Opinion
THE bashing suffered by Ms. Mocha Uson from netizens who derided her supposed “appointment” as a social media consultant for the Bureau of Customs under Commissioner Nick Faeldon are most unfair. The unfairness of it all borders on prejudice against those perceived to be “low-class,” as if a caste system prevails in this country. Uson, who along with her group of dancers performed in the Duterte-Cayetano rallies for free, is being excoriated for volunteering to bring to the attention of the BoC complaints by harried balikbayan-box shippers, mostly overseas Filipino workers. Some netizens, perhaps trolls unleashed by Duterte haters, questioned her appointment by Faeldon. Both she and Faeldon disclaimed any official appointment. She offered to help by posting in her well-read blog complaints from OFWs, and Faeldon graciously accepted. What is wrong with that? Is being a “sexy” dancer anathema in this country? Does such a profession bring stigma to anyone? Why then do we allow our children to dance on television shows, with moms so proud of the terpsichorean, if completely Western talents, of their kids? The same brouhaha came about when netizens, even mainstream media, questioned the possible appointment of Freddie Aguilar to chair the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Again, whatever is so wrong with that? Has not the artist brought international acclaim to original Pilipino music? Must our concept of “culture” be confined to those who have schooled abroad in the arts, or those who claim to appreciate “la belle vie”? Why must we exclude the “masa” from art and culture
appreciation, as if only the “effete nabobs” of elitism deserve to be in the pantheons of culture? They even questioned the appointment of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. of an assistant vice president for entertainment, Jimmy Bondoc, and made it appear that this was a presidential appointment. Bondoc, who finished at the Ateneo, incidentally (not as if that is eminent qualification, but just to put the hypocrites in proper place), was appointed by the Pagcor board to be in charge of selecting musical and other talents who regularly provide entertainment in their casinos. You need a doctorate for that? Besides, many of those who perform as Pagcor entertainers complain about their being underpaid by “agents” who are under the cabal of some Pagcor people. Pati ba naman yun pinagkakakitaan? Jimmy was one of a group of dedicated musicians, including Njell, Luke Mejares, Thor, and others too many for me to remember as I write in an instant, who performed all over the country, gratis et amore, the “amore” being love of country fueled by a raging desire for change. Jimmy’s “Takbo,” performed by some of the country’s finest pop artists who volunteered, was one of the emotional reasons that persuaded Duterte to finally take a plunge into the presidency. Ditto for Arnel Ignacio, whom the Pagcor board tasked to be in charge of its community assistance programs. Should we excoriate such an appointment simply because Arnel is just a “comedian?” Come on. Be fair. Change means changing bad attitudes. Change means throwing a misplaced sense of elitism into the dustbin as well. *** The recent Pulse Asia sur-
vey which showed that 44 percent of the respondents are not in favor of charter change “at this time” should not be a cause for worry among the proponents of systems change. That 37 percent are in favor and 19 percent are undecided gives enough comfort for pushing constitutional revision, contrary to what the “nattering nabobs of negativism” (these quotes from the late unlamented US Vice President Spiro Agnew) would want to paint as public resistance to revising the 1987 Cory Constitution. With only 27 percent of Filipinos claiming to know much or enough about the Constitution, and 73 percent hardly understanding what the Constitution is all about, all that is needed to marshal public support is a well-crafted and properly implemented communications effort. Which brings to mind an effort during the Estrada administration to revise the Constitution, but “only its economic provisions” that impinge on foreign capital entering the country, particularly the restriction on ownership of public utilities including media, and restrictions on land ownership. Earlier, when we were sounded out by then President Estrada as his presidential adviser on political affairs, we said we better revise, rather than amend, to include other provisions including the political. But the president pushed only for amending the economic provisions. The instant surveys in August of 1998 showed high public disapproval, especially after former President Cory, Cardinal Sin, and the yellow clique in the politico-economic oligarchy weighed against it. The numbers were two-thirds against amending the economic provisions. I proposed that we launch a communications campaign to
OUT OF THE BOX inform the public. I was given charge of arranging for cabinet and sub-cabinet officials to move around the country, speak to congregations, hold press conferences, all as part of a communications effort. Another group bought full-page advertisements in print media, and engaged media practitioners to support the drive. By December of 1998, we were turning the tide. The number of those against constitutional amendments had been brought down to 58 percent in our internal surveys. Just a little more push, I thought. Then, in mid-January, we were all surprised by the president’s announcement that he was giving up on his attempt to relax the restrictive economic provisions. That evening, just before our usual Malacanang dinner, I asked the president why: “Bakit po kayo umatras?” “E sobra ang opposition ng mga pari at obispo [There is too much opposition from the priests and the bishops],” he candidly replied, in fine saying the effort was costing him too much political capital. “Ang problema, Mr. President, umatras kayo. Yung mga kalaban ninyo, tatandaan ‘yan. Kasi maski anong gawin ninyong panunuyo sa kanila, kalaban na ninyo ang mga ‘yan. [The problem, Mr. President, is that you backed down. Your opponents will remember that. However you try to win them over, they will never be your allies]. They are not appeased; they are just emboldened,” I responded. To which he did not react, other than giving me a pained, even reprobating look. A year and a half later, after Chavit Singson exploded his bomb, as in a carefully planned and orchestrated cacophony, the kalaban I adverted to before, came back with full force—and succeeded in ousting a duly elected President through means unfair if not foul.
