What's next

By Mike Banos / January 8, 2007

OUR friends from Steag State Power Inc. in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental are throwing the Mother of All Parties today to mark the formal inauguration of their 210mw coal-fired power plant. While we take off our hats to them for finishing this critically needed power infrastructure in record time, we’re not so sure about sharing their exuberance at the project’s impact on the Mindanao power situation.

Although the grid is being weaned away from its traditional dependence on hydroelectric power plants, the bulk of generated power in the island is still being sourced from the Agus Hydroelectric Power Plants in Iligan City and Lanao del Sur and the Pulangi V Hydro-electric Power Plant in Maramag, Bukidnon.

The Regional Development Council in Region 10 (RDC-10) earlier sounded the alarm over the deteriorating power situation in Mindanao when Arsenio L. Sebastian III, RDC-10 vice chairman and Dr. Modesto Babaylan, RDC 10 infrastructure committee co-chairman, disclosed that Pulangi is producing only 100-120MW of its 255mw rated capacity due to accumulated siltation in the Pulangi River feeding its catchment basin.

According to NPC, system gross reserve in Mindanao starting latter part of 2005 up to end 2006 would no longer be sufficient to meet the 11.9-percent load following/frequency reserve and spinning reserve requirements.

Given this, NPC president Cyril del Callar warns that "recurring power shortages are expected especially during peak periods, when generators and or associated transmission lines are on forced outage."

The Mindanao coal-fired facility is seen easing the situation but energy officials say this would not be enough to make Mindanao immune from power outages. Del Callar said that from 2007 to 2008, power supply is stable as the system gross reserve is sufficient to meet the LFFR and spinning reserve with the entry of the 210 mw coal plant but additional new capacity of about 57 mw will again be needed by 2009 and thereafter, an average of 116 mw annually.

Environment watch dog Task Force Macajalar claims there is no need for NPC to resort to other power sources because existing hydro power plants are enough to support Mindanao’s power needs.

TFM spokesman BenCyrus Ellorin disclosed the Department of Energy (DoE) and NPC earlier said Mindanao’s hydro power sources, if developed to full capacity, can produce 12,000 mw of power.

According to latest NPC estimates, the Mindanao power grid’s existing capacity only ranges from 982 mw to 1,500 mw. Independent power producers (IPPs), on the other hand, are producing 543 mw.

It said Mindanao cannot depend on their traditional hydroelectric sources as they are "highly dependent on the availability of water supply, and watershed supply is dependent on (the state of) our watersheds."

According to their study, the island-region will increase power needs by 2,830 mw in 2011 with a projected growth rate of 11.8 percent from 2005 to 2010. NPC said it is only through the operation of the $305 million Mindanao coal-fired power plant that the demand in 2005 will be addressed.

But Ellorin said there is no need for a new power source when "we can reforest and protect our watersheds and rehabilitate the (existing) power plants."

There is also a second option to tap the Luzon and Visayas grid, which now has an excess power supply of 5,000 mw to support Mindanao.

According to the Energy Department, the country will need an additional 5,450 mw for the period 2005-2014. For 2005, the country’s total power demand is pegged at 9,603 mw while the existing dependable power capacity is at 13,959 mw. This affords the country a reserve margin of almost 30%. It may seem that the country will not have a problem in meeting its power requirements given this reserve. But this figure hides the real situation in the various grids comprising the whole archipelago. Obviously, the country’s power requirements should be analyzed on a grid basis to allow for the real impact of the projected power scenario up to 2014.

In Mindanao, the peak demand for power supply is projected to exceed existing power capacity by 2009. But it is expected that Mindanao will already start to experience shortfalls in power supply as early as 2005 because the of the low reserve margin for the island. A failure in one of Mindanao’s power plants will spell trouble for the entire area. The average power supply reserve margin in the Mindanao grid from 2005 to 2008 is 7.26% which is expected to slip further to 3.93% in 2008.

The Mindanao grid has three sub-grids––North Mindanao, West Mindanao, and South Mindanao. Of the three sub-grids, only North Mindanao enjoys surplus capacity. Both West and South Mindanao grids have to "wheel in" additional power from the North Mindanao to address the peak power demand in their respective areas.

The PDP for 2005 to 2014 stresses the importance of putting up more power generating plants in order to avert a power shortfall in the major islands of the country, most especially in Mindanao with the reactivation of moth-balled heavy industries like the Global Steelworks International Inc. (formerly National Power Corp.) and the ferro-silicon plants in Phividec and Manticao.

The average duration to construct power plants are six years for coal, five for hydro and geothermal, four for high-capacity diesel, gas turbine, wind and low capacity diesel, and eight months for power barge.

So there should be reason enough for today’s celebration that Steag managed to put the coal-fired power plant on-grid in record time, or half the usual duration. Mindanao owes the valiant executives, engineers and technicians from Germany and Japan for saving the island from possible recession. Our hats off too for the Filipinos who worked with them for making this dream come true.

But let’s get this party over quick and get back to the drawing board. As of the moment, no major baseload plant is coming online until the year 2010 and even if planned projects such as the Bulanog-Batang hydro-electric of the electric cooperatives, expansion of the Mt. Apo geothermal, or distributed generation projects of major utilities like Cepalco and Davao Light started construction today, not one of them would be finished in the next three years. Based on available information, not even one of them is close to financial closure.

Nosi ba lasi?

By Mike Banos / November 24, 2006

WHY is the entire city hall up in arms over the setting up of two auto gas LPG stations? Although two hardly accounts for a population that can properly be called ‘‘mushrooming’’ as some reports are wont to exaggerate, you could die laughing at how some of our honorable legislators pontificate about the "potential and safety hazards of LPG." Hee-haw!

Petron presented its ‘‘plan’’ (meaning wala pa ni, drawing pa) to put an LPG refilling station in Osmena, barely a month after Pryce Gas set up a pioneering one along the highway in Gusa.

Petron and Pryce both contend that LPG is safe to use for vehicles. In reply, city hall said it will be issuing a "cease and desist order" against Pryce Gases for its two operating LPG stations. Is it because of the owner’s political inclination rather than safety precautions? I hope not.

Neither do I buy the alleged complaints of foul odor by residents near the two stations and their fears it’s a fire hazard. Hello? Kinsa ba ang dugay nang gagamit ug LPG sa balay? Dayon baho? Delikado sa sunog? Dawbi ang gasoline ug diesel, way baho? Dili ba flammable pud?

A cursory look at the comments of the honorable members of the city council on their objections to the setting up of LPG refill stations for motor vehicles appear to be almost scripted. Meeting all safety and environmental standards is SOP for all types of business establishments, so why are our councilors so worked up about it being a highly flammable material and consistent with zoning ordinances, and all that eck-eck.

As I said earlier, we’ve been using LGP inside our very own homes for decades so everyone is already familiar with its smell and the dangers it poses to the neighborhood, which I bet anyone is considerably lesser than the odors emitted by your conventional gas stations peddling diesel, kero and gasoline. Si Ed Cabanlas ra man ang medyo tarong-tarong sa iyang comentaryo, because storing gas cylinders underground is in fact already standard with all those gas stations located amidst built-up and highly populated urban centers.

Why wasn’t there a peep when the new entrants to the petroleum products industry set up new gas stations in the midst of densely populated neighborhoods like Carmen Ilaya, Nazareth, Kauswagan and Cogon?

LPG is liquid petroleum gas, mostly propane and butane. It is a by-product of oil refining and can be liquefied at room temperature using moderate pressures. The city bus fleet of Vienna, Austria runs on LPG. The fuel is a good substitute for gasoline but suffers from two disadvantages: LPG vehicles are banned from underground parking structures since it is heavier than air but normally odorless and invisible; any spill in an enclosed space creates a serious fire hazard. The chemical industry uses LPG as a feedstock, which drives up prices. Hence, LPG is unlikely to increase its currently low share of the motor fuel market.

Instead of pressing the panic button (at the behest of gas station owners, no doubt), why don’t our honorable members of the city council study Taipei’s experience with LPG-run vehicles? I think it will be a good educational tour for everyone, especially since 2007 is just around the corner.

When Greater Taipei encountered difficulties in setting up LPG filling stations, its EPA sat down with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and other agencies to loosen up regulations to increase the willingness of businesses to apply to set up LPG fill up stations.(Ah na na na na na! Bale na hinuon atong konseho imbes nga mo-encourage sa mga investors niini!)

The EPA noted that promoting LPG as a fuel for motor vehicles is an important policy for the agency. To speed up the process, the EPA announced administrative guidelines for subsidizing the upgrade or substitution of regular cabs for LPG ones (That costs a cool P20,000 for a taxi in CDO, just for the record). The guidelines use economic incentives from the Air Pollution Fund to encourage cabs to switch to LPG. We could use a similar scheme working through the Clean Air Act and we don’t have to wait for the House and the Senate either. The city council can enact this as a local ordinance.

The EPA points out that from the opening of subsidies up until November of 1999, subsidies were given to help 24,539 cabs switch over to LPG. Of these, 14,238 were in the Greater Taipei area, 8,655 in Taipei City, and 5,583 in Taipei County.

However, because the number of LPG refill stations had not grown apace of the number of LPG cars, promotion of LPG vehicles hit a bottleneck. The EPA actively offered suggestions to the Energy Commission of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) on how to break through the impasse.

These suggestions were aimed at revising unreasonably strict regulations that would help out LPG taxis with no place to refill. After a number of meetings and negotiations between various departments, the regulations governing set up of gas stations and LPG stations have been revised.

Now, gas stations and LPG stations can be set up together and the total required area reduced significantly. Furthermore, the installation of private LPG storage facilities has been permitted so that shipping and construction industries, factories or other organizations can install such facilities with central government approval.

The EPA noted that the regulatory revisions have significantly raised businesses willingness to set up LPG stations. Instead of harping about the threats to safety and the environment posed by LPG refill stations, why don’t our honorable councilors simply take a page out of the Greater Taipei experience? Or better still, take an educational tour cum trade mission to Taipei to learn first hand how the Taiwanese did it?

Washing dirty linens in public

By Mike Banos / September 15, 2006

MUCH as I hate washing dirty linen in public, as the famous cliché goes, somebody has to shoot the picture.

A friend of mine just sent me the following email:

One of our foreign clients apparently didn’t have a good experience during his almost two weeks stay here in CDO. It happens that a new hotel member of Cohara where he stayed didn’t have laundry service. He was advised by the staff to avail of it somewhere else (They didn’t even offer to deliver it for him to a laundry shop nor give him directions!).

 Not only is it a shame for a hotel (a big one at that, somewhere very near Robinson’s) not to have a laundry service, but to tell a client (a foreigner) to have his clothes cleaned somewhere else is really ulaw kaayo and stupid.  So how can we invite investors in CDO when those who have been here (and stayed in that hotel) are telling the whole world that Philippines is not a nice place to stay?  FYI for Cohara.

As I was saying in my last column, "Let’s Just Do It." To be 12th among the country’s top mid-sized cities in terms of "Quality of Life" is truly kaulaw after all the breast beating and crowing we do every time we advertise the "City of Golden Friendship" as investor-friendly.

It’s those little things like helping a potential investor get his bag of laundry pressed and cleaned that often makes the difference between an inquiry and a direct investment.

And that’s not all. Let’s do all get our numbers together so our leaders don’t commit basic mistakes in geography that could leave foreigners who have studied the map of Mindanao better than these locals scratching their heads and wondering how a taipan of one of the country’s biggest diversified group of companies, a city mayor and the president of the local chamber of commerce could have gotten their facts so mixed up and broadcast these in public like the gospel truth.

The error started with Lucio Tan’s speechwriter whom the taipan ought to fire on the spot for making his boss look like an idiot. Recently, Tan announced during the 15th Mindanao Business Conference hosted by Zamboanga City that Tanduay Holdings Ltd. was investing P1.25 billion in a new liquor and soft drink factory "in Cagayan de Oro City" beside their state of the heart US$100-million Asia Brewery Inc. factory.

As every school boy or girl from Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental knows, the ABI Brewery reputed to be one of the most modern in Asia is located around 18 kilometers from the boundary of Cagayan de Oro City in the town on El Salvador.

Further inquiries from friends inside the company revealed that the P1-billion Tanduay liquor factory has been under construction for two months now, as was another plant for bottling purified drinking water (Absolute) and still another for bottling soft drinks (Virgin Cola).

 For the taipan of one of the country’s biggest conglomerates to be revealed in public as apparently unaware just exactly where his biggest investment in Mindanao was located, speaks volumes of the slap dash, uncoordinated efforts Mindanaoans are undertaking to push their island as an investment and tourism haven.

To compound that error and confound interested parties here and abroad, Hizzoner and the Oro Chamber both jumped on the bandwagon, profusely thanking the taipan for pouring in his investments in Cagayan de Oro and appreciating the comparative advantages and active private-public sectors partnership that made investing in it a whiz. Well, the investments have started pouring all right, 18 kilometers to the West from the boundary of Cagayan de Oro with Misamis Oriental.

I’ve previously approached both Promote Cagayan de Oro Foundation and the Oro Chamber to address our slide in City Competitiveness as revealed by the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in its biennial study through the Asian Institute of Management’s (AIM) Policy Center "Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Project" (PCCRP).

