Why We Are Poor and On Endless Crisis: A Theory To Ponder

The roots of crisis: A neo-colonial state preserved as a raw material economy by the geopolitical requirements of U.S. post-war imperialism; and what is to be done.

By: Alejandro Lichauco
Paper prepared for delivery before the Pilgrims for Peace scheduled October 27, 2004, Quezon City.

Introductory

Any attempt to understand the essence and roots of the nation's crisis must begin with recognition of the nature of the Philippine state. The Philippines isn't - and one must stress that - a sovereign, independent state that it is assumed to be and which its constitution claims it is.

A neocolonial state

The Philippines is a neocolonial state - which, by definition, means a state that is sovereign and independent in theory but which in fact is the colony of another, or of others. As a people, we are the classic victim of what Webster's New World Dictionary calls neocolonialism and which it defines as "the exploitation of a supposedly independent nation as by imposing a puppet government."

This has been so from the day and moment that we assumed the status of sovereign nationhood in 1946. That sovereign nationhood was pure fiction. It was pure fiction because the colonial power which supposedly returned to us the independence which it had wrested from Bonifacio's revolution never really left and never really allowed us to exist and act as a free and sovereign people.

The process by which we have been preserved as a neocolony is a story of its own, and neither time nor space allows that I deal with it in detail. It should suffice to focus on the essentials of that process. We have been preserved as a neocolonial state through the flagrant and systematic intervention of the U.S. government in our political process and in the creation of a collaborator class.

Neocolonialist intervention, of course, hasn't been confined to the political process. You see and feel the hand of that intervention in just about every aspect of Philippine society and the political economy. You see and feel it not only in government and politics but in the business community, in our schools, civil society, media and even the churches.

But the intervention has been most crucial and fatal at the level of our presidential politics. As the late and former President Diosdado Macapagal admitted in an article he wrote for the Bulletin a few years before he passed away, the U.S. government has been a decisive factor in every presidential election since 1935, and no presidential aspirant objectionable to Washington has ever been elected president. By the same token, any sitting president who manages to displease Washington invariably winds up unseated by Washington. That has been generally the fate of all incumbent presidents. They were mounted to office by Washington and eventually unseated by Washington.

That's how puppet governments are mounted and that's essentially how we have been preserved as a neocolonial state.

But that's for another paper. At the moment we are focused on the economic crisis.

The fiscal crisis as a diversionary issue

The fiscal crisis, which you invited me to discuss, is in truth only one of the many facets of the economic crisis that grips the nation. There is the crisis of the peso, the crisis of unemployment and inflation; there is the crisis of the industrial and agricultural sectors, and there is the overall crisis of underdevelopment and poverty.

There is the crisis of the very economic system by which we have lived all these years.

To be lured into a discussion of the fiscal crisis therefore is to be lured away from a discussion of the totality of the crisis and the nature as well as the root of that crisis. And that I suggest to you is exactly what the enemies of the state intend. They intend to lure us away from an examination of the total crisis and to trivialize that crisis by luring us into a discussion of what they call the "fiscal-debt crisis."

But it is the essence and root of the total economic crisis that we should focus on.

The economic crisis as the crisis of a neocolonial state

If we have a total economic crisis in our hands - a crisis whose most visible and terrifying manifestation is the mass hunger, and not only the mass poverty, that now grips the land and which government itself has acknowledged - it is because in this post-industrial age, we remain a nation of 80 million mired in the pre-industrial stage of history.

The question is: Why have we remained stuck in the pre-industrial age of history when neighbors once more impoverished and backward than we are have either graduated, or are dramatically in the process of graduating, into the age of science and industry?

And the answer is that it has been planned that way.

From the beginning, it was planned in Washington that the Philippines shall remain essentially a raw material economy in order to service the raw material requirements of an industrial Japan.

The Dodds Report and the origin of the Philippine crisis

In 1946, the Truman administration adopted the recommendation of the report which proposed that Japan be developed as the primary, if not sole, industrial powerhouse in the Asia-Pacific region and that countries like the Philippines should be preserved as raw material economies, obviously to service the requirements of Japan's factories. As the Asia-Pacific war came to a close, the U.S. obviously made a fateful decision to utilize Japan as the base from which to project U.S. military power, and that required the development of Japan as an industrial powerhouse. But since Japan is a nation bereft of natural resource, the plan obviously required that countries like the Philippines be preserved as raw material economics to ensure Japan with a continuing and permanent source of raw material.

We owe our knowledge of the Dodds Report to the late Salvador Araneta who, during his self-exile in Canada during the martial law years, uncovered the existence of the document and denounced it in his book America's Double? Cross of the Philippines.

These were Araneta's denunciatory words, as he explained the failure of the nation to industrialize: "The indifferent economic development of the country ... was due to America's policy toward Japan and the Philippines. This policy was the result of the Dodds Report which Truman accepted and which had as its objective to make Japan the industrial workshop of Asia and the Philippines a mere supplier of raw materials."

As Araneta bitterly continued: "We do not argue against the wisdom of providing Japan with the means to rehabilitate herself and allowed to become an industrial country once again, although this was contrary to the prior recommendation of a post-war planning committee headed by Secretary Morganthau, a recommendation which was in line with the prevailing sentiment at the end of the war. But certainly we can argue against a policy that would make Japan the exclusive industrialized country in the Far East, for such a policy was most detrimental to the Philippines. Indeed, the United States could not justify a policy that provided all kinds of stumbling blocks, to the industrialization of her ally (Philippines) in the war against Japan. As a result of this policy, industrialization in the Philippines suffered severe setbacks…”

It was a division of labor, or of functions, which the Dodds, Report crafted for America's allies in the Far East.

The Dodds Report explains the continuing obsession to this day of U.S. foreign policy to keep the Philippines a free and open market for imports because a liberal import policy - another name for free trade - ensures that this country will never be able to industrialize and take the same protectionist, nationalistic developmental strategy that enabled once poorer neighbors like Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand, to transform into the newly industrialized countries that they are today.

The geopolitical plan embodied in the Dodds Report explains what the late Claro M. Recto described as "America's anti? industrialization policy for the Philippines."

Although Recto had no knowledge of the existence of the Dodds Report at the time - its existence would surface only in the '70s after Araneta exposed it - his enormous analytical power enabled him to deduce from policy statements of U.S. officials that behind U.S. policy in this country was a malevolent design to see to it that we never industrialize.

Conclusive proof of what Recto described as America's "anti-industrialization policy for the Philippines" came when Marcos formally launched an industrialization program in the late ‘70s based on 11 heavy industries led by the steel, petrochemical and engineering industries. The announcement of that plan was swiftly followed by protest from the IMF and the World Bank and the pro-American technocrats in the Marcos cabinet led by no less than his then Prime Minister. In the end, after four years of struggle with the IMF, the World Bank and his own technocrats over his industrialization plan, Marcos gave up the plan but not until after he had expressly denounced a conspiracy between his own technocrats and the IMF-WB to keep the Philippines under the heels of the industrial powers.

Soon after his election to the presidency, Joseph Estrada in an interview with Asiaweek confirmed that the U.S. has indeed sabotaged the industrialization plan of Marcos.

The U.S. anti-industrialization policy for the Philippines is what those IMF conditionalities are really about. The anti-industrialization policy has been implemented all these years through the IMF conditionalities and it isn't any coincidence that for the last forty years this country has been under the continuous economic supervision of the IMF.

There is no country in the world that can claim to be under the supervision of the IMF for even a fraction of that time. And it isn't coincidence either that this country, which has been under the continuous supervision of the IMF for 40 years, is the only country in the region that isn't making any headway toward industrialization.

When the Asean was founded in the early 160s by the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore, not a single one of them was an NIC. Today, only the Philippines remains outside the magic circle of NICs. The four other co-founders of the Asean are now acknowledged NICs.

That should explain why the Philippines has the longest and oldest communist insurgency in the region.

A nation of 80 million without even the capability to produce a decent hammer or a decent toy gun can't possibly have any future except hunger.

We are today a hungry people in a land so fertile that one can drop a seed anywhere and see it sprout into something he can eat. And we are hungry because we are a nation frozen by design in the pre-industrial age, preserved as a raw material economy.

The essence and root of our crisis, to stress, are to be found in the nature of the Philippines as a neocolonial state preserved by U.S. post-war imperialism as a raw material economy to service the raw material requirements of an industrial Japan.

The treason of the Edsa Constitution: Art. X1 1, sec. 1, par 2 and the constitutionalization of the formula for underdevelopment and poverty

The ultimate tragedy of a neocolonial state is that even its own Constitution becomes an instrument of its own and perpetual enslavement.

And the Philippine case is a classic illustration.

I invite your attention to Art. XII, Sec. 1, par. 2 of the Constitution which reads as follows: "The State shall promote industrialization and full employment based on sound agricultural development and agrarian reform through industries that make full and efficient use of human and natural resources, and which are competitive in both domestic and foreign markets. However, the State shall protect Filipino enterprises against unfair foreign competition and trade practices.”

That provision you will note automatically prohibits an industrial policy based on the heavy industries and the application of protectionist measures against foreign competition, whether fair or unfair. While the provision stipulates that the "State shall promote industrialization" it simultaneously qualifies that constitutional directive with an entire complex of conditions and limiting reservations which makes it impossible for the State to adopt any industrialization strategy other than one that is specifically and exclusively based on "sound agricultural development and agrarian reform" whatever that means. For example, the provision literally prohibits an industrialization strategy based on the heavy industries, like steel, chemicals, machine tools and machine production.

But that's precisely the kind of strategy that made NICS of our neighbors. Our neighbors - particularly South Korea and Taiwan - didn't transform into newly industrialized countries through the industrialization strategy explicitly mandated by the above-cited provision of our Constitution. Those countries, imitating Japan, pursued an industrialization strategy anchored on the development of industries based on and moved by machine power rather than on "sound agricultural development and agrarian reform."

A real industrialization program is one that is based on what is known as the capital goods industry - industries based on machine power and the production of what is known as the means of production. Any other industrialization program can only be a program based on light consumer industries that are totally dependent on industrial raw material and industrial machines produced by the industrialized countries.

You will further note that the constitutional provision insists that industries should be competitive in both the domestic and foreign markets. With that provision, there is hardly any industry that can qualify for government support and protection, and that is precisely what the provision intends. That provision serves as justification for our reckless entry into GATT and the equally reckless accelerated tariff reduction program of the government - programs which have contributed heavily to the bankruptcy of National Steel Corporation, the closure of Caltex refinery and the financial problems of an enterprise like Hacienda Luisita, all of whom have attributed their crisis to the flood of imports unleashed by the government's commitments to the WTO.

No country rose from rags to riches through industrialization by exposing its industries to foreign competition the way we have done.

Examine the industrial policies of the Asian NICs and you will see how protective those policies are of their basic industries, even if these are not competitive in the foreign markets. While the constitutional provision does provide that the State shall protect Filipino enterprises against unfair foreign competition, it doesn't define what unfair foreign competition means. For example, we have exposed our agricultural sector to competition from subsidized agricultural imports, but the authorities don't consider that a contravention of the Constitution. The result is that even the agricultural sector has been marginalized. Apparently, the authorities see nothing wrong with pitting our farmers, most of whom hardly made it to sixth grade, with the corporate farmers of the industrial countries, who do their farming with the aid of satellites.

The authorities must be reminded that any underdeveloped economy struggling to industrialize would have to protect its basic industries from foreign competition, whether fair or unfair. To insist that even infant industries should be competitive in the foreign markets would be tantamount to killing these infant industries from the start.

he question is: Why did the authors of the present Constitution feel it necessary to qualify the industrialization mandate with the kind of restrictions they placed on it?

And the answer is that the authors of the cited provision were the very elements who had opposed the heavy industrialization program launched by Ferdinand Marcos in 1979. The Marcos industrial program was based the establishment of industries driven by machine power and not - repeat, not - by "sound agricultural development and agrarian reform" as stipulated by the present Constitution.

In brief, no less than the Constitution has become the barrier to the real industrialization of our economy. Under the "industrialization" provision of the Charter there isn't any way that this country can transform into a newly industrialized country or NIC.

Which means that there isn't any way we can get out of the poverty trap which has now mutated into a hunger crisis.

