Category: senate

senate draft bill creating a dept of culture

i wonder when we were going to be told about this, and why  neither u.p. nor the senate has seen fit to inform and consult with artists and cultural workers nationwide.

FIFTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE )
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES )
Second Regular Session )

S E N A T E
S. No. _________
Introduced by Senator Edgardo J. Angara
AN ACT CREATING THE DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE, DEFINING ITS POWERS AND FUNCTIONS, APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFORE, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Short Title. This Act shall be known as the “Department of Culture Act of 2012.”

SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. It is hereby declared the policy of the State:

a. To recognize that culture is a unifying, humanizing and modernizing agent of any society;

b. To use culture as a measure for the formulation of appropriate and significant political and economic policy that will better serve Filipinos;

c. To foster and accelerate the convergence of various – cultural offices and agencies;

d. To ensure that all Filipinos enjoy full cultural rights, take full advantage of their dynamic cultural experience, celebrate the country’s history and heritage and participate in the building of cultural communities;

e. To recognize that cultural education is the right of every citizen and therefore ensure that cultural literacy is inculcated in the development and education of all Filipinos;

f. To promote the national language of the country while enhancing the linguistic diversity of the Philippines; and

g. To create a centralized body which will develop and monitor the implementation of policy, legislation and strategic direction for the identification, conservation and promotion of cultural heritage

h. To recognize culture/ heritage as a right of every citizen;

i. To recognize, respect and promote the independence of the artist, and the integrity of artistic production, and of artistic works.

SEC. 3. Definition of Terms. As used in this Act, the following terms are defined as follows:

SEC. 4. Creation of the Department of Culture. There is hereby created the Department of Culture, hereinafter referred to as the Department, which shall carry out the above-declared policies and assume the powers and functions of the following national offices, agencies and departments in matters pertaining to the promotion, preservation and synthesis of national culture and heritage:

a. Department of Education
b. National Commission for Culture and the Arts
c. Department of Tourism
d. Department of Foreign Affairs
e. National Book Development Board

SEC. 5. Mandate. The Department shall be the primary policy, planning, coordinating, implementing, regulating and administrative entity of the executive branch of the Government that will promote, develop and instill pride in the country’s culture and heritage.

SEC. 6. Powers and Functions. The Department shall exercise the following powers and functions:

a. Formulate, recommend and implement national policies, plans, programs and guidelines for the development and promotion of national culture, language and heritage and provide wider and convenient access by the citizens to the same;

b. Initiate, harmonize and coordinate all culture-related plans and initiatives of government agencies to ensure overall consistency and harmony with cultural objectives in particular, and national objectives in general;

c. Represent the Philippine interest on matters pertaining to culture in international bodies;

d. Promote knowledge, information and resource sharing, database building and agency linkages among various government agencies;

e. Ensure the development and protection of Filipino culture and heritage and coordinate all relevant government entities;

f. Coordinate and support the generation, acquisition and accessibility of necessary resources as may be appropriate for the development and growth of cultural sectors, and programs;

g. Encourage and establish guidelines for the use of public-private partnerships in the implementation of cultural projects;

h. Assess, review and support historical and cultural research and development programs of the government, the Commission on Filipino Language, and other concerned institutions;

i. Coordinate with the Department of Trade and Industry in the promotion of trade and investment opportunities, the development and coordination of creative industries, and protection of investor interests in cultural development and promotion;

j. In coordination with concerned agencies, promote strategic partnership and alliances among and between local and international bodies and institutions concerned with research and development, education and training ;

k. Develop, institute and carry-out the training of cultural officers and attaches from different concerned offices and agencies of the National Government;

l. Coordinate and monitor all Sentro Rizal offices established or to be established;

m. Administer the qualification, selection and awarding of National Artist Awards and Gawad Manlilikha ng Bayan;

n. Administer the Fund as specified in Section ___ and, in coordination with the Department of Budget and Management, establish guidelines for the disbursement and management of the Fund, including the monitoring and evaluation system of projects funded under it.

SEC. 7. Composition. The Department of Culture shall be headed by a Secretary. The Department proper shall be composed of the Office of the Secretary, the offices of the Undersecretaries and the Assistant Secretaries.

SEC. 8. Secretary of Culture. The Secretary shall be appointed by the President.

