Insisting that wrong is right

by Jarius Bondoc The Philippine Star February 12, 2000 12:00 AM

Will advocates of overnight trade liberalization ever learn?

Filipino steelmen decried Russian steel dumping a year ago. But government economists sneered that they should improve operations to be able to compete with cheap imports. Now that National Steel Corp. has shut down and laid off 12,000 workers, trade-libbers are silent about how Russian steel suppliers have tripled prices.

Cement makers are denouncing dumping from Taiwan, yet those economists are saying the same thing they told steelmen. They also want to let Taiwan’s China Airlines and Eva Air to pick up US-bound fliers from Manila, to the detriment of Philippine Airlines. If cement firms and PAL crumble from dumpers, and Taiwan raises cement prices and air fares, will they still remain silent?

* * *

Perfecto Yasay says there’s no quid pro quo in his sudden resignation as SEC chief. But stock marketers and fund managers aren’t convinced, considering his mysterious words and deeds.

To begin with, when Joseph Estrada first cajoled him to resign, Yasay invoked security of tenure till 2001. Now he’s saying he promised his family he’d stay in SEC for only seven years till March 25.

He also says he has learned that his earlier condition for resigning — Congress enactment of a Revised Security Act — was delaying its very passage. It would seem at first that Congress is sympathizing with him, that it wants him to stay till his terms ends, that it frowns upon Estrada’s pressures on him to clear presidential crony Dante Tan of insider trading. Then again, delay could go both ways, since a provision in the bill would let the present SEC chairman and commissioners finish their terms. Delay can be a subtle pressure by Estrada’s LAMP-dominated Congress to force him out. If so, it’s no different from Estrada’s phone calls to Yasay about Tan — that is, meddling in the work of a quasi-judicial agency.

Yasay also refuses to share with SEC commissioners the Philippine Stock Exchange’s investigation report about Tan’s Best World Resources Corp. He claims he wants to insulate them from political pressure, since SEC will conduct its own inquiry based on the PSE report.

It doesn’t make sense. If he wants to protect them from pressure, he should arm them with information and public opinion. Meaning, all the more he should let them — and the public, through the press — know the results of PSE’s probe of peers for possible price-fixing and kiting. More so since, according to some investigators and PSE officials who have seen the report, it is full of names of the high and mighty, rich and famous.

As it is, PSE officials reportedly got pissed when their own probers submitted an incomplete report on Wednesday. Demanding and getting a fuller report the next day, PSE execs decided to leak it “so that nothing will happen in transit” when SEC evaluates it for filing of criminal charges.

Upon finding this out, Yasay called a presscon and declared that it is impossible to make charges of insider trading stick. The pre-emption got stock marketers and fund managers all the more suspecting there’s more to Yasay’s resignation than meets the eye. And these could be related to accusations that he frequently traveled abroad courtesy of companies that transact business with SEC.

Estrada had tried to win back confidence in the stock market by promising fund managers he’d dissociate from Tan and Mark Jimenez, pals who had played questioned roles recently in publicly-listed firms. Yasay’s sudden resignation is ruining that initiative. It seems that Estrada has in Yasay a clumsy partner in a quid pro quo.

* * *

Since when did a wrong become right just because it’s being done over and over again?

House Majority Leader Eduardo Gullas says there’s nothing wrong with stuffing the 2000 budget with a P42-billion pork because Congresses under Cory Aquino and Fidel Ramos had done it too. It’s like saying murdering a brother is right because Cain got away with it.

Even opposition leaders like Reps. Etta Rosales and Sergio Apostol agree with the LAMP majority. Saying that they call it “pork barrel” only for convenience, they defend their supposed right and authority to identify public works and other projects. They claim they don’t tough the money and cite a Supreme Court ruling on their side. Yet they sidestep the core issue, which is, that the P42 billion are lump-sum allocations for projects that have not yet even been identified.

The Constitution is clear: Congress appropriates; Malacañang executes. To do this right, government must adopt line-item budgeting. Malacañang should draw up specific projects and costs for Congress to approve.

There’s no problem with Malacañang consulting legislators about the projects before the budget is submitted to Congress. What is wrong is for Malacañang to simply assign lump sums for health, agriculture, education and public works for each district, then let congressmen identify them later. Or to assign thrice-bigger lump sums for senators’ discretion. For then, the money becomes a virtual bribe for passage of the budget. And the lump sums become sources of kickbacks for congressmen and senators who approve the contracts for which these are spent.

But legislators are not about to do the right thing through line-item budgeting. There’s no money in it; the money is in insisting that the wrong way is right.

That goes for the culture of gambling that Cardinal Jaime Sin and other religious leaders had warned about months ago.

Malacañang had retorted that awarding concessions for on-line bingo and jai alai perked up the economy and gave jobs. But is also sent the wrong signal to government managers. Government and sequestered stations began televising lotto, bingo, horse races, cockfights and jai alai. Police generals and local officials were emboldened to protect for a fee operators of jueteng, masiao, video-karera, monte and sakla.

Believing its own “praise releases,” Malacañang began defending casino lords as the easiest foreign investors to entice. Government started hiring as consultants what Rep. Michael Defensor described in a privilege speech as masiao lords and jai alai game-fixers.

Now a LAMP congressman wants to put cockfights on-line. By networking cockpits, Filipinos will be able to place bets and know results from the comfort of their living rooms or offices. Just because Malacañang thinks it’s okay, this congressman wants on-line gambling to thrive — as if it is the computer world’s wave of the future.

This LAMP man and other officials were probably taught by their parents that gambling is wrong. Gambling depends on luck, not on skill. And since humans can’t control luck, they shouldn’t depend on gambling for a living, or let it eat up their waking hours, or bank on it for progress.

They were probably taught by their parents, too, that creation of new wealth in farming, manufacturing and services makes for real economic development. They know it’s the right, but also difficult, thing to do. Leading a nation to greater heights of technological and economic achievement is tougher than setting up gambling centers for people to divert themselves. So they do what’s wrong and insist it’s right.

* * *

Interaction will resume Monday. My modem broke down, and I got it working with the help of Mac expert Microstation Computer Center, Virra Mall, Greenhills, only last Thursday. I might even give an update on the 3-D plot, rather, what the scandal-sheet authors have been doing lately.

* * *

You can e-mail comments to jariusbonbdoc@workmail.com or, if about his daily morning radio editorials, to dzxlnews@hotmail.com

Finance men seeing new, improved Erap?

by Jarius Bondoc The Philippine Star, February 07, 2000 12:00 AM

Jose Diokno once said Filipinos live in two different worlds — that of the educated few and of the unprivileged many. His words cannot be truer than in the raging debate over divorce among the well-to-do.

The pros and antis raise such lines as the right of wives to career freedom and the sanctity of marriage. In slums where married couples’ lives center on where to get the next meal, the arguments ring hollow. For them, staying together or separating is a matter not of rights or religion but of survival.

* * *

What the finance community is seeing is a new Joseph Estrada. At least, that’s what his Economic Coordinating Council wants finance men of diverse specializations to believe.

In Tagaytay the other weekend, Estrada told foreign-fund managers that he’ll dissociate from cronies Dante Tan and Mark Jimenez so they can freely play the stock market again. ECC vice chief and Finance Sec. Jose Pardo also promised bond buyers better fiscal management and, thus, safer government securities. Improve revenue collections and freeze all government hirings and foreign travels, Estrada also ordered to assure bankers of tight handling of the projected budget deficit.

While finance bigwigs are willing to give Estrada a second chance despite a bungled first 19 months in office, they are wondering if he is able to get good information on which to base decisions. And their test case is the rural telephone program.

Estrada had cancelled Friday 10 contracts that the communications department signed last year for implementation starting tomorrow. Worth P53 billion, the contracts with 10 foreign firms would have installed at least one phone line in each barangay. From out of the blue three weeks ago, unnamed department officials and private telecommunications men allegedly complained that the contracts were overpriced seven-fold. Based on the “complaints,” Executive Sec. Ronnie Zamora and Management Staff chief Leny de Jesus reviewed the deals and recommended scrapping.

Now the United States and French embassies, and soon the German and other European envoys, are asking if the President was taken for a ride — again. They suspect that presidential cronies have set up Estrada for rebidding to grab the contracts from the original 10.

True, some of the 10 had filed initial bids of $35,000 per line during the Aquino administration, when the program was approved. But the price was based on different technologies and exchange rates. The Ramos team had negotiated for newer but cheaper equipment at only $11,000 per line in 1992. It also wangled a doubling of the number of phone lines to be laid down by the initial bidders.

Zamora has quoted recent complainers as saying that the private sector can do a better job for only $5,000 to $8,000 per line. Strangely, he glossed over the fact that by the end of the Ramos tenure, the later entrants among the 10 had already filed bids of only $4,500 per line. Too, that the original 10 were private firms that would undertake the project on their own — with loans from their home-countries’ aid agencies. Government would not have spent the P53 billion — contrary to what Estrada believes or wants the public to believe. From the start, the program only asked for a government guarantee of the loans, and the lenders only set a condition of strict audit.

But now there’s confusion all over, which could overturn Estrada’s attempts to present a new image to the finance world.

* * *

Volunteer Cha-cha campaigner Dante Ang replies to Gotcha, 5 Feb. 2000: “You mentioned that the undersigned, Press Undersecretary Ike Gutierrez and presidential adviser on broadcast Lito Balquiedra want to ease out President Estrada’s covert PR man Bubby Dacer. Logic apparently fled out the window in this instant case. You say that, of late, Dacer has been helping ex-client Fidel Ramos publicize overseas speeches. He has been eased out, as you yourself pointed out. (Hey, I didn’t say that — JB.) If he has been eased out, there is no reason why the undersigned and two Malacañang officials would still want him out. This is already fait accompli. You admit that your source for the above are whisperers in Malacañang. I’ll grant you that. But you and I know that Malacañang is a ‘snake pit,’ to borrow the words of presidential spokesman Jerry Barican. And I can only conclude that your whisperers must be snakes themselves, who cannot be trusted either as bedfellows or column sources. I hate to say this, but na-ahas ka, Jarius. I trust that my letter will see print in your column for the sake of fairness.”

Distorting what I wrote and putting words into my mouth are crude defenses, Dante. Still, I’m running your letter to show you I can be fair even to snakes.

* * *

INTERACTION. Mel Yutuc, pacific.net: “Shame, spray, quarantine campaigns should be used on those who throw rocks, oil and sand at motorists near the C-5 exit to Fort Bonifacio. Thank God, my brother and I had presence of mind when a fist-size rock smashed our windshield. Are authorities waiting for lives to be lost before they act?”

Mel, I hope they’re not waiting for a police car to be hit.

Dante de Ramos, Diliman, QC: “House-and-lot owners must be told: City Hall has raised real-property tax for structures by 300 percent. Payment is due on or before 31 March 2000. Owners can go to the Assessor’s Office, however, to have the computation reconsidered. It takes at least a day, but well worth it.”

Thanks for the tip about our tax-happy City Hall, Dante.

Peter During, svisp.com: “PLDT is helping Globe make multimillion-peso extra profit. How? Call a PLDT line from a Globe cellphone, and a tape will say ‘all circuits are busy.’ Globe says the voice comes from PLDT. Yet Globe charges its over 600,000 pre-paid customers for it. At P100 per month per customer, Globe can rake in P60 million from poor interconnection with PLDT.”

And they say telecoms is the wave of the future, Peter?

* * *

YOUR BODY. Researchers have verified the first known case of an embalmer catching tuberculosis from a corpse. The report in the New England Journal of Medicine led the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to recommend that funeral home workers take the same precautions as medical workers to prevent transmission of the sometimes-fatal disease.

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You can e-mail comments to jariusbondoc@workmail.com or, if about his daily morning radio editorials, to dzxlnews@hotmail.com

Sloppiness is bad faith

by Jarius Bondoc The Philippine Star,  February 05, 2000 12:00 AM

Nineteen months in office and Joseph Estrada continues to amaze us with his, well….

He was as surprised as everybody to read in the papers that he had pardoned murderer and escapee Norberto Manero. But he wasn’t about to admit oversight, unlike Press Secretary Rod Reyes. While Reyes mumbled that Manero’s name was just one in a long list of 500 recommended for clemency, Estrada glared on radio that somebody must have inserted the name after he had signed the release.

Estrada gave the impression that a village toughie like Manero from faraway Cotabato has a sly patron in the innermost chambers of power. But how can that be, when everything’s fine and dandy in Malacañang? Estrada keeps saying there’s no in-fighting at the Office of the President, despite Presidential Management Staff chief Lenny de Jesus’ swipes at unnamed subordinates of Executive Secretary Ronnie Zamora. He took in Aprodicio Laquian as chief of staff to coordinate work among Cabinet men, including the nonquarreling De Jesus and Zamora. So how can anybody slip past De Jesus, Zamora and Laquian to insert into the President’s out-tray the files of a man who butchered a priest?

While Estrada has his men busy figuring that out, people are still wondering how the naughty word “crisis” also managed to slip into a presidential speech. He was surprised too when newspapers bannered his use of that word to describe the country’s state of affairs. He fumed that he never meant it that way, insisting that what he said — although transcripts don’t bear him out — was that RP has emerged from crisis.

Estrada is now also feigning no knowledge of the scandal sheet circulated among Cabinet men about a supposed “media-based 3-D plot.” Yet only the other week, he was claiming that unnamed persons are on a disinform-disaffect-destabilize campaign to bring him down. And while Estrada is disowning Malacañang authorship of the paper, Zamora is saying they will fight the 3-Ds with an info drive — the cost of which could run to the hundreds of millions of pesos as usual.

Such money could be the author’s motive, if Estrada will care to ask Press Undersecretary Ike Gutierrez, presidential adviser on broadcast Lito Balquiedra, and volunteer Charter-change publicist Dante Ang. Whispers in Malacañang have it that the trio wants to ease out Estrada’s covert PR man, Bubby Dacer, who had handled his first two overseas jaunts along with maneuvers to get mistresses out of each other’s paths whenever they hopped into the same hotel. Of late, though, Dacer has been helping ex-client Fidel Ramos publicize overseas speeches — a no-no for sycophants of a jealous chief. So to get back at Dacer and grab his budget, the scandal-sheet author linked him and “mysterious” provincemate Joe Almonte to an imaginary 3-D plot.

Shooting two birds with one stone, the author also linked to 3-D 12 newspapermen who have been critical of Estrada. It was a sly way to make it look like anyone will criticize the Cabinet use of smuggled vans, cronyism or Estrada’s lack of direction only because he’s in the employ of a sinister plot.

Yet it’s the administration that has money to throw away on drives to inform or disinform. With business in the doldrums, the only gainful employment left nowadays is in Malacañang. That’s how Balquiedra can strut around town, asking broadcast commentators for their ATM account numbers — and badmouthing as corrupt the many who turned him down and snubbed the Christmas party he threw in Malacañang.

All this is sloppy work — from the hasty pardon of a murderer to the failure to review a speech before delivery, from the easing out of a Palace PR man to the attempt to malign 12 journalists. In the private sector, sloppiness is enough reason to fire a manager. In newspapering, it can even be construed as malice in a libel suit. In Malacañang, sloppiness is the name of the game.

