Ed Roa In Blog

Corona's Speech at the Inauguration of Justicia Room

2012-02-13T13:29:00.004+08:00

On the occasion of the blessing of the Justicia Room at the Ateneo Law School, Rockwell Center, Makati City, Chief Justice Renato C. Corona was given the privilege to deliver a speech in front of his contemporaries, former professors and the members of his defense panel in the impeachment case; quite a few, including the head of the defense panel, former justice Cuevas, were alumni of the Ateneo Law school. His speech touched on his academic experience in law school, early career and his topping of the bar examinations. He thanked his mentors for inspiring him to excel in his studies and for the school for moulding and inspiring him to rise to greater heights.

The Chief Justice is now the subject of an impeachment case which if found guilty of the accusations of graft and corruption; betrayal of trust and abuse of authority would have him removed from office, barred from assuming any governmental position as well as from private practice of the legal profession. As he said, “I have nothing to gain and everything to lose”.

The case, to say the least, is a celebrated one and is marred with controversy because of the issues that arose outside of the items in the impeachment case. What started out as a legal tussle involving former president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the head of the Department of Justice, Leila de Lima on the issuance of the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) by the Supreme Court putting in abeyance the hold order barring the former president’s bid to travel for medical treatment outside the country is now a constitutional issue from whence, as suggested by the Corona advocates, a constitutional crisis can ensue.

What the Corona advocates are protesting about, among other things, is that the case has got to do with the question of supremacy among equal branches of government. Their contention is that the Executive branch with the help of the Legislature is imposing on the Supreme Court their authority, inclusive of the interpretation of the law which they insist is the sole responsibility of the Supreme Court. On the other hand the Senate avers that an Impeachment Court has the right to put to practice the rules of such a court as they see fit to allow the ferreting out of the truth unimpeded by the technicalities of regular court proceedings. The Senate Impeachment court is a lawful assemblage which is guaranteed by the constitution as an instrument to oust erring high officials of government. Fr. Joaquin Bernas, a respected constitutionalist and legal expert says that not one of the branches of government has supremacy over the other, only the constitution is supreme over them.

The general public seems to be opposed to the Corona cause which the Corona advocates dismiss as a result of propaganda that the Aquino government has successfully launched. The Corona group argue on the basis of legal tenets which seem to be appreciated only by the legal community—but even then, there are law practitioners who are as intensely opposed. Within the Ateneo alumni there are those who strongly oppose Corona; seeing the ousting of the Chief Justice as linchpin to the government’s effort to eradicate graft and corruption in government as it is intertwined with the wrong doings of the former administration; and there are those, legally inclined, who see it as a threat to the rule of law, unconstitutional and anarchy bound. For many officials and politicians, past and present, see it a threat to the status quo. The success of the eradication of graft and corruption is synonymous to the end of the cornucopia of plenty which they have enjoyed.

The invitation to speak on the inauguration of the Justicia Room in the Ateneo Law School, needless to say, is a gesture reserved for those, who without a doubt, are honourable and with unimpeachable moral qualities all of which are still to be proved in the case of Corona. If by chance Corona gets impeached it would be a smear to the reputation of the Justicia Room whose inauguration was graced by his presence and oration. It would, also, be an embarrassment to the school to have granted such an honour to someone who might be proven to be an antithesis of what we uphold as the law.

Funny that Corona cites Dean Pompeyo Diaz who was spot on when he made the astute observation that among the many evil people in this world the most dangerous is the one who knows the law but has no conscience. It is a conclusion one can make upon seeing the proliferation of mercenary lawyers who make a living (a lucrative one) taking on hopeless cases which seem indefensible from the very start. What makes it deplorable is that these lawyers are among the most brilliant ones, bar topnotchers from the best of schools who know the law in depth; know them enough to twist it in favour of their clients through skilful manipulation of the technical aspects of the law. We’ve been through this discussion before, with the pro Corona advocates insisting on the literal application of the law without regard to the moral precepts that they are based on; without regard to recognizing what is patently evil and conventionally wrong—judging on the letter of the law and using procedures that ensure “due process” to free the obviously guilty Big Man of wealth and power but seldom protects Juan of humble circumstances and simple perspectives

The tact that the defense panel has taken is the suppression of evidences and testimonies through the knowledge of the intricacies of forensics, evidence presentation, admissibility of testimonies, correctness of form, legalese and just about anything that they can cite to bedevil the prosecutors who are generally inexperienced and ill trained in this art.

Corona protests that he is being demonized by being depicted as abominable and unworthy. He said it didn’t matter because he alone knows the truth--but sharing the truth of his dollar accounts would have cleared him of the suspicions and the accusations; he has chosen to keep the truth to himself, thereby, strengthening the perception that he really has something to hide.

The impeachment court is sui generis, a unique assemblage of senator jurors who have been tasked to ferret out the truth without being hampered by the technicalities of a regular court—a proceeding that could easily be understood by most of the constituents; relying on what is commonly accepted as fair and judicious assessments of the facts presented; a people’s court, for the lack of a better term.. The judgment would rely on what are perceived as conventionally correct and truthful minus the legal gobbledegook. A court where Juan would have a chance of getting redress.

Corona wanted to make heroic his act by saying that he was willing to lose everything for something he believes in. He should realize that this is his comeuppance; he had it coming to him. The prospect of losing everything stares him in the face but it is not because of defending what he believes in but due to dishonesty, abuse of position and total loss of integrity as Chief Justice.

Reprint of The issue is Corona’s guilt, not the prosecutors’ competence By Ted Laguatan

2012-02-05T10:30:00.000+08:00

No Limitation

The issue is Corona’s guilt, not the prosecutors’ competence

11:31 pm | Saturday, February 4th, 2012

Like many who follow the Corona impeachment trial, I am often frustrated by the obvious lack of competence shown by the prosecution team. Repeatedly, they fail to do what needs to be done. They are often unprepared, show sophomoric exposure to rules of evidence, lack tactical skills and fail to anticipate that their own witness might turn hostile against them.
But from something bad, something good can sometimes happens.
Let’s take the last point. They brought in the Megaworld witnesses to support their argument that Corona did not declare the correct value in his SALN and to obliquely attack him by showing that he was given an extraordinary 40% discount — subliminally suggesting that this was a bribe.
They should have anticipated that the Megaworld witnesses could easily turn hostile. Certainly, Megaworld would look bad and could be subjected to criminal penalties if they gave the impression that the 40% discount was a bribe.
Predictably the witnesses justified the discount: They claimed the unit was water damaged due to a typhoon and that the economy was bad that year forcing them to sell at a whopping 40% reduction.
But as fate would have it, the error of the prosecution may result in some pay dirt. Senator Sergio Osmena intuitively has requested for detailed records of the purported typhoon damage and possible insurance compensation to Megaworld if any.
The financial records of Megaworld also indicate huge profits for the year 2008, the year the unit was sold. Moreover, the other comparable units were sold for the market price of around P10 million or more. The Megaworld witnesses also indicated that this was the last unit    available unwittingly indicating the brisk sale of units.
If Megaworld is not able to persuade the public that the reasons they expressed for the price reduction are true – that would make this transaction very suspicious.
On another point, the issue of unjust enrichment or unexplained wealth would have been a logical and very relevant issue against Corona. That alone, if proven, would mean that he is morally unfit to continue being Chief Justice.
Why the prosecution gave up so easily in allowing the defense’s request to exclude this allegation and supportive evidence indicates poor thinking and technical incompetence. They could have scored heavily if they were allowed to delve into the issue of Corona’s alleged ill gotten wealth.
Nevertheless, evidence consisting of ownership of various properties in Corona’s name and his children’s names which could not be justified by his reported income nor by his     relatives’ incomes — are quite damaging.
These real property ownerships and income reports were presented as evidence by the   prosecution to show that Corona devaluated his assets or omitted important information in his annual SALN (Statement of liability and Net Worth).
Even if presented not for the purpose of proving ill gotten wealth — inevitably, by implication, like it or not, these series of evidence do suggest that Corona was purchasing various properties in his name and in his children’s name utilizing unexplained money sources. Of course, his lawyers will be given a chance to explain these irregularities.
These eye opening revelations should open the gates for serious consideration by the Ombudsman’s office and the Department of Justice to determine if enough probable cause exists to file various separate criminal charges against Corona and other Justices and judges with similar indications of probable corruption. Again, they will be afforded due process rights to prove their innocence.
If President Aquino and all of us really and seriously want to clean up corruption for the good of all — we must support all legitimate and legal means to carry out this sacred goal. Clean government will lead to a better life for all.
The prosecution is not exactly a dream team but I have no doubt that they sincerely want to do their best – warts and all. Unlike the defense lawyers whose daily bread comes from doing trials, the prosecutors are limited in trial experience.
A common error which amateur lawyers make: They do not carefully double check the accuracy of their data.
To show the public that they have a strong case, prior to the trial, based on incomplete data — in their enthusiasm — the prosecutors negligently rushed to announce on TV and other media that Corona had some 45 properties. It turned out later that only some 24 properties were involved.
While those numbers by themselves should be more than enough to place Corona in a bad light, still to be fair, the prosecutors deserve to be rebuked for this negligent presentation.
The majority of the viewing public who want the truth to come out cheer when Senators take up the slack to elicit vital information from witnesses that the prosecutors fail to do.
Unavoidably, the Senator-Judges reveal their positions when they speak. The defense accuses Senator Frank Drilon of being biased on the side of the prosecution and wants him to recuse himself from the trial. On the other hand, the prosecution could say the same thing about Senator Joker Arroyo. Senator-Judges on one side or another have to reveal their cards sooner or later. This is the nature of this impeachment beast.
Another Senator, Gringo Honasan, wants to keep the public from trying the case by muzzling each side’s spokespersons — a clear violation of Constitutional free speech rights. Let the people get as much truth as possible even if mixed with some bovine dung now and then. Adults should be able to decide for themselves who’s telling the truth.
The issue in this impeachment trial is not the competence or incompetence of the prosecution or the defense. The real issue is whether or not Corona should be impeached for repeatedly protecting the interests of the Arroyos above that of the people.
The main focus of this impeachment trial should be on the interest of the people. Specifically, this means having a judicial system with honest fair judges who provide true justice to the people.
The personal interests of President Aquino, Corona, the Senator-Judges, the Congressperson-prosecutors, the defense lawyers and whoever else – are only relevant here in so far as they help to promote the people’s interest.
We are a nation in continuous mourning. One third of our people go to bed hungry at night. Mothers and fathers quietly sob watching their sick children waste and eventually die because they cannot afford to buy medicines. Many innocent people are in jail because they cannot afford lawyers. Young people become victims of human traffickers. So many leave their loved ones to work in far hot and cold countries with strange cultures – braving terrible loneliness and all kinds of dangers and risks.
It does not have to be like this. If we have a clean honest efficient government, we can change the Philippines.
Note: Atty. Ted Laguatan is based in the San Francisco area. He is honored by the California State Bar as one of only 29 lawyers officially certified as Expert-Specialists continuously for more than twenty years. He also does human rights and complex litigation cases involving accident injuries and wrongful death. Email laguatanlaw@gmail.com Tel             650 991-1154

The Corona Impeachment Thus Far

2012-02-01T13:23:00.007+08:00

There are just too many technically “innocent” evil men in our society all because of the ability of seasoned lawyers to find loopholes in our legal system and apply them to exonerate persons who obviously are guilty but by some legal sleight of hand are allowed to get away scot-free. As if this is not enough the influence of well placed politicians and high government officials are used to overturn honestly arrived at decisions of the lower courts.

The impeachment court trying the Chief Justice Corona is made up of senator jurors who want to let the truth come out. At the least this is how the impeachment court is defined and at this stage the presiding officer, JP Enrile, seems to be conducting a fairly liberal procedures of the impeachment court. How this will be applied as we get into the crunch point of the proceedings remains to be seen.

Legal luminaries like former justice Cuevas, Dindo de los Angeles and a battery of lawyers who are deemed experts at litigations are pitted against a prosecution panel of congressmen made up of lawyers and non lawyers who hardly have had court experience. Even the outside help from practicing lawyers are not the best that money can buy compared to the powerhouse team of the defense panel. Former Chief Justice Cuevas knows this full well and is having a grand time bamboozling the lightweight opposition to submission. In his frequent objections he makes fun of the lawyers of the other side most of whom were his former students. He facetiously chastises them for being absent in class or for not being attentive during his lectures and the objection almost always turns into a lecture or a remedial review of legal academic subjects. The impeachment court recognizes this and has set up their own rules which may not be constrained by legal protocols, narrow and stretched jurisprudence and other legal technicalities. In some cases the truth is caged by the restrictions of the procedures that are supposed to guard against the curtailment of the rights of the individual often at the expense of abusing of the rights of the larger public or the rest of society. What is inherently evil and what is patently incorrect are sometimes protected by the very laws that are supposed to ensure the reign of civility and morality in our society. How often do we find lawyers and opinion leaders leaning towards the literal applications of the law without regard to the moral precepts which served as bases for such laws?

Coronarroyo advocates from the senate juror ranks who were shy at the onset are slowly coming out of the woodwork to show their leanings and have joined the bamboozling frenzy of the relatively ill equipped lawyers of the prosecution. Thus far I have already counted seven senator jurors who would be on the side of the Chief Justice needing only one more to swing it in favour of the defense. The feisty now turned testy Miriam Santiago has joined the fray and with her usual bully tactics has irritated, sometimes intimidated the prosecution panel and most of the audiences with her mindless and bombastic tirades.

I hate to say it but the Senate is not exactly the institution where one finds the most upright of persons. A swing vote is all that is needed and I fear that the price for that will be a tantalizing one when dangled. All the more Justice Cuevas will be emboldened by this show of support and we can be assured of continuous pedantic filibustering from the head of the defense panel.

Of late, Cuevas has leaked the information (now denied) that he has been offered a deal by Malacanan which involved his resignation as head of the defense panel in exchange for the dropping of the extortion case against NBI Director Gatdula who happen to be a co-Iglesia member. As Ted Laguatan said, this is nothing but ego tripping for Cuevas and using dirty tricks that puts Malacanan in a bad light. Cuevas has been irresponsible in this recent ploy of his and the INC higher ups are concerned that they have been dragged in an inadvertent light into the controversy.

In the latest impeachment proceedings, Megaworld head of Marketing Noli Hernandez testifies that the 40% reduction/discount is a justified one because of the expediencies surrounding it. It should not have surprised anyone that the prosecution witness would turn “hostile” because anything that they say which proves that they have given special treatment to the Coronas in the purchase of their property will be inimical to them. Being a seasoned Marketing executive he was quite glib and adroit in his testimony, a fact which did not escape the attention of Senator Osmena. His story of how the 40 % (P10 million) reduction/discount was arrived at seemed stretched and contrived at certain points. The cost reduction from the list price of P24 million of the Bellagio top penthouse to P19 million, a P5million reduction, was due to the fact that it was a water damaged unit (typhoon inflicted). The second, which was purported as a discount of 15% (a little less than P3 million) was for cash discount. The rest has been explained away as pressure coming from the softness of the market after the global financial crisis which sent the financial giants like Lehman Bros., Merryl Lynch, JP Morgan, et al in dire straits. The testimony of Noli Hernandez gave rise to several questions such as the insuring of the unit at construction stage and the insurance claims, the selling of a damaged unit involving liabilities, the cost of rehabilitating the water damaged unit, the strength of the typhoon (as insinuated by Jinggoy Estrada), the existence of an engineering department’s report. Senator Manny Villar, an expert in the real estate and condominium industry cited that 40% discounts are not exactly unheard of because SMDC (Henry Sy) granted a 40% discount to anyone interested in buying SMDC condos. It of course does not bolster the case of the 40% reduction/discount given to Corona because Megaworld had the offer only to a specific individual and not to all. SMDC must have overestimated what the market can bear with their initial price offers and corrected it by granting the substantial discounts to everyone. Hernandez also offered the reason of market softness due to the financial debacle, however, the annual financial statement belies his claim because the company experienced a very profitable year and there was really no need to bring down prices for their units on sale and the specific penthouse unit sold to Corona. The executives of Megaworld Messrs. Ng and Hernandez were understandably cagey and a bit evasive in their statements. Their allegation that they were separately not aware of information with regard to pricing and financial deals is pure fiction. Anyone who has worked with organizations the size of Megaworld would know that executive committee or management committee members would share an awareness of vital information. If you were to ask Mr. Ng about the prices of their units he would easily rattle them off from the top of his head and Mr Hernandez would surely consult the head of finance for deals involving these amounts, just to cite examples of sharing of information at the top.

I have always said that it is almost a certainty that a man of humble resources and simple perspectives will not be served justice while somebody who has a strong support base of money to afford the best lawyers and media mercenaries; and extensive influence is expected to have the odds in his favour for exoneration.

So where lies the truth? So where’s justice?

De Quiros said in an article that the common Juan finds it difficult to find justice because the system favours the elite and that they are left with no other recourse but to seek justice elsewhere by taking the law into their own hands, later as a fugitive of justice vengefully wreaking havoc to society or as an insurgent joining the NPAs.

Of Supreme Court, Impeachment and the Constitution

2011-12-12T17:55:00.002+08:00

We live within a flawed practice of a popular and copied ideology. Democracy is a system of government that is based on the belief that its sovereignty resides in the people and the authority of the elected government emanates from this. People participate in the system by asserting their sovereignty through the ratification of the constitution through a plebiscite. The irony is that majority of the people do not understand the complex issues involved and are indifferent, mostly unaware, of what is being debated about. Even within our legislature there are lawmakers who might not have even read the Constitution and may have little appreciation of it. The other involvement that the citizens have in our democratic system is the voting of candidates into public office. This is an exercise of a sovereign right that needs neither explanation nor prodding because it simply asks of them to put in office personalities of their choice but perhaps with little understanding of the meaning and significance of the choices that are made available to them except that of the immediate benefit the vote rewards (vote buying) them with and the instant gratification of a fan supporting a favourite idol brings. Having actors governing our lives is something that we have to live with.

This is an imperfect system that has a host of problems accompanying it but thanks to our perseverance and patience we are able to live with it for generations. During the present times the frequency and the level of impunity by which the system has been buffeted may have reached critical mass that allowing it go on further would result into the country’s spiralling down into the category of a chronically failed state (at present we already belong to the lower batch of countries monitored by the internationally conducted Failed State Index).

The current controversy which has Pnoy and the Supreme Court embroiled in raises fears that as a result of the attacks against the judicial institution could result in the weakening of the law and the fragmentation of their implementation despite the uprightness of the government’s contentions. I don’t think that what the government is doing cuts up the laws into bits of ineffectual non cohesive parts. What cuts them down is the travesty committed in law’s name. Reforming the justice system is not cutting it to pieces but mending and resplicing the gaps that constant abuse made mince meat of it.

Pnoy, despite the severity of his attacks on Corona, does not want a capitulation of the justice system. . I don’t think Pnoy inspires trembling in the justices boots. All he wants is for justices find it in themselves to reform and regain their integrity and dignity. They should throw off the shackles of being beholden to the evil hand that led to their falling into the ignominious pit they are in. It’s about time they regain their self esteem and be independent of judgment and fair in their evaluation of and ferreting of truths in the cases before them. They should cease to be the grovelling dogs under the banquet table of the Arroyos and to seek the return of their honour, coming out of the shadows with heads held high, respected as their positions warrant.

There have been talks bruited about in legal circles and in the legislative halls for the impeachment of the Chief Justice. Constitutional experts give caution that impeachment is a double edged sword which can be used as legal resort for reforms but may also be misused as a vindictive act carried out by blinded followers. Thinking that this is going to be a signal to the “rabble” for the persecution of the Chief Justice is a tad paranoid. Regardless of the rigorous process it will undergo, impeachment is the constitutionally prescribed antidote to the contagion that has attached itself to the highest court in the land. It will be a test of its ability as a constitutional instrument to cleanse government institutions of undesirable elements. I don’t think the object of the whole exercise is to scuttle all 15 Arroyo appointed justices via impeachment, to think so would be wishful thinking. Even the defenders of Chief Justice Corona say that this would be a monumental task and therefore something similar to people power or the Occupy Wall Street movement would be resorted to by Pnoy et al. Perhaps what is doable is the impeachment of Corona and being the head of the cabal once removed would be sufficient enough to move the other Arroyo justices through moral suasion.

It is hoped that “people power” actions is not resorted to. This has been twice successful in the not too long ago past. People power as a resort reflects the desperation of the people’s will to rid itself of the unmitigated oppression very possible under martial rule and against a regime that is patently corrupt but thrives indefinitely because of the due processes that have to be adhered to. It takes little time for plunder to inflict severe damage to the country. There is not enough threat or imminent danger as the EDSA I or EDSA II posed to warrant a rallying of the people.

I have always been wary of lawyers and their practice. It seems that most of the successful lawyers (monetarily) are those that are experts at loopholes, delaying tactics, technicalities, manipulation of evidences, coercion and/or coaching of witnesses, misinterpretation of jurisprudence and other wily strategies to make mockery of the spirit of the law. As I once said they make the guilty innocent and innocent ludicrous. Current examples of injustices are the content of newspapers every day. Arguing about the constitutionality of issues even takes a different and more complicated tact. As experts assert, “we should realize that there often are two or more possible sides to a constitutional argument. And the outcome of a constitutional debate often depends upon the modality of constitutional interpretation a justice might use.” Others have said that a debate on constitutional issues would sometimes make use of circuitous forensics, legal legerdemain which doesn’t inspire trust and provide us much comfort. The issues in the debate of the constitution and the Supreme Court are vital to us because it touches on our lives, our liberties and our happiness. What seem to be out of the picture are the discerned morality and the inherent correctness of things, the spirit of which should override all arguments. The Supreme Court, by the exercise of judicial review, wields tremendous political power. This tremendous political power that the Supreme Court yields is terrifying if it is controlled by the wrong hands.

What most people fail to realize is that the contrarian stance of the Arroyo installed justices who feel obliged to reciprocate to her and probably aided by ongoing and new incentives, stems from Gloria’s motive of having a Supreme Court that is friendly towards her so that she will be protected once out of her presidential protective mantle. It is no longer a chief executive protecting herself from being OUSTED, it is a case of creating a shield of protection from prosecution for misdeeds when she was in authority. Gloria chose some of her justices with the motive of protecting herself from the law which she anticipated will go after her hammer and tongs. It was never based on a violation of basic governance philosophies, political, personal and ideological considerations. She is being pursued for CRIMES committed. Proof of this is the indecent haste and surreptitiousness of appointments of personalities into government positions which will help her achieve her dastardly purpose; that of being exonerated from all the misdeeds that she foresaw will be charged against her.

In our system the appointment of justices is the prerogative of the president. Gloria had served an extended ten years as head of state and in the process the make-up of the judicial bench in the high court are predominantly her appointees. It would be reasonable to expect that some of them are qualified in terms uprightness and capability for judicious dispensing of the law. The justices seated at the benches of the Supreme Court, on the whole, would not be devoid of integrity, dignity, honour and self esteem. Their tragic flaw is that they are overly grateful for the one who installed them in their positions. If only they would show impartiality on cases regarding Gloria whom they have favoured consistently to the chagrin of the present administration. They are capable of being honourable except for the cases involving Gloria for reasons we speculate on and they find hard to divulge.

Grupo58 through the years

2011-11-25T22:18:00.005+08:00

This article was written for the Golden Jubilee of Ateneo School Class 58 Yearbook in 2008 by Lamberto Tajonera. For some reason the Yearbook was not completed and this writeup of the bygone days of youth covering this class' years at the Ateneo de Manila never saw publication. It is a very well written chronicle of the the batch's odyssey from the grade school years in Padre Faura amidst the ruins of old Ateneo, through to the high school years in the newly built school buildings in Loyola Heights in the latter part of the fifties then on to collegiate days at the turn of the decade.

After more than half a century the bonds of friendship have endured the test of time and the members have kept in touch with the regular First Friday masses at the St Thomas More chapel in the Ateneo Rockwell. After mass the group would have fellowship lunches in one of the restaurants at the Power Plant Mall. What keeps the interaction alive is the Group e-mail which serves as a medium for announcements of vital news, significant events of members, jokes and of topics ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous.
A lot us got to know of this masterfully written piece only recently when one member requested the author to post it. I am reprinting it here because it is a pity that such a well written chronicle of our salad days which is precious to its members may just fade away unshared.

GRUPO58: THOSE WERE THE DAYS

By Lamberto J.V. Tajonera, G.S. 54, H.S. 58, A.B. 62

On December 6, 2008, 100 senior Ateneo alumni went up the stage during the Homecoming and became teen-agers one last time as they sang “Those were the days” with the voice and confidence of youth. Behold, the Golden Boys of 2008.

Our story started sixty years ago, in 1948, when we were the angelic first-graders at the Ateneo Padre Faura campus playing our games amid the ruins haphazardly created by General Macarthur’s erratic young pilots in World War II.

Our story is also the story of the Ateneo Blue Eagles basketball team which reigned supreme in 1953-54, 1957-58, 1962-63 and 2008. They were champions in other years too, but let us just focus on our four milestone years: our graduation from grade school, high school, college, and last December 2008, our golden jubilee year. In those 4 basketball seasons, Grupo58 willed the Eagles to the NCAA and UAAP championships. We were the team’s inspiration. We were the school’s lucky charm. Sin duda.

In those years, Grupo58 went through four stages which we were blissfully unaware of. For sure, there were awakenings and discoveries which happened to us as individuals, as a class and as a generation. We never found the need to articulate those discoveries for the world to know.

We were enjoying our youth too much to bother with posterity. We were young, right? Leave history to the eggheads of the academic world. Living was for the young, the vibrant, the ambitious, the invincibles, the dreamers, the renaissance men, the visionaries, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

The Four Ages of Grupo58

1948-1954: The Age of Innocence: “We stand on the hill…”

We started our Ateneo education in 1948 as Grade One pupils corralled into two sections, section A under Mr. Florendo Garcia and section B under Mr. Jesus Villanueva.

For the next six years of our lives we would wear khaki pants, white shirts with the “Lux in Domino” patch sewn on our left breast pockets. In our hip pockets were two important items: our rosary beads and 25 centavos which took care of our hot dog sandwich and Coke, or Clicquot Club during recess time. In October, our school uniform included the compulsory October medal.

In our innocence, we believed the Padre Faura ruins were the coolest playground for our fantasies. We fought with John Wayne in Iwo Jima before he was shot and killed. We were cowboys chasing and being chased by Cochise and a horde of Apaches. We helped Errol Flynn rout Blackbeard and his pirates. It wasn’t the ruins. It was our imagination.

We believed that Acme Supermarket was created for our comic-reading pleasure and bubble gum-chewing delight, for free. We would dash to Acme during recess, speed-read the latest Captain Marvel and Superman comics, pocket a Tootsie Roll or Double Bubble gum when the salesclerk wasn’t looking and then dash back to school and brag about our loot. Some would swap a Tootsie Roll for 5 sigays and 10 teks and 5 balimbing marbles. Some would simply sell a Roll for 5 centavos.

We believed that our schoolmates who felt Father Maximo David’s “yantok Mindoro” on their butts were the real tough guys in the Ateneo. As a badge of honor, these “toughies” would walk around massaging their butts even long after the pain had gone.

We believed that Luis “Moro” Lorenzo was the best basketball player in the world as we watched him take practice shots in the sawali-walled gym. We would look in awe as Poch Estella, Oli Orbeta, Rusty Cacho and Chole Gaston scrimmaged.

