When Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said, “The visit of the President has been scheduled, and when the President left, the situation, as far as the typhoon is concerned, was still in its development stage,” was he lying?

I’ll let Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez answer the question.

In his column on Monday, Gonzalez wrote, “I was thankful to be there when Frank came and left behind a trail of destruction and misery, and to experience and see the extent of the damage. After the winds and rain subsided, I was one of the first passengers to leave Iloilo to make my report to the President personally before Her Excellency left for that very important state visit to the US.”

Gonzalez wrote it, I didn’t. I merely brought it to your attention.

When House Majority Leader Arthur Defensor said, “It’s too late for the President to back out. If the President were to cancel, it would be a national embarrassment. This is not an ordinary trip,” was he telling the whole truth and nothing but?

That statement can be “googled.” Easily.

In 1988, Mikhail Gorbachev cut short his visit to the United States after a devastating earthquake hit Armenia. No one said his sudden departure embarrassed the Soviet Union.

In May, Xinhua, the Chinese news agency, reported that the Thai prime minister decided to cancel his trip to China: “[T]he Thai prime minister decided to cancel the trip to China Tuesday morning, as he does not want to bother the Chinese government which will be busy with disaster-relief work after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan province on Monday in southwestern China . . . .” Again, no one was embarrassed by the Thai prime minister’s considerate action.

Should Sen. Rodolfo Biazon be blamed for Gloria Arroyo’s decision to order a US aircraft carrier bringing relief goods for Typhoon Frank’s victims to stay out of Philippine waters?

He is, if we believe what Gloria Arroyo told a gathering of Filipino Americans.

She said, “[N]abasa ko sa news, may tagaating nagbatikos na naman. Sabi may nuclear weapons daw ang aircraft carrier, kaya bawal raw pumunta sa Pilipinas.

“Kaya tuloy, para iwasan na lang ang intriga, mananatili na lang ito sa dulo ng territorial waters ng Pilipinas tapos papasok-palabas yung mga tutulong. Pinahirapan pa natin sila sa pagtutulong.”

Was Sen. Francis Escudero raising a bogus issue about “impounded funds” worth P6.6 billion that Gloria Arroyo can use for relief, but won’t?

Escudero said, “There is no reason aid should come in trickles to flood-hit areas when there are certain segments in the national budget, other than the calamity fund, which can be tapped for disaster work.”

He pointed to the P2 billion Kilos Asenso Fund, the P3.6 billion Financial Subsidy to Local Government Units and the P1 billion Kalayaan Barangay Fund and reminded Gloria Arroyo:

“The release of these funds is contingent on the President’s approval. She should dig into these funds so there will be more resources available for relief work. These [funds] are bigger than the $100,000 aid the President got from the US State Department, one which was met with profuse thanks from her, as if she had won the lotto, when in fact she has, at her easy disposal, all the above-mentioned funds to use in times such as this,” he added.

The question we should be asking Gloria Arroyo, is why she is hanging on to those funds? Is she is saving them for a rainy day?

Buencamino is a fellow of Action for Economic Reforms (www.aer.ph).

Editorial: A plea to temper network greed

For Filipinos who had no access to HBO’s pay-per-view (PPV) service, trying to watch the Manny Pacquiao-David Diaz fight on Sunday was an extremely excruciating experience. What was supposed to have been a 30-minute contest for the World Boxing Council lightweight title was actually stretched to four hours or so.

Mirror Image: Professional OFW oiling Philippine economic machinery

Last year the Philippine Chamber of Industrial Estate and Economic Zone and its president, Audi Adiviso, invited former Neda director-general Cayetano Paderanga to give an economic briefing at the Mandarin Oriental. In that briefing, Paderanga noted that Malaysia made a $14-billion profit from fossil-fuel oil production. He said that in 2007, the Philippines also struck oil—from the remittances of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) amounting to $14 billion.

Dispatches from the Enchanted Kingdom: Saving for a Rainy Day

When Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said, “The visit of the President has been scheduled, and when the President left, the situation, as far as the typhoon is concerned, was still in its development stage,” was he lying?

A blow to press freedom

THE Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) looks at the dismissal by the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) of the class suit it filed with other media organizations and individual journalists as particularly alarming, and agrees with counsel Harry Roque that it could yet be the biggest blow to press freedom to date.

The Way Forward: Oil prices will tumble

THIS may sound like putting on a brave face before the stark reality of runaway oil prices. But if there is talk today of oil hitting over $200 a barrel, there is also earnest talk that, sooner or later, oil prices will tank. I count myself among those who anticipate a fall in oil prices to below $100 a barrel.

Capturing the global food market through S&T

In 2007, the Philippines’s total food export was worth $1.48 billion, up by 13 percent from the previous year. Of this, processed goods made up almost 50 percent, or $735.03 million, and fresh foods accounted for the remaining 50 percent, or $741.65 million.

Sway: Safety in clarity

As motorists and public-utility operators deal with surging fuel prices, they seem to get little help from the government by way of clear and detailed guidelines on how they can convert their engines to use cheaper fuel alternatives such as liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG. This is not to say there are no guidelines or rules, rather, there is large-scale confusion on the part of the public as to what can and cannot be done.

Market Files: Napocor’s skewed perspective

When the National Power Corp. (Napocor) glowingly trumpeted what it termed as “rate reduction” for its customers, hinting at cost efficiencies, it conveniently forgot that the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) actually ordered the government behemoth to refund its overbillings to the tune of P10 billion.