Rule of Law

Students tend to join a group of people somewhat like a

gang,fraternity,sorority in order to consider themselves as to be a part of the
group and to gain such power or advantages –to which they believe.However,is it
just for someone to go through physical torture or abuse as an initiation
conducted to a novice that can cause his unexpected or even ignored death?
The vicious death case of Horacio”Atio” Castillo-a freshman law student
had alarmingly notified back the Republict Act 8049 or the Anti-Hazing Law.His
parents cannot merely accept the situation where his son had gone through
considering the rest of the frat members as “animals”. How could they not
question about it if the school Horacio had entered is a Catholic university which
plays a major role or exemplifies in such these cases.
Anti-hazing law was enacted due to the death of an Ateneo student
wherein injuries were indicated.However,the said act seemed to be not enough
to desist hazing-related cases.Members in charge of Ateneo student death case
were soon released unreasonably which is contrary to the Republic Act 8049
Section 4.The law says that reclusion perpetua(life imprisonment) will be imposed
if process that tooked place upon initiation caused him/her death,rape,sodomy or
mulitation.Did the institution also miss its part in conduction?
According to the law,written notice must be showed to the school authority
not later within 7 days and at the day of initiation,2 school representatives must
be present to observe that no physical harm will be inflicted.But how is it
Horacio’s case so senseless.The law student just went thorugh “dead on arrival”
after the process and suspects of the crime were confirmed as classmates .
The expected to be lawyers or soon to be protectors of the country turned
out to be criminals in no time.We hope that cases of this kind will cease for such
reasons.The parents expecting for a conducive learning tend to lament for a
matter.
The government must take action right now and must make amendments
and clarifications.Executors in hazing must not be released or must be punished
with respect to the law.
 SHS will be worth it
Two more years of schooling will be added upon the daily life of a Filipino
student considered to be as the Senior High School(SHS), after taking the Junior
High School. Parents strongly resist this plan before but now-they cannot do
anything else to cease it since it had already started.But is there really something
to get mad about it?If there is,are the gains enough to surpass the disapprovals?
Parents of course are concerned of the additional years of their children’s
schooling.They hardly opposed that it isn’t needed and can just add burden for
them for they believe that their children will eventually get his or her job.At
first,yes,Senior High School requires money-based from the miscellaneous fees of
the studentAside from it,time is also needed as been expected by the parents for
their children to graduate sooner as possible.But we must understand.
Senior High offers various tracks to any student in which he or she had put
most of his interest in.It may be an Academic track,Technical-Vocational-
Livelihood(TVL),Sports or it can be Arts and Design and under these tracks are
their corresponding strands.
Going through Senior High is a door of opportunities.First,once the student
had graduated and had received his/her certificate,he or she can now go overseas
and do for a living for the works offered by other countries strictly necessitates
someone to show his or her certificate of SHS in order to be accepted.
Aside from that,it is for the learner’s sake and security to become what he
wants to be ,wishing to attain a specific goal with correlation to his abilities and
capabilities as a being.The freedom given to him is a good thing letting him to
strive at his best.
Job-mismatch is a major problem experienced by the graduates because of
dearth of awareness and guidance.The path they are taking along cannot be
determined from themselves if they are going to reach their destination.
Considering the consequences,economy is affected as been related to
employment rate.Senior High is the solution of the problem our country is
lamenting today.We must not worry,Senior High will be worth it.
 Unless he does not want to be…
COMELEC Chairman Andres “Andy” Bautista resigns recently as he
submitted his letter to the President.Letter of resignation is said to be effective
this December in order to give the President enough time to select the successor
but then he added that he will just accept anyway whatever the decision will
be.Why sooner if it can be right now?
However,House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez strongly retorted that the
conceived impeachment against him is still possible to be carried out.Actually,the
said impeachment is now at the Congress.But then,Andy Bautista said that he still
got responsibilities to handle with.
Andy Bautista must have doubting about his plan to desist his desiganated
work and and go out from the title.If the conceived complaint is abolished by the
congress which was once ignored before then he might retain his position as
well.Bautista stated that his childen need him most than ever at this moment.
If two-thirds of the Congress will be affirmative that went with the
complaint if lesser,then it will go the other way around.Bautista was responsible
of taking the criticism about his unexplained impulsive wealth amounting to
billion pesos.
Then,he must make a deal-he is not going to renew his contract as a
chairman that will end up in December instead of completing his term up to the
year 2022.If not,probability of lies is much greater to come out,excusing him to be
the first man to be impeached under Duterte’s administration.
Problem is not a big deal if the President will perceptibly choose the next
COMELEC Chairman.The problem is,if Bautista will not resign right now-he may be
impeached tomorrow.If Bautista doesn’t like to be impeached,he must resign
right now.As long as someone dwells to stick into his position,any impeachment
complain will go process.
 They will be back
President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the Philippine Drug Enforcement
Agency(PDEA) to replace the PNP in taking charge of the drug operation going
through.Back then,he added that the criticisms that echoed around him
persuaded him to put the ideal into action.What will happen then to the 900
million pesos-must be given to the PNP as a budget in the drug operation?Will the
President take it back and give it to the PDEA instead?
PDEA will now be the one leading the action but it seems that the support
will not be going to be that much.The number of the officers in charge is not
rationally appropriate in order to start the conduct.So what must be the plan
behind then?
Simply,the President primarily does want the PNP really to administer
conceiving and hoping a downfall for the PDEA –rest assured their ability and
quantity is not enough to surpass the mark made by the PNP or just even to make
it become less bloody.
Their defense to make an opposition against any-drug related suspect will
be too light making them fail to perform and handle the job.The perilousness of
the situation is at verge at anytime.Few policemen were unexpectedly killed
during the process-how will then the PDEA be dealing with it?
If the President will be giving the budget to the PDEA,the expectation of the
people to them to settle the problem woulde be alright but it seems with a much
more probality that it will be going the other way around.Making the operation
less bloody is incomprehensible depending to the response and reaction of the
suspects making it harder for them to make the base.
The way the PDEA takes the action has its own consequences.The
aggressiveness of the suspects will be the cause of their possibility to be removed
from the position.Making war on drugs less treacherous may mean
disappointments to others since the fights going through among them is
enraging.Less bloody leads to nothing if more PDEA officers will be killed getting
back PNP to take charge.
 Is it another falsification?

