Clinton Emails: NATO Killed Gaddafi To Stop Gold-Backed Currency

 
One of the newly released 3,000 Hillary Clinton emails published on New Year’s Eve reveals shocking evidence that Western nations used NATO to topple Libyan leader Gaddafi in order to thwart the leaders attempts to create a gold-backed currency, which would have competed with big banks in the West.
The emails reveal that the French-led NATO military invasion of Libya was also given the go-ahead by the West in order to give France a larger share of Libyan oil production.
Thefreethoughtproject.com reports:
The April 2011 email, sent to the Secretary of State Hillary by unofficial adviser and longtime Clinton confidante Sidney Blumenthal with the subject line “France’s client and Qaddafi’s gold,” reveals predatory Western intentions.
The Foreign Policy Journal reports:

The email identifies French President Nicholas Sarkozy as leading the attack on Libya with five specific purposes in mind: to obtain Libyan oil, ensure French influence in the region, increase Sarkozy’s reputation domestically, assert French military power, and to prevent Gaddafi’s influence in what is considered “Francophone Africa.”
Most astounding is the lengthy section delineating the huge threat that Gaddafi’s gold and silver reserves, estimated at “143 tons of gold, and a similar amount in silver,” posed to the French franc (CFA) circulating as a prime African currency.

The email makes clear that intelligence sources indicate the impetus behind the French attack on Libya was a calculated move to consolidate greater power, using NATO as a tool for imperialist conquest, not a humanitarian intervention as the public was falsely led to believe.
According to the email:
This gold was accumulated prior to the current rebellion and was intended to be used to establish a pan-African currency based on the Libyan golden Dinar. This plan was designed to provide the Francophone African Countries with an alternative to the French franc (CFA).
(Source Comment: According to knowledgeable individuals this quantity of gold and silver is valued at more than $7 billion. French intelligence officers discovered this plan shortly after the current rebellion began, and this was one of the factors that influenced President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to commit France to the attack on Libya.)
The email provides a peek behind the curtain to reveal how foreign policy is often carried out in practice. While reported in the media that the Western backed Libyan military intervention is necessary to save human lives, the real driving factor behind the intervention was shown to be the fact that Gaddafi planned to create a high degree of economic independence with a new pan-African currency, which would lessen French influence and power in the region.
The evidence indicates that when French intelligence became aware of the Libyan initiative to create a currency to compete with the Western central banking system, the decision to subvert the plan through military means began, ultimately including the NATO alliance.

Future Design for Sea travel

President Duterte eyes railway system in Mindanao

The incoming president is true to its previous words during the campaign period that he would put up a railway station in Mindanao and some parts in Luzon. He said in one of his interview that ‘a nation will not grow without a railway system’.

Saturday night in a hotel in Davao, Duterte mounted another press conference reiterating his vision for a railway system that links Manila to Nueva Ecija in the north and Sorsogon and Batangas in the southern part of Luzon.

Duterte is also eyeing for railway development in the entire Mindanao. He said that he has been studying the process of installation since it needs a partnership with other country to materialize the system because the government has no enough funds for it. Duterte added that the process would go through PPP (Public-Private-Partnership) program.

Even before election, Duterte has been dreaming of a partnership with China who is capable enough to create one. Duterte also stressed that the project should not influence or compromise that stand of the Philippine government in the disputed islands in the west Philippine sea.

“Just because you’re building me the railway does not mean to say that I am abandoning the Scarborough Shoal,” Duterte said.

In his previous interview with reporters, Duterte was quoted by the Inquirer, he said that “I will just ask you to build a rail, just like what you did for Africa,” referring to the Chinese-funded high-speed railway line project of the Kenya Railways Corporation, which has cut travel time from Nairobi to Mombasa from 13 to three hours.
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PNoy insists Duterte win isn’t a protest vote: He thinks some Du30 fans are just bandwagoners

President Benigno Aquino III rejected the prevailing public perception that Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s landslide victory in the presidential election is a protest vote against his six years in office.

In an interview with Time Magazine, Aquino said: “Is it a repudiation? I don’t think so.”

Duterte ran on a campaign promise of change, specifically using an iron fist to crush the rising criminality and drug menace which flourished under the Aquino administration.

Aquino called Duterte a “dictator” and likened him to Hitler in the last two weeks of the campaign period in a futile attempt to thwart his impending Victory as Duterte had built a two-digit lead over his rivals in the pre-election surveys.

Aquino said that Duterte would soon wake up to the reality of governing within defined laws, time and resources.

“He (Duterte) might be presented with facts that he was not aware of in the campaign. Undoubtedly he has begun to recognize that certain rhetoric that was allowed in the campaign might not be allowed in governance. He will adjust to the realities of governance,” said Aquino.

Aquino also questioned how many of the nearly 16 million Filipinos voted for Duterte only because he was a sure winner.

Aquino said: “Well, we will study it but [his victory] was about a successful campaign. Even that 40 percent [of the electorate that voted for Duterte], without taking anything away from them, what portion is always interested in being on the winning side?”

