Here’s a hint: the lamp is part of the batch bought by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Cebu.

That hint was a giveaway, wasn’t it? That single lamppost, if you believe government officials, costs P224,600. The motorcycle costs, at a discounted cash purchase, P51,000. The laptop, again at a discounted purchase, costs P43,000.

STAGGERING PRICE. This lamppost on a street in Mandaue City, Cebu costs P224,600 per unit. More than double the cost of the parked motorcycle and the bag that contains a laptop, digital camera, voice recorder, and various other digital accessories. Click on photo to enlarge.

Even if you include the digital camera, micro tape recorder, USB stick, and various laptop accessories in the bag, it still wouldn’t add up to half of the purchase price of that single lamppost.

That single lamppost costs more than a second-hand car. And that lamppost is not even the most expensive model. Anti-graft investigators at the Ombudsman-Visayas found models, installed in Mandaue City, costing more than P300,000 each.

Multiply this cost by the hundreds of units DPWH bought and the amount is staggering. It would have been enough to turn some of the posts into Wi-Fi access points and then roll out a municipal Wi-Fi system for Metro Cebu. That would have been a massive boost for Cebu tourism and commerce.

WE’RE SCREWED. You’d think that at its cost, government would have used better quality screws to hold these posts in place but a couple of months after they were put up, rust starts to eat the joints. Click on photo to enlarge.

Sun.Star Cebu, the newspaper I work for, has uncovered import papers that place the import value of the lamps at less than P4,000 each. According to the report, the papers show that the actual value of the P350,090 lamp is, get this, P3,626. The P325,916 lamp’s actual value is P2,009. The single-arm lamp that costs P314,698 is listed as actually costing P1,764 each.

Even if the posts actually cost its contract price, how can you, in conscience, spend as much for street lighting. But that’s giving public officials too much. Public officials generally understand only the first three letters of the word “conscienceâ€?.

MISSING. You’d think that government officials will do their utmost to take care of these lamps, which cost P224,600 each, but not only are they not used, they have also been left at the mercy of thieves. Click on photo for larger image.

What is even more mind-boggling is the fact that the posts are not being used, at least during the times I pass the road at night. Those posts stick out like dirty fingers lining up the road telling people to “f..ck off, what are we in power for?”

The Freeman newspaper, in today’s issue, includes a table on what you can buy for P350,000, the cost of a single unit of one of the lamps installed in Mandaue. For the amount, you can buy 291 sacks of rice or 8 motorcycles or 36,458 cans of sardines.

BE HONEST. Deputy Ombudsman Virginia Palanca-Santiago in a conference with a DPWH official and a lawyer on the alleged massive overpricing of street lamps bought for the Asean Summit. Click on image to enlarge.

The deal is unraveling. It’s a good thing we have Visayas Deputy Ombudsman Virginia Palanca-Santiago looking into it. Her integrity is, by all accounts, beyond question. She didn’t get her office’s top post because she refused to have a politician sponsor her nomination.

Look closely at her desk. Figuring prominently on it is that ubiquitous (and largely ignored) “Be Honest” message. It makes you wonder how crooked government officials feel when they read the notice. Ah, but that’s giving government officials too much. It’s not as if they aren’t thick-faced.

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Former senator Loren Legarda yesterday said initial revision of contested ballots shows she was robbed of her votes in Mandaue City during the last elections.

Here’s a link to the Sun.Star Cebu article.

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The Young Radicals blog, which initiated the campaign, posted the update yesterday. Try the following keywords using the same procedure: sira ulo, bugaw and sinungaling. Google bombing is the practice of influencing Google search results by linking target keywords (pekeng pangulo, sira ulo etc.) with the target websites. The most prominent victim of google bombing is President Bush, whose White House website was google bombed with the search terms “failure” and “miserable failure.”

Bush supporters fought back and tried linking the phrase to filmmaker Michael Moore’s site. Will we see a similar answer by Arroyo men or will they just ignore this?

Here are my earlier posts on the issue:
They’re staging a google bomb
Protests in the time of Friendster and Google bombing

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If you already have an account, add the feeds listed below. In Google Reader, I label them as pinoypolitics. This isn’t an exhaustive list, if you spot feeds that should be listed here, just leave the address in the comments section.

The names are hyperlinked to their feeds so that you’d have the option of either right clicking on them to select Copy Link Location or you can just highlight the feed address to copy them.