Atty. Lorenzo Gadon filed an impeachment case against Chief Justice Ma.
Lourdes Sereno.Due to the voluminous number of evidences ,the plan will push
through.But is the matter real and sufficient enough in form- considered to be
“evidences” in such these cases? Who will be delighted at the end of the show?
A number of allegations were filed to Chief Justice Sereno facing the
complaints of Atty. Gadon for such various reasons.First ,is the Tax or SALN
evasionSereno earned US$745,000 from the government as legal fees for the PIATCO
case. This amount was not reported in her SALN or to the Bureau of Internal
Revenue. Further, Sereno “used public funds to finance her extravagant and lavish
lifestyle” by having the SC purchase a 2017 Toyota Land Cruiser worth PHP5 million.
She ordered its bullet-proofing but “withdrew when news of her impending
impeachment broke out.

Promises, promises
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:18 AM November 04, 2017

Can China’s word be trusted—specifically its much-ballyhooed promise of billions of

dollars of aid to and investment in the Philippines?

That question was asked lately by the Asia Times, which noted a development that
appeared to have escaped general notice given the noise and fog of other issues
besetting the administration: “Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s hometown of
Davao City on the southern island of Mindanao is still waiting for China to fulfill its
vow to provide billions of dollars of aid and investment under its ‘One Belt, One Road’
initiative,” it pointed out.

The promised outlays, made a year ago, include “US$9 billion in soft loans, including a
US$3 billion credit line from the Bank of China, while economic deals including
infrastructure investments would amount to about US$15 billion,” the report said, citing
a Department of Finance study.
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“Yet it remains unclear why Beijing has tarried in making actual outlays while other
One Belt, One Road initiatives are steaming ahead in other Asian countries,” Asia
Times noted. “Some analysts suggest Beijing may be withholding the funds until the
bilateral relationship is more firmly consolidated, including in regard to unresolved
territorial disputes in the South China Sea.”

If promises are made to be broken, it does appear that China is not above that practice
in its relations with the Philippines. Before the rapprochement initiated by the Duterte
administration, the Philippines’ fraught dealings with its giant neighbor over the latter’s
sweeping claims in the South China Sea include many instances of doublespeak and
underhanded behavior, notably its seizure of Scarborough Shoal in 2012 despite an
agreement between the two countries to jointly withdraw from the area until a
permanent agreement on the shoal’s ownership had been reached.

The Philippines complied, but China did not. It was only this year that Filipino fishers
were able to return to the area, but now with Beijing’s assent as worked out by the
Philippine government. In effect, the Philippines had acquiesced to a new reality: What
was traditional fishing ground for generations of fishers from Zambales is now under
another country’s control, and the Philippines is obliged to seek permission for its
citizens to enter the area—or face the water cannons of the Chinese Coast Guard, as had
happened to Filipino fishers in 2014 and 2015.

Despite the Philippines having won a decisive victory over China’s claims in the
Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, China has accelerated its seizure and
land reclamation activities. Satellite images have confirmed China’s newly built
military facilities on a number of islands in the waters, yet it continues to officially
dismiss international protests over such aggressive actions.

And that inability to be transparent can be a problem: President Duterte, at this time, is
only relying on what he claims is China’s promise to him “not to build anything” on
Scarborough Shoal and Pag-asa Island in the Spratlys. No such formal agreement
between the two governments, codified in writing, has been made public, nor has
Beijing independently confirmed the veracity of the promise Mr. Duterte was allegedly
able to extract from it. Even the arbitral ruling, as definitive as it is, has been rejected by
Beijing. What would prevent it from eventually disavowing this so-called promise to
Mr. Duterte when it suits it?

The coming Asean Summit in Manila presents another opportunity for the members of
the 50-year-old regional bloc to insist that China tamp down its tension-building
activities and begin to abide by the Asean-China Code of Conduct in the South China
Sea. The framework of that agreement, adopted in August, pointedly took note of
China’s continuing militarization of the area—a good, but only the first, step in finally
standing up to a problem that threatens the security and stability of Southeast Asia.

MRT nightmare
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:12 AM November 05, 2017

Commuters have had to endure horrific hardship with the incessant breakdowns of
MRT3. Can it be that the government is unaware that MRT3 conks out almost daily, as
many as three times in a rush-hour morning, and even on a holiday like All Saints Day?
There is not a peep from the Department of Transportation, no word of regret, no
assurance that things will get better.

Metro Manila is one of the densest places on the planet, with over 12 million people
living in just over 600 square kilometers. Through the years the traffic has gotten so bad
that the apocalyptic gridlock known as “Carmageddon” is no longer a one-time
aberration but a regular occurrence if it rains, it’s payday, it’s Friday, or — the saints
preserve us — all of the above at any given time.

The rapid transit commuter trains were supposed to be the solution. The Manila Metro
Rail Transit, originally built in 1999, was envisioned to move large masses of
commuters swiftly and effortlessly — the comfortable and modern alternative to land-
hogging, smoke-belching buses and jeepneys and street-clogging cars and other private
vehicles.
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MRT3, running through Edsa, the most important thoroughfare in the country, is
emblematic of what has happened, or gone wrong. Originally imagined to ferry 450,000
riders daily, it is now carrying infinitely more than that: Hordes of determined members
of the workforce climb out of bed in the wee hours to get ahead of the winding queues;
exhausted at the end of the workday, they stream from offices, factories and other
workplaces, each to fight tooth and nail for a slot in the ride home.

We kid you not: Getting into a coach filled to bursting amounts to a daily nightmare for
frazzled commuters. And when the aging, creaking thing breaks down at sundry points
in the journey…

The foul-ups would be comical if they weren’t so damned infuriating, and dangerous.

In September, MRT3 broke down six times in one day. On All Saints Day — a holiday,
meaning it was less crowded than usual — it broke down thrice.

Now when these trains stall, the riders are forced to disembark and walk on the
treacherous tracks until they can get to the next station — and, if things look desperate,
down to the streets and into the battleground of rush-hour land traffic.

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade and his executives should stagger through the
experience — “dehumanizing” is a word often used to describe it — just to get an idea,
a feel, of what’s going on.

Indeed, what’s going on? Is there no end to commuter suffering? Where’s the public
service, or is that too much to expect?

