Lessons from Maui

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

Mixed reactions and descriptions of what hit Lahaina, morning of Tuesday, August 8, were in world news. Some compared the brushfire that was quickly fueled by gusty afternoon winds exceeding 130kph to a muted bomb that burst above the historic place. Others said it looked worse than a war zone.
    The Lahaina wildfire has brought unbelievable devastation, heartbreaks, loss of lives and property. There was drought over Lahaina’s grassland as shown by its very dry appearance.
    This was why it easily caught fire. Many described it as the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than 100 years.
    It was actually a death trap located between the proverbial “devil and the deep blue sea”. Literally, the coastal city of Lahaina, a community of 13,000 that was once the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom was caught between rampaging wildfires and the cold waters of the scenic Pacific Ocean.    
    Gusty winds were blowing at more than 80mph or at more than a mile per minute, hence, residents and tourists who were about to be overrun by fire had to flee for their dear lives but there was nowhere to go except dive into the ocean.
    Closed roads and bumper to bumper traffic that resulted after smoke and wildfires were seen to be coming closer forced the people to abandon their cars and houses, and jumped into the waters of the Pacific to escape from getting burned alive.
    The Lahaina natural inferno, so to speak, made small the biggest brush fires that recently hit California, Canada and a country in Europe. More so, it dwarfed the disaster brought about by Yolanda in Leyte and the damages that resulted after the war between our soldiers and our Muslim brothers in Marawi City.  
    A heartbreaking scenario was when rescue volunteers found a family of four burned inside their car. They reported that two persons seated at the backseat were children.
    The family was apparently fleeing when they were caught by wildfire. And while firemen were fighting the fires, they were thinking if any member of their families were victims also.    
    As of last Thursday; reports claimed that 2,700 homes were burned, four more people were confirmed killed, bringing the death toll in the Lahaina wildfire to 110 as some 1,300 remained missing. The death toll was rising still and ultimately could go well over 100 as searchers find more cadavers.
    Governor Josh Green, a medical doctor, announced that 40 dogs were fielded to search for cadavers. But the predicament facing the officials of local governments of Hawaii, the families and relatives of victims, medical workers and the rescue team was how to match the identity of the cadavers.
    Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said that 38% of the area scorched by Maui wildfires has been searched as police and military teams continue to look for remains of victims of the fire. This, as the police chief pressed for “prayers and perseverance”.
    He repeatedly pleaded for patience as teams painstakingly searched the ashes in the coastline city for the remains of scores of victims. What follows after the bodies of victims are found is the emotionally draining procedure of identifying victims and notifying relatives. The police chief urged people to submit DNA samples to help identify family members.
    Every relative and friend wants their missing family members or persons killed in the fire to be identified fast and included in the death toll. With that, the police chief said, “you want it fast, then we are going to do it right.”
    To avoid unnecessary delays in the search and rescue operations, the authorities closed access roads to prevent people from entering ground zero who might disturb the rubble and ashes where cadavers may be found, making it more difficult to identify the remains.
    Here in the Philippines, “uzis” or usiseros and police alike trample on anything.
    In one news conference early this week, the frustration caused by the pressure to quickly find and identify victims showed on the faces of the Maui authorities in charge of search and rescue operations.
    Police chief Pelletier said, “It’s not just ash on your clothing when you take it off. It’s our loved ones,” obviously directing his anger to media teams and curious private persons trampling through the fire zone and the ashes that contain the remains of victims.
    “It’s ugly!” Governor Green had this to say over journalists insisting to enter ground zero in order to extract first-hand information when immediate family members are being turned back.
    The burned areas had to be locked down to preserve the sites. So, it takes everyone to manage an incident of wide magnitude.
    There were reports that no sirens sounded and no evacuation orders were issued. Maui Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) Administrator Herman Andaya explained sirens were primarily used for tsunamis that is why they are located on the coastlines.
    The public is expected to seek higher ground once the sirens are sounded. In the guidelines, if you are in a low-lying area, evacuate to higher ground.
    Had we sounded the sirens that night, people could have headed to the mountains and could have gone into the fire, he said. That was the reason why the MEMA did not sound off the sirens.
    The protocol is to use wireless broadcast equipment, radio and televisions. But then, the electric power was out. One more thing, there are no sirens on the mountains.
Despite MEMA’s explanation and Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen’s appeal to stop finger-pointing, there were some people who were using the incident as a “political base”.
    Meanwhile, authorities limited entry to the impact zone to the Red Cross, police and military, and the FEMA. But over the weekend, Maui officials opened the road and access to the burned areas to restore psychological normalcy for people who owned houses in the area and had missing relatives.
    Entry into the areas by house owners however should be with the assistance of police and military men to help maintain orderliness as they would be allowed to go where they need to, not where they want to.
    A lesson that all should keep in mind aside from the way search and rescue operations were handled was how Hawaii officials and the local governments managed the collection and distribution of relief donations.
    Mayor Bissen who missed many nights of sleep as shown by his eye bugs was heard making instructions for donors to stop dropping donations at evacuation centers unless there were direct recipients.
    The distribution of relief goods was well-organized as drop centers for donations was centralized.
    Listed on walls of the drop centers as immediate needs were food, water, medicines and charging supplies. The mayor said to “hold off clothing donations” in the meantime.
    And yes, indigenous peoples on mountain farms in Hawaii donated sacks of sweet camote. 

