vonjobi: wow, congratulations! kelan ang trip? i hope i'll be around when you come. had a good time with diosa last...
Keith Bacongco: Knowing Nograles and his Big Boss...garapalan na lang talaga.
Vinia Datinguinoo Mukherjee: Congratulations, PCIJ! Mabuhay kayo!
Lead Philippines: But without credible mass media there, what is left to protect the people..?
vonjobi: it's juned sOniDo.

Latest Message 3 months, 4 weeks ago

hopeless_race : Lets not just focus sa mga malversation of funds, sa mga overpricing..ating pagtuunan ng atensyon ang diskarte ng mga politiko na umuutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno."Small time" ang ibang pamamaraan ng pangungurakot kumpara sa pag-utang sa gobyerno ng bilyon na tunay ngang masasabing "pinaka big-time" at wala pang sabit.
hopeless_race : Mukhang tikom ang bibig ng lahat pagdating sa diskarte ng mga politiko sa pagutang ng mga bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno na tinatakbuhan. Itong pamamaraan na ito ang tunay na kumakain ng malaking porsyento ng ating national budget batay na din sa sinasabi ng world bank.
hopeless_race : Pakisilip naman po ang mga utang ni Villar sa BSP, ang mga utang nila RAMON JACINTO, RONNIE ZAMORA, JOE DE VENECIA at madami pang ibang mga pulitiko. Iilan lamang yan sa mga nababanggit sa balita na may mga malalaking utang sa gobyerno.
hopeless_race : Nagmimistulang "small time" lamang ang malversation of funds kumpara sa laki ng kinakamal ng mga umuutang sa gobyerno. At ito ay malinaw na natatakbuhan dahil hindi nga naman pwede makulong ang may-ari ng kumpanya sa pagkaka-utang lamang. Tunay na mga tuso at magagaling sa batas itong mga politiko natin. Masasabi ko na malamang lahat ng mga politiko ganito ang diskarte...wala pang kulong.
hopeless_race : PCIJ pkitingnan naman po ang mga gaya ni Villar na my malaking utang sa Gobyerno pero tinatakbuhan. Magtatayo ng kumpanya at uutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno ng walang balak bayaran. Tunay ngang walang nakukulong sa utang...ito ang prinsipyo ginagamit ng mga politiko ntin kaya nakakapagtaka kung san napupunta ang daang bilyong pera ng gobyerno.
hopeless_race : Sana itreat naman po ng media ang hacienda luisita at mendiola massacre na parang MAGUINADANAO MASSACRE. Ipublicized ang mga katotohanan at ipakita sa tao ang karumaldumal na pinaggagawa sa mga farmers dun. Untouchable po ba sila cory at danding at hindi magawang batikusin ng media about these two massacres?
hopeless_race : Kapag napaguusapan ang mendiola at hacienda luisita massacre ay parang walang nangyari at parang hindi big deal. Anu po ba ang pinagkaiba ng dalawang nabanggit na massacre sa maguindanao massacre?
hopeless_race : Its sad that we pinoys are blind to the fact of what had happened in mendiola and hacienda luisita. Ang tanong..bakit ang media ay hindi manlang matackle ang ganitong usapin? Takot ba sila kay cory at danding?
hopeless_race : Wilkins" brand, for P1.4 billion.-1999 Sugarland Multi-Food Corp. for P2.9 billion 2001- Purefoods Corp P7 billion P60 billion Coca-Cola ... See More 2002- Cosmos Bottling Corp. from RFM Corp. for P14.1 billion October 2008- GSIS' shares in Meralco worth PHP30 Billion. December 2008- country's biggest oil refiner, Petron Corporation. international company shopping spree: Australian boutique brewer J. Boag and Son for A$96 million in 2000. $97 million for Thai Amarit Brewery Ltd $35.5 mi
hopeless_race : Gud am..glad to be back.
jr_lad : rip mr. alecks pabico. you'll be greatly missed!
sevens21 : Dati input mo lng name at SSS ID makukuha mo agad STATIC INFO...
sevens21 : tawag ka sa HOTLINE nila walang ANSWER grrr we need pa namn ng static info SSS Gising!!!
sevens21 : Gawa naman po kayo ng article about SSS. Pangit ng site nila dali ma blocked ng account
guest_899 : we must check the background of each potential candidates to avoid having another big mistake like GMA
guest_899 : congratulations to PCIJ, more power and God Bless !
jazzymuver : how did Arroyo swallow that kind of things!! how come that she just spend the money our countrymen for her own sake!!
guest_3664 : i would be glad if u can include the investigation of the manner public officials announce infra projects as per COA regulation. It is frustrating to see their faces on the tarpaulin instead of the prescribed information like name of project, date of implementation,amount of contract, source/s of fund, among other things. This is very rampant here in Marikina. Thanks and more power on your noble endeavors. We need people like you to have make our country great again.
jhanz_08 : im making research on R.A 9136...with rgards to the privatization of NPC..could someone out there can let me understand more bout this matter?why was monopoly dismantled?email me..jhanycem@yahoo.com...thanks much
erika marie : P.S.:) my paper is due next week and i do hope someone could provide me these reports coming from reliable resources thank you ulit.
erika marie : P.S.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study regarding political killings in the philippines. could someone out there please send me human rights reports under Aquino and Ramos administration. you could send it at my email: erikamariet@yahoo.com your response would surely be very much appreciated. thank you everyone. god bless.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study for my paper regarding political killings in the philippines. i noted that there are no human rights reports during the Aquino and Ramos administration. could someone out there please send me reports regarding these matter? i do hope these reports came from reliable resources you could send it in my email; erikamariet@yahoo.comyour response would surely be appreciated. thanks everyone. god bless.
jayson bourne : gusto ko po maging member ng PCIJ, panu po ba? may application po ba? sana mapadalhan nyo ako ng info sa email ko... www.jboxpenshoppe@yahoo.com
jayson bourne : cory is OK, but kris & Noynoy sensationalize masyado...
guest_9891 : LABAN pa rin!
meow : boycotts worked during marcos years. how about doing it now against the businesses of the con-ass congressmen?
meow : aside from 168, what other establishments can we boycott that belong to the arroyos and their cronies?
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Who’s afraid of the new China?

