Pinoys bid good-bye to another unstable year

MANILA, Philippines – In her seven years as the highest public official of the Philippines, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has heard – and dismissed – countless calls for her resignation. The calls for accountability intensified in 2008, with a massive "truth rally" in February over the allegedly anomalous $329-million deal with Chinese firm ZTE Corp. for a national broadband network project, a "substantive" 93-page impeachment complaint in October, and to cap the year, a multisectoral protest against Charter change moves that are seen to be a maneuver to extend Arroyo's term. At the same time, other government institutions faced internal squabbles of their own. Some Court of Appeals Associate Justices were sacked, suspended, and reprimanded over an alleged bribery try. The Philippine National Police (PNP) drew criticisms after a former PNP official was caught with an undeclared €105,000 in Russia. And both chambers of Congress struggled to extract the truth from a former Agriculture official believed to have engineered the P728-million fertilizer scam. These, along with other scandals dominated the news in 2008. Lozada mania In February, civil society groups, businessmen, politicians from various parties, and Church-backed organizations rallied around an unlikely hero – self-confessed "probinsiyanong Intsik" Rodolfo Noel "Jun" Lozada Jr. – to urge Mrs Arroyo to come clean on the ZTE mess. They held the "truth rally" after Lozada, who served as consultant to former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri who approved the deal, testified before the Senate that First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, along with then Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos, played a role in backroom negotiations on the project. Abalos resigned from his post Oct. 1, 2007, and was replaced by retired Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo in February. Lozada's testimony backed up losing NBN project bidder Jose "Joey" de Venecia III’s bombshell. De Venecia III is the son of five-time Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. The older De Venecia lost the House leadership on February 5 after his falling out with Mrs Arroyo over his son's involvement in the controversy. He was replaced by Davao City Rep. Prospero Nograles. Presidential aspirant Sen. Manuel Villar Jr.’s ouster as Senate President also surprised the nation. The House was not the only congressional chamber that saw a change in leadership in 2008. On November 17, Villar resigned as Senate president after learning that 14 senators had signed a resolution declaring their loss of confidence in the Senate majority. The leadership change came roughly two months after Villar was accused of being behind the so-called double insertion of a P200-million fund allocation for the C-5 road in the 2008 national budget. But speculation was also rife that the ouster move might have been motivated by the presidential ambitions of other senators. Villar pointed out that five out of the 14 who signed the resolution had expressed interest in crashing into the 2010 presidential derby. Those who voted against Villar were Senators Edgardo Angara, Rodolfo Biazon, Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada, Juan Ponce Enrile, Francis Escudero, Richard Gordon, Gregorio Honasan, Panfilo Lacson, Lito Lapid, Loren Legarda, Ma. Ana Consuelo Madrigal, Ramon Revilla Jr., Manuel Roxas and Juan Miguel Zubiri. Abstaining from voting were Senators Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, Joker Arroyo, Alan Peter Cayetano, Pilar Juliana "Pia" Cayetano, Francis Pangilinan, and resigned Minority Floor Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago was absent, and Antonio Trillanes IV, who is currently detained, did not vote. Villar, of course, did not vote. The House accepted, but eventually killed, the fourth impeachment complaint against Mrs Arroyo. The ZTE-NBN mess made a come back to haunt anew Mrs Arroyo when Joey de Venecia, along with other civil society leaders, lodged an impeachment complaint against her on October 10. The ZTE scandal was one of the bases of the 93-page complaint, along