Addressing the traffic problem was a major part of President Duterte’s election
campaign in 2016. Consequently, there was much hue and cry over the plan to declare
the traffic a national crisis that supposedly required extraordinary measures for the
President to solve.
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“[T]his country now needs what we call special laws and emergency powers to address
the traffic situation crisis,” Tugade said last year. The proposed Traffic Crisis Act of
2016 and Traffic and Congestion Crisis Act of 2016 are caught in the legislative mill.
As early as May, MRT3 Operations Director Deo Manalo said the days of train
breakdowns may soon be over.

“When there are more trains, we need additional power. If we run more trains, we need
more power,” Manalo told the Senate committee on public services. “The power
upgrade will be completed by November, and by December we can add additional
trains. By the end of the year, we are sure the long lines will disappear.”

Is that a promise the concerned offices and agencies intend to keep?

Talking about the billion-peso pledged investments that the President had brought home
from his recent trip to Japan, the chair of the House committee on appropriations,
Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, said government agencies particularly the DOTr
should get their act together to push the government’s infrastructure program forward.

“Unfortunately, the people view the DOTr as one of the most underperforming agencies
under President Duterte’s watch, mostly due to the never-ending traffic jams and MRT
woes,” Nograles said. “In the end, the Chief Executive’s alter egos in the Cabinet, in
this case Secretary Art Tugade, must deliver.”

Making deals work for the

people
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:17 AM November 06, 2017

It’s a storyline constantly told the public whenever a president returns from an overseas
trip: He or she has secured this much worth of aid or investments for the country.

The figures are often broad estimates (rounded up for good measure), to give the public
the impression that the cost of chartering a large airliner to fly the presidential party, the
Cabinet, various hangers-on, and their spouses and partners to a foreign capital was
well worth it.
When the tallies are made, those who do the tallying tend to err on the side of
generosity.
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Was this deal negotiated months or years in advance and merely signed in the presence
of the two heads of state?

No matter. Put it in the count.

Was it a private-sector deal that would have happened anyway without government
help?

Throw it in.

Was another agreement a prospective pledge that may or may not happen rather than an
actual “done deal”?

Include it. The more the merrier.

The tone of the official press statements on President Duterte’s recent trip to Japan was
no different. No less than the President was quoted as declaring that the Philippines is
now in “a golden age of strategic partnership” with the North Asian powerhouse that is
also the world’s third largest economy.

The business deals involved manufacturing (particularly shipbuilding, iron and steel),
agribusiness, power, renewable energy, transportation, infrastructure, mineral
processing, retailing, information and communication technology, and information
technology-business process management.
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Mr. Duterte met officials of certain Japanese companies and witnessed the signing of
business-to-business memoranda of understanding as well as letters of intent on
investment plans and expansion of operations in the Philippines.

Key Cabinet officials also met with their Japanese counterparts to discuss improved
market access of Philippine products to Japan and the lowering of tariffs for our
agricultural products such as banana, pineapple and mango, and, possibly, the eventual
removal of these duties in the future.

More importantly, the Philippine and Japanese leaders fleshed out the details of a 1
trillion yen aid package that the latter had earlier promised, as well as financial and
material support for the rehabilitation of war-ravaged Marawi.

The final tally was an impressive $6 billion worth of deals and aid.

But there is something worrisome about this practice of hailing a president’s

“achievements” after a trip overseas (rather like the practice of bringing home
pasalubong).

It is, as an adage puts it, “making a virtue out of necessity” — a necessity for foreign
governments and businessmen, to be precise.

The truth is that the need is mutual. And when viewed in the context of the Philippines’
100-million-strong population — the most dynamic and consumption-oriented in the
region, according to various studies — it can be argued that any given company in
another country needs access to this market more than we do (for there are many
alternatives eager to enter the local market).

We need them, yes. But they need us just as badly for their own economies to keep
growing. They need to sell their products to us, to lend us their money, and to extend
“official development assistance” to help them secure markets and influence. In fact,
sometimes other countries need us even more than we need them.

It is time we changed the collective mindset, and stopped shortchanging ourselves with
the help of officialdom and its private business enablers (who all want a photo op with
the president), as well as analysts and rah-rah teams that propagate the image of a
Filipino head of state coming home with goodies so generously given by foreign
leaders.

Instead, the focus should be directed to making these investments, business deals and
government aid work for the Filipino public. Concretizing these deals sealed abroad
into actual benefits for the people is what deserves real praise.
But as has been demonstrated so abundantly in the past, we are often great with making
plans but do poorly in executing them. The focus should be on making these deals work
and reaping the maximum benefit for Filipinos, whether these are from Japan, China, or
other countries that the President will visit in the future.

That requires real work, not just a press release.

‘Stop the killings, start the

healing’
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:09 AM November 07, 2017

It’s a refrain raised constantly by avid supporters of the Duterte administration

whenever the Catholic Church so much as hints at criticism of the government’s war on
drugs: But what have you done to help? Where is the Church’s hand in the fight against
this scourge of society?

Eleanor Dionisio, associate director of the John J. Carroll Institute on Church and
Social Issues, wrote in a commentary in this paper last week that Church initiatives
have in fact sprung up in the wake of the bloody purge of drug suspects and the wave of
killings everywhere.

“Parishes in the diocese of Novaliches, the diocese of Caloocan, and the archdiocese of
Manila are providing assistance, through counseling and material support, to bereaved
families, drug users, and drug users’ families. The diocese of Cubao has scholarships
for orphans of the antidrug killings and is starting a drug rehabilitation program in
November.”
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But more than these grassroots interventions, the Church appears to be rediscovering its
moral voice, as it has steadily stepped up its calls for the government to do more to stop
the killings.
That voice had been muted for quite some time, rendered wary and defensive in the
wake of the worldwide sex abuse scandal that has tarnished the Church’s stature and
authority, and, nearer to home, by some bishops’ injudicious closeness to and support
of patent corruption in past administrations, including that of President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo.

Under President Benigno Aquino III, the Church won no extra points with its
doctrinaire, demonizing approach to the issue of reproductive health, a subject that a
solid majority of Filipinos, despite their Catholic upbringing, have come to support, as
attested to by numerous surveys.

In the age of no-holds-barred social media, meanwhile, President Duterte has proven to
be a different kind of issue for the Church, a leader with no compunction at publicly
assailing bishops, revealing the abuse he allegedly suffered at the hands of a priest in
childhood, in order to deny the institution any sort of moral standing over him.

