Category Archive for: komentaryo

komentaryo

DENR’s daring, mining’s crisis

I was one of many who thought Gina Lopez was one of President Duterte’s more daring choices as far as picking members of his cabinet was concerned. A staunch environmentalist, she was a welcome decision for Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary, after decades of seeing our natural resources go to waste in the hands of big business, oligarchs, capitalists all in the name of investments and “development” as every government before this one has claimed.

I thought: finally, someone who could shake the system up a bit – if not completely turn it upside down – if only so we can have a different, more honest conversation about the state of our environment. Finally, I thought, someone who would have the interest of communities, including the Lumad, as foremost on her agenda.

And while I am not blind to the limits of Secretary Lopez’s push for eco-tourism, as I saw the people she started bringing into the DENR, I thought: certainly, there will be more to her plans for the environment than eco-tourism. Between Ipat Luna and Philip Camara, she was off to a good start. (more…)

komentaryo

HTI fire: Cover-up?

On February 1, I watched with many as the fire at the House Technologies Industries (HTI) inside the Cavite Export Processing Zone grew bigger and bigger, seemingly beyond control.

On February 2, at 12:30AM, the fire was declared under control (ABS-CBNNews). Yet all day the building continued to spew smoke. By early evening fire started on the building again.

On February 3, at 4:15PM, officials finally declared fire out on the building (CNN Philippines).

No casualties declared as of 3:19AM, February 4. We’re being told that all employees are accounted for, and that the number of those confined in hospitals has dwindled. (more…)

komentaryo

Who will benefit from the jeepney phase out?

The jeepney strike that kicked-off this week drove home the point that needed to be made about the Department of Transportation’s (DOTr) proposed jeepney modernization program.

First, that in fact jeepneys are not the main cause of our traffic crisis, because despite the fact that there were barely any jeeps on the roads, traffic was still terrible.

Second, that in fact this proposed modernization program will not only disenfranchise jeepney drivers and operators, it will also ultimately affect the commuting public. On the day of the strike, commuters were stranded no matter the number of organizations that did not join the strike, and no matter the transport LGUs and government agencies provided.

Makes you wonder: if this shift to new jeeps happens, will there be no lull in operations? Does this mean that there is actually one huge business already making these jeeps, ready to receive its millions from government subsidies, bank loans, and jeepney operators who can afford the P7 million pesos required to get a new modern jeepney franchise?

Whose business is this, and how did it get such a great deal with the DOTr?

We’re talking 400,000 jeeps to be bought at the price of at least P1-million-pesos each.

Imagine earning that much out of one huge government deal. It boggles the mind. (more…)

komentaryo

Portrait of a communications secretary as failure

The rhetoric was one of change and optimism in the beginning, of a revitalized PTV4, of a Presidential Communications that did not engage in the spin that we had gotten used to for six years. The promise was information delivered promptly and with transparency, never mind the task of propaganda.

After all, when you’ve got a President who is doing right by nation, enough Cabinet members doing good work, and the Left, Right, Center on your side – not to mention millions in votes – there is no reason to be defensive, no reason to do propaganda.

You are Martin Andanar: media personality, Presidential appointee, with public funds and media resources now at your disposal. You would be the change President Duterte promised. (more…)

kultura

Taxes, freelancers, cultural work: Amnesty and kindness

One of the more critical battles that any cultural institution should be waging at this point is the one against the unjust taxation of freelance cultural workers.

This was one of Daang Matuwid’s most unkind tax policies, which was put into effect by former tax chief Kim Henares, for whom it didn’t matter how much a person earned, what mattered was that government could collect taxes on those earnings.

I had hoped President Duterte’s men would take a look at this tax policy, and realize that freelancers and cultural workers are in a category of employment that is unlike “self-employed professionals” (doctors and engineers and lawyers), and unlike workers who suffer through contractualization.

At the very least, I wished they would declare a tax amnesty, just to bring back freelancers and cultural workers into the tax system, no questions asked, no penalties to be paid for honest but foolish mistakes. It’s just the kinder thing to do. (more…)