Man and mouse

AS A man must, so SBMA Administrator Armand Arreza did: face his demons, or those demonizing him, squarely.
Unflinching in his conviction that he has been wronged by the Aquino administration the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority honcho damned the lie to the claim that he received a pay of P26.9 million in 2009.
“Unfair, misleading” was how Arreza called reports naming him as the highest paid government official in the whole Philippines. For the record, the President himself receives only a gross monthly pay of P95,000 which amounts to P1.14 million annually.
By documentary evidence, Arreza presented at a press conference his pay slip showing P95,449 as his monthly take-home pay out of his gross income of P130,888. And an entitlement to a representation allowance of P 8,700.
“My salary is the same as my predecessors’ rate. I have not added a single centavo to what they have been receiving since 2000 — during the time of former SBMA chairman and administrator Felicito Payumo," Arreza stressed, and for effect: “I have not made myself rich. The media reports were erroneous as they incorporated SBMA operational funds with my personal income.”
The operational funds included the P15-million intelligence fund, which – Arreza took pains in explaining – was determined by the Office of the President, and the extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses last year which he estimated at P18 million to P19 million.
Of the P15-million intelligence fund, P10 million goes to the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) based in the Subic Freeport, while the remaining P5 million is divided between his and SBMA Chairman Feliciano Salonga’s offices.
“The P2.5-million intelligence fund appropriated to my office goes straight to the SBMA Law Enforcement Department and the Intelligence and Investigation Office,” Arreza said. “This set-up has been in place since 2004. We have not added to this fund, and, in fact, the amount has remained the same until now.”
The funds for extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses, Arreza explained, are used for advertising and promotions, including sponsorship of big events at Subic like the last Philippine Advertising Congress.
Said Arreza: “SBMA has a mandate to boost investments in the free port, and to achieve that, we have to spend on promotions. We also use the extraordinary and miscellaneous funds to help neighboring communities during calamities, like when the SBMA conducted relief and rescue operations after the devastation wrought by Typhoon Ondoy.”
“These operational expenditures of the SBMA do not in any way form part of my compensation as administrator and chief executive officer,” he sstressed.
No, Arreza emphasized, he does not receive any compensation as member of the SBMA Board of Directors, nor as director of the SBMA subsidiary Freeport Service Corporation. Not simply in compliance with but in strongly adhering to the law against double compensation.
As a man must, and as Arreza did, CDC President-CEO Benigno Ricafort did not.
Placed in the same predicament as Arreza – overblown salaries and scandalous perks of office – the Clark Development Corp. top man took refuge under his wife’s skirt instead of facing the issue squarely.
“…Your news item got me into trouble with my wife as she asked me where I kept the other funds!” So was Ricafort quoted in an e-mail to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Adding that his wife “understood my situation and sympathized with me.”
So Ricafort went on denying the report that he got P14.506 million in 2009, saying that he received “less than P3 million a year” in salary and allowances; that his monthly take-home pay was P117,600 from a gross of P173,000.
On the report that he also received P10 million in extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses and P497,441 in “other expenses,” Ricafort explained that 1) the “non-compensatory amount” allotted under his name was “pre-approved” by the CDC board of directors for expenses like promotions, advertisements and public-client relations; and 2) these expenses “cannot be predicted with strict accuracy” and cannot be capped and restricted “as it may impede corporate initiatives for growth and expansion.” So reported the Inquirer.
Rationalized Ricafort: “Since the fund usage is for unpredicted and extraordinary items, it is entrusted under the authority and accountability of the president and CEO, not for his personal use, but for purposes left to his judgment and his executive officers, as this may occur and cannot await the special allotment by the board … that meets [only] twice a month.”
In the absence of documentary evidence proffered before the press to back his claim, Ricafort’s ululations are no different from the pathetic squeaks of a trapped mouse.
Pity.