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

Who reads opinion columns?

Once in a while, book authors and opinion columnists run out of stories to write. There are stories to make although the writer is not in the mood of writing. This time, the writer is akin to an artist who does not get the feel to paint, or a musician who does not have the mood to sing a song as requested by a friend.
    The reason behind this is the condition called writer's block. It is the same case when the capability to produce a new article is lost or when the natural talent to come up with original ideas is zero.
    Writer’s block has been researched by brain scientists since the 1970s but was first reported sometime after World War 2.     The study says, the condition has many causes that range from a writer running out of inspiration to being unable to be creative or being distracted by outside factors.
    The solution is to write an old story if you run out of something new to talk about. Anyway, a song I know goes: “yesterday’s papers, yesterday’s news.” My condition drives me to recall the sprightly character of the late Benguet Gov. Jaime Paul Panganiban.
    The governor always asked me what I wrote for the weekend paper everytime we sat opposite each other at the old Dainty Restaurant. “Anya manen ti sinalawasaw mu tadta?” he asks in a successful attempt to amuse both of us. (salawasaw, Ilocano; meaning - to talk or write freely).
    The truth, I am tired of rewriting issues I have discussed extensively in the past evenwhile the late (or early) Feature Writer-Storyteller Mondax or Ramon Dacawi for you, advised me to escape from a panicky situation by recycling old opinion columns in case my head has gone coconut. I followed his counsel but found no article to recycle.
    More than a decade ago, former La Trinidad Mayor Edna Tabanda organized a journalism training and seminar through     Municipal Administrator Paul Cuyopan. I was assigned to talk on how to craft heads or titles for the articles that land in the newsroom.
    I caught Mondax’s last part of his lecture on Feature Writing. He projected on the LCD white cloth the stories he wrote in the past and how he came up with them, talked about how he organized them through “inumterviews” with his sources.
    My attention was snared by his story about a certain Mongilit Ligmayu, an unschooled rice farmer who left an unforgettable legacy to his adopted community in Lamut. The pioneer farmer from Banawe turned the Lamut wasteland into rich farmland.     Slowly, that remote corner in Lamut enticed more farmers to the area.
    Pioneer farmer Ligmayu who later became the village chieftain had to share a few hectares of his farm as the community saw the need for a primary school for children population that kept growing. The school was later named Mongilit Ligmayo Memorial National High in honor of the unschooled farmer.
    “Kasta kuma ti panagsurat yu ti feature article,” journalist Mondax blurts out as he finishes his two-hour lecture. No doubt, a story written the way he did would catch the attention of the lecture participants.
    Without spoon feeding the budding writers the rules or guidelines on how to write a feature story, a journalism training participant can easily understand how this is done just by reading a number of awe-inspiring and carefully written pieces.
    According to Mondax who retired as head of the Public Information Office at the Baguio City Hall, Ligmayu was disqualified as Ifugao nominee for a posthumous “Lingkod Bayan” award by the government because rules required that awardees were for those who died while working in government.
    In ending his lecture, and in relation to the legacy left by Ifugao farmer Ligmayu, Mondax quoted Novelist Richard Paul Evans who said: “The greatest acts of altruism have always been performed without audience or plaques.”
Further, Mondax quotes Mark Twain who said: “It is better to deserve honors and not have them, than to have them and not deserve them.” Yes! We have lots of the latter today. The number is more than the count of your fingers and toes.
While many among us crave for positions and flaunt them, I am quite sure that Mondax and I agree that we better doff our wagwag hats to those who deserve honors and awards like Kapitan Ligmayu and many unnamed heroes who performed their roles without audience and plaques.
    But who reads columns anyway?
 

