JDV's Bilateral Talk formula between PH and China

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

Is former five-time Speaker Jose de Venecia vindicated about his  proposed formula that to solve the brewing conflict between China and the Philippines in their claims in the South China Sea (SCS) the duo should engage in a bilateral talk for a joint exploration of the territorial dispute between the two countries on the SCS?

Former Speaker
Jose de Venecia

Many of us do not know our two neighbors Vietnam and Brunei Darusallam that claim too, some islets and water of the SCS, have been talking since last year with Mainland China.

Vietnam, where the Chinese sunk four of her warships if not damaged them and killed 53 of her soldiers in the battle of Paracel Islands in January 19, 1974, has been nearing a bilateral agreement with China.

According to news report they will establish a bilateral working group to discuss joint maritime development, a move analyst said is a “breakthrough” for the neighbors to peacefully handle disputes.

The working group began its discussion in May last year on a joint development in the water outside the mouth of Beibu Gulf.

The two countries will establish two other working groups regarding infrastructure and financial cooperation according to Premier Li Keqiang and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung who told reporters at a news conference after their talks last Sunday in Beijing.

According to Asia News NetworkMCT, the three working groups send a positive signal of the bilateral readiness in solving difficult problems through cooperation in the area that has been considered by the Philippine and its patron the United States as flash point.

Meeting Speaker de Venecia in Dagupan City

When I stumbled recently with Speaker de Venecia at the “100 Days Report” of Mayor Belen Fernandez at the Stadia, I asked him about his take on China building a concrete barriers at the Scarborough Shoals which is just near Zambales Peninsula.

“There is no physical evidence that they are putting barriers. These could be rocks. There are no confirmed statements from the Philippines armed forces or the Philippine government. I think they are all rocks. But I don’t know, “Speaker de Venecia, who just arrived from Azerbaijan as observer of the Centrist Asia Pacific Democrats International that he heads explained to me.

In September 13, 2013 Defense News of the Gannet Company published that “Manila has expressed concern over the discovery of 75 squares concrete blocks found near the entrance of the Scarborough Shoal, which is within the Philippines exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea but China has claimed as sovereign territory. Manila is accusing China of laying the foundation for a permanent facility in violation of international maritime law and ignoring Manila’s call for international arbitration for a peaceful resolution”.

The same news website said: “However, it is still unclear if the concrete blocks will be used to tether fishing boats or be used as the foundation of a facility, Thayer said.

“First of all, I think we should not jump to conclusions,” said Ian Storey, a maritime specialist at Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Despite claims by Manila, “this is not the typical pattern of Chinese construction,” which normally begins with “wooden structures on stilts; then octagonal wooden structures, and then a concrete fortification?”

“The photographs provided by Manila show what appears to be a “random pattern of concrete blocks scattered around the reef,” and it is “not immediately obvious that these blocks can or will be used as the foundations for a Chinese structure.”

“One school of thoughts is that the blocks were dropped by Chinese fishermen and used to tie up their boats”

Speaker de Venecia told me what the Philippines and China would do is a comprehensive joint exploration of the disputed area

“That is when we need a joint fishery for us to prevent confrontation in the sea. Secondly, we need a joint exploration and joint development for the hydro carbon and gas so that both sides of claimants should benefit”.

Proposed partnership between China and the Philippines has precedence in Europe

The former five-time Speaker explained to me before at his coastal mansion in Dagupan City about his formula that was not new since it was tested already by Great Britain, Germany, and Norway when I asked  him of a precedence of this partnership formula in my 2011 meeting with him. Excerpts of that conversation:

Mortz C. Ortigoza (MCO): Is there a precedent model of your consortium’s formula?
Jose de Venecia (JDV): Just like that in the North Sea after World War II, England is here (as he lifted the empty coffee cup and the sandwich of the interviewee to put on the other parts of the table to emphasize his point). This is England; the oil field is here in Ecofisk in the North Sea. They took a median line partition so the oil flows to Stavanger in Norway. The oil is in Teesside in England. And the natural gas goes to Crimea, German. I landed here in the Ecofisk which is above 20 stories high. The platforms from the sea, very stormy seas but (they were composed of) hundreds of oil wells! And siguro mga (Just like) several stories high buildings and platforms from the sea.
MCO: So nobody own these areas? The consortium owns them?
JDV: They have agreed. This part belongs to Norway! (Lifting again the sandwich and coffee cup of the interviewer by putting them to another part of the table to emphasize his point)This part belongs to England! This part belongs to Germany! In the meantime we jointly developed.
MCO: Is the North Sea’s model the only model the claimants in the Spratly’s can replicate?
JDV: Puwedi nating gawin ito( We can copy it). This is one model. The other model is that we will drill together and the profit we split. You see? So we shelve the issue of sovereignty. This is the formula that will solve the problems of China, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Therefore that will solve the problem between China and Vietnam in the Paracel. This (in) the Spratly claim, Vietnam went to war over there a dozen years ago. This is the same formula that should be used because (by) Japan in Diaoyu Strait, what the Chinese call the Senkaku Strait. This is the third formula that could be used on the Sea of Japan and the East Sea, between Japan and South Korea.

 (You can accessed the entirety of this Q & A at  http://northwatch.wordpress.com/2011/08/11/q-a-jdvs-solutions-on-the-spratlys-problem/).

Will U.S Block any Bilateral Talk between Ph and China?

Since his wife Congresswoman Maria Georgina de Venecia excitedly called him to come at the stage for pictorial with Mayor Fernandez and members of the city council, I failed to ask him about his take on the scheme of the Philippines and the United States government to build a mini-Subic at Oyster Bay in Palawan – a military strategical location where the Philippine government spent half a billion pesos already in building it because of its proximity to the disputed islets and water in Scarborough shoals and Spratly Islets.

In case the talks between China and Vietnam and China and Brunei bear fruits, would this give the United States goose bumps as the Philippines would emulate it especially with de Venecia at the sideline pressuring his country with reasons and precedence to follow suit?

 Would Uncle Sam pressure the Philippines too not to capitulate with the come-on of China (psst, the Sinos this year got a U.S $ 189.3 billion foreign aid for good will with other countries that want to have economic and political intercourse with her) and the insistence of Speaker Joe for bilateral talk by dangling more economic quotas in the huge U.S market or more military hand me down goodies just for the Flips to maintain its indispensable tactical alliance with her in the oil rich South China Sea?

You can read my selected intriguing but thought-provoking columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)

Who's the Best McCartney or Lennon ?

The late John Lennon (L) in a huddle
 with fellow music genius Paul
McCartney.

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

What? Former Beatles Paul McCartney, a septuagenarian, released a new album last October 15 with a title, um, “New”.
Yes Virginia, according to a news article in Classicalite titled “Paul McCartney Talks ‘New’ 2013 Album on Howard Stern Show”,
“New” is a 12-song album which is McCartney, 71, first album of new solo material in six years.
As I heard it on YouTube (you can accessed the full album of  “New” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8fvjktqVpk ) the songs have classic McCartney touch.
 How I wished McCartney returns in the Philippines I posted at the comment section of the article and at social media Face Book how I wished Paul and the band can still come, after his music tour in Japan in December this year, for the last time in the Philippines before the Almighty get him so he can have a rock and roll party in heaven with John Lennon, Elvis Presley, and Freddie Mercury of Queens.
 One of the countries Paul and his band toured earlier was Red Square Russia with one major fan there named Vladimir Putin , the Russian president, who relished the show when Paul sang his and John Lennon’s collaboration; “Back in USSR”.

Traumatic Visit of John and Paul in the Philippines
The last traumatic visit Paul and the Beatles in the Philippines was in July 1966 to promote the band’s "Revolver" album when they got the scared of their lives when the mob identified with the scorned First Lady Imelda Marcos chased them away and hurt some of their party members up to the Manila International Airport after the fabulous four rejected her breakfast reception invitation in the presidential palace Malacanang.

McCartney's 2013 "New" Song

This was what Wikipidea says about that Manila furor: “After the snub was broadcast on Philippine television and radio, all of their police protection disappeared. The group and their entourage had to make their way to Manila airport on their own. At the airport, road manager Mal Evans was beaten and kicked, and the band members were pushed and jostled about by a hostile crowd. Once the group boarded the plane, (manager) Brian Epstein and Evans were ordered off, and Evans (fearing he would be imprisoned or executed) said, "Tell my wife that I love her."Epstein was forced to give the tax authorities £6,800 worth of Philippine peso notes from the Manila shows, and had to sign the tax bond verifying the exchange before being allowed back on the plane. Upon leaving the country, band members publicly expressed resentment at their treatment, with John Lennon saying "If we go back, it will be with an H-bomb. I won't even fly over the place”. “I’ll not go back in that country again “ Paul was quoted to say. too.

 Who's Who: John Lennon or Paul McCartney? 
Oh, to those who wanna know if who’s the best among the duo – Lennon or McCartney?
For me the duo is incomparable. They are like Orange and Apple.
If Lennon has his Come Together, Day Tripper, Free as a Bird (Beatles composition found in 1995), I am the Walrus, The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill, In My Life, the scintillating and psychedelic Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (LSD song he he), Mean Mr. Mustard (one of my favorites), Polythene Pam, Revolution (where I learned my Political Science 101 just like his solo “Imagine”), I Will, Strawberry Fields Forever (one of my favorites), to name a few, McCartney has his Eleanor Rigby, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band (yes man, it’s a McCartney composition not a Lennon opus, its album with the same title, dubbed as the best album of the century while Queens Bohemian Rhapsody was the best single of the century), She came into the Bathroom Window (one of my favorites), Long and Winding Road, The End (the last song of the Beatles in their last Album “Abbey Road”. Ya darlin’ “Abbey Road” was the last album and not “Let it Be” album), Yellow Submarine (in collaboration with Lennon) , Back in the USSR, Golden Slumber , Got to Get you in My Life (revived by Earth, Wind, & Fire), Hello, Goodbye, Hey Jude, Lady Madonna, Magical Mystery Tour, Maxwell Silver Hammer (my favorite), Michelle, Oh Darling, Paper Back Writer, to name a few.
 Don’t you know that in that Stern’s interview, Howard asked the former Beatles that his composition Helter-Skelter was the linchpin for the birth of acid rock?
 Here’s an excerpt of the conversation:
 Stern: You know your song ‘Helter Skelter (released in 1968),’ people have said, and I wonder if you agree with this, people have said that this was the beginning of heavy metal. Do you buy into that?”
 McCartney: “I will buy that theory. Um, you know I don’t think of it like that. But when you look back at that period, I can not remember anyone else who was doing that. It was before Led Zeppelin.”

 To rephrase Genesis 1:1 Initially all was dark, until McCartney said, "Let there be Helter-Skelter" (v. 3). Days Two and Three saw Led Zepellin, AC-DC, Metallica, Scorpions, Nazarette and other acid rock groups emulate the new genre of rock and roll pioneered by the Beatles. 

For the disciples of rock and roll, here's Helter-Skelter for you to kowtow one more time:
(You can send your comments at totomortz@yahoo.com)

Fil-Am assassin nabs after shooting 3 persons

HITMAN ARRESTED: A bullet vest clad suspected assassin Arnulfo Calaunan being 
interrogated by the Philippine National Police investigator from the
 provincial police office. A Lawyer from the PNP came too to tell the suspect 
about his rights and inquire about his credentials as United States citizen.

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

 CALASIAO , Pangasinan – Policemen arrested recently here an alleged hit man after he and his two companions shot a village chief and two of his body guards as they were buying fruits in the public market.

Arnulfo E. Calaunan, an acknowledged citizen of the United States, was found by a team of SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) of Dagupan City hiding in a prone position on a wet grassy area at the back of the mansion of Sta. Barbara Mayor Carlito Zaplan in Barangay Gabon here.

SWAT. The Dagupan City SWAT Team sent by Superintendent

 Christopher Abrajano to augment the policemen in Calasiao to run

after gun men who shot a village chief and killed one of his

 two bodyguards.  