'Q' in July

IN JULY 2007, Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio was hailed as the miracle man with the quarry collection rising to an unprecedented P24.405 million for that single month, his first in office.
Spectacular was Panlilio’s accomplishment – principally through the efforts of the original quarrymen of Balas (Biyaya a Luluguran at Sisikapan), especially when ranged against the dismal non-performance of the Lapid father and son at the Capitol.
At the helm of Lapid the Elder, July 2002 recorded a collection of P1.08 million; July 2003, a total of P1.17 million.
Lapid the Younger made a slight improvement over papa’s collection: July 2004 – P1.17perfect equalization there); July 2005 – P3.12 million; July 2006 – P1.62 million.
Panlilio’s P24.405 million of July 2007 was the highest he ever attained in a month throughout his three year term.
For July 2008, the collection stood at P13.485 million and for July 2009, it was at P17.355.
Comes now the quarry ledger in the first month of Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda: July 2010: a total of P23.505 million.
In only her first working day – July 1 – with a collection of P1.305 million, Nanay Baby already eclipsed totally the whole July collections of Lito Lapid in 2002 and 2003, and that of Mark Lapid in July 2004.
Beating a dead horse anew we shall be doing here pointing to the scandalously grave discrepancy in the quarry collections between the Lapids’ terms and their successors’. But this we need to, if only to impact in the minds of the Kapampangan the hundreds of millions of pesos squandered if not plundered, and the lost opportunities for development those could have effected.
A comparison among the “good” collectors is just as odious. But a requisite process too. Yes, a little less than a million short of Panlilio’s first month collection is Nanay Baby’s. But then there are some intervening factors that added to Panlilio’s favor.
“The construction of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway was full blast then. Hence the great demand for quarry materials.” So declared Filologo Rodriguez, Balas supervisor then who was unceremoniously dismissed by Panlilio after helping engineer the “quarry miracle,” and now supervisor of the new quarry body Kalam (Kapampangan a Lulugud at Matapat). “Easily, the SCTEx factored in P3 million to P4 million of the July 2007 collection.”
An undermining factor Rodriguez noted in the July 2010 collection were the heavy rains in July 14, when the collections dropped to P510,000; in July 15, with P660,000 collection; and in July 22, with P645,000.
This was more than offset by the 13 days when daily collections exceeded P1 million.
Nanay Baby’s P23.505 million for July 2010 though is lower only to Panlilio’s P24.405 million for July 2007. The nearest he could get to it was April 2008’s P21.510 million.
On record, the last two months of the Panlilio administration registered “measly” P9.255 million in May 2010 and P13.695 million in June 2010. The combined total there short of the July 2010 collections.
So Nanay Baby has started exceedingly good with the quarry collections. Now, she is burdened with the proof of at least maintaining, desirably excelling, her first month collection throughout her term.
More than the millions being collected though, what really matters is how these are used for the benefit of the people of Pampanga.
After all, the quarry collections are not the beginning and end of good governance. That which the Panlilio administration seemed to have believed. And suffered – in electoral defeat – for it.

Damn 'PAMCHAM'

