Commerce comes to life in typhoon-hit areas

How are relief and rehabilitation efforts faring in the typhoon-devastated areas? Even as the Department of Social Welfare and Development announced that the distribution of food packs by that agency will be phased out next month, reconstruction and recovery have started. Banks and automated teller machines (ATMs), markets, malls, shops and stores have reopened. Commerce has recovered in the areas devastated by Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

But what about supplies, are there enough?

There is enough, assured Undersecretary Zenaida Malaya of the Department of Trade and Industry in the Kapihan sa Manila forum at the Diamond Hotel last Monday. The other guests were Assistant Secretary Raul Hernandez of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Dr. Esperanza Cayanan of Pagasa.

Undersecretary Maglaya said the DTI is in talks with suppliers of basic goods in Metro Manila and elsewhere to ship more of their products to the typhoon-hit areas. She added that a price-freeze is in force not only in the typhoon areas but in the whole country.

“You cannot have price controls in the Visayas but not in other parts of the Philippines,” Maglaya said. “What will happen if suppliers in Luzon or Mindanao increased the prices of their products, including those sent to the Visayas? The latter will be forced to raise prices, too, otherwise they will lose money.”

And because construction materials would be in much demand for the reconstruction of devastated communities, the DTI is looking for a place where it can put up a warehouse for construction materials that residents can buy at government prices.

Can the suppliers produce enough to provide the high demand for the reconstruction of much of the Visayas?

“Yes, they can, they assured us,” Maglaya replied.

And to prevent profiteers from sucking the blood of typhoon victims, the DTI will have caravans selling basic goods at government prices in the typhoon areas. “Profiteers will be put out of business,” Maglaya said. She warned businessmen that profiteering carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison, as well as hefty fines.

As for the DFA, Assistant Secretary Hernandez said that the foreign office is coordinating with generous international aid agencies that are coming in. Pledges of aid, in cash or in kind, in pesos or in foreign currency, now amount to the equivalent of almost a hundred billion pesos.

Where do the cash donations go, he was asked.

“Direct to the DSWD after the necessary arrangements have been completed,” he replied.

Hernandez was asked about the case of the Turkish ambassador to the Philippines who refuses to leave the Forbes Park house she is renting in spite of several requests to do so.

Hernandez replied that the DFA has initiated talks between the Turkish ambassador and the owners of the property but they have not yet come to an agreement. More on this later.

For her part, Pagasa’s Doctor Cayanan warned that more and stronger typhoons should be expected in the Philippines as it sits in the typhoon belt. The Pacific Ocean, which lies east of the Philippines, is the birthplace of typhoons, she said.

Because of the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, the sun’s heat evaporates plenty of water. The warm moisture-laden air meets with cold air in the higher atmosphere and the beginnings of a storm occur. The meeting of the warm and cold air makes the winds circulate faster and faster. The farther it is from land, the stronger it becomes. Then you have a typhoon.

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Back to the case of the Turkisn ambassador, here is a background: The Turkish embassy sits on a multimillion-peso mansion on 82 Cambridge Circle, North Forbes Park in Makati, a part of the estate of the late Beatriz S. Silverio who died in 1987. The administrators of the estate wrote a series of letters in 2010 to Turkey’s ambassador to the Philippines Hatice Pinar Isik, asking her to negotiate with Ricardo Silverio Sr., since the property is part of the estate of his late wife. A lease contract was signed between the Turkish embassy and Silverio Sr. The contract states that the embassy can rent and occupy the property from December 2010 to Nