Oil Smuggling

Fuel smuggling costing gov't P9.5B a year Michelle V. RemoInquirer News Service
THE Department of Finance and the Bureau of Customs have estimated that the government has been losing about P9.5 billion in revenues a year due to fuel smuggling, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said.
Of the amount, P7 billion are in the form of lost excise taxes and P2.5 billion in uncollected import duties, Teves said.
"While the Bureau of Customs has apprehended suspected fuel smugglers, the lack of incontrovertible evidence has made it difficult for them to confiscate the products or prosecute the offenders," he said.
Caltex Philippines Inc., at a recent forum on the VAT Reform Law, earlier raised its concern over the growing number of fuel smugglers, which it said were directly competing with their legitimate oil dealers.
The finance department and the customs bureau have come up with a strategy that would help detect whether fuel sold in the market was smuggled, Teves said.
They have signed a memorandum of agreement with the Philippine Institute of Petroleum (PIP), a private sector organization, that will help the government implement a chemical technology in detecting smuggled fuel, he said.
With the chemical technology, authorities will use a certain chemical to mark fuel whose taxes and duties have been paid by the importers.
Under the government's anti-smuggling plan, customs authorities would regularly check the market to monitor sale of fuel. When a fuel does not contain the chemical markings, then they would have reason to suspect that the product was smuggled, the Department of Finance said in the statement.
Aside from addressing fuel smuggling, Customs Commissioner Alexander Arevalo earlier said the bureau had also tapped the assistance of courier service companies FedEx, UPS and DHL to help combat smuggling of other products.
The three companies will serve as third-party informants to help the Bureau of Customs detect smuggled items, Arevalo said. In particular, the couriers, from point of departure, will inform the bureau of the contents of the products they will deliver to the Philippines, he said. With INQ7.net

RPN, IBC For Sale

RPN-9, IBC-13 to be sold jointly Michelle V. RemoInquirer News Service
THE government is studying various options for the privatization of state-owned television stations, with the possibility of jointly selling Radio Philippines Network Inc. (RPN) Channel 9 and Intercontinental Broadcasting Network (IBC) Channel 13, Finance Undersecretary Jay Singson, who is in charge of the government's privatization program, said Monday.
The interagency Privatization Council has decided to offer for re-bidding the financial advisory services for the privatization of RPN-9 so that the service package can include IBC-13, Singson said.
"The financial adviser would suggest whether it would be best to sell the two stations separately or jointly," he told reporters.
The government had declared CLSA Exchange Capital as winning bidder six other advisory firms at the bidding on June 27 for the financial advisory contract for the privatization of RPN-9.
Singson said the bidding process would have to be done again because the government wanted to include IBC-13 in the package, and CLSA had agreed with the decision and had expressed intention to join in a bidding again.
Other bidders at the previous auction were BPI Capital Corp.; Ernst & Young; KPMG, Laya, Mananghaya & Co.; PCI Capital Corp.; PricewaterhouseCoopers; and Punongbayan Araullo.
Singson said the privatization of RPN-9 and IBC-13 would be pushed to next year but the new bidding of the contract would be held before the end of this year.
Reportedly interested in buying RPN-9 are Manuel Pangilinan, chairman of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.; Solar Sports of businessman Wilson Tieng; and Mike Velarde, leader of the Catholic charismatic group El Shaddai.

HK's Disney Opens

Disney opens its first theme park in China

Agence France-Presse

HONG KONG -- Disney officially opened its newest theme park in Hong Kong by Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong Monday, marking its first step into the lucrative China market.

Some 2,500 dignitaries and guests were on hand, including Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang, Walt Disney Company CEO Michael Eisner and company president Robert Iger.

The ceremony opening the three-billion US dollar park kicked off with a traditional Chinese lion dance in the forecourt of Sleeping Beauty Castle.

The Hong Kong government, which chipped in 1.8 billion Hong Kong dollars of the construction cost and owns a half-share of equity in the project, is hoping the park will spur local tourism and bring in more than 100 billion dollars over the next 40 years.

RP Exports

 

China gives Philippine exports a lift

By Francisco Alcuaz Jr. Bloomberg News

MANILA Philippine exports grew in July at the fastest pace in six months as overseas sales of electronics revived and shipments to China increased threefold.

 

Shipments to China climbed to $567.6 million from $188.9 million, the National Statistics Office said Friday in Manila, bringing them into the range of the Philippines' two biggest markets: Japan at $598.1 million and the United States at $567.6 million. Sales to Japan were flat. Shipments to the United States dropped 23 percent.

 

Overseas sales rose 11.4 percent to $3.46 billion, the Statistics Office said. That compares with 1 percent increases in May and June and was the biggest gain since January's 15.2 percent rise.

 

Rising exports may help President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's government improve growth in a country where a third of the population lives on less than 60 U.S. cents a day and where more revenue is needed to curb debt that swallows a third of state spending on interest payments alone. Exports make up two-fifths of the $85 billion Philippine economy.

 

"This may help put us back on track as far as the economy is concerned," said Emma Pante, an economist at Rizal Commercial Banking in Manila. "We're benefiting from demand China cannot meet."

 

But the recovery in exports growth may be "shaky" because it is not based on improved competitiveness, Pante said.

 

Arroyo's government says growth may slow this year to less than its minimum 5.3 percent target, from 6.1 percent in 2004, in part because higher prices of crude oil have raised local energy prices, damping demand for some products and services. The Philippines imports almost all of its fuel. The Asian Development Bank cut its 2005 growth estimate for the Philippines last week to 4.7 percent from 5 percent.

 

Electronics exports rose 14 percent to $2.29 billion. That followed declines in the previous two months and a 1 percent increase in the first six.

 

Arthur Young, president of the chip maker PSi Technologies, estimated that Philippine electronic exports will grow 7 percent this year, driven by worldwide demand for mobile phones, flat-screen televisions, iPod-like music devices and new versions of video game consoles. Philippine companies make chips that go into these products.

 

" I don't see killer applications in the market today, but there are a lot of new products like the new Xbox and PlayStation," Young said. "There are new opportunities for driving growth. The second half will be better than the first."

 

Young said first-half growth had been dragged down by Toshiba's transfer to China of its local notebook operation, which produced two million computers a year.

 

Growth may also falter if rising crude oil prices slows world economies, Young said.

People Power

Analysis : A judgment of guilt based on perception

Amando Doronila
Inquirer News Service

THE DISMISSAL of the three impeachment complaints against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo by the House committee on justice has rekindled the dying embers of the street-driven movement demanding her resignation.

Following the junking of the complaints, a broad coalition, calling itself Bukluran para sa Katotohanan, or Coalition for Truth, intensified street marches in an attempt to put pressure on the plenary of the House of Representatives that was in the midst of deciding what to do with the quashed complaints and whether to endorse any one of the complaints or a consolidated version to the Senate.

In a march to the Batasan [Legislature complex] yesterday, the coalition, led by former President Corazon Aquino, among others, tried to show it was not a spent force and was now gaining adherents among a wide assortment of organizations, with disparate political and ideological tendencies to back their move to oust Ms Arroyo, either through impeachment or other means, not excluding extra-constitutional means, such as another people power.

Aquino took pains to explain that the march of several thousands was "to show support" for the congressmen signing the complaint. The intensified street action appeared to have been intended to give heart to other congressmen to join the pro-impeachment movement whose fast track had been blocked by the numbers of the administration majority in the House.

Since the filing of the complaints in June and July, the opposition had encountered difficulty in winning the critical support that would bring the number of signatories to the 79 needed to send the case to the Senate. While the proponents of impeachment in the House have failed to collect the 79 signatures, they have succeeded in getting crowds out in the street, where the battle over the ouster of Ms Arroyo has now shifted. One possible explanation for their failure to secure the required number of signatures is that for two months and until yesterday, it was not clear what complaint would be endorsed to the Senate, considering that each of the three complaints contained different sets of charges.

As legal authorities have pointed out, the first complaint filed by lawyer Oliver Lozano alleged, among other things, that the President had been silent about the wiretapped conversations with Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and such silence amounted to "a betrayal of public trust"; and that she lied when she confessed to "a lapse in judgment" when she talked over the telephone with Garcillano about election results.

Fr. Joaquin Bernas, S.J. cited an attempt by the opposition to reinforce and amend the Lozano complaint with accusations of impeding the administration of justice, of concealing ownership of property contrary to law, of tax evasion, of acquiescing in the killing of political dissenters, of approving contracts "disadvantageous to the Republic." This shotgun blast led to the blurring of the focus of the complaint. The omnibus nature of the complaints undermined the main issue raised by the Coalition for Truth seeking the President's ouster for allegedly "stealing" the 2004 elections.

Those driving the movement to oust Ms Arroyo are not clear about what wrong she had committed to warrant her dismissal, either through an impeachment trial or through people power.

Before the people power advocates can win wider public support for their oust-Arroyo movement, they have to stop insulting the intelligence of the public with their ambiguous definition of truth. For example, a group belonging to the Coalition of Truth, the Black and White Movement, said, "We have to make a judgment (on election cheating) on the information available to us -- the transcript of the Garci tapes, the testimony, the maneuverings of both the opposition and the administration, and the political developments as these unfold before us."

This statement was made before any complaint, with a bill of particulars and articles of impeachment, has been sent to the Senate. In other words, judgment on cheating has already been made on the basis of perception rather than on verified evidence reached through a methodical and rigorous process that is provided by an impeachment trial. It is this perception that is fueling the movement to shift the resolution of the crisis to the streets.

It is very dangerous for the members of the Black and White Movement to declare that they "believe the issues surrounding the presidency and the impeachment complaint are as clear as Black and White. There are no shades of gray when it comes to the Truth."

Truth has as many sides as there are to a controversy. This movement imposes its own version of truth arrived at arbitrarily without scrutinizing allegations and controverting them with other facts. This notion of making judgment on right or wrong based on unverified facts, which those sitting in judgment would like to believe, has a notorious history. It has been the foundation of obscurantism and the cradle of the most cruel and deplorable witch-hunts in history, including the Holy Inquisition, the Salem witch trials and the anti-communist hysteria of the McCarthy era.

Maybe it might be a good idea for those trying to incite another people to pause and ask why the accusations against the regime have not provoked the outrage they seek to bring down an intensely reviled regime. Maybe their unilateral version of the truth is not shared by a large enough segment of the public, which has reacted tepidly to calls for mass mobilization.

Oil Prices Soar

Oil, power costs to rise 6.4% with new VAT law

Inquirer News Service

OIL prices will further increase by an average of 6.4 percent when the expanded value-added tax (VAT) law takes effect, Department of Finance officials said Tuesday.

The Supreme Court recently declared the new VAT law, which removes exemptions of certain sectors, including oil and electricity, as constitutional. Opponents of the law are expected to ask the court for reconsideration, pending which the court's temporary restraining order on implementation of the law stays in force.

Finance officials are hopeful the court will lift the restraining order before the end of the month.

The officials said government simulations based on oil prices as of Monday showed the price of unleaded gasoline would rise P2.76 or 8.3 percent when the VAT is applied.

Electricity prices are expected to inch up 6.0 percent, they said.

The price of regular gasoline will go up P2.23 or 6.9 percent, diesel by P0.72 or 2.3 percent, kerosene by P1.87 or 6.0 percent, bunker fuel by P1.31 or 6.5 percent, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by P30.97 or 7.8 percent, they added.

RVAT, the name preferred by the Department of Finance to identify the new VAT law, has been suspended following complaints raised by opposition lawmakers and petroleum dealers.

The expanded VAT law gives President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo conditional authority to raise the VAT rate to 12 percent, from the present 10 percent, in January.

The law also removes exemptions of medical and certain other services. With INQ7.

More Debts

Gov't to borrow P532B next year; debt P3.9 trillion in June

Inquirer News Service

THE NATIONAL government will borrow P531.6 billion next year from local and foreign creditors to finance spending requirements and pay maturing debts that cannot be covered by revenues, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said.

Next year's borrowings will be 58 percent (P310.2 billion) domestic and 42 percent (P221.4 billion) foreign, he said.

The Department of Finance has adopted a policy of borrowing more locally to lessen foreign exchange risks.

The Bureau of Treasury meanwhile said the national government's outstanding debt reached P3.89 trillion at end-June, of which P1.86 trillion was to foreign creditors.

With a national population of 85.2 million, the debt amounts to P45,699 per person.

Domestic debts were down P1.6 billion or 1.3 percent from end-May, following net redemptions of government securities.

Foreign debts increased by 29.82 billion pesos, the Treasury said. It said the depreciation of the peso against the US dollar resulted in an increase of P55 billion in the foreign debt, but net repayments and the appreciation of other foreign currencies against the US dollar reduced the foreign debt by P8 billion and P17 billion, respectively.

The debt figure does not include contingent liabilities, composed mainly of government guarantees, which rose to P612 billion in June from P604 billion in May, mainly as a result of the peso's depreciation.

The peso fell to 56.05 to the dollar at end-June from 54.40 to the dollar at end-May. With INQ7.net

National Tombstone

Sense and Sensibility : You gotta be kidding!

Bambi Harper
Inquirer News Service

SOME time last week, an article appeared in the press that Manila Hotel Corp. had agreed to buy the equity of Fraport AG and two other investors in the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc. (Piatco), the builder of the new terminal. The German firm was reported to be willing to sell for $200 million, half of what it originally wanted (maybe anything, just to get rid of us). And it wasn't only the Germans who want out but the Singaporeans and the Japanese who are selling for a mere $30 million. The corporation allegedly still has outstanding debts with the Government Service Insurance System from the sale of the historic hotel, but it doesn't seem to bother GSIS president Winston Garcia. After all, it's GSIS money, not his.

In case you're not familiar with or have forgotten our economic misadventures and mismanaged finances, let me refresh your memory. Some 13 years ago, the government put the Manila Hotel on the block. The winning bid was submitted by the Malaysian group Renong Berhad in partnership with Sheraton. Lo and behold, the Supreme Court had a bout of galloping patriotism and overturned the winning bid and gave it to Emilio Yap, owner of the Manila Bulletin, on the grounds that patrimony should remain in Filipino hands. In one fell swoop, Chief Justice Andres Narvasa and his Court dealt a fatal blow to government credibility and foreign investment. The real losers in all these shenanigans were, of course, the Filipino people but it wasn't as though any of their leaders gave a hoot. For those of us who saw the Manila Hotel when it was the jewel in the crown of hotels in the country, to see it today transformed into a sleazy "panciteria" [noodle shop] smelling of stale smoke, redolent of vinyl placemats and varnished plywood paneling is to realize the Filipino people has been had. Because the hotel actually belonged to them and it wasn't up to the Narvasa Court to give it to Fu Manchu's descendent who had zilch experience in running hotels, much less a five-star one.

This was meant as a showcase of Filipino culture with Ming martabans in the lobby and beautiful huge tropical floral arrangements. The jars have now been replaced by schlock -- gold painted containers (remember this is supposed to be good luck in the owner's culture) plus a fake, kitschy copy of an Amorsolo right beside an original. A bombastically huge plastic Kodak image of the hotel is displayed prominently for its sando-clad guests to stand in front to have their pictures taken. The once elegant lobby sofas have been re-upholstered with a seedy, dark, cheap material that a friend described as the "Taiwan special," suggesting it was bought on sale and looks it.

The Manila Hotel was once the place to be seen in much the same way as the Four Seasons anywhere or the Ritz in Madrid or the George V in Paris. It could stand the comparison. Today it stands neck to neck with that other Yap hotel, Prince, and some others on Raon Street and Quezon Avenue. We were sold down the tube, guys, and as usual you don't hear anyone protesting. Are we to believe that if a property is considered "patrimonial," (a) it can be sold and (b) the interiors are a free-for-all and the owner can do whatever his tastelessness declares? Because if that's the case, Rizal Park can likewise be sold and Lito Atienza can lease the front of the boulevard fronting Malate Church to SM Shoemart to put up a mall, forevermore blocking the view of the sunset.

I once tried to explain to a government official that the people need to have something to be proud about ("puedeng ipagmalaki"), something we could brag about for being world-class. Well, we had it and we trashed it, thanks to Narvasa. Of course, any number of politicians may have had a hand in the decision to overturn Malaysia's bid in favor of the owner of the Manila Bulletin, which explains a lot of things otherwise incomprehensible.

Part of the terms was that Yap was supposed to infuse P600 million to refurbish the hotel. Where? Most of what he has built and remodeled has been depressing, ugly, brutal and spiritually degrading. There's that dreadful joke of a dreary centennial building where, for P2,000 a plate, we were served paella, salad, fish and spaghetti lumped all together in one plate. That's elegant? That's worthy of patrimony?

The depths to which we have sunk can be measured by the shabbiness and total tastelessness of the whole complex. Would you believe using varnished plywood for paneling in a hotel once advertised in Town & Country as the place to stay in Manila and where government today has the temerity to house its VIP guests? "Talagang wala na tayong hiya" [We have lost all shame]."

The catastrophe that is the Champagne Room with its imitation Louie XIV (or is it XV or XVI?) décor more suited to Sioctong than to Perrier-Jouet breaks your heart. Its lifelessness is frightening. Is this what happens in a marriage of poverty and corruption?

The final, inescapable fact is that the Manila Hotel may be the biggest tombstone to Filipino heritage yet. It may supersede the empty lot where the Jai-Alai building once stood and the derelict Army & Navy Club, no thanks to government officials.

But, just when you think the worst has befallen us, think again. Ladies and Gentlemen of this suffering nation, we are now being told that the only international airport terminal built in this country in the past 40 years at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars is now going to be owned by the same nightmarish, destructive group running the Manila Hotel.

There is scant refuge from the disorder in our national life. Sen. Richard Gordon, with his endorsement, now seems to be saying, "Hey, you nation of morons, this is all you deserve."

GOCCs Ultimatum

DOF whips GOCCs into shape
Michelle V. Remo
Inquirer News Service

THE DEPARTMENT of Finance is set to come out with performance contracts that will force heavily losing government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOOCs) to shape up.

Failure to comply with the contracts would mean dissolution or privatization for the GOCCs, the DOF said.

Finance Secretary Margarito "Gary" Teves said the DOF was looking at implementing the performance contracts for 2006.

He is hoping that the contracts will result in a marked improvement in the financial standing of the state-owned firms, especially the distressed ones.

Teves said GOCCs would be classified into three types depending on their mandates: profit-oriented, cost-centered, and service centered state-owned companies. Their classification will determine the type of contract they will have to observe.

He said the GOCCs, established for the purpose of generating revenues for the government, would be assessed based on the profit they earned, while the rest would be evaluated based on the fulfillment of their mandates.

