In January 2009 a Japanese court convicted three executives to 18 months in prison for bribing a Vietnamese state official $820,000. Tokyo-based Pacific Consultants International (PCI) also was slapped a fine of 70 million yen. The Japanese government suspended aid loans to Vietnam. The court noted: “The crime was devious, organized and calculated. PCI systematically supplied cash to foreign government employees with the agreement of the top cadre.”
Among the convicts was Tsuneo Sakano, then 59. Sakano used to be CEO of PCI in the Philippines. The Japanese government ordered PCI dissolved and absorbed by Oriental Consultants Co. Ltd., also based in Tokyo with offices in Manila.
PCI was the same company that paid millions of pesos in 2008 to an undersecretary of the Arroyo regime. Reviewing dubious fund releases, Congress branded that bureaucrat the most corrupt in the Dept. of Agriculture. Hundreds of millions of pesos were frittered away in ghost loans under the agricultural competitiveness enhancement fund. Supposedly to intensify and preserve harvests, the loans were not repaid. The official and his cohort-regional directors pocketed nearly half the proceeds. No one has been jailed.
In 2010 the undersecretary used his ill-gotten wealth to run for and bag a congressional seat. During his DA stint he capitalized on his closeness to then-First Gentleman Mike Arroyo to pull off his massive theft of public money. Biting last December the hand that fed him, he signed to impeach Chief Justice Renato Corona. Arroyo has assailed the impeachment as part of the present admin’s supposed vindictiveness against them.
And, oh, Tsuneo Sakano is now out of jail and back in Manila. He works for another Japanese firm with offices in Rufino Building, Ayala Avenue, Makati. That new company is acing contracts with the public works department.
Meantime, a resolution dangles in Congress to ban the negative portrayal of lawmakers in film. It has yet to dawn on public officials that their bad image is due to continuing corruption. That can change only through sweeping reforms. Can this Daang Matuwid do it?
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Hot news again is the fuel pipeline leak that engulfed in fumes the West Tower condos in Makati. Last December the Dept. of Energy said it would endorse the reopening of First Philippine Industrial Corp.’s 117-km Batangas-Manila tube. This, after a three-day pressure-controlled leak test “confirmed” the whole pipeline’s “structural integrity.”
The Supreme Court had ordered the test to decide whether to lift a writ of kalikasan issued in November 2009. The duct has been inoperable since. Energy officials say that reopening it would bring down gasoline prices, and ensure safer transport than by trucks and barges. The DOE and consultant Societé Generale de Surveillance supervised the test. Observing were the University of the Philippines-National Institute of Geological Sciences and the UP-Institute of Civil Engineering.
The test had two stages. Air gaps and dirt first were removed to ensure accuracy. Then diesel was gushed through at target pressure levels for 48 hours. Energy Undersecretary Jay Layug announced that the pressure in the pipeline was stable throughout. Meaning, no more leaks. Layug is awaiting the observers’ reports before submitting an official recommendation to the SC.
Displaced West Tower residents, condo owners and consultants are unsatisfied, though. The test was wanting, they sneer. Allegedly the FPIC designed and conducted it instead of an independent third party. The Philippine Society of Mechanical Engineers was not invited to watch, despite FPIC’s use of the counterpart American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) protocols. Instead of water as prescribed by ASME, the test used diesel, which because more viscous was less likely to drip through pinhole cracks. The test did not reach the specified 110 to 125 percent range of the channel’s usual operating pressure. Most of all, left undetermined was how longer the 44-year-old pipeline would last.
FPIC counters that the SC must rely on advise of experts. And who else would that be, if not the DOE and its consultant and observers? Allegedly the complainers are only pushing their P2.3-billion damage claim, the cost of buying proximate new condos of the same class.
Perhaps, longer tests should be conducted, using the strict ASME guidelines. Then the SC can rule, based on science.
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Our coaches were probably too busy demonstrating in the ’70s to train our UP Maroons to win the UAAP. To enjoy varsity basketball, we had to beg Ateneo and La Salle friends for tickets to NCAA games. Idols were Lim Em Beng and Ricky Palou, whom the opposing bleachers cheered on with “Animo La Salle” and “One Big Fight!” So intense was the rivalry of the two schools. They’d presage their showdowns with pep squad dramatics. Particularly memorable were Green Archers trotting into the hard court with a huge roasted turkey depicting the Blue Eagles. Post-games were chaotic. Once a riot erupted at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum after La Sallians lost a match to Ateneans.
That enmity affected many like me who weren’t even from their campuses. And now somebody finally explains the reason behind it — via theater. Playwright-composer Ed Gatchalian’s “Rivalry: Ateneo-La Salle the Musical” is set in 1968, at the height of the hostilities, but traces it back to the 1930s and why it persists to this day. Joel Trinidad provides the lyrics of the 28 original songs. Directed by Jaime del Mundo, “Rivalry” stars Felix Rivera, Red Concepcion, Athena Tibi, Ashley Imler, Jeremy Aguado, Mako Alonso, and OJ Mariano, with special appearance by Noel Trinidad.
Play dates: Thursdays to Sundays at 8 p.m., with 3 p.m. matinees Saturdays and Sundays, till March 11, at the Meralco Theater, Pasig City. Tickets available at all TicketWorld outlets.
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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).
E-mail: jariusbondoc@gmail.com