Are we ready for ASEAN integration?

For our special presentation on our talk show “Straight from the Sky,” we bring you a discussion on ASEAN Integration or the ASEAN Economic Community. This is just like the European Union . Surely you must have read some articles about ASEAN Integration, which is coming to us in the year 2015. This is the economic integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which was begun in the year 2001 by the ASEAN Business Advisory Council. The big question is, are we ready for the ASEAN Integration in the year 2015?

The reason why we will discuss ASEAN Integration is because I would like to believe that the Philippines is unprepared for this eventuality. In fact, I just learned that the Asian Development Bank lead economist Jayant Menon , of the Office of Regional Economic Integration admitted that” targets for Regional Economic Integration would likely be missed. The report added, “Various reasons were cited for the continued difficulties of attaining the AEC targets one of the major reasons remain unmindful stance unawareness of the private sector.”

With Pres. Aquino attending the ASEAN Summit in Myanmar, I’m sure he is telling his ASEAN counterparts that the Philippines is ready for ASEAN Integration. But the ASEAN community already knows that the Aquino regime has been chastised by Filipinos for its incompetence, notably in the wake of Super Typhoon “Yolanda.”So while Pres. PNoy will tell ASEAN that we are ready for the AEC, the truth is that we are not.

So to give us a glimpse of ASEAN Integration, we will have with us Mr. Jay Yuvallos, a member of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council and Philippine Representative for SME’s, and Mr. Lito Maderazo, immediate past president of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Inc. They will give us an insight of what to expect with the ASEAN Integration. So watch this very interesting and informative show on ASEAN Integration in SkyCable’s channel 61 at 8:00 tonight and on Wednesday and Saturday with replays in MyTV’s channel 30 at 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. on Monday’s, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

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The big news last Friday was that the Office of the Ombudsman dismissed the graft case the government filed against former Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in connection with the P726 million fertilizers scam. It was alleged that she misused government funds for her 2004 presidential election campaign.  This is a case of plunder, which is why she has been incarcerated since 2011, with no less than Pres. Benigno Aquino III ordering” the filing of charges against her.

I recall that on August 2013, Pres. Aquino III said, “The corruption controversies under my administration were not as bad as the fertilizer fund scam”. Oh really now? The Year 2013 was the year that the Disbursement Acceleration Program was uncovered which is still waiting for a ruling by the Supreme Court. Also last year, the SC declared the Priority Development Assistance Program, also known as “Pork Barrel,” unconstitutional. I think Mr. Aquino’s gov’t is more corrupt!

The former President was also cleared of another charge thrown against her for the misuse of P530 million in funds of the Overseas Worker’s Welfare Administration. But just recently, the Commission on Audit issued a report that found out that this particular fund was properly liquidated and used to help Filipino workers abroad. Hmmm.

The other case against GMA that was thrown out recently was the P72 million sale of the Iloilo airport in which Capital Gains Tax was not paid and again, this was found to be false. I know that there is still one big case that the Aquino regime filed against her and that’s supposedly for the misuse of funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. But with the recent unexpected retirement of PCSO chairwoman Margarita Juico who was a former appointments secretary of PNoy’s late mother Pres. Corazon Aquino, things might just change in that case for the simple reason that we already know that those charges filed against GMA were not supported with credible evidence.

So the big question to ask is, why is the former President still under “hospital” arrest? By now, the government doctors must already know that her health is deteriorating and she needs medical treatment abroad. So why is Pres. Aquino still keeping her at the hospital?

Incidentally, I was in Manila last Tuesday for a very important meeting in Global City and I met a close confidant of the former President who asked me that when I’ve finished with my meeting, she’d bring me to St. Luke’s Medical Center to visit GMA. But I learned that my name had to be cleared by the PNP before I would even be allowed to visit.

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Email: vsbobita@gmail.com.