governance

So We Don’t Forget: Duterte’s Case with the ICC

3 Comments / governance, history, justice /

Do you know, Reader, that there is RA 9851, signed into law in 2009, two years before we ratified the Rome Statute? Some experts say it is even more strict than the Rome Statute. It punishes superiors who either knew or, owing to the circumstances at the time, should have known that the subordinates were committing or about to commit crimes against humanity? So why has Duterte or anyone not even been charged, much less brought to trial under this law?

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Do We Need the ICC?

crunching numbers, data, fact check, governance /

The first piece of hard evidence is the assessment of the Philippine government itself on the justice situation in the PDP 2023-2028. It says, , “Despite… positive developments, several policy reforms and key legislations remain unattained, such as “Fragmentation of the criminal justice system remains a challenge”, “ Backlogs in resolving cases, delays caused by inefficient practices, and aging persist”, “ Limited resources weaken the justice sector,” and “Low public confidence in the justice system undermines the rule of law”, all expounded in the chapter.

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What’s With the Sugar

crunching numbers, data, fact check, governance /

The inability to import sugar was one of the major reasons that the year-on-year inflation rate for the item Sugar, Confectionery and Deserts for February 2023, as reported by the PSA (Consumer Price Index for subgroups), was a whopping 37%. That is the highest inflation rate for all items in the CPI. Not only that. Prices for this subgroup also rose between January to February this year. We, the people, suffered.

But we are now in a second scandal, with pre-emptive sugar shipments and admitting to ignoring the rules. This one may have more dangerous repercussions.

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Four Comments Part 2

governance /

All the paeans given to the RCEP – that it will accelerate post-pandemic economic recovery, that it will help bring more investments, that it will expand the country’s exports — is a cruel hoax on the Filipino people. If these will occur, it will occur only in the long-run, and after the government helps the different economic sectors be more competitive, and fixes its domestic problems. RCEP gives our country a little more market access to the other RCEP countries, but if we can’t compete, our products won’t sell in these markets. In other words, if we don’t do our homework, we won’t pass.

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Four Comments

1 Comment / governance, justice /

It was in performing her duties as Secretary of Justice that de Lima again stepped on giant toes – like those of Senators Ramon Revilla, Jr., Jinggoy Estrada, and Juan Ponce Enrile, plus five former representatives (some dynastic), plus executives/employees of government corporations – 38 in all. It was in regard to these cases that the sobriquet “Three Furies” was coined.

To remind, Reader: Revilla and Estrada are back as Senators (what does this tell you), and Juan Ponce Enrile, my neighbor, is now very much in the center of power.

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Shutting up his critics

1 Comment / crunching numbers, data, fact check, governance /

Methinks the report aims, among other things, to silence the criticism Marcos Junior has received about his frequent travels.

However, it also has an unintended consequence: Why go through all the effort of changing the Constitution to remove the economic restrictions on FDI? All the country needs to get FDI is to send the President abroad, and voila!, we have all we want. So, shut up, ChaCha advocates.

But we still have to look at the numbers.

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So What’s This New Think Tank Really For

governance /

A lot of hoopla there was, about Congress needing its own national-level think tank; about academic research and published work not finding its way into legislation (this from the first-person experience of Cong. Quimbo – a staunch defender of the Maharlika Investment Fund)

If the CPBRD, the present think tank of Congress, is so inadequate as to need the help of 25 “Congressional Research Fellows”, whose fault is it? It is under the Office of the Speaker, after all.

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More of the Lies: What they’re saying about the OECD FDI Restrictiveness Index

data, fact check, governance, history /

Look more closely at the OECD FDI Index, (that people cite as evidence to change the Constitution). You would see that CHINA, which from the inception of the Index up to 2015, was ranked the most restrictive country in the OECD sample, was at the same time was also the largest recipient of FDI among the developing countries of the world. It still is, even though in 2015 the title of most restrictive passed on to the Philippines. Shortly thereafter, the Philippines the ninth, and the seventh top country of investment choice in a survey conducted by UNCTAD.

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