Poverty did not stop M'lang kickers to Excel

The poorly equipped Region 12 soccer team where some of its players' game shoes were wrapped with packaging tape to stop them from disintegrating.

The vaunted soccer team from Region 12 that is billeted at San Carlos City, Pangasinan. They are all system goes for the Palarong Pambansa. Extreme left, third row,  is Coach Rommel Madis

SAN CARLOS CITY, Pangasinan - Despite their penury the soccer team from Central Mindanao who are billeted here did not stop to excel as they represent Region 12 for the 2012 Palarong Pambansa (national game) in Pangasinan.

Taga-Mlang in Sauna, er, Sona

Mlang resident Mario Ma-aya asked the Taxi driver to bring him and  Mortz in a SAUNA. Instead, the idiotic driver  brought them to the SONA of Pres. Noynoy Aquino.

Professor of Intoxication Ma-aya treated his former students

Dr. Rene Pacolor  (2nd fm Left) proselytize Mlang drinkers

Mario brought his classmates to Mortz's house in M'lang

This writer who dreams to go to “sauna” has at last attended the real Sona (State of the Nation Address) last July 23 at the Batasan Complex . Thanks to the invitation of Rep. Gina de Venecia (4th District, Pangasinan). What I observed inside the plenary hall, to my amazement, was no different to what looks inside the cockpit arena in my city. Only the plenary hall of the House of Representatives, 20 times bigger than the fowl arena, has sea of men and women outclassing each other in their in different style of dress and whose first name has been appended with an adjective “Honorable.” That not all congresswomen beautifully carried themselves in Filipino gowns designed by Patis Tesoro and Pitoy Moreno, there were those in the party list sectors who lousily carried themselves in frock designed by Kukor, short for Kukortinahin (curtain), they probably bought in a bargain sale in Divisoria and Baclaran.
 That the lower box facing the rostrum where the Philippine president, senate president, and the speaker of the House of Representatives sat were rows of benches where present and former high government officials like former President Fidel V. Ramos, former 5-time Speaker Jose de Venecia, Vice President Jojo Binay, former President Joseph Estrada, and foreign ambassadors and their wives occupy.

China Cannot be an Aggressor Forever - FVR

 Mortz C. Ortigoza (Left) after his interview with former Philippine President Fidel V. Ramos

Northern Watch political columnist Mortz C . Ortigoza sat again with former President Fidel V. Ramos, a West Pointer, recently in Dagupan City to discuss the growing belligerence of Mainland China in the West Philippines Sea and the state of the Philippine’s armed forces vis-à-vis the incessant Chinese's intrusions in the territorial waters of the Philippines, Excerpts:
 MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA (MCO): Mr. President, some quarters said armed conflict between the United States and Mainland China is inevitable. But the U.S has $1.164 trillion of debt with China, notwithstanding the latter as the U.S’s biggest trade partner. Do you think war is indeed inevitable?