 Calaunan, who was in his late 30s and a former resident of Barangay Talibaew, was found clad in a white bullet vest and wielded a 45 caliber handgun with two spare loaded magazines to boot. Police said he and his group shot Longos Barangay Chairman Majadiva Mesina and two of his body guards.
 Mesina, who was shot at the right side of his body, was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit of Villaflor Hospital in Dagupan City while one of his two body guards who watched him buys bananas and lansonez near the puto (white cake) stalls here was hit at the head that resulted for his instantaneous death.
 The other closed- in who was hit on the foot was able to scamper and hide in one of the puto stalls. A girl who was in one of the white cake stalls was hit too but later pronounced by doctor to be out of danger.

CORPUS DELICTI (Body of the Crime). The .45 hand gun and 

the three magazines seized from Calaunan when the police found 

him hiding in a grassy area in Brgy. Gabon, Calasiao, Pangasinan. 

The photo of the spouses Majadiva Mesina at the extreme part of the 

photo was found in his wallet as his reference. “I took it (photo)

from Face Book,” the gunman was heard to tell the police interrogators.

From the crime scene Calaunan, a brother of the former village chief of Talibaew, ran by foot as he traded with gun fire with members of the Philippine National Police who pursued him at Sitio Pandayan until he reached a hiding place near the back of the house of Mayor Zaplan in Gabon.
Police source who asked anonymity said the suspect arrived in the Philippines in August this year and was found to have in his wallet a plane ticket to the United States with a departure date of November 4 this year.
The other document found on his wallet was the photo of spouses Mesina that he took from the Face Book account of the village chief.
 “He said he was monitoring the movements of Mesina since August. He was remorseless of what he has done to the barangay chairman and his companions,” the source said.

Blood stains left by the wounded Brgy Chairman
Mesina.

 Earlier on the fateful day, Mesina and candidates of this 24-strong village's town for the October 28 barangay polls attended a peace covenant in the nearby Catholic Church before Calaunan and gang pounced on them at the fruit stalls near the town plaza.
The incident, where the police were seen frantically searching for gunmen at each stalls, was seen on television as media men have just emerged from the church where the peace covenant was held.
But the suspect insisted he carried the dastardly act alone against the trio when he coincidentally saw them buy fruits after they disembarked from Mesina’s van.

Police Superintendent Noel Vallo, the town's chief of police, instructs
 the SWAT how to pursue the suspects who traded gunfire with
the police in Sitio Pandayan.

 “The Mesinas have killed my brother and wounded my nephew. My other relatives have migrated to Manila because we heard that the Mesinas wanted to exterminate all of them,” the police source quoted Calaunan, who was still dripping with water after he was found hiding on the watery part of the grassy area.
But police investigators did not buy his pronouncements. One of them said it would be impossible to shoot Mesina and not being shot by the two bodyguards who were seven to 10 meters away from him.

Last December 2012, the father of Mesina, Antonio,59, a retiring Examiner of Revenue District Office-4 of the Bureau of Internal Revenue based here was ambushed and killed by riders in tandem  in Brgy Lasip this town as he was bound for home. Calaunan denied he has a hand in the killing of the older Mesina.

PNP Lieutenant Colonels Cris Abrajano, who wields a
US- made Bushmaster assault rifle, and Lopez (ex-
treme right, intelligence chief of the provincial police
and Major Soria-no from the provincial police S-6 seem to be
onguard at their post after a Fil-Am assassin and his
 ilks ran berserk near the police station.

The suspect, who was in a handcuff at the interrogation room, said he wore his armor vest every time he went out after he arrived in this country. Although he has a house in Barangay Talibaew, he stays in a safe house in Barangay San Miguel here.
“Talagang planado na niya ang pagpatay sa mga kalaban nila,” Superintendent Noel B. Vallo Sr, the Chief of Police here, said on TV.
The police suspected he was planning to assassinate Mesina because he concealed his arrival from his village mates and relatives.
 Vallo downplayed the incident here as not election related since Mesina run unopposed for the village chairmanship but as a result of intense family feud that snapped already some lives between the two parties.

The SWAT team leader at the left was the one
who saw Calaunan hiding in a grassy area
after his team combed meticulously the place.