with other scandals that include the "Hello Garci" scandal, the P728-million fertilizer fund scam, the allegedly anomalous ZTE-Diwalwal mining contract, human rights violations, the North Rail project and the alleged bribing of congressmen. The complaint, which was endorsed by former Speaker De Venecia and the progressive party-list bloc, was tackled by the House Committee on Justice. After debates between pro and anti-impeachment panels, the committee, which is chaired by Quezon City Rep. Matias Defensor Jr., dismissed the complaint as "insufficient in substance." The complaint would have been transmitted to the Senate had it garnered a one-third vote in plenary. But majority of the House's 238 members voted to throw out the complaint on December 2. Bolante, the incredible The alleged architect of the P728-million fertilizer fund scam, former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn "Joc-Joc" Bolante, returned to the Philippines on October 28 after a US court denied his plea for asylum. The Senate reopened its investigation into the fertilizer scandal, but the senators were disappointed when Bolante denied that irregularities tainted the fertilizer fund program. He also cleared President Arroyo of any involvement in the program. The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, under newly installed chair Richard Gordon, then cited Bolante in contempt for allegedly giving false testimony, but he was later released. Other witnesses testified before the panel, including alleged Bolante "runners" Jose Barredo and Maritess Aytona. The Blue Ribbon Committee, along with the House Committee on Agriculture, which is also conducting an inquiry, has yet to finish its investigation into the controversy. Euro Generals While both the Senate and the House were conducting separate inquiries into the fertilizer scam, the two chambers also held inquiries into another controversy – this one involving former Philippine National Police (PNP) comptroller Eliseo de la Paz, who along with his wife, was held at the Moscow airport on October 11 after being caught in possession of undeclared €105,000 (P6.9 million). During the Senate and House hearings, De la Paz said the oversight was solely his fault. He also stuck to his earlier statement that the euros were for the contingency funds of the PNP delegation to the Interpol assembly in St. Petersburg and for the purchase of intelligence equipment. De la Paz and many of the so-called "Euro Generals" were nearing retirement when they made the trip to Russia. De la Paz reached retirement on October 9 while he was still in Moscow. Among the "Euro Generals" are then Deputy Director General Emmanuel Carta who retired November 20 and then Region 9 police chief Jaime Caringal who retired on November 5. The law bans retiring government officials from using government funds for foreign trips. Also, under a National Police Commission memorandum on official travel, priority is given to those who are 45 years old and below and have had no previous training. Botched ancestral domain The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels under renegade commanders Ameril Umbra Kato, Sulayman Pangalian, and Abdullah Macapaar alias Commander Bravo launched attacks in Lanao del Norte, Maguindanao, and Sarangani provinces after the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order on the signing of an ancestral domain pact on August 4. The Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD), which sought to create a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity, generated a lot of controversy after local officials in Mindanao, including North Cotabato Vice Governor Emmanuel Piñol claimed no public consultations had been made before the drafting of the agreement. After the rogue MILF members' assault, the government was forced to abandon the MOA-AD, which the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional in October. The ruling stalled the peace process, but the government said it is ready to resume talks with the rebel group. On December 24, Malacañang named the last member of the new peace panel that will be headed by Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis. Ces Drilon kidnapping

