DND drops plan to buy used ships, to buy new instead By Alexis Romero (philstar.com) | Updated April 29, 2013 - 6:21pm

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of National Defense (DND) is discarding its earlier plan to acquire used ships and is now planning to buy two brand-new frigates to boost the Navy’s security capabilities.

DND Undersecretary Fernando Manalo said acquiring second-hand ships would be more costly in the long run as these would require repairs and upgrades.

“We realized that it will be expensive in the long run if we are going to buy second hand (ships). As much as possible, if we have budget, we will buy new ones,” he said in a press briefing on Monday.

Manalo said they would spend about P18 billion for the two brand new ships. The government previously allotted P12 billion to buy two used frigates.

Manalo said they are waiting for the Navy to submit a decision package, which contains the technical specifications they need.

He said the two brand new ships would be acquired through public bidding. The procurement process may be completed within the second quarter.

Manalo claimed that companies from South Korea, Spain and Singapore have expressed interest to join the bidding.

The government originally sought to acquire the vessels through government-to-government transactions.

Officials, however, are now eyeing a public bidding reportedly due to the interest of several suppliers to provide equipment to the military.

A government-to-government transaction is usually faster than a public bidding but the DND is optimistic that the acquisition would not be delayed.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin previously said a public bidding would ensure transparency and would allow them to compare the ships being offered by potential suppliers.

The DND is fast-tracking the military’s upgrade program amid the recent aggressive actions of China in the West Philippine Sea, the subject of a long-standing territorial row in the region.

Officials, however, claimed that the acquisition of new military assets is not directed against any country.

To beef up its territorial defense capabilities, the Navy acquired two warships from the United States namely the BRP Gregorio del Pilar, which arrived in 2011 and the BRP Ramon Alcaraz, which is expected to be in the country by July

The government spent more than P1 billion to acquire the two ships. - with B. Beltran

PHL suspends importation of live shrimps from Asian neighbors April 30, 2013 1:09pm

The Philippines has stopped the importation of live shrimps to prevent the spread of Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS)—now prevalent in neighboring countries—among local species, the the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) said Tuesday.

BFAR Director Asis Perez said EMS is prevalent Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, China and Indonesia. “We are dealing with a disease unknown to us, all the more that measures must be undertaken,” he said.

An EMS infected shrimp usually dies within the first 30 days of its life, according to the bureau.

It also banned the entry of crabs and lobsters which can carry and transmit the disease. The bureau said it is also monitoring the spread of EMS in Singapore, Myanmar, Brunei and Cambodia.

“The Philippines remains EMS-free as of the moment and BFAR is exhausting all efforts to remain so,” Perez noted. While the the cause of EMS is still unknown, BFAR said infected samples exhibit slow growth, corkscrew swimming and pale coloration. 

With the suspension, BFAR has ordered Fish Health Officers, Quarantine Officers and the Law Enforcement Quick Response Team to monitor, control and implement surveillance protocols at airports and seaports in the country.

Perez noted the situation opens up opportunities for the Philippines to revive its shrimp export industry, saying the bureau is now consulting growers to establish long-term solutions to the problems now facing the industry.

Last month, Agriculture Secretary Processo Alcala said his department is preparing the shrimp industry to again eye the export market. Diseases caused by overcrowding spelled the near-demise of the industry several years ago.

Unsanitary practices in tiger shrimp farms forced many hatcheries to close down starting 1996.

Now the Agriculture Department is studying the potential of mangrove areas in Panay, Leyte, Negros, and Mindoro as strategic production sites, said Alcala.

Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) data showed tiger prawn output reached 48,196 metric tons (MT) in 2012 from 47,494 MT in 2011 and from 48,161 MT in 2010.

Production was valued at P1.89 billion in 2012 from P1.85 billion in 2011 and from P1.82 billion in 2010. — VS, GMA News

KC Concepcion linked to NBA player ABS-CBNnews.com

MANILA, Philippines -- After asking her French suitor, Pierre Emmanuel Plassart, for space, host-actress KC Concepcion is now linked to another foreigner, this time an NBA player.

Since Monday, "Kris TV" host Kris Aquino has been teasing Concepcion, a guest co-host on the morning talk show, about an unnamed basketball player.

On Tuesday, Aquino hinted that the man linked to Concepcion is a member of the Houston Rockets.

"Sinabi mo na ang Houston Rockets may laro today? Wala namang masama kung may laro sila. If they win, may chance pa silang tumuloy. Kung matalo, tanggal na, babu. So, darating na siya rito kung matalo," Aquino told Concepcion, drawing cheers from the studio audience.