And it appeared to work for a while; the President’s overwhelming popularity at the
beginning of his term also saw to that. The Church seemed tentative, fearful, unable to
find the kind of towering voice its late charismatic leader, Jaime Cardinal Sin, had
wielded against the excesses of Ferdinand Marcos’ martial law regime.

That may be changing. The Church appears to have bestirred itself and is back on the
streets, protesting the unabated killings while calling for the country to “start healing.”

On Sunday, thousands of Filipinos joined Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates

Villegas and other Church leaders in a Mass at Edsa Shrine, followed by a march to the
People Power Monument, to ask that the government “stop the violence and uphold the
law.”

The public gathering was on top of a 40-day period of remembrance, marked by nightly
prayers and the tolling of bells, that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines
called for the thousands of Filipinos killed so far in the antidrug campaign, and also
those affected by the war in Marawi City.
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There were no political speeches at the Edsa gathering, despite the presence of such
lightning-rod figures as Sen. Antonio Trillanes and other prominent government
personalities.

In his homily, Villegas trained his gaze not so much on the Duterte administration as on
the people’s troubling response to the culture of violence and impunity under its watch:
“If we do not stop the killings, there will be a punishment for a nation that kills its own
people.”

The archbishop may well have been speaking, too, of his Church. But like the rest of
the country, it has realized, to its horror, the consequences of that apathy and
acquiescence. The voice it has rediscovered will, hopefully, only grow louder.

Damaging the Court

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:10 AM November 08, 2017

New presidential spokesperson Harry Roque knows first-hand what it means for an
institution to sustain substantial damage to its reputation.

As a first-term congressman, he gleefully dove into the cesspool that was the
congressional inquiry into Sen. Leila de Lima’s alleged sins.

The participation of the former human rights lawyer in the demonization of President
Duterte’s chief critic, especially his salacious, sexually charged questioning of Ronnie
Dayan, the senator’s former driver and lover, was a disgusting display of power and
prurience.
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The stench that emerged from those House justice committee hearings continues to
stick to the Batasan grounds, and has even wafted its putrid way to the Supreme Court.

It was this unbecoming conduct that forced Roque’s Kabayan party-list group to
sanction him, and eventually oust him. As it stands, the current jurisprudence favors
incumbents even those expressly nominated to represent party-list groups.
Even as Kabayan’s reputation took a hit, Roque, its first nominee and the cause of its
reputational damage, continued to serve as representative.

So when Roque alleges that the impeachment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria
Lourdes Sereno may damage the Supreme Court itself, we have no choice but to listen.

“I call on Chief Justice to consider resigning to spare the institution from any further
damage,” Roque said on Monday.

He was responding to Sereno’s speech earlier in the day, where she spoke, in passing,
of the “resurgence of political forces threatening and harassing the independence of the
judiciary.

“I do not think the judiciary can survive another decision that would remove an
incumbent chief justice,” he said by way of explanation.

This is rich, or to create a new category of irony that reflects the reckless sense of
privilege of those new to high office or real power, nouveau riche.
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In the first place, Roque was one of those who sought to impeach the chief justice, in
his capaity as a member of the House of Representatives.

Now, as spokesperson of the President, he no longer enjoys that capacity; instead, when
he speaks for the President (and that is the only reason the reporters and the cameras are
there to record his statements), he speaks for the Executive — the same executive
branch of government that earlier said, as it was duty-bound to say and to do, that it was
observing a hands-off attitude to the Sereno impeachment. Roque had yet again
overstepped his bounds.

Second, reporters in the press briefing took notice, and asked him whether his call for
Sereno to resign was in fact the position of the President, the principal he is merely the
agent of.

He replied: “It should be because he called for the impeachment and removal of the
chief justice.”
In short, he did not know but merely assumed that it was so.

There may be no question that the President wants Sereno out, but the role of the
presidential spokesperson is to speak for the President, not to make policy and then
merely attribute it to an assumption that the policy (nothing less than calling on the
head of the third branch of government to resign) “should be” the position of the
President. (This is how you damage the office of the spokesperson.)

Third, the constitutional order established by the framers assumes that the system,
including the judiciary, can survive the impeachment and conviction of the highest
officials any number of times.

The Constitution does not place a limit on the number of times an impeachable position
can be vacated. However, this assumption is based on an even more fundamental
principle: That the process of impeaching and removing a high official, even a chief
justice, follows reasonable rules and meets common-sense expectations.

This brings us to the fourth and main point. The damage to the Supreme Court that
Roque so piously fears can only come from a few sources: A disrespect for the rule of
law, a sweeping disregard for truth, a disdain for those who are at the mercy of the
powers-that-be.

It will not come from the acts of someone defending herself in the rightful way; the
damage will come from politicians and lawyers who place power over law.

In the Month of the Child

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:28 AM November 09, 2017

Family remains the cornerstone of life among Filipinos. It is the one reason overseas
Filipino workers cite for forsaking the familiar, in order to earn a bigger paycheck to
send home. But children might as well be estranged from this tight circle, so often have
they been in the cross hairs of abuse and neglect.
August was a particularly bad month for children. Who can forget 14-year-old
Reynaldo “Kulot” de Guzman, who went missing in August even as his companion,
Carl Arnaiz, 19, was killed in what police initially said was a shootout?

Kulot’s corpse was eventually found days later with torture marks and as many as 28
stab wounds, his head wrapped with packing tape.
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How a boy from Cainta with hardly any money for a meal ended up dead in a creek in
Gapan, Nueva Ecija, some 100 kilometers away, remains a question, as is the identity
of his killers.

Before Kulot and Carl, there was Kian delos Santos, 17, whom CCTV footage showed
being dragged by raiding policemen who later shot him in an alley. Another drug-
related shootout, the police claimed.

Kian’s death brought to at least 54 the number of people aged 18 and below killed in
either police operations or vigilante-style killings in the first year of the war on drugs,
according to

data from the Children’s Legal Rights and Development Center.

“Collateral damage” was how President Duterte last year described cases of children
killed in the course of drug-related police operations. It might seem that the Department
of the Interior and Local Government was being ironic when it announced that the
theme for this November’s Month of the Child is “Bata: Iligtas sa Droga.”

In Congress, children are under siege as well, with lawmakers earlier considering that
the age of criminality be lowered from 15 to 9.

Meanwhile, the Department of Social Welfare and Development cited the many cases
of child abuse reported in the first quarter of 2016: as many as 2,147 cases, or nearly
half of the 4,374 cases reported for the entire year in 2015.