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO 

March L. Fianza

Good governance and underground economy

BAGUIO CITY -- Good governance is a worldwide concern. No one is exempted. But good governance beyond politics? It is another matter. I first heard it during a political caucus in the last election campaign. For a moment, I suddenly got amused and quite entertained, knowing the persona and qualities of the men and women who were pushing and using it in their election campaign.
    Some in that caucus were promoters of gambling. Many of them politicians who do not care about a capitalist who paved a small forest hill and turned it into a parking lot.
    He did not know that or he calculatedly disregarded it. Thinking further ahead, the campaign financer would soon kill small businessmen in the central business district if the enterprise grabs its wish to renovate, develop and manage the public market.
    One of the politicians who wanted to talk about good governance with a masked motivation was in public service then, who was known for bringing Jueteng to one of the towns in Benguet in the 90s.
    Another impression it made in my mind was that there cannot be any good governance beyond or without politics. I believe that one disqualifies himself from being identified or associated with good governance once he or she is into politics. Good governance is the brother of politics especially for people who are elected into public office.
    Relative to capturing the obscure animal, I still remember my college professor in political science night class telling us that a lot of factors have to be required. First and foremost, local leaders have to get rid of or minimize a political unit’s underground economy.
    While it is an informal source of livelihood for all sectors, it has negative effects such as non-payment of taxes, unchecked fake items are sold, food and consumable products are unsafe, etc.
    In Baguio, these things exist, aside from the presence of all sorts of gambling that our elected and appointed officials pretend to not know.  
    For the longest time, that has been allowed not only in Baguio but in other LGUs in the country. Thus, depending on the gravity of the underground economies present, the levels of corruption among public officials vary. With either small or big corruption attached to their collars, how can there be good governance?
    Among the many activities identified with LGU's underground economy were gambling, smuggling, ambulant markets and trade fairs, drug trade, prostitution and sex trafficking.
    Behind such activities are rich operators supported by lawyers and public officials. In a small city such as Baguio, people know which underground economies thrive.
    In good governance, it is very important to the constituents of a political leader of an LGU in a way that he or she should ensure justice among all, seeing to it that decision-making is a win-win solution for all.
I remember reading from a book that said: “Good governance must be able to deliver on the rule of law, economic, political, cultural, civil and social rights of a community.” In other words, it is part of a process that promotes the rule of law and the realization of human rights such as civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.
    I look at it simply as the efficient delivery of public services most especially to the poorer sector who should have equal opportunity to maintain and improve their lot.
    The citizens and their property should be protected, independent judiciary systems should not be influenced by politicians and the police force is incorruptible.
    Where did our officials fail? Do they let judicial processes take its course and wait for decisions of cases pending in court before they themselves decide on issues? Do they leave judges to decide or do they call them to their office to influence them? Are the human rights of Baguio citizens protected? Are the policemen incorruptible?
    What about gambling? Our officials are almost finished with their political terms but gambling which is part of the city’s underground economy has been there all along.
    Jueteng lords who are known by the police and politicians have been raking billions but no one stopped them.
    LGU officials talk about good governance, at the same time they know that gambling not only results in crime in the city, but leads to bankruptcy which causes bad consequences for their families, children, loved ones, including people in their workplaces.
    I saw the headline of a newspaper in the north asking how come Baguio Mayor Magalong is the only one who is talking about corruption to which I disagree.
    In almost 40 years of my career as a correspondent covering all kinds of news, hundreds of concerned citizens talked about corruption in government daily and weekly in the newspapers.
    The difference is that the mayor gets into the headline while the lowly newspaper reporter writes about him in the headline.     The politician will grab the praises and become a hero for a time while the writer goes about his normal day looking for a new story to write.
    I support the mayor for doing so but there must be consistency just like how journalists, especially lowly columnists like me do it. With all due respect, the mayor has been in public service for a considerable time. I have seen him work since he was assigned to the municipalities in Benguet and the Cordillera.
    The question should then be “why only now?” Unlike politicians who clamor for higher political careers, newsmen do not have motivations other than their love for what they do. They love criticizing and fiscalizing. And live to write about it.
 

