When there's smoke...

It was a rude baptism of fire for the Japanese contractor. Right before him, “(They) first discussed bribes. They had a rough approach.” From that meeting, it was impressed on him that “(bribe) money was important to do business in the Philippines.”

This was how the Japanese contractor described his meeting with First Gentleman Miguel “Mike” Arroyo and a former senator to World Bank investigators who looked into alleged collusion and rigging in the Bank's funded road projects. (Read the rest here.)

...there's fire. This has happened too many times already. The First Gentleman's name has cropped up in the course of various investigations into separate instances of corruption by this government. Still, he sits there proclaiming his innocence. Allow me to puke, please.

Good reads (and another thing Pinoys should be proud of)

From The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush by Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist of the World Bank and Nobel Prize laureat:

"Up to now, the conventional wisdom has been that Herbert Hoover, whose policies aggravated the Great Depression, is the odds-on claimant for the mantle “worst president” when it comes to stewardship of the American economy. Once Franklin Roosevelt assumed office and reversed Hoover’s policies, the country began to recover. The economic effects of Bush’s presidency are more insidious than those of Hoover, harder to reverse, and likely to be longer-lasting. There is no threat of America’s being displaced from its position as the world’s richest economy. But our grandchildren will still be living with, and struggling with, the economic consequences of Mr. Bush....

"Whoever moves into the White House in January 2009 will face an unenviable set of economic circumstances. Extricating the country from Iraq will be the bloodier task, but putting America’s economic house in order will be wrenching and take years."

Read on at Vanity Fair.

Also, from the Asian Sentinel, a story on vigilantism, female style:

"A rambunctious and fearless posse recognizable by their pink-colored saris, the Pink Gang is the nemesis of violent husbands and inept government officials. Having personally suffered abuse, members of the vigilante club thrash abusive men, wife beaters and rapists, confront and shame wrongdoers and storm local police stations to accost lackadaisical cops."

Watch out men. We're on to you.

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Proudly Pinoy again

The Manila Standard Today reports that Lagen and Miniloc islands' resorts have been included in Travel + Leisure's 20 Favorite Green Hotels in its January issue. Actually, the issue was November 2007. Anyway, here is the relevant passage, as quoted by MST on Jan. 19:

“Surrounded by 123,000 acres of protected forests, jagged limestone cliffs, and hidden lagoons, travelers to sister resorts El Nido Lagen Island and El Nido Miniloc Island can take their pick of daily activities: bird-watching, kayaking, rock climbing, or simply watching fish swim below one of the guest cottages-on-stilts, which are set above the crystalline ocean.”

The El Nido resorts were actually ranked number eight out of 20 resorts wordwide, coming after well-established and major establishments in the Maldives , the Swiss Alps, and Bahamas. Just goes to show the Philippines still has something to be proud about.

GMA orders review of all foreign-funded projects

By Christine Avendaño, Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.
Inquirer, 11/27/2007

MANILA, Philippines — With the World Bank still not moving to lift its suspension of deliberations on the $232-million soft loan intended for Philippine road projects, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has issued a string of instructions to ensure that foreign-assisted and funded projects would be free of irregularities.

The instructions, which include a review of the road projects covered by the suspended WB loan, were contained in Administrative Order No. 210.

Cabinet officials, meanwhile, snubbed Monday the Senate probe of the suspended $232-million WB loan, due to corruption, as they pressed for more time to prepare their defense.

(The rest at GMA orders review.)

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THIS is of course, another face-saving measure for the Presidentita's guilt-wracked administration after having been humiliated by the announced suspension of a World Bank-financed project due to corruption allegations.

I'm amazed, however, that as NEDA Board chairman, the Presidentita seems to have forgotten that those reviews are actually in place in several departments in the NEDA. If I recall correctly, every year, for instance, there is a regular meeting between the Asian Development Bank and key NEDA staff to review projects that have been financed, amounts that have been disbursed so far, in an attempt to pinpoint possible causes of delays or blockages in certain projects.

I have no doubt that the same evaluation meetings are also conducted regularly with the World Bank and other donors such as the governments of the U.S., Japan, Korea, Spain, and the like. After all, these multilateral agencies and donor countries are not the types to just overlook where their taxpayers' monies are being spent, so a close watch on the activities of their beneficiaries are in place.

Whether the same kind of monitoring system is being implemented for ahem, China-funded projects, is anybody's guess though. But of course, since the emasculation of NEDA by this sitting president, who knows if tight controls on foreign funded projects are still really in place.

'A professional smolder'

Guess who's on the list of Salon.com's Sexiest Men Living 2007? E di sino pa? My one and only Lust (Caution!) Tony Leung! (Pant! Pant!) Says this fab web site:

"Martin Scorcese's Oscar-winning 'The Departed,' a remake/rip-off of the nail-biting 2002 Hong Kong thriller 'Infernal Affairs,' turned off fans of the original for one unavoidable reason — and it wasn't Jack Nicholson's scenery-chewing. It was the absence of the smoldering Tony Leung in the role of the undercover cop lost in a convoluted game of spy vs. spy. As good as Leo DiCaprio's Boston honk and flinty rage are in the remake, he just can't hold a candle to Leung.

But then, of course he can't. Leung is a professional smolderer; the guy's a virtual human Duraflame. Throughout the past two decades, in 'Hard-Boiled' (1992), 'Chungking Express' (1994), 'Happy Together' (1997), 'In the Mood for Love' (2000), 'Hero' (2002) and '2046' (2004), he's left only glowing embers in his wake. In this year's 'Lust, Caution,' he added a sadistic streak we'd never seen from him before that caused us to recoil — and still come back for more." (Read on at Salon.)

How sad that NYT didn't get the point of Lust, Caution.

Guys like travel buddy Pangs, also didn't like the film and can't understand why we ladies are going gaga over Tony. He says he doesn't know what we see in this guy. Simple. The girls call it the "paso" factor.

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Here's a good read though, still from NYT, about how PepsiCo is trying to green their production of Frito-Lays. While some companies are harping about minor environmental changes in their operations as a marketing strategy, PepsiCo appears bent on implementing wide-ranging changes. For the sake of Mother Earth, let's hope this move by one of the world's largest food and beverage firms, jumpstarts a radical industry-wide, global revolution.

Read on at Low-Guilt Potato Chips.

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Back in Manila, there's news of World Bank's cancellation of a $232-million road improvement project due to ehrmmm, "anomalies."

Why so surprised? Monkey see, monkey do.