Article: "DO THE MATH"

[ghosthunter]

http://****yeahbobong.tumblr.com/

[SIZE="4"]DO THE MATH[/SIZE]
Inday Espina-Varona

One doesn't need to be a member of Mensa, or a graduate of Harvard or
Georgetown universities, or even "just" of the University of the Philippines and
the Ateneo, to appreciate the math lessons brought by Typhoon Ondoy.

Thanks to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and a number of her aides, we know that national government deserved a pat on the back for topping its
disaster-relief effort success benchmark (Katrina, heaven help us).
Rainfall in 24 hours -- Ondoy: 455 millimeters; Katrina: 250 millimeters.

By afternoon of September 29, the death toll was at 250, and mounting. Half a million were homeless, 1.8 million affected – their homes intact but valuables destroyed by inundation inn filthy waters.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) estimates property
losses at P2 billion. (P5 billion as of 7 pm) But NDCC chief and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro says paralysis of many enterprises, from small neighborhood stores to multi-million- peso manufacturing plants, costs the country hundreds of millions daily.

We've also learned that President Arroyo, Vice President Noli de Castro, and all Cabinet officials are donating their salaries for the next two months to help relief operations. The President and the Vice President get P50,000 (P70,000 for the President) a month; Cabinet members, P30,000.

That means the President is giving P140,000 - enough to buy one six-seater wooden banca with engine or three rubber boats (P37,000 each).

I mention boats because these were the missing links in Onday rescue and relief operations.

I still don't know how many vehicles were blocking rescuers' paths on Saturday afternoon. I do know that at around 6 pm of that day Teodoro was admitting the mighty NDCC had 25 rubber boats – half withouut engines. (Of course, the vehicles blocking rescuers were not left on the streets by joy-riding delinquents but by workers and students and other folk who were not told noon would find them in danger of drowning.)

The dearth in rubber boats and bancas meant that people were trapped
on rooftops for 12 hours and longer. By afternoon of the 28th, the NDCC said government workers had rescued 8,000 – of the half a milllion homeless and many more affected. Do the math.

Metro Manila has a 15-million population. It has 1699 barangays (as of
June 2008). For every barangay to have one banca would cost the government P169 million. Rizal province, equally devastated, has 188 barangays, another 18.8 million. That's not even 20% of the price of President Arroyo's 1-billion dream jet.

Do the math. For P1billion, the government could buy a fleet of 10,000 bancas.

But we don't even have to talk about Mrs. Arroyo's Christmas stocking. Let's just focus on her gustatory delights during a recent US trip.

A leaked report said that while Filipinos mourned the death of former President
Corazon Aquino, Mrs. Arroyo and her allies were feasting and drinking at the
hoity-toity Le Cirque in New York City, to the tune of $20,000. Another leak said the presidential party also had a $15,000 lunch in a Washington D.C. steakhouse. Still another report said a second expensive dinner had occurred in Le Cirque. If this last dinner cost only $15,000 the tab for all three feasts would
have reached P2.45 million.

Do the math: 25 bancas.

Still, those dinners represented just a fraction of expenses in that US trip. A
report by gmanews.tv quotes Susanna Vargas, Malacanang's deputy executive secretary for administration and finance, as saying that Mrs. Arroyo's party spent $66,000 in Washington D.C. and $59,000 in New York for various service tips. (<http://www.gmanews. tv/story/ 170245/arroyo- party-gave- away-p6m-in-tips-during-six-day-us- stay>http://www.gmanews. tv/story/ 170245/arroyo-party-gave-away-p6m- in-tips-during- six-day-us- stay) That's P6 million.

Do the math: 60 bancas.

But even that is just spare change to Mrs. Arroyo's overall travel expenses, which sparked outrage when a Commission on Audit report showed these had been partly funded by contingent funds – by their very nature, monies sset aside for emergencies. Because Mrs. Arroyo, the economist, couldn't balance her travel budget, some P95 million incurred by the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS) were charged to the Palace's contingent funds.(See above url) Do the math: 950 bancas -- more than half of what Metro Manila-Rizal would need if each barangay is appropriated only one banca.