Posted by: Isa Lorenzo | June 16, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Filed under: Cross Border, Image Galleries

NOWHERE are the contradictions in the new China more apparent than in the contrasts between the countryside and Beijing. In the Chinese capital city, the old hutongs (narrow streets) are rapidly being demolished to make way for new high-rise condominiums. The gleaming “bird’s-nest” national stadium designed by a team led by the noted Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron will be the centerpiece of the 2008 Olympic Games this August. A six-lane highway is one of many roads that criss-cross the city.

But in the neighboring province of Hebei, old farmers work the land and live in modest houses without sinks or even running water. Ever since the communes were dismantled in 1978 and most state-owned industries were “corporatized,” the gap between the rich and the poor has widened.

A farmer earns about 2,000 yuan from his crop while a Beijing-based insurance manager can net up to $50,000 a month.

These are among the impressions of the participants of a 10-day China exchange program that was organized by Akbayan party-list group, Bangkok-based think tank Focus on the Global South, and other civil society organizations.

The above photos were taken by Agrarian Reform Now coordinator Ernesto Lim Jr., a member of the delegation that visited China last May 10 to 19.

“The disparity between the urban and rural population is glaring,” says Alice Raymundo, coordinator of the Integrated Rural Development Foundation.

Raymundo adds that the farmers they talked to missed the “good old days” under former Chinese premier Mao Tse-tung. It was during this time that large swathes of agricultural lands were collectivized, with other portions left to state enterprise. After the communes were dismantled, says Raymundo, the peasants were left to fend for themselves, and the benefits that they had gotten from the communes disappeared with the onset of privatization.

Now, each peasant is allotted 700 square meters of land, a farm lot that Lim says is no bigger than a backyard garden.

View Lim’s slide presentation.

Visiting Hebei, the group also noticed that most of the rural population are old. Aging couples, observed Raymundo, raised their grandchildren while their children worked in urban centers.

China’s growing appetite for land and other natural resources is fueled by its booming economy. As its farmlands are converted into condominiums and industrial projects, the Asian behemoth has begun looking beyond its borders for food and other resources.

Last year, the Philippines and China signed 19 agreements reserving 1.24 million hectares of farmland for use by the Chinese, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

In March, Akbayan party-list representative Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel pointed out that, aside from the controversial national broadband network deal bagged by the Chinese firm ZTE Corporation, the Philippine government had also entered into 31 other “questionable” agreements with China.

The agreements covered trade, cultural protection, mass transportation and customs cooperation, and include 19 agribusiness deals that Hontiveros-Baraquel denounced as “patently unconstitutional and inimical to Filipino interests.”

Aside from these, China and Chinese firms have also been involved in numerous controversial deals in the Philippines: multi-million loan projects rejected by the World Bank, joint marine seismic undertaking agreements in the disputed Spratly Islands, and the North Rail contract deemed illegal and disadvantageous by legal and transport experts of the University of the Philippines.

From a Philippine perspective, these deals are skewed in favor of China. But what’s scary, say the China exchange program delegates, is that the Chinese people don’t see it this way.

When told of the agricultural agreements, some Chinese responded, “We will need the land as our farmland is being converted into housing.”

Focus on the Global South research associate Herbert Docena says that a Central Party Committee school director told him that “in order to achieve future prosperity for everyone, we should maintain and expand some things which have traditionally been regarded as exploitation.”

“So (there are) no apologies anymore,” says Docena, who notes how many analysts have explained China’s turn to the market after 1978 as not the result of being drawn to capitalism as an ideology, but because it saw this as the route or the way to national wealth and power. This explains why the new China is not exactly a new liberal state, as it remains under very strong rule.

“It’s a state that wants to harness the market for its own national power,” Docena says.

Some of the destructive effects of following a Western model of growth are already apparent in China. On their way to visit farming communities, the delegates saw one denuded mountain after another. China also has been beset by water problems and desertification.

Too, the honor of hosting the 2008 Olympics has been shadowed by worries of massive pollution. This has already led a top marathon runner (who happens to be asthmatic) to withdraw from the marathon, citing health concerns.

“The way they achieved their growth is it’s really at the expense of their workers and the environment,” says Dorothy Guerrero, a research associate of the Focus on the Global South’s China Programme.

She says that although China was able to collapse a hundred years of industrialization into only 30 years, the problem such leapfrogging has dealt to the country is equal to a century of industrial transition.

Docena, meanwhile, cites World Bank statistics that show that China was able to decrease the number of those subsisting on less than $1 a month from 490 million in 1981 to 90 million in 2004.

But at the same time, he says, the country’s Gini coefficient jumped from 0.33 in 1980 to 0.47 in 2004. Some estimates place it as high as 0.5. The Gini coefficient is a measure of inequality in a country, and the closer it is to one, the higher the inequality. Last year, China had the second highest Gini coefficient in Asia, after Nepal.

A recent Asian Development Bank report says that the the largest contributor to increases in inequality from the mid-1980s to 2004 may have been the difference in rural and urban incomes.

“Other countries like India and South Africa [want] to learn from China and we’re saying, please don’t,” says Guerrero.

“All of us, I think, left China feeling very scared,” says Akbayan lawyer Jae de la Cruz. “Because you have Chinese footprints in Asia, in Latin America, in Africa. How do you check on that?”

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