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APRIL 28-MAY 4, 2014 • VOL.4 NO.35
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KING OF ‘ENDO’ HENRY SY
By miguel Raymundo This week, we honor the working class. Meanwhile, Henry Sy, the ‘endo’ king, dishonors labor, and ends up the richest in the country. “Endo” is ‘end of contract’. Page 2
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COVER STORY
To their dismay, Aquino thumbed down the request, arguing that the bill— if approved – would pose more harm than good to his much-ballyhooed job-creation program. “Companies might hesitate to hire because of certain provisions and therefore, deprive our workers of the opportunity to gain employment, “he argued. To Aquino, he reckoned that should the bill become a law, only 1.8 million would benefit, while an estimated 10 million Filipinos could lose their jobs. His figures run counter to the faceless and countless multitudes of jobless Filipinos. The lowly paid, exploited SM employees
King of ‘Endo’ By Miguel Raymundo
The country celebrates Labor Day this week to honor the working class. Sharing the labor front’s woes, OpinYon finds it fitting to tell how dishonored labor made Henry Sy the richest man in this country. This is the story of Ligaya Cruz.
After busting the militant employees’ union at SM in 2003, Sy has since banned labor activities across its malls and department stores. Any sign of union organizing effort among employees is immediately met with sanction or outright termination.
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As she walked past SM mall in Makati city, a bitter memory flashed through her mind. Over a decade ago, Ligaya Cruz and other mall workers were brutally dispersed by the mall’s security guards aided by some baton-wielding policemen for picketing. She later suffered a miscarriage. Like their colleagues in other strikeplagued SM branches in Metro Manila then, they protested the so-called “555” – the insidious practice of mall owner, ethnic Chinese taipan Henry Sy, to renew workers’ contracts every five months or after so-called “end of contracts.” Also referred to as “endo,” such scheme of hiring and firing workers has become alarming across many key industries, specifically in SM, the nation’s largest mall operator. Ever shrewd that he is, Sy has been resorting to contractualization, obviously to skip labor laws which provide a six-month minimum contract to entitle the workers to certain monetary benefits, including leaves with pay, and the right to join unions. In 2003 alone, SM employed 20,000 contract workers, the biggest on record by a single retail-based company. That number has since ballooned to over 30,000 now as the tycoon diversified his moneyspinning businesses -- ranging from retail to property, banking and finance and tourism infrastructure.
Wealth Means Crime
The figures undoubtedly make Sy as the nation’s undisputed king of contractualization, lending credence to widely-held beliefs that for every great wealth, there’s a great crime behind. Altogether, Sy –the nation’s richest businessman -- personifies sheer capitalist greed coupled with a freeloading mindset, casting doubts on his often-told rags-to-riches story. Not surprising why critics label Sy as the ethnic Chinese tycoon who built his mall empire on the blood and sweat of slave labor, particularly women. More often than not and with impunity, their contracts are terminated without notice even during peak shopping seasons such as Christmas and school opening, thus the flurry of strikes hounding SM over the past years. Job contractualization, which has turned the Philippines into a nation of cheap labor, began during the Marcos dictatorship of 1970s-mid-1980s when a decree was signed allowing companies to
Aquino Pro-Capitalist
In reaction, labor leaders warned that as long as President Aquino sides with the capitalists at workers’ expense, this country will continue to wallow into the mire of poverty. “Our already constrained wages have remained stagnated since Aquino came into power,” they said, adding that regular jobs have become very scarce. Worse, the increase in contributions to the Social Security System and PhilHealth had added a financial burden to the lowly paid workers in the midst of surging poverty level. Another adverse factor which could diminish the workers’ purchasing power is the impending hike in the price of liquefied petroleum gas and electricity and the transport fares of state-run Metro Rail Transit and Light Rail Transit in Metro Manila. “All these are detrimental to ordinary wage-earners as the government continues to sacrifice our welfare in the altar of corporate interests and has remained inutile to our most pressing concerns,” the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) said in a statement.
Political Will
hire workers on contract for special work.