ARTICLE XII, SEC. I PAR. 2 OF THE CONSTITUTION IS THE BEST EVIDENCE OF OUR STATUS AS NEOCOLONIAL STATE. IT IS ALSO THE ULTIMATE WEAPON WHICH ENSURES THAT THE ANTI-INDUSTRIALIZATION AGENDA OF THE DODDS REPORT WILL REMAIN UNCHALLENGED BY ANY GOVERNMENT ELECTED UNDER THE PRESENT CHARTER.

If by some miracle we should have a government tomorrow bent on industrializing the economy by adopting the same industrial policies that have made industrialized countries of our neighbors, such a government would run afoul of the Constitution.

WHAT THEN IS TO BE DONE?

Complete the unfinished nationalist revolution of Bonifacio. What needs to be done is clearly to forge a national coalition of forces committed to recovering the sovereignty which American imperialism wrested from Bonifacio's revolution and to transform the Philippines from the neocolonial state that it is to the truly sovereign and independent state that it claims to be and should be.

Only when the Philippines becomes a truly sovereign and independent state can it then proceed to pursue the kind of developmental policies necessary to lift the economy out of the pre-industrial age of history and to catapult it to the ranks of newly industrialized countries.

Three processes that should be unleashed if social peace is to be achieved. Such a coalition could be forged on the basis of a program that would unleash three vital processes, namely: The process of decolonization, the process of industrialization and the process of economic democratization.

Only when these three processes are unleashed simultaneously, through a program of government crafted specifically for that purpose, can the nation begin the journey towards social peace. The reason is that social peace can only come with social justice and economic democracy.

But social justice and economic democracy can come about only if there is economic development, and economic development can come about only with an industrial revolution which in turn can come about only with national independence. I propose accordingly that no time be lost organizing a national coalition based on a program that would unleash the three processes of de-colonization, industrialization and economic democratization.

In 1986, I proposed such a program to the then ongoing Constitutional Commission - which that body completely ignored. I now propose that that program be adopted as a working basis of dialogue among all elements in Philippine society determined to transform the Philippines into a truly sovereign and independent state so that it may proceed with the war on mass poverty and thereby pave the way for the much longed social peace which has long eluded us. That program is embodied in a slim volume I authored titled Towards a New Economic Order and the Conquest of Mass Poverty, and which I incorporate by reference in this paper. That program, incidentally, is a synthesis of the basic principles found in the program of the Movement for the Advancement of Nationalism and the Vatican encyclicals which condemn laissez-faire capitalism and justify on moral grounds the principle of state activism in the economy.

Along with the program outlined in Towards a New Economic Order and the Conquest of Mass Poverty, I recommend the adoption, as a working basis of dialogue, an emergency program of government proposed by the Citizens Committee on the National Crisis last January, which I also incorporate by way of reference.

We must complete Bonifacio's unfinished revolution if we are to face up to the crisis that has made this only Christian nation in Asia a humanitarian disaster, where 80 percent of Filipino households live under hunger conditions.

The imperatives of national survival and the revolution against hunger which has now overtaken us call for nothing less than the revolutionary nationalism which forged Filipinos into one nation.

Only when the country commits itself to a program of government that would unleash the three processes of de-colonization, industrialization and economic democratization can it begin the march toward social peace because only a government committed to the unleashing of those three processes would have the credibility to deal with the insurgents and the secessionists. That is one way of saying that the road to social peace begins with the struggle to regain the sovereignty and independence which U.S. imperialism stole from Bonifacio's revolution.

That sovereignty and independence should be recovered at all cost if we are to survive as a viable society.

One final and concluding note: Debt repudiation

There isn't any way we can proceed to retrieve our sovereignty and independence unless we first repudiate the foreign debt. The repudiation of that debt should be the starting point of any genuine effort at national independence and sovereignty.

I have written the Senate a letter-memorandum outlining the case for unconditional debt repudiation and I incorporate that letter-memorandum to this paper by way of reference. I suggest that the Pilgrims for Peace initiate a signature campaign urging the Senate to adopt the letter-memorandum for debt repudiation.

Such a campaign could well serve as the catalyst for a nationwide coalition that would complete the unfinished revolution.

