VP Sara rallies local execs for ‘well-thought-out’ projects

MANILA – Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte has urged each municipal executive to be prudent in their programs to achieve short- to long-term development.

Duterte made the statement during her speech before local leaders at the general assembly of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines at the Manila Hotel.

Duterte, who served as a mayor in Davao for nine years, shared several ways to ensure that the local programs will continue even eyond a leader s ter in office

“As a former mayor, I am aware of the amount of responsibility that comes with the opportunity to lead and direct our localities to the path of growth and sustainable development,” she said.

Duterte cited tourism and peace and order as two of Davao’s strengths during her administration.

“Sa turismo ay kailangan ninyo ng pagaaral. Hindi po pwede na kung ano ‘yung gusto ninyo na maging tourism program ng inyong lugar ay pwede na siyang i-roll out (In tourism, you need research. You cannot simply roll out your desired tourism program in your area),” she said.

Duterte said a feasibility study is vital to identify a locality’s strength, including the capabilities of the community, its available resources, as well as the execution of the plan and multi-sectoral collaboration.

She cited as an example Davao City which has been strengthened to be a MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) destination in the country.

“Napakahalaga po ng continuity ng isang local government unit (LGU) para po hindi nasasayang ang inyong mga investments sa inyong tourism programs (Continuity is very important for a local government unit to ensure that its investment will not be put to waste),” Duterte said.

“I am optimistic that you will steadfastly work with other local chief executives in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, in tackling salient concerns faced by LGUs across the areas of peace and order, public health, environmental protection and local tourism, among others,” she added.

Meanwhile, Davao City is set to host the MICE Conference (MICECON) 2023, the biggest gathering of the MICE industry in the country, on March 1 to 3.

The conference sets the platform to discuss the rise of the “Bleisure” industry, or the fusion of business and leisure travel experiences.

At least 600 attendees are expected at the MICECON, which will be opened alongside the start of Araw ng Davao.

The Davao City LGU will conduct the MICECON 2023 in collaboration with the Department of Tourism and Tourism Board of the Philippines

(From page 1) he arcoses even got a assador to anila Stephen Bosworth to attend its inauguration.

Ariarte study showed that Marcos Jr. did grant some large financial favors to select friends, specifically one who qualities as a celebrity chef.

Mostly, however, Marcos Jr. acted as if the funds he was able to receive from his doting parents came from a bottomless well.

From its beginning all the way to the time that then President Rodrigo Duterte put the Northern Food Corporation (NFC) out of its misery by ordering its closure, the tomato processing plant operated in the red. Not because processed tomatoes did not have a market, but because of sheer lack of executive knowhow and managerial competence.

After getting P70 million from Imelda Marcos’ Kilusang Kabuhayan at Kaunlaran (KKK), Marcos Jr. said he needed more. He said the amount was inadequate for the grand plans he had for the company.

Thus, in June, 1984, Marcos Sr. issued a memorandum to his First Lady telling her to “allocate P60 million from the KKK” as additional equity investment.

The P130 million start-up capital at least proved sufficient for starters, and the processing plant egan operations in October, 1984.

Here is where Marcos Jr. decided to let Agriman Consultants manage NFC.

Agriman’s president was chef Sandy Daza, a close friend of Marcos Jr. and whose mother Nora Daza was also a confidante of I elda arcos

(From page 1) cision dated February 21, the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division junked Civil Case which alleges the late Marcos Sr., former First Lady Imelda, Luis Yulo, Roberto Benedicto, Nicolas Dehesa, Jose Tengco Jr, Rafael Sison, Cesar Zalamea and Don Ferry of securing enorous loans fro state-run financial institutions in favor of companies they control.

The case also alleged that the defendants obtained, under favored and very liberal terms, huge loans from the Government Service Insurance System in favor of Philippine Integrated Meat Company (PIMECO), which is a corporation eneficially held and or controlled y he C ustified its lo uying price ecause the NFC was providing them everything, from land preparation to seeds to irrigation to planting.

Being a government-owned corporation, Sandy Daza gave Marcos Jr a seat in the seven-man board.

By 1987, NFC employees were scrounging for scrap copper wires and junk metal from the plant’s premises to sell in order to pay for their salaries.

The year before, or in 1986, the NFC’s equity level had sunk to less than P70 million. For all intents, the company was already bankrupt.

