Davao City successfully held its annual Kadayawan Festival recently despite the atrocities being perpetrated by alleged lost commands of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). This has sent very strong signals that Mindanao’s peace and development is not about to suffer a major setback simply because of the tantrums of some MILF commanders.
The festival reportedly drew a respectable number of foreign and local tourists. Their attendance to this much-anticipated event somehow reflects a continuing confidence on the ability of the government to keep the enemies of peace at bay.
Prior to the festival, the President had issued a strongly worded statement that she has “ordered the Armed Force of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police to defend every inch of Philippine territory against MILF forces and immediately restore peace in the affected areas of Lanao del Norte.”
We will not tolerate and will crush any attempt to disturb peace and development in Mindanao, the President added. The Davao festival is proof that the people of that region share the President’s sentiment.
The AFP also appears to have been very attentive to that call. Just over the weekend, media received reports that two camps being defended by MILF’s Umbra Kato have fallen amid heavy assault by government troops. This sends signals that the AFP is not taking its mission lightly. And if the MILF thinks the AFP today would play footsies with them, it has better revisit that kind of mentality.
People believe that the current AFP chief, the highly-esteemed General Alexander Yano, will have less tolerance for the atrocities being perpetrated by the MILF against the people of Lanao del Norte and Maguindanao. The MILF should remember that Yano is a pure Mindanaoan, born and bred in the province of Zamboanga Sibugay and mastered the art of jungle warfare in the marshlands of the Land of Promise.
The President could not have chosen a better man to head the AFP during this critical time. She has made sure that the military is led by one who understands not only the terrain of Mindanao, but also the sentiments of our brethren from that region.
As expected, MILF spokesmen are belittling the AFP’s military victories.
That is understandable. This armed group has to justify the support it gets from various sources. It cannot allow itself to be pictured as losing the battle with the AFP.
The prognosis is that the Umbra Katos and Bravos cannot win over the Yano-inspired forces of the government. And a looming AFP military victory in this particular confrontation will be excellent for the government.
The government, through Press Secretary Jesus Dureza, said it will not sign the MOA “in its present form”. The statement hints that there could be fresh rounds of talks with the MILF in the near future, probably after the armed clashes come to an end, or when the MILF finally surrenders its renegade commanders.
If and when that happens, the MILF will have significantly less chips at the bargaining table. It would be emerging from a major military defeat. Paraphrasing a known saying, losers can’t be choosers.
Not so hidden agenda
Here’s some good news.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has granted Security Bank Corp. a derivatives license to offer sophisticated derivative instruments to the local market, the first Philippine bank to secure such a license under a new BSP policy.
A BSP circular issued earlier this year, required financial institutions to renew their licenses on or before Jan. 2009 and secure the necessary permit to continue offering derivative products to their clients.
Being the first local bank to secure a derivatives license under this new policy, SBC’s in-depth knowledge and expertise in providing hedging and derivatives solutions to the market is once more put into focus.
SBC now has a type-2 dealer license which authorizes it as a dealer to offer foreign exchange forwards, forward rate agreements, options (with foreign currencies, interest rates, bonds, and a combination of any as underlying references). As end-user, it is authorized to offer credit linked notes (limited to sovereign and corporates with at least ‘A’ rating or its equivalent as underlying).
Without the renewed license, SBC is only authorized as end-user or interest rate and cross currency swaps, forward rate agreements, options (as buyer only and not as a writer), and CLNs (limited to sovereigns and corporates with “A” rating).
SBC offers the following derivatives products: interest rate derivatives (interest rate swaps), FX derivatives (FX forwards, non-deliverable forwards, FX options, swaps), cross-currency swaps). Option strategies have been added to expand the derivative products the bank offers.
According to SVP-treasurer and treasury group head Rafael Algarra, SBC has expanded its hedging and derivatives product offering to provide more solutions to the increasingly sophisticated sector of investors.
SBC also recently received the special recognition for advocacy support – Conference on Hedging Facilities for Exporters during the 2008 BSP Annual Stakeholders’ Awards.
The citation recognizes the bank’s support in the BSP’s information and education campaign initiative to promote hedging and derivatives products to help address the concerns of local export companies as they struggled to deal with foreign exchange fluctuations and rising inflation.
Lost ideology
The impunity by which the rogue New People’s Army conducts its terror activities has reached alarming levels. Last Aug. 2, five Globe Telecom cell sites in Bicol were either torched, bombed or fired upon almost at the same time by this group.
The destruction of cell sites means lost income for the community, including marginal folk who would have benefited from payment of taxes by Globe on these towers. A cell site costs more than P10 million to build. Imagine the losses Philippine business endures as a result of such banditry.
In the latest incident, we commend the two guards who despite carrying inferior weapons fought off some 20 or so gangsters. They got wounded but stood their ground defending an installation so vital to the livelihood not only of city dwellers but to millions of townsfolk who now cannot live without the aid of modern telecommunications.
Globe however has steadfastly refused to pay revolutionary taxes and stubbornly refuses to give in to blackmail, knowing all to well that succumbing to pressures from these marauders will give them the ammunition to fight the establishment. The government, in turn, has miserably failed to give Globe the security the company so badly needs to serve its likewise tax-paying customers.
The company may be losing millions for every cell site destroyed but the net effect is a weaker enemy deprived of funds to carry out their evil ways.
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