* * *

INTERACTION. Sally Razo, BF-Parañaque: “I read you regularly, and have come to understand many bothersome issues because of your incisive pieces. I never thought Erap would view you as a destabilizer of government (Gotcha, 2 Feb. 2000). Now I feel we’re all in danger.”

Who was it who said, Sally, we must fear nothing but fear itself?

Turdy Sampang, Bacolor, Pampanga: “Now that I know you’re No. 1 in Erap’s hit-list, all the more I’ll read you and The STAR. He’s the one destabilizing the nation with his….”

Hold it, Turdy, we’re in deep enough trouble already.

Resty Banuyo, Cebu City: “Let Erap’s henchmen tail you to your prayer meetings. Maybe it’ll teach them the fear of God, and how not to mess around with their temporal powers.”

Julie Cinco, Cubao, QC: “I can’t believe Erap will go this far — witch-hunting journalists whose only ‘crime’ is to write the truth. I saw Alex Magno on TV asking if such scandal sheets are the bases for top-level government decisions. No wonder our country is in such mess. Is it time to migrate?”

Armand Gador, Dagupan: “How can you make light of a virtual threat to you?”

B. Simpao, aol.com: “A thunderous applause for the Magnificent 12. You gents and lady are driving Erap to the bottle. One of these nights, a deck hand in this rudderless ship of state will yell, ‘man overboard.’ Then, the nation will be saved.”

Veegee Garcia, livewire.net: “Congrats to those in the honor list.”

Francis Roque, hotmail.com: “You’re right, you should be proud to be on the 3-D honor list. Filipinos in Canada and USA support you.”

Frank Valdez, Ilocano Club, LA: “Because they do not have the moral authority to argue against your columns, they resort to black prop and concoct 3-D plots. Hitler did it; Marcos, too. They better not try anything nasty, though. With our wired world, anything they do will be known — and resisted — all over.”

Ernie Chaves, Seattle: “3-D is a concoction of his septic thinktank. What’s real about him is 5-D: d-nagtatrabaho, d-nag-iisip, d-na tatagal, d-asal ko, d-sana mangyari na.”

Michael Lucero, pworld.net: “It’s cronies, oil firms and Stanley Ho who are disinforming, disaffecting, destabilizing.”

Roman Rapadas, New Jersey: “Knowing you got hold of their 3-D report, expect those creeps and their boss to disown it the next day. Flip-flop.”

Bing Ramos, yahoo.com: “You 12 should keep up the good fight, but watch your backs.”

GSM, smart.com: “3-D is stupid.”

Archie Andal, pworld.net: “You sound like Bill O’Reilly, and do us proud. How I wish, though, that it’s year 2004 already.”

Rafael Llana, yahoo.com: “The real 3-Ds for his plummeting ratings are d-marunong, dorobo, disarray in Cabinet.”

Emmanuel Mercado, hotmail.com: “You and Joey Nolasco make fellow-Lourdesians feel proud. Pareho pa kayong Batch ’71. Pax et Bonum.”

They might think your Latin is a secret code for the plot, Emmanuel.

Thanks to all who sent messages of concern and encouragement.

* * *

Erap always says in public he has no cronies. In a private meeting in Tagaytay with managers of foreign mutual funds, however, he vowed to dissociate himself from pals Dante Tan and Mark Jimenez. The finance bigwigs also wangled from him a promise to replace Carlos Arellano as chairman of SSS, whose funds were used in one bank’s buyout of another.

Expect Erap to deny, of course, that they read him the riot act.

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You can e-mail comments to jariusbondoc@workmail.com or, if about his daily morning radio editorials, to dzxlnews@hotmail.com

If I’m with 3-D, then you’re a fool

by Jarius Bondoc The Philippine Star, February 02, 2000 12:00 AM

I don’t know if I should be cheering or fleering. A Cabinet man and a Malacañang official separately sent me the other day copies of the same intelligencer that lists me among 12 journalists in a supposed “media-based 3-D plot” to bring down Joseph Estrada.

Maybe I should cheer. I always strive to excel in anything I do.

The un-alphabetical list ranks me No. 1 of the 12. Conversely No. 10 grumbled upon receiving her copy, “Why am I at the bottom?”

Estrada had said the other week that plotters already have scored in the first two of three Ds: disinforming people to disaffect them from him. He said the plotters will soon start the third D: destabilize his reign.

I’ve written columns for The STAR for only eight months, and already I deserve this attention from the powers that be. I must be doing something good. Before that, I had stopped writing for six months, busy as I was tying up loose ends in Isyu, the all-opinion paper that policemen confiscated for 17 days in a row on unconstitutional orders from Estrada. He should know; two of his intimate drinking buddies were partners of mine in that venture. This latest harassment can prove to be a convenient excuse to seek political asylum abroad. Paris, here I come.

Then again, maybe I should fleer. And it’s not so much because of phone threats my family has been receiving the past two summers from men who introduce themselves as Estrada’s. It’s not so much for the two wiretaps that linemen uncovered at my house. It’s because Estrada could be wasting taxpayer money on me. He said he has ordered his men to shadow the supposed plotters.

There’s more reason to fume. My sources said they’re worried about what sycophants who read Estrada’s body language as direct orders might do to me. I’m appalled that the President of the Republic eats crap fed to him by such sycophants.

The intelligencer reads more like a scandal sheet to attack one of Estrada’s covert PR men. In Malacañang’s corridors of intrigue, the authors call it a white paper to make it look authoritative. My sources said Estrada is so mad at the PR man that he is planning to hurt the latter’s other clients. He doesn’t see that it’s all a concoction of a Palace faction that is envious of the PR man. They’re taking Estrada for a fool, and he doesn’t know it.

This is not the first scandal sheet I’ve read about the PR man. Only last week, I read another paper linking him to two presidential pals who wangled executive orders to favor their businesses. Palace intriguers can’t seem to decide if he’s with or against the Estrada team.

Neither is this the first time my name has appeared in a scandal sheet. Sometime last September, a Palace faction claimed that Presidential Spokesman Jerry Barican was paying me to defend him on the Cabinet use of smuggled luxury vans. Ako pa. Readers who followed my pieces back then know better: Barican really got it from me for his silly justifications of their scandalous act.

And neither is this the first time that Estrada made a national issue out of pseudo-intelligencers submitted to him by favor-seekers. Only last July, he claimed that two Makati-based groups — one composed of pols, the other of newspapermen — were out to oust him. A STAR columnist, whose library had just been ransacked by strange men, felt alluded to.

My sources were vague about the author of this latest 3-D paper. It could be one of the three fat faggots or the Malacañang media-relations man whose hair and teeth are falling off. It could be that crybaby or the weak-hearted Cabinet man from Parañaque.

Whoever, the author has got things all mixed up. The 3-D unfolded when Estrada began destabilizing his own reign through cronyism, among other sins. Didn’t he protect a cousin who was lobbying for release of P240 million in textbook funds, and a Chinoy partner who was under investigation for insider trading? Then he earned public disaffection for falsely promising walang kamag-anak, walang kumpare. Now he is in the final D: disinforming people about an alleged “media-based 3-D plot” that exists only in his mind.

I hate to disappoint the President, but journalists are by nature nonjoiners. They’re loathe to concerted actions; they’re lone rangers who do research on their own and refuse to share hard-earned info even with colleagues in the same paper. You won’t find them plotting anything but where to drink the night away. As for me, the only “plot” I regularly join is a weekly prayer meeting, which tails whom Estrada has assigned to me might find boring.

