Monday, September 25, 2023
manilastandard.net
ADVERTISEMENT
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
    • Young Life
  • Special Pages
    • Pets
    • Tech
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • On the Road
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Cravings
    • Environment & Sustainability
    • Agriculture
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
    • Young Life
  • Special Pages
    • Pets
    • Tech
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • On the Road
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Cravings
    • Environment & Sustainability
    • Agriculture
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
manilastandard.net
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion Columns

Pushing the envelope

Lito BanayobyLito Banayo
November 24, 2022, 12:10 am
in Columns, Opinion, So I See by Lito Banayo
Reading Time: 5 mins read
A A
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Email

“Clearly, the US of A in its waning years is just pushing the envelope further against the imperious Xi Jinping who now wields absolute power in the middle kingdom”

We would have wanted to write about NIA head Benny Antiporda’s sudden and perplexing suspension by the Ombudsman when it happened but we were still out of the country at the time, and wanted to know its antecedents in that troubled agency.

That Antiporda has a rather brusque way with words is a given.

The guy is as frank and as candid as could be, based on my encounters with this former journalist, whether at the National Press Club or even when he was visiting Taiwan as a director of Subic Bay ecozone during the early years of the past administration.

You don’t bullshit around with street-smart Antiporda, and that must have rubbed his sub-alterns at the graft-ridden NIA not only the wrong way, but became anathema to the “old boys” of middle management and their “usual” conduct.

How they got the Office of the Ombudsman to suspend Antiporda without hearing the guy’s side, and for mere accusations of managerial high-handedness and the stereotyped “conduct unbecoming” is, as the fictitiously romanticized King of Siam in the musical is quoted, “a puzzlement.”

President Marcos must hear Benny’s side and get the puno’t dulo of this brouhaha, especially since the irrigation agency is a principal cog in the agriculture machinery he presides upon.

The rank and file at NIA have expressed support for their beleaguered head, seeing perhaps that Antiporda was a no-nonsense guy out to improve the agency’s image, and if you go around the country, you will indeed see how professional and well-meaning many of the NIA’s hands-on field operators are.

If memory still serves me right, as soon as President Cory Aquino appointed a comprovinciano from Tarlac to head the NIA, mind-boggling scandals came to light, such as the excessively over-priced repainting of the perimeter fence around Pantabangan Dam which the president’s father built.

Sure, Pres. Cory yielded to the public howl and fired her provincemate, but a series of officials, civilian and military, that succeeding presidents appointed to head the NIA were unable to, and likely became complicit in the continuing bastardization of the agency’s mandate of ensuring water supply to our parched farms, all in the altar of corruption and inefficiency.

Pres. Marcos should ask his NEDA director-general, a distinguished agricultural economist who in PNoy’s time, unearthed massive under-performance bordering on willful corruption at the NIA.

This, and other “puzzlements” such as unaccounted for lease payments on prime NIA properties, are what Benny Antiporda sought to excise, and quickly, in his usual brash management style.

But electric shocks are what an anti-corruption specialist, if there is one in this government, would actually prescribe for the agency.

One particular practice that riled then Pres. Aquino III was the discovery of thousands of kilometers of “built” irrigation canals as proof of the NIA’s accomplishments, only for an audit team to find out that the canals had no identified source of water. He he he!

These and many more “puzzlements” Antiporda may have seen when he was appointed as a deputy administrator during the latter years of Pres. Duterte, and now sought to excise and correct.

But apparently, middle management and their cabal of contractors saw Benny Antiporda an existential threat.

***

So many issues have come and gone when I was away but perhaps the most recent headline news is the visit of US Vice-President Kamala Harris, first to Malacanang, thence to Puerto Princesa where a new jointly-used military base under the terms of EDCA was built.

It’s nice to hear words of support from the lady who is a breath away from their super-senior POTUS, support that we needed most when the mandarins of China decided to claim all of the West Philippine Sea as part of their sovereign territory.

Words such as, quoting Harris, “the United States stands with the Philippines in the face of intimidation and coercion in the South China Sea (and) we support the 2016 ruling of the UN arbitral tribunal which delivered a unanimous and final decision formally rejecting China’s expansive South China Sea maritime claims.”

She further stated, without batting an eyelash, that “the Hague tribunal’s decision is legally binding and must be respected.”

Two things stand out in this continuing saga of supposed US support for the country that was once their colony, which the Filipino people should consider first before being hoodwinked into believing her avowals.

One, where were they when we needed them most? As Pres. Duterte once famously asked, why didn’t our “big brother” do anything when China built those artificial islands?

Two, the US of A has not signed accession to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the legal basis for the Hague tribunal’s existence.

Sure China and the Philippines recognize UNCLOS, but the former spurned our complaint and did not participate in the hearings. We were left blabbing our arguments before the Hague, all by our lonely self.

But now, big brother America vows respect and avers legal binding on the decision of a body they were never part of?

This looks like another case of using the Philippines as additional pawn in the “war” against a rising China. Look at Nancy Pelosi, two breaths away from Biden, and now Harris, one breath away.

Clearly, the US of A in its waning years is just pushing the envelope further against the imperious Xi Jinping who now wields absolute power in the middle kingdom.

The Philippines is just another stamp in the envelope, postmarked Taiwan.

Tags: Benny AntipordaLito BanayoNational Irrigation AdministrationNIAOffice of the Ombudsman
ADVERTISEMENT
Lito Banayo

Lito Banayo

Related Posts

Tougher sanctions on agri smugglers

byManila Standard
September 25, 2023, 12:15 am
0
8
Tougher sanctions on agri smugglers

Are the days of smugglers and hoarders of agricultural crops numbered? That’s a likely possibility with the recent move of...

Read more

Ang Bayani, bow!

byLito Banayo
September 25, 2023, 12:10 am
0
8
A crisis president

"BF was the epitome of efficiency and effective leadership, armed with vision and political will, qualities which if appreciated by...

Read more

Understanding how to fight text scammers

byOrlando Oxales
September 25, 2023, 12:05 am
0
8
Denying Villafuerte justice

"Be vigilant, be informed, and be proactive for a safer digital environment" Text scammers are still on the prowl despite...

Read more

Azerbaijan seizes arms from Nagorno-Karabakh rebels

byAFP
September 25, 2023, 12:00 am
0
8
Southwoods nails Seniors’ Fil golf crown

"They also control the so-called Lachin Corridor to the southwest, that once connected the breakaway region to Armenia" SHUSHA,  Azerbaijan—Azerbaijan...

Read more

Addressing agri sabotage

byManila Standard
September 23, 2023, 12:15 am
0
8
Addressing agri sabotage

The ball is now in the halls of the Senate. This, after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. certified as urgent the...

Read more

The Rosary as a Family Prayer?

byHonor Blanco Cabie
September 23, 2023, 12:10 am
0
8
Humoring the aging brain

There are those who claim that Mary giving the rosary to St. Dominic is a pious legend without historical basis...

Read more

Print Edition

View More

Recent Posts

  • China walls in Scarborough
  • China coast guard chases Pinoy fisherman in disputed waters
  • Manila to UN: Keep SCS on rules regime
  • Marcos: Give sari-sari store owners ayuda amid rice price cap
  • 3 senators push for gradual POGO phaseout
  • Romualdez: Gov’t service caravan to reach all provinces
  • Makati laments rejection of health transfer plan
  • Tougher sanctions on agri smugglers

Advertisement

Latest News

Romualdez: Gov’t service caravan to reach all provinces

byRio N. Arajaand1 others
September 25, 2023, 12:25 am
0
8
Bagong Pilipinas service fair begins

All provinces will be reached by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair (BPSF)—the country’s biggest service caravan—to serve...

Read more

Makati laments rejection of health transfer plan

byManila Standard
September 25, 2023, 12:20 am
0
8
Southwoods nails Seniors’ Fil golf crown

Makati on Sunday bewailed Taguig City’s decision to reject its proposal for a "smooth transfer" of health facilities and services...

Read more

Tougher sanctions on agri smugglers

byManila Standard
September 25, 2023, 12:15 am
0
8
Tougher sanctions on agri smugglers

Are the days of smugglers and hoarders of agricultural crops numbered? That’s a likely possibility with the recent move of...

Read more

Ang Bayani, bow!

byLito Banayo
September 25, 2023, 12:10 am
0
8
A crisis president

"BF was the epitome of efficiency and effective leadership, armed with vision and political will, qualities which if appreciated by...

Read more

Understanding how to fight text scammers

byOrlando Oxales
September 25, 2023, 12:05 am
0
8
Denying Villafuerte justice

"Be vigilant, be informed, and be proactive for a safer digital environment" Text scammers are still on the prowl despite...

Read more

Advertisement

ADVERTISEMENT
Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube

ABOUT US

Manila Standard

Manila Standard website (manilastandard.net), launched in August 2002, extends the newspaper’s reach beyond its traditional readers and makes its brand of Philippine news and opinion available to a much wider and geographically diverse readership here and overseas.

Digital Edition

In tone and content, the online edition mirrors the editorial thrust of the newspaper. While hewing to the traditional precepts of fairness and objectivity, MS believes the news of the day need not be staid, overly long or dry. Stories are succinct, readable and written in a lively style that has become a hallmark of the newspaper.

Download – Today’s Paper

Search

No Result
View All Result

6th Floor Universal Re Bldg., 106 Paseo De Roxas cor. Perea Street, Legaspi Village, 1226 Makati City Philippines

Trunklines: 832-5554, 832-5556, 832-5558

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
    • Young Life
  • Pets
  • Tech
    • Gadgets
    • Computers
    • Business
    • Tech Plus
  • ON THE ROAD
    • Sedan
    • SUV
    • Truck
    • Bike
    • Accessories
    • Motoring Plus
    • Commuter’s Corner
  • Home & Design
    • Residential
    • Commercial
    • Construction
    • Interior
  • Spotlight
  • Cravings
  • Environment & Sustainability
  • Agriculture
  • Pop.Life
    • Newsmakers
    • Hangouts
    • A-Pop
    • Post Its
    • Performances
    • Malls & Bazaars
    • Hobbies & Collections
  • Events
    • Seminars
    • Exhibits
    • Community
  • Biyahero
    • Travel Features
    • Travel Reels
    • Travel Logs
  • Gallery
    • Photos
    • Videos
  • Advertise with Us

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Install Manila Standard Web App

Install App