Herman Tiu Laurel: August 2015

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

RP’s newest PPP: Penal Prison for Profit

(This did not appear in the Tribune as scheduled for today, and future articles, reflections from me will no longer appear in Tribune as its real owners have finally, using a ridiculous excuse, pushed me to leave it and start a new blog to bring truth out. Tribune is funded by Binay as is obvious from its headlines and front page stories, also by Manny Pangilinan and his ilk among the financial predators fleecing this entire nation. It's a good time to move on for me and start up new drives to expose the sordid truth about this decaying society - hoping that in knowing it may someday be freed. - htl)

RP's newest PPP: Penal Prison for Profit

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 08-26-2015 WED)

Here's an item from the British news publication The Independent: "An American judge known for his harsh and autocratic courtroom manner was jailed for 28 years for conspiring with private prisons to hand young offenders maximum sentences in return for kickbacks amounting to millions of dollars. Mark Ciavarella Jr. was ordered to pay $1.2 million (£770,000) in restitution after he was found to be a 'figurehead' in the conspiracy that saw thousands of children unjustly punished in the name of profit in the case that became known as 'kids for cash.'"

Now pan your attention to this Philippine news item on a diversified conglomerate and some construction giants "seeking to prequalify to join the auction of the P50.2-billion contract to construct and operate a new prison facility that will soon rise within Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija. (They are said to be) interested in the regional prison PPP project just as they vied and won PPP projects to construct schools and hospital infrastructure."

It's just a matter of time that this privatized Philippine privatization will spawn the likes of Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. feeding the privatized prison systems for their personal profit.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court had to overturned 4,000 convictions issued by that Luzerne County judge in over five years of court work for violating the constitutional rights of his juvenile victims--denying them the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea to ensure a fast and furious conviction rate.

With the kind of abusive judicial culture in the Philippines, I shudder to think of the consequences here.

The privatization scourge has been spreading around the world while the global oligarchy's reign expands and intensifies with the globalization and financialization of economics. The latest to fall victim to the privatization swindle is Greece as the entire nation was gypped in connivance with its corrupt liberal democratic government into transferring "bankster" (banker ganster) debts of private banks resulting from the 2008 Financial Crisis into public debts. This was what happened in 1986 when Cory Aquino pledged before the US Congress to pay all, even unjust, debts of all previous administrations.

Like the Philippines post-Edsa 1986, the Greek nation today is seeing its state-owned power, water, transportation, infrastructure, and many other sectors for a penny to the dollar (or cent to the euro). Greeks and Filipinos must understand that this privatization scheme goes to feed the bottomless pit of finance capital greed which produces nothing but worthless paper currencies and electronic credit that are backed up by nothing--just the political power of the world's financial class backed by US military might. It's time to raise the pitchforks and set the guillotines if the working masses are to survive.

Tina Ebro, the ageless activist from our 1970s era, sent us these new analyses and report, "What lies beneath? A critical assessment of public private partnerships and their impact on sustainable development," evaluating experience of PPPs from Tanzania to Peru. Overall the report finds that:

"PPPs are, in most cases, the most expensive method of financing, significantly increasing the cost to the public purse.

PPPs are typically very complex to negotiate and implement and all too often entail higher construction and transaction costs than public works.

PPPs are all too often a risky way of financing for public institutions.

The evidence of impact of PPPs on efficiency is very limited and weak.

PPPs face important challenges when it comes to reducing poverty and inequality, while avoiding negative impacts on the environment.

Implementing PPPs poses important capacity constraints to the public sector, and particularly in developing countries.

PPPs suffer from low transparency and limited public scrutiny, which undermines democratic accountability…

As this report is published, the post-2015 and the financing for development agendas are being negotiated. PPPs are proposed as a key component of the financing for development agenda in response to pressing infrastructure needs. However, it is crucial to take into account what has happened so far and examine whether PPPs will help the world's poorest countries to finance the roads, schools, hospitals, energy and other infrastructure facilities they need to grow and thrive.

We recommend a set of concrete actions that can have a crucial impact in this debate: Stop hiding the true costs of PPPs; be transparent and accountable; put development outcomes at the forefront; put developing countries in the driving seat…

You can find the specificities of these in the full report: http://eurodad.org/whatliesbeneath"

The PPPs are the new monopoly by the global finance-capitalists hiding behind the local oligopoly for a few corporations now controlling Filipinos' lives. It is replacing the monopoly of the State or genuine People's Government, which is the "wholesale buyer of the people for finance and services."

The oligarchic puppets' other moves, such as Bam Aquino's Philippine Competition Act, target only State Monopoly in order to coddle the Oligarchy's Corporate Oligopoly.