NOW YOU know why Among Ed (Panlilio) steadfastly refused, if not totally ignored the proffered counsel of Rene Romero at the onset of his governorship.
What? Why? Asked I of the respected reverend sharing cups of cafe Americano with me at Starbucks Marquee Mall Thursday last week.
He shoved before me the day’s issue of Sun-Star Pampanga folded to page 2 with the headline Total removal of trees along highway sought.
I started to read the news story: Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Pamcham) President Rene Romero called on Tuesday for the total removal of all trees along the MacArthur Highway.
The move is to avoid further accidents and ensure the safety of motorists and commuters.
Romero was prompted to make the call following recent accident involving a fallen Camachile tree that caused injuries to passengers of a public utility jeepney along the Baliti section of MacArthur Highway last week.
Romero said MacArthur Highway here should be made safe of the dangers of falling branches and trees that have been planted too close to road shoulders...
Cut the minister: If Romero had the temerity to misconceive such an idiotic proposition, I shudder to think what he could have given Among Ed for advice if the good governor ever took him in as confidant. I am horrified to think what could have happened to Pampanga from there.
Sorry but I see no idiocy in Romero by proposing to cut all the trees along MacArthur Highway.
Hello? Are you in there Bong Lacson? Knocking on my head twice. The tok-tok more audible – and more painful – with my long locks already shorn.
Shorter hair and all, it’s still old me, silly.
So did you not yourself make a stand to spare all those trees, writing lots of articles for their preservation? For once, you even found common cause with your compadre when you were together in that indignation rally against tree-cutting in front of the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) office in Sindalan, beside the stumps of the felled trees.
Of course, I still stand squarely on the conviction that those trees need to be preserved. Insane, I even called those propagating the idea that those trees are “hazardous.”
You called the hazardous labeling of the trees as insane but you did not see idiocy in the proposal to cut them all? Did you find that camachile tree falling on a passenger jeepney providing the just cause to cut all the trees along MacArthur Highway?
No casus belli for me in that fallen camachile...
I sure am glad you still remember your seminary Latin, that’s from Julius Caesar’s De Bello Gallico, right? Too bad you misplaced your logic.
You’re my seminary elder, I forgive you for your insults. One fallen tree on a vehicle is not enough rationalization to cut all trees along the highway. Not even two fallen trees, as I have experienced myself.
You’ve had a tree fall on your car?
Not once but twice. I was with the prolific columnist Ashley Manabat driving through a storm sometime in 2006 when a ratiles tree by the Friendship Bridge fell and smashed on my old Pajero. We were unhurt but the Pajero had to be taken to the talyer for bodyworks and paint job. Two years ago, it was the turn of my old Toyota Crown to be at the receiving end of a fallen grove of decades-old fortune plants interwoven with crawlers and vines at my frontyard. We had to seek the assistance of the city engineer’s office to cut through the tangle with a chainsaw. It was a miracle that the Toyota Crown suffered nothing more than a peso-sized dent on the roof.
Now, you’re telling me...
Yes, I am telling you that these incidents have not made me a tree-hater, much less a tree-killer. While the ratiles tree, rotten to the root, had to be cut down, the fortune plants, after necessary pruning, have been nurtured back to life.
Pruning. There is the proper response to falling trees along MacArthur Highway. Look at what they do along the North Luzon Expressway. Before the rainy season, the trees are pruned so they won’t be prone to falling during storms, making the highway safe for the motorists.
So why can’t the DPWH and the city government do the same?
They would rather cut than prune to serve some hideous purposes.
Like what?
Subjugate their minds to the idiocy of some business interest groups.
Idiocy. There’s that word again.
So how will you term it?
Oversimplification. The MacArthur Highway equation reduced to an either-or proposition: a choice between people and trees, mutually exclusive. It pains me to read Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez himself being quoted as saying: “You can replace and plant millions of trees. But you cannot replace human life. We are talking of the safety of people here. The priority will be the safety of people. And we will stand by our position."
The view of a horse with blinders, the mayor took there. To be kind about it. Blindsided as he was by the prodding of his business buddies. Failing to see the wisdom and the practicality of pruning...
But no idiocy there, eh?
No, because I hold the mayor honorable and honor has no place among idiots. I’d just say he needed to be reminded of the symbiosis between plants and animals, including humankind, as the key to the attainment of a habitat for human excellence.
Yeah, right. And the pursuit of urban development with no respect to the environment – as it is pursued by certain city businessmen – is the sure key to a habitat of human pestilence.
Yeah, right. That’s idiocy. Plain and simple. That’s what PAMCHAM is all about: Plants Are Murderous. Cut those Hazardous Along MacArthur. So the businessmen shall thrive. The environment be damned.
Idiots.

(Re)signing privilege

EAT YOUR heart out, BNR.
Where the Clark Development Corp. miserably failed, the Clark International Airport Corp. appeared to have succeeded. That is in propping up its head honcho for retention in the Aquino administration.
Early this month, rumors as well as a press release out of the CDC alleged that its top executives – notably President-CEO Benny N. Ricafort – enjoined the workers’ union to undertake a signature campaign purposely to stay the hand of P-Noy from cutting them off their lofty perches.
Nipped in the bud – with two CDC unions on denial mode over the reports – the signature campaign sputtered to a stinking fart.
Now its CIAC’s turn to go on frenzied hunt for signatures.
“Luciano gets broad support from CIAC employees in all levels.” So screamed a press release I received Tuesday with an attached manifesto entitled “Liham Suporta para sa Mahal na Presidente, Pres. Victor Jose I. Luciano.”
The manifesto deplored what it called the concerted effort to destroy the reputation of Luciano, even as the employees re-invested their faith in Luciano as the single catalyzing factor to the development of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport.
Luciano, the manifesto said, served as – my own direct translation now – “the key that opened the door of development and change at the CIAC.”
Because of his managerial acumen, his integrity and deep concern for the welfare of the CIAC employees, Luciano effected the leaps and bound in their salary range – “Malayo na rin ang agwat ng sahod namin ngayon kumpara sa dati naming tinatanggap.”
Aye, it’s Luciano – solo – all the way at the DMIA. Eat your heart out, CIAC Board Chair Nestor Mangio.
The various awards that have gone Luciano’s way – Most Outstanding Kapampangan in Government Service in 2009, Triple A Awardee of the Asian Institute of Management, even this paper’s Man of the Year for 2009, among others – are a testament to Luciano’s “correct and wise leadership at the CIAC.”
No, the manifesto vowed, the employees will not allow Luciano’s detractors to have their insidious ways, refusing to believe any of the canard thrown Luciano’s way, hence the expression of whole-hearted support to his leadership.
Woe unto you, Mayor Jerry Pelayo! Damn the demolition job of, er, on Luciano!
United in their desire for, and practice of the highest standards in running the DMIA, hoping for a continuous soar of the DMIA in the global aviation industry, the employees prayed that Luciano be given a new lease on leadership at the CIAC. Thus, the stirring call: Kailangan pa si Mr. Luciano sa CIAC!
The manifesto did not even fill up one whole page but the signatories comprised all of eight pages, totaling 320 names. Which goes to show the “broad support” Luciano enjoys among the CIAC employees.
Indeed, so apparently great is the support of the employees to Luciano that at least eight of them signed the manifesto twice – Jose Marlowe Pedregosa on pages 1 and 6; Rodel I. Lagman on pages 1 and 2; J. Abelardo Punzalan on pages 1 and 8; Manuel Banez on pages 1 and 2; Josa P. Landayan on pages 1 and 2; Ronald P. Aquino on pages 1 and 2; Alvin Marimla on pages 1 and 2; and Cynthia Cordero Dungca on pages 1 and 6.
Conspicuously missing though is the name and signature of Alexander Cauguiran, executive vice president of CIAC.
That tells a totally different story. But will Cauguiran oblige?

