Sulpicio Lines, Suspicious Lines

In the last two decades, four ships of Sulpicio Lines figured in catastrophic accidents, causing the death of several thousands. If an airline had that kind of record, it would have been hounded out of business. The question, then, that haunts the country’s traveling public: Why is Sulpicio Lines still in business?

Subsidies are counterproductive

It appears that the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration’s policy of subsidizing the people’s basic needs—rice and electricity—is reflective of its utter inability to promote the general welfare. It is also a veiled admission of its failure to effectively pursue its agriculture development and food production programs.

“Why I helped Ces Drilon, my ex-news buddy”

By Arlyn dela Cruz

I wanted it kept a secret.

But since Sen. Loren Legarda already disclosed it to the media, I might as well give my own account on how crucial the nine days were for the hostages (Ces Oreña-Drilon, Jimmy Encarnacion, Angelo Valderama and Prof. Octavio Dinampo) and how real the threat of their beheading was.

Don’t blame ABS-CBN if it paid ransom

By Ramon Tulfo (INQ.net)

Whether or not ABS-CBN paid ransom for Ces Drilon and her two companions no longer matters.
What is important is that Drilon and company were released unharmed by their kidnappers.

Other uses of rice subsidy funds

As Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has pointed out, we are spending about P20 billion this year to be able to sell imported rice, bought at around $600 to $700 a ton, to low-income consumers at a state-subsidized rate of just P18.25 a kilo.

The Real Score on CARP’s Extension

Let us direct our attention, yet again, to the practical details of any extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). Passage of any measure that will allow the Department of Agrarian Reform to complete the redistribution of agricultural land—with or without reforms in the landmark law—will depend not on lofty philosophical argument but on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s exercise of political will.

House defers vote on CARP extension bill

But resolution extending LAD until December OKd

The House of Representatives has deferred voting on the bill extending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program and would instead pass a joint resolution that would extend until December the land acquisition and distribution (LAD) component under the present CARP.

How to manufacture a global food crisis

By Walden Bello
INQUIRER.net

(An earlier version of this article appears in the June 2, 2008, edition of The Nation [New York]. It is being reprinted by the Inquirer with permission from The Nation.)

WHEN tens of thousands of people staged demonstrations in Mexico last year to protest a 60-percent increase in the price of tortillas, many analysts pointed to biofuel as the culprit. Because of US government subsidies, American farmers were devoting more and more acreage to corn for ethanol than for food, which sparked a steep rise in corn prices. The diversion of corn from tortillas to biofuel was certainly one cause of skyrocketing prices, though speculation on biofuel demand by transnational middlemen may have played a bigger role. However, an intriguing question escaped many observers: How on earth did Mexicans, who live in the land where corn was domesticated, become dependent on US imports in the first place?

CARP Extension: a measure of GMA’s political will

Should the landmark Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, already extended for 10 years but expiring this week, be extended anew? National policy of this scope cannot but be a question of philosophy—we are after all dealing with the future shape of Philippine society—but in the end policy will be determined not by competing theories but by current political realities.

Two questions: On ADB’s poverty guess and Gov’t takeover of Meralco

I received text messages from two young journalist colleagues, and I’d like to answer them in this column.

First was a request to comment on the news item titled, “ADB: Soaring food prices may send 8.85 million Pinoys to poverty.” He had no idea what the accompanying story said, and unfortunately I have no access to the ADB website at this time to find out what it actually said. In any case, a headline and an accompanying story do not necessarily say the same thing, as I have often discovered. But one thing is sure: The operative word in that quote is the word “may.”