EASTWIND, part 2, journals of a drifter

by Bernie Lopez

Author's Note. This is an excerpt from the unpublished book Wings and Wanderlust, the Art of Discovering Yourself. There are life-long lessons on the road of adventure that I learned in my youth. You can say I took my Doctorate in Adventure from the University of the World. Let me share small portions of that intense period I called eastwind. For they are very relevant today in our age of confusion. As a young man, I did what few Filipinos dared. I hitchhiked 25,000 kilometers for 18 months through 18 European countries with just $1,000 in my pocket. I have written a book about it.

Portugal 1976. After the fiesta of the bulls, I headed towards Lisbon. I wanted to make a pilgrimage to Fatima by walking 80 kilometers from Lisbon.

I hated New York because, as a 'rat-racer' (ie, Systems Analyst), it was a spiritual desert to me, absurd and irrelevant. I would relish New York later only after eastwind, the name I gave to my adventure, radically changed me and I was no longer a 'rat-racer'. Eastwind was not really a quest for adventure. It was an escape. I was looking not so much for new places but more for myself. My pilgrimage to Our Lady of Fatima was to pray that I find myself somewhere in this vast planet.

 

I normally kept my backpack below six kilos. For the long hike from Lisbon to Fatima, I reduced it further to two kilos, just a sleeping bag, a wine skin bag, food for the day, extra shirt and a toothbrush. Lesson of the day - simplicity is a virtue that can make you happy just as complexity can make you sad.

 

Gradually, the big highway narrowed to a country road. The romantic Portugese countryside made me calm and mellow. I did a leisurely three kilometers an hour for four to five hours a day. The entire trek was 80 kilometers for seven days. I prayed the rosary two to three times a day as I walked. I slept under the stars. I had a candle for light, the cheapest and lightest. One evening when it drizzled, I asked a farmer if I could sleep in a smelly sheep shed, reminding me that it was one such shed where the Creator of the universe was born in all humility.

 

In two villages, rowdy kids came up to me shouting 'perigrino'. They smothered me with fruits from the nearby farm. I would brush my teeth in the village fountains. I alternated wine and milk in my skin bag. Too much wine was not good for hiking. Everyday, I was awed by new discoveries.

 

On the last evening, I slept atop a knoll under an olive tree. In the pink misty dusk, from the distance, the bells tied to the necks of sheep pealed like music. It was the gift of peace from Our Lady that overwhelmed me almost to tears.

I reached Fatima in the evening and decided to sleep at the doorstep of the giant church. The church bells started pealing at four in the morning. At dawn, I joined a group hearing mass. The pilgrimage was a spiritual cleansing from my worldliness in my adventures. Lesson of the day - prayers are answered. Long after eastwind and the Fatima pilgrimage, I would go back home and become a writer.

 

I headed north towards Coimbra. Night overtook me there. I had no place to go. I walked helplessly along the highway until three kids came up to me. I asked them where I could sleep. They pointed me to a place. It was a sand bar in the middle of the beautiful Mondego river. We waded through shallow waters. One kid carried my guitar on his head. They left me there.

 

My candle would not light in the wind. In the middle of the night, it began to drizzle. If it rained, I had nowhere to go. I went inside my plastic sheet which was a tube. Finally, the drizzle stopped. The dawn bathe the river gold. To my surprise, the three kids came with my breakfast - a hot roll of bread and some cheese. Lesson of the day - people not places make your day.

 

From Coimbra, I got my longest ride of the entire 18 months, all the way to Meximieux in Switzerland. In fact, the British oil rig diver who picked me up in his snow-white MGB 1.6 litre sportscar wanted me to ride with him all the way to London. That would have been a record ride. But I was not after records. I wanted to see friends in Winterthur in Switzerland.

 

We had a problem at Marseille. I will not make him pay for me in a five star hotel he was to stay in. So we looked for a place where I could sleep. A beach loomed in sight and he dropped me off there.

 

Tough luck. It was a private beach. They were all urban people in their trunks and bikinis. Desperate, I went in anyway. There was no guard. But they were all staring at me. Perhaps I was not wanted. A good looking woman came up to me and spoke rapid French. I took out a tiny French English dictionary from my pocket and started to search for words. I stumbled through my French, no grammar or tense, just infinitives and root words.

That broke the ice. They all smiled and dispersed. The French hate people who answer in English. They admired me for trying hard to speak broken French with a dictionary. The woman gave me a glass of red wine, then another and another. By the time I knew it, the beach was deserted and all mine. They left for their homes. I slept nicely with the red in my head. The beautiful kids of Mondego river flashed in my mind.

 

The next day, the diver came at the crack of dawn. We were on our way. Portugal was but a tiny chapter of eastwind. The lessons you learn on the road are mind boggling. Travel changes you, the deepest part of you.

beteljuice7@gmail.com 

EASTWIND part 1, journals of a drifter

by Bernie Lopez

Author's Note. This is an excerpt from the unpublished book Wings and Wanderlust, the Art of Discovering Yourself. There are life-long lessons on the road of adventure that I learned in my youth. You can say I took my Doctorate in Adventure from the University of the World. Let me share small portions of that intense period I called eastwind. For they are very relevant today in our age of confusion. As a young man, I did what few Filipinos dared. I hitchhiked 25,000 kilometers for 18 months through 18 European countries with just $1,000 in my pocket. I have written a book about it.

 

Portugal 1976. It was early Spring and I headed north after a winter sojourn in Morocco and Canary Islands. Hitchhiking from Cadiz with a Spanish guitar I bought in Madrid, I entered the Portuguese border, hoping to catch the wild fiesta at Vila Franca de Xira.