We could do this with a public-private sector driven ‘‘competitiveness’’ task force which could be co-chaired by Promote CDO Foundation and the Oro Chamber. As suggested by Pueblo de Oro chairman Guillermo Luchangco, we should "benchmark the opposition," be proactive in making the city more attractive and friendly to investors, briefing "champions" in government by personally inviting them to experience the city, organizing teams to personally share first hand experience with visitors, and tempering the city’s vaunted opposition stance so as not to make this a deterrent to potential investors.

Another direction could be organizing volunteer sub-committees to address the seven major drivers of city competitiveness identified by the AIM Policy Center: cost of doing business, dynamism of local economy, linkages and accessibility, human resources and training, infrastructure, responsiveness of local government to business needs, and quality of life. The latest edition of the AIM study shows Cagayan de Oro’s ranking sliding to fourth in infrastructure (from 2nd in 2003); to 10th in cost of doing business and twelfth in quality of life.

Not the least, we can also consider the model used by the GMA administration in identifying five strategies for global competitiveness: ensuring food security and globally competitive labor cost;  reducing electricity cost;  modernization of infrastructure, reduction of red tape in all agencies to cut business costs and mobilization, upgrading and dissemination of knowledge and technology for productivity.

As my buddy Romel used to quote to me from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

Art is long, and time is fleeting,

And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still like muffled drums are beating

Funeral marches to the grave.

The best president we could have had

By Mike Banos / September 11, 2006

THE world’s media attention today would be focused on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack on New York’s Twin Towers, the first time in centuries foreign invaders successfully engineered a massive attack on the continental United States.

Hopefully, Filipinos would not forget this date as being equally infamous in Philippine history as the birth date of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos who was born on this same date in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte.

Today, his 89th birth anniversary, it behooves us Pinoys to look back at his legacy and reflect on how, with all the power at his disposal under martial law, one man held the future in the country in his hands, and how easily, as many still insist, he became "the best President the Philippines could have had." A former aide of Marcos said that "Nobody will ever know what a remarkable president he could have made. That’s the saddest part."

As a colleague in the fourth estate once put it, "The Marcoses were the best of us, and they were the worst of us. That’s why we say we hate them so much."

Marcos apologists claim Marcos was serious about Martial Law and had genuine concern for reforming the society as evidenced by his actions during the period, up until his cronies, whom he entirely trusted, had firmly entrenched themselves in the government. By then, they say he was too ill and too dependent on them to do something about it. The same has been said about his relationship with his wife Imelda, who became the government’s main public figure in light of his illness, by then wielding perhaps more power than even Marcos himself.

Philippine presidents before the "Apo" are now widely perceived to all have trod the path of "traditional politics," a phrase which has gained a negative connotation as the practice of using one’s position to enrich relative, friends and allies. With Martial Law, Marcos rewrote the book on "traditional politics," raising it to new heights of sophistication (or plumbing record depths of greed, depending on whom you ask) through his "politics of achievement."

He became the "ninong" of not just his cabal of cronies but the entire government machinery as well from the judiciary, legislature and administrative branches of government down to the barangay captains and their kagawads and all to all branches of the military and police, using bribery, racketeering and embezzlement.

"Ill-gotten wealth" was another Filipinism which gained notoriety in the martial law lexicon. To this day, probers from the much maligned Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) couldn’t even determination how much wealth the Marcoses have looted from the country and salted away in foreign banks.

Crony capitalism (to cite another word from the martial law lexicon which remains with us to this day) pervaded Philippine business with Marcos cronies holding several key industries under their control such as sugar (Roberto Benedicto), coconut (Danding Cojuanco), and blue chip corporations like PLDT, PAL, Meralco, Fortune Tobacco, SMC, several banks and media print and broadcast institutions.

To this day, many of the Apo’s loyalists (still another from our 9/21 lexicon) insist "Ninong Ferdie" was a gem of a Filipino––a brilliant lawyer, a shrewd politician and keen legal analyst with a ruthless streak and a flair for leadership. They claim he was essentially good but was misguided by his inner circle (or cordon sanitaire, still another from our 9/21 lexicon) including his wife Imelda who once boasted in public that her family "own practically everything in the Philippines."

With his iron hold over the country for over 20 years, Marcos had the rare opportunity to lead the Philippines toward prosperity, with massive infrastructure he put in place as well as an economy on the rise. Unfortunately, he chose instead to build a personal empire that was well on its way to becoming a dynasty.

It is important to note that many laws written by Marcos are still in force and in effect. Out of thousands of proclamations, decrees and executive orders, only a few were repealed, revoked, modified or amended.

Among these is the infamous Presidential Decree No. 1177 or the "Budget Reform Decree of 1977" which provides for, among other things, automatic appropriations for the government’s payment of "behest loans" (another from the 9/21 lexicon which refers to foreign loans disadvantageous to the Philippine government such as the one taken out on the US$28-billion Bataan nuclear plant which produced not even a single watt of power but for which we continue to pay interest to this day).

House Minority Leader Francis Escudero also cites how PD1177 gives the sitting president, who now happens to be Gloria Arroyo, a practically "bottomless" pork barrel she can dispense at her discretion in case Congress fails to enact the budget and the country has to resort to a "holdover budget" from the previous year. That figure, according to Chiz, is 17% of last year’s GAA of P900 billion, or approximately P153 billion.

Transparency International has listed Marcos is the second most corrupt head of government ever, overshadowed only by Indonesian strongman Suharto. But a recent survey indicates many Pinoys still pine for Marcos’ autocratic, strong-arm governance, complaining that too much democracy in post-Edsa Philippines has spoiled the body politic, with divisive standoffs in Congress leading to legislative gridlock, suffocating incarnations of "People Power," deadlocks in the Senate and the resurgence of traditional politicians and dynasties. Many remain nostalgic for the Marcos era, where the government was well-organized and laws were strictly followed by civilians, leading to a relatively disciplined populace.

But Sen. Nene Pimentel, one of the staunchest opposers of martial law, warns: "Unfortunately, some people in and out of government continue to manifest some bias for the reemployment of martial law methods ostensibly for the development of the country. It may, thus, be proper to recall that martial law was touted in 1972 by the then President Ferdinand E. Marcos as the panacea for the ills besetting the country. He said he had imposed martial law because he wanted to eradicate the massive poverty of the people; to contain the rising tide of the communist insurgency, and eliminate the pervasive corruption in government.

History, however, unequivocally tells us that Marcos miserably failed to achieve any of his announced martial law goals. The poverty levels increased; the communist insurgency attracted more recruits; and corruption became a way of life not only in government circles but in the private sector as well.

Amartya Sen, the 1999 Nobel Prize winner in economics, debunks the idea that authoritarian rule facilitates the development of nations as advocated by the former prime minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew. In fact, Dr. Sen says that there is little evidence that authoritarian politics actually helps economic growth. Indeed, the empirical evidence "very strongly suggests that economic growth is more a matter of friendlier economic climate than of a harsher political system."(Development as Freedom, pp.15-16)."

The merits and demerits of Marcos the President and his legacy of 20 years of martial law will remain a bone of contention many generations beyond ours, but it is evident that the Edsa Revolution that led to his downfall has left Philippine society polarized, perhaps beyond repair.

Many pine for the good old days of the New Society, its peace and stability, and relative prosperity compared to the chaos of the Cory years, and the degenerating quality of life under Tabako, Erap and now GMA. Ironically, many of the economic problems hounding the country today have their genesis in the behest loans the country took out under martial law.

Sen. Nene Pimentel warns: "God forbid that martial law in any shape or form will ever be imposed again in this our beloved land. As the current motto of the Marines, which is lifted from an Israeli marker at the entrance of Masada, the place where Jews had killed themselves centuries ago rather than surrender to the invaders, put it: numquam iterum, never again."

To put today’s 89th anniversary of the Apo’s birthday and his martial law legacy in its proper context, Filipinos would do well to place their fate in the hands of the Almighty and recall the immortal lines of Rudyard Kipling’s "Recessional":

The tumult and

the shouting dies;

The captains and

the kings depart:

Still stands

Thine ancient sacrifice,

An humble

and a contrite heart.

Lord God of Hosts,

be with us yet,

Salamat, Alan

By Mike Banos / August 18, 2006

I HAD what can properly and justifiably be termed as a miraculous experience last Tuesday, Aug. 15. I lost, and got back, my cellphone, which if one goes by the experience of the majority of our paisanos should have been lost forever.

I’ve just come back from the Gold Star Daily office in Gusa after seeing our publisher Toto Chu and editor-in-chief Herbie Gomez and was rushing to my next appointment at Pagasa when to my extreme consternation, I found the belt case for my cellphone empty.

I thought it just dropped into some corner of the seat since I was sitting in front with the driver but he said he heard a lagarat which could have been my cellphone saying sayonara before it disintegrated into smithereens. With not much hope, mainly because I didn’t think the phone could’ve survived a fall from a moving vehicle, I texted my phone from another, just in case. Basin diay...

To make a long story short, it turned out that I must have dropped it as I climbed aboard the jeepney near the Gold Star Daily office since that’s where the person who found it picked it up barely seconds before another person riding a motorcycle was about to pick it up but must have changed his mind since the man who eventually picked it up was wearing a military style cap and intimidated him.

I later found out he was Alan Labares y Wabe, who worked as a security guard for Valiant Security Services and assigned to the Insular Life building where our good friend Ravin Paredes used to work before he left for Davao. Alan is also a Unit Leader of Purok Talidhay in Barangay Gusa, which says much for him despite his humble occupation.

Alan was doing his daily exercise aboard his bicycle when he picked up my phone near the highway and brought it to their punong barangay, Cerila "Laling" Jabiniao. It was only much later when both barangay officials politely asked me questions about the contents of my phone that I realized they were verifying if I was truly the owner. And for that I’m grateful, because there are con men now a dime a dozen that are just waiting for opportunities like this to make a quick buck at somebody else’s expense.

In fact, my son lost his cellphone when he accidentally dropped it in a taxi we took to the Agora some years ago to take a ride to Balingoan. The driver answered the phone when we called him but demanded P200 in payment for returning it to my office then. He never appeared.

This is why I say Unit 11 Leader Alan Labares is a person whose honesty and integrity should be recognized by someone like me because of what he did, but even more for what he is. Finding a person who takes the pains he did to return to my phone to its rightful owner is not something your ordinary citizen now does as matter of course. He’s become an exception rather than the rule, and Cagayan de Oro is all the lesser for it.

Considering this is the third lost item he’s found and returned to their rightful owners during his daily bike rides, I can only hope that in relating his story to our readers, many will not lose hope in humanity and do the same when faced with a similar dilemma of going out of his way and probably losing valuable time, money and effort doing it instead of just keeping it.

Being not that well off myself, I nevertheless attempted to give a little token of my appreciation to Alan but he refused, which together with the previous incidents where he also returned other lost items to their owners, only served to further heighten my esteem for Cugman’s exemplary citizen.

The people of Cugman and Unit 11 Talidhay are truly lucky to have a leader like Alan Labares. Mabuhay ka! I will pray that God grant your wishes in full measure and overflowing as the Good Lord says in the Good Book, all the days of your life.

•

During the course of my brief talk with Alan and Kapitana Laling, I learned of two initiatives that would soon come to fruit in Barangay Cugman.

The first of these is the 4th Leg of the National Age Group Triathlon Series which will kick off 6 am on Sunday, Aug. 20, from Chali Beach Resort featuring athletes from all over the country including members of our National Team.

This particular 4th Leg is a sprint distance triathlon event which includes a one-kilometer open ocean water swim followed by a 30-kilometer bike race and topped by a seven-kilometer run, all in sequence with no breaks in between! Participants who do well in this leg also have the chance to qualify for the Philippine National Triathlon Team and compete in international events.

The second initiative is the coming inauguration of the Cugman Police Station, a P800,000-building in Zone 3 donated by resident philanthropist Alarico Lim of the Catimco Group which Kapitana Laling tells me would soon be manned by a 30-person police force from the Cagayan de Oro Police Office (Cocpo).

With its rapidly expanding population (now at 17,300) and resident industries like Alwana Village, Marco Hotel, Chali Beach Resort, Mandaue Foam, The Malasag Eco-Village, Mapawa Nature Park, A.J. Wood and Liwayway Food Corp., to mention a few, the presence of the police nearby should give Cugman a comparative advantage in attracting commercial, industrial and residential locators to further boost its local economy.

With people like Kapitana Laling (who used to give the Filipino sprint queen Mona Solaiman a run for her money in the interscholastic meet in the 100- and 400-meter sprints) and Unit 11 Leader Alan Labares, Cugman is in good hands.

The need to want it bad

By Mike Banos / August 16, 2006

WE have lost our edge.

From third overall and first in Mindanao in 2003, Cagayan de Oro has slid in rank on urban competitiveness, according to the 2005 edition of the Asian Institute of Management’s (AIM) Policy Center "Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Project" (PCCRP).

The AIM website (http://www.aim.edu/home/announcementc.asp?id=721) explains that the PCCRP assesses the capacity of a city to provide an environment that nurtures the dynamism of its local enterprises and industries.

It also assesses the general ability of a city to attract investments and entrepreneurs, and to uplift the living standards of its residents. Lastly, the project provides a benchmarking process that will aid individual cities in measuring competitiveness.

City competitiveness itself is defined as "the ability of a city to create and maintain an environment that sustains more value creation for its enterprises and more prosperity for its people."

The PCCRP ranks the competitiveness of various cities using seven major drivers of competitiveness: cost of doing business, dynamism of local economy, linkages and accessibility, human resources and training, infrastructure, responsiveness of local government to business needs, and quality of life.

