Egay responds to irate driver

RECEIVING feedback has always been, to me, the thing that makes writing worthwhile. It completes the writing. Writing, after all, is communication, and feedback completes that cycle.

For those who have been following “My Wit’s End” — yes, I’m talking to all 137 of you — I lent my space to articulate the rants of an irate driver-friend on the traffic situation in and around the city.

To refresh your memory, my irate driver-friend divided his rants into three parts: traffic lights, traffic enforcers, and their mobility.

It has since reached the ears, err eyes, of Cagayan de Oro traffic czar lawyer Edgardo “Egay” Uy. He PM-ed me about two hours after that day’s issue hit the streets. He has graciously answered my irate driver-friend’s rants, point-by-point.

So, to end this cycle, I have decided to once again lend my space to Uy’s reply in full and as is. Although, I highly doubt that we’ve heard the last of this particular subject matter [smirks].

Nota bene for those who have been hiding under a rock: RTA is Roads and Traffic Administration, and CCTV stands for closed-circuit television.

Please, do read on.

“Yes, brew, I read your column.  Allow me to clarify the concerns raised by your irate driver-friend.

“1. The traffic lights. The entire project [traffic light and CCTV systems] was not yet turned over to the city by the contractor. The CCTV component is already 99.99% complete while the traffic lights component is still about 70% done.

“Mayor Moreno created a task force to oversee the completion of the project.  The chairmanship changed hands recently and I now head it. We are conducting weekly meetings with the project contractor, needless to state, to closely monitor their progress.

“Our team has required some corrections in the traffic lights that were already installed, e.g., cabling method, safety triggers, etc. These are among the reasons there are flashing traffic lights. These are being worked out by the contractor in coordination with our team.

“We have given the contractor until the end of the year to fully turn over the project to the City.  Failing in this, legal action will have to be resorted to by the City.

“2. On Traffic Aides. Yes, the RTA trains them before they are fielded. We have strengthened the RTA education team and have come up with training modules both for new hires and the tenured ones. And training is continuing.

“Traffic aides are supposed to wear their issued vests for visibility especially at night. If there are those who fail to wear the vests, we would be happy to receive detailed reports so the RTA supervisors could immediately do corrective actions.

“We are currently re-organizing the RTA to address managerial requirements. One of the focus areas are (sic) traffic aides on the road because the RTA needs to closely supervise them, especially that the enforcement group comprises about 75% of its workforce.

“3. On mobility. The RTA has added motorcycles to the Motorcycle Enforcement Unit of the RTA to partly address mobility concerns. The RTA is also beefing up its fleet but we cannot do it at one stroke given some limitations. As a part of this, the RTA will also strengthen its ability to maintain its fleet to ensure the availability of roadworthy vehicles.

“Thank you for the observations. We welcome feedback from the public so we can continue to improve the RTA and the service it renders.”

Opinion writing 101

“Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough,” Karl Marx (1818-1883).

IT TOOK years of coaxing and goading from people I have come to respect and revere for me to even start considering to write opinion pieces. To put it bluntly, I find punditry hilas.

I find it even ironic that I have been pursuing a journalism career since I've always been more inclined to poetry and literature when I started out writing ― unlike my father.

Yes, before Emilio dragged me into this shit storm of a career, I was perfectly comfortable thinking up of quatrains and couplets for my Petrarchan or Shakespearean sonnets. I was more interested in devising twists and turns in the plot of a short story.

I blame Emilio for all of these.

Anyway, I'm here now ― working for a daily newspaper with the widest circulation in northern Mindanao. But, it took me grueling years in the trenches (read: beat reporter) before I started writing opinion pieces.

Five years ago, I remember one of my mentors, Carolyn Arguillas, asked me to write an opinion column for Mindanews. I replied with an anticlimactic no. I said I was too young to be writing what my thoughts are on current events.

To even think about writing something that bares my soul on any given subject out in the open still gives me goosebumps.

I felt that my body of work wasn't enough to build my credibility as a pundit.

When I did, finally, decided to write my column, My Wit's End, I read a butt-load of opinion pieces first. I found that punditry, although subjective in nature, must be based on real events. This is only logical because how could you arrive at a sound hypothesis if it is based on imaginary events.

Opinion and fiction or creative writing are two distinct approaches to writing, I was taught. But unlike creative writing, in column writing, your characters are already there. You do not create the characters to fit your narrative. You do not base your accusations on events that didn't happen.

One thing I found to be true to most opinion pieces, the common denominator, if you will, is that this articles are and should be based on facts and documented events.

Opinion writing, to me, is the distillation of current events that affect society and so you offer your humble analyses of these events for your readers to come up with intelligent and informed decisions. You do not write opinion articles based on the figment of your imagination.

Column writing can also serve as a call to action. It serves as the embodiment of journalism's role in society as a check and balance. It is the practical application of the fourth estate’s “watchdog” role.

I think this is where the concept of “conflict of interest” comes in. You have to be detached to the subject you’re writing about to be able to give an honest opinion.

Now if you write a column to attack a public entity based on the imagined wrongs this entity did to further line your own pocket, then that. my friend is not punditry. It is just nothing short of a shakedown ― a con and the purveyor of this, a hack job. It is nothing but a receipt of a tigbas.

It is correct when you say that a wrongdoing can never be contained, much like air or smoke. But an imagined wrongdoing cannot get off the ground either.

I am not the least threatened by this supposed age of post-truth and fake news (read: imagined events).

You see, pundits who base their opinion on a fake news or imagined sources is not really a fake pundit. It only shows the author’s gullibility and stupidity.

This kind of people will eventually self-destruct but like the fool that the economist Karl Marx described at the start of this article, they will always jockey for the position of having the last say in the matter.

Until then, we will just have to contend with these maladjusted paid hacks and take their writings the way it should be ― as works of fiction, ergo for entertainment purposes and nothing more.

Uncreative non-fiction

“Truth was unimportant and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology.” -Joseph Goebbels, Nazi party propagandist

I WOULD like to thank the Philippine News Agency for making this column a helluva lot easier to write by posting not one but two fake news articles. Now we have two articles to dissect which will be easier to separate truth from Goebbels-like propaganda.

I was thinking of sharing with you, my dear avid readers (Yes, all 250 of you), the things I learned at a seminar I attended last week. The seminar was about how to spot fake news. I prepared notes on the subject when PNA posted those fake news stories on their website.

This means that I might have to make this a two-part opinion piece. I will discuss and share tips on how to hunt for fake news on my second installment. But for now, let’s first tackle PNA’s latest foray into blatant disinformation.

Unfortunately for us, PNA took down the story and edited the fake news articles.

But good for us because many in the mainstream media (this paper included) screen grabbed the articles before PNA took down the article.

That’s good news for us because now, at least, we know PNA and the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) still feel “hiya.” Well, they should be, since their salaries are taxpayers’ money.

On May 15, PNA ran a story entitled: “95 nations in 3rd UPR convinced no EJKs in PHL.” The story, which ran for five days, claimed that 95 member-states who were present in the 27th Universal Period Review of the of the United Nations Human Rights Council believed in Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano’s report that there are no extrajudicial killings in the country.

Newly appointed Communications Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson wasted no time in posting the erroneous article on her blog on May 18. So the “crusading” blogger–who branded mainstream media “presstitutes”–now became an official “presstitute” of this administration by passing along an inaccurate article.

Vera Files checked its blog and found that as of May 20, at least 8,000 netizens had reacted and more than 900 gullible ones shared it.

The international council took notice of the erroneous article that it posted on its official Twitter account on May 19: “#UPR27 Clarification: To our best knowledge, 95 states were not convinced that EJK is non-existent.” The UN body then posted the full webcast of the UPR session.

The government news wires service took down the story on May 20 (may hiya rin pala) but not before posting a replacement story which is still inaccurate and also served to bolster Cayetano’s claim that the UPR was impressed with his report on the human rights situation in the country. The replacement story bears the odd title: “PHL’s human rights situation commended at UPR.”