Malnutrition remains another form of child abuse, with the Philippines rated as having
one of the weakest commitments to end this malaise that hits children hardest. The
result is an increase in stunting rates, with about 30 percent of Filipino children
suffering from it, according to the child rights group Save the Children.
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But perhaps the most insidious form of child abuse these days is cybersex, since it
happens right inside the home, often with parents themselves and other kin instructing
children to perform sexual acts before a video camera, with the images sold and
transmitted abroad. There’s no physical contact involved, the parents argue, to justify
their complicity in this horror.

Human rights groups estimate that tens of thousands of children in the Philippines have
been abused in this way. In fact, according to reports, the Philippine National Police
Anti-

Cybercrime Group found 136 cases of children exploited in cybersex dens in 2015 —
the highest number in three years.

All these abuses deserve a closer look in the Month of the Child, which came to be by
virtue of Republic Act No. 10661 signed by President Benigno Aquino III in May 2015.
The month also celebrates the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
(CRC) by the United Nations General Assembly on Nov. 20, 1989, and the Philippines’
subsequent signing of it.

The legally binding international agreement sets out the civil, political, economic, social
and cultural rights of every child regardless of race, religion, or abilities.

Aside from such basic rights as the right to life, to their own name and identity, freedom
of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of association, the right to education and
the best possible state of health, as well as an adequate standard of living, the CRC
acknowledges that children have the right to express their opinions, be protected from
abuse or exploitation, and to have privacy.

Given the rampant abuses committed against our children, the Month of the Child
should prove to be the perfect opportunity for policymakers to mull the initiatives that
would make this period a celebratory paean, instead of a painful reckoning.
Cowardly and shameful
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:28 AM November 10, 2017

A year ago this week the Supreme Court promulgated its ruling in Ocampo vs
Enriquez: the Marcos burial cases. A year on, the country continues to suffer the
consequences of that cowardly and shameful decision.

The most visible consequence is that the Marcos family—responsible for wholesale
plunder and the ruin of the economy, the killing of thousands of dissenters and the
torture of tens of thousands more, the systematic corruption of the political system and
the military—is acting as if it has been fully rehabilitated. A recent party had all the
hallmarks of Imeldific extravaganza. The 100th birth anniversary of Ferdinand Marcos
was observed right at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, with the
family sending out invitations to high government officials and the diplomatic corps.
And heir apparent Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his subalterns are now acting as if they
expect the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, to favor his
electoral protest against Vice President Leni Robredo.

The more insidious consequence, because less visible but potentially more harmful, is
the damage to the reputation of the Court itself. To the observant public, the decision to
allow the burial of the remains of the dictator in a public memorial park which the
majority of nine justices themselves called a national shrine did not—does not—
compute. The eruption of protests in different cities across the country in November
2016, many of them led by the millennial generation, was a clear signal; many people
learned to explain the decision’s manifest unfairness as a mere game of numbers
between two kinds of justices: the practical-minded versus the idealistic.
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The most important consequence, however, is the ruling’s impact, not only on the
Supreme Court’s previous jurisprudence and its understanding of the role it plays under
the 1987 Constitution, but also and especially on the exercise of power by the President
himself.
Essentially, the Court in Ocampo vs Enriquez declined to use the new great power the
Constitution assigned to it after the ouster of Marcos, and decreed that the issue of
President Duterte’s campaign promise to bury Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani
was a political question
and out of its ambit. But the new power to determine “grave abuse of discretion
amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction” was granted by the Constitution precisely
as a response to Marcos’ abuses of presidential power. The new provision drastically
limits the scope of the “political question” defense.

Out of sheer cowardice, the nine-person majority ruled that assailing President
Duterte’s determination to implement his campaign promise was a political question
beyond the reach of the Court. This cannot be correct. What if the campaign pledge in
question was a promise to cede Philippine maritime claims in the West Philippine Sea
to China, as a way to buy peace in the region? This amounts to surrendering both
Philippine sovereignty and territory; will the Court watch idly as the new president
proceeds to implement an obviously unconstitutional promise?

So the mere fact that an election grants a new president the mandate to make good on
his campaign promises does not place such promises beyond the reach of the Supreme
Court. Each one may be challenged precisely on constitutional grounds. In Ocampo vs
Enriquez, the Court severely limited the meaning of the popular will that drove the
Marcoses out of Malacañang in February 1986, and a year later overwhelmingly ratified
the new Constitution; in contrast, it grants President Duterte’s election, with only 38
percent of the vote, with the widest possible latitude. This, again, cannot be correct.

Unfortunately, the undue deference that an intimidated Court showed President Duterte
in the Marcos burial cases proved to be an omen. The same undue deference was the
motive force behind the decision validating the President’s imposition of martial law in
the entirety of Mindanao. We expect the Supreme Court to be the first defender and last
bastion of the Constitution. Its decision in Ocampo vs Enriquez showed us a Court that
failed its duty and betrayed the public’s highest interest.
Killer police back on duty
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:22 AM November 11, 2017

Even at this late stage, with overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the Philippine
National Police insists that there is no extrajudicial killing under its watch.

In October, there was a lone case it recognized as an EJK—the killing of Catanduanes-

based journalist Larry Que—but, presumably swiftly chided by higher-ups, the PNP
spokesperson, Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos, corrected himself just a day later. “We
don’t have cases considered as EJK as of now, so I stand corrected,” he was quoted as
saying. The PNP had, by this time, already tallied 6,225 drug-related deaths since July
2016, according to its records (a number much lower than the estimates of independent
human rights observers). But, in its original statement that was subsequently rescinded,
the PNP said the possibility of citizens becoming an EJK victim was “very remote, if
we based it on facts and not on impression or perception.”

Tell that to the family and relatives of Zenaida Luz, the anticrime crusader in Oriental
Mindoro who was killed by assassins on a motorcycle on Oct. 9, 2016. In a rare
breakthrough, her killers were caught just minutes after their crime—and they turned
out to be a pair of active police officers.
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The shocking revelation that Senior Insp. Magdalino Pimentel Jr. and Insp. Markson
Almeranez were moonlighting as vigilantes was direct, incontrovertible proof of
something the public suspected, but which the PNP had dismissed as speculation: that
at least some members of the police force were somehow involved in the avalanche of
killings happening in the course of the Duterte administration’s war on drugs. That
shadowy connection would appear to explain why, despite the nightly pileup of drug
suspects shot in their communities or abducted and then eventually dumped dead in
some ditch or grassy field, their mysterious killers routinely got away.
But the case of Zenaida Luz and her apprehended killers blew the lid off this hunch and
confirmed it for all to see: that the mask-wearing killers roaming the land indeed
included cops among their ranks.