Sixty-five cities were surveyed in PCCRP 2005, and categorized into 13 metropolitan cities (cities comprising Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao), 15 mid-sized cities (non-metro cities each with a population greater than 200,000), and 37 small cities (each with a population less than 200,000).

In 2003, Cagayan de Oro scored high in dynamism of the local economy (3rd, 6.53); human resources and training (3rd, 6.84), responsiveness of local government to business needs (3rd, 6.13), infrastructure (2nd, 6.17).

Together with its third place rank for Mid-Sized Philippine Cities (first among five in Mindanao), and overall urban competitiveness score (6.18), the survey said "its rankings and scores indicate it already enjoys above average competitiveness but still has room for improvement, and hence accommodate new players."

But the same survey results for 2005 shows Cagayan de Oro nowhere in the top five mid-sized cities cited as the Philippines’ most competitive. The findings of the biennial survey were revealed in a national conference held in Makati on February 13, 2006.

From 2nd in 2003, Cagayan de Oro ranking sliding to fourth in infrastructure, to tenth in cost of doing business and twelfth in quality of life.

Still, local businessmen, professionals and government bureaucrats and policy planners appeared stunned when former Socio-Economic Secretary Cayetano W. Paderanga, Jr. disclosed in a recent briefing how Cagayan de Oro’s competitiveness has slid over the past two years.

This indicator was confirmed by former trade regional director Ninfa U. Albania, now the administrator of the Phidivec Industrial Authority.

President Gloria Arroyo recently lauded Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Vicente Emano for the significantly decrease in corruption involving public projects from 65% to 38% as indicated in the SWS Surveys of Enterprises on Corruption dated 06 July 2006.

However, opposition politicians were quick to point to the slew of graft charges facing city hall officials and the fact that it also covered the city of Iligan. For his part, Emano clarified that the survey also included regional offices of the BIR, Customs and other revenue-generating agencies usually associated with corruption as the source of the 38% corruption that continues to persist in the area.

However, Paderanga said that while the PCCRP uses both quantitative and perception-based indicators, he exhorted those present to consider the survey results as specific areas of concern which need to be addressed to improve the city’s competitiveness in time for the next scheduled survey next year.

The PCCRP utilizes qualitative and quantitative criteria to assess city competitiveness vis-à-vis the major drivers of competitiveness. Each driver has corresponding indicators. Twenty-three indicators were quantitative, 45 perception-based.

Ergo, what to do next? Recall what the capitan of one of the city’s real estate development firms answered when asked what Cagayan de Oro needed to do to regain its competitiveness as the leading economy in Mindanao:

"Benchmark the opposition."

As the guest speaker for the 2nd Quarter General Membership Meeting of the Oro Chamber, Pueblo de Oro Chair Guillermo D. Luchangco outlined a five-point program which included benchmarking the opposition, being proactive in making the city attractive and friendly to potential investors, organize teams to personally share first hand experience with visitors, brief "champions" in government on Cagayan de Oro’s potentials by personally inviting them to experience the city, and more pragmatically, tempering the city’s vaunted ‘opposition" stance so as not to make it a deterrent to potential investors.

Luchangco cautioned residents may have to work at becoming the organization to which investors are automatically referred if they are looking at Cagayan de Oro since "few people may actually come to you just because your team exists."

Luchangco said the latest PCCRP shows Davao city among the top five for Metro Cities and Iligan City among mid-sized cities.

He urged the Oro Chamber to study what enabled Davao and Iligan to qualify for this ranking, then set a goal to put Cagayan de Oro among the Top 5 next year. Equally important, albeit sensitive, was the frequent comments regarding Kagay-anons’ "chip-on-the-shoulder".

Luchangco related how he heard about the survey of the attitude of the potential work force commissioned by a foreign company for its call center which eventually decided not to locate here since the survey results showed that "employees would likely have a tendency to be difficult to deal with, to often clash with management, rather than cooperate, to be defiant."

Luchangco said it is incumbent upon business leaders to exert influence to temper that tendency in appropriate degrees whenever the problem was perceived to be arising, rather than just sit back and watch such events transpire; to get involved, try to intercede and explain to people where they are too quick or too negative in reacting.

Too bad we Kagay-anons have a tendency to be adversarial about such matters, especially when it comes to our politics. For instance, few know how 44 of the 60 civil society complaints on which the 8th impeachment complaint now being discussed in Congress were signed by Kagay-anons.

Instead of a rationale discussion on why the national leadership crisis has struck such a responsive chord among locals, supporters of the present local and national administration have been quick to isolate the signatories as "not representative of the local population."

A dialog between these two groups who are both Kagay-anon to evaluate how this development could adversely affect local business initiatives given the tendency of the administration to "over-react" to sentiments such as these would have been much more constructive than the subsequent word war in local media which has followed this disclosure.

Not the least, Luchangco cited the key role played by meticulous preparation.

He cited how ‘Team Pueblo de Oro’ first studied what call center operators considered favorable factors when locating their facilities to a particular location when it decided to attract a call center to locate here. Then the team prepared a presentation that addressed the facts call center owners wanted to know, from power rates to supply, to telecommunications availability to supply of the types of people they would want to hire.

Luchangco said one call center company told them it was the most impressive and comprehensive presentation they had ever experienced.

Not the least, the kapitan emphasized the need to "do your homework."

He stressed how sitting down with visiting businessman and talking small talk is definitely not the way to go : knowing your statistics and facts about Cagayan de Oro versus the rest of the Philippines is.

And of course, to be hungry enough to be in among the country’s Top Five Mid-Sized Cities again. Very hungry.

Shame of Lebanon

By Mike Banos / August 14, 2006

I HAVEN’T really gotten into the current scheme of things about how the present conflict in Lebanon started, as a journalist worth his salt would. This information age has just overloaded everyone with more details than he’d care to hear, see or read about. But one thing which disturbed me most about this whole thing is how almost all our Filipino workers who worked as domestics in Lebanese households had nary a kind word to say about their employers.

Of course, having just interviewed three of our returning overseas workers from Misamis Oriental and Cagayan de Oro hardly qualifies one to render judgment on the Lebanese as a people, but there are facets of their behavior, repeated in the three cases I’ve come across, which make them worth talking about.

Consider how, despite being three separate cases, almost all three ended up as "takas," the OFW colloquialism for domestics who ran away from their employers. I said almost because although one was actually brought by her employer to a church serving as a refugee transit center, she would’ve also ended up as one, had her employer not locked her up in the house (which was on the eight floor of a building) and only relented when she threatened to call the embassy to report her plight.

Another is how they are treated as servants by their masters. The first two ladies I interviewed were luckier. One escaped after only working four days, the other after three months. The third wasn’t as lucky as the first two: her master locked her up in their residence (they’re on the 8th floor of a 10-storey building) and couldn’t even do a "Darna" (the OFW colloquialism for suicides who jump from tall buildings) since she was virtually locked in the residence she worked on, working 19-hour days 24/7, with nary a day off, or even time to visit a church or see friends.

She’d be up at 5 am, work herself to the bone, and get this, had to provide for her own meals, often after 12 midnight and could only fall into exhausted sleep around 1 am, leaving her with barely 3-4 hours sleep every day. Besides cleaning the two floor residence plus the top story terrace, she also had to wash and iron, and feed, wash and even brush their pet dog’s teeth!

She admitted she was often so famished she had to steal a bread or two from the ref, or steal scraps from the kitchen or table of her masters, who were not unlike Pinoys in their penchant for eating throughout the entire day. There were also times when she had to steal food from the dog’s plate, and cook the meat late at night after everyone was asleep.

I believe even the poorest household in the Philippines which could afford to hire a helper these days don’t treat them the way these Lebanese families do. Although they were all Christians, and admit it’s un-Christian for them to think so, all three Pinays I interviewed had no sympathy at all for their masters, saying the Israelis were just giving them what they well deserve. Ma’yra! matud nila.

Not the least, is the situation about their salaries that everyone knows about but don’t give a hoot about. The POEA is the government agency charged with scrutinizing all aspects of a Pinoy’s working abroad, and among its edicts are that domestic helpers should receive a minimum of US$200 a month.

In reality, all the three women I interviewed were receiving only US$150 a month, which is P7,950 at an exchange rate of US$1: PhP 53.00. Although their contracts stipulate the $200 minimum, this is rate is merely listed in the contracts to make it past the POEA. Worse, they would not receive any compensation at all for the first three months, the US$ 450 being their "placement fee" with their agencies.

Ah, na na na na na! I cannot accept what most people who man our government agencies charged with our overseas workers welfare say when they say there’s nothing they can do when the US$200 is stipulated in the departing OFWs contract even when they know it’s there just for show. There is a lot of other ways they could verify that rate, or for that matter, confirm if indeed the subject employee has been getting it monthly as stipulated in their contracts.

How could they verify, for example, that the OFW I mentioned was indeed getting the wages due to her at the end of every month? Being Pinoy, cellphones should be mandatory for all departing OFWs, domestics included, or should I say domestics especially.

Were it not for her cellphone, the lady I mentioned before would still be locked up in her master’s residence in Lebanon. But with it, she was able to keep in constant touch with her family, who were the ones who alerted our embassy in Beirut to her plight.

So if all departing OFWs are similarly equipped, all it takes would be a simple text to verify things like are they getting paid the amount stipulated in their contracts, are their masters treating them well, and the like. Cost should not be a problem since I believe our "Big Three" cellphone companies should provide Owwa and POEA with free text to all OFWs abroad, considering how it is the remittances these workers send back home which often enable their families to buy cellphones and the "lod" needed to keep them in touch with each other. It should also be a very apt and fair social amelioration project for Globe, Sun Cellular and Smart since it would literally serve to protect "the geese that lay the golden eggs" for their continued growth and expansion. Win-win everyone, kung baga.

Hopefully, the lessons learned from the Lebanon experience of our returning OFWs should equip our national government with the inputs needed to make things better for our kababayans who are still there and at the very least, convince those intending to work there in the future, it’s just not worth it.

The way it is

By Mike Banos / August 11, 2006

INTRIGA. 

One would expect to find this in almost every profession or trade a person would choose to earn his living in, or a vocation he chooses to serve in, but lately it’s been rearing its ugly head in our midst, thanks to some politicians who believe the Fourth Estate is here to serve them, not the people.

The brouhaha started with a document which this politician purportedly showed some of our colleagues: a list of advertisements taken out by the local government in some newspapers, radio and television stations. Nothing wrong with that, these are perfectly legitimate transactions done by some of our fellow workers in the trade to augment their meager income.

 I say nothing wrong and perfectly legitimate, because no matter how the holier-than-thou denizens of Imperial Manila say about conflict of interest, it’s a fact of life here in the provinces that most, if not all newspapers, can hardly afford to keep full-time reporters, especially if they are weekly tabloids.

 "Correspondents" are paid on a "per story" basis which amounts to, regardless of how hard you work or the number of stories you submit, a sum come payday that’s most often not even sufficient to feed oneself, much less an entire family. Publishers and owners get around this sad but true fact of life in countryside journalism by offering to give commissions for all ads and government notices their correspondents can bring in. In this way, everybody is happy, except perhaps Mr. Politician who would shamelessly exploit the Imperial Manila edict that the business and editorial sides of a media enterprise shouldn’t mix, because in case of the conflict between the two, truth always becomes the first casualty.

 I say that alleged conflict not to be true because even in a broadcast network that used to be the benchmark for integrity, honest and true reporting, many a legitimate story, most often what we in the trade label the "good news," or as our editor Herbie puts it, that which "would make someone happy," is often suspect, editors and managers both suspecting the reporter of receiving an "envelope" or some other freebie, for the favor of airing it. And the only way that perfectly legitimate story would see the light of day, was when it was paid for, as a "paid broadcast," run during a commercial break, so it would not be confused with "legitimate news" which are not paid for, and stand on their own merit.

 What B.S.! What rubbish! With standards like this, it’s a wonder legitimate business news ever gets aired and published at all! Mauna pa lugar ang nabayran kaysa balita nga adunay "public interest." And you’d think the people from this network are the epitome of integrity and honest reportage when they talk of "conflict of interest" in the print media. Saba diha!

 But we digress. To get back to the politician and his "Schindler’s List," he asked our colleagues, who were there to see him to present their legit proposals for a message, why they were not part of the "X" day list, when many of our colleagues purportedly lined up for their weekly "payola" or pay-offs not to publish negative or disparaging news about the current head of that local government.

 Our friends said no, but being fellow workers in the same industry, began asking around who were indeed included in the list, and how much were they getting to keep their mouths shut. Mr. Politician, not content with sowing the intriga, fanned the flames by spreading the same rumors with his fellow partners in crime, who in turn added fuel to the fire by even going to the extent of going to see the owners of these establishments perceived to be "friendly" with the embattled local chief executive, and asking if their editors were indeed members of this "X" day club, and thus were keeping negative stories about him in the round file.

 Being professionals with their reputations to protect and jobs to keep, these editors gathered their reporters to get to the bottom of the whole affairs and found out it was nothing more than political "intriga," sown by politicians themselves to discredit the editors and reporters perceived to be "unfriendly" to their cause. There was no such thing as the "X" day club, no one was getting pay-offs from any politician from either side of the political fence, and no deliberate attempt by the editors to muzzle any of their reporters.

 Ikaw, Mr. Politician and your slimy colleagues, you know what you’ve done? You’ve sown mistrust among friends, wreaked harmonious business relationships, and kept perfectly legit stories on issues and persons, which because of the intriga you’ve sown among us, are now viewed with suspicion and mistrust by our editors and media owners.