The principal contradiction

The contradiction between colonialism and nationalism remains the principal contradiction of Philippine society. To the resolution of that contradiction all other contradictions should be subordinated. The road to peace starts with that. It starts with the drive to eliminate colonialism in all its forms and from whatever source.

Recto, the consummate Filipino nationalist and Mao, the consummate Chinese Communist, will shake hands on that.

“IT’S GMA’S PAYBACK TIME ” - COURAGE

Press Release
by: COURAGE

Government employees are restive. Many government offices are slated for abolition, privatization, mergers, transfer, reorganization and rationalization which would. Almost everyday, Executive Orders in order to implement these are issued by Malacanang, the most recent of which is EO 366 or the rationalization of the functions and operations of the agencies under the Executive Branch of the government. Recent estimates range 300,00 to 420,000 government workers shall be affected by the administration’s streamlining efforts.

And the employees have reasons to be upset. For while tenured rank and file employees are being targeted for lay-off, early and forced retirement, the President is creating new offices and appointing new officials.

Since July this year, 8 new offices were created with 10 new cabinet level positions appointed to wit: Office the Presidential Adviser on Job Generation headed by former DA Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr., Office of the Cabinet Officer for Provincial Events – Conrado Limcaoco, Offcie of the Political Adviser – Gabriel Claudio, Office of the Communications Director – Silvestre Afable, Presidential Adviser on Revenue Enhancement or PARE – Narciso Santiago and the Office for External Affairs – Eduardo Pamintuan (former NHA General Manager).

New Presidential advisers and consultants were also appointed such as Presidential Adviser for New Government Centers (Rodolfo del Rosario, former Davao del Norte Governor), Presidential Adviser for Rural Electrification (Francisco Silva, former NEA Chief), Pres’l. Adviser for Trade and Development (Rodolfo Severino, former Sec. Gen. Of the ASEAN), Pres’l. Adviser for Region VI (Raphael Coscolluela) and Pres’l. Assistant for Transport and Tricycle Concerns (Ariel Lim).

COURAGE the mother organization of government workers nationwide scored the Arroyo Administration’s “obvious double standard and political accommodations at the expense of the employees”.

“The cash-strapped government while pushing for streamlining of government workers is creating new offices and even allocating millions of funds for its operations to accommodate its political lackeys or those who helped her during the election”. COURAGE National President Ferdinand Gaite cited the new Office of External Affairs, which according to reports duplicates the functions of other government agencies such as the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the National Anti-Poverty Commission. “Pamintuan’s minions at the OEA have nothing in their credentials to speak of aside from their former links with the militant cause oriented groups which clearly, they capitalized on to corner their posts. These are the same people behind the Kasimbayan and Pro-Gloria machinery of the administration during the elections where millions of government funds where siphoned to, in order to ‘sell’ a candidate the masses so detested”.

Gaite also pointed out Jun Santiago’s appointment as PARE the offcie which was created “to help govt find ways to ease current fiscal crisis”. Santiago is the husband of Senator Miriam Santiago who defected to the administration’s ticket before the election and a kumpare of President Arroyo who is Ninang to their adopted children.

As a sign of protest, employees of the National Housing Authority, Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) and the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) today staged simultaneous noontime rallies in front of their respective offices. Said agencies are targetted for privatization.

COURAGE anounced that they will hold a nationwide protest against rationalization, privatization, transfer and other forms that directly undermine the employees’ jobs on October 28. Thousands of affected employees are expected to participate nationwide. #

On the Corruption in the AFP: Worse than “Terrorists”

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Pagpupugay Kay Kasamang Ver

“TINAMAAN KAYO NG SAMPUNG PATUNOG’…may diin…may tulak…may pinatutungkulan! Mga katagang madalas mamutawi sa bibig ng taong laman ng mga kilos-protesta sa lansangan na sa harap man ng mga anti-mamamayang puwersa ay handang makipagbanggaan at makipagdikdikan. Taas ang kamaong isinisigaw… KARAPATAN, KALAYAAN at KATARUNGAN!