Is there any doubt that this was, in fact, an EJK case? As Luz’s sister Perlita put it:
“Isn’t it [an EJK] when a state agent, someone in authority, unjustly kills a helpless
civilian? To me, that should be clear enough.”

If the PNP were half as serious about its avowed aim not only to go after criminals
unrelentingly, but also to rid itself of scalawags like Almeranez and Pimentel, here was
a perfect opportunity for it to dissociate itself from such hoodlum behavior. What
organization, after all, would want murderers as members? PNP Director General
Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa takes pains to insist every time—even tearfully on occasion—
that the police organization is transforming itself into a renewed force for discipline and
respect for the law under a supposed tough-minded, no-bull administration.

But only consider what has happened in the Luz case. In a twist that’s even more
shocking than the original news of policemen exposed as vigilantes for hire, those very
same cops charged with Luz’s murder have, after only eight months in detention, been
returned to active duty in the PNP’s Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon,
Palawan) regional police, with their salaries restored and ranks untouched. The PNP
aired the assurance that Pimentel and Almeranez would neither be given assignments in
the “mainstream force” nor allowed to carry firearms—as if that would somehow
mitigate the outrageous notion of law-breaking cops (charged with no less than murder
in this case) performing law-enforcement duties again.

Then again, before this, the police officers involved in what the Senate concluded was a
rubout of Mayor Rolando Espinosa of Albuera, Leyte, while already in prison also saw
their charges downgraded from murder to homicide—and now they’re likewise back on
duty.

What, in the name of all that’s holy, has become of the police force?
Stormy legacy
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:12 AM November 12, 2017

“Yolanda” has yet to be surpassed, thankfully, as the strongest typhoon ever to make
landfall. Four years after it slammed into the Visayas and brought the bustling city of
Tacloban to its knees, it is still being talked about, its victims mourned, and the
destruction it wrought lamented.

At first, no one realized how bad it was. Forming from Micronesia, Yolanda
(international name: “Haiyan”) swept into the Philippines on Nov. 6, 2013, and had
accelerated into a monster by Nov. 8, eliciting Public Storm Warning Signal No. 4.

Eastern Visayas went dark — and Leyte and Samar were ravaged by a supertyphoon
that seemed to have crept up and exploded, flooding seaside settlements.
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Meteorologists worldwide were astounded by Yolanda’s approach. It led to the

phenomenon that Filipinos now know all too well — the storm surge, or the sudden
abnormal increase in the height of sea water caused by a typhoon.

What happened in Tacloban, considered Ground Zero for Yolanda, was nightmare fuel.

Residents drowned in the floods or were swept out to sea. Wind and water tore children
from their parents’ arms. Houses and buildings crumbled in the storm surge; entire
floors of churches and hospitals were flooded. Motor vehicles bobbed in the swirling
waters like toys.
By the time Yolanda had fizzed out on Nov. 11, Tacloban looked like a post-
apocalyptic landscape.

Early this month the World Bank released a report titled “Philippines: Lessons Learned
from Yolanda — An Assessment of the Post-Yolanda Short and Medium-Term
Recovery and Rehabilitation Interventions of the Government.”

It spells out the damage in cold numbers: The supertyphoon hit 171 cities and
municipalities, ultimately affecting 12 million people. It left over 6,300 people dead,
with 1,000 still missing and 28,000 injured.

Yolanda hit the country so badly that it actually sliced 0.9 percent from the gross
domestic product, caused 2.3 million Filipinos to fall below the poverty line, and
eventually cost a total of P571.1 billion.

But the stormy legacy that remains with us is made up of the displaced. Yolanda
rendered over 900,000 families homeless, with more than 1 million houses damaged.
But the real horror movie is the failure of government efforts to deal with the
supertyphoon’s lasting effects.
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The World Bank report states this outright, citing how, “with the scale and impact” of
Yolanda, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council was “not an
appropriate vehicle for coordinating a response, rehabilitation and recovery effort.”

The agency’s confused coordination of the rehabilitation effort among its 42 attached
bodies still haunts us today.

The worst details concern those still waiting for housing. Throughout the Visayas, as
the National Housing Authority statistics show, only 34 percent of the promised
housing units have been built.

That’s only 26,256 units spread across 14 provinces plus Tacloban City. Yet only half
of the 54,180 houses completed are now occupied.
Last January, President Duterte threatened NHA officials that he would make them bear
crosses in public should they fail to accomplish the housing goals by April. That didn’t
work, and the cost is felt by Yolanda’s survivors.

“We want to move out of here,” Cristine Novilla, who had just delivered a baby in a hut
cobbled together from whatever her family could find, said plaintively. Her family is
among the over 4,000 still waiting for homes promised by the government.

In 2015, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who served as presidential adviser on the Yolanda
rehabilitation effort, criticized the Department of Budget and Management for not
releasing the P167.8 billion earmarked for the rehab fast enough.

“My conclusion at that time was that the rehabilitation was not [deemed] important,” he
said. “Because how could you forget to put an item for rehabilitation for Yolanda if it’s
important? And to think we were then in the thick of rehabilitation efforts.”

The apparent paralysis, which includes excruciating processes of securing documentary

requirements, is an old bureaucratic malady that plagues many postdisaster programs.

Will this malady besetting the continuing rebuilding of Eastern Visayas also afflict the
planned rehabilitation of war-torn Marawi City?

The economic future of

Asean
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:10 AM November 13, 2017

While the Association of Southeast Nations (Asean) has been in existence as a mainly
political group since 1967, it was only on Dec. 31, 2015, that a serious economic
cooperation pact was signed among its member-states. With the Asean Economic
Community (AEC), the 10 member-states seek to create a single market and production
base for the free flow of goods, services, investments and skilled labor in the region.
The economic possibilities of the AEC are enormous given that the region has a
combined population — or consumer base — that is bigger than that of the European
Union. It also has a total gross domestic product (GDP) valued at $2.5 trillion and
economies growing at an average of 5-8 percent.