 

It was dusk when I hit Vila Real de Santo Antonio. Not knowing where I would sleep, I was eyeing a nearby park. I preferred to be burdened by a guitar rather than a tent and risked the rain because the guitar was an absolute magic wand.

 

I was frugal because I wanted to stretch my money for the long trek. I was also brave and resourceful. I headed for a noisy bar where no one was sober. I wanted a free meal. So I took out my guitar and started singing. To catch attention, I sang a lively Christmas song, Ang Pasko ay Sumapit, right in the middle of Spring. There was absolute silence. Half way through the song, a large mug of beer slid in front of me. At the end of the song, there was a giant ham sandwich escorting the beer.

 

After the song, they told me to drink and eat. Someone took over the guitar. The Portugese are like Filipinos, very warm, very boisterous, very drunk. They were so happy seeing me finish the beer in two gulps and the sandwich in six bites. They were completely amused with my broken Spanish. On my fifth mug, the noise was going into a crescendo, but I did not care.

 

Someone asked me where I was going to sleep. I said I did not know. He told me I could sleep in his place. I said yes instantly, as it was better than the park if it rains. Another guy approached, asking the same question. I told him I was going to sleep in the first guy's place. The second guy insisted I sleep at his place. The two argued who was going to be my host. The heated argument became a brawl. They were on the floor. Everyone was screaming. It was pandemonium.

 

I slipped away quietly and ended up sleeping at the park. There were only three instances when the rain caught me in all 18 months - Milan, Las Palmas and Algarve. In my inebriated state, watching the stars from my suite, I felt elated that complete strangers who liked me would fight over me. I was enthralled by the raw spirit of the Portuguese. Lesson of the day - there are times you should never plan, let circumstance plan for you. The more you plan, the less you get. In our chaotic world today, sometimes not planning is the best plan.

Next day, I hitchiked to Algarve where there was a camping ground. I wanted to wash my denims. I had only two pairs of pants on the road, one I wore. It was hard to wash heavy jeans by hand. I had to twist it around a post to squeeze out the water. A Brit came up to me and said, "Looks like rain." He did not have a tent like me.

 

He introduced me to two lovely Canadian girls with a bottle of Jack Daniels. Between the four of us, we had a rowdy evening with Jack D. I whispered to the Brit that we should sleep near their tent so that if it rains, they would take us in. He winked at me. For the first time, I was praying for rain. And it did rain, and cats and dogs at that.

 

We slipped into their tent and there were the four of us like nice sardines. They were giggling but believe me, it was water water everywhere but not a drop to drink, if you know what I mean. Lesson of the day - people on the road take care of each other, as I often experienced.

 

The fiesta at Vila Franca de Xira was famous because they let two bulls loose in a fenced portion of the main streets. Only the brave and the drunk dared tease the bulls, but not me. My valor was of a different kind. After the fireworks at dusk, I strolled along the streets. Everyone was out in the open roasting sardinas frescas and drinking agua pe. Agua pe was cheap but powerful red wine. Agua pe means 'foot wine', referring to when they wash their feet after they crush the grapes. Do not to take that literally.

 

It was their costumbre to give to all passersby roasted sardines and shot or two of agua pe. After two short blocks, I was woozy. The people were as hospitable and noisy as Filipinos. I felt at home.

 

Lesson of the day - people are more exciting than panoramic views and ancient castles. Throughout eastwind, I traveled to meet people rather than see places.

beteljuice7@gmail.com 

BAYANI’S KALAYAAN FIASCO

By Bernie Lopez

MMDA Director Bayani Fernando is the engineer-wanna-be who designed the expensive Kalayaan elevated u-turn which is presently under construction. Engineers I interviewed have termed it ‘Jurassic’, ‘irreversible’ and ‘defying international standards of traffic and safety’.

 

The core problem lies in Bayani’s perception that he is infallible and criticisms are simply ignored. Bayani’s bullheadedness is the issue. Kalayaan reflects not only a first-class engineering blunder, but also bad governance. The senior transportation engineers I interviewed have been building interchanges for decades.

 

First is an anecdote before we talk of Kalayaan. A World Bank mission came to town to review the infrastructure projects it was funding. Bayani asked to join the inspection. The consultant said there was no need. Bullheaded Bayani insisted, wanting to influence the review. So the mission gave in. Standing at an intersection, Bayani told the consultant what he thought should be done. On the spot, he made a sketch and handed it to the consultant, who suggested he pass it on to his designers first and make a formal technical study.

 

Bayani was so angered that he complained to head of the mission. When the consultant found out about that, he confronted Bayani and told him to complain directly to him next time. Infrastructure engineers say that the World Bank consultants today hesitate to give a go signal to Engineer Bayani’s infrastructure projects, many of which he himself designed from cloud nine. One such Bayani design rejected by the World Bank was the dual interchanges at SM North and R

 

Time and again, Bayani resorts to vengeance when his ideas are turned down. In Eastwood, he wanted to build a footbridge. When it was turned down, he closed all the u-turns to make it harder for all to move around. If you are in Eastwood and want to turn left on C-5, you have to go all the way to the Libis underpass to make a u-turn. However, Bayani was forced to open one u-turn because DILG Secretary Ronnie Puno uses that u-turn. There are higher GMA boys than Bayani.

 

Now, it will be easier to understand Kalayaan. The unfortunate thing about the Kalayaan interchange is – it is irreversible. To undo the blunder and build a proper long-term facility, the entire P600-million (it could be as large as a billion, engineers suggest) facility has to be torn down.

