Month: April 2017

One Belt One Road: Reviving PH-China Silk Road ties

Published by Ellen on April 26, 2017

GUANGZHOU,China –To underscore the ties that deeply bind the people of this bustling city and the Filipinos, Deputy Director General Luo Jun of Guangdong Province Foreign Affairs Office cites that the Manila-Guangzhou flight takes only one hour and 45 minutes, same as Manila-Davao, while Guangzhou to Beijing takes three hours.

The nearness of Manila to Guangzhou and to nearby provinces of Fujian and Shenzhen is very much relevant to the One Belt-One Road initiative, an ambitious project unveiled by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 with an initial fund of $40 billion that will re-create the ancient Silk Route that connected China and Europe as far back as 100 B.C.

On May 14 and 15, 28 world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Rodrigo Duterte or their representatives will gather in Beijing to provide impetus to the project that is mindboggling in its scope and possibilities.

Recalling JMSU

Published by Ellen on April 25, 2017

The Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking, JMSU for short, is back in the news.

It was mentioned by former president Gloria Arroyo and her executive secretary, Eduardo Ermita, to stress that cooperation with China in South China Sea is possible during the launch of the book, “The Ocean Space or the Maritime Area of the Philippines,” a primer on the law of the sea, at the House of Representatives, where Arroyo is a currently a member.

The primer, published by the University of the Philippines, is timely at this time when the Philippines, under President Duterte has reconciled with China, in contrast to the toxic relations during the Aquino administration.
During the press conference Arroyo said, “The language, it was without prejudice to the filing of a protest. And since it was just a research survey, it does not affect the respective positions of the countries on issues related to the claim.”

Duterte, purveyor of fake information

Published by Ellen on April 19, 2017

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte raises his fist as he takes the center stage during a meeting with the Overseas Filipino Workers based in Qatar at the Lusail Sports Arena in Lusail City, April 15. Malacañang photo by King Rodriguez.

Information empowers. But in the age of fake news which has found a fertile base in social media especially Facebook, lies being passed on as information have become a powerful tool for mass idiotization.

This occurred to us watching President Duterte regal the Filipino community in Saudi Arabia, with falsehoods which the audience lapped it up with gusto.

Before some 6,000 OFWs at the Lusail Sports Arena in Doha, Qatar last Saturday, Duterte repeated the false stories he had peddled before about Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and his fellow military officers stole utensil and beddings of the Manila Peninsula where they set up their base of resistance against the government of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo after walked out of a hearing in Makati City Hall on Nov. 29, 2007.

U.S. can invoke MDT for PH support in war with North Korea

Published by Ellen on April 16, 2017

The commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific ordered on April 8 the U.S. Navy’s Carl Vinson carrier strike group to change course and head towards the Korean Peninsula in response to North Korea’s advancing weapons tests. US Navy photo shows the aircraft carrier in South China Sea in February 2017.

Hopefully, the jostling between U.S President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un will not go beyond strategic positioning of aircraft carriers and troops.

Because in the hopefully- unlikely event of a war between the United States and North Korea, the Philippines will be greatly affected.

Number one, there are more than 60,000 Filipinos in South Korea. Many are married to Koreans while a large number are workers. A displacement of these huge number of Filipinos will mean difficulties not only for the workers and their families but also to the Philippine economy.

Number two, the U.S. can invoke the 1951 RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty that states:

Duterte can’t sell PH land in Spratlys to China

Published by Ellen on April 11, 2017

Now, President Duterte wants to go into real estate business in the Spratlys.

Before he embarked on a state visit to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar, he told reporters that he might sell what the Philippines claim in Spratlys to China.

Assuring China that his orders to install markers and flag to the 10 features in the Spratlys being claimed by the Philippines is not hostile, he said:, “So, for the information of China, we will not place there any offensive weapons, not even one gun. We’re just there to claim the island for us because that is really ours. And I have ordered the Armed Forces to build structures there to signify to all na atin ito at lagyan ng flag and structures. We did not mean no harm to China. We are friends as a matter of fact.”

In fact, he said, ” Maybe when we get rich, very rich, I can sell the land to you for … inyo na when the spectacle of a war is gone and nothing is dangerous to the Philippines.”

Official marker in Pag-asa Island. Photo from the West Philippine Sea primer of the UP Institute of Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea.

Occupy Spratlys

Published by Ellen on April 10, 2017

Was Duterte’s Occupy Spratlys order a reaction to the decline of the people’s trust in him as shown in the latest survey of Pulse Asia that he had to show that he is no lackey of China and he can stand up to the neighboring economic giant?