We believed everything taught us in religion class and pitied our Chinese classmates who would never go to heaven because we thought they were not Catholic.

In those days, life was simple. We saw life as either black or white, mortal sin or sanctifying grace, good or bad, angel or devil. Our eyesight was a perfect 20/20, and sharp. We believed our eyesight would never dim with age because we would be forever young.

We were also sure that the 1953-54 Blue Eagles of Tiny Literal, Bay Ballesteros and Frankie Rabat would win the NCAA championship and beat the San Beda Red Lions of Caloy Loyzaga and Loreto Carbonnel. And our guys won - because our nightly prayers and weekly masses did it. Our basic belief: Ateneo had to win or God did not love us.

Black and white. We never saw the other tones, the subtle shades of gray. After all, we were young, and young meant pure of heart. We were uncompromising. We were resolute. And by golly, we were more zealous than Saul of Tarsus. We were virtuous and innocent, euphemisms for naïve and inexperienced. So what. That was our right.

We possessed a moral certainty and smugness still unblemished, untouched and untried by the sorrows and ugliness of the real world. We were above it all. We were standing on the hill. We were the last grade school graduating class in the Padre Faura campus in 1954, and we were ready to go down, nay, to gallop and romp down the hill like Hopalong Cassidy and the Lone Ranger to combat the challenges and unknowns of our high school years. And we did.

1954-1958: The Age of Discovery: “…between the earth and sky…”

1958. It was the year we graduated from high school. That made us the last high school graduates of the Ateneo’s first century. Those four years of our lives opened our eyes to God’s most exquisitely inspired creation, girls our age. Our eyes opened wider in wonderment when we were told by our Student Counselors that we were going through a phase called puberty.

We were like Adam and Eve when they discovered --- first the apple, then each other, then the pleasurable knowledge of each other and finally, the necessity for the fig leaves. Like Adam and Eve, we never knew what puberty was. We just felt it. And many of us acted on it with alacrity and pleasure.

Our first two years in high school were spent in today’s College campus where we had a clear view of Katipunan Avenue, the Pink House, Eagle’s Nest and St. Joseph’s Hall. No buildings obstructed our view then. In our junior year, we transferred to the high school campus overlooking Marikina Valley and the rooftops of bawdy houses in Calumpang.

In our first and second years, we learned our Latin declensions and conjugations as we chanted the mantra of “a ae ae am a, ae arum is as is” and then struggled through Caesar’s Gallic battles. In junior and senior years, we went on to Cicero and even now, we still remember “Quo usque tandem abutere Catilina patientia nostra…” The more advanced guys in honors class were into Virgil’s “Arma virumque cano Trojae…” We hated this dead language then, but Latin in later years helped us in logical thinking and expanded our English vocabulary.

As a part of our memory trove of those days, this is what our parents spent for our 4^th year in high school (1958):

Annual tuition – P 300.00

Laboratory Fees – 40.00

Diploma Fee – 10.00

Textbook Rental – 25.00

Activities Fee – 40.00

Blue Book – 15.00

Locker Fee – 5.00

Total expenses for the year – P 435.00

Our children will be crying over their latte when they compare 435-pesos with 100,000 pesos for our grandchildren’s high school education, with no Latin.

We were between two worlds – the world of grade school child-like innocence where swiping a wad of bubble gum from Acme Supermarket was the acme of adventure, and the world of high school “sophistication” and experimentation - girls, smoking, drinking, first dance, first kiss, fake sideburns, low-waist pants, blue movies, live shows.

For teachers and mentors, we had Mr. Dimasangal and his memorable “Que mas, balasubas?” and laughed at Mr. Alinea’s Tampolano stories, and oohed at Mr. Pagsanghan’s dramatic reading of Father de la Costa’s “Jewels of the Pauper” which everybody had to memorize.

Mr. Ocampo, a.k.a. GRO, implanted in our brains his own jewels of knowledge which many of us still remember, Alzheimer’s or old age notwithstanding. We still remember GRO jewels like: easy to remember memory aid on the 11 phyla in Biology class – PP-CC-PN-AAMEC, and M VEM J SUN P for the planets of our solar system in correct sequence, and his classic Tagalog pronunciation of the alphabet as in the rhythmic “Ka In Na, Ta In Na, Kintin,” and “Ba O, Ta E – bote.”

We were James Dean and Sal Mineo, rebels without a cause, but rebels anyway. For that, many had to have red jackets and started to smoke. Beer was not the drink of choice. Rum-Coke was.

We felt pious and sinful at the same time. We always had an unexplained tingle in our bodies whenever we saw photos of Rita Hayworth, Kim Novak and Marilyn Monroe showing more skin than clothes. We’d go ape over Rhonda Fleming’s exposed thighs.

At night we entertained dozens of excitingly impure thoughts until our Catholic conscience made us feel guilty. We knew confession was the only way to avoid hell. So with the exception of Grupo58’s sodalists and acolytes, 95% of us confessed to either Father Eliazo or Father Pollock, and these two Jesuits, in their wisdom, always saved us from hell with a penance of three Hail Marys, no matter how often we disobeyed the sixth commandment.

The bargain-priced penance would never be enjoyed by non-Ateneans of our days, making Grupo58 a lucky bunch of habitual sinners indeed. This would go on week after week, a spiritual cycle of Passion, Death and Resurrection, sin and forgiveness, hell and heaven, impure thoughts and confession, the two beloved Jesuits and their penance of three Hail Marys and voila, salvation. Alleluia.

In the athletic world, the 1957-58 Blue Eagles, led by Bobby Littaua, Jimmy Pestano and Ed Ocampo, steamrolled all the NCAA teams and made mincemeat of the Mapua Cardinals in the final game to nail that year’s NCAA championship. We even believed that our graduation years were Ateneo’s lucky years in basketball. First it was 1954, now 1958. Our college graduation year in 1962 was sure to bring us the championship. That, we firmly believed. So, it shall be done.

If researchers were to poll Grupo58 on our happiest years, 1954 to 1958 will be it. Those were the years of firsts: our first visit to a girl’s house, our first dance with a girl who is not our sister or cousin, our first kiss, our first Saturday night outing to Marina’s and Emong’s, our first beach night party at El Faro, our first weekly Saturday afternoon visit to our favorite therapists in Misericordia and Tetuan, our first cigarette, our first bottle of beer. And yes, Rum-Coke.

Those were also the years of many lasts: the last grade school class in Padre Faura before the transfer to Loyola, the last grade school class without a grade seven, the last high school graduating class of Ateneo’s first 100 years, and the last golden jubilee class of the Ateneo’s first 150 years.

If it is true that good guys always finish last, it is also true that life always serves the best for last. Take a bow, Grupo58, because the world has not heard the last of our braggadocio.

In those happy-go-lucky high school years, we were caught between the eternal struggle of the sixth commandment against our raging hormones, between boyhood and manhood, between the sublime and the ridiculous, between Don Quixote’s mud below and the unreachable star up above. We stood tall, between the earth and sky.

1958-1962: The Age of Exploration: “…cast your shadow below, swoop down on the foe, and sweep up the field away…”

Our college years separated the men from the boys, the jokers from the scholars, the jocks from the geeks, the lover boys from the altar boys.

But all were one in this goal: finish college, please our parents and start our real lives. Patience was not a desirable virtue. We were in a hurry to challenge the world on its terms. We were getting ready for that battle. Matira ang matibay.

Like business institutions and icons, Grupo58 was always on the verge of many things. We were on the threshold of manhood. Our voices were now deeper. We were getting more confident. We were feeling wiser and smarter.

With a lot of philosophy theorems, knowledge of many stuff and plain ingenuity, we were testing our powers, with mixed results.

Our college years were the best years for experimentation. And we had the cojones to just do it.

Thus the audacious final exam leakage project in 1962 was conceived and implemented successfully. The guys who got the leaked tests aced their written exams and had all the time to prepare for their more difficult Philosophy orals.

Thus our logic and eloquence would almost seduce a handful of the pretty but pleasantly naive colegialas, but only for bragging rights.

Thus the 1961-62 Blue Eagles, led by our classmates Dodo Martelino and Boogie Pamintuan brought home the NCAA championship. We expected the championship that year. We clearly saw it in the stars. We never doubted that. We inspired the Blue Eagles to the heights of college basketball. We felt we were ready for the world. We were unafraid. We were invincible. Yes?

1962 Onwards: The Age of Contentment: “…our course is run, and the setting sun ends Ateneo’s day…”

“Down from the hill, down to the world go I…” And so in 1962 we bade each other adieu and went our separate ways, following our own drummer and seeking our fortune. We would be lawyers, doctors, actors, advertising people, business executives, government officials, soap and drug salesmen, teachers and professors, hacienderos, politicians, bankers and for the most part, lovers, husbands and fathers.

Raising a family and building a career in those post-1962 years ate up a lot of our time and energy. Both demanded more from us. It was growth in a human sense. We juggled the demands of both, hoping we would achieve an optimal balance between home and the office. Success or failure would be felt later, in our twilight years when we look back at years past, either fondly or sadly.

Many will recognize and accept their levels of contentment in their twilight years. Some would still search for something better, and sadly, would settle for less in the end. Such is life. Such is the world. Ayun yon e.

“…remembering still how the bright blue eagles fly…” The values and principles deeply breathed into our souls would be our constant guide as we went through life.

We would often reach a point when we had to choose between the honorable and the gross. Sometimes we chose right. Sometimes we rationalized. For sure, we know that the bright blue eagles of our values and principles will always be up there somewhere, reminding us, reminding us, reminding us.

“…win or lose, it’s the school we choose, this is the place where we belong.” No matter what choices we made, how life turned out for us, we knew we would have no regrets. When family is gone, leaving an empty nest, and when the business is now in the hands of someone else, we know we still have one place of refuge - our alma mater.

Our memories of classmates are embedded in our school’s walls and corridors.

Last December 6, 2008, with the pleasant memory of the Blue Eagles thrashing La Salle in the 2008 UAAP finals, we returned to the place where we belong and hungrily sought the company of school chums to laugh, chat and shamelessly embellish stories about those carefree days. Reminiscing is simply priceless. Those moments will always be our golden memories. And on that Jubilee Night, before the other alumni, Grupo58 lustily sang: “Those were the days, my friend, we thought would never end…”

.***finis***

A Discussion on Corruption and the Philippine Economy

2011-11-24T08:56:00.002+08:00

Corruption has been topical of late because of the ongoing furor between the Supreme Court and the Department of Justice. Principal protagonists are Gloria Arroyo and Mike Arroyo pitted against a feisty Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. It seems that Pnoy’s mission of eradicating corruption is well on its way with the filing of charges against Gloria and other co accused in the electoral fraud of 2009 and with a number of plunder cases waiting to be docketed in the Sandigan Bayan.

Pnoy has been criticized for being too focused on his eradication mission to the exclusion of other important concerns such as public policies pertaining to infrastructures, health, law and order, food security, poverty alleviation, the economy and others which may be lagging behind because they have taken a backseat to the drive against corruption.

As before important issues have been discussed among the members of our email group giving everyone better insights from the varied opinions of our members.

What follows is the thread of e-mails which got started when Subas Herrero posted an article regarding the favourable economic climate in the Philippines writtem by Mark Matthews, head of Research Asia at the Julius Baer Bank.

It was a fruitful learning experience for me to have been in conversation through e-mail with two eminent economists, Rufo Colayco and Victor Barrios (both members of Grupo58) with me as the layman of the group posing questions and opinions some naive and some bordering the ludicrous. They have patiently persevered with me and came up elucidations that I found educational. I hope that the reader will be appreciative of them as I was.

*On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 4:55 AM, Ricardo Herrero <basubs@yahoo.com> wrote:

This email came into my mailbox. It looks like good news for the country!! What say our economists? Vic B.? Rufo C.?

SUBAS
Pray. Hope and Don't Worry!!! - St. Pio OF Pietrelcina

This is very GOOD NEWS!

I particularly like this part:

"Last year, for the first time in history, the Philippines' gross international reserves eclipsed its external debt level, making it a "creditor" nation, according to a report by Bank Julius Baer."

Let's pay off our foreign debt na! Hehehe. (SIDENOTE: In theory, we can pay off the $56 b in foreign debt with the expected $76 b and still have change to pay for our monthly imports.)

Invest in Philippines, the 'Dark Horse' of Asia: Expert

On Friday 18 November 2011, 8:26 SGT

As far as emerging markets go, the Philippines is seldom the choice investment destination, but one analyst says the Southeast Asian nation could well become the "dark horse" of the region, thanks to its favorable demographics and sound economic fundamentals.

The Philippine's "very robust and young population" presents a ready pool of talent, says Mark Matthews, Head of Research Asia at Bank Julius Baer. He expects the country's population of 93 million, around half of whom are below 20 years old, to more than double to 190 million by 2040.

With fertility rates declining in the West and in Asian countries like Japan, Korea and China, the Philippines will increasingly become an important source of immigrant labor, he added.

"And the interesting thing is 80 percent of them speak English," Matthews said. "Most people who speak English in third world countries, they don't want to go overseas to work in sort of manual labor. But the Filipinos have no problem doing it...and they are making three times as much as they are making back at home, and they are sending it back home."

The Philippines is already one of the world's biggest recipients of remittances - the fourth biggest in 2010 according to the World Bank - which account for a tenth of the country's gross national product. According to the country's central bank, monthly remittances hit a record high of $1.7 billion in September with total remittances for the year expected at $20 billion.

The country remains in an enviable position fiscal-wise. Last year, for the first time in history, the Philippines' gross international reserves eclipsed its external debt level, making it a "creditor" nation, according to a report by Bank Julius Baer. The country is expected to end the year with a record $76 billion in foreign reserves, which is part of the reason why ratings agency Fitch upgraded the country's credit rating to BB+ from BB in June, just one notch below investment grade and on par with Indonesia.

