Wang-wang

EYES WIDE OPEN - Iris Gonzales - The Philippine Star

April 14, 2024 | 12:00am

9
If you’ve been in Metro Manila’s main thoroughfares and even in our nooks
and crannies often enough, it’s very likely that you’ve experienced having your
trip – whether you’re driving or using public transportation – shamelessly and
abruptly interrupted and cut by a convoy of vehicles with police escorts. I’ve
lost count of how many times I’ve experienced this.

These wang-wang riddled convoys symbolize a huge part of what’s wrong in

this nation of 115 million, then and now – stark inequality, audacious sense of
entitlement among the powerful few and the lack of care or concern for fellow
Filipinos.

EDSA
You especially feel the pain when this happens along EDSA because the
country’s busiest highway is where you really get stuck during rush hour.
The meme that has been going around captures it well: “Kung gusto mong
makasama ang mahal mo sa buhay ng matagal, idaan mo sa EDSA.”

Actually, EDSA is a microcosm of what’s happening everywhere else in the

country.

Rules are bent and lines are blurred for a powerful few while ordinary citizens
are stuck in a system that is wreaking with inefficiencies.

As the English historian, politician and writer John Edward Dalberg-Acton

famously said, “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts
absolutely.”

The Philippines is a testament to this.

What we have is a society that is deeply divided between the rich and the
poor, the powerful and the underprivileged.

And the gap is stark and telling.

And so I very much welcome President Marcos’ wang-wang ban. Thank you,
Mr. President!

Credit, indeed, goes to Marcos for reviving a policy last seen during the time
of president Noynoy Aquino.

“All government officials and personnel are prohibited from utilizing sirens,
blinkers and other similar gadgets that produce exceptionally loud or startling
sound, including dome lights, blinkers, or other similar signaling or flashing
devices,” according to Marcos’ Administrative Order No. 18, which Executive
Secretary Lucas Bersamin signed on March 25.

The order also restricted the use of protocol license plates, with judges losing
the privilege.

The move is part of efforts to ensure road safety and better manage the
worsening traffic in Metro Manila with businesses, especially the Management
Association of the Philippines, recently sounding the alarm on our traffic woes.

According to Marcos, exempted from the order on sirens are official vehicles
of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, National Bureau of Investigation and
Philippine National Police as well as fire trucks, hospital ambulances and
other emergency vehicles.

That no wang-wang policy seemed mundane or irrelevant when Noynoy

Aquino announced it during his presidential inaugural address in 2010.

But he said it was a message against VIP entitlements and those who want to
jump the line at ordinary people’s expense.

When his term ended in 2016, the throngs of wang-wang users made a strong
comeback.

There was a revenge of sorts among entitled people. Actually, in some ways,
the Duterte administration seems characterized by that. The so-called Davao
group of businessmen lorded it over, snaking through Metro Manila’s streets
with their long convoys and police escorts – literally and metaphorically
speaking.

Now, at least, there will be a bit of order once these convoys and their wang-
wangs are gone.

Traffic, a state of calamity

But Marcos should also look at private users of police escorts. If I’m not
mistaken, a private citizen can hire police escorts with their wang-wangs and
sirens to navigate the roads and cut through others stuck in traffic.

Speaking of traffic, removing the wang-wangs alone – although a step in the

right direction – will not be enough to solve our traffic woes, now collectively
dubbed by MAP as a state of calamity.

There are other immediate solutions. A reader, Alex Serrano, who is a retired
engineer, has some suggestions.

These include a two-day a week car ban, which could reduce volume by
around 40 percent; adoption of a staggered work schedule and an increase in
the number of P2P buses to and from major areas such as Valenzuela,
Fairview, Marikina, Antipolo, Pasig, Bicutan, Sucat, Alabang, etc.

Long-term solutions I deem would be effective include decongesting the

National Capital Region by creating new growth areas elsewhere.
It is important to do this now before Metro Manila implodes.

There are several options, including tycoon Manuel B. Villar’s Villar City in the
south and in the north, the still under-utilized Clark business district in
Pampanga and, somewhere closer, tycoon Ramon Ang’s aerotropolis which is
rising in Bulacan.

