Arangkada of Leo Lastimosa for September 2, 2009

                        P21.5M ANG PATONG?

 

            Labing menos P80 milyones nay bawion sa Kapitolyo gikan sa mga Balili.  Kini kon tumanon ni Gobernador Gwen Garcia ang awhag ni Provincial Board (PB) Member Victor Maambong nga apilon pagbawi ang bayad sa 10 ka ektaryang fish pond sa kontrobersiyal nga luna sa Tinaan, Naga.

            Nisukwahi si Maambong sa pag-insistir sa mga abogado sa Kapitolyo nga mahimong titulohan ang fish pond.  Matod niya ilegal ang pagbuutbuot sa mga Balili paghimo nga fish pond sa luna nga giila sa nasudnong kagamhanan nga timberland.  Nipasabot si Maambong nga law-ay kon mamugos ang Kapitolyo legal ang mga titulo bisan klaro na nga nailad sila sa tinuorayng kahimtang sa napalit nga yuta.

                        -o0o-

            Kon matuman si Maambong, P18 milyones na lang ang mahibilin sa mga Balili.  Ug sa tanang nakabahin sa gilaktod nga transaksiyon.  Taga Kapitolyo man o taga pribadong sektor.  Nga makiangayon lang.  Kay di man sab gyod malalis nga lima ra ka ektarya ang uga.

            Mas makiangayon pa gani kon bawion na lang sa Kapitolyo ang kinatibuk-ang P98.9 milyones, nga hinagoan sa kabos nga Sugbuanong mga magbubuhis, human makanselar ang kinatibuk-ang transaksiyon.  Klarong nailad ang Kapitolyo kay lisod tuohan nga wa kahibawo ang mga Balili sa nahimutangan sa ilang luna.  Kapasanginlan lang sila si Gobernador Garcia ug kaubanan nga konsabo sa pangilad kon mawili lang gihapon pagtahan sa nangalisbo nga pinalitay.

                        -o0o-

            Nagpaila nga lisensiyado nga real estate broker, nga giingong usa sa gitahasan sa mga Balili pagpangita og mopalit sa ilang luna, nipahibawo nako nga unang gitanyag nga ibaligya ang kabtangan niadtong Disyembre 2003.  Mas ubos ang presyo, P65 milyones, o P256 matag metro cuadrado.  Apil sa ilang gitanyagan mao ang Kepco sa kantidad nga P85 milyones, ang patong nga P20 milyones alang sa buhis ug bahin sa mga naghikay sa transaksiyon.

            Apan nabaraw ang sabot kay, matod niya, niapil ang Kapitolyo.  Bisan silay lisensiyado, wa silay dag-anan sa kolorum nga mga ahente tungod lang kay naghupot sa tag-as nga katungdanan sa kagamhanan.

                        -o0o-

            Mao diayng nisutoy ang presyo ngadto sa P430 matag metro cuadrado.  Nga gipaburot sa appraisal committee ngadto sa P610.  Sa wa pa ta ulug-ulogi nga nalaslasan ang presyo ngadto sa P400.  Gihatagan mi niyag kuwentada diin padung ang P98.9 milyones nga gipahibawo sa Kapitolyo nga gipagawas sa transaksiyon:

·        P65 milyones ang nadawat sa mga Balili;

·        P4.9 milyones ang komisyon sa ahente;

·        P5.9 milyones ang capital gains tax; ug

·        P1.5 milyones ang documentary stamp tax.

            Sa ato pa, P77.4 milyones ray kinatibuk-ang naggasto.  Mao nga nangutana siya:  Hain mang sobra nga P21.5 milyones?  Lisod tuohan nga nalunod ang kuwarta sa ilawom sa dagat.  Mas katuohan nga may niburot nga pribadong mga bolsa.  [30]  leo_lastimosa@abs-cbn.com

The Guns of August, and Why the Republican Right Was So Adept at Using Them on Health Care

The Guns of August, and Why the Republican Right Was So Adept at Using Them on Health Care: "

What we learned in August is something we've long known but keep forgetting: The most important difference between America's Democratic left and Republican right is that the left has ideas and the right has discipline. Obama and progressive supporters of health care were outmaneuvered in August -- not because the right had any better idea for solving the health care mess but because the rights' attack on the Democrats' idea was far more disciplined than was the Democrats' ability to sell it.