And with a debt-to-GDP ratio among the lowest in Asia at under 50 percent, the Philippines is one of the most under-geared countries in the world, which makes it a less risky bet for investors. "That means it will no longer be 'another domino' in times of crisis," the Bank Julius Baer noted.

Despite being one of the best performing stock markets in Asia this year, with gains of over 3 percent, compared to double-digit percentage losses in China, Japan and Singapore," Bank Julius Baer says the market is still attractive on a valuation basis.

"The market is not expensive on 14.5x 2011 and 12.5x 2012 P/E, versus an average over the past 15 years of 12.5x," the bank noted.

The bank is not alone in its bullish view of the Philippines. A recent survey by Bank of America-Merrill Lynch showed fund managers increasing their overweight position in the country, making it the third most preferred market, trailing China and Indonesia.

*From: Victor S. Barrios <victorsbarrios@gmail.com>
To: AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, 21 November 2011, 13:25
Subject: Re: [AteneoGrupo58] Invest in Philippines, the 'Dark Horse' of Asia: Expert

Yes, my good friend, Subas -- the Philippines has a great potential.

Translating potential to reality requires a number of government initiatives, inter alia:

1. enhancing the "enabling environment" that promotes investments, e.g.:

a. significantly trimming public bureaucracy -- which is a source of delays, corruption and high business costs;

b. liberalizing ownership restrictions in Constitutionally-limited areas;

c. continuing to dismantling hurdles to market entry;

d. leveling the playing field in various business areas;

d. hastening infrastructure development, with high private sector participation;

e. upgrading technical education and training -- to sharpen and broaden the pool of technical talent for business enterprises;

2. upholding the sanctity of government contracts:

a. rectify the negative implications of the (arbitrary in the minds of many) cancellation of government contracts with foreign groups [I was the victim of two such cancellations instigated by politically-connected groups];

b. respecting the sanctity of contracts entered into in good faith with foreign groups.

*From: Rufo Colayco <rcolayco@yahoo.com>
To: "AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com" <AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2011 12:36 AM
Subject: Re: [AteneoGrupo58] Invest in Philippines, the 'Dark Horse' of Asia: Expert

Well there you go Subas, a reply from Vic that's as comprehensive as you'll get anywhere.

I had responded to this article before, pointing out that what the writer says is mainly that one can make money in the Philippine stock market. Direct investments are another matter, as Vic very well says.

Rufo Colayco

*On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 1:53 PM, ed roa <ed_roa@yahoo.com> wrote:

I can't agree more with Vic on his list of requirements for the Philippines to make a reality out of the tremendous potential it exhibits in the region for investments. The endorsements come from unbiased sources like Mark Matthews, Head of Research Asia at Bank Julius Baer and the fund managers of Bank of America-Merrill Lynch.

Going through the list generated by Vic most of them would be hamstrung by the ineptness and corruption in the bureaucracy, in politics/legislature, in the vested interest groups (both ruling families and consortia) in business and industry and the ruling executive group (the president and the persons who make up his official family).

What gives me optimism is that Pnoy, whose honesty is unassailable (thus far), has as his priority the eradication of corruption and it is off to a good start with the effort at the prosecution of the grafters in the previous administration. Much depends on the success of these efforts to show to those would-be cheaters and corruptors that this administration will see through determinedly this mission.

The Philippines has always been thought of as a country with decided advantages over our neighbors when it comes to potential but it never moved from being such because of the pervasive corruption that make potential investors leave in disgust after their initial attempts to do business.

Ed R

*Subject: Re: [AteneoGrupo58] Invest in Philippines, the 'Dark Horse' of Asia: Expert

From: Victor S. Barrios <victorsbarrios@gmail.com>
To: AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, 22 November 2011, 21:03

Ed, as noted by Rufo, the endorsements by portfolio managers are for secondary, not primary, investments -- which have no effect on GDP/welfare.

The drive against corruption is a desirable element. However, it is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition to catapult the country to an 8-10% growth trajectory.

Nonetheless, anti-corruption moves should run parallel to responsive public policy in the areas I earlier identified. An effective anti-corruption program will not put the country on the road to prosperity.

Public policy should not take a back seat. We yet have to see the Administration's focus on growth-oriented policies.

*On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 7:32 AM, ed roa <ed_roa@yahoo.com> wrote:

Vic,

I am likening the Philippine situation to that of a heavily weeded rich and fertile patch. Pnoy’s approach is to ready the patch by weeding out the unwanted elements and cultivating the environment before he starts seeding and building.

It is not arguable that there should be a responsive public policy running alongside the anti-corruption drive and this, by itself, will not ensure economic progress. However, I take exception to your point about the eradication of corruption as not being a sufficient and necessary condition to catapult the country to economic progress. With corruption nothing else grows, it is the weed that strangles all the efforts to do good for this country. The fight against corruption is an augean task as we are finding out now. The other side is a formidable foe with bottomless resources and will require much time and effort to subdue. The problem has been ensconced in our system for several generations; perhaps we should have more patience now that it seems we are capable of winning and we are beginning to believe that we can win.

*From: Victor S. Barrios <victorsbarrios@gmail.com>
To: AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2011 9:35 PM
Subject: Re: [AteneoGrupo58] Invest in Philippines, the 'Dark Horse' of Asia: Expert

My dear friend, Ed.

I was expecting a thoughtful rejoinder from you.

Thank you for the opportunity of explaining the empirical basis for my statement that an anti-corruption drive is desirable, but not a necessary or sufficient condition to catapult the country to an 8-10% growth trajectory. I laud PNoy’s efforts, but let us look at reality.

Let us define Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the sum of expenditures of all economic units of a country. The table below shows the components of Philippine GDP and their relative importance:

Abbreviation	Complete Name	Est. % to Total GDP
C	Personal Consumption Expenditures	75%
I	Investments	15%
G	Government Expenditures	10%
(X-M)	Exports Minus Imports	0%
	Total	100%

We have a consumer-driven economy, largely fueled by expenditures funded by foreign remittances from global Filipinos. The high ratio of 75% of GDP shows the overwhelming importance of personal consumption expenditures. For personal consumption expenditures to continue growing -- and the economy correspondingly growing as a consequence -- the country has to send workers abroad year in and year out. This policy is not exactly what we wish to accomplish, but nonetheless a driving force – hopefully, temporary.

Investments (in real terms—not stock market investments) have been a languishing component of GDP. The ratio, which is currently about 15%, has been consistently dropping from a high of 30% years ago.

The excess of exports over imports has typically been negative, given the import orientation of the economy. We keep the trade balance at zero level.

The dynamic sources of GDP growth should be investments and exports.

There is universal conviction that government expenditures should not be a major source of GDP growth. We place the ratio of government expenditures to GDP at 10%.

Government capital expenditures, which are usually the locus on corruption in terms of overpricing, account about 10% of total government expenditures or 1% of GDP. Assuming a 30% overpricing, a figure that many contractors cite, the consequent leakage in GDP is 0.3%. In other words, the cost of overpricing in capital purchases is only in the order of 0.3% of GDP. The elimination of a 0.3% leakage will not bring us to the 8-10% growth curve.

If corruption is zero (which is impossible) -- in other words “kung walang corrupt” – the GDP would still be low. In other words, the country would still be wallowing in poverty.

Ergo, corruption, in the context of the Philippines, is not a necessary or sufficient condition to lift the country out of poverty.

Enlightened public policy that would energize investments and exports, alongside the sustainable growth in personal consumption expenditures, would bring the country to the rapid growth trajectory.

Corruption is not a crippling element in strong emerging countries. My development work has included a number of the BRIC countries where corruption is a way of life. Thailand, our “twin” ASEAN country, has a high level of corruption, but its public policy and initiatives have enabled it to have a vibrant export sector and GDP performance far exceeding the Philippine record.

*From: Rufo Colayco <rcolayco@yahoo.com>
To: "AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com" <AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 23 November 2011, 23:35
Subject: Re: [AteneoGrupo58] Invest in Philippines, the 'Dark Horse' of Asia: Expert

Hi Vic, you and Ed are in agreement that the eradication of corruption will not by itself turn the country around. Where you differ is the extent to which corruption hinders growth. It looms larger in Ed's eyes than it does to yours.

Your numbers do hang together, as far as that goes. That is, "Government capital expenditures (principal locus of corruption) = 1% of GDP; over-pricing generally 30% of budgeted capital expenditures (same figure I believe to be currently prevalent). Therefore, corruption accounts for 0.3% of GDP.

It may be a mistake for us to assume that corruption elsewhere in the system is minor in relation to over-pricing on capital expenditures. If I understand DJ de Jesus correctly, there's equally rampant over-pricing in the DepEd's purchases of stuff like school supplies; ditto for other branches of Government. And what about all that pork (P200m/year for Senators, P70m/year for House Reps)? Has there ever been an accounting of how much of that actually gets spent on either capital or non-capital expenditures on behalf of the the public? In percentage terms, the leakage there may be even worse than the 30% in places like the DPWH. I don't have figures, so even after taking all that into consideration, the direct impact on GDP may not be much larger than 0.3%.

Where endemic corruption (which is what we've had for quite some time), as Ed is wont to say chokes growth to death is that it is a major reason why government officials don't think better than they do about what policies will work for growth. What I observed during my brief time in government was that too many officials MOSTLY THINK OF HOW TO MAKE A BUCK, and almost never really think about what would generate investments and employment. I recall how in 2008-9, when I heard about the MRT getting de-privatized, I immediately suspected that there was something not right about the whole deal. It's only recently when Leo Alejandrino unravelled the Ongpin shenanigans that my fears were concerned.

So how is it that Indonesia, where over-pricing of capital expenditures is evidently as common as it is here, appears to be on a better growth trajectory than we are? Could it be that there, they first figure out what infrastructure is needed to help mobilize private sector capital then apply the customary overprice? I can see how that would produce better results than we have, if in fact (as I'm led to believe by what I've seen) our politicians are primarily focused on what projects will generate that bulge in their pockets, rather on what their respective bailiwicks really need?

*Re: [AteneoGrupo58] Invest in Philippines, the 'Dark Horse' of Asia: Expert

FROM: ed roa

TO: AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com

Thursday, 24 November 2011, 6:35

Vic, Rufo:

To calculate the effect of corruption on the basis of current values (or what it devalues) might not be quite correct since effect of reduced corruption will have positive influence on a wide range of other components in our economic make-up. With the reduction of corruption other variables are introduced into the equation and even the existing variables would change creating different synergies. It gains momentum, becoming stronger progressively at each turn, a snowball as it were.

Curtailing corruption will not yield economic progress by itself, it has to go alongside responsive public policies in areas (as you have listed) that need to be bolstered or improved upon, but neither of the two can go it alone. Our being a laggard economy compared to our neighbors may be traced to our inability to attract primary investments because of the unattractive business atmosphere we have had for so long. Other countries, Indonesia as mentioned by Rufo, have had their share of corruption but by the index standards set by those who rate we have been grouped among the worst and the poorest of countries. There seems to be a correlation between the level of corruption in a country with its economic standing.

My initial disagreement was when it was mentioned that this was just an attractive prospect for secondary investments. I don’t think Rufo meant it to be mutually exclusive; it’s only good for secondary investments and not for primary investments. The article points out that our economy is rife with opportunities for secondary investors to jump on the opportunities to buy into the existing issues in the stock market, but, the way the endorsers depict the Philippines, it really makes a strong case for both secondary as well as primary investments. A favourable demographic makeup (young population) and a fertility rate that ensures that this will be sustained, English speaking, an enviable fiscal situation, a positive credit rating, stable because of healthy foreign reserves, lowest GDP to debt ratio in Asia and favorable p/e ratios of traded businesses are qualities of investment climates which investors in the stock market as well as for those opening up new businesses, establishment of production centers and creation of operating hubs in the region find attractive. There are, as you listed, imperatives that we have to work on to encourage new businesses to be invested in the Philippines. In all of these requirements, what seems to be impeding any effort to correct the situation is the endemic graft and corruption, the horn effect of which cannot be exaggerated enough.

Any effort to improve the Philippine economy and the Filipino’s lot has got to first decapitate the many heads of the Hydra. A few heads must roll if we are to kill the evil body that revives and sustains them.

Ed R

From: Victor S. Barrios <victorsbarrios@gmail.com>
To: AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, 24 November 2011, 18:53
Subject: Re: [AteneoGrupo58] Invest in Philippines, the 'Dark Horse' of Asia: Expert

Hi, Rufo & Ed.

Thanks for your additional insights on the national issue of corruption, poverty and progress.

Rufo:

1. Administrative Order No. 17 dated 7.28.11 requires the use of the government-wide Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (Philgeps) for the procurement of common items, e.g., bind paper, ball pens, pencils and pens. The measure could drastically reduce corruption in this area.

2. Activities such as the publication of all bid opportunities, notices, awards and contracts should also be coursed through Philgeps.

3. Yes, upping the social rate of return for pork barrel projects is a challenge for legislators.

4. Strategic Infrastructure build-up has externalities, beneficial to producers, which are repetitive over the years.

Ed:

1. You are right that, in a dynamic world, other variables change when a specific variable is changed. A reduction in corruption would increase GDP to the extent that the resources saved could be reallocated to productive use. Those reallocated expenditures will have a multiplier effect on income in one or more rounds. By the same token, all other GDP expenditure items (C+I+X), and G minus corruption -- all accounting for, say, 99.7% of GDP -- would also have multiplier effects. The income effect of reallocated corruption funds would have no multiplier effect superior to the other components of GDP.

2. The field infested with corruption weeds is a small fraction of GDP: 10% (share of G in GDP) of 10% capital expenditures = 1%.

3. I respect your views, Ed, but progress can proceed side by side with corruption – while condemning it, at the same time recognizing it as given.

4. National leadership should focus on growth-oriented public policy and initiatives, where the payoff is far greater than the welfare effect of reducing corruption. PNoy should not waste time trying to find a needle in a haystack. He should devote his energies, so to speak, on feeding the horses with the hay.