A dead body guard of Mesina

Police men in a running rampage after gun men shoot it

out with each other at the Calasiao public market.

  Aside from Calaunan, the group of Mesina has been found to have handguns despite the gun ban ordered by the Commission on Election.

Meanwhile, Pangasinan Police Provincial Office Director Marlou Chan said the PNP has been investigating the documents seized on the wallets of the body guards of Mesina.

He said the police are checking if they are members of the military or police since guns have been seized from them.

“They do not have exemption to carry guns from the Comelec and Mesina did not apply for security protection with the PNP,” Chan said. 

SP calls inquiry on fish cages in Sual

Sual Mayor Roberto Arcinue interviewed by the
media on the fish cages that proliferate in his
town.

LINGAYEN---- To ferret out the truth on the issue surrounding illegal fish cages operations in Sual, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) has called on the concerned officials to a Question Hour on their regular session on Monday, October 21.

            By virtue of approved provincial resolution No. 167-2013, the officials invited include Regional Director Nestor D. Domenden of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), and Regional Director Joel Salvador of the Department of Envinronment and Natural Resources-Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB).

            Other agencies’ representatives also include Regional Director Avelino Munar, Jr. of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA),  and Leduina Co, PENR Officer, DENR Provincial Office.

            Mayor Roberto Ll. Arcinue of Sual town and Engr. Ruben Lucerio, Vice President for Operations and Station Manager of Team Energy have also been called by the SP.

            The SP’s inquiry, in aid of legislation, aims to resolve the issue on the alleged proliferation of illegal fish cages that might endanger again the operations of the 1,200 MW Sual Coal Fire Power plant which, if not immediately addressed, may duplicate the Luzonwide blackout happened in 1999.

            Built in 1996, the Sual Coal-fired power plant is the largest power plant in Asia in terms of power generating capacity.

            The resolution was authored by SP members Ranjit Shahani of the 6^th district, Generoso Tulagan, Jr of 3^rd district, Napoleon Fontellera, Jr and Antonio Sison, both from the first district.(Merly R. Tibalao/PIO)

SP commends Prov’l Acctg. Office

LINGAYEN --- The Provincial Accounting Office (PAO) has received a commendation from the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) for having been awarded as one of the country’s  Outstanding Accounting Office (Provincial Level Category) in 2012.

            The recognition came following the unanimous approval of the Provincial Resolution No. 164-2013 during the SP’s regular session last Monday.

            Second district Board Member Raul P. Sison, author of the resolution, said the feat has been attributed to the unified effort of the entire accounting office under the leadership of OIC-Accountant Arturo Soriano.

            Likewise, the PAO has been recognized for its competence and quality of work in the performance of accounting, controlling, auditing and other financial functions.

            “The national award garnered by the Provincial Accounting Office will serve as an inspiration and worthy example for all offices and employees of the provincial government of Pangasinan to strive for excellence in the performance of their respective work,” Sison said in his resolution.

            The award was  given by the Association of Government Accountants of the Philippines (AGAP).

            In related development, three SP members have also received congratulatory gestures from their colleagues via provincial resolutions No. 162 and 163-2013.

            BM Sison for his remarkable services as outgoing Regional Chairman of the Provincial Board Members League of the Philippines (PBMLP) Region I for 2010-2013). Sison is eyeing for a treasurer position for the National BMLP.

            SP members Clemente Arboleda, Jr, and Generoso Tulagan, Jr. for their election to the Vice Chairman and Member of the Board of Directors respectively in the PBMLP. (Merly R. Tibalao/PIO)

