Official Statement on Pork Barrel Issue

The global watchdog founded by Peter Eigen former Regional Director of the World Bank Transparency International through its local TI Philippines Chapter, took up media space by releasing its official statement below:

The escalating public outrage against the so-called pork barrel and similar funds, finds justification in the recent COA reports validating media disclosure of massive misuse of these funds.

The enormity of the reported scam amidst the high incidence of poverty in the country, moved Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle to tears as he urged the culprits to repent and let their “good side” shine through.

COA Chair Grace Pulido-Tan was just as appalled describing the uncovered anomalies as “kahindik-hindik”.

That approximates the public’s perception of it: revolting, shocking, atrocious, appalling, shameless.

The public hurt is exacerbated by the fact that many of the intended beneficiaries of the embezzled funds- the victims of natural calamities- were victimized twice over by human predators who have mastered the weaknesses of the system and vulnerability of certain legislators to an offer of say 20% to 60% of the disposable funds with no accountability. Here several billions of PDAF & VILP funds covered by the audit for the years 2007 to 2009, is just the tip of the iceberg, so they say. If we go back to the time of PDAF began under different names and guises, the figures can be staggering and may well be one of the reasons why for decades the Philippines had been the sick man of Asia.

Indeed, this particular specie of corruption, saps the economy by misdirecting scarce resources of the country to unworthy projects that will serve the corrupt officials’ personal or familial gain rather that the common good. It is far worse where, as disclosed in the COA reports, the projects were non-existent, the implementation bogus and the beneficiaries fictitious. In such instances the billions disbursed for the ghost projects are entirely apportioned among the conspirators. In this murky scenario, the reported kickback of 60% for the lawmaker assumes credibility. Read the full statement here.

World ranking on corruption by country

The Philippines ranks among the lowest in the world corruption index. Transparency International provides insights on the ranking:

See the full report here.

Campaigns: How to win in Elections

Alumni of a top caliber university in the country, following the ascendancy of the first lady president in 1986 have painstakingly developed a grassroots-based political campaign technology and applied the same to Philippine elections. The technology is also appropriate for settings similar to the Philippines in Asia, as well as other regions.

In the late 1990s, an unheard of person became a Councilor in one of the largest cities of the national capital region - Metropolitan Manila. The Councilor continued to use the technology and became a Congressman of his very important city. Another virtually unknown, a lawyer from Manila, ran for the post of provincial Governor and won hands down to the surprise of his opponents in his province.

The same Governor ran for two other terms and was re-elected on those occasions. After three terms as Governor, the lawyer ran for another post and won a seat as Member of the House of Representatives.

Contact email info@modernpolls.net and info@centrehumanes.org, for all inquiries if you are a prospective candidate who wishes to avail of the campaign technology. Click the image below to download the form to be filled up, signed and returned to the emails above.

Systems Configuration of Design for Philippine election management

There could be hope for Philippine elections, whether it's the presidential - national elections, local elections or the Barangay elections. There could be a bright future where automated counting machines will no longer be open for manipulation and the total number of votes for the entire country will no longer be 255,000,000 but a total in keeping with the country's real population of voters.

Shown below is the suggested configuration of the suggested Republic of the Philippines' National Election Mapping-Canvassing Systems:

Click here to read the private sector proposed scheme.

A state-of-the-art, modernized Philippine poll systems

Private sector suggested a modernization concept for the Government of the Philippines' Commission on Elections and its allied government agencies can do well to modernize the whole gamut of equipment and software now existing and in use within the Commission.

Shown below are suggested service providers of state-of-the-art election management systems:

Sample Election Management Systems suppliers:

1. Caliper Technologies

2. ESRI (ESRI supplies the ARC GIS software at NAMRIA and the Land Registration Authority):

3. Critigen Election Managemsystems integrators

4. Harris Corporation Florida USA

 

Supplier of integrated communications system, satellite communications, and all-application government integrated information technology hardware and software.

5.  Oracle Corporation

Provider of networking service, most applicable to geographic information systems-based solutions for business and industry.

See more of this concept here

Danger of explosions, fire and death

Some enclaves of respectable citizens who have contributed much of their lives to their country are not always ensured of being taken cared of by their respective local and national officials.

While this is the case, it is also true that the very people occupying posts in their homeowners' associations, are not as sharp in detecting problems in the community. They lack the capability to respond to the myriad of problems besetting their villages and yet they shamefully pursue their election campaign to get into the leadership positions on the boards of their associations. The country's villages are a microcosm of the dirty and sham politics in this country.

The dire situation in BF Homes sorely needs the attention of people in government who care.

The Philippine Government, particularly the Department of Interior and Local Government, Bureau of Fire Protection and the Bureau of Product Standards among other agencies in the Philippine Government should investigate extensively and intensely, why MERALCO is negligent in providing safe power service in the BF Homes community.

In BF Homes, when power fluctuates, the sound you hear is similar to the sound of players performing the Tinikling dance. The significant difference from the sounds the dance players produce is that the tick-tock sound is so rapid that it beats a secretary typing on an ancient Olivetti typewriter at the speed of 4000 words per minute. Electric appliances go on and off, in some cases, circuit breakers have exploded and the danger of fire has threatened many homes in BF. In years of residing at BF, one can lose so many appliances not due to wear and tear, but through the MERALCO power fluctuation and powerful surge arising from this up-down behavior of the electric power supply. What is the BF Homes Board of Directors doing about this? Nothing, not since the first time this kind of phenomenon ever came about. No one is complaining, no one cares? Read more here.