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

Misrepresenting and face-saving in Beneco

BAGUIO CITY -- The worst that can happen in any organization is to have people you do not know get appointed as your representative. This is exactly what happened to the Benguet Electric Cooperative and its member-consumer-owners (MCOs), the genuine possessors and investors of their electric power provider.
    In an overthrow or takeover of the affairs of the management of the Triple “A” Beneco, the National Electric Administration (NEA) and its allies in the local government removed the elected board of directors (BoDs) of the EC of Baguio-Benguet and replaced them with an interim board. It is an attempt to save-face from the damages already inflicted.
    Running an electric company is a serious matter and anybody who does not have the necessary training and work experience should have the common sense to discern if s/he is fit for the job or not. The NEA officials know that Beneco directors are elected according to the rules, and may be removed if justified.
    The appointment of personalities who were apparently plucked from nowhere without the benefit of a consultation with the MCOs contradicted our norms. Regardless of the accusations of irregularities leveled against the elected BoDs that have yet to be proven, they could have continued on until the election of a new set of directors.
    For the longest time, the NEA was silent about the perks and benefits that the BoDs, past and present, were getting ever since. Why now? To make matters worse, a NEA official was placed as a project supervisor of Beneco, even while the EC is not an ailing cooperative.
    Even Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong in a general membership assembly last year described Beneco as a “gold standard” electric coop and asked “why is it being fixed when it is not broken?”
    The truth behind all these started when NEA appointed an unqualified GM for Beneco despite the position not being vacant since the assistant GM Engr. Mel Licoben was endorsed by the BoD as the new GM after the retirement of GM Gerry Versosa.
    Even the Committee on Energy in  Congress unanimously approved a resolution last year citing provisions saying that Beneco did not declare any vacancy in the GM’s position and that the insistence of the NEA-Board of Administrators to substitute their judgment to select and appoint an outsider as GM for Beneco is an overreach of their powers. Congress said the NEA-BOA action is ultra vires (“beyond the powers”. Latin).
    In other words, there was a violation or abuse of power on the part of the NEA-BOA because it was clear that the discretionary power and authority to appoint a GM exclusively belonged to the BOD of the Beneco concerned and not to the NEA-BOA. The provisions in hiring EC officers are found in NEA Memorandum No. 2017-035 which the NEA-BOA themselves signed in 2017.
    I described the NEA appointee as “unqualified” because RA 10531 states that applicants or officers “should be a member of the electric cooperative in good standing for the last five years immediately preceding the election or appointment; and an actual resident and member-consumer in the district that s/he seeks to represent for at least two years immediately preceding the election”.
    Another important qualification is that the candidate or appointee has attended at least two Annual General Membership Assemblies (AGMA) for the last five years immediately preceding the election or appointment.
    To quote excerpts from an Editorial of the Manila Times in March last year, “the NEA is mandated to ensure electricity service throughout the country, and as part of that mandate, it is supposed to supervise and assist ECs in realizing the objective of rural electrification.”
    The Editorial further said, the mandated task is “not happening with the NEA in its current state. The agency has become an instrument of oppression for the ECs, and as a consequence, the millions of consumers who rely on them, to what end no one really knows..”
    “… but many presume is the eventual extinction of consumer-owned cooperatives and complete privatization of the Philippines' electricity sector. The NEA's efforts have become so aggressive and single-minded, that it has even defied Congress' directive to curb its overreach.”
    “On Sept. 21, 2021, the House of Representatives passed House Resolution 213, directing the NEA to comply with the agency's Memo 2017-035, which established that the authority to appoint or terminate ECs' general managers lies with their boards of directors.”
    “What provoked the House resolution was the issuance of another memo by the NEA, Memo 2021-055, which transferred that authority from the EC boards to the NEA.”
    “In spite of the House resolution having some teeth because Congress holds power over NEA's and its parent the Department of Energy's budgets, the NEA completely ignored it, and then followed through with its disapproved revised rules by attempting a comic-opera takeover of the Beneco last October (2021). The intended takeover of Beneco is apparently what led to the amended rule in the first place.”
     “The irony is that the NEA may be serving its current dubious role because it has otherwise outlived its original purpose.     The vast majority of ECs in the country are financially stable and performing adequately; there are exceptions, of course, but they are relatively few.”
    “Idle hands are the devil's playthings, so the old saying goes, and the NEA as it is now certainly seems to be an example of that. There is never a good time for this kind of bad behavior, but it is especially unwelcome now when the country's energy security is more at risk than ever.”
    “If the NEA cannot be reformed and compelled to carry out its original, progressive mandate, then it should be abolished. Its existence as it is now is doing the country and ordinary energy consumers more harm than good.”
 
 

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

Filipino nurses want more pay to stay

The  golden solution to the brain-drain or the migration of professional nurses that kept health authorities worried for decades is to increase their entry salaries commensurate with their workload, not to issue temporary licenses to unlicensed nursing graduates just to fill the vacancy in the plantilla of government hospitals.
    The pathetic proposal to issue temporary licenses to nurses who scored 70-74% in the board licensure exams was from none other than newly appointed Health Secretary Ted Herbosa.
    Also, they will have to render up to four-year return service to a government hospital after they pass their board exam before they are allowed to go abroad.