Concepcion smiled and replied: "Ay, ano ba yan? Friends, friends. Fun fun lang."

Filipino netizens have been talking about Concepcion's connection with Houston Rockets player Chandler Parsons after the two were seen exchanging "tweets" on the microblogging site Twitter over the past months.

‘The Firm’ not so firm: It’s breaking up By Gil C. Cabacungan Philippine Daily Inquirer

The firm is not so firm after all.

Several sources from legal, business and political circles have claimed that the Villaraza Cruz Marcelo & Angangco, or CVC Law office, easily the country’s richest and most powerful law firm, is in turmoil and on the verge of breaking up, with senior partners Avelino “Nonong” Cruz and Simeon Marcelo threatening to leave the 33-year-old law partnership over management and financial differences.

A top government official close to the partners said that 15 partners belonging to the so-called “government bloc” of Cruz and Marcelo were planning to leave CVC Law.  This would leave the rival faction led by chair and CEO F. Arthur “Pancho” Villaraza with only eight partners.

“CVC Law or The Firm has parted ways,” declared the government source, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak in behalf of the law firm.

No comment

Asked for his reactions on the dispute, CVC Law managing partner Bienvenido I. Somera Jr. replied in a text message that he “can’t comment at the moment.”  Several attempts to reach Villaraza through an intermediary also yielded the same result. Marcelo did not return the Inquirer’s calls.

Cruz served as presidential legal counsel and defense secretary during the term of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who used to be The Firm’s most powerful client, while Marcelo served as solicitor general and ombudsman during the same administration.

A lawyer and fraternity brother of Villaraza at the University of the Philippines law school’s Sigma Rho fraternity said the partners were bickering on how to divide the profits of the company.

Bigger slice of profits

The lawyer, who requested anonymity, said the group of Cruz and Marcelo had claimed that they had brought in more government clients to the company and therefore deserved a bigger slice of the profits.

The lawyer said The Firm’s top brass held several “ill-tempered” meetings over the past few days, and that their separation was just a formality.  Cruz, he said, had even pushed for the immediate sale of the law firm’s multibillion peso headquarters, the 12-story CVC Law Center at the Fort Bonifacio Global City which was completed three years ago.

An insider from The Firm confirmed that the partners held a “tempestuous” meeting last Wednesday where the seniors partners were supposed to start the separation proceedings.

Purely business vs advocacy

Some partners, however, decided to take a few more days to rethink their stand in the hopes that the two sides would soften their stance and agree to a compromise.

But the insider said that the partners were not squabbling over money because the division of properties would only matter after the partnership had been dissolved.   For the past two years, the insider added, the government bloc had been at odds with the Villaraza group’s policy of treating the partnership as a purely business enterprise.

The government bloc had maintained that The Firm could “still do well and do good” by taking on cases primarily for advocacy rather than just for profit, the inside source said.

Another source however said that The Firm is divided into one faction led by Villaraza and Raoul Angangco, with eight partners on its side, including Somera, who acted as The Firm’s chief operating officer, and often served as a bridge to the rival faction led by Cruz and Marcelo.

‘Discontent over treatment’

“Most of the law firm’s partners who had served in government are on [the Cruz-Marcelo] side,” the source said, adding that 15 partners are in this faction.

The source said that the looming dissolution of CVC Law was caused by “discontent” in the Cruz-Marcelo camp over what some partners have described as Villaraza’s “style of treating his other partners.”

Said the source: “The split was caused by fundamental differences in the direction of The Firm and [its] manner of practicing law. The rift has little to do with money matters.”

The source said that the troubles at The Firm and its 23 partners had been brewing for the last few weeks, and that attempts were made to resolve the impasse.  So far, such efforts have failed, the source added.

PR fallout

More recently, both sides have been trying to come to an agreement on how to divide the company, including how to dispose of its headquarters at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City, while limiting the public relations fallout of the dissolution. But such talks had also failed to break the deadlock.

“It now looks like the breakup would happen soon,” the source said. “This could be fast.”

Rumors of the breakup were fanned by the glaring absence of Cruz, Marcelo and other partners from the “Casa Artusi” series of dinners hosted by The Firm for its blue-chip clients at its ultra-exclusive Rainmakers Lounge at the CVC Law Center’s penthouse.

Guests who asked why only Villaraza and allied partners Augusto A. San Pedro Jr. and Franchette Acosta were around at the event were told that Cruz and Marcelo would be holding separate dinners for their clients.

