Category: Philippines

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Was SC justice partial in BCDA-SM Land issue?

Justice is (NOT) for sale, maybe.
Time to revamp the supreme court.

Judicial overreach
In its MR filed in September 2014, the BCDA broadened its case with a new argument: that the Court has encroached upon the powers of the executive. It built its case by showing that questions hounded the integrity of the previous process and that it was within the powers of the Office of the President to “exercise control” over all the executive departments – including changing the mode of disposition of government properties.
‘…the haste and the reckless manner by which the TROs were served and re-served create an impression of bias and manifest partiality in the minds of the respondents and erode their faith in the Honorable Court.’ – BCDA
When he took over, President Aquino suspended the privatization and development of the 33-hectare property via competitive challenge or “Swiss Challenge” as part of a wide-ranging policy review and due diligence process. Fort Bonifacio was not singled out; the Food Terminal Inc complex and the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway were subjected to the same rigor.
In 2012, Aquino decided that the Bonifacio property should be opened to public bidding.
In its narration, the BCDA said that “a shadow was cast on the integrity of the process” because the previous board appeared to have rushed approval of the unsolicited proposal of SM Land days before the May 2010 elections.
“The undue haste by which the award was made was a cause for concern of the newly appointed directors and for President Aquino himself,” the BCDA wrote.
Moreover, the offer of SM Land was way below the market value of the land. The BCDA cited the recent appraisal by Cuervo Appraisers placing the cost of each square meter at P78,000. Besides, the BCDA pointed out, SM Land can participate anew, this time in a public bidding.
via Was SC justice partial in BCDA-SM Land issue?.

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Two schools of thought on the Bangsamoro bill

We can certainly have a successful nation without help from our countrymen from the south but why handcuff ourselves with such a restriction. If you are concerned for ours and our children’s future then this is something that we also need to understand and have an active part on shaping.
 

MANILA, Philippines – Concerns over the constitutionality of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) are centered on these questions: Do you choose to read the Constitution broadly or restrictively? Are you open to the concept of “asymmetrical relationship” between the envisioned Bangsamoro and the central government or are you not?
With these comments, lawyer Oscar Franklin Tan, co-chair of the Philippine Bar Association, summed up the main points of the House ad hoc committee hearing on the bill with former justices and legal experts on Tuesday, October 28. (READ: Legal experts take on Bangsamoro bill)
via Two schools of thought on the Bangsamoro bill.

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Filipinos most sought-after architects in Singapore | Inquirer Business

Nice new for our Architects!

Singaporean Theodore Chan can’t help but comment about the “ubiquitousness” of the Filipino overseas worker. “You guys are all over,” he chuckled good-naturedly.
He meant that in a positive way. The president of the Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA), and the director of CIAP Architects Pte. Ltd., hastily added that he had nothing but admiration for the skills and knowhow of Filipinos, especially in the architectural field.
“Singaporean architects have taken interest in the Philippines because a lot of your architects work in our offices. I would say that 90 percent of our workforce in Singapore are dependent on foreign technical expertise, and of which maybe 70 percent are of Filipino origins,” Chan told Inquirer Property during a panel discussion on Sept. 9 at the Master’s Hall of Yuchengco Museum in Makati. The panel also consisted of other leading Singaporean and Filipino architects.
via Filipinos most sought-after architects in Singapore | Inquirer Business.

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Camarines Norte governor's photos with another woman show up online – Yahoo Philippines News

Gov Resign now please!

She revealed that the naked woman in the photos is the governor’s alleged 24-year-old mistress. “Siya po yung bagong kinalolokohan ni governor,” she said.
Josie has said in reports that the governor had suspected her and her aide, Darlene Francisco, of leaking the compromising photos online.
She related that he had gotten hostile over the “sex photos” being leaked and had even destroyed her laptop with a gun.
Atty. Lorna Kapunan, Josie’s lawyer, explained, “She’s never seen this in the husband. Ang picture kasi napaka-compromising. Yung mistress nakahubad at masturbating. Matindi yun. Napahiya si Governor at napahiya yung mistress kaya siya ang napagbintangan (na nag-leak ng photos).”
via Camarines Norte governor’s photos with another woman show up online – Yahoo Philippines News.