"We [DOF and concerned GOCCs] have to mutually agree on the objectives," Teves told reporters. "If they don't perform according to the contracts, then they could be phased out or sold."

The finance chief said the DOF would initially come up with contracts for the 14 monitored GOCCs.

These are National Power Corp., National Electrification Administration, Local Water Utilities Administration, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, Home Guarantee Corp., National Housing Authority, Light Rail Transit Authority, Philippine National Oil Co., National Irrigation Administration, National Development Co., Philippine Ports Authority, Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Philippine National Railways and National Food Authority.

For this year, the 14 monitored GOCCs are expected to post a combined budget deficit of P42.5 billion this year. Although still a deficit, the figure is already a significant improvement from the actual budget gap of P90.7 billion recorded in 2004.

The DOF earlier said the expected improvement in the fiscal standing of the state-owned firms was due to the sale of some of the assets of Napocor, which accounted for the bulk of the combined deficits last year. The DOF likewise cited this year the relatively lower interest rate, which served to trim down the cost of debt servicing by the GOCCs.

At present, the GOCCs are being reviewed for possible rationalization of their organizational setup.

Officials from the DOF and the Department of Budget and Management met last week to continue discussing the rationalization plan.

The rationalization plan is in accordance with the issuance of Executive Order No. 366.

Carabao Milk

PCCI pushes increased carabao milk production
Ronnel W. Domingo
Inquirer News Service

THE COUNTRY'S biggest business group is pushing for the increased production of carabao milk to help reduce the country's dependence on imported dairy products.

Donald G. Dee, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the group was looking at successful milk production campaigns in India, Pakistan and China that can be replicated in the country.

"The continued rise of our import bill against export earnings is expected considering the minimal resources government has in promoting export businesses," Dee said.

"We must increase our exports to or step up production of items that take up significant parts of imports such as dairy products," he said.

The PCCI chief said some P497 million worth of milk was shipped in from abroad in 2004.

Government data show that in the past decade, imports of fresh milk was growing at a rate of 28 percent a year while domestic production was generally declining, although there was growth of up to 6 percent yearly in certain years.

Dee said the private sector was also pushing for the establishment of a body that would facilitate lending to small and medium businesses by maximizing a lending fund that has grown to P5.5 billion.

He said the government has shown that there were ample supply of funds for small businesses but that the problem was how to make it easy for entrepreneurs to secure loans.

Dee said efforts were under way to put up a Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Surety Fund with an initial P1 billion from the World Bank's Industrial Guarantee and Loan Fund.

He said the government, through the IGLF, could work with a public sector-initiated SME Development Center, which would manage the P1-billion MSME Surety Fund.

"The objective is to increase availability and effectiveness of risk capital to SMEs," he said. "The fund will provide guarantee for SMEs with little or no collateral but have strong cash flows."

According to the Institute for Development and Econometric Analysis Inc., an Asian Development Bank study made in 2003 showed that the biggest constraint in existing lending programs for SMEs was that loan decisions depended on collateral such as land.

Cayetano Paderanga, who heads IDEA Inc., added that other past studies suggest that SMEs could not avail of available funds because loan requirements were too difficult to comply with.

"With the MSME Surety Fund, we can make it easy for prospective milk producers to secure loans for buying carabaos that are bred to yield more milk than the average cattle," Dee said.

Price War

GLOBE, PLDT OFFERING 5 TO 10 US CENTS/MINUTE
Price war shifts to overseas call rates
Clarissa S. Batino
Inquirer News Service

LOCAL telecom giants are bringing the price war to a higher level-their overseas call rates.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. said it would offer an international long distance rate of as low as 10 US cents a minute to all its DSL subscribers starting Sept. 15. This would be equivalent to about P5.60 a minute at current exchange rates.

But Globe Telecom Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary Innove Communications Inc. said they could bring down their IDD rates to as low as 5 US cents a minute after they secured the approval of the National Telecommunications Commission last week.

The standard IDD rate is 40 US cents a minute. Globe had cut its overseas call rate to 20 US cents a minute starting on the fifth minute under its ongoing promo. Sun Cellular is offering a similar 20 US cents-a-minute deal.

Butch Jimenez, head of PLDT's retail division, said the public should expect more price and product innovations from PLDT. "We intend to remain the leading player in the telecom industry by offering innovative service packages whenever new technology arises."

Not to be outdone, Globe assistant vice president Froilan Castelo said the recent NTC approval would allow his company to charge an even lower rate than what the competitors were offering.

"The NTC now allows us to charge as low as 5 US cents a minute on IDD. This will benefit our customers as we intend to give them more value for their money," Castelo said.

"We want to give our DSL subscribers better value for their money by offering attractive IDD rates," Jimenez said. Short for Digital Subscriber Line, DSL is PLDT's brand for its high-speed Internet product, which is now being used by about 70,000 customers.

Dubbed as PLDT ID-DSL, the new deal allows all DSL subscribers to avail themselves of IDD rates for as low as 10 US cents a minute.

Subscribers, however, have to pay a service fee of P50 a month. Starting Sept. 12, PLDT will also start charging P20 a month for those who would avail themselves of the P10 per local call promo.

DSL subscribers with Plans 2500 and up will enjoy a rate of 10 US cents a minute while subscribers with Plans 1995 and below will enjoy a rate of 15 US cents a minute.

Jimenez said the rates would be 62 to 75 percent cheaper against the 40 US cents a minute.

To offset any negative impact on its overseas revenues, Jimenez said PLDT would aggressively pursue DSL connections and upgrades.

"These new IDD rates bundled with our DSL subscriptions will drive more people to hook up to our broadband service. Also, we see some of those in Plan 1995 and below upgrading their plan to 2500 and above," he said.

DSL subscribers who want an even lower rate than 10 US cents can get PLDT's VoicePad service. This is a PC-to-phone service where DSL subscribers just need to log on to the PLDT myPad website and use the soft dialer from that site to call overseas for as low as 8 US cents a minute.

Tough competition had been bringing down telecom prices, according to NTC Chair Ronald Solis, saying these innovative deals were benefiting consumers.

Sun Cellular, which set off a price war in October 2004 when it launched its unlimited, within-network 24/7 pricing, started offering its Daylite Call and Text Unlimited.

With the new deal, Sun Cellular will charge a peso for every minute of within-network calls from 6 p.m. to a minute before midnight. But from midnight to a minute before 6 a.m., calls within Sun Cellular network will remain unlimited. Within-network text messaging will remain free all day long. Sun's 24/7 promo remains in effect even with these new offerings.

Globe is offering a new Celebrate promo that charges only P10 for every three-minute call and P15 for unlimited texting for 24 hours. Globe's nonstop, within-network text promo is also available for P25 for two days and P50 for five days.

PLDT had confined its P10-a-call promo strictly within the PLDT fixed-line network of 2.1 million subscribers.

CAP Takeover

SEC's plans for CAP put on hold
Elizabeth L. Sanchez
Inquirer News Service

THE CREATION of a management committee that will take over the troubled pre-need firm College Assurance Plan Philippines Inc. may be put on hold after the company filed for rehabilitation with a local court last week.

An official of the Securities and Exchange Commission said however that CAP's rehabilitation plan would not prevent the SEC from exercising its regulatory powers such as imposing sanctions on the company for perceived violations.

CAP earlier told the Makati Regional Trial Court that there was a need for the immediate suspension of payment of all claims against the company.

CAP officials explained that they decided to go to court to keep its business going. They said that this was the only way they could discharge their obligations to their plan holders.

CAP officials also said that they were forced to make the legal turn when the SEC threat to take over management became imminent.

CAP officials are afraid that the takeover will lead to the liquidation of the pre-need firm.

"In deference to the proceedings in court, we may [hold off] the appointment of a management committee," SEC commission secretary Gerard Lukban said. "Any effort on our part may be rendered academic."

Lukban explained that once a company filed for rehabilitation, the court would usually appoint a receiver to implement the rehabilitation plan.

"The receiver is also appointed to safeguard the assets ... of creditors or, in this case, the plan holders," Lukban said. "This is the same goal we want to achieve if and when we create a management committee."

CAP has admitted that it will be unable to service its debts falling due. CAP also said that it has more liabilities than assets.

CAP has proposed under an eight-year business development plan to build up its capital to P8.36 billion, and its trust fund to P14.36 billion.

United Against Glo

The Long View : Unity is the only choice

Manuel L. Quezon III
Inquirer News Service

TO DIVIDE, and thus conquer: that is the objective of the administration. To unite, and thus be impregnable: that is the challenge of the times.

A broad coalition of forces is heeding that challenge. The coalition was symbolized by Cory Aquino and Susan Roces' coming together in prayer last Friday night. It has a name: "Bukluran para sa Katotohanan." Its statement of principles will be released today.

Does the broad coalition represent only opportunism, desperation and naked ambition? To reflect on this question is to miss the essential point. This isn't about those arrayed against the President. This is about the President. The President showed cunning when she dared anyone who is without sin to cast the first stone, as Jesus did to the people who were about to stone to death a woman accused of adultery.

What the President forgot is that she is not the Christ. She is in the position of the woman accused of adultery. The closest that we can come to a stand-in for Christ is not the president of a secular state, but the Catholic bishops who said, "if she is accused of adultery, let the charges be investigated." They did not say, "No, she did not commit adultery," or "No, we are morally convinced no adultery took place." They said: "There are too many disturbing details in the allegations, and so some sort of human justice must take its course."

