Mayhem in the metropolis

Skyway Stage 3 began yesterday. It also ushered in the rehabilitation of EDSA, north and south, which is said to end by 2016. The 14.8-kilometer Skyway Stage 3 project aims to connect SLEX to NLEX from Buendia to Balintawak and aims to decongest EDSA, C-5 and other major thoroughfares in Metro Manila. It also aims to reduce travel time from Buendia to Balintawak from two hours to 20 minutes or less.  Its estimated cost: P26.5 billion.

Total Breakdown

How long would it take before government acts to prevent breakdown on basic services?  How long will it take for people to seek redress of their collective grievances? How long would the People Surge that began in Samar-Tacloban last week hit the metropolis? It appears that in the last two minutes we just might be in an official meltdown. Why? Allow me to count the ways.

Standing tall at Sochi

As we entered the weekend, social media was buzzing about a Filipino by the name of Michael Christian Martinez, born November 4, 1996, that makes him 17 years old.  Michael is a Filipino figure skater.  By Sunday, netizens were getting mad because of the sad tale told by the mother of Michael on the lack of support by the Aquino administration for his son's training. Truly sad!

Bunked

In urban dictionary, the word bunked means to skip something, such as an event, school, or work. That was what I thought of the news on the overpriced, substandard bunkhouses built by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). Nothing new there especially then the secretary, together with the DSWD Secretary and BSA3 themselves visited the area and saw the 126 bunkhouses build in December of last year. They didn’t notice anything wrong. It was through a leak to the media that we got wind of the anomalous construction.

Bar has been lowered

Three years and then some, we have accepted that substandard is the norm in public service. From the bunkhouses to the “burned out” Cabinet, to the critics making a living from being critical to the need to rest. When it used to be the best and the brightest served government, today, we have barkada lording it over technocrats simply because proximity to power is the virtue some people in this administration requires.

Last two-minute gambit: Go SARO-less

When there is no closure yet on the so-called faked Special Allotment Release Orders (SAROs), the Php879 Million farm-to-market roads with bogus signatures and PDAF releases from 2010 to 2013 have not been fully reviewed by Commission on Audit (COA) and the Department of Justice cherry picking on whom to persecute, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is at it again, sweeping the dirt under the rug. COA has admitted that its inability to finish the audit of the Aquino II years is a direct result of DBM’s uncooperativeness by not providing relevant documents. Here now comes DBM announcing to all and sundry that a budgetary reform has been instituted calling it a: “GAA-as-release-document” regime. From DAP, here is another genius of a move of a cabinet secretary who has not been taken to tasks by the appointing authority for all the budgetary somersaults and contortions he has made.

Funds, power and peace

These days one would not be surprised with so many alphabet soup of funds being invented and used wantonly for political ends. One can conclude PH is a rich country pretending to be poor or PH is a poor country with its leaders always raking in money for their political future.

When institutions and processes fail:RA101211

The wrath of Yolanda has showed to us how government can fail us during the most critical hours when we needed to feel its presence. It is even worst after its aftermath. Sad, truly sad because every peso we contribute to taxes whether in the form of withholding, value added or expanded value added taxes are pesos we worked hard for.

When critics take the plate

The aftermath of Super Typhoon Yolanda has seen more and more people trooping to the frontlines. These are ordinary folks who just want to help in any way they can. But it is interesting how people in the Aquino administration label critics as do-nothing, on the saddle, spewing invectives lot. I beg to disagree cause critics have their unique role in pushing TeamPH.

Aftermath of Yolanda

Yolanda hit the country as I was in transit to Manila from the other side of the globe. From every stop, I was monitoring how things were and sadly it was all foreign media focusing laser-like quality on the events unfolding. The moment some travelers get to know one is Filipino, they stop and ask how was PH, one’s family and how one is feeling with all these natural calamities? It felt good because you can feel their sincerities and it felt bad because you know it’s tragic to get the foreigners to even stop and see you in a different light.