I say the Democrats' 'idea' but in fact there was no single idea. Obama never sent any detailed plan to Congress. Meanwhile, congressional Dems were so creative and undisciplined before the August recess they came up with a kaleidoscope of health-care plans. The resulting incoherence served as an open invitation to the Republican right to focus with great precision on convincing the public of their own demonic version of what the Democrats were up to -- that it would take away their Medicare, require 'death panels,' raise their taxes, and lead to a government takeover of medicine, and so on. The Obama White House -- a veritable idea factory brimming with ingenuity -- thereafter proved unable to come up with a single, convincing narrative to counteract this right-wing hokum. Whatever discipline Obama had mustered during the campaign somehow disappeared.

This is just the latest chapter of a long saga. Over the last twenty years, as progressives have gushed new ideas, the right has became ever more organized and mobilized in resistance -- capable of executing increasingly consistent and focused attacks, moving in ever more perfect lockstep, imposing an exact discipline often extending even to the phrases and words used repeatedly by Hate Radio, Fox News, and the oped pages of The Wall Street Journal ('death tax,' 'weapons of mass destruction,' 'government takeover of health care.') I saw it in 1993 and 1994 as the Clinton healthcare plan -- as creatively and wildly convuluted as any policy proposal before or since -- was defeated both by a Democratic majority in congress incapable of coming together around any single bill and a Republican right dedicated to Clinton's destruction. Newt Gingrich's subsequent 'contract with America' recaptured Congress for the Republicans not because it contained a single new idea but because Republicans unflinchingly rallied around it while Democrats flailed.

You want to know why the left has ideas and the right has discipline? Because people who like ideas and dislike authority tend to identify with the Democratic left, while people who feel threatened by new ideas and more comfortable in a disciplined and ordered world tend to identify with the Republican right. Democrats and progressives let a thousand flowers bloom. Republicans and the right issue directives. This has been the yin and yang of American politics and culture. But it means that the Democratic left's new ideas often fall victim to its own notorious lack of organization and to the right's highly-organized fear mongering.

I suppose I'm as guilty as anyone. A few weeks ago I casually mentioned in a web conversation on Politico's web page that if supporters of universal health care and a 'public option' felt their voices were not being heard in our nation's capital they should march on Washington. A few moments later, when someone wrote in asking when, I glanced at a calendar and in a burst of unreflective enthusiasm offered September 13. I didn't check with anyone, didn't strategize with progressive groups that have been working on health care for years, barely checked in with myself.

I was deluged with emails. Many people said they were planning to march. Someone put up a web page, another a Facebook page, a member of Congress announced his support. But most people said they couldn't manage September 13. It was too soon. It conflicted with other events. It followed too closely behind a right-wing march against health care reform already scheduled for September 12. It was a day AFL leaders were out of town, so couldn't lend their support. Many who emailed me wanted another day -- September 20, or the 27th, or early October. Others said they'd rather march on their state capital, in order that local media cover it. When I finally checked in with the heads of several progressive groups and unions in Washington -- all with big mailing lists and the resources to organize a big march -- they said they were already planning a march, for October. But they still haven't given me a date. (I will pass it on as soon as I hear.)

August is coming to a close, and congressional recess is about over. History is not destiny, and Democrats and progressives can yet enact meaningful health care reform -- with a public option. But to do so, we'll need to be far more disciplined about it. All of us, from Obama on down.

Sponsored Topics:
Health care - Democrats - United States - Guns of August - Politics"