We need a major change in mindset so that we’re not fixated on just setting
up offices in Makati or BGC.

The government can encourage a lot of movement outside Metro Manila by

providing tax incentives and other perks as well as building big-ticket
infrastructure.

If and when this happens, NCR may start to decongest and the economies in
the provinces would grow faster. As The STAR’s columnist Boo Chanco said,
we need a new NCR.

There’s still a long road ahead before that becomes a reality, however, so for
now, I’ll just look forward to driving in the busy streets of Metro Manila without
being so rudely interrupted by audacious wang-wang users.

https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2024/04/14/2347562/wang-wang

OPINION
Can Israelis and Palestinians co-
exist?

BREAKTHROUGH - Elfren S. Cruz - The Philippine Star

April 14, 2024 | 12:00am
 3
Even though it does not affect the Philippines directly, the conflict in Palestine
and Israel has worldwide consequences. The violence caused by this conflict
has begun to escalate way beyond the borders of Gaza and Israel. For
example, the Houthi rebels in southern Yemen have begun to send missiles to
all ships passing through the Red Sea. This has forced shipping between Asia
and Europe to avoid the Red Sea and Suez Canal and take the longer route
passing around the tip of Africa.

The story of the conflict between the Palestinian Arabs and the Jewish settlers
really started after the Second World War. It was then that most of the
Western world were supporting the idea of establishing a Jewish homeland for
all the predominantly European Jews who had been subject to persecution by
the Nazis of Germany.

Like many others in Europe, the Americas and even Asia, I was personally
sympathetic to the establishment of a Jewish homeland. I realize now that a
lot of the sympathy was the result of Western propaganda. The book that
really influenced me was the historical novel “Exodus” written by Leon Uris. It
is basically the story of the war of independence in 1948 when the waves of
Jewish migrants coming from Europe were able to drive out the Palestinian
Arabs from Palestine.

At that time, Uris portrayed in his book the “birth of a new nation in the midst
of enemies.” The Palestinian Arabs were portrayed as enemies rather than as
a people that were actually the inhabitants of that land.

The Jewish migrants anchored their claim on the biblical story that they were
the original inhabitants of this land called Israel. A new emerging story,
however, is that the Western world believed that the only solution to racial
prejudice against Jews was to help them establish their own homeland. This
was successfully accomplished, except that it was done by driving away
Palestinian Arabs who had settled there for centuries.
It is understandable why the Palestinian Arabs believed that the land
belonged to them. The result of this conflict was that there were two very
different peoples residing virtually next to each other – but not as equals. The
Jews retained all the power and the Palestinians had very little economic and
political power.

This apartheid situation could not exist forever. There is a story how Moshe
Dayan, who was chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, foretold the
impossibility of this situation.

It was said that in April 1956, Dayan visited a Jewish settlement near the
border of Gaza to attend the funeral of 21-year-old Roi Rotberg who had been
murdered the previous morning by Palestinians while he was patrolling the
fields. The result was nationwide shock and agony. In his eulogy, Dayan did
not attack the horrible cruelty of Rotberg’s killers.

The eulogy of Dayan was remarkably sympathetic towards the Palestinian

perpetrators. He said: “Let us not cast blame on the murderers. For eight
years, they have been sitting in the refugee camps in Gaza and before their
eyes, we have been transforming the lands and the villages where they and
their fathers dwelt into our estate.” Dayan was not a supporter of the
Palestinian cause. However, it was said that he realized that the Palestinians
would never forget the 1948 war where the majority of Palestinian Arabs were
driven into exile by the victory of the Jews. Many of the Palestinian Arabs
were forcibly relocated to Gaza, including residents of communities that
eventually became Jewish towns and villages.

Dayan also said in his eulogy that the Palestinians would never stop dreaming
of returning to their homes. He said, “Let us not be deterred from seeing the
loathing that is inflaming and filling the lives of hundreds of thousands of
Arabs living around us.”

