Bureau of Immigration insists, yet again, that it has no record Garcillano left. So if he didn’t leave… Well, apparently here’s where GMA7 Network reports: an unnamed congressman says Garci is in Manila. No story, though, has been posted on the news sites.
Jonathan Tiongco files libel case against ABS-CBN executives.
UNTV, whose cameran caught the Pasig City rubout on camera, says the cameraman has had to go into hiding and complains its premises are being watched.
Caught a bit of the fertilizer fund scam hearing on ANC. Crash course on agriculture. Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. suggested that government consider a direct subsidy to farmers, who are in the best position to decide on what to buy with the money. The point being that rice farming is unprofitable, guaranteeing a loss to the farmer of 5,000 pesos per hectare per planting season. It’s a pity Jun Magsaysay’s second and final Senate term ends in 2007.
Agriculture is heavily politicized in all countries. But usually, it involves giving massive infrastructural, financial and technical support to farmers. In the case of rice and corn farming in the Philippines, politicians long ago learned that shortages of the commodity cause tremendous political fall-out with their urban constituency. So rice is viewed from a supply-management perspective instead of from a production perspective. Better to pander to the urban voters than to risk the ire of the farmers. It is so much more expedient to import rice and corn than to develop the sector from the ground up, putting in the infra, disseminating knowhow, extending credit, accesibility to markets, etc.
Giving direct cash doleouts to farmers would be a politician’s dream, if the government had the money. Of course, that would be the final straw, so to speak, that will really bring agricultural production down.
Greetings!Congratulations for an informative and well-kept site. Re the last point: who will foot the subsidy bill? The Filipino taxpayer. Surely a more efficient way of income redistribution can be found, rather than financing an activity which (at current levels) is loss-making.
Thanks Econblogger. To be fair, Jun Magsaysay’s point is that if the government spends 16 billion on fertilizer assistance, the same amount would result in at least a one time lump sum payment of 5,000 pesos per farmer for somthing like 3 million farmers, if I understood Emy Boncodin’s number crunching. After all, the rice farmer’s uh, beef with the fertilizer scam was that it didn’t go to them, and when it did, it was the wrong fertiizer or a great amount was used up by government red-tape.
Subj: Garci
The Gloria election stealing issue will never be laid to rest until Garci comes out in the open to refute or confirm the story.
Garci’s continiung ‘disappearance’ merely re-enforces suspicions and accusations that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo indeed stole the presidency (and for the second time at that).
His non-appearance will continue to hound this country even after 2010, and in the event he doesn’t turn up before 2010, Gloria will be known (and branded) as or ‘nicknamed’ the cheating president not only by this generation of Filipinos but also by the next to come.
Obviously, Filipinos tend to be charitable and may pardon her ‘lapses’ but there’s no guarantee that even her best performance/s will overlook a misdeed. There will always be professionals and amateurs of history, who will be less tender with her than those who had been with say, Aquinaldo and Marcos, for the simple reason that records are now easily accessible on the internet.
Its hard to think global afterall we all see what subsidies can do for ourlocal products competing against cheap imports
and the result of the subsidies on oil as the main suspect for the napocor underpricing…and the bane of our countrry
wait what underpricing of power..what will you first feel when you unload monthly budget…but we are into agri
agri business has a lot of potential like whathas been said before
people can’t accept that we are no longer leaders in the region in rice production that Thailand beat us to it and that now Vietnam will soon follow suit.
as of this year 2005 we can forget about the biofuel bill
and others that has to do with agribusiness
becaue we don’t have a three year or four year budget plan
like in the business papers of all business school students
we take 5 or six months a year scrutinizing and finding how one outsmarted the other how this can be used for that
and they say they don’t want it to be reenacted for they dont want the executive to abuse…Come ON!
I had time to talk once with Gerard Lukban a very rare chance with such a busy fellow….too bad we were on the road and he was driving and too bad he was so engrossed thinking of the preneed mess we could have talked about why can’t grad school budget projections of neda and others be applied in congress
but since there’s so match catching up to do we were stuck in real life….
Again how I miss grad school somehow and again hear lecture on the two handed economy….
Imagine hearing a prof the good thing about subsidies and smuggling….yes smuggling is that it lowers inflation
what sige na nga…..
then you put oil in that equation
again that hogwash of allowing the peso to be weak for our exports to flourish and the ofw dollar remittances and the works
again you put oil in the mix……
the world is not ceteris parabus even as if….
“Bureau of Immigration insists, yet again, that it has no record Garcillano left.”
Are we gonna believe an agency that gave three passports to Hambali, a non-Filipino Indonesian national whose a member of a foreign terrorist group that terrorizes the Philippines?
If a foreigner with no records in the Philippines can easily slip in it’s not far-fetched that a Filipino National can slip out just as easily.
Garci….
pass yata ako dagdagan lang ng isang letter surname ko na
lilitaw lang yun pag hinostage mo tuta nya at idemand mong magpakita
not even being gifted with friends spread all over would help mamaya iemail ako na nakita nila yun pala si eddie gil lang na walang wig
mlq3,
Although Jun Magsaysay’s logic was correct, I believe that was a one-time project, not sustainable every year (I don’t believe the government has the funds to sustain such a doleout).
Of course, it wasn’t by chance that it coincided with an election year, a Presidential election at that.
It was designed via pork-barrel allocations for Congressmen so that Congressman could also piggyback on the largesse and promote their own political campaigns (obviously a quid-pro-quo arrangement). Pork barrel projects, being what they are, take the form of what the Congressmen claim their constituents need. The only requirement would be that it have a ghost of a semblance to something related to agriculture, no matter how far-fetched (hence those machines to shred waste for converting into compost or for easier garbage disposal). That is why, incredibly, even highly urbanized areas like Malabon or Makati were able to partake of the doleout, never mind if there are no farms there. Of course, by converting the money into something in kind also allows for Congressmen to make a commission from the purchases (whether fertilizers or shredding machines or artesian wells). Unfortunately, this is standard operating procedure in government, in all administrations.
Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr idea is so stupid look behind it… Where would the money go any way in Makati you would all the sudden have thousands of farmers..
And then the payout may as well be in one check..
Come on see exactly who would say who is a farmer and who is not and who should get the check.. Better to spend the money on Infrastructure to allow the delivery of items to and from the farming areas. Not directly to the farms themselves but to the Silo’s for the Rice.. (What silos) it has not been thought out correctly..
Put up Silos in each area, Train line to the Silos, The trains pickup in one go alot more rice than a Truck can, Less labour and less wasted Fuel, everything is more efficent.. The Rice growers sell to a Rice Board Same price for same rice country wide. they store and then sell it to the companies who want rice.. If there is over production in one area it offsets the yield elsewhere.. Then it all can get bagged and sold at a better price.. The Train lines should have a access to the Ports as well.. So one main line from bottom of the country to the very top. And mutiple offshoots at each main area. And Offshoots to every Port in the country..
And this system does work in lots of other countries..
Why do you think India is so good off really.. Because they have a fantastic rail system, even if it is full…
Later on the Train infrastructer would then be able to be used for transportation of people..
OR people and goods, A Cargo train with a couple of passenger cabins..
This would then bring the ability for alot more to be imported and exported efficently,
Logs anyone, Straight on to a train, Mechanical parts, Iron, Steel, Everything can be transported on a Train..
Next is Oversided items.. Since Disel no overhead lines, No squatter houses near the line.. Load the train up and go…. Dthe drive on and off Ferries can be altered to have a train line down the center, Or offload to trucks or straight into the cargo holds using augers (Spinning thread to load Grains)..
Too easy but no check to the Senators, and mayors friends..
UNTV’S EXCLUSIVE VIDEO IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING ONLINE.
GO TO THEIR SITE http://www.untvweb.com/index.aspx# AND CLICK ON THE LINK “SPECIAL REPORT” BELOW ENTITLED “SHOOTOUT OR RUBOUT?”
Oh well the UNTV Link does not work..
Come on were they criminals were they going to get off on the charges we all know they were.
They fired at the police. They got killed..
PURE AND SIMPLE JUSTICE..
I SUPPORT THE POLICE IN PROTECTING THE CITIZENS..
ALL YOU POLICE OUT THERE YOU HAVE MY SUPPORT…
i think sen. magsaysays idea of giving farmers direct subsidy is a brilliant idea.i hope it can be done asap.
i think that it will be more productive to think of simple partical ideas in solving & plugging the corrupt ways that there are.
i’m sure that the same should be the case for the garci issue.
yes, i agree the issue will not go away.actually it will never go away for those who use false pritence for selfish & hyporitical ends sugar coated in false nationalisim.because at this point the issue is muddled up.minds are made up.lines have been drawn a long time ago.a big part of the issue is about satisfying curiosity & getting someones neck!
the garci issue is like spilled milk.but a wise man will think of ways that what has happened will not be repeated ever again.
a fool insted will only continue to entertain the doubts & wish for the stars & in the processes be an obstacle to progress.
Since silos were mentioned (bat ba lahat me kinalaman sa buhay ko..kasi tao tayo I think therefore I am)
My former employer’s dream of becoming the gateway for the feeds in the Philippines got killed when the big food and beverage giant wanted to optimize on the idea but with them as the king…
but they forgot that there was a PCGG local government issue and their king was the main target…
Zuellig wanted to but in but backed off becace F &B King might fight it out but it is their dream to expand in the region and beyond the planet like my former employer’s competitor
so my former employer moved to roro dream by partnering with Sharon Cuneta and will try this nautical hiway brouhaha
sice competitor is towards worldwide domination might as well stick it out here…very brillant stick it out here then the rest is a work in progress
OK so take a smaller part of the pie…
At least it would be better for all..
Why does everyone want to rule the world themselves?
Sometimes its better to ride on someones coat tails and learn from them how to be bigger better
I like the opinions of this guy Karl, I believe he does not want to be anonymous he just wants to speak out his thoughts,his ideas,with good intentions coupled with humour and a tinge of sattire….This is all for us to ponder and asses our own views.
To Karl, keep it up!
Sir Tuts (Blush)
I appreciate people commenting with possitively…
Your right I just want to tickle people’s minds and let themselves interpret…definitely no harm intended to any person,institution or whatever…:)
Re: rice subsidies
I think rice subsidies are essentially dole-outs in this case. And as experience has proven, dole-outs just dont work. It will be good for something provisional, as when things get really bad, but we expect them to become better soon (not the case). First we need to think of ways to make the agri business more efficient and viable (-i do support better infrastructure & logistics for produce-), and if provisional subsidies will be needed as a result of the time frame from program implementation to fruition, then MAYBE we can consider subsidies. One of my bigger concerns, too, regarding direct subsidies to farmers is that the money will very likely go into consumption (food, and such) rather than investment (grain, fertilizer, irrigation), where it should rightly be put. One more point: better-off countries (the US, for example) have been quite successful in their implementation of farmer subsidies as protectionist measures because, well, they can afford to foot the bill.
Bear in mind that we should not simply be trying to solve the graft, resulting from ill-spent subsidies, resulting from declining agri viability or countryside poverty. Because then we’d only be patching patched patchwork. Lets try not lose sight of the big original problem. This is what makes government such a complicated bureaucracy.