Tenure Versus Contractualization
Amid intense lobbying by profit-hungry business elites, the job contracting scheme has been institutionalized – and legalized -- in the succeeding administrations as an integral part of the country’s Labor Code, allowing labor contracting and sub-contracting. Despite the legal cover, contractualization is considered as labor’s greatest menace. Paradoxically, while it fattens an employer’s income, it deprives those hired of job security, better pay, benefits and allowances and union rights. After busting the militant employees’ union at SM in 2003, Sy has since banned labor activities across its malls and department stores. Any sign of union organizing effort among employees is immediately met with sanction or outright termination. Amid rising restiveness in the labor sector, not a few lawmakers have proposed passage of House Bill 5110, or An Act Strengthening the Workers’ Security of Tenure. It noted that there are millions of skilled and talented Filipinos in the labor force today who don’t have regular jobs. They are forever trapped in the vicious cycle of grinding poverty.
Jobs Abroad
Daily, some 6,000 Filipinos leave at Manila’s ports to look for jobs abroad, no matter the slave-like working conditions awaiting them in foreign lands. Attempts by labor leaders to muster political support for the bill fell on deaf ears. Last year on the eve of Labor Day on May 1, they asked President Aquino to certify the long-stalled bill as urgent.
Summing up, the militant labor group noted that “the past three and a half years have opened our eyes to the painful truth that the Aquino government is undeniably anti-worker to its very core.” As contractualization persists, there’s no denying that overall, it only led to a sharp decline of the Filipino workers’ level of productivity, one of the lowest in the Asean region. Added to a dehumanizing pay scale and the government’s neglect of their plight, no wonder why labor has increasingly turned to militancy, driving away potential investors. This explains why job-creating foreign direct investments had dried up, not to mention its excessive tax rates, leading to a jobless economic growth. These days, bureaucrats boast that the economy is one of Asia’s fastest-growing and yet inexplicably, jobs and other income-earning opportunities had become increasingly next to impossible to find. The hard reality is that unemployment rate rose to 27.5 percent, or an estimated 12.1 million, as 2.5 million Filipinos joined the ranks of the jobless between September and December last year. The unemployment rate soared even as the economy surprisingly grew 7.2 percent, the second-fastest after China’s, showing that the economic growth was not inclusive. Three labor groups—Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, Partido ng Manggagawa and Kilusang Mayo Uno -warned that “jobless economic growth” would continue unless the evil of contractualization is decisively addressed with political will. The harder reality is, the likes of Henry Sy, mega-investors and rags-to-multi-billion American dollar wealthy, have taken control over government. They have the power to order Congress to craft laws intended to exploit labor and the natural wealth of the country. Their likes can bend laws and corrupt people in the courts of justice and “rob” farmlands from poor peasants. Worst, they make even the President their puppet, while burying the Filipino in deeper poverty.
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Nation
News from Where You Stand
Aquino’s Gambit By Al Labita
The looming scenario looks dreadful. Should President Aquino’s push to create a Moro state fizzle out, history would be unkind to him. At the rate criticisms are heaped on his substate-for-peace deal with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Aquino may likely end up on self-imposed exile in Malaysia, his chief backer in peace talks with the rebel group. Since the deal was inked last month, it has drawn a barrage of flaks, likening it to a sellout of part of Philippine territory, apparently Aquino’s way to put an end to decades of a bloody secessionist movement in the resource-rich region, the country’s second largest island next to Luzon. Questions on constitutionality are hounding the envisioned Bangsamoro (Islamic state). These center on the timehonored Constitutional ban on the creation of a state within a state, a provision Aquino appears to have glossed over in pushing the proposed law What legal experts fi nd revolting, however, are certain provisions virtually diminishing the government’s sovereign powers, relegating some of them to Bangsamoro. Specifically, they refer to the creation of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC). Composed of government and MILF representatives, the BTC would work on amending the 1985 Philippine Constitution, the basic law of the land.
