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by Roel Landingin
IN PRINCIPLE, the setting of basic water rates for customers of Manila Water Co. and Maynilad Water Services Inc. is easy enough to understand. Of course, the key phrase there is “in principle.”
According to the 1997 Concession Agreement between the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and its two concessionaires: “… the rates for water and sewerage services … shall be set at a level that will permit the Concessionaire to recover over the 25-year term of the Concession operating, capital maintenance and investment expenditures efficiently and prudently incurred, Philippine business taxes and payments corresponding to debt service on the MWSS Loans and Concessionaire Loans incurred to finance such expenditures, and to earn a rate of return on these expenditures for the remaining term of the Concession.”
Sidebar
by Ed Lingao
IF YOU can’t jail them, elect them. If you do jail them, well, you can always elect them again.
This appears to be a recurring theme in the Philippines, where the popular saying that a public office is a public trust seems to be misconstrued as meaning the public must simply put their full trust in their public officials, regardless of their behavior.
Sidebar
TO EACH his own power base.
Among the six senators who are raring to return to the Upper House, lawyers Alan Peter Cayetano, Chiz Escudero, and Koko Pimentel all belong to political families. Sonny Trillanes and Gringo Honasan are both ex-military men and presumably can count on support from their former colleagues in the armed forces. Trillanes also has strong ties with key campaign donors, as does Loren Legarda, a former broadcast journalist.
Sidebar
IF TEDDY Casiño is looking mighty lonely in the Senate race, it’s not only because he’s running as an independent. Among the House members now seeking a Senate seat, Casiño is the only one without a relative to share campaign war stories with.
Sidebar
by Che de los Reyes
NO LESS than its highest-ranking officials have repeatedly stated in media a serious intent to curb campaign spending and other illegal campaign activities in the May 13, 2013 elections. This has set the bar rather high for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to prove itself capable of putting its money where its mouth is.
So it’s rather ironic that for the upcoming elections, money for campaign-finance enforcement is something that Comelec just has to do without. In fact, the poll body does not even have a line budget for enforcing its rules on campaign finance.
Sidebar
by Karol Ilagan
THE ONLY thing constant is change, supposedly, but apparently there are some things that remain the same. Yet another round of elections, for instance, will find Maguindanao still one of the poorest provinces in the Philippines. The province also still has a governor who is a millionaire many, many times over.
Maguindanao Governor Esmael ‘Toto’ Mangudadatu, in fact, has even increased his wealth since 2010, when he was first elected as the province’s chief executive. Moreover, PCIJ’s records of the asset declarations of 54 out of 81 governors show that among these provincial big bosses, Mangudadatu is second only to Rosa Vilma S. Recto of Batangas in terms of net worth. Mangudadatu’s net worth, however, makes him the richest governor in Mindanao.
Sidebar
by Ed Lingao
THEY BELONG to some of the most prominent political clans in central Mindanao, yet they are carving a path far removed from the mold of the traditional roles of their royal families.
Take Mussolini Lidasan, for instance. Much unlike his infamous namesake, Lidasan is a peace advocate, a writer, a community development specialist, and president of Aksyon Mindanaw, a political movement fighting for the rights of Christians, Muslims, and indigenous peoples. Lidasan is also executive director of the Al Qalam Institute, the research arm of the Ateneo de Davao University.
Sidebar
by Ed Lingao
IN ONE of the many raids conducted by government troops on the Ampatuan properties after the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, investigators came across a black bag containing a bundle of papers. In it were an assortment of official documents, including land titles, credit card statements, and even divorce papers all belonging to former Maguindanao Governor Datu Andal Ampatuan Sr., the patriarch of the Ampatuan clan.
What got the attention of the investigators was a bunch of handwritten notes listing what appeared to be large amounts allocated to senior police and military commanders assigned, not just in Maguindanao, but in the entire Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Among the names were those of prominent generals from army divisions in the region, as well as provincial and regional police officers.
Sidebar
by Karol Ilagan
A SPIDER couldn’t have spun a more complicated network: the diagram before you shows blood and affinal lines that link the Ampatuans to the Sangkis and Mangudadatus, Midtimbangs, Sinsuats, Dilangalens, Datumanongs and Hatamans, and the Semas. This network of political families is spread all over Maguindanao, and even reaches the provinces of Sultan Kudarat and Basilan.
Sidebar
by Malou Mangahas
HOW DO public officials with secret offshore accounts react, when found out?
The PCIJ confronted a senator, a congressman, and two former government executives with questions about secret accounts that each had opened separately in offshore havens. It’s diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks.