The additional condition looks like an overseas deployment ban. As if the issuance of temporary licenses to nursing graduates is not enough violation, Sec. Herbosa disallows the nurses to go abroad which is an unsound policy that violates a professional’s right to travel and work.

Dr. Herbosa said the starting salary of the unlicensed nursing graduates who opt to join government hospitals could range from P35,000 to P40,000. That is easier said than done, considering that it will have to go through the scrutiny of lawmakers in congress.

In an interview, TV news host Joel Reyes Zobel told the secretary that if ever nursing graduates were given temporary licenses to be allowed to work in government hospitals, their patients would be inquiring if their medical attendants passed the board exams.

Dr. Herbosa responded saying that would be elitist, to which the news anchor reacted otherwise, because it was the patient’s right to ask considering that it was his life that would be at risk. TV news host Joel was right and I agree.

It is unquestionably realistic for the family to see to it that the patient gets professional care. Naturally, they want to know the risk they are taking to avoid unsatisfactory treatment involving an unlicensed nurse.

For those who flunked the board exams, although they will be given temporary licenses, their level of confidence and competence would be compared to the professional licensed nurses. Since they were not allowed by law to practice professionally, accountability in case of errors would be questioned.

I believe that issuing “faked” licenses to nursing graduates who already flunked the licensure board exams so that they would be employed and fill the vacancy in government hospitals would be a bad model and would be courting danger.

Last week, the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) shot down Sec. Herbosa’s idea and clarified that there was no provision in the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002 that legally allowed the issuance of temporary licenses to nursing graduates who flunked the Nursing Licensure Examination.

Professional nurses’ organizations expressed disapproval of the proposal. The Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) said that Sec. Herbosa should reassess his idea to hire nursing graduates who scored 70-74% in the board exam.

PNA heads and members stressed that their priority as nurses is the safety of their patients, so that the Department of Health (DOH) should give the plantilla positions to the professional nurses instead.

Some 10,000 nursing graduates passed the licensure exams last May, in addition to 18,000 more who passed the tests in November last year. These are enough to fill up the 4,000 vacancies in the plantilla of government hospitals.

The Filipino Nurses United (FNU), a national labor association of public and private nurses fighting for their rights and welfare, echoed the PNA’s discontentment saying, the DOH should instead focus on hiring registered nurses since there are some 120,000 of them who are currently working in other fields outside of nursing.

The FNU said, salary and benefits of professional nurses should be addressed by the government to keep them working in the Philippines. “More pay to make them stay!” Registered nurses who are the lifeblood of hospitals migrate because their salaries in their own country do not correspond with their workload.

Hence, the organizations are pushing HB 3648 that proposed an increase of nurse’s entry salary to P50,000 and adequate benefits. This, even while the government has yet to pay around 20,000 private healthcare workers more than P1.9 billion in pandemic allowances and benefits.

Aside from having provisions which are more relevant to the Filipino people’s health needs and responsive to nurses, it was proposed in the bill that the government subsidize small and medium private hospitals in the first three years of its implementation.

Jeepney drivers who were unable to work during the pandemic were subsidized with billions of pesos. The government should allot the same for nurses whose roles are essential for public health care.

HB 3648 is expected to address the diaspora of nurses to seek higher pay and better work conditions. The government should counter this by taking care of nurses. During the pandemic, the nurses’ frustrations on Covid benefits, unpaid compensation and death of their colleagues deepened their sentiments of burn-out and dreadful work conditions.

Likewise, it seeks to lessen workload by having a safe nurse-patient ratio of one is to six in general wards. With this, the problem of understaffing in wards will be prevented, resulting in improved patient care.

The bill has also a provision on hiring of a public health nurse in every barangay. If we have “Doctors to the barrios”, then we should have “Nurses to the barrios” which recognizes that nurses are essential in the healthcare industry. Also, the proposed law prohibits contractualization of the nurses to ensure security of tenure.

By this time, the government should be improving public health care conditions, particularly the conditions of our nurses. If former President Duterte raised the entry salary of cops and soldiers, why can’t President Marcos Jr. peg at P50,000 the entry salary of a professional nurse who has more workload?

This way, the intensifying migration of nurses can be prevented and public health care will improve ultimately. Nurses should no longer have to sacrifice by leaving their country just to be able to feed their families properly. 

