Category: politics

trillanes, honasan, duterte

kung sinosino na ang narinig natin sa radyo’t TV from both sides, yes or no: does the president have the power to revoke a grant of amnesty?  may kapangyarihan ba si duterte na bawiin ang amnestiya na ibinigay iginawad in-award ni pNoy kay senator trillanes some 8 years ago?

tony la vina and rene saguisag, even nene pimentel and ramon tulfo, are aghast that the president dares, while harry roque and rex robles and robin padilla are hardly surprised — after all, trillanes has been such a persistent thorn in their beloved president’s aching sides, and there ARE consequences.

son paulo and daughter sara’s hubby have already chimed in with serious libel suits against the senator.  hindi sanay ang mga duterte na china-challenge sila in public, napipikon sila, lalo pa ngayon na pangulo na si digong at global ang stage.  proceed at your own peril, ika nga.  mabangis pating watchdog si solgen calida, whose sense of ethics is kinda exceptional, as in, merong exceptions to the rules.  puwede ring exemptional, as in, exempted siya?

but the one i’m  waiting to hear from is senator gringo honasan, the original coup plotter (at least 5 daw, excluding EDSA Uno) in the time of cory, the worst of it in 1989 when i first heard of oakwood, one of the buildings taken over by rebel soldiers in the heart of makati’s business district.  THAT was a violent attempt to grab power from cory, innocent civilians died, yet very early in FVR’s presidency, he granted honasan amnesty.  in contrast, not a single shot was fired in the oakwood mutiny led by trillanes with, it is said, honasan’s blessings.

tama ba, sa tingin ni gringo, itong ginagawa ni duterte at ni calida kay trillanes?  does trillanes deserve to be treated differently from every other rebel soldier who has been granted amnesty?  gringo’s silence is deafening.  in contrast, fellow reformist and mutineer now duterte apologist rex robles is so maingay.   but wait.  has robles been granted amnesty?  or is he still angling kasi for one?

rex robles is among those in the list of RAM members who asked Duterte for amnesty in august 2017, just a year ago, na sinamahan pa ni honasan.  napagbigyan na ba ng presidente ang hiling?  kung hindi pa, bakit hindi siya nakakulong pero ibig niyang ipakulong si trillanes?  does the grant, and sustainability, of amnesty hinge on all-out support for the president, right or wrong?  and can the president also void FVR’s grant of amnesty to honasan in case gringo reverts (we wish?) to rebel mode?

and what about duterte himself?  di ba’t late and super-convoluted ang pag-file niya ng certificate of candidacy back in october 2015?  sasabihin siyempre ng mga ka-DDS na the people have spoken, they voted for him anyway.  but the same can be said of trillanes.  sabi nga ni former senator rene saguisag:

As jurors, the people acquitted Trillanes in 2007. With scarce resources, political detainee Sonny became a senator…

… Anyway, what requires an amnesty in our scofflaw nation is one forgiving 1,500,000 personnel in government who have not complied with Sec. 7 of R.A. 3019, of Senator Turing Tolentino, requiring them to report annually their income earned, expenses incurred, and taxes paid. This requirement, SolGen Calida hammered on in ousting Chief Justice Meilou Sereno but did not himself comply with. Haz lo que digo, no lo que hago? Do as I say, not as I do?

the sereno shebang

read raul palabrica’s Ominous precedent in the hight court, narciso reyes’s Supreme Court quandary, rene saguisag’s …cost of judicial independence, jose sison’s Wrong move, ana marie pamintuan’s Shortcuts, and elinando cinco’s If the impending Sereno impeachment were a new- product launch, it sorely needs industry endorsements.

clearly, the solgen’s  big idea (or was it the speaker’s) of asking the supreme court to remove cj sereno from her position via a quo warranto proceeding instead of letting her go through an impeachment trial is actually a very bad idea.

hindi bale sana if the supremes had stayed above the fray, distanced themselves from the lower-house impeachment hearings, as behooved them.  then it would be a different story, then we would not be under the impression that the supremes would kick her out in a heartbeat if it were up to them, and that’s not fair.  sereno deserves to be heard, must be given the opportunity to respond to accusations in the proper court, that is, the senate trial court.  she was right to stay away from the snakepit, the cesspool? that is the lower-house.

hindi rin bale sana if we were not under the impression that the case against the chief justice is weak, or why else did the honorable reps need some seven months, over some 15 day-long hearings, to come up with something, anything, as in, best efforts ang peg? anyway it’s more a political rather than a judicial matter, the senate sitting as an impeachment court cannot NOT take into consideration that very powerful ones in the  duterte admin want her out, full stop? by hook or by crook? no ifs or buts?

the “honorable” reps should stop appearing on tv, trying to convince us that the chief justice is as bad, as evil, as corrupt, even, as crazy, as they are, i mean, as they say she is.  and media peeps should stop giving them airtime.  they’ve had seven months.  it’s the cj’s turn and we badly want to hear her defense, yes?

tama si cj,  tapusin ng congress ang sinimulan nila.  wag tayo pumayag na basta na lang sipain ng supremes si sereno.  we need to hear her side, so we can all make up our minds who and what to believe.  they made us suffer through 7 tortuous months of lower-house hearings, we deserve the closure that a senate trial will bring, whatever the outcome, for good or ill.

at the moment i’m not sold on the notion na walang panalo si sereno.  na kahit hindi pa siya ma-convict sa senado di na siya makakabalik sa supreme court, that the damage to the institution would be reparable only if given a fresh start, without sereno.  yeah, right, armed with a whole new set of precedents to judge by, how fresh is that.

of course the supreme appeal of the quo-warranto scheme was that it would save the lower house from the hard work of  prosecuting the case vs. sereno in the senate.  it would seem, however, that the “honorable” ones have recovered from that moment of weakness.  the news is that former senate prez juan ponce enrile himself, who supported the midnight appointment of, then presided over the trial court that impeached, corona has joined the prosecution panel, woohoo, let the games begin.

dengue, dengvaxia, #DengGate

ke naturukan (ka o) ang anak mo o hindi ng dengvaxia, kailangang mag-ingat, at maging mapag-bantay at alerto sa kalagayan ng ating paligid, gayon din sa mga senyales ng dengue.

MAG-INGAT SA LAMOK.  hindi lahat ng lamok ay nagdadala ng dengue virus pero mahirap sabihin kung alin, samakatuwid, matakot sa lahat ng lamok, ke sa araw o sa gabi nangangagat.

tiyakin na sa paligid ng bahay ay WALANG MGA GAMIT NA WALANG TAKIP — LATA, BOTE, MASETERA, GULONG, BARADONG ALULOD atbp. — KUNG SAAN MAY NAIIPONG TUBIG-ULAN NANG MATAGALAN (stagnant water)  sapagkat diyan mismo namumugad at nanganganak ang mga lamok na may dalang dengue.

4 years old ang panganay ko (in 1977) nang umuwi ito galing pre-school na may sinat.  lagnat-laki lang sana, dasal ko.  baka tempra lang ok na.  on the second, third day of fever (38+) dinala ko na siya sa pediatrician na nag-prescribe lang ng mas malakas na anti-lagnat (di ko na maalala ang name, gifaril yata).  over the next day, tumataas pa rin ang lagnat, tumapak na sa 39+, isinusuka ang gamot, at bahagya ko nang mapainom ng tubig o mapakain, kaya’t itinakbo na namin sa ospital.

isang tingin ng ER residents sa inner fold ng braso niya, kung saan meron na palang red rashes — gangga-tuldok ng karayom bawat isa — alam na nila.  H-fever pa ang tawag sa dengue noon.  agad siyang kinabitan ng suwero, kinunan ng dugo, at agad rin nalamang bagsak na ang bilang ng kanyang blood platelets — ito yung sangkap ng dugo na tinatawag ring “blood clot cell” — pag bumagsak ito dahil sa dengue virus, naaapekto ang mga daluyan ng dugo, una na ang maliliit na capillaries, at nagli-leak ang dugo.  mga tatlo o apat na bag of blood platelets ang naisalin bago nag-normal ang kanyang platelet count.

so, talaga, feel ko ang mga nanggagalaiting ama’t ina ng mga batang naturukan ng dengvaxia.

DENGVAXIA #DengGate

i must confess, rj nieto aka thinking pinoy who has been blogging about #DengGate is a facebook friend, mula pa nuong may 13 (day 4 since the may 9 2016 elections).  i had just posted here excerpts from teddy locsin’s Elections over, but not the count — right smack nuong nagkakainitan sa bilangan:  duterte was very out front but the vp race was still up for grabs (in a manner of speaking), and there was a hue and cry over dubious smartmatic antics.  teddy boy, already pro-duterte, was saying, let’s wait for the official count; if you think there were any peculiarities or irregularities in the counting, then file a protest with comelec.

the comment thread is mostly my exchange with boom buencamino who agreed with teddy boy, but when i brought up  smartmatic’s antics he shared a couple of links, one on the ñ, and one to thinking pinoy‘s BBM vs. Leni: Forget Math, Hash Code is the Smoking Gun.

which is to say that i didn’t think twice about accepting nieto’s friend request.  TP was still in pa neutral-objective mode, i thought, even if barely, but he seemed to be well-informed and it didn’t hurt to keep abreast of whatever he was sharing.

soon after i clicked confirm, he sent a me a private message:

I am a big fan. ThinkingPinoy here.

me: thanks! but are you sure you’re not mistaking me for my daughter katrina?

Ohhh. I thought you’re katrina.  Yeah, I am her fan. We do not agree on a million issues, but I admire her…

a lot of water under the bridge later, and TP is now duterte’s Big Blogger, with an ear behind certain closed doors and enviable access, it would seem, to every nook niche and cranny, including the cordon-sanitaired, and you wonder who his major sponsor/s is / are (alanpeter, is datyu? bonggo, is datyu?) and while na-hide ko na siya from my newsfeed — na-turn off ako when he became brazenly, arrogantly, pro-duterte and nawala na yung attempt, kahit kuno, at objectivity — now and then i still visit his wall and blog, especially since he started blogging about dengvaxia #DengGate.

feb 7 he posted DOH and Sanofi’s Secret: Dengvaxia ®) may cause multiple organ failure.  feb 9 he posted this on his fb wall:

THE DENGVAXIA SCANDAL IN TEN SIMPLE STEPS

Let me explain part of the Dengvaxia Scandal in very simple and concise terms.

1. In December 2015, Sanofi Pasteur submitted a registration application to the Food and Drug Administration Philippines, where it said right then and there that Dengvaxia may cause, among others, nerve damage, multi-organ failure, worsened dengue symptoms. Sanofi also said in the application that Dengvaxia has limited efficacy, and provides waning protection over time.

2. Common sense dictates that long-term trials should have been done to reasonably confirm or debunk those risks BEFORE mass vaccination. None were conducted. Worse, FDA DID NOT include nerve damage (neurotrophism) and multi-organ failure (viscerotropism) in the list of side effects on Dengvaxia’s product label, so the public had no way of knowing about them.

3. Instead of conducting a long-term trial, say, through a limited mass-market release, Department of Health (Philippines) Sec. Dr. Janette Loreto-Garin decided to inject it to ONE MILLION kids, with her succeeding to inject close to 500,000 before she stepped down. She was actually already actively working on buying it WAY BEFORE it was approved by the FDA.

4. Garin and co. were able to bypass the limited long-term trial requirement because DoH Usec Kenneth Hartigan-Go made long-term post-marketing trials OPTIONAL when he was still FDA head. Hartigan-Go was part of the Zuellig network before and after his government stint. Zuellig Pharma Philippines is Dengvaxia’s exclusive distributor in the country. According to a leaked email, Hartigan-Go even offered to modify government regulations to ease Dengvaxia’s entry into the country.

5. Despite full knowledge and admission of the potential serious side effects of Dengvaxia, neither DoH nor Sanofi informed parents about this prior to inoculation.

6. Phase 3 trials ended in September 2017 and Sanofi CONFIRMED ONE of the suspected side effects: that Dengvaxia worsens Dengue symptoms for recipients who’ve never had dengue. They announced this through the 29 November 2017 Sanofi Press Release.

7. Parent of kids who died after receiving Dengvaxia started to reach out to the Public Attorney’s Office PAO, so PAO chief Atty. Persida Acosta started investigating.

8. PAO’s Forensics head Doctor-Attorney Erwin Erfe, with the help of Ospital ng Maynila Medical Center pathologists, conducted autopsies and tissue tests on the victims. Aside from discovering possible signs of severe dengue, they also discovered possible signs of viscerotropism or multi-organ failure.

9. In short, PAO and Co. appear to be confirming NOT ONLY ONE BUT TWO of the side effects. That is, it appears that PAO may have accidentally discovered Dengvaxia may indeed cause multi-organ failure, aside from worsening dengue symptoms, something that’s OVER AND ABOVE what’s stated in Sanofi’s press release.

10. And what has Sanofi done about it so far? They went on a media blitz to discredit PAO, with Zuellig Family Foundation trustee and former DoH Sec Esperanza Cabral as their head cheerleader, and with a large number of doctors from the Philippine General Hospital — who are indebted to Sanofi or Zuellig in one way or another — as her back-up dancers.

And that’s the simple version of the Dengvaxia Scandal.

i leave it to DOH apologists, garin cohorts in particular, to dispute or belie any of nieto’s sequence of events.  regrettably, TP doesn’t cover two important points (off the top of my head):

one, palusot ni garin.  when pressed about why she went ahead with the mass vaccination program despite warnings by experts re sero-negatives, garin claimed with a straight face na, batay sa DOH studies, karamihan (90%) ng pilipino ay tinamaan na ng dengue at least once.  isa lang daw sa sampu (1 out of 10) ang hindi pa nagkaka-dengue.  samakatuwid, sa estima at expert opinion nila sa DOH, mas maraming pilipino, 9 out of 10, ang mabebenepisyuhan ng dengvaxia kaysa masasaktan.