Village ecosystems

A sample of the village ecosystem degradation is that of BF Homes. Photo at right shows a river situated at the corner of Concha St. and Tropical Ave. full of solid waste and unattended to by the homeowners' association and being that the river is public domain, totally neglected by the Philippine Government. There is a need to act on this problem that exists in many supposedly posh subdivisions in the Philippines. More> 

Fighting conventional wisdom

There is much to dread about during the Stockholm Conference running from September 23-26, 2013 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in cooperation with the World Health Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme.

What IPCC warns about are dire. It made the call for a stop to the 'dithering about fossil fuel cuts' saying that the "entire globe is affected," according to Robin McKie, science editor of The Observer's 21 September 2013 issue.

    Photo credit: The Guardian

So far, this gloomy forecast is called the darkest of all due to the increasing hazards of global warming. The entire globe has now seen increased, intense warming from land surfaces, oceans and the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.

The reasons for more catastrophic weather behavior including the melting of ice sheets at a faster pace has caused sea levels to rise and "oceans are being acidified – a development that could see the planet's coral reefs disappearing before the end of the century."

Climate change expert Lord Stern wrote in The Observer that there is a need to 'start working to create a global low-carbon economy to curtail global warming. Governments, he states, must decide what "kind of world we want to present to our children and grandchildren".' 

Robin Mckie further says:

The fifth assessment report on the physical science of climate change by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that humanity is on course over the next few decades to raise global temperatures by more than 2C compared with pre-industrial levels. Such a rise could trigger the release of plumes of the greenhouse gas methane from the thawing Arctic tundra, while the polar ice caps, which reflect solar radiation back into space, could disappear.

Although the report does not say so, Earth would probably then be facing a runaway greenhouse effect.

The scientists' warning – the most comprehensive and convincing yet produced by climate scientists – comes at a time when growing numbers of people are doubting the reality of global warming. Last week, the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) published a survey showing that the proportion of British people who do not think the world's climate is changing has almost quadrupled since 2005.

Asked if they thought Earth's climate was changing, 5% of respondents said "no" in 2005, a figure that rose to 11% last year and reached 19% this year.

But as the IPCC report underlines, scientists are becoming more and more certain that climate change poses a real danger to the planet.

Many believe the disconnection between popular belief and scientific analysis has been engineered by "deniers" explicitly opposed to the lifestyle changes – including restrictions on fossil fuel burning – that might be introduced in the near future.

"There are attempts by some politicians and lobbyists to confuse and mislead the public about the scientific evidence that human activities are driving climate change and creating huge risks," said Stern.

"But the public should be wary of those who claim they know for certain that unmanaged climate change would not be dangerous. For they are not only denying 200 years of strong scientific evidence – the overwhelming view of the world's scientific academies and over 95% of scientific papers on the subject – but they are often harbouring vested interests or rigid ideologies as well."

The report will be discussed this week by political leaders meeting in Stockholm. The study – the work of more than 200 scientists – outlines the physical changes that are likely to affect Earth's climate this century.

Future reports will cover the social impact of these changes and the efforts required to offset the damage caused by global warming. A United Nations meeting in Paris in 2015 will then debate what actions are needed to mitigate climate change.

According to the new report, humanity has emitted about half a trillion tonnes of carbon by burning fossil fuels over the past 250 years, a process that has caused atmospheric carbon dioxide levels to rise by 40%. The world is now on target to release another half trillion tonnes in the next few decades which could trigger a major jump in global temperatures.

Most measures that have been proposed for tackling global warming rely on curtailing the burning of fossil fuels and these will form the focus of the 2015 UN meeting in Paris. Given the poor record of previous summits, many are pessimistic an agreement can be reached.

However, other measures have been suggested to curb global warming. In particular, many scientists have backed geo-engineering projects that would involve either spraying particles into the atmosphere to reflect solar radiation back into space or extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in order to bury it in mines or depleted oil fields.

Both suggestions get short shrift in the new report: atmospheric aerosols could have widespread side-effects that could produce major disruptions to weather patterns, while not enough is known about the effectiveness of carbon dioxide extraction or burial. "We have to face up to the prospect of weaning ourselves off our addiction to oil and coal," said one report author. "It is as simple as that."

This site wholly agrees with the scientists' report on the forthcoming grave dangers of the burning of fossil fuel and deforestation.

To compound the situation however, it is predicted by the scientific community as well, that within the entire length of 2013 and 2015, a compensatory powerful occurrence of the solar maxima will take place due to the fact that its anticipated coming in 2012-2013 as well as in the past few years, did not happen.

Such forecast will definitely take place on these two years. 2014 will be a lull period such that in 2015, there is a very much higher likelihood that the solar maxima will actually occur.

Therefore, climate change or not, it could be highly probable that an intense solar storm will strike the globe and wreak as much havoc as possible.

If the solar storm and its pernicious effects will coincide with the burdensome and tiresome climate change, and the conventional wisdom is that neither climate change nor the solar maxima should be believed, the world is headed for the worst.

Who will fight for policy regime change?  For the betterment of the attitude towards individual and collective self-preservation? Who will take up the cudgels against the prevailing conventional wisdom?