidence and of course, his flawless, eloquent command of the Filipino language.  He’s an elite who was also loved by the masas, but his allegiance to Erap is taboo.  Erap himself is taboo.

Chiz prides himself on his visions of moving mountains for the welfare of the Filipinos, but come off it.  Is it not enough that he wreaked havoc in Sorsogon by spending his CDFs on sports cars and the likes instead of spending it on livelihood programs for his constituents?  Moreover, Chiz always has his face emblazoned on our TV screens whenever he has something to say about the Administration but when it was time to comment on calamities that strike his region, he was elsewhere.

So now Chiz has decided to resign from NPC.  Pardon me for saying this but I seriously doubt that he did it to distance himself from the patronage of a party because he realized that if he is to serve his people, he should do so without political ties, blahblah.  I tend to think the worst where Chiz is concerned.  My guess is that he couldn’t get Danding to bankroll his candidacy even if Danding is NPC Chair because of Danding’s ties with Gibo (and Noynoy, too, but I think Danding will back Gibo rather than Noynoy).  Or he simply wants to create some media frenzy to increase his popularity (of course, we all know that he’s already popular to begin with)

Well, we can all guess and wonder but to top it off, I daresay that Chis Escudero is a filthy traditional politician who’s as charming and as wise as a cunning snake.

Incensed – In Every Sense of the Word

I’m thoroughly disgusted with the CCP for honoring Imelda Marcos.  Patroness of the Arts?? What the – as if Philippine Arts was non-existent before that piece of scum had the CCP built.  And what’s more, it’s not as if it was her money that built the CCP.  FYI, the fund used for building the CCP was supposed to be appropriated for the war veterans.  But then again, we all know how little regard the Marcoses have for the benefit of the non-elite sectors of the Philippine society.

If truth be told, I was also  dismayed to find out that it had been St. Scho Hildegard awardee Emily Abrera who chaired the board of directors that decided to go for the said tribute for that imeldific swine.  The tribute was, and is, a grave insult to the memory of those who suffered under the Marcos regime, especially since the tribute was held on September 11, the birthday of that screwed up dictator, Ferdinand Marcos.  Need we be reminded of all those heinous crimes that were committed to us by that evil clan?  Need we be reminded, also, that just last Month, we, as a nation, were mourning the death of democracy icon Cory Aquino?  Have we no shame at all?  No sense of propriety, even?

I can’t turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to what the Marcoses are doing.  They are trying to make their way up again, as if they never did anything wrong.  And we’re sitting at the bleachers, watching them do it.

Doesn’t anybody who voted “yes” to the tribute (it’s entitled Seven Arts, One Imelda) remember that the Marcoses never even apologized for the atrocities they caused to the entire nation?

Are we even aware that their ascent to power is once again looming as 90plus of the100plus (sorry forgot the exact figure) human rights cases filed against them are now brushed aside?

Are we not chagrined by Imelda’s comment during her 80^th birthday last June or July that the Marcoses were broke because the government kept pestering them to relinquish their wealth (which, according to her, was not ill-gotten?)

Are we not going to react that that terrible excuse for a human being wore extravagant jewelry during the gala event sponsored by the CCP when most of us are merely trying to make ends meet?

Do we not see the connection of a Marcos clan paying for Madame Arroyo and her entourage’s extravagant dinner in New York?

Are we not barfing at that old witch’s comment that she hopes her only son, BongBong Marcos, would run for an Executive Seat in the future?

We’re up to our necks paying for a debt we never owed and we had innumerable deaths amongst our people and yet some of us are willing to forgive and to forget the unspeakable crimes of those evil-doers.

I’m utterly sickened at the thought.

Tribute to President Cory Aquino

Growing up in a family where political issues are only tackled when Daddy and I are voicing out our POV’s is probably one of the reasons behind my lack of eagerness to give Cory Aquino a space in my personal web log.  My daddy and I are not fans of Cory Aquino.  He thinks she’s simply a housewife and a martyr who was unable to prove her worth in the political arena.  Meanwhile, the activist circle I had been part of in college had me thinking along these lines:   Cory Aquino is a no-good haciendera, mula sya sa angkan ng mga burgis at mga naghaharing-uri. I mean, you wouldn’t caught me dead singing praises about Cory Aquino when footages of the Hacienda Luicita Massacre are still fresh on my mind; certainly not when I’m conducting ED’s among GY neophytes.  But at this point, I think I’m about to eat my words.  I think I’m just about ready to choke on my shameful rants about Cory Aquino. I’m beginning to realize just how much of an ingrate I am.  Cory Aquino may not have been the epitome of political success, but she’s a decent leader and she loved our country.  She fought against tyrannical leadership and she won over it. We owe her so much…

Here’s a touching excerpt from Ricky Carandang’s blog.  This is my way, too, of saying sorry to Cory Aquino.

It has become fashionable these days to say you failed. That the freedom that you helped us win in 1986 has not gotten us any closer to building a just and prosperous society. That while you yourself were not corrupt, your relatives and your advisers were. That we’ve simply replaced one set of thieves and murderers with another.

