Titas de Bacolod: Issues

Showing posts with label Issues. Show all posts

Sunday, June 19, 2022

Why you missed Winnie Monsod's column this weekend on the Inquirer digital edition

In case you missed it, the last time Winnie Monsod's opinion column appeared on the digital version of the Inquirer was June 11, 2022. That was about the Alternative assessment of Duterte admin (2)

Yesterday "Get Real" no longer appeared on the digital version of the Inquirer. Surprised that I didn't find it, I had t look for the hard copy of Inquirer for June 18, 2022. Lo and behold, Winnie's column was still there. That may be the last of it though.

I'll share with you what was on her column there.

Last Saturday, I received an email from Jullet Javellana, Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) associate publisher, informing me that my column, "Get Real" would be dis continued, citing that I am a board member of Rappler, "another news organization and therefore a direct competitor of the Inquir er, and that I have encouraged my readers to read Rappler. I quote: "In light of the clear conflict of interest between your position as columnist of the Inquirer and your advocacy for Rappler and membership in its Board, we are serving notice that we shall discontinue. your column, 'Get Real' effective July 1, 2022."

This reasoning intrigues me. For when I was invited to join the Inquirer more than 20 years ago by Mrs. Marixi R. Prieto (then its publisher). I was a columnist for the Business World (BW), writing a twice-weekly column. That did not stop Mrs. Prieto, however, nor obviously Letty Magsanoc, its late editor in chief. They published my "Get Real" column on Saturdays, while my BW columns came out on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This arrangement lasted more than 10 years, until late 2010 or early 2011, when, for health reasons, I had to give up writing for BW.

Then, in 2018, when I accepted an invitation to join the board of Rappler, this was public knowledge. I consider it an honor, especially since it has been under siege by the Duterte administration-just as PDI was under siege by both the Duterte and Estrada administrations. The PDI case also merited my support and unstinting loyalty, as well as the support and loyalty of all who believe in the freedom and independence of the press. Thus, I saw Rappler as a comrade in arms to PDI and not a competitor. I assumed PDI management felt the same, since at no time from 2018 to the present did PDI management take issue with my involvement with, or advocacy of, Rappler's cause.

By the way, I never wrote a column for Rappler and do not have any financial interest in it, other than one share of stock to qualify for a board membership.

So Reader, we may ask: Why the sudden volte-face by PDI? And why, after more than 20 years of working together, does PDI not think that I rate a face-to-face discussion or a Zoom chat or a telephone chat, instead of an impersonal email? This is how we handled difficulties before. To be sure, Yam, from the Opinion Desk, called to try to explain, but it was cold comfort.

Thank you for your faithful readership. Now, on to a more pressing issue: Every one seems to assume that Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will be the next president. Hold your horses! It may be temporary. The Supreme Court still has to decide two cases against him: one, that he is not qualified to be a candidate, and another, that he is disqualified. A third case, still undecided by the Commission on Elections en banc (disclosure my husband is a legal counsel for petitioners), also for disqualification, will end up with the high court as well. The Comelec division should have decided on this case within 45 days (by its own rules). It took more than 6o days. The en banc, in the same manner, should have given its decision by May 10. It is now June 18.

Don't for a moment think, Reader, that the Supreme Court will just wash its hands off the cases, with a "vox popull, vox dei." Why? Because in 2016, the high court reversed its previous rulings, and I quote, "Suffice it to state that NO SUCH PRESUMPTION EXISTS IN ANY STATUTE OR PROCEDURAL RULE Besides, it is contrary to human experience that the electorate would have full knowledge of a public official's misdeeds..."

What are the case arguments? Simply put, Marcos Jr. is not qualified to be president because he isn't even a qualified voter (he was convicted), and he lied in his certificate of candidacy.

Marcos Jr. is disqualified because (1) he has committed a crime of moral turpitude by not filing his income tax returns for four years in a row, (2) he has been convicted of a crime for not filing nor paying his income taxes-his defense that, as a government official, the government already withholds his taxes only holds water when that is his only source of income. But, at 24, he was also chair of the Philcomsat board, with substantial honoraria/compensation.

