THE BLOODIEST COUP IN PHL HISTORY

By Philip M. Lustre Jr. 

N.B. I originally wrote and posted it on December 2, 2013. This is somewhat expanded as I had to include some details, which I failed to mention in the earlier post. No, this is not a criticism of Mike Enriquez. But I saw him how he behaved during a tight situation. I would not be surprised if he pissed in his pants. I always tell myself, he should not be a journalist. He should stick to playing records, a disc jockey. He is best suited to spin records.

DECEMBER First passed without me noticing its historical significance. I was busy attending to my daughter Patricia Anne, who was down with dengue fever in a QC hospital. That was the reason I failed to recall the start of the biggest and bloodiest seventh military coup in the annals of Philippine history. It was indeed a winner-take-all situation. A day late, allow me to recall from my vantage point what took place on December 1, 1989.

I was a political reporter of the defunct Philippine Daily Globe, when the biggest military coup took place on this date. I was assigned to cover the Senate, but my superiors tolerated, albeit unofficially, my side job as host of the early morning radio program "Mano-Mano" over dzXL, which is owned by the Radio Mindanao Network of the Canoy family of Cagayan de Oro City.

Perhaps, my superiors knew I was in dire financial straits (I was father to three kids and a stay-at-home wife) and moonlighting in a job that did not compete with our newspaper was the answer. There were times I got my news from my radio program. It was helpful for my print media job.

Since my one and a half hour radio program started at 7:30 am, I made it a point to be at the radio station by 5 to 5:30 am. I usually read the various newspapers, and studied possible topics and angles of discussions in my program. I was thorough in my preparations. As much as possible, I did not leave any gaps in my side job.

Broadcast media has its peculiarities. It’s a high velocity job. A program host could have a daily two-hour public affairs program. But preparations are intense. A host has to be knowledgeable of the topics he discusses on air.

I arrived at the radio station at the old but now Philcomcen building (it’s now a new structure) along Ortigas Avenue at around 5 am. I was deeply engrossed reading the newspapers at daybreak, when I heard huge explosions and staccato sounds of gunfire. Hell broke loose. Suddenly, the radio programming took a drastic turn. It was to report on the breaking news: coup d'etat.

From dzXL's radio booth in the 23rd or 24th floor of Philcomcen (I don't recall the exact floor), I and the staff saw some movements, which included airplanes and tanks going for the kill. All programs, including mine, were preempted to give way to the largest military putsch in history.

In hindsight, this was a coup participated by dozens of military generals to put an end to the restored democracy under Cory Aquino. Likening the Cory Aquino to Germany's Weimar Republic of the pre-Nazi era, the putchists believed that its weakness would give way to its total collapse. But this could only happen through the magic of a power grab. It was not that simple though. The Cory Aquino government had its military generals, who stood to defend the restored democracy.

Radio reporters Angelo Palmones, Rowena Papasin, Emily Crame, Joseph Parafina, Allan Allanigue, and Rene Sta. Cruz, who have all later become big names in broadcast journalism, took turns to report details of the coup. Radio hosts like the late Armand Roque and Rolly Gonzalo pitched in to help. Butch Gonzales, the station manager who recruited me to host the public affairs program, also helped.

But what I noticed most was dzXL's top honcho - Mike Enriquez. Basically a disc jockey with hardly any training in serious broadcast journalism, Mike took over the anchoring job. He went inside the booth and sat on the chair to give a blow by blow account. To the staff, Mike was "Booma," the powerful, imposing, but not necessarily cerebral general manager of the radio station.

To my horror, Mike was a picture of a nervous wreck who was about to go haywire in his coverage and anchoring job. There was no composure, no calmness, no poise, or rationality in the middle of a storm. It was all panic.

If he had pissed and defecated in his pants at that particular point, I would not be surprised because I knew that was something bound to happen to a nervous wreck like him. Journalism requires a cerebral calmness to meet every tense journalism situation. Otherwise, a journalist would be failure in his job to inform the public.

At one point, I remember Angelo Palmones's live interview of then Col. Edgardo "Red" Kapunan, one of the key leaders of the putsch, but Mike cut short the interview. He ordered the staff to cut Kapunan's interview off the air.

Mike was saying at the top of his voice that the coup was doomed because the Americans had already sided with Cory. He saw those persuasion flights of US jets to indicate the US stand on the military coup. Mike was partially correct.

But until now, I am still stunned by his reckless and nervous demeanor, which in my judgment did not inspire fellow journalists. How did this motormouth become a broadcast journalist?

The military coup went on as planned. Soldiers fought against fellow soldiers. Brother officers drew their guns to face their brother officers. Greg Honasan's earlier pronouncement that "brother officers don't shoot each other" became a distant memory. The bloodletting was sort of cleansing process for men and women in uniform.

The two sides gave no quarters. The coup proceeded for several more days, but at the end, the pro-government forces won over the putchist forces, which were said to be identified with the Marcos dictatorship and other putchist elements.

The December 1, 1989 military coup gave the entire military establishment the most traumatic, painful, and poignant experience. It was an experience of profound magnitude to the point that the officers' corps did not resort to such confrontation again.

When the military establishment was to intervene again in the 2001 EDSA Dos, its leaders chose a different path. Instead of killing each other, they merely withdrew support from Erap Estrada, the fumbling corrupt president at that time.

This is my recollection of the Dec. 1, 1989 coup. We could only learn from history. 

ON JOURNALISM, PR

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

JOURNALISTS have a phrase to describe exaggerated stories: "Sinalsal ang istorya (the story was masturbated)." It has a continuation: "Sobrang pinalibog." Non-journalist guys don't have to worry about this audacious way of speaking. Even lady journalists, the prim and proper, or prudish type among them, freely use that phrase without any moral hangup. It's an accepted expression.

The phrase is widely used to express the collective disgust, disdain, disappointment, contempt, or any other negative feeling among journalists whenever a story is exaggerated to suit some selfish agenda. Truth is the only basic commodity of every journalist. When a story is grossly exaggerated, it ceases to be a legitimate story. It becomes a non-story, or something of a propaganda.

Even people engaged in the business of information dissemination, or the discipline we call public relations, understand the value of truth as the sole commodity of journalists. PR practitioners as press agents and propaganda specialists understand that the moment they dish out falsehoods, lies, deceptions, or half truths, they are bound to suffer the consequences of their stubborn refusal to adhere to the fundamental commitment to truth.

In journalism or public relations, exaggerations or omissions happen; they are indeed daily stuff. A tabloid's treatment of a given story could be regarded as overblown or somewhat exaggerated when compared to the usually sedate prose in a broadsheet newspaper. The press release of a certain PR firm may sound patronizing to its client. But somewhere, somehow, and sometime, some basic facts are evident. They all converge to the basic facts.

Being an earlier discipline, journalism has deep traditions over the last 500 years. Public relations, as a separate discipline, fully acknowledges these traditions and, as always, adjusts to those traditions. The fundamental precepts of truth, balance, and objectivity (or fairness as what other pundits call it) are all products of five centuries of traditions. Failure to recognize and subscribe to those traditions could be fatal. The credibility of the media institutions and journalists suffer considerably if and when they fail to adhere to those traditions.

As an example, media outfits, during the last two world wars, sent their best correspondents, photojournalists, and film crews (particularly WW 2) to cover the war front, write stories, take photographs and footage, and document the entire war efforts. It would have been much easier for the media outfits to cover instead mock battles and present them to the public as real battles. But this was not truth. This was not journalism. This was bad propaganda.