BIR positive to hit P2.5B tax goal in Central Pang’nan

Assistant Revenue District Office
chief Charmaine dela Torre

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

 CALASIAO – The assistant revenue district office (ARDO) chief of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) here is still optimistic that the P2.5 billion tax goal given to her office for this year can still be attainable. 
“Of course, we are hoping against hope. We are still almost three months before the end of December,” ARDO Charmaine C. dela Torre said.
 She explained the collection of RDO-4 in the first semester of this year was laudable. 
“Sa first semester we did somehow well in our goal. In the 2nd of June, July, August medyo nag down na ang collection namin ng malaki ,”she explained when asked if the performance of RDO-4 that covers almost all of Central Pangasinan can be likened to the sluggish performance of the tax bureau nationally.
 The BIR in general has a deficit of P26 billion on its first semester collection.  
The national government give Commissioner Kim Henares P1.26 Trillion tax target this year or 17.59 percent higher than the previous year.  The assumption is based on a gross domestic product growth forecast of six percent for the year.
 Dela Torre said that despite the lethargic collection in the second semester her office is P200 million higher this year compared to its collection last year.
 “Hindi lang namin na met ang goal but we exceeded definitely the last year’s performance, ”she stressed.

Pork Barrel is legal - SC decisions

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

Recently I was watching bald Democrat Strategist James Carville (a dead ringer for controversial Filipino fugitive former congressman Ruben Ecleo Jr of Surigao), with his funny Texan- liked twang, who argued with Bill O' Reilly at The O'Reilly Factor at Fox TV that the Republicans would be slaughtered in the coming polls and they are now frantically looking for a way out in relation with their stand off with the Democrats on the budget.

 Then here comes the new NBC poll I saw last October 12 that sent shock waves to the GOP (Grand Old Party of the Republicans).

According to the Republican Strategist Dick Morris on his website dickmorris.com, the government shutdown is triggering a disastrous decline in Republican fortunes especially in the 2014 mid-term election and had left President Barrack Obama largely unaffected.

Morris enumerated the finding of the polls:

• GOP approval is down to 24% the lowest ever, a drop of ten points in two weeks. The Democratic Party approval is 43%, down four.

• By 53-31 people blame the Republicans for the shutdown.

• 70% say the Republicans put their own agenda ahead of the needs of the country (only 51% say that about Obama).

• Two thirds think the shutdown is hurting the economy. Only 17% expect the economy to improve next year. 43% expect it to worsen.

• And the percent that say the country is on the right track has dropped from 30% two weeks ago — very low — to just 14% now. That’s very, very, very low!

These data indicate that the Republicans are headed toward losing the House and the Senate in 2014 unless they change course.

***

The adverse statements of former Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, retired Chief Justice Reynato Puno, Fr. Joaquin Bernas, a constitutional law expert,  former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, and Church People’s Alliance against the priority development assistance fund (PDAF) or the dreaded “pork barrel’ in the General Appropriation Act (GAA) 2013 is unconstitutional is just, well, their opinion.

There were two decisions or jurisprudence by the Supreme Court that say that the tens of billions of pesos of “pork” (that was used by almost all of the 24 senators and the more than 200 (presently they are 288 members whose names are appended with the word “honorable”) members of the House of Thieves, er, Representatives to identify their pet and fancy projects) were constitutional.

Philippine Constitutional Association vs. Enriquez

The nemesis of the pork should know that in 1994 that countryside development fund (CDF), the forerunner of the PDAF, was  rendered by the high court as constitutional.

Before that 1994 decision petitioners (composed of Philippine Constitution Association, Exequel B. Garcia, and A. Gonzales) argued  against respondents (composed of Secretary Salvador Enriquez of the Department of Budget & Management, Hon. Vicente T. Tan head of the National Treasurer, and the Commission on Audit)for the nullification of the pork: “claim that the power given to the members of Congress to propose and identify the projects and activities to be funded by the Countrywide Development Fund is an encroachment by the legislature on executive power, since said power in an appropriation act in implementation of a law”. 

They continued “the proposal and identification of the projects do not involve the making of laws or the repeal and amendment thereof, the only function given to the Congress by the Constitution”.

 Speaker de Venecia’s  “High Priest” told me pork is imaginative and innovative

Susmariosep, why I know this? I once had a lengthy argument with constitutional lawyer and guru Raul Lambino (who used to be former speaker Joe de Venecia’s “political high priest “on charter change that almost won its bid on the abolition of the Senate for a parliamentary system of government in 2006 by a hair thin 8-7 votes by justices of the Supreme Court.

 “The pork is immoral. Solons should legislate and not implement projects,” I told Lambino in 1999.