 And for what end? To promote your political agenda which you think would give you the jewels of the crown for you to pillage? Let this be the last adventure of this kind you and your cohorts would ever undertake to destroy the fellowship we’ve nurtured with our colleagues, Mr. Politician. We know who you are, and you know very well how the shoe could be on the other foot at the drop of a hat, or an envelope. Beware what you sow, because all the bitterness and falsehood that you brought against us, in its full measure, will be measured against you.

 And that’s not a threat, Mr. Politician. That’s God’s promise, and you can find it in the Bible, if you ever care to read it and believe what’s written in it. We believe...

Children's Welfare Code

By Mike Banos / August 9, 2006

ITS critics can rant and rave all they like, and history will be the final judge of what it accomplished during its tenure, but there’s one thing that generations of Misamisnons would most probably thank the present capitol administration for, and that’s Misamis Oriental’s Children Welfare Code.

Just what exactly is that? A multi-agency task force including the Neda, Dole, Office of the Regional State Prosecutor, PNP Youth and Children’s Desk, the Commission on Human Rights, provincial health office, provincial social welfare and development office, provincial planning and development office, and the NGO Bala-od Mindanaw, among others, sat down for a three-day workshop last week to draw up the draft code.

As its name implies, it is a codification of all national and local laws that affect children, the purpose being to come up with something which should address the real situation confronting children in Misamis Oriental. Assistant Regional State Prosecutor Eldred Cole said,  there was a need to "localize" legislation to the unique situation pervading in the province.

For instance, there’s the issue of carding. In English, that means barring all minors from entering all places where liquor is served, which believe it or not, is not provided in the national children’s welfare code! Other "local" issues that the code also seeks to address would be illegal betting on sports, Internet gaming and access to cafes, especially during office hours; child labor, among others.

Acting provincial social welfare office Ted Sabugaa said a technical working group at the provincial level would be tasked to implement and monitor the code when it is approved, so local government units at the municipal and barangay level could also enforce it within their respective jurisdictions.

Provincial Board Member Santi Sabal had earlier already filed a similar proposal but has been gracious enough to consider making the provisions of his proposed bill as part of the draft code. When the Code is finally passed by the provincial board and signed into law by the governor, it will be another feather in the cap of the Moreno administration, being the first to promote such a key initiative which will benefit not only children from this generation, but for many generations to come.

I hope the Misamis Oriental technical working group (TWG) would be generous enough to share their expertise and lessons learned from codifying all children’s legislations with other local government units in Region 10.

As a virtual resource center for Children’s Codes that Northern Mindanao’s five provinces and eight cities can have access to, this TWG would go from strength to strength as it slowly but surely brings together the collective experience and wisdom of child-related agencies in the region’s 13 LGUs that may eventually also be extended and shared to LGUs in Mindanao and the rest of the country.

Now, what can you, dear reader, do to put in your ten cents worth into this growing body of knowledge? As a parent, guardian or other figures that children look up to, you can attend the public hearings the provincial board would be holding prior to finalizing the code.

In fact, I wouldn’t consider it too early at this point for individuals and groups, and most especially institutions which directly impact children’s growth and learning, to write down their pearls of wisdom for submission or presentation to the provincial board as the public hearings are conducted.

I also hope and pray other LGUs, especially in Region 10, would keep an open mind about consulting the Misamis Oriental TWG for similar initiatives of their own. Believe you me, this is one thing when you cannot go wrong with your constituents.

And for those second or first term local officials, it’s never too late nor early to show your gilas in this respect. May 2007 could be upon us sooner than you think.

State of the City in the Future

By Mike Banos / August 2, 2006

NO, I’m not going to discuss how this city is going to look like or where it’s headed. Rather, that’s what I think Hizzoner discusses every time he tells us he doesn’t need to render a State of the City Address (‘‘Soca’’... hmmm… as I read this acronym I think he has something there) because he does this every day over the various radio programs he frequents.

Well and good! A Soca every day, now who can beat that? But what essentially does Hizzoner tell us when he gives his daily Soca? News like investors are coming in as a result of his latest trade mission, bringing new jobs, new business for local businessmen in the construction industry, new hope....

I’d say pretty much like what the President said in her 6th Sona, a state of the nation address for the future! Not that grand designs by themselves are good, they are in fact an excellent planning tool and directional marker, showing us where we’re headed and what to expect. Now, why don’t I get that feeling when I hear Hizzoner deliver his daily Soca on the radio?

 After nine years of Dongkoy Emano, how has Cagayan de Oro benefited from his governance? Personally, ako medyo nalipay kay ang Operation Kahusay ug Kalinaw gibalhin naman sa likod sa ampitheatre where I believe it operates better and improves the aesthetics of Plaza Divisoria. I’m also happy that eyesore of a band stand former mayor J.R. Borja constructed to replace the beautiful Kiosko of old is gone, mao lang I am not too happy about the Freedom Kiosk that’s taken its place, it could have been better, still... maybe the new mayor would do something about that!

I’m not so happy about those lights in Divisoria either although it admittedly lightens the whole area, more tasteful lighting similar to what the Moreno administration has placed in the Capitol Gardens could have been more aesthetic. Well, at least, sa munisipyo tingali sa Tagoloan angayan kayo ning mga suga-a...

But we digress. I could go on about how Plaza Divisoria has degenerated with the Night Café, and the never-ending Night Market that now goes on throughout the week. But the questions we should be asking should be the same ones many are asking of the President’s 6 th Sona. As a famous US fast food commercial used to ask, "Where’s the beef?"

Basic necessities: food, meaning jobs for the jobless; affordable prices, meaning safety nets in our daily expenses like food, clothing, shelter, education; classrooms and teachers, books for the children, the state of our city hospital and barangay health centers. It’s very easy to profess that one has the interest of the poor in heart. Why then after nine wonderful years of opportunity to make a real difference in their lives, there are more people than ever living in Isla Delta and Isla de Oro?

These are the sort of things I would love to hear from the daily Soca over the radio.

Lowdown on the decrease in bribes for public sector contracts

By Mike Banos /  July 27, 2006

MANY people were baffled when President Gloria Arroyo publicly cited Mayor Vicente Emano for the decrease in bribes given for public sector contracts in Cagayan de Oro in 2006 compared to last year.

The President said: "Progress demands good governance. I congratulate Dongkoy Emano for the drop in reports of corruption in public contracts in Cagayan de Oro from 65 percent of firms last year to 38 percent this year."

Former vice mayor Antonio Soriano asked: ‘‘How can it be possible when the COA (Commission on Audit) just released its findings about the millions of pesos in unaccounted funds (in Cagayan de Oro)?"

Well, remember, Tony, you’re in the Philippines, where everything is possible, like having two Filipinos conquer Mt. Everest at the same time.

Here’s some salient points that people ought to know regarding the President’s remarks on Emano and the reported decrease in corruption:

The figures came from the SWS Surveys of Enterprises on Corruption dated July 6, 2006.

The SWS Surveys of Enterprises on Corruption have been undertaken, in close partnership with the Makati Business Club, within the Transparent Accountable Governance (TAG) project, which aims to promote transparency and accountability in government and to help build a counter-corruption culture. The TAG surveys were instrumental in the organization of the private sector Coalition Against Corruption in 2004.

The TAG surveys have been funded by Asia Foundation from resources provided by the United States Agency for International Development. Findings described in the survey report do not necessarily reflect the views of TAF or Usaid.

From Metro Manila in the first three rounds during 2000-2003, the TAG surveys added Metro Cebu and Metro Davao starting 2004, and Cavite-Laguna-Batangas (CALABA) and Cagayan de Oro-Iligan (CDO/I) starting 2005.

SWS has worked with local business associations in obtaining sampling frames, updating the survey agenda through focus groups, and disseminating the survey findings. SWS has worked in the Cagayan de Oro-Iligan area with the Oro Chamber, Financial Executives Institute (Finex-CDO), Oro Jaycees, Xavier University (XU) and Iligan Chamber CCIFII).

In each area, sampling is stratified into one-third large (total 231 companies in 2006) and two-thirds small/medium (469 companies in 2006), which are combined without weighting.

The previous year’s sample of companies is approached again, with those unable to respond replaced by random drawings from the cumulative list of companies interviewed in earlier years.

The TAG surveys report the views of Filipino managers, unlike the surveys of foreign consulting firms used to derive international corruption indexes, which use the views of typically expatriate managers of multinational firms.

Here’s what the reports said exactly about the decrease in bribes for public sector contracts over the past year: The proportions of managers saying that "most" or "almost all" of the companies in their line of business give bribes to win public sector contracts declined in Metro Manila (46% in 2006 from 57% in 2003), in Metro Cebu (47% in 2006 from 62% in 2004), in Metro Davao (49% in 2006 from 57% in 2005), and in CDO/I (38% in 2006 from 65% in 2005). In CALABA it was 47%, unchanged from 2005.

From this, we can immediately discern the following:

10.1 The area covered by the survey is actually Cagayan de Oro-Iligan. Why the President chose to ignore Mayor Lawrence Cruz in her kudos? Good question.

10.2 In fairness to the report, it shows that the incidence of bribery for public sector contracts is now lowest in the Cagayan de Oro/Iligan area among the areas surveyed (38% vs. 46% in NCR, 47% in Metro Cebu and the Calaba area, and 49% in Metro Davao!

10.3 The report further shows that bribery incidence is not only lowest in the CDO/I area but also decreased by the largest margin over the past year! (-27% for 2005-2006 vs -16% for Metro Cebu over 2004-2006, -11% in NCR over 2003-2006, -8% in Metro Davao for 2005-2006 and unchanged in Calaba (still at 47% for 2005 and 2006).

10.4 While bribe-giving may be the lowest among the areas surveyed and decreased the most over the past year, nevertheless, it still exists as shown by the 38 percent incidence in the latest survey.

So far so good, but now for what the report does not say:

It did not specify the role played by the local government in curbing bribe-giving in public sector contracts. What the survey counted was the incidence of bribes the respondents gave to win their government contracts. So was the President fair in crediting Emano for this accomplishment? Did she mean anything by failing to mention Iligan Mayor Lawrence Cruz’s role in this truly laudable accomplishment?

It likewise did not specify the role played by the private sector in curbing bribe giving for public sector contracts in the Cagayan de Oro-Iligan area. It’s very possible that the local cooperators of this survey (Oro Chamber, Finex, Oro Jaycees, XU and CCIFII) played an even bigger role in curbing bribe-giving by simply not putting up with the practice anymore! But no one talks about those things...

This particular statistic is a cause for celebration not only for the Mayor’s Office for its being mentioned publicly in front of the whole nation, but for the entire business sector and civil society as well who helped bring down this figure to its present level.

The President is right in sharing and giving credit where it is due, but lest we get carried away by insincere back slapping, huzzas and hossanahs, it is wise to give pause and ponder on what Balay Mindanaw’s Carlito Manlupig had to say about Monday’s Sona:

"Yes, she is correct in acknowledging our individual and collective victories as a nation. The almost total absence of national government’s role/contribution in most of these victories, only drives home the point that the peoples and communities especially of Mindanaw can win victories by and for ourselves."

Enough said.

The Cagayan I fell in love with

By Mike Banos / July 26, 2006

DURING the early eighties when I was a new kid in town, watching movies was a major pastime of young and old alike. We didn’t have high-tech dolby sound and panoramic screen theatres like we do now but somehow it didn’t matter.

There was the Nation Theatre in Divisoria and its sister cine Rizal along Capistrano. The Limketkais had Roket and Kairo (let’s see the young’uns guess the origins of those two names; if you can’t figure it out, you don’t know the history of your own city). There was also the Gold Theatre in Mabini and its "sister" cine Gala along JR Borja which was razed to the ground, a favorite haunt of the furtive "bag-ong tubo," especially those of the male species.

During those days, I recall it was customary to flash during the intermissions a slide detailing the city ordinance which forbid smoking, talking in loud voices or putting your feet up on the chair in front of you, among other things. Maybe people were more tractable then, or just plain respectful of the law because those things hardly ever happened and if they did, the movie staff made sure they were informed of it and that settled things very quickly.

Last Sunday, I joined my wife and kids in watching an international blockbuster movie at one of the more upscale theatres downtown. Besides the excellent sound and widescreen, I noted the chairs were definitely luxurious compared to those we had to put up with in the early eighties. Alas and alack, besides the excellent movie, there was little left to the pleasure of watching movies compared to those early days.

The crowd was definitely noisy. My wife must have been reading my mind again because we had to change seats after one of the moviegoers in our row persisted in talking in a loud voice to his date like there was nobody else in the theatre besides them (I threw an empty soft drink plastic tumbler in his general direction but unfortunately missed). And I was going bananas with the number of people texting inside the movie house! If you wear eyeglasses like I do, you’ll know why that’s such a pain you know where because their bright lights reflect on the lens of your specs and you can hardly see the movie. Ako unta badlungon pero daghan man kaayo sila, ako na lang sila gi-ampo sa Ginoo.

And the movie house was dirty, as in! I remember not too long ago a utility boy used to clean up after every screening but on that particular day no one did and as you made your way to the dimly lit theatre your feet encountered a shocking amount of litter on the floor as well as tumblers left on the seats by the litterbugs! I’ve never been to our local version of Smokey Mountain where Hizzoner intends to transfer City Hall but I guess now I have a pretty fair idea of what walking in garbage up to your ankles feels like.

