Balanced Growth and Development

Onething is noticeable at the turn of the century. The interest in sports activity has dwindled at the grassroots level, and there is a sudden rise in professional sports such as basketball, both here and abroad. Sports is now likened as another entertainment venue, and only those who conform to the strict requirements can participate. Furthermore, participation in today’s sports is equated with the material benefits that the player gets from participation.

Gone were the days when sports is equated with academics in school, and education is not purely a mental activity but a physical one as well. This augers well with students who are born physically handicapped, and the rest of the growing children have their taste of flexing their muscles instead of focusing on purely mental exercises. Sports also comes with an added feature – the camaraderie and the unity that comes among those who are engaged in the activities.

Many are therefore happy to know that the BARMM has included sports in their focused area for the development of its constituents. The recently concluded BARMM sports fest was a good example for the education sector to give importance to events such as this.

Sports Fest (for those who have already forgotten what sports is all about) is a gathering where people, growing children in particular, compete or participate in sports, possibly for trophies or awards. It is where people can showcase their talents in different sporting events. It is not just a matter of showcasing talents, but it focuses on the value of sportsmanship.

The Cambridge dictionary defines “sportsmanship as the quality of showing fairness, respect, and generosity toward the opposing team or player and for the sport itself when competing “. A child steep in the value of sportsmanship has better chances of competing as an adult in this highly competitive world. The problem is that this value has less chances of being experienced in academics which many schools have devoted itself to nurturing. There is a need to present venues where this value can be practiced and caught as a lifetime skill.

Our congratulations to those who participated in the recent BARMM sportsfest!

A new feature in the life of Cotabatenos is the installation of traffic lights in strategic corners of the city. It helped in making traffic more bearable, but could the waiting time for lights to change be adjusted? The heat is really suffocating, and waiting for the lights to change is a challenge to those with short tempers. This also calls for a review of the traffic situation of the city where the streets are unfortunately too small compared to the vehicles (both 4 wheels and 2 wheels) using the streets. Most of these are subdivision roads which were enough for the use of its residents before. Now, even those roads are used heavily due to the influx of big and wide vehicles. Calling our Traffic Management Office please! MC

Thepresence of viable clean and renewable energy alternative notwithstanding, big financial institutions have “continued funding of coal and financing of new fossil gas projects which signals a detour away from renewable energy transition.”

This was the finding highlighted in the 2023 Fossil Fuel Divestment Scorecard released earlier this year by the energy advocacy and bank watchdog group Withdraw from Coal: End Fossil Fuels (WFC-ECC, formerly Withdraw from Coal).

According to the report, “As of March 2023, the total amount financed by Philippine banks for coal-related activities and projects reached USD 867.08 million for April 2022 to March 2023, with the majority through bonds underwriting of around USD 594 million while the rest are from loans. Meanwhile, financing for the expansion of new fossil gas projects registered USD 930 million for this scorecard period.”

Leading the list of banks that are into fossil fuel financing, per the report, are BPI, BDO, Metrobank, Security Bank, Philippine National Bank, and China Bank. BPI is the top coal financier; BDO is the top fossil gas financier.

In 2020, the International Trade Administration, a United States government agency, said in its official website that “the Philippine Government has stated it envisions the Philippines being energy self-sufficient, utilizing a combination of fossil fuels and renewable energy as solutions. About 43 GW of additional capacity will be required by 2040, and the country is clearly behind schedule in developing solutions. The current energy mix is composed of coal (47%), natural gas (22%), renewable energy (hydro, geothermal, wind, solar) (24%), and oil-based (6.2%) with current energy capacity at 23GW.”

Three years on, with the WFC-ECC 2023 Fossil Fuel Divestment Scorecard showing the continued huge financing by Philippine banks of coal-related activities and projects, we wonder if the picture of the Philippine energy mix has changed much.

A report by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism earlier this year quotes Matt Carpio, head of transaction advisory at the renewable energy-focused consultancy firm Climate Smart Ventures as saying, “Banks don’t like risks, they like certainty.” The report also cited a paper published by Justin Reginald Nery, a professor at the University of Asia and the Pacific, on the sustainable financing practices of banks which found that “While banks acknowledge the role they play as catalysts in mobilizing capital to finance the transition to renewable energy, merchant plants is published every Saturday by the Mindanao Cross Publishers, Inc., Sinsuat cor Quezon Avenues, Cotabato City. Tel Nos. (064) 4217161 and E-mail Address: mindanao.cross@gmail.com | mincross101@yahoo.com.ph

BY NOW, top Malacanang officials would have read the story I wrote for Manila Standard about Bangsamoro Parliament Speaker Pangalian Balindong issuing an affidavit, interceding for a Presidential Pardon for former ARMM Governor Zacaria A. Candao.

