BARACK OBAMA MEETS GLORIA ARROYO

Political bickering should be left at home if ever possible. Let us not involve other people when we have problems in the house to solve our domestic problems. Similar to a typical family situation, problems should be settled within if there are.



Mrs. Arroyo was invited, or summoned whatever you may want to appear, by US President Barrack Obama to meet with in the Whitehouse by July 30, 2009. Of course President Gloria Arroyo has long wanted to meet with Obama since day 1. Even when Obama was still a candidate, Arroyo had longed to meet him already. Now that she is on her way to meet him, so let it be.



We are fully aware that the Arroyo government is tarnished with a lot of unresolved issues and that she has not done anything to resolve it so far. Ignoring it until it will die a natural death is the type of game they play to silence the noise. There is no need to enumerate them all because almost everyone in the Philippines is aware of it. There is no question that PGMA's credibility has really dwindled.



Now this is the issue at home. Philippine politics in its fledgling condition still has to go through a lot. Considering that we are still under our 14th president while the US is already on her 44th tells us so much that we need Uncle Sam to continually mentor us. Our democracy is yet so young that sometimes we tend to misunderstand its true meaning. It is often times abused by not only the authorities but also the people themselves.



The US as our mentor is abhorred by many sectors. It is intervening with the Philippine sovereignty and it is not acceptable, they say. These political leaders in the opposition mostly are the ones vocal enough tot express revolt over the US encroachment.



We are an independent nation and we don't need foreign intervention. We may invoke ally relationships when there foreign aggressions which is by the way so imminent in the Asian region in the next 30 or so years. It is said to be that china is amassing their military prowess and Australia is also getting ready...I don't know, but we still can rely on US weakening touch to protect us, hence, GMA's visit to Obama.



So she went to the US. Noticeable, these political stalwarts have written an open letter to Obama informing him of the disgraces that this Arroyo government has been having from the start. An open letter which is totally uncalled for because knowing the expanse of the US clout in every government, they should have known the issue they were writing about. They even know better the goings on in this government than anyone of us.



The desperation is understandable. We can't blame them to resort to this way since this government is adamant to the peoples' plea. All our complaints seem to fall on deaf government ears. But no matter how difficult this government is, it is still within our hands that we can thresh out a solution to our predicament. Should we need to consult Uncle Sam with anything, which is really ironic, let them by all means except of course an open letter. An open letter is tantamount for the entire world to see is not shaming Gloria alone but shaming the office she represents, and that is us.



Better yet find another way to shame Gloria that jabs. How is that?

GLORIA ARROYO LEGACY

There are times that we are so engrossed about the task at hand that we want to accomplish so much. It is often times our goal to achieve and be successful in everything that we do. That is success in the real sense of the word..

The recent State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Gloria Arroyo is an epitome of an achiever enumerating her accomplishments. The audience of course as expected have varied reactions to her speech. Many of those present in the hall are representatives who are supportive to her. These are the congressmen who in one way or the other have been given extra privileges by the president, or who are political party mates with the president. The rest of the audience are probably those opposed to her or just plain spectator of the show.

The entire Philippines had the opportunity to listen to her speech. Many of the radio and TV stations have dedicated that time slot just for her SONA to be shown. Everybody appeared to have listened obviously because twitter and face book were flooded with comments both for and against her SONA. Although the thread from those who are against is so overwhelming, and even in the papers are seldom seen to have any positive remarks for her Excellency.

The situation calls for a halt in all their tirades from both sides. The SONA did not appear to be report from the president but rather a counter attack from her opposition and the opposition on the other hand never ceases to throw mud at her at all cost. It is so childish for these leaders to be mud slinging as there political tactic, but that is what is happening - shamefully though it is.

There is no stopping Gloria from what she does. She thinks that what she is doing is right for her and for the country. She was pussyfooting on the question of whether she will remain in power either as a President beyond 2010 or as Prime Minister in whatever way she would accomplish it, only God knows. Many fears that she has all the machinery to manipulate the government to either push through with the election or pursue charter change which can perpetuate her to a lot more years in power that no one has ever imagined. Not even Marcos in all his shrewdness cannot compare Gloria's master craft.

If what she does however is not really for the good of everyone and she just bloats her moneybag with personal interests, as what may be happening now, than this raises the question: how would people really remember her as President?

History is the best judge to all our doings. The authenticity of moon landing began to be questioned after 40 years. Imelda Marcos is reaping all the emotional pains now after more 20 years of laboring to gather all the wealth she and her late dictator could take in their time. The Marcoses had a lot of enemies too, but they were able to muzzle them because he had all the guns and the goons who took care of them if they resisted. The EDSA revolution is just the culmination of all these heated dictatorial abuses and corruption, and it is all history.

Now, this is what I am talking about, do you think their grandchildren can lift their heads high and the name of their grandparents upon seeing the annals of history that all the good deeds of their grandparents are superseded with the bad. we can only remember the Marcoses by their ill gotten wealth, human rights violation and many more negativities of the past. I will never be proud of these if I were the grand child!

At the SONA, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (PGMA) was congratulated by everybody and her grandchildren as well. The kids would have said my Grandma, my president and my hero, but kids as they are will just say and appreciate things as they see. Their true appreciation of their Grandma lies ahead when they grow up and looks back at this time find for themselves how their grandma fared as a president.

If these children finds out that it was during their grandma's term that ZTE NBN scandal erupted; that the hello garci scandal was unresolved; that she was the longest running president next to Marcos; and the list will go... Then and only then we can say that Gloria indeed failed or fared well as the 14th president of the republic.

We can throw all the blame to Marcos when we say why the Philippines which used to be second to Japan is now one of the poorest. Other presidents legacies may be insignificant to remember but as they say, in order for you to be remembered you either have to be the best or the worst. Now PGMA can take her pick while she still has the time to do some homework. That is the wonder of being in the highest post, you will have to come up with what is expected of you and givethe best you can; And take only what is enough for you. If she can't be remembered as one of the best, if not the best, then she would rather be counted as one the few Presidents who tried, rather being remembered as the worst.

PAMPANGA PRIESTLY GOVERNMENT

It has been a widespread controversy when Priest Ed panlilio ran for governor in the province of Pampanga, Philippines and won. Winning the gubernatorial race against the more formidable opponents whose political clout in the province have been so entrenched for the longest time is something to reckon with. You wouldn't expect somebody like a priest to be winning the election during that time.

Pampanga is noted for corruption and gambling. The province began earning more income when Panlilio started to clean up the ranks He started to pursue sources of income for the government from which the previous administration has some how diverted these supposed earning to their own pockets. This corruption runs in 100s of million of pesos and the people of Pampanga never had the chance to enjoy it. Case in point is the Pampanga quarry where the provinces earned more than 136 million in 7 months against practically insignificant income in years from the previous administration.

This courageous act of Panlilio expectedly brought the ire of his opponents in Pampanga. He may have offended the President when at one time he exposed that the some Palace official distributed $10,000.00 in cash placed in a bag supposedly a bribe from the President. Now, he is subjected to an election recount by the supreme court in response to the complaints lodged against him by his defeated opponents in the past election.

It is know in the Philippine election that nobody loses an election, there are only those who are cheated upon. Taking into Panlilio's account, he was accused of cheating the election because he won, despite the fact that his accusers are also thought of as gambling lords in the province.

I don't want to dwell with their political innuendos. What bothered me most is when his priestly superiors were against his plans to pursue politics. They say that it is not the way of priesthood to be in politics because they should be out there helping the poor and teaching religious morals. Is there no right given to priest to be of help to a community in distress? Panlillo is contemplating the run for the highest office, the presidency, it irritated them all the more.

I neither an avid supporter of Panlilio, nor would I vouch for him to be the next President. I am, however, inclined to believe that he should be the better option considering the fact that his background and his accomplishments in pampanga would tell me so, even in such a short stint. His experience is not so significant though if you want to gauge someone to become the next president, but this is a lot better compared to those who have been in the government for sometime and has proven to be inefficient.