Even without the AEC agreement, the region has seen conglomerates from member-
states expand to neighboring countries usually in partnership with locals, which is
understandable as this gives the investing firm some sort of a guide as to the market it is
entering.
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For the Philippines, conglomerates such as Ayala Corp., Aboitiz, San Miguel Corp.,
and Universal Robina Corp. have managed to expand their operations in Indonesia,
Malaysia, Vietnam and Myanmar. A freer flow of investments is expected once the
finer details of the AEC have been ironed out.

The main constraint to a quick realization of the objectives of the AEC will be the
bloc’s philosophy, known as the “Asean Way,” in which problems are resolved through
compromise and consensus. This has resulted in the very slow pace of accomplishments
for Asean.

For instance, as early as 2007 or 10 years ago, Asean had already developed a blueprint
for the AEC and identified four “pillars” — creating a single market and production
base, a competitive economic region, a region of equitable economic development, and
a globally integrated regional economy.

What followed were delays in the ratification of many proposed agreements and
economic treaties as some member-states were slow in enacting the required legislation
locally.
This expected delay in the AEC’s implementation gives the Philippine government time
to address potential problems or negative effects of the economic integration on the
Philippines.

Foremost will be its impact on small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which risk being
crushed by foreign competition due to their lack of access to capital, experience and
technological know-how.

The government needs to institute programs to address the vulnerabilities of local

SMEs to the expected influx of foreign competitors mainly by addressing their
problems on credit access
and over-regulation.

Another potential problem is in the free flow of labor, and the Philippines has to prepare
for the possibility of losing some of its best talent to its more affluent neighbors that can
offer better salaries and standards of living.
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The government needs to determine how best to regulate labor flow to avoid a potential
brain drain. In the same vein, it should also push for a legally binding regional
agreement on the protection of migrant workers.

Another likely problem area is the agriculture sector, which will face very stiff
competition once the quantitative restrictions such as quotas particularly on rice and
tariffs on other products such as sugar are removed or lowered in compliance with the
AEC.

The government needs to shield the farm sector by improving their efficiency or
diversifying their crops.

On the brighter side, the AEC will provide the more efficient Filipino conglomerates
with a huge market to expand, just as what Ayala’s Manila Water Co., San Miguel
Corp.’s petroleum unit Petron, and Gokongwei’s URC are already doing.
Further into the future, Filipinos can also look forward to fuller economic integration
similar to the European Union’s, which has a single currency and a working trade and
financial framework as if the region were one country.

Also worth looking forward to is an environment where a Filipino will no longer feel
like a foreigner in Singapore or Thailand, but feel like an Asean citizen with the region
as his or her home.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, chair of the government panel, said the declaration of the NDF and its
armed wing as a terrorist group is tantamount to scrapping the peace
negotiations. Screengrab/Presidential Communications, File

MANILA, Philippines — The government peace panel will no longer resume peace talks with the National
Democratic Front (NDF) once President Duterte declares the group a terrorist organization.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, chair of the government panel, said the declaration of the NDF and its
armed wing as a terrorist group is tantamount to scrapping the peace negotiations.

The NDF is the umbrella of all communist groups in the country, including front organizations. The
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) is its political arm, while the New People’s Army (NPA) is the
armed wing.

“If the CPP-NPA is eventually declared as terrorist group, it would probably bring about the official
termination of the peace talks,” Bello told The STAR.

Bello noted that the government does not negotiate with terrorist groups.

Last Saturday, Duterte announced his intention to declare the NDF, CPP and NPA as terrorist group. He
also said he is no longer inclined to continue the peace talks.

Headlines ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1

“When the President mentioned that he might declare CPP-NPA as terrorist group, I am sure he has
moral and legal basis, taking into account that he has the security sector, who provide him the necessary
information to come up with the decision,” Bello said.

“We have given our position to the President and right now we are just waiting for his instruction. But I am
not at liberty to disclose the recommendation of the panel,” he added.

Malacañang said yesterday there was nothing new in the President’s statement that he would declare the
NDF, CPP and NPA as a terrorist group.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Duterte merely agreed with the United States and the
European Union that the NPA is a terrorist group.
“To begin with, the plan to declare the NPA as terrorists is not new. The US is one of the first to classify
the NPA as a terrorist group when the Patriot Act was enacted. The European Union Council also
classified the NPA as a terrorist group,” Roque said in a press briefing.

“If the President makes such declaration, that means he agrees that the NPAs are really terrorists,” he
added.

‘Duterte on propaganda war’

For Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms executive director Ramon Casiple, Duterte is now on a
propaganda war against his critics, particularly those he has accused of plotting to destabilize his
administration.

“I talked to President Duterte during the columnists meeting with him. He said there is a propaganda war
going on in preparation, maybe, in the impeachment against him and the case to be filed before the
International Criminal Court,” Casiple said in a forum on the Mindanao peace process at the Makati
Diamond Residences yesterday.

“My personal opinion, the President is not satisfied (with the actions of NPA). Let’s talk without infighting.
That’s what he wants.”

“It’s not just talk. The dynamics there is the claim of President Duterte that the NPAs are part of the
destabilization. So, why do we have to talk when you are part of destabilization? Even if you are a rebel,
when you are talking you should not attack the other side,” he added.

Women’s group Amihan also expressed concern over Duterte’s threat to proclaim CPP-NPA as a terrorist
group.

“Even before the proclamation, military attacks against lumad community schools in Mindanao continued
and even worsened when Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao and threatened to bomb lumad
schools. During his term, 39 lumad schools were forcibly closed by state forces,” Amihan chair Zen
Soriano said.

“The red-tagging of lumad schools was used by the Duterte regime and the AFP as a justification
to perpetuate multiple human rights violations against lumads, especially the youth and children. What
more when CPP-NPA has been declared as terrorist? How vicious could this regime be when it does not
even differentiate civilians from rebel groups?” she added.

Meanwhile, senators welcomed Duterte’s plan to declare the CPP-NPA a terrorist organization.

Sen. Gregorio Honasan, chairman of the Senate committee on national defense and security, said
declaring the CPP-NPA a terrorist group was Duterte’s prerogative being the commander-in-chief and
having access to sensitive information from his security advisers.

“If the US declared the CPP-NPA-NDF a terrorist organization, why can’t we?” he added.