 

Bullheaded Bayani is also Band-aid Bayani. The Kalayaan interchange is the epitome of band-aid make-shift engineering. The engineers told me that the maximum speed of traffic depends on radius of curvature. The sharper the turn, the slower you go. The engineers showed me a table relating speed to curvature. The table gives the maximum of 20 meters curvature for urban facilities, the sharpest turn allowable, where maximum speed was set at 30 kph. The Jurassic Kalayaan has a curvature of 10 meters, which is not allowed by international or DPWH standards, because this is not only accident-prone for a heavily-used two lane turn, it also causes more traffic. In other words, Bayani’s P600 million caper will cause rather than prevent traffic. The many 16 wheelers passing through the C-5 Kalayaan interchange, need two lanes to make the turn, which will also cause more traffic. In basketball, we call it ‘forcing through’.

 

Bayani’s blunder was unfortunately backed up by Malacanang. DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane was supposed to make a presentation to GMA of a three-level interchange at Kalayaan. Bayani intercepted the ball and made his own presentation before Ebdane could stand up. GMA applauded Bayani’s blunder. Ebdane said there was no need to present since the boss had made a decision. Did the DPWH evaluate and approve Kalayaan, which is required by law? The engineers doubted it. Bad governance, especially from the very top, is the reason for all our woes. Knee-jerk decisions is disastrous governance.

 

In that presentation, Bayani said his concept was cheaper. He did not say it was unsafe or would cause more traffic, just cheaper. That was why GMA applauded his Jurassic design. The Kalayaan design defies all principles of cost-benefit. It simply talks about cost and forgets about benefit. In fact, the Kalayaan interchange has no benefit in terms of traffic flow and safety. Bayani says his design would save P3.6 million a year because there is no need for traffic lights, traffic aides, signage and other peripheral traffic control factors. Bayani did not know the ten-fold savings of P365 million a year for commuters who would be using less gas in a straight rather than curved elevated facility.

 

The engineers suggested that a straight elevation is better than a curved one, similar to the three-level Quezon Boulevard – EDSA interchange, which was the same design suggested by Ebdane for Kalayaan. The engineers suggested that a two-level would suffice at Kalayaan so it would be cheaper. They point out that for the same length, a straight road is by far cheaper to build than a curved one. The straight elevation option is safer, requires less gas, and yields better traffic flow.

 

Bayani has an attitude problem because he is not open to criticism. He sees his visionary design as creative and is blind to its weaknesses. Bayani is a symbol today of extremely dangerous and bad governance. The saying goes, “Arrogance is dangerous. Ignorance is dangerous. But the two together is deadly.” 

beteljuice7@gmail.com 

WHY MERALCO CAN DEFY GMA

By Bernie Lopez

Meralco is bigger than meets the eye, having allies that Malacanang cannot just ignore. These allies are big time energy multinationals which have connections in high places, namely the same diplomatic and lending institutions that have been pressuring our government for decades now.

Both Meralco and First Philippine Holdings are controlled by the Lopezes. First Philippine Holdings owns 60% of two Independent Power Producers (IPPs) which sell power to Meralco, namely San Lorenzo and Sta. Rita. The 'ally' is a big powerful energy multinational, British Gas, which owns 40% of both San Lorenzo and Sta. Rita.

 

The other multinational is an American giant, the former Ogden Corp., which owns a big portion of Quezon Power. The Lopezes, as far as documents show, do not have equity in Quezon. But Meralco also buys power from Quezon. These three IPPs form a sinister 'energy triumvirate' which is the cause of all the rate increases Meralco has been illegally passing on to customers. Meralco can defy pressures from Malacanang and the public to lower illegal rate increases because it hides behind the skirts of these powerful energy multinationals.

 

Since circa 2001, the aggregate payments for power purchases of Meralco to the energy triumvirate is a staggering P200 billion based on broad estimates culled from Meralco reports. Meralco in turn passes on these payments to you and I as electricity consumers. In other words, our money goes not to Meralco, the mere conduit, but to the Lopezes and their multinational allies, which will move heaven and earth to protect this huge windfall.

 

Just for the record, the estimated P200 billion is based on payments on power purchases of Meralco to Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo of P15 billion in 2001-2002. If we multiply this by seven years (2001 to the present), the total is P105 billion, even if we wrongly assume no subsequent increases in power purchases. If we include purchases from Quezon Power based on the same average as San Lorenzo and Sta. Rita, we add another P53 billion for a grand total of P158 billion. If we allow conservatively for increases in power purchases after 2001, we have the broad estimate of P200 billion that flows into the pockets of the energy triumvirate and First Philippine Holdings through Meralco.

 

Here is the problem. Even if we ask Meralco for a refund, they are no longer holding the money. We have to run after the energy triumvirate and the First Philippine Holdings. It will not be easy for GMA or the general public to run after these giants, whether through diplomacy or court decisions.

 

To show how the energy triumvirate has been maneuvering to protect its windfall profits, members of both American and European Chambers of Commerce have been giving statements that the EPIRA should not be amended. Why? Because they know the EPIRA is a flawed law that protects Meralco monopoly in spite of EPIRA's articulated intent to break monopoly. EPIRA became a law for rather than against monopoly through the manipulation of its Implementing Rules and Regulation (IRR) by a powerful lobby group with friends in the legislature and even in Malacanang. Enrile is behind the effort to amend the EPIRA.

 

In other words, amending EPIRA will destroy Meralco monopoly and cut off the money pipeline to the IPPs and to the multinationals. It must be noted that the World Bank, in good fate, financed the authoring of the EPIRA and pressured the government to enact it. It did not realize the many loopholes that the powerful lobby group quietly inserted into the EPIRA’s IRR. But even the World Bank is ultimately financed by multinationals, so we have to ask what is its true stand.

 

This is why Meralco is so brave in insisting in its rate increases even if they are illegal. They are illegal because the EPIRA provides that Meralco cannot buy power from IPPs at rates higher than that of Napocor’s. In its website, Meralco admits it bought power ‘from itself ‘ (meaning Lopez to Lopez through Santa Rita and San Lorenzo, a conflict of interest) at generation rate of P4.54 per kilowatt hour in April, which is higher than the current Napocor rate of P4.01. The 53 centavos difference translates to an increase in revenue for Meralco of about P270 million per centavo or a total of a whopping P13.5 billion in a single month, all charged to the beleaguered consumer already being strangled by global prices of oil and food. The rate increases are not only blatantly against the law but are also unilateral and arbitrary.

 

It is unilateral because Meralco says the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) was informed, but informing does not mean approval. It is arbitrary because Meralco gave a lame excuse that it increased generation rates because WESM rates were extremely high. This is true but Meralco purchases at WESM are a meagre 9% whereas they are a huge 55% from its affiliated IPPs.

 

Let us take a quick look at solons as friends and foes of Meralco. Joker Arroyo and Peter Cayetano were asked by a militant group, Kasangga, to stop defending Meralco and prove they are pro-poor as they say they are. They also cited Pia Cayetano, Teddy Casino and Teofisto Guingona without giving details. Enrile wants EPIRA amended. Miriam is asking for IPP records of sales to Meralco, which may spill a can of worms.

beteljuice7@gmail.com  

ARROCEROS RESURRECTED

by Bernie Lopez 

If you were to see an environment map of Manila, you will see a lone green dot in a sea of gray. That green dot is Arroceros Park in Plaza Laughton in the heart of the city, the rice port of Chinese traders during Spanish times.

This was where all the rice across the archipelago converged to feed the burgeoning Manila community. When the British invaded this Spanish colony, the local Chinese sided with them because they were looked down upon and oppressed by the Spaniards. Yet, ironically, the Chinese controlled local trade. When the Spaniards massacred them after defeating the British, there was a momentary halt in local trade. Today, this former rice port is the bastion of the lowly tree. The Arroceros forest park is the only one surviving in the entire metropolis, symbol of Mother Nature slowly being swallowed up by Man's concrete jungle.

 

The Arroceros park was a gift from then First Lady Ming Ramos and then Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim in 1993 to the green ladies of Winners Foundation, which pruned it and made it greener. When Mayor Atienza, now an 'environmentalist' in GMA's cabinet, took over in 2003, the Arroceros park suddenly died. In a series of maneuvers, the 'environmentalist' yanked the park from the hands of the green ladies, decimated more than half of the forest, only to put up a building. There was one giant ancient hardwood that was felled secretly, worth about half a million in the hardware store. That brought tears to some of the green ladies.

 

Atienza used his goons to disrupt the placard bearing green matrons, who did not hesitate to descend from their pristine palaces and face this rowdy bunch face to face. The National Historical Institute and the National Museum, supposed ally of the environment and of our heritage, cowered at the feet of the powerful Atienza. The green ladies were helpless to contain the tree-killing environmentalist.

 

Atienza was also the killer of a nearby forest park, the Meyhan Garden, which was actually an extension of Arroceros. Alas, Meyhan is now a bus station, spewing carbon monoxide for the glory of global warming. It was reported that Atienza had friends in the Chinese community with a plan to convert Arroceros and the rest of neighboring city lots into a giant mall. Another park, the UN Gardens was developed by Empire East. Developers do not have to kill green parks in order to develop. There are other places. Green parks should be untouchables.

 

When Alfredo Lim resurrected in the Manila mayoralty race against the younger Atienza in July 2007, like a Phoenix, Arroceros also resurrected. The very first order of Mayor Lim was to restore the green park to the green ladies. A Manila Seedling Bank inventory in 2003 revealed that there were 8,481 tress in Arroceros. When the green ladies returned, geodetic engineer Agustin Perida reported there were 1,423 trees left, which survived the clutches of the 'environmentalist'. The resolute green ladies did not hesitate to start all over again in a new reforestation effort.

 

The Winners vision was to make the park a meeting place of artists and students, like Greenwich in New York, Soho in London. We are still far from the sheer size of the art places in these affluent cities, but Winners promise we will somehow get there in time. Even during the time of Atienza who padlocked the gate, the artists would sneak in through a backdoor into the park on Sundays. Students would climb the fence when no one was looking. The artists would awe the student artist-wanna-bees with their impromptu art, from watercolor to charcoal pencil to pastel to plain Mongol pencil no. 2.

 

On the recent celebration of Earth Day, the spirit of the park under the Winners tutelage came back with vengeance. A large crowd gathered at Arroceros beneath the trees. There was a painting contest with judges from our prestigious art community. About a hundred contestants aged 4 to 12 joined the contest. The affair was in cooperation with the Cultural Center of the Philippines, chaired by Nestor Jardin, who was the chair of the judges. Buddhists from the Chaitaniga (I hope I spelled that right) Community graced the occasion with their spiritual chants. The 3-piece Harmony Band played. Norie Onchiako and friends also graced the morning park concert. Artists from various art associations converged like the good old days. But this time, they did not have to pass the backdoor.

 

Winners conducts exclusive art auctions for the hoi poloi every once in a while in a five star hotel, to help the artists sell their stuff. Arroceros resurrected is their tool for not only nature lovers but also art lovers. I was thinking that Winners could perhaps forge a win-win situation by asking the former goons of Atienza to be part of the park today, as forest keepers perhaps. After all, there is no more war and everybody is a winner at Arroceros resurrected.

beteljuice7@gmail.com 

VERTIGO

by Bernie Lopez

Vertigo is a physical sickness, an abnormality of the middle ear that causes the loss of the sense of balance and total disorientation. But in rare occasions, there are spiritual causes.

There are vertigo cases where patients experience intense attacks for one to two days once or twice a month or even a year. Joel, in his sixties, was a very successful executive, the Chief Executive Officer or CEO of a medium sized firm, the small empire he had built through the decades of hard work. Joel's advanced stage vertigo was different. It was not occasional attacks but one protracted unending attack.

 

He had heard about Sister Raquel Reodica, RVM, the healer from Novaliches known to many. He went to her, hoping to be healed. He had to be guided by two persons on either side. He complained to her about his continuous vertigo. But there was something more, Joel posed. Hearing the words ‘something more’, Sister Raquel had instinctively a strange discernment about Joel's problem.

She said, "Let me guess the real problem."

 

"Go ahead Sister, take a shot", Joel dared her.

 

"You don't know what to do with yourself and your life. You are lost."

 

Joel was stunned, "How did you know?" Sister Raquel hit it right on the head. They had been talking just for a few minutes. Sister had no idea who and what he was. And so, Joel told everyone to stay away, as poured out everything to Sister, like a waterfalls spewing out waters of misery. No one knew about his problem. His family and relatives all thought he was happy and cozy in his job. He kept the seething volcano inside him. What he was about to say was a secret deep in the bosom of his soul that no one, not even his wife, knew about.

 

He went on. He was at the top of his career. He had attained everything he wanted. He sat in a plush office, giving commands to his people like a general, or more like an emperor. There was nothing he could not get if he wished for it. But he was bored to death giving orders and being in charge. He had a lot of 'bored meetings'. He had no desire for more fortune as he had it all. He was bored being respected by everyone. All their praises and awe were nothing to him. There was something missing in all these. At the apex of his career, Joel felt there was no meaning in life. There was nothing there on top, just emptiness amidst all the frenzied tasks to keep the empire going. Joel’s case reminded me of the book ‘Hope for the Flowers’. I told Sister to tell Joel to read the book. It is a book for children. You could finish the book in one sitting, say two hours. It had a very simple plot but it was deep and powerful and hits the spirit in search of one's self.

 

Sister told Joel everyone had a calling or vocation. Everyone had his mission-vision to fulfil. You do not have to reach your goal in your lifetime. But you must try to reach it, approach it. The effort is more important than the goal. The journey is more important than the destination. Sister reminded Joel of the parable of the talents. She said the talents God gave you are not for yourself. They are for others. Your career and business skills are the same. They are not for you, that was why Joel was bored with himself at the top. Even your empire is not for you.

 

Sister started probing, "Do you have God in you?"

 

"Not really, Sister. I hate novenas. I go to mass only as a habit to accompany my wife. It is nothing to me. No, I am not the religious type." Joel was silent for a long while, thinking hard. 

 

"Your spiritual energy has no outlet. It is all bottled up inside you”, Sister added.

 

Joel did not realize it but Sister was opening up a whole new world to him. She was laying out a trap to catch him and bring him out of his dilemma of success and boredom all at once. The meaning of life that he was looking for, more spiritual than material, was staring him right on the face.

After her short sermon that made Joel think hard, she asked, "O saan ka ngayon?" (Where do you stand?)

 

Instinctively, after his instant catharsis, after all the misery of his success, he instantly shouted, "Kay Hesus. Kay Hesus ako, sister." (I am for Jesus.)

 

Joel embraced instantly the answer to his dilemma, his spiritual vacuum, his spiritual vertigo. And in his reply, his physical vertigo vanished instantly. Joel stood up and brushed aside his aides. His sense of balance was back. He could suddenly walk. The Lord he turned to after all these years healed him instantly. Many cannot understand that there are spiritual solutions to physical problems, as in Joel’s case. By instantly placing himself in the hands of the Lord, after all these years of being on top, there was meaning and fulfilment.

 

Healing sessions at the Mother Ignacia Healing Center are every Wednesdays and Saturday; 857 Bagumbong Road, Novaliches. Inquire by email, are just ask around. People can guide you to the place.

beteljuice7@gmail.com 

BAGOONG RICE

By Bernie Lopez

’Bagoong’ rice is an exotic fine-dining entrée which has actually been in existence since pre-Hispanic times. It is the food of the very poor in lean months when there is only rice and seasoning of salt, patis or bagoong at the dinner table. The exotic variety was a product of creative packaging and restaurant marketing.

Alternatives to bagoong rice during the lean months include patis-rice, pancit sandwich and other forms of creative pure-starch menus. With shortages and expensive rice and bread, pancit sandwich might evolve into ‘bread sandwich’, if you know what I mean. But alternatives may veer towards non-starch experiments. There will be new creative dishes, I am sure, learning a lesson from Mangyans of Mindoro who eat ‘stones’ in the lean months. It is actually mineral-rich hardened mud-pack found along rivers and creeks, quite nutritious, but you cannot eat a lot of it even if you are very hungry.

I remember the days I covered the Mangyans in Mindoro. There was a big conference at Abra de Ilog which was ‘over-attended’ by about 400 people. ‘Over-attended’ meant 80 Mangyan heads of families were invited but 300 came because they could not leave behind their wives and children at home. So there was panic in the kitchen. The Mangyans said they would take care of breakfast the next day. They woke up at 3 a.m.

When I woke up at 6 a.m., I saw the largest bagoong rice plate of my life, something for the Guinness Book of Records. They laid out huge banana leaves for 30 meters along the school corridor and poured the rice from one end to the other, looking like a white replica of the Cordillera mountain range. On top of the mountain, they poured pure unadulterated bagoong, dark snow-caps on white mountains. There were no utensils, no plates.

The conference attendees lined up on the sides of this bagoong-rice superhighway and we started to eat with our hands. We simply took lumps of bagoong rice and set it in on the free space of the banana leaf along the sides. After breakfast, it was as if the mountain range was hit by a nuclear blast.

It was a noisy spirited breakfast. Everyone was talking. There was a much-appreciated pandemonium. It was one of my best breakfasts for a long time and the ethnic spirit was inspiring. The lesson I learned then was – you can be poor and happy anytime you want, a matter of will power. But there are new lessons to learn today – you have to fight poverty and hunger.

Looking back, if that conference was done today, it would be disaster because there would be less rice and more bagoong, or just boiled kamoteng kahoy or gabi with sugar, the dinner of Mangyans in the lean months. Creative menus are a challenge today not so much on how to prepare but what to prepare.

GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS

With a world food crisis emerging and climate change further undermining food production, Man today is faced with a looming crisis. He must find ways of dealing with a new situation never before encountered in history. He must deal with the planet and with himself at a deeper plane all at once. He must address global warming which must necessarily affect food production. It is a planet dilemma.

One of the main culprits in the world food shortage is the U.S., the biggest corn and soya producer in the world. When it shifted its corn and soya bumper harvests from food for Third World nations to biofuel for local consumption, it essentially caused an instant staple shortage in Africa, which triggered food riots.

The heightened awareness of global food shortage has triggered food export bans everywhere, as in India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Brazil. This has increased the burden on institutions. The Asian Development Bank has pledged food aid, but remember these are loans rather than grants. The African Development Bank has pledged $1 billion. The United Nations and the World Food Programme are mobilizing, but they predict there will not be enough for the increasingly many hungry.

As for rice, Thailand and Vietnam, the two largest exporters of rice worldwide, instituted export bans to insure local supplies after global-warming induced deluge and drought halved production. This started a world rice shortage.

 

Thailand is thinking of organizing a rice cartel similar to the oil cartel. A rice cartel will be composed of the premiere rice nations of Asia, namely, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma or Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. This contradicts the promises of food cooperation among ASEAN nations stated in the recent Bali conference. Cartel and cooperation are diametrically opposed. The only way to weaken the clout of a cartel is to have bumper harvests and an oversupply, which is unlikely, considering runaway population growth and global-warm. The ASEAN must stop the rice cartel through pressures based on non-rice trading quid-pro-quos.

The Philippines is the largest importer of rice worldwide, and our government’s knee jerk reaction was to over-buy, to double imports, no matter if prices doubled, anticipating a protracted shortage beyond 2008. Lately, it is thinking of slowing down a bit after it has procured 1.6 million metric tons (MMT), larger than the original target of 1.2 MMT. The obsession to increase buffer stocks is a political motive for a government increasingly insecure about its popularity. Still, the hunger and food security issues dwarfs politics.

beteljuice7@gmail.com 

QUEEN’S GAMBIT

by Bernie Lopez

GMA recently threw the apple of discord by directing the DTI to appeal to the ERC for lower Napocor rates for Meralco, a seemingly creative entrapment to force Meralco to lower its rates to consumers correspondingly. The gambit may work in exposing Meralco’s excuse for a scandalous 12% increase in generation rate in a single month.

 

Observers say it is a GMA move to take over Meralco, using the GSIS as the rook. But who is saying there is a take over? Is it the Meralco boys, to make GMA look like the wolf? Or is there really a takeover, hinted by GSIS head Winston Garcia wanting ‘transparency’ in Meralco’s books? The take over theory seems flimsy to me. Why and why now? In my opinion, it is really the gall of this giant utility to increase rates arbitrarily and unilaterally which has angered both government and the general public. In other words, sobra na.

 

Pete Ilagan, the electric consumer advocate from NASECORE, updated me on this raging issue. He explains that Meralco raised the generation rate from P4.38 in March to P4.90 in April, a scandalous 52 centavos increase. Pete explains that a centavo increase translates in an increase in Meralco revenue of about P270 million. Multiply this by 52 and you get a staggering P13.5 billion, all in a single month.

 

Meralco says the increase was due to corresponding rate increase at WESM. But Meralco buys only 8.9% of its power from WESM, 35% from Napocor, and the rest from its own Independent Power Producers (IPPs), Sta. Rita, Quezon, etal. So why the sudden 52-centavo or 12% increase in a single month?

 

It is against the law to buy power higher than the Napocor rate, more so if you buy from yourself and charge the high rates on consumers. This is not only illegal, it is immoral as it victimizes the general public. Is this is why Meralco tries to keep secret the price it buys power from itself, namely the same Lopez-controlled IPPs?

 

But it comes out in the papers anyway. A columnist claims Meralco buys from itself at P5.30 which is higher than the Napocor rate of P4.38 (April rate). If this figure is correct, then Meralco must be penalized for passing on such illegal rates to consumers.

