JUDGES , LAWYERS DIE UPHOLDING THE LAW

EDITORIAL – A dangerous place for legal professionals

The Philippine Star 05/25/2005

If it’s any consolation to journalists, they are not the only ones who are targeted for assassination in this country. An international group of lawyers said the other day that the Philippines has become “a dangerous place” for judges and lawyers. The International Association of People’s Lawyers reported that since last year, 11 judges, lawyers and even law students have been murdered in this country. A local group, the Coalition for the Defense of Lawyers, also reported 11 cases of attacks and harassment targeting members of the legal profession since the start of the year.

Most of the cases documented by the lawyers’ groups involve attacks on cause-oriented legal professionals. Suspicion inevitably focuses on the military or police, especially since most of the cases, like those involving journalists, remain unsolved. In recent years, however, judges and lawyers have also been targeted by drug dealers, corrupt politicians, gambling lords and rebel groups. Such security threats are among the reasons for the shortage of judges and prosecutors in the countryside, particularly in the conflict areas of Mindanao.

Like the executions of journalists, the killings of legal professionals will not be carried out with impunity if murderers are caught and sent to prison. Crime cases, however, are impossible to solve when there is no will to solve them. As in almost all the killings involving journalists, many of the murders of judges, lawyers and law students were carried out in areas controlled by warlords or political kingpins — people who have power over those in charge of the criminal justice system in their localities. Security threats can have a powerful influence on a judge. It is not surprising then that some judges simply go along with what those in power want, even if it means giving up the independence of the judiciary.

There are judges and other legal professionals, however, who refuse to compromise. They are the ones targeted by those who keep finding ways of subverting democratic processes. Their murders are another chilling reminder that in this country, the rule of law is a joke.

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POPULATION BUST

Japan’s ‘Baby Bust’: A Costly Population Dilemma for Modern Society

HONOLULU (May 24) — Despite more than a decade of government efforts, Japan has not been able to reverse its ‘baby bust,’ said an East-West Center population expert. It’s a problem with potentially alarming consequences and creates a huge strain on Japan’s social security system as the percentage of elderly continues to grow, the result of fewer births and longer life spans.

“How Japan responds to these challenges could have a profound influence on health care, elderly care and economic growth in the decades ahead,” said Robert Retherford, Senior Fellow and coordinator of Population and Health Studies at the Center.

Since the early 1990s, Japanese policymakers have been trying to coax people into marrying earlier and raising bigger families, but without success. The country’s fertility has fallen from a post-World War II high of 4.54 births per woman in 1947 to 1.29 in 2003. “Japan’s population will start to decline next year, and that will cause more problems,” Retherford noted. The present pattern of age-specific birth rates, if unchanged in the future, will eventually cause Japan’s population to decline at a constant rate of 38% every 30 years.

The Japanese government has not been able to reverse the fall of fertility despite 14 years of effort, he said. A variety of factors have contributed to the ‘baby bust,’ most notably the increase in the number of Japanese marrying later or not at all. In 2000, the average age at marriage was 30.8 years for men and 28.5 years for women — among the highest in the world. Moreover, the age-specific first marriage rates observed in the year 2000 imply that 25% of men and 19% of women will still be single when they reach age 50. This is a far cry from the “universal marriage society” of only 40 years ago when almost everyone married.

Retherford said that these changes have occurred partly because of huge educational and employment gains by women. Ninety-nine percent of the women in Japan now work before marriage, almost all of them for pay outside the home. Women are reluctant to leave the work force to have children and give up the income they’ve gained in the workplace. There has also been a big decline in the percentage of marriages that are arranged and in the percentage of young couples living with parents. Add to that the cost of childcare and education for their children.

It is useful to consider Japan’s population dilemma in a global context, because approximately 30 countries — including South Korea, China and most European nations — have fertility rates below 1.5 births per woman. (The U.S. rate is about 2.1, buoyed by immigrant birth rates and a level of unwanted fertility that is high relative to that in other industrial countries.)

“It’s the nature of modern society,” Retherford said. “There are broad similarities across all modern societies, and these similarities are the basic forces at work here.”

Very few countries with a fertility rate below 1.5 births have been able to reverse this trend and raise fertility back up as high as 1.5, and none has managed to raise it back to anywhere near the replacement level of 2.1, he said. Japan’s pro-fertility approach has relied on providing subsidies for childbearing and encouraging employers to create policies conducive to raising families. Government-subsidized services — which have included childcare leave, expansion of daycare centers and after-school programs — are very costly.

“The danger in placing much of the burden on employers, as the government has tended to do, is that employers may avoid hiring women because it becomes very costly for them,” he said. “Also firms may become less efficient and less competitive in the global economy, and that’s counterproductive.”

The dilemma for the government, Retherford said, is how to restructure the economy to make it more efficient and competitive in the global marketplace while restructuring society to be more marriage friendly and child friendly, without jeopardizing women’s hard-won gains in education and employment. “It won’t be easy and it won’t be cheap,” he said. “And it’s not just Japan. A lot more countries are in the same boat.”

Robert Retherford can be reached at (808)944-7403 or retherfr@eastwestcenter.org.

