filename: cbSep25.doc
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Camille P. Balagtas
People's TONIGHT
September 25, 2002
***Four (4) stories***
1. TINDAHAN NI GLORIA ANSWER TO UPSURGE IN RICE PRICES
2. ADOPT PROPOSAL CREATING OIL BUFFER FUND, OVERSIGHT PANEL IN
WAKE OF LOOMING CONFLICT IN MIDDLE EAST
3. PIMENTEL QUESTIONS OPASP AUTHORITY
4. INVESTIGATE GSIS ON PDMA LOAN-- ANGARA
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story no. 1
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Camille P. Balagtas
People's TONIGHT
September 25, 2002
TINDAHAN NI GLORIA ANSWER TO UPSURGE IN RICE PRICES
MORE ROLLING STORES
===================================================
Upsurge in rice prices is alarming.
For this reason, Senator Tessie Aquino-Oreta yesterday urged the
National Food Authority to give top priority to checking the
sudden upsurge in rice prices as she proposed more rolling stores
that sell cheap rice to these areas.
Oreta said sending out more Tindahan ni Gloriang Labandera mobile
stores that sell ordinary rice at prices much lower than
prevailing market rates should top the concerns of whoever
President Arroyo appoints as NFA chief.
According to Oreta , this move will help the government in
maintaining its avowed commitment to rein in inflation and pull
down the cost of the staple and other basic commodities.
"The NFA should pinpoint the areas where rice is sold at
high prices so that it could concentrate deployment of more
rolling stores in these places," Oreta said.
Reports says the NFA is still finding it difficult to push down
commercial rice prices to the P15-16 level that President Arroyo
wants because trades in some areas sell the staple as high as
P25. The NFA recently found out that ordinary rice is sold at an
average P16.50 per kilo in Mindoro and Batangas; P21 in Davao
and; P25 in Palawan.
No less than President Arroyo urged that prices of rice be sold
at a reasonable price as she personally monitor the P14 a kilo of
rice, a price subsidized by the government to make it affordable
to the poor.
Oreta recalled that the Chief Executive had correctly pointed out
that food eats up a lion's share of the daily budget of ordinary
Filipinos, which the senator said all the more highlights the
need for the NFA to make rice more affordable to masa.
She likewise noted that the Chief Executive had pledged to keep
rices of basic goods, particularly food items, stable despite the
recent series of oil price increases and other external economic
factors.///camille p. balagtas
story no. 2
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Camille P. Balagtas
People's TONIGHT
Sept. 25, 2002
ADOPT PROPOSAL CREATING OIL BUFFER FUND, OVERSIGHT PANEL IN WAKE
OF LOOMING CONFLICT IN MIDDLE EAST
===================================================================================================
In the face of looming conflict in the Middle East that could
send crude oil prices spiraling worldwide, Senator Tessie Aquino
Oreta called the government to adopt a two-pronged approach to
insulate consumers from these external developments through the
creation of an oil buffer fund and an oversight committee that
would prevent greedy oil companies from capitalizing on the
crisis tojack up fuel rates beyond reasonable levels.
Oreta said these twin measures should be implemented soon before
domestic oil giants could take advantage of a possible United
States attack against Iraq to rake in more profits through their
predatory pricing schemes.
"This two-pronged approach is meant to complement a reported
government proposal to establish a regional stockpiling site in
Subic to prepare for the possible conflict in the Middle East,
whlich could lead to galloping crude oil prices worldwide,"
Oreta said.
"The Arroyo administration should look at this issue not
only from a supply standpoint, but also in terms of easing the
plight of comsumers amid a likely oil price spiral."
Oreta made her proposal in the wake of reports that oil prices
have soared to a 19-month high at $31.11 a barrel amid fears of a
United States attack against Iraq, which has defied the latest
United Nations resolution calling for fresh conditions on its
disarmament.
A consumer price watchdog predicted that oil companies could hike
prices anew by an average of 53 centavos per liter next month due
to this price surge in the global market.
Oreta said establishing an oil buffer fund and forming an
oversight panel are the only pragmatic ways left for Government
to protect the masa from the profit-raking schemes of major
industry players, which have been taking advantage of the recent
rise and fall of crude prices in the global market to impose a
series of hefty fuel price increases.
She said oil companies have taken advantage of the fluctuating
crude prices in the world market to carry out substantial
increases in the pump prices of their products, but had earlier
doled out loose change as token rollbacks.
"The establishment of a buffer fund and an oversight
committee to monitor domestic oil prices would help stop oil
companies from continuing with their nasty habit of being quick
to the draw in imposing fuel price increases but deliberately
slow in effecting price rollbacks," Oreta said.
Oreta said the establishment of a buffer fund similar to the one
set up during the initial implementation period of Rep. Act. No.
8479 or the downstream oil deregulation law would help shield
consumers from the artificial rise in crude prices in the world
market.
