Demolition job?
December 3, 2006 | 12:00am
In the news recently were unsavory news and commentaries about why the established Vibal Publishing House (Vibal) deserved to be disqualified from bidding for a textbook project of the Department of Education backed by the World Bank’s Social Expenditure Management Project (SEMP).
Now, we have known that Vibal probably happens to be one of the most established and highly respected publishing conglomerates in the Philippines today, so we wondered why and decided to do a little research.
What is most noticeable is that the heightened negative press about Vibal happened after it won a major contract to supply Philippine public elementary and high schools with textbooks under the second World Bank-backed Social Expenditure Management Project (SEMP-2).
The SEMP is a project aimed at providing quality education and governance in the social sector departments of the Philippine government, one of which was to provide textbooks for elementary and high school students. A critical component of the project is to provide free textbooks to indigent Filipino public school children from the elementary to the high school levels.
After the successful implementation of the SEMP in 2004, the World Bank launched the second Social Expenditure Management Project (SEMP-2).
SEMP-2’s core objective is to improve performance (efficiency, quality and equity) and governance (transparency and accountability) in the three social sector departments – Education (DepEd), Health (DOH) and Social Welfare (DSWD), as well as the school building program implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) – with the oversight and support of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
Of the $100 million earmarked for the project, $40 million was set for the purchase of textbooks in Science, English and Social Studies.
As it turned out, three disqualified bidders, namely Rex Bookstore, Daehan Printing and Publishing Co., and Kolonwel Trading, filed a complaint before the World Bank’s Department of Institutional Integrity based in Washington DC against three World Bank officials saying they exerted "undue pressure" to Philippine officials in giving the contract to Vibal.
It has left many to suspect that the perpetrators of the demolition job against Vibal may have been the ones who provided Sen. Panfilo Lacson with selectively inadequate information that moved the senator to launch an exposé at the Senate on anomalies hounding the school textbook industry.
The demolition job seems to have fizzled out as those that perpetrated it evidently don’t understand that the Senate would move to investigate only if and when enough credible evidence is provided.
Acting on the complaint and looking deeper into the transaction, the World Bank eventually issued statements which defended the awarding of contract to Vibal.
We noted Joachim von Amsberg, country director, said that a number of the World Bank’s specialists had scrutinized the award of the textbook contract and found it consistent with its procurement guidelines.
In a letter, he has said that according to all information available to the World Bank, the awards were made in accordance with the applicable guidelines for procurement under World Bank financing and with the provisions of the legal agreement for the SEMP-2 project.
Amsberg clarified that it is the Philippine government which implements the project, including the bidding, evaluation and award of contracts, while the bank merely reviews this to ensure that the funds are properly used, and the procurement procedures are "strictly followed."
He emphasizes that in doing this, the bank is obliged to act with complete impartiality. In the case of this textbook procurement, the World Bank staff advised the government to follow the provisions of the bidding documents and the World Bank’s procurement guidelines.
What I think is most notable is that in its website, the World Bank was all praises for the SEMP-2 project textbooks saying the new procurement guidelines were able to lower the cost of books from P90 to P100 in 2000 to only P40, translating into P2.63 billion in savings.
Insiders say that Vibal is a product of over half a century’s dedication and hard work that has propelled it to where it is now in the world of book publishing. The company also provides scholarships to deserving but less fortunate students living near its two-hectare compound along Araneta Ave. in Quezon City and has set up a call center agency that hires the adult children of their workers at Vibal Publishing in a bid to ensure quality of life for their employees.
Vibal even put up regional offices in the cities of Cebu and Davao to be of better service to schools in the Visayas and Mindanao.
So is there any basis for the apparent demolition job being undertaken against Vibal? For the sake of our students, let’s hope there’s none.
Everybody shares the optimism expressed by Sen. Mar Roxas that the biofuels bill approved by the Senate and the House in the bicameral committee will, once signed into law, pave the way for the country becoming self-reliant on energy, lead to a cleaner environment, and help consumers cope with rising oil prices.
Reducing the country’s dependency on imported fuel is no small thing. Last year alone, the country imported 77.6 million barrels of crude and refined petroleum products worth $4.1 billion.
According to the good senator, with oil prices predicted to remain volatile in the world market, this bill is a welcome development that would help reverse the trend of the country’s dependence on expensive oil imports.
The proposed legislative measure, which will require a blending of gasoline with an initial five percent ethanol (eventually 10 percent), will also help the country fulfill its commitment and obligations to a clean environment and boost productivity and incomes in the agriculture sector.
The biofuels bill mandates and promotes the use of alternative, renewable energies, such as compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, hydrogen, electricity, and any liquid at least 85 percent of the volume of which consists of methanol, ethanol, or methyl ester such as coco-biodiesel.
Particularly, the measure mandates the use of bio-fuels by blending five percent bio-ethanol with gasoline within two years from the law’s effectivity and one percent bio-diesel within three months from its taking into effect.
Various sectors have hailed the speedy approval of the biofuels bill, with many saying that it will be a boon to the economy as it will attract foreign investors and create jobs.
Tempting fate too often with its alleged non-existent maintenance program, Carlos A. Gothong Lines, Inc. (CAGLI) has again suffered a serious blow in its operations.
Insiders revealed that CAGLI’s M/V Ozamiz Bay last Nov. 1 was unable to depart Cebu City for its trip to Manila because of a major damage to its engine panel board. The engine panel board of a ship controls all the switches, gauges and even electrical components of a ship’s main engine and other electronic controlled devices. If an engine panel board fails, the whole ship stops. While there is such a thing as a manual override, the ship’s crew runs the risk of an engine overheating, electronic devices short circuiting, and other horrors one wouldn’t want to encounter while at sea.
CAGLI sources say that technical consultants of the company estimate that the M/V Ozamis Bay will be down for a month or even more. Engine panel boards have highly specialized components and that repair of same usually takes considerable time.
CAGLI cargo shippers are again scrambling to get available slots with other shipping lines. Passengers meanwhile have been encountering their fair share of difficulty in refunding their tickets, especially those who made advanced bookings.
Surprisingly, the usually lackadaisical Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) Cebu district office has taken cognizance of the poor/non-existent maintenance program of CAGLI and immediately revoked the M/V Ozamiz Bay’s safety certificate.
The Marina has even ordered CAGLI to submit their authenticated manuals on the government mandated ship management program. These manuals are of utmost importance to a shipping company since they contain the dos and don’ts of their operations and the standards they should meet. Until now, keen maritime observers do not even known if CAGLI is following the International Ship Management (ISM) program or the much lower standards of the National Ship Management (NSM) program.
Regardless of whether CAGLI follows and implements ISM or NSM, Marina still has a lot of explaining to do as to why they have been allowing CAGLI to operate without any standards and manuals to follow.
Non-existent maintenance programs and even suspect safety practices, all these and more have contributed to the series of unfortunate events which have befallen CAGLI. With the last of their ships now in limbo, everyone in the industry is speculating as to the fate of this hapless company.
Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) general manager Atty. Oscar Sevilla better be very wary.
PPA sources disclosed that one of his underlings has been undermining or to put it bluntly, sabotaging vital programs ordered him by no less than the President herself.
It will be recalled that during the last State of the Nation Address (SONA) of the President, infrastructure projects particularly the upgrade and construction of ports and airports to link the islands as a means to bring about progress and development to the countryside took center stage.
In fact, 40 percent of the infra projects committed by the President in that SONA fall under the gambit of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) of which the PPA is an attached agency.
While the PPA Engineering group has tried hard to implement the port upgrade projects envisioned by the President immediately upon the orders of Sevilla to meet the deadlines set by Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza, this underling has always found ways to delay the implementation of these projects by posing objections on defects (operationally) he thinks there are on these.
As a result, the PPA’s batting average if implementation of SONA commitments of the President is concerned has been pitifully very low.
PPA insiders who can only shake their heads point out that this underling was dejected when his bet didn’t make it to the Palace. In fact, during the presidential campaign period, this official had reportedly been making it known in the PPA as well as a great number of port contractors that the post of PPA general manager was already his for the taking once his bet makes it to Malacanang. However, fate intervened and he is stuck to his old post.
Nevertheless, insiders say he seems to have made it his mission to make things hard for the President and her administration to attain their goals of bringing progress and development to the countryside by making sure that PPA falls short of its commitments in terms of the SONA commitments of Mrs. Arroyo.
In addition to these commitments, this underling has made it a point to object and object vehemently all matters relating to the Strong Republic Nautical Highway (SRNH) project of the President.
The SRNH which has been the flagship project of the President’s administration specifically by linking the islands through roll-on-roll-off (Roro) ports and ships has met with not very few objections from this official in its implementation. He has been reportedly making it difficult for the PPA itself to introduce improvements in the SRNH system which would have made it more efficient and user-friendly for people who have seen the benefit of transporting their goods and services via the SRNH.
For comments, e-mail at [email protected]
Now, we have known that Vibal probably happens to be one of the most established and highly respected publishing conglomerates in the Philippines today, so we wondered why and decided to do a little research.
What is most noticeable is that the heightened negative press about Vibal happened after it won a major contract to supply Philippine public elementary and high schools with textbooks under the second World Bank-backed Social Expenditure Management Project (SEMP-2).
The SEMP is a project aimed at providing quality education and governance in the social sector departments of the Philippine government, one of which was to provide textbooks for elementary and high school students. A critical component of the project is to provide free textbooks to indigent Filipino public school children from the elementary to the high school levels.
After the successful implementation of the SEMP in 2004, the World Bank launched the second Social Expenditure Management Project (SEMP-2).
SEMP-2’s core objective is to improve performance (efficiency, quality and equity) and governance (transparency and accountability) in the three social sector departments – Education (DepEd), Health (DOH) and Social Welfare (DSWD), as well as the school building program implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) – with the oversight and support of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
Of the $100 million earmarked for the project, $40 million was set for the purchase of textbooks in Science, English and Social Studies.
As it turned out, three disqualified bidders, namely Rex Bookstore, Daehan Printing and Publishing Co., and Kolonwel Trading, filed a complaint before the World Bank’s Department of Institutional Integrity based in Washington DC against three World Bank officials saying they exerted "undue pressure" to Philippine officials in giving the contract to Vibal.
It has left many to suspect that the perpetrators of the demolition job against Vibal may have been the ones who provided Sen. Panfilo Lacson with selectively inadequate information that moved the senator to launch an exposé at the Senate on anomalies hounding the school textbook industry.
The demolition job seems to have fizzled out as those that perpetrated it evidently don’t understand that the Senate would move to investigate only if and when enough credible evidence is provided.
Acting on the complaint and looking deeper into the transaction, the World Bank eventually issued statements which defended the awarding of contract to Vibal.
We noted Joachim von Amsberg, country director, said that a number of the World Bank’s specialists had scrutinized the award of the textbook contract and found it consistent with its procurement guidelines.
In a letter, he has said that according to all information available to the World Bank, the awards were made in accordance with the applicable guidelines for procurement under World Bank financing and with the provisions of the legal agreement for the SEMP-2 project.
Amsberg clarified that it is the Philippine government which implements the project, including the bidding, evaluation and award of contracts, while the bank merely reviews this to ensure that the funds are properly used, and the procurement procedures are "strictly followed."
He emphasizes that in doing this, the bank is obliged to act with complete impartiality. In the case of this textbook procurement, the World Bank staff advised the government to follow the provisions of the bidding documents and the World Bank’s procurement guidelines.
What I think is most notable is that in its website, the World Bank was all praises for the SEMP-2 project textbooks saying the new procurement guidelines were able to lower the cost of books from P90 to P100 in 2000 to only P40, translating into P2.63 billion in savings.
Insiders say that Vibal is a product of over half a century’s dedication and hard work that has propelled it to where it is now in the world of book publishing. The company also provides scholarships to deserving but less fortunate students living near its two-hectare compound along Araneta Ave. in Quezon City and has set up a call center agency that hires the adult children of their workers at Vibal Publishing in a bid to ensure quality of life for their employees.
Vibal even put up regional offices in the cities of Cebu and Davao to be of better service to schools in the Visayas and Mindanao.
So is there any basis for the apparent demolition job being undertaken against Vibal? For the sake of our students, let’s hope there’s none.
Reducing the country’s dependency on imported fuel is no small thing. Last year alone, the country imported 77.6 million barrels of crude and refined petroleum products worth $4.1 billion.
According to the good senator, with oil prices predicted to remain volatile in the world market, this bill is a welcome development that would help reverse the trend of the country’s dependence on expensive oil imports.
The proposed legislative measure, which will require a blending of gasoline with an initial five percent ethanol (eventually 10 percent), will also help the country fulfill its commitment and obligations to a clean environment and boost productivity and incomes in the agriculture sector.
The biofuels bill mandates and promotes the use of alternative, renewable energies, such as compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, hydrogen, electricity, and any liquid at least 85 percent of the volume of which consists of methanol, ethanol, or methyl ester such as coco-biodiesel.
Particularly, the measure mandates the use of bio-fuels by blending five percent bio-ethanol with gasoline within two years from the law’s effectivity and one percent bio-diesel within three months from its taking into effect.
Various sectors have hailed the speedy approval of the biofuels bill, with many saying that it will be a boon to the economy as it will attract foreign investors and create jobs.
Insiders revealed that CAGLI’s M/V Ozamiz Bay last Nov. 1 was unable to depart Cebu City for its trip to Manila because of a major damage to its engine panel board. The engine panel board of a ship controls all the switches, gauges and even electrical components of a ship’s main engine and other electronic controlled devices. If an engine panel board fails, the whole ship stops. While there is such a thing as a manual override, the ship’s crew runs the risk of an engine overheating, electronic devices short circuiting, and other horrors one wouldn’t want to encounter while at sea.
CAGLI sources say that technical consultants of the company estimate that the M/V Ozamis Bay will be down for a month or even more. Engine panel boards have highly specialized components and that repair of same usually takes considerable time.
CAGLI cargo shippers are again scrambling to get available slots with other shipping lines. Passengers meanwhile have been encountering their fair share of difficulty in refunding their tickets, especially those who made advanced bookings.
Surprisingly, the usually lackadaisical Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) Cebu district office has taken cognizance of the poor/non-existent maintenance program of CAGLI and immediately revoked the M/V Ozamiz Bay’s safety certificate.
The Marina has even ordered CAGLI to submit their authenticated manuals on the government mandated ship management program. These manuals are of utmost importance to a shipping company since they contain the dos and don’ts of their operations and the standards they should meet. Until now, keen maritime observers do not even known if CAGLI is following the International Ship Management (ISM) program or the much lower standards of the National Ship Management (NSM) program.
Regardless of whether CAGLI follows and implements ISM or NSM, Marina still has a lot of explaining to do as to why they have been allowing CAGLI to operate without any standards and manuals to follow.
Non-existent maintenance programs and even suspect safety practices, all these and more have contributed to the series of unfortunate events which have befallen CAGLI. With the last of their ships now in limbo, everyone in the industry is speculating as to the fate of this hapless company.
PPA sources disclosed that one of his underlings has been undermining or to put it bluntly, sabotaging vital programs ordered him by no less than the President herself.
It will be recalled that during the last State of the Nation Address (SONA) of the President, infrastructure projects particularly the upgrade and construction of ports and airports to link the islands as a means to bring about progress and development to the countryside took center stage.
In fact, 40 percent of the infra projects committed by the President in that SONA fall under the gambit of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) of which the PPA is an attached agency.
While the PPA Engineering group has tried hard to implement the port upgrade projects envisioned by the President immediately upon the orders of Sevilla to meet the deadlines set by Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza, this underling has always found ways to delay the implementation of these projects by posing objections on defects (operationally) he thinks there are on these.
As a result, the PPA’s batting average if implementation of SONA commitments of the President is concerned has been pitifully very low.
PPA insiders who can only shake their heads point out that this underling was dejected when his bet didn’t make it to the Palace. In fact, during the presidential campaign period, this official had reportedly been making it known in the PPA as well as a great number of port contractors that the post of PPA general manager was already his for the taking once his bet makes it to Malacanang. However, fate intervened and he is stuck to his old post.
Nevertheless, insiders say he seems to have made it his mission to make things hard for the President and her administration to attain their goals of bringing progress and development to the countryside by making sure that PPA falls short of its commitments in terms of the SONA commitments of Mrs. Arroyo.
In addition to these commitments, this underling has made it a point to object and object vehemently all matters relating to the Strong Republic Nautical Highway (SRNH) project of the President.
The SRNH which has been the flagship project of the President’s administration specifically by linking the islands through roll-on-roll-off (Roro) ports and ships has met with not very few objections from this official in its implementation. He has been reportedly making it difficult for the PPA itself to introduce improvements in the SRNH system which would have made it more efficient and user-friendly for people who have seen the benefit of transporting their goods and services via the SRNH.
For comments, e-mail at [email protected]
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