Benigno Aquino III, Dinky Soliman, Asian Development Bank

The Aquino administration today obtained approval of a 25-year $400-million loan from the Asian Development Bank for the expansion of the much-criticized conditional cash transfer program of the previous Arroyo administration.

In a joint statement, the ADB and the Department of Social Welfare and Development said the loan, payable in 25 years and with a grace period of five years, will have an interest rate "in accordance with ADB's London interbank offered rate-based lending facility". The loan will also be charged a "commitment charge" of 0.15 percent annually.

This is the second major loan under President Aquino, the first being the $434-million from the United States Millennium Challenge Corp.

The ADB and the DSWD claimed that "initial results" of what is arguably a dole-out program launched by the embattled Arroyo administration, "show significant increases in school enrolment, child immunization, and prenatal medical care".

An estimated 582,000 poor families are expected to benefit from the expanded doleout program funded by the ADB, bringing to 2.3-million the number of family-beneficiaries by the end of 2011, said DSWD Secretary Corazon "Dinky" Juliano Soliman. 

Soliman served as DSWD secretary under Arroyo from 2001-2005. President Aquino reappointed her to the same post this year.

Last year, then-President Arroyo allotted $266-million to the same doleout program, an act the then-opposition, which included factions of Aquino's Liberal Party, condemned as "electioneering".

Total Philippine foreign debt obligations stood at $53.3-billion, as of end-2009. The figure has continuously risen from $27-billion in 1896 when dictator Ferdinand Marcos fled the country. Successive governments from Corazon Aquino to Benigno Aquino have faithfully allotted huge portions of the annual national budgets to pay the principal and interests on foreign obligations -- and obtained new loans. 

Elsewhere, the independent think-tank Ibon Foundation points out that the Aquino government has brought to zero the annual budget for health insurance for indigents in the proposed 2011 national budget, aside from a decreased budget for public hospitals.

The minimum wage in Metro Manila stands at $8.9, while the living wage is at $21.22. Unemployment stands at 10.1 percent under Aquino. 

Ibon notes that government programs have failed to make a dent on poverty and joblessness.

			Benigno Aquino III, Barack Obama, Hanoi, Jakarta, Alberto Romulo, state visit, United States

President Benigno Aquino III is set to break tradition by having his first state visit outside the member-states Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and opting instead to go straight to the United States.

ABS-CBN's TV Patrol reported that all post-1986 Philippine presidents, including President Aquino's mother Corazon Aquino, first visit neighboring countries in the ASEAN. 

Upon his proclamation as winner in the presidential race, President Aquino was personally invited by US President Barack Obama to visit the US. The Philippine was the lone US colony in the so-called Far East and has been viewed as a neocolony up to now.

Citing a source in the Department of Foreign Affairs, ABS-CBN also reported that Aquino's decision to skip Hanoi and Jakarta, seat of the ASEAN Permanent Mission, did not go through proper diplomatic channels. 

But the DFA said in an Aug. 31 statement that the Philippine government has formally informed Vietnam and Hanoi that Aquino would not be able to make it as scheduled. 

The apparent mix-up could be the second diplomatic faux-pas of the fledgling Aquino presidency. The first was during and in the aftermath of the Aug. 23 hostage crisis in Manila.

During the incident, Malacanang Palace staff purportedly rejected two calls from Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang, and later when Hong Kong residents resented Aquino's smiles during his first press conference after the hostage crisis.

ASEAN, important to the Philippines?

In a speech last Aug. 9 marking the 43rd ASEAN anniversary, Aquino said that "in my administration, we will be more conscious of our commitment to fostering improved ties with our ASEAN neighbors. We will be a good neighbor, a productive partner, and a consensus-builder as we work towards our common goals."

"In the coming months, I look forward to meeting many of my regional counterparts," Aquino also said. 

Aquino's foreign secretary, Alberto Romulo, who also occupied the same post under the Arroyo administration, also spoke forcefully on the role of the ASEAN in the Aquino administration: "To President Aquino the ASEAN is an important cornerstone of Philippine foreign policy."

However, with his choosing the US over Hanoi (which holds the ASEAN presidency) and Jakarta, actions speak louder than words - especially on what's truly key to Philippine foreign policy. 

 

1		5	Merry Christmas, Twitter, traditions

The question in the minds of many non-Filipino Tweeps across the world is this: Why is "Merry Christmas" trending today Sept. 1, 2010? For the benefit of Twitter users worldwide, blogger Bong Ong tweeted the answer:

The world's astounded that Merry Christmas is trending. What they should know is that September's start of Christmas in the Philippines. :))

Yes, folks, the world's longest Christmas has officially started in the Philippines today, Sept. 1, and we Filipinos expect radio stations to begin playing Christmas carols, and the malls to be donned with Christmas decorations. We would be remiss as Twitter users if we Filipinos would not spread Christmas cheer throughout Twitter also starting today.

Why the extraordinarily long Christmas? Nothing fancy about the reason, except that we equate Christmas to the arrival of the "-ber" months, the months that end with (-ber), which used to herald cold weather (brrr...).

There will be a brief pause to our Christmas celebration, when the nation marks Undas on Nov. 1. But Christmas festivities are expected to resume the next day.