ang problema, walang naniwala sa statistics na iyan, at nang hingian sila ng kopya ng DOH studies ay wala namang maipakita si garin at kanyang mga alipores.  sabi naman ng kabilang kampo, mas malamang na 50 % lang kasi ang nagka-dengue na, pero duda pa rin ako.  puwedeng ngang 50 % pero sa mga lugar lang na madalas tamaan at mataas ang incidence ng dengue, at hindi sa buong kapuluan at hindi buong taon; may pagka-seasonal ang dengue, correct me if i’m wrong.

sagot ng DOH, maaaring nagka-dengue ka na, pero mild lang, hindi mo alam na dengue na pala iyon.  ang problema, wala naman talagang monitoring system ang DOH, therefore, wala naman talagang datos.  based pala on non-existent studies.  figments of the compromised doctor’s imagination, LOL.

two, dedma kay ubial at duque.   TP unabashedly ignores what happened when duterte took over, how sec ubial wanted to stop the mass inoculation but certain HOR and Commission on Appointments members prevailed upon her to continue the program, or else.

as i said in an earlier post, the dengvaxia fiasco squarely straddles two administrations, and it would seem that, as usual, DOH’s compromised docs and peeps are circling the wagons, this time with old-hand sec duque in the lead, kind of.  alas.

and so like TP, i’m with PAO on this, and awaiting anxiously the official results of the autopsies.

NCCC Mall on my mind

Gus Miclat

A pall of gloom continues to hang over Davao. The fire that gutted the New City Commercial Corp. (NCCC) Mall has cast a sad cloud over the city’s otherwise resilient people. That actual rain clouds intermittently hover and drench the injured city seems to be testing our will.

Tropical Storm “Vinta” dumped much rain the night before the fire, severely flooding parts of the metro particularly Jade Valley. Hundreds of families have set up tents and makeshift lodgings along the side streets. It is ironic that they are “luckier” than those killed by Vinta’s wrath in other parts of Mindanao, particularly in Zamboanga.

But the fire is still hard to accept, and fathom. The 38 lost lives seem to be an atrociously high toll given initial reports that the fire was “under control.” A neighbor in our office even said there was nothing to worry about as she had received word that it was just “smoke” that was already being handled.

Investigations are ongoing, and questions are repeatedly asked: Did the fire alarm or sprinklers not work? Were the fire exits closed? Was it an act of arson? Why did it happen just before the mall opened? Did the mall have the proper fire protocols? How could the 38 who died not been able to escape when the mall was still almost empty of people? Did the arsonist—if there was one—not realize that there was a call center operating 24/7 in the mall if the intention was “just” to burn it down?

To most of us, NCCC was our “go-to” mall — big, comfortable, convenient. Its supermarket was the best in town, offering a wide array of goods with prices more affordable than the others. The supermarket was an “equalizer” of classes: You rub elbows with all sorts of people as you shop—middle-class, rich, poor, youth, seniors. And parking was not a problem for those with cars.

Young people enjoyed the mall’s entertainment and game center. It had the most choices from the usual slot machines to karaoke cubicles. Small crowds gathered around the dance platforms as uniformed students or young jologs tried to outstep one another. It was the hangout place of my two eldest kids and their classmates when they were in high school.

The bowling center was the best in town. Friends, families, even corporate units, converged there to sweat it out, compete, or bond. The cinemas were comfortable, showing films that catered to all types of aficionados. I remember that they even had uniformed usherettes.

Like the supermarket, the department store offered a range of items reasonably priced. We shopped there for last-minute Christmas gifts or school supplies. And everybody seemed to be welcome, like family.

The restaurants, bakery, food stalls and food court had both the regular and unusual fare, with one or two local favorites like Cecil’s to boot. Never mind if it did not provide a discount for seniors.

There was a quick-fix repair stall, a lotto outlet, a pharmacy, and kiosks offering local delicacies.

In short, NCCC had almost all the essentials. But whether shopping or just hanging out, one felt the pull of community, a sense of Davao, a feeling of family.

That is why it is hard to grasp that this icon of sorts in our lives is suddenly gone — and painfully, with all those lives lost with it, on the day before Christmas Eve when its regular clients would have been engaged in a last-ditch buying spree or in holiday reunions, like what perhaps those who perished there were looking forward to do.

It’s eerie to pass the remains of the mall on the road to and from the city. The twisted metal beams especially at the side of the road toward Ma-a stab our fond memories of something that was part of us. The facade, still standing, seems to hide our tender reminiscences and to trap the desperate wails for help of those who died inside.

Their deaths must not be in vain. Justice must be meted out to the fullest degree.

The motley wreaths and bunches of flowers laid outside the supermarket by relatives and other residents starkly contrast with the energy exuded by this once-throbbing edifice. It is as if the city were still in denial. For by now, we would have flooded the steps with flowers, cards, messages and mementos.

Maybe only when this happens will justice be found. And then we can all move on. And let the NCCC of our lives rest in peace in our hearts.