Inside PCIJ:http://www.pcij.org/blog/?feed=atom
Manuel Quezon III: http://feeds.feedburner.com/mlq3
Manolo’s FeedBurner feed had just been set up, I used to subscribed to his built-in WordPress feed. If you want to listen to his series of podcasts, here’s the feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/mlq3podcast
INQ7 Breaking News: http://ruby.inq7.net/rss/rss_breakingnews.xml
Sassy Lawyer: http://feeds.feedburner.com/sassylawyer
Philippine Commentary: http://philippinecommentary.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Ed Lacierda: http://lacierda.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Philippine Politics ‘04: http://politicaljunkie.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Sun.Star Arroyo Watch: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/blogs/citizenwatch/?feed=comments-rss2
Mongster’s nest: http://syndication.motime.com/mongpalatino/atom.xml
Alleba politics: http://feeds.feedburner.com/AllebaPolitics
Philippine Politics ‘04: http://politicaljunkie.blogspot.com/atom.xml
John Nery’s Newsstand: http://newsstand.blogs.com/newsstand/index.rdf
Jove Francisco: http://www.jovefrancisco.com/?feed=rss2
Ricky Carandang: http://www.rickycarandang.com/?feed=rss2
RG Cruz: http://rgcruz.wordpress.com/feed/
Ellen Tordesillas: http://www.ellentordesillas.com/?feed=rss2
Ducky Paredes: http://www.paredes-ohana.org/blogs/xmlsrv/rss2.php?blog=7
Union of Filipino Foreign Service Officers ( UNIFFORS ) http://www.uniffors.com/?feed=rss2

ADDED:
Gloria Arroyo search result in Google Blog Search: Just right click on the link, it’s rather long and I fear that printing it here would break the three-column layout I spent a lot of time trying to fix. The link I chose is for 100 results, if you only want 10, use this link

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The blog is also calling for the Google bombing of the Department of Justice website with “sira ulo;” and the Gov.ph portal with “gobyernong bulok.” By using Tagalog keywords, the google bombing would be easier since they’ll have to compete with fewer sites than, say, trying to google bomb the President’s home page with “liar” or “fake president.”

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Netopia, according to this Inq7.net article, is “urging” the government to create a censorship body to monitor the local Internet infrastructure. An official of the Internet cafe chain says the body “will operate similarly to the Movies Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) and provide guidelines for the compliance of Internet service providers.”

Netopia President Raymond Ricafort told Inq7.net: “The government can discourage users from visiting indecent web sites in the same manner that they discourage adult films.”

Mr. Ricafort, if the government will discourage us from visiting sites in the same manner that they have been labeling certain films as “for adults only” then we’re fucked. And how, in Torquemada’s name, can you impose “decency” in the local Web infrastructure? By playing Big Brother and monitoring the traffic? How will you “prevent pornographic materials from being distributed through local ISPs?”

If, for example, you bar access to domains that host “adult” content, will you be blocking access to Wikipedia just because it has pages tackling sexuality–sex positions, sexual practices and fetishes?

Curiously, Ricafort, according to the same report, “admitted that no strict policies are being implemented in Netopia branches to prevent anyone from accessing pornographic materials. Users can also invoke rights to privacy when using computers in Netopia.”

Let’s see Netopia clamp down on its users first so we can have a blueprint for steps to take to discourage visits to “indecent web sites.” I shudder to think what Department of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez would think after reading this article.

Pornography is a problem, especially for people like me who have kids. But censorship is not the answer. Educate people on how to surf safely, how to install filters and how to prevent spyware infection.

I visit sites that would make Cebu’s self-appointed moral guardian Rene Josef Bullecer go livid. And yet I am confident that my son would not be encountering pop-ups of naked girls with silicone boobs. This is because my computer is “frozen” and every time it restarts, it reverts to the state it was in on the day I finished installing all the applications I needed (sort of being a virgin again after a gangbang, what with the way I test programs and scripts). Every time I restart, all the cookies, viruses and registry edits that any site or application may have inserted into and done to my PC are obliterated.

Netopia can, for example, start a nationwide database of pornographic sites that it can share with other Internet cafes and even home users to help improve the capabilities of their Web filters. But to ask the government to create a body to impose “decency” in the local Internet is indecent.

Ricafort says: “the problem is who shall determine what is indecent?” And he’s asking the government to do that.

The Net, according to John Gilmore of EFF, interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. It will route around proposals such as this one.

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Here’s part of Sun.Star Cebu’s story on the issue:

Where is the P26.5-million in development assistance funds that Rep. Clavel Asas-Martinez allegedly diverted to a personal bank account by using as conduit the Girl Scouts of the Philippines (GSP) Cebu Council?

The anti-graft office wants to find out because, as far as their investigation is concerned, Martinez still has the money, released in three separate dates, after depositing it into her bank account on June 14, 2002, Sept. 19, 2002 and Sept. 23, 2003.

Read the rest of the story in Sun.Star Cebu.

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In Cebuano, it’s “You’re such a cheat, you’re like Gloria.” I think there’s a better usage for Gloria. In Cebu, we say people are “pa Gorio Gorio” when you talk to them on an issue you are sure they know about and yet they pretend not to have a clue. Will that expression change to “pa Gloria Gloria?”

Gary Granada is, in my opinion, the country’s best songwriter. I used to have tapes of most of his albums (remember cassette tapes?) and even a recording of one of his concerts in UP Diliman but these were borrowed and never returned while some got lost in my frequent transfers of boarding houses.