I don’t want to steal thunder, though, from the 11 other newspapermen in the 3-D honor list: (2) Alex Magno, Malaya, (3) Joey Nolasco, Inquirer, (4) Jun Engracia, Inquirer, (5) Federico Pascual, STAR, (6) Alvin Capino, Today, (7) Yen Makabenta, Post, (8) Marlen Ronquillo, Times, (9) Neal Cruz, Inquirer, (10) Ellen Tordesillas, Malaya, (11) Rocky Nazareno, Inquirer, (12) Jess Diaz, STAR.

I do not know some of you; those whom I do, I haven’t seen in a long time. But from what I gather, readers look up to you as heroes for courageously presenting the truth as you see it. So, gentlemen and lady, take a bow.

* * *

INTERACTION. Bing Ramos, yahoo.com: “You hit hard in ‘Even drunks can remember’ (Gotcha, 29 Jan. 2000). Actor Erap needs to be told of his mistakes, or else he will run the country like he runs his family.”

Isn’t he already, Bing?

C. Ibarra, Vt.: “You did not mention a more serious speech blunder when Erap expressed alarm over the 2.8-percent population growth rate which worsens the housing shortage. In effect, he said, ‘do as I preach, not as I do.’ With his many wives and sons, he contributed much to that growth.”

What portion is his of the 2.8, C.?

GSM, sms.com: “What’s the score between Smart and Globe? Using Smart cellphone, I can’t call relatives in the province who are on Globe. Please write about deplorable air pollution in Metro Manila.”

Cough, cough, as soon as I, cough, argh, catch my breath, GSM.

* * *

YOUR BODY. New evidence shows that indoor substances, like dust mites that live in carpets and beddings, can lead to or worsen asthma in children, the U.S. Institute of medicine reports.

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You can e-mail comments to jariusbondoc@workmail.com or, if about his daily morning radio editorials, to dzxlnews@hotmail.com

Too many bleeding hearts

by Jarius Bondoc The Philippine Star, January 31, 2000 12:00 AM

Jose Ma. Sison says that, while Joseph Estrada always tries to look macho, ex-general Fidel Ramos didn’t have to prove his toughness when dealing with communist rebels.

That’s because Ramos prepared for the Presidency and studied the difference between military and civilian thinking. He learned that with soldiers, he just needed to bark commands to get things moving in unison. With civilians, however, he had to go work long and hard to reach consensus on national issues.

With Estrada, calling for unity — as he did a day after a Prayer Breakfast — is to sic the military against the press that supposedly is destabilizing his reign.

* * *

So, with the Court of Appeals declaring spray-painting of drug pushers’ houses unconstitutional, what now? Will human rights lawyers also petition for a similar ruling against declarations of drug-risk zones in Marikina, posting of drug lords’ names and addresses in public offices, and announcement of the same through barangay loudspeakers? Any argument can be used to buttress such petitioners — restriction of the right to mobility, violation of due process, even noise pollution. Civilians who are fed up with the growing drug menace are wondering if rights lawyers can come up with innovative schemes to drive pushers out of their locales.

That’s not our job; that’s for the police and public officials to worry about, the lawyers say. Yet everyone knows the PNP is too corrupt and too inept to do the job. So clean up the force and train it, the lawyers retort. But that’ll take years to accomplish even through radical means; meanwhile, the drug menace can overtake it.

This is not to say that court ruling is wrong. Civilians accept such legal and constitutional interpretations as part of the growing body of law. Yet they also know that fighting drugs — any crime — requires team work among policemen, fiscals, judges and civilians. And the term “civilians” includes rights lawyers.

Informal radio polls in recent weeks bore out the civilians’ lament. Eleven-to-one, they assented to Marine patrols in malls; 7-to-1, to spray-painting. Even dissenters said they’d like to see mansions of big-time drug lords spray-painted. The underlying sentiment is that too many bleeding hearts are spoiling the campaign against crime.

Squatting is a crime. But when squatters defy shanty demolitions in compliance with long-standing court orders, clerics decry human rights violations. “No Filipino is a squatter in his own country,” they shout. All the while, also in compliance with law, relocation sites await the squatters — just that they don’t like the place.

Even media coverage of crime is romaticized. The use of sidewalk diners and corner stores as fronts for shabu trade is justified by sweeping statements that the sellers are poor and know no other way to earn a living. Magsaysay’s famous line, “those who have less in life should have more in law,” has acquired new meaning: that the law should be bent in favor of the poor, it no longer applies equally to all.

Still and all, the crime-busting job does remain largely with public agencies. Yet even in this area, things stop moving when they fall into a rut. Sr. Supt. Wally Sombero of the PNP-Criminal Investigation Group laments that shabu lords get off the hook because of corrupt judges. He cites the case of the Manila judge who, upon request of the defense lawyer, released a drug dealer despite findings that police had arrested the latter with a kilo of shabu, which makes the case nonbailable.

Sombero, Dangal ng PNP awardee for earlier refusing close to P1 million in bribe from three Chinese in two separate drug busts, knows only too well what made the judge relent. He says that by filing charges against the three of nonbailable attempt to corrupt a public official, he can send a message to drug lords that bribery will only worsen their case. Civilians will say he’s day-dreaming.

* * *

INTERACTION. Ramon Mayuga, Essen, Germany: “It’s unfair to label as flip-flopping Fidel Ramos’ call for businessmen to support Erap. The opposition’s role is not only to criticize a ruling party’s inefficiency, but also to muster support for administration projects that are in the nation’s best interest.”

People are so frustrated they want to see war, Ramon.

Naldie Bayloon, Los Angeles: “Corruption brews even in the most obscure agencies. Just look at the cases filed with the Ombudsman. Records should be made public since the officials are on taxpayer’s payroll. Or, the Civil Service Commission could spray-paint the houses of those officials.”

That’s if taxpayers have money left for paint after thievery, Naldy.

Concerned, myplace.com: “MRT missed out on a gold mine of passengers by not building the line up to Monumento, a short distance from North Avenue. There’s a sea of humanity of Camanava and Bulacan commuters every rush hour.”

They’re planning to extend the line to the gold mine, Concerned.

Dante Gutierrez, La Mirada, Ca.: “Forty-five of us went home to campaign for Fred Lim in ’98. We saw Erap as a big mistake and Lim as the country’s savior. Not anymore. His admission of violating criminals’ human rights and his targetting of only small fry for spray-painting turned us off.”

Is it Lim himself, or because he joined Erap, Dante?

Joey Labrador, yahoo.com: “Government wants new taxes even if it can’t collect old ones properly. And what did it spend our tax money on last year — in a Lakbay-Aral of junketeers.”

Join the government and see the world, Joey.

Thank you, Lulu of laguna.net, EJS of cybercomm.net.

* * *

HIS BODY. The greater the hair loss on the top of a man’s head, the higher his risk of having heart problems, CNN quotes researchers who say they’ve confirmed previous studies linking baldness to heart disease.

* * *

HER BODY. Women taking a combination of estrogen and progestin hormones run a greater risk of breast cancer than women using estrogen alone, the American Medical Association says. Menopausal women are often prescribed estrogen to reduce symptoms like hot flashes. Estrogen also seems to lower incidence of heart disease and brittle bones during menopause.

* * *

You can e-mail comments to jariusbondoc@workmail.com or, if about his daily morning radio editorials, to dzxlnews@hotmail.com

Even drunks can remember

by Jarius Bondoc The Philippine Star, January 29, 2000 12:00 AM

Is the PNP all that bad, Criminal Investigation Group Gen. Lucas Managuelod asks. Compare these statistics: New York City, with eight million people, has 42,000 cops. Metro Manila, with a day population of 11 million, has only 13,000. NYPD has 1,200 prowl cars and 2,000 motorcycles; PNP-NCR has only 250 cars and 200 motorbikes, 50 of which are personal property of policemen. NYPD has 24-hour chopper and river boat patrols; PNP-NCR has none. NYPD has modern investigation and communication gear, even DNA test labs; PNP personnel in Metro Manila have to buy their own uniform.