For Sen. Panfilo Lacson, chairman of the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs, “only a
president with Duterte’s guts can declare the NPA as terrorists and that’s what they are for quite a long
time.
“Their ideology has been gone more than a decade ago. They burn, destroy, kill innocent civilians to
terrorize; they terrorize to sow fear and harass helpless civilians; they harass to extort under the guise of
revolutionary taxation,” Lacson said.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, a critic of Duterte, said the plan to outlaw the CPP-NPA would only be lip
service unless Duterte fires “communists” in his Cabinet.

“Until that day that Duterte actually fires all the communists in his Cabinet, I will assume that this recurring
threat to declare the CPP-NPA-NDF as a terrorist organization is just lip service to appease and deceive
the AFP,” Trillanes said.

Trillanes earlier said at least 12 senior officials and four Cabinet members were communists.

The appointments of former social welfare secretary Judy Taguiwalo and former agrarian reform chief
Rafael Mariano were rejected by the Commission on Appointments apparently because of their
communist links.

Firefights
Before Bello announced the possible cancellation of peace talks, Army troops figured in an encounter
with alleged members of the NPA in Nasugbu, Batangas yesterday morning after the discovery of a rebel
camp in the area on Sunday.

As of yesterday afternoon, sporadic firefights between the opposing forces continued as the military
pursues its quarry, according to the Philippine Army.

No casualty is reported on the part of government forces, while the rebel group has suffered an
undetermined number of dead or injured.

Brig. Gen. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos Jr., commander of the 202nd Infantry Brigade which supervises the
operations, said an enemy encampment was discovered on Sunday by troops from the 730th Combat
Group of the Philippine Air Force under Maj. Engelberto Nioda.

“The encampment is believed to have been occupied by NPA terrorists belonging to KLG Honda, the
same NPA group that incurred heavy casualties during our focused military operations in Batangas City
last September,” he said.
The military said it disrupted the NPA’s plans to sabotage the ASEAN Summit
as joint AFP and PNP forces had been conducting security operations to ensure the country’s peaceful
hosting of the summit since early October.

Maj. Gen. Rhoderick Parayno, acting commander of the AFP’s Southern Luzon Command, said the NPA
has been on the run since September.

“Because of the PNP and soldiers’ sacrifices, commitment and dedication to their mission, the insurgents’
plans were disrupted and the terrorists were never given elbow room to execute those plans,” he said. -
Alexis Romero, Michael Punongbayan, Paolo Romero, Jose Rodel Clapano, Rhodina Villanueva,
Gilbert Bayoran, Artemio Dumlao, Ben Serrano
NO CLASSES
Work in executive government offices and classes at all levels in both public and private schools
nationwide are suspended today for another scheduled transport strike. File

MANILA, Philippines — Work in executive government offices and classes at all levels in both public and
private schools nationwide are suspended today for another scheduled transport strike.

The suspension, ordered by Malacañang, covers local government units and state-run firms but not
Congress, the judiciary and private companies.

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said it is up to private employers to decide if they
would also suspend work.

Malacañang is also leaving it up to Congress, the Supreme Court, independent bodies and constitutional
commissions to make their own declarations.

“We likewise leave it to private employers to make their own decisions,” Presidential spokesman Ernesto
Abella said.

Malacañang ordered the suspension “to minimize public inconvenience arising from the planned
nationwide transportation strike,” he said.

Headlines ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1

He said the announcement was based on Memorandum Circular 28 but Malacañang has not released the
document as of yesterday.

On cue, the Supreme Court ordered the suspension of work today in all courts nationwide.

The Department of Foreign Affairs also announced that its Office of Consular Affairs in Parañaque as well
as its consular offices nationwide will be closed today due to the strike.

Localized suspensions
Local government units across the country followed the order.

Angeles City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan has announced the suspension of work and classes in the city.

Albay Gov. Al Franchis Bichara also declared the suspension of work and classes in the province.

Abra Gov. Maria Jocelyn Valera-Bernos, however, declared classes and work will continue in the
province, saying the transport strike will not affect the affect the province, following the advice of the
provincial police.

In the National Capital Region, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) announced the
Unified Vehicle Volume Reduction Program or the number coding scheme would be still implemented.

The MMDA said it would deploy 41 shuttle buses, trucks and other vehicles to assist stranded
passengers during the strike.
MMDA spokesperson Celine Pialago said shuttle buses would be deployed in strategic areas in Quezon
City, Pasay, Caloocan and Manila.

For its part, the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) would deploy policemen along busy
thoroughfares in Metro Manila to maintain peace and order during the strike.

NCRPO chief Director Oscar Albayalde directed the five police district directors to deploy uniformed
policemen in areas affected by the strike to prevent protesters from harassing fellow drivers who would
continue to ply their routes.

“We would be everywhere to secure the safety of commuters during the transport strike,” Albayalde said.

Traffic policemen under the Police Assistance Desks (PADs) would be deployed along EDSA in Cubao,
Quezon City; Valenzuela City, Navotas, Manila, Parañaque City, Muntinlupa City and Marikina City.

Albayalde also ordered the deployment of policemen in bus and jeepney terminals to prevent violence
erupting between militant groups and non-striking jeepney drivers.

“We would allow the striking drivers to air their grievances but it must be under the sphere of the rule of
law,” Albayalde said.

He said the police districts in Metro Manila should coordinate their efforts with the respective local
government units and the MMDA to minimize public inconvenience.

Anti-PUV modernization
Transport groups are against the public utility vehicle modernization program, saying it would lead to the
phase-out of jeepneys and would force operators to buy more expensive models.

Pinagkaisahang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (PISTON) national president George
San Mateo said the two-day nationwide transport strike starting today is in protest over the government’s
plan to phase out passenger jeepneys.

Militant groups are expected to join today’s transport strike.

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) said today’s transport strike is part
of destabilization efforts against the government.

“We are receiving reports that the transport strike (today) led by PISTON will be supported by left-leaning
groups. Allegedly, the plot is to destabilize the government. On the part of the government, we will be
providing Kalayaan rides and private buses,” LTFRB spokesperson Aileen Lizada said.

The LTFRB had warned earlier that operators joining transport strikes could get their franchises
suspended.

Today’s transport strike is the third of the series of actions by PISTON protesting the government’s
transport modernization program.

The government wants grassroots operators and drivers to purchase new jeepney units instead of
repairing or rehabilitating the old ones. – With Romina Cabrera, Pia Lee-Brago, Edu Punay, Non
Alquitran, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Perseus Echeminada, Ding Cervantes, Celso Am