Pokemon Go: An irritating harbinger of something great Bloomberg editorial YOU’VE heard of Pokemon Go by now, yes? It’s the pervasively viral, madness-inducing, privacy-invading, weirdly alarming, metaphysically destabilizing new mobile-phone game from Niantic. It’s potentially worth $1.8 billion a year. And it just may herald an important technological shift. Conceptually, the app is fairly simple. Looking through their phones, gamers can see Pokemon characters superimposed on the world around them. The idea is to “catch” the creatures, and to pursue different varieties. The kids love it. But it isn’t just a game: It’s a rudimentary use of something called augmented reality. Us-
ing cameras and sensors, more sophisticated AR can project computer-generated graphics on a user’s field of vision, typically through specialized goggles or visors. It can also show what the user is seeing to remote collaborators, who can in turn manipulate what graphics are displayed. For industry, that’s a powerful combination. Factory workers are experimenting with headgear that displays safety alerts and instructions for machinery. Engineers are using the gadgets to help repair equipment. Rather than pore through technical manuals, they can peer through headsets that recognize what they’re looking at and indicate what needs to be done. As such gear improves, it should cut costs, increase accuracy, save
Dump... From A4 allies in Asia and Europe. The more than 300,000 Filipino-Americans in the US should start a movement to dump Trump. This is the least they can do to show Filipinos in the States are a voting bloc to be reckoned with. This guy Trump has no concept about foreign affairs and international relations The only immigrants he welcomes are the beauties he married from Slovenia like Melania and Ivana from the Czech Republic. Our Miss Universe, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, better beware of the billionaire tramp’s roving eye. While I had some doubts about Clinton before, I am now certain about Trump needing professional help. Trump is a loose cannon with a loose tongue and few loose screws in the head. Only Kim Jong Un probably has more loose screws, mak-
time and make workplaces safer. It also seems likely to spread. Lockheed Martin is using AR to assemble fighter jets. One day, it may prove useful in hospitals or on construction sites. Microsoft’s AR system, called HoloLens, was sent aboard the International Space Station, so that mission control might help with future repairs by dropping annotations into an astronaut’s field of vision. Even for the technically inept, AR could simplify tasks like assembling furniture or fixing a flat. In each case, AR’s power is to project the limitless data of cyberspace onto the physical world. That will give people more information about their environment, new ways to manipulate it and a promising new
ing him unhinged beyond repair. Between the two of them with their fingers on the nuclear trigger, the US and North Korea are facing Mutually Assured Destruction so appropriately abbreviated as MAD. The Philippines and Japan and other countries in the region could suffer severe collateral damage if the US and North Korea unleash their nuclear warheads against each other. Kim has been threatening to send his missiles to the US territory of Guam in the Pacific and as far as the West Coast cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. The North Korean leader is really inviting a preemptive first strike by the US and Trump if elected (heaven forbid) might just accommodate him. How will North Korea’s neighbor and China ally react when the shooting starts? Let’s not also forget third party Russia in the equation. Sison-Duterte war of words While still on the subject of name-calling, President Rodrigo Duterte got back at
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mstdaydesk@gmail.com
Unfair
SO I SEE LITO BANAYO
MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2016
venue for collaboration. In short, it will turn people into cyborgs, but in a good way. For all that, Pokemon Go —like its predecessor in awkward virtual-physical collisions, Google Glass—suggests some looming conundrums. As with everything in the digital age, it will surely erode privacy. How might advertisers make use of such gear? And how do you keep everyone from wandering into traffic, getting robbed or falling off cliffs? Those questions and many more will probably become more urgent as this thrilling, alarming technology takes off. Meantime, enjoy your weird game, Pokemon enthusiasts. You’re playing with the future. And it should only get better from here.