Q & A: JDV’s solutions on the Spratlys problem

M'lang's son Alex Casipli (extreme Left)  meets former Speaker de Venecia

Former five-time House Speaker Joe de Venecia, Jr., an eminent global expert, speaks his thoughts on the brewing issues on the Spratlys Islands in the West Philippines Sea. Political columnist Mortz Ortigoza sat with him to talk about the issue. Excerpts:
 MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA (MCO): How strategic is the Spratlys for the Philippines, Mr. Speaker?
JOSE DE VENECIA, JR (JDV): Why should we sail to China (Sea to the Arab Gulf) all the way to that when we have oil and gas in our own front yard and our backyard? If we could only use (chuckled) our “coconut” (common sense).
MCO: Political and military spectators say that to discourage the incessant intrusions of China in the West Philippine Seas we have to invite our ally the Americans for a joint exploration of oil there.
 JDV: The Americans will not drill for oil in the China Sea because who will invite them to drill there?
 MCO: The Philippine government.
 JDV: The Philippines? We are courting war with China, courting war with Vietnam.
 MCO: Adm. Mike Mullen, the chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said recently at the start of his four-day visit to China that the U.S vowed to maintain her presence in the resource-rich waters. What is really the interest of the Americans in Spratlys?
JDV: The interest of the Americans is economics. So they could have a free and untrammeled navigation for being a Pacific power. Secondly, because that is one way of telling China na dahan-dahan naman kayo kasi nandito kami (you should be careful because of our presence here in the West Philippines Sea). Thirdly, they have to show some semblance of support to the Philippines. Although as the Americans have pointed out while (other countries) threatening their allies they will go to war. (But it is different in the China Sea unless there is authorization by the U.S Congress. Because unlike the NATO agreement, an attack in England is considered as an automatic attack against the U.S, an attack on France is the same. An attack on the Philippines is an attack on the U.S. But it does not mean an immediate attack- response by the U.S. They have to consult their constitutional process first – it means to say their hall of congress.
 MCO:Can’t we not use the Libyan Model when President Barrack Obama declared war against Muammar Gaddafi and support the Libyan rebels even without the imprimatur of the U.S,congress?
 JDV: Well, you know in the case of Libya, there was an authorization from the Security Council of the United Nations but even the Security Council of the UN was abused and being abused by the European Power like France and Britain. Because the decision of the Security Council was really to prevent Gaddafi on harming the Libyans who want to bring down their government.
MCO: Some political kibitzers question your formula of consortium among claimant countries in the Spratly because it does not resolve first the issue of sovereignty.
JDV: Well, (former paramount leader of Mainland China) Deng Xiaoping proposed that we shall not (discuss) sovereignty for the meantime. Because if the Philippine insists on sovereignty, China insists on sovereignty, Vietnam insists on sovereignty, well there will be war. So the practical step is to shelve the issue of sovereignty, and agree on one common development on the Spratly so that Vietnam, China and the Philippines that claims for oil and gas and hydrocarbons under an equity of 1/3, 1/3,1/3 profit sharing formula that eventually would have to bring in Malaysia, Brunei, whose acreage or whose claim, in the Spratlys are smaller than that of the three. We should also invite them as part of this drilling coalition.
MCO: Does this consortium thing have something to do with our armed forces?
JDV: The weakest of these line states is the Philippines. We have no air force, we have no navy. China has a large armed forces, Vietnam now has large armed forces, a large air force, a large navy.
MCO: Were major claimants China and Vietnam telegraphed already their intention that they were amenable to your proposal? JDV: No, no. Yes, because I’m talking to them directly.
MCO: Were they amenable? JDV: Yes! MCO: Is there a precedent model of your consortium’s formula? JDV: Just like that in the North Sea after World War II, England is here (as he lifted the empty coffee cup and the sandwich of the interviewee to put on the other parts of the table to emphasize his point). This is England; the oil field is here in Ecofisk in the North Sea. They took a median line partition so the oil flows to Stavanger in Norway. The oil is in Teesside in England. And the natural gas goes to Crimea, German. I landed here in the Ecofisk which is above 20 stories high. The platforms from the sea, very stormy seas but (they were composed of) hundreds of oil wells! And siguro mga (Just like) several stories high buildings and platforms from the sea.
 MCO: So nobody own these areas? The consortium owns them?
JDV: They have agreed. This part belongs to Norway! (Lifting again the sandwich and coffee cup of the interviewer by putting them to another part of the table to emphasize his point)This part belongs to England! This part belongs to Germany! In the meantime we jointly developed.
 MCO: Is the North Sea’s model the only model the claimants in the Spratly’s can replicate?
JDV: Puwedi nating gawin ito( We can copy it). This is one model. The other model is that we will drill together and the profit we split. You see? So we shelve the issue of sovereignty. This is the formula that will solve the problems of China, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Therefore that will solve the problem between China and Vietnam in the Paracel. This (in) the Spratly claim, Vietnam went to war over there a dozen years ago. This is the same formula that should be used because (by) Japan in Diaoyu Strait, what the Chinese call the Senkaku Strait. This is the third formula that could be used on the Sea of Japan and the East Sea, between Japan and South Korea.
MCO: Taiwan has a claim there, too. Is it because of her being Mainland China once upon a time?

How Local Officials Steal Gov't Funds

BY MARCELO MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA 

 Mayor pockets up to 30% loans from bank 

 My politician friend told me that a corrupt mayor can get 20 percent to 30 percent of the loan his town or city obtained from government- run Land Bank of the Philippines and Development Bank of the Philippines. “If he wants the money immediately, he can get P20 million or 20% of the P100 million loans in advance from the (private) contractor,” he whispered to me not to divulge his name but to expose this perennial anomaly in public. But if the mayor wants a 30% or P30 million from the loan, then he should be the one to own the construction firm (of course though a dummy) if he wants the bigger chunks of the anomaly alias S.O.P (Standard Operation Procedure) after the project (construction of either the municipal hall, public market, or other public building) is completed and approved by the concerned government agencies. A hizzoner of another town, who asked for anonymity, told me that a hypothetical loan of P55 million entails an 8 percent S.O.P (psst spell as LOOT) for a scheming vice mayor and the conspiring nine members of the SB. “Ang 3 percent kay Vice Mayor, ang 5 percent pag-hati-hati-an ng mga konsehales,” he whispered to me. Susmariosep, that’s a mind blowing P1, 650,000 for the vice mayor and a staggering P305,555 for each of the dads. He told me this formula can buy the silence of everybody. He said in case there are grumblings and noises from the Vice Mayor, it means he either:1) Holds the proverbial empty bag; 2) Was given a pittance; or 3) Was an honest man that now gives a problem to the power-that-be there.

Taga-M'lang attended B-day of JDV

With Cavite Congresswoman Lani Mercado

The author poses with nonpareil humorous and witty columnist Larry Henares

Birthday "boy" former Speaker de Venecia poses with lady solons of the House of Representatives

BY MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

 This "calumnist", er, columnist who used to patronize “turo-turo” (small eatery) has found himself sporting the coat and tie he inherited from his grandpa in the Katipunan while partaking a more than a thousand of pesos a plate dinner hosted by “birthday boy” former five-time speaker Jose de Venecia at the swanky Golden Bay Sea Food Restaurant in Pasay City.
The almost 1000 visitors composed of present and former political high rollers of the country, foreign leaders and ambassadors spent the chilly night of December 26 feasting with Chinese cuisine with the de Venecias and (Speaker Joe’s wife Congresswoman Gina’s) Vera-Perez clans for the visionary and rabble rouser natal day.