The Coming Debt Bust

It is a question of when, not if, real trouble will hit in China

CHINA was right to turn on the credit taps to prop up growth after the global financial crisis. It was wrong not to turn them off again. The country’s debt has increased just as quickly over the past two years as in the two years after the 2008 crunch. Its debt-to-GDP ratio has soared from 150% to nearly 260% over a decade, the kind of surge that is usually followed by a financial bust or an abrupt slowdown.

China will not be an exception to that rule. Problem loans have doubled in two years and, officially, are already 5.5% of banks’ total lending. The reality is grimmer. Roughly two-fifths of new debt is swallowed by interest on existing loans; in 2014, 16% of the 1,000 biggest Chinese firms owed more in interest than they earned before tax. China requires more and more credit to generate less and less growth: it now takes nearly four yuan of new borrowing to generate one yuan of additional GDP, up from just over one yuan of credit before the financial crisis. With the government’s connivance, debt levels can probably keep climbing for a while, perhaps even for a few more years. But not for ever.

When the debt cycle turns, both asset prices and the real economy will be in for a shock. That won’t be fun for anyone. It is true that China has been fastidious in capping its external liabilities (it is a net creditor). Its dangers are home-made. But the damage from a big Chinese credit blow-up would still be immense. China is the world’s second-biggest economy; its banking sector is the biggest, with assets equivalent to 40% of global GDP. Its stockmarkets, even after last year’s crash, are together worth $6 trillion, second only to America’s. And its bond market, at $7.5 trillion, is the world’s third-biggest and growing fast. A mere 2% devaluation of the yuan last summer sent global stockmarkets crashing; a bigger bust would do far worse. A mild economic slowdown caused trouble for commodity exporters around the world; a hard landing would be painful for all those who benefit from Chinese demand.

Brace, braceOptimists have drawn comfort from two ideas. First, over three-plus decades of reform, China’s officials have consistently shown that once they identified problems, they had the will and skill to fix them. Second, control of the financial system—the state owns the major banks and most of their biggest debtors—gave them time to clean things up.

Both these sources of comfort are fading away. This is a government not so much guiding events as struggling to keep up with them. In the past year alone, China has spent nearly $200 billion to prop up the stockmarket; $65 billion of bank loans have gone bad; financial frauds have cost investors at least $20 billion; and $600 billion of capital has left the country. To help pump up growth, officials have inflated a property bubble. Debt is still expanding twice as fast as the economy.

At the same time, as our special report this week shows, the government’s grip on finance is slipping. Despite repeated efforts to restrain them, loosely regulated forms of lending are growing quickly: such “shadow assets” have increased by more than 30% annually over the past three years. In theory, shadow banks diversify sources of credit and spread risk away from the regular banks. In practice, the lines between the shadow and formal banking systems are badly blurred.

That creates two risks. The first is higher-than-expected losses for the banks. Hungry for profits in a slowing economy, plenty of Chinese banks have mis-categorised risky loans as investments to dodge scrutiny and lessen capital requirements. These shadow loans were worth roughly 16% of standard loans in mid-2015, up from just 4% in 2012. The second risk is liquidity. The banks have become ever more reliant on “wealth management products”, whereby they pay higher rates for what are, in effect, short-term deposits and put them into longer-term assets. For years China restricted bank loans to less than 75% of their deposit base, ensuring that they had plenty of cash in reserve. Now the real level is nearing 100%, a threshold where a sudden shortage in funding—the classic precursor to banking crises—is well within the realm of possibility. Midsized banks have been the most active in expanding; they are the place to look for sudden trouble.

Pandamonium

The end to China’s debt build-up would not look exactly like past financial blow-ups. China’s shadow-banking system is big, but it has not spawned any products nearly as complex or international in reach as America’s bundles of subprime mortgages in 2008. Its relatively insulated financial system means that parallels with the 1997-98 Asian crisis, in which countries from Thailand to South Korea borrowed too much from abroad, are thin. Some worry that China will look like Japan in the 1990s, slowly grinding towards stagnation. But its financial system is more chaotic, with more pressure for capital outflows, than was Japan’s; a Chinese crisis is likely to be sharper and more sudden than Japan’s chronic malaise.

One thing is certain. The longer China delays a reckoning with its problems, the more severe the eventual consequences will be. For a start, it should plan for turmoil. Policy co-ordination was appalling during last year’s stockmarket crash; regulators must work out in advance who monitors what and prepare emergency responses. Rather than deploying both fiscal and monetary stimulus to keep growth above the official target of at least 6.5% this year (which is, in any event, unnecessarily fast), the government should save its firepower for a real calamity. The central bank should also put on ice its plans to internationalise the yuan; a premature opening of the capital account would lead only to big outflows and bigger trouble, when the financial system is already on shaky ground.

Most important, China must start to curb the relentless rise of debt. The assumption that the government of Xi Jinping will keep bailing out its banks, borrowers and depositors is pervasive—and not just in China itself. It must tolerate more defaults, close failed companies and let growth sag. This will be tough, but it is too late for China to avoid pain. The task now is to avert something far worse.

