Editorial 6/10/16 (Philippines, politics, Duterte, budget, health, junk foods, Congress)
Inquirer "Supermajority"
The speed with which the national political landscape has shifted, since the election of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as president, has been dizzying. The use of the earthquake analogy is appropriate; in the House of Representatives and, to a lesser extent, in the Senate, the change has been seismic. Or, to change metaphors: The rapid ripening of the balimbing or star fruit in the political orchard has been one for the farmer’s almanac. The President-elect joined the PDP-Laban only recently; on May 9, only three of its candidates for Congress won. But a month after the elections, PDP-Laban is set to become the new majority, not only in the House but also in the Senate.
The shifting of alliances in the House will not look out of place in any episode of “Game of Thrones.” From a tiny base of three, Representative-elect Pantaleon Alvarez was able to grow his support to about three-fourths of the entire chamber—in part because as a longtime friend he is Duterte’s choice as speaker, in part because of savvy decision-making and alliance-building. Alvarez reached out to the controversial but politically adept Rodolfo Fariñas, reelected to his seat in the first district of Ilocos Norte, to offer him the post of majority leader. [full page]
CEBU City Councilor James Cuenco is rightly cautious in his approach on the proposed 2016 budget of around P6 billion that Acting Mayor Margarita Osmeña said she will submit to the decimated City Council next week. He wants the Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG) to guide the council in the deliberation. It is the same DILG that opined that the city council can still function even in its decimated state with only Acting Mayor Lea Japson and three councilors as member. The Cebu City Government is currently using the reenacted 2015 budget after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) 7 declared the P6.4 budget for 2016 approved by the City Council as inoperative after it found deficiencies in it. The council has until the first week of July to pass a corrected annual budget or the City will continue using the reenacted budget until the end of the fiscal year. [full text]Mindanao Times "Junking the junk food"
GOOD that the incoming administration is planning to heavily tax junk food items in its effort to find new sources of government revenues as well as discourage the selling of these consumables. Incoming Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said these food items, considered as those with low nutritional value, can even endanger the health of children. Several studies, among them the Philippine National Heart Evaluation and Survey released in 2002, showed that junk foods caused obesity and resulted in other health problems, including the dangerous heart ailments. Yet, despite the proofs, these have continued to be sold to children as the government has not even lifted its finger to intervene. Product advertisements also abound. [full text]Manila Times "Bargaining for Congress posts betrays the pathology of national politics"
THE public should have no illusion that all the current maneuverings by legislators to pre-select the next Senate President and House Speaker are designed to advance the purposes of the nation and the welfare and well-being of the people. What is going on is not public service, but the self-service of legislator-politicians. All that is weak and ignoble in our politics are already on display before the 17th Congress can be convened.
The biggest sign of weakness is the absence of organized and cohesive political parties in Congress. The May 9 elections were a free-for-all among parties that had neither membership nor principles. Most candidates virtually ran on their own, without the support of party organizations and resources. Only the administration’s Liberal Party had the organization and the resources because of its unparalleled access to public money for the campaign. When the dust settled in the electoral battles, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte emerged as the runaway winner in the presidential race. But no one else from PDP-Laban was elected with him nationally. [full page]