On June 10, ABS-CBN announced that senior correspondent Ces Oreña-Drilon and her crewmen Jimmy Encarnacion and Angelo Valderama were missing. The news team was supposed to do a story on the Abu Sayyaf. Mindanao State University professor Octavio Dinampo, who accompanied the news team, was also missing. Valderama was released on June 12, but an Abu Sayyaf group that kidnapped the news team demanded a P15 million ransom on June 17 in exchange for the release of Drilon, Encarnacion, and Dinampo. The abductors named Mayor Alvarez Isnaji of Indanan, Sulu, as their emissary. The three were released shortly before midnight of June 17. Two days after their release, the PNP tagged Isnaji and his son Jun as suspects in the kidnapping. CA bribery scandal On October 9, the Supreme Court sacked Associate Justice Vicente Roxas after finding him guilty of multiple violations of the canons of the Code of Judicial Conduct, grave misconduct, dishonesty, undue interest, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service. That was because Roxas penned the controversial July 23 decision stating that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had no jurisdiction to validate the proxy votes counted in favor of the Lopez-owned Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

Meanwhile, CA Associate Justice Jose Sabio Jr, who revealed a P10-million bribe try allegedly offered by businessman Francis Roa de Borja for Sabio to inhibit himself from the Meralco case, was suspended for two months for simple misconduct and conduct unbecoming of a CA Justice. Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez was severely reprimanded for his failure to act promptly and decisively on the incident; Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes Jr was reprimanded for simple misconduct; and Associate Justice Myrna Dimaranan Vidal was admonished for conduct unbecoming of a CA Justice. Claudio Teehankee Jr a free man The son of the late former Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee Sr. was released on the night of October 8 from the New Bilibid Prison after President Arroyo granted him executive clemency on September 28. The release sparked widespread criticism from opposition groups and some government officials, particularly Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio, who said the Department of Justice violated its own rules when it facilitated the release of the younger Teehankee without issuing proper notifications to involved parties and to the public. The Makati Regional Trial Court declared Teehankee guilty in 1992 of murdering Maureen Hultman and Roland John Chapman and gravely wounding their friend Jussi Olavi Leino in 1991. Teehankee filed a motion for reconsideration, but it was denied by the Supreme Court in 1995. Anti- ‘Gloria Forever’ rally Thousands of people from religious, civil society, and political groups showed up at the rally in Makati on December 12 to oppose moves in Congress, particularly in the House, to change the Constitution. Sen. Manuel Roxas II, in particular, was so angry that he let loose a curse in Filipino despite the presence of religious leaders in the rally. Organizers said the multisectoral rally had shown that the public is widely against amending the Constitution and extending Mrs Arroyo’s term. Pacquiao makes history

It was not all bad news in 2008. On December 6, Pacquiao triumphed over Oscar de la Hoya in the eight round of their much-awaited bout in Las Vegas, Nevada after a bruised and battered Mexican-American threw in the towel. Pacquiao made history in 2008 when he became the first Asian to wear four world titles in three different weight divisions. He is the reigning World Boxing Council (WBC), and The Ring magazine's super featherweight champion after he beat Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez in a split decision on March 15. He also added the WBC lightweight belt after scoring a ninth-round knockout win over David Diaz on June 28. Pacquiao was hailed the world over for his victories, particularly his triumph over De la Hoya. On December 30, he topped the ESPN Star Sports' "Champion of Champions" online poll. Relieved nation bids good-bye to tragic year