Duterte: My work at Malacañang starts at 1 p.m.

President-elect to commute daily from Manila to Davao City until...

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Malacañang employees won’t have to get up too early as their incoming boss—President-elect Rodrigo Duterte—will start his day at 1 o’clock in the afternoon.

“I would like to announce that my day starts at 1 p.m. I will be working straight from 1 p.m. even if you want until 12 a.m.,” Duterte told reporters in his usual midnight briefing at an hotel here in Davao City on Saturday.

Duterte said he does not care whether his schedule would have an impact on government and corporate offices, which have business hours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“I don’t care about your 8 a.m.-5 p.m. schedule. I’ll be sleeping by then. How can you make me work?” he said in Filipino.

Duterte said he wants to pore over the several documents in his study room, which could take him until midnight, before he signs them on behalf of the entire country.

“Unlike others, I don’t like to sign them unless I know what I’m signing about. It would take time,” he said.

Daily travel to Davao 

Another factor would be his plan to commute back and forth from Manila to Davao City every day until he has adjusted to living in Malacañang.

Duterte said he will take the last commercial flight, which is usually scheduled for 9 p.m., back to Davao City from Manila every day. Then he would take the 8 a.m. flight back to Manila the next day.

“My bed is here. My room is here. My home is my comfort zone. It’s important that I can sleep and take a shower comfortably,” the Davao City mayor said.
For the government not to spend too much on his travels, Duterte said he would not bring his security escorts with him, only his executive assistant Bong Go and another person.

Ghosts in Malacañang

Duterte, who has served as a mayor of this city for over two decades, said he was also not comfortable living in Malacañang Palace, the official residence of the President of the Philippines.

Why? Because Duterte said he has a “prejudice” against Malacañang.

“Ask Imee Marcos. I spoke to her. She was here the other night. There are really ghosts there. I asked her, ‘How many did you see?’ She said ‘five,’” he said in jest.

Asked why he met with the Ilocos Norte Governor, Duterte said Marcos paid him a visit while she was in the province to attend a social commitment.

The best explanation for the 3.2 Million “undervotes” during the May 9 elections

In the report of ABS-CBN News Sunday, Atty. Romulo Macalintal presented an excellent explanation about the allegation from the camp of Sen. Ferdinand Marcos that the 3.2 million undervotes or null votes was a sign of electoral fraud. Atty. Macalintal who is the lead counsel of presumptive Vice President Leni Robredo explained the matter in the following way.

First, he clarified that the 3.2 Million undervotes did not come from the vice presidential race alone. The number of null votes counted included those when voters abstain from choosing candidates to other positions aside from vice president like for president, for senators and for local positions. Macalintal’s explanation went this way:“Halimbawa, sa senador, ‘di ba ang ibinoboto nating senator, 12? Kung lima ang iyong ibinoto, mayroong seven na undervotes o null votes. Kung bumoboto ng anim na konsehal, dalawa lang na konsehal ang iyong ibinoto, mayroon apat na konsehal na undervotes.”

And so, the brilliant election lawyer made it clear that the undervotes cannot be used as a basis for an election protest. He said: “Hindi iyan, wika nga, tanda ng pandaraya. At ang null votes, hindi iyan basehan ng isang election protest. Sapagkat ang nulll vote ay isang abstention. Ibig sabihin nag-abstain ang isang botante sa pagboto for a particular position.” He highlighted the fact that: “Sa ilalim ng ating batas, iyan ay kinikilala na bahagi ng karapatan ng isang botante…. Hindi iyan palatandaan ng isang pandaraya.”

Source: ABS-CBN News

WIKILeaks - US says Island Mindanao has $1-Trillion Dollar untapped mineral resources

 

[Mindanao is known as “The of Promise”. The promise of all the promises. Treasures, Land of God, the Lost Paradise, The lost garden of Eden and the land of the last judgment in earth. Bible scholars even pointed the Mindanao as the land of promise of all promises. One verse of the Bible quoted “The God’s kingdom will rise again in the east of the east seas where the Sun will rises first, in the white sand shores where the only land which people are willing to live and die for praising my name ”.]

Leaked diplomatic documents in Wikileaks showed the United States has a special interest in the natural resources in Mindanao and the ending of the armed conflict in the region, giving credence to a suspicion that the United States is prodding the Aquino administration’s peace efforts with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), including brokering the recent secret meeting between MILF spokesman Al Haj Murad and President Aquino.

Wikileaks obtained documents dated February 2006 or prior to the botched signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MoA-AD) on Aug. 5, 2008 showing extensive reference to the untapped rich mineral resources of Mindanao and tensions in the region which hinder the exploitation of these resources.

The leaked cable from the US embassy in Manila made particular reference to the so-called Liguasan Marsh in the Cotabato Basin spanning 288,000 hectares and is among areas controlled by the MILF.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has already identified natural gas and oil deposits in three areas of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago: the Cotabato Basin, the Davao-Agusan Basin; and an area straddling Tawi-Tawi and Sulu. The Cotabato Basin, notably, includes the 288,000 hectare Liguasan Marsh, straddling the provinces of Maguindanao, North Cotabato, and Sultan Kudurat, according to the cable.

