Sto. Tomas is to blame
for OWWA Medicare mess

THE UPROAR over the proposed "secret" transfer of the 2.8-billion-peso Medicare fund of overseas Filipino workers to PhilHealth is being blamed on Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas.

Without consulting a single OFW group, or announcing their intentions publicly, Sto. Tomas and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration administrator Virgilio Angelo moved the huge OFW-Medicare fund to PhilHealth. The reasons for this switch are not clear, but from what I gathered, Sto. Tomas allegedly felt that the OFW medical fund should help subsidize medical care for the poor. In short, she is trying to use part of the OFWs' money to subsidize medical treatment for the less fortunate.

While this may be a noble goal in itself, shouldn't OFWs be consulted first? Shouldn't OFWs be given priority treatment under a scheme that they themselves have funded?

Many OFWs had resisted switching to the PhilHealth insurance scheme because it allegedly was not as generous as the Medicare scheme. Why would anyone in their right mind opt for less generous and comprehensive benefits?

According to the Migrante sectoral party, Sto. Tomas lobbied hard for a resolution at a recent closed-door meeting of the OWWA board that would force the transfer of the 2.8 billion pesos from Medicare to PhilHealth.

When the board couldn't come to a decision on the funds transfer, Sto. Tomas decided to go public on Tuesday with an announcement that an investigation had been launched into fraudulent insurance claims that had been recently been made against the OWWA-Medicare fund. Of course, to most observers this just looked like the labor secretary was trying to raise questions about the OWWA-Medicare fund.

The OWWA administrator also added fuel to the fire by claiming that the OWWA-Medicare fund had lost 40 million pesos in fraudulent claims.

Migrante's secretary-general Maita Santiago called the announcement "an unfair and diversionary tactic."

Sto. Tomas is now trying to assume the role of "heroine" for allegedly "stopping" the executive order, signed by Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo earlier this year that would have transferred the OWWA-Medicare funds to PhilHealth. But who is she trying to kid? The growing outcry of angry OFW groups and the fact that the OWWA board did not approve the transfer of the funds, are probably the real reasons for the labor secretary stopping the implementation of the executive order.

Lack of transparency and an unwillingness to conduct business openly have unfortunately been the hallmarks of Sto. Tomas since her first day in office. Instead of secretly plotting to transfer the hard-earned OWWA-Medicare funds to PhilHealth, Sto. Tomas should have openly solicited the input and opinions of OFW groups and individuals from around the globe.

OFWs and their families deserve much better treatment than what they've received so far, and they also deserve to be treated and respected as the responsible adults that they are.

Honasan photo looks like a fake

THE PHOTO that was produced at the Feliciano Commission on Wednesday, that supposedly shows Senator Gregorio Honasan and Navy Lt. Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes IV attending a blood compact ceremony of the July 27 coup plotters, looks like a fake to me.

In the photo, the Honasan-like figure has his back to the camera. He, along with several others, is shown standing in front of a wall on which a Philippine and the Magdalo flags are displayed. The resolution of the photo isn't that great due to the bad lighting. Indeed, the whole picture is quite dark and no one's face is easily discerned.

Anyone with a copy of the popular Adobe Photoshop imaging software could have doctored the photo to add Honasan to it. Indeed, the whole photo itself could have been fabricated from scratch, the basic photo having been snapped with just the flags on the wall, and the various people could have been added in later.

First of all, the source of the photo raises many questions in my mind. It was colonel Delfin Bangit, Presidential Security Group chief, who produced the photo at the Feliciano Commission hearing investigating the whole attempted coup. According to Bangit, it was a "morally bothered" military informant who delivered the photo to Malacañang Palace last week. Bangit refused to answer whether this informant was a member of the Magdalo, which sounds fishy to me. Also, why did Malacanang wait so many days before releasing the picture? And if the military informant is really bothered by Trillanes' and Honasan's denials of having met before the coup attempt, why can't he publicly accuse them in front of the commission and television cameras?

Honasan, who is in hiding because he doesn't trust the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo not to arrest him if he surfaces, gave interviews via telephone on TV news shows Wednesday to refute the allegations, insisting that he would agree to show his left arm pit to prove that there was no scar.

To my mind, the July 27 coup attempt seems more and more like a bungled, amateurish attempt to express displeasure at Macapagal¹s rule. Indeed, many have slammed the coup plotters for being so inept and weak. Can we really believe that a successful coup could be pulled off just by taking over the Oakwood apartments and the Glorietta shopping center? Hardly! According to reports the mutineers had plans A, B, C, D and even E, each one to be implemented if the one before it failed. To me it seems like plan "S" (for stupidity) is what actually came down. In a coup attempt aren't the rebel soldiers supposed to capture the presidential palace (preferably with the president inside), encircle Congress, take over key TV and radio stations, secure airports and jail the armed forces chief? All of these didn't happen, either because the expected reinforcements never materialized, or perhaps because the higher commanding officers who had promised key support, failed to come through at the last minute.

The most riveting part of the Feliciano Commission's hearings so far for me was the testimony on Wednesday of army captain Milo Maestrecampo, who described how mortally wounded colleagues screamed his name as they waited for Huey helicopters to arrive and airlift from the battlefield.

Several of his men died, claimed Maestrecampo, because the needed helicopters never came in on time because they were busy being used by generals.

He also produced a bombshell by claiming to have been ordered to carry out a bombing campaign of mosques in Mindanao this past April as part of the military's psychological warfare tactics being used against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). He produced a document outlining the bombing campaign dubbed "Operation Green Base", which bore the signature of the government's negotiator with the MILF, Eduardo Ermita.

The Feliciano Commission members tried to downplay Maestrecampo's claim by casting doubt on the authenticity of the document at hand, which is a shame really. I don't see why the captain would need to invent such a story to justify his participation in the rebellion. The military has many times before been accused of carrying out bombing campaigns to gain the public's sympathy against its enemies, be they the communist National People's Army or the MILF.

At the end of all these accusations and counter-accusations, Honasan should be given assurances that he won't be arrested by the government if he appears before the commission. The truth of the whole attempted coup must come out, and it may be much less nefarious than the Arroyo administration is trying to make it out to be.

Comments or questions? E-mail the author at manilamoods@hotmail.com. Visit the author's website at www.manilamoods.com to read past columns.