He told me that solons did not implement the infrastructure, they don’t even handle the money that was given to them but they only identify the projects for the national departments like public works and highway, agrarian reform, education, and agriculture and national agencies like national irrigation administration.

He even quoted in toto to convince me that the high tribunal even lauded the pork as being “imaginative” and “innovative”: 

“The CDF attempts to make equal the unequal. It is also a recognition that individual members of Congress, far more than the President and their congressional colleagues are likely to be knowledgeable about the needs of their respective constituents and the priority to be given each project

I learned about corruption in the Pork after I ran into an errand.

When my mother asked me decades ago to buy vetsin (monosodium glutamate) and vinegar at a sari-sari  store where I stumbled into gin drinking media men who “proselytized” me to join the 4th estate, I learned in  the trade that lawmakers not only identify projects but were on the take from their favorite private contractors who constructed defective projects either it be a P10 million worth one kilometer concrete road that lacks steel bars, a P3 million rip rap that cost only P1 million, or a P7 million covered court that can be constructed in an honest to goodness way with  P3 million only.

(You can read how elective officials pocket public funds by accessing at my blog http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com/2012/07/corruption-101-guide-to-struggling.html)

LAMP vs. Secretary of the DBM

The other argument by the high court that PDAF is constitutional can be seen in the jurisprudence of Lawyers against Monopoly and Poverty (LAMP) vs. Secretary of Department of Budget and Management, the Treasurer of the Philippines, COA, Senate president, and Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

According to petitioners, the provision of the PDAF, unlike the CDF, does not allow members of Congress to identify projects. According to them, “[t] he silence in the law of direct or even indirect participation by members of Congress betrays a deliberate intent on the part of the Executive and the Congress to scrap and do away with the ‘pork barrel’ system.” “[T]he omission of the PDAF provision to specify sums as ‘allocations’ to individual Members of Congress is a ‘casus omissus’ signifying an omission intentionally made by Congress that this Court is forbidden to supply.” LAMP then concluded that “the pork barrel has become legally defunct under the present state of GAA 2004.”

The court in upholding the pork barrel for the second time, ruled: “Although the possibility of this unscrupulous practice cannot be entirely discounted, surmises and conjectures are not sufficient bases for the Court to strike down the practice for being offensive to the Constitution. Moreover, the authority granted the Members of Congress to propose and select projects was already upheld in Philconsa. This remains as valid case law”.

2013 Petition at the Supreme Court to nullify the pork

 With a petition filed  recently by senatorial candidates Samson Alcantara and Greco Belgica and Pedro Nepomoceno versus President Benigno Aquino III, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Senate President Franklin Drilon and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte at the High Tribunal assailing the constitutionality of the PDAF, let’s cross our fingers that the Court sides with the petitioners and revokes finally the controversial pork that many opine has its good side (e.g scholarship to poor students, financial aid to areas struck by calamities) too, or emulate the high court's decisions in 1994 and 2006.

The petitioners’ argument for the abolition are the President’s delegation of his power to realign savings in the GAA to Cabinet secretaries, the concurrence of the Senate finance committee and the House appropriations committee to such a realignment, and the identification of projects by lawmakers.

Were the same arguments identical with the positions of the petitioners in the past against the pork?

 (You can read my selected intriguing but thought-provoking columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)

Jardeleza: Let gov’t fix pork itself 

By Oscar Franklin Tan
 Philippine Daily Inquirer 9:16 pm | Sunday, October 13th, 2013 7 412 390