What did the country get? No form of human justice. No truth commission, and quite possibly, no impeachment. What it got, instead, is the woman accused of adultery proclaiming that all are adulterers, which is beside the point.

You would think she never went to school. In school, you can break the rules many times, even cheat many times, but once you get caught, it is irrelevant if the entire class broke the rules with you, or cheated with you, because you're the one who has been caught. You're the one who gets punished. As it is for being caught cutting class, or copying notes, so it is for adultery and any conceivable sin-including the sins that are in a class of their own, because only presidents can commit them.

It boggles the mind that someone accused of committing adultery against the nation-for after all, a president, some say, is wedded to the country-should now be proclaiming that everyone is an adulterer, and even suggesting that adultery be decriminalized. The price of adultery is supposed to be an annulment or divorce. It is not supposed to result in a coronation, much less the transformation of the state into a world-class bordello, which is what the move to institute Charter change is meant to do. But to do so is to be unfair to whores; it reduces all politics to the level of prostitution, where it may be now, but where it ought not to remain. Furthermore, to do so makes certain that politics never rises above the level of whoring, without taking into account that the ones agitating for the prostitutes' rights are not the prostitutes themselves but the pimps. For even if you say that the people are a bunch of whores, what has driven them and keeps them in prostitution? The pimps. It is the pimps who make a whore out of the public for the pleasure of vested interests.

This whole political crisis is about change and a fundamental reality about our society (which thrives on open secrets, but which reserves a curious kind of fury for those caught doing what everyone knew they were doing all along). Is it unfair? The President thinks so; but it is very Filipino.

We all have dirty linen, and no one wants them exposed. But once exposed, they must be washed, and some sort of redemption must be achieved. The religious-minded can reflect on the fact that Jesus kept company with tax collectors and prostitutes, but he was the Christ and his objective was to show no one was beyond redemption. In a political crisis, such as the one taking place, the President has refused to acknowledge culpability and defied every attempt to clear her name. Her supporters say, it is because those prosecuting her are as dirty as she is, or that their objective is not to clear the President's name but to topple her from power.

They forget that it requires neither sainthood nor good character or intentions to be a prosecutor and pursue a prosecution. There are accusations of sanctimoniousness and false piety all around, to be sure. But who, in our government, is expected to be the exemplar of secular virtues, or at the very least, the kind of leadership unafraid to be challenged? Who, of our leaders, must be imbued with a firm and unflinching faith and confidence in the people? Only the President of the Philippines has that burden and responsibility.

The President not only confuses herself with Christ; she thinks she is living in biblical times. The President's supporters see red flags, the faces of disreputable politicians, the lack of teeth in the ranks of the protesting poor, the inability of the clergy to undertake a crusade, the defection of some of the President's own people, and see a motley group of the disgruntled. They should see, instead, a grave crisis in the legitimacy of the President and in the society she exemplifies. She was given so much, and did so little; she could have led so well, instead she leads so badly; she could have given the country hope, but she had so little faith in her people and herself that she has done, and is doing, things that have brought her to the level of the worst of our past leaders. She continues to fatally divide her people. As Oliver Cromwell said to the Long Parliament, "You have sat too long for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"

Marcoleta Unmasked

Posted by Luz Rimban 
PCIJ

THE "Hello, Garci" controversy and the impeachment process have exposed the seamy side of party-list politics and showed how supposed representatives of the marginal sectors of society may have been eaten up by what they themselves call "dirty politics." 

Wednesday night, ABS-CBN reporter Aladin Bacolodan interviewed ex-Alagad party-list representative Diogenes Osabel, a former friend of impeachment-complaint-endorser Rep. Rodante Marcoleta. In that story, Osabel's main contention was that the party had expelled Marcoleta last year for failing to share congressional funding with Alagad and for refusing to consult with his party-list colleagues on vital issues. The expulsion, Osabel says, stripped Marcoleta of the right to sit as member of Congress and to endorse the first impeachment complaint. 

Osabel also added to what former social welfare secretary Dinky Soliman revealed on Tuesday: that it was the Arroyo administration that put Marcoleta up to it as part of a "grand conspiracy" to thwart a genuine impeachment process.

In an interview with PCIJ, Osabel alleged that Marcoleta's close ties to the administration began when the party first filed a case before the Commission on Elections months ago, asking the poll body to revoke Marcoleta's nomination as party list rep.  The Comelec's second division has washed its hands of the issue, saying it was the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal that had jurisdiction over the case, now on appeal at the Comelec.

Osabel alleges that this was how Marcoleta may have developed close ties with Garci himself, Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, and with Presidential Political Affairs Adviser Gabriel Claudio. With a case pending before the Comelec and placed in a vulnerable position of possibly losing his seat, Marcoleta may have struck a deal with the administration.  (In a subsequent talk with PCIJ, Osabel clarified he was not aware of any friendship between Garcillano and Marcoleta.)

"This guy (Marcoleta) would do anything to survive," Osabel said.

Not true, according to Marcoleta, who denies he and Garci are friends. In fact, Marcoleta told PCIJ, it was Comelec Commissioner Mehol Sadain and not Garci who handled the Comelec case. "I know them (Comelec commissioners) by name only. As for Garcillano, ngayon ko lang nakita yun with this Garci tapes controversy (The first time I saw Garcillano was in connection with the Garci tapes controversy)," Marcoleta said.

Marcoleta has tossed back the accusations to Osabel, a friend of Soliman and former official of the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor, who Marcoleta claims has hung on to power,  refused to give up the party presidency for the past seven years and was actually the one disowned by Alagad. What's more, Marcoleta said, there's a reason ABS-CBN gave Osabel airtime. Marcoleta cites a House resolution his erstwhile partymate Osabel filed in 2000 asking the water utility office MWSS to help bail out Maynilad water, a company that like ABS-CBN is owned by the influential Lopez family.

(Osabel also clarified in a later phone conversation with PCIJ that many members of Congress signed that resolution because "they were aware of Maynilad's problems at that time. The resolution sought to stop the financial hemorrahage the company which was then implementing the pro-poor Tubig Bayan in our communities.")

Osabel, however, insists that the point is Marcoleta's role in the impeachment process. If indeed Marcoleta was not a pawn of the administration, why did he not cast a vote in favor of the "sufficiency in form and substance" of the original impeachment complaint?

Osabel asks: Why did Marcoleta allow the majority to dismiss the original Lozano complaint, the very complaint that he endorsed on June 29?  What did Marcoleta do to defend what to civil society was the "legal, proper and peaceful" manner of resolving the political crisis?

Once upon a time, all of them—Marcoleta, Osabel and Soliman—were on one side of the fence, counting themselves part of civil society. These days civil society has been wracked by dissension and power struggles. Some of its members have gone their separate ways and are far from civil.

Snap Election

There's The Rub : What is to be done?

Conrado de Quiros dequiros@info.com.ph
Inquirer News Service

THERE was something a little heroic in the desperation with which the pro-impeachment representatives looked at their project. Gathered at Albergus last Monday night for a dinner Susan Roces threw in their honor, they took turns talking not only about the seeming hopelessness of their fight -- money from Malacañang was flowing, each congressman who would vote to quash the impeachment stood to gain P25 million, they said -- but also about the glowing resplendence of it. They looked headed to lose the battle, they said to a woman, or man, but they were destined to win the war.

For a minute there, I remembered Katsimoto (Ken Watanabe) asking Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) in "The Last Samurai," while they huddled in the trenches, their enemies pounding them with cannons, what happened to the 300 Spartans. Algren had earlier told him the story of 300 warriors that held off an invader's horde in a pass called Thermopylae. Algren answers: "Dead to the last man." Katsimuto smiles, enthused by the answer. And they rush their enemies on horseback, their banners flailing in the wind, their swords glinting in the sun.

Some defeats are glorious victories.

Detractors, of course, will say that the walkout the other day at Congress was rehearsed. I don't know, maybe it was. But who cares? It was still the proper reaction to a disgusting display of lack of moral scruple, of people in power using the law to thwart justice, the favorite pastime of Ferdinand Marcos then, and the favorite pastime of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo now. Well, they share more than height.

I can't say I'm greatly dismayed at what happened last Tuesday. It's not just that I expected the impeachment to be killed -- there was little doubt of it, even if the pro-impeachment representatives also expressed the slim hope the last-minute converts might help turn the tide -- it's also that I've always been two minds about impeaching Ms Arroyo.

On the plus side, impeaching Ms Arroyo stood to remind the world she was guilty of humongous wrongdoing, something Cory's and Dinky et al.'s call for her to resign failed to mention -- they merely said the people had lost faith in her. On the downside, it stood to assert she was a president who, like Joseph Estrada, betrayed the public trust when her public apology for the "Hello Garci" tape clearly voided the premise of her being President at all. You do not impeach a non-president, you simply remove her.

I can only hope Malacañang sets off more fireworks and Jose de Venecia gloats some more, if only to rile the public sufficiently and rouse it from its stupor. But I'm not unhappy that De Venecia's horde in Congress killed the move to impeach Ms Arroyo because, quite apart from showing what "representative" really represents, it thrusts the issue back to its rightful forum. That is not the parliament of the Batasan [Legislature] complex -- reclaimed from a place once overrun by weeds only to be given back to the weeds -- but the parliament of the streets. There is no need to convoke that parliament, it has already been convoked. By Ms Arroyo herself: The day she appeared on TV apologizing for her "lapse in judgment" -- she forgot that the voters, and not Virgilio Garcillano, or Ronaldo Puno, put presidents in Malacañang -- was the day she resurrected it. The force that brings this country's parliament of the streets back to life has always been the death of the presidency.