Based on a paper by Robert Retherford and Naohiro Ogawa, “Japan’s Baby Bust: Causes, Implications, and Policy Responses,” East-West Center Working Papers, Population Series No. 118. Downloadable at http://www.eastwestcenter.org/res-rp-quicksearchresults.asp?step=2&series=14&subseries=60.

CIA ACTUATIONS ?

THIS APPEARED IN TRUTHOUT.ORG
New Swedish Documents Illuminate CIA Action
By Craig Whitlock
The Washington Post

Saturday 21 May 2005

Probe finds ‘rendition’ of terror suspects illegal.
Stockholm - The CIA Gulfstream V jet touched down at a small airport west of here just before 9 p.m. on a subfreezing night in December 2001. A half-dozen agents wearing hoods that covered their faces stepped down from the aircraft and hurried across the tarmac to take custody of two prisoners, suspected Islamic radicals from Egypt.

Inside an airport police station, Swedish officers watched as the CIA operatives pulled out scissors and rapidly sliced off the prisoners’ clothes, including their underwear, according to newly released Swedish government documents and eyewitness statements. They probed inside the men’s mouths and ears and examined their hair before dressing the pair in sweat suits and draping hoods over their heads. The suspects were then marched in chains to the plane, where they were strapped to mattresses on the floor in the back of the cabin.

So began an operation the CIA calls an “extraordinary rendition,” the forcible and highly secret transfer of terrorism suspects to their home countries or other nations where they can be interrogated with fewer legal protections.

The practice has generated increasing criticism from civil liberties groups; in Sweden a parliamentary investigator who conducted a 10-month probe into the case recently concluded that the CIA operatives violated Swedish law by subjecting the prisoners to “degrading and inhuman treatment” and by exercising police powers on Swedish soil.

“Should Swedish officers have taken those measures, I would have prosecuted them without hesitation for the misuse of public power and probably would have asked for a prison sentence,” the investigator, Mats Melin, said in an interview. He said he could not charge the CIA operatives because he was authorized to investigate only Swedish government officials, but he did not rule out the possibility that other Swedish prosecutors could do so.

The basic facts of the Stockholm rendition were reported last year; this article is based on newly released documents from the parliamentary probe that provide elaborate details about an operation that normally unfolds entirely out of public view and about the government deliberations that preceded it.

Swedish security police said they were taken aback by the swiftness and precision of the CIA agents that night. Investigators concluded that the Swedes essentially stood aside and let the Americans take control of the operation, moving silently and communicating with hand signals, the documents show.

“I can say that we were surprised when a crew stepped out of the plane that seemed to be very professional, that had obviously done this before,” Arne Andersson, an assistant director for the Swedish national security police, told government investigators.

At 9:47 p.m., less than an hour after its arrival at Bromma Airport, the jet took off on a five-hour flight to Cairo, where the prisoners, Ahmed Agiza and Muhammad Zery, were handed over to Egyptian security officials.

The CIA has not acknowledged playing any part in the expulsion of the two men. An agency spokesman in Washington declined to comment for this article, and US Embassy officials in Stockholm also declined to answer questions.

CIA officials have testified that they have used rendition for years after tracking down suspected terrorists around the world. They say the US government receives assurances of humane treatment from the countries where the suspects are taken. Human rights groups say that such pledges, from governments with long histories of torture, are worthless.

The two Egyptians later told lawyers, relatives and Swedish diplomats that they were subjected to electric shocks and other forms of torture soon after their forced return to their country.

Agiza, a physician, was convicted in an Egyptian military court and sentenced to 15 years in prison after a trial that lasted six hours. He was charged with being a leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, a radical group that the US government has listed as a terrorist organization. He and his lawyers have acknowledged that he once worked with Ayman Zawahiri, a fellow Egyptian and the ideological leader of al Qaeda, but say that he cut ties with the group many years ago.

Zery was released from prison in October 2003. Egyptian officials notified the Swedish government last year that he was no longer under suspicion. His lawyer said he remained under surveillance.

The Swedish government kept the CIA’s role in the case a secret for more than three years. Then, in 2004, following unofficial reports of the rendition, it released documents showing that a US-registered plane had been used to transport the Egyptians to Cairo but said the details were classified. It wasn’t until March, when the parliamentary investigator released his findings, that the CIA’s direct involvement was publicly confirmed.

The revelations created a stir in Sweden, which has long been outspoken in its support of international human rights. A parliamentary committee is scheduled to open hearings on government officials’ handling of the expulsion.

PHONE METERING AND TERMINATION RATES

I have been fortunate to being at the right place at the right time. I became a lawyer in 1986 and got exposure in various fields – the drafting of the 1987 Constitution, Court of Appeals, House of Representatives, Australian law (including immigration, trusts and constitutional law), Philippine court litigation, taxation, estate planning, labor, broadcasting, telecommunications, and information technology.

When PLDT and the other telcos proposed phone metering a few years ago, I represented the Philippine Internet Services Organization (PISO) in their suit filed at the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) against the mandatory phone metering plan.

That case commenced in 1997 and PLDT got a provisional authority even if we in the opposition had not yet presented a single piece of evidence. Then NTC Commissioner Simeon Kintanar (now Congressman) can explain why perhaps? We were in favor of optional metering and the standard flat rate as the choice for consumers. We discovered that PLDT did not submit a technical, marketing, or financial plan to support the metering application filed by Tony Boy Cojuangco’s external counsel. Such plans should be filed together with any application for licensing at the NTC under its judicial procedure. Such requirement is jurisdictional and mandatory under the NTC rules of procedure.

They got the provisional authority anyway during the Ramos presidency. When Joseph Estrada became President, we dialogued with his Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Jun Rivera to put the planned phone metering on hold and he listened. Estrada ordered the NTC to withdraw the mandatory phone metering decision and review the policy. Eventually, the NTC under then Commisioner Joseph Santiago formulated with the telco industry a voluntary metering policy which stands today.

PLDT today sees that they are making a decent income with this voluntary metering, first with its TELETIPID and now with its TELESULIT scheme. By the way, do not forget to reload your landline phones with prepaid units not later than two months from your last reload, otherwise your PLDT unit and number will be rendered unusable.

President Estrada listened to consumers to balance their interests with the telcos who were sure to earn gold. This is a major change in policy as Digitel Telecommunications
eventually junked its mandatory metering and offered flat rate plans depending on your consumption habits. Remember that Digitel had metering as part of its package when the Digitel facility was included in a lease-purchase agreement with the DOTC.

The Internet industry lived another day. Two-thirds of the revenues and expenses of the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) go to the dollar-denominated leased lines – the E1s and the T1s – to handle traffic primarily to the US, since most Web sites are US-based or hosted there. I am no longer the legal counsel of PISO. I believe Atty. Kokok Pimentel recently filed a suit on the supposed discrimination by telcos on pricing and access of such leased lines.

Filing suit of this nature, with due respect, is normally not done unless all opportunities for dialogue are exhausted. Even the suit of the US telcos filed at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should not have happened had the parties exhausted their negotiation opportunities and good offices.

The hot issue of the day, of course, is on the termination rates charged by the local telcos to their US counterparts, which prompted the likes of AT&T to raise a heated battle with them. The questions I like to ask our own telcos are these: How did you negotiate the increased termination rates to 12 cents per minute? Did you force AT&T and the other telcos to accept such an increase just because other telcos in other jurisdictions agreed to the increase?

As of this writing, AT&T had invited the local telcos to a dialogue in Hongkong. PLDT is supposedly attending the dialogue. Smart does not consider the FCC decision as legal. Globe believes the FCC has no jurisdiction over the local telcos. The American telcos owe the local telcos millions of dollars since there are more incoming voice and data traffic than outgoing traffic. Incoming traffic from the US into the Philippines is now being routed using other countries since many local telcos have barred direct entry of traffic from the US, especially from AT&T. Worldcom supposedly signed an agreement until March 31, 2003 with local telcos, so that its traffic is not barred entry.
This column appeared in Enterprise magazine in May 2003 discusses legal issues in the telecommunications, broadcasting, e-commerce, information and communications technology, intellectual property, among others. I am open to your ideas. You can e-mail Atty. Sison at dado@nsclub.net and also listen to 104.3 FM DWBR Monday and Friday from 6 to 8 in the morning. That’s his talk show, Broadcasters Bureau, which has been airing since July 1995. You can text him as well at 639178973231 for questions.

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TELECOMS Q N A

I’ve been frequently asked certain legal questions related to telecoms. Here are some of them.

What is the NTC policy on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)?

VoIP is an alternative mode of handling voice traffic as many telcos are using this technology today. China is in the lead in this part of the world in using VoIP. If you want to offer VoIP commercially, you have to haul your traffic either through your own international gateway or you have a written agreement with a telco that operates an international gateway. However, if this is for your own personal use, there’s no problem. Just use the best software and hardware for your own purposes.

What is the NTC doing about the request of Congress to change the separation of FM radio frequency standard?

The NTC wants six months to test and review if the 400khz separation standard can be adopted instead of the existing 800khz standard, so new stations can operate. The NTC should also look into the economic viability as there is a 30 to 35 percent reduction in advertising revenue using the broadcasting medium.

Where can I learn Philippine broadcasting and telecommunications policy?

Enroll at the Ateneo de Manila University to earn an Electronics Communications Engineering Degree. Or work at the NTC or any major broadcasting facility. You can also interview experts such as my uncle, Engineer Cesar Sison , formerly of Globe and PLDT. There’s also Atty. Reggie Jularbal, Atty. Ding Alberto, Atty. Rudy Salalima, and Atty. Roger Quevedo. Ask Commisioner Armi Jane Borje to write a book on it.

E-mail me for contact info. And, of course, get a subscription of this magazine you are holding.

What is the National Telecommunications Development Plan?

This is a plan formulated in the 1990s. Ask Engr. Amy Rubio of the DOTC. It was supposed to run for over twenty years. It is now apparently on hold because the DOTC is waiting for the possible spin-off of the Department of Information and Communications Technology, a proposed new government line department, still pending in Congress.