Yet New York has 500 killings a year; Metro Manila has 300. New York had 13,000 car thefts in 1999; Metro Manila had 1,360. With its crime prevention record, Managuelod asks, what more if PNP has sufficient manpower and modern equipment.

* * *

What we see only in movie night scenes, we’re now watching in real light of day. A President is denying what he read from the text of a speech and is instead imagining things he supposedly said.

In the movies, the stereotype drunk is reminded upon sobering up of harsh lines he uttered the night before. He regrets having one drink too many, then apologizes for words he never meant.

Not Joseph Estrada, who presumably was sober when he spoke at Wednesday’s early-morning Prayer Breakfast with Cardinal Sin, Vice President Macapagal, Senate President Ople, Speaker Villar and ex-President Ramos. As TV cameras and radio tapes rolled, Estrada said: “I’m glad this religious undertaking comes at a time when the whole nation is facing the difficult trials of economic and political problems. I need not dispute nor deny the displeasure of many regarding the crisis that grips the country at present.”

When the papers bannered the next day his admission of crisis, he fumed at journalists in general for headlining it. Without rechecking his text, he insisted that what he said was that RP had “overcome (regional) crisis, the first (Asian nation) to emerge from it.”

Drunkards will admit it only to or among themselves: they do remember what they said in moments of stupor, just that they couldn’t control themselves blurting out painful words. Not remembering is just a convenient excuse.

Not for Estrada. In the movie in his mind, he saw newspapers destabilizing his reign.

It wasn’t the first time that Estrada disowned lines he said in a speech or on tape. In his first State of the Nation in July `98, he declared that the country was bankrupt. When realization set in that nobody would invest in a bankrupt Philippines Inc., he claimed that what he said was that Ramos had left him with no funds in the treasury. The claim wasn’t true either, but the press and business community left it at that, for they were then honeymooning with a new President.

At the height of public furor over Cabinet use of smuggled cars, Estrada described Toyota Land Cruisers and Mitsubishi Pajeros as mere jeeps. He kept saying later that he never did so, despite radio tapes.

Estrada frequently disputes even statements issued for him by his presidential spokesman. Which is probably why Jerry Barican said that a spokesman has a shelf life of only six months and is thus asking for a foreign posting.

There’s no such short shelf life for a spokesman of a learned leader, truth to tell. Still, it can be said that, close as they claim to be to him, Barican and even Executive Secretary Ronnie Zamora show that they don’t really know Estrada that well whenever he contradicts them.

Contradicting his own words is something else, though. That’s why Sen. Juan Flavier’s suggestion that Estrada fire his ghostwriters is unfair.

Ghostwriters are called such because they should remain ghosts. The speaker is deemed to have written the speech himself, and merely had a wordsmith arrange his thoughts into memorable lines and sound bites. A President is expected to put his own ideas into his speeches, and review the text for accuracy before delivery. He does not read it merely to get the pronouncement of tricky words right.

Actor Estrada is different. For him the text of a speech is just another movie script to be delivered with proper intonation and emotion. After which, he tosses it aside and moves on to the next movie set. Sadly for us, no director is there to yell at Estrada: “Cut, lights out, packup.”

* * *

INTERACTION. C.D., aol.com: “The Senate President you talked about (Gotcha, 26 Jan. 2000), wasn’t he the same spokesman for Dictator Marcos?”

Victor Sumagaysay, marin.org: “Blas Ople believes Yasay lied in his Senate testimony on Erap and Best World to keep his job. Coming from somebody who believed in Marcos just to keep his Cabinet job, Ople’s defense of Erap without looking at facts is not surprising.”

Gotcha, C.D., Victor.

Ma. Florean Bordas, Albay: “Re Interaction (Gotcha, 24 Jan. 2000), my opinion is that Sec. Fred Lim is violating Ordinance No. 7926 that authorizes the Manila mayor to spray-paint. He’s no longer mayor, Lito Atienza is.”

Ronito Rabano, hotmail.com: “How come human rights advocates are mum about crime victims? They ignore how rapists and killers destroy victims, families and friends.”

You think they’re all mixed up, too, Florean, Ronito?

Cid Jones, yahoo.com: “So, a third office (chief of staff) is about to be added to the confusion between OES and PMS. The solution is to rein in PMS and put it under OES.”

But that won’t serve his aim to divide and rule, Cid.

Jay Entruda, Iowa: “Mail thieves, whether postmaster or mailman, should have the courtesy to reseal envelopes they divest of cash, then deliver them. They should do this as a matter of obligation even if they don’t find cash. Been writing regularly to my kids in Davao City. Only three out of every ten letters reached them last two years. Is mail theft no longer a crime there?”

It’s a crime Jay, and it pays.

B. Simpao, aol.com: “Not a peep from postal officials despite numerous complaints thru your column. Got me a name here: Lorenzo B. Laurel, e-mail: LBLaurel@USPS.gov. Readers who got mail bugs can direct questions and info to him. Laurel is Fil-Am, a top-ranking postal inspector in San Francisco with Pacific-rim area of operation. He goes to RP often to help protect the interest of the US Postal Service. He helped organize the Postal Inspectors Unit there and would know whom to contact for help.”

Sock it to `em. B.

Greg Campomanes, earthlink.net: “Look who’s talking. Erap is chiding Yasay for staying in office. Aren’t Filipinos chiding him for the same?”

Benjie Alvarez, BF-Parañaque: “I agree with Erap: The stock market would react well if Yasay resigns. But if he wants a bull run, he should resign.”

He doesn’t take unsolicited advice, Greg, Benjie.

Danny Maclan, yahoo.com: “Riddle: What’s the difference between Erap’s political `caucus’ and a `cactus’? In a cactus, the pricks are on the outside.”

You’re insulting the cactus, Danny.

Thank you, Divina Japa, Amando Dayrit, Ron Bruer, Jim Soliven, Rais Bagayo, Ginny Cruz, Bart Gan, Patsy Arlington.

* * *

HIS BODY. Risk of sexual dysfunction is commonly associated with surgical removal of the prostate gland. A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds the risk higher than previously thought.

* * *

HER BODY. Women should not use drugs for severe acne before or during pregnancy because they can cause severe birth defects, US health officials warn.

* * *

You can e-mail comments to jariusbondoc@workmail.com or, if about his daily morning radio editorials, to dzxlnews@hotmail.com

They’re all mixed up

by Jarius Bondoc The Philippine Star, January 26, 2000 12:00 AM

Must be Friday’s full moon. Or maybe dirty air is making us woozy. But Filipinos seem to be getting all mixed up. Joseph Estrada is raising a military alert for, uh, police work. Cops are threatening to go on strike because their chief is sacking mulcting superiors. The El Shaddai is born against a “confirmed 3-D plot.”

The more they explain, the more they sound confused. Marines, not security guards, start patrolling malls. When citizens raise a howl, a PNP spokesman says, “Not to worry, Marines will wear khaki uniform and carry only short arms, they’ll hardly be noticed.” Yet Estrada insists their street visibility will scare criminals away.

The SEC chief’s flip-flopping on whether Estrada pressured him to clear a presidential pal of insider trading can be construed as cowardice. But Estrada’s twin reactions are strange. First, he acknowledges the man enjoys security of tenure in a quasi-judicial agency beyond his authority. Then he tells him to resign because he has lost confidence in him.