The separation of church and state applies to the institution itself and not on the individual. The church hierarchy cannot stop someone like panlillo to conquer the challenged he deemed necessary to pursue his vocation as a man of God. He may have found that priesthood is limited in spiritual dealing while the fight is more of the physical. Prayer is so powerful, but there are things at hand which may probably be answer to your prayers already, which maybe though you can be fulfilled.

It is I believe everybody's prerogative whether to pursue priesthood or to help people in some other way. Priest in politics is no different to priest who would get married, or priest who has gone astray and molest kids. It would rather have the former and allow him to work efficiently than to have the latter have the Vatican cover his mess. It is common knowledge that a lot of priests are gays, nobody cares. And here comes a priest who is doing well, then they care to bring him down. Do we have a misguided standard of tolerating priests who are gays and sometimes accused of molesting and yet tolerated to the point of covering him up, and cant tolerate a priest who goes out of his way to the point of engaging into politics help the helpless.

It is utter hypocrisy for the Roman Catholic hierarchy to disavow Panlilio of his priestly duties if goes into politics. It is all the same service to man and service to God. We are likened to those Pharisees in the Bible times where they wont allow Jesus top heal during Sabbath day because it is against their religious practice.

The Philippines is in dire need of a reliable leader. To whom shall the Filipinos look upon for the new leader when in fact those who are in the running have already been and tried and tested for incompetence. Aside from Panlillo, I have found another one in Bayani Fernando who doesn't really care about wasting his political image just to get the work done. The only problem he has is his association to the current administration which is stinky.

PHILIPPINE CHEAP MEDICINE ACT

Our issue today is how we can lower down all the prices of medicine in the market. All the basic commodities prices are increasing and it is basic to us to include medicines under our needs. The Philippines in its poorest condition has one of the most expensive medicines sold in its market. Our medicine prices are probably 10 times higher than medicine prices in India.

There are a lot of poor people in India because of their huge population and many of them have a different mindset which may also have an attribute to their present state. But India in totality is far more prosperous than the Philippines today, technology and industry wise, which the Philippines has so far been left behind. It is therefore unacceptable that this nation which is far more advanced than us can afford to provide its constituents with lesser priced medicine while we are wallowing with first world medicine prices.

The generics medicine came recently to save the day. We can buy medicine at prices more than half the current branded medicines have. It is really a relief for everyone specially for the less fortunate, the unemployed , the underemployed and even the employed but still poor. It is practically everybody's benefit to have cheaper medicines, but why does our government find it hard to minimize the prices of the medicine?

Pharmaceutical companies would argue that they have the right to set their own prices because this is their business. They are absolutely right, it is there business to provide medicine for the people and ensure that everybody benefits from their products. Businesses exist on a two way traffic scene, business benefits from the people's patronage on their products and the people benefits from these businesses through the help that their products provide to them. It is not that they exist because of profits alone!

It is also unfair for the generics drug producer to be maligned when they say that their products are substandard. Producing cheap products doesn't always follow that they are of lesser quality. This is true perhaps with many Chinese products that are sold at the lowest prices, products that will not last until you get home after you have bought it from the store. The generics products are probably more reliable than what they accuse them to be, substandard. I have tried some, and they were effective. I can't just tell you how much I have tested them because I for one cannot really say so much about its efficacy. I leave that to the authorities to find out.

These large pharmaceutical companies who cant really bend down to the generics levels because they claim that their costs are far greater than those who are producing generics drug, may have a reasonable argument. Research cost is too expensive and these generics drugs may just be copying what these large companies have and thereby producing the same kind of products, hence, producing the cheaper medicine.

You will also notice that these generics drug are not seen so much on tri-media advertisements, this is also one of the factors that lowers down the cost of these medicines. Large pharmaceuticals spend a lot in marketing their medicines. They spend on TV and radio ads a lot; they spend on print ads a lot too. You don't mention their cost in distributing their products as well. The salesmen they mobilize to move their products across the land are also expensive. You can just see the well dress medical representatives driving the latest car models to visit their doctor's everyday. These medical representatives spend so much for their doctors too by providing them a lot of perks which in return their doctors must prescribe their medicines to their patients. I know some who would sponsor the doctors' trip abroad which can run to several thousands of pesos, others would shoulder all the doctors office supplies and many more.

