FROM THE CAPITOL: Save domestic violence programs

By Senator Leland Yee

Last week, I was joined by domestic violence prevention leaders to announce legislation to help save domestic violence programs and shelters statewide.

You might recall two weeks ago, funding for these programs were completely eliminated by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in a line-item budget veto of the Department of Public Health’s Domestic Violence Program, which was scheduled to provide $16.3 million (a 20 percent cut from last year) to 94 domestic violence shelters and centers throughout California.
It is absolutely vital that we keep domestic violence shelters open. In last month’s budget vote, I voted against cuts to the domestic violence program. The Governor’s veto increases health care, law enforcement and other costs to the state, but more critically, it puts victims of domestic violence and their children in grave danger.

Tara Shabazz, Executive Director of the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence (CPEDV) is appalled to see the Governor eliminate funding to vital programs that saves lives. “The Governor is balancing the budget on the backs of our state’s most vulnerable citizens. Funding must be restored by any means necessary; together with Senator Yee, CPEDV has found a potential solution to these disastrous cuts,” she said at a press conference.

My legislation, which is supported by statewide and local domestic violence prevention agencies, will allocate $16.3 million from the victims’ compensation fund (which has a current balance of $136.2 million) to the Domestic Violence Program. I will also be introducing a second bill to allow domestic violence agencies greater flexibility in how they allocate their funds.

“This is a bipartisan issue that Californians care about,” said Beverly Upton, Executive Director of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium and Partners Ending Domestic Abuse. “We must bring these dollars back to the domestic violence shelters and those who work in the trenches everyday to keep California safe.”

The Domestic Violence Program funds allow local agencies to provide emergency shelter, transitional housing, and legal advocacy, as well as assistance with restraining orders, counseling and other vital support services. Domestic violence shelters are often the only thing standing between victims and grave physical danger, and California’s communities cannot sustain their loss.

According to a national census of domestic violence services, in just one day, over 7,700 requests for services went unmet due to a lack of resources. When the resources do not exist for victims to receive domestic violence services, they are often left with no choice but to risk their own lives by returning to their abusers.
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If you are a victim of domestic violence or if you want to report an incident of domestic violence, call the 24-hour-a-day toll-free National Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), 1-800-787-3224 (TDD) or the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence at 1-800-524-4765.

TELLTALE SIGNS: Cory’s advice to Fil-Ams

By Rodel Rodis

When ABC TV reporter Alan Wong asked me what Filipinos lost with the death of former Pres. Corazon Aquino, my immediate response was “our moral compass, our guiding light.” I thought of Cory as Jawaharlal Nehru once said of Mahatma Gandhi, “the light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere.”

But Nehru also added that “the light that has illumined this country for these many years will illumine this country for many more years, and a thousand years later, that light will still be seen in this country, and the world will see it and it will give solace to innumerable hearts.”
What was this “light” that has gone out of our lives? The August 2, 2009 editorial of the Philippines Daily Inquirer expressed it best:
“It was the light of liberty, the unquenchable flame of democracy, the light of optimism and faith in the Filipino, snuffed out in her husband’s case by an assassin’s bullets, but which lit so many more little flames, so that it dispelled the darkness that had engulfed the country since 1972. It was a light that could not be extinguished by coups and natural disasters, by the mocking of those who saw in her merely a woman, merely a widow, merely a person trying to return power where it belonged—in the people’s hands, to do with as they chose."

When her husband, Ninoy Aquino, was assassinated in 1983, Cory took up the banner of resistance from Ninoy and stood up to the brutal dictator. When she ran for president, Marcos belittled her for being “a common housewife with no experience”. She defiantly replied: "Yes, that's right, I have no experience in stealing, in cheating and in killing political opponents." The battle was joined. In the end, the more experienced candidate fled the country when People Power redeemed the Filipino people’s dignity.

After assuming the presidency of the Philippines , Cory Aquino visited San Francisco on September 23, 1986 and spoke to 4,500 members of the Filipino community at a banquet held at the Moscone Center . As chair of the committee which hosted the largest banquet ever held for a visiting head of state in San Francisco history, I was privileged to sit close to her as she spoke of her fondness for our City:
“ San Francisco has a special place in my heart. It was the cool, clear air of a free San Francisco that put the color back in my husband Ninoy Aquino’s cheeks when he arrived here after seven long years of imprisonment. It was here that Ninoy spent much of his convalescence after his triple heart bypass. This is the home of many of Ninoy’s and my most ardent supporters and friends, the home of many of the most vocal and active opponents of the dictatorship.