What is to be done now?

I've always thought the answer to that question was fairly simple. The problem is that we do not have a president that was voted by the voters. The solution is to have a president that has been voted by the voters.

If Ms Arroyo has no legal claim to being the president -- and she voided that claim the moment she said "Hello Garci" -- then she has to be made to step down. That is a not just a moral imperative, it is a legal one. It is not a conditional demand, it is a categorical one. The task of ousting someone who has not been voted by the voters is not premised on finding a "suitable replacement," it is its own compulsion. No mandate, no rule. I don't know what methods others have in mind for ungluing Ate Glue from Malacañang. Like I said, mine is civil disobedience. I refuse to be a dutiful citizen to a dutiless ruler. A threatened country has the right to self-defense.

To this day, of course, I still keep hearing people say, "But who do you want in her place? Vice President Noli de Castro? Estrada? Senator Panfilo Lacson? A transitional revolutionary government? A council of elders?" Well, the answer is not who I want in her place. The answer is not who you want in her place. The answer is not who the opposition and the various groups fighting Ms Arroyo want in her place. The answer is who the people want, period. It's not her place, to begin with. Who the people want we can know only in and through elections. If the problem is that we do not have an elected president, then by all means let us elect one. Let us have snap elections for president.

I may not like it if Estrada or De Castro wins the elections, but I must respect it. That is the people's will; that is what we have elections for. No individual or group may presume to know what's best for the people, only the people may presume to know what's best for them. The question is not who or what, it is how. It is the people themselves answering the question of who and what, through their vote. Snap elections are the only thing that can guarantee a new government that the citizens can at least uphold, if not admire. Snap elections are the only thing that can unite rather than divide all those who want an end to the current travesty. All other solutions will always suffer from questions of legitimacy and self-interest. The various groups and individuals fighting Ms Arroyo cannot grasp this, they won't just lose the battle, they'll lose the war.

As will the rest of the country.

Newsbreak Story

Cheats Inc
By Miriam Grace A. Go
Newsbreak Assistant Managing Editor

Around this time last year, some of the political operators who helped President Arroyo win in the 2004 elections were called to work again. The month before, on Aug. 8, 2004, the President filed her reply (with a counter-protest) to the election protest of actor Fernando Poe Jr., her closest rival. Poe had alleged that Arroyo's votes were padded by more than one million and thus reversed the results of the election in her favor.

There were two ways Poe wanted the votes verified, both involving revisiting the election returns (ERs). The documents accomplished by teachers who man the polling precincts, the ER is the first step in consolidating the ballot count. In the absence of any manipulation, it should reflect the true number of votes. The figures from the ERs are then consolidated in the municipal statement of votes (SOVs), and the figures in the SOVs are totaled in city or provincial certificates of canvass (COCs).

For Luzon and the Visayas, Poe asked for the "ER-down" counter-checking. Through this approach the totals in the ERs would be compared with the ballots from the corresponding precincts. His camp was convinced that in the President's bailiwicks in these island groups, the figures in the ERs, SOVs, and COCs were consistent since these were supposedly accomplished before the elections, and were switched with the genuine forms before the local canvassing.

For Mindanao, he wanted the "ER-up" approach. The figures in the ERs would be added up again to check if the SOVs reflect the accurate totals, then the SOV figures will be totaled and checked against the figures in the COCs. (This is the move that President Arroyo's allies in Congress refused to do during the canvassing of presidential and vice presidential votes.) Poe was convinced that in this southern island, operators for President Arroyo left the ERs and SOVs alone and just tampered with the figures in the COCs.

In questioning or proving President Arroyo's victory, therefore, the election returns would be the most crucial documents.

Switching ERs

So starting September 2004, or three months after President Arroyo was proclaimed winner, a group hired by the administration reportedly started printing ERs that they intended to fill up and then switch with the genuine ERs that were in some of the ballot boxes being kept in the House of Representatives.

The target of the operation was ERs from the Muslim Mindanao area and surrounding provinces, where the alleged vote padding was done only in the COCs. Apparently, the ER-switching was meant to fix the records to pass future scrutiny. The figures in the new ERs, when added up, would now be consistent with the totals in the COCs.

The administration has repeatedly denied allegations of cheating.

But this is the story that six operators who worked for President Arroyo told NEWSBREAK in recent interviews. We sought them out as we tried to complete the picture of what actually happened during the presidential elections. Most of them are long-time NEWSBREAK sources, and had provided information in our series of reports on poll fraud last year.

They said that even if they revealed damaging information regarding the elections, they doubt if the opposition would really go out of its way to identify them and ask them to surface. "Some of them have utilized us in the past and they will be needing us in the future," one of them said. For security reasons, however, these sources shall remain unidentified.

One of the sources entered the room in the Batasan complex and participated in switching the fabricated ERs with the original ones in January and February this year. His participation was confirmed by two other sources, one of them a police officer who belonged to the group that planned this post-proclamation operation.

The other sources were privy to this Batasan operation because they belong to the small circle of operators who carried out the padding of Ms. Arroyo's votes before elections and after canvassing in various regions nationwide.

The President, her close advisers, and officials of her party have maintained that she won in the elections fair and square. If the accounts of her own operators are to be believed, however, the administration not only planned to cheat way before the May 10, 2004, elections, but continued tampering with the presidential votes even after Poe had died in December 2004, and just before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal dismissed with finality his protest in March 2005.

Testing the Waters in 2001

Three sources, who did special operations for the senatorial candidates of the People Power Coalition in 2001, said Ms. Arroyo and her strategists, as early as then, were already studying how vote-rigging could be done for her possible candidacy in 2004. At the time, she had just assumed the unfinished term of ousted President Joseph Estrada, and was therefore eligible to run to get her own mandate.

On May 18, 2001, the Friday after the senatorial elections, President Arroyo reportedly met with election lawyer Roque Bello, a retired regional director of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in his 60s who is known in political circles to have the sophistication and the right contacts within the poll body to influence the votes to favor whoever his principal is. We were able to reach Bello on his cell phone last August 2, but he declined to give an interview.

In that 2001 meeting, the President was supposed to have been given Bello the orders to make sure Ralph Recto would win a full six-year term, to prevent Francis Pangilinan's votes from being shaven, and to keep hardline opposition candidates from winning.

What the President actually wanted from Bello at the time was to effect a 13-0 sweep for her slate, one of the sources said. The President, he disclosed, was apparently aware of how Bello was said to have achieved for former President Ferdinand Marcos's slate the 21-0 sweep during the Interim Batasang Pambansa elections in 1978. Still, some opposition candidates "who also operated" slipped into the winning circle.

"She realized [from the 2001 results] that [unlike during the dictatorship] it is no longer possible to carry out special operations for entire slates; individual candidates pay for operators. She learned that it would be easier if she focused on her votes alone," another operator said.

In early 2004, the President reportedly considered Bello and Garcillano for the two commissioners' seats about to be vacated at the Comelec. Garcillano was eventually named and on February 19 started a series of meetings with local Comelec officials at the residence of alleged jueteng lord Rodolfo "Bong" Pineda in Greenhills, San Juan. The meetings continued until March.

Bello, however, was reportedly tapped to devise a strategy to get a pre-determined number of votes for the President. One of those who worked in Bello's group said Bello proposed that genuine ballots be filled up before the elections and switched with the ballots that voters will cast at the precincts. He reportedly explained that working on the ballots would mean that the succeeding documents, from the ERs up to the COCs, would be "clean" and pass any scrutiny.

By April, the President's strategists decided to abandon Bello's proposal because they deemed that dealing with the ballots would be a lot costlier and would involve more risk of getting discovered. They left the ballot stage out of their strategy and opted for filling up genuine ERs, SOVs, and COCs with pre-determined numbers of votes. The forms were provided by the Comelec.

'Blackjack,' the Operator

The wholesale switching of pre-fabricated election forms was done in a few provinces in Luzon, particularly Ilocos Sur and the Arroyo's home province of Pampanga, and in the entire Visayas. The Visayas operation, particularly in Cebu, was considered more sophisticated because the administration effected an artificial dramatic increase of voters' population and registered "ghost precincts." This was to justify the lopsided share of votes that operators would enter into the prepared election forms.

The regional and provincial election officials whose cooperation was needed for this operation were planed in to Manila and billeted either at the Aloha Hotel or at the Grand Boulevard Hotel, both along Roxas Boulevard. The "production line," sources said, was in safehouses in the target provinces.

"Nobody would be too stupid to bring in those bulky ERs and COCs in the hotels," one of them said. He said that the safehouse in Cebu was rented for six months, but was occupied only from March to June 2004. The safehouse in Iloilo was located in a private subdivision. The forgers of signatures (called "golden arms") and those who thumbmarked the forms (called "pianistas") were flown in from Manila, the sources said.

