It’s 7 in the morning.
11-year-old Nico (not his real name) takes his routine walk to the sari-sari store, his pockets clinking with spare change. He asks for the regular number of 5 sticks of cigarettes and pauses. Realizing he has an extra peso, he looks up and adds, “Anim nalang po [Make it 6 sticks instead].”
WITHIN DAYS after casting a guilty verdict on former Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato C. Corona, 22 of the 23 senators affirmed support for the passage of the Freedom of Information Act and endorsed the committee report of Sen. Gregorio B. Honasan II, chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Information.
Twenty-two senators signed on to Honasan’s report that consolidates several FOI bills at the Senate, firm evidence of the Senate’s commitment to instituionalize transparency and access to information as the norm, practice, and obligation of all public officials and employees. Honasan formally sponsored the FOI bill at the Senate plenary session today, June 4, 2012.
The Senate’s decision to give the FOI Act a fighting chance is in stark contrast, however, to the extended inaction on the FOI bills at the committee level at the House of Representatives.
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) hearings on the first set of feed-in tariffs for emerging renewables officially ended March 20, but significant obstacles to accelerated development remain. Thus, at the concluding phase of this long-delayed process, RE (renewable energy) developers are again in a quandary, with recent developments:
Arnold Clavio’s stupid commentary on the controversy between Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Match Commissioner Cristy Ramos and two Azkal players created a storm that diverted attention away from the real issue at hand: nabastusan si Cristy Ramos, binastos ba siya? Cristy Ramos thinks so and she filed the appropriate letter of complaint with the AFC Disciplinary Committee.
In the meantime, maybe the AFC can review its Regulations and Guidelines for AFC Match Officials. The book applies to “Any officials appointed by AFC, including but not limited to the Head of Delegation, Head of Administration, Venue Manager, Match Commissioner, Referee Instructor, Referee, Assistant Referees, Fourth Official, Media Officer, Security Officer, Medical Officer and Technical Study Group Officer.”
Can an active competition authority contribute to the fight against corruption in the Philippines?
The answer can be a resounding “yes” provided that a newly minted competition authority has sufficient independence and can be so free of corruption that it becomes a beacon of hope for all Filipinos.
This author had the privilege recently of presenting to a seminar organized by the nongovernment organization (NGO) Action for Economic Reforms, at which other NGOs, senatorial staff, an elected Congressional representative, departmental officials, including an undersecretary, were present. It was quite heartening to see how committed all present were to fighting corruption and using their creativity towards creating institutions and related laws that can be made to work for the good of all Filipinos. One element of the discussion related to the proposals in the Senate and House of Representatives for competition law and a competition authority. Such is a condition upon which the Philippines can truly enter the world of free trade and open government among Asian nations.
At this writing Corona has produced five witnesses. His first witness testified on the provenance of the impeachment complaint, a topic that the Impeachment Court ruled off-limits two months ago. All of Monday and long minutes of Tuesday were wasted as the Senate tolerated his bellyaching over the late release of his pork barrel. Why did the Impeachment Court put up with him? Because senators are politicians and the witness is the kingpin of a vote-rich congressional district.
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