NEWS
TRENDS
August 6, 2007
Senate
Blue Ribbon Committee chairmanship still vacant
 While
most of the committee chairmanships in the Senate have already been
filled up, that of the Blue Ribbon Committee remains vacant. Without
a new chair, Sen. Joker Arroyo will likely head the powerful committee
which he has chaired for years.
As
of last week, opposition and administration camps were at loggerheads
over the chairmanship, with opposition senators insisting that it
should go to Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano in light of the electoral
victory of the Genuine Opposition in the Senate race in the last
May elections.
Administration
senators who supported Sen. Manuel Villar to retain his seat as
Senate President threatened to move for his ouster if the committee
chairmanship is not given to Senator Arroyo.
First
Family new czars of mining, power industries
 Reports
show that the First Family now controls the mining and power industries
in the country.
The
government-controlled corporation Philippine Mining Development
Corporation has been transferred to the Office of the President,
while President Gloria M. Arroyo’s relatives now chair congressional
committees on energy and environment.
This
takeover by the Arroyo clan of the mining and power sectors, as
well as the environmental oversight comes at a time of a looming
power and water shortage in the country. Critics fear that Mrs.
Arroyo will use this influence to railroad the entry of foreign
power suppliers and mining corporations in the country, to the detriment
of energy consumers and the environment.
Trillanes
stays in jail
 The
Makati Regional Trial Court last week denied the petition of senator-elect
Antonio Trillanes IV to attend the Senate sessions, set up an office,
and grant interviews in his detention cell in Fort Bonifacio.
The
Makati court ruled that election to a public office should not give
Trillanes special privileges.
Trillanes
has been in detention since his arrest in 2003 following the staging
of the Magdalo Group-led Oakwood mutiny.
Corruption
is increasingly confined at the top
 Bribery
may have been curbed at the bottom level of government transactions,
but more lucrative corruption practices are taking place at the
top.
The
anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency and Accountability Network
(TAN), last week said corruption in the Philippines is increasingly
done at a grander scale, and with more secrecy.
TAN
cited the May 2007 elections as the mother of all corruption, and
that lucrative government contracts are tightly kept in the wraps
by the administration. These instances prove the decreasing transparency
and good governance in the Philippines, the watchdog said.
It
also said the government has refused to disclose agreements and
contracts which have been criticized as disadvantageous to the Philippines,
such as the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement and
US$ 330 million broadband contract with ZTE Corporation.
ASEAN
rights body OK’d while military operation is launched
 There
was a bit of irony in the presidential office’s statement
last week championing the formation of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) Commission on Human Rights as a major feat
for President Gloria M. Arroyo’s term as chair of the ministerial
meeting. The statement was issued as government forces prepared
to launch punitive operations in southern Philippines that, critics
said, could lead to more human rights abuses.
The
regional body on human rights was included in the draft of the landmark
ASEAN Charter crafted during the recent ASEAN ministerial meeting.
At the same time, government announced the launching of a “limited
police action” in Basilan, which critics and human rights
groups feared as a disguised all-out war policy against the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The operation was in retaliation
for the killing of 14 Marines 10 of whom were beheaded, allegedly
by MILF forces.
Even
as it called for a joint investigation of the incident, MILF leaders
said their troops were in heightened alert in preparation for a
possible all-out war.
Under
Neri, education is headed for further commercialization
 With
the appointment of Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri
as temporary chair of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd),
the orientation of education in the country is head toward further
commercialization or market-oriented education.
Neri
said he would fix the mismatch between the graduates that educational
institutions produce and what the market needs.
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