MANILA – Despite the unsettled political crisis that threatens to overrun her government, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo continues to work on the problems besetting the country.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said yesterday (July 4) that the President was not disturbed by the growing calls for her to resign since “this is not the sentiment of the majority of the people.”

Academicians from two of the country’s most prestigious schools, the University of the Philippines and De La Salle University, joined the call for Mrs. Arroyo to resign because of suspicions that she had cheated in last year’s elections.

Bunye said the President “would just concentrate on the work that is supposed to be done” by her.

COMMENT: UP and La Salle are considered two of the Big Three, with the third being Ateneo University. Mrs. Arroyo used to teach at the Ateneo and her husband and sons all studied in the Jesuit-run institution. The loss of support from the first two must have hurt her badly, but should Ateneo join that clamor, then the possibility that President Arroyo will be forced to resign will grow dramatically.

Speaker Joe de Venecia may be right when he said that the fate of the Arroyo presidency will be determined in the next 90 days.

The mayor of the City of San Fernando, Oscar Rodriguez, was named as one of 65 nominees for the 2005 World Mayor award. Rodriguez, a human rights lawyer and former Pampanga representative, is the only Filipino so honored. He is also one of nine Asians nominated.

The global award seeks to honor mayors who have served their constituencies well, and who have made major contributions to the well-being of their cities or towns nationally and internationally.

The winner will be known in December.

COMMENT: Proof yet again that there are good public servants among the Philippines’ elected officials, San Fernando remains one of the most progressive cities in the country. Rodriguez is that rarity, a politician who gives politics a good name.

Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation seized millions of pesos worth of fake computer software, branded shoes and motorcycle engines in simultaneous raids in the cities of Makati, Pasay, Bacolod and Iloilo in recent days.

Among the products seized were P2 million worth of pirated AutoDesk software; P500,000 worth of counterfeit Adidas, Nike and K-Swiss shoes; and P500,000 worth of fake Honda spare parts.

The raids were carried out by the NBI’s intellectual property rights division.

Although litte manufacturing of fakes is done in the country, the Philippines is still listed as a global hot spot of pirated goods.

COMMENT: Definitely the tip of the iceberg, the volume and value of fake goods available in the Philippines is astounding. Previous raids have netted fake Nestle products as well as counterfeit Marlboro cigarettes. It used to be easy to spot the fakes, but they are much better packaged now than in the past.

Fakes are still easy to spot. They are much cheaper than the real thing. The quality is almost always awful.

MANILA – Overseas Filipino workers are still saving the day for the country. According to acting labor secretary Danilo Cruz, deployment of OFWs in the first half of the year passed the 500,000 mark, boosting hopes that total remittances for 2005 will hit $10 billion by the end of the year.

The half a million OFWs deployed in the first half is a slight improvement over the same figure for last year.

“We are confident that our goal to deploy a million OFWs globally continues on a firm and stable track,” Cruz said.

Total remittances from overseas workers hit $8.5 billion last year. The flood of dollars helped keep the economy afloat on what was generally considered a difficult period.

COMMENT: One out of 20 Filipinos is based abroad, or about four million OFWs. The number is probably bigger considering the number of illegal workers just about anywhere in the world. The export of manpower may be good for the country economically, but the social cost can be staggering. But being a poor country, the Philippines has little choice on the matter. What a shame.

MANILA – The National Democratic Front predicts the fall of the Arroyo administration within the next few weeks.

“The people are already tired of her governance so it would not take long before she’s driven out,” NDF spokesman Jorge Madlos said of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo during a radio interview in Mindanao yesterday (July 2).

Leftist organizations have formed an uneasy alliance with right-wing groups identified with former president Joseph Estrada and the late Fernando Poe Jr in calling for the ouster of Mrs. Arroyo.

Madlos said the President’s fall could be hastened if politicians like Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte abandoned her. But Duterte has said he would never support any unconstitutional move to remove the president. Instead, he would lead moves to form an independent Mindanao Republic.

That position is shared by governors Raul Lee and Chavit Singson of the Bicol and Ilocos regions, respectively. Both men said they too would secede from the country if President Arroyo were forcibly removed.

COMMENT: This prediction of the AFP is not shared by too many political analysts, who say the enemies of Gloria Arroyo have a long way to go before they can remove her from office, either through resignation or impeachment. The anti-Arroyo forces are doing everything possible to create a snowball effect but their efforts are not getting the desired effect.

Still, Mrs. Arroyo’s regime remains under pressure from various quarters, but as long as the Church, the business community and the military/police do not join the opposition, she is relatively safe.

MANILA – The Department of Social Welfare and Development will send more social workers to countries which have large concentrations of overseas Filipino workers. The social workers will serve as technical assistants to labor attaches.