The Filipino-American community here constitutes one of the largest bases of support for People Power in the Philippines . Even though you are thousands of miles from the Philippines, you took to the streets, you held your own rallies, you let the world know your beliefs and contributed to the groundswell that eventually brought victory to the forces of freedom and democracy in the Philippines.”

President Aquino asked for our Filipino community to help the Philippines not just by sending money remittances and balikbayan boxes to the Philippines but in a more politically sophisticated way:
“You can help by becoming a strong political force in your adopted country and using that force to influence your adopted country’s attitudes towards your mother country. Follow the lead of the Jewish-Americans who, despite being a small minority, form an indispensable pillar of a strong and independent Israel . Surely they are no stronger, no smarter, no more imaginative or dedicated than you are. They may be more organized, more politically oriented, more helpful to each other. And certainly they work hard at keeping America ’s interest in Israel alive at all levels of society - in business, in education, in government, in the arts and sciences.

And so must you with respect to the Philippines . You must guard the image of the Filipino that the February Revolution burnished so brightly. You must guide those joining your ranks so that you enhance the image of Filipinos here. All impressions of you, American though you might be, will hark back to the Philippines.

Strive for political power in this country. Unite. Learn from the new Philippines how people, acting together, have made the difference at home. You too can make a difference here, for your own betterment and that of generations to come.”

Cory also asked us to educate ourselves and our youth about our history and our provenance, our heroes and our pride: “Be proud of your roots. Do not let your children or your grandchildren forget that they came from a land that produced Rizal, Bonifacio, Mabini and yes, Ninoy – men who could stand shoulder to shoulder with the best that this country or the world has produced.”

Not only men but many women too, like Cory Aquino.
(Send your comments to Rodel50@aol.com or mail them to the Law Offices of Rodel Rodis at 2429 Ocean Avenue , San Francisco , CA 94127 or call (415) 334-7800. For past columns, log on to: Rodel50.blogspot.com)

VIRTUAL REALITY: Remembering Ninoy and Cory

By Tony Lopez

Among today’s Filipino journalists, few, if any, can perhaps match the length and depth of my coverage of Ninoy Aquino and his widow, Corazon Co-juangco Aquino. Every year too, during the martial law years, Ferdinand Marcos granted me an exclusive interview, something no journalist at that time had the privilege. So I heard both sides of the political fence. I have seen the folly of the past, I see the present in that light, and I can perhaps anticipate with some confidence, the wisdom of the future.

The only thing I missed was visiting Ninoy during his three years of exile in Boston. I didn’t have the time to do that.

My Asiaweek reportage of Ninoy’s assassination and his funeral is the best there is at that time. Every single copy of the 10,000 copies printed of the assassination and the funeral issues was sold out on a single day, a publishing record for a foreign weekly. I covered extensively the six years and four months of the Cory Aquino presidency. This is an important point to consider because I will do later an analysis of the Cory Aquino presidency.

As a journalist, I had my first glimpse of Ninoy when I was a business reporter of The Manila Times. The senator used to drop by the Times offices in Florentino Torres Street, Sta. Cruz, Manila, bringing merienda to the editors and staff of the paper and its sister publication, Taliba. Ninoy had a way with newsmen that readily captured their friendship, if not support. He assiduously cultivated the political backing of Chino Roces. The Times then had greater circulation than all the other newspapers combined.

When martial law was declared in September 1972, I lost my Times job but quickly joined two newspapers, the newly formed Times Journal and the Mainichi Shimbun, Japan’s oldest daily. Three years later, I joined Asiaweek, then a struggling Hong Kong-based weekly which was later acquired by The Readers Digest and then, Time Warner of New York, as a sister company of Time Magazine.

As a foreign correspondent, I covered the Aquino trial for subversion, rebellion and murder. Covering Ninoy was something that required courage in those days. No Filipino journalist wanted to read nor publish his press statements. You would never know whether the military was shadowing you on the way back to the office from the hearings of the military tribunal which Ninoy refused to recognize and which had a decidedly anti-Ninoy bias. In 1977, the opposition leader was later convicted and sentenced to die by musketry. Upheld by the Supreme Court, this conviction, I believe, laid the foundation for Ninoy’s assassination by the military on August 21, 1983. With daylight murder, the military in effect executed Ninoy’s death sentence six years later. Whatever doubts the military had about killing Ninoy were removed by that conviction.

Ninoy was jailed for seven years and seven months. During Christmases and some special occasions, he was given extended furlough (a privilege never given the jailed Joseph Estrada) and he would stay at his Times Street home in Quezon City. He gave interviews and welcomed select foreign correspondents like me with a warm heart and an even warmer hospitability. On more than one occasion, he would ask Cory to make coffee for Ninoy and me, with some cookies too. That was Cory, the dutiful, uncomplaining housewife. In a dozen years, she would be president of the Philippines.

Being a former journalist himself, a very good writer and the most dynamic of political leaders at that time, Ninoy made good copy. (Jose W. Diokno and Jovito Salonga claimed to be more brilliant but they had intellectual arrogance; cancer-stricken Diokno confessed to me at his hospital sickbed that the first time he met me, he wanted to punch me, because of the way I asked questions; while Salonga lectured me on the phone that no one could rival him in terms of prosecutorial talent).

During my visits at his Times Street house (it had so many rooms where Ninoy could conduct meetings simultaneously yet separately with different groups of people), we would retire to a small private room for my interview.

Ninoy made me feel very important with the exclusive uninterrupted attention he gave me. There was a time he typed his answers to my anticipated questions para di ka na mahirapan, he said. Then, he would ask me questions on the situation, in the political and security context. He accepted the fact that he was a captive of the military and that Ferdinand Marcos was his jailer. There was another time, he gave me several poems typewritten and autographed by him, regalo ko sa yo, he said.

STREET TALK: Power did not consume her

By Greg Macabenta

The propaganda torpedoes whom the Marcos machinery mustered for the snap election in 1986 pounced on the obvious inadequacy of Corazon Aquino to foil her candidacy, summed up in the derisive quip: “She is just a housewife.”

This was a stark contrast to the credentials of Marcos who was routinely described as brilliant. But that “quality” was his undoing. We had had enough of brilliance used for corrupt and self-serving ends. We were convinced that honesty, integrity and good intentions w ere all our country needed to right the wrongs of the Marcos dictatorship. We were also convinced that, with democratic institutions restored, the rest would logically follow. Economic recovery. A triumph over poverty. Reforms in government. Efficiency in the bureaucracy. The return of civic responsibility. The dismantling of fiefdoms.

Sadly, we were wrong.

Cory Aquino's enduring legacy is that she lived true to her mandate of restoring freedom and democracy. In doing this, she never faltered. In the face of the temptation that the current occupant of Malacañang and her minions in Congress have found irresistible, Cory insisted on the inclusion of a no-reelection provision in the new Constitution and graciously turned over the enviable powers of the presidency to her successor.

We will always remember Cory for that act of nobility and patriotism, and will forever be grateful. No one can argue that she was the moral20force our country needed, at that precise point in our history, to dismantle the authoritarian structures and heal the wounds inflicted by Marcos. Neither can anyone question her own personal integrity, her courage in the face of several coup attempts, and her commitment, long after she had left office, to the causes for which our people have continued to struggle.

But she was unprepared for the charlatans, schemers, leftists, separatists, militarists, business monopolists and plain crooks, criminals, opportunists and incompetents who besieged her presidency. She had to deal with groups and individuals whose interests would not be served by reforms - and many of them prevailed. Worst of all, she had to deal with certain members of her own family.

Cory Aquino will be remembered and honored for being the beacon that lighted the way for our people. The outpouring of grief over her passing is testimony to the affection that the nation has for her, in contrast to the derision being profusely hea ped on Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The fact is that, Arroyo has done many good things for our country, even if she could not resist exaggerating some of them in her annual SONA. But the scandals identified with her tenure are what she will be marked for. That should serve as a warning to those who abuse power. History will be their ultimate judge. To paraphrase Mark Anthony in his eulogy to Julius Caesar, the evil that Arroyo and her co-conspirators have done will live after them. The good will be interred with their bones.

On the other hand, the failings of Cory’s presidency should also serve as a warning to those of us who continue to believe that good intentions are all we need to solve our country’s many problems.

Indeed, we are so naïve that we are readily impressed by Motherhood promises and clever slogans, good looks, sweet talk and “star power.” While we acknowledge that it takes medical expertise to become a doctor, knowledge of jurisprudence to become a lawyer, and specific skills to qualify for a vocation, we have this inexplicable impression that it only takes charm, good intentions and Pure Unadulterated Honesty and Integrity to become president of the Philippines. We refuse to acknowledge the wisdom of the Peter Principle.

We place a lot of importance on likeability and outward humility, typified by the comment of one employee in Congress who was asked why she chose then Congressman Chiz Escudero as a likely presidential contender: “Mabait kasi.” (Because he’s nice). This also explains why, despite his impressive record of performance, Dick Gordon scores so low in the polls. “Kasi, mabigat magdala.” (Because he is heavy-handed.)

We are fascinated by the Robin Hood syndrome. We don’t mind public officials stealing from the rich provided they give to the poor. We are willing to tolerate corruption if mitigated by performance. “Nagnanakaw nga, pero may ginagawa namang mabuti.” (He may steal but, at least, he’s doing something good .”) We rationalize our own bad habits by voting for the candidate who possesses all of them in generous measure, “Pero may pagmamahal sa mahirap." (But he loves the poor). Which is why Erap Estrada continues to rate high in the surveys.

Lee Kuan Yew would never win in a Philippine election. And even if he were to win, he would have to survive assassination attempts and would have to deal with more than the seven coup tries that beleaguered Cory.

I admire Cory Aquino for the same reason that millions regard her with such affection. But I was also critical of her throughout her presidency, for what she lacked as a chief executive and for being unwilling to wield the power that could have dismantled the business, political, social and religious structures that weighed down the country. Like it or not, a strong man is what we badly need. But one who will not become power mad, as Marcos was.

I understand that Ninoy would have been such a strong man, had he become president. But would he have been consumed by power? We will never know. We do know that about Cory. She did not allow it. Would Ninoy also have threatened to jail his own relatives, in the manner of Lee Kuan Yew? Who knows? We do know that Cory could not.

A first person account, by someone who had no reason to exaggerate to me, is about Ninoy explaining to him what he would do about corrupt officials. According to this narrative, Ninoy said that he would not hesitate to line up the crooks before a firing squad, to serve as a warning to others.

Perhaps, with Cory’s compassion and her rare ability to hold power without being consumed by it, all she needed was a measure of her husband’s ruthlessness to have enabled her to achieve the other important objectives of the People Power revolution, aside from restoring democracy.
I mourn the passing of Cory Aquino. Witnessing so much opportunism, so many instances of abuse of power, so much dishonesty and the absence of a sense of shame among those caught redhanded, makes her passing so grievously felt.

My fear is that the qualities that endeared her to all of us are so compelling that, in the forthcoming presidential elections – assuming there will be one – we may forget, once again, that being loved is only one essential part of being president. Knowing what to do and getting them done, despite the risk of being unloved, is the other essential part.

Unfortunately, this is the very argument that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been using to justify the unjustifiable. But, unlike Cory, power has gone to Arroyo's head..
(gregmacabenta@hotmail.com)

FROM THE CAPITOL: California’s budget

By Leland Yee

Two weeks ago, the California Legislature made major revisions to the 2009 State Budget in order to fill an additional $23 billion shortfall. In all, the Senate approved 30 bills that resulted in billions of dollars in cuts and several major policy changes. The Governor signed the package of bills last week, but only after several line-item vetoes were made.

Historically, I have voted against cuts to education, social services, and healthcare as well as any weakening of labor or environmental laws, again voted no on all such cuts and policy changes. Out of the 30 budget bills, I voted against 13 of the bills, including all cuts to local government, education, human services, and healthcare. I also voted against new oil drilling off California’s coast and against several administrative changes to programs for the poor and disabled.

Despite the Legislature’s approval of the budget package, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger continues to favor attacking children’s health insurance, state assistance to the elderly and disabled, and now the state’s AIDS prevention program rather than recommending the closure of tax loopholes for corporations and the wealthy.

The Governor’s budget line-item vetoes once again demonstrate the ideological divide between Republicans and Democrats. This budget was a ‘goodie bag’ of Republican principles, of which I could not support. While the budget solves an immediate and critical problem, the long-term impacts of these cuts will have dire consequences.

We should not be passing the budget on the backs of seniors, students, the poor and disabled. These vulnerable individuals are suffering enough during this economy and need our assistance more than ever. I am deeply disappointed that new revenues, including taxes on the rich and oil severance, were not even put up for a vote.

I have fought to protect California’s coast and prevent any new offshore oil drilling. In 2005, I authored and passed with bipartisan support legislation declaring California’s opposition to any weakening of the federal offshore oil drilling moratorium.

Any additional offshore oil leasing and production would degrade the quality of our air and water, threaten endangered species, adversely impact our marine resources, and further hurt our economy. The protection of California’s coastline is vital to our wildlife and our economy – especially commercial fishing and tourism – which annually contributes over $50 billion to the state’s economy.

