Warning signal to government: Day of Mourning

The loudest whisper circulating in Bacolod is the impending staging of the "Day of Mourning." This will be participated in by religious organizations and the faithful of the Bacolod Diocese headed by Bishop Vicente Navarra.

Although three other dioceses have been mentioned as participating in the Day of Mourning, which aims to highlight the plight of the common tao today, speculations are rife that other bishops may join the protest action.

Next week’s move, if picked up by the other dioceses in the country, could definitely destabilize the government. It will focus on the impact of the high oil prices and the added burden on the poor of the expanded Value Added Tax measure recently approved by Congress.

Bishop Navarra has already circulated his letter-appeal to the Catholic faithful to join the action. That bears watching.

Uproar over Tañon Strait exploration

Oriental Negros officials raised an uproar last week over the oil exploration in the Tañon Strait that separates western Cebu from Oriental and Negros Occidental.

Several local executives protested that the oil exploration, initially blamed on the Philippine National Oil Co., violated the environmental compliance and impact assessment which the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is supposed to issue prior to the exploration or any similar undertaking.

Oriental Negros Gov. George Arnaiz took up the issue. Now it turns out that it is a Japanese firm, the Japan Exploration Corp., which was granted the service contract to conduct the exploration in the Tañon Strait, according to Juancho Gallarde of the Visayan Daily Star’s Dumaguete bureau.

Arnaiz earlier claimed that Energy Secretary Rafael Lotilla had issued an apology on the PNOC’s behalf for conducting the oil exploration without informing first the local government units surrounding the strait.

The LGUs expressed fears that the province of Oriental Negros and Dumaguete City may suffer from the effects of oil riggings in the Tañon Strait should the exploration find oil deposits.

Besides, according to Dumaguete City Vice Mayor William Ablong, head of the Vice Mayors’ League of the Philippines, the Tañon Strait was declared a protected seascape under Presidential Decree 1234.

It is considered one of the top 10 rich fishing grounds in the country. It is also considered rich in marine resources. Lately, dolphins and sea whales have again been spotted in the strait. Some schools of dolphins have delighted travelers by speeding up and across seacraft in the strait. For that matter, in the case of Bais City, its tourism lure is primarily anchored on whale and dolphin watching.

Ablong reported that the Vice Mayors’ League has submitted a resolution to President Arroyo to repeal PD 1234. So far, he said, there has been no response.

The area that is being explored is reportedly the stretch of Tañon along the southern portion where two years ago, I personally saw a giant blue marlin soar up from the waters to the delight of Negros journalists on board a Silliman University boat.

The clarification did not dampen the clamor of local officials for the government to defer the exploration until its adverse impact on the Tañon Strait marine life is finally determined.

NFSP joins Confed fight vs Kraft

Now, it’s becoming an industry-wide protest. Nothing can whip Negrenses into a frenzy as any threat to the sugar industry that accounts for 80 percent of the provincial economy. Not only that, the industry employs 500,000 people and directly or indirectly affects some five million Filipinos.

This time, Enrique Rojas, president of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters, called on the finance department to reverse the decision of the Customs bureau’s Valuation and Classification Review Board upholding the memorandum order of OIC Edgardo Maralit lowering the tariff on premix imports of Kraft to only three percent.

Maralit’s memorandum to the Customs bureau was penned just one month after President Arroyo had issued Executive Order 295 which corrected the misclassification of premixes so that they were placed under heading 1701 of the Tariff Code. This meant a higher tariff rate from the previous 0 to three percent.

Confed president Reynaldo Bantug earlier waged a fight against that surreptitious attempt by Maralit to overturn a presidential order. Based on the federation’s estimates, that could mean a loss of P600 million in revenues.

Worse, the other softdrink and beverage manufacturers have been religiously paying the newly implemented reclassification levy.

Rojas’ appeal was coursed through Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima. But more action may be forthcoming when the NFSP president took up the clamor of Confed planters’ associations for a boycott of Kraft Foods products.

Earlier, the Associacion de Plantadores de Silay-Saravia called for the boycott in response to the Confed’s call for a more assertive action to rescind the Tariff Commission’s action as upheld by the Customs VCRD.

Former Administrator Rodolfo Gamboa blew his top upon learning about what the Tariff Commission’s OIC did, pointing out that he could not unilaterally upend a presidential executive which states, among others, that it erased all previous presidential decrees, memoranda and related government actions.

Then the planters’ association called for a boycott of Kraft products.

PanayFed action

At the same time, Dr. Bienvenido Margarico, a sugarcane farmer from Janiuay, Iloilo, is readying a mandamus suit against the Tariff Commission to compel it to fully implement EO 295. Margarico is also the mayor of Janiuay and a member of the board of directors of the Jalasig Sugarcane Planters’ Association.

PanayFed president Francis Trenas said other suits may be filed by other planters’ associations affiliated with it.

Bantug, on the other hand, said other Confed planters’ associations may follow suit with the APSSI readying the second mandamus suit.

Latest reports indicate that the protest against Kraft has been gaining ground. Rep. Oscar Gozos of Batangas is reportedly poised to file a resolution in the House calling for a congressional inquiry into the implementation of EO 295.

Earlier, Rep. Monico Puentevella (Bacolod City) railed the Tariff Commission’s OIC in a privilege speech.

Former administrator Nicolas Alonso, head of the Sugar Master Plan Foundation, also asked whether subordinate officials can question a presidential executive order and cause the government a P600-million revenue loss.

Alonso pointed out that the memorandum changed the level-playing field since Filipino-owned food processing corporations were placed at a disadvantage since San Miguel Corp. and Robina Foods have been paying the tariff on their premix imports.

Federico Locsin III, Confed vice president, said most Confed members have been girding for the boycott earlier aired by Rosendo Lopez of the First Farmers’ Association.

It may take a lot of moves to lower the rising temperature against Kraft.

The point, though, is that if the finance department upholds the Bureau of Customs and the Tariff Commission that virtually contravenes a legitimate order by the President taken only after a hearing by the Tariff Commission.

The recommendations of that public hearing were submitted to the Cabinet which recommended that the President issue an EO to legalize the change in the nomenclature of premixes.

Even the United States Customs considers Tang and similar preparations as under heading 1701 and, according to the Philippine situation, subject to the 48 percent tariff.