What they did was to document the business of war even to the extent of encountering dangers to their media personnel in the course of their coverage. They documented the actual war proceedings and gave the public the actual blow by blow accounts on the basis of facts they collated in the front. They embraced truth as their commodity and committed themselves to facts - nothing else, but facts culled in the field.

When a grossly untrained blogger, who hardly has any basic understanding of journalism or public relations, attached photographs taken elsewhere to represent locally related blogs and materials, we could see the specter of total disrespect of the traditions of journalism and the business of information dissemination, which we call public relations. The picture of kneeling police officers in Honduras could not in any be described as Filipino police officers saying some prayers. There's no such thing as substitution, or symbolism, in journalism. This is plain folly.

The blogger's demonstration of total ignorance of the discipline of journalism before the eyes of the world could be a function of her exaggerated estimate of herself. Elevated to become the chief propagandist of the sickly administration of Rodrigo Duterte in social media, she could have thought that she has become the hotshot, who could do everything or anything she wants. But journalism is different. Now, she could have realized that she has become the hot shit instead.

The blogger did not undergo the usual processes to become a genuine journalist or PR practitioner. She is the dancer, singer, fawning accomplice of a murdering president, who has been suddenly catapulted to the limelight to become somewhat a celebrity. She hardly has the benefit of mentoring. She hardly has a coterie of professionals who could have guided and taught her the rudiments of journalism or truth telling. It is exactly this gross ignorance and outright stupidity that has become her debacle.

DAY OF QUIET SURPRISES

By Ba Ipe

IT was late afternoon yesterday when I went to the barber for a haircut and shave. Yes, a balding man like me needs regular haircut and shave. Strands of hair still grow on my shining pate although they are not quite very visible to the naked human eye.

A grooming guru says beautifying oneself is not vanity. It is presenting what could be regarded a better version of a person’s exterior. You don’t have to change yourself, the grooming guru says, but rather it is presenting your best version. I concur.

My instructions to the barber were clear: It had to be the semi-calvo, the same haircut I have been sporting over the past 25 years; he had to use the .5 hair clipper; and he had to trim my moustache and shave my goatee and the "atsaka" which is the hair in between my goatee and moustache. In brief, he has to provide me with a redeeming look. I had to pass the standards set by the grooming guru.

The barber went to his job with intense fervor. He probably thought I was a generous tipper. I probably exuded the public persona of a considerate old man, who was more than willing to part a few pesos for a job well done. But the surprise was the barber did not follow my instructions.

He probably did not hear my instruction to use the .5, repeat .5, hair clipper. No, his clipper did not have any gadget to leave a longer strand of hair. He used a zero hair clip; in brief, it went to scrap every strand of hair on my scalp.

I don’t like the zero hair clip because it would make my head too bright, no different from the pates of Telly Savalas, Yul Brynner, or our very own, Pugo. It makes me the center of attention, and jokes. I like something subdued. It conforms to my temperament: less public attention, less mistakes.

The barber went to his job. It was late to discover he was scrapping all my hair. I could not make any appeal. It was late to do so. Then, I saw myself completely without any hair. But I rediscover my own aura. I noticed that I have a more respectable aura without hair. I look very similar to Pilo Hilbay and Gary Alejano.

Then, the barber trimmed my moustache, which I never shaved since the days I took my ROTC in early 1970s. It has become a somewhat fixture of my persona until it has turned immaculate white. He shaved the remaining hair. Presto, I was a new man. The grooming guru was obviously correct.

It was serendipity, or a pleasant discovery. I paid the barber P100, which was double his rate of P50. Then, I left.

My day did not end with my visit to the barber. I proceeded to the nearby Fisher Mall to walk around and take an early dinner. Fisher Mall was perfect for a senior citizen like me. It is not that big unlike Trinoma or SM North. I am not fond of roaming around, as if I was a cat lost in the woods.

I was surprised to discover that a bigger part of Fisher Mall’s ground floor has become a veritable flea market, or tiangge. I was told it has been subdivided into 50 small slots, where every creature could sell products of his choice. But 90 percent of the slots were selling clothes – or women’s clothes.

I was inclined to buy some men’s shirts for my use, but I could not find one. Instead, I saw a number of women buying from those stores. I saw the pathetic sight of two or three men, who were carrying shopping bags of procured clothes. They were following the women, who were haggling with the sales ladies

I always say it is always a fatal mistake for every man to accompany his wife, girlfriend, or paramour to shopping. He always end up with the unpalatable tag of being “tagabitbit ng mga napamili.” It is a punishment. It is an ordeal.

Touche.

What a day of discoveries.

MY MOST UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE

By Philip M. Lustre Jr. 

(N.B. A netizen friend had urged me two or three months ago to write more personal vignettes to lighten the burden of reading the heavy political stuff and, of course the viral scourge. She was protesting of the perceived desolation of social media. I concur with her. But I told her writing this stuff is like doing theme writing in high school or grade school. But she was persistent. She won. The following is not only unforgettable; it was very, very embarrassing.)

LET me confess that I was a wicked son during my college days. I enjoyed partial scholarship. Hence, I was entitled to refund of the tuition I earlier paid. But nobody knew it in the house. Not my Lola Fely, not my Nanay Celia.

Whenever I had scholarship refunds, I squandered it without mercy. I lived for the day. I was a two or three-day millionaire. But nature has its way to catch up on our evil ways. Heaven has its way of getting even.

Let me start my story by saying that I was once an ebullient, exuberant, and excitable young man, who wanted to savor the beauty of life. Sometime in 1975, I received my scholarship refund, which was about P120. It was a tidy sum during those days. It could be the equivalent of P8,000 in today’s money or even more.

Of course, I splurged the money, buying personal necessities like a pair of shoes, a pair of pants, and a nice t-shirt, which I used in going to school. I treated a pair of friends to a drinking spree. Even during those days, I was a hard drinking buddy, who always saw the world winking at me.

But the greatest thrill was when I invited a comely classmate to a dinner at Max’s and a movie at Ever Gotesco Cinema, which were near the University of the East, where I finished my college education.

My classmate was a tall, morena beauty from the Ilocos region. Although she spoke with a thick Ilocano accent (cracker becomes crrrrackerrrr), she was caring, charming, – and bewitching. She was older by two years, but she was quite gregarious. She looked younger for her age.

Because I allowed her to copy my answers to some written assignments, she readily accepted my offer of special friendship. And she agreed to go with me to the movie house. She lived in a dorm near the school and I usually took her home even it was late in the night. Or perhaps, she found me quite irresistible.

After our 7 pm class, we immediately went to Max’s. I remember that we ordered a pair of half chickens, a bowl of pancit canton, and some rice. I was pretty comfortable I had money in my pocket. Sure, I had the dough and I dutifully paid the bill.

During those days, we usually paid our bills in coins. We had in circulation the big peso coin and the two peso coin with ten sides. We called them the Marcos coins. It was common to see people awash with coins.

Then, we went to the Gotesco cinema. But when I was paying the teller, I discovered that my money, mostly coins, would be insufficient to buy two tickets for balcony. If ever I buy the two tickets, I would walk going home.

I did not know what to do next. I was catch between the devil and the deep blue sea. I was a proud young man. Yet, I did not have the money, or I was a morbid case of a penniless Romeo. Since it was late to back out, I decided to do the unthinkable.

I bought two tickets for the orchestra.