I also noted the management of the movie house no longer flashed that city ordinance forbidding loud talking, et al so I guess the newer generation of movie goers must be totally ignorant of it, but that should not excuse them from being prosecuted for breaking it! Maybe our city council committee in charge of movie houses should review this ordinance to include the turning off of cellphones and forbidding anyone from texting or taking a call while a movie is being screened.

At an average price of P55 per person, a movie these days is definitely not cheap anymore and movie house owners and operators often decry the proliferation of pirated CDs as responsible for the drastic drop in the number of moviegoers. Ah, na, na, na, na! If you people maintain dirty movie houses where the stench of the garbage is as annoying as the behavior of the people watching it, it’s no wonder people are buying DVDs from Cogon instead of patronizing your establishments! Kinsa man tawon ganahan manan-aw sine sa ingon ana nga sinehan?

You are supposed to be rendering the public a service for the price of their admission but what you are doing instead is rendering them a disservice with all the garbage, loud talking, flashing cellphone backlights it’s a wonder people still bother to come see movies in your place!

Messrs. Albino and Lorenzo Limketkai, Mr. Paul Ferrer and Mr. Steve Gaisano, can you please tell the people in charge of running your movie houses to at least keep them clean and quiet while the movies are being shown? Maybe I can still put up with the earsplitting music your technicians impose on us hapless movie goers during intermission but that was the last movie I’m going to see unless you clean up your acts and I will ask other movie goers to stay away in protest until you do so!

This used to be a nice town to watch movies in and I remember Kairo and Roket with fond memories, unsa man tawon nahitabo ninyo karon Messrs. Limketkai? Gipasagdan naman ninyo ang ngalan sa inyong mga ginikanan? Remember: for your family and that of Mr. Gaisano, these establishments carry the family name and isn’t it just a shame to have it associated with garbage and anarchy? I’m sure your parents must be very sad with the way the family name’s been literally dragged through the debris littering your sinehans and disrespectful behavior of errant movie goers which your staffs don’t even bother to badlung!

Maybe the city council will take another look at that ordinance to help bring back the decent people who used to patronize your movie houses. Puhon…but quien sabe? Are there people left in the city who still care enough to do something about it?

 Time marches on….

Nursing shortage: RP or US crisis?

By Mike Banos / July 24, 2006

THE provision to lift current quotas on the number of foreign nurses entering the United States under its new immigration law has sparked a furor both in the U.S. and the Philippines, the country which provides it with the biggest number of foreign nurses.

In the U.S., the strident tones of those who fear a collapse of the health care system have failed to quiet the vociferous ranks of those questioning the morality of plundering a third world country’s medical work force.

Tribune columnist Gene Grants says the Philippines, which sends far more nurses to the US than any other country, will take a double hit, because Filipino doctors would join the parade. It is estimated that fully 80 percent of government doctors in the US are on the waiting list for a green card, which comes with a provision to bring their families as well. Reports that the number of people dying in the Philippines from lack of health care is the same as it was 30 years ago is an outrage. (Grant, 2006)

But Kevin Howley, assistant editor of Reason, disagrees (2006).

Howley says workers are not the property of countries that train them, and any policy that seeks to limit their options will prove cruelly restrictive. After all, stemming the flow of skilled labor doesn’t just mean locking workers out of wealthy nations. It means locking them into poor ones.

The Philippines is heavily dependent on money sent from abroad;…According to the Philippines Central Bank, large scale labor migration brought home remittances totaling $9.7 billion last year, and nurses have historically been among the most stable earners. (Howley, 2006)

So what options does this leave the Philippines? Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist Michael Tan sums up the dilemma: The nursing export industry is elated, but there’s also alarm and apprehension coming from the Department of Health, the hospitals and many others who see a greater health crisis ahead as we lose more nurses and doctors-turned-nurses. (Tan, 2006)

Later in the same article, Tan recommends an option the Philippine government could undertake now to curb this imminent health crisis: " As we fret now about the impact of the exodus of doctors and nurses, we’re forgetting that the health care system can still move forward, maybe even improve, if we would just give more attention to our midwives and community health workers. They are the ones who man (or rather, woman) the front lines in our battle against our many health problems. Even more importantly, many have no intentions of migrating. (Tan, 2006)

Although not exactly advocating a policy of que sera, sera, Tan says the Philippines should rethink its curriculum and training in medical and nursing schools. But at the same time, look for ways to maximize the contributions of its front-line workers, the ones who intend to stay.

Tan is convinced upgraded village health workers and midwives would mean more health problems handled at the household and community levels, saving more lives, relieving pressures on hospitals, so doctors and nurses can do what they’re best trained for — right here in the Philippines. (Tan, 2006)

Weather-weather lang

By Mike Banos / July 21, 2006

PLANNERS of the new airport planned for Laguindingan, Misamis Oriental can relax. It’s not really the lack of cargo capacity in the aircraft now serving Lumbia airport which keep farmers from sending more of their produce by air or routed them to Davao airport because of its bigger and all-freight services as earlier reported.

It’s plain and simply the weather.

"When the wet season starts and affects production and delivery of fruits and vegetables from Northern and Central Luzon, orders for Northern Mindanao growers start coming in from big buyers in Metro Manila, which remains the biggest market for our products," said Michael Joseph Ignacio, executive director of the Northern Mindanao Vegetable Association, Inc. (NorminVeggies).

"In fact, our shipments north virtually treble every time a typhoon hits Luzon because this affects production and delivery from these traditional production areas to Metro Manila, which remains the biggest market for fruits and vegetables in the country today."

Statistics compiled by the Air Transportation Office Area IX office at Bgy. Lumbia seem to bear this out. For the period 1999-2005, outgoing cargo from Lumbia airport averaged 5,385 metric tons (MT) per year, peaking at 6,103 MT in the year 2000 when 18 typhoons visited the country, and lowest at 5,025MT in 2002 which had the lowest number of typhoons (13) within this period.

That’s because there’s a direct relationship between the total tonnage of air freight and the weather : perishable vegetables and fruits make up 75 percent of outgoing cargo from Lumbia airport.

Case in point: Just last week, a news report said typhoon Florita left Benguet’s Halsema Highway impassable, sending vegetable prices at the La Trinidad vegetable trading post skyrocketing when vegetable harvests from the province’s farms failed to arrive.

The 84-km Halsema Highway is Benguet’s main road network, linking the vegetable producing towns of Atok, Buguias, Mankayan, Kibungan and Tublay. This area supplies some 30 percent of the nation’s total vegetable production with some 750,000 to 1.5 million kgs. of assorted vegetables passing through La Trinidad every day on their way to Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon.

But so far, Ignacio said it remains a trader’s market despite opportunities brought by the weather. Take carrots, for example. Carrots in Cagayan de Oro’s biggest vegetable trading area at the Agora Market in Lapasan which usually sell for P8-10/kg peaked at P22-25 per kg over the weekend before settling to P18-20 per kg. by the middle of this week.

In La Trinidad, the prices of carrots zoomed from P13 to P60 a kg, according to Dominador Dongla, chief market inspector of the trading post.

"From this alone, you can see how traders capitalized on that P60/kg spike in Benguet to sell carrots at P80 in Divisoria and Balintawak over last weekend," Ignacio said. "That’s at least a hefty 200 per cent margin for the Manila trader buying from Mindanao, even factoring in the additional freight cost."

In fact, vegetable shipments from Cagayan de Oro came to a head last Saturday when there was no outgoing boat trip to Manila and the commercial aircraft were unable to handle the overflow.

"I had to turn away one shipper who brought in two tons of carrots since we were already fully booked for the day," said Orly Merlow, Lumbia cargo supervisor of PEAC, the air freight division of Air Philippines.

If prices for some vegetables were driven upwards by the weather, it was also sending others the other way due to oversupply. Although demand for tomatoes remains strong, prices were being kept down by this year’s bumper crop. Shipping companies report at least 95,000 crates were shipped north last week aboard every boat bound for Luzon.

While shipments headed north were rising, prices for tomatoes headed south. "Since the middle of June, tomato prices have gone down from P250 to only P80 per crate this week," Ignacio said.

Local producers have also given preference to the local markets and just make the Metro Manila and Luzon markets their second option.

"Even if Manila traders pay in cash, local producers prefer to sell locally since they can close a deal face-to-face with their buyers very quickly," Ignacio said. Just yesterday morning, we saw an association member come in with 200 kgs of sweet pepper from Bukidnon, close the deal with a walk-in buyer from Agora market, and leave with his cash in less than one hour.

So even if prices last week for the lowly chayote (locally called sayote ) climbed to P20-23/kg in Benguet and even higher in Manila, there’s not much shipment of this commodity going on from the Agora landing area in Lapasan.

"Prices per sack of sayote is usually P200 per 60-70 kg. sack, which has now risen to P400-500," Ignacio said. But there’s not much out shipments going to Luzon since local farmers have already committed their produce beforehand to Mindanao buyers, he added.

Alternative to bloodshed

By Mike Banos / July 14, 2006

WE doff our hats off to the military establishment in Region 10 for giving local governments the lead in dealing with the communist insurgency. I share Gov. Oca Moreno’s sentiments when he says "Daghang salamat!" for respecting the constitutional mandate of the supremacy of civilian authority at all times over the military. Mabuhay po kayo Maj. Gen. Cardozo Luna and the proud men and women of the 4th Infantry ‘‘Diamond’’ Division, the guardian of Cagayan de Oro and Northern Mindanao!

It’s interesting to note that while some local chief executives support the President’s initiative for an all-out war, still others opt to take a different tack to solve the problem.

Already, with the offensive barely two weeks old, the body count of alleged NPA guerrillas killed in Bukidnon and Agusan del Sur stands at ten and counting. We can’t really blame Bukidnon Gov. Joe Zubiri for choosing to unsheathe the sword of war, after rebels burned all the equipment of a construction firm building a barangay road in Bgy. Zamboanguita at the capital city of Malaybalay simply because they refused to pay revolutionary taxes.

Even the Church appears to have given a tacit nod o the President’s all-out war: Catholic bishops have denounced what they described as the rampant murder of innocent civilians by New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas waging one of the world’s last Maoist rebellions.  The bishops said many murders were "reported by our people as allegedly perpetrated by insurgents" in support of their bid to build up their armory and over "failure to pay revolutionary taxes or blood debts to the people."

On the other hand, despite numerous atrocities committed against both civilians and government soldiers by the communists in Misamis Oriental in the past two decades, Gov. Moreno has opted to continue extending the olive branch by bringing government closer to the people.

I’m intrigued by the ultimate outcome of these two wars: GMA’s all-out war to wipe out the communist insurgency for good in a year; and Oca Moreno’s war for the hearts of the people which he admits would take a little longer, or maybe much longer, but which he believes would be more fulfilling, more rewarding and most important, more enduring in the long run.

I’ve never been inclined to solve a problem by throwing money at it. According to former RAM leader Alex Noble and Davao Mayor Digong Duterte, if the one billion pesos allocated by GMA for the campaign doesn’t go to improving the lot of the soldier on the ground and make them better equipped to fight the enemy, all that moolah is as good as flushed down the drain. I agree.

Even the world’s most powerful nation has found to its sorrow that its little "police actions" in Iran and Afghanistan didn’t end with the defeat of the opposing military forces. It was just the beginning and already, the American death toll for policing both countries has exceeded the casualties they sustained when they were facing the opposing armed forces in conventional warfare.

From Lebanon, to Somalia, to Vietnam, Afghanistan and Chechnya, it’s always been the same refrain: the military action is just a prelude to the real war fought by civilian guerrillas and for which the occupying forces would have hell to pay.

On the other hand, there’s this little experiment in Misamis Oriental called Lantad. Once the regional base of the communist insurgency in Region 10, government agencies led by the provincial government teamed up to do what they deemed was the key to ending the insurgency in the area where the CPP-NPA has been the shadow government for the past 25 years: restore the Kibanban-Lantad road.

Gov. Oca told me Lantad was not only a key test for his administration, in fact, he calls it a "threshold" which would be a showcase of how to win the hearts and minds of the people indoctrinated by 25 years of Maoist communist ideology and a quarter century during which the insurgency was the virtual government in the area.

"It’s difficult to attain peace through peaceful means but it is more rewarding," he said.

He told me Lantad was targeted as a showcase for Misamis Oriental because it was a symbol of he past neglect of previous administrations: government lost by default because of its failure to bring basic services to the people. It is a symbol of Misamis Oriental’s wealth in agriculture which he described in his 2nd State of the Province Address last Monday as the "real resource where the best of the province can be seen", and wherein the future of the province lies. And not the least, and perhaps most of all, because of Lantad’s role in history as the regional command of the CPP-NPA.

Set in a plateau some 890 meters above sea level at the end of a seemingly impassable 18-kilometer road, Lantad became the daunting symbol of the insurmountable goal, set high above the clouds, seemingly impossible to reach and grasp, and which everybody, including the governor himself, had serious doubts about.

Even the military commander in the area admits it was a daunting task to bring back Lantad to the sphere of government’s influence. "It’s a tall order to bring peace and order to Lantad and wean it away from the influence of the NPA," said Lt. Col. Andrelino Colina, commanding officer of the Philippine Army’s 8th Infantry Battalion assigned to cover the area. "Lantad used to be the focal point for insurgency in Misamis Oriental and Agusan and NPA propaganda was very active, distributed leaflets saying government was bound to fail and challenging us to stay and make good of our promises."