That’s not all. A Senate President turns into presidential spokesman and butts in to claim that, although he’s no lawyer, he’s sure SEC is within Malacañang control.

Then there’s a resigning finance chief firing a broadside against a government culture of corruption. Estrada dismisses him as a sour grape, then sacks two finance agency heads and seeks abolition of a third.

Some say confusion afflicts only government men. It would seem so. The NBI, supposedly the premiere law enforcer, has become official keeper of the Christian calendar. Because Christmas is over, it says it will drop its probe of whoever forged presidential staff chief Lenny de Jesus’ season’s greeting cards.

A new finance head grumbles about inefficient tax and duty collection. His first official act: to cut BIR-Customs 2000 collection targets.

The Palace spokesman keeps saying that Estrada limits himself to broadcast interviews so print journalists can’t misquote him. Then he shuts off radio and TV reporters from presidential coverage.

Critics aver that officials are befuddled because Estrada himself is. And they’re not quipping this time about the officials wearing orange wristbands like the Boss so they can tell their left hand from the right. They say the immensity, complexities, rigors of the Presidency confound him. They may be right.

Estrada should be angry with the Supreme Court ruling on Mark Jimenez. Upholding the man’s “right” to evaluate US extradition raps and evidence against him, it handcuffs the President from future foreign policy initiatives. Estrada doesn’t like his power being questioned, much more curtailed. He barks “mag-Presidente ka muna” at slighest provocations. Now he’s silent.

He says he’s helpless against fuel prices rising from a world crude oil free market. Presented with a fresh idea for an Oil Exchange that would give the Big Three a run for their money, he ignores it.

But confusion — some spell it with a capital “I” — is bliss. How nice it is to see our President relish a new poll that validates old fallen ratings, simply because the pollster mocks that, if at all, it shows he might still win by a slim margin if elections were held today.

* * *

INTERACTION. B. Simpao, aol.com: “Knowing how the U.S. Postal Service operates, I feel it unkind to blame postmen there if mail is tampered with, stolen, lost. Mail is prepared before a carrier does his rounds. Letters are sequenced by street and house number. Theft occurs during processing, when mail is sorted upon arrival from abroad. A carrier only gets mail assigned to him for delivery. Since he’s known in the community, he’s less tempted to peek into mail.”

I wouldn’t be so sure, B.

Ruel Soliva, Moreno Valley, Ca.: “My wife gave birth in RP on Dec. 19, and mailed me a picture of our baby three days later. As of this writing (1-22-2000) I have yet to receive it. Why does it take so long for mail to get here, when it takes only five days for mail here to get there?”

You mean they tamper with outgoing mail, too, Ruel?

Joel Calderon, ntep.jp: “Good: Man rapes my daughter; I get to pay for his room and board in Munti. Better: State executes rapist; I pay for costly lethal injection. Best: Man rapes my daughter; Fred Lim shoots him in the head. No fuss, cheap, straight to the point.”

Shh, Joel, don’t distract his aim.

Joselu Legarda, Makati: “The World According to Erap: (1) A President is always right. (2) Criticism is not welcome, see Rule 1. (3) He doesn’t need to meet expectations; problema nyo yan. (4) He must show gratitude to friends. (5) He takes advice only from these friends. (6) He does not have cronies, only investors whom he must protect. (7) He is indispensable for he is full of good intentions. (8) His good intentions for the nation and protecting investors in Rule 6 go hand in hand. (9) He does not excourage gambling, he only wants the masa to play the way he does. (10) The President does not blame others for his woes, he only lets people vent anger on somebody else.”

Does he have this framed and hanging on his wall, Joselu?

Marianne M. Lopez, pworld.net: “I enjoy reading Interaction. Riddle: Anong hayop ang maraming asawa, maraming anak, mataba, tagilid maglakad? Sirit? Ano pa, e di ang hayop na si….”

Hush, Marianne, you’re gonna get us all into trouble.

Congratulations, Milen S. de Quiros, new president of the Bank Marketing Association.

* * *

Sons of Lourdes we’ll ever be. The 2000 Lourdes School-QC alumni homecoming is set for Feb. 19, Sat., at the high school grounds. For details, call George Mercado: 636-3286, 636-3308.

* * *

YOUR BODY. Researchers are using proteins called nerve-growth factors to repair damaged nerves in mice, raising hopes that the technique could be used to restore mobility in paralyzed people and ease recovery from back surgery.

* * *

OUR WORLD. A chimpanzee has shown it can remember the right sequence of five random numbers, adding more evidence that animals have basic numerical ability. Tested with numbers between “0” and “9”, female chimp Ai performed as well as an average preschool child, Kyoto University researchers found. Ai proved she could put five numbers in ascending order when they were strewn across a computer screen. She can’t e-mail, though.

* * *

You can e-mail comments to jariusbondoc@workmail.com or, if about his daily morning radio editorials, to dzxlnews@hotmail.com

Are Marines here to fight 3-D plot?

by Jarius Bondoc The Philippine Star,  January 19, 2000 12:00 AM

Which is which? Are the Marines in Manila for police duty? Or did Joseph Estrada call them in to pre-empt what he says is a “media-based 3-D plot” to topple him?

To begin with, is there really such a plot to disinform, disaffect, destabilize? By whom? Can’t be RAM; those guys have long retired and no longer command troops. YOU then? Whatever for, when they now hold key AFP and PNP posts? Marcos loyalists? C’mon! The U.S.? But Estrada himself called bird droppings Ibon Data Bank’s analysis that the U.S. will stage a coup d’etat because he shelved Cha-cha — which he didn’t. The media, then? Now why would newsmen want to topple Estrada and end their exciting coverage of his, uh, difficult Presidency? Didn’t he call them “professional criticizers”?

Yet Estrada says there is such a plot. So there must be — at least in his mind. But who could have fed him that line? Security Adviser Alex Aguirre? Isn’t he too busy fending off Estrada ally Sen. John Osmeña’s attempts to intrigue him out of office? The Intelligence Service-AFP? Doesn’t ISAFP chief Gen. Jose Calimlim, too, have his hands full running after smugglers with Malacañang connections? PNP chief Gen. Ping Lacson? Isn’t he the type who’ll handle things on his own?

Even if he wanted to, Lacson can’t deploy Marines; they’re outside his authority. Neither can Interior Secretary Fred Lim. Defense Secretary Orly Mercado and AFP chief Gen. Angelo Reyes wouldn’t dare mobilize Marines without direct order from Estrada himself.

Yet Estrada can’t produce the written order that LAMP Rep. Joker Arroyo and the Integrated Bar are asking for. If he shows it, he would have to explain his reasons for it — in court or Congress. In fact, Lacson is saying it wasn’t his idea but the President’s. Mercado is saying he got no written order but only two verbal requests from Estrada.

So, okay, it’s for police duty then. Surveys show Metro Manilans welcoming Marine presence 10 to 1. But is such welcome for the Marines per se, or is it more a frustration with police abetting crime and drugs? In their mind, crime already rules, not law.

But Lacson won’t say that. On the contrary, he insists the police are still “on top of the situation.” Lawlessness does not reign.

That answer puts Estrada in a tighter fix. For, the Constitution allows the President to mobilize the military only in case of invasion, rebellion or lawless violence.

There’s obviously no invasion, except by beggars from Zambales and Zamboanga. Lacson insists there’s no lawless violence. That leaves only rebellion — the “3-D plot.”

That’s what Senators Rodolfo Biazon and Gringo Honasan want to find out. As LAMP members, they’d rather not question constitutionality. They worry that Estrada migth stain the uniform by putting Marines side by side with shabby cops, and making them glorified security guards of mall owners.