Fr. Rogelio Tabuada, OMI, Chief-Executive-Officer

Eva Kimpo - Tan, Editor-in-Chief

Edwin O. Fernandez, News Editor

Gemma A. Peñaflor, Administration and Marketing Executive

Julito P. Torres, Circulation Officer

Karl John B. Daniel, Graphic-Layout Artist

COTABATO CITY / ARMM CORRESPONDENTS

John M. Unson, Ferdinandh B. Cabrera, Nash B. Maulana, Mark Anthony Tayco & Drema Quitayen Bravo

NORTH / SOUTH COTABATO CORRESPONDENTS

Williamor Magbanua, Romer “Bong” Sarmiento & Louige Allan Tutor

CARTOONIST

Lourd Jim Diazon

I wrote the story for three reasons namely: 1) to help shield the former ARMM Governor’s case from some “professional interests” in the uniformed community at his expense when he is past 70 years old, and in this day and age of officers, including a ranking police officer, arrested right in their turf of security powers; 2) to help clear that case of the cobwebs of misinformation for second generation leaders among kindred who may not have understood the case more properly, and hopefully to help dismiss angles of political motivation and the politics that drove wedge between and among their ancestors, as the descendant leaders move forward; and 3) the story is of public interest.

One such misimpression in the second reason has been that the case could have been left in the back burner of prosecution or could have been dismissed outright when then Secretary Simeon A. Datumanong of the Department of Justice (DoJ) in 2004. The fact however is that the Ombudsman, not the DoJ, procedurally prosecuted that case to the SandiganBayan Special Court, and not the ordinary fiscals (under DoJ) to any other of the usual courts. The case was prosecuted by the Ombudsman in 1994

From the day we first met after some two decades, Speaker Balindong had related to me that he had issued not only a political statement but a judicial statement for former Governor Candao, his co-revolutionary legal counsel for the Moro National Liberation Front, and latter for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Candao was groomed and absorbed as member of the MILF Central Committee.

The lawyers of the former ARMM Governor had continue to be considered risky.”

From a layman’s standpoint, such a stance on the part of banks is not unexpected. They are “in it for the money,” so to speak. They want assurance that the money they put into any project pays dividends.

WFC-EFF has urged banks to abandon fossil gas and coal plans, develop and fully implement policies and mechanisms to reach climate ambitions, and intensify their renewable energy investments. And according to San Carlos Bishop Gerry Alminaza, Convenor of WFC-EFF, the last three years have seen the number of domestic banks having some level of restriction or announced positions on limiting or moving away from financing for coal rise from zero to six. Bishop Alminaza believes “This is the result of communities and civic movements’ unrelenting push to protect our people and our Common Home from any more damage from coal.”

In 2019, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines issued a pastoral letter where they raised an alarm about the situation of the country’s environment as well as its growing dependence on fossil fuel-based energy especially coal which they noted “have been scientifically proven to be among the lead causes of the current climate degradation.” The bishops also agreed then not to allow the financial resources of Catholic institutions to be invested in favor of coal-fired power plants and mining companies, saying “Divestment from such investment portfolios must be encouraged.” petitioned the Supreme Court for the reopening of the case for the respondents considering that one of them was already dead when the promulgation took place.

In 2022, in another pastoral statement, the bishops affirmed their commitment to divest from coal and other destructive industries. Catholic institutions, they said, should lead by example by promoting the use of renewable energy and other sustainable systems in their own facilities and communities, and urged all Church institutions holding the Church’s financial resources to move away from extractive industries, including logging and mining, with haste.

That challenge “to lead by example” continues, no doubt.

Speaker Pangalian Balindong has stated in his judicial affidavit that the only six-digit amount in the Philippine Currency involved in the original charge sheets, were withdrawn from the ARMM finance office under compelling circumstances and in pursuit of a legitimate cause in rebellion which made Candao eligible for a Presidential Pardon.

The Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) covers Presidential amnesty on members of the MILF who may have committed political offenses in pursuit of legitimate cause of rebellion. The Presidential power of amnesty restores the inherent rights and privileges of the pardoned person.

A lawyer consulted by this reporter for this story, said the “ball is now in the Office of the Presidential Legal Adviser,” the 94-year old former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.

It was not clear, however, whether any lawyer has already represented a clemency petition before the Office of the Presidential Legal Adviser.

Lawyer Jose Dalisay III had signified willingness to represent the case, having known Candao when Dalisay was editor of The Mindanao Cross in the 1990’s. Atty. Dalisay had relayed the information to a former media colleague who is close to the Candaos.