It has become fashionable these days to blame you for all of that. Because you didn’t do enough to prevent your revolution from being dismantled from within.

But the people who say that fail to see what 1986 was really about. It wasn’t about you saving us from the Regime and everyone living happily ever after. You did your part everytime you were called upon to do so. The problem was we expected you to do it all by yourself while we stood on the sidelines. We didn’t realize that we had a role to play too and that one person would not be able to do it alone. You didn’t fail. We did.

Plagiarism – Legalized (?)

A close college friend of mine was ranting the other day because her boss, an old priest, was making her do something unethical.  Not that the priest is making sexual advances; no, no, no.  But to a budding journalist like her, I guess this thing has as much weight.

My friend is working for the CBCP; she’s a news writer there.  As the most active person in their news pool, she is tasked to come up with the articles for the CBCP  and for its affiliates.  Anyway, since she is assigned to write most of the articles, all the bylines (bylines:  name of the person who wrote the article, usually comes after the title of the article) there has her name on it.  Of course, this is some sort of an SOP, unless you agreed to be another person’s ghost writer.  For some reason, though, the priests want her name out of some of the articles.  Instead, the priests are instructing her to put the names of the other writers, just so there would be some sort of “balance”.  Nakakasawa na daw puro pangalan nya yung nakalagay.  LOL…

Correct me if I’m wrong but it seems to me that plagiarism is being encouraged in this particular situation.  Priests and lay people might be commended for their sense of fairness and equality but in this case, it simply is not applicable.  In fact, I think there’s some sort of an injustice here.

Plagiarism is the act of passing off another individual’s work as your own.  This means that you copied his or her material without as much as a quotation mark or a mention of his or her name.  What the priests are doing, I think, is based on their principles and viewpoints as church people.  To a certain extent, I guess we cannot take it against the priests for their tendency to see things their way; moreover, they are not trained on media ethics.

It’s so sad that my friend is being chained to the bureaucracy that rules CBCP.  But then again, aren’t we all reined in by the structures of  oligarchies?

The Wise and the Charming Aims for Power

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

I had a semi-political discussion with my roommate the other night.  We were conferring about the no-good traditional politicians in our country.  My roommate, a 23-year old UP Asian Institute researcher, dropped the bomb on one presidential aspirant.  Apparently, this lady senator, known in the media circles as she was once (and still is?) a broadcast journalist herself, is having trysts with a fellow senator.  Oh gawd… This is as crazy as PGMA with H.P.

Does that make this lady senator a political prostitute?  We can’t really say so, really…really…  That’s not what political prostitution means in my book.  But personally, I think there’s something about her that’s a little “off”.

I’m going to jump to another presidential aspirant who is equally popular.

When I was in my junior year in College, I would practically go berserk at the mention of the name Chiz Escudero.  I was a “super fan girl” at that time, so to speak.  But now, several things have opened my eyes about Chiz Escudero.  At this point, I’m really beginning to wonder, given the chance to win the executive seat, is this guy really capable of making a difference in our country?  Hands off on his ability to create wonderful sound bytes, can he really make a difference? And more importantly, can we trust him?

Wise as a monkey; charming as a snake:  behold… the political aspirants are struggling for control.

Qualms of a 21-year old Diabetic

I’ve been following the reports about the cheap meds bill for the past week.  That’s practically the first thing I do at the office after fishing out the contents of my bag for my insulin paraphernalia.

INSULIN.  Okay.  That’s what this post is about:  insulin.  I’ve been using insulin for like eight years to date.  I’ve tried the Humalog, Insulin R, the subcutaneous Insulin N and R, and now Humulin 70-30.  There are various types of insulin:  fast-acting, intermediate-action, rapid-acting, slow-acting, blahblah…  But the thing with insulin is:  1.) it promotes weight gain and 2.) it’s not cheap.

Anyway, as I was obsessing over this cheap meds EO (Is GMA going to sign the EO next week or not), I also conducted my own research.  As it is, I took note of the meds that would have its prices cut once the EO is signed and the law on the price reduction is implemented.  Surprise, surprise! There are no insulin meds included…   In fact, there are practically no meds for type 2 diabetics!!

Here’s the list:  (copied from a PDI article)

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090717-215817/Drug-firms-offer-to-cut-prices-by-60-but

The 21 medicines on the DoH’s recommended MRP list are amlopidine, telmisartan, irbesartan, which are antihypertensive drugs; clopidogrel, an antithrombotic drug; the anticholesterol drug atorvastatin; the antidiabetic drug gliclazide; piperacillin + tazobactam, ciprofloxacin, azithromycin, metronidazole and co-amoxiclave, which are antibiotic drugs; and bleomycin, carboplatin, cisplatin, cyclophosphamide, cytarabine, doxorubicin, etoposide, mercaptopurine, methotrexate sodium and mesna, which are anticancer drugs.

Gliclazide is an oral medication for adult-onset (type 1) diabetics.  I have no use for it.  So much for the hype on diabetic meds on price reduction…

The whole juvenile diabetic community is grieving for this no-good  shot at diabetic healthcare.

To those giant pharmaceutical companies, may you all choke to death.