One of the highlights of my stay in UP Diliman was when Granada sang me a birthday song. I was staying in the house of Renato “Boyet” Mabunga and I kept on saying how Gary Granada was such a great singer. One day Boyet told me he would be drinking with Gary Granada at Sa Gulod near our apartment in Krus-na-Ligas in Diliman, Quezon City. I passed by Sa Gulod on my way home from school and indeed, Boyet was drinking with Gary Granada. I stayed for awhile and when I told them that I had to go because I was set to go out with friends to celebrate my birthday – the two downed one round of beer for me and sang me a birthday song – including Gary Granada – imagine that.

My favorite Gary Granada song is Eroplanong Papel. I am such an optimist and lines like the following make me feel that I could overcome whatever problems I am faced with.

“Ang bundok ay handang akyatin
Dagat may kaya ring tawirin
Ang pangarap ko’y mararating
Isang araw ay liliparin
Ang matataas na pader
Ng aking eroplanong papel”

My other favorite Gary Granada songs are: Holdap, Kahit Konti, Kung Alam Mo Lang Violy, Philippines 2000, Address, Kung Ayaw Mo Na Sa Akin, and Puno ng Mangga, Kapag Sinabi Ko Sa Iyo and Hanggang Kailan, Hanggang Saan.

I haven’t been able to listen to his songs for years. The only album I have left is his Samu’t Sari collection.

You can download an MP3 file of the Values Education song at the PCIJ site. To save on bandwidth and help others download it, don’t play the song online. Just right click on the download link and choose Save Link As or Save Target as to save the MP3 file in your hard drive.

In writing the song, Granada, according to the PCIJ site, said “In the meantime that she remains in power, she can at least serve as a very good bad example especially to our children and to our youth. Huwag nating tularan si Gloria. Huwag kang manggo-Gloria.”

Here are the lyrics to the song (taken from the PCIJ website)

Values Education
by Gary Granada

Huwad na eleksyon
Kick-back at kumisyon
Suhol, lagay,
Graft and corruption
Ano ang solusyon
Ang sabi ng leksyon
Ika ay values education

Huwag kang mandadaya
Huwag kang magsinungaling
Ang mga panata
At pangako�y tuparin
Huwag kang manggugulang
Huwag kang mgsasamantala
Huwag kang manlalamang
Ng iyong kapwa

Gloria
Huwag kang manggu-Gloria
Huwag kang manggu-Gloria
Gloria Gloria Gloria Gloria
Huwag kang manggu-Gloria
Huwag kang manggu-Gloria
Gloria Gloria Gloria Gloria
Huwag kang manggu-Gloria

Ang pahalagahan
Kailangan ng bayan
Bahay, pagkain, kalusugan
Makapag-aral
Trabahong marangal
Hustisya at kapayapaan

Ngunit inuuna
Ng gobyerno ang utang
Pinatitindi pa
Ang logging, mining, at digmaan
Dahil di malaya
Sa dikta ng dayuhan
Lalong lumalala
Ang kahirapan

Gloria
Huwag kang maggu-Gloria
Huwag kang mang-e-
Erap Ramos Cory Marcos
Gloria
Huwag kang manggu-Gloria
Huwag kang mang-e-
Erap Ramos Cory Marcos

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If the proponents are convinced of the merits of their proposal and the support of their constituents (which they claim to have) then what’s to fear in holding hearings in Cebu.

But Rep. Emilio Macias, chairman of the House committee on local governments, has said there won’t be hearings on the proposal in Cebu because the venue for Cebuanos to express their sentiments, he said, would be the plebiscite.

Sun.Star Cebu (disclosure: I work for this paper) has said in an editorial that “Macias has continued to insist on holding the committee hearing in Manila, on an issue that is very important to the Cebuanos using such lame excuses like Manila being a more manageable venue than Cebu.”

“Macias has continued to insist on holding the committee hearing in Manila, on an issue that is very important to the Cebuanos using such lame excuses like Manila being a more manageable venue than Cebu.”
Sun.Star Cebu editorial

The editorial describes this as “an insult to the ability of the Cebuanos to conduct debates in a civil manner and the capability of the committee to handle hearings on explosive issues.”

An earlier Sun.Star Cebu editorial described proponents Reps. Antonio Yapha for Cebu West, Simeon Kintanar for Cebu South and Clavel Martinez for Cebu North as “butchers in the house.”

The three, according to the editorial, want to “create political fiefdoms” because of their impending departure from political power (they are on their last terms in Congress). The editorial said the proposals will be passed because of the way politicians in Congress work:

“Arguing before the House committee and the House plenary that the Sugbuak bills are what they are, selfish political vehicles, and would demolish historical, economic, and social ties of Cebu as one province would be useless.

The bills will pass because three senior members want them passed. The bills affect the personal welfare of these senior colleagues.

They won’t oppose the bills, no matter what disaster it will bring to Cebu, because when they themselves file bills similar in intent to Sugbuak, their colleagues from Cebu won’t stand in the way.”

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