Editorial 7/25/16 (Philippines, politics, society, change, Duterte, presidency, culture, history)

Philippine Star "State of the nation"

Rodrigo Duterte has inherited an economy that is the second fastest growing in the region after China. A framework for peace in Mindanao is in place. Business confidence has been high for the past six years, buoyed by policies that were anchored on good governance. Last Saturday night, President Duterte signed a landmark order, implementing freedom of information throughout the executive branch. He is expected to push his congressional allies to pass an FOI law to promote transparency in the other branches of government. The challenges faced by the nation remain daunting. The income gap is a chasm and economic growth has not trickled down, with about 40 percent of Filipinos classified as poor. The lack of decent employment continues to fuel the migrant worker phenomenon, opening Filipinos to exploitation and human trafficking overseas. [full text]

Sun.Star Cebu "Reviving “hablon”"

HABLON sa Cebu” is a community’s effort to revive a tradition that traces its beginnings to a period preceding the arrival of Spanish colonizers.
At the showroom of the Cebu Technological University (CTU)-Argao Campus in Lamacan, visitors can admire and purchase handcrafted shawls and cloth to be made into dresses, upholstery and table runners. In the workshop outside the CTU showroom are the looms, where locals are trained in the production of “hablon,” the loom-woven cloth that dates back to protohistory.
According to Ramon Echevarria’s “Rediscovery in Southern Cebu,” the region was a center of an “extensive, well-developed cottage industry” in the period between prehistory and history, when local communities still had not developed writing but other cultures were already aware of and regularly trading with the people of southern Cebu. [full text]

Mindanao Times "TIME to follow the lead"

NOW that President Rodrigo R. Duterte signed the executive order on freedom of information, other branches of government should initiate mechanisms to follow his lead. During the press conference yesterday, Secretary Martin M. Andanar of the Presidential Communications Office said that the executive order, which was Saturday night but which is still not numbered and the executive order specifies that it operationalizes “in the executive branch, the people’s constitutional right to information and the state policies of full public disclosure and transparency in the public services.” It also covers  “records, documents, papers, reports letters contracts minutes and transcripts of official meetings, maps books photographs, data research, materials, films, sound and video recordings, magnetic or other tapes, electronic data, computer stored data, or other like or similar data or material data stored, archived in whatever format.” [full text]

Manila Times "What PDU30 needs to tell the nation"

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte delivers his first State of the Nation Address today to a nation eager to see his promised “change,” but without any clue as to what precisely it would bring. Many expect PDU30 to end all their problems “immediately, if not sooner,” forgetting that they have not elected a “superman,” and that most of their problems cannot be shooed away by a simple wave of the hand. How to moderate their expectations is the first of his problems. There has been change, of course, just from the fact that PDU30 is totally different from his immediate predecessor B.S. Aquino 3rd and all the other Presidents, for that matter. He is genuinely populist, and does not mind carrying his populism to the extreme. He is also tough and likes to be seen as such. But so far the change has been mainly superficial, in his manner of dress and speech, which he would like everyone else to accept as the “new normal.”
The only substantive change so far is the seriousness with which he has launched his anti-dangerous drugs campaign, and the manner in which suspects have been killed “while resisting arrest.” Thousands of drug users have surrendered to the police—and this is a real achievement—but the routine killing of suspects tends to create a climate of fear.
About 400 have been killed since July 1, according to reports, mostly in the ghettoes, barefoot or in slippers. The reaction to this has been most disturbing: “Kung Pinoy patay, kapag Intsik buhay—(If Filipino, dead; if Chinese, alive). PDU30 has been quoted as telling the police to say he has authorized the killings. If he does not disavow this statement, it could haunt him forever. Marcos never ordered anyone to torture any communist combatant; but long after his death, those who had suffered during their armed struggle are still making their claims against the bygone regime. [full text]

Inquirer "A promising start"

PRESIDENT DUTERTE delivers his first State of the Nation Address today with his economic team promising to make the poor feel the benefits of economic progress. Consider, for instance, the updating and indexing to inflation of individual income tax rates, which will have the effect of increasing the take-home pay of the working middle class. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez has also promised that corporate income tax would fall to 25 percent from the current 32 percent, one of the highest rates in Asia, to make local firms more competitive. This tax relief was actually proposed to the Aquino administration, which turned it down because of its so-called negative impact on government finances and, in turn, on the country’s favorable credit ratings. There is a way around it, the new administration says, and this is to generate the revenues to be lost from the tax break by increasing the imposts on soft drinks and possibly other “sin” products like alcoholic beverages and cigarettes. Taxes on oil products will also be raised and consumers will find the impact manageable considering that crude prices have fallen by half since last year. In the power sector, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi has promised to lower electricity prices, which are the highest in the region. Price is just a number arrived at by considering several inputs, he told the Inquirer business staff at a recent roundtable. It is these inputs that his team will study to bring down the cost of electricity. For example, Cusi said, the administration will determine if the “stranded cost” component could be taken out of the monthly electric bill. This represents the unpaid liabilities of the defunct cash-strapped National Power Corp. [full page]