So they want Estrada to tell them the real score. After all, Gringo was an expert coup plotter; Biazon, an expert coup crusher.

Metro Manila PNP officers aren’t that happy either. Marine presence makes them look incapable of guarding the city, when the real war is in Central Mindanao. They know that their men need constant retraining in police work, such as making arrests or gathering evidence that will stick in court. What more Marines who, because they’re trained for war, have totally different rules of engagement? The buzz among the PNP brass is that one day soon — well before Estrada’s desired three-month stay of the Marines — one of them is bound to commit a big foul-up, and then there’ll be hell to explain.

Police disenchantment is just the latest from among many sectors. Estrada had marched to Malacañang 18 months ago with no program of government, only a campaign slogan for the poor. He ordered his men to start looking busy as he eased himself into the presidential armchair. They did — and busied themselves with bagging gambling concessions or brokering corporate takeovers. When the people cried out, Estrada blamed everything on Fidel Ramos, clerics, Leftists, the press. He coddled his men, even gave them smuggled luxury vans. And when his poll rating began to fall, he hit upon supposed Charter defects as excuse for nonperformance.

His ratings kept tumbling; his men began to jump ship. Feeling power slipping from his hands, Estrada borrowed credibility and prestige by changing some men with Lim and Mar Roxas, Dakila Fonacier and Ramon Farolan.

But Estrada himself was not about to change. He tried to kick out Securities and Exchange Commission chief Perfecto Yasay for the temerity to investigate a presidential pal for insider-trading. He continued to wake up late and play the whole night. He has come to enjoy the perks but not the responsibilities of power.

One sly adviser noticed — and saw a chance to prove his worth in these days of forced “courtesy resignations.” He whispered to Estrada a supposed 3-D plot, based on a supposed A-1 intelligence gathering.

The idea wasn’t original. In Sept. 1973, Marcos had called in the military on intelligence findings that “communists are out to burn the City of Manila.” Today we have poor Marines cleaning up after Estrada.

* * *

INTERACTION. Vivian Syyap, Mn, U.S.: “Like Ed Saguil of NJ (Gotcha, 15 Jan. 2000), I too sent my Christmas cards early, yet all were delivered way after the holidays. What really bothers me is that I sent some pics to my family, and they never arrived. Postal workers tamper with the mail. But if they don’t find cash, can’t they at least reseal and deliver?”

Vivian, could they have held the pics “hostage,” till you send cash next time?

* * *

YOUR BODY. Hundreds of Web sites now offer diet and nutrition advice to consumers hoping to slim down, and experts say several of them are valuable. With right on-line guidance – including menu plans, chat rooms, personalized advice – many people are shedding pounds without spending a cent. CNN’s registered dietitian Patty Bannan finds the Tufts University site, navigator.tufts.edu, a good place to start for motivated dieters looking for on-line help.

* * *

E-mail comments and messages to jariusbondoc@workmail.com or, if about his daily morning radio editorials, to dzxlnews@hotmail.com

Sell medicines directly to users

by Jarius Bondoc The Philippine Star, January 15, 2000 12:00 AM

“Don’t they know how to count?” government economists snickered when Makati industrialists forecast a flat 3.5-percent growth for 2000. “How can 3.5 percent be flat?”

Those government apologists must reread their schoolbooks. They jump for joy like chimpanzees at the three-percent economic growth that the Estrada administration reported in 1999. Yet neighbor-countries with practically the same products as RP — electronics, garments, rice and coconut, overseas workers, sun-sea-and-sands tourism — notched twice higher growth figures. Like RP, they soaked in the Asian crisis. But RP was slow on the uptake due to confused priorities and directions, and cronyism.

Besides, 3.5 percent is flat in an RP system where the majority has to wait for the trickle-down effect to enjoy the fruits of their economic labors. Three percent is more than big in North American and West European economies where wealth is equitably distributed.

* * *

Two reasons have always been given for the high cost of medicines. Health officials say that pharmaceutical firms splurge on shotgun promos to the public and to doctors. Drug makers say it’s because they spend good money on research and development.

Both sides have figures to back up their claims. Close to the third of the price of a tablet covers the glossy product kits, the paraphernalia, gifts, and launching hoopla. Another third goes to testing the drug on lab mice and human guinea pigs.

If both sides are correct in their calculations, they could be wrong in their approaches to marketing and R&D. Requiring doctors to prescribe generics alone won’t work. Perhaps a better approach would be to sell straight to patients, from among whom drug makers can also get volunteers for future experiments.

This would require organizing patients, as health workers already are doing. Doctors can help, say, diabetics form a national organization. The patients can categorize themselves by age and gender, then draw up a list of drugs they would need for, say, the next two years. Drug makers can look at the list, then manufacture or order from abroad only the inventory needed. No excess stocks, no additional storage cost, no more marketing spillage of prescription or ethical drugs.

The same can be done with, say, glaucoma patients or persons verified to be at risk of heart attack.

Multilevel marketing cooperatives may be given vitamins, cough and cold medicines, infant formula milk at wholesale prices, so they can resell to members at subsidized rates. This can drive down the cost of over-the-counter items.

The idea is to change traditional — and costly — marketing methods, the way e-commerce is already changing retail trade through direct orders to manufacturers’ computer centers.

* * *

INTERACTION. Nestor Meniola: “I’m a Manileño disgusted with Mayor Atienza’s admin. Just go around the city, you’ll see it’s going to the dogs.”

Nestor, why does he let bus firms turn main roads into garages?

Benjie Pastor, hotmail.com: “I’m a physician at a big QC hospital, where we take care of 600-700 patients each day. I must admit, paranoia can’t be overemphasized in this line of work because we deal with precious lives. Being in charge of 75 million lives can be paranoiac, too. So I can’t blame Erap for atras-abante decisions. That’s why whoever runs for office should have competence.”

Do you have a pill for this national headache, Doc Benjie?

Joey Legarda, Makati: “His latest survey rating is a way of recovering lost ground from the last election that was a best-slogan contest. Erap won on mere popularity; 18 months later, he’s being judged on performance.”

Rodel Ocampo, hotmail.com: “Everytime Erap is called to task for his follies and foibles, his aides invoke the wide vote margin he enjoyed in ’98. What now, with a mere +5 net approval rating? He lost the numbers in just 18 months because of his cronies’ stinking deals.”

What will the numbers be after 54 more months, Rodel, Joey?

Ed Saguil, Toms River, NJ: “I mailed 35 Christmas cards late October to friends in RP cities via air mail. All were delivered late in December with signs of tampering, some stamped `received in damaged condition.’ “

Ed, Mr. Postman says at least they were delivered.

Thank you, Cecille Forte, Julia Trampe, Lyn Perlas, Wilfredo G. Villanueva, Bong Zuniga, Popoy Los Baños.

* * *

Leni de Jesus is again giving Joseph Estrada bum advice as his staff chief. She claims that while the Boss has fired “calling card advisers,” he is not obliged to divulge who he has retained. Her reason: “They’re supposed to report only to the President and the President alone. They shouldn’t be dealing with the public government officials. They shouldn’t report to anyone else or interfere in the bureaucracy.”

Her definition of the advisers’ jobs, limits and “reportability” may be right. But De Jesus is wrong about “accountability.” Her father, a former Ombudsman, might have to read to her what the Constitution states on the matter (Art. XI, Sec. 1): “Public office is a public trust. Public officers must at all times be accountable to the people…”

Presidential advisers are public officers by virtue of the peso-a-year or P30,000-a-month pay they draw from the public coffers. Since the title of presidential adviser can be abused, the public must be told who the real consultants are, and who are mere “calling card advisers.” That way, no one can come barging into a public office asking for this or that contract in the name of advising the President.