It stated that this “swamp/marsh — which is an officially declared bird sanctuary and game refuge — remains an important MILF stronghold, home to an estimated 280,000 Muslims, and an area where members of the terrorist Jemaah Islamiya (JI) have historically conducted training and sought refuge.”

It detailed the several roadblocks the government faces in exploiting Liguasan Marsh particularly what it called as “competing land ownership claims.”

The cable recounted the clan of former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Zacaria Candao staking a claim to 40 percent of the Liguasan Marsh, while other clans, including the Mangudadatus and Pendatuns, have claimed at least 50 per cent ownership.

It also stated that MILF vice-chairman for political affairs Ghazali Jafaar as referring to the Liguasan Marsh as a “legacy from our forefathers” adding that the Bangsamoro people would not part with their lands in the marsh.

“The MILF has created the Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA) to lead, manage, and determine developmental efforts, including in the Liguasan Marsh,” it added.

It said separately, the Maguindanao tribe, which is the predominant indigenous and largely Muslim ethnic group living in and around the Liguasan Marsh, considers the marsh as part of its own ancestral domain.

The cable added that the Maguindanao-based clan of the deceased Salipada Pendatun, the first Muslim to serve as a general in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), has also claimed ownership over the entire Liguasan Marsh by virtue of an original land title.

“Though Pendatun’s daughter and legal heir, Bai Monera Pendatun, has said the Pendatun clan is open to sharing the marsh with others, she has opposed any amendment to the law that would allow titling of lands within the marsh,” it added.

It stated that the head of the Alamada clan, Rebecca Dilagalan Alamada Buan, has separately claimed 14,000 hectares in North Cotabato Province, near the borders of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur. “Meanwhile, the Ampatuan clan, led by Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan and ARMM Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan, politically dominate the region, also including most of the mayors of the 11 municipalities of Maguindanao, eight municipalities of North Cotabato, and one municipality of Sultan Kudurat that encompass the Liguasan Marsh,” it added.

The intercepted cable was transmitted long before the Maguindanao massacre in 2009 where 51 people were slain over an election-related dispute and in which the Ampatuan clan is suspected of having carried out.

The cable said the Philippines National Oil Company (PNOC) began exploring for oil and natural gas in the Liguasan Marsh area in 1994 under Geophysical Survey and Exploration Contract (GSEC) 73, which covered all of Maguindanao, North Cotabato, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudurat, Sarangani, Davao, and Bukidnon provinces of Mindanao.

It added that Malaysia’s national oil company, Petronas, partnered with the PNOC for the exploration of the marshland.

“By the late 1990’s, they had located natural gas and/or oil in five sites, including Datu Piang (Dulawan) and Sultan Sa Barongis in Maguindanao and Lambayong in Sultan Kudurat.

According to the PNOC, the estimated natural gas deposits in Sultan Sa Barongis alone would be enough to fuel a 60-megawatt (MW) combined cycle power plant for 20 years.

“The PNOC had hoped to use this gas to support the power requirements of Mindanao as well as for industrial applications. However, the PNOC and Petronas suspended operations in the Liguasan Marsh area due to threats from the MILF and extortion by local mayors and political warlords,” it added.

It cited incomplete data and unconfirmed reports that the Philippines may have untapped mineral wealth worth between $840 billion and $1 trillion.

It said the US Geological Survey hopes soon to conduct a more comprehensive survey of minerals, with funding from the Philippine government.

A special advisor on the GRP-MILF Peace Process in the Office of the President recently described Mindanao in particular as “a treasure trove” of mineral resources, including gold, copper, nickel, manganese, chromites, silver, lead, zinc, and iron ore, it added.

It cited data from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau that up to 70 per cent of the Philippines’ mineral resources may be in Mindanao.

“Interest has grown significantly since a December 2004 decision by the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Mining Act. Companies that are up to 100 per cent foreign owned may now pursue investments in large-scale exploration and development of minerals, oil, and gas. As of early 2006, there were 23 mining projects nationwide,” it added.

Multinational firms are already eyeing areas in Mindanao for possible projects, it said.

The cable stressed that despite official optimism over a final GRP-MILF peace agreement by the end of 2006, disputes over land and natural resources, clan conflicts (locally called “rido”), and tensions between Muslims and Christians will remain important undercurrents and challenges to peace and development in Mindanao.

“Diffusing such tensions will be a major challenge for the GRP-MILF peace process during the years ahead, requiring careful governance and significant amounts of foreign assistance,” it said.

Malacañang had repeatedly denied the participation of the United States government in the meeting between Aquino and Murad in Tokyo but it had refused to reveal details about the two-hour meeting.

Murad, meanwhile, expressed hopes that the government peace panel could submit its counter-proposal in the ongoing peace negotiations during the resumption of formal talks in Malaysia on Monday.

“We hope that the Philippine Peace Panel shall finally submit its draft of the political compact and so that we can start the discussion on substantial agenda,” said Murad.