Sino ba ang taong ito na nagtataglay ng diwang mapagkaisa na walang pag-aalinlangang gumagampan ng tungkuling nakaatang sa kanya? Sino siya na handang isaisantabi ang sariling kapahingahan at walang pagod na nagpaparoo’t parito para lamang papag-ugnayin at ganap na pagkaisahin ang noo’y binubuong alyansa ng mga puwersa ng mga kawani sa UP Diliman at ng sa UP Manila/PGH? Sino siya na isinasakripisyo ang sariling kalusugan na kahit may mabigat na karamdaman ay hindi iniinda at bagkus ay buong tatag na humarap sa mga pagsubok at buong sigasig na sumuong sa mga pakikibaka para sa kapakanan ng lahat? Sino siya na hanggang sa huling sandali ng kanyang buhay ay “pagsilbihan ang sambayanan” pa rin ang linyang taglay at walang kahinaang ipinakita kundi lalong pagpupursiging ganap na paglilingkod sa bayan?

Siya si G. Virgilio Panganiban o Ka Ver. Sa bawat indayog ng kanyang mga kamao, sa bawat katagang pinakakawalan at sa bawat padyak ng mga paa na may halong panggigigil, damang-dama ang kaseryusohan sa kinapapaloobang laban, laban na hindi biru-biruan at walang anyo o bahid ng paglalaro na maging ang banta ng sakit ay walang puwang para bigyan ng pansin. Patuloy at patuloy pang gumanap ng kanyang gawaing pag-oorganisa sa masa! Binura ng namamayaning determinasyon at nag-aalab na adhikain ang lahat ng takot at panghihina at taas-noong tinatanaw ang nalalapit na pagkakamit ng tagumpay sa isinusulong na Pambansa Demokratikong Pagkakaisa ng Sambayanang Pilipino tungo sa isang tunay at ganap na pagbabago.

Si Ka Ver ay di lang isang mabait at responsableng ama na nagtaguyod sa kanyang mga anak na sina Beverly at Melvin, o tapat na kabiyak ni Ka Letty na katuwang niya sa pangangalaga sa katatagan ng isang maipagmamalaking pamilya, o kaya’y kaibigan na kahit saan magtungo’y maraming kakilala. Si Ka Ver ay isang kasama. Kasama sa paghahawan ng mabalakid, baku-bako at sira-sirang landas ng pagbabago, kasama rin sa mga tagapaglikha ng kasaysayan at nagtatayo ng bagong pundasyon na sandalan ng darating na henerasyon. Siya ay kasama sa pagpapalaya ng bayan. Kaya’t ang kanyang pagkamatay ay di dapat pag-aksayahan ng luha ng kalungkutan. Hindi siya nawala! Pisikal na kaanyuan lamang ang umalis habang ang diwang taglay niya ay nananatiling kapiling natin…buhay na buhay at kasa-kasama sa pagsusulong ng tunay, palaban at makabayang adhikain tungo sa isang makabuluhan, makatarungan at malayang kinabukasan.

Mga kasama, kung may luha mang pumatak mula sa ating mga mata ay luha iyon ng panghihinayang… panghihinayang na di na maririnig ang kanyang tinig na sa bawat pagkilos natin ay lalong nagpapainitt, nagbibigay buhay at nagpapataas ng moral sa ating pakikibaka. Mga luha ng pagmamalaki dahil mayroon tayong Ka Ver na isang tunay na organisador at ehemplo ng katatagan, isang matibay na moog na di magigiba kaylan man, balon ng katitikan ang taglay na karunungan at balwarte ng pakikibaka ang kanyang kabuuan.

Mabuhay ka Kasamang Ver!

All UP Workers Union Manila
Ika-9 ng Oktubre 2004

Si Kasamang Ver o Virgilio Panganibaan ay siyang National Executive Vice President ng All UP Workers Union (2001-2004). Isa siyang Business Manager (SG 22) sa UP Press. Siya ay binawian ng buhay noong ika-9 ng Oktubre 2004 sa edad na 56, matapos atakehin sa puso.

Salaries of Public Health Workers: Rice and Salt Subsistence

PRESS RELEASE
October 11, 2004

Reference: JOSSEL I. EBESATE
Telephone No: 404-3721
Mobile Phone No: 09189276381

After going bald in thinking of means to make both ends meet amidst the ever-increasing prices of goods, now comes the reality of Public Health Workers’ nearing to a hand-to-mouth existence.

