Guest Contributors

Guest Contributors on disquiet

Bitching about the beach

September 5, 2020 by Guest Contributors

by Apa Ongpin

There’s been a lot of noise, since yesterday, about a pile of sand on Roxas Boulevard. I guess many people are fed up and disgusted with the gross incompetence, lies and insincerity displayed by this government in so many areas, to the point where in their eyes, everything this regime does is wrong. It’s just a pile of sand, but it has begun to assume the proportions of the Sierra Madre.

The point of this piece is not to defend the government’s actions, but try to examine this issue a little more objectively.

In fact, let’s talk about science, and numbers.First of all “this government” is not monolithic. It has many moving parts, many of which act independently of the others, and this happens in at least three dimensions: over time, across geographic space, and across intellectual space.

President Duterte could not control every single part of this government, even if he wanted to (and every indication is that he wishes he could), for many reasons. One of them is that he simply lacks the leadership and management ability. I believe this has been well demonstrated. He is unfocused, disorganized, ad hoc, and has no strongly defined overall policy or agenda except to exact political revenge against his imagined enemies and to kiss Chinese ass.

Duterte has also shown (with a few exceptions) that he cannot effectively delegate authority, and in many cases, appoints people to critical positions who are not only unqualified for the positions, with no strong experience in the field and no track record except of loyalty to him personally, but downright incompetent as well.

Worst of all, he is often a micromanager, preferring to devote his time to trivialities, and interfering in matters that he has no clue about, like telling the public to wash their facemasks in gasoline or diesel fuel.

The pile of sand on Roxas Boulevard is a tiny component of a project that originated well before the pandemic was even on the horizon. This project, formally named the “Manila Bay Rehabilitation” was launched on January 26, 2017, by DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu, and you can read about it right here.

public health

The last line of defense is crumbling: A desperate plea from your Filipino Medical Frontliners

August 7, 2020 by Guest Contributors

by Dr. Edmund Villaroman

Our passion to help is the only thing that gets us to wake up early each and every day and leave behind our families. Some struggle to get to work with the limited transportation, or others even pedal their bicycles for miles just to get to the hospital. We don our PPEs, endure the discomfort for hours, oftentimes missing meals, and with limited restroom breaks, just to give the best care to our COVID-19 patients. This same passion drives us to continue serving despite being overwhelmed by the sheer number of COVID-19 cases.

A lot of us have been infected in the line of duty and some have fallen severely ill and sacrificed their lives in the name of professional service and dedication to our patients. We comfort our patients because their families are not allowed inside the COVID-19 wards. We are the closest to being family at their bedside. Patients die in front of us everyday and we shed tears for each one of them.

Most of us go home fearing we are infected ourselves, and worse that our own family might contract the virus from us. Many sacrifice not seeing their families for a long time and opt to stay in the discomfort of temporary shelters to prevent community transmission.

We lack the proper PPEs to protect ourselves. We lack the proper medicines to treat our patients. We lack proper testing and tracing of our COVID-19 patients and their relatives. We lack the proper critical care beds to admit our distressed patients. We lack the mechanical ventilators for our patients who can barely breathe.

What we lack most is a leader who knows how to navigate nation in these desperate times. We need someone who understands and accepts the gravity of the pandemic and lays down a road map from a healthcare and economic perspective. People are suffering and dying everyday. Waiting for a vaccine isn’t a plan but a hope and a prayer. We need a concrete, comprehensive and compassionate plan to include the different stakeholders of our society.

governance

21 Questions for 2020 SONA

July 26, 2020 by Guest Contributors

by Mike Alcazaren

1. What happened to the Jee Ick-Joo case?

2. What happened to the missing 11B worth of shabu found in Magnetic lifters?

3. Why did the Navy settle for the inferior radar system in the “frigate scandal” if the correspondence SAP Bong Go sent was just to “report about a complaint” for the failed bidder?

4. What ever happened to the investigation of the PCSO scandal? STLs were shut down and reopened without any resolution shown.

5. Will the PhilHealth issue go the same way?

6. How much did Sarah Duterte’s law office make for that Mighty Corp. billion peso tax settlement? How is this even not a conflict of interest?

7. Why then do we need a Philippine Anti-Corruption Committee when they have done absolutely nothing substantive to fight corruption? The only thing they are known for is that one of its members asked the NBI to investigate VP Leni for “competing” with Duterte on COVID relief efforts.

8. Why do we need Mocha Uson as OWWA undersecretary? What non-troll, social media propaganda value does she add for the OFWs? Really? I mean really?

human rights, peace and order

A Field Guide to the Anti-Terrorism Law Without Preempting the Courts on the Issue of its Constitutionality

July 6, 2020 by Guest Contributors

by Adolf Azcuna

It is Rep Act No 11479 signed into law on July 3, 2020 and effective after publication for 15 days in the Official Gazette or newspaper of general circulation in the country. The Anti-Terrorism Council and the Secretary of Justice are to draw up the IRR or implementing rules in 90 days after the law’s effectivity.

It repeals or replaces the Human Security Act of 2007 which was allegedly largely unused because of the heavy fines provided against law enforcers who violated its safeguards.

It adopts a policy against terrorism and seeks to defend the nation against it. It then defines what constitutes terrorism, penalizes proposals to commit it, terrorist training, funding and recruitment activities and membership in designated terrorist organizations. It covers foreign terrorist activities that have links to the Philippines.

It creates an Anti-Terrorism Council composed of Executive Officials that will oversee the Act’s implementation.

It provides for an elaborate system of surveillance including wiretapping by state agents of suspected terrorists upon directive or permission from the Anti-Terrorism Council with the approval of the Court of Appeals, for a period of 60 days extendible for another 30 days.

It allows arrests without judicial warrants and detention without filing of charges in court for a period of 14 days extendible for another 10 days in the name of fighting terrorism.

And it removes the heavy fines on law enforcers if they transgress the law’s safeguards and instead provides for imprisonment of up to 12 years.

The thrust of the objections and of petitions to declare all or parts of the law invalid are or are likely to be—