Opinion The cost of congestion THE Japan Internanothing that can change tional Cooperation things except for truly Agency report said radical interventions. Metro Manila’s traffic Many pin their hopes congestion is costing in the Duterte administhe country some P3.5 tration’s much-vaunted billion in lost opportunities a day, up Build Build Build agenda, an array of by a horrendous P1.1 billion that was some 75 “game-changing” infrastrucestimated just six years ago. ture projects—a “golden age,” some I myself drive about 6.5 kilome- call it—that are seen to bring muchters to work from Pasig to Makati and needed relief to long-suffering Metro waste an hour to an hour and a half Manila residents. each way. At least once a week, it gets One of these is the construction of really bad when the trip home crawls the Philippines’ first subway line, a and extends my trip to a stressful two- 25-kilometer railway that is expected hour drive! You know things are ter- to start later this year and up and runrible when we’re thankful when a trip ning partially by late 2021 or 2022. that ought to have been covered in 15 Officials target half of the projects minutes takes less than an hour. to be finished within the President’s The sad thing is that my experi- term. ence is far from isolated. Anyone Elsewhere, the change has to be who works in Makati and tries to fundamental: there has to be a way drive northbound to Edsa during the to reconfigure the city’s infrastrucweeknight rush hour should anticipate ture and mode of development, a close to an hour just drastic rethinking of getting out of the the public transporCommercial Busitation structure, in ness District. When particular, a timeyou hit Edsa from efficient bus system There is nothing that shifts from a Ayala or Buendia you start jostling for multi-franchise to a that can change your space in what zonal monopoly to things except seems like a walking eliminate the colofor truly radical procession with all rums and chaotic lanes packed. Every contest for passeninterventions. single night. gers in every bus From Makati to stop. If government the Ortigas Avenue is successful in flyover the problem building a metroareas are well known to all drivers, wide mass transport solution, the bottlenecks where motorists engage in jeepney problem will slowly disapa crazy contest to crisscross and honk pear as the riding public shifts to a their way around the traffic, all ulti- more convenient and safe way to get mately futile. Hopelessly problematic around the city. are Buendia Flyover, Kalayaan exit, These holistic solutions must then Guadalupe, Pioneer, SM Light Mall, be replicated in the growing cities Shaw, Megamall. Count them and outside Metro Manila, which can weep: seven bottlenecks in a short still advance new models of urban four-kilometer stretch! development and even start a reverse The common denominator, and exodus of workers to new jobs in the many have harped on this before, ap- regions that will greatly ease the conpear to be the buses going in and out gestion in the metropolis. of their designated lanes eating up In the meantime, we have to make three to four lanes of Edsa, already do with measures just to make things clogged with private vehicles. Just bearable. At one point, the installaseveral months back, we were told tion of the Highway Patrol Group that Manila ranked as the tenth most along Edsa brought some relief. As stressful city in the world, an ignoble the metropolis waits for the muchlist led by Baghdad, Iraq; Kabul, Af- anticipated infrastructure developghanistan; Lagos, Nigeria; Dakar, ment, a social marketing campaign Senegal; and Cairo, Egypt. Manila for both motorists and commuters ranks higher than war-torn Damascus, to obey traffic rules and instill basic Syria, at 11th. courtesy on the road would restore Clearly then, the traffic is just one some order and lessen the daily pain of the symptoms of a mega-city that is along Edsa. growing unmanageable by the day. By Already, the hours upon hours that 2025—less than a decade from now— each Filipino commuter spends on it is estimated that Metro Manila’s the road is quality time away from population would grow to 16 million, family and friends, an unseen social while Mega Manila, including the casualty that is not measured in any adjacent provinces Bulacan, Laguna, economic report but nevertheless has Rizal, and Cavite, is seen to balloon to real repercussions in the emotional a 38-million-people megalopolis, one well-being of Metro Manila residents. of the largest in the world. These solutions that for now are just With how bad and seemingly irre- blinks in the horizon couldn’t come versible things have become, there is fast enough.