So what did really happen at the 27th UPR? To answer this. I went to the international body’s website, www.upr-info.org. Here are samples of the real recommendations of the member-states:

• Further consolidate its national human rights infrastructure, including support to the Commission on Human Rights. (Egypt)
• Continue to improve its capacity to uphold human rights, including by increasing the Commission on Human Rights’ (CHR) fiscal autonomy and organizational capacity, as well as further efforts to prevent human rights violations by Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippines National Police personnel. (Australia)
• Continue to work as a matter of urgency to ensure that there are mechanisms to completely eliminate torture and extrajudicial killings, and to intensify its efforts to carry out investigations and prosecutions on extrajudicial killings and punish those responsible. (Trinidad and Tobago)
• Conduct independent and impartial inquiry in relation to all enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions and that the perpetrators of these crimes be brought to justice. (France)
• Work towards the complete elimination of torture and extrajudicial killings, and intensify efforts to carry out the prosecution of such crimes. (The Holy See) For the newbies: The Holy See means The Vatican.
• Further capacity building, such as through human rights education targeting government authorities, particularly law enforcement agencies, and an effective implementation of a national oversight mechanism. (Japan)
• Continue the work to build up the capacity in the area of human rights protection, including through strengthening the national human rights institution. (Russian Federation)

That last one should be a doozy, considering that President Rodrigo Duterte is visiting Russia this week.

For good measure, I also audited the database on the UPR website. I found that extrajudicial killings were mentioned 18 times. Human rights violation was cited 81 times in the 191 recommendations and 74 of which are recommendations that seek “general action” in the categories of action that need to be done. A general action is No. 4 in the action categories of the council. The action categories are: 1 – Minimal action 2 – Continuing action 3 – Considering action 4 – General action 5 – Specific action.

So there. Good luck with your lies and disinformation, PNA and PCOO.

Job application

AS I watched my daughter excitedly write her job application letters the other day, I recalled the positions I applied for and those I had before I ended up in the newspaper industry–I mean, before I got “hooked” in the print medium.

Leia asked me how I applied for work before. Yes, my fresh graduate is itching to put her degree to use. So please don’t begrudge me for a little shout out to my friends and potential employers out there before I continue. Leia earned her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and Technology degree at the University of Science and Technology in Southern Philippines. Now, I don’t know what a graduate of that course actually does for a living, ergo this short shout out.

Okay. Let’s go back to romancing the past.

Leia told me she felt insecure because, obviously, she has a short curriculum vitae. I assured her it’s quite “alright” because it is her first foray into the job market. Before, we did not have to write CVs to go with our application letter. We bought a pro forma bio data for one peso. So, imagine how embarrassing it was for me to leave out some of the items in the bio data because unlike my daughter, I was a college dropout. However, living in the Corrales household which was a dual-income family and being a college dropout, I started feeling like I was a freeloading loser–and I was. After two summers of just skulking around the house and playing video games with our Nintendo Family Computer, I figured I had to somehow start contributing to the “real world.”

I became an apprentice for a salesman of a merchandising company. We sold baby powder and bathroom tissue from Iligan City to Kapatagan. I remember being stranded in Kapatagan for two days because my bosses, the salesman and the driver, got into a binge drinking spree and were too drunk to travel, much less, make sales calls.

After a short stint with the drunken salesman, I applied and worked for a Grolier encyclopedia distribution company. Yes, I was a book salesman. Before the Internet, encyclopedias were king. I experienced a lot of my “firsts” in that job–“firsts” which I’d rather not go to details in this column.

I reached my sales quota and was awarded a whole set of encyclopedia. But after that, the caravans and the book conventions started to bore me. I had to go out. I was looking for something. What it was I still didn’t have a clue.

I got out of that job and applied for a more “physical job”–an assistant welder. I recall being good at it. I enjoyed getting my hands dirty and getting paid by the sweat of my brow, so to speak. We fabricated window grills and we had a variety of designs catalogued. I remember filling out a large order from a subdivision developer somewhere in Kauswagan. So if you live in a subdivision in Kauswagan, chances are we made your window grills.

However, my boss decided to work overseas and had to close shop. So I was officially unemployed again. From that time until I started to work for a local newspaper were a string of odd jobs. The oddest of which was being an “Internet coach.” Internet was something new that time and there was this German expat who posted a job ad in a local daily for somebody to teach him how to use the Internet.

After that, I worked as a personal assistant which I have come to understand is a euphemism for “yaya”; as insurance agent; as a folksinger; and as a community organizer for a non-government organization.

Leia asked me if I regretted having applied for all of those I mentioned. I did not because all the jobs shaped the kind of man that I am now. It shaped my biases and principles, and it made me a better journalist today. Whenever I write a news or feature story about something, I can write about it honestly because I lived it before.

I think the lesson my Leia and the others who are entering into the job market for the first time is not to be choosy and just explore. Of course, some of the wisecracks out there will reply: “I can be choosy because unlike you, I have a degree.”

The first job you will be applying and work for will just be to acquire practical knowledge outside the academic bubble. Believe you me, there will be lots of theories that will be debunked in the course of your careers.

But then again, what do I know, right?

Postponing democracy

“IF barangay elections were not held, the power of the people to elect their own leaders and not allow their leaders to just be appointed will be removed away from them. That is a terrible diminution of the power of our people granted to them under a democratic rule.” -former Senator Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr., father of the Local Government Code

THIS administration will be wasting a lot of resources should its minions at Batasan Hill decide to postpone again the barangay and SK elections this October.

Elections Commissioner Luie Guia posted on his Facebook wall that existing laws need to be amendment before the elections could be declared postponed.

“Comelec is aware of what seems to be the declared preference of the political leadership to have the polls reset (or) canceled. It is best however that the decision on the matter be formalized via amendatory legislation the soonest.

“All that the poll body can do now is to slow down a bit in its preparation, but this can only hold temporarily. At a certain point and without the amendatory legislation coming out, it would already be constrained to go full blast,” Guia’s post reads in part.

Guia, however, predicates this statement by reminding citizens that “organizing elections is not a simple task. It is an enormous logistical operation that requires adequate preparation time and commitment of substantial resources.”

As a father to one of Comelec’s election workers in the city, I am appalled by the amount of money this administration will be wasting if it did decide to postpone the elections. As Guia jokingly told me over the weekend: “Comelec father ka nga pala.”

I made my own calculations and came up with P1,406,052. That amount only accounts for the paid man-hours of the election workers manning the satellite registrations in the city alone. It does not include the overtime pays (when they work on Saturdays and Sundays). It does not include the electricity that powers the computers, biometric equipment, the reams of paper and other logistical resources needed in every satellite registration. It does not include the physical hazards these election workers face in the hinterland barangays.

I arrived at that amount by multiplying the number of days (277 to be exact since City Comelec started its satellite registrations since July last year) to the daily average wage of a casual election worker (P423 from the P11,000 monthly salary of a casual worker). Then I multiplied that number to the number of election workers manning each satellite registration (12 election workers).

Guia said via private message that if Congress amends the election law within the next month or two, there won’t be much wastage.

So, timing is key. I just hope that we still have enough thinking legislators in both houses of Congress.

Meanwhile, we, the electorate, wait.

I have seen how the City Comelec has labored and the commitment it has in making sure those voters will be able to choose who will lead them in the most basic unit of political body in the Republic.

As the father of the Local Government Code puts it: “Getting the barangay officials elected by the people of the barangay concerned makes them beholden to their voters. Appointing them, on the other hand, makes them feel they owe a debt of gratitude to the appointing power that they have somehow to repay.”

Postponing the barangay and SK elections is a very dangerous precedent. The next thing you know, you’ll just realize in horror that you have willingly surrendered your liberties to a dictator who has scared you on the pretext that we have been a narco-state in the last “six or seven years.” Pfft.

Public conversation

THE public conversation on corruption is bound to happen whoever is in power. Even the almighty Apo Ferdie couldn’t get under wraps. It is nothing personal. It is a conversation where the taxpayers hold to account those who swore to be true and at their service.

Forbes Magazine recently cited Transparency International’s 2016 Corruption Index where the country slid back some six places in ranking – from an index of 134 in 2010 to 168. We are now neighbors with Pakistan and India in terms of level of corruption.

“President Duterte’s dramatic rise to power in the Philippines made extensive use of anti-corruption rhetoric. Yet, the impact of death squads, attacks on media, and violent intimidation to the detriment of democracy and democratic institutions is yet to be seen in 2017,” Transparency International’s observation reads in part.

Deflection must be the most useful tact in any self-respecting politician’s arsenal. Even the ones who claim they have nothing to hide.

As I see it, there is really no need for President Digong Dada to order the Anti-Money Laundering Council to “release” his bank account records because as the highest elected public official in the land every asset he and his family has, earned or inherited, should all reflect in all of his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth. Yes, from when he was a non-crusading public prosecutor up to his winning the presidency of the Republic last year.

