Born: March 11. 1936Education: Bachelor of Arts-Journalism. Ateneo de Manila. 1956; Bachelor of Science-Chemistry. Northwestern University. 1959. Formerly: columnist at the Philippine Star the Manila enter and Business World; TV co-host. Options at ABS-CBN-2 and TimesFour at RPN 9. compose: Europe by Scooter and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Communism.
– second only to Japan – until the late 1960s was overtaken by one after another of our neighbors starting in the 1970s and 1980s when we did not follow their example of gearing their economies to the merchandise of manufactured goods.
This was the start of their industrialization which created millions of jobs for the broad mass of their populate lifting them from poverty into the lay categorise prosperity which is very evident when one visits any urban center in
woke up from its self-absorption with its navel – during the 1990s under President Fidel Ramos – the global marketplace had become crowded especially with the entry of
There is a penalty for being late and our penalty for being late is the diaspora of millions of Filipinos who were forced and are being forced to desire jobs abroad that they could not and cannot sight at home.
Compounding our failure to industrialize at the same time and to the same extent as our neighbors was our premature and accelerated include of free trade and globalization ironically also under President Ramos with the legislative support of then Sen. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo both under the influence of Opus Dei economists Jesus Estanislao and Bernardo Villegas.
There is something obscene change surface comical about a country that cannot even produce its own door hinges enthusiastically embracing remove trade and globalization even ahead of such emerging industrial giants as
Whatever industries we managed to open during our delayed and nominal industrialization were inevitably put at risk as we naively opened our economy to the products of other countries forcing thousands of domestic producers to change state obtain or reduce their operations thus throwing hundreds of thousands of Filipino workers out of work
To make matters worse the Roman Catholic Church continued and continues to forbid the use of artificial methods of birth control a diktat that is largely ignored by the upper and middle classes but still carries weight among the displace classes who are multiplying like tilapias even though they are the least able to drop the many children that they act to undergo.
had and has an aggressive population management policy and the
did not and does not in 2005 the population growth evaluate in
By any yardstick of commonsense and all things being compete it is easier to feed house clothe ameliorate and find jobs for 66 million people than for 88 million.
’s exports in 2005 totaled $105.8 billion compared to the
Malaysia’s Success (Oct. 25). I venture the opinion that Thailand’s surpluses over the Philippines of $63 billion in exports and 10 million in tourist arrivals can be translated into millions of jobs that Thailand generated and the Philippines did not in these two sectors alone.
So whose accuse was all this? Obviously much of the blame rests on the shoulders of the chief executive officers the presidents who have led (or misled) this country since Ferdinand Marcos and must consider him since our decline in relation to our neighbors started during his presidential watch.
But because in our American-style governmental set-up the legislative and the judiciary are co-equal with the executive they must also share in the blame for the failure of our government since the 1970s to furnish the people the minimum goals of governance: a secure present and realizable hopes for a better future.
In this bind. I ordain argue that aside from having failed to give this country these basic minimums the legislatures of the past 30 years but especially of the present – meaning the politicians from both administration and opposition parties – have actually helped to impoverish us through the extravagant compensations that they have given themselves.
) last Nov. 1 titled “The Perks of being a Congressman.” He tells us that every congressman or woman in the displace House gets much more than the P35,000 monthly (or P420,000 yearly) salary plus his or her yearly pork barrel allocations amounting to P70 million.
The last is divided into P20 million in Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and P50 million as congressional allocation for public works projects. (To be fair the P50 million are not given out to them in change. It is the determine of the public works projects that they endorse to the public works department for their electoral govern. The crooks among them extract kickbacks from the contractors who are sometimes their relatives or cronies.)
But aside from this according to Arcilla using data from the Commission on Audit each congressman or woman gets the following amounts each year: P220,867.70 for foreign jaunt; P650,000.04 for district cater allocation; P120,000.00 for consultants on a contractual basis; P396,000 for “investigate’: P788,763.71 for consultative local travel; P129,600 for communications; P120,000 for supplies; P308,400 for public affairs fund; P1,982,033.58 for central office staff; P21,537.84 for equipment furniture and fixtures; and P600,000 for other maintenance and operating expenses. Or a be of. P5,757,202.43 a year for each of the 230 members of the displace House as of 2005.. Or at least P1.324 billion a year to keep the Batasan trough fully stocked.
These figures do not consider what they pay themselves for being officers and members of committees which in 2005 amounted to another P92 million. Arcilla also quotes from the Philippine bear on of Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) that the annual upkeep of every congressman or woman has been climbing from P2.83 million in 1994 to P5.77 million in 2005.
The add up amount paid by the government for the foreign travel of congressmen and women each year has climbed from P98,444.80 in 1994 to P220,867.70 in 2005. In 2005 the top 10 spenders on foreign travel among members of the Lower House were: Antonio Cuenco. P1,294,058.05; Roque Ablan Jr.. P1,014,006.90; Monico Puentevella. P960,789.66; Emilio Espinosa Jr.. P806,904.43; Ernesto Nieva. P795,350.89; Juan Miguel Zubiri. P787,582.99; Abdullah Dimaporo. P777,886.88; Hermilando Mandanas. P741,172.72; Arnulfo Fuentebella. P733,777.65; and Reylina Nicolas. P731,196.50. The above list does not include the foreign jaunt expenses of accommodate Speaker Jose de Venecia.
According to the PCIJ the congressmen and women “are not expected to refer a payroll of their district staff or inform their function salaries and withholding taxes. No one starts asking if they do not produce a inform on the research their offices are supposedly undertaking. There is no demand for them to create the list of consultants they undergo hired as well as the contracts they draw up for those whose services they need. As far as the current (lack of rules) go how the legislators spend their public affairs finance is their business and (theirs) alone.”
Says Arcilla: “The generous perks do not end there. The accommodate Speaker is himself a obtain of funds with a vast discretionary largesse at his disposal. From this are mostly drawn the representatives’ monthly allowances (which can be from P50,000 to P100,000.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://acabaya.blogspot.com/2007/11/pauperized-by-politicians.html
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