 

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

Beneco and  barangay elections

Though the two cases have different backgrounds, both elections were similarly postponed or delayed for ridiculous reasons not in accordance with laws previously approved.
    Both were brought to the courts, but apparently the Supreme Court was quicker with its decision.
    The postponement of the Barangay and Sanggunian Kabataan Elections (BSKE) violated the Philippine Constitution while the conduct of elections for the directors of Benguet Electric Cooperative (Beneco) were calculatingly delayed. 
    The Supreme Court ruled on June 27 that the law which disenfranchised people from joining the Barangay and Sanggunian Kabataan Elections (BSKE) scheduled last December 2022 was unconstitutional.
    The SC ruling came six months after voters in the Philippines were supposed to troop to the polling centers and choose their barangay officials.
     The SC ruled that grave abuse of discretion was committed when Republic Act 11935 was enacted since it unconstitutionally and arbitrarily prevented voters the exercise of their rights of suffrage, liberty and expression.
    Authors of the law in the House and Senate argued in their respective bills that the polls should be postponed to allow the country to heal following a “divisive” 2022 election which was won by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
    Aside from the above, advocates of the postponement law wanted to delay the polls until October 2023 to realign the budget initially allocated for the Comelec and use the funds for pandemic recovery efforts.
    But the SC in its June 27 ruling said that the postponement of the BSKE 2022 by RA 11935 for the purpose of augmenting the Executive’s funds was a violation of the Constitution because it “transgresses the constitutional prohibition against any transfer of appropriations.”
    The SC added that public emergency may be a significant consideration for delaying the elections, but other reasons such as election fatigue, alleged divisiveness and superficial reasons from lawmakers who benefit from a law that they themselves approve “may not serve as substantial or compelling reasons to justify the postponement of elections”.
    But the SC decision came six months from December 2022, the original schedule of BSKE. So what happens now? The SC said, the elections would push through on October 30, 2023 despite its unconstitutionality “due to legal practicality and necessity.”
    ***
In the case of the elections for the board of directors (BoDs) of Beneco, several violations were made. The National Electrification Administration that is not merely supervising but now directly participating in the affairs of the Beneco has ordered through the NEA-appointed interim board to open the applications for a general manager.
    As a member-consumer and most of all, undisputed part owner of the electric utility of Baguio and Benguet, I am stunned by how the Beneco management is presently controlled by a NEA-appointed interim board.

Recently they placed an ad-announcement in some local newspapers calling for qualified applicants to the position of General Manager (GM).

What were they up to? More than a hundred thousand member-consumer-owners (MCOs) did not know. It was a case of putting the proverbial “cart before the horse”.

Under the rules for the selection of a GM, the set of elected BoDs are tasked to select a GM to be submitted to the NEA who in turn would endorse back to them the recommendation of the elected BoDs.

The selection of a GM under NEA Memo No. 2017-035 provides two options – one, to recruit through publication; and two, for the BOD to choose from the department managers.

This spares the NEA the effort in recruiting a GM following the provisions of the memorandum that NEA approved on Oct. 24, 2017.

Citing NEA Memorandum No. 2017-035, a general manager must have at least five years of experience with proven track record in effective management of a successful electric utility-related business enterprise, held two or more senior management positions involving business leadership or managerial functions and must have no derogatory or adverse administrative record in any previous employments.

All these are functions of a set of BoDs who were elected by MCOs to represent their district, not the function of the NEA nor its interim board.

That is why the MCOs are clamoring for elections not only for them to be legitimately represented but in order that the rules in choosing a GM are followed.

The SC ruling on the BSKE could have been the move taken by the NEA. Instead of replacing the elected Beneco BoDs, it could have asked them to call for elections of directors to replace them.

An election of district BoDs is the only way to normalize Beneco affairs.

But this is not the case. I am stupefied by stupid events. On several instances, the NEA violated its own rules and continues to violate them. No one can tell us why. I can only come up with an opinion that the NEA and its appointed interim board do not know what they have to do or they have a veiled agenda.

By the way, during the June 17, 2023 Beneco general membership assembly at Easter School, someone was misled about what happened during the speech of my insan Benguet Vice Gov. Ericson “Tagel” Felipe at the Kapangan AGMA.

No, he was not booed nor heckled as what was told by Marites to the misinformed member of the interim board. I am not mentioning the name to save the person from embarrassment.      

In his speech, Vice Gov. Tagel said he voted for a director but he is now surprised why an interim board has replaced the elected BoDs. Then he told the crowd that maybe the interim board can answer questions about the election and other Beneco issues to which the audience gave loud booing and hooting.