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The Laborers Who Keep Dick Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook Feed | WIRED

I was given a look at the Whisper moderation process because Michael Heyward, Whisper’s CEO, sees moderation as an integral feature and a key selling point of his app. Whisper practices “active moderation,” an especially labor-intensive process in which every single post is screened in real time; many other companies moderate content only if it’s been flagged as objectionable by users, which is known as reactive moderating. “The type of space we’re trying to create with anonymity is one where we’re asking users to put themselves out there and feel vulnerable,” he tells me. “Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it’s tough to put it back in.”
Watching Baybayan’s work makes terrifyingly clear the amount of labor that goes into keeping Whisper’s toothpaste in the tube. (After my visit, Baybayan left his job and the Bacoor office of TaskUs was raided by the Philippine version of the FBI for allegedly using pirated software on its computers. The company has since moved its content moderation operations to a new facility in Manila.) He begins with a grid of posts, each of which is a rectangular photo, many with bold text overlays—the same rough format as old-school Internet memes. In its freewheeling anonymity, Whisper functions for its users as a sort of externalized id, an outlet for confessions, rants, and secret desires that might be too sensitive (or too boring) for Facebook or Twitter. Moderators here view a raw feed of Whisper posts in real time. Shorn from context, the posts read like the collected tics of a Tourette’s sufferer. Any bisexual women in NYC wanna chat? Or: I hate Irish accents! Or: I fucked my stepdad then blackmailed him into buying me a car.
via The Laborers Who Keep Dick Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook Feed | WIRED.

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Fishy | Inquirer Opinion

If you have problem’s understanding why Anthony Tiu’s claims are fishy then please read Mrs. Monsod’s article.

Well, what new things did we learn from Wednesday’s hearing?
The most important, to me, was that Anthony did not yet own—not by a long shot, anyway—“Hacienda Binay.” The owner of the property he is not. Anyone who pays some P11 million for a P450-million property, and naturally has no TCT to show proof of ownership, cannot be called an owner. And Anthony admitted it in the Senate. So why make ownership claims?
But here’s what else was fishy to me (from listening to the hearing, as the documents are not available to me):
1. Anthony says he paid P11 million in two yearly installments starting in 2011 or 2012, but nothing in his financial statements shows that he paid that amount (at least as shown during the hearing).
2. No other installments were paid since then, because he said the seller, Laureano Gregorio, had to first show that the property was indeed his (Gregorio’s), and only then would he pay the rest, also presumably in installments.
3. But he has had full use of the property since he paid the installments (usufruct) even if he doesn’t own it. Which means Gregorio gets nothing from it.
Only consider, Reader, from the point of view of the seller Gregorio. He lets go of a P450-million property (with a standing orchard of 3,000 mango trees, plus at least a house with a pool area and another house with an English-style garden, and arguably a piggery and a fighting-cock farm) for the full use of someone who has paid only P11 million. Now, if that were a normal transaction, he would have P450 million in his pocket, from which, assuming he puts it in a bank and gets a minimum of 2 percent for it, he should have been earning P9 million a year. But I am told that nowadays, with a judicious choice of financial assets to invest in, he could be getting more like 6 percent, or P27 million a year. So the opportunity cost of this deal with Anthony Tiu ranges from P9 million to P27 million a year. In the three years since he made this deal, therefore, he has already lost anywhere from P16 million to P70 million (subtract P11 million from P9 million x 3 and P27 million x 3).
Why would he consent to a deal so onerous to him? Three choices: (a) Gregorio is dumb; (b) Gregorio took a shine to Anthony Tiu and decided to give this promising young man a golden opportunity of a lifetime; and (c) the whole transaction was done to save Binay’s skin: a false seller who never intends to come up with proof of ownership of the land until Binay steps down from his promised land, a false buyer who will not touch the Binay property, but rather protect it for Binay.
via Fishy | Inquirer Opinion.

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VC-istan 8: the Damaso Effect | Michael O. Church

A fun article. I also think that we have a similar effect in some of the people who go back home. Although we have the heroes who go back out of real love for the Philippines we also have the Damaso kind who just can’t hack it overseas and returns home to tell people who never left they are beneath him on some aspects. I am actually thinking of a specific person from one of our clients.
 