Ridiculous
“This is beyond ridiculous,” said Senator Miriam Santiago in a press statement. .“Say again?! Wh a - a - a - t?!” Santiago, widely regarded as a Constitutional expert, is the fi rst senator to call the so-called peace pact unconstitutional. Overall, she described the Malaysiabacked PH-MILF deal as an attempt to redefi ne the country’s sovereignty. Like other legal experts, she questioned the provision in the agreement
providing that the powers reserved to the central government will depend upon further negotiation with the MILF. “Thus, the agreement diminishes the sovereignty of the Philippine government by listing what are the powers that the central government can retain,” the former regional trial court judge said. In gist, the agreement not only reduces the sovereignty of the central government, but also provides that in the future, such sovereign powers as have been reserved may be further increased, provided the Bangsamoro agrees.
Replacing ARmm
“It will therefore be the Bangsamoro which will determine what should be the remaining sovereign powers of the central government,” Santiago, a member of the International Court of Justice, said. Bangsamoro, planned to be a new region with wider political and economic powers, will replace the graft-ridden Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Santiago, chairperson of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments, hinted that she will not support the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law which, if passed in Congress, will be subject to a plebiscite for approval or disapproval by the public. “While I am chair, it will be extremely difficult to convince me, as a student of constitutional law, that the Bangsamoro Agreement respects the Philippine Constitution,” Santiago said. Some groups are poised to question soon the deal before the Supreme Court, despite assurance by the government and MILF that the proposed Bangsamoro law would comply with the Constitution without the need to amend it. But on closer look, the PH-MILF pact
contained provisions similar to those of the earlier scuttled Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOAAD).
Supreme Court
That deal was supposed to be inked between the government of then President Arroyo and the MILF, but in October 2008, the Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional because it sought to establish a state within a sovereign state. Under the MOA-AD, the existing fiveprovince ARMM would have been expanded by more than 700 additional villages, subject to a plebiscite. The proposed new entity then, to be called the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity, would have had its own police and military force and its own judicial system, among others. “Both the MOA-AD and the Bangsamoro Agreement appear to facilitate the secession of the Bangsamoro from our country, in a manner similar to the secession of Kosovo and Crimea,” Santiago warned.
Natural Resources
Although the Constitution provides that natural resources belong to the state, in the Bangsamoro territory, only Bangsamoro will have exclusive jurisdiction over them. Similarly, the pact’s annex on power sharing gives Bangsamoro “exclusive powers,” defi ned as powers or matters
over which authority and jurisdiction pertain to the Bangsamoro government. The accord also provides that only the Bangsamoro shall be under a ministerial form of government, while the rest of the country will operate under a presidential form of government. Pundits say that in allowing itself as signatory to the deal with the MILF, Malacanang may have infringed upon the powers of the legislative branch. As it appears, the agreement should not have identified the executive as the “Philippine government.” The reality is that only one of the three branches of government – the executive branch, consisting of the Office of the President acting through a peace panel of negotiators – represented the government in talks with the MILF. It may also be argued that the executive branch alone does not represent the Philippine Government, a fact that the MILF may have just shrugged off to speed up the signing of the accord for its own sake alone. Simply put, the executive branch, in negotiating the agreement with the rebel group, had no power to bind the two other branches – legislative and judicial -- to the controversial deal. By all accounts, the executive “misrepresented” itself as the government, an error in judgment on Aquino’s part for which he will pay a costly political price – the likelihood of ending up in exile in neighboring Malaysia.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK “(I return) to seek some peace and quiet amid the barrage of adverse and downright insulting publicity and commentary against me in the mainstream and social media.” – Gigi Reyes, the former aide and rumored girlfriend of Senator Juan Ponce Enrile upon arrival in Manila from San Francisco on April 19, to face charges linking her to the P10 billion pork barrel scam.
“Please tell me, how satisfied or dissatisfied you are in the performance of Benigno Aquino III as President of the Philippines?”, asks the Social Weather Station (SWS) in its recent nationwide survey, the results of which showed dissatisfaction among the country’s ABC classes of society. “I was appalled to read about those who harassed the organizers of the Philippine Independence Day celebrations, and
spammed their Facebook page. They are a disgrace to Singapore. Fortunately, this appears to be the work of a few trolls.” —Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, reacting to criticisms directed at organizers of a planned Philippine Independence Day celebration in the island city-state on June 8. “Time is running out for Congress to pass a competition law that would prevent anti-competitive
business practices, abuse of market power and anticompetitive mergers and other unfair trade practices.” —PCCI president Alfredo M. Yao
Senator Marcos
“Simply put, it is like a dog’s welcome gift to his master….” — Bayan Muna party-list Representative Carlos Zarate, referring to the Aquino administration’s “ mad rush” to firm up the proposed PH-US defense pact in time for the visit of US President Barack Obama on April 28-29. “My fearless forecast is once it hurdles both Houses (of Congress, the law would immediately be challenged in the Supreme Court due to constitutionality questions.”
—Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong”Marcos, referring to the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law. “I’m asking for an apology from those bothered by our projects. “ — Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson, referring to the monstrous traffic jams triggered by their road repair along Edsa. “The resurrection is a warning to the unjust, to those who trample on the rights of the innocent, those who
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lie, those who sell and betray friends.” — Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, archbishop of wManila, in his Easter Sunday message. “I have a responsibility to my colleagues and am accountable to our countrymen who voted for me.” —Senator JV Ejercito, referring to a Senate blue ribbon committee report accusing his half-brother, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, of plunder in the P10billion pork barrel scam.
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OPINION
Publisher’s Notes
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The Scourge of Labor Come May 1, the nation will mark Labor Day, but is it worth celebrating? For as long as labor remains mired in a state of deprivation, no significance – either real or imagined – can be attached to what is supposed to be a day of tributes to the workers. That the workers are exploited with impunity can hardly be disputed, given the rampant practice by big businesses such as SM of tycoon Henry Sy to resort to contractualization. Bluntly, contractualization – other than the businesses’ subtle way to rake in more profits -- appears to be the hidden cost underlying a struggling economy. While providing relief to the ranks of the jobless, such measure is but only temporary, exposing indeed the government’s lack of long-term solutions to the nation’s job woes. Broadly, the malpractice is not only revolting, but also immoral because it deprives workers of their human right to a life of respect and dignity. Without any moment’s notice, those who entered into such lopsided arrangement can be terminated even in the absence of any justifiable cause. How and why contractualization continued to thrive under the noses of labor officials defies logic. The economy, as the government says, has been on a growth track over the past years, creating opportunities for employment. And yet, based on official statistics, there’s still a growing number of Filipinos who are jobless. It only buttressed the fact that while growth is welcome news, it can’t be equated by any stretch of imagination with the uplift of the workers’ quality of life. Understandably, we can’t find fault with those who opt to look for greener pastures abroad. Desperation is just overwhelming, leaving them with no choice but to take their chances in faraway lands.
OpinYon is published by Digitek Publishing House, Inc., with editorial and business offices at No. 10 Pacita Avenue, Pacita Complex I, San Pedro, Laguna.
TELEPHONE NUMBER San Pedro: 214-0766 Email: opinyon.2010@ gmail.com website: www.opinyon.com.ph DISCLAIMER Letters to the Editor and unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher, editors and staff of Opinyon. We reserve the right to edit articles based on our editorial standards.
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OpinYon is a responsible advocacy paper. It is not an angry tabloid that detractors are wont to accuse it of. But if taking a passionate stand against abuses by big business means being angry and committing a crime, then we admit our writers, together our editorial staff, stand guilty of being angry and offensive. That the editorial preference of this paper has hurt big business can not be overstated by the dirty tricks on censorship employed by big money. One common complaint of our regular followers, buying their copies from our outlets, is that there are no copies to buy and outlets had run out of copies. Reports reaching me say copies are sold out in an hour upon reaching the shelves. Too good to be true, so we did our own sleuthing. Indeed, it sold out fast on some issues. We also found out that this is because of an organized effort to buy all copies from all our outlets in Metro Manila. Why? Some big business people do not want OpinYon reaching its readers. And they have the money to do this. This is censorship done during the pre-Martial
PUBLIC PULSE On cover story ‘Money Wins’ by Ray L. Junia (Vol. 4 No. 33, April 14-20, 2014) It’s not his money, it’s the money of the Indonesian billionaire behind him. The name is Salim, crony of Suharto. Jessica Cervantes Kup*l itong MVP na yan!