Given that at least 20 typhoons sweep through the Philippines annually, the country's seas have always been notorious to being prone to maritime accidents. In 2008, boats and ferries have either capsized or sunk in various parts of the country including Palawan, Antique, and even as far north as Cagayan province. But these incidents combined paled in comparison to the tragedy that befell M/V Princess of the Stars on June 21. Allegedly due to a "lapse in judgment" on the part of its captain, the Sulpicio Lines-owned ferry capsized off Sibuyan Island in Romblon after sailing right into the eye of Typhoon Frank. The ship was supposed to travel to Cebu province. The sea disaster left most of the 800 crew and passengers trapped inside the 24-000-ton vessel. Rescuers eventually fished out almost 200 bodies believed to have come from the 24-year-old capsized ship. And of the hordes of passengers who initially hopped into the M/V Princess of the Stars in its port of origin in Manila, barely 50 people lived to tell the horrifying experience. Blame had been tossed around among the ship's captain, the shipping owner, the Philippine Coast Guard, and even state weather forecasters. The task force created for the incident has already led search and retrieval operations not only for the trapped bodies but also for the toxic chemicals later discovered to be contained inside the upturned ferry. Prior to the Princess disaster, four other Sulpicio Lines vessels had been involved in marine mishaps, including the MV Doña Paz tragedy – widely cited as the worst ever peace-time maritime disaster where 1,856 people died according to official reports. Unofficial reports even pegged the death toll to around 4,000. Forensic experts from the National Bureau of Investigation, the United Nations, and the European Union have yet to release the results of DNA testing conducted on the 199 bodies sent to them. To this day, hundreds of bodies remain trapped inside the Princess of the Stars, which itself has yet to be removed from the Romblon area. RCBC robbery-massacre Bank clients of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) in Cabuyao town in Laguna had started wondering why the bank’s branch in the town remained closed way after opening time on the morning of May 16. Authorities stepped in to pry open the bank doors, and made a shocking discovery: eight bank employees and a security guard were all lined up on the floor and had been shot dead. A tenth wounded victim – also a bank employee – fought for his dear life as he was rushed to the nearest hospital. However, the only possible witness to the bloody massacre later succumbed to his injuries. Two RCBC security guards, earlier suspected of perpetrating the bloody attack, passed the paraffin and lie detector tests and were later cleared in the incident. A week after the robbery-massacre, four suspected members of a robbery group behind the RCBC bank heist emerged dead after fighting it out with authorities in separate police operations in Calamba, Laguna and neighboring Tanauan City in Batangas. Both the Commission on Human Rights and the relatives of the victims – who were village officials – said the attack was a rubout, despite the Philippine National Police’s insistence that the suspected robbers shot it out with responding operatives. The police have already lodged complaints against at least nine suspects, including Jun Alvarez, who not only confessed to the crime but even returned P26,000 that he said was part of his P400,000 share from their P12-million loot. ’Melamilk’ scare The local milk industry received anew a fatal blow in 2008 when news of traces of industrial chemical melamine being found in milk and milk-based products manufactured in China triggered another milk scare. The reputation of formula and powder milk products had already been tainted in 2007 when the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) discovered that rust and mold had developed in the cans of some milk batches from Wyeth Philippines. Reports said that the melamine – a kidney problem-causing industrial chemical added to milk to make it appear higher in nitrogen content – was said to be the culprit for the death of six infants and sickness among 300,000 people in China. The melamine scare prompted the BFAD to set out a 200-product laboratory testing, eventually singling out six Chinese milk brands that tested positive for melamine. Fresh from the similar formalin scare in China-made products, the melamine controversy quickly crossed over to other Chinese products including animal feeds, biscuits, canned meat products and even cosmetic products. RH Bill: [Re]Productive or not? In September, the highly controversial Reproductive Health (RH) Bill was endorsed for plenary discussion at the House of Representatives, earning applause from its proponents but objection from “pro-life" supporters. The controversial health measure puts the government at the forefront of ensuring that every Filipino is bestowed with the best reproductive health they can get. Among others, the government will be tasked to promote both the natural and artificial forms of family planning. The bill also directs schools to start teaching sex education to students from Grade 5 and up. It also tackles issues on abortion, maternal deaths, child nutrition, violence against women, and reproductive system-related infections. Poll results released by the Social Weather Station in November had already shown that seven out of 10 adults think that there should be a law on reproductive health in the country. Despite the survey, the measure continued to receive strong opposition from pro-life supporters including its biggest contingent from the Roman Catholic Church, which said the bill would only promote abortion and promiscuity among the youth. Further proving that its cause against the RH bill is a force to reckon with, the Catholic Church on July 25 gathered thousands of men of cloth, students, concerned parents, and civil society groups in a prayer rally for life at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila. In mid-November, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines broke its silence and issued an official statement stressing that the Church could support the bill only if certain revisions would be made. Although considered a “priority bill" along with the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program extension and the annual budget, the RH bill was still under interpolation when Congress went into a holiday break. Right before the break, the RH bill was able to secure support from 113 of the chamber’s 238 legislators. This, despite the fact that RH bill lawmaker critics still outnumber the supporters as one legislator claimed they “more than 120" congressmen oppose the measure. Still, proponents of the RH Bill, led by its main author Rep. Edcel Lagman, recently flew to Mexico – another Catholic country where reproductive health is being strongly supported by the government – and gathered pertinent information that could help them convince Congress to pass the measure. The price of rice