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courage to face up to Marcos. It is a misconception to say that it was the crowd that emboldened Enrile and his group. Enrile, as anyone who knows him would say, is a man who would die for his convictions. But Enrile is a man who like Marcos makes sure his draconian action is based on the law. He later parted ways with Cory Aquino whom he saw as not competent to run the country. Fidel Ramos who stayed close to Cory was consequently anointed to be housewife Cory’s successor. Former vice president Salvador Laurel also saw that Cory Aquino was not fit to be president and he too, resigned from Aquino’s revolutionary government after writing her a stinging message that the country was in crisis under her reign. Messing with the wrong girl Someone should tell House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez not to talk too much. The title of Speaker does not mean he can speak on anything under the sun. For reportedly branding Davao Mayor Sara Duterte as part of the opposition, the daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte went on social media to slam Alvarez. “How dare he called me part of the opposition. He is messing with the wrong girl,” said Sara Duterte Carpio. She drew Alvarez’s alleged remark for forming a regional party apart
from her father’s ruling PDP-Laban. The Davao mayor has a mercurial temper like her father. It will be recalled she once bare-knuckled punch in the face a city sheriff serving an eviction notice against informal settlers whose shanties were being demolished. Alvarez has denied branding Inday Sara as part of the opposition. Alvarez who’s also from Davao has been making a lot of enemies since he assumed the post of House Speaker. Aside from Inday Sara, he has legal tussles with Davao Rep. Tony Boy Floirendo. Davaoeños are waiting to see what will happen if Alvarez and Inday Sara’s paths cross.It might turn out to be a bigger bout than the one between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Alvaraso being cooked up by boxing promoter Bob Arum. We are not fueling the fire between Inday Sara and Alvarez. This is a looming match of their own making. Now the reason is surfacing as to why Alvarez wants to demolish the mayor—she is a looming rival to his House speakership. Her supporters want her to run as a congresswoman in next year’s midterm elections. For sure she will win the congressional seat in her district and will then challenge Alvarez as House Speaker. A word from President Duterte for the supermajority to install Inday Sara as House Speaker would be the end of Alvarez’s political career.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2018
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Silvio Berlusconi: Italy’s eternal comeback king SILVIO Berlusconi, the billionaire media mogul who dominated Italian politics for nearly two decades, has stepped back into the ring at the age of 81, defying those who dared to believe he had thrown in the towel. Despite sex scandals, serial gaffes and legal woes, the flamboyant tycoon has made an astonishing return from political oblivion to head his centre-right Forza Italia (Go Italy) party, which as part of a rightwing coalition is leading the race for the March 4 vote, according to opinion polls. “Berlusconi has 12 or 13 lives, he’s like a cat squared,” said former premier Matteo Renzi, who is himself trying to win back the top spot next weekend. Although barred from public office owing to a tax fraud conviction, Berlusconi is hoping to position himself as kingmaker in the next government if his coalition wins a majority in parliament. While he has avoided the big campaign rallies in the run-up to the vote, he is a constant figure on television and radio stations and in newspapers, a number of which he owns through his Fininvest empire. The one-time cruise ship crooner who has served as prime minister three times and once owned AC Milan football club, has had a tumultuous love affair with Italian politics, clinching his first election victory in 1994. With his oiled-back hair and winning smile, he has ruled Italy for more than nine years in total. He became renowned around the world for his buffoonish gaffes, friendships with the likes of Russian President Vladimir Putin and late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi, and a colourful private life epitomized by his notorious “bunga bunga” sex parties. Today, his smile is noticeably a little frozen, the facelifts and make-up laid on “as thick as the carpet,” according to an editorial from La Repubblica newspaper, have left the veteran leader somewhat