That’s the real scene. I know because I was seated below the stage. The misinformed guy was not there but he believed what Marites told him. He should be careful not to be swallowing “hook, line and sinker” the words that come out from the mouth of Marites. For all he knows, Marites might have her own hidden agenda.

 

 LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

Why love the Philippines?

Maybe it’s not her fault but she has to be blamed at the same time for the fiasco. That was how I looked at the blunder and the latest mess Secretary Christina G. Frasco and the Department of Tourism got into for talking about love in June, the month for loveable brides and not on Valentine’s mysterious month of February.

So before our loveable lawmakers in both houses of Congress express their frustration over the controversial use of the P49-million DOT video footage launch of the new “Love the Philippines” tourism campaign, they might as well give themselves the benefit of the doubt and dip their toes in the shoes of Sec. Frasco.

What was in her mind when she “approved” the new tourism slogan “Love the Philippines” tourism video ad? We do not have any way of finding out except to ask her. But in my mind I thought the secretary could have had the notion that love was the answer to the many problems that are affecting tourism in the country.

I find nothing wrong with the slogan “Love the Philippines.” It is simple and catchy. What killed it was when Sec. Frasco or the people she asked to be in charge of the tourism video ad slipped and just consented to the use of pictures that were not shot in the Philippines but video clips of Thailand, Indonesia and Dubai.

There must be accountability. Imagine a slogan that goes “Love the Philippines” but the promotional video that accompanied it was not fresh videos of places in the country mentioned but stock footage showing other tourism sites of other countries.  

Sec. Frasco or whoever were in charge were remiss of their duty to review the promotional video. By trusting too much the word of the advertising group without screening or reviewing the finished product, the DOT allowed itself to be scammed. Irresponsible is not even a strong term to describe their actions.

In a news report I read, the DOT admitted that the advertising agency that prepared the audio-visual presentation repeatedly confirmed the originality and ownership of all materials in the video. They believed the word of the ad agency without checking.

For its part, the ad agency admitted that there was an oversight in not strictly following proper screening and approval processes. It further admitted that the “use of foreign stock footage in a campaign promoting the Philippines is highly inappropriate and contradictory to the DOT’s objectives.” But the DOT simply did not screen what the ad agency produced.

The natural course of things when it comes to agreements is for the principal to be accountable to what the second party comes up with, not the other way around as what seemed to appear in their admittances in the news reports.

For a tourism promotional video worth P49 million, the DOT should be more critical, discerning and allot most of their time to screening and reviewing proposals that ad agencies present to them in order to avoid lapses and oversights. It is good the DOT officials concerned avoided an ombudsman case by not paying the P49 million for a stupid video ad.

If the purported tourism promotional video was made public, it could have surely presented a negative image of PBBM and our officials and how we promote our tourist destinations. Imagine a tourism person talking about the Cordillera but the photos are those from Thailand.

It is frustrating enough to see that the government agency with its annual budget cannot properly promote the natural beauty of the country, its people and the uniqueness of their culture. And first time tourists would not trust anymore promotional ads that DOT presents from now on.

The primary agency tasked to produce a marketing campaign strategy to promote the exceptional welcoming character of Filipinos, and the matchless natural beauty of the mountains and beaches has not been truthful lately. Even former DOT man Dick Gordon asked how tourists can love the Philippines if we are not showing the truth.

“Love the Philippines” by showing the truth so that local and foreign tourists alike are able to travel around and find out that farmers are becoming poorer everyday due to the unstoppable smuggling of agricultural products, prices of prime commodities are high, poverty is high and corruption is widespread.

The DOT officials came up with the new slogan and video to welcome tourists who are free to visit people and places even while it is true that salaries of government nurses and school teachers are low, and police generals together with their men are involved in drug-trafficking and gambling.

The least that DOT can do is to review and screen tourism promotional ads in order to present truthful, beautiful video clips shot in the country. This way, tourists can “Love the Philippines” even while human rights workers and social activists are mysteriously disappearing and the country is becoming unsafe for journalists.

By the way, I was confused by a line inside the DOT Cordillera office lobby. It goes: “Find yourself in the Cordillera”. How can that be? It made me think twice. I believe that before one finds himself, he should first be lost.

So the slogan at the DOT-CAR lobby should better be: “It’s more fun to get lost in the Cordillera!” I think that would be more catchy and interesting. I am not sure if DOT boss Jovy Ganongan can fathom how a newsman’s mind goes, but I can explain to her how the slogan works.