The first quarter of the year also saw the price of rice skyrocket to a record high, as the Philippines – the biggest rice importer in the world – grappled to look for new sources of the staple grain when foreign rice suppliers began restricting exportation. Exporters like China, India, Vietnam, and Thailand started limiting the rice stocks that they export, due to several reasons like the growing number of people in rice-eating countries and the drying up of more and more farmlands as a result of climate change. As the price of commercial rice almost doubled, Filipino consumers by April were braving heat and rain and forming kilometric queues in front of National Food Authority offices just to purchase cheap, government-subsidized rice. Halfway through the year however, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) shattered speculations of a possible regional rice supply shortage and said the soaring prices were only being triggered by fear among traders. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has already assured the public rice supply would be stable next year since the country’s rice inventory had already gone up as a result of expanded government procurement. ARMM polls: ‘Automated’ Region in Muslim Mindanao

Registered voters from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) on August 4 got a taste of picking their candidates electronically, when the Commission on Elections (Comelec) held automated polls in the six-province region. The automated polls were staged to select the new set of governors and board members in the region. The Comelec said that 84 percent of the 1.5 million registered voters turned up in precincts to cast their votes. During the first computerized polls under Comelec chairman Jose Melo’s term, the poll body used two automated systems to collect the votes: Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) and Optical Mark Reader (OMR). Maguindanao used DRE by technology provider Smartmatic-Sahi Joint Venture. DRE uses touch-screen technology, wherein the voter would simply press the part of the screen containing the candidate's name. The other technology, OMR of Avante International Technology Inc - where paper ballots are counted using machines - was used in Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Shariff Kabunsuan, Sulu and Tawi-tawi. The elections were held despite ongoing skirmishes in several towns of North Cotabato, where government forces tried to drive away rebel fighters who occupied several villages. The Comelec said the ARMM elections served as a preview of which system would be best to use if ever the country shifts to fully automated elections in 2010. Year of the rollback Apparently an effect of the global economic recession, the latter part of the year also saw the steep dive of world oil prices, the price of a barrel of crude oil ultimately going beneath the $40 level.

The sharp drop was soon reflected in local oil prices, with independent players always leading the pack in cutting back on their prices, with the likes of UniOil Petroleum Philippines Inc giving out as much as a P6 per liter cut on gasoline. The 12-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had even convened in Cairo, Egypt in November and December to discuss measures regarding the steep decline in oil prices. However, the meeting ended with the member countries not announcing any output cuts, which was supposedly the measure seen to cushion the adverse effects of the sliding world oil prices on exporting countries. As expected, commuters started urging the transport sector to reflect their fares with the plunging local prices of pump fuels. And in early December, the government approved a provisionary fare cut that slashed jeepney and bus fares by 50 centavos, and lifted the P10 add-on in taxi fares. Robbery groups in Parañaque, UP Residents from a subdivision in Parañaque City were rattled on the evening of December 5 when countless gunshots rung through the air. A group of suspected thieves from the notorious Waray-Waray and Ozamis robbery groups turned out to have engaged in a gunfight policemen who - working on an informant's tip - were trailing the suspects. When the tension subsided, 16 people were found dead at the crime scene. However, suspected robbers were not the only ones who were killed in the firefight but also a policeman and five civilians, including a seven-year-old girl. The incident did not only trigger public uproar due to the loss of innocent lives, but also prompted the Commission on Human Rights to investigate the incident. Though still in the middle of their probe, the CHR already declared that certain points in the PNP’s rules of engagement had been violated during the supposed shootout. The CHR wanted the PNP to explain witness accounts saying that slain civilian Alfonso de Vera was still shot at despite already falling to his knees in surrender. Accounts also said that De Vera was already trying to maneuver his vehicle away from the fighting but still ended up being assaulted. The PNP has insisted that members of the Waray-Waray and Ozamis group were the ones who peppered the civilian's vehicle with bullets.

Police said the robbery group engaged by police in the Parañaque shootout had suffered a great loss with the death of a dozen of its suspected members. The Parañaque incident came weeks after the PNP said it has arrested five suspected robbers behind the armored van robbery at the University of the Philippines. With the arrest, police said they have now neutralized a faction of the “three-cell" robbery group responsible for the rounds of break-ins in Metro Manila. The UP robbery-shooting incident, where a bank teller and two security guards died, stirred up issues of security inside the open university, which had long prevented the city police from entering its school grounds without permission. - GMANews.TV