Filipino communist leader Jose Ma. Sison by calling him arrogant. Sison, from his self-imposed exile in Utrecht, Netherlands, described Duterte’s decision-making as volatile and called him a butangero (hoodlum). Duterte canceled a unilateral government ceasefire he had announced in his first State-of-the-Nation Address after Philippine troops were ambushed in Mindanao even before the mechanics for the ceasefire had been worked out by both sides. To be fair and not take sides in this war of words, I think that what Duterte and Sison are saying to each other are, in a sense, true. I can imagine the verbal fireworks when the two get to face each other when Joma comes home for the proposed peace talks if it does still happen. Bruised egos often get in the way of clear thinking. Sison says the things he says from the luxury and safety of his exile in Europe while Duterte, ensconced at Malacañan Palace, does the same thing. It’s like dueling with swords at 10 paces.
RITA LINDA V. JIMENO
Do we really need mining? PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte pronounced that the country would survive without mining companies and that mining as an industry is now at the sunset of its life in the Philippines. To appreciate the President’s words, every Filipino who loves his country must take a look at the following figures. The Philippines has a land mass of only 30 million hectares and a population of now more than 100 million people. Australia has a land area of 76.8 million hectares—more than double ours —yet its population is only 24.3 million as of early 2016. Canada, on the other hand, has a land mass more than triple that of the Philippines, with 99.8 million hectares, and a population of only 35.8 million in 2015. With the size of these countries’ land areas and small populations in contrast to our much smaller land mass and much bigger population, is it logical to allow destructive mining to prosper in the Philippines? Open-pit mining, which has been the trend in mining operations for lower costs, has caused the lopping off of mountains, the killing of flora and fauna, the cutting of trees, the poisoning of the soil and water and the creation of barren wastelands in its wake. Considering the Philippines’ President small land mass and huge population, minDuterte, ever ing will displace inthe man with a habitants of land areas and impoverish them. vision for what It will also cause soil is best for the erosion that can cause untold disasters. So, Filipino people, is why should mining right. be allowed to thrive in the Philippines? On the other hand, even if open-pit mining operations were done many times over in either Canada or Australia, there will be little, if any at all, impact on their respective environments and people. Yet, why are foreign mining firms, most of which are Canadian and Australian, in the Philippines, mining our minerals? It must be remembered that Marcopper—that mining company which caused an environmental disaster in Marinduque, is a Canadian mining company. MRL Gold Inc., that company which violated environmental laws in Agusan del Sur, causing suffering to indigenous peoples, for which the company was sanctioned by the Ombudsman of the International Finance Corporation, is an Australian company. Canada and Australia, as President Duterte said, have the best practices and laws on mining. This means, as columnist Jarius Bondoc once commented these Canadian and Australian companies come to the Philippines to mine because their own countries have strict laws that regulate mining and guarantee jailing for violators. In the Philippines, on the other hand, most politicians are easy to manipulate and there are oligarchs who allow themselves to be used by foreign companies—going around Constitutional restrictions on full foreign ownership—in the name of money, at the expense of the environment and the people. As often stressed by Environment Secretary Gina Lopez, the poorest areas in the country are mining sites. When an area is mined, especially the open-pit type of extracting minerals, the soil, the water and the air get poisoned. Mining sites become barren wastelands that cannot sustain agriculture or fisheries. The water sources such as rivers and lakes become unfit for human consumption. Yet, Secretary Lopez added, the mining industry contributes less than one percent to the Philippine economy. Explaining further, she said that out of P35 billion net in mining proceeds, P29 billion goes to the mining company, and only P6 billion go to the coffers of the government. A meager amount—hardly anything—she said, trickles down to the community that is left with contaminated soil, air, and water. The Environment secretary’s strict stance on mining explains why, when her appointment as DENR secretary was announced, the religious and hordes of lay people in Batangas exclaimed, “May Diyos talaga!” (There truly is God!) At the time the appointment of Gina Lopez was announced, the citizens of Lobo, Batangas and the clergy were in the thick of a struggle against mining in the municipality. You see, Lobo, which lies along the coast of the Verde Island Passage, has been the site of gold mining exploration by an Australian company which sought to be given a permit to do open-pit mining in several mountainous barangays of Lobo, most of which, were watersheds. Before Secretary Lopez’s appointment, and right after the May elections, the mining company was on a roll as it seemed to have mysteriously gained the backing of the local government of Lobo despite widespread opposition by the community. Just when the people of Lobo felt lost and defeated, the President—who has warned mining companies to shape up and follow strict environmental regulations—appointed Gina Lopez to head the environment department. And, indeed, barely a month since her appointment, Secretary Lopez has already closed down or suspended seven mining companies found violating environmental laws. As communities suffering from the impact of mining become more emboldened to complain, and as the Environment Department does its audit of mining operations in the country, the nation can look forward to more mining operations that cause destruction, to be sanctioned, even closed. President Duterte, ever the man with a vision for what is best for the Filipino people, is right. We do not need mining for the little income it contributes to the Philippine economy and the size of destruction it causes. Email: ritalindaj@gmail.com Visit: www.jimenolaw.com.ph