Will the Supreme Court uphold the rule of law?

solita monsod@yahoo.com

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Follow me on Twitter @TitasdeBacolod

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Sunday, February 27, 2022

The Ghost of Marcos Crony and Plunderer Roberto Benedicto Haunts Negros Island in 2022

Blog, Issues

BACOLOD CITY - When presidential aspirant, Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. came into town last February 23, 2022, eyebrows were raised among Bacolod and Negros Occidental citizens as to who came out to support the son of the former dictator, Ferdinand Marcos.

It was of no surprise that Negros Occidental Vice Governor Jeffrey Ferrer was leading the party to welcome Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The dots are so easy to connect. Vice Governor Ferrer is the spouse of the Representative of Negros Occidental's 4th District, Hon. Juliet Marie "Yoyette" Ferrer, daughter of Philippine movie industry icon Kitchie Benedicto. Kitchie Benedicto was the daughter of former Philippine Ambassador Roberto S. Benedicto, who is known to have been Ferdinand Marcos' crony for cornering the proceeds of the sugar industry.

Under Martial Law, then President Marcos allowed Benedicto (known locally as "RSB") to take control of the Philippine Exchange Company (Philex), which monopolized the sugar planters' international trade. Benedicto used Philex to buy cheap sugar from local producers and sell it abroad for large profits, largely at the expense of the planters who in turn could not in turn pay back bank loans and wages of people in their farms.

The domino effect was that hunger was widespread in the countryside, breeding an insurgency and making Negros island a hotbed for local communist rebels.

These were the worst days of Negros after World War II and most Negros sugar planters remember how bitter those days were. Only most remember the bitter days of unrest and hunger in Negros because when Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. flew in last week, it seemed like quite a lot had forgotten their sorry state under the plunder of RSB.

Without having to name names, they were there. The ones who left for the US in the early 1980s as students or as young professionals to start a new life because there was hardly any future for them left in Bacolod. Today, having bounced back, living well, and retired or semi-retired in Bacolod, they are now throwing support behind Bong-Bong Marcos, oblivious to the agonies of their late parents who staunchly fought RSB and Marcos.

As if to spit on the graves of their deceased parents who hurt the most during the RSB years, the fresh local supporters came out in red and green in adulation of the dictator's son.

When one looks back, there will always be the supporters of the late President Marcos in Negros. Even back then under Marcos years, there were families who were loyal to Marcos up in the north and down in the south. No one forgets the infamy of the Escalante massacre in 1985. So yes, FM loyalists have their place in Negros. And yes, you have to give them some loyalty award for being there all throughout.

What puzzles though is the selective amnesia many have shown. It is one thing to support FM Jr. because you were there all along like your father was an Assemblyman during Marcos time and you had access to FM, getting some minor favors from the strongman along the way. But it is definitely another story, painfully hilarious, to see the ones shouting, "Sama Sama tayo Babangon Muli", knowing very wall that thirty six years ago, they were at the Bacolod Public Plaza chanting, "Tama Na! Sobra Na! Palitan Na!".

As it is, with a strong following, in Negros, you have to hand it to the supporters of the Uni-Team for having called up the ghost of the Marcos crony and plunderer Roberto S. Benedicto, as if to sneer on all who were victimized, "I'm baaaaack!".

This only prompts those on the other side of the fence, whether for Pacquiao, Lacson, Isko, or Leni, to fight harder as never before.

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Follow me on Twitter @TitasdeBacolod

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Wednesday, August 31, 2016

The Photo Which Launched Ten Thousand Feeding Programs

Art, Issues

There are three events which led to my writing of this piece. Two are in the future, and one just happened over the weekend.

Just a few days ago, we celebrated National Heroes' Day. Often, we think of heroes as someone who valiantly fought a war or stood up against tyranny. For us Titas, Joan of Arc is the default icon that comes to mind as we grew up in schools who took pride in their order stemming from Europe. Inasmuch as there are the Filipina heroines such as Gabriela Silang, nothing comes quite close to the romanticism of being burnt at the stake.

With Joan of Arc as a mental peg, I am drawn to think of our modern day Joans. These were the many women of Negros Island during the Marcos years who took their valiant stand not just against tyranny but against the onslaught of widespread hunger in the political volcano that was Negros.

Flashback to 1985. Negros Island was a boiling cauldron of political unrest. The sugar planters were stuck in the doldrums and reeling from the systematic pillage of the sugar industry by Ferdinand Marcos and his college buddy, Roberto S. Benedicto - RSB as he was unfondly known. Insurgency as brought forth by the communist rebels was alive and well in the countryside and in the hinterlands of Negros. A massacre had just been perpetrated in the northern town of Escalante.

All over, the collateral damage were the children who hardly had anything to eat. Malnutrition was widespread. Many children, numbering over a hundred thousand Negros-wide were in critical or third-degree malnourished state. A third degree state is when a child weighs only 40% of the weight for their normal age.

It was an emergency situation which summoned the attention of various relief and aid organizations the world over. And meanwhile, the party went on in Malacanang. The first family must have been gleefully counting their gold bars. Yes, the same gold bars they brought to Hawaii, borne of the sweat of the sugar workers and more.

If social media were alive back then, people would be putting forth hashtags such as #prayfornegros and #savethenegroschildren. But there was no social media to bring this to the public. The government-controlled media back then could only publish what was beautiful and acceptable in praise of the Marcos regime.

Amidst that grim landscape, a photo leaked out. It was one photo among many by 1987 Pulitzer Prize Winner Kim Komenich. It was the iconic photo of Joel Abong, the son of a fisherman. His malnourished state and dire facial expression triggered the mobilization of a thousand feeding programs and sacrificial lunches. No, not a thousand, make that ten thousand. Leading the charge were the international agencies such as UNICEF and Oxfam. They were our heroes. They were the ones who literally stood on the top of the Ford Fieras and rented jeepneys with megaphone in hand putting order into the feeding sessions conducted.

Parallel to the international agencies' efforts were the numerous feeding programs put together by the housewives of the planters. They did not need any media to alert them of what was happening. They knew there was hunger. It was not just reported, it was felt first hand. Thirty one years on from those days which led up to the snap elections and EDSA revolution of 1986, I wish to take this moment to honor all the women of Negros who silently went out of their way and organized themselves to feed the poorest of the poor.

Beyond the feeding, these women of Negros took it one step further. Cottage industries were set up to somehow provide a means of livelihood for the women in the farms who no longer had any work in the canefields. Out of the hunger in the countryside, a chain reaction was set in motion. Feeding programs, cottage industries, and eventually, the showcase of the industries born out of adversity - what we know today as the Negros Trade Fair - the longest running provincial trade fair in the Philippines.

This happens in a few days time. The second of the three events I mentioned above will take place in the Glorietta Activity Center in Makati. It is a time of jubilation for the triumph over adversity - adversity which was epitomized by the photo of Joel Abong.

The last event I need to mention is that of the imminent burial of dictator Ferdinand Marcos' remains at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Unlike the upcoming Negros Trade Fair, this is no time for jubilation. Words cannot describe how in one quick moment, the burial of FM at the Libingan ng mga Bayani immediately implies that we are all traitors for having ousted him.

There are those who say let us move on and allow him that burial for he is a president after all. I will not waste time and words to argue. Just look at the face of Joel Abong above. And then perhaps you could close your eyes and simultaneously imagine Imelda rocking the night away in her rooftop disco in Malacañang.

(Note : Joel Abong died six days after this photo was taken)

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Follow me on Twitter @TitasdeBacolod

Related Posts:

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Negros : An Island of People With Super Short Memories

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Sunday, August 14, 2016

Security Bank Reaches Out Regarding Faux Pas

Blog, Business

A post last week entitled "How An Endorsement By Vicki Belo Is Spoiled" made the rounds of social media. In a nutshell, it had to do with Security Bank not matching up to what it promises in its advertising. The post talks about Tata, who entered Security Bank's main office to open an account but left in dismay because no able person was positioned strategically in the bank's Head Office Branch to entertain the query.

You can read the story by clicking, "How An Endorsement By Vicki Belo Is Spoiled".

In response to the blogpost, a comment came in by a certain Mark Bantigue, who is the E-Commerce head at SB. His reply to the post was:

Hi Titas of Bacolod,

My name is Mark Bantigue and I am the E-Commerce Head at Security Bank.
We just saw your post and are very sorry to hear your friend Tata had a mixed experience at our head office branch. We completely agree that her servicing officer should have immediately contacted our Wealth Management department and very surprised to hear that wasn’t the case.
At Security Bank, we are serious about customer service and believe it is everyone’s responsibility. Given the opportunity, I would like to learn more about her experience and hopefully make things right. Please pass on my contact details to Tata.

Best regards,

Mark Bantigue
E-Commerce Head
(02) 867 6788 x7093
mbantigue@securitybank.com.ph

Thank you, Mark Bantigue, for reaching out. Hijo, allow me to point out a few things. Tata did not have a mixed experience. She had a bad experience, period. I honestly think your group has to study the flow on how you receive walk-ins. The clients that you seek for which you spent millions on advertising to reach have a totally different mindset. One has only to walk out of your office and go to Standard Chartered to your left and HSBC to your right. Walk down Paseo to BDO and Citi. Do some research. See how it's done. Until then, maybe SB does not have any right to chase after HNWIs.

After her experience, none of us will follow for now. Unless of course you come out and say, "Yes, we have fixed the kinks and are ready to treat you better than the other banks". Go back to the drawing table. I'm sure your ad agencies will help you modify what you are touting as better service that we deserve. The heads of your ad agencies are clients of your competitor banks and they know what it really is like to be pampered by a real Relationship Manager.

Hold off your Vicki Belo ads please. We love Vicki Belo and it pains us to see her endorsing something that doesn't deliver. The ad agencies did a great job in delivering the message to us. The addition of Dra. Belo is superb. Only the product/service falls way short of what is promised in the advertising.

Lastly, thank you for providing your contact details. I don't think Tata will be contacting you though. To use your tagline and the words of Megan Young, She Deserves Better. Thus, she went down the road and took her business elsewhere.

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Follow me on Twitter @TitasdeBacolod

Related Post:

How An Endorsement By Vicki Belo Is Easily Spoiled

Thursday, August 11, 2016

How An Endorsement By Vicki Belo Is Spoiled

Issues, Manila

Word has been out in the circle the EastWest bank is now taking over the retail banking business of Standard Chartered. This means saying goodbye to Priority Banking of Standard Chartered. Over at HSBC, they said that they would be closing down trust services and that clients would have to look for other banks to receive their instruments and investments. At Citi, they've also closed down their Alabang branch.

Tata said she was shopping around to look for a bank to take on what she's pulling out from Standard Chartered and HSBC. Her knee jerk reaction was try out Security Bank. She had two good reasons to try Security Bank. One of her friend's sons is a top executive there. Second, she was always an avid follower of Vicki Belo. So when all these ads started coming out two weeks ago with Vicki Belo and Megan Young endorsing Security Bank, it was just a matter of time before she would succumb to the advertising.

A few days ago, she visited the main office along Ayala Avenue. Who would not be familiar with Security Bank building when the Philippine Sugar Millers Association is perched on the upper floors of the same building.

Tata talked to one of the ladies among the desks which would be the equivalent of the new accounts counter. Lady was utterly clueless about referring a Relationship Manager. What?!!! This is what Megan Young was bragging about and she's utterly clueless. All she does is say, "Ma'am, can I get your number and I'll let the Wealth Management services call you?". Security Bank's Wealth Management is just a few floors upstairs. Least the girl could do was call for someone to come down, or escorted her upstairs.

The long and short of it, Tata left. She still believes and admires Vicki Belo. She just thinks Security Bank's offering doesn't match up to their advertising.

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Follow me on Twitter @TitasdeBacolod

Related Post:

Negros : An Island of People With Super Short Memories