The master operator, or the one who gave direction to negotiators and bagmen, for the three regions in the Visayas, was said to be Victor Rigor, who was a liaison between Malacañang and the then Ministry of Local Government during the Marcos regime. This means that Rigor, now in his mid-50s and known in the political circle as "Blackjack," was connected to the agency in the same years that Ronaldo Puno, Ed Soliman, and Gabriel Claudio were there. The three worked in Arroyo's campaign, either officially or in the shadow campaign teams. Puno is a strategist closely identified with the First Gentleman, and is now congressman of Antipolo City. Soliman is an undersecretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government. Claudio was the campaign manager of the President last year and is at present the presidential adviser on political affairs.

NEWSBREAK was unable to reach Rigor, but one of his operatives confirmed the information.

This operator said Rigor differentiates his work from cheating, which is "the changing of the election results." He said Rigor would maintain that what he does is just "influencing" the outcome of the election by a vote-delivery system.

Vote Padding

The Arroyo camp was confident that with the fixed votes coming mainly from the Visayas, the President would be able to win by at least one million votes. However, when the results from Poe's bailiwicks in Luzon came in, the President's strategists estimated that the votes could wipe out her margin from the Visayas.

Dagdag-bawas was then carried out in the Muslim region and a few neighboring provinces in Mindanao.

"They panicked, so Garcillano's operators just switched votes indiscriminately," one of the operators said. Since the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was Poe's stronghold, the easiest way to pad Arroyo's votes there was to just switch her totals with Poe's in the COCs, the source pointed out.

Evidence in the custody of the opposition—including the fifth copy of the ERs that they were entitled to under the law, but which the police and military confiscated in a raid in Rizal—seem to support the accounts of the administration operators.

An administration strategist said that the top 11 provinces where the padding of votes for the President was maximized were (according to the percentage of votes they contributed, from the highest): Cebu, Pampanga, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Bohol, Southern Leyte, Zamboanga del Sur, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sultan Kudarat, and Basilan. The padded votes amounted to 1.2 million.

Arroyo officially finished with 12,905,808 votes, against Poe's 11,782,232. If the alleged padding of votes is true, then her lead of 1.12 million is well within the margin provided by the operation.

The extent of the vote-padding acknowledged by the source is not very far from estimates that other camps have come up with.

Verzola Study

Roberto Verzola, an engineer teaching at the UP, published a study on the results of the 2004 elections based on the ER-based quick count of the National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel). He said the ERs from Namfrel, although incomplete, already indicated a total vote padding of 837,454 in favor of President Arroyo—mostly from the "source" provinces acknowledged by the administration strategist.

Sixto Brillantes, who was Poe's counsel in the election protest, said that based on the evidence they have, the extent of the cheating was between 1.3 million to 1.5 million votes.

Verzola and Brillantes separately pointed out that when Namfrel stopped its quick count, Arroyo's lead over Poe was only about 600,000 votes. At the time, there were still 4 million votes from Poe's bailiwicks that had yet to be counted, and only 1 million uncounted votes from Arroyo's areas.

In a briefing with journalists in August, Verzola said that based on the Namfrel figures, President Arroyo could have won over Poe by only 77,000 votes, but only because the "highly questionable" votes from Central Visayas and the ARMM were included.

To Poe's camp, this means that if the votes from these two regions would be corrected, Poe could emerge the winner, with a lead of 200,000 to 300,000 votes over Ms. Arroyo.

So when Poe filed his protest, according to administration operators, the Arroyo camp intended to "correct" the incriminating ERs from Mindanao that were in the ballot boxes in Batasan. This was when Bello and his network of operators were again called in.

Clandestine Trips to Batasan

The operator from Bello's group said that the questioned Mindanao provinces involved 10,000 ERs, but 4,000 were "duly corrected" before these were sent to Manila during the canvassing. Using official paper from Comelec, they tried printing the 6,000 more ERs from September to November 2004.

He said "wastage resulted [because] the ERs could not be reproduced exactly as the ones done by Ernest Printing," referring to Comelec's official printer of ERs for last year's polls. They couldn't source a numbering machine, a Heidelberg similar to what Ernest Printing used.

In mid-December, however, a contact of Bello was able to "borrow" the numbering machine from Ernest Printing. The operator said they printed the ERs during the Christmas week. The ERs were accomplished by "golden arms" and "pianistas" again.

The source said they made "four clandestine entries" into the Batasan in January and February 2005. He said a police general helped them in the operation. Policemen guarded the room of ballot boxes. He said the guards "looked the other way" when they entered, which was either late Sunday evening or early Monday morning.

The last entry, the source said, was made the weekend before Valentine's Day. The police official who facilitated their entries was named to another government agency immediately after the operation.

As election campaigns go, the operators said, they consider their work completed once their principal has been proclaimed. After the proclamation comes the "cleanup," when they close headquarters, abandon safehouses, recall those assigned in the field, and hopefully count victory bonuses.

For their biggest candidate last year, they noted, their "cleanup" was of a different kind.

Starting Your Own Biz

How to Find out What Kind of Business to Start

The most important aspect of starting a business is that it must be something you enjoy. If the primary motive is money, but you don't enjoy it - it is a bad fit, and that is a sure formula for failure. However, if it is something you enjoy, you won't run out of enthusiasm. Your creative juices will flow, making your business a cut above the others, and increasing your chances for success.

Steps

1. List your interests. This will help you focus on businesses that will provide the greatest probability for success and eliminate possible failures.
2. List your skills. No one can be all things. If any aspect of business does not within your skill range these are the areas where you will need to get help
3. Assess your personality. Are you a people person, or do you enjoy working alone? Do you love to serve others, or do you find people a pain? One ingredient that is sure to lead to failure is a reclusive or abrasive personality. Think about the people that you have met in business. Who were the ones that you wanted to give repeat business to?
4. Determine how much risk you can tolerate. Going into business can be scary; especially the first couple of years. Some businesses are scarier than others. If you lie awake nights wondering how large loans are going to be paid, or if you're going to be sued, maybe a business with less upfront capital or probability of lawsuit is more for you.
5. Determine how much time your business will require, and ask yourself if you are willing to commit the time. Many businesses require a huge time investment. Can you and your family tolerate a twelve or fourteen hour day schedule?
6. Take some classes. An excellent place to start is SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives), an organization that helps educate individuals considering starting a small business. After taking some SCORE classes some people are convinced that starting a small business is for them, while others are convinced it is not.
7. Have a plan. As the old saying goes, if you aim at nothing, you will hit it.
8. Set it up legally. Hire an attorney experienced in setting up businesses. He will guide you through the paper work and make sure things are done properly. A good attorney will not just do the paperwork and determine the business type (Inc, LLC, etc.) but will also advise you on common errors to avoid that can get you into trouble.

Tips

• Find out about grants which may be available to help get your business started. The Princes Trust is a great starting point if you are aged between 14-30, and can offer lots of useful advice, as well as providing grants.

Warnings

• Keep in mind that the vast majority of new businesses fail. Always maintain a "plan B" just in case.

Losing Credibility

Viewpoint : 'Black oxygen'

Juan Mercado
Inquirer News Service

OIL prices closed at $67.40 a barrel last week. That's a long way from $1.80 a barrel in the 1950s. And when Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries clamped an embargo in 1973, prices bolted overnight from over $2 a barrel to $11 plus. Quarrels at fuel pump queues erupted and economies went into tailspin.

Refinery fires, rising US and China demand, the Ecuador oil industry upheaval plus "just-in-case buying" spooked markets, the BBC reports. "We could easily test $70 a barrel."

Malacañang mumbles, meanwhile, about "coercive powers" for the President to enforce energy savings. The opposition is hypnotized over scraping up 79 votes to impeach the President.

Others are distracted by personal concerns. California Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller issued on Aug. 17 a bench warrant for Sen. Panfilo Lacson's arrest in the handcuffs controversy. The court ordered Lacson to appear on Sept. 7, reports the Philippine News of San Francisco.

"In a worst-case scenario, we need to have coercive powers for the executive," Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said. But "regular laws will work." Will they?

What do you remember about earlier oil crunches? Newsroom colleagues ask those who're older (the Associated Press prefers the 1978 phrase "near-elderly" for us.)

Which one? The World War II fuel crunch? Or the 1973 artificial shortage, stemming from the Opec embargo?

Fuel dumps were bombed in that now dimly remembered war. Japanese forces controlled gasoline stocks. We read by coconut oil lamps. The horse-drawn carriage reappeared. Our 350-cavan "batel" sailed from Batangas to Cebu in seven days. And we hoofed it. One walked four hours on 20 kilometers of eerily deserted roads to reach the city from our evacuation home.

In 1973, you could only buy five liters at a time. So, people coasted from one gas pump queue to another. You hauled five-gallon containers "just in case" a station allowed an extra sale.

Abroad, 55 miles per hour speed limits were clamped on. President Jimmy Carter called for the "moral equivalent of war" to reduce dependence on foreign oil. That included filling the US strategic petroleum reserve and research for alternative energy. He was not reelected.

Habits die hard. Wasteful use of fuel continued. Few politicians think beyond the next election -- or impeachment -- even in countries that have no oil wells.

"I have this thing about Moses," Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once griped. "He marched us for 40 years through the desert and led us to the only place in the Middle East that had no oil."

Failure to prepare is foolhardy because, unlike the 1973 artificial crisis, today's shortages are real, writes Peter Maas in his just published book, "The Breaking Point."

Supply's lead over demand was once considerable, but refinery shortages and surging demand have whittled that down. If use pulls ahead of production by even a fraction, oil prices could soar to triple-digit levels, Maas warns in The New York Times magazine. That'd trigger a global recession and affect almost every product, from cell phones to medicine.