Spokesman Jerry Barican, De Jesus’s ally in the factious Palace, is also evasive, saying only that they have a list of the retained advisers but not offering a copy to the press. He and De Jesus have acquired a siege mentality that typically afflicts factotums in times of crisis — in this case, rotten ratings.

George E. Reedy, studying the US Presidency under fire, laments such mentality. It fosters an insidious belief that the President and self-proclaimed trusted aides are possessed of a special knowledge that must be closely held within their small group, lest their designs be anticipated by “enemies.” It clouds presidential advisers’ judgments, and make them act like doting mothers to a spoiled brat — a President who rattles, prattles and begins to throw tantrums during crisis. It makes advisers assent to bad presidential decisions, and prone to giving bum advice.

And that’s what De Jesus is now doing to Estrada.

* * *

HER BODY. A test for human papilloma virus that doesn’t require a pelvic exam may soon rival the Pap smear as an accurate screening for cancer and precancerous conditions, researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Two studies claim, however, that the new test produced far more false positives than the Pap smear, causing many more women to need further testing.

* * *

HIS BODY. Europe has a lower conception rate in winter than in other seasons. Reduced fertility used to be blamed on heavy, restricting male underwear — until they found out that in North America, where it gets just as cold and men wrap up just as snugly, the conception rate is at its highest in winter.

* * *

E-mail comments and messages to jariusbondoc@workmail.com or, if about his daily morning radio editorials, to dzxlnews@hotmail.com

Sell medicines directly to users

by Jarius Bondoc The Philippine Star,  January 15, 2000 12:00 AM

“Don’t they know how to count?” government economists snickered when Makati industrialists forecast a flat 3.5-percent growth for 2000. “How can 3.5 percent be flat?”

Those government apologists must reread their schoolbooks. They jump for joy like chimpanzees at the three-percent economic growth that the Estrada administration reported in 1999. Yet neighbor-countries with practically the same products as RP — electronics, garments, rice and coconut, overseas workers, sun-sea-and-sands tourism — notched twice higher growth figures. Like RP, they soaked in the Asian crisis. But RP was slow on the uptake due to confused priorities and directions, and cronyism.

Besides, 3.5 percent is flat in an RP system where the majority has to wait for the trickle-down effect to enjoy the fruits of their economic labors. Three percent is more than big in North American and West European economies where wealth is equitably distributed.

* * *

Two reasons have always been given for the high cost of medicines. Health officials say that pharmaceutical firms splurge on shotgun promos to the public and to doctors. Drug makers say it’s because they spend good money on research and development.

Both sides have figures to back up their claims. Close to the third of the price of a tablet covers the glossy product kits, the paraphernalia, gifts, and launching hoopla. Another third goes to testing the drug on lab mice and human guinea pigs.

If both sides are correct in their calculations, they could be wrong in their approaches to marketing and R&D. Requiring doctors to prescribe generics alone won’t work. Perhaps a better approach would be to sell straight to patients, from among whom drug makers can also get volunteers for future experiments.

This would require organizing patients, as health workers already are doing. Doctors can help, say, diabetics form a national organization. The patients can categorize themselves by age and gender, then draw up a list of drugs they would need for, say, the next two years. Drug makers can look at the list, then manufacture or order from abroad only the inventory needed. No excess stocks, no additional storage cost, no more marketing spillage of prescription or ethical drugs.

The same can be done with, say, glaucoma patients or persons verified to be at risk of heart attack.

Multilevel marketing cooperatives may be given vitamins, cough and cold medicines, infant formula milk at wholesale prices, so they can resell to members at subsidized rates. This can drive down the cost of over-the-counter items.

The idea is to change traditional — and costly — marketing methods, the way e-commerce is already changing retail trade through direct orders to manufacturers’ computer centers.

* * *

INTERACTION. Nestor Meniola: “I’m a Manileño disgusted with Mayor Atienza’s admin. Just go around the city, you’ll see it’s going to the dogs.”

Nestor, why does he let bus firms turn main roads into garages?

Benjie Pastor, hotmail.com: “I’m a physician at a big QC hospital, where we take care of 600-700 patients each day. I must admit, paranoia can’t be overemphasized in this line of work because we deal with precious lives. Being in charge of 75 million lives can be paranoiac, too. So I can’t blame Erap for atras-abante decisions. That’s why whoever runs for office should have competence.”

Do you have a pill for this national headache, Doc Benjie?

Joey Legarda, Makati: “His latest survey rating is a way of recovering lost ground from the last election that was a best-slogan contest. Erap won on mere popularity; 18 months later, he’s being judged on performance.”

Rodel Ocampo, hotmail.com: “Everytime Erap is called to task for his follies and foibles, his aides invoke the wide vote margin he enjoyed in ’98. What now, with a mere +5 net approval rating? He lost the numbers in just 18 months because of his cronies’ stinking deals.”

What will the numbers be after 54 more months, Rodel, Joey?

Ed Saguil, Toms River, NJ: “I mailed 35 Christmas cards late October to friends in RP cities via air mail. All were delivered late in December with signs of tampering, some stamped `received in damaged condition.’ “

Ed, Mr. Postman says at least they were delivered.

Thank you, Cecille Forte, Julia Trampe, Lyn Perlas, Wilfredo G. Villanueva, Bong Zuniga, Popoy Los Baños.

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Leni de Jesus is again giving Joseph Estrada bum advice as his staff chief. She claims that while the Boss has fired “calling card advisers,” he is not obliged to divulge who he has retained. Her reason: “They’re supposed to report only to the President and the President alone. They shouldn’t be dealing with the public government officials. They shouldn’t report to anyone else or interfere in the bureaucracy.”

Her definition of the advisers’ jobs, limits and “reportability” may be right. But De Jesus is wrong about “accountability.” Her father, a former Ombudsman, might have to read to her what the Constitution states on the matter (Art. XI, Sec. 1): “Public office is a public trust. Public officers must at all times be accountable to the people…”

Presidential advisers are public officers by virtue of the peso-a-year or P30,000-a-month pay they draw from the public coffers. Since the title of presidential adviser can be abused, the public must be told who the real consultants are, and who are mere “calling card advisers.” That way, no one can come barging into a public office asking for this or that contract in the name of advising the President.

Spokesman Jerry Barican, De Jesus’s ally in the factious Palace, is also evasive, saying only that they have a list of the retained advisers but not offering a copy to the press. He and De Jesus have acquired a siege mentality that typically afflicts factotums in times of crisis — in this case, rotten ratings.

George E. Reedy, studying the US Presidency under fire, laments such mentality. It fosters an insidious belief that the President and self-proclaimed trusted aides are possessed of a special knowledge that must be closely held within their small group, lest their designs be anticipated by “enemies.” It clouds presidential advisers’ judgments, and make them act like doting mothers to a spoiled brat — a President who rattles, prattles and begins to throw tantrums during crisis. It makes advisers assent to bad presidential decisions, and prone to giving bum advice.

And that’s what De Jesus is now doing to Estrada.

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HER BODY. A test for human papilloma virus that doesn’t require a pelvic exam may soon rival the Pap smear as an accurate screening for cancer and precancerous conditions, researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Two studies claim, however, that the new test produced far more false positives than the Pap smear, causing many more women to need further testing.

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HIS BODY. Europe has a lower conception rate in winter than in other seasons. Reduced fertility used to be blamed on heavy, restricting male underwear — until they found out that in North America, where it gets just as cold and men wrap up just as snugly, the conception rate is at its highest in winter.

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E-mail comments and messages to jariusbondoc@workmail.com or, if about his daily morning radio editorials, to dzxlnews@hotmail.com