The Firm was formed in 1980 by Villaraza, Cruz, Tommy Rossel, Romy Barza and current Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio.

Falling out with Gloria Arroyo

After its office burned down in 1982, The Firm moved to the LTA Building in Makati owned by the family of former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, and stayed there until 2010 even after a falling out with former President Macapagal-Arroyo in 2005 that forced Cruz and Marcelo to quit her administration.

Villaraza and Carpio served as legal counsel for several allies of then President Ferdinand Marcos in the 1980s, but was relatively low-key during the terms of Presidents Corazon Aquino (1986 and 1992) and Joseph Estrada (1998 to 2001).

It was during the term of President Fidel V. Ramos that CVC Law again rose to prominence when Carpio was appointed presidential legal counsel.  The Firm was largely credited with breaking up the decades-old monopoly of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. during this period. It was also during this time when CVC Law earned the monicker, The Firm, after a bestseller written by American author John Grisham.

Estrada impeachment

The Firm also took part in the impeachment trial of Estrada when Marcelo served as one of the prosecutors.

The law firm’s roster of big-ticket corporate clients include Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., several companies under the Lopez group, among them ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp., Sagittarius Mines Inc. and several high-profile individuals.

CVC Law served as the external counsel of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in its latest round of legal battles with the shuttered Banco Filipino Savings and Mortgage Bank. It was also part of the successful operation to shut down the P14-billion Legacy scam in 2009.

Last year, The Firm served as advisers during the impeachment trial of former Chief Justice Renato Corona.  With a report from Daxim L. Lucas

Biazon father and son security aides mar caucus with brawl

 By Jaymee T. Gamil
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—A local Liberal Party campaign caucus in Muntinlupa City was marred on Friday night by a shooting incident triggered by an altercation among supposedly allied security aides.

Muntinlupa chief of police Senior Superintendent Roque de la Vega told the Inquirer that the shooting was triggered by a brawl between a group from the “advance security party” of reelectionist congressman Rodolfo Biazon, and one bodyguard of Biazon’s son, Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon.

The brawl broke out at the late-night gathering at the Soldiers Hills subdivision covered court in Barangay Putatan, even as the older Biazon was speaking onstage at around 10:10 p.m., De la Vega said.

The police chief said it was the younger Biazon’s close-in security detail, Cpl.  Nelson Lubrin of the Philippine Marines, who fired the shots.

Sustaining gunshot wounds were Nilo Marollano, his son Victor Marollano, and their friend Oscar Parahili, all residents of the barangay.

De la Vega, quoting Lubrin, said the fight began with the Marollanos picking on him, calling him “suplado” and jostling him. Fisticuffs broke out when Lubrin decided to hit back, but ended up being ganged up on by the three.

The marine claimed he saw that one of the three was about to hit him with a rock and it was at this point he drew his firearm and shot his antagonists.

The elder Marollano was wounded on the left arm and left side of the torso, his son was shot on the right upper arm, while Parahili was shot in  the belly.

The wounded were rushed to the Medical Center Muntinlupa, while Lubrin was turned over by his superiors to the city police.

The wounded were transferred to the Asian Hospital and Medical Center on Saturday for surgery. All were declared in stable condition as of noon Saturday, with Parahili already discharged but the Marollanos remaining confined, De la Vega said.

Though the incident was detailed on the city police blotter, no formal police complaint had been filed against Lubrin as of Saturday, De la Vega said.

Gov’t readies nonwage benefits 70 job fairs to highlight Labor Day celebration

Tina G. Santos

The government would unveil “nonwage” benefits on Labor Day, Malacañang said Sunday, as it exhorted Filipinos to seize some 400,000 jobs in job fairs to be held Tuesday across the country.

President Aquino would meet with labor leaders in a breakfast dialogue on Tuesday in Malacañang, but the country’s workforce shouldn’t expect any announcement of wage benefits, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said.

“Well, the President is going to sit down with them in the usual dialogue with labor and to also help Secretary (Rosalinda) Baldoz appeal to the workers’ sector … to wait for the unveiling of the package. That’s nonwage benefits,” Valte said.

Valte said the public should withhold comment on the package until this is presented.

Before the Palace unveiled the package of nonwage benefits, Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) described the minimum pay in the country as “starvation wages.”

“The minimum wage cannot buy a working class family its daily bread. The Constitution mandates that a worker receive a living wage. Instead, the regional wage boards prescribed a libing (burial) wage,” PM secretary general Judy Miranda said in a statement sent to the Inquirer.

The group said its own study of the cost of living for a family of six in Metro Manila showed that it had already reached P1,217 a day.