But once the decision was made to restore the road, everyone from the armed forces to the various agencies of the provincial government became singular in purpose and focused on their individual roles in making the impossible dream come true. And so it was that last Saturday, Gov. Oca and his band of dedicated men and women rode in on the first government and military vehicles in over 20 years to enter the Lantad poblacion to the oles and bravos of an appreciative and grateful populace.

Colina acknowledges much remains to be done, including keeping the insurgents from coming back, but he is elated that the residents who previously did not look beyond the next day’s meal or the next week’s supply of rice are now busily planning their future.

"I am heartened by the change in the attitude of the people," Colina said. "Previously they were hostile, indifferent, and supportive of the NPA and would not change allegiance until they saw, felt and tasted tangible evidence of government support."

So far, aside from the road, the capitol team (of which the military and police remain key players) has set up a multi-purpose dryer cum basketball court, repaired the elementary school and capilla, concreted the communal toilet and bath/water supply, and distributed P30,000 worth of goats and seed materials to the community cooperative for livelihood projects.

Because the habal-habal can now negotiate the 18-kilometer stretch from Lantad to the national highway in Balingasag in less than two hours (it used to take a minimum of three hours by foot or horseback just to get to Kibanban poblacion, 11 kms. downhill) trade and commerce has started to flourish again, and there are now three sari-sari stores to replace the cooperative store which the insurgents used as a front for their logistics/resupply center.

If he was still around, Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, would have been proud at how Team Capitol has epitomized in Lantad what he once said about people empowerment:

"Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day." With the residents so empowered through their own volition and enterprise, Jefferson’s warning that "the price of freedom is eternal vigilance" doesn’t seem so daunting today as when they first chose the path to peace over armed struggle.

Zaldy needs a Melody

By Mike Banos / July 12, 2006

NOT a song, Jose, but someone like Filipino-American Melanie Damayo, popularly known as Mimi Miyagi, who made her name as a porn star in the USA before she decided to enter politics.

A Davao native (like Hizzoner Zaldy!), Mimi finished high school in the Philippines before she migrated to the States where her Fashion Merchandising course was interrupted by her show biz venture.

Now, the former pornstar is running for governor of Nevada, USA, as a Republican candidate, no less. Her family was surprised upon hearing the news. "Proud ako dahil pamangkin ko siya. Umaasa ako na manalo siya," says Pacita Damayo, Mimi's aunt.

Melody says she felt Nevada was not keeping up with the increasing growth that is pressuring the state's social services and overall economy. As an immigrant, said she was concerned about the state's ability to deal with an influx of people.

As a Republican, is running against fellow Republican congressman Jim Gibbons of Nevada and Democratic mayor of Henderson, Nev. Jim Gibson.

Melody has angered many party loyalists but remains steadfast, saying she's in the race for the long haul and challenged others to focus on the issues instead of her porn past.

Melody was born in Davao City, the Philippines on July 3, 1973, the second of four children to immigrant parents Mike Ariesgado and Luz Damoyo. As a child, she was something of a prodigy. She spent her childhood studying piano and dreaming of becoming an Olympic gymnast. At the age of 15 she graduated from high school. After graduating, she began working to save money for college.

She returned to LA just before her 18th birthday with a little over $1,000 to her name. At that time, she thought that this money would be enough to last her several months. This was not the case, and within a month, she'd run out of money and begun looking for jobs. She met with little success until shortly after her 18th birthday.

Melody came across an ad looking for nude models and answered it, thus beginning her rise in the adult film industry. When she first started out in the industry, she was repeatedly told that there just wasn't a market for Asian adult stars (originally, Melody claimed to be ethnic Japanese, which is more in line with her actual facial features than Filipino), but she was determined and refused to give up. And even though she was always the least paid actress on the set, she continued knocking on studio producers doors.

Over the next two years, Melody became the most recognized Asian porn star in the industry. Despite her fame, she had difficulty getting paid on time by some fly-by-night producers. This led her to come to the conclusion that she had to look out for her own business affairs.

She started publishing her own men's magazine, 'Oriental Dolls,' (now known as 'Asian Hotties') and quickly saw the magazine become one of the top Asian-themed lines in the country.

The rise of the internet as a profitable medium for content led Melody to create a website (that she coded and runs on her own). Now with access to a global public audience, she continues to expand the market for Asian adult films. In 1999, she began doing movie production and talent scouting for Metro Home Video and produced the series she entitled Fantasiany Series #1,2,3,4.

In September 2003, the film Happy Ending was released. This film marked the end of Mimi Miyagi's career as an adult film star. In May 2005, Melody began work in her first bit role in a mainstream comedy, Come Again.

On May 12, 2006, she filed as a Republican gubernatorial candidate in the state of Nevada, under her birth name, Melody Damayo.

The online publication Wonkette wrote :

 We hope that you'll be charmed, as we were, by the contrast between Damayo's articulate _expression of her views and her arresting attire. We've never seen nineteenth-century U.S. political history analyzed by someone with so much cleavage. Enjoy!

We believe Kag. Zaldy Ocon needs a colleague who can support him as a true opposition councilor rather than depend on the wiles of Padayon Pilipino faithful who would only use him as a foil whenever their exigencies dictate. And we believe a candidate like Melody "Mimi Miyagi" Damayo would best serve that purpose.

Seriously now, we share the widely held perception that the much ballyhooed "United Opposition" slate can never be put together to challenge the well-oil political machinery of Hizzoner Dongkoy. It may be extreme but the oft-held belief that anyone can win a seat in the city council provided he or she runs under the PDP slate may be truer than some would like believe.

Ergo, the nearest local stars we could think of who could approximate the kind of star wattage Melody Damayo as Mimi Miyagi is capable of would be the stars of the city's two most notorious sex videos, the so-called "Bulua Sex Scandal" and the "XU Sex Scandal."

Both are attractive, sexy women whom we believe are more than qualified to run for city council if the opposition wills it. Whether they are as articulate and dedicated to public service as Melody Damayo remains to be seen, but together with Zaldy Ocon in the van, they would guarantee that the opposition political rallies would be very well attended indeed, with their drawing power attracting the bulk of red-blooded Kagay-anon males curious to see their video stars in the flesh, as well as curious females (housewives included, to see that their husbands behave and don't make asses of themselves in so public an affair as a political rally!) and even the youth, who may be looking for out-of-the-box paradigms for success they can successfully emulate to at least find a job, or snag that elusive trio of wealth, fame and glory.  

What about it guys? Victory at any price sound attractive enough for you? Time is marching on…

Culture vultures

By Mike Banos / July 10, 2006

THE free online resource Answers.com defines Culture Vulture as an "an individual with a consuming or excessive interest in the arts. For example, A relentless culture vulture, she dragged her children to every museum in town. This slangy term may have been originated by Ogden Nash, who wrote: "There is a vulture Who circles above The carcass of culture" ( Free Wheeling, 1931). [1940s]

Well, Ogden, babeh, if you lived in Cagayan de Oro, you would have been three-quarters of a century ahead of your time. There are indeed vultures who circle above the carcass of culture, and you should see how high they fly in our city!

Last February, we wondered how culture and the arts seem to have been taken over by the academe. We marveled at how schools, colleges and universities often are the only institutions around in the boondocks with the size, facilities and most important, qualified personnel to mount cultural and artistic events for the appreciation and education of their faculty and student body in particular, and the community in general.

Alas, a little birdie told us one such production entailed a mandatory pay cut of P1,000 per faculty member whether they saw the play or not. Students for their part, earned or lost 10 percent of their grades in a particular subject, depending on their attendance of the matinee. Doting parents, of course, readily paid through the nose the price of admission since it was for a noble cause: not the culture or the arts, pendejo, but their children’s grades!

Lately, the city’s seen a slew of elaborate cultural and artistic presentations impressed upon its collective plebian face, with foreign talents, no less, to boot! Which is good, for it is written somewhere that the culture of a city rises no higher than its lowest common denominator. Ergo, bring in Pidro to the gymnasium if you please, mandatory pay cut for faculty and required attendance for students notwithstanding.

Well, that pesky little birdie is outside my window again with breaking news, no less. Entrez, mon ami! Whazzup, whazzup? Huh! Tres sientos pesos for a free show? Que barbaridad! Hijos de garapata! How did that happen?

Seems this enterprising young impresario is at it again. So resourceful, so far seeing, City Hall could sure use someone of his caliber. Not to run the City Treasurer’s office, Manuel, but to replace Garci in the next elections.

His travels far and wide brought him once to a city known for its culture and arts, which for illustration purposes, we shall call Himolugan. That’s the name of the original settlement of Cagayan de Oro which just missed the death of the Redeemer by a scant three centuries and whose remnants were bulldozed to kingdom come not so long ago to make way for Hizzoner’s bridge to nowhere land as my neighbor and good friend Ben Contreras so aptly calls it. But we digress. Padayon Piso-piso!

Enewi, this fine young creature who’d make a fine addition to the City Historical and Cultural Commission as its fourth Commissioner, saw this show at Himolugan and knew it just had to be shown to all those culture vultures back home!

Happily for this budding commissioner, whose fine work extends back to the administration of former mayor Ambing Magtajas, the same foreign funding agency which brought that show to Himolugan would only be too happy and willing to bring it to the City of Golden Friendship at their own expense!

So Mr. Commissioner, atat na atat as I can imagine, heigh ho’s off to his native land and sets everything up for the unwitting donors. Matinee showtime comes and the beaming foreigners come sashaying down the aisle of the host school’s auditorium to the thunderous applause of two hundred students!

Ah, na, na, na, na, na! Mr. Commissioner! The shocked reps of donor agency gasp, why so many empty seats? I have no recollection of what the budding impresario replied, our little bird was so excited whispering in my ear all I got was this cacophony of chirps, whistles and grunts (not unlike R2D2 when he’s excited).

When I finally sorted out his mish-mash of morse code, international code, cape code and da vinci code, seems so many students stayed away because the show’s producers were collecting P200 from each of them!

Santisima, Mr. Commissioner! I pay for all the expenses of this entire show, and you charge the students for the gate! My blood runs cold for this little boy, no matter how bad his deed, the cannons of the Armada when ignited resound across the Mediterranean sea!

I imagine he got an ultimatum of sorts because eventually I gathered from the excited little bird that the gala presentation was a huge success, with the thousand person capacity auditorium ringing to the bravos and oles of its appreciative audience.

My heart goes out to those well-meaning public grade or high school teachers who have compelled their students to make mandatory contributions for events such as these not provided for in their pitiful budgets, including materials for stage props and tickets "considered-sold" just to at least give these students a feel of what Macbeth, King Lear or Othello is all about.

Sadly, many of them often have had to answer to their superiors or to bureaucrats in the Department of Education or Commission for Higher Education with suspensions and fines as a reward for their efforts and self-sacrifice while Mr. Commissioner and his ilk get away with the academic equivalent of murder and homicide.

Forewarned, donor agencies of foreign countries, especially for those well-heeled foundations of G-7 states, would do well to take a leaf from their local counterparts who know just how to deal with would-be impresarios like our fine young Commissioner: ask around; make a character investigation. Or, better still, conduct a credit investigation. He’s not the first Commissioner who’s taken advantage of well meaning but guillible foreign funding agencies in the name of culture and the arts to line his pockets. A real vulture his breed is indeed, circling above the carcass of culture.

It’s admittedly a stretch but we may still be able to give the benefit of a doubt for schools who impose mandatory pay cuts on their faculty and staff payrolls for the sake of the muse, or forgive teachers for giving their students additional bonus points for certain subjects, provided they attend cultural shows and presentations of the school.

But we can never forgive those vultures who fleece the carcasses of grants and donations from donor countries intended to give students a free viewing of what classical theatre, song or dance as rendered by their highest exponents would be like.

We can still find humor in the way Robin Hood robbed the Sheriff of Nottingham to give to the poor. After all, the Sheriff always has more from where his gold comes from.

But to rob the poor of gifts from others freely given just to share with them a taste, or glimpse or moment of the sublime, is despicable and deserve our wholehearted endorsement to El Santo Papa y La Presidente Gloria of their exclusion from capital punishment, preferably well done over a slow fire.

OFWs uneasy over outsourcing

By Mike Banos / July 7, 2006

WHAT better way could one wish for to end the celebration of ICT Month in Cagayan de Oro than with the launching of the city’s "Official Website?" With that symbolic gesture, the efforts of a dedicated band of professionals in government, business and the academe have been given an exclamation point, as if to inform all and sundry, "We are H-E-R-E! THIS is CAGAYAN DE ORO!"

I tip my hat to the dedicated men and women of the Regional Information Technology & e-Commerce Committee (RITECC) who through sheer dint of foresight and determination, placed our city in quite unfamiliar position : at the head of the pack in ICT development in Mindanao! In the call center industry alone, Cagayan de Oro is expected to (pardon the comparison to the stock market) breach the psychological threshold of 1,000 seats this month!

But without detracting from this laudable accomplishment which truly deserves our accolades and more, I believe we should tread lightly at this stage lest we provide political ammunition for the advocacy of those in the United States and other wealthy G-7 countries to begin clamping down on outsourcing in a not dissimilar manner with which the US recently launched legal and other initiatives to curb the growing tidal wave of foreign immigration to their shores.

Already, Philstar columnist Boo Chanco cites an Economist magazine report that nine out of 10 Americans are worried about the impact of outsourcing jobs to countries like India and the Philippines.