Tasked to partially defend pork barrel at the oral arguments at the Supreme Court last Oct. 10, Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza faces defeat under the most ironic circumstances. The antipork petitions are of visibly lesser caliber compared to his office’s recent output. His opponents, some almost half his age, cannot be as formidable as the megafirm senior partners and veteran law professors he faced in recent cases. Yet all his gravitas might not surmount the public outrage against pork.
The outrage may well be felt by the justices. Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio was quoted in headlines after the last hearing as saying that pork laws are “riddled with unconstitutionalities.”
His staff and that of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, in particular, clearly studied pork laws independent of the feeble petitions. Against this daunting backdrop, Jardeleza stressed that the government shares the outrage. However, he argued that despite recent abuses, the actual legal framework of lawmakers’ pork must be recognized as constitutional, even as Congress is abolishing it in the 2014 budget. He pounded on his strongest chip, the Court’s 1994 Philconsa decision which upheld this pork framework’s legitimacy, and argued that if the Court upheld the brief language of that time, it must uphold the more detailed procedures for handling pork in 2013. When Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe quoted the 2008 Abakada Guro decision which pronounced that lawmakers’ participation must end after a law’s enactment, Jardeleza argued that Philconsa made an exception that allows lawmakers’ recommendation of pork projects. The linchpin is whether lawmakers merely recommend or hold post-budget authority. Philconsa cannot apply, Carpio argued, because the budget it reviewed did not require projects’ “favorable endorsement” by lawmakers, first seen in 2013.
 Jardeleza argued this is not approval but a mere matter of documentation. Sereno went through each previous budget and asked representatives of the Department of Budget and Management and Congress whether there were objections to provisions requiring notice to or consultation with lawmakers. They and even Jardeleza confessed surprise at these pork provisions. Carpio reemphasized, twice, that because the President has a line-item veto power, Congress must have a corresponding duty to present line items. Jardeleza could only reply that the President could have vetoed the lump sum in the 2013 budget for lawmakers’ pork and that future budgets are planned to contain only line items. Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro posited the pork menu is so broad it violates the constitutional ban on transfers of appropriations. Jardeleza requested the Court to allow government to correct its own mistakes with lawmakers’ pork. He quoted to Bernabe his best possible line, 19th-century Harvard professor James Bradley Thayer’s warning that the awesome judicial power runs counter to majoritarian rule and that correcting from the outside “might dwarf the political capacity of the people and deaden their sense of moral responsibility.” Sereno asked what guarantee there is that government will act, and he stressed that there is no stronger correction than Congress’ abolition of its pork. He argued that although a Court ruling may educate and be a quicker solution, it may create binding constitutional rules that will give government less leeway. Aldrich Fitz Dy argued in the previous hearing that Congress’ request to release pork allotted to indigent patients and scholars need not be granted because it may pass a law to do this. Jardeleza responded that such a supplementary budget may violate the Court’s TRO on pork. Justice Marvic Leonen retorted this forces the Court to rule. Carpio echoed Dy that pork in 2013 has thus still not been abolished and only the Court may abolish it if Congress does not. Jardeleza agreed, never having claimed otherwise.
“Presidential pork” received less focus. Jardeleza presented that the Malampaya Fund is allowed to be spent by the president on energy-related purposes and others he/she may direct, and argued the latter must mean an energy context, as has been President Aquino’s practice. Part of the fund was used to purchase a warship and build fortifications that would ostensibly help protect Malampaya. Leonen noted this contradicts still effective Arroyo-era executive orders that allow the Malampaya Fund to be used for any purpose. Bernabe gave Jardeleza pause when discussing the President’s Social Fund and its use for sociocivic purposes. She asked: “What is not a sociocivic project?” He replied: “I find it difficult to give an example offhand.” At the hearing’s emotional zenith, Carpio asked if Jardeleza is asking the Court to “dilly-dally.” Carpio recalled how, in their student days, the then solicitor general asked the Court to allow President Ferdinand Marcos to close Congress. In response, Carpio continued, the 1987 Constitution makes judicial review a “duty,” not just a power, and expanded it to allow the Court to strike down even laws that are constitutional but tainted by “grave abuse of discretion.” Carpio stated that the Court is being asked to shirk its post-Edsa duty and Jardeleza is “asking too much of this Court, counsel.” To Jardeleza’s great credit, he succeeded in presenting a sympathetic case of a government racing to show reforms to the citizenry. The expansion of judicial power Carpio and other justices emphasized, however, would justify the Court’s striking down all pork even if all his arguments prove correct.

Oscar Franklin Tan (@oscarfbtan, facebook.com/OscarFranklinTan) teaches constitutional law at the University of the East. Read more: http://opinion.inquirer.net/63321/jardeleza-let-govt-fix-pork-itself#ixzz2hhRvHQxQ Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook