The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in cooperation with local flour millers had started yesterday selling pan de sal that is cheaper by almost P1 than the bread sold at groceries and bakeries.
The pan de sal will be sold in neighborhood stores with prices ranging from P2 to P2.50 per piece.
Buyers at the “Tinapay ng Bayan” stores can buy a 180-gram pack of seven pieces of pan de sal for P12 or P1.71 a piece.
Loaf bread will likewise be cheaper at P37 per 550 grams compared with the loaf bread that are sold in public markets and groceries for P44 to P54.
“This gesture initiated by the flour millers shows to the public that the government and the private sector are continuously working together to see to it that the prices of basic goods and prime commodities remain at affordable levels,” Trade Secretary Peter Favila said in a statement.
At least 2,000 loaves and 1,000 packs of pan de sal will be delivered on the first day of the sale. The volume will increase depending on the demand.
The DTI in partnership with the Department of Agriculture has studied measures to ensure that the poorest sector will have access to the cheap loaf bread and pan de sal.
The cheaper bread were distributed in Barangay Baesa in Asamba Homes and Barangay Capri in Novaliches, Quezon City; Road 9 corner Road 11, Bagong Pag-asa, Quezon City; Barangay Signal Village, Electronics Avenue, FTI Complex, Taguig City; Barangay 129, Smokey Mountain Community Association Inc. in Balut, Tondo; KABAKA MPCI, A. Linao Street in Paco, Manila; Barangay 198 Aeroville, Airlane Road, NAIA Pasay City; Barangay 97, Jolummar MPC, 10th Avenue, Grace Park, Caloocan City; Nangka Workers MPC, Makabayan St., Nangka, Marikina; Pederasyon Samahang Nagkakaisang Maralita ng Navotas, Inc., Barangay Tanza, Navotas City; Spectrum Midway Extension corner Corporate Ave., Alabang Muntinlupa.
The Department of Agriculture, likewise, has started distributing and selling cheap bread in various barangay bagsakan centers or BBs (formerly known as barangay food terminals or BFTs) in Metro Manila. – With Marianne Go
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Merit, not connections
Before her seven-year term ended last Feb. 1, Karina Constantino-David voiced her frustrations in her job as head of the Civil Service Commission. Among the administrations since the restoration of democracy in 1986, David said, the Arroyo administration has named the biggest number of presidential appointees to the bureaucracy. David also lamented that Malacañang routinely set aside recommendations of the CSC on appointments and promotions, which the civil service chief had wanted to be based on merit rather than connections.
The bureaucracy is bloated enough and needs to be trimmed instead of being flooded with political appointees. A CSC study bared last January showed that the Arroyo administration has hired an excess of 81 Cabinet undersecretaries and assistant secretaries as well as 53 presidential advisers and assistants and an unknown number of consultants.
Civil service eligibility is no guarantee of competence, and the President has the prerogative to put her appointees in key positions in the bureaucracy. But the prerogative, like all other executive powers, can be abused. The President should lead in encouraging professionalism in government service by rewarding competence and allowing the cream to rise. Instead government positions are treated as just another political reward, doled out in exchange for loyalty, sycophancy and political support.
Can the head of the civil service create a lean, professional bureaucracy where meritocracy rules without support from the head of government? David tried but found many daunting roadblocks along the way. This is the challenge facing her successor, Ricardo Saludo, who has long been a staunch defender of the President. Many reforms needed in the bureaucracy can put Saludo on a collision course with Malacañang. Is he up to the challenge?
The best performing economies around the world have professional bureaucracies that can withstand political turbulence and changes at the top levels of government. These are economies where transparency and the rule of law prevail, and where even if connections matter, merit and competence matter even more. With Malacañang unable to lead the way, the Civil Service Commission must do what it can to create a professional bureaucracy.
The bureaucracy is bloated enough and needs to be trimmed instead of being flooded with political appointees. A CSC study bared last January showed that the Arroyo administration has hired an excess of 81 Cabinet undersecretaries and assistant secretaries as well as 53 presidential advisers and assistants and an unknown number of consultants.
