From towns to cities then back to towns!

Before I left for Japan, I read what I believed was a big breaking news that I found in The FREEMAN entitled, "3 Cities in Cebu are Towns Again". Included in the list of municipalities-turned-cities and eventually "returned" back as towns are the new cities of Carcar, Bogo and Naga.

The Supreme Court apparently agreed with the petitioners the League of Cities of the Philippines seeking to stop the conversion of these municipalities because they are incapable of fiscal independence and that there was a "mad rush" to convert these municipalities into cities without meeting the requirement for the minimum locally generated income of at least P100 million a year. Thus the SC decision declared the creation as unconstitutional.

Again this is the problem with our sick nation that has become too politicized. The best evidence can be found in towns that were turned into cities although they do not meet the minimum requirements. Clearly the aim of turning these towns into cities is to avail of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), which would have put more money into these towns-turned-cities, although their respective incomes cannot meet the minimum requirements.

This should be a lesson for us to stop turning towns into cities and break up provinces unnecessarily simply because it only strengthens the hold of politicians who make politics a family business. I was in Jakarta in November 2007 and I learned that there was no Metro Jakarta; Bangkok has no Metro Bangkok or Metro Taipei in Taipei. These countries are moving ahead of us because they don't make cities that cannot contribute to their economy.

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Another impeachment complaint was filed against Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) in Congress, but the difference here is that this time, they find the charge sufficient in form, but I'm not sure if it is sufficient in substance. This is another waste of time and government resources because this is another useless political exercise. Because of previous impeachment cases, we have come to know that an impeachment proceedings is not a criminal charge, meaning, it won't end up with the President thrown to jail for the charges filed. It's nothing but a numbers game and GMA has them!

That former House Speaker Jose de Venecia is leading this new charge using the evidence of his son Joey de Venecia during the ZTE-NBN scandal only proves that this is nothing but a de Venecia vendetta because that bombshell turned out to be a dud! But because of Joey de Venecia's testimony, his father lost the House Speakership. Will this new impeachment exercise be Pres. Arroyo's end game? I bet that it won't be the end of her Presidency simply because too many Congressmen owe her a lot in money given to their respective districts.

Meanwhile, I find it very questionable that there are still no charges filed against Rep. de Venecia for giving his son Joey undue advantage in passing a bill that would help a telecom business, where Joey had an interest. If that is not graft, then I don't know what it really means! This impeachment proceeds is nothing but a case of the pot calling the kettle black!

Meanwhile it seems that the Joc-joc Bolante scandal is also beginning to fizzle out because of the revelation that many of our Congressmen got the majority of the P700 million fertilizer. Now we only saw the video reports from House Speaker Prospero Nograles on how he spent his fertilizer. What about the others… why are they silent on this? Could it be because they already sold most of these fertilizers and pocketed the money? We want to know!

At this point, Congress should work to have clean and honest elections by pushing the Commission on Elections to fasttrack its purchase of the computerized counting machines because if by the 2010 Presidential elections these machines are not yet installed, then you can kiss democracy goodbye and who knows what would happen next?

I cannot predict what would happen in the future, but you want to know why the Filipino people are fed up with marching the streets that often lead to a People's Power Revolt? It is because the first People's Power Revolt or EDSA One is now 22 years old. That means those who were 50 years old during that time are now 72 years old, while those who were born when the EDSA Revolt was underway are now 22 years old. The "olds" no longer want to walk to EDSA unless they have their walkers, while the youngsters don't give a hoot about it!