The creation of an oversight committee on the other hand would
help ensure that fair pricing of petroleum products prevails in
the local markets. ///camille p. balagtas
story no. 3
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Camille P. Balagtas
People's TONIGHT
September 25, 2002
PIMENTEL QUESTIONS OPASP AUTHORITY
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Senator Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today questioned
the authority of the Office of the Presidential Adviser for
Strategic Projects (OPASP) to propose a takeover by the
government of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) 3
project.
Pimentel pointed out that under the Executive Order No. 79
creating OPASP, its head, the Presidential Adviser on Strategic
Projects (PASP), is merely given the "mandate" to
"oversee and supervise the effective and timely
implementation and completion of strategic projects as the
President may assign."
Pimentel said that the EO did not give specific powers to the
presidential adviser to review and to propose revisions to
contracts already approved by the proper authorities, much
undertake a government takeover. "Certainly, it did not give
the PASP authority to cause delays in government projects."
Citing EO 79 issued by Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo on
behalf of the President, Pimentel said that the OPASP was created
to answer "an urgent need... to assume the primary
responsibility for ensuring on a full-time basis the effective
and timely implementation of specific strategic projects."
The office was created because of the serious delays encountered
by some strategic government projects, as noted by the EO itself.
"Hence," according to Pimentel, the Presidential
Adviser on Strategic Projects, has no authority to propose
government takeover of the project, nor has the authority to
subject government contracts to review and revisions after these
contracts have already been reviewed and approved by the
government institutions legally empowered to do so."
He continued, "In other words, the PASP is not authorized to
be a wrecker but to be a facilitator of vital government
projects."
Pimentel said that he was in full agreement with the objective of
the EO to resolve serious delays in the implementation of
important government projects by removing the causes of the
delays. "But the office of Presidential Adviser on Strategic
Projects should not itself be part of the problem."
Pimentel expressed fear that because of the controversy, the NAIA
3 project, which is essential to a rapid national economic
recovery and progress, might be delayed in its implementation,
thus achieving exactly the opposite of what the executive order
intended to accomplish. The NAIA 3 project, which is now almost
completed, has been awarded to the Philippine International Air
Terminals Co. (PIATCO) after a public bidding.
The senator from Mindanao also said he found it "odd"
that the executive order creating the OPASP was issued on March
11, 2002, much later than the presidential memorandum assigning
the "Presidential Adviser for Special Projects" to
fast-track the implementation and completion of "strategic
projects."
The NAIA terminal III was No. 1 in the list of projects assigned
to the adviser. The others were the Light Rail Transit Line No. 2
extension, the Metro Manila Water and Sewerage System (MWSS)
privatization, Phase 2 of the Batangas Port Project, the National
Steel Corporation, Metro Cebu Water District, Housing
Securitization and Solid Waste Management, in that order.
///camille p. balagtas
story no. 4
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Camille P. Balagtas
People's TONIGHT
September 25, 2002
INVESTIGATE GSIS ON PDMA LOAN-- ANGARA
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The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) should be
investigated for the P1 billion loan extended to the
controversial President Diosdado Macapagal Avenue (PDMA) because
the agency is overextend on its real estate loans and pension
funds are supposed to be invested on income-generating projects
which the PDMA is definitely not, Senator Edgardo J. Angara today
said.
"If the P1 billion road were a tool road project, that would
have been okay. But the PDMA is definitely not and pension funds
are supposed to be invested on income-generating projects
precisely to boost the value of the funds," said Angara.
Congressional leaders earlier said they will conduct an inquiry
into the road project, said to be overpriced by P600 million,
more than half the construction cost of P1.1 billion.
Angara said the proposed congressional inquiry on the use of
pension funds for the PDMA construction work should zero in on
the (GSIS) board policies that supported the loan grant.
Angara said that pension funds are supposed to be managed well
and loan grants should be extended exclusively to
income-generating investments as tight safeguards against the
dissipation of the value of the funds.
"Now comes the GSIS, already overextended on its real estate
loans, coming out with another P1 billion loan for a
five-kilometer road project. This should be one focus of the
proposed congressional inquiry, the angle on how the trust fund
agencies have been managing their money pool," said Angara.
Angara also supported the suggestion that presidential legal
counsel Avelino Cruz should stay out of the panel that will
investigate the reported overpricing of the road anmed after
President Arroyo's late father.
Cruz, while serving as acting executive secretary on June 7,
approved the grant of the GSIS loan to the road project.
Angara and nine other opposition senators earlier filed a senate
resolution seeking an inquiry into the pension funds managed by
various government entities amid reports of questionable
investments, illegal use and disposition of funds and unwarranted
and illegal use of incomes earned from the trust funds.
Senate Resolution 330 was filed before the expose on the gross
overpricing of the PDMA. ///camille p. balagtas
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