These words seem to foretell the conflict that has led to thousands of civilians,
including children and babies, to suffer horrible death and deprivation.

Today, this conflict has been exacerbated by the fact that the Israel
government is led by Netanyahu, whose extreme rightist government believes
that Israel can thrive without addressing the Palestinian issue. For Netanyahu,
who was facing trial, the conflict in Gaza has given him reason to avoid any
election where he is forecast to lose.
The current debate, aside from the ongoing war, is what is the final solution to
end the Israel-Palestinian conflict to ensure lasting peace. The American
solution is for two states, both independent and existing side by side
peacefully without any conflict. This so-called two-state solution assumes that
the two peoples can still manage to co-exist peacefully. The other assumption
is that the Jews will still be able to stop encroaching on Arab land, and the
Palestinian Arabs will give up all their hopes of returning to their homeland.

The Israelis should learn from the warning of Moshe Dayan and stop being
deaf to new suggestions of peace.

https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2024/04/14/2347560/can-israelis-and-palestinians-co-exist

OPINION
Horrified

SKETCHES - Ana Marie Pamintuan - The Philippine Star

April 15, 2024 | 12:00am

2
Hello, telephone?
That’s a Pinoy joke that may be pitched to President Marcos and his
predecessor Rodrigo Duterte.
In this digital age, how hard is it for the two men to pick up cell phones and
clarify raging issues?

Their failure to do so says a lot about the status of their ties.

Instead of talking, the two have been issuing statements concerning each
other through mainstream and social media. Duterte, in his latest press
conference that was streamed live Thursday night, asked why BBM didn’t
simply call him to clarify his agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping,
which Duterte forged verbally and sealed with a handshake during his
presidency.

As of last night, the call had not yet happened. Instead, BBM, in a talk with
Philippine media in Washington on Friday, asked the journalists to be the one
to seek clarifications from Duterte.

During this press conference, BBM also doubled down on his criticism of what
he prefers to call a “secret deal” because, he noted, the discussion was
clandestine and the agreement was not made public.

Duterte’s latest salvo came on the heels of BBM’s statement hours before
leaving for the US, that he was “horrified” by a “secret agreement” that
“compromised” Philippine territory, sovereignty and sovereign rights in the
West Philippine Sea. There were no words qualifying that BBM was unsure of
the secret deal and its negative impact on Philippine rights in the WPS.

Duterte, in his press conference, seemed equally horrified by BBM’s

statement. After six years, we’ve learned to tell the depth of Duterte’s ire by
the amount of vitriol he spews, with personal attacks reserved for those he
dislikes the most.

In vintage Duterte, his press conference was peppered with expletives, with
insults thrown in about BBM being a “crybaby” with only two years of college.
Duterte did not repeat his accusation about BBM’s supposed cocaine use and
inclusion in the watchlist of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, but his
supporters are insisting that the story is true and brushing aside the denial of
the PDEA as self-preservation under Marcos 2.0.

* * *

In Washington, BBM responded to Duterte’s tirade with more questions about

the deal with Xi. “Why is it secret? Why is it secret?” BBM wants to know why
a “veteran lawyer” like Duterte agreed to a deal involving national sovereignty
without documentation either on paper or video. And why didn’t Duterte’s
team inform the incoming Marcos administration about the deal?

BBM was clearly addressing not just Duterte but the nation when he
remarked: “Now we need to know, what did you agree to? What did you
compromise? Ano ’yong pinamigay ninyo, bakit nagagalit ang kaibigan natin
sa China na hindi kami sumusunod?”

The questions are valid, although Duterte has answered them, in his usual
muddled way. It was a verbal agreement, he explained in his press
conference, to maintain the status quo in contested waters and prevent the
escalation of conflict.

He admitted that his agreeing to the “as is, where is” status quo in the WPS
included no repairs on the BRP Sierra Madre, the Philippine Navy outpost on
Ayungin Shoal.

Even new ships, however, require regular maintenance and repair. If the rusty
Sierra Madre would be allowed to fall into disrepair, it would disintegrate into
the sea in no time, and where would that leave the Filipino troops manning the
outpost? Should they float using salbabida while guarding Ayungin?