“This estimate shows that the gap between the P456 minimum wage in (Metro Manila) and the present cost of living is a yawning P761, or 167 percent of the ordinary wage. Even if both parents work—which is the buy-one, take-one policy of the government—then their combined income will not be enough to feed the entire family,” Miranda said.

The group’s cost of living estimate did not provide for savings and social security, which in the government’s basket of goods and services constitute 10 percent of the cost of living.

Miranda said the study did not include items such as leisure and recreation, and the family budget for health excluded medical expenses.

“If we include such items, and we must in a more accurate survey, then the cost of living will significantly exceed P1,200 per day,” she said.

‘Hopelessly outdated’

She added that “the National Wages and Productivity Council’s cost of living estimate of P917 in 2008 is hopelessly outdated in light of this study and in the face of continuing inflation.”

The militant labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), which is usually not invited to the breakfast dialogue with the President, is gearing up for Labor Day protest rallies that would include the burning of Aquino’s effigy.

KMU chairman Elmer Labog said the President was condoning increases in power and water rates, in prices of oil and other basic goods, and the privatization of public hospitals.

Jobless growth

“The burden on the Filipino workers and urban poor is getting more and more unbearable because of Aquino’s subservience to the dictates of the United States and of his big capitalists cohorts,” Labog said.

Officials of the moderate Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) vowed to raise unmet labor issues and “jobless growth” on Tuesday’s pre-Labor Day breakfast with Aquino at the Heroes Hall.

“On top of the agenda is this so-called jobless growth. There has been a pronounced improvement in the economy but this growth does not translate to generate opportunities for employment,” TUCP secretary general Gerard Seno said in a statement.

In 2012, the country posted a 6.6-percent gross domestic product growth compared with Thailand’s 6.4 percent, Indonesia’s 6.2 percent, Malaysia’s 5.6 percent, Vietnam’s 5 percent and Singapore’s 1.2 percent.

But citing the National Statistics Office, the TUCP said there were 2.89 million unemployed Filipinos and 7.934 million underemployed Filipinos in January 2013.

The “all-time high” underemployment rate in six years was recorded in July 2012 at 8.55 million, it added.

Poverty incidence

Besides the big number of unemployed and underemployed, poverty incidence in the country has remained unchanged over the past six years despite economic growth.

Poverty incidence in the first semester of 2012 stood at 27.9 percent, “practically unchanged” from 28.6 percent in 2009 and 28.8 percent in 2006, the National Statistical Coordination Board announced on April 23.

The high poverty incidence showed that the benefits of economic growth were not trickling down to the poor.

Valte said that the last time she checked, the unemployment rate was going down. “We see that the trend is going down,” she said.

70 job fairs

As part of Labor Day celebrations, the Department of Labor and Employment would open 70 job fairs in the country’s 16 regions on Tuesday, she said.

“So there are over 400,000 jobs that will be available—both local and overseas job opportunities that will be available in the 70 job fairs. And we encourage everybody to go to those job fairs and see what these have in store for you,” she said.

The TUCP said that high on the agenda of Tuesday’s dialogue with the President were issues such as employment and job creation, contractualization, social protection, right to self-organization and collective bargaining, wage increase, tripartism and social dialogue, and labor dispute settlement.

In a paper submitted to the Tripartite Industry and Peace Council, the Associated Labor Unions-TUCP recommended that the administration:

– Prioritize the creation of “decent” and productive employment.

– Ensure approval of the security of tenure bill.

– Direct labor officials to review outsourcing policies in the banking sector and other industries.

– Set up a commission on industrial policy.

– Craft a clear industrial policy.

Mural, effigy

The KMU said it was preparing a mural and an effigy that would be showcased on May 1. The mural, measuring 15 by 24 feet, depicts Aquino dressed as a clown and hounded by workers, peasants, urban poor and other sectors while hanging on an airplane piloted by US President Barack Obama.

Created by painter and printmaker Orlando Castillo, former president of the Art Association of the Philippines and founding member of the Concerned Artists of the Philippines, the mural will be unveiled at a program in Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila.

Other artworks by various artists will be highlighted on Labor Day, according to Labog.

“They depict suffering and lies being inflicted on the Filipino workers by President Noynoy Aquino,” he added.

Labog said Castillo’s mural “also shows the growing anger of the Filipino people against Aquino’s antipoor policies, betrayal of the people, and puppetry to the US. Anger at Aquino’s propaganda stunts aimed at deceiving the public is intensifying.”