Let me explain this issue of movie houses to millennials, who did not have an idea of the movie houses of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, or the pre-mall era.

During those days, movie houses in downtown Manila were bigger, but they were divided into three sections: orchestra, balcony, and loge. Each had its price tag; the orchestra, or the section below the two other sections was the cheapest. The loge was the most expensive; while the balcony had the middle ranged ticket price.

The balcony section was most notorious for its dark corners, where the action was. Dating couple found it most convenient for their carnal acts. There were plenty of kissing, necking, and petting among dating couples during those days.

The introduction of movie houses in the malls has changed everything. Movie houses were smaller, possibly one third of the size of the movie houses of the pre-mall areas. They have only one section.

Besides, movie houses of today follow strictly screening hours, much unlike in the older days, where there were no specific viewing hours. Anybody who had money could buy tickets and enter the movie house even the film was half way in its screening.

Back to my date, who was my dear college classmate. When she saw me that I bought two tickets, she was about to step on the escalator, which would take us to the balcony section. But I had to stop her to say that the tickets I bought were for the orchestra section. I saw the disappointment clearly etched on her face. I felt embarrassed, but hid any trace of it and pretended that everything was normal.

We went to the orchestra section. We did not talk. I did not initiate any move. Neither did she take a move. I did not even bother to hold her hand. We were quiet and cold as a cemetery. We watched the movie but I did not remember what we watched. Neither did she remember because she did not say anything about the movie.

The sepulchral silence was only broken when the movie ended. “Tara na (let's leave),” I told her. We walked to her dorm quietly. Then, I bid her goodbye and left to go home.

The following day, we were classmates again in another major subject. We did not talk. I did not have the nerve to talk to her. The semester ended and we parted ways. Since, she was graduating earlier, I did not see her again.

The so-called the lesson of the moral: Don't hesitate to borrow some funds from your date, if you run out of cash. But be sure to pay it back. Remember too that the dating norms and mores have changed over the last forty or fifty years

THE RIGORS OF NETIZENSHIP

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

NOT all netizens, who appear on my wall, sudden or deliberate, and send me nuggets of private message are stalkers. A great number are well meaning netizens. They bring great tidings that warm even the most callous souls.

A pair of zealous netizens in their 70s regularly sends me biblical passages that prompt me to stop for a while to read and reflect on them. I find genuine satisfaction reading their daily private missives; they are evangelical Christians, who, in their simple ways, impart divine words and wisdom.

A number of netizens regularly send me by private message the latest news, feature articles, and chosen memes depicting their ideological bent. They send me the latest quotes complete with artworks, links to some select works, essays, and news, and, of courses, pieces of advice on identities of netizens engaged in cybercriminal activity and sites to avoid because they are involved in phising.

Or they tag me with the usual stuff accompanied by their most acerbic witticisms and commentaries. This is a free country, I always tell myself. They are free to express their sentiments and feelings. Even the 1987 Constitution guarantees their freedom of expression.

This is part of netizenship, which has many rigors and even issues. As a netizen, I have my belief system, my way of looking at many things, and advocacy. I have my own opinions; I hardly keep them. I express them.

Hence, I receive as much as I give. Any netizen can’t be onion-skinned when it comes to matters of opinions. It is a reality that people indeed express their opinions on the many things confronting life.

But there will always be people, who overstep the boundaries. The send hate mails, throw their fumes and toxic arrogance, and feel they have a sense of entitlement. They are simply obnoxious.

Actually, they are easy to manage. I make full use of the delete and block buttons. They have been installed to serve specific purposes. Hence, I make full use of them. Obnoxious people are obnoxious. What they do not know is I could be obnoxious to them too.

There are also times I encounter netizens, who think my wall is their wall and pick fights or arguments with other netizens, behaving as if they have the right to do it right on my wall. Again, they are easy to handle. The delete and block buttons could do the solution since they serve specific purposes.

Being present in the social media has many sides and issues. Some lady netizens have amorous agenda. I have been asked and propositioned by some lonely souls, who probably thought I could be the answer to their proverbial last trip to the moon.

A widow once asked me if we could have some “platonic relations.” I told her I didn’t get it because I don’t do it. I‘m a full blooded, alpha male, who is still in the thick of life and battles, I told her. Hence, I could deliver the goods.

In this age of modern technology, ED means “ereditary dysfunction,” not that what many people use to know. I’m a Kapampangan, who produces words without the letter “h.”

I have encountered women, or working girls, who have propositioned themselves to me in exchange for some pieces of silver. I immediately delete those messages, which start with a greeting of “hi” to be followed by the proposition, if ever one answers it in affirmative.

If push comes to shove, I usually tell them they could look for other men because at my age, I can’t deliver the goods anymore. Besides, I am a retired, penniless SoB, who couldn’t answer their pecuniary issues.

In my existence in social media, I encountered two guys, who mistook me for a homosexual and ergo propositioned me they were available for services. Wow! I told myself as I deleted and blocked them.

I have encountered some lost relatives and I’m terribly happy to meet and interact with them. I have met guys bearing the surname Lustre in practically every nook and cranny of the country. There are Lustres in Iloilo, Camarines Sur, Davao City, Bulacan (Nadine Lustre hails from Bulacan), or other parts of Mindanao including Cotabato City.

I am truly impressed by the prolific proclivity of my forebears. We have multiplied and are about to cover the country and the world, I told myself in half jest.

I have encountered and befriended the Ilustres, most of whom are based in Batangas-Mindoro areas and even the Visayas. I told them that civil registrars made errors on our surnames. Ergo, we should not take it as an issue. Their fault is not our fault. So far, their response has been very positive. We consider ourselves as long lost relatives.

Knowing that social media is the best way to know and trace some lost relatives and friends, I had them mainly for some divine reasons – money in particular. I don’t fault them. I even take the positive spin that I could be somebody they could approach in times of confusion and bewilderment. But I also encountered total strangers, who feigned poverty and cavalierly asked for donations, thinking as if I was the DSWD, which provides doleouts.

I look at the things positively. They probably think I could be such a good person to go and approach me. Handling them depends on one’s mindset and cheery disposition. It is not easy though. My response is never automatic. It remains on a cash to cash, or I mean, case to case basis.

Life has many surprises. Social media offers such surprises. I am truly glad that I come to know and use social media in my lifetime. While it could be one big desolate wasteland, I refuse to succumb to this sweeping view. Social media has many oases. 

VIGNETTE: RAPPING INSIDE MRT COACH

By Ba Ipe

LET me confess. I always appreciate every MRT, or LRT, ride I take to go to various points of Metro Manila. I always encounter plenty of enriching experiences that make my existence quite meaningful.

Let me narrate the MRT ride I took Friday early evening. I was to meet a friend in the heart of Makati City. Knowing the wicked traffic of EDSA, I ventured to take an MRT ride and I stayed in the front coach reserved for senior citizens like me, the PWDs, women with kids, and the “obviously pregnant women” (please, don’t ask me why only obviously pregnant women could take it).

I took my ride at the Quezon Avenue station, the first after the North Avenue station, which is the starting point. It looked like an ordinary ride, as I saw most commuters attending to their gadgets, either texting, reading, watching movies and other video clips, or playing games. Others just stared on the windows to see the outside world. I gallantly stood to give way to others to take the vacant seats.

But it was at the Cubao Station that a beautiful story unfolded. A wheelchair-bound young guy and his attendant entered the coach. We gave way and they stayed right at the center of the coach. I did not notice how it started, but one of the commuters, a slightly elderly woman probably in her late or mid-60s, broke the ice and talked to the PWD guy, who deftly answered her with a smile.

