Highway robbery
Posted on April 13, 2008 - Filed Under Governance | Leave a Comment
My brother Rey, who’s a New Jersey-based town planner and architect, forwarded an email with magnificent photos of the almost completed Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx).
The email’s original sender hints at possible kickbacks of 10% in the freeway’s construction which is obviously way under the 25% to 40% ‘going rate’ . . . an open secret going […]
Adding salt to injury
Posted on April 8, 2008 - Filed Under Governance | Leave a Comment
Step aside, Joc-joc Bolante. It looks like the fertilizer scam that you allegedly orchestrated has now been overshadowed.
As reported by Malaya . . .
“COCONUT farmers yesterday echoed the call of the Federation of Free Farmers for an investigation on a P2 billion salt fertilization project and corn seed program of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) […]
Days of swine and ruses
Posted on April 5, 2008 - Filed Under Governance | Leave a Comment
Hogging the headlines in the past few days is another scandal that has something to do with sort of ‘rerouting’ around P2.2B in Quedan and Rural Credit Corp. (Quedancor) funds. There are allegations that most of this government lending agency’s 2004 budget to assist farmers in boosting swine production went instead to Pres. Arroyo’s presidential […]
Read More..>>Pigafetta was an ‘embedded’ journalist
Posted on April 4, 2008 - Filed Under History | Leave a Comment
Enumerable articles and quite a few books have been written about Ferdinand Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe, including his supposed ‘discovery’ of an archipelago that subsequently became known as the Philippines. Most of the eyewitness accounts are attributed to Antonio Pigafetta.
But would you believe that Pigafetta was practically a glorified tourist? At best, the adventurous […]