Treason. His goal is the welfare of his benefactor, Salim of Indonesia, not of his country. Danilo Lopez Friends, I also don’t like this guy but I caution you and also myself to be careful about him. There’s a lot of things that we don’t know about this guy. Bernard Doromal
On cover story True Color! by Al Labita (Vol. 4 No. 32, April 7-13, 2014) Al Labita, I don’t agree with this entirely. The man was also greatly endowed with Chinese investments. Where do you think he got the money for all those SM condos mushrooming all over the philippines? The Filipinos he hires in all his malls may be underemployed, but nevertheless employed. Would you rather Henry Sy brought his enterprise solely to China? Count your blessings, guys. Ado Paglinawan So much of critics to (sic) a successful business man. Are we looking at Filipino crab mentality? If you’re in his shoes, will you do the same? Well, I wish I will have a chance to know the truth behind the criticisms asking one of his former closest adviser when I visit Manila. Ernesto Singson
ALFONSO LABITA Executive Editor FREDERICK FABIAN Acting Managing Editor
Capital nila ay galing kay Marcos, magaling lang clang magpalago ng pera,Sy, Tan,Gokongwei (taipans).Dahil sa sweetheart deals with the corrupt people in govt. lumaki clang maigi. Kung ihahalintulad ninyo ang pagpapasahod ng mga Ayala, Lopez, Sorianos, Madrigal, kumpara sa mga taipans parang kinukumpara mo ang araw at gabi! Rayos Ang Silvestre Jr.
DAVE DIWA Opinion Editor CARLOS RAJAMIRA Creative Director JOJO VALENCIA Layout Artist ATTY. SALVADOR PANELO Ombudsman
GETULIO MARAYA Vice President for Admin ATTY. RICKY RIBO Legal Counsel
OpinYon
Dwayne Anderson
If MVP can increase our broadband internet bandwidth and decrease the information and telecommunication cost; reduce our electric bill by half; Water Bills to 1/3; No more long queues and over crowded MRT; lower out toll fees by 1/2; Improve service (signal, billing, and attitude) of CIGNAL, (All with companies under his control). Then I can consider him as our next leader. Lambert Tan
RAY L. JUNIA Publisher
RAY L. JUNIA President
Law period of the former dictator of this country, Ferdinand Marcos. This is censorship resorted to when big money cannot buy the writers and the paper does not sell out stories. On some occasions, we are forced to do a reprint when the number of those asking for copies justify the cost. This censorship has strengthened our resolve to campaign for direct subscription, and in the process be trusted by advocacy groups and our readers. We have redefi ned our priorities resulting in giving more space for stories to allow deeper analysis and articulation on issues of high national interest. Notice these changes in this issue and the coming issues of OpinYon. We are most thankful for the continued and growing patronage of this advocacy paper. We pledge not to abandon the cause to educate the people on economic issues affecting consumers, the environment, livelihood for the underprivileged, and advocacy of other groups.
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He (Henry Sy) contractualizes his employees when he can well afford not to. SM is not the only business in town. Should it, by a miracle, collapse, someone will take over in its absence. I would like to see more parks and less malls, more family time and less on consumerism. I can think of a world without SM. I doubt we will die from it. Finally, the thinking that, “be thankful you’ve got a job even if you’re underemployed, exploited, and underpaid” is just plain BS. I wouldn’t want to be in the literal shoes of those SM sales ladies who are standing for almost 8 hours a day for a piddling amount. I don’t have to work that way but I feel for those employees. Miam Tan-Fabian
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Food Security & Sustainability
Agriculture PH Fastest Rice Producer In Asia
FAO and Canada to help PH coconut farmers
S
mall scale coconut farmers in the Philippines will soon receive assistance to restore their livelihoods severely affected by last year’s Typhoon Haiyan, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said today. It is estimated that in Region VIII alone, some 33 million coconut trees were either damaged or destroyed, affecting the livelihoods of more than one million coconut farmers. Given that coconut trees take six to eight years to reach productivity, small-scale coconut farmers need interim support to engage in livelihood diversification activities to ensure an income, as most relied solely on coconut trees as a source of livelihood. Working with the Government of the Philippines, and supported by the Government of Canada, FAO will work to enable small-scale coconut farmers to begin the process of intercropping, crop-diversification and livelihood/poultry raising activities. This will help these communities secure their livelihoods while waiting for the newly planted coconut trees to become productive. Canada’s Ambassador to the Philippines,