The training of more social workers was necessary because of the growing number of OFWs, Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman said yesterday (July 2).

Emphasis will be on assisting women workers, from abused workers to victims of human trafficking.

COMMENT: This is a necessary move. The more OFWs there are, the greater the problems they face. But the DSWD should also face the problems faced by the families left behind in the country.

MANILA – President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was “stunned” by the temporary restraining order against the implementation of the expanded Value Added Tax law issued by the Supreme Court the other day, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said yesterday (July 2).

The government will contest the order, he said. The law had been passed by Congress after much debate. The administration was counting on the proceeds from eVAT to slash the country’s huge budget deficit, estimated at P160 million this year.

The opposition, however, represented by minority congressmen and senators, a party list group and a major petroleum dealers association, filed a motion before the SC to issue a TRO.

Voting 13-2, the SC issued the TRO Friday evening.

COMMENT: This is a serious setback for the administration, but is likely to be only temporary. It, however, grants a respite for the public from the increase in prices that would have happened with the implementation of eVAT. One way or another, the yawning budget deficit has to be addressed, and the most practical means is through additional taxes, either new taxes or expansion of existing tax measures.

The improbable solution, of course, is to improve the collection efficiency of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs, which is next to impossible given their bloated and graft-prone bureaucracy.

MANILA – Former President Corazon Aquino visited Susan Roces yesterday (June 30) to congratulate the actress for expressing her convictions forcefully the other day by demanding the resignation of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Mrs. Aquino, however, said she was not in favor of any means of removing Mrs. Arroyo other than through Constitutional means.

Supporters of the widow of defeated presidential bet Fernando Poe Jr. are labelling her as the new Cory Aquino, who took the place of her deceased husband to lead a “People Power” revolution against an unpopular president.

In an emotional press conference the other day, Ms. Roces said Mrs. Arroyo had stolen the presidency from her husband not just once but twice. She said she would support any move to force the President to resign.

While Mrs. Aquino said she still supports President Arroyo, that support seems to have weakened as she added that she would have to back any Constitutionally based move to effect the “mist difficult political changes.”

“People power for oneself will never succeed,” Mrs. Aquino said.

COMMENT: This is an odd friendship that has recently formed between Ms. Roces and Mrs. Aquino. They met each other face-to-face for the first time a little more than a month ago, but the two have obviusly hit it off pretty well. There is mutual respect between the two, and Mrs. Aquino seems to like Ms. Roces more than she does Mrs. Arroyo, but being a former president she has no choice but to support the established order. If Ms. Roces opts to become politically active, this friendship with Mrs. Aquino can only redound to her benefit. Cory Aquino has suddenly become a factor X in the political scene.

MANILA – His timing couldn’t have been worst, but Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap resigned from the Arroyo Cabinet yesterday (June 30).

Yap said he was forced to quit as he had become “ineffective” after the Bureau of Internal Revenue charged him and his family of tax evasion three weeks ago. He also said that he was disturbed by rumors that he was in the Cabinet by virtue of his attachment to the First Gentleman. For the record, he said he had never met Mr. Miguel Arroyo until he became a government official, and only on social occasions.

Politics was getting “too wild” for him, he said when he announced his resignation.

With the President already mired in numerous controversies, Yap said he did not want to be an added burden to her. Yap added that he would stay on until a replacement had been appointed by Mrs. Arroyo.

Malacanang insiders say a Cabinet revamp is in the offing.

COMMENT: Whatever happens to the tax case filed by the BIR, Yap can be considered a true victim of rumor and innuendo. He said everytime he wanted to discuss agriculture issues, the conversations would always go back to politics. Yap was not connected to the First Gentleman, but was actually one of the top students of President Arroyo when she was still a university professor. But the timing of his resignation was way, way off. It will certainly be used by the enemies of President Arroyo to to show that her government is imploding.

Politics, politics, politics. Pretty sickening, huh?

MANILA – What do Haydee Yorac, Marilou Diaz-Abaya, Corazon ‘Dinky’ Soliman and Cecile Guidote-Alvarez have in common?

They are among 27 Filipino women – socio-civic workers, educators, lawmakers, and graft-busters -- who were nominated for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize this year. Worldwide, there are 1,000 women nominees from 153 countries.

The 27 nominees were revealed during ceremonies at the Cultural Center of the Philippines yesterday (June 29), the same day that other nominees in other parts of the world were made known. The Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded in Norway on Oct. 14.

All the nominees have played significant roles in promoting peace and unity in their respective homelands.

COMMENT: There is no counting the number of Filipino women who actively try to do their bit in making the Philippines a better place to live in. They may never win awards or citations, but they are treasures nonetheless. They do us proud.