Confronted with this issue, Duterte snapped that if BBM wanted to have
repairs done on the ship, then the President should go ahead – and see how
China would react.

We already know the answer to this one: water cannon attacks by the China
Coast Guard, which is under military command. Beijing has said it would not
allow the delivery of construction and repair materials on a ship within
Philippine sovereign waters, and is demanding that Manila honor its supposed
commitments.

* * *

For a team that won on a platform of continuity, it’s noteworthy that the
Marcos 2.0 administration wasn’t apprised of this verbal deal between Duterte
and Xi.

Perhaps Duterte didn’t realize the weight that Beijing would place on a
commitment that isn’t in black and white, which he refuses to describe as a
gentleman’s agreement. He probably thought any undocumented deal would
have no bearing in a new administration, and BBM has a free hand in crafting
foreign policy.

Beijing is trying to play the divide and rule card in this issue. But on the WPS
and China, all surveys have consistently shown overwhelming support among
Filipinos for the policy that BBM is pursuing. Duterte’s pivot to Beijing was one
area where, despite his enormous popularity, his minions refused to go along
with him, as all the reputable non-commissioned surveys showed.

* * *

As BBM and Duterte exchange barbs, the question at this point is, quo vadis,
UniTeam?

Duterte has consistently shown a dislike for BBM, and it’s not the first time
that he has accused the current President of cocaine use and weakness.
Duterte skipped BBM’s inaugural and looked morose at his daughter Sara’s
inauguration as Vice President.

But Sara is still Daughterte. With the VP under siege by forces headed by
Speaker Martin Romualdez, the Dutertes have been circling the wagons, with
the father coming to the defense of his headstrong daughter.

VP Sara has so far resisted calls for her to quit her Cabinet post amid her
relatives’ calls for the resignation of bossing BBM.

In Washington, BBM defended Sara, sort of, over her “no comment” on the
WPS issue, saying it wasn’t “the place” of the VP / education secretary to talk
about it.

But the cracks keep showing. For his brief visit in Washington, BBM named
the VP as government caretaker – together with Executive Secretary Lucas
Bersamin and Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III. Malacañang
said it was not the first time that the three officials were named government
caretakers.

Video footage indicate that the VP and BBM’s closest adviser, First Lady Liza
Marcos, are no longer on speaking terms.

The Dutertes are emerging as the most significant opposition to the Marcos
2.0 administration.
For those of us in the peanut gallery, who needs show biz when our politicians
are so entertaining?

https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2024/04/15/2347702/horrified

OPINION
It’s getting hot in here!

Best Practices - Brian Poe Llamanzares - The Philippine Star

April 14, 2024 | 12:00am

The heat lately has been impossible to ignore. El Niño looms over the
Philippines. It brings with it a host of extreme weather events, such as drought
drastically decreasing rainfall by up to 60 percent and scorching heat waves
that are projected to persist across the entire archipelago until May 2024. We
are all witnesses to its terrible inescapable effects. Sweltering heat surpassing
42 degrees Celsius in certain places, for instance, has suspended classes
across 5,000 Philippine schools in April 2024’s first week, interrupting the
education of our 3.6 million students. Cebu City declared a state of water
crisis. Government agencies state that water rationing in Metro Manila is not
yet needed as supplies remain sufficient for now, but nonetheless forewarn it
may be on our horizon. If we fail to formulate sustainable solutions and bungle
implementation, then we necessarily compromise Philippine economic,
energy, food and water security.

El Niño economics must be carefully considered as its effects are pervasive

and potent. Like the temperature, March 2024 inflation rate similarly rose.
Government agencies highlight that the 3.7 percent inflation rate is far lower
than last year’s 7.6 percent in March 2023, and falls within our 2 percent to 4
percent inflation target range. The devils, however, are in the details.

