EPIRA, epic fail
i’ve long been wondering about EPIRA or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 that was enacted by congress supposedly to cut high power costs by privatizing the mismanaged and debt-ridden napocor. obviously EPIRA hasn’t worked, doesn’t work. read this from philstar‘s marichu villanueva, Thanks, P-Noy, for saying no to emergency powers and an appeal that he revisit EPIRA in the face of impending increases in power rates.
When VAT on oil is “crooked road” #noynoying
Let us please get real! The repeal of the Oil Deregulation Law will not cure our oil price woes. It will only throw us back to the bad old days when government required documents before approving every price increase proposal. Still, the oil prices increased—the only difference was that it took some time to take effect, simply because the government had first to evaluate the oil companies’ price-hike claims. In other words, it is not as much a regulated or a deregulated oil industry atmosphere as the relative volatility of the global prices of oil that causes our oil price woes today.
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“twisted machismo” #azkals
HOW CRISTY RAMOS MAY HAVE HELPED THE AZKALS
SAN FRANCISCO—The Azkals had a good week this week. After losing to North Korea, they came back to win against India 2-0.
But that’s not the only big story about the famous Philippine football team which has helped ignite interest in the sport in the country.
It’s international women’s month, and in an odd twist, the Azkals are marking the occasion by wrestling with allegations of sexual harassment and crude behavior toward women.
That’s certainly bad news.
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A country of short story writers
Last week, in a tribute to novelist Azucena Grajo Uranza, I said something to the effect that we have very few novelists in a country of short story writers.
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calling out angel #azkals
so she’s dating, or is in a relationship with an azkal, but she’s also a gabriela supporter? member? which makes it even more dismaying that angel locsin has not seen fit to keep her silence while due process for cristy ramos takes its course. instead she saw fit to pounce on arnold clavio and accuse him of “racism” for saying that the culprits are not really pinoy, not having been raised here.
The truth about sexual harassment #azkals
Is that it happens to the best of us. It happens to every Pinay who commutes and suffers through a “miss miss miss!” from the tambay in the kanto or the kuya construction worker; it happens to every Pinay who has had to deal with a policeman looking at her legs through the window of her car. It happens to us even when all it might be is a lewd gaze from a random commuter, or a guy at a restaurant, or a student, or a teacher, or a boss. Or talk of the size of our breasts in a roomful of male athletes.
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K to 12: Wasteland
The Philippines has embarked on an enormous P150-billion project — the K to 12 — that is set to add as part of the basic education a mandatory kindergarten and an additional two years to the high school. The mandatory kindergarten is not contentious because there is empirical evidence that it does improve learning outcomes. It is the learning outcomes that should concern us here. I still have to see evidence (perhaps I did not look hard enough) that the additional two years of high school will improve learning performance.
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Civility in the Senate #cj trial
I knew it was coming. Did we expect the public to just accept what the Senate did, holding in contempt a private prosecutor for cupping his ears during the senator judge’s abusive tirade against the prosecution in last March 1 hearing of the impeachment trial. I had already submitted my last column that day and could only comment on it today. No editorial or column had appeared on the subject until last Sunday with Randy David’s “The ‘upper’ house” (PDI). On the night of March 1 the social media was already astir with opinions largely against the lady senator. Now it’s the talk of the town.
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aleli & grace #women’s month
in the war between the legal wife and the mistress significant other of the late iggy arroyo, i find myself wondering how i’d handle it, in either one’s place.
i’d like to think, if i were in the place of aleli — given that six years na since the hubby packed up and left, an annulment good as done, already practically in the bag, except for some filing technicality that has nothing to do with the case — that i would settle for a low-profile kind of grieving, no media interviews, if only for the sake of our daughter. i would also try very hard to be glad that my ex was well cared-for and well-loved through his illness and last days.
miriam’s hell #cj trial
i am neither anti- nor pro-corona. if he’s convicted, fine. if he’s acquitted, fine. i didn’t like him from the moment he accepted the midnight appointment, but that’s not a high crime, ‘no?
nothing will change, anyway, if corona is removed, except that whoever replaces him will be beholden to the president and his cohorts and not to gma. and of course there’s the hacienda luisita ruling of the corona court; the cojuangcos would have a good chance of getting the whopping 10B in compensation they want that justice sereno recommends instead of 800M-something lang. and yes, gma’s goose would be cooked, no matter how weak the evidence of election sabotage against her.
nothing will change either if corona’s not removed, except maybe he’ll inhibit or try very hard from then on to be impartial vis a vis gma cases lest he get impeached again next year. and that, inhibiting and/or judiciously working at impartiality, would not be a bad thing.
Demystifying the “brod” mystique #cj trial
Sociologist Randy David was impressed when presiding officer Senate Juan President Ponce Enrile addressed prosecutor Rep. Raul Daza as “brod” and quickly turned to defense counsel Serafin Cuevas to address him too as “brod.” Enrile and Daza are both fraternity members (Sigma Rhoans), but Cuevas, as far as the 1952 Philippinensian shows, did not list any fraternity affiliation. If he is not a “brod” then Enrile may well have used the term as an honorific, designed perhaps to avoid any apprehension that he might be partial to the prosecution. “Brod” has been used loosely like “pare” but not normally by frat members.
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The pitfalls of remembering
Writing a remembrance piece is a challenge to memory. I said this much to reader Benito Valeriano, nephew of Col. Napoleon Valeriano whom I mentioned in my last column “First UP Diliman Rally after the War” as the commander of the Nenita Unit that trucked out of their camp in Diliman early that morning of March 29, 1951 headed for the anti-Huk campaign in Central Luzon. Valeriano’s nephew wrote:
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