 

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

‘La SONA’

BAGUIO CITY -- It sounds like poison when coined as a single word that has interfered with this administration’s affairs. It is the local term of a kind of onion by Ilocanos and Igorots.
It is the commodity that caught the attention of the private sector and government officials because of its staggering market price.
     It is the state of the nation address or simply SONA that is delivered by the president at the opening of the regular session of Congress every last Monday of July as required by Article 7, Section 23 of the 1987 Constitution.
     President Marcos Jr. in his first SONA said he planned to address issues such as the state of agriculture, health, education, infrastructure, the tourism industry, energy, technology and the tax system.
    Just like in all SONAs, the president is expected to disclose his administration's agenda for 2024, aside from reporting on the country’s status and sharing some progress report to what happened to the plans he mentioned in his first SONA. He might again ask congress to pass priority legislative measures.
    In January this year, the president signed EO 14 that approved the 2023-2028 Philippine Development Plan which was founded on the eight-point socio-economic agenda aimed at reinvigorating job creation and accelerating poverty reduction.     The president is likely to mention an update of this in his SONA.
    The situation now is different. Bus and jeepney drivers, and those affected by the ever-increasing fuel prices are asking the president to lessen fuel taxes and tell Congress to amend the Oil Deregulation Law that has allowed fuel traders to freely adjust retail prices. No mention of these public concerns in the SONA could trigger undue disinclination.
    The brain-drain by our teachers and nurses has not been addressed by any past president. Health workers expect PFMJr in his SONA to raise their salaries just like Duterte who doubled the salaries of rookie cops and first entry soldiers to almost P30,000.
     In a country where health care is costly and not easily available, an entry salary for nurses at P80,000 per month is commensurate with the workload in a hospital. That amount is still far lower than what they receive abroad which is around P260K per month.
    The president might as well include in his priorities the welfare of farmers and fishermen who are useful citizens who provide food on our tables, instead of giving away too much dole-out or “ayuda” to the non-working members of society and non-tax payers.
     PFMJr in his SONA could point out plans by the agriculture department which he heads to stop food smuggling, particularly onions and pork.
    There has been too much talk by his deputies in the department and other agencies to lock up the criminals in jail but that was easier said than done. They seem to be in cahoots.
    The landless and indigenous peoples in the country do wish to experience an honest implementation of the land reform program under PFMJr’s watch.
    The program has been so slow that the lands were bought back by rich realtors and former owners faster than they were distributed to the deserving awardees.
    Relatively, PFMJr could strengthen the IP sector by removing corrupt officials in the National Commission on Indigenous     Peoples (NCIP). Some of them have been using their positions to gain personal interest.
     Lately, an IP cousin had stated the obvious. He said the NCIP had not processed a single certificate of ancestral land title in recent years, which was supposedly its task under the law that created it.
    This has provided bigtime land speculators the easy opportunity to overlap and grab ancestral lands.
     My cousin with an Ibaloy nose said PFMJr with Ilocano eyes and “waray” nose has the ability to see and smell what national NCIP officials are cooking.
    The agency deceptively had taken the sides of big mining and manufacturing companies instead of protecting the rights of the IPs whom they were mandated to protect.
    Probably, PFMJr could talk about the UN arbitral ruling and the West Philippine Sea (WPS) since he mentioned it last year. What is not sure is if he will mention something about the UN-ICC investigation of former President Duterte’s drug war.

If it is not asking too much for the sake of peace and order, the president might also instruct the DILG, DND and their allies in his SONA to stop once and for all red-tagging of suspected enemies of the state, social activists, human rights fighters, environmentalists and journalists.

 He could ask Congress to pass a law against red-tagging and negative branding of organizations. The act by state forces and their allies has led to unnecessary killing of innocent individuals and continues to put in danger the lives of social activists, environmentalists, media personalities, human rights advocates and their families.

On July 18, less than a week before he delivers his second SONA, PFMJr signed the Maharlika Investment Fund Act which will be used to invest in commercial real estate, infrastructure projects, domestic and foreign corporate bonds. He would surely justify its positive benefits on local governments.

In his SONA, LGUs expect to hear the president talk about the importance of coordinated efforts between the local and national government. This could be achieved through the devolution of functions because critical government programs should be felt locally.

 Talking about agreements and devolution of national funds to LGUs, the city government of Baguio was recently flagged by the Commission on Audit for using money downloaded from the national fund for a city project. Where is good governance that our city officials keep harping about?

Despite the good promises and generosity a SONA can bring to LGUs, it will ultimately depend on how the beneficiary officials use them. It is not as easy as mouthing good governance during flag ceremonies to keep one’s image clean and reap votes for a higher elective position at the same time. It should be honestly applied and put into practice.