Civil service eligibility is no guarantee of competence, and the President has the prerogative to put her appointees in key positions in the bureaucracy. But the prerogative, like all other executive powers, can be abused. The President should lead in encouraging professionalism in government service by rewarding competence and allowing the cream to rise. Instead government positions are treated as just another political reward, doled out in exchange for loyalty, sycophancy and political support.
Can the head of the civil service create a lean, professional bureaucracy where meritocracy rules without support from the head of government? David tried but found many daunting roadblocks along the way. This is the challenge facing her successor, Ricardo Saludo, who has long been a staunch defender of the President. Many reforms needed in the bureaucracy can put Saludo on a collision course with Malacañang. Is he up to the challenge?
The best performing economies around the world have professional bureaucracies that can withstand political turbulence and changes at the top levels of government. These are economies where transparency and the rule of law prevail, and where even if connections matter, merit and competence matter even more. With Malacañang unable to lead the way, the Civil Service Commission must do what it can to create a professional bureaucracy.
Peso slips back to 42-to-a-dollar
The peso retreated back to the 42-to-a-dollar level yesterday as the greenback rose against most regional currencies and foreign portfolio investments continued to show risk-aversion in emerging markets.
Analysts also said concerns about mounting global and local inflationary pressures dampened investor confidence.
The peso hit a low of 42.10 to the dollar and a high of 41.98 at yesterday’s session but the strength of the dollar picked up, clouding what would have been a boost to the peso after the government announced a decline in its fiscal deficit.
Total transaction amounted to $937.70 million on an average rate of 42.058 to $1.
The dollar itself has been on an upswing against regional currencies as well as the euro after the market received news of weakening European economy that also resulted from the credit crisis in the US.
However, analysts said the strength of the dollar was likely to be temporary with classes scheduled to reopen in June and remittances expected to pick up dramatically ahead of the enrollment period.
Analysts said weak exports would probably provide some support to the dollar but since this would be accompanied by even slower importation, the net effect would be in favor of the peso.
Pronouncements made by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) that it might move interest rates higher, together with the expected surge in remittances, could also temper the rally of the dollar.
However, analysts said a clear break of 42 might set a higher trading range for the dollar and peso exchange rate.
Non-deliverable forwards also continue to price a higher exchange rate and analysts said this would maintain pressure on the peso to weaken. “Expect the BSP to provide liquidity as the US dollar moves higher,” said an analyst. “Failure to do so may create panic and see the US dollar at a higher level.”
Analysts also said concerns about mounting global and local inflationary pressures dampened investor confidence.
The peso hit a low of 42.10 to the dollar and a high of 41.98 at yesterday’s session but the strength of the dollar picked up, clouding what would have been a boost to the peso after the government announced a decline in its fiscal deficit.
Total transaction amounted to $937.70 million on an average rate of 42.058 to $1.
The dollar itself has been on an upswing against regional currencies as well as the euro after the market received news of weakening European economy that also resulted from the credit crisis in the US.
However, analysts said the strength of the dollar was likely to be temporary with classes scheduled to reopen in June and remittances expected to pick up dramatically ahead of the enrollment period.
Analysts said weak exports would probably provide some support to the dollar but since this would be accompanied by even slower importation, the net effect would be in favor of the peso.
Pronouncements made by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) that it might move interest rates higher, together with the expected surge in remittances, could also temper the rally of the dollar.
However, analysts said a clear break of 42 might set a higher trading range for the dollar and peso exchange rate.
Non-deliverable forwards also continue to price a higher exchange rate and analysts said this would maintain pressure on the peso to weaken. “Expect the BSP to provide liquidity as the US dollar moves higher,” said an analyst. “Failure to do so may create panic and see the US dollar at a higher level.”
Return $100 M, US court orders RP health
MADISON, Wisconsin – A federal judge has ordered a Philippine company to pay back $100 million it swindled from the US military’s health insurance program.
Health Visions Corp., which pleaded guilty to mail fraud, was ordered to liquidate all assets within 10 months and give the proceeds to the US government.
Federal prosecutors say the company bilked the military’s Tricare program out of $99.9 million between 1998 and 2004.
The program insures 9.2 million current and retired US servicemen and dependents worldwide.
In the Philippines, Malacañang expressed “sadness” over the scandal and said it would leave it up to US authorities to investigate the case further.
“This case happened outside the country and any violations will have to be prosecuted by laws of the US. We have nothing to do with that,” Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said.
“But we would want to express sadness because many Filipinos became famous (for) their achievements and they are overshadowed by this incident,” he said.
Health Visions routinely inflated claims by more than 230 percent, operated a phony insurance program and billed for medical services never delivered, court records showed, and the Pentagon moved slowly to uncover the scheme.
Assistant US Attorney Peter Jarosz described Health Visions as the biggest violator yet in a long-running investigation into Tricare fraud in the Philippines.
“This is basically a death sentence for the company. It will no longer exist and that will protect the Tricare program since it was the biggest violator,” he said after the hearing. “We got what we needed out of this prosecution.”
The US closed its military bases in the Philippines in 1992 and withdrew its active-duty forces, but thousands of retirees remained.
Formed in 1997, Health Visions owned and operated hospitals and clinics in the Philippines and billed Tricare on behalf of other health care providers.
On top of the $99.9 million in restitution, US District Judge Barbara Crabb ordered the company to forfeit an additional $910,000 and pay a $500,000 fine.
Health Visions will be required to sell off land, office buildings and hospitals in the Philippines and an airplane and houses in the US under Crabb’s order.
The company has run into problems selling hospitals because of ownership disputes, and Jarosz said it was uncertain whether the US government would ever recover the full amount.
The company’s lawyer, Christopher Kelly, declined to comment. He told Crabb he had nothing to add beyond a plea agreement, which was unsealed on Thursday.
Health Visions and its former president, Thomas Lutz, were hit with a 75-count indictment in 2005.
Lutz, a US citizen who turned 41 on Thursday, has pleaded guilty to his role in a kickback scheme and could face up to five years in prison when he is sentenced. A date for that hearing will be scheduled shortly now that the company has been sentenced, Jarosz said.
The case has been an embarrassment to the Pentagon, where different branches have blamed one another for allowing the company’s fraud to slip through the cracks.
The fraud was so extensive that claims from the Philippines increased by 2,000 percent between 1998 and 2003 even as the number of Tricare beneficiaries remained the same. Payments to the country went up from less than $3 million to more than $60 million during that time.
The Office of Inspector General has criticized Tricare’s managers for waiting years to cut off payments to Health Visions after suspecting the company of fraud.
William Winkenwerder, former assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said Thursday that the inspector general’s office was partly to blame because it refused his requests to send additional investigators to the country. He said he worked hard to stop the problems after they came to his attention in 2003.
Asked how the company was able to defraud the program of $100 million, Winkenwerder said: “There were some very deceptive practices that were occurring. The fact that this was a faraway location did add to the challenge of uncovering problems. And they didn’t get away with it ultimately, which is the good news.”
The investigation has been handled by prosecutors in Wisconsin because WPS Health Insurance, a Madison company, is the subcontractor that handles most overseas claims. About three dozen others have been indicted, mostly US military veterans and Philippine doctors.
NBI tags 2 in scam
In the Philippines, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said it is hunting a doctor and a patient believed to be involved in the scam.
Claro de Castro Jr., chief of the NBI Interpol, said warrants of arrest have been issued against the two suspects who are of Filipino descent. He declined to name the two or the US-accredited hospitals they dealt with. But De Castro said the hospitals are outside Metro Manila.
Sources said the doctor connived with his patient in padding the latter’s medical expenses. They then divided the reimbursements from the US health program with the patient getting 35 percent and the doctor getting 65 percent.
The expenses are reimbursed through mail, which explains why they were also indicted for mail fraud, considered a federal offense.
De Castro said he could not ascertain how many more similar cases are being pursued by the Department of Justice in the Philippines.
A source who declined to be named said, however, that five or six more people – patients and doctors – are under investigation.
“Once identified, a request would be forwarded to the NBI for warrants of arrest against them. The NBI is the law enforcement agency that would implement a court’s warrants of arrest,” a source said.
The Filipinos involved in the scam were former civilian employees of the US armed forces in the mainland or in the Philippines, which used to host two US bases until 1992.
‘Shameful,’ says DOH
The Department of Health (DOH) deplored yesterday the involvement of some Philippine hospitals in the fraud but committed to help in the investigation if asked.
“This is shameful both here and in the international community. Our doctors conniving with veterans in scam,” DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said in a telephone interview.
The DOH, he said, is ready to help in the US investigation but it needs a formal request for help.
“We have not received any reports from the US about that so we want to know if the US already coordinated with the NBI-Interpol. We want to know who are involved here,” he said.
Duque maintained that even the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. or Philhealth is beset by problems of fraudulent claims.
“It’s also happening here. Actually, there’s no perfect system. It is also happening anywhere in the world. But we want to control this by strengthening the monitoring system of Philhealth,” he added.
Two groups of hospital owners – the Philippine Hospital Association (PHA) and the Private Hospital Association of the Philippines – have also expressed intention to help investigate the anomaly.
But according to PHA president Dr. Tiburcio Macias, the accusation should not be “generalized” because not all hospitals in the Philippines are involved.
He said that Tricare, the Pentagon-run program, has accredited hospitals in the country. “There used to be Tricare hospitals in Olongapo City, in Angeles, Pampanga, in Iloilo and, I think, in Naga. But I think they are already closed.”
Macias said that PHA’s offer to assist in the investigation is part of its mission to “police our own ranks.”
“It’s actually an old issue,” PHAP president Dr. Rustico Jimenez said of the health scam. “Maybe, because there is a recession in the US so they are looking into it (spending) so this issue was brought up,” he said.
“It’s actually the patients who filed their reimbursement so the payments are given directly to them. They claim that they pay their premium in the US anyway. The US can identify those involved because there is a paper trail, especially since payments are not made in cash but in checks,” he added. - Sheila Crisostomo, Sandy Araneta and AP
Health Visions Corp., which pleaded guilty to mail fraud, was ordered to liquidate all assets within 10 months and give the proceeds to the US government.
Federal prosecutors say the company bilked the military’s Tricare program out of $99.9 million between 1998 and 2004.
The program insures 9.2 million current and retired US servicemen and dependents worldwide.
In the Philippines, Malacañang expressed “sadness” over the scandal and said it would leave it up to US authorities to investigate the case further.
“This case happened outside the country and any violations will have to be prosecuted by laws of the US. We have nothing to do with that,” Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said.
“But we would want to express sadness because many Filipinos became famous (for) their achievements and they are overshadowed by this incident,” he said.
Health Visions routinely inflated claims by more than 230 percent, operated a phony insurance program and billed for medical services never delivered, court records showed, and the Pentagon moved slowly to uncover the scheme.
Assistant US Attorney Peter Jarosz described Health Visions as the biggest violator yet in a long-running investigation into Tricare fraud in the Philippines.
“This is basically a death sentence for the company. It will no longer exist and that will protect the Tricare program since it was the biggest violator,” he said after the hearing. “We got what we needed out of this prosecution.”
The US closed its military bases in the Philippines in 1992 and withdrew its active-duty forces, but thousands of retirees remained.
Formed in 1997, Health Visions owned and operated hospitals and clinics in the Philippines and billed Tricare on behalf of other health care providers.
On top of the $99.9 million in restitution, US District Judge Barbara Crabb ordered the company to forfeit an additional $910,000 and pay a $500,000 fine.
Health Visions will be required to sell off land, office buildings and hospitals in the Philippines and an airplane and houses in the US under Crabb’s order.
The company has run into problems selling hospitals because of ownership disputes, and Jarosz said it was uncertain whether the US government would ever recover the full amount.
The company’s lawyer, Christopher Kelly, declined to comment. He told Crabb he had nothing to add beyond a plea agreement, which was unsealed on Thursday.
Health Visions and its former president, Thomas Lutz, were hit with a 75-count indictment in 2005.
Lutz, a US citizen who turned 41 on Thursday, has pleaded guilty to his role in a kickback scheme and could face up to five years in prison when he is sentenced. A date for that hearing will be scheduled shortly now that the company has been sentenced, Jarosz said.
The case has been an embarrassment to the Pentagon, where different branches have blamed one another for allowing the company’s fraud to slip through the cracks.
The fraud was so extensive that claims from the Philippines increased by 2,000 percent between 1998 and 2003 even as the number of Tricare beneficiaries remained the same. Payments to the country went up from less than $3 million to more than $60 million during that time.
The Office of Inspector General has criticized Tricare’s managers for waiting years to cut off payments to Health Visions after suspecting the company of fraud.
William Winkenwerder, former assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said Thursday that the inspector general’s office was partly to blame because it refused his requests to send additional investigators to the country. He said he worked hard to stop the problems after they came to his attention in 2003.
Asked how the company was able to defraud the program of $100 million, Winkenwerder said: “There were some very deceptive practices that were occurring. The fact that this was a faraway location did add to the challenge of uncovering problems. And they didn’t get away with it ultimately, which is the good news.”
The investigation has been handled by prosecutors in Wisconsin because WPS Health Insurance, a Madison company, is the subcontractor that handles most overseas claims. About three dozen others have been indicted, mostly US military veterans and Philippine doctors.
NBI tags 2 in scam
In the Philippines, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said it is hunting a doctor and a patient believed to be involved in the scam.
Claro de Castro Jr., chief of the NBI Interpol, said warrants of arrest have been issued against the two suspects who are of Filipino descent. He declined to name the two or the US-accredited hospitals they dealt with. But De Castro said the hospitals are outside Metro Manila.
Sources said the doctor connived with his patient in padding the latter’s medical expenses. They then divided the reimbursements from the US health program with the patient getting 35 percent and the doctor getting 65 percent.
The expenses are reimbursed through mail, which explains why they were also indicted for mail fraud, considered a federal offense.
De Castro said he could not ascertain how many more similar cases are being pursued by the Department of Justice in the Philippines.
A source who declined to be named said, however, that five or six more people – patients and doctors – are under investigation.
“Once identified, a request would be forwarded to the NBI for warrants of arrest against them. The NBI is the law enforcement agency that would implement a court’s warrants of arrest,” a source said.
The Filipinos involved in the scam were former civilian employees of the US armed forces in the mainland or in the Philippines, which used to host two US bases until 1992.
‘Shameful,’ says DOH
The Department of Health (DOH) deplored yesterday the involvement of some Philippine hospitals in the fraud but committed to help in the investigation if asked.
“This is shameful both here and in the international community. Our doctors conniving with veterans in scam,” DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said in a telephone interview.
The DOH, he said, is ready to help in the US investigation but it needs a formal request for help.
“We have not received any reports from the US about that so we want to know if the US already coordinated with the NBI-Interpol. We want to know who are involved here,” he said.
Duque maintained that even the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. or Philhealth is beset by problems of fraudulent claims.
“It’s also happening here. Actually, there’s no perfect system. It is also happening anywhere in the world. But we want to control this by strengthening the monitoring system of Philhealth,” he added.
Two groups of hospital owners – the Philippine Hospital Association (PHA) and the Private Hospital Association of the Philippines – have also expressed intention to help investigate the anomaly.
But according to PHA president Dr. Tiburcio Macias, the accusation should not be “generalized” because not all hospitals in the Philippines are involved.
He said that Tricare, the Pentagon-run program, has accredited hospitals in the country. “There used to be Tricare hospitals in Olongapo City, in Angeles, Pampanga, in Iloilo and, I think, in Naga. But I think they are already closed.”
Macias said that PHA’s offer to assist in the investigation is part of its mission to “police our own ranks.”
“It’s actually an old issue,” PHAP president Dr. Rustico Jimenez said of the health scam. “Maybe, because there is a recession in the US so they are looking into it (spending) so this issue was brought up,” he said.
“It’s actually the patients who filed their reimbursement so the payments are given directly to them. They claim that they pay their premium in the US anyway. The US can identify those involved because there is a paper trail, especially since payments are not made in cash but in checks,” he added. - Sheila Crisostomo, Sandy Araneta and AP
Rodrigo Duterte
Rodrigo Roa Duterte[1] (b. March 28, 1945 in Maasin, Leyte)[2] is the mayor of the city of Davao City, Philippines. He was first elected 1989 and reelected 1992 and 1995. In 1998, he ran for the House of Representatives and won as Congressman for the 1st District of Davao City in Manila until 2001. In 2001, he ran again for mayor in Davao and was again elected for his fourth term. He was reelected in 2004 and in 2007.[3]
Under Duterte's leadership, Davao City experienced relative peace and stability, ushering an unprecedented economic boom. The city's crime rate dropped dramatically that tourism organizations in the city claim that Davao is "the most peaceful city in Southeast Asia".[3] Duterte, who has been dubbed "The Punisher" by Time magazine,[3] has been criticized by human rights groups and by Amnesty International for tolerating extra-judicial killings of alleged criminals.[3][4][5][6] Duterte has always denied any direct involvement in these frequent killings.[7]
On December 15, 2007, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte led local officials in opening the P 72-M People’s Park (old PTA Park) in Davao City, which features a mini-forest and large sculptures representing indigenous groups in Southern Mindanao.[8]
[edit] 2010 Wish List
On January 21, 2008, Parañaque Rep. Eduardo Zialcita, a vice chair of Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats released the WISH LIST of 2010 possible senatorial candidates:
Parañaque Rep. Eduardo Zialcita
Deputy Speakers Raul del Mar of Cebu
Simeon Datumanong of Maguindanao
House Majority Leader Arthur Defensor of Iloilo
House budget panel chair Edcel Lagman of Albay
Davao City Rep. Prospero Nograles, head of the House contingent to the Commission on Appointments, and
Former Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay
Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte
Palawan Governor Joel Reyes
Camarines Sur Governor Luis Raymond Villafuerte and
Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.[9]
Duterte howerver denied that he was running for Senator.[10]
Under Duterte's leadership, Davao City experienced relative peace and stability, ushering an unprecedented economic boom. The city's crime rate dropped dramatically that tourism organizations in the city claim that Davao is "the most peaceful city in Southeast Asia".[3] Duterte, who has been dubbed "The Punisher" by Time magazine,[3] has been criticized by human rights groups and by Amnesty International for tolerating extra-judicial killings of alleged criminals.[3][4][5][6] Duterte has always denied any direct involvement in these frequent killings.[7]
On December 15, 2007, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte led local officials in opening the P 72-M People’s Park (old PTA Park) in Davao City, which features a mini-forest and large sculptures representing indigenous groups in Southern Mindanao.[8]
[edit] 2010 Wish List
On January 21, 2008, Parañaque Rep. Eduardo Zialcita, a vice chair of Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats released the WISH LIST of 2010 possible senatorial candidates:
Parañaque Rep. Eduardo Zialcita
Deputy Speakers Raul del Mar of Cebu
Simeon Datumanong of Maguindanao
House Majority Leader Arthur Defensor of Iloilo
House budget panel chair Edcel Lagman of Albay
Davao City Rep. Prospero Nograles, head of the House contingent to the Commission on Appointments, and
Former Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay
Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte
Palawan Governor Joel Reyes
Camarines Sur Governor Luis Raymond Villafuerte and
Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.[9]
Duterte howerver denied that he was running for Senator.[10]
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