It is said that every peso that goes to the pockets of corrupt government officials is a peso taken from public services. I'm going to ignore the ZTE scandal, which was a preempted scandal, and focus on the ill-gotten wealth of General Carlos Garcia, former Armed Forces comptroller.

The good general is accused of skimming P300 million from the AFP's budget. Even if you don't care about soldiers dying because of a dearth in rescue equipment, you can do a different kind of math: 3,000 bancas.

I think P300 million is a very conservative estimate. Garcia's son, Tim, just posted a "million-dollar bail," according to an article by Peter Davis for "The Daily Beast" website.

Do the math: 490 bancas.

If Davis' description of the young Garcia's Trump Towers hothouse pad and its contents is true, add another $2 million. (Another 980 bancas). No way did his old man stop at P300 million. But you get the math.

The cited cases alone are enough (P550.45 million) to equip each Metro Manila-Rizal barangay with 2 bancas with change left for petrol. Or 14,877 rubber boats.

And we're not even talking about Mikey or his father.

[ghosthunter]

This article makes me think "what-if" we were still a colony of the USA. We would probably be like Guam is today, basically the same except no poverty, no pollution, no garbage scattered everywhere, everything clean and maintained, etc.

[oliver1013]

And thats how the cookie crumbles

[Lucius]

This article makes me think "what-if" we were still a colony of the USA. We would probably be like Guam is today, basically the same except no poverty, no pollution, no garbage scattered everywhere, everything clean and maintained, etc.

And we get better chances to see more good-looking women... Probably no extreme flood kasi walang squatters.

[jonski]

What if hindi nakikialam ang simbahan sa family planning ng goverment........ilang % kaya ang mababawas sa mga squaters?

[Lucius]

What if hindi nakikialam ang simbahan sa family planning ng goverment........ilang % kaya ang mababawas sa mga squaters?

Huge difference. Kaso wala tayo magagawa. This country is too religous that politicians take a step back. Ung use of contraceptives is a very good idea, pero masama daw kasi it encourages pre-marital ***. ULTIMATE FAIL. Kahit walang condom magse*** pa din kung pareho gusto diba.

[ghosthunter]

And we get better chances to see more good-looking women... Probably no extreme flood kasi walang squatters.

I think we will still have the flooding but no one would have been allowed to built houses and subdivisions in those flood zones.

[JackFlash]

This article makes me think "what-if" we were still a colony of the USA. We would probably be like Guam is today, basically the same except no poverty, no pollution, no garbage scattered everywhere, everything clean and maintained, etc.

"Better a country run like hell by Filipinos than one run like heaven by Americans." - Pres. Manuel L. Quezon

"Be careful what you wish for, it might come true." - Aesop's Fables

On the other hand, we wonder why other Asian countries, all former colonies were able to run their respective nations, overcome their turbulent pasts and become economic powerhouses, clean, orderly, well-maintained. To think that the Phils. prides itself in being 90% Christian. Maybe there's something wrong w/ the way we interpret Christianity.

Or maybe our progressive Asian neighbors didn't wish for "a country run like hell by _______" (fill in the blank for desired Asian nationality).

[ghosthunter]

"Better a country run like hell by Filipinos than one run like heaven by Americans." - Pres. Manuel L. Quezon

"Be careful what you wish for, it might come true." - Aesop's Fables

On the other hand, we wonder why other Asian countries, all former colonies were able to run their respective nations, overcome their turbulent pasts and become economic powerhouses, clean, orderly, well-maintained. To think that the Phils. prides itself in being 90% Christian. Maybe there's something wrong w/ the way we interpret Christianity.

Or maybe our progressive Asian neighbors didn't wish for "a country run like hell by _______" (fill in the blank for desired Asian nationality).

Think of it, we pinoys have nothing to call as a single focus as a society. We are all too busy trying to make a living to care or bother with such a thought.

[4JGtootsie]

Nagkataon lang na fresh issue yung gastos ni madame at trahedya ni Ondoy.
The whole Archipelago has probably a million bancas, rafts, bananas, speed boats etc. The place, time, transport, weather and the obstructions made it impossible to mobilize it. Its true na extravagant si madame pero hindi ito and dahilan kung bakit walang banca sa flooded areas noon bagyo. Even local officials never anticipated the need until it was too late, and these places are notorious for floods. Peace!