The Secretary shall have the following functions:

a. Provide executive direction and supervision over the entire operations of the Department and its attached agencies;

b. Establish policies and standards for the effective, efficient and economical operation of the Department, in accordance with the programs of Government;

c. Rationalize delivery systems necessary for the effective attainment of the objectives of the Department, in accordance with the programs of Government;

d. Review and approve requests for financial and manpower resources of all operating offices of the Department;

e. Designate and appoint officers and employees of the Department, excluding the Undersecretaries, Assistant Secretaries, and Regional and Assistant Regional Directors, in accordance with the Civil Service laws, rules and regulations;

f. Sit as Chairman of the Board of the Cultural Center of the Philippines;

g. Coordinate with LGUs, other agencies and public and private interests groups, including non-government organizations (NGOs) and people’s organizations (POs) on Department policies and initiatives;

h. Advise the President on the promulgation of executive and administrative orders and regulatory and legislative proposals on matters pertaining to cultural development and preservation;

i. Formulate such rules and regulations and exercise such other powers as may be required to implement the objectives of this Act;

j. Perform such other tasks as may be provided by Law or assigned by the President from time to time.

SEC. 9. Undersecretaries and Bureaus. The Secretary shall be assisted by at least four (4) Undersecretaries, who shall be appointed by the President upon the recommendation of the Secretary. Each undersecretary shall head one (1) of the following bureaus:

a. Bureau of Arts and Artists Development
b. Bureau of Heritage Development
c. Bureau of Cultural Education and Information
d. Bureau of Creative Industries

SEC. 10. Assistant Secretaries. The Secretary shall be assisted by at least four (4) Assistant Secretaries who shall be career officers appointed by the President upon the recommendation of the Secretary.

SEC. 11. Qualifications. No person shall be appointed Secretary, Undersecretary or Assistant Secretary of the Department unless he/she is a citizen and resident of the Philippines of good moral character, and of proven integrity.

The Secretary of the Department, in particular, shall be a Filipino recognized as an efficient arts and culture manager, and/or an accomplished artist.

SEC. 12. Regional Offices. The Department shall be authorized to establish, operate, and maintain Regional Offices in each of the administrative regions of the country as the need arises. The regional office shall be headed by a Regional Director, who may be assisted by one (1) Assistant Regional Director. The Regional Offices shall have, within their respective administrative regions, the following functions:

a. Implement laws, policies, plans, programs, projects, rules and regulations of the Department;

b. Provide efficient and effective service to the people;

c. Coordinate with regional offices of other departments, offices, and agencies;

d. Coordinate with LGUs and NGOs that are concerned with culture and the arts;

e. Perform such other functions as may be provided by law or assigned by the Secretary.

SEC. 13. Creation of The National Academy of the Arts – There is hereby created a National Academy of the Arts, the primary function of which shall be to serve as an apolitical body that will advise the Department and the Secretary in all matters of culture and the arts. All members of the Academy shall be Filipinos respected for their achievements in arts and culture.

Members of the Academy shall receive reasonable per diems from the Department whenever their services or advice are solicited.

Members of the Academy shall be selected according to the Rules to be established by the Department. All members of the Academy shall be members for life.

Upon the creation of the Department, living national artists shall serve as the initial members of the Academy.

SEC. 14. Transfer of Agencies and Personnel.

a. The powers, functions, duties and responsibilities of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), so long as it is not contrary to this Act, is hereby absorbed by the Department, and all appropriations, records, equipment, property, and personnel of the NCCA shall be transferred to the Department;

b. The following agencies are hereby attached to the Department for policy and program coordination, and shall continue to operate and function in accordance with the charters, laws or orders creating them, insofar as they are not inconsistent with this Act:

1. National Historical Commission of the Philippines
2. National Archives of the Philippines
3. National Museum
4. National Library of the Philippines

c. The laws and rules on government reorganization as provided for in Republic Act No. 6656, otherwise known as the Reorganization Law, shall govern the reorganization process of the Department.

SEC. 15. National Endowment Fund for Culture and the Arts. The National Endowment Fund for Culture and the Arts, (NEFCA) created under Republic Act 7356 shall remain intact and shall be administered by the Department.

SEC. 16. Structure and Staffing Pattern. The Department shall determine its organizational structure and create new divisions or units as it may deem necessary, and shall appoint officers and employees of the Department in accordance with the Civil Service Law, rules, and regulations.

SEC. 17. Separation from Service. Employees separated from the service as a result of this reorganization shall, within ninety (90) days therefrom, receive the separation and retirement benefits to which they may be entitled under Executive Order No. 366. Provided that such separation pay and retirement benefits shall have priority of payment out of the savings of the department or agency.