When you walk the Dictator's path

When two former Supreme Court Chief Justices formally take a position and make the same public then something is truly screwed in our beloved Philippines.  And when a president says “taking this into account, such projects by the legislators made up a mere 9 percent of the program. Why, then, is the DAP being made an issue?" then one gets the impression that the one hand does not know what the other is doing. Truly sad for the son of Democracy's icon and the Partido Liberal who I thought would be a lot better as a party-in-governance.

One man of courage makes a majority

Boston, MA -- I was so impressed with the JFK Library and Museum that it practically defined my New England trip with former colleagues from the office of then Sen. Rene Saguisag.  The JFK library by Boston harbor and the richness of its collection left me totally awed by JFK, his family, RFK and Jackie as well as their kids. We stayed for hours thereby requiring another trip someday to Boston to visit another Ivy League.

The one not dirtied by mud

New York -- 2016 is 31 months away. Immediately after 2013 a clearing operation was made and continuous to be so up to today. Dismantled in the process, depending on one's political affiliation, is the noted "opposition's" Three Kings save for one who was tentatively been sidelined. It would have been attack season for the Vice President immediately after 2013 as some operatives have intimated but was tentatively set aside because of the PDAF which got Revilla, Estrada and Enrile on the deck. Binay would have been a tactical delay because of the easy victory of Nancy. Besides the VP expressed his total and continuing support to the Chief so operators had to backed out, for a while.

It's Abad stupid!

Washington D.C. -- By the time this gets printed, the federal government will probably be shutdown since the U.S. budget didn't pass. The first after 17 years. A continuing resolution was issued by the House but the Senate will be back only Monday afternoon. The interesting quid pro quo happened, budget or Obamacare was the proposition considered. Obamacare is already a law but Republicans would want to defer, if not totally scrap it. The next best wedge is the federal budget and last minute backroom negotiations may not result in a bipartisan consensus. Shutdown begins Monday (September 30) midnight.

Distributive politics

A lot has been said about pork barrel since we discovered Napoles. Some armchair analysts have called for its abolition and putting the blame solely on members of Congress for ghost deliveries and kickbacks. I won’t go into that because congressmen can very well defend themselves. But presidential pork is not pork is again erroneous. The operative term is discretionary.

Who gets what, when and how

A lot of political analysts these days are saying pork is unique to the Philippines. This is not true. All legislative bodies have theirs. Pork in other territories is known as earmarks, entitlements, political promise making, contracts, economic arrangements, etc.

In defense of Congress, the institution

I spent almost 10 years in Philippine Congress (both chambers) as a congressional staff and I have always been a student of legislatures. I know a lot of people will raise their brows but I will go on a limb for the institution and not the persons occupying the 16th today.

Gilas & puso; Napoles & pork

IT was all heart that got Gilas Pilipinas to beat South Korea in a game that truly mattered for basketball pride and honor of the nation. We were united for a moment, shouting our lungs out to egg our team to gain back their composure with the injury of naturalized center Marcus Douthit. With Douthit riding the bench, it was an all-Filipino five that engineered the return to center stage for a team created, molded and nurtured by a man called MVP and a bench tactician named Chot. It was championship caliber play Saturday night with an 86-79 victory. More than anything, it was personal for every Filipino in the SMX Arena for we have not beaten South Korea for that long. Defeating South Korea ensured our ticket to Spain for the FIBA World Championships.

Anyare?

Anyare is a Filipino, street term loosely translated as “what happened?” It is a shortened word of the phrase anong nangyari. The usual answer would have been nganga, Filipino street term to mean none. And really, from 22 July when BSA3 delivered his 3rd SONA, it was all down the hill, err, slippery slope.

Calculated risks

No State of the Nation Address (SONA) will make someone proud to be a Filipino. It has always been said: “masarap maging Filipino sa sariling bayan.” That has been uttered by OFWs, balikbayans and even the poorest of the poor. Those who have stuck it out in the Philippines rather than migrate to some other countries for greener pastures would often say, “kahit mahirap dito sa Pinas, basta sama sama tayo, masaya pa rin.”