 

If Meralco has been illegally buying power from itself for many months now, why is the Electric Regulatory Commission (ERC) not able to stop it? And why is Meralco permitted to unilaterally increase its rate arbitrarily without giving numbers to justify it? Pete says that Meralco says it is simply based on 'pass-on cost'. This means, whatever the cost of power, Meralco simply passes it on to users without adding or subtracting. This explanation is not enough. Meralco must give exact numbers. Instead of taking the side of the queen, ERC Director Albano questioned DTI’s authority to request for the lowering of rates. Is there an ERC-Meralco partnership that is trying to defy the queen?

 

The Queen's Gambit was a directive to Napocor to lower the generation rate charged to Meralco to P4.11, the average rate for Electric Cooperatives. If this is done, then the generation rate charged by Meralco to consumers should also go lower correspondingly and proportionately. Meralco is in dilemma if it still increases its rates after the directive, or if it lowers but not proportionately. Remember it is a 'pass on cost'. It has to justify its changes in generation rate exactly and quantitatively. GMA is Ahab and Meralco is Moby Dick.

 

But it is not as simple as that. The P4.11 rate charged to Electric Cooperatives is an average rate. The rate can actually swing like a pendulum from about P6.00 at peak hours to P1.87 at non-peak hours. So it is complex in the sense that volume of purchase at specific times involves different rates. But it is impossible not to have an exact gauge on actual charges. So we do not have to talk of averages but of actual total charges, to determine exactly at what rate Meralco purchased and at what volume.

 

Another question is - is Meralco intentionally buying at high peak prices from its own IPPs to unduly up its profits by passing the cost to consumers, while buying at non-peak from Meralco or WESM? Pete and Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) should look into Meralco’s books.

 

There is a scheduled critical Tuesday dialogue that Pete and FDC requested from the ERC with players like PSALM, TRANSCO, WESM, and Napocor to attend and air their sides. Unfortunately, it is too late to include the results of that meeting in today’s column. So let us leave that for next week.

 

One last point. Homeowners are entitled to a 30% discount if the power comes from Napocor. Since Meralco buys 35% of its power from Napocor, there should be a 30% of 35% or about 4.3 centavos based on the March rate of P4.11. Is this discount being given? It seems this is not being reflected on our electric bills.

 

Meralco has two sweethearts, Sta. Rita and Quezon, not to mention future IPPs it will have. This is not only incest, it is bigamy.

beteljuice7@gmail.com 

HIGHWAY ROBBERY

by Bernie Lopez

There are two types of highway robbery - stealing from highway travellers or stealing the highway itself. Rene Santiago, transport planning expert, referring to the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, says. "The Japanese consultants tend to bloat and justify projects so they qualify for funding from JBIC (Japan Bank for International Cooperation)."

 

Rene, former President of the Transportation Science Society of the Philippines, is further quoted by Roel Landingin of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), "Once it gets funded by JBIC, a lot of Japanese construction companies are happy."

 

The $315 million phase one of the Expressway in question was funded by the Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA), which has a new meaning these days - assistance to the Japanese. The Filipinos are mere victims of 'development assistance'. And the Japan Bank for International Cooperation is a ‘cooperation’ among Japanese multinationals.

 

Rene claims the traffic forecasts for the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway Phase One were based on doubtful methods and assumptions. The Japanese study projected that the number of passenger car units (PCUs) would grow by 12.5% per year for the Subic-Clark section and 9% per year for the Clark-Tarlac section, all in a ten year period from 2005 to 2015. Rene argues that these growth rates are about twice the actual annual growth in traffic from 1996 to 2002 along the Olongapo‑Gapan road and McArthur Highway, which runs parallel to the expressway, and whose goal is to decongest it. The study, Rene adds, does not explain why the traffic growth rate would suddenly just be a double of historical data. Rene pursues his point. Makati took almost 20 years to develop into a central business district. Clark is an industrial zone, not a central business district, which means Clark would have less PCUs.

 

He argues, "Traffic usually grows by 3% to 5% a year which is based on the growth in vehicle volume. It may grow faster if there is a major property development but these developments take 15‑20 years to pan out."

Anticipating perhaps juicier projects in the future, the Japanese consultants quoted government figures that airports and seaports in the vicinity will also grow by leaps and bounds. The PCIJ article cited BCDA data reveal that Clark International Airport would have an increase of 300,000 to 40 million passengers and 50,000 to 1.2 million tons of cargo per year. Subic Seaport would have an increase in cargo container volume from 25,000 'twenty-foot equivalent units' (TEUs) to 100,000.

 

The Japanese consultants had wrongly predicted that Taiwan would revert back to China by 2007. Landingin wrote that they seemed to be well versed not only in traffic volume but also in geopolitics.

 

My friends in the Japanese media tell me infrastructure in Japan is the largest source of corruption, in the billions of dollars per year, a partnership of Japanese Inc. and the Japanese government. They say it is an open secret and everybody just looks away because it is a necessary factor in national development.

THE BEAR STEARNS AFFAIR

 

An article appeared in the BBC website reporting that the controlling shares of the Bear Stearn insiders were sold to JP Morgan Chase at $2.00 per share when the rest of the shares were trading at $36. <>

Also, the Bernanke boys assured JP Morgan of a $30 billion credit line. Why was the credit line not given to Bear Stearns? Finally, there is a lawsuit against Bear Stearns officials charged with misinformation for claiming a few days earlier that they had a liquid fund of $17 billion.

 

So a financial analyst says we should not feel bad that Filipinos are number one in corruption. At least, we deal with peanuts compared to the billions of dollars in the US where the media is portraying a triumvirate of giants in a corruption case - JP Morgan, Bear Stearns, and the Fed itself.