Health Workers of the country’s largest state hospital, again launched today a picket rally with noise barrage in front of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) to emphasize the urgency of their call for a P3,000.00 across the board salary increase for all government employees. This is, following another round of increases in the prices of oil, transport fares, and electricity rates. To further dramatize the worsening economic plight of the Public Health Workers, who have chosen to remain in the country, the protesting PGH Health Workers eat their lunch consisting of rice and salt at the PGH Flagpole Stage. The increase in electricity rates starting on October billing was particularly worrisome to the protesting Public Health Workers because aside from the increase of 28.52 centavos per kilowatt-hour for residential consumer of more than 100 kWh a month; government hospitals will also pay an additional 43.56 centavos per kWh.

The activity held during lunch break (12:00 – 1:00 PM) was again spearheaded by the All U.P. Workers Union, Manila Chapter.

“The elimination of cross-subsidy on government hospital will translate to an average of about P1 million in additional cost per month to PGH, further depleting the already lacking budget allocation for patient services,” says Mr. Jossel Ebesate the Union’s Chapter President. “The monthly take home pay now of most of our Public Health Workers drived us on a rice and salt subsistence, it is already an ominous sign to Malacañang and the ruling elite!” added, Mr. Ebesate.

The increase of 28.52 per kWh for individual household translates to a minimum of P30 additional expense per month on electric bill alone. The added expense adds up to the monthly poverty threshold in the NCR of P16,862.00 (February 2004/NSCB). In contrast, the gross monthly salary of a PGH Utility Worker I (SG1) is just P5,082.00, Nursing Attendant II or Clerk III (SG6) is P7,606, Nurse I (SG10) is P9,939.00, while that of a Medical Officer III (SG18) is P15,831.00, still below the poverty threshold.

Aside from the All U.P. Workers Union, the said activity was supported by the All U.P. Academic Employees’ Union, the PGH Physicians’ Association, the Utility Workers Association of PGH and the Alliance of Health Workers. ###

UPDATE on the Rice Subsidy

Yesterday afternoon, October 4, a pre-bidding conference with prospective bidders for our rice subsidy was held by the UP Manila Bids and Awards Committee I (BAC I). The All UP Workers Union Manila was represented by Mr. Ernesto Ragudos upon my request as I have a prior speaking engagement with 2nd year nursing students of the Manila Central University (Kalookan).

Those who participated were the Primavera Rice Mill Corp. (the previous rice supplier) and Masaganang Sakahan (a Land Bank Subsidiary).

Based on the bidding schedule, the bids will be opened on Monday, October 18, 2004 and delivery of rice is expected one week later. The Union has already opted to have the delivery of rice in the offices and no longer through house-to-house.

There were some problems from PGH but we consider these as procedural in nature that should be addressed by approporiate levels and offices without necessarily delaying further the bidding and delivery schedule.

For those who kept on asking (there were reports that there was already a circulated petition that opted for cash rather than rice) if the fund for rice subsidy would be taken from the P5,000.00 year-end incentive bonus, we reiterate our position that we are against such arrangement. About a month ago, we have already queried the UP Central Administration and we were told by Vice President Martin Gregorio that at this point in time we are only talking here of the rice subsidy, the year-end incentive bonus was yet to be discussed by Management, noting the possibe implications of the austerity program of the National Government.

Considering such responce, we are advising our colleagues especially those from PGH Budget Office to refrain from speculating or disseminating unfounded perceptions. UP Manila's Vice Chancellor for Administration Dr. Arlene Samañiego had already talked with UP Manila and PGH Budget people regarding this matter upon query also from our end.

We note that although the P5,000 Year-end Incentive Bonus was already included in the Internal Operating Budget for 2004 while the P1,000 rice subsidy was not; it is not correct to say at this time that the P1,000 for rice subsidy was taken from the P5,000 UP Bonus - until such time that the Board of Regents had already decided on our Year-end Incentive Bonus.

