Let the soul of NIR go

"There's a victory in letting go of your expectations."
--Mike White
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By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- At the Diagnostic Clinic of the Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens on August 9, I declined the request of Dr. June Chatterjee for me to undergo HIV testing.
At first, I did not object thinking it was part of the clinic's random examination.
The medical staff showed to me Dr. Chatterjee's referral letter with a note, "Patient advised HIV testing to be done and did not object: Yes".
She did not complain when I invoked my right not to undergo such examination.
My appointment in the hospital was for laboratory examination arranged by Dr. Selina Zaman two weeks ago.
Two of the four other patients Dr. Chatterjee had examined before me probably came in the clinic for HIV testing. She must've thought I also came for that purpose.

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The Negros Island Region (NIR) in the Philippine is now a thing of the past.
There's nothing dyed-in-the-wool proponents can do now to bring it back to life.
There's no use crying over a spilled milk. Life must go on for the living. Let go of the NIR's soul.
It was President Noynoy's E.O. that created it, and Pres. Digong's E.O. that killed it. A tit for a tat.
Since Congress was not involved in NIR's inception in the previous administration, there was no knee-jerk furor when the present administration banished it.
Palace had been firm in its decision to reject NIR: it's "too costly" and "unnecessary" especially when the proposed federalism would be in full swing.
The projected P19-billion that would have been wasted to sustain NIR could now be used to finance some of the administration's projects in social, health, infrastructure, and education sectors.
Whether Negros is divided into two provinces doesn't bother some ordinary Negrenses, at all.
"New technology," according to Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, will enable the speedy provision of government services to these provinces.
The people's primary concern is to eke out a decent living, bring home food on the table and make sure their families won't starve.
 
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Mayor Geffrey Alonsabe of Alimodian, Iloilo told Agriculture Secretary Manny Pinol during a recent press conference in Iloilo City that he did not know that the persons using the name of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and who approached him and "sold" farm-to-market roads (FMR) were scammers.
According to Alonsabe, "without his knowledge", the scammers arranged the contractors. He reportedly learned lately that the scammers demanded 10 percent of P100-million project.
"Nag-initial sila ng one million, then, lately gusto nila pa-dungangan sang five percent kay i-release na kuno ang pondo,” The Daily Guardian reporter Maricyn A. De Los Santos quoted Alonsabe as saying.
Pinol surmised Alonsabe and other mayors who may have fallen prey to the anomaly had been duped.
But how come Alonsabe failed to identify anyone of the alleged FMR scammers?
Can a municipal mayor start to discuss projects worth millions of pesos to a person or group of persons he doesn't know from Adam?

Coke ban a mockery of laissez-faire

“Free-market capitalism is a network of free and voluntary exchanges in which producers work, produce, and exchange their products for the products of others through prices voluntarily arrived at.” 
-- Murray N. Rothbard

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Government, back off.
If it is better for business, by extension it is better for society as a whole.
Under the principle of laissez-faire, a French economic theory, business will be better off if there is less government involvement in free market capitalism.
Politicians in Negros Occidental, Philippines, composed mostly of sugar planters, are up in arms against Coca Cola, a beverage behemoth that manufactures Coke.
No less than Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. has ordered the banning of Coca Cola products during the "Panaad Festival" on April 22, 30, 2017.
Taking cue from the governor's bold move, Hinigaran Mayor Nadie Arceo followed suit by issuing an executive order banning Coca Cola products during the “Hinugyaw Festival" on April 20-30, 2017.
Unless Coca Cola will use local sugar instead of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) as sweetener in its products, the ban will stay, it was reported.

MESSAGE

Their message was loud and clear: they wanted to bring Coca Cola down on its knees.
They first signified their strong intention to lock horns with the softdrink company on March 20, 2017 when sugar planters led approximately 6,000 protesters in a rally in front of the offices of Coca-Cola Philippines in the province to denounce the company's use of HFCS, which they said is killing the sugar industry.
The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) has issued Sugar Order No. 3  which places a cap on the entry of imported HFCS into the country and imposes stiff tariff and duties on the commodity.
Sugar Order No. 3, however, was countermanded by Department of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, who quipped: "I did not ask for the scrapping of Sugar Order No. 3 but simply recommended that it be held in abeyance pending the resolution of the issues raised by Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola which are legitimate businesses operating in the Philippines for so long now."
He added: "I believe that if things could be worked out, the sugar industry could get a bigger share of the sugar requirements of both Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola, thus getting a better deal."

PRICE

Coca-Cola and Pepsi have heavily relied on the use of HFCS when the prices of local sugar doubled compared to that of sugar coming from other countries for the past five years. 
The underlying beliefs that make up the fundamentals of of laissez-faire economics include first and foremost that the natural world is a self-regulating system, and that natural regulation is the best type of regulation. 
Laissez-faire economists argue that because of this there is no need for the complicating involvement of government. 
Government involvement, according to this economic theory, would include any type of regulation, minimum wage, taxation, or oversight. 
Laissez-faire economists see taxation on companies as a penalty for production.