Ed, as Rufo said, we agree that corruption should be avoided but we differ in our assessment of the impact of corruption. I simply shared my views as an economist.

Cheers.

Re: [AteneoGrupo58] Invest in Philippines, the 'Dark Horse' of Asia: Expert

FROM: ed roa

TO: AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com

Message flagged

Thursday, 24 November 2011, 19:36

Vic, Rufo:

Being the non economist in this exchange I feel that I have benefited the most in terms of insights and knowledge in your realm of expertise.

Maraming Salamat

Ed R

The ‘Arroyo 8’ justices

2011-11-23T21:32:00.003+08:00

I am reprinting here an article written by Atty. Ted Laguatan in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. He is a San Francisco based lawyer who is a member of the California Bar. He does complex litigation and is the Legal Counsel and Spokesperson for US Pinoys for Good Governance. He provides assistance to the Filipino OFWs in the Marianas who are facing unjust deportation charges from oppressive local authorities. He is a member of Ateneo Grupo58.

This article talks about the current conflict between Gloria Arroyo and the feisty DOJ secretary Leila de Lima in the battle involving the Supreme Court and the Executive Department. The article published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer is the most read in the newspaper's "Hot Reads" and has garnered numerous responses reflecting the opinion of many Filipinos.

The ‘Arroyo 8’ justices

By Ted Laguatan

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

Should the 8 Arroyo Justices be allowed to continue to abuse the nation?
Concerned about former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) and her husband, former First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo (FG), eluding prosecution for serious crimes — Secretary of Justice Leila de Lima correctly issued a watch list order (WLO) or hold order — to prevent them from going abroad and maybe escaping.

Perhaps sensing that charges were about to be filed against them, GMA and FG petitioned the Philippine Supreme Court to issue a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to invalidate the WLO — reasoning that GMA needed to get medical attention which she claimed was not available in the Philippines.

“Hogwash!” quips one Filipino specialist doctor trained in one of the best medical establishments in the U.S. ”We have so many qualified competent doctors here trained abroad who can attend to her.” Secretary of Health Dr. Ike Ona echoed the same sentiments.

Oral arguments on the TRO petition were scheduled on November 22, 2011 — a normal procedure which would give all parties the opportunity to present their positions — consistent with procedural due process principles.

But instead, what did eight Supreme Court Justices do? Led by GMA midnight appointee Chief Justice Renato Corona and seven other GMA appointees, the eight rushed the unilateral approval of the TRO petition — not giving the government the opportunity to present counter arguments and not waiting for the scheduled oral arguments to take place.

As if on signal, the Arroyos rushed to the airport the same day seeking to board a flight to Singapore. They reserved five different flights to Singapore using different airlines. From there, their itinerary included a flight to Spain, a country with which the Philippines has no extradition treaty — and which really does not exactly have international renown for exceptional medical expertise.

These facts suggest that de Lima’s concerns are not without basis.

Showing uncommon common sense, Secretary de Lima stayed the WLO preventing the Arroyos from leaving.

Fr. Joaquin Bernas, S.J., former dean of the Ateneo law school, known as a “Constitutionalist” takes the position that the decisions of the Supreme Court should absolutely always be obeyed. Otherwise, he asserts, we will have chaos or risk having a Constitutional crisis.

He asserted the same stand when the Supreme Court composed of GMA appointees confirmed the midnight appointment of Renato Corona as Chief Justice — even if precedent law indicates that this is illegal. Bernas is absolute in his position that the Supreme Court should always be obeyed.

He criticizes Secretary de Lima in his column — that she should have immediately obeyed the TRO of the Supreme Court and allowed the Arroyos to travel — even if there is a risk that the Arroyos may escape prosecution and never return.

Issue: Should the decision of the Supreme Court be absolutely obeyed at all times?

Here’s my take on this:

The concerns of Secretary de Lima who represent the people of the Philippines are legitimate concerns. This is not the same as saying that the Arroyos do not have individual rights. Everyone recognizes that they do.

But if the eight Justices of the Supreme Court were acting in good faith, they would have given the government the opportunity to present counter arguments against the Arroyos’ TRO petitions and waited for the submission of briefs and the oral arguments before making a decision.

The government who collectively represent the Filipino people should be afforded the same procedural due process rights as the Arroyos. If the eight justices do not see that or refuse to see it, surely, it should be obvious that de Lima, as an individual — has due process rights.

In emergency situations, a proper court may unilaterally issue a TRO to instantly prevent some harm from occurring where the facts clearly suggest this might happen.

This is not the situation here. Even GMA’s doctors affirm she is in no immediate danger of dying or suffering irreparable injury. They even state that she should recover in a few months.

Nevertheless, in her petition for a TRO, Arroyo insists that she needs to immediately go abroad for medical treatment. On its part, the government will be claiming that GMA can get the necessary treatment in the Philippines and that more likely than not, she is using her illness as an excuse to be able to leave the country and elude prosecution for the serious charges of plunder and electoral sabotage — no bail offenses for which she could spend a very long time in jail if convicted.

As in every case, credibility is always an issue. It is only proper for the Justices to scrutinize if the parties are telling the truth and which party has the weightier more rational arguments — before making their decisions. At all times, the Justices are supposed to remain neutral and fair and base their decisions on proper procedure and objective evidence.

Here, the eight Arroyo appointed Justices never provided the government the opportunity to present written briefs contra to the TRO petitions nor did they bother to wait for the scheduled oral arguments which would have taken place in a few days. Instead, contrary to the protestations of the five dissenters, they unilaterally granted the TRO petition of the Arroyos.

Notwithstanding these irregularities, Constitutionalist Fr. Bernas declares that this tyranny of a clearly biased majority cabal of justices should nevertheless absolutely be obeyed.

Having gone to a Jesuit law school in the United States and continuously doing cases in California and federal courts for some thirty years which includes litigating many complex immigration and human rights cases involving US Constitutional Law, I am somewhat sad to see that a Jesuit priest who is also a lawyer — fails to see the more important issue here.

With no disrespect intended, I note that Fr. Bernas takes a mechanistic absolutist position in declaring that the decisions of the Supreme Court should always be followed.

I grant, that in general, the decisions of the Supreme Court should be followed — unless they are in conflict with moral laws — as in this case. As a matter of conscience, man made laws should be ignored, disobeyed and fought against where they conflict with moral law.

There was a time when slavery and segregation laws were part of the United States Constitution. Some law professors and Constitutionalists admonished that the law had to be obeyed simply because it was the law — notwithstanding the terrible injustice and extent of suffering that this inflicted on other human beings who were not even defined as human beings under this same law but as chattels or personal property.

Some humanists like Henry David Thoreau were willing to go to jail and suffered personal consequences rather than accept and give legitimacy to such anti-human laws.

The laws are made for man rather than man being made for the laws. Some laws are clearly unjust or the way some good laws as applied are clearly unjust. Conscience dictates that in these situations, civil disobedience should be resorted to. Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Ninoy Aquino, Jose Rizal – all these great men listened to the calling of their hearts and moral law rather than to tyrannical artificial laws made by corrupt greedy men.

They paid heavily, some with their lives, to be true to God’s law that they found within their deepest selves – but with their sacrifices, unquestionably left the world a better place for others.

Here, by their actuations, eight pro Arroyo Justices show that they are placing the interests of their patron above that of the Filipino people. They are using their official powers to dish out laws or orders that tyrannize and brutalize the rights of the citizenry. How different is this from the tyranny of an individual dictator?

It is one thing for a Constitutional law professor to explain that in general, Supreme Court orders should be obeyed. It is another thing for him to say they still need to be obeyed even if clearly tyrannical, unjust and immoral. Fr. Bernas may sincerely believe he is promoting public order with such admonition.

In actuality, he is creating instability and distrust by insisting that the public accept and swallow the unpalatable biased decisions of a majority of Justices in the Supreme Court who are all GMA appointed.

Let’s take a second issue: Should the Executive branch risk causing a Constitutional crisis by defying the Supreme Court?

Defying biased eight pro Arroyo is not the same as disrespecting the Supreme Court as an institution. Secretary de Lima is simply affirming the rights of the Filipino people in taking a stand against judicial tyranny. This important stand inevitably needs to be done now at this point in Philippine history. It is not the end of the world if President Simeon Aquino assumes this risk which he should. In fact, he is showing true moral leadership if he does.

This touchy situation of a majority of Justices, who by their actuations, show more loyalty to GMA and to themselves than to the people and to principles of promoting justice – needs to be resolved now.

Unless resolved now, it will repeat itself. The Secretary of Justice and the Ombudsman can file all kinds of charges against the Arroyos and their cronies, exert tremendous efforts and spend millions to win these cases.

Assuming they win, expect these cases to be appealed to the Supreme Court and to the waiting hands of the biased Arroyo 8. Let’s call a spade a spade. What will happen there is predictable and foreseeable. They will decide in favor of GMA. Fr. Bernas will again say we should absolutely accept their decision.

Faced with a Supreme Court with a majority of Justices clearly loyal to GMA, what then should President Aquino and Secretary de Lima do?

They should continue to defy the Arroyo 8 Justices when they come out with unjust results – such as ordering de Lima to obey the TRO and allowing GMA to depart.

Aquino should use all of his formidable political powers against the Arroyo 8.
He is the the elected President of the Philippines – voted into office by millions of Filipinos. They expect him to provide strong moral leadership. He is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Under him also is the NBI and the PNP. He also has tremendous other resources at his command. Most importantly, he has the support of the Filipino people in the fight against corruption and injustice.

What about these eight justices?

They were appointed by a discredited President who like her husband is perceived as having betrayed the country with their unbridled greed and corruption. The midnight appointee Chief Justice and the seven others have no credibility in the eyes of the people.

If the President and Justice de Lima defy their orders, the people will understand and support them knowing they do it for the sake of justice and that it is the right and moral thing to do.

What will the Arroyo 8 do – hold de Lima in contempt? Aquino can simply just immediately pardon her.

Who will the eight order to arrest de Lima? The President has the loyalty of the Armed Forces, the PNP and the NBI.

The President should not hesitate to use his political powers to accomplish good for the sake of the people. He cannot allow 8 questionable individuals who repeatedly abuse their discretion in using their offices to thwart the ends of justice.

He should pressure them to resign or caused them to be impeached. Replacing them with new Justices should bring back credibility and respect back to the Supreme Court as an institution.

The people will love him more for showing strong moral leadership.

Quo Vadis Gloria - e-mail exchanges

2011-11-17T21:41:00.004+08:00

Gloria and Mike Arroyo planned to fly the coop and tried to leave but were stopped by the Bureau of Immigration and the airport authorities despite the TRO document they carried to nullify the travel hold order that was issued by Leila de Lima of the DOJ. We have had lively discussions on the event via our group email.

The following are some of the exchanges that ensued:

FROM: ed roa

TO: AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com

Wednesday, November 16, 2011 10:09 AM

I really feel sorry for Sec Leila de Lima for the flak she has been receiving on her foursquare stand on not allowing PGMA and FG to leave the country. She should be urged on to keep up the fight no matter how vicious the attacks coming from PGMA’s cohorts who seem hell bent on sabotaging the administration’s efforts against corruption.This is what is at stake. Our hopes for a change will be dashed if the Madame and her band of outlaws are able to elude the posse.

The decision of the Supreme Court to allow PGMA and FG to leave for Singapore was based on the favorable vote of 8 PGMA appointed justices with 3 dissenting votes from Aquino appointed justices. This tells you a lot about the justice system in the country. Where is justice if the cases brought up to the highest court of the land will invariably be ruled on the basis of the proponents' affiliation? For a long time the justices system has been influenced by the feeling of beholdenment of the justices to the president who appointed them. This system easily falls to the temptation of appointing candidates who are not necessarily the most deserving but the most malleable, the most acquiescent, the most predisposed to obsequious gratitude because they would never have been appointed if it were not for this benefactor. What we end up with is a mob of hopping marsupials giving judgment of what is right and what is wrong in our lives.

Our justice system rests on the bedrock belief that the accused is innocent until proven guilty and the guilt has to be proven beyond reasonable doubt even though this may be an impossibility. Due process ensures that the rights and liberties of the individual are protected from errors that he or the defense panel might make and from the less judicious judgments by the courts. Better to err in favour of the accused than having to see an innocent man hanged. That sounds unassailable and difficult to argue against but what about the right of the collective public which seems to be disadvantaged by this judicial school of thought? The overprotection of the individual liberties has been overly favoured at the expense of the interest of the larger body of people, resulting into a situation that is inimical to their safety and well being. The blatancy and the frequency of the cases involving the wealthy and the powerful making use of their money and connections to delay or even subvert the observance of justice is prevalent in Philippine courts that it seems almost impossible to achieve quick justice or just plain justice itself.

The problem with due process is that it tends to drag especially in cases where the accused has the wherewithal to engage the services of high calibre mercenary lawyers who know all the dirty tricks of a dastardly trade.

By design, due process is supposed to ensure that the common “Juan” is not victimised by his circumstance and simple perspective, however, most of the cases which have made full use of these advantages are those of the privileged warlord, the bandit elite, the influential politician, the mighty military and others of a similar ilk who invariably engage a “dream team” of lawyers which only they, with their ill gotten resources can afford. Of late, even the medical practitioners have been conscripted as pawns to delay the judicial process. These medical practitioners should be taken to task and their false endorsements (if found out) should be considered as aiding and abetting a crime and be dealt a stern punishment.

In theory due process in the Justice System should work for us but in actual fact it doesn’t all the time. Often times it favours an unsavoury few.

Re: [AteneoGrupo58] Quo Vadis Gloria

FROM: ed roa From: Victor S Barrios <victorsbarrios@gmail.com>
To: "AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com" <AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2011 4:38 PM
Subject: Re: [AteneoGrupo58] Quo Vadis Gloria

I know where you're coming from, Ed.