For the dense and ignorant, the submission of a SALN, as stipulated in Republic Act 6713, is a prerequisite of all public officials and employees – sans those in an honorary capacity, laborers, casuals, and temporary workers –upon assumption to office and on or before April 30 of every year in government service. Public officials are also required to file a SALN within 30 days after separation from government service.

“The SALN lists the properties – real estate, vehicles, jewelry, shares of stock, etc. – that an official has acquired or owns, when, at what cost, and their current market values. The SALN also enrolls the official’s liabilities such as loans, including those from government institutions (read: GSIS) and insurance payments. The SALN should list as well the names of the official’s wife and children below 18, and the names of the official’s relatives in government service up to the fourth degree of consanguinity and affinity,” our codigo cum notebook when I was with the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism reads.

So when Sen. Antonio Trillanes brought up Duterte’s supposedly suspicious fat bank accounts I was surprised that the latter’s initial response was childish name-calling and insults. The next day, as if sobered up, ordered the AMLC to “release all his bank records.” A little digression for the online trolls and fanatics, I agree that Trillanes looks creepy. Well, they both look sinister as fudge to me. But looks and gut feel has got nothing to do with the Trillanes-Duterte to-and-fro (which basically is turning out to be a b-version of a Star Wars saga).

If Duterte has nothing to hide he need simply point Trillanes to all of his SALNs. This, of course, has a lot of conjectures attached to that statement. That is assuming Duterte faithfully and honestly filed SALNs in all the years of his career as a public servant. There’s the assumption, too, that he really advocates for transparency and accountability in public service – and so on and so forth.

Trillanes’ accusations should also not come as a surprise for Duterte considering the former comptroller of the Navy’s acquisition division already filed a plunder case last year. A second attack, as it were, was bound to happen. Like a rat that got wind of a rotting cheese, it will pursue it no matter what. Trillanes will not back down. He has already drawn first blood.

Whichever sides of the fence you are sitting, Trillanes’ accusations is primarily a call for transparency. If he has shady practices in the Senate then these should also be investigated on – as pointed out by the Fifth Estate (Duterte’s barrage of spin doctors). Too bad, Trillanes beat Duterte to hurling accusations first.

This also brings to fore the need for a public conversation on the alleged corruption under the Duterte administration which was bound to happen as with the past presidents of the Republic.

So, no VG, this is not about whether I’m opposed to this administration or not. This is not about the person. This is about us – yes, including you – pulling our heads out of our asses and start asking the really ugly questions that need to be asked.

We cannot just sweep the conversation under the rug, so to speak.

Hapsay 2.0

METHINKS it is high time for a serious reboot to the “Hapsay Dalan” which has used our D.V. Soria area as its traffic laboratory of sorts for some time already.

While it was commendable––stress on the past tense. Elsewhere around the city are pure traffic chaos. Drivers in the city, and I’m not talking only about the public vehicles flying, err plying across the city, lack even the most basic of road courtesies.

I’ve always thought that of all the “rules” made by man, traffic rules are the most logic and practical of all. It is there to prevent accidents, gridlocks, and yes, deaths.

I don’t drive my own car to the office. From time to time, though, I ride with my Editor-in-Chief’s Vitara and every ride with him always brings out the dark side in me.

Sometimes, I just suggest to him to put on some “fag music” to calm his nerves. If you come to think of it, traffic rules are not really that hard to follow. But when you (the driver) believe that you are entitled to some road courtesy and cannot give in, that becomes a big problem on the road.

When in a crossroad or junction don’t push on through if you see that the other side is still full with vehicles. Otherwise, you will “lock” the grid. It will not only inconvenience you but every one in that junction. Can’t you park your million-peso SUV on your garage for chrissakes?

I understand that for the longest time D.V. Soria has been the hub of the city but the Hapsay task force should realize that other streets and junctions in the city also need the discipline that has been successfully implemented at D.V. Soria. I suggest a drivers’ education campaign and make it a mandatory prerequisite in renewing their licenses.

Unless the task force reboots the Hapsay Dalan campaign to include the other streets and junctions in the city, it will begin to be a big disappointment because its implementation is only contained in the one place that most drivers and commuters would happily shy away from if they could help it.