Murad was upbeat over the resumption of the peace talks with the government of the Philippines (GPH) following the Aug. 4 “secret” meeting between him and President Aquino in Tokyo, Japan.

Formal talks between the MILF and GPH peace panels will resume in Kuala Lumpur on Aug. 22 to 24.

“That meeting in Japan was a significant breakthrough, a landmark progress and development for the peace process between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the MILF,” Murad stressed.

The MILF chairman pointed out the government and MILF agreed to fast track the ongoing peace process and negotiation.

Murad said that it is important to note that MILF saw in President Aquino the commitment and determination to resolve the conflict within his administration.

“For us in the MILF leadership, we want to solve the problem during our time,” said Murad.

During the “secret” meeting, Murad personally brought up the MILF’s proposed Bangsamoro sub-state which would share power with the national government.

The MILF admitted that the proposed sub-state is just a “reframed” version of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MoA-AD) which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2008.

The peace process between the government and MILF started in 1997 with the ultimate objective of solving the conflict in Mindanao and the Bangsamoro legitimate aspiration for identity, homeland, self-governance and right to self-determination.

Lacson says ‘habitual’ public fund stealers deserve death penalty

Senator-elect Panfilo “Ping” Lacson thinks the death penalty should be meted out to those found guilty of plunder, or even the less-severe crime of graft, especially it is a “habit” of the accused.

Lacson stressed that the anti-plunder law should bear down hard on those who habitually steal public funds, even if the amount is less than the P50-million threshold specified by the present law.

The present law, Republic Act (RA) 7080, punishes possession of ill-gotten wealth through a combination or series of overt or criminal acts involving P50 million. If it’s less than P50 million, then the crime is graft.

“Sa akin, hindi importante ang halaga,” said Lacson, a former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief.

“Ang importante kung ito ba ay habitual na ginagawa ng taong gobyerno. Kung recidivist, maski wala pang P50 million dapat talaga parusahan nang mabigat, walang pyansa,” said Lacson, who ran as an independent candidate in the senatorial race.

He added that if the death penalty were to be reimposed in plunder cases, those found guilty of habitual stealing should be subject to this penalty.

“Kung pwede, kung mabalik ang death penalty, masentensyahan siya ng death. Kasi sa hirap ng buhay lalo sa mga kanayunan, ang P50 million, P10 million, P20 million, it doesn’t matter. Kung repetitively ginagawa dapat talaga parusahan nang mabigat,” he said.

Duterte Wants Faster Internet In PH, Will Open Market To Foreign Players If Needed

He’s not afraid of ruffling a few feathers to get what he wants

Incoming PH president Rodrigo Duterte is looking to improve the PH’s internet speed, currently one of the lowest in Asia, when he takes office in June.

Duterte, speaking to GMA News Online, said he’s planning to deal a blow to cartels in both the energy and telecommunications. For telcos, Duterte said he would hammer out a policy to improve the country’s internet speed. If the two telcos fail to comply or if internet speeds are still slow, Duterte said that he would open the industy to foreign competition.

His desire to end the bad services of telcos has been one of his talking points during his recently concluded campaign, and has often threatened to open up the local market to other firms if they do not fix their services.

“My god, gumastos na kayo para matalo ako,” he said. “P——–, papasukin ko lahat. Papasukin ko lahat — Amerikano, Chinese… kung hindi sila magimprove.”

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST PRESIDENT ELECT RODY DUTERTE INCLUSIVE GOVERNANCE

OPINION-

"TO ACCOMMODATE ALL FOR THE INCOMING PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENT ELECT RODY DUTERTE HIS ADMINISTRATION SHOULD BALANCE THE SO CALLED NEOLIBERALISM AND PRO NATIONALISM GOVERNANCE". THE LEFT LEANING IDEOLOGY PURELY OPPOSE OF GOVERNMENT STAND FOR NEOLIBERALISM. SECGEN RENATO REYES OF BAYAN PROPOSE THE FOLLOWING 8 POINTS ECONOMIC AGENDA: PURSUIT OF NATIONAL INDUSDRIALIZATION, ECONOMIC SOVEREIGNTY, STRENGTHENING DOMESTIC ECONOMY, AND ENDING THE IMPORT-DEPENDENT, EXPORT-ORIENTED, PRE-INDUSTRIAL ECONOMIC SET-UP AMONG OTHERS. SO BY THIS APPROACH THE RIGHTIST, CENTRIST AND LEFTIST CARRIED-ON BY PRESIDENT DUTERTE. BAYAN HAS A VALID REASONS, BUT WHERE DO GET AND SUSTAIN OUR CAPITAL RESOURCES BY NOT INVOLVING FOREIGN INVESTORS??? DESPITE OF 6.9 PERCENT GDP ECONOMIC GROWTH MIDDLE CLASS AND POOR DOESN'T FEEL IT WHAT WE GAIN FROM THE HIGHEST ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF PRESIDENT BS AQUINO ADMINISTRATION MAYBE THE RICH AND FAMOUS WILL BE BENEFITED FROM THIS GAIN OF SIX YEARS BS AQUINO ADMINISTRATION. LET'S SEE WHAT PRESIDENT DUTERTE OF HIS PUBLIC MANAGEMENT FOR THE NEXT SIX (6) YEAR IN MALACANANG. JUAN AND JUANA ARE IN THE MOOD OF HIGH EXPECTATION FOR THE INCOMING PRESIDENT. KAILANGAN DIN ANG TULONG NATIN LAHAT...

Transition team bares Duterte's 8-point economic agenda

Sonny Dominguez, who is part of the transition team, says Duterte wants to accelerate infrastructure spending because this will lead to job generation and will be 'injecting economic activity in our country'

DU30'S ECONOMIC PLANS. Former agriculture secretary Carlos "Sonny" Dominguez briefs the media on the economic agenda of presumptive president Rodrigo Duterte Photo by Manman Dejeto/Rappler

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The transition team of presumptive president Rodrigo Duterte revealed his 8-point economic agenda for the Philippines on May 12, Friday.

Former agriculture secretary Carlos “Sonny” Dominguez made the announcement after the transition team, of which he is part, met for the second time at the Marco Polo Hotel here.

The team was created in response to President Benigno Aquino III’s call for the Duterte camp to get started on the transition between the two administrations. (READ: Duterte presidency to have more women leaders)

A Duterte presidency’s economic priorities will be as follows:

1. Continue and maintain the current macroeconomic policies. However, reforms in tax revenue collection (in the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs) efforts will be complemented by reforms within the bureaucracy of these tax collecting agencies.
2. Accelerate infrastructure spending by addressing, among others, major bottlenecks in the public-private partnership (PPP) program. Maintain the target of setting aside 5% of the country’s gross domestic product to infrastructure spending.
3. Ensure attractiveness of the Philippines to foreign direct investments by addressing restrictive economic provisions in the Constitution and our laws, and enhancing competitiveness of the economy.
4. Pursue a genuine agricultural development strategy by providing support services to the small farmers to increase their productivity, improve their market access, and develop the agricultural value chain by forging partnership with agribusiness firms.
5. Address the bottlenecks in our land administration and management system.
6. Strengthen our basic education system and provide scholarships for tertiary education which are relevant to the needs of private sector employees.
7. Improve the income tax system to make it progressive to enable those who earn little to have more money in their pockets.
8. Expand and improve implementation of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

“These are the broad outlines of the economic policies that the new admin will pursue,” said Dominguez.

He said that the tax collection during a Duterte presidency will be indexed with the current inflation rate.

“These tax tables were made years ago when P500,000 was more than what P500,000 meant now. So now, if you earn P500,000, automatically you are taxed 32%. And if you spend say 80% of that, you are taxed another 12% from VAT (valued-added tax),” said Dominguez.

He said this would mean that a person’s effective tax rate as stated above would be equal to about “38% to 40%.”

“The tax bite should be lower for those earning P500,000 today because that is less than what it was in real value to what the value was when the tax tables were made,” Dominguez explained.

Duterte, early in his campaign, said he would get rid of income tax for workers earning P20,000 and below. There was no mention of this proposal by his transition team.

Dominguez also emphasized that because the transition team has only met twice so far, further details behind Duterte’s economic agenda will be ironed out in the coming days.

Duterte himself earlier told Rappler that he is open to lifting the Charter's restriction on foreign ownership of Philippine corporations.

He also said he will create a business environment that is friendly to foreign investors.

"I will open investments. If possible, in every region, I'll have economic zones. And the foreigners can come, and they'll have the same protection. I guarantee them profits that will be swiftly returned to them," he said.

Reducing crime and corruption

According to Dominguez, the presumptive president’s economic agenda reflects his promise to stop corruption in government.

“So reforms in tax collection are a politically acceptable way of saying we will focus on eliminating corruption in the revenue-generating agencies,” he said.

Dominguez explained Duterte also wants to accelerate infrastructure spending because this would lead to job generation and will be “injecting economic activity in our country.”

Duterte has previously said that he will put off the construction of major infrastructure projects like mega dams during the first two years of his presidency but will continue building transportation infrastructure to ease traffic congestion in Metro Manila.

He also said he wanted a Mindanao railway system built during his term.

Duterte is seeking to use Davao City, where he was mayor for more than two decades, as a model in making the whole country more competitive in business.

This means the next administration will seek the removal of red tape in government processes to streamline businessmen’s transactions with government.

“In other words, licenses for doing business are given in the shortest possible time and where the government is actually helping business to establish in Davao,” said Dominguez.

“It also means that reducing crime in the area will certainly be an item attracting people to do business because it will increase the security of businessmen as well as the consumers,” he added.

Streamlined coordination among land agencies

Duterte is also eyeing to pursue an overall “rural development strategy” for the whole country. This includes providing better irrigation and other support services to farmers by the Department of Agriculture (DAR). This is consistent with statements Duterte made himself on the campaign trail. He had also promised free irrigation while campaigning.

Dominguez said Duterte will also promote tourism in rural areas “because our country is beautiful and we want to show the world the beauty of our country.”

According to Dominguez, Duterte also recognizes a lack in the coordination efforts among the Philippines’ 4 land title agencies: DAR, the Land Registration Administration, the Department of Environment and National Resources, and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.

“Unfortunately, there is very little coordination among these agencies and we know very well that the security of land tenure is so important because it allows more investments. It encourages more investments in the rural areas. It makes the projects more valuable if there is solid security of land tenure,” said Dominguez.

Addressing job mismatch, improving education

The next administration also seeks to address the ongoing problem of job mismatch, where only 10 out of 1,000 Filipino applicants are getting hired because many lack the necessary skills needed for the jobs available in the market.

Dominguez said that Duterte will not only seek to provide tertiary scholarships, but also ensure that the courses to be offered are currently in demand in the job market.

The basic education system will also be enhanced, added Dominguez.

“Essentially, this means that our training in communications, in mathematics, in logical thinking will be strengthened in the basic education portion so that when a student graduates from high school, which is under the K-12 system, that the student has adequate training particularly in communicating his ideas, in calculation and logical thinking,” he said. – with reports from Pia Ranada/Rappler.com

Shoot @ White House Friday PM

By Jordan Fabian - 05/20/16 03:33 PM EDT

The White House was placed into lockdown for just under an hour Friday afternoon after a shooting near the executive branch complex.

A man carrying a firearm approached a security checkpoint on the outer perimeter of the White House grounds on E St., NW, just after 3 p.m., according to a Secret Service spokesman.

The man was shot once by a Secret Service agent and taken into custody after ignoring “numerous verbal commands” from uniformed officers “to stop and drop the firearm.”

The suspect was transported to a local hospital to receive medical treatment. D.C. Fire and EMS tweeted that the person sustained critical injuries.

An agency source said the man never gained access to White House grounds and no law enforcement officers or bystanders were injured.

Vice President Joe Biden, who was on the White House grounds when the incident occurred, was secured at the complex.

President Obama was not inside the White House at the time of the incident; he was at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland golfing with aides.

Obama was "made aware" of the shooting, a White House official said.

"No one within or associated with the White House was injured, and everyone in the White House is safe and accounted for,” the official added.

The incident caused a stir at the White House and in the surrounding area, which was crowded with tourists and area workers.

Reporters inside the White House were told to remain inside and shelter in place after the incident. The lockdown was lifted at about 4 p.m.

Let’s unite for people’s welfare - Rivera

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (16 May 2016) - "Partisan politics ends where the welfare of the people begins." This is the statement reelected Mayor Ronnel Rivera emphasized as he urges unity for every public official after the recent elections.

"The election is just 45 days. After that, we are back to normal again. There are no parties anymore. And we are back on our main objective to serve the people," the mayor explained during his early morning interview at Brigada TV on May 12.

"The election is just short and all of these people (political opponents) are my friends. After this, I want all of us to work together so there is no need to stain our relationships," Mayor Rivera said.

Rivera was proclaimed by the Commission on Elections on May 10 as the winner of the mayoralty race in Gensan. Mayor Rivera (PCM) garnered 117,120 votes. His opponent Richard Atendido (AIM) garnered 66,160 votes.

Rivera now holds the record of the mayoralty candidate with the highest number of votes. It is the second term of Rivera as mayor. His party, the PCM, also took majority of the positions of Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP)--making it a landslide victory for them.

Shirlyn Bañas (PCM) secured her last term as the city's vice mayor with her 109,197 votes against the 63,619 of lawyer Tonton Acharon (AIM).

The proclaimed city councilors were Bobby Pacquiao (95,092 votes-PCM), Rosalita Nuñez (93,762-PCM), Atty. Dominador Lagare Jr. (87,335-PCM), Atty. Franklin Gacal (86,167-PCM), Shandee Llido (84,593-PCM), Atty. Jose Edmar Yumang (80,719-PCM), Van-van Congson (79,049-PCM), Atty. Ramon Melliza (75,990-PCM), Brix Tan (73,949-PCM), Beth Bagonoc (96,060-AIM), Odjok Acharon (91,692-AIM) and Lulu Casabuena (76,580-AIM).

During the interview, Rivera also divulged his directions for Gensan in the next three years, which includes the completion of the City Land Use Plan (CLUP) and resolving the transport issues here in Gensan.

Rivera indicated that these two are necessary for attracting investors which would give additional employment and income for the city.

"How can we attract investors if we do not have CLUP and our transportation system has not been set yet. What we want is that when investors come in here, they will do their land-banking. We want to assure them that doing business here is profitable and easy," the mayor said. (Ian John Lagare/Gensan CPIO)

Duterte News: PEACE at Last in Mindanao Under Duterte's Presiden...

Duterte News: PEACE at Last in Mindanao Under Duterte's Presiden...: The Muslim Tribes of the country went all out for Mindanaoan presidential candidate Rody Duterte just as I projected before the elections...

a song of peace for LuzViMinda Video.flv

Duterte not a communist – FVR

Former President Fidel V. Ramos has said Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP- Laban) standard-bearer Rodrigo Duterte is not a communist despite his alleged links with Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison.

“If by talking and being friendly with Joma Sison makes Mayor Duterte a communist, I must then be in a far more worse situation,” he said when asked by former Malacanang aide, Atty. Jesus Dureza, to comment on the accusations that the Davao City mayor is a communist.

Dureza was Ramos’ Presidential Assistant for Mindanao in the late 1990s and also served as Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process and Press Secretary in Malacanang.

The former President even appreciated Duterte’s move of reaching out to Sison, recalling that during his (Ramos) administration, he went even further in abolishing Republic 

Act No. 1700, the so-called Anti-Subversion Law that penalized mere membership in the communist party, an unprecedented move that was viewed as favoring the communists.

Ramos said his decision then was a necessary step to “heal a divided nation.”

He added that Duterte’s early efforts to unite the nation is a “right move” and must be welcomed instead of being criticized and condemned.

Ramos recalled that it was during his administration that significant strides were done to reach out to the communist rebels to seek for lasting peace.

“You were with the Philippine negotiating panel then with Ambassador Howard Dee, Secretary Bebot Bello and Congressman Apeng Yap of Tarlac that I sent to Europe several times to negotiate peace with Joma and the CPP/NPA/NDF panel, remember?,” Ramos reminded Dureza, who was the spokesman of the government negotiating panel and Davao congressman representing the House of Representatives in the Philippine panel at the time.

Duterte, in several occasions, had said that he valued Ramos’ advice and the latter is someone whom he would go to for guidance from time to time.

The former President is also widely perceived as among those responsible for convincing Duterte to consider the presidency.

KAMATUORAN SA SARANGANI

Taliwala sa pagpangdaot sa kontra-partido nga adunay anomaly og corruption, dakong hinuptan karon  sa mga opisyales sa Provincial Government sa Sarangani ang award nga gihatag sa DILG niaging tuig gitawag nga Seal of Good Financial Housekeeping. Dako kini na pasidungog og kadaugan nagpamatuod nga transparent og accountable gayud ang pagpadagan sa Kapitolyo hilabi  na sa paggamit sa pondo og panudlanan sa gobyerno. Karong tuiga, gilauman nga i-award sa DILG sa Provincial Government sa Sarangani ang pinakataas nga award niini gitawag nga Seal of Good Local Governanace magpaila nga maayo gayud ang kinatibuk-ang pagdumala. Sa limpyo nga panerbisyo, mapasalamaton sila Roel Pacquiao, Governor Steve Chiongbian Solon og Board Member Elmer de Peralta nga gi-endorso gayud  sila sa Iglesia ni Kristo pagka-kongresman, governor ug vice-governor sa Sarangani. Nagpasalamat ang mga nasampit sa pagsalig na gihatag kanila sa mga kadagkuan  sa Iglesia ni Kristo, og nangaleya kini nga padayon lamang sila sa paghatag og limpyo og kinasing-kasing nga pagpangalagad diin maanaa gayud pirme ang God-centered Governance  aron makab-ot ang gihandum nga God- centered Prosperity. By. Gemma Roda

JUST IN: Duterte Allegedly Released A Statement To Why The P 211-Million Never Existed

After all the accusations and lies thrown to Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte about his'secret' bank account containing P 211-Million, the presidential aspirant has allegedly released a written statement clearing all of it.

On a Facebook post from the "Mayor", he clearly wrote several reasons why the said big amount of money exposed by Senator Antonio Trillanes and backed up by the Liberal Party List never existed.

See the whole statement of Mayor Duterte below:

"Please read.

If I am a well-respected mayor of a major city and I have 211 million, why on earth would I keep it in a bank outside of my city? If it is dirty money I would keep it in a bank in my jurisdiction where I can influence bank officials not to disclose it and name it under an alias and under multiple bank accounts or better yet deposit it on a foreign bank account. If I have that amount I would just have to declare that I have 211 million, I can easily say that it's my inheritance money, my father was the former governor anyways, no one would notice. If I have 211 million, does that mean that I am the richest presidential candidate? That makes me richer than the son of the elite?

I should have sent my children to universities outside of the country. I should have sent my ex-wife to the best doctors in Asia for her treatment and not just in my city. What's more surprising is that no one in the government including the former house speaker who was my political nemesis, as influential as he was, ever found out that this bank account exists. Not until I lead in the presidential polls. And for the love of everyone, why would I continue to live in this modest house, use a single, old model pick- up as my service and wear the same clothes over and over again if I have that money? I even only have one aid and one security detail, one that is assigned by the PNP and he's driving for me too.

Now, they insist that I open, for public scrutiny, a bank account that I did not know of nor open an account on. In this day where they can manipulate billions into bank accounts and withdraw them without the knowledge of the account name holders, would it be wise for me to fall into the trap if someone created that bank account under my name and deposited money into it? I know better, I am in public service for 40 years, I am a lawyer. Burden of proof lies on the accuser.

- Mayor Rodrigo Duterte"