Your observations about deficiencies in the administration of justice are valid.

The Philippines has no monopoly over a weak Rule of Law. All of the 14 countries I have done development work in has the same problem about the Rule of Law.

The objective is always to reform the justice system so as to raise the local Rule of Law to international standards.

But, in the meantime, citizens just have to follow "lex dura", rightly or wrongly.

Victor S. Barrios

Sent from my iPad2

TO: AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com

Wednesday, November 16, 2011 5:38 PM

I agree with you Vic. It's just that there's a dint of frustration seeing all these things happening right in front of our eyes. Just indulging in some wishful thinking that maybe things will change for the better for the country and for the generations after us.

On Nov 16, 2011, at 1:35 PM, ed roa <ed_roa@yahoo.com> wrote:

Vic,

I speak of the justice system in the Philippines which seems to have morphed into something where mockery of the law by a privilege few is commonplace.

The PGMA case is a good example of what I speak of. So much money has been spent, so many strings have been pulled and so many political favor chips are being cashed in to delay and to evade prosecution.

The way the Supreme Court justices have allowed themselves to be party to a devious scheme to allow Gloria to fly the coop is unconscionable. How could they have allowed themselves to act in coordination with the escape plan. Timing was of the essence. How typically Gloria the whole plan was which made use of bookings in synch with the release of the TRO in late hours (so that the DOJ cannot react in time) on the very day of escape(how much like midnight appointments). How generous of them to impose easy conditions that cannot compel Gloria to return if indicted. Authorizing a lawyer to receive subpoenas and documents on their behalf, reporting to embassies and consulates in countries they visit and the one that takes the cake is the posting of a P2million cash bond which will forfeited should Gloria fail to return. Do you think this will make her comply? Barya lang yan!

I implore our justices not to feel obligated to Gloria. Whatever benefits they enjoy in their positions are mere crumbs fallen from the Arroyo banquet table which are shared with other dogs grovelling underneath. Your dignity is worth more than dog food.

Sure, we should subscribe to the rule of law. Our laws are good and well crafted by our legislators, but, no matter how good they are if the supreme arbiters of the law are tainted there is no rule of law, there is only travesty of it.

From: Bert Bengzon <albertobengzon@sunrise.ch>
To: AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2011 5:39 PM
Subject: Re: [AteneoGrupo58] Quo Vadis Gloria

Guys,

Pls. enlighten me.

I have been under the impression that our judicial system has been creaking under the backlog of cases, and this has been an argument used to explain the long delays of court decisions.

In GMA's case, I'm taken aback by the alacrity, the speed and timeliness in which a decision has been made. Does this mean that GMA's case was moved up to the head of the long qeue? If so, WHY and HOW?

Thanks for input.

Bert B.

----- Original Message -----

From: Vladimir Olivares

To: ateneogrupo58@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2011 10:01 AM

Subject: RE: [AteneoGrupo58] Quo Vadis Gloria

Ed,

Sabi nga ni Joker Arroyo even the accused has a right to receive justice in the court. Hanggat wala pa siya kaso sa husgado, me karapatan siyang lumaya at bumiyahe. Ke tagal na iyang mga paratang ng pangngungulimbat at pandaraya sa halalan kelan ba isasampa ang mga paratang na ito. Yun lang.

Maginoo Datu SSI

Vladimir J. Olivares

CC: AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com; vgf0

Re: [AteneoGrupo58] Quo Vadis Gloria

Hide Details

FROM: ed roa

TO: AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com

Wednesday, November 16, 2011 10:19 PM

Bert, I'm not competent to answer that but I surmise that a lot of cases in the backlog are ongoing and are at various stages of completion. In the fairly recent high profile corruption cases against the generals, the Pagcor and others, charges have been filed and are ongoing trial. In fact charges against PGMA and FG are still to be filed (another subject of the controversy).

You may be right to assume that some urgency has been given to the cases pertaining to PGMA even if the DOJ seemed to have moved slowly. Pnoy himself mentioned that he wants the prosecutorial proceedings to start before Christmas. Perhaps there is nothing wrong with that since nobody, even PGMA's camp, raised any protest on it.

Ed R

Re: [AteneoGrupo58] Quo Vadis Gloria

Hide Details

FROM:

· ed roa

TO:

· AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com

Message flagged

Thursday, November 17, 2011 7:31 AM

Jim,

With all the confusion the barring of the exFirst couple from leaving generated, what you suggest seems to be the most sensible way this should have been handled.

Ed R

From: Jaime Morelos <jimmor42@yahoo.com>
To: "AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com" <AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com>; Ateneo for better Philippines <ateneoforbetterphilippines@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2011 1:28 AM
Subject: Re: [AteneoGrupo58] Quo Vadis Gloria

Ed,

I think the best solution will be to follow the Supreme Court TRO and allow GMA go abroad, but if she seeks political asylum abroad then the Supreme Court Justices who voted for the TRO should be impeached for working against the interests of the country.

Jimmy

From: Victor S. Barrios <victorsbarrios@gmail.com>
To: AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2011 11:40 AM
Subject: [AteneoGrupo58] WHAT FR. BERNAS HAS TO SAY

Commentary

Where’s Aquino in all these?

By: Joaquin G. Bernas S.J.
Philippine Daily Inquirer

4:44 am | Thursday, November 17th, 2011

19share440 417

Of course, this is not a joking matter because of the fundamental issues involved. But in the face of the intransigence of executive officials, I cannot help but make a comparison between their actuations and those of Juan Manuel Marquez. Neither can accept a referee’s decision graciously.

The first thing I would ask is: Where is the President in all these?

A basic constitutional doctrine is that the judgment of a department secretary is presumed to be the judgment of the President unless the President expressly reprobates it. The President has not done so. We must therefore conclude that, right or wrong, this is what he wants to happen.

If this is not what he wants, he can easily pick up the phone and tell what the department secretary what he wants. The secretary must obey. At the moment, we know where he stands.

Facts are clear

I believe that the facts are clear enough. A travel ban was imposed on GMA (Arroyo) under the form of a “watch-list order.” In effect, it is a “hold-departure order.”

The lawyers of GMA petitioned the Supreme Court to order the ban lifted. The petition was argued en banc and the Supreme Court spokesperson tells us that among the issues discussed by the justices were the right to travel, the right to life and the presumption of innocence.

In the end, the high court decided to issue a temporary restraining order, or TRO, directing executive officials concerned to allow GMA to travel “effective immediately and continuing until further orders from this court.”

What this means is that only the court, and nobody else, can lift this order. And those ordered by the court must obey—if they recognize that we are under the rule of law.

On Tuesday night, GMA attempted to board a flight to Singapore. On orders of superior authority, GMA was not allowed to depart and had to spend the night at St Luke’s Medical Center-Global City.

Real reason

What was the reason given by executive officials? They argued, eloquently and ad nauseam, that, since they had not yet received the written order, prudence and wisdom prevented them from allowing the flight.

True it is that normally an officer cannot implement a TRO unless he or she has received an official copy. However, considering the circumstances of the person involved and the publicity that surrounded the court’s order, I find the official reasoning to smack of pharisaical adherence to the letter of the law. It seemed that last night only the executive officials had not yet heard of the TRO.

By this morning, however, it became evident that the nonreception of the official copy of the TRO was not the real reason. The justice secretary simply does not want to lift the ban. It was the secretary who imposed the watch-list order. She can lift it even without a TRO.

The justice secretary has already received the TRO. Still, she continues to insist that GMA should not be allowed to leave. The order of the Supreme Court that the TRO is “effective immediately and continuing until further orders from this Court” means nothing to her.

Sad, sad thing

Where in the world are we today!!!

The justice secretary seems to be insisting now that a TRO is not effective once a petition for reconsideration is filed. She intends to file one.

The view that a motion for reconsideration will stop the implementation of a TRO can make any TRO absolutely useless! Wonders will never cease.

What I seem to be seeing in all these and in some public reaction is that anger and hatred of GMA has taken over and reason seems to be consigned to the sidelines. That this seems to affect even the highest executive authorities is a sad, sad thing.

Of course, there is also the fear that GMA might not come back. But the government is not too weak not to find ways to bring her back.

Re: [AteneoGrupo58] WHAT FR. BERNAS HAS TO SAY

FROM: ed roa

TO: AteneoGrupo58@yahoogroups.com

Thursday, November 17, 2011 2:22 PM

Father Bernas explains it very clearly and in gist he states quite emphatically the law must prevail, as Vic Barrios said in an earlier exchange, “lex dura sed lex”, meaning the law is hard but it is the law.

As a non lawyer, non-constitutionalist and non-politician I am always in awe and sometimes uncomfortable with judicature forensics, prosecutorial protocols, court proceedings and technical aspects of law which make the guilty innocent and the innocent ludicrous. Now, I am awakened to the fact that I was Pharasiacal in my attitude and response to the PGMA and FG case. Maybe so because I was, and so did quite a few us, have made a judgement on the Arroyos even before charges were made.

For the layman, one should trust that those vested with the authority and the power to render ultimate judgement on what is right and what is wrong are just, unerring in their wisdom, and are men of good faith. And there lies my unease; Our Supreme court is made up people who have been appointed by presidents of the republic who invariably vote in favour of their benefactors/benefactresses when issues are placed on their benches. The recent event shows clearly this fault when 8 PGMA appointed justices voted in favour of allowing the ex first couple to leave the country while the 5 other justices, presumably allied with the current president voted otherwise. This lack of trust is not unfounded since the former president has had the brazenness to do midnight appointments much like poison pill to stymie the Pnoy administration for so many reasons now unfolding. Unlike faith in the Almighty this faith on an aggrupation put together by politicians and lawyers must earn their robes of impartiality, humanity and independence so that the trust that the citizens give them is not imposed but deserved.

Some late breaking news announced the Ligots are also asking to be given permission to leave the country. If they have not been adjudged guilty then it is their constitutional right to do so. I am afraid this would start a dam burst and you have a long queue at the NAIA and there is nothing Leila de Lima can do about it.

The Law Is Strange But It Is the Law

2011-10-27T11:50:00.003+08:00

Here's a fabulous collection of Strange Laws in the United States that can date back very far. Most of these laws remain in the books today, even if rarely enforced.

Laws shown here have been collected from sources believed to be reliable, however, there are no guarantees. Some might have been repealed some time ago while others may have been amended to make them less ludicrous

I suppose a collection of Philippine strange laws would be longer than this considering the penchant of our legislators to be funny wit or without.

Here are some of my legal interpretations and juridical notes on these Strange Laws:

In Texas, it's against the law for anyone to have a pair of pliers in his or her possession. The way my dentist uses his pliers is criminal.

In Philadelphia, you can't put pretzels in bags based on an Act of 1760. Having a brick in your bag is considered a deadly weapon. They must have heard of my mother in law’s pretzels

Alaska law says that you can't look at a moose from an airplane. It has to be face to face.

In Corpus Christie, Texas, it is illegal to raise alligators in your home. Should apply to the Philippine Congress

In Miami, it is forbidden to imitate an animal. Should apply to Congress, too.

It is against the law to mispronounce the name of the State of Arkansas in that State. Ang daming nahuling Pinoy dito who insist on pronouncing it as Arkansas as spelled instead of Arkansaw

In Illinois, the law is that a car must be driven with the steering wheel. This law is for the prevention of backseat driving.

California law prohibits a woman from driving a car while dressed in a housecoat. In California the dress code is less is good. Bikinis are appropriate.

In Memphis, Tennessee, a woman is not to drive a car unless a man warns approaching motorists or pedestrians by walking in front of the car that is being driven. This is chauvinist. Equal rights dictate that women should do the same for men drivers

In Tennessee, it is against the law to drive a car while sleeping. But I’ve always dreamt of driving a Ferrari

In New York, it is against the law for a blind person to drive an automobile. They must be accompanied by a seeing eye dog tethered to the hood

In West Virginia, only babies can ride in a baby carriage. Adult prams are still to be introduced in the market

In Georgia, it is against the law to slap a man on the back or front. In Italy it is considered a complement to slap a pretty woman’s butt but the front should be with consent

A barber is not to advertise prices in the State of Georgia. Try negotiating the price with someone holding a sharp razor

In Louisiana, a bill was introduced years ago in the State House of Representatives that fixed a ceiling on haircuts for bald men of 25 cents. Barbers should be allowed to charge more. It takes a longer time to cut hair of bald men because it takes time to look for hair to cut

In Oklahoma, no baseball team can hit the ball over the fence or out of a ballpark. No wonder they don’t have a baseball team of note

In Rochester, Michigan, the law is that anyone bathing in public must have the bathing suit inspected by the police Some jobs have the nicest perks

In Kentucky, it's the law that a person must take a bath once a year. At second bath they issue a warning

In Utah, birds have the right of way on any public highway. Reduces highway pizza

In Ohio, one must have a license to keep a bear. If you can’t afford one you just have to grin and bear it.

In Tennessee, a law exists which prohibits the sale of bologna (sandwich meat) on Sunday.
Gay parties...”never on Sunday”

In Virginia, the Code of 1930 has a statute which prohibits corrupt practices or bribery by any person other than political candidates. How handy for politicians

In Providence, Rhode Island, it is against the law to jump off a bridge. Your suicide letter must contain permission from your Mom

In the State of Kansas, you're not allowed to drive a buffalo through a street. It’s okay to drive a Mustang

In Florida, it is against the law to put livestock on a school bus. An extension of the old segregation busing act

In New Jersey, cabbage can't be sold on Sunday.
Germans can’t have their favourite meals on Sundays...another racist law

In Galveston, Texas, it is illegal to have a camel run loose in the street. But you could walk it a mile on a leash.