The 10-feet tall effigy being created by artists from UgatLahi Artist Collective depicts Aquino and Obama as two serpents around an electric post.

The concept was inspired by the symbol for universal healthcare, according to KMU.

The effigy would be burned at around 5 p.m. at the Chino Roces bridge (formerly Mendiola) in Manila to mark the closing of this year’s Labor Day protests.

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/399063/govt-readies-nonwage-benefits#ixzz2Rz1xlzSv

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Troops told to pursue talks with communist rebels

MANILA, Philippines - Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin is encouraging military field units to hold localized negotiations with rebels as the peace talks between the national government and the communists remain stalled.

Gazmin said such move could help the military officials attain peace in their respective areas.

“We encourage the military (to hold localized talks) so that there will be peace in their areas of responsibility,” the defense chief said in a press conference Monday.

“If you are going to wait (for the impasse in the national level to be resolved), it will take long before the instruction is relayed (to the ground),” he added.

Gazmin said the supposed differences between the communist leaders in Netherlands and local commanders also delay the relaying of policies in the field.

“If you are a commander and you want peace, you should talk to them (rebels),” he said.

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Gazmin believes that the communist leaders negotiating with the government do not feel the sentiments of those in the farms or those struggling in the mountains.

 

“Some of them (rebels) are tired (of fighting) and they can see the benefits of peace,” he said.

The peace talks between the government and the communists hit an impasse due to differences over jailed insurgents facing criminal cases.

The National Democratic Front (NDF), which represents the rebels in the talks, insists that its jailed leaders be freed since they are covered by immunity guarantees.

The government, however, refused to do so, saying the NDF has no means to prove that the jailed rebels are indeed peace consultants who should be immune from arrests.

Last week, government chief negotiator Alexander Padilla said they are considering a “new approach” to peacefully resolve the conflict with the communists.

Some sectors believe Padilla practically gave up on the peace talks with the NDF when he made the statement.

“We cannot wait forever for the other side if they continually refuse to go back to the negotiating table without preconditions. The government will be taking a new approach to pursue peace,” Padilla said in a statement.

“We have always been open to resume formal negotiations with them, but they keep on insisting on preconditions, such as the release of their detained consultants,” he added.

Padilla said the communists had also demanded that the government abolish its peace and development programs like the conditional cash transfer and Pamana, which aims to promote prosperity in conflict areas.

“These demands are just preposterous. We don’t want to engage in a negotiation where the other party is clearly fooling us,” Padilla said.

Despite the impasse, Gazmin said they still prefer peaceful means to resolve the conflict with the communists.

“We are all Filipinos and it’s about time we sit down and talk so that we save more lives,” he said. – Alexis Romero with C. M.

(philstar.com)

Binay 'puzzled' by dip in survey

By JC Bello Ruiz

Published: April 29, 2013

Though "puzzled" by "divergent" results of surveys on his net satisfaction ratings, the Office of the Vice President (OVP) on Monday said that Vice President Jejomar C. Binay "remains grateful for his high approval ratings and that his work will continue regardless of survey results."

In a statement, Binay's spokesman, Joey Salgado noted that while the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed that the net satisfaction ratings of the Vice President were lower than his December 2012 ratings, another survey done by Pulse Asia which covered almost the same survey period, showed different results.

"What is puzzling is that the SWS survey period overlapped with Pulse Asia but produced divergent results. While SWS showed a decline, the Pulse Asia survey showed an increase of 6 points in the Vice President’s performance and trust rating," Salgado said.

The latest SWS survey covering the March 19-22 survey period, found that the net satisfaction ratings of Binay, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., and Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno were lower than their December 2012 ratings.

Seventy-five percent of Filipinos expressed satisfaction in Binay’s work, while 13 percent said otherwise, bringing his net rating to ‘very good’ +62, down from ‘excellent’ +70 (79 percent satisfied, 9 percent dissatisfied) in December 2012.

However, SWS noted that Binay’s rating is still higher than President Benigno S. Aquino III’s +59 (74 percent satisfied, 15 percent dissatisfied).

Meanwhile, the Pulse Asia survey released early April found that Binay and Aquino received the highest trust ratings of 75 percent and 72 percent, respectively.

Likewise, the same nationwide survey conducted from March 16-20 showed that both officials enjoyed majority approval ratings for their work in the past month (76 percent and 72 percent, respectively).

Nonetheless, Salgado said Binay "remains grateful for his high approval ratings."

"Since 2012, the Vice President’s ratings ranged from very good to excellent. His work will continue regardless of survey results," he said.