SEC. 18. Appropriation. The amount needed for the initial implementation of this Act shall be taken from the current fiscal year’s appropriation of the NCCA through the Office of the President and all agencies herein absorbed by or attached to the Department. Thereafter, the amount needed for the operation and maintenance of the Department shall be included in the General Appropriations Act, provided that for the next fiscal year, the amount shall be One Billion Pesos (Php 1,000,000,000.00),

SEC. 19. Repealing Clause. All laws, decrees, executive orders, rules and regulations and other issuances or parts thereof that are inconsistent with this Act are hereby repealed, amended or modified accordingly.

SEC. 20. Separability Clause. If any provision of this Act shall be declared unconstitutional or invalid, the other provisions not otherwise affected shall remain in full force and effect.

SEC. 21. Effectivity Clause. This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days from its publication in at least two (2) papers of general circulation.

Approved.

those dollar accounts #cj trial

MANILA, Philippines – Day 37 of the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona began with a bold assertion by defense lawyers he will face squarely charges he kept $10 million in secret accounts. By day’s end, however, the defense team appeared shell-shocked, after its hostile witness, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, shared with the court highlights of the chief magistrate’s dollar stash. Her source: a report by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

Corona has $12 million in “fresh deposits” in various banks, Carpio-Morales said Monday. This is aside from the $10 million Carpio-Morales said Corona had maintained in 82 accounts in five banks and where he had made deposits and withdrawals “on very significant dates,” including the 2004 and 2010 elections, and on December 11, 2011, the day he was impeached by the House of Representatives.

i was fascinated by the huge amounts, and puzzled by the movement of funds, in and out, in and out, and i wondered “aloud” via facebook and twitter what that was all about, why move money around in different accounts that are all under his name anyway.  obviously it wasn’t to hide the money, because then he would have put it in the names of other people or aliases ala jose velarde.

no one had an answer on twitter, though one said it was indeed “very weird.”  but on facebook a friend seems to have figured it out:

he was trading his US dollars in the dollar trading market. Interest in FCDU deposits are extremely low. I wonder who was busy trading his accounts, or was he doing it himself on his spare time? … on just the transaction flows I estimate he lost about $2M over the years — which should reflect the general FC market trend of the same period. I hope some traders will be available to confirm these speculations.

now i want to know where those dollar deposits that coincided with “signfiicant events” came from.  unless the ombudsman’s testimony was indeed all a ‘lantern of lies,’ as the chief justice insists.

Morales noted that there were significant transactions made during significant dates, particularly in 2004 and 2007, which were election years, and during the week Corona was impeached. She said $418,193.32 in time deposit was withdrawn when Corona was impeached, and $417,978.80 was transferred to a regular trust fund.

“We will debunk all her bloated numbers. And once she is proven wrong, I urge her to immediately resign from her post for allowing herself to be used by this Administration and making a laughingstock of government auditing,” Corona said.

“bloated,” hmm.  so, less than bloated would be acceptable?  the lantern metaphor, though, is intriguing.  around here, lanterns are usually more decorative than illuminating.

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.

so i am prepared to accept the verdict of the senate impeachment court.  i like it that presiding judge enrile, while bending backward to accommodate an ill-prepared complaint and prosecution, has drawn the line at subpoenaing members of the supreme court and challenging judicial privilege.  while there is much that needs reforming in the judiciary, weakening the institution and rendering it vulnerable/subject to the whims and caprices of the executive and legislative branches that are already too too too powerful would be disastrous for the country in the short-term and in the long run.

of course, there is every possibility that in the end, even if the corona camp were able to mount a credible defense, that the senator-judges would vote still according to their individual political agendas, usually connected to whoever’s in the palace.  pero kanya-kanya nang perception yan, and kanya-kanya ring diskarte, to vote or not to vote for them or their sons / daughters / spouses / siblings, in the next elections.

having said all that, in the spirit of disclosure, here’s my take on senator-judge miriam’s latest lecture that had vitaliano aguirre playing the fool.

i simply cannot find it in my value system to denigrate, condemn, or even criticize senator-judge miriam defensor santiago — as many many anti-corona peeps in social media are doing, waging a hate-miriam campaign, complete with down-dirty cussing ang isa — for lecturing the prosecution and using the words “gago” and “kagaguhan” to characterize how the prosecution has been handling the impeachment case.

neither can i find it in my value system to declare volunteer private prosecutor vitaliano aguirre a hero — as many of these anti-corona peeps are doing, complete with we-are-behind-you graphics – for daring to cover his ears during miriam’s lecture, and when called out, instead of apologizing (as his fellow prosecutors urged), daring to express in no uncertain terms, his contempt for the senator-judge, so to speak, for stridently lecturing the prosecution.