Disruptions can come from terrorist attacks, producer shutdowns or geological factors. That'd "cut off the black oxygen that the modern world depends on."

The impact on ways of life would be profound. Pharmaceutical supplies and fertilizers for food production would dwindle. Ships and planes would be mothballed.

"Saudi Arabia is the sole oil superpower." Its 263 billion barrels reserve is almost double runner-up Iran's 133 billion barrels. Unexploited reserves in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge are only 10 billion barrels. New oil strikes in other countries offer small increments.

But today's record prices are straining producers. Indonesia, for example, is laying the basis to whittle back fuel subsidies. Even Saudi Arabia is feeling the strain as the world burns 84 million barrels daily.

Decades-old oil fields are not as "geologically spry as they used to be. Some may be incapable of producing, on a daily basis, the increasing volumes of oil that the world requires." "One thing is clear," warns Chevron, the second-largest American oil company's new ads. "The era of easy oil is over."

Will today's producers be able to meet rising world demand in the months ahead? The answer, Maas thinks, will depend on Saudi Arabia. Can it increase output beyond the target of 12.5 million barrels it set for 2009? Can it ramp up production, say up to 20 million barrels from wells that are past their prime? And more important, is it willing to do so?

"We have the petroleum equivalent of running an engine at ever-increasing speeds without stopping to cool it down or change the oil," says a Saudi expert. And geology may not be forgiving. Wanton overproduction can wreck fragile and irreplaceable reservoirs, says Nawaf Obaid, a Saudi oil and security analyst.

Conservation, however, is a job consumers haven't buckled down to. "It's not our problem to tell a democratically elected government that you have to do something about your runaway consumers," a Saudi expert says. "If your government can't do the job, don't expect other governments to do it for you."

When elephants collide, the ants get squashed. That's the danger we in impoverished oil-short countries face.

The government is held hostage by the impeachment controversy, Sen. Joker Arroyo rightly notes. Can a half-paralyzed regime lead us in the inevitable belt-tightening?

PPI Blues

Besieged pre-need firm blames clients

Alcuin Papa
Inquirer News Service

BESIEGED pre-need firm Pacific Plans Inc. (PPI) has fired back at its plan holders blaming them for the failure of negotiations.

In a statement to the Inquirer, PPI said the "hardline stand" taken by the plan holders who had organized themselves into the Parents Enabling Parents Coalition (PEP-Coalition) was the reason the talks bogged down.

But Philip Piccio, president of PEP Coalition, denied they took a hardline stance and insisted it was the coalition which bent over backwards to accommodate PPI and come up with an amicable settlement.

The two sides have been at loggerheads since April after PPI filed for rehabilitation in a Makati court, saying it could no longer service its traditional or open-ended plan holders.

According to new PPI president Alfredo Non, PEP Coalition wanted all assets and fixed trust funds of Lifetime Plans Inc., a company spun from PPI, reconsolidated back to PPI and that the funding of the open-ended plans "should not be restricted to its corresponding trust fund assets."

"This is contrary to all existing regulations and will be detrimental to all fixed value plan holders. [It] would have the effect of dipping into the separate funds of other plan holders," Non said.

Non also said the coalition disowned a joint statement by the two sides that was presented to media at the onset of the negotiations. He added that the plan holders refused to enter a joint manifestation with the Makati court hearing the rehabilitation case.

In response, Piccio said assets of PPI should never have been spun out to Lifetime. "They (PPI) should have never taken (PPI assets) out in the first place because it was a fraudulent scheme to escape their obligations. Even courts and the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) see it that way."

Piccio also denied PPI's claim that they disowned the joint statement and refuted Non's claim that they refused to file a joint manifestation before the Makati court informing it of the negotiations.

"That is an outright lie. The joint manifestation was never filed because they never filed it. They never wanted it filed," Piccio said.

Energy Conservation

Save on gas, electricity
GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc
The Philippine Star

Don't expect crude oil prices to drop back to last year's $35 a barrel, after surging to $58 in recent weeks. OPEC is at peak production, but world demand for fuel is so steep and refining capacities are too low. Your only remedy is to change lifestyles towards conserving gasoline, diesel and LPG.

Start with changing your motoring habits. The Department of Energy suggests these:

Regularly tune up your vehicle engine. Misfiring wastes fuel. Check your tire pressure too. Soft tires put more pressure on engines and thus use up more fuel. And check your fuel tank and lines for leaks. Clean the air filter and change oil regularly.

Plan your trips. Take the shortest route and the best time, with the least traffic. Before driving off, take out unnecessary loads that only burden your vehicle.

You do not need to warm up your engine. Just start it, then drive slow until the temperature rises. The most fuel-efficient speed is between 75 and 90 kph; maintain that cruising speed on the highway. In cities, try as much as possible to maintain an even cruise. Flooring your engine and then frequently braking only wastes fuel. Avoid jackrabbit starts; you don't have to mimic that crazy jeepney driver. Accelerate steadily to the highest gear, and stay there as long as possible. Coast your vehicle to a stop when you see a yellow or red light.

Weaving in and out of lanes, erratic speeds, pumping the pedal are sure ways to increase fuel consumption. Good driving is the surest way to reduce it.

Electricity rates will surely rise because half of mainland power plants and most island barges run on bunker oil or diesel. The single biggest operating expense in factories is electricity or fuel. Operations managers should seek advice from the Energy Management Association on how to conserve these. For instance, by checking boilers for leaks and factory machines for creaks that mean it's time for some oiling. Plan also the best time to run those machines outside the peak load.

In offices, turn off unnecessary lights. Use light-colored paint on walls and ceilings to increase illumination. Design light wells to maximize entry of sunlight. Keep air conditioners clean and in good running condition. Set the thermostat at economic temperature, not too cold that you have to wear a jacket.

Meralco suggests these for homes:

Your flat iron is one of your highest electricity user. Do all ironing at one time, preferably in the morning when the air is not yet hot, so you won't need an electric fan, and there's still natural light. Dampen clothes moderately; excessively moistened fabric takes longer to iron. Switch off the iron in the last few minutes. The remaining heat will be enough to press smaller items. For uniforms, choose wash-and-wear fabric.

The refrigerator is your second biggest power user. Give it room to breathe. Set it four inches from the wall so the heated condenser coil at the back does not send heat back to the unit. Check door gaskets for leaks of cold air. Defrost regularly; avoid letting the freezer ice build up to one-fourth inch, which forces the motor to work harder. Set the thermostat at the lowest possible without spoiling the food.

For lights, use natural lighting as much as possible. Turn off unnecessary lights. Replace incandescent with fluorescent bulbs; 11 watts of the latter gives the same illumination as 40 watts of the former. Use low wattage bulbs in areas that do not need strong lighting. Clean bulbs regularly; dust and dirt lessen illumination by as much as 50 percent. Use lamps that provide direct lighting on beds, desks or work areas.

In cooking, plan ahead to avoid wasting LPG or electricity. Prepare all ingredients before turning on the stove. Thaw frozen food thoroughly before cooking. Match pots and pans with the size of stove heating elements. Avoid using big burners for small pans. Cover pots and pans to prevent heat loss. Use flat-bottom pans on electric stoves for faster heat transfer. Switch off the stove in the last few minutes of cooking. The remaining heat will simmer the food.

In machine washing, wash and dry full loads to maximize electricity use. Do not over-wash clothes or overload the dryer. Hang clothes to dry on sunny days.

Unplug television sets, stereos, electric fans and computers when not in use. Whenever possible fix the fan directly at you instead of rotating it. Encourage the family to watch TV together instead of individually in separate rooms. The bigger your TV set, the higher the wattage – 12-1nch screen means 65 watts, 20" means 110, 42" means 210 – and thus more electricity used. And that doesn't include yet your VHS-VCD-DVD player, your precious karaoke, and your kids' videogame machine.

Bernas' Column

Sounding Board : Too late the hero

Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas, S.J.
Inquirer News Service

I HAVE not been an avid fan of the hearings on impeachment, but friends do entertain me with highlights. One such highlight is the debate among members of the pro-impeachment group on when to sign up in support of impeachment. Those in the up-front group have already signed and they are inching toward the magic 79. Another group, I understand, plans to show their hand only during the roll-call vote in plenary.

I tend to agree with those who say that, if the number 79 is not reached before the plenary vote, their cause will have been lost. The history of past impeachments shows that there is little interest in coming to the plenary session when the vote has been lost in the Committee. Absences then abound. Therefore, whatever noble reason the second group might have, they may be headed toward a case of "too late the hero."

Another update I got is that there's a claim that my column last Monday contradicted what I said when I appeared as amicus curiae during the hearing of the Davide impeachment. At that time I said, and the Court agreed, that an impeachment proceeding is deemed initiated when a complaint has been filed and transmitted to the Committee on Justice and that, therefore, another complaint after that would violate the one-year ban.

Indeed, that is what I said. But let us look at the context of that statement. There was a first complaint. This first complaint was held to be sufficient in form on Oct. 13, 2003, but it was dismissed for insufficiency of substance on Oct. 22, 2003; it was then awaiting referral to the plenary. The second complaint, however, was filed on Oct. 23, 2003, or the day after the first had been dismissed for insufficiency of substance. In other words, the first "proceeding" was already well on the way when the second complaint came. Clearly, therefore, the second complaint could not ride on the first proceeding because the first proceeding had already gone too far. Malayo na ang tren. (The train has left.) Thus, the second complaint would have required a new and second prohibited proceeding. So, indeed, the Court held.