Indeed, nobody, not even the UP Central Administration could forecast what would happen within the next 2-3 months especially on our fund releases from the DBM considering the twisted priorities of the government. That is, if in a worst case scenario, the DBM withheld our remaining fund releases for the rest of year. In such case, our accumulated savings so far and income would not be enough to cover our budgetary requirements for the rest of the year.

It is therefore within our hands if we just let those people with twisted minds in government to kept on their "irritating entertainment" and self-serving pursuit rather than serve the interest of the people. Or, we the people, show them the exit door.

Can we count on you? or you will just remain a kibitzer on such scenario?

Hanggang "usi" na lang ba tayo kahit nilulublub na sa putikan ang ating Inang Bayan at ginugutom na ang marami sa ating mga kababayan?

Winston Garcia and the Plunder of GSIS

A welfare agency is supposed to look after its members so its funds must be managed well and spent prudently. However, as alleged by critics, it takes only one abusive, highly paid official to profit from the moneys contributed by underpaid employees, much to the consternation of the supposed beneficiaries.

BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
http://www.bulatlat.com/news/4-35/4-35-garcia.html

This government corporation was established for a good cause but it has now become a symbol of corruption.

The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) was created by Commonwealth Act No. 186 on November 14, 1936, a year after the inauguration of the Philippine Commonwealth. It was mandated to provide and administer compulsory and optional life insurance, retirement benefits, disability benefits for work-related contingencies and death benefits.

Today, about 1.5 million government employees from various agencies, local government units and government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) are members of the GSIS.

The GSIS’ workforce currently consists of 3,104 employees, 52 percent of whom are in the head office at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) complex in Pasay City. The remaining 48 percent are in the 48 branches and 78 satellite offices nationwide. They are unionized under the Kapisanan ng mga Manggagawa sa GSIS (KMG or workers union) which has about 800 members in the head office alone.

Lost mandate?

Lawyer Jose Cortes, a former director of the Bureau of Legal Assistance of the Department of Agrarian Reform, told Bulatlat over the weekend that today, the GSIS has almost lost its mandate. “Nakalimutan na ang element of service” (They have already forgotten the element of service.).

Cortes retired in 2000 when he reached the retirement age of 65. He enjoyed medical assistance benefit during the first three years of his retirement. However, since mid-2003, he has not received a single cent of his medical assistance benefit.

He said he has traveled back and forth from his home in Malabon to the GSIS head office in Pasay City to inquire about his reimbursements. “The last time I asked, I was told that there is no fund to pay for my medical needs,” Cortes said.

Lost billions

KMG President Albert Velasco, who is also a lawyer, said in a separate interview with Bulatlat, that the GSIS acquires billions every month from the employees’ mandatory contributions. These contributions, called premiums, should go directly to the trust fund, he explained.

Citing the annual report of the GSIS for 2003, premium payments totaled P40 billion ($710.48 million, based on an exchange rate of P56.30 per US dollar) reported under the social insurance fund.
Velasco alleged that the money is being used by GSIS President and General Manager Winston Garcia for his “personal quirks.”

Documents acquired by the KMG show that Garcia made the following extravagant investments: a P1-billion ($17.76-million) loan to the Public Estates Authority; purchase of a P611.8-million ($10.87-million) property in London to pay for the Philippine Embassy office there; and the purchase of various paintings, among them Juan Luna’s Parisian Life which cost the GSIS P45.4 million ($806,394.32).

In his first 10 months in office, Garcia had cash advances amounting to P5.25 million ($93,250.44).
From September 2003 to July 2004, records showed that Garcia had P6,883,006.63 ($122,255.89) in miscellaneous disbursements.

He approved a P700-million ($12.43 million) computerization project even if, according to the KMG, the same computer functions and programs can be obtained for P40 million ($710,479.57) through the GSIS branches.

Garcia also spends P300,000 ($5,328.60) a month for advertisements while spending another P200,000 ($3,552.40) a month for personal legal assistance.

It is this alleged grave misuse of the government employees’ pension fund that has kept Garcia under fire and it comes as no surprise that there is now a groundswell of support for his ouster.

Garcia has denied all charges and challenged his critics to face him in court. His superior, President Macapagal-Arroyo, has asked the embattled GSIS president to explain and she made assurances that everything will be transparent. Bulatlat