to me it’s clear that these hate-miriam love-aguirre people would be cheering miriam if miriam had been scolding the defense, and they would be angry instead with aguirre for covering his ears if he had been part of that defense.  to me it’s obvious that anti-corona anti-gma peeps are being unreasonable, i suspect out of a real if unspoken fear that corona might be acquitted, either because they have a stake in his conviction or because they have already judged him guilty, like the palace and their favorite media have.

miriam had reason, every time, to lecture the prosecution.  again and again she was provoked by the prosecution’s ineptness and panggagago.  whether or not we like her demeanor or her voice or her language or her scolding style, the prosecution deserved the scolding, every time.

this last, she was scolding the prosecution for dropping five of eight impeachment articles, and they had it coming to them.  to me they were like schoolboys who enrolled in 8 units but “dropped” (that’s the word tupaz used) 5 units kaysa ma-singko, kaysa bumagsak, dahil kulang sa requirements, and then had the gall to cover their ears when scolded by their elders.  kagaguhan indeed.

and no, gago does not mean “stupid.”  “tanga” is the equivalent of “stupid,” and there’s nothing stupid about the prosecutors.  in fact, it takes smarts, craftiness, guile, to be gago, that is, to break rules and brazenly try to get away with it — yan ang panggagago: iniisahan tayo, ginagawa tayong tanga, akala makakalusot sila.  kagaguhan is largely what the prosecution has been up to from the start, railroading, practically overnight, a badly crafted complaint that 188 signatory-reps didn’t even have time to read, and for which they had no evidence.

malaking kagaguhan din ang ginawa ni aguirre.  he was being gago, impertinent, pa-defiant, when he covered his ears in an insolent ploy to attract attention to himself and away from the senator-judge’s lecture.  in any courtroom, especially this one where the fate of a supreme court chief justice is being decided, it is kagaguhan for a prosecutor to consider himself equal to a judge.  the stakes must be so high, he was willing to play the audacious anti-hero, resort to dirty tricks to distract the public from the painful truths that miriam has been revealing about the prosecution.

so really, this front page item on the inquirer quoting cory’s spiritual adviser, that Miriam is ‘worthy of the fires of hell’?  for speaking the truth?  what the hell!  then that goes for me, too.

*

No Plan B to fall on by Solita Collas-Monsod
The inane, the insane, the profane Manila Standard Today Editorial
Your Honors… by Alex Magno
The Aquino-LP agenda by Carol Pagaduan-Araullo

presidential backing #cj trial

day 24.  the prosecution’s request that the court subpoena justice ma. lourdes sereno to testify on her dissenting opinion (re the TRO on de lima’s watchlist order) was denied by presiding judge enrile.  senator judge trillanes also withdrew his request of day 23 that justice sereno be sent questions to be answered in writing.  on grounds that it would violate the doctrine of judicial privilege.

prosecutor colmenares pleaded that the feb 14 judicial privilege resolution, effectively forbidding members to testify against each other, was making it difficult for them to get witnesses, and that it might take a subpoena to make justice sereno appear in court.  or something to that effect.

enrile suggested that the prosecution try inviting the justice muna, because what if the senate issued a subpoena and sereno did not comply, then malaking kahihiyan para sa senate court.  and then what?  cite her for contempt?  it would mean a major major clash with a co-equal branch of govt that has the power to declare the senate impeachment court unconstitutional.  or something like that.

senator judge joker arroyo, for his part, expressed amazement at the prosecutor’s statement re difficulty of getting witnesses from the supreme court just because the respondent is the chief justice himself.

“But you have the backing of no less than the President of the Philippines! You should have no problem getting witnesses!”

true.  napa-tweet tuloy ako na medyo uncreative yata ang presidential backing for the prosecution.  kung sa West Wing yan, nagapang na ng palasyo ang mga anti-corona sa supreme court at meron nang nag-surprise witness sa senate court.  kumbaga, ala enrile and ramos nuong EDSA.

or maybe the palace has tried, pero talagang mas matindi lang ang firewall ng supreme court kaysa ng banking system?

as for the abs-cbn cameraman on the justice beat who took videos of sc spokesman midas marquez and of the lawyer topacio & cash, i hope it’s not true that he doesn’t understand what he was covering, not the TRO, not the cash bond, etc.  i hope he was only advised to pretend that he doesn’t understand what’s going on to save him from being grilled by the defense.  otherwise, medyo nakakadismaya for someone who has worked more than a decade in the country’s largest media network.