In North Carolina, it is against the law for dogs and cats to fight.
It causes a pandemonium when it rains cats and dogs

In Singapore, it is illegal to chew gum.
Betel nut is the chew of choice

In Cleveland, Ohio, it is unlawful to leave chewing gum in public places.
Sticking it in private parts is allowed

In Virginia, chickens cannot lay eggs before 8:00 a.m., and must be done before 4:00 p.m. But chicks may be laid at anytime

In New York, it is against the law for children to pick up or collect cigarette and cigar butts. Adults should pick them up themselves

In Massachusetts, it is against the law to put tomato
e
s in clam chowder.
Clams are optional

In Washington State, you can't carry a concealed weapon that is over 6 feet in length. It would be difficult to carry and conceal anything that big anyway

In San Francisco, there is an ordinance, which bans the picking up and throwing of used confetti. It would be unhygienic and can spread yellow fever (Cory’s confetti)

In Kentucky, it is illegal for a merchant to force a person into his place of business for the purpose of making a sale. Their version of the anti-entrapment statute

It is against the law in Connecticut for a man to write love letters to a girl whose mother or father has forbidden the relationship. But the mother is fair game

In Michigan, married couples must live together or be imprisoned. It is a fate worse than imprisonment

In the state of Colorado, a pet cat, if loose, must have a taillight Makes it easier for tomcats on the prowl for loose cats

In Phoenix, Arizona, you can't walk through a hotel lobby with spurs on. You may with galoshes on

In California, a law created in 1925 makes it illegal to wiggle while dancing. Wiggling your ears is just a misdemeanour

In Utah, daylight must be visible between dancing couples. The guy who composed “Dancing In the Dark” must be from out of state

In Michigan, it is against the law for a lady to lift her skirt more than 6 inches while walking through a mud puddle. They haven’t heard of the mini nor the micro-mini skirts

In North Carolina, it is against the law for a rabbit to race down the street. But Hefner’s bunnies are allowed to parade in the streets

In Georgia, it's against the law to spread a false rumour. Ricky Lo can get away with it if it is a blind item

In West Virginia, one can't cook sauerkraut or cabbage due to the odours and the offence is subject to imprisonment. A racist law that must have been enacted at the height of WWII. Somewhere in the US a law against cooking “tuyo” in an apartment building must also exist

In Missouri, a man must have a permit to shave. He must have a shaver too

The law states that more than 3000 sheep cannot be herded down Hollywood Blvd. at any one time. More applicable to Australia or New Zealand. Hollywood Blvd. has wolves in sheep’s clothing

In Texas, it is still a "hanging offense" to steal cattle. Texans love a hanging

OccupyWall Street – What It’s All About

2011-10-10T13:48:00.007+08:00

Occupy Wall Street or OWS is a response to the discomfiture that Americans feel on the aftermath of economic and financial debacles which led to the loss of money, homes and jobs of the ordinary Americans, I think...I’m not sure.

At its present status it may well just be an expression of disgust, helplessness, discomfort for the vagaries of life that visited them. Also, at this point in time there doesn’t seem to be any identifiable objectives advocated by the protestors. What one sees at Zuccotti Park is a mosaic of disconnected plaints and advocacies in an omnibus protest movement. One group would be crying for blood against corporate graft, CEO largesse, disenfranchisement of rights while others speak out for environment, toxic threats in food products and then groups that lambast government programs, spiritual healing, small enterprises and even a woman with a vagina hand puppet striking conversations with anyone caring to do so but advocating nothing...as if saying that all these are vagina talk. The protests, despite the seeming willy-nilly directions it is taking is becoming a burgeoning groundswell, a large amorphous mass, fearsome because of the magnitude it has taken and all the more threatening because of its ambiguity.

Critics have dismissed OWS as nuisance because of its lack of purpose...political purpose. This could be fomented by the left who delight in any display of anarchy in the democratic system; or the political opposition ...something similar to the Tea Party movement which by now has been outstripped OWS. Plausible but within the realm of possibility.

People love to ascribe meaning to events going around us even if there seems to be no apparent ones. Some would liken it as meaningless theatrics...sort of a social theatre of the absurd, others legitimize it as valid protests to the sins of the corporate and financial worlds with Wall Street as its metonymy. Others, still said that it is a test of how effective the Egyptian model of protest is with the use of social networks and texting to rally the people which is somewhat similar to the EDSA 2 revolution where celfones played a vital role. But testing for what and for whom?

Is present day America responding like third world rabble? Is this what Thoreau referred to as men leading lives in quiet desperation? Is this the nation who once stood tall and proud in the community of nations? The representatives of 99% of America all milling around Zuccotti square in senseless anticipation of an inspiration or perhaps something apocalyptic. One wonders whether this is symptomatic of the impending demise of the US...soon to become the late great American nation.

A friend from the US, Ed de Guzman, suggests that it may be a scheme from the left to foment unrest and transform it into a class war. He says that the US is already in the brink of one. The elitist group of Corporate America and Wall Street who the proponents of “making money out of money” a dubious productive endeavour whose true worth or no worth has been exposed by the recent debacles of the financial and economic world. Wealth generated by the system is merely notional and evanescent. In retrospect it does look criminal to put at risk society and nations in a la la land of promises fuelled by dreams concocted by those who plot the wholesale defrauding of people’s security and well being. It paved the way to perdition for millions of people around the globe with the US taking the brunt of it. It is indeed in the category of a heinous crime, a vile abominable act that should be pulled and uprooted from where it grows and interred where it will never surface again to bedevil mankind. He refers to the verse of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Queen Mab which goes...

“Let the axe
Strike at the root, the poison-tree will fall;
And where its venomed exhalations spread
Ruin, and death, and woe, where millions lay
Quenching the serpent’s famine, and their bones
Bleaching unburied in the putrid blast,
A garden shall arise, in loveliness
Surpassing fabled Eden.”

He says further that it makes for interesting discussion when seen against what Steve Jobs, the recent deceased icon of the technological world had to say about a few men’s propensity for speaking out in outrage against the world that we have been heir to but without our permission. Steve Jobs said...

"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. .
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones,
we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

Seen from this light the OWS incident may not be so nonsensical at all. There has to be change even if this is led by the anti-heroes aptly described by Steve Jobs . The misfits, the rebels and the trouble makers now find themselves as part of the oppressed and the victimized 99%. They no longer are the minority but they are the new leaders and heroes in a desolate landscape of desperate humans, a new breed of leaders who are not timid to complain and complain vehemently. They pick up the cudgels for the rest of shell shocked society who are frozen in disbelief that they have become so destitute. The misfits, the rebels and the crazies spearhead the OWS movement. It all sounds like anarchy and disorganized mayhem but it empathically makes the point that the present system must go and that a new order must surface from the debris that litters Zuccotti Park leading to a balanced commercial system, a responsible and risk averse safeguarding of people’s rights, liberties and privileges rather than disenfranchising and defrauding them of their provenance.

If change is actually achieved, the transition period seems worrisome as it is an aftermath of radical changes and would put societies and institutions in turmoil. Is it going to be a violent upheaval or a peaceful transition? Would new ideologies emerge, would the left assert itself and how much intervention from foreign powers will come about? I envision all sorts of scenarios all of them make me shudder.

I reflect on what the woman who had a vagina hand puppet accosting people and striking conversations with them. It might be her way of saying “...hey guys, we’re all fucked up.”

Philippines and Brazil: Declining Catholic Populations l

2011-10-10T10:05:00.004+08:00

Decline In Catholic Populations:
Philippines and Brazil, Lessons In Parallel

Brazil is the largest Catholic country in the world. It has long surpassed the numbers of the congregation enjoyed by European countries from whence Catholicism has had roots.
Of late there seems to be trouble in this Catholic dominant country due to the rate of decline of its membership caused by the slow rate of conversions and the alarming increase of defections to other religious sects mainly to the Pentecostals and other Protestant denominations.
A new study conducted by Brazil's top research institute found that the youth seek out other beliefs from the religion that has been foisted on them at birth. This represents a sea change among a younger generation of Brazilians. It is a fresh challenge for church leaders who are already at grips with the problems of low conversions as well as losses by attrition of parishioners across Latin America. From a robust share of religious affiliation similar to that of the Philippines, Brazil’s Catholic membership has bottomed out at 68% last year. With the rate of decline of the Church in Brazil, Mexico is poised to taking the place of Brazil as the largest Catholic country. Although Mexico is also in a decline its membership is still at high 84% almost similar to that of the Philippines. There seems to be a correlation between a strong Catholic population to the economic level of a country. The lower the economic standing of a country is the stronger the hold to its Catholic congregation. This is a hypothesis that needs validation.
For the Philippine Catholic Church there are lessons to be learned here in parallel. A similar kind of heritage is shared as colonies of Iberian countries and one could speculate that the same oppression of the “indios” existed with the secular government and similarly, abuses experienced from the religious authority. These may have been influential factors that formed their present socio-cultural character. The Brazilians and Filipinos may have similar predispositions towards rebelliousness to an oppressive colonial government. The oppressive colonial government and the abusive religious practices of that time are merged, and perceived as one and the same. With the passing of Spain’s secular rule, religion, is the only remnant of a past hurt and may be burdened with carryover antagonism. The aforesaid may be deemed speculative but in some instances, where it may apply, they may be relevant and explicatory. Our archetypal backgrounds are identical, and that being the case, our reactions and responses to stimuli will not vary too much. Factors that are deemed contributory to Brazil’s decline in its Catholic population may also be present and at work in the Philippine situation.
Other similarities are in the development of the counter forces that have contributed to the Catholic Church’s decline. Namely, these are the aggressive Protestant missionary activities such as Pentecostal efforts at conversion which had opportunities among the poor because of their easy to practice attraction, a media distracted youth, the improvement of life conditions making everyone in awe of technological bling blings, the rigidness of the Catholic stance towards contraception and the existence of more attractive social alternatives other than church events and activities. Add to all these are the promiscuous scandals of Catholic clerics. All these events are helped out by highly efficient telecommunication networks that have a hot housing effect on the development of trends.
In Brazil, a growing middle class which started in the early eighties was a major factor in the decline trend. It seemed that improved living conditions added to the secularization of the public as well as in the rejection of the Catholic Church. It is a curious fact because the middle class has always been the bulwark of morality and that they tend to stay religious more than any other demographic grouping. Sociologists tend to conclude that the hedonistic inclination of a society is an offshoot of material prosperity. More than defections, rejection of any kind of faith or godlessness seems to be the more worrisome trend that has been spurred by prosperity.
Another phenomenon which seems different from ours is that in Brazil it is believed that the Catholic decline was sparked by a “female revolution.” A foundation study discovered that Catholic women, instead of giving up entirely on religion, are largely going to traditional Protestant denominations such as the Presbyterians or Methodists, which are viewed by many as less patriarchal.

There is definitely a downtrend in the Catholic population in countries where they have been dominant. The decline has historical roots which have started from the Reformation in Martin Luther’s time. Initially, Counter-reformation efforts of the Catholic Church were effective but the early gains of the Reformation really hurt the Church in terms of the number of defections and in terms of political influence in the European continent. Through time, despite the Counter- reformation efforts, the decline continued. Some blame it on the focus of the counter-reformation which were on the outward efforts to stem the external bleeding but not in instituting change within a church that has been blamed for being stodgy and incapable of adapting to outward demands of changing times and changing people’s perspectives and attitudes. The convening of the Council of Trent and the much more recent Vatican II would be the counter-reformation responses that would be of some consequence, but, it seemed to be a case of doing too little too late. What transpired in Europe some time ago and contemporary examples like Brazil and other Latin American countries may very well be the template that is repeating itself in Catholic countries outside the Americas and the European continent.

The Catholic Church remains as one of the bastions of Christianity. Its strength is based on discipline and constancy of its practice which at times may also be a reason for disenchantment of some of the flock. Those who have been steeped in Catholic practice, its lore, the observance of sacraments, its unrelenting insistence on its dogma and doctrine are proud to be part of this tradition and heritage and would be difficult to lure them out of the fold. The younger generation who have been waylaid into joining the born again groups have been lured by the "easy to practice" and "interpret as you like" denominations. These enticements plus the fact that this is something new and that peers have joined are hard to ignore. The next step after joining these new groups is complete abandonment of the faith or godlessness. It is so easy to junk a faith that was so easy to acquire and practice because of the shallowness of the joiners' convictions. Strength of faith comes from a high regard of a religion that is steeped in lore and tradition that one fully understands and one that is constant in its stand and consistent in its actions.

Its strength is in its traditional observances of its rites, its practices and the unwavering constancy by which it abides by its doctrines and dogmas, but, it is this very strength that may have been instrumental in causing disenchantment to those who have defected from its fold.
Despite the fact that this has been happening from long years ago and patterns are easily recognized and many lessons from observation and hindsight derived from what has transpired in other countries from early times to the contemporary, the Church may not have learned from these. Perhaps they may have, but, there are no easy solutions to this dilemma that faces the Catholic hierarchy. Addressing the problems and applying solutions to most of them would be tantamount to turning against its long held essential principles.

Steve Jobs : What He Leaves Us

2011-10-08T18:34:00.007+08:00

Steve Jobs is gone. He has left us with a lot of toys and indispensable gadgets to remember him by. A technically excellent person, an innovator, a free-wheeling genius who challenged convention, tore down boiler-plated wisdom, created a workplace where inspiration for excellence was the word.

From some of the memorable quotes ascribed to this great man one can catch a glimpse his beliefs on relationships, his regard of competition (Microsoft, the Japanese), his unique management style, approach to marketing, his lifestyle and philosophical musings.

Truly an iconoclast, he debunks some of the more established principles in marketing such as consumer orientation. He believes that consumers don’t know what they want and it is up to the marketer to show the consumer the product that they will want. This is contrary to what established marketers of consumer products inculcate to all their marketing cadets upon their entry. He doesn’t trust the consumer to know what they want. The only time they would know is when you show it to them.