The day after Pulse Asia released results of its March 15-20 survey that showed the President’s trust rating drop by seven points and performance rating by five points, he was at the Western Command in Puerto Princesa, Palawan.

In an interview with reporters he said: “Coming Independence Day natin, I might, I may go to Pag-asa Island to raise the flag there. Pati iyong ano, basta iyong bakante, na iyong atin na, tirhan na natin, ibig sabihin. Mukhang agawan kasi ito ng isla eh. (Even the unoccupied which is ours, we should put people there. It looks like this is just island grabbing.) And what’s ours now, at least kunin na natin (let’s get it) and make a strong point there that it is ours.”

Map showing the features in the Spratly Islands currently occupied by various claimant countries. Photo from the West Philippine Sea primer by UP Institute of Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea.

Preparation is best way to cope with earthquakes

Published by Ellen on April 7, 2017

The earthquake that shook Batangas and the other provinces in Central Luzon Tuesday once again reminded the public of the possible movement of the West Valley Fault.

When a 6.7 intensity earthquake jolted Surigao del Norte last February, Director Renato Solidum of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology once again asked those living along and in the vicinity of the 100-km-long fault, which runs through different cities and towns of Bulacan, Rizal, Metro Manila, Cavite and Laguna to prepare, not just stocking up on food and buying flashlight batteries but having the buildings they live in inspected, evaluated and retrofitted.

During a conference on Disaster Preparedness in 2014, Mayor Herbert Bautista said there were some families in Quezon City subdivisions who would rather remain in denial about the danger. They did not want to hear about the warning as they were more concerned about the decrease in the value of their property.

The curse of the mistresses

Published by Ellen on April 5, 2017

House Speaker Pantalon Alvarez brings with him Jennifer Vicencio in an official trip - President Duterte's state visit to Laos. Instagram photo by Rep. Rodolfo Farinas (front). — House Speaker Pantalon Alvarez brings with him Jennifer Vicencio in an official trip – President Duterte’s state visit to Laos. Instagram photo by Rep. Rodolfo Farinas (front).

When news reports about the feud between House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio “Tonyboy” Floirendo Jr. was brought into open and was traced to the quarrel of the Davao lawmakers’ mistresses, my initial reaction was to suggest that they be given a copy of Jullie Yap’s book, “Etiquette for Mistresses.”

But I realized that Jullie’s pieces of advice are not applicable because the scandal is not a feud between the wife and the mistress. It’s a squabble between mistresses.

Jennifer Vicencio (Alvarez’ mistress) and Cathy Binag (Floirendo’s mistress) are a different breed of mistresses. They quarrel over privileges they feel they are entitled to because of their partners’ government position.

What the Chinese ship did in Benham Rise

Published by Ellen on April 2, 2017

Xiang Yang Hong 03, the research vessel that conducted a survey in Benham Rise last year docked in Xiamen.Photo from China Ocean News.

Benham Rise, a 13-million-hectare undersea region off the provinces of Isabela and Aurora which the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) approved in 2009 as part of the Philippine’s extended continental shelf (350 nautical miles from the shores), came into the consciousness of many Filipinos recently with Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana disclosed early March that Chinese ships had been spotted in the area last year for about three months.

China did not deny it. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang said their “vessels for marine research did sail across relevant waters to the northeast of Luzon, the Philippines last year, exercising navigation freedoms and the right to innocent passage only, without conducting any other activities or operations.”

Last week, a Chinese newsletter, China Ocean News, carried a news item about what was accomplished by its survey ship, Xiang yang hong 03. It belied what the Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the ship’s activity was limited to innocent passage.

Lascañas says Duterte paid him using Davao City’s ‘ghost” employees

Published by Ellen on April 2, 2017

Lascañas on ghost employees from VERA Files on Vimeo.

By Ellen T. Tordesillas
VERA Files

In the business of death, self-confessed hitman Arturo Lascañas had reaped a ghastly reward: He became a “ghost” employee of the Davao City Hall, whose paycheck got a boost from the salaries of other “ghost” employees.

Lascañas, who retired in December with the rank of senior police officer 3, said in an interview with VERA Files that he received P68,000 every month from the Davao City government as a member of the Davao Death Squad (DDS). The amount, he said, was pooled from 10 to 12 ghost employees whose salaries ranged from P5,000 to P7,000 a month.