Philippine Christmas goes on high gear starting on Dec. 16 when Catholics start a "novena" of special masses (Misa de Gallo) every day at 3am. On Christmas Eve, there's the Misa de Aguinaldo at around midnight. 

With the long "preparation", no wonder Christmas Day is the most anticipated, most joyous day in this land of feasts. No feast could rival Christmas in the hearts and minds of Filipinos.

Filipinos grudgingly end Christmas on January 6, the Feast of the Three Kings. That's the "non-extendible" deadline for exchanging or giving gifts.

So now you know why Merry Christmas is trending today Sept. 1 and maybe at many other instances between now and January 6. 

 

[Follow me on Twitter: @tonyocruz]

		1	Bulacan Province, hacking, hacker, China, Hong Kong, President Benigno Aquino III

Hackers appear to be having a field day penetrating and defacing Philippine government websites. On the same day that the Philippine Information Agency website homepage was defaced, Filipino netizens discovered that the official website of the provincial government of Bulacan has also been breached by another hacker with a more pointed political message, demanding an apology and investigation into the August 23 hostage-taking incident that killed several residents of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Although the hacker did not deface the Bulacan provincial website's homepage, the perpetrator managed to insert new pages at http://bulacan.gov.ph/youhao.htm and at http://bulacan.gov.ph/1.htm

Below are automated translations via Google of the messages on the inserted page:

"People's Republic of China" 

and

"Philippines, Bulacan Provincial Government, I am from the great Republic of China, you should be on the Philippine hostage-taking incident was an apology. Must give an account of leading the Chinese people who were killed or caused by your government not as an apology must be sincere, reasonable compensation to the Hong Kong compatriots, it is necessary, the xxx as soon as possible."

It was signed "CopyRight  华夏小A & 409882525.qzone.qq.com ~ 2010".

The inserted page also included a flag of China.

The Aquino government has yet to react to the twin attacks by hackers on PIA and the Bulacan provincial websites.  

		6	Philippine Information Agency, hacking, President Benigno Aquino III

[UPDATE: A hacker also broke into the official website of the provincial government of Bulacan and left an angry message in Chinese.] 

A hacker has taken down the website of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), with the hacked frontpage now featuring a Chinese flag - an apparent reference to the anger of the Chinese and Hong Kong peoples over the violent end to the August 23 hostage-taking incident in Manila.

The hacker replaced the PIA website's homepage with a black background with the message: "Hacked by 7z1" and the signature "Black Matrix Team | 0x.oday@Gmail.com".

Here is a screenshot of the PIA website's homepage as of press time:

 

The PIA is attached under the Office of the President, and is overseen by the Presidential Communications Operations Office, formerly called the Office of the Press Secretary.

Various government websites have been taken down or defaced by hackers since 2007, including that of the Department of Justice and the Philippine National Police:

• TESDA
• Department of Health
• Department of Justice
• Philippine National Police

 

 

			Benigno Aquino III, Plaza Miranda bombing, Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., Ferdinand Marcos, Philippine National Police

Monday's hostage crisis only reinforced the notion of August as a very violent month in Philippine history.

On August 21, 1971, there was the bombing of Plaza Miranda during a rally by the opposition Liberal Party. Scores were hurt and killed. Except for a few who claim the communists were behind it, the widespread perception was that Ferdinand Marcos was its mastermind as a pretext for clamping down on civil liberties and later for a martial law proclamation over the country that would last for 14 years.

On August 21, 1983, former Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., the leader of the then-political opposition returned from exile to the Philippines but was gunned down on the tarmac of the Manila International Airport. The incident enraged and agitated Filipinos to wage a three-year campaign to oust the Marcos dictatorship. 

In both cases, masterminds and perpetrators eluded prosecution and punishment. In both cases, a strongman were leading the country and had under his disposal all the powers and resources of government, no one was ever convicted of the crime.

This week, on August 23, a disgraced policeman hijacked a bus bearing scores of Hong Kong tourists. The drama stretched until early evening when the release of hostages ended and the police botched its assault. 

The difference this time is that the event was broadcast live on national and international television networks. Both the violent acts and the incompetent handling of the incident were for all of us to view and examine. This difference should mean good in the long run - the authorities would be able to make a brutally honest assessment of the incident, pin down those accountable for the botched police job, and institute reforms so that such an event may not easily happen again.

Yes, while the public and the more responsible members of the press have acknowledged excesses in the live coverage, the fact of the matter is that the authorities could turn to the published reports and both televised and untelevised tapes from both the local and international media - aside from records of orders made and actions taken by authorities from various levels of government and police - to help ferret out the truth and hold liable those responsible for Monday's bloody outcome. 

Today, Monday's incident per se is fast become secondary to what the Aquino administration has done and is doing to close the case. The outrage of the citizens of China, Hong Kong and the Philippines may only be mitigated if the President ensures a quick yet thorough investigation, prosecute all those responsible, and do justice to all those made victims. 

Policemen are seriously mistaken if they think that we would all just forget about this incident. Policemen have been dubbed as too incompetent last August 23 - a matter of confirmation for Filipinos, and a matter of shock for the world. The hope is that they will save themselves and the dignity of the Philippines by being competent and honest in the investigation. 

Otherwise, Monday's hostage crisis won't be the last and worse acts of violence may hit the Philippines in the future.