He thinks that market research is tedious and slow; before the marketer can decide what to sell the consumer has already changed its mind and wants something else. Having been a market researcher, I couldn’t help but consider seriously his not so flattering view of my erstwhile profession. The best retort I could have is to say that it is arguable and may not apply to most fast moving consumer goods. However, it provoked me to summon up and review the raison d’etres of market research momentarily.

A marvellous rugged individualist he frowned upon copycats and those without a pioneering spirit he remarked; “Why join the navy when you can be a pirate.” A frivolous thought and yet so intriguing...beckoning to explore treasure islands of new notions and challenges. He also expressed a long time plaint by the parents of talented young graduates in business schools, who couldn’t understand, how with all the investment they made on their children and the time spent on cultivating business acumen, end up selling soap or in his quote, selling sugared water. This further reinforces the disdain he had about formal and regimented education and lauds those who dare to be different unfettered with the self imposed limits that convention insists on. In his youth he delved into eastern mysticism, even learned calligraphy and experimented with LSD.
His philosophical musings about mortality is inspirational. The transitoriness of our existence should make us set aside vanity, pride and the fear of being embarrassed and of being a failure; all these fall by the wayside at death. Then, shouldn’t we follow our heart and our intuition? he asked...everything else is secondary.

What struck me as gold leafed wisdom are his thoughts on man management. After going through a thorough recruitment intensive interviews, he vested trust on those he has selected and gave them as much space as possible where they can let loose their imagination and talent in a carefully nurtured environment conducive to extracting the best out of people. He demands excellence on his chosen few. He said that his job is not to be easy on people but to make them better. What is remarkable about Steve Jobs is his concern about the team that he built and would not allow the retrenchment of people from his company which is really contrary to any hardnosed businessman’s logical and instinctive response to a crisis. He is responsible for a multibillion dollar business and yet runs it like a Mom and Pop store where loyalty, trust and confidence are given premium over the bottom line. It probably was the reason why he was ousted from a company that he founded because Apple became a public company and the professional management guys taken in to help manage the business where not comfortable with how he chose to run the business.

To Steve Jobs the product is everything. He sets aside the conventional procedure of learning first what the consumer wants and desires then produce a product to match that need. His approach is to select an idea which has been winnowed from a thousand others generated by his enormous brain trust of more than a hundred of wildly imaginative crazed bunch, all in search of “insanely great products” and with high focus harness and apply every available resource to come up with a marvellous creation, a god’s handiwork .

He once remarked that he was as proud of what they didn’t do as he is of what they actually do. The thousands of ideas churned out by his brilliant product development team is the result of long hours of diligent hard work. Most of the ideas are brilliancies by themselves, but, are all set aside once the brightest gem of an idea is recognized. The last words uttered as imprimatur of the completion of a new product is “Click. Boom. Amazing!”

Steve Jobs did not have kind words to his main competitor, Bill Gates. He thinks that Bill is not capable of original ideas and that Microsoft is a company without class and taste and does not bring much culture to their products. The Japanese are even less regarded as he considers them as wasted fish washed ashore.

I guess what sums up his core conviction is the urgency by which one should live our evanescent life and living it with quality minutes, to use a basketball game phrase, since...“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and everyone should be really excellent. Because this is our life.”

Just now the Internet is replete with Steve Jobs items. Reprints of earlier articles on Steve, pictures of him, anecdotes and quotations that are beginning to grow at dizzying rate.

Here are a few quotes culled from the early posts in the internet.

On Work Attitude

They’ll want to do what’s best for Apple, not what’s best for them, what’s best for Steve, or anybody else. (this actually reiterates my oft-repeated mantra of “ubiquitous evangelism” in companies)”

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

On Facing Mortality

“Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

Life is brief, and then you die, you know?"

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

On Accomplishment

“I’m the only person I know that’s lost a quarter of a billion dollars in one year…. It’s very character-building.”

“I want to put a ding in the universe.”

“I was worth over $1,000,000 when I was 23, and over $10,000,000 when I was 24, and over $100,000,000 when I was 25, and it wasn’t that important because I never did it for the money.”

On Competiton

“The Japanese have hit the shores like dead fish. They’re just like dead fish washing up on the shores.”

“Unfortunately, people are not rebelling against Microsoft. They don’t know any better.”

“Bill Gates‘d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.”

“The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don’t think of original ideas, and they don’t bring much culture into their products.”

On Putting Together A Team

“The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.”

“Recruiting is hard. It’s just finding the needles in the haystack. You can’t know enough in a one-hour interview.
So, in the end, it’s ultimately based on your gut. How do I feel about this person? What are they like when they’re challenged? I ask everybody that: ‘Why are you here?’ The answers themselves are not what you’re looking for. It’s the meta-data.”

“My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better.”

“A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.”

“We’ve had one of these before, when the dot-com bubble burst. What I told our company was that we were just going to invest our way through the downturn, that we weren’t going to lay off people, that we’d taken a tremendous amount of effort to get them into Apple in the first place – the last thing we were going to do is lay them off.”

“I mean, some people say, ‘Oh, God, if [Jobs] got run over by a bus, Apple would be in trouble.’ And, you know, I think it wouldn’t be a party, but there are really capable people at Apple.
My job is to make the whole executive team good enough to be successors, so that’s what I try to do.”

“When I hire somebody really senior, competence is the ante. They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is, Are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself.

On Research

“It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

Product Development

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.”

“We’ve gone through the operating system and looked at everything and asked how can we simplify this and make it more powerful at the same time.”

“The products suck! There’s no sex in them anymore!”

“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.”

“Insanely Great!” (referring to his products)

“It comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much.”

“I’m as proud of what we don’t do as I am of what we do.”

“You know, I’ve got a plan that could rescue Apple. I can’t say any more than that it’s the perfect product and the perfect strategy for Apple. But nobody there will listen to me.”

“In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.”

“We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them.”

“Click. Boom. Amazing!”

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

“It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do.
We just want to make great products. (I think he means “insanely great products!”

“So when a good idea comes, you know, part of my job is to move it around, just see what different people think, get people talking about it, argue with people about it, get ideas moving among that group of 100 people, get different people together to explore different aspects of it quietly, and, you know – just explore things.”

On Excellence

“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and everyone should be really excellent. Because this is our life.

And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.”

On Being Differrent

“Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?”

“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?”

“It’s rare that you see an artist in his 30s or 40s able to really contribute something amazing.”

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Early Rebuffs

“I feel like somebody just punched me in the stomach and knocked all my wind out. I’m only 30 years old and I want to have a chance to continue creating things. I know I’ve got at least one more great computer in me. And Apple is not going to give me a chance to do that.”

“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”

“So we went to Atari and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you.’ And they said, ‘No.’ So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, ‘Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.”

On Business Principles

“I’ve always wanted to own and control the primary technology in everything we do.”

“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”

“If I were running Apple, I would milk the Macintosh for all it’s worth — and get busy on the next great thing. The PC wars are over. Done. Microsoft won a long time ago.”

“Apple has some tremendous assets, but I believe without some attention, the company could, could, could — I’m searching for the right word — could, could die.”

“Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.”

“That happens more than you think, because this is not just engineering and science. There is art, too. Sometimes when you’re in the middle of one of these crises, you’re not sure you’re going to make it to the other end. But we’ve always made it, and so we have a certain degree of confidence, although sometimes you wonder."

“Our DNA is as a consumer company – for that individual customer who’s voting thumbs up or thumbs down. That’s who we think about. And we think that our job is to take responsibility for the complete user experience. And if it’s not up to par, it’s our fault, plain and simple.”

"I think the key thing is that we’re not all terrified at the same time. I mean, we do put our heart and soul into these things.”

Innovation

“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”

“The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.”

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

“But it’s a disservice to constantly put things in this radical new light — that it’s going to change everything. Things don’t have to change the world to be important.”

(quotes gathered by Federico Viticci)

Pnoy's Wish

2011-09-28T14:35:00.011+08:00

Pnoy Had A Wish...

Recently, Pnoy announced that his wish is to have an early prosecution of the graft and other high profile cases by 2012. It is a laudable thought but expressed rather weakly as a wish and like wishes one would need a magical wand to make them come true. With the snail’s pace our justice moves, it would be more appropriate to use a horsewhip or perhaps an electric prod rather than the tooth fairy’s wand to help things along.

Our justice system rests on the bedrock belief that the accused is innocent until proven guilty and the guilt has to be proven beyond reasonable doubt even though this may be an impossibility. Due process ensures that the rights and liberties of the individual are protected from errors that he or the defense panel might make and from the less judicious judgments by the courts. Better to err in favour of the accused than having to see an innocent man hanged. That sounds unassailable and difficult to argue against but what about the right of the collective public which seems to be disadvantaged by this judicial school of thought? The overprotection of the individual liberties has been overly favoured at the expense of the interest of the larger body of people, resulting into a situation that is inimical to their safety and well being.The blatancy and the frequency of the cases involving the wealthy and the powerful making use of their money and connections to delay or even subvert the observance of justice is prevalent in Philippine courts that it seems almost impossible to achieve quick justice or just plain justice itself.

The problem with due process is that it tends to drag especially in cases where the accused has the wherewithal to engage the services of high calibre lawyers who know all the dirty tricks of their dastardly trade.

By design, due process is supposed to ensure that the common “Juan” is not victimised by his circumstance and simple perspective, however, most of the cases which have made full use of these advantages are those of the privileged warlord, the bandit elite, the influential politician, the mighty military and others of a similar ilk who invariably engage a “dream team” of lawyers which only they, with their ill gotten resources can afford. The Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) has been a favourite recourse to stay the government’s order and/or provides the accused an extension of freedom indefinitely. Of late, even the medical practitioners have been conscripted as pawns to delay the judicial process.

The ordinary “Juan” more often than not, when accused, ends up staying in jail due to being convicted without proper counsel, not able to secure a bond or for delays caused by an overburdened judiciary.

In theory due process should work for us but in actual fact it doesn’t all the time. Often times it favours an unsavoury few.

Pnoy to make true his wish should start entertaining Draconian measures.

Because of the prevailing situation shouldn’t we consider suspending some the apparent privileges of the accused in due process to level the playing field and give the prosecutors a sporting chance to do good for the state? It could be thought of as an emergency power which the legislature can give to the President as an extraordinary privilege. The good of the many should take precedence against the liberty of a few individuals.

Perhaps we can make an exception on a few select cases where it is imperative to have cases settled in the most expeditious manner unfettered by the constitutional guarantees of an accused person. What is hateful is for some biggie going scot free because of a technicality, a stretched jurisprudence, overwhelming numbers of witnesses, evidences (mostly manufactured) and where there is overuse or abuse of these advantages through the sleekness of arguments of high calibre lawyers, the use of money, influence and all advantages which can be had by the extensiveness of the defendants’ resource. Wouldn’t it be nice if technicalities should not even be considered as it does not make innocent the accused? Errors in procedure on the side of the government should be given an opportunity to be corrected and not used as a reason for the outright dismissal of cases no matter how strong the proof of guilt. It would be nice if there is no provision in the law which inhibit the accused of making statements prejudicial to his case or in some cases a suspension of the Miranda doctrine... or just plain appraisals of evidences and testimonies regardless of how they were acquired. Cases involving graft, plunder, heinous crimes should be the primary qualification for being in the list earmarked for expeditious processing. Wouldn’t it be nice if a temporary amendment is given to eliminate the constitutional prohibition on suspending some of the due process rights in these select cases? Under the constitution, these rights include, among others: the right to the presumption of innocence and to a fair trial; the right to an attorney; the right against self-incrimination; the right of a defendant to know the charges and evidence against him; and the right against double jeopardy.

In the Philippines corruption and governance are hopelessly intertwined but are in opposing ends of a spectrum. Governance seeks to serve the interest of the people...corruption by its use of authority, influence and money serves selfish interests of a small group. We are bound by a justice system that dreams to protect and uphold the rights of the common “Juan” while corruption discreetly or sometimes brazenly arrogates unto itself these rights and finds opportunity to use the very safeguards to protect the common “Juans” to defraud them of their rights and privileges.

C'mon Pnoy, even at the risk of being looked at as a fascist, put on your shining armour and shield, take on the challenge of your wish and be the white knight of our dreams. What do we care if you are likened to an Inquisitor, an Ayatollah, a Hitler or a Stalin (at least for a while) if you are able to realize the dream of prosecuting all the lords of corruption, the robber barons, and the wang-wang gangs in our midst. Everything starts from here; this is the linchpin which holds together the wheels of your marvellous and heroic drive to eradicate corruption in our beloved Pilipinas.

Curious Marketing Definitions

2011-08-29T14:45:00.001+08:00

Marketing Definitions

My friend, Vic Floresca, sent me a list of marketing definitions which made an analogy of the marketing process to that of the adventures of a libidinous cocktail party goer looking to score with the pretty lady guests. I was in marketing and I thought that I could contribute a few definitions of my own. I’m pretty sure that the younger marketing guys could add on a few more culled from the present state of marketing, media, sales, promotions and market research. Vic suggested that it should be introduced into the curriculum as Marketing 101.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her
and say, "I am very rich. Marry me!"
That's Direct Marketing.

You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a
gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her and
pointing at you says, "He's very rich. Marry him."
That's Advertising.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her
and get her telephone number. The next day you call
and say, "Hi, I'm very rich. Marry me."
That's Telemarketing.

You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl. You get up
and straighten your tie, you walk up to her and pour
her a drink. You open the door for her, pick up her
bag after she drops it, offer her a ride, and then say,
"By the way, I'm very rich .Will you marry me?"
That's Public Relations.

You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl. She walks
up to you and says, "You are very rich.."
That's Brand Recognition.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her
and say, "I'm rich. Marry me" She gives you a nice hard
slap on your face.
That's Customer Feedback.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her
and say, "I am very rich. Marry me!" And she introduces
you to her husband
That's Demand and supply gap.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her
and before you say, "I am very rich. Marry me!" she
turns her face towards you ------------ she is your
wife !
That's competition eating into your market share