 

The US government feels that if it does not rescue Bear Stearns, it will lead to a deepening of recession. Recession, says the US experts, is not on its way. It is here with us now. The victims in events like the Bear Stearns Affair are ordinary investors, such as a British citizen who lost $1 billion. What is one man compared to an entire national economy?

AFTER RICE, NOW FISH

 

The shortage in rice is but the tip of the food iceberg. A fish shortage is expected to also emerge soon, says Kilusang Mangingisda, a nationwide conglomeration of 14 fishing federation. Chair Ruperto Aleroza cites the Comprehensive National Fishery Industry Development Plan (CNFIDP) showing forecast in food fish demand from 2.6 to 4.2 million metric tons by 2025. The CNFIDP is a strategic fisheries development plan of the government in partnership with the local fishery sector. Aleroza attributes this growing shortage to over-fishing. The CNFIDP study reveals that part of the food fish shortage is due to competition from the lucrative export-driven seaweed production.

 

To address the food fish deficit, Kilusang Mangingisda proposes tying up production to the maximum sustainable yield of 1.9 million metric tons, diverting commercial fishing into the Exclusive Economic Zone which is relatively unexploited and where Taiwanese and Chinese poachers proliferate, mandating environment-friendly aquaculture practices, and providing for adequate post‑harvest facilities to minimize spoilage.

 

I would add two more. One is plentiful easy-to-get credits for small fishermen who comprise 70% of fish production nationwide. Two is incentives to prioritize fish over seaweed production.

beteljuice7@gmail.com

AIRLINE TREMORS

by Bernie Lopez

After 911, the global airline industry went into a tailspin, and just as the dust was beginning to settle, a new tornado suddenly blew.

 

911 was the absolute catalyst. The day after 911, airports all over America and Europe were clogged up due to security reasons. At the Los Angeles airport, a Filipino balikbayan reported that he had to go down a few kilometers from the airport, walk with all his balikbayan boxes, only to have them stripped down to the toothbrush level, and only to find out he could not leave, not in the next few days, so he went home anyway and finished half a bottle of Black Label to calm his nerves down. In fear of terrorism, there was an obsession for over-security which left the airlines in shambles. Nothing was the same anymore in the commercial skies after the Twin Towers of Manhattan took the same fate as the twin towers of Babel two thousands years ago. The coincidence was biblically mind-boggling.

 

Security procedures disrupted the flow of airline traffic. There were less flights, less passengers, less profits. The strategy of the airlines in order to recover was to downsize, rely on smaller planes with smaller volume of passengers. That way, they could match logistics against passenger volume, and reduce overhead on big airplanes half or a third full. It worked but there were repercussions.

 

For one, more planes, small and big, meant more pilots. There ensued a serious shortage of pilots worldwide. The best Filipino pilots suddenly disappeared, offered by Middle East and Asian airlines lucrative salaries three to ten times their current pay.

 

Philippine Airlines (PAL) felt the crunch and was going into a crisis level. You cannot fast track producing good pilots because it takes years of training and flying hours to mold these ace pilots. I told PAL there were Saudi investors I knew, whose pockets were overflowing with petro-dollars, and who might be interested in a joint venture to built an international pilot school in Clark. I was ignored.

 

And as the first tornado died down, a second one ensued quite recently, a triple-whammy. First whammy was spiralling oil prices hitting the century mark ($100 per barrel) pushing airfares up to unprecedented levels. Again, there were less passengers and less profits. Delta and United, local US airlines which were hardest hit, are now negotiating for a merger. This implies laying off thousands as a solution to mounting overheads.

 

Second whammy was a former employee of the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) testifying that there were massive safety anomalies in key local US airlines. As a result, 2,000 flights were delayed within two days in just two local US airports.

 

Third whammy was the announcement by key US economists saying that a US recession was not arriving but has arrived, partly triggered by the credit crunch due to the subprime mortgage crisis worldwide which resulted in a tailspin in global stock exchanges.

 

The airline mergers may see a reversal back to the bigger planes, which will result in a glut of unemployed pilots from the era of shortage. Whatever the tremors that rock the global airline industry, one thing is for sure, out of the rubble will emerge the survivors because this demand-driven industry will necessarily separate the airline sheep from the goats.

FOOD SECURITY STRATEGY

 

At the top of the list of measures to insure food security is to streamline the availability and easy access of credit to marginal fishermen and farmers who comprise the bulk of our food production.

 

Second is for the government to abolish taxes on oil and on food. The government cannot forever increase deficit spending and think all the ingenious tax revenue plans will solve its over-spending. Belt tightening is now a must for government if it wants food security to be properly addressed. The reason America is a superpower is it has one of the lowest cost of gasoline which fuels industrial and economic growth. Taxes inhibit economic growth and encourage government over-spending. Our price for gasoline is so high, almost double of that in the US at one time in the past.

 

Third, our agricultural agencies are infested with corruption. An anti-corruption drive, if that is possible, will definitely do well to attain food security. The Fair Trade Alliance (FTA) says our food crisis is man-made, not just a product of global shortages. We have the land resources to produce. What we do not have is credit for food producers and government incentives for more food production. We have an agricultural economy. Agriculture dominates our growth as a nation. Agriculture insures the survival of marginals who comprise more than half of the country. There is no excuse that we cannot produce our own food.

 

Fourth and last, we must stop giving agricultural lands to foreigners like the Chinese and we must prioritize food over non-food agricultural productions even if the latter bring in better profits.

beteljuice7@gmail.com