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H.E. Neil Reeder, reaffi rmed in Manila today the commitment made last week by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to early recovery and long-term reconstruction programmes including disaster risk reduction activities in the Philippines. The CAD$ 6 million confirmed by Canada to FAO will help FAO and the Government of the Philippines support the rehabilitation efforts for small scale coconut farmers. Acting FAO Representative in the Philippines, Rajendra Aryal, highlighted the importance of the community and needs-based approach so as to ensure that what is being delivered meets the real needs of the typhoon affected small scale coconut farmers. “I want to express my sincere thanks for this Canadian contribution, as it will enable FAO to support more than 11,000 coconut farming households. After having consulted local communities, in close collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Department of Agrarian Reform, Philippine Coconut Authority, Bureau of Animal Industries and other relevant Government institutions, we will be providing smallscale coconut farmers with vegetable seeds and also seeds for tubers such as cassava and sweet potatoes, which take only about three months to grow,” Aryal said. “Further, the farming communities will be provided with poultry and small livestock ruminants and post-harvest equipment.” Crop diversification and intercropping will provide key access to income and restore selfsufficiency, building the resilience of communities to withstand future disasters. “Our approach is very much demand based and very much community driven,” Aryal emphasized. Making landfall four months ago, Typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda) claimed over 6,200 lives, displaced millions and devastated the agriculture and fisheries sectors. Striking between two planting seasons, the typhoon destroyed ready-to-harvest, harvested and newly planted rice crops, and severely affected the livelihoods of the coastal fisher communities. FAO responded to an official Government request for support to affected rice farmers, providing 75 percent of the Government-requested rice seeds. Thanks to this coordinated response by FAO, the Government and other partners, farmers who would otherwise have been unable to plant in time for the December/January planting season were able to go back to their fields, and will soon be harvesting the fi rst rice crop since the typhoon hit the country.
Dewspite strong typhoons that ravaged agricultural lands last year, Department of Agriculture Secretary Alcala told about 1,500 farmers that they had produced 18.44 million metric tons of rice, enlisting the Philippines as the fastest growing rice production country in Asia. Alcala lauded the Central Luzon farmers for helping achieve the highest rice harvest in the Philippine history during the Farmers` Lakbay Palay hosted by the Philippine Rice Research Institute in Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, April 1-4. The production also made the country 97-percent rice self-sufficient in 2013. Although three-percent short of the 100 percent target, the country, however, registered a 16-percent increase within three years. The country was only 81-percent rice self-sufficient in 2010. With the rice sector`s performance last year, the agriculture secretary discouraged the public from focusing on the deficit in the 100-percent rice self-sufficiency target. “We have tried hard. Nawa`y [mapahalagan] natin, lalo na sa mga nasa Manila, ang pagpupunyagi nating mga magsasaka. Hindi ho tayo titigil sa 97 percent. Magpupursige pa din tayo para ang isasaing ni Juan dela Cruz, dito ipupunla, dito itatanim, dito aanihin (May we, especially the city dwellers, value the efforts of the farmers. We’ll not stop at 97 percent. We’ll work harder so that the rice that we’ll serve on our table will be planted and harvested in the country),” Alcala said. Alcala, who also unveiled the latest rice technologies, urged the farmers to be receptive of new farming practices as this may help them reduce production cost and make the price of rice more competitive in the market. “We can`t solve problems such as rice smuggling in an instant. We still have a long way to go to stop rice smuggling. As long as our production cost is high, rice smuggling will always be around,” he said in Filipino. He said that rice smuggling persists in the country because domestic rice prices are uncompetitive to Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam. “Production cost in the Philippines is [about P11 a kilo] while in Vietnam, it`s around P6,” he said. Alcala said that if farmers can peg production cost even at P8, rice smuggling will be minimized. At present, PhilRice is on its second season of implementing Palayabangan: 10-5 challenge, a nationwide farming competition that aims to produce 10 tons/ha yield at only P5 input cost per kilogram of palay.
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