Why would anybody want Arroyo killed?

There is a death threat daw against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, according to her official spokesperson, Elena Bautista-Horn. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. That must be a joke.

The Arroyo camp must be getting desperate. Only desperate people can concoct such an incredible yarn. Assassination plots and death threats are old, old gimmicks of politicians desperately trying to court public sympathy.

Why would anybody want Arroyo killed when she is already going to prison? Why would the present administration want her dead when she is not a threat to it? Why make a martyr out of her? As can be seen from public opinion, she has no following left. The only ones left are Horn, Raul Lambino and Ferdinand Topacio.

For such a serious, life-threatening situation, Horn was smiling the whole time she was unraveling the alleged plot against GMA during a press conference, as if she was amused at what her employers were forcing her to say. I expected her to burst out laughing anytime.

Obviously, the Arroyo camp wants to influence the Pasay Regional Trial Court to order her confinement in a private hospital or in her own home in La Vista, Quezon City. A government hospital is unsafe for her, her lawyers claim.

Wouldn’t she be safest in a detention center where security is very strict? In a private hospital, thousands of people come and go every day. Her house in La Vista is not that secure either. And claiming that government hospitals are unsafe pictures the doctors, staff and hospital administrators as untrustworthy and inefficient.

Death threats are old hat. Think of something more original, like saying that KC Concepcion and Piolo Pascual broke up because of the crisis involving Arroyo. Say that one of them is pro-Arroyo while the other is pro-Aquino. Add that they would reconcile if the administration will allow a house arrest. Or that they may even get married if they let Arroyo leave for treatment abroad. Show-biz fans are more gullible than the average Filipino.

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The floods in Central Luzon, or at least in Bulacan, may be a thing of the past now that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the provincial and municipal governments of Bulacan have agreed to dredge the heavily silted and polluted Marilao-Meycauayan-Obando River System, which is also referred to as MMORS. The DENR and the local governments have signed a memorandum of agreement with private developer Ecoshield Development Corp. to do that.

According to the MOA, Ecoshield will establish a sanitary landfill where the dredged silt would be deposited. The people of Bulacan have been protesting against the proposed landfill, fearing that the leachate from the landfill would seep into their water sources and that the stench would pollute the air.

However, Ecoshield has tapped the expertise of environmental engineers and specialists to design a receiving and processing facility for the garbage and contaminated mud deposits that would be dredged from the rivers.

The Ecoshield landfill will have a multi-barrier system, embankments and meticulously engineered high-density plastic layerings that would prevent the seepage of contaminated water to nearby communities.

In a meeting of the MMORS Water Quality Management Area, a coordinating body to encourage and guide the cleanup of the rivers, Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Sy Alvarado and Environment Management Bureau director for Central Luzon Lormelyn Claudio expressed full support for the landfill project.

The cleanup operations involve the dredging of the clogged rivers, which the various towns along the waterways have been pursuing over the past few years with the support of the Department of Public Works and Highways.

Garbage that have clogged the rivers and the heavy siltation reduce the holding capacity of the rivers which overflow their banks during heavy rains. Fish pens have also encroached on the rivers. With the dredging, floods will hopefully be a thing of the past in Bulacan.

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The problem in Hacienda Luisita is not over yet even with the decision of the Supreme Court ordering its distribution to the farmers. The issue now is the price to be paid to the hacienda owners, the Cojuangco family. The owners say the current market price is a whopping P1 million per hectare. The farmers say the land should be given to them “for free.” The Supreme Court says the fair price should be P170,000 per hectare.

While the issue of distributing the land to the farmers “free” is out of the question (Ano sila sinuswerte?), the P1-million-per-hectare selling price is too much. That is already profiteering. Even the lower P170,000/hectare rate is beyond the reach of the farmers.

Landowners should be paid just compensation when their landholdings are distributed to tenants. The question is: What is “just compensation”?

According to Supreme Court spokesperson Jose Midas Marquez, the price should be based not on the current rate but on its 1989 market price. That is what the Court ordered in its Nov. 22, 2011 decision, he said.

There is a law that mandates thus: When government expropriates private property, the price to be paid to the property owner should be based on the market price that he is paying real estate taxes for. What is the market price on which  the realty taxes that the Cojuangcos are paying for the hacienda is based? That should be the fair price.