Yet, in reality, Chanco said the Economist reports, "the number of American service jobs that have shifted offshore is small, some one million at the most. And most of those demand few skills, such as operating telephones." But since nine out 10 Americans worry about it, that fear may be enough to hold down the wages of college graduates in service industries.

The impact is starting to hit the U.S. middle class. People with college experience, but no degree, fared worse than high-school dropouts. Some figures suggest that the annual income of Americans with a college degree has fallen vis a vis high-school graduates for the first time in decades. So, where the 80s were hardest on the least skilled, the 90s and this decade have hit people in the middle.

This probably explains why recent economic data have given rise to so much uncertainty. It is difficult to see or feel if Americans today are more optimistic or more pessimistic about their future. Determining their mindset is important if we are to predict the direction of the consumer driven American economy - everything from interest rates to the strength or weakness of the American dollar.

That’s why I believe business outsourcing will soon eclipse immigration in the list of economic issues which disturb Americans the most. On the other hand, it opens a new avenue in our country where workers can find relatively good paying jobs, with minimal costs to society and the environment.

CSLA Asia-Pacific Markets, provider of brokerage and investment banking services in the region, estimates the total annual disposable income from all call center agents in the country would increase four-fold to P18 billion this year from only P4.2 billion in 2003.

Although the BPO sector now accounts for only 10 percent of the total amount of dollars remitted by overseas Filipino workers annually, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is optimistic foreign exchange earnings from the BPO sector would eventually replace earnings from OFWs.

Sen. Pia Cayetano, who chairs the Senate committee on natural resources and environment, said investing in human skills, rather than altering natural resources through mining, should be the focus of the government’s economic policies. A shining example of this thrust is the economic benefits of the BPO-contact center (CC) sector.

Industry insiders estimate another 300 call centers would come into the country in the next two years, because of the coparative advantages the Philippines has over other Asian countries, in terms of personalized customer service, impeccable work ethics, language, diction, and robust communication infrastructure.

The government targets 500,000 professionals working in the BPO and call center sector by 2010. To support this, the industry, academe and the government are implementing short-term solutions and long-term measures to address concerns of shortages in qualified manpower.

The business process outsourcing (BPO) sector is expected to grow 100 percent both in terms of revenues and employment this year as more call center firms shift and expand into more value-added lines with easier staffing requirements.

There are now over 100,000 seats in the industry but Borja said it’s difficult to track how many seats have been allocated for BPO services and purely call center services since most call centers are now also expanding into BPO services.

With the advent of new low-cost technology, the 100,000 jobs in the BPO-CC sector is projected to grow 90 percent over the next three years, expanding the business by $10 billion. The IT industry is also looking up with IT spending to reach $ 1.56 billion this year or 10 percent higher than last year, largely driven by BPO services.

Rainerio Borja, chairman of Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP) and director of Call Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP), said growth in the BPO sector would surpass the maturing call center sector, whose growth is expected to taper to 70 percent this year.

Borja said call center operators have realized the benefits of shifting to BPOs because of time zone differentials with the US and Europe where operating hours are not optimized.

BPOs also offer greater employment opportunities especially for whose oral communication skills don’t match the inflection and local idiom demanded by many call center clients. These include captioning, transcription and X-ray diagnostic services.

BPOs also have better acceptance rates compared to the below par 3-5 percent take up rates of call centers, often due to similar industry standards with the US whose accounting is similar to the Philippines.

I just hope and pray that the BPO boom would not boomerang on us since many Pinoys now make up the middle class work force in the US and Europe. It would be the supreme irony to have our kababayans come back home because their high-earning positions overseas have been outsourced to the land where they couldn’t find a job in the first place, and to where they are now returning right back where they started.

Best site for the airport

By Mike Banos / July 5, 2006

THE Laguindingan site is not only the best but also the only site available on which airport facilities can be developed to adequately meet the objective of improved, international standard air service for Northern Mindanao, including the Cagayan de Oro-Iligan Corridor (CIC).

Steven Doerr, senior airport engineer for Louis Berger International, Inc. (LBII) the consulting firm which conducted the feasibility study, master plan, initial geotechnical investigations and environmental impact study for the Laguindingan Airport in 1991, said in a report that geotechnical considerations should not inhibit the development of the Laguindingan Airport Development Project (LADP).

Doerr said detailed surveys of the proposed site should be undertaken, and would in any event need to be undertaken, during or before the design phase of the project. He added that the LADP site is the best available site and should be developed due to terrain and other operational constraints at the present Cagayan de Oro Airport in Bgy. Lumbia, Cagayan de Oro City. Lumbia airport’s operational capability can’t be improved due to its surrounding high terrain which exceeds ICAO-recommended standards. Lengthening the runway would not affect these constraints.

Pending the results of further surveys, Doerr said it is likely that these concerns could be addressed in the design of the airfield pavements. Since new airport facilities at Laguindingan would provide more efficient, unlimited operations at a higher level of service than an upgraded Lumbia airport, he recommended that further investigations/evaluations should be performed and that the LADP proceed.

Doerr said that at the time of the study in 1991, LBII recommended that detailed surveys and seismic testing be made to locate and evaluate the influence of underground caves and cavities on the design of airport facilities. Such a study could also take into consideration lessons learned from the construction of the Mactan Airport which has similar soil characteristics as the Laguindingan airport site.

Doerr added that while LBII agrees that there are geotechnical concerns which must be evaluated and addressed, it should be stressed, however, that these concerns do not preclude the development of airport facilities at the Laguindingan site.

Given that the Laguindingan site, in the opinion of the Engineer, not only was the best site but the only site available on which airport facilities could be developed to adequately meet the objective of improved, international standard air service for the region, it was felt that the extent of any possible subsurface problems should be determined and that they could be economically compensated for in the design of the airfield pavements, Doerr’s report said.

Another issue which continues to be brought up against the Laguindingan Airport project is that there’s no need to invest in a new airport since the present Lumbia airport can be upgraded to handle wide-body jets which are now the standard for long-haul, international flights.

Doerr reiterated the previous findings of LBII that the development of Lumbia Airport as an alternative to a new CIC airport cannot be considered to provide "international standard airport facilities to meet commercial air transport needs," as required by the LADP’s Terms of Reference. While noting that the Lumbia airport can handle the forecast passenger traffic in the medium-term, operationally, night flights or wide-body aircraft operations is impossible and efficient, low-cost cargo operations would be limited.

Doerr noted that general air operations in the Lumbia airport vicinity are restricted by high terrain, with only very limited maneuvering possible south of the airport. The key constraint in terms of aircraft take-off performance is the high terrain approximately 2,500 meters south of the airport. This piece of land is approximately 70 meters above the runway elevation, which exceeds ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) standards for the inner approach slope.

According to Philippine Airlines (PAL), this obstacle results in a six ton weight penalty for B737s on departures to the south. Considering how Lumbia has already been missing out on high value fruit and vegetable shipments that are now shipped through Davao airport due to the bigger cargo capacities of the aircraft operating there, this becomes a very significant constraint on the further development of the fresh fruits and vegetable industry in Northern Mindanao.

The high terrain also affects instrument flight operations. Even with the existence of navigational aids such as the VOR/DME and ILS (Instrument Landing System), PAL restricts low-visibility operations because of the terrain’s effect on missed approach and circling operations.

Even at the time of the study in 1991, PAL believed that navigational aids and instrument procedures would not significantly improve the reliability of commercial air service at the Lumbia airport. PAL also indicated they would not assign wide-body aircraft to the Lumbia airport because of the terrain constraints in the airport vicinity. Doerr noted that this represents an important limitation on Lumbia airport because as passenger levels grow, larger aircraft with lower average cost per seat-kilometer become more economical to operate.

Because of terrain constraints, Doerr said the Lumbia airport has permanent constraints related to 1) range of potential operational procedures; 2) installation of improved instrument procedures, and resulting enhancement of safety and adverse weather operational capacity; 3) operations by larger, more efficient aircraft; and 4) night and adverse weather operating restrictions.

Doerr also noted that while runway extensions for the airport have been proposed and programmed in the past, "it should be noted that such extensions would neither significantly reduce existing operational constraints at the Lumbia airport nor enhance its operational capacity."

In contrast, the operation of the proposed international standard Laguindingan Airport will result to major economic benefits resulting from improved airport operational capabilities, including: a) potential for wide-body jet operations, potential for night commercial flights, instrument operations for both approaches and improved capability for commercial operations during adverse weather conditions.

Doerr said Lumbia airport’s operational capability in these respects cannot be improved due to the surrounding high terrain in excess of ICAO-recommended standards. Lengthening the runway would not affect these constraints.

On the other hand, the Laguindingan Airport can accommodate night flights. Due to its location near sea level it is anticipated that weather-related cancellations would decrease over those currently suffered at Lumbia. Even with the ILS operational, it only serves the south approach and cannot bring in aircraft coming from the opposite direction during adverse weather conditions.

Larger, more comfortable and more economical wide-body aircraft could be accommodated in Laguindingan, and these would make significant amounts of reliable cargo space available to local shippers. Some 75% of all cargo shipped through the Lumbia airport are perishable agricultural products.

In summary, significant benefits can be realized with the development of new airport facilities at Laguindingan which will not be available to an upgraded Lumbia airport.

(Note: Mike Banos was actively involved in the planning for the Laguindingan Airport in 1995-1997 when he was planning officer for the Cagayan de Oro-Iligan Corridor Project Management Office, of which the CIC Airport is a top priority infrastructure project.)

Misamis Uno

By Mike Banos / June 28, 2006

MINDANAO Economic Development Council Chair Romy Serra was in town recently to inspire participants at the recent launch of the 5th ICT Congress Cagayan de Oro will be hosting this coming September.

One of the salient points of his talk was his exhortation to all present to support Mindanao-One, his moniker for the crusade to unite Mindanaoans as One People for growth with equity, for just and lasting peace in Mindanao.

I was fascinated by the term and thought how appropriate a similar one could be used to gather the dissimilar peoples of Northern Mindanao and unite them in one dream, one vision and one goal for Region 10.

To start with, I believe many share my sentiment that the region needs a more inspiring name than Region 10 or Northern Mindanao. Seven years ago, the Region Ten Tourism Council passed a resolution to rename Northern Mindanao as Misamis region, similar to how Region 13 is more commonly known as the Caraga Region. Misamis was the former name of the present Region 10 (well, almost all of it) .

The council’s initiative was based on the paper submitted by my good friend Nono Montalvan entitled "Resurgence of Identity: The Heritage of Misamis, 1818-1945" tracing the Misamis region’s rich cultural and historical heritage from the times of the Himologan settlement at the Huluga caves site dating back to the Late Neolithic Age down to contemporary history in World War II when Cagayan de Misamis (as Cagayan de Oro was then known) and Bukidnon became rallying points for the underground resistance against the Japanese invaders.

Nono’s paper tells us how the Misamis region had its beginnings during the early 1800s when the Spanish government decided to pacify Mindanao. The island was made into one province with Zamboanga as its capital and divided into three politico-military districts: the Primero Distrito de Zamboanga, Segundo Distrito de Misamis and Tercio Distrito de Surigao.

The largest of the three was the Segundo Distrito de Misamis which includes present day Zamboanga del Norte, the Lanao and Misamis provinces, Camiguin, Bukidnon, and the northern portions of Cotabato and Maguindanao.

Now, how does Misamis Uno (kay Bisaya man ta diri) sound to you?

Besides uniting our people in the region into one, it could also be taken by our Misamis-nons (I just placed this hyphen, or glottal stop, as Nono calls it, to wake up our friend Elson who detests our use of this device as un-aesthetic, o matud pa, dili maayong porma!) as an inspiration to make Misamis the best region in Mindanao (for starters).

Not that it already is the best performing region in Mindanao. Even our friends from further down site grudgingly admit that for the moment, Misamis is Numero Uno! But I digress and am taking forever to get to my point.

If it was just up to me, I’d use Misamis Uno to have our airports and sea ports operating as an independent system instead of moving as autonomous, separate units not totally aware of what the others in Mindanao are doing and oftentimes moving in contravening directions to the detriment of us Mindanaoans.

For instance, the National Economic Development Authority (Neda) has been advocating with the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) and the Phividec Industrial Authority (PIA) for the longest time to "rationalize" the Cagayan de Oro Base Port (managed by PPA at Barangay Macabalan) and the Mindanao Container Terminal (MCT, managed by PIA) which are just 25 kms away from each other by land and 8 kms by sea, as ONE integrated port system for Northern Mindanao.

Neda says operating as one would make both more efficient in their operations, ensure viability of investments, maximize government’s scarce financial resources and provide clear opportunities for private sector participation in port development.

As envisioned by Neda, the two ports will compete as ONE system with ports outside the system. Though both are operated by different GOCCs, the national government can assign specific tasks for each port in order for the system to work. The RDC, Medco and Neda will make sure that the PIA and PPA will comply with the roles assigned to them. From a government perspective, it is unhealthy to see the PIA catering to passenger ships and Roro vessels directly competing with PPA.

Planned projects for both ports should complement each other, rather than duplicate functions or compete to avoid dissipating scarce public funds.

While it is true as PPA contends that market forces would ultimately decide where the cargoes would be discharged or a vessel would call, the availability of infrastructure facilities and specialized port services will affect the decision of the shipper or shipping company. Inasmuch as the government decides the construction of port infrastructure, future port development should suit to its role in the integrated port system.

