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ONE of the most significant news in recent days is the announcement
by Malaysia that it was withdrawing as intermediary in the talks
between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front.
Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak has
said that the Malaysian team monitoring the talks (and acting as
peacekeeping force) would start a phased withdrawal sometime in
August or September.
The announcement ruffled feelings in the
Philippines. A member of the RP negotiating team complained that it
was wrong for the Malaysians to have made the announcement without
first informing the Philippines.
Besides, the Malaysians did not explain their
reasons for withdrawing. That is why a member of the Philippine
panel was emboldened to speculate that perhaps the Malaysians were
pressuring the Philippine government. Kuala Lumpur apparently wants
the Philippine government to sign the draft agreement between the
MILF and the government.
But the Philippines cannot sign the draft
accord because it has considered the whole peace process in
Mindanao. For instance, how does one reconcile the draft accord with
the Tripoli Agreement and the 1996 accord signed by MNLF chairman
Nur Misuari and the government? Obviously, the two agreements have
contradictory provisions, or at the least, they overlap.
With this new development, the government has
been forced to reactivate its relations with Tripoli through former
Libyan envoy to RP Salem Adem. Some government negotiators are
saying that the breakup of Malaysia could be a blessing in disguise
as it helped the Philippines get out of the Malaysian bind.
The RP negotiators are saying that from the
very start of the talks, Malaysia was favoring the MILF versus the
MNLF. In short, Malaysia had a political agenda for volunteering as
facilitator and peacekeeping force. Now, its agenda may have been
revealed in this latest development.
I also see a difference in the stand of
Malaysia as compared to Middle East intermediaries like Libya. While
Libya wants partial autonomy—and this is made clear in the Tripoli
Accord—Malaysia wants full autonomy for the Muslim rebels. Could
it be that Malaysia wants a friendly buffer zone located near its
borders?
Defer Cheap Medicines Bill
I think that the move by Speaker Prospero
Nograles to defer the Cheap Medicines Bill is sound. There is no
sense in passing a law that would not insure that medicines will
become cheap.
Nograles said that if there is no assurance of
cheaper medicines, “I think that it will be best to defer its
ratification because I don’t see the point of passing a law that
won’t serve its purpose.” Nograles will go to Cebu to meet
President Arroyo and Senate President Manny Villar.
The bill is a toothless measure if signed into
law. The interest of the medical practitioners to make more money
and profit at the expense of the patients has been upheld in the law
because of the removal of the generics-only provision. And now, the
need for a regulatory body has also been set aside.
The Cheap Medicines Bill essentially supports
the stand of the profit-seekers. The law is useless and should be
reviewed.
New racket in Romblon
We just came from a vacation in Romblon where
we found out a new racket among officials. This new technique is
called desilting (or removing the soil and small rocks in mouth of
rivers).
In an apparent attempt to make money, some
officials have invented a problem among the rivers of the islands of
Sibuyan and Tablas. And this problem is how to remove the sediments
that have accumulated in the rivers. Under the guise of making the
rivers efficient, these officials have asked the national government
to finance projects to remove these silts.
And how much does a minor desilting cost the
government? Insiders have told me that desilting a small river was
given a budget of P10 million. But in practice, the contractors only
spend about P500 thousand for this project. The rest of the P9.5
million are shared among corrupt officials. An insider told me that
the desilting racket may be worse than the lahar scam in Central
Luzon.
The insiders told me that the desilting
operation in the province this year was given a budget of around
P800 million. But the source calculates that once this project is
over, the rivers would remain as silted as it was before. Calling
the Commission on Audit to do its job!
jules42na@yahoo.com
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