(Listen to Sulô ng Pilipino, 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)

We salute Adm. Taccad

We salute Adm. Taccad

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 08-24-2015 MON)

US Naval Academy emanation Roilo Golez has been on a rampage. He first ran amok against Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Hernando Iriberri and other AFP higher officers for putting into proper perspective the country's internal security needs relative to its realistic external threats.

The AFP leadership had just reallocated P6.5 billion for the purchase of Israeli missiles, which at best would just be decorations, to the much needed procurement for our troops of better equipment (such as night vision goggles), more powerful weapons, and better protective gear in their fight against proliferating insurgency groups.

Golez called Gen. Iriberri and other high staff officers "incompetent," which the Association of Generals and Flag Officers (AGFO) in a letter to media countered by holding a mirror to Golez's face, declaring him the incompetent.

That AGFO reaction was again reflected in a social media topic among the country's naval experts under the heading, "Will Taccad reverse the Golez/Pama decline (in the Navy)?" That, of course, was in reference to Rear Admiral Taccad, the new Navy chief appointed very recently, as well as, Golez, former National Security Adviser under Gloria Arroyo, and one of the more recent top Navy officers.

What apparently got Golez foaming at the mouth was Rear Admiral Taccad's pronouncements in an interview with media on the situation in the West Philippine/South China Sea (WPS/SCS), where he said: "It was much heated before. I think we are in a better position now. We are communicating with China, and more or less not as threatened as before. You know what they are trying to do and we try to maintain more or less peaceful coexistence or settlement of what issue we have… They have been there for a long time and they are guarding what they think is their interest in the South China Sea. No expansion is happening…"

Golez tweeted on Aug. 18, 2015: "Admiral Taccad, you owe the people an explanation," attaching an article by Perry Diaz, a US citizen of Filipino decent blogging on Philippine issues. Ten years ago I debated with Diaz on the Internet when he adulated Mrs. Arroyo. But, when the Amboys of Hyatt 10 turned against their erstwhile patron, Diaz also did. I challenged him to a personal debate on these Philippine issues here in Manila but he insisted to have it in Hawaii--where perhaps the US State Department can be his audience.

The American Diaz seems to feel that he has every right to insult a Filipino officer and gentleman by titling his article, "To whom does Taccad owe his loyalty?" even when Taccad had already prefaced everything by saying, "We will continue to protect our seas and secure the future of our nation and its people. We shall continue to be a dependable naval force, prompt in response, and sharp in action… I shall steer the Philippine Navy towards continued transformation, modernization, professionalization, and overall progress in order to provide the maritime defense and security that is expected from a strong and formidable navy."

Adm. Taccad was only trying to be objective and accurate when he proclaimed that the situation in the WPS/SCS is cooling down; that communication between the militaries of the two countries has improved (which is one of the actions taken by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations); and that the Philippines is not as "threatened as before."

Taccad also factually stated that China is just protecting its interests over its claims, much like what the Philippines is similarly doing. If pursuing one's claim is expansionist, then Vietnam and the Philippines are also "expansionist." It's good that the Asean has called for a freeze and gladly that is happening.

While Diaz uses "aggression" in describing China's actions, he conveniently glosses over the other claimants. Vietnam, which is currently occupying the largest number of islands (22) in the South China Sea and is also building structures there, should, by Diaz's twisted standards, be accused of being an aggressor. The same should be true of the Philippines as well in its continued occupation of nine islands, which are more than China's eight.

Moreover, to verify such naked charges of aggression, I reviewed a four-page list of incidents among the claimants at the Boston Globe Forum (http://bostonglobalforum.org/wp-content/uploads/Recent-Trends-changes-in-the-South-China-Sea-Disputes.pdf) and found that, since 1999, the Philippine Navy and Coast Guard have sunk two Chinese fishing boats and killed two Chinese fishermen. I looked elsewhere on the Internet for any Chinese sinking or killing of Filipino fishermen and found absolutely none. So who's the aggressor?

Recently, another American franchise, CNN Philippines, added a twist, quoting Magdalo Party-list Rep. Ashley Acedillo at Taccad's installation, saying: "This is now a big problem, because once BRP Sierra Madre disintegrates and we leave the area, the Chinese can immediately take over…"

But why make it such a big deal when Acedillo was merely voicing out a legitimate fear of a prospective situation that could result from a standoff due to a breakdown of communication and BS Aquino's failure of diplomacy with the Chinese government? Verily, the offer of "dialog without preconditions" is still on the table. And dialog may still result in shared responsibility over the area and a fisheries agreement.

We have no doubt Party-list Rep. Acedillo and Rear Adm. Taccad are loyal, faithful, and genuinely patriotic Filipinos who are just stating the facts. It is the Amboys like Golez, Diaz, and their cohorts who distort and exaggerate in order to create wrong impressions that feed the tension between China and the Philippines.