Both ports must be components of an efficient Northern Mindanao port system that meets the projected market demand in the area as well as its captured hinterlands. Port developments in the rest of the Mindanao principal ports should take into consideration the port system in Northern Mindanao. Operational and management arrangements should lead to greater efficiency in services throughout the Northern Mindanao port system.

In his paper, "Analysis of MCTP and CDO Ports" (Making Northern Mindanao truly the Mindanao Gateway and An Investment for Mindanao Food Security) Engr. Manuel "Jam" Jamonir, infrastructure specialist with the Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) program, has recommended the adoption of a win-win proposition to pursue the MCTP-2 project with the adoption of the integrated port system in Northern Mindanao.

Since the PPA budget process is outside congressional appropriations, the Mindanao community has little say and is literally at the mercy of PPA for port development except for the PIA’s efforts and initiative to develop the Mindanao’s port infrastructure.

Because of government’s limited financial resources; therefore, any available funds should be spent wisely. Private sector participation is also encouraged when feasible and appropriate to make up for the lack of government investments without necessarily increasing the transaction cost.

For Mindanao to become the country’s food basket, our leaders have to undertake strong and smart lobbying and focused advocacy to fund our priority projects. If Mindanao cannot ship its food efficiently and the cost of transporting Mindanao products remains high, raising agricultural products becomes an exercise in futility.

A rationalized MCT and Cagayan de Oro Port development is a vital element to achieve the role of Northern Mindanao as Mindanao’s gateway to the rest of the country and to realize our development goal of becoming the country’s food basket. That, is Misamis Uno in action.

The emperor's new clothes

By Mike Banos / June 26, 2006

IT’S a sad day in the city’s history when its chief executive candidly admits over the airwaves he is not welcome in his own city!

A front page item in one of our local dailies reported last week that Hizzoner admitted during a radio interview how he was not invited to join the recent visit of US Ambassador Kristie Kenney to Cagayan de Oro because he was allegedly "among those listed in a US "watch list."

He lamented the fact that he could not even properly welcome the envoy since he was not invited!

Although he did not explain what sort of watch list it was he was listed in, he has previously intimated on several occasions that he has been linked to the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front-New People’s Army (CPP-NDF-NPA), which is listed as a "foreign terrorist" organization by the US.

He said he further suspected he was not invited to join the ambassador due to his past anti-US stances on issues such as the Visiting Forces Agreement and the US Military Bases.

He explained over the radio that it would be very difficult for him to attend the affair without an invitation since he might be "arrested, handcuffed and brought to someplace."

But, even before we give these eye-popping revelations the benefit of a doubt, let’s listen to what an eyewitness present during that event has to say: "The Mayor was supposed to make opening remarks at the Education and Employment Alliance event but canceled that morning and sent the Vice Mayor instead! If you still have your program from that event you will see his name on it."

Indeed, his name is on the program. Not invited? The Protocol Officer of the US Embassy making such an embarrassing oversight should be fired from his/her post! How dare he/she forget to invite the highest government official of the host city where this event was being held!

The nerve!

But wait a minute! Protocol officers are not wont to make such embarrassing oversights, especially one from the US Embassy.

On top of that, Hizzoner feared he might be embarrassed by being "arrested, hand cuffed, and being brought someplace?"

I believe this was Hizzoner’s new tack at a "diplomatic" sense of humor, telling the ambassador that she may the envoy of the most powerful nation on earth and he may not be sympathetic to the US on some key issues involving the Philippines, but there was no way that the mighty US of A could nab him in his own city, no sir!

Just consider, kinsa ba motu-o nga magpa dakop lugar siya sa mga Kano sa iyang kaugalingong siyudad? Hizzoner has a much higher respect for the intelligence and political savvy of the Kagayanons and would not even consider insulting our intelligence with a bad joke like this one. This must be a sampling of that "black humour" the Brits are so famous (infamous?) for…

But wait, we’ve heard this song somewhere before not so long ago. Ah, yes! The installation of Archbishop Antonio J. Ledesma, S.J., D.D. last May 31, was it? Again, there was that "no invitation" refrain. Well, I hardly consider Bishop Tony wanting in the cerebral department, nor any of his monsignors assigned to protocol in an event which has so far happened only four times in the city’s 56 years of existence.

What’s sad about this increasingly repetitive refrain is the high esteem with which foreign investors and visitors to the city hold Hizzoner! Frankly, it’s not only unbecoming or inappropriate behavior for any chief executive to whine in public about not being invited to key affairs in his own turf, it’s so petty it’s downright embarrassing! One wonders if the gains of all those successful trade missions abroad could be adversely affected by behavior such as this?

Granted, the American diplomat and Roman Catholic clergy may have committed an oversight in not making sure Hizzoner received his invitation (sorry, but believing the protocol officers of the Archdiocese and the US Embassy failed to issue him one is stretching it out a bit too thin even for his die-hard Old Guards from Tagoloan) but letting it pass would not have made our opinion of him any lesser.

We wish Hizzoner would refrain from considering a trilogy in this ongoing saga of the missing invitations. It not only diminishes him as a leader, but further diminishes the city’s luster as the fastest growing and most progressive city in Mindanao. With further refrains of this kind being repeated with increasing frequency, one would begin to wonder how the Emperor’s New Clothes really looks like.

 What interested me most, however, was how the campaign to eradicate what has now become the most common form of cancer detected among resident males and 3rd leading cause of death after diseases of the lungs and heart in the region. Besides these facts, however, there was pretty much no numbers to back it up.

 I asked the doctors present during the forum why this was so. Seems the anti-prostate cancer campaign is being conducted centrally by the Department of Health (DOH) in Manila. While it’s true doctors collate the data locally and regionally, these reports are sent to Manila and neither copies nor results are provided to either the regional health office or the local chapter of the Philippine Association of Urologists.

 Now that’s what Dr. Seuss would call "one pretty kettle of fish!" My professors at the Xavier University Graduate School of Business hammered (excuse my inclination for this expression!) into our brains day in and day out that 90 percent of solving a problem was identifying it.

As far as I recall, quantifying the problem remains to be one very big part of identifying it. How on earth are local doctors supposed to meet the threat of this rising menace (although they don’t have the numbers, the doctors present assured us the incidence of prostate cancer in the region was rising) when they don’t even have any idea of the length, depth or breath of the problem they’re facing?

Yup! In fact, things are so centralized that before the budget for PSA testing was cut by DOH, all blood samples for testing from this area had to be forwarded to DOH Central Office in Manila for processing. Say what? My newsman’s instinct tells me something mighty big is very wrong here and somebody, somewhere is again making a buck out of this whole thing!

Talk of making a buck, how about the pharmaceutical companies ‘supporting’ the annual initiative to promote Digital Rectal Examination (DRE) as a preventive measure to curb the rising incidence of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH, or the enlargement of the male prostate gland)?

I always assumed these annual ‘‘free examinations’’ were financed by these companies but the doctors present during our presscon assured me it was DOH Central Office which financed the whole activity and dealt with such sponsors at the national level.

 Ah, that should explain why we had all those standees of BPH medications dressing up our conference room last week! The med reps peddling these medications were there aplenty, but did not mix with us lowly members of the fourth estate, preferring to stay in the back and out of the way, so as to make the disdainful task of promoting the activity with the local media as short as possible, like having to deal with an unavoidable but necessary evil.

 They did fawn upon the doctors present, distributing choice drinks and snacks to the MDs, and leaving the press present to fend for themselves. Then to make sure we did not miss the point, they distributed the tee shirts for the Saturday event to the doctors in front of everyone present, just to make sure we lowly newsmen did not miss the point and kept our proper distance and place in this activity.

 After the presscon some of our press club members discussed the ethics of the pharmaceutical companies supporting this initiative. If, as the doctors there impressed on us, the Free DRE was financed by DOH, what were all these med reps and their standees doing cluttering up our forum with their crass commercialism? Do they expect us to lavish fat minutes and countless column inches of copy in our local radio/TV programs and newspapers for this activity in grateful appreciation for the snacks they so graciously provided us? Oh, not to forget the labakara that my good friend Labatiba knows so well!

 One of the constraints facing doctors treating prostate cancer patients is the acceptability of treatment and the cost of maintaining it. In fact, in one instance, 20 positive cases of prostatic cancer were identified not only by DRE but also by PSA tests (from Manila, of course). The doctors pressed these patients to immediately undergo treatment and stop the cancer in its tracks (this is very curable by the way, provided you identify it early and religiously take your meds) but not one, yes, not one of the patients ever came back for further treatment.

 The cost of medication seems to be a major factor in the failure to treat positive cases, doctors said. At P80 pesos a tablet per day, one of the medications so prominently advertised in that forum would cost a patient P2,400 a month or P28,800 a month. That’s not peanuts. Put that on top of the other medications that older men especially have to take for their diabetes, high blood pressure, et al and the cost of medication becomes a very real issue.

 Rudy Ladao, a press club colleague who used to work in Egypt, tells me the cost of a branded multi-vitamin which retails for P19.50 here tells me the same tablet costs P4 back in Cairo. If that’s the difference between a multi-vitamin here and in the Middle East, I’m appalled to think what the real cost of that P80 anti-BPH is. Take away the perks they give med reps like cars and the round trip tickets abroad they gift MDs to attend medical conferences, and low-cost meds for the poor can still be a reality during our lifetimes. All it takes is political will.

 To tackle the rising incidence of prostate cancer in the region, the Regional Development Council would be the nest positioned to muster the local resources to do this, initially collating the database of incidence to be able local health officials to quantify and identify where it is prevalent. The rest would be peanuts. Like I said, all it takes is political will.

Billboard ban long overdue

By Mike Banos / June 19, 2006

MY neighbor on this op-ed page and good friend Ben Contreras will be happy to note our joint efforts to call the attention of the government officials on the dangers posed by billboards to motorists is finally bearing fruit.

A headline story of our Thursday, June 15, 2006 issue last week, by Leila B. Salaverria trumpeted: DPWH seeks ban on bill-boards; distractions, say complaints . Hallelujah! Alhamdulillah! God be praised!

Seems it was not only Ben and I who have noted the hazards posed by brightly lit billboards set smack across our roads and highways. Seems the DPWH has finally drafted a circular which would ban billboards from being displayed within a 100-meter radius of the center of national roads and power transmission lines after receiving "numerous" complaints. It also calls for the removal within six months of all existing billboards within the prohibited area.

The circular was drafted by National Building Code Development Office (NBCDO) director Emmanuel Cuntapay and has already been submitted for approval to DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane.

Cantupay said the circular was drawn up to ensure the safety of motorists who may be distracted by billboards which are designed to precisely do just that: call the attention of motorists. This alone would be sufficient to tell those blessed by God with adequate logical circuits in their little gray cells there is something very wrong with this intended purpose of billboards. The order, he said, would be enforced by building officials of local government units.

And right there lies the rub: for instance, the Office of the Building Official in Cagayan de Oro is directly under the supervision of the Office of the City Mayor. Can anyone imagine Hizzoner now telling his good friend Jun Suan he can no longer post billboards in the pedestrian overpass near Gaisano City which he contracted to build at no cost to the city government under a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) scheme provided he be allowed to exhibit billboards on both sides of the elevated walkway?

Ah, na na na na na! Ako dili ka-imagine mahitabo kini! Same spiel would have to be delivered to Steve Gaisano for his elevated walkway linking Gaisano City to Gaisano Mall made popular by Ben "Knock, Knock" Contreras. No more streamers, no more billboards, no more bright lights and since the circular covers the building code as well, I imagine no more merchandise displayed along this structure. Oh, really?

 Seems inspections conducted by the DPWH in Northern and Southern Luzon revealed that numerous billboards have been put up besides busy highways in full view of motorists. In Metro Manila, larger-than-life billboards, some featuring scantily clad models (I can cite one near the Maharlika bridge facing motorists going east as they come down from the bridge) loom everywhere.

 Cuntapay is right in citing that billboards in other countries like Singapore for instance, don’t face the road but rather buildings since they are intended to be seen not by drivers but building occupants.

 Bitaw, come to think of it, are the advertising executives in our country so dumb they think drivers caught up in traffic have time to look up at billboards, how much more the harassed commuters packed like sardines in the back (sibog-sibog na lang diha sa wala palihog, aron kalarga na ta! Tag onse-onse man na!) who can hardly see out of the side of overloaded jeepneys? What were you thinking, man? Enamored by the numbers of people and vehicles passing by highways which make it easier to justify your marketing budgets to your bosses?

Aw, c’mon!

 As the national building official, Cuntapay said Ebdane is mandated to made buildings safe and see to it that the national building code is followed and enforced. Besides banning billboards along roads, the circular also orders building officials to inventory all buildings and other public structures (including billboards, pylons, advertising signs) to see whether these are still fit for human habitation and/or use and comply with building code standards.

 We take our hats off to Cuntapay for his courage in drafting this circular which would displace a lot of advertising business nationwide. Even as we speak, I’m sure members of the industry have already put up a formidable war chest to combat its signing by Edbane or come up with more palatable alternatives to it short of the recommended demolition of all billboards within the 100 meter prohibited area.

 But businessmen engaged in the business are not likely to contribute a centavo to that kitty. They’re all busy choosing the latest style of Oakley and Police shades from Carl Romero’s store, their future in Cagayan de Oro city is ssssoooo bright! Kahayag sa ilang kaugmaon kinahanglan nila mag sunglass bisan sulod sa ilang mga opisina! Swindabu!