Damn contractors

BEDEVILED BY the terrifying prospect of mass inundation in the face of the coming La Niña phenomenon, the business community has damned a construction firm for its abject failure to finish its works on the San Fernando River.
The Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PamCham), led by its stalwarts Levy Laus and Rene Romero, is calling – short of the constructor’s head – for stiff sanctions against R.D. Policarpio Construction for virtually sleeping on the job as it accomplished but half of what it was supposed to finish by now.
The P169-million flood control project at the San Fernando River, dubbed as Sagip Ilog by the city administration, covers rehabilitating some 5.26 kilometers of the San Fernando River so as to allow the freer flow of floodwaters out of the city.
Philip Menez, project director for the flood control projects being undertaken by the Mt. Pinatubo Engineering-Project Management Office (MPO-PMO) of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), revealed in a talk with the PamCham attended by Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda that R.D. Policarpio was the only “problematic contractor” assigned to project packages relative to the P4.6-billion flood-mitigating program for Pampanga.
Menez said that China Water International Corp. is on schedule in its work at the Porac-Gumain River diversion channel (P1.5 billion), the Tokwing Joint Venture in the construction of outlets and bridges at the San Fernando River (P491 million), and LRT Construction in flood mitigation works in Guagua town (P183 million). Most of the projects are funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The failure of R.D. Policarpio to finish its job has raised the spectre of greater flooding in the city, a reality all too real to the Fernandinos, especially to the city’s flood czar, Engr. Marnie Castro, who advocated that aside from sanctions, the construction company be held liable and accountable for any losses flooding would cause in the city.
Flooding is a serious matter of death and destruction, those tasked – and paid – to stem it and fail should be made to pay for their shortcomings.
This is not the first time that R.D. Policarpio is put on the hot spot. In the aftermath of the Mount Pinatubo eruptions, R.D. Policarpio gained some notoriety as part of the so-called “Pajero Gang” that reportedly cornered all the juicy contracts in the various failed engineering interventions against rampaging lahar flows that included the sabo dams, desilting of river channels and the diking systems.
Indeed time to make this contractor fail for its disservice to, if not crimes against, the people of Pampanga.
So what is happening to contractors here?
Over the weekend, the residences of two “prominent” contractors in Barangay Sta. Cruz, Porac town were raided by the task group probing the June 2 massacre of businessman Jack Yap, his aide Dennis Guinto and Rene Tetangco, younger brother of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Gov. Armando Tetangco, Jr.
The raid, conducted on the strength of search warrants issued by Executive Judge Ma. Angelica Paras-Quiambao of the Angeles City Regional Trial Court, yielded three unlicensed firearms: two pieces of caliber 22 rifle and a 16-gauge shotgun, as well as ammunition for the guns.
No, our police sources said, contractors Remy Paras Chu and Bernie Alvarez Cruz, the owners of the raided houses, are not suspects in the so-called “TYG massacre.”
So why the raid in their domiciles? Our source invoked his right to remain silent for fear of being himself silenced forever.
Anyways, a contractor Chu and a contractor Cruz figured in some case for alleged land grabbing among siblings in Mabalacat a couple of years back. Chu being the sibling who allegedly managed to re-title the property to his name. Cruz being the alleged financier of the scheme. The case, so far as ace reporter Joey Pavia knows, is still in court.
Are these the same Chu and Cruz now – police sources say – facing cases of illegal possession of firearms?
And this Cruz, is this the same contractor who plumes himself as the brain trust of the Honorable Senator Manuel Lapid? Leaves a lot to snicker there. Ha, ha, ha.
Is this Cruz, likewise, the same contactor who served as sole endorser of the congressional candidacy of former Angeles City Councilor Ares Yabut who, over two months past Election Day, has yet to be dug out of the landslide of votes for Cong. Tarzan Lazatin?
With contractors un-finishing public works critical to the safety of the communities, with contactors having caches of unlicensed firearms in their homes, the people of Pampanga well be afraid. Be very afraid.

