Category: The Matnog Environmental Advocates Organization (MEAO)

Fil Ams Make Waves at AAJA Convention

By JOSEPH G. LARIOSA

(© 2011 Journal Group Link International)

DETROIT, Michigan (jGLi)– Some Filipino Americans are getting some attention during the ongoing three-day 22nd annual convention of the Asian American Journalists Association that ends on Saturday, Aug. 13, in Detroit, Michigan.

Three of them are panelists in different workshops in the organization that is also marking its 30th anniversary this year. They are Rene Astudillo, executive director, Lupus Foundation of Northern California, who is in the panel of “Fighting To Protect Immigrant Rights”; Maria Hechanova, morning reporter, WLNS-TV, Yuma, Arizona, panelist in “Surviving Small Markets”; and Emil Guillermo, award-winning journalist and TV/radio host/commentator, panelist in “Authors’ Showcase: In Conversation with Grace Lee Boggs.”

Among Filipino American journalists attending this event are Curtis Lee Jay, news anchor “Action News” of NBC in Kansas City, Missouri; Justin Mendoza, TV news reporter/video journalist/producer; and Joseph G. Lariosa, correspondent Journal Group Link International and AAJA Chicago Chapter member. While those covering the event are former Manila Bulletin Provincial Editor Tony Antonio, editor of Fil Star Michigan, and Bobby Reyes of Mabuhay Radio of Los Angeles, California. Another Fil Am attending is Michigan active community leader, Willie Dichavez.

Mr. Curtiz Lee Jay met at the convention with Messrs. Reyes and Joesan Gabarda of Troy, Michigan. Gabarda is a friend of Jay’s grandfather, Felino Lee of Magallanes, Sorsogon in the Philippines.

Astudillo is AAJA’s National Treasurer and was AAJA’s executive director from 1999 to 2008. Hechanova worked her way up from producer/reporter and has worn many hats in her two-year tenure, including administrative assistant! She’s also the co-chair of AASMBJ (Asian American Small Market Broadcast Journalists), a group dedicated to supporting AAJA members who are just starting their careers. For nearly 15 years, Guillermo wrote the most widely read opinion column on Asian America in the U.S. An award-winning veteran broadcast and print journalist, talk host and commentator, Guillermo was the first Asian American to regularly host a national news radio program on NPR’s “All Things Considered” from 1989-1991.

During the panel discussion, Maria Hechanova, said working in a small market station is tough as she felt alienated from her relatives when her job application was accepted and she left her friendly confines in Phoenix, Arizona.

“You have to face two-step battle as you transition to your new job,” Ms. Hechanova, whose parents are from Iloilo in the Philippines, said. “First, losing people and finding that second job.”

It took her two years to prepare her taped resume, taking live shots. While she put things together, she was and is always having an open mind to criticisms of her job and demeanor by listening intently to her missteps.

While her contract expires in three years, she developed some anxiety two years into her job as she starts to make plans to jump into a “bigger” market. Her anxiety becomes acute as she gained the “the people’s trust and you create from them their respect.”

Ms. Hechanova turned emotional when she said her Mom called her a week after she got a new job, telling her that her Dad was very sick. Her father died last July 22nd.

She thanked the Asian American Journalists Association, which helped her cope up with her problems.

But what cheers her up in Yuma is a group Filipino Americans, who always invite her to their event, serving her up with her favorite Filipino delicacies.

She always feels that career is a marathon, where you develop your skills as you linger on your job. But she is still keeping her options open if she wants to pick up the anchor job of her dream. (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)

PANELISTS:

Fil Am Maria Hechanova (extreme right), morning reporter, WLNS-TV, of Yuma, Arizona, joins members of the panel after they presented “Surviving Small Markets” workshop Thursday, Aug. 11, at the St. Louis Convention Center in Detroit (COBO), Michigan. Others in photo to her right are Jam Sardar, TV News Director WLNS-TV, and Priscilla Luong, a reporter for Fox25 and CW34 of Oklahoma City. Back row at right is George Kiriyama, news reporter, NBC Bay Area News and an unidentified AAJA member or guest. (jGLiPhoto by Joseph G. Lariosa)

