A4
Opinion
FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 2017
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EDITORIAL
Adelle Chua, Editor
Peso losing luster
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CONOMIC developments and political factors, to a certain extent, are weakening the peso against the US dollar. The Philippine currency has dropped to 10-year lows, closing at 50.39 Thursday with no indications of a quick end to the slump. The impending interest rate hike of the US Federal Reserve Board has largely pulled down the value of the peso against the greenback. With a better investment return, the US dollar has attracted foreign funds away from emerging markets like the Philippines. The rising demand for US dollar in the Philippines is also not helping the peso. Philippine
imports are increasing as a result of a growing economy. President Rodrigo Duterte’s ambitious $170-billion infrastructure program is certain to exert further downward pressure on the peso once the plan is aggressively implemented. Negative sentiments on the Philippines from abroad, however, are playing a key factor on the peso. These negative thoughts, stemming mainly from local political developments, are prompting foreign funds to reduce their exposure to the Philippine financial market. This administration’s bloody drug war that resulted in the killing of 7,000 people has unnerved some foreign governments. Reports of widespread extra-judicial killings and police abuse have generated a firestorm, especially from human rights group.
Amnesty International decried the campaign, claiming in a report that the police “have killed and paid others to kill thousands of alleged drug offenders in a wave of extrajudicial executions that may amount to crimes against humanity.” AI’s critical and well-publicized report will fuel more negative market sentiment on the Philippines. The perception that the government is stifling dissent after the arrest of critic Senator Lilia de Lima has also made foreign fund managers more cautious on investing in the Philippines. It may take a while before the peso regains its strength, notwithstanding the strong Philippine economic fundamentals. Negative market sentiments may linger unless the political scenario soon improves. PENSEES FR. RANHILIO CALLANGAN AQUINO
The problem with justice
The other day, the CA in effect fired Perfecto Yasay, as secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, for lying about his US citizenship. That was an easy choice, a no-brainer. Yasay has not been forthcoming, said a CA top honcho. Had the CA endorsed Yasay, we would have had a DFA headed by one who was a former or current American citizen or is stateless at worst. With a DFA led by a US citizen, you could not have an independent foreign policy. Headed by someone who no citizenship, DFA could have pursued—how do you call it—a multi-polar foreign policy, friend to all, enemy to none. There is not such country today. Back to Gina. Her statistics presented to the CA yesterday are compelling. Mining generates revenues of P82 billion and employs 235,000. Tourism, on the other hand, generates P982 billion and employs 4.7 million. Tourism does not destroy the en-
NOT too long ago, a distraught policeman sought my advice. He had been in the government service for over 20 years and was charged with having beaten up someone he was apprehending who had eluded apprehension repeatedly in the past and had jeered the policeman way past endurance. For this offense he was ordered dismissed from the service, his leave credits forfeited, his benefits denied him and his eligibility cancelled. It was wrong for a policeman to have laid his hands on a recalcitrant knave, but it was overkill to have inflicted on the policeman the bundle of penalties he received. Leave credits were earned through years of service. Why should they be forfeited by one offense? And how does one establish a credible balance between transgression and penalty? That was supposed to have been the dispensation of justice—and that is just the trouble with justice. Lawyers hardly mention it and when they do, they treat it like some philosophical ideal without any practicable measure. In fact, one can ask the philosophical question that has always been raised in respect to penalty: How can reducing this policeman to penury in his old age better the lot of the beating victim—who was not totally undeserving of the manhandling he got? Is it just, for example, to be so hospitable to all complaints and to vex hapless respondents with having to respond to all complaints by the preparation of counter-affidavits, memoranda and position papers? Would not justice demand rather the outright junking of what, on its very face, is pure fabrication, confabulation and oppression? Due process does not mean conceding every demand for the application of process— for processes can be, and have been abused. Congress is one venue for the abuse of process. And in respect to Leila de Lima, while there is not
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Hooray for Gina VIRTUAL REALITY TONY LOPEZ I ADMIRE Regina Paz Lopez (no relation). She is gritty, tough as nails. I tend to share her view that mining has been bad for this country and its people. Considering her toughness, President Duterte should have recruited Gina to manage his illegal drugs war—imagine mass murders nuanced with gender equality and backed by what is claimed to be the largest and powerful broadcast network in the land. ABS-CBN could have mined details of extrajudicial killings as fodder for its popular daily “Ang Probinsyano” series. Some of the takes could be reality TV at its best, meaning action with no retakes. The potential for Gina in charge of the illegal drugs war would have been tremendous! President Duterte has given
signals Gina must paddle her own canoe when facing the CA to secure confirmation as secretary of the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The President has said if she is not confirmed, she will not be reappointed. In managing the DENR and implementing its mandate, Gina has focused on the environment, rather than the exploitation side of natural resources, which is mining. In focusing on the environment, she has been rough. She has no due process, the mines claim. Gina withstood two days of grilling at the bilateral, twochamber, multi-party Commission on Appointments which is out to cut her down to size and deny her a well-deserved plum, a powerful cabinet post to pursue her advocacy. Finance Secretary Sonny Dominguez has told her the cabinet is the wrong place as a venue for one’s advocacy – which is protection of the environment.
Before her appointment to the DENR, I thought Gina’s environmental advocacy (like cleaning once in a while the hopeless Pasig River) was nothing more than a leisure activity for a rich
Gina’s background is literature. In literature, one of the literary devices is hyperbole.
heiress with nothing better to do. The Lopez Business Empire is awesome and Gina has not been active in it. The Lopez family owns half of ABS-CBN Corp.
(which has a market cap of P39 billion) and is managed by her brother, Gabby Lopez. The family also owns half of First Philippine Holdings Corp. (market cap: P40 billion) which is managed by her uncle, Oscar Lopez and his affable son, Peki. Both ABSCBN and FPH are owned by the two Lopez brothers—the late Geny, and his brother, the ailing patriarch Oscar Lopez. Geny’s heirs are Gabby and Gina. If you are looking for a definition of vested interest, you cannot go farther than the 24-member CA. The other day, Gina told the vice chairman of the Commission, San Juan Congressman Ronnie Zamora, “your brother destroyed a mountain!” And Ronnie, a bar topnotcher and a grizzled politician, could not summon a repartee, except a smile. Ronnie’s brother, a nickel miner, backed a different presidential candidate in the May 2016 elections. That candidate, of course lost, despite awesome financial backing from Ronnie’s brother.
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