The company has become an example of how to run a company to the ground in a few easy steps.

A und niversity study fro ritten y steban Pagaran stated that Agriman had committed various anomalies resulting in high overhead expenses.

Another study published by the Asian Institute of Management, also in 1994 and written by Rafael Ignacio quoted a NFC executive Mike Regino as saying the co pany s top rass ere ying in and out in chartered planes at company expense.

Clearly, Ariarte’s research was as in-depth as it gets.

By 2005, a barely functioning company was facing numerous internal problems, such as its machinery aging and contract-growing farmer preferring to sell their tomatoes to Divisoria traders, who were paying them higher rates.

A 2021 Commission on Audit report stated that a huge amount that Daza’s Agriman had taken as cash advances were no longer collectible as they had become “dormant receivable.”

By that time, Agriman had already closed down and

Sabido and the other defendants, and that Sabido installed himself as Chairman of the Board of Lianga Bay Logging Co. (Lianga), a domestic corporation that owned and operated a lumber concession in Lianga, Surigao del Sur, and performed acts of depredation against the best interest of the lumber workers.

In its ruling, the anti-graft court said that the plainti (the Philippine government) failed to prove by preponderant evidence that the properties alleged in the complaint are ill-gotten and or ere eneficially o ned and controlled by former President Marcos and his family.”

Sandiganbayan’s ruling also stated that the state prosecutors relied heavily on the testimony of Rolando Gapud, which the court concluded as hearsay because he did not take the witness stand.

In the 156-page decision and written by Associate Justice Maria Theresa V. Mendoza-Arcega, the antigraft court also lifted the government’s sequestration of Palawan-based Yulo King Ranch (YKR) and the Lianga Bay Logging Co. in Surigao del Sur province.

In fine, this court finds that the plainti Presidential Commission on Good Government) failed to prove by preponderant evidence that the properties alleged in the co plaint are ill-gotten and or as eneficially o ned and controlled by former President Marcos and his family,” the court said.

The anti-graft court noted that the post EDSA administration of the late president Corazon Aquino relied heavily on the affidavit of Rolando Gapud, who claimed to be the financial advisor of the for er president (Marcos) and who said he had personal knowledge that the latter used his close business associates as his dummy in YKR and Pimeco.

The government of former President Corazon Aquino said enefited fro procla ations issued by then President Marcos particularly Presidential Decree No. 619, which authorized the classification of pu lic do ain lands into grazing land. The decree allowed YKR to take control and use 40,000 hectares of public land as grazing ground for large-scale there as no ay C A could find the original transaction documents.

By the end of 2021, the Duterte government ordered NFC to be shut down and abolished.

President Duterte’s order said the NFC was “no longer consistent with the national development policy of the state.” cattle raising.

That should have marked the end of what was planned as one of the most ambitious government agri projects of its time. But just like Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was able to bounce back in one of the biggest political comebacks in history, so too did he plan the rebound of the NFC.

Barely weeks as the country’s chief executive, Marcos Jr. – who had appointed himself concurrent Agriculture secretary – reversed the Duterte memo and ordered the revival of the NFC.

The government corporation that he had mismanaged almost four decades ago was revived with a cash infusion of P100 million in taxpayers’ money.

It is not yet clear if Daza will have a role in the management of the revitalized NFC. For now, he owns and operates several food outlets, some specializing in Thai food, and others in the classic Filipino snack of empanada.

Whether Marcos Jr. learned a lesson from his past mistakes is not clear. For now, it can be said that pride was one of his reasons for reviving a dead company. The NFC is, after all, his brainchild. He very likely wants to prove that he knows a thing or two about Philippine agriculture.

Lianga Bay Logging Co., on the other hand, allegedly enefited after the A erican fir eorgia Pacific International Corp. (GPIC), which originally found the company, divested , shares of stoc s in the fir at per share in 1974 in compliance with the provisions of the newly approved 1973 Constitution at the time.

The divested shares were acquired by the Sabido Group gaining control over the production of logs by the fir

The court noted that “Gapud was not presented in court to testify on the alleged matters and under the rules, failure to put the affiant on the itness stand is fatal to the case as it renders the affidavit inad issi le under the hearsay rule.” he court added that hile apud s affidavit as ac no ledged efore the Philippine Consular ffice in Hong Kong and had been in the archives of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), it does not make its veracity unassailable. he due e ecution of the affidavit as not sufficiently established. The notary public or others who saw that the docu ent as signed or at least could confir its recitals were not presented,” it said adding that “there was no expert testimony or competent witnesses who attested to the genuineness of the questioned signatures.”

PHL... (From page 1)

Marcos attended the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) alu ni ho eco ing for the first ti e as the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) as Philippine and A erican officials discuss details of joint patrols with Australian counterparts in the troubled South China Sea and West Philippine where China has been aggressive during the past months, massing warships and militia vessels disguised as fisher en and shooing a ay ilipino fisher en and the Philippine Coast Guard even within the Philippine territory and exclusive economic zone.

In a keynote speech delivered at the PMA Grandstand in Fort del Pilar, Baguio City, Marcos said his administration would continue protecting the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty amid the “heightened” geopolitical tensions.

“The country has seen heightened geopolitical tensions that do not conform to our ideals of peace and threaten the security and stability of the country, of the region, and of the world,” he said. “This country will not lose one inch of its territory. We will continue to uphold our territorial integrity and sovereignty in accordance with our Constitution and with international law.”

At the same time, Marcos, an adopted member of PMA Class of 1979, enjoined the alumni of the academy to continue protecting the security and safety of the country.

He urged them to lead a “life of ser- vice beyond self,” whether they are working in government or the private sector.

On the heels of continuing maritime tensions with Beijing in the South China Sea, American troops are reportedly battle-ready as top ilitary officials predict a possible war with China by 2025 if the tensions and con ict continue

At the same time, Filipino and American troops are gearing up for their biggest ever Balikatan war drills to be joined by Australia, Japan and other observers as Filipino and US troops also continue joint trainings in the Philippines and in US.

Earlier, the Philippines approved expanding to nine bases the areas where American troops can be stationed on a rotational basis in the wake of the brewing Indo Pacific con ict

The US Seventh Fleet, meanwhile, has been passing through international waters in the South China Sea as it secures freedom of navigation in the area as well as ights of airplanes over the vast area he epart ent of oreign A airs, ean hile, filed a diplo atic protest after the Philippine Coast Guard reported its Chinese counterpart had directed a “military-grade laser” at one of its ships supporting a resupply mission to troops, temporarily blinding its crew on the bridge.

Earlier, Marcos summoned China’s ambassador to Manila and expressed his “serious concern” over Beijing’s “increasing frequency and intensity of actions” against the Philippine Coast Guard and ilipino fisher en in the outh China Sea.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Aus- tin III, a recent Manila and Mindanao visitor, has called his Philippine counterpart, Carlito Galvez Jr., to reiterate Washington’s support and commitment to help defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia.

During Austin’s visit to anila, alve and officials had said the allies agreed to carry out joint patrols.

Meanwhile, Galvez and visiting Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said hat they were looking at Australian and Philippine forces possibly carrying out their joint patrols in the busy waterway.

As countries asserting the rule of law, including the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, in the South China Sea, where a bulk of Australia’s trade traverses, “we did talk today about the possibility of exploring joint patrols,” Marles said.

Australian and Philippine forces have underta en oint patrols o the southern Philippines in the past to counter terrorist threats, Galvez said, and added, “We can do it again.”

At the PMA grounds in Baguio, Marcos told the alumni: “I am aware that some of you have continued your service in the private sector, while others have remained in government. And I hope in whatever capacity you serve, you continue to lead a life of service beyond self – an ethos we can attribute to a premier institution such as the Philippine Military

Academy.”

The President acknowledged that the PMA, since its inception in 1936, has produced sel ess individuals ho have o ered their lives to defend this country and preserve the democratic ideals and freedoms that we all enjoy today.” o honor those ho sacrificed their lives for the country, Marcos called on the alumni to exemplify “integrity, service before self, and professionalism,” the ideals and values they have gained from the academy.

I a filled ith gratitude, as is the nation, for your contributions to the collective e ort to uild our eloved Philippines. In honor of those who have sacrificed their lives to uild this path for us, we will continue to develop this country and aspire for better lives for our people,” he said. “Rest assured that this government, together with the Filipino people, are with you as we march forward towards achieving a safer, more peaceful, more progressive Philippines.”