While the March 2024 inflation rate is at 3.7 percent overall, the Philippine
Statistics Authority-reported inflation rate for the bottom 30 percent of income
households is at a painful 4.6 percent. Filipinos are hurting, and the poorest
are bearing the worst of it. It is thus no wonder that recent surveys reveal that
Filipinos’ top concern right now is perceived uncontrolled inflation. “Food and
alcoholic beverages” continue to be the main contributor to overall inflation,
contributing 80.6 percent.

Among the food groups, 103.2 percent share was attributable to “cereals and
cereal products” which includes bread, flour and – most importantly – rice.
Currently, Department of Agriculture Secretary Laurel himself admits that rice
prices are not expected to go down due to El Niño’s effects, estimated at a
staggering P2.76 billion. At such a critical juncture, it must be recognized that
the single most crucial element of sustainable rice production is water.

As a multi-purpose dam for irrigation, hydroelectric power, flood control and

Southeast Asia’s largest, Pantabangan Dam’s role cannot be overstated.
PAGASA cautions that El Niño may cause Pantabangan to drop to its critical
level by the end of April 2024. Pantabangan supplies the irrigation needs of
Nueva Ecija, which our out-of-school-due-to-sweltering-heat Filipino school
children know in their textbooks as the “Rice Bowl of the Philippines.” Less
than optimal levels of irrigation for agriculture augurs lower quality and/or less
yield.

No less than President Marcos himself recognized the Philippines’ water crisis
– and its extent. In 2023, acknowledging inter alia “the fragmented water and
sanitation sector, increasing demand for water due to population and
economic growth, impacts of climate change,” the President by executive fiat
created a Water Resource Management Office, under the Department of the
Environment and Natural Resources.

Our Senate office hailed it as a “timely intervention” and hoped that it would
prepare the institutionalization of our nation’s efforts to ensure water security
for all through, among others, a Department of Water. In this regard, our
Senate office reiterates our assertion for the urgent need to pass Senate Bill
No. 102 filed on July 7, 2022 during the 19th Congress or the “National Water
Resource Management Act” into law.

It is also hoped that learnings from our experiences in the President’s newly
reactivated and reconstituted Task Force El Niño, an inter-agency body
tasked to lead the revision, coordination and implementation of the Strategic
El Niño National Action Plan, can be integrated into legislative debates and be
part of our national statutory solutions to the water crisis.

The El Niño Online Platform under the President’s Executive Order No. 53
(Series of 2024), envisioned to serve as a “centralized repository” for relevant
data, is a welcome innovation. While still in its starting stages, it sets the stage
for a truly open, technological and evidence-based approach towards water
security. It can help in spreading issue awareness, conservation efforts, data
sets and planning. It is a step in the right direction.

Water service providers’ intensified operations on deep wells all over Metro
Manila and Rizal province, to meet the burgeoning daily needs of millions of
Filipinos, are timely interventions as well. Deep well operations ease the
pressure off Angat Dam and augments water sources for consumers. Angat
Dam’s role is incredibly important since it supplies more than 90 percent of
Metro Manila’s potable water requirements and over 27,000 hectares of rice
farms in Bulacan and Pampanga Provinces. El Niño has decreased Angat
Dam’s reserves to below normal high water level, barely hovering above the
minimum operating level of 180 meters. While such deep well operations help,
it alone is not enough to solve our heightening water woes.

On top of it all, it bears emphasis that an estimated 11 million Filipino families

still lack access to clean water. It is one of the great paradoxes in our
Philippines; an archipelago surrounded by boundless water but still falling
short of bringing clean water to all Filipinos.

National water management is inextricably intertwined with national wealth

management. El Niño reminds us of such indubitable fact. Due to the adverse
consequences of climate change on the Philippines, managing our water
resources prudently, systematically and sustainably can mean either the
ceaseless continuation of a vicious cycle of descent to insecurity or the
charting of a better course towards a virtuous cycle for Philippine economic,
energy, food and water security.
It’s clear that the most effective interventions of our government so far are
those which take a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach. It’s
clear that much has yet to be done. It’s clear that it’s getting hot in here!

https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2024/04/14/2347558/its-getting-hot-here