Cut off the CDC

SINVERGUENZA. Have they no delicadeza left in their marrows?
So Que Sio, Que Tal columnist Macky Pangan of Central Luzon Daily cried in horror at the loose talks – as well as a press statement – out of the Clark Freeport that top executives of the Clark Development Corporation (CDC) allegedly enjoined the workers’ union of the state-owned firm to undertake a signature campaign to endorse to President Aquino their retention at their lofty perches.
Straightforward was the press statement, albeit anonymously sent: "Should the union approve the request for endorsement, the letter will be forwarded to Malacanang to urge President Aquino for consideration and possible extension of office."
Up for grabs in the new administration are the positions of CDC board chairman and directors, CDC president-CEO and all the vice presidents who hold terms co-terminus with their appointing power, the President of the Philippines.
So we have heard of over 700 applicants to these positions, coming from the Aquino home province of Tarlac as well as adjoining Pampanga which shares linguistic ties with the former.
So we have even cited names being floated about in a recent editorial, such as Buan, Villanueva, Mendoza, Catacutan, Aquino, Paule. And chagrined to note no Cauguiran there.
So we have heard of one Benito Aquino Gonzales of Concepcion, Tarlac as a shoo-in for CDC president. “In the BAG. So is CDC being bruited about.” As our editorial put it.
All this, even as we were bombarded by our sources at the CDC – from the ranks as well as the files, or whatever – of their top honchos clutching at straws to stay in their posts.
Why, one close to the very top talked of the “gumption” of one CDC-aged-but-unwizened character, “willing to be reduced to director, if he could not hold on to his current post.” And going to the extent of asking him to find the direct pipeline to P-Noy.
And to think that this character presents himself as a most honorable man! So need we still ask where has delicadeza gone at CDC? Out of it, dummy.
The press statement was direct in its allegation that the asked-for endorsement was a sort of a payback, particularly to CDC President-CEO Benigno Ricafort, for his being “responsible in lobbying for the immediate approval of the members of the board of directors on their request for salary increase and other benefits for the new life of the CBA contract with the union.”
“Reciprocating the goodwill (of Ricafort).” So the statement’s source put it.
As quick as the press statement was a press release denying it altogether.
Officers of the Association of CDC Supervisory Personnel (ACSP) and the Association of Concerned CDC Employees (Acces) denied having been asked by top CDC executives to sign endorsements for their retention tin their current positions.
"Mr. Ricafort never asked the union for any endorsements to extend the terms of the present CDC executives." So the press release quoted ACSP President Victor Barbieto as saying. "Should there be a request from any key official from CDC, the union will not entertain this.”
“...There were no feelers from Mr. Ricafort to get our endorsement. There was not even any attempt to talk to us. CDC officers have always maintained a level of decency and professionalism." So was quoted Noel Tulabut, member of the executive board of the Association of Career Executives (ACE) in CDC.
"This malicious allegation is baseless and out of the blue and a product of someone's wild imagination." So dismissed Acces President Carlos Cabrera of the press statement.
On sheer headcount, those officially denying CDC officials asked the workers’ union for endorsement are outnumbered by those affirming it – three: Barbieto, Tulabut and Cabrera, against over 25 workers local media had the chance to talk to.
While the three had openly made their denial, the 25 had asked that they be not named. Why don’t they come out of their umbra of anonymity?
And open themselves to venganza?
If the CDC officials have any delicadeza left in their marrows, to answer Que Sio, Que Tal, they can simply prove this by tendering their irrevocable – not just courtesy – resignations.
Cut and cut cleanly – to paraphrase US Senator Richard Lugar to the then embattled Ferdinand Marcos – off the CDC, Ricafort and company.