JANUARY 5, 2014 BY MICHAELOCHURCH
VC-istan 8: the Damaso Effect
Padre Damaso, one of the villains of the Filipino national novel, Noli me Tangere, is one of the most detestable literary characters, as a symbol of both colonial arrogance and severe theological incompetence. One of the novel’s remarks about colonialism is that it’s worsened by the specific types of people who implement colonial rule: those who failed in their mother country, and are taking part in a dangerous, isolating, and morally questionable project that is their last hope at acquiring authority. Colonizers tend to be people who have no justification for superior social status left but their national identity. One of the great and probably intractable tensions within the colonization process is that it forces the best (along with the rest) of the conquered society to subordinate to the worst of the conquering society. The total incompetence of the corrupt Spanish friars in Noli is just one example of this.
In 2014, the private-sector technology world is in a state of crisis, and it’s easy to see why. For all our purported progressivism and meritocracy, the reality of our industry is that it’s sliding backward into feudalism. Age discrimination, sexism, and classism are returning, undermining our claims of being a merit-based economy. Thanks to the clubby, collusive nature of venture capital, to secure financing for a new technology business requires tapping into a feudal reputation economy that funds people like Lucas Duplan, while almost no one backs anything truly ambitious. Finally, there’s the pernicious resurgence of location (thanks to VCs’ disinterest in funding anything more than 30 miles away from them) as a career-dominating factor, driving housing prices in the few still-viable metropolitan areas into the stratosphere. In so many ways, American society is going back in time, and private-sector technology is a driving force rather than a counterweight. What the fuck, pray tell, is going on? And how does this relate to the Damaso Effect?
via VC-istan 8: the Damaso Effect | Michael O. Church.

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Princeton Gets 10 Times as Much Tax Money per Student as Public Colleges – The Atlantic

I’m not that familiar with how corporations/individual pledges to schools are taxed but I have  hunch that something similar is happening in the Philippines.
 
In 2002, Meg Whitman (Princeton class of ‘77), then president of eBay, pledged $30 million to her alma mater to be put toward building a dorm in her own name. The ultimate cost of the 500-student dorm, which required “skilled masons to cut thousands of pieces of stone” and featured three-inch-thick oak doors, worked out to about $200,000 per bed. Despite parting with $30 million at the time, one economist estimated that the real cost of the donation to her was much less: $20 million, thanks to the tax exemptions that come with donating to a university. In essence, the U.S. Treasury covered the $10 million gap.
The government—and thus, taxpayers—give a surprising amount of money to elite private colleges, a lot of which is hard to see because it comes in the form of tax deductions like Whitman’s. Equally hard to see, and perhaps even more lucrative, is that the federal government doesn’t tax the income that universities earn on their billion-dollar endowments. Some of these deductions exist to promote research; others exist because colleges, as institutions, make commitments to serve the public good.
When taking these tax exemptions into account, far more government money per student is going toward selective private schools than to less-selective public schools. According to Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley, the average amount of money that the government gives to public universities is less than $4,000 per student, and the average amount it effectively gives to Princeton, for example, is more than $50,000 per student.
via Princeton Gets 10 Times as Much Tax Money per Student as Public Colleges – The Atlantic.

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BOO RAPPLER::Binay will wallop Aquino in 2016 – survey

Shame  on Rappler. 
This is not news in the strictest sense. This is tabloid news.
File this as another proof that Rappler has become the press agent of the VP.
 
First why is the basic question not stated?
There is a big difference in how you ask/frame the question.
 
For example:
If they go head to head in the 2016 Elections who would you vote for Aquino or Binay?
versus
If President Aquino was not president and ran head to head against Binay who would you vote for.
versus
If President Aquino despite being constitutionally barred from running  ran head to head against Binay who would you vote for.
 
Rappler had so much promise but damn it has shown it’s true colors in it’s coverage of Binay.
EDIT: I think this is too knee jerk a reaction  and too general.
It should rather read: The editorial standards of Rappler are slowly eroding. Instead of aspiring to become the New York Times It is slowly becoming philstar.com.
 

 
MANILA, Philippines – The consistent frontrunner in presidential polls, Vice President Jejomar Binay, will not be threatened so easily.
The results of a confidential survey obtained by Rappler show that, in a one-on-one, Binay will wallop the administration’s best bet for the 2016 presidential elections – President Benigno Aquino III himself.
Binay will get 62% of voters nationwide while Aquino will get 36%.
via Binay will wallop Aquino in 2016 – survey.