The situation in the current controversy is different. On different days, the Lozano complaint, the "amended complaint" and the Lopez complaint were filed. The substance of all three complaints came under the umbrella of "betrayal of public trust." As I indicated last Monday, the phrase betrayal of public trust was meant by the Constitutional Commission to be a catch-all phrase that could encompass many elements. All three were referred to the Justice Committee on the same day. Since they all involved betrayal of public trust, they could be combined as one to be tackled in the same proceeding. Thus, only one proceeding was initiated when the three were referred to the Committee.

I was also told of the warm eloquence displayed in attacking my use of the phrase "bill of particulars." If I had not used that phrase but had simply said that the amended complaint was nothing more than a specification of "betrayal of public trust," would eloquence also have been vented on me? Of course, because specifics were the dreaded monster!

I grant that the phrase "bill of particulars" is normally used only in civil or administrative cases. A respondent in a civil or administrative case asks for a "bill of particulars" or specifics in order to be able to prepare a proper response to a complaint. A defendant in a criminal case, of course, would not ask for a bill of particulars. He would rather ask for dismissal on the ground of defective information. An impeachment case, however, cannot easily be categorized as civil, criminal, or administrative. It is sui generis. But what is to prevent people involved in an impeachment debate from borrowing the phrase "bill of particulars" to communicate what they mean? It means details, specifics, chapter and verse, and other synonyms which can be found in Roget's Thesaurus. But then, as I said, this is precisely what the defenders of the President dread. It is not the phrase "bill of particulars" they are objecting to but the complaint's content.

Again, I must say that this is not at all surprising. Impeachment is a political process. For that reason the responsibility for it has not been given to a court characterized by cold neutrality but to a political body. A political body can be intensely partisan. This fact explains 95 percent of what has been happening in the Committee hearings.

Along every step in an impeachment process, a president and his or her men get to work. The president's power of persuasion is not inconsiderable. The essence of the president's persuasive task is to convince the object of his or her courtship that what he or she wants is what they too should choose for their own sake. Political animals always consider what is good for their own sake. I am, therefore, not surprised that the opposition is waging an uphill battle.

The presence of an impeachment process in our and in the American Constitution is symbolic of the commitment to the rule of law. It is the consensus of most historians that the attempted impeachment of Richard Nixon was a shining moment in the nation's history. In the final analysis, the process that forced Nixon to resign from the presidency was a bi-partisan effort. (And Nixon could obtain pardon because, under the American system, pardon can be given before conviction. Not so in our system!)

Unfortunately, impeachment as a symbol of the rule of law does not always manage to reflect what it symbolizes. What is going on now in the justice committee definitely does not.

(P.S. Is the surprise declaration of a Monday holiday a ploy to prevent the collection of more signatures in a Monday session?)

PAL Reloaded

PAL firms up domestic re-fleeting plan
Inquirer News Service

PHILIPPINE Airlines (PAL) has firmed up its plan to upgrade 13 of its aircraft for domestic flights after signing a contract to lease three more Airbus A-320 planes, PAL president Jaime Bautista said Thursday.

With the contract, PAL will have six leased A-320s, the last of which will arrive in February, Bautista said.

It has 30 planes for local and international flights.

PAL will spend about $65 million to modernize its domestic fleet, he said, explaining that the amount would cover the spare parts provisioning required by the leasing company.

"We have a commitment already with a leasing company," told the Inquirer after PAL's annual meeting of stockholders Thursday. "Between now and 2008, we will be modernizing our domestic fleet with new leases of the same type of aircraft."

With the economic outlook uncertain because of surging petroleum prices, PAL, controlled by tobacco tycoon Lucio Tan, has thought it wise to enter into five-year leasing agreements instead of buying new planes, Bautista said.

PAL's competitor Cebu Air Pacific, controlled by the family of diversified tycoon John Gokongwei, has bought 12 new Airbus 319 planes for $500 million. It has also leased two new A-320s for major domestic routes, such as between Manila and Cebu City and between Manila and Davao City. The A-319s will be arriving between September this year and early 2007.

Bautista said use of newer planes would allow a faster turnaround time, which is essential in improving PAL's on-time performance.

PAL has to set aside about $5 million for the spare parts provisioning of each aircraft, Bautista said. The leasing company usually requires a provisioning of 10 percent of the value of an aircraft, which is about $40 million.

PAL reported a 73-percent increase in its net income in the April-June first quarter of its fiscal year at $27.5 million (roughly P1.5 billion), against $15.92 million in the same period of the previous fiscal year.

The April-June profit exceeded the full-year profit of about P1.2 billion in the previous fiscal year ended March 2005. Clarissa S. Batino, with INQ7.net

Impeachment-Weary

Passion For Reason : Juridical guerrilla warfare

Raul Pangalangan
Inquirer News Service

THE BEST way to kill the impeachment complaint is to wear out the people. No need to show that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is innocent. Just tire the sovereign people, bore them, make them indifferent to whether or not she is guilty. Reduce Gloriagate from a debate about principles to a wager on technicalities bereft of moral content. That is the peril of the vote by the House of Representatives' justice committee to focus first on "prejudicial questions." To paraphrase Sun Tzu, war is like fire. Rather than putting it out, let it burn itself out.

Three impeachment complaints have been filed against President Arroyo, the first, filed by lawyer Oliver Lozano, apparently the weakest. The next step, under the Constitution, is for the proper congressional committee to say whether the complaints are sufficient in form and substance.

However, the Constitution also says: "No impeachment proceedings shall be initiated against the same official more than once within a period of one year." Pro-Arroyo congressmen say that the committee must first settle the "prejudicial" issue of whether the Lozano complaint has triggered off the one-year bar and, if yes, whether it can be supplemented by the stronger complaint drafted by opposition lawyers. Their goal, obviously, is to lock in the vulnerable Lozano version and knock out the high-octane opposition draft.

The Supreme Court has laid down the controlling doctrine. In Francisco v. House of Representatives, the Court cited the one-year bar and threw out a second impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Hilario Davide. The anti-Davide forces invoked Rules 16/17 of the impeachment procedure adopted by Congress, which says that "impeachment proceedings [are] deemed initiated" only after the justice committee has acted on the complaint; by that rule, the first complaint couldn't have activated the one-year rule. The Court thus struck down Rules 16/17 as unconstitutional and pegged the triggering moment much earlier: when the complaint is filed and referred to the justice committee.

Citing one of the founding fathers of the 1987 Constitution, the Court said: "Father [Joaquin] Bernas further explains: The 'impeachment proceeding' is not initiated when the complaint is transmitted to the Senate for trial [nor] when the House deliberates on the resolution passed on to it by the Committee. ... Rather, the proceeding is initiated or begins when a verified complaint is filed and referred to the Committee on Justice for action. This is the initiating step which triggers the series of steps that follow." Pro-Arroyo congressmen now claim that Lozano has tripped the constitutional switch.

But, as Rep. Francis Escudero said at a forum in the University of the Philippines, opposition legislators have anticipated this, and deftly packaged their complaint so that it can either "stand alone" as an independent complaint or merely supplement Lozano's.

There is no technical bar to a supplement. I have heard forced analogies to judicial process, both civil and criminal, all of them inapt to the "sui generis" ("class by itself") nature of impeachment proceedings. The current procedural rules on impeachment are silent on supplements. Therefore, to hinder the other complaints is an exercise of discretion. Our legislators must not wash their hands through technicalities, and be candid enough to confess that they are voting their true selves.

This gap ("lacuna") in the rules beckons us to turn to the "intent of the framers." Note the following exchange in the Constitutional Commission when they drafted the one-year bar.

Commissioner Villacorta: "Does this mean that even if evidence is discovered to support another charge ... a second ... proceeding cannot be initiated [within] one year? ... The intention may be to protect the public official from undue harassment. [But] is this not undue limitation on the accountability of public officers?"

Commissioner Romulo: "Yes, the intention here really is to limit. This is not only to protect public officials ... from harassment but also to allow the [Congress] to do its work, which is lawmaking. Impeachment proceedings take a lot of time."

Hearing the three complaints together will advance this constitutional intent -- no undue "harassment" of the respondent, or additional work for Congress.

But in addition, Rep. Teodoro Locsin shows that there is in fact a proper technical way to construe the three complaints. Congressional time is not normal people's time, he said. Congress can simply stop the clock and by parliamentary fiat freeze time, and the record will not show that they actually debated past midnight. Now by such reckoning, time stood still while Congress was on its constitutionally mandated one-month break. That Lozano filed first in that twilight zone is of no consequence.

Which brings us back to the controlling moment in Francisco, namely, July 25, when Congress re-convened, the "session day" when Speaker Jose de Venecia endorsed the complaints to the justice committee, simultaneously at 11:20 a.m. (recorded in the official Journal). Therefore, Francisco will hold that none of the complaints could have blocked off the others.

What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. That, shorn of fancy lawyer talk, is one big part of the rule of law. The justices read the one-year bar liberally in favor of the "accused." This gave solace to the Chief Justice, who was worthy, but now it purportedly gives safe haven to President Arroyo, who is not. The solution is not to fudge what the Court said in Francisco, but to carry out our compelling intuitions through the disciplined craft of the law, and in Unger's words, "find the mind's opportunity in the heart's revenge." Remember Sun Tzu: Take away the energy of the enemy, take away their heart.