Editorial 4/1/16 (money laundering, greed, coal, power plant, Cebu, Philippines, El Nino, drought, weather, health, Poe, elections, family planning)

Philippine Star "Endangered remittances"

Several banks have denied shutting down their operations in Italy following the multimillion-dollar electronic heist that saw money stolen from the Bank of Bangladesh account in the US Federal Reserve being laundered through Philippine casinos and the banking system. The scandal has not only become a national embarrassment for the Philippines, where a large portion of about $81 million still has to be traced, but has also endangered the remittances of millions of overseas Filipino workers. This concern has been raised by the Department of Foreign Affairs, even as it denied yesterday the reports about several Philippine banks shutting down their operations in Italy due to the money laundering scandal. Credit rating agencies and various analysts have expressed confidence that the Philippine banking system will weather this storm. There are also no indications so far that the scandal might put the country on an international blacklist as a money-laundering haven. [full text]

Sun.Star Cebu "Coal-fired power plant proposal"

THE public hearing called recently by the Cebu City Council to tackle the proposal of Ludo Power Corp. (LPC) to set up two 150-megawatt coal-fired power plants in Barangay Sawang Calero showed that the tug-of-war over the project promises to be intense. While Ludo has succeeded in convincing the City Council to open the discussion on the project, the move only fired up local environmentalists. It's not that we haven't seen tugs-of-war like this before. Cebu has a number of coal-fired power plants already and their existence has invited a delicate balancing act between economic and environmental concerns. [full text]

Mindanao Times "Keeping cool under too much heat"

THE HEAT has been quite unbearable for the past months compounded with the long El Niño which has already wrought havoc on our agriculture and threatened the food security of the people. Forecasts done by Pagasa harbor no respite from the heat in the next few weeks.  With summer already here, we should be prepared for  the worst. In this kind of weather,  young children, elderly and those who are sick, become very vulnerable to the effects of the heat. Over exposure to sun is dangerous, especially those who play under the sun for long periods or who stay on the beach without protection from harmful UV rays. There has been no warning coming from the health department so far but we should always be mindful of the possibilities of heatstroke, dehydration or any disease that result from this kind of extreme weather. However, measures can still be taken to prevent the effects of the high temperature we are experiencing now. [full text]

Manila Bulletin "Complete the picture"

The Supreme Court is scheduled to meet in full-court session in Baguio City on April 5. Scheduled for discussion are two motions for reconsideration of its decision allowing Sen. Grace Poe to run for president in the May 9 election.
In its decision last March 8, the Supreme Court ruled that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) abused its discretion in disqualifying Poe as a candidate. Nine justices voted for the ruling, while six voted against. The Comelec disqualification was thus set aside and Senator Poe is now a candidate. The Comelec in its motion for reconsideration said it is asking the Supreme Court for the factual or legal basis for ruling that Senator Poe is qualified to run for president. Specifically, it asked the Supreme Court to state whether (1) Senator Poe is a natural-born citizen and (2) she has resided in the Philippines 10 years before the May 9 election. These are two of the requirements for any candidate for president of the Philippines, as stated in the Constitution. [full text]

Inquirer "Battleground"

The responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 (known to many as the RH or Reproductive Health Law) was a landmark measure, passed in dramatic fashion after a lengthy legislative struggle. But as this newspaper and others warned soon after passage, the next battlefront in the RH wars would likely include the budget. What good would the law’s progressive provisions be if these were inadequately funded, or not funded at all? The 2016 General Appropriations Act offered alarming proof: Without so much as a by-your-leave to the law’s principal sponsors in the House of Representatives and the Senate, the new law’s budget was reduced at the bicameral committee level by P1 billion. The Department of Health was forced to realign some of its allocations to make up for the shortfall.
A clear and overwhelming majority of Filipinos of voting age, some 86 percent, support public funding for family planning and related services—the kind of services included in the Reproductive Health Law. About the same number said the candidates running for office in the May 9 elections should include family planning in their agenda. [full page]