Now tell me if they cannot lower down cost!

PHILIPPINE RECYCLED EMPLOYMENT

If you were watching the news lately, you will be elated to see that there are thousands of job opening in the call center industry. This must be what the Philippine government have been bragging about to have created more jobs than any years in the past. It is commendable that these opportunities came upon. Were it not for the economic slow down in the US and some part s in Europe, this would not have been possible that the influx of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) would increase drastically.

The openings at hand are call center jobs. What they normally do there is to receive calls, assist customers of their client company from abroad. Some would do outbound calls to offer products, collect payments or just simply communicate to client companies' customer abroad. Others would simply work as back office support for process and documentation for the client customer abroad. There are a lot of things that these BPO can offer for more jobs to Filipinos.

What is confusing is that many of these job applicants are just recycled from another call center. These agents work for one call center and transfer to another call center after 2 to 3 months of employment. Some would just wait for bonuses to be paid out and then leave and look for another call center job. Applying for these jobs really come in handy because usually they just do it online and there goes your job offer. I would doubt if we are really increasing the number of applicants hired or we are just filling up the lost employees with another employees from other call centers.

The rigors of the call center job are unknown to many except for those who are in it. Knowing from them on how they fare in their jobs and you can seldom hear they are satisfied with what they are doing. You can seldom hear them say that they are happy with their employment. It is as if that they feel they are working just for the present with slight hope for a better tomorrow in the call center set up.

They say that when you work in the call center, the company feels that when you stay long enough you will become more of a liability to the company rather than becoming an asset. In an ordinary corporate setting, you will be getting more perks and additional incentives and bonuses when you stay longer to your company. The more you stay longer the better your position will become. In the call center, performance evaluation is done regularly which you will have to pass the rating from time to time otherwise you will lose your job. It is similar to a sales job where in if you don't perform you will be asked to leave. In the call center, it is like renewing your contract every regular period, sometimes monthly or quarterly. When you sign your performance contract, you can expect that your other leg is in your own dug up grave. Why do they say that? It is because they want to make sure that these performance metrics are difficult to achieve for the average performers.

The most significant basis for their performance rating is through your attendance. Employees in these companies pay so much premium for attendance. The moment you absent yourself in a day, especially on a busy day (meaning they are expecting a lot of calls), your demerit will be equivalent to that of 2 days absence. A point demerit is given to each day you are absent and when you reach to the maximum point, usually 1 week, then you leave. Terminated!

Why do you think these companies would be investing so much to lose their tenured employees? I would suppose that when they hire you, you are offered an above average salary for speaking good English. They have saved 75% of salary anyway if they were hiring an onshore applicant, mind you. Unfortunately, there are not enough rooms for you to get better positions on top, and your English will never be innovated to have additional use, so what do they do with you? If you stay for a little longer, they will keep on increasing your pay every year, simple math will tell you that 10 years of stay in the call center will give a pay of bank manager by simply speaking the same English you used when you applied for the job. Now who will tell this is not fair?

EUGENIO VAGNI OF RED CROSS RETURNED

It has been 179 days since the International Committee of the Red Cross ( ICRC ) representatives were kidnapped by the dreaded Abu Sayyaf group. this groups are thought to be linked to the even more dreaded terrorist group Jimaah Islamiyah and the of course the Al Qaeda network. the have release recently the last of their 3 captives from the ICRC, Eugenio Vagni. There were no reasons yet as to how and why he was released, but the good news that he is already safe.

The Abu Sayyaf is just one of the new groups which arose in the war stricken Mindanao. This western part of the country have long struggled with tribal wars, political wars and rebellion. There is slightly no glimpse of peace in this supposed promised land, as the Minadanaoans would say. This land is indeed full of promises. This is the only part of the Philippines where storms would seldom pass, agriculture is so vast and the land is intact and mostly plain. The Philippines is composed of three major island, Luzon Visayas and Mindanao, they say that Mindanao can survive and will even be more prosperous even if it separates from the Philippines; but that is a totally absurd idea..

Mindanao as you see today, specially in the rebel and terrorist infested areas remains to be in decrepit condition as it was 50 years ago. When you travel by land, many places there remains to be in boonies state. You cannot expect prosperity in this place because probably of its present peace and order condition which is very unstable. In order for Mindanao to prosper, there should be peace, and this calls for the government to intervene. In these areas, people bring their guns more everyday than they would with their cellular phones.

The government has to make a choice whether to declare total war or seriously negotiate for the sake of peace and prosperity. There was a time in Pres. Joseph Estrada's time that the government declared a total war against the MILF in the area. The government of course won the fight and has recovered all the territories that these rebels claimed to be for their camps. The government haowever may have won the battle but not the war. The government can really control the land if they just want to. The area in question is not even a third of the entire Philippines, and it is quite improbable that the Philippine Army cannot control this strip.

We know for certain that maintaining a war is so expensive no matter where you are. In some areas in Philippine government, were there are expenses, someone is benefiting from it. Just a wild guess, could it be that those who are in charge in the government, probably in the military are just milking on this war scenes in Mindanao? they don't want to put a stop to this problem because they benefit from it in terms of money? I don't know, we can just speculate.

If I recall it right, the government has spent 2 billion pesos in the total war under Joseph Estrada term. You can just imagine the huge expense that we are bestowing in Mindanao just to pacify the people there. I am not so sure however if we are really pacifying the rebels or the insatiable generals overseeing the situation. I was born in Mindanao and I grew up there, I know some colonels who live like kings in our neighborhood, you can just expect how the generals would live like.

It took Vagni to remain captive in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf for more than 6 months with no military rescue operation done. Did the Abu Sayyaf just changed their minds? I do not see any reason why we can't obliterate banditry in Mindano if there is assiduous pursuit.

SMARTMATIC TIM MOVE

What is happening to the Philippines? Isn't there no room for a trustworthy process to work any longer? You can just ask these questions if you happened to read the recent row between Smartmatic and TIM (Total Information Management). This joint venture is the winner of Poll Automation contract for the Philippine 2010 election. Everybody was ecstatic about the outcome and the relatively clean bidding process only to find out that in the end TIM, the local partner of Smartmatic would just back out of the deal.

It is high time for the Philippines to go on automation for its electoral process. It is commonly known that all the election exercises in the past have been rigged with fraud whether local or national. The one which was so remarkable among all was the 2004 election which involved no less than the presidential candidates. It was said, although the obvious has never been proven, the current President of the Philippines Gloria Macapagal Arroyo cheated in the 2004 election as manifested in her "hello graci" scandal. The administration have been badgered about the scandal by media and the people waiting for resolution but even the death of the whistle blower never exposed anything. We just got the "I'm sorry" statement from the president.

Poll automation is necessary for at least we can look forward to a better electoral practice in 2010. It is important to both the voters and also to the legitimate candidate, but it is a taboo to those who intend to mar the election with illicit "dagdag bawas" (add deduct) scheme. This is the scheme applied by many unscrupulous candidate who would do anything to win the election. Many would accuse Gloria Arroyo to be a beneficiary of this scheme.

When you look at the vignette behind the TIMs reasons why it would back out from a practically huge contract with the government, one cannot deny that they would think someone has manipulated it. They were unable to filter the bidding process so they went to the bidder themselves. Whoever is behind this is not known and will never be known. It is a mafia act covered with extreme secrecy, that not even the errand wouldn't know who ordered him to do such.

It was learned that TIM asked for half a billion peso from Smartmatic for the joint venture, it was so uncanny for TIM to have asked that when the contract has already been awarded. Wouldn't you iron out everything before they would jump into a deal, as what TIM should have done in the first place. These are mature people and seasoned businessmen which makes us suspicious that they haven't looked into these scenarios before hand.

Everybody in the world knows that failure to deliver the service committed into a contract will be penalized. The penalty TIM for backing out from a commitment they made in the bid is up to 15 year in prison but unsurprisingly they don't give a damn about the threat. I believe that somehow somewhere somebody gave them the invincibility cloak similar to the invisibility cloak of Harry Potter which gave them the immunity to confront COMELEC with their geste.