PARENTHESES

A lot of vehicles now running on our streets are imported used cars. They are twice cheaper than a brand new or a locally sold used car of the same brand. So to keep up with the Joneses, the conspicuous consumers have their sights set to Subic. Subic has become a Mecca of imported used cars. If you see big SUVs like the Big Horn, Surf, Trooper etc., on our streets, it is most likely that that vehicle came from Subic. Most commonly transported to the free ports of Subic are right-hand drive vehicles which are converted to left-hand drive and sold at a cheaper price. Subic handles auto transport coming from all parts of globe.

Car shipping to the Philippines, or importing used vehicles are generally not allowed. Subic being an international free port is exempted but not without the usual customs. However, returning residents or OFWs, since they are considered modern heroes, are given a special privilege to bring in one they own. Provided that ownership is at least 6 months old on the day of importation.

For the OFW’s international car shipping, the car’s year model is not a question. What is important is that the shipper is the absolute owner of the vehicle for at least the past 6 months and can prove that he/she worked in that country where the car will be exported. This includes, Income tax returns, visa/passport, and so on as the case may require.

Imagine if all our OFWs will bring home one car each. Then there will be no more traffic in EDSA. The whole stretch of EDSA will become one big parking lot.

Philippines is fast becoming a world capital of disappearing acts. From persons, properties, pets, and just about anything can easily disappear. Some of them completely disappearing from the face of the earth, without trace. Others resurfaced and brought to freedom from the hands of kidnappers by ransom. Even cars parked in secured parking areas, can suddenly disappear without trace. Next to go are pets, like, dogs, cats and including, alligators or reticulated pythons.

These phenomena however, is not surprising. For in this part of the world even votes can easily disappear and to reappear as votes counted for the other party. Our government officials are adepts in making public funds appear and disappear like bubbles in the air. Children just disappear in shopping malls. Criminals both convicted and those should-have-been-convicted persons can simply disappear right in front of the noses of their supposed guards.

The problem with all these disappearing acts, is that it happens without trace. If only have we a GPS Tracking device installed to our loved ones, cars, pets, etc, then it would not be difficult to trace their whereabouts. I hear that some convicts in the US are attached with a kind of GPS Tracking device in their bodies in order for them not to escape easily. It would only be necessary that such GPS Tracking devices must be discreet and concealed, or better still implanted just skin deep into any part of the body.

As for public funds disappearing, it can be traced but it will never be returned. The only effective solution for this would be, the utilization of devices such as a criminal court, the impeachment process or better still another people power revolution.

“Sulpicio Lines, Inc. has acquired a quality system which meets the requirements of the International Quality Assurance Management Standard ISO 9002 (1994) and the International Maritime Organization’s ISM Code of “Safe Operation of Ships and Pollution Prevention” on June 18, 1999 and July 17, 1999, respectively. Sulpicio Lines, Inc. is the first domestic shipping company to obtain two international accreditation at the same time.” – from Sulpicio Lines Website

December 20, 1987, the worst “peace time” sea disaster happened in the Philippines. The MV Doña Paz, collided with a Caltex-hired oil tanker, MT Vector, at Tablas Strait dividing Mindoro and Marinduque, an inter-island route wide enough for both vessels to pass. The tragedy left 4,000 people dead and only 26 people rescued. The Owner of the ship is Sulpicio Lines. On Oct. 29, 1988, the Board of Marine Inquiry “absolved” Sulpicio Lines of any responsibility.

Less than a year after this incident, on October 24, 1988, another vessel of Sulpicio Lines, the Doña Marilyn, capsized. The vessel was allowed to sail even a Storm Signal No. 3 for typhoon “Unsang” was already raised. This disaster left at least 250 people dead. The Board of Maritime Inquiry concluded later that it was a force majeure or “an act of God.” According to the Maritime Board, no one is responsible for the death of 250 people.

Ten years later, on September 18, 1998, Sulpicio Line’s largest ship, the MV Princess of the Orient was sanked by yet another typhoon, “Gading.” Once Again, the ship was allowed to sail even when storm signals were already raised. At least 150 were confirmed dead. In September 2000,Department of Justice junked the criminal case against Sulpicio Lines in connection with the sinking of the Princess of the Orient, saying the shipping firm could not be held criminally liable for the death of scores of passengers.

Now, ten years after, on June 22, 2008, another of Sulpicio Line’s ship, MV Princess of the Stars met the same exact fate. It was allowed to sail in the midst of typhoon “Frank” and like ten years before, the ship capsized. The ship’s manifest declared 725 passengers and as of this writing, only 28 of them were already rescued.

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“RANSOM, n. The purchase of that which neither belongs to the seller, nor can belong to the buyer. The most unprofitable of investments.”

– Devil’s Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce

The Devil’s Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce, is a satirical book published in 1911, a period when Kidnap for Ransom was still not a thought about crime. In the turn of the century Kidnap for Ransom became one of the most lucrative criminal enterprise, that it has become a criminal cottage industry in most underdeveloped countries like the Philippines.

Kidnap for Ransom (KFR) thrive in societies where there is break down in law and order, gross graft and corruption in government and massive poverty a living reality. Through the years, KFR syndicates had evolved and developed into a more complex organization and acquired sophistication in its operations. An example of a KFR organization and its modus operandi was shown in Denzel Washington’s movie, Man on Fire. The movie showed how a KFR organization operates in different stages and its plan executed by compartmentalized groups. Although the movie does not present itself as a standard police field manual for anti-KFR operations, but it presents facts common and shared by various countries. Most glaring of which is the direct involvement of key Government officials or the Police and Military in KFR groups.

The movie Man on Fire showed four different sub-groups executing one KFR operation. Compartmentalized operation insulates potential spilling of beans in the event that KFR operatives get arrested. It secures the object and ensures success of the KFR operation. As shown in the movie, one group is involved only in gathering intelligence, the other group is tasked to extract the object, the other one for the safekeeping of the object and the last is the group of negotiator/s.

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I must admit that I am not much of a Jose Rizal fan. Ka Andres Bonifacio gets more points from me, just a bit higher than Rizal. But like any Filipino, I admire Rizal for his dedication to our country’s cause. The life he lived as hero and martyr should be a source of inspiration, if not an emulation for the youth which he proclaimed as the hope of the mother/fatherland. Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio are both heroes and examplars of Filipino Patriotism and they’re both my brother Masons.

According to the Grand Lodge of the Philippines website:

Rizal was made a Master Mason on November 15, 1890 at Logia Solidaridad 53 in Madrid, Spain. He affiliated with a lodge under the jurisdiction of Grand Orient of France on October 14, 1891, and was made honorary Worshipful Master of Nilad Lodge No. 144 in 1892. There he delivered a lecture entitled “La Masoneria”.

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In the early 70’s when you travel by the rough and rugged highways along rural areas in the Philippines, you can seldom find TV antennas on top of the roof of houses. If there are any, you can count only around three houses with TV antennas attached on its roof. One is the Mayor’s house, the second one is his brother’s house, and the third would be most likely the Chinese who owns the town’s only hardware and who happens to be the Mayor’s cousin. Owning a TV set was a form of luxury before that only the rich can afford. About this time there were no DirecTV yet, but nobody cares as long as they can watch a movie every now and then.

On the following decade, portions of the highway were already cemented, and the buses a bit bigger but still provide the same discomfort to its passengers. The rural landscape also changed with the passing of time. The once forested areas has become bald. On towns where there were only three TV antennas a decade before, you can find an additional five roof having TV antennas of their own. Still there were no DirectTV during this period. What could not be offered by Direct TV then was compensated by the introduction of the Betamax.

The next decade was marked by a massive migration of rural people working abroad. Almost 2/3 of the population in any rural town in the Philippines had a wife, mother, husband, son, daughter, brother or sister working as sea or land based workers overseas. Due this, the rural landscape experienced a sudden face lift overnight. Old, wooden and dilapidated houses were renovated or completely remodeled into modern architectural structures. Videoke bars sprouted like mushroom in town centers. Farmers gave up their traditional farming implements, exchanging their trusty water buffaloes to modern hand tractors. On the roof of houses, new gadgets and peripherals for communications have also sprouted. While almost all roof already had TV antennas, one can now find disks for Sattelite TV and antennas for radio communication.

And if you stop at the town and ask further, the house that has the Sattelite TV disk is owned by the Congressman who is the brother of the former Mayor. The other house with a disk belongs to the former Mayor’s son who is now the incumbent Mayor. And the third is owned by the Chinese cousin of the former Mayor who now not only owns the biggest hardware in town, but also the town’s only Cable TV Company.

In a third world country like the Philippines, the TV has become one indicator of progress. Anyone, especially those in the rural areas, who had moved upward even by one step in the social ladder, will choose to buy a TV set first before any appliances. That is Philippine’s reality TV.

Technically speaking, year 2010 is still less than two years from now. On May 2010, the Philippine National Election is scheduled. On May 2010 we are to elect a new President, Vice President, Senators, Congressmen, and local officials from the Provinces down to the Municipalities. Year 2010 is the D-YEAR for politicians of all shades, shape, size, color, kind and breed.

The Greatest Show on our country is still far two years away, but the circus has already started. From now till the last quarter next year will be a free for all season for political gimmickry. Political signs are now fast transforming our landscape. Since it is not yet election campaign period, most clowns hang their protraits as election signs, under the guise of product endorsement. There is even one animal who brazenly and shamelessly used public funds to uglify Metro Manila by putting up his pink political yard signs at the whole stretch of the Metro Rail Track along EDSA. If you’re a Metro Gago, you’ll love this guy.

The trick for this early campaigning are: first, to gain beachhead in the propaganda war, secondly, to test the waters of public acceptability and lastly as basis for horse-trading or to raise the ante (price) in case a potential opponent negotiates for him/her to join a certain ticket or his withdrawal from the electoral race.

Technically speaking, year 2010 is still less than two years from now. But for the kind of politicians we have, less than two years is just like less than two weeks away.