The PWD told the woman in a sweet audible voice that he is a fulltime call center agent, but does rapping on the side. Since I was standing in front of the PWD guy and his attendant, I promptly asked him to give us a sample. And the rap artist did it without hesitation.

At that point, we had reached the Annapolis-Santolan station. The MRT train was traveling at a slow pace to prevent conking again. By that time, the PWD started dishing out rap music, narrating his experience as a person with disability and telling us his inability to do functions, which every normal person could. I remember his lines or something to this effect: I knew he is an authentic rap artist.

“Kahit ako’y may kapansanan
Hindi ko titigilan
Ang mangarap ng kabutihan
Sa kapuwa, sa bansa.”

The rap artist told us that that doing rap music is not easy. He does not memorize lines unlike classical songs. As words come into his mind, he sings in the usual sing-song style, a common character of rap music, he said. As a classicist, I could not help but barge in the discussions and told the commuters that rap music is no different from “balagtasan,” where poets recite their lines extemporaneously.

I asked the rap artist his rap music name and he said he is known as Righteous One. His attendant gave his real name: Joshua Berenguer. He has an FB account. I have checked it and he is fairly known in the rap music world. He must be quite an intelligent and sensible young man.

The elderly woman asked her age and he said he is 23. She dutifully pulled a P100 bill from her handbag and handed it to the rap artist. Of course, it was not payment. It was more of a honorarium to create goodwill.

The MRT trip was punctuated when his attendant, or the guy pushing his manual wheelchair, realized they were going the wrong way. This prompted them to go down at the Shaw Boulevard station so that they could take the train going to the opposite direction and alight at the Quezon Ave Station, their original destination.

That was the end of the sideshow.

My attention was abruptly called by a beggar who touched me to ask for some money. I gave him ten pesos. “Maawa na kayo sa taong bulag,” he blurted out and other commuters responded by giving their share. Near the Guadalupe Station, the beggar stood up apparently to prepare to alight there. This was where a funny incident happened.

As he stood up, his purontong pants went down, almost exposing his genital. It was a good thing his long shirt covered his personal property. Two ladies helped him to put up his pants. But one woman could help to say that it went down because of the weight of the many coins he had in the pockets of his pants. He did not wear a belt.

Santa Banana, I told myself, he must have more money than me. If that was the case, he could have at least 500 or six hundred pesos of coins in his pockets. Until that experience, I did not know that beggars ply their trade inside the MRT coaches. Wow!

These are not all. When the coach was nearing the Buendia Station, commuters could not help but notice the perplexed face of an elderly woman, who must be in her 70s. She said she did not know what to do. She was supposed to go down at the Guadalupe Station. Somebody said she missed it. She was lost.

She went down at the Buendia Station. Out of my civic duty, I conducted her to go to the other side of the track and take another train to go to Guadalupe Station.

But not without saying: What a day! 

CONCERNS ON FOREIGN CONTROL OF PHL POWER GRIDS LINGER

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

SIX months after the controversy that China could unilaterally shut off power supply in the entire Philippines went public, the fear of foreign control of its power grids linger. No amount of firefighting by Chinese and Filipino officials could dissipate fear of foreign control of its power supply, which passes through the grid system of the state-owned National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP). Their explanations have become voices in the wildernesses; they were hardly taken seriously.

Fears over China possessing remote control over the country’s national power grid runs parallel now to that of the U.S.’s, as President Donald Trump has moved to secure its power grid from foreign attacks. Bloomberg’s Ari Natter and Stephen Cunningham said Trump’s intention is to “secure the nation’s electricity system from foreign adversaries.”

Trump has ordered a block on U.S. purchases of certain power system equipment from entities deemed risky to national security. Among the now restricted foreign-produced equipment are transformers, capacitors and metering equipment used in power transmission.

Meanwhile, a group of U.S. senators have called the Trump administration to protect power system from Huawei Technologies Co., Chinese producer of solar panels, energy storage technology and telecommunications infrastructure. Huawei could put the grid at risk of foreign surveillance. On another front, the Trump administration has banned Huawei and other Chinese firms like China Telecom from the U.S. telecommunications industry.

In late 2019, CNN had obtained a report for local lawmakers, claiming Chinese engineers had access to "key elements of the system, and that power could in theory be deactivated remotely on Beijing's orders." The report, prepared by an unnamed state agency, warned the Philippines' national security was "completely compromised" due to the control and proprietary access given by the local consortium partner to the Chinese government.

China, through the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), owns 40% of the NGCP. China has acquired this after a franchise was awarded to the SGCC in 2008 under former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who was described by experts to be more "receptive" towards China than her successor, Benigno Aquino III. The NGCP is the nation's only transmission service tasked with operating its power grid where electricity flows from generating plants to distribution utilities and businesses and household nationwide.

Aside from SGCC, the NGCP consortium is composed of the Henry Sy, Jr-led Monte Oro Grid Resources Corporation and Robert Coyiuto, Jr-led Calaca High Power Corporation. The consortium started operations as power transmission service provider in 2009 and holds a 25-year concession contract and 50-year franchise to operate the power transmission network.

Appearing in the pivotal Nov. 26, 2019 Senate public hearing, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi and National Transmission Corporation (Transco) President Melvin Matibag admitted that “China could possibly disable the transmission network which is responsible for the delivery of

electricity across the country.” China’s control of the NGCP is assured with its chair, SGCC’s Zhu Guangchao as its and Wen Bo as its chief technical officer. Henry T. Sy, Jr. sits as NGCP vice chair, while Anthony Almeda is president.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, committee on energy chair, has filed a “resolution to scrutinize the compliance of the NGCP on its mandate to safeguard the grid and ensure continuous electricity supply in the country.” His committee had conducted public hearings, but a committee report has yet to be prepared and issued.

SGCC’s control of the Philippines power grid and China Telecom’s grip on Dito Telecommunity, the third telco after the PLDT Group and Globe Telecom, have similarities. China’s control over NGCP and Dito Telecom are threats to Philippine security and sovereignty.

Moreover, if NGCP’s power transmission operations are SGCC-controlled from network processes to the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), facility planning and systems integration all the way to grid security, the same is true with the China Telecom’s control with Dito Telecom over the country’s third telecommunications franchise.

Press reports said China Telecom has its operating manuals written in Chinese characters to the disadvantage of Filipino technicians. ChinaTel and Dito’s memorandums of agreements (MOAs) with the Armed Forces of the Philippines to set up facilities within military camps violate the Filipinos’ rights, particularly on privacy of data.

A cybersecurity threat comes from concerns on the possibility of Chinese hackers stealing SMS: US-based cybersecurity vendor Fire Eye said that one of China’s prolific hacking groups has developed a new malware that can compromise cellular networks by monitoring and saving SMS traffic from specific phone number.

The unresolved dispute between the Philippines and China over the West Philippine Sea opens up the country to espionage. Several years back, Kasper-sky Labs reported that a Chinese-speaking hacker group called Naikon had successfully infiltrated governments around the South China Sea region especially the Philippines. #

DISASTROUS EFFECTS OF FOREIGN POLICY PIVOT TO CHINA

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

DEALING with China is dealing with a rogue state.

This appears to be the main lesson Italy has learned when it has opened its economy to China. Worst, Italy is one of the most ravaged country by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The troubles arising from Italy-China relations offer a cautionary tale for the Philippines, which like Italy, has opened its economy to China’s entry. The Philippine political leadership, led by the foul-mouthed Rodrigo Duterte has opened major sectors – telecommunications, energy, tourism, and key infrastructures to Chinese entry and control.

This is not to mention the entry of so-called Philippine offshore gaming operators, POGOs, mostly, if not all, Chinese firms that provide online gaming operations to specific markets, particularly China. The presence of tens of thousands of Chinese POGO workers has been a major irritant to many Filipinos mainly because of their unhealthy, or unsanitary, ways.

Italy-China relations offer many lessons.  Press reports said a year after Italy signed up to China’s global investment program, the Belt and Road initiative, relations between Rome and Peking have started to deteriorate rather than strengthen.

The much awaited economic benefits for Italy have yet to materialize, as its trade deficit with China has widened in 2019. The Covid-19 pandemic did not alleviate the situation, as Italy had moved to stop all flights to China over worries about the dreaded virus.

Alongside stalled investments, trade benefits did not add up for Italy. Italian exports to China showed a decline of one percentage point in 2019, even as overall foreign sales rose, according to preliminary figures released by statistics agency Istat in January. With Chinese imports growing, Italy’s total trade deficit with China climbed to €18.7 billion ($20 billion).

Tensions related to the virus “will blow over once Covid disappears,” said Jan Weidenfeld of the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin. “But those fundamental issues of reassessment of what’s doing business with China means, that is here to stay.”

Italian author Giacomino Nicolazzo recounted the way ex- Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s government has allowed China to get away with purchases and acquisitions in violation of Italian laws and European Union trade agreements with the United States and the United Kingdom.

“In 2014, China infused the Italian economy with €5 billion through purchases of companies costing less than €100 million each. By the time Renzi left office (in disgrace) in 2016, Chinese acquisitions had exceeded €52 billion,” said Nicolazzo.

When the dust settled, China owned more than 300 companies representing 27 percent of the major Italian firms. Nicolazzo said the Bank of China now owns five major banks in Italy, all of which had been secretly and illegally propped up by Renzi using pilfered pension funds. He claimed soon after, the China Milan Equity Exchange was opened  and much of Italy’s wealth was being funneled back to the Chinese mainland.

Chinese state entities own Italy’s major telecommunication corporation (Telecom Italia) as well as its major utilities (ENI and ENEL) and national power grid. “Throughout all of these purchases and acquisitions, Renzi’s government afforded the Chinese unrestricted and unfettered access to Italy and its financial markets, many coming through without customs inspections,” said Nicolazzo.

“Quite literally, tens of thousands of Chinese came in illegally through Milan and went back home carrying money, technology and corporate secrets. Thousands more were allowed to enter and disappeared into shadows of Milan and other manufacturing cities of Lombardy, only to surface in illegal sewing shops, producing knock-off designer clothes and slapping ‘Made In Italy’ labels on them -- all with the tacit approval of the Renzi government.”

“This should hopefully be a warning to the world that while we work to rid ourselves of the virus, we should just as vehemently endeavor to rid ourselves of any government that circumvents the Constitution and ignores the laws of the land,” stressed Nicolazzo.

The Philippines has been following in Italy in its unabashed foreign policy pivot to favor China. Since Duterte’s election in 2016, China’s presence has been quite noticeable.

Encroachment into the country is highlighted by published reports that 3,000 members of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have entered the country either  tourists or workers in POGO firms.  Sen. Panfilo Lacson, chair of the Senate committee on national defense and security, said he had received what could be considered an unverified information from a source that 2,000 to 3,000 PLA personnel are in the country on “immersion missions” and other unknown purposes.

“If true, we have every reason to be concerned because of the circumstances surrounding the West Philippine Sea, not to mention the unusually high number of Chinese influx and the unexplainable amount of monies flowing into the country from [the] Chinese…” said Lacson.

The PLA report comes at the heels of security fears hounding the Philippines’ power and telecommunications sectors, due to China’s control over the national grid and the entry of the third major telecommunications firm.

Legislative probes have already been conducted into national security threats resulting from Chinese ownership and control of the Philippines’ power grid, given that the State Grid Corporation of China is the single biggest equity holder in the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) at 40%.

In the telecommunications sector, the Philippine military is opening up its bases and camps to Chinese government presence by allowing Dito Telecommunity to build facilities in military camps and installations. Dito is a consortium of Filipino businessman Dennis Uy’s holdings firm Udenna Corporation with a 35% stake, his listed company Chelsea Logistics, 25%, and the Chinese government-owned and -controlled China Telecom, 40%.

According to Sen. Francis Pangilinan, an assessment from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on the move to allow Dito Telecommunity to put up its towers in military camps warned of the possibility of eavesdropping by the China-linked telecommunications firm.

With anti-China sentiment rising in the Philippines, the Duterte government can learn from the experiences of its European counterpart. Italy’s former deputy prime minister and opposition leader Matteo Salvini warned that “trade agreements, friendship and cultural relations are fine, but handing over the keys of our home to Chinese companies, which depend on the state -- no.”

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas cautioned that if some countries “think they can do clever deals with the Chinese, they will come down to earth with a bump.” #

PARALLEL COUNT: WHYS AND WHEREFORES

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

(N.B. In 1992, my colleagues in the journalistic community installed me as media director of the Media-Citizens’ Quick Count (MCQC), which, under the election laws at that time, was tasked to conduct a parallel count of the results of the 1992 presidential elections. As media director, my task was to inform the public re details of the MCQC parallel count. But my job did not limit me to the dissemination of institutional information for public consumption. It had exposed me too to the sad realities of Philippine politics. Please read my recollections of my MCQC experience and their relevance to the present situation.)

NO sane man trusts the official vote count of the watchdog Commission on Elections (Comelec). It is always been subject to numerous questions. Lest we forget our electoral mindset is that Filipino politicians generally don’t lose; they just get cheated.

It was on the basis of this premise that Christian Monsod, whom Cory Aquino named to head Comelec after Ramon Felipe Jr. finished his term as chairman in 1990 and retired from public service, took steps to institute parallel count to dispel nasty rumors and questions about Comelec’s institutional integrity. Monsod made sure that the institutional body to conduct parallel count would be a joint body that had media and citizens as key components.

Hence, the Media Citizens’ Quick Count, or MCQC, was born in 1991. The media arm was composed of the various media outfits at that time; they were mostly traditional media – newspapers, magazines, and broadcast networks (radio networks and TV stations.) The citizens’ arm was the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel). Namfrel had a sterling record of being the main citizens’ arm in the 1986 “snap” presidential elections.

Namfrel was not new to parallel count. It did its parallel count of the 1986 presidential elections, where it had Cory Aquino as winner, but had to stop its unofficial count at 75 percent, when it could no longer retrieve election returns from the field in what was widely described as fraudulent elections under the Marcos dictatorship.

Marcos had to call a snap presidential elections because of serious questions on his legitimacy as president of the Philippines. The international community viewed him as a mere interloper, as he ruled the country without any mandate from the Filipino people.

Quick count was a misnomer; the appropriate term was parallel count. Even Monsod knew no one could trust Comelec’s official count. Comelec, at that time, was a dubious institution with a dubious reputation when it came to its primary mandate - vote count and overseeing the conduct of elections. It was described as a major institution that had to learn how to count.

Hence, a parallel count is premised on the sordid reality that Comelec as the electoral watchdog is capable of institutional cheating. Empirical data show it cheats to favor certain candidates. The 1986 presidential elections was a classic example. Comelec, as an institution, went all out to cheat Cory Aquino in favor of Ferdinand Marcos.

The scandalous manner how Comelec cheated was well chronicled to the point that the international community did not accept Marcos electoral victory in 1986. It was a major antecedent to the 1986 EDSA People Revolution that toppled the Marcos dictatorship.

When conducted by reputable private watchdog organizations, a parallel count would provide a double check on Comelec’s official count. A parallel count would give protesters the basis for their electoral protests. A parallel count is the best way to ensure the integrity of political exercises.

The Comelec official count and the parallel count have the same bases: election returns from the fields. The parallel count we had at MCQC was even stringent because it went down to the precinct level.

Monsod wanted the parallel count to succeed because it was his way to prove that the restored democracy was working. The 1992 presidential elections was the first presidential polls to be held after the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution. Besides, Monsod was one of the framers of the 1987 Constitution. He wanted the restored democracy to succeed.

The 1992 presidential elections went smoothly. Fidel V. Ramos won the elections. MCQC did its job of a parallel count. Its report to the Comelec says its parallel count covered over 98 percent of all election returns.

Eddie Nuque, who was MCQC executive director and with whom I worked closely (I was directly under him), had prepared a complete report detailing the extent of its parallel count. In fact, the MCQC parallel count project was a model of other emerging democracies that included the likes of Nepal, among others.

FAST FORWARD TO MAY 10, 2010. It was the first presidential polls that used the automated electoral system. The use of automated election system was Comelec’s answer to criticisms that its official count was slow and prone to fraud.

The 2010 presidential elections was unique in the sense that nobody, even Monsod, knew exactly the use of parallel count in an automated election system. Since winners could be known in a matter of hours, it made no sense to conduct a parallel count.

A parallel count was most useful in previous presidential elections because they employed manual count. Actually, it took weeks for a manual count to determine the winners. A manual count is essentially a slow count.

The 2004 presidential elections, the last to have employed a manual count, was manipulated to have GMA and Noli de Castro proclaimed as winners. Even Monsod, the election guru, had a hard time figuring out the role of private watchdogs to ensure free, clean, and honest elections in an automated election system.

I was the media consultant of the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente), a civil society organization that has been formed in 2007 to provide legal services to fraternal organizations that work to ensure fair elections. Lente was also empowered to provide legal services on electoral protests and cases brought to court.

There was hardly a parallel count of the 2010 presidential elections, but it was a different story in the 2019 midterm elections, when the PPCRV, Comelec’s citizens arm, together with various media outfits have formed a parallel count project to enable the people to know immediately the outcome of the elections.

But the transparency server collapsed at 6:15 pm, or a few minutes after the polling precincts had closed. There were numerous criticisms about the absence of the PPCRV-KBP parallel count and by the time, Comelec had resumed its transparency server, it had the candidates of Hugpong as either winning or leading, triggering serious doubts about the integrity of the elections.

We don’t know the mechanics of a parallel count. At this point, it’s best to look into the parallel country of PPCRV-KBP to determine the integrity of the elections results. Without looking into the parallel count, the results sre still subject to serious doubts.

FAST FORWARD TO 2020. The worst pandemic due to the novel coronavirus is affecting the world, leading to the infection of over three million worldwide. Many countries, including the Philippines, have instituted lockdowns and quarantine measures.

The prognosis is the Philippines would be among the countries to relax its quarantine measures. It would be back to normal within this year. Soon, the entire country would address the 2022 presidential elections. Candidates vying for the country’s top political post would appear from the horizon to offer themselves as alternatives.

As it has been customary in the last six post-Marcos presidential elections, the process would be intense and emotional. The dynamics would be passionate and nerve-wracking. Candidates are not expected to give any quarters to the opponents.

Given the lessons of the 2019 midterm elections when the transparency server broke down minutes after the start of official count and winners had emerged after six or seven hours of disappearance, it has been asserted that measures should be taken to prevent the repetition of the nasty experience.

There are suggestions to have a parallel count of the results of the 2022 presidential elections. How this would be done is something that has to be conceptualized by elections gurus and technicians. This is a matter expected to dominate in brainstorming sessions.

So much is at stake in 2022. We should not allow Inferior Davao and its chief sponsor – China – to tamper with our electoral system. They have to be stopped before the Philippines becomes a province of China.    

 (OJO: I would discuss this issue in the next blogs.)

DON'T BE HOPEFUL ON THIRD TELCO

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

DON’T be too hopeful. The third telco after the PLDT Group and Globe Telecom may still emerge, but it would be a little late. Or it may not emerge at all. Reasons for the delay of non-appearance: novel coronavirus pandemic and changes in U.S. policies.

The planned July 1, 2021 start of commercial operations of Dito Telecommunity Corporation remains a plan. Many variables, foreseen and unforeseen , would come to play to hinder its target date of commercial operations. The pandemic has affected China, Dito’s main source of technological knowhow and raw materials, including the rolling stocks for its construction and infrastructure works.

The pandemic has triggered delays and postponement of the delivery of the inputs for Dito’s infrastructure, according to Adel Tamano, chief administrative officer. Affected largely are the construction and infrastructure works in Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon, Tamano said, adding that health and safety issues linger on its workforce because of the pandemic.

Although Dito has claimed its rollout was continuing amid the pandemic, Tamano indicated the third telco firm could have difficulties to meet the technical launch by July this year, where the firm could provide services to 37 percent of the population with a minimum average speed of 27 megabits per second during its first year of operations.

According to its terms of reference with the government, Dito has promised to provide by the end of its fifth year telecommunications coverage to 84 percent of the country’s population at a minimum average speed of at least 55 mbps.

The technical launch differs from the rollout of commercial services to subscribers, which could come as early as July 21, 2021, Tamano said. Metro Manila and urban areas in Luzon are key markets to ensure Dito meets its population coverage targets.

“Let me assure the public that we are very much aware of the pressing need for world class connectivity that Filipinos truly deserve which this global pandemic has made even more evident,” Tamano said.

DICT Undersecretary Eliseo Rio Jr. said Dito Telecom might not invoke force majeure, or protection due to unforeseen events like the COVID-19 pandemic, should it miss its rollout targets. Press reports said the bidding terms of reference allow a grace period in case of a delay in rollout. Section 14 of the terms of reference allows the telecom firm two grace periods of six months each within the five-year commitment period.

The government would not grant special extensions to its rollout commitments despite the COVID-19 crisis that keeps on disrupting the global supply chain. Rio said. Dito could not seek reprieve by invoking force majeure, or protection due to unforeseen events such as the pandemic, because this was not included in the terms of reference.

Dito, backed by China Telecom and the group of Davao City-based businessman Dennis A. Uy, is to hold its technical launch by July. Its failure to meet its commitments would allow the national government to seize its P25.7-billion performance bond and recall assigned radio frequencies. The terms of reference, however, allow a grace period in case of a delay in its rollout, but not it in schedule to go into commercial operations.

“If they, for example, miss the July deadline but were able to comply six months later, they will be allowed to continue, but that would be their strike one,” Rio said in a press conference. “If that happens again within the five-year period, that would be their strike two. But strike three, they are out,” he added.

Dito Telecom won the bid to launch a nationwide telecommunications service to challenge PLDT Group and Globe Telecom. Its license to operate was given on July 8, 2019 in an event that outlined rollout milestones including its technical launch by July 2020.

It’s dubious if Dito Telecom was  “on track” to meet its commitments amid disruptions caused by the pandemic and the two-month Luzon lockdown. Still, Dito Telecom has not asked telco regulators for some leniency amid the health crisis as their July “technical launch” nears. “This means they are on track even with this emergency situation that we’re having now,” Rio said.

Dito Telecom was reported to have started searching for “alternative sources” of technology and raw materials to start their operations after its deliveries from China got stuck. The firm did not explain any details for alternative sources of technology.

This is not the issue that confronts Dito Telecom. Policy issues in the United States could strike Dito Telecom adversely affecting its planned commercial operations next year. Dito Telecom would have a hard time operating here thin the country once the China Telecom is banned in the US since there will be a problem in the interconnection in cyberspace.

Several US Departments had encouraged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to revoke China Telecom (Americas) Corp’s authorization to provide  international telecommunications services to and from the US. “This recommendation reflects the substantial and unacceptable national security and law enforcement risks associated with China Telecom’s continued access to US telecommunications infrastructure,” said the group of departments, which include State, Justice, Defense, Homeland Security, and Commerce, in a statement, along with the United States Trade Representative, in a statement regarding the filling at the FCC recently.

The call is in the midst of the continuous scrutiny being done by FCC to China Telecom in an investigation that was started last year. The US subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned telecommunications company holds the license to grant service in the US since 2007. The FCC united to vote May of last year to deny the request of another state-owned Chinese telecommunications company, the Mother mobile, to grant service in the US.

According to FCC chairman Ajit Pai, the commission was able to determine following the vote that China Mobile was controlled by the Chinese government. It was mentioned in a statement that there could be danger in the possibility of the Chinese government using the approval of the FCC to conduct espionage or spying against the US government.

The telecommunications companies of China are thoroughly being scrutinized  by the US. Just last year, lawmakers urged FCC to review China Telecom and the other Chinese telecommunication company, the China Unicom. Also last year, the Trump administration placed Huawei Technologies – the Chinese telecoms company that is the global leader in next-generation 5G technology, on an “entity list” and barred it from buying critical components from its American suppliers.

The US has also urged other governments around the world to exclude Huawei from developing their 5G infrastructure, citing national security risks. In a recent filing, the departments contended that the Chinese government has “ultimate ownership and control” of China Telecom and the company’s US operations.

Such ownership might allow Chinese government entities “to engage in malicious cyber activity enabling economic espionage and disruption and misrouting of US communications” and “provide opportunities for increased Chinese government-sponsored economic espionage,” according to the filing. 

The departments also contended in their filing that China Telecom had made inaccurate statements about where its US records were stored, and that it had made inaccurate statements to US customers about its cybersecurity and privacy practices that may fall short of complying with US law.

WHO'S THE GUILTY PARTY IN ABS-CBN CLOSURE?

WHO'S the guilty party in the ABS-CBN closure? Atty. Rodolfo Salalima, the first secretary of the newly created Department of Information Technology, says the cease and desist order issued by the NTC is null and void. It has no force of the law. His paper is quite exhaustive as it discusses the finer points of law about the NTC's C&D order. So who's guilty? Finally, Rudy Salalima could not help but muse how we have become a nation of sadists and masochists amid the developments. Please care to read ...

Excerpts: "Why are we a Nation of sadists and masochists inflicting pain and sufferings against each other and unto ourselves? Why do we unnecessarily create enemies amongst us thereby poisoning our body politic? Why build walls and fences when we can construct human and humane connecting bridges? When we should heal and move as one, particularly now, against and amidst this terrible pandemic."

TO RAGE AGAINST
THE DYING OF THE LIGHT!

ATTY. R.A. SALALIMA

ON MAY 5, 2020, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued its Cease and Desist Order (CDO) of the same date directing ABS-CBN to cease and desist from its broadcasting operations, a necessary public service, effective on the evening of May 5th, a sorrowful Tuesday. The CDO, however, issued with precipitate haste, is VOID AB INITIO or from the very beginning. This NTC order, because void, is of no legal effect or consequence. THE CDO SIMPLY DOES NOT HAVE THE FORCE OF LAW.

Assuming arguendo that the CDO is correct based on substantive law, the CDO is illegal and void because it was issued without ABS-CBN being heard on the legal issue thereon related to its Congressional Franchise IN VIOLATION OF THAT COMPANY’S CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO PROCEDURAL DUE PROCESS OF LAW. According to the Deputy Commissioner-spokesperson of the NTC, the CDO was issued because of a legal issue raised in regard ABS-CBN Congressional Franchise, particularly its expiration on May 5th.

Thus, the following QUESTIONS: PRIOR TO THE ISSUANCE OF THE CDO ON MAY 5TH, ABS-CBN was operating based on a Certificate of Public Convenience (CPC) or authorization from the NTC. Was there a Petition or Complaint filed with the NTC questioning the continued operation of ABS-CBN predicated on the expiry of its franchise? If the Petition was dated and filed on May 5th with the NTC, then the CDO also dated May 5, 2020 was clearly issued with precipitate haste and thus void given the interval between the FILING of the Petition and the ISSUANCE of the CDO - - both May 5, 2020.

If the Petition was filed before May 5th, or prior the expiration of the ABS-CBN’s franchise on May 5th, then the Petition is PREMATURE IN LAW and thus there was NO CAUSE OF ACTION versus ABS-CBN as yet as at the filing date of the Petition, if any. In consequence, the CDO is likewise void ab initio. The Petition dated PRIOR to May 5, 2020, if any, because premature, should have been dismissed outright.

Was a copy of this Petition, if any, served on ABS-CBN for this public service company to reply thereto and be heard thereon? Was there a Show Cause Order issued by the NTC to ABS-CBN and was there a hearing on this Show Cause Order attended by the real parties-in-interest involved BEFORE the issuance of the CDO. Obviously, the answers to all the above searching questions are all NO given that the whole world, ABS-CBN included, was caught by surprise by the sudden appearance of the CDO dated and on May 5, 2020 ordering the ABS-CBN to stop and desist from its operation effective May 5th also.

In the process of denying ABS-CBN PROCEDURAL due process with supersonic speed, the NTC, in issuing its void CDO likewise seriously violated its own 2006 Rules of Practice and Procedure, particularly Section 4 (Part III, Rule 10) thereof re: Issuance of Show Cause Order and Prior Hearing before Issuance of a Cease and Desist Order.

Judicial Knowledge is different from and not judicial notice in Remedial or Procedural Law. On the former, every judge, even in quasi-judicial cases before the NTC, must decide a case based NOT on what he personally knows but based on issues (of fact and/or law) raised and presented in evidence in a hearing or process where both substantive and procedural due process are observed punctiliously.

As stated, due process is BOTH SUBSTANTIVE (law and fact-based) and PROCEDURAL (right to be informed of and to be heard on charges made and fair trial thereon). Without procedural due process, all decisions of courts and quasi-judicial bodies, though arguably consistent with substantive statutory laws, are void ab initio. (See Ang Tibay vs, CIR [1940]). They are of no force and effect in law. This is true of the NTC’s CDO in question.

GOVERNMENT FRANCHISES OR LICENCES
TO OPERATE PUBLIC SERVICE.

May ABS-CBN continue its operations after the expiration of its Congressional Franchise but while its application for extension thereof (timely filed and pending with the House of Representatives in 2016 yet) is being heard or yet to be heard and has yet to be resolved? THIS IS THE CRUCIAL LEGAL ISSUE OF THE MOMENT.