transformed. But his sense of humr is still in tact. “I’m like a good wine, with age, I only improve, now I’m perfect,” he tweeted recently. Football glory Berlusconi was born in 1936 in Milan to a bank employee father and a housewife mother who always staunchly defended her son’s virtues. The young Berlusconi was a born entertainer. A huge fan of Nat King Cole, he played double bass and entertained club audiences with jokes during breaks from studying law. He worked briefly as a cruise-ship singer before launching a lucrative career in the booming construction sector and then expanding to set up three national television channels and buy Italian football club AC Milan, which he went on to sell in 2017. Berlusconi’s political success has been linked to his football glory. But it is also closely entwined with the power of his broadcasting and publishing empire. His first stint as prime minister lasted from 1994-1996. In 2001, he was elected again after a campaign which included sending a book boasting of his achievements to 15 million Italian homes. He remained in power until 2006—the longest premiership in the history of postwar Italy—and as a divided left floundered, he was voted back in for a third time in 2008. ‘The knight’ in crosshairs of the law But his premiership ended in 2011 in a blaze of sex scandals and fears Italy was on the brink of a Greek-style financial implosion. He nearly mounted a comeback two years later, winning almost a third of the vote with an energetic campaign that, as ever, played up his reputation as a winner—on the football pitch and in the boardroom. But the man the Italian press dub “the
knight” has been unable to escape the clutches of judges determined to nail him. The twice-divorced Berlusconi was forced out of parliament in 2013 after his conviction for corporate tax fraud was upheld by Italy’s highest court. He said at the time he would not “retire to some convent.” But his influence waned quickly after he was given a community service order that he served out working with Alzheimer’s sufferers one day a week in an old people’s home. In 2013 he was also sentenced to seven years for paying for sex with an underage 17-year-old prostitute Karima El-Mahroug, known as “Ruby the Heart Stealer”, and for abusing his powers to get her off theft charges, pretending she was the niece of then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. The Ruby conviction was eventually overturned by an appeal court. Not entirely off the hook though, Berlusconi now faces trial over allegations he bought Ruby and other women’s silence with more than 10 million euros worth of gifts including houses and holidays. Obama gaffe The former leader has gained notoriety for his off-color jokes and diplomatic gaffes, in 2013 likening German politician Martin Schulz to a Nazi, and describing US President Barack Obama as “suntanned.” In a wiretap conversation leaked to the press, he also called German Chancellor Angela Merkel “an unfuckable lard-arse.” The now-ageing politician has slowed down during the current electoral campaign, with a continuous flow of TV appearances but almost no public event. He also grappled with health issues in recent years, undergoing open heart surgery in 2016. When asked about his eventual successor though, he responded: “It’s not easy to find a genius, but as I’ll live to be 120, I will find one.” AFP
Rohingya exodus still growing, six months into crisis HUNDREDS of desperate Rohingya Muslims are still pouring over the Myanmar border into Bangladesh every week, bringing harrowing accounts of torture and murder, six months after a military crackdown sparked the massive refugee crisis. One of the recent arrivals, Nur Mohammad, said his village in Myanmar’s Rakhine state was surrounded by Buddhist vigilantes for days before they were allowed to leave. “The Moghs [Buddhists] torched our houses, kept us confined and starving,” Mohammad said. “Villages are razed to the ground. We walked for days through mountains to reach here.” Thirty-year-old Enayetullah was among the 200 Rohingya who crossed the Naf river into Bangladesh on Friday. Most of his neighbors had left earlier, part of a 700,000-strong Rohingya exodus since Aug. 25, leaving behind desolate and burned-out villages. “We stayed all these months hoping the situation will be fine. But in recent weeks, security forces have taken away our young men. If they abduct 10, only one returns,” Enayetullah told AFP. Enayetullah also accused Myanmar security forces of torching his shop, prompting him and his three brothers to flee their home in Mognapara village near the town of Buthidaung. The military crackdown in the north of Rakhine has been termed “ethnic cleansing” by the United Nations and the United States. While Bangladesh and Myanmar talk of repatriating the refugees, the influx
continues. Some days 200 people cross the border, on others a few dozen make the perilous journey. More than 2,500 have entered the overflowing camps in Bangladesh so far in February. Hundreds of Rohingya villages have been torched in the crackdown, according to refugees and monitoring groups. Human Rights Watch said Friday that another 55 villages have been razed since November. The Rohingya have been systematically stripped of their legal rights in mainly Buddhist Myanmar in recent decades and face rampant discrimination. Myanmar denies seeking to eradicate the minority but refuses to give UN investigators access to an area where thousands of Rohingya are believed to have been killed. In November Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an agreement to repatriate some 750,000 Rohingya over two years. Last week Dhaka sent a list of 8,000 names to Myanmar for verification. No going back But Rohingya leaders bluntly refuse to return. The UN says anyone who goes back must be a volunteer, while Myanmar shows no sign of accepting the Rohingya as full citizens. “If they send us back, we’ll be tortured or killed. We would rather be killed here in Bangladesh. Here, at least I’ll get a Muslim burial,” said Mohammad Elias, whose group has staged protests against repatriation in recent weeks. According to the UN, since the repatriation deal was signed on Nov. 23, nearly 70,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangla-