REUNION:

Former Manila Bulletin Provincial Editor Tony Antonio (extreme right), editor of Fil Am Star News in Michigan, is reunited with former Manila Bulletin police reporter Joseph G. Lariosa (extreme left), correspondent of Journal Group Link International, at the 22nd annual convention of the Asian American Journalists Association Thursday, Aug. 11, at the St. Louis Convention Center (COBO) in Detroit, Michigan while Bobby Reyes of Mabuhay Radio looks on. At the background is the Detroit River overlooking Canada on the other side of the river. (jGLiPhoto)

SORSOGANONS AT THE CONFAB:

Curtis Lee Jay (third from left), news anchor “Action News” of NBC in Kansas City, Missouri, introduced himself as a grandson of Felino Lee of Magallanes, Sorsogon, while Sorsoganons Joseph G. Lariosa (extreme left), Bobby M. Reyes and Joesan Gabarda (extreme right) were conversing in Bikol. Lookin on is Jay’s friend, Brooke Camp, CNN recruiter, at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center in Michigan Wednesday, Aug. 10. (jGLiPhoto)

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THE SECRETS OF POLITICIANS’ STAYING POWER

 

JGL Eye

By JOSEPH G. LARIOSA

 

CHICAGO (jGLi) – When I was covering the mayor’s offices of Rizal province in the Philippines in the seventies, I was pleasantly surprised to see a mayor of Antipolo in near tears when I told him politicians should pave the way for other aspirants when they had grown tired of their jobs or had run out of ideas to improve other peoples’ lives.

“Joseph,” the mayor told me, “what will happen to me when I leave the town hall? Running for mayor and winning the job is the be-all and end-all for me. I don’t have any other marketable skills to boot.”

If you get a similar response from politicians in your neighborhood, you should be ready to stick by him for a long haul.

These kinds of politicians might not have heard of the Peter Principle propounded in 1968 by educator Dr. Laurence J. Peter, who said that: “In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence … in time every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties … Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.”

This theory met its match when the United States Military has required that certain ranks should be held for no longer than a set amount of time, a lack of compliance of which could render grounds for dismissal.

We can just imagine if the Philippine military will ignore the Peter Principle. What would have happened to the Philippines if thefts of comptrollers of the Philippine Armed Forces like Generals Carlos Garcia and Jacinto Ligot or AFP Chiefs of Staff like the suicide-driven Angelo Reyes, Diomedio Villanueva and Roy Cimatu were not exposed? Don’t you think they would ever leave their posts if they were not detected?

And if these kinds of generals were given the option to retire from office like a United States Supreme Court justice who has lifetime tenure, where will the Philippine government get its depleted funds?

LESSONS FROM GENERALS

Look at what happened to other generals abroad, whose rise to power had remained unchecked. There were Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Augusto Pinochet or Col. Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi to name few, who are shoo-in for entries into the Hall of Shame.

And this takes us back to our local politicians, like my favorite provincial governor in Sorsogon, Atty. Raul Lee.

Governor Lee is your typical Filipino politician, who believes that, like the mayor of Antipolo, Rizal, or the Hall-of-Shame generals that they are the only competent people who can improve other peoples’ lives.

If Governor Lee will be voted off, he can no longer game the system. His position will be a fare game to all comers, who believe that he no longer have an iota of competence.

Ever since his political rival in Governor Juan Frivaldo died after becoming the longest-serving Sorsogon provincial governor, Governor Lee seemed to have carried a chip on his shoulder because he could no longer break Mr. Frivaldo’s winning streak.

With term limits now in place, like any other politician protecting his turf, when Gov. Lee will just about to be termed out, he will let his wife, Sally, run for his position so he will not lose his touch of power. And he can run again for the same position in case his wife is also about to be termed out.

But if they have outlived their competence, as they never age like wine, I believe, Governor Lee should just cede his position to his vice governor and “cut his losses.”

POLITICAL DYNASTY IN THE MAKING

Instead of enjoying his retirement, the 69-year-old Mr. Lee is now re-enforcing his mini-dynasty that he would only be dreaming if the aging “Tata Juan” were still alive. He is now grooming his son, the incumbent Sorsogon City Vice Mayor, and his grandson, the incumbent SK Federation President, for his position.

I don’t mind if his dynasty takes root for as long as can improve the peoples’ lives till Kingdom Come.

But why is he now so insecure like Marcos? Governor Lee has also now usurped the power of the provincial legislature called Sangguniang Panlalawigan by reducing its budget?

The last I heard, in order to silence his critics, Governor Lee has also taken over the appointing power of his vice governor (Antonio H. Escudero) and suddenly became a micro-manager.

After being named to answer for the fertilizer scam, Mr. Lee turned the table on his opponents in the Sangguniang Panlalawigan by hitting them where it hurts most: deprive the SP the ability to hire and keep their own staff.

All appointments by the SP will now have to go thru the eye of his needle so he can buy their loyalties.

His vocal critique, SP member Vladimir Frivaldo, the grandson of “Tata Juan,” was deprived of his “proposed staff complement” after Governor Lee learned that the grandson of his former foe was opposing Lee’s support for STL (small town lottery) operation, the controversial operation of mining in Barangays Balocaue and Cabagahan both in Matnog, Sorsogon and demand for liquidation of the loan obtained by his wife, Sally Lee, in the amount of 260-M pesos (U.S.$ 5.7-Millions) before Lee can obtain a new 350-million pesos (U.S $8.75-M), the biggest loan in the history of the province.

Mr. Vladimir Frivaldo reminded Gov Lee that it is the duty of the SP to approve the annual budgets, the request by the office of the Governor to obtain loan, to oversee that programs and projects are implemented properly within existing laws, guidelines and procedures and make implementors accountable, and not the governor’s.

I don’t know how Gov. Lee can circumvent the fertilizer scam filed against him before the Office of the Ombudsman. If he can steer clear of the charges, the people of Sorsogon can always gather enough signatures to start the ball rolling for his unprecedented recall. (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)

 

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The MEAO Heard ‘Round The World

By JOSEPH G. LARIOSA

  

CHICAGO (jGLi) – The Matnog Environmental Advocates Organization (MEAO) is a very tiny group named after the obscure municipality of my mother in Sorsogon province in the Philippines but its advocacy is getting notice in this part of the world.
MEAO’s advocacy is to be more conscientious with environmental disaster waiting to happen. It got a boost last week when an indigenous villager Maria Aguinda in Rumipamba, Ecuador won a blockbuster $9.5-billion judgment and brought to its knees U.S. giant Chevron for leaving behind an environmental damage for polluting the villager’s rain forest.
The multi-billion dollar judgment should send shockwaves to upstart mining companies in the Philippines, which ventured into this labor-intensive business fraught with environmental pitfalls.
One such debacle in the Philippines that escaped notice was the massive environmental hazards left behind by the United States in the early nineties when the Philippine Senate shut down the bases without first requiring the US to rid the bases of their hazardous materials.
Recently, the multi-national joint $45-Million investment from Lafayette, Philippines, Inc. (LPI) of Australia and the LG Group of South Korea whose contract to mine 18 out of 180 hectares, (not 5,218 hectares that I inadvertently wrote in my previous column), that straddle within Barangays Malobago, Pagcolbon and Binosawan in Rapu-Rapu, Albay province, north of Sorsogon province, was unceremoniously scrapped four months into the six- to seven-year operation following cyanide poisoning that triggered massive fish kills in the adjoining Pacific Ocean.

GRAVEL-AND-SAND MINERS

Now comes a little-known venture capitalist named Antonio Ocampo and/or Antonio Comersiase Jr. who appear to be backed up by a gravel-and-sand delivery truck company euphemistically named Alexandra Mining & Oil Ventures, Inc. based in Quezon City in the Philippines advertising Matnog Ore Project as one of its “on-going mining projects.” The Matnog Ore Project covers 19.840 hectares (not 19,840 hectares that I earlier mentioned in my column).
May I ask these venture capitalists if they have capitalization that comes close to the $45-million put up by the LPI and LG Group and be ready to lose that kind of money when disaster strikes?
Are they ready to operate without PEZA (Philippine Economic Zone Authority) so that they will be paying 54 percent national and local taxes and they get only 46 percent of their ROI (return of investment)?
Do they have money held in a screw so that authorities can draw from it to be given away to victims of calamities and disasters that could be caused by mining operation in Balocawe in Matnog?
Do they have money that will be sourced from fine against them “for pollution” to solve among others the “Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) problem” and for “decommissioning” expenses after the mining operation and replanting of trees that were cleared prior to the mining operation?
“Rehabilitation and environmental mitigation measures” are expensive propositions.

DISASTER INSURANCE, ANY ONE?

Without escrow account, do they have a surety bond or disaster insurance to cover future victims of disaster that may result in the mining operation?
Do they have an ownership structure that will publicly show that the incorporators of the mining permit holder have capability to pay in case of damages by showing their previous statements of assets and liabilities? Are they ready to follow the recommendations of the Presidential Rapu Rapu Fact Finding Commission Report (PRRFFCR) and/or the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) Assessment of the Rapu Rapu Polymetallic Project (DARRPP) issued in 2006?
To avoid the multi-billion dollar fine in Ecuador against Chevron, are these mining permit holders ready to establish “baseline average health condition” by conducting medical tests and “blood work” of the population around the mining area free of charge so that they can show that the population has pre-existing medical health condition prior to and after the mining operation?
Can DENR Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje certify that it has now re-trained its personnel following the 2006 Rapu-Rapu debacle, which according to PRRFFCR exposed its personnel as having “dysfunctional monitoring system”?
And is there now an oversight mechanism that can oversee the operation before, during and after the mining operation?
If the answers to all of the above questions are “yes,” then, by all means, this mining permit holder should be allowed to mine the Matnog Ore Project.
Its approval should stop Governor Raul R. Lee from “politicizing” this project to harass the members of the Sorsogon provincial board, who are opposing the mining operation in Matnog.
Provincial board member Vladimir Frivaldo has complained that ever since he opposed the mining project of Matnog and the STL (small town lottery, the legalized jueteng), Governor Lee has been giving him a hard time.

LEE SHOULD BE RECALLED?

The governor refused to give him detailed information where the previous and existing loans of the province went before he could support another request of the governor to obtain 350-million pesos loan (US$8.1-Million).
If the new loan is approved by the rubber-stamp provincial board, the loan of the province will balloon to 1-billion pesos (US$23-M) if the previous loan obtained by his predecessor, his wife, Gov. Sally Lee, is added to it. He said a new slogan “Utang Sorsogon” will be added to “Bangon Sorsogon.”
Frivaldo also questioned the poor judgment of Gov. Lee for appropriating his office with the third highest budget at more than 65-million pesos (US$1.5-M) when the most important offices like the Provincial Agriculture Office, Provincial Cooperative Office, Provincial Nutrition Council, Provincial Social Welfare and Development are only getting P22.0 million (US$.5-M), P700,000.00 (US$16,279), P500,000.00 (US$11,627) and P2.7 million (US$72,790), respectively. Support to education and social services is only P1.9 million (US$44,186).
Frivaldo also urged Governor Lee to build a new three-story Sangguniang Panlalawigan building because in the existing SP building when it rains outside, it also rains inside, soaking the Vice Governor, SP Members and secretariat staff.
Another complaint of Mr. Frivaldo is Governor Lee’s disapproval of the six staff appointments in his office that is required under the Department of Interior and Local Government Code while Lee’s wife, Lee’s son, then incumbent Sorsogon City Vice Mayor and Lee’s grandson, SK Federation President are “suppressing opponents/critics of your administration policy.”
If Mr. Frivaldo cannot charge Governor Lee with administrative violation of DILG Code before the Office of the President for grave abuse of discretion, he should initiate a preparatory recall assembly or by registered voters to recall Governor Lee as provided for by the Philippine Constitution.  (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)    /

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