Grapes of wrath

Now, it is President Aquino II’s turn to wait on the other end of the line. He admitted trying to call Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao but his call was not taken.

When Aquino publicly admitted our participation in the Beijing-instigated boycott of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, he unwittingly elevated the matter of Filipinos on China’s death row from a mere consular matter into a major diplomatic issue. Consular matters are for the gnomes at the foreign service to fret about — and take the heat for. Diplomatic issues require explicit policy adjustments to resolve.

If China yielded to Manila’s plea for commutation of the sentences, it would appear, indeed, that a quid pro quo was struck when the Philippines boycotted the Oslo event. That would be very bad for China. She will appear to be using human lives as bargaining chips for minor diplomatic gains.

So, when President Aquino II publicly admitted to the boycott, no bargain could ever be struck on the cases of the Filipino drug mules. They were doomed from then on.

Neither could the back-channeling of our consular officers work after the matter became a diplomatic issue after Aquino’s faux pas. China must make a show of standing by her laws now that the pleading from Manila has become an explicit thing.

We now know that, months before, a delegation from Beijing informed our officials the executions will happen, given the gravity of the offense committed. The indefatigable Tessie Ang See translated for the delegation that met with our foreign service officials. Therefore, all the frantic gestures of concern for the Filipinos due to be executed is all for show. Malacañang knows that. Beijing knows that, too.

The reason for the exaggerated show of concern in understandable. In the mid-nineties, the execution in Singapore of Flor Contemplacion provoked spontaneous demonstrations of rage in our streets. That death casts a long shadow. Our leaders today are terrified of a repeat of that sort of outburst of public rage.

After Contemplacion was hanged and rage ruled our streets, then President Ramos had to hurriedly sacrifice his foreign and labor secretaries to appease the mobs. President Aquino II does not want to have to deal with a similar situation. Who knows whose heads he might have to chop off to calm an outbreak of public rage.

Thus we see this exaggerated show of concern. The administration does not want to be accused of doing nothing while Filipinos were being brought to foreign gallows.

Because Beijing understands Malacañang’s concerns, they have accommodated the Binay delegation despite the awkwardness of it all. If Beijing had her way, she would rather not have the Vice President in Beijing while Filipinos are executed to spare Manila the embarrassment. That is why Beijing initially hesitated accepting this delegation.

Hu will probably still not take President Aquino II’s call — for the latter’s own sake. How humiliating it will be for the Chinese premier to have to reject our president’s pleadings in his face.

Residual value

This case surrounding the failed Smokey Mountain Development and Rehabilitation Project just would not die. The proponents are persistent; the objectors are unyielding.

Project proponent R-II Builders failed to raise the capitalization for the project. Government had to pool P4.1 B from the OWWA, the GSIS and the SSS to help complete the undertaking. Eventually the project was scrapped — a monument to public projects gone completely awry.

 The government institutions were paid back from the housing fund. R-II Builders’ investments in the project, amounting to P659.2 million, were paid back in full through P145.8 million in advances, P225 million worth of property inside the Manila Harbor Center and P258.3 million in common shares of the Harbor Center Port Terminal Inc.

The matter should be closed. However, R-II filed suit claiming government owes the company P1.803 billion in “residual value.” That strange concept refers to the profit R-II imagines it could have made if government did not scrap the project. The suit is pending in court and the judge will have final say on the merits of this claim.

Even as the suit is pending in court, there were indications last year that government housing agencies were preparing to pay R-II’s claims. Those indications precipitated a Senate hearing on the matter for which a report is yet to be issued.

To prevent any payment being made in this case, a citizen/taxpayer’s complaint was recently filed at the Ombudsman against the R-II claim. The complaint was filed by Romeo Y. Lim, a retired Scout Ranger colonel and currently a newspaper columnist.

In his complaint, Lim argues that R-II has no right to claim “residual value” because the developer failed to comply with its obligation under the Joint Venture Agreement to fully fund the project. The project was, in the main, funded by government agencies as mentioned above.

Therefore, Lim concludes in his complaint, “the contemplated payment will be hasty, ill-conceived and premature and will unjustly defraud the Filipino people.”

Lim’s complaint adds to the thicket of legal issues that the courts will have to resolve before any payout is made. The thicket of legal issues extends from the collection case R-II filed before the Quezon City regional trial court against the National Housing Authority to disputes over jurisdiction elevated to the Supreme Court.

All the tangled cases, including the most recent one Lim filed before the Ombudsman, should make any payout unlikely in the foreseeable future. The fact that some initial steps were taken on the part of government housing agencies to pay R-II’s claims seems curious indeed.