desh through different routes in and near Cox’s Bazar district. “Those who came in recent days said they were tortured,” Mainuddin Khan, Teknaf town police chief, told AFP. Some Rohingya who remained in Rakhine’s three main Muslim districts said the situation has improved in parts of the region, but life in the empty villages was unbearable. Maun Maung Tin, a Rohingya from Maungdaw, said it was impossible to buy or sell goods and they were afraid to complain to authorities. “The new refugees say that they feel unsafe, threatened and harassed at home, in villages that are often abandoned,” said Kate Nolan, coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Bangladesh. Aid agencies say there is still a critical risk of life-threatening diseases in the overcrowded camps in Bangladesh, where most refugees live in flimsy tarpaulin-andbamboo huts. A new threat looms with the cyclone season that starts in April. The massive storms have killed hundreds of thousands along the coast in the past five decades. “We are concerned about the nature of the shelters, how robust they are and if they are really prepared and equipped for the heavy rains,” said MSF’s Nolan. Despite the cyclone risk, the Rohingya say they are unwilling to go back. “At least there is adequate food here and there is no one to kill or torture you,” said Enayetullah. AFP
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necessity that we should remain midgets, politically. And a Parliamentary government makes necessary the flourishing of a party-system. No one can become a prime minister unless he heads a dominant party and there can be no party, unless people know what it stands for, and how it distinguishes itself from other parties. It will take time, just as it took time to form bad habits, such as the unfettered use of family wealth to win public office. But I am not giving up
on our nation. So, on Tuesday, when the Consultative Committee votes on whether we shall recommend a presidential, parliamentary or a hybrid form, I shall vote for a parliamentary government. And since I have said my piece, there will be no need for a long speech from me!
ploy Filipinos to take serious note, and our own labor officials in foreign countries to be on their toes, always. *** Next month the pollsters will again do their first quarter 2018 research on public opinion. Those results are likely to come out in April. Once more the naysayers speculate that the President’s popularity rating will go down drastically. Which is why they have attributed every price increase to the administration’s tax reform law, called TRAIN. They tried vainly to link the movement in rice prices to TRAIN as well, which is farthest from the truth, which is negligence and short-sightedness on
the part of those in charge of food security. They made a mountain out of the anthill that they saw in SND Lorenzana’s marginal note about Bong Go’s “interest” in the management systems of the navy frigates. They made much ado about the intel report emanating from Washington DC. They are trying to paint efforts to revise a hopelessly outdated Constitution to a sinister plan to establish a Duterte dictatorship. Tell you what: sure there will be a dip, largely caused by recent inflationary patterns which affect the marginalized most. But it won’t be a serious dent, we fearlessly predict.
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Philippines. But we can develop this manner of organizing our body-politic. Why should we give up on the Filipinos’ capacity to make choices on the basis of issues rather than on the idolization of personalities? The Filipino has shown herself to be extremely gifted and clever in several respects. Certainly, there is no
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the horns, and banned deployment of workers to Kuwait? Another president would have been content to merely sympathize with the family of the slain OFW, make a few noises, and then allowed the bizarre crime to fade from memory. But because Duterte refused to blink, despite entreaties by OFWs bound for Kuwait, and stood for the rights of our people no matter how poor they were, the host government had to seek Interpol assistance to apprehend the obvious culprits. Duterte’s resolute action will get leaders of all other countries which em-
rannie_aquino@csu.edu.ph rannie_aquino@sanbeda.edu.ph rannie_aquino@outlook.com