As the cuts made to this budget begin to affect our state agencies and its programs, many Californians will be left strapped, with fewer resources available. Feel free to contact my office at (415) 55707857 and we will gladly direct you to a program that can provide the assistance you need.

VIRTUAL REALITY: SMC: Emerging infrastructure giant

By Tony Lopez

Meralco shares hit a high of P302 per share on Wednesday, July 29. The speculation is that Ramon S. Ang, the president of San Miguel Corp. (SMC), has challenged Manuel V. Pangilinan, the chair of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), to buy him out so the latter can buy control of the country’s largest utility distribution company.

If Pangilinan bites the bait, it will drain his financial resources. As of July 29, Meralco was worth P326 billion. Ang says his group controls 43 percent of Meralco, which could be valued at P140 billion, far more than PLDT’s equity of P111 billion.

SMC vs. PLDT. Ang vs. MVP. This is clearly a tussle of titans. Meralco seems like the first of what could be several battles between the two groups in a large-scale war over control of the country’s infrastructure networks—in utilities like power, telco and water, in roads and tollways like the North and South Luzon expressways and their extension lines, and in the exploitation of the country’s natural resources like mining.

San Miguel is just now gaining traction as it undertakes its biggest diversification and expansion in its 119-year history. It will become the largest conglomerate in the Philippines and the biggest infrastructure company. It has bought chunks of Meralco, Petron, Liberty Telecoms, and the consortium that will build and run the Tarlac-La Union tollway (SMC wants to hike its stake to 51 percent). It is looking at other acquisitions.

Infrastructure—power, water, telco, highways and mining—is the best business of the 21st century. It is a necessity for a country that is now middle class and has a huge appetite for big-ticket items on its way to full industrialization and modernization.
“Beyond seeking profit,” explains SMC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. “we want to be in industries that serve as the backbone of our country’s development, and impact the lives of Filipinos in a meaningful way. We are committed to this vision because we have complete confidence in our country’s potential.” “We are well-placed to literally fuel the progress of the nation,” he added.

Payback can be quick and substantial. SMC bought the 27 percent chunk of the GSIS in Meralco for P90 per share, three years to pay. The cost to SMC: P40 billion. Together with allies, SMC claims to control up to 43 percent of Meralco. At P302 per share, the 43 percent is valued at P144.65 billion.

Petron, meanwhile, has risen 52 percent in market value giving SMC a paper gain of P9 billion in just eight months.

SMC’s 27 percent in Meralco is worth P90.8 billion, giving the beer and food conglomerate a clean profit of P50.8 billion, assuming Meralco remains steady at P300 a share. Share price, however, has nosedived to more reasonable levels. Assuming SMC makes a capital gain of P40 billion, that’s still more than double its P19.3-billion net income in the whole of 2008.
The P40 billion can finance SMC’s other acquisitions and diversification moves. Like the $1.1-billion Laiban dam water project, which Ang believes can supply up to 5,000 million liters a day, half of the water needs of Metro Manila in ten years. He says San Miguel will charge only P18 per cubic meter, below what the Ayala-owned Manila Water and the MVP-Isidro Consunji-owned Maynilad Water are charging now.

There is money in water. Manila Water got a rate increase of 50 percent per year for five years from the government enabling it to more than double the rate MWSS was charging when it awarded the concession to Ayala in 1997.

At that time, the West and East water concessions were estimated to need $7 billion to develop. Ayala invested only P27.3 billion in the last four years (far below the P175 billion or half of the peso equivalent of $7 billion) and brought up net worth from P5.1 billion in 2004 to P14.5 billion in 2008. Market cap is P31.57 billion.

Laiban dam also has the potential for a 1,000-megawatt power plant where SMC can make even more money. Power plants are usually guaranteed profits.

The P180 (P200 before President Gloria Arroyo ordered a reduction) that the Manila North Tollways charges now for the Balintawak to Dau leg used to be only P25. Toll at the Manila South Expressway also rose ten-fold with the private concessionaire. That, says Ang, is highway robbery.

For his part, Pangilinan’s infra vehicle is the Metro Pacific Investment Corp. (MPIC). The PLDT-MPIC group has invested in Maynilad Water Services, in joint venture with DMCI; mining with a 20 percent stake in Philex; and the Manila North Road tollways.

Already, PLDT-Smart is the country’s largest wireless phone provider. Ang is challenging that leadership with a phone service, which he says could be 80 percent cheaper. Now, that’s public service.