It is said that imitation is the best form of flattery and compliment. But it’s not good for business when the market is being flooded with cheap imitations of Rolex watches, Lacoste and Burberry T-shirts, including a local brand cigarette that has gained wide acceptance with smokers.
Law enforcement agencies—the National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine National Police and the Bureaus of Internal Revenue and Customs—have joined forces and coordinating in the crackdown against counterfeit products, particularly the sale of fake Mighty and Marvel cigarette. PNP chief Ricardo Marquez ordered his deputy for police operations, Danilo Constantino, to intensify the campaign against fake products after receiving reports of counterfeit cigarettes being sold in San Jose, Nueva Ecija; Bocaue, Bulacan; Imus, Cavite; and Mandaue, Cebu.
The PNP reported several arrests and the filing of charges against merchants for violation of Republic Act 8293 or the law against trademark infringement for selling fake cigarette brands. The counterfeit cigarettes were being sold in shopping malls, sari-sari stores and by ambulant vendors. Because cigarettes are sold and consumed on a daily basis unlike clothing and watches, the amount in tax revenues lost by the government runs into millions of pesos which is why the BIR is closely following the police operation against fake cigarettes to make there is no let up in the campaign.
Mighty Corp., a wholly-owned Filipino cigarette manufacturer, welcomed the government campaign against the proliferation of fake products in the market. The company also said that because the fake cigarettes cannot match Mighty’s quality, the illegal trade is undermining the best-selling brand that pays taxes, aside from reducing government revenue share.
No Senate run for Atienza
Why did Buhay Party-List Rep. Lito Atienza forego his run for the Senate? He had, after all, good name recall as three-term Manila mayor, a member of the National Assembly, former Department of Environment and Natural Resources secretary and National Housing Authority manager under the late President Cory Aquino.
Lito was No. 14 in the last poll surveys of candidates for the 12 vacant senatorial seats. He was within striking distance and could have made it to the winning column with a nationwide campaign but this would require enormous fund contributions that could compromise his advocacies.
It’s not true Vice President Jejomar Binay and United Nationalist Alliance presidential candidate dropped Atienza from its senatorial slate. In fact, Lito was one of those considered by Binay as running mate before he settled for Greg Honasan. Atienza said he’s still aligned with UNA but looking at his options as reelectionist congressman of Buhay (the top vote-getter among the Party List groups), he decided he can still do more as a member of the independent House minority bloc.
For example, his proposed House Bill 5878 seeks to return culture and sports to the Department of Education. Under the present setup, culture and sports were neglected when the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) became DepEd. Atienza noted this resulted in the Philippines’ poor performance in international competitions.
“The Philippines used to lead medal winnings in the Southeast Asian Games [SEAG], but we are now behind powerhouse China, Japan, Vietnam and even Singapore a city state with a population of no more than 5.5 million compared to 100 million Filipinos. With the proper sports program in our schools, we could develop potential gold medalists,” said Atienza. Our world champions in individual competitions like boxing, bowling and billiards are not products of sports development in our school system. They excelled through their own guts and hard work, he added.
Atienza also lamented the preoccupation of today’s youth with texting, taking selfies, and spending too much time on the Internet. Unless a student is enrolled in fine arts, his interest in culture is not kindled by the DepEd. He noted a decline of interest in folk dancing, an art close to Atienza’s heart. As a former member of the Bayanihan Dance Troupe, he recalled it was through the Bayanihan’s various performances abroad that he learned about other people’s cultures.
“Too much texting and short-cutting messages contribute to bad grammar and poor spelling,” said Atienza who rued the lost art and romance of letter writing. Sadly, “Love u and baboo” via texting is the new normal of courtship and breaking up.
The DepEd must be remiss when moviegoers who saw “Heneral Luna” asked “why Apolinario Mabini was always seated throughout the film? Because he was called the “sublime paralytic,” stupid! But students can hardly be faulted for not having a sense of history when even President Benigno Aquino III himself said Budget Secretary Florencio Abad was his own Apolinario Mabini.
Mabini must be turning in his grave for being compared to the mastermind of the illegal Disbursement Acceleration Program, better known as the presidential pork barrel fund.
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Meanwhile, despite making international headlines, the bullet-planting scam at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport was downplayed by Palace Communications Secretary Sonny Coloma. But as usual after public outrage, the Palace backtracked and made Coloma looked like a talking dummy when Aquino announced a full probe of the airport racket.
“This issue must be put in its proper context,” said Coloma, who added there are public assistance desk at the Naia that airline passengers can turn to. Yeah, right, as if the public does not know these assistance desk are useless and often in cahoots with the scumbags that prey on passengers.
Proper context? The Coloma comment is typical of this government’s insensitivity. Remember how Transportation Secretary Jun Abaya remarked “traffic does not kill” when asked what the government is doing about the traffic gridlock in the metropolis? Or how President Aquino told a typhoon Yolanda survivor who complained about the slow rescue and relief operations with a dismissive “o, eh buhay ka pa naman.” (you’re still alive, aren’t you?).
Said Time magazine and the BBC in essence on the same page about this international embarrassment: “The very people who are supposed to assure the safety of airline passengers are the ones committing crimes against them.”