THE ANSWER: Yes, as a matter of legal right and in the interest of justice and due process… all of which are at the heart of our Constitution which has primacy over the statutory laws of the land.

To begin with, any franchise to operate public service like telecommunications or broadcasting or any business license is a privilege granted by the State. This I grant. BUT once granted and the franchisee infuses investments or resources into the franchise to make it operational, like CAPITAL EXPENSES (CAPEX) for the network infrastructure and OPERATING EXPENSES (OPEX) for the salaries and wages of the workers and employees, the franchise (or its application for extension seasonably filed) becomes a vested constitutional property right which cannot simply be taken away, revoked or set aside without due process of law.

Bases: (1) Section 1, Article III (Bill of Rights) of our Constitution: “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property WITHOUT DUE PROCESS OF LAW, nor shall any person be denied EQUAL PROTECTION OF THE LAW.” Moreover, the right to property is the right to acquire, hold, enjoy, possess and manage property, as well as to devote the same to legitimate use. (2) Fact is, in Shauf vs Court of Appeals (1990), the Supreme Court even ruled that the right to earn a living is part of one’s right to life itself. Our Constitution is a Freedom Constitution.

The Bill of Rights was intentionally enshrined in our Constitution for a purpose; it has primacy over statutory laws and the latter cannot rise over and prevail against the former. The Bill of Rights has primacy too over the powers of government which functions only on delegated powers entrusted to it by the sovereign people. (3) See also the Preamble of our Constitution which speaks of “a regime of truth, justice, xxx equality”. And justice is all about basic fairness and due process.; (4) see also the Supreme Court rulings in Ang Tibay vs CIR (1990) and (5) Globe Telecom vs NTC, et al. (2004), all about basic substantive and procedural due process of law.

ABS-CBN’s constitutional right to operate in the interim gains more importance because its operations are clothed with public interest as it is engaged in public service, and this right is intertwined intimately with the expanded digital freedom of expression (Section 4, Bill of Rights) and Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, thus: “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and TO SEEK, RECEIVE AND IMPART INFORMATION AND IDEAS THROUGH ANY MEDIA REGARDLESS OF FRONTIERS.”

Equally supportive of the above position, the Braid provision is more telling:

“GENERAL PROVISIONS
XXX
SECTION 10. The State SHALL PROVIDE the policy environment for the full development of Filipino capability and THE EMERGENCE OF COMMUNICATION STRUCTURES suitable to the needs and aspirations of the nation and the balanced flow of information into, out of, and across the country, IN ACCORDANCE WITH A POLICY THAT RESPECTS THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND OF THE PRESS.” (Section 10, Article VXI, Phil. Constitution)

Anent the Secretary of Justice’s opinion in support of ABS-CBN on grounds of equity, our Civil Law concept of EQUITY is part of the laws of our land. But more than equity, ABS-CBN’s operations in the interim is a matter of constitutional right, justice and due process as explained above.

In taking the above affirmative position, I am not unmindful of the contrary views of others in support of the Cease and Desist Order of May 5, 2020 of the NTC based on an alleged substantive law (the Radio Control Act No. 3846) which requires a Congressional franchise before a broadcast company may be granted by the NTC a Certificate of Public Convenience or authority to operate, and the Supreme Court ruling in Associated Communications and Wireless Services – United Broadcasting Networks vs NTC (2003). In response, let me be brief:

1. The NTC CDO ruling is VOID AB INITIO because it was issued with precipitate haste IN VIOLATION OF ABS-CBN’s constitutional right to PROCEDURAL due process of law, and, worse, IN VIOLATION OF NTC’s OWN 2006 RULES OF PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE in regard the issuance of Show Cause and Cease and Desist Orders;
2. Our Bill of Rights and our Constitution have primacy over statutory laws like Act No. 3846. Thus, Act No. 3846 cannot prevail as against our Constitution because our Constitution, though silent, is deemed written in every statutory laws of the land. This is basic in Statutory Construction and Constitutional Law;
3. The particularities in and the uniqueness/novelty of ABS-CBN’s factual situation are not identical to those in the case of Associated Communications. Thus, Associated Communications is not applicable to the ABS-CBN’s case. BLIND IDOLATRY TO JUDICIAL PRECEDENTS, AS WHEN THE SALIENT FACTS OBTAINING IN TWO CASES ARE NOT IDENTICAL, MUST NOT BE COUNTENANCED. SEE JUSTICE BENJAMIN M. CARDOZO ON “THE GROWTH OF LAW” IN RE THE FECUNDITY OF OUR CASE LAW AND BLIND ADHERENCE TO PRECEDENTS, TO “CERTAINTIES” THAT ARE ILLUSORY AND SHAM.

THE FAULT IS NOT IN THE STARS
BUT BECAUSE WE ARE UNDERLINGS

Why are we a Nation of sadists and masochists inflicting pain and sufferings against each other and unto ourselves? Why do we unnecessarily create enemies amongst us thereby poisoning our body politic? Why build walls and fences when we can construct human and humane connecting bridges? When we should heal and move as one, particularly now, against and amidst this terrible pandemic.

NTC’s cardinal sin is its issuance of the void ab initio CDO causing the serious quagmire that we are currently in. It must be held accountable for its sin. But let us not make a scapegoat out of NTC for our current problem because NTC is the wrong agency put to extreme pressure to solve a legal issue - - a solution which primarily and exclusively belongs to another agency of government.

The ultimate responsibility and fault lie on Congress, particularly the Leadership of the House of Representatives, constitutionally vested with THE exclusive plenary jurisdiction and power to hear and grant applications for franchises or extensions thereof, for temporizing on ABS-CBN’s application for the extension of its franchise seasonably filed in 2016 yet. The simple, easy and quick solution - - a plain, speedy and adequate remedy - - to the legal issue was and is within the exclusive and plenary power of a supposedly independent Congress, but the leadership of the House failed our country and people. And that great power of the House/Congress, a CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY more than a right, to hear and grant a franchise sans serious and valid obstacle carries with it the lesser ancillary power to grant a temporary relief in the form of a PROVISIONAL Congressional franchise or authorization IN THE INTERIM pending the hearing and grant of the regular Congressional franchise with a term of 25 years, if congress is so minded to conduct a meticulous and punctilious hearing on the merit. ABS-CBN filed its application for the extension of its franchise so seasonably. Nothing happened to this application todate. So where is justice?

For Congressional non-action, public service and freedom of expression were thus sacrificed via a void legal technicality - - the void ab initio Cease and Desist Order of the NTC dated May 5 2020. Non-action is the worst form of delay. Because it leaves the aggrieved without clear and speedy recourse.

So unfortunate and sad, particularly in these dark hellish nights of COVID…

AND HERE I RAGE AGAINST THE DYING OF THE LIGHT!

P.S.: I took the legal position above stated in the best light that God had given me to see the TRUTH, with charity and kindness for and to all, and with malice towards no one. Against strict law and legal technicality, let us think and act, always, not by the letter of the law that killeth but by the spirit that giveth life to the law. Our Constitution is not a strict, passive, cold and indifferent law. It is a living and dynamic organism that must respond and adjust to the needs and in the service of every Filipino, our people, and our one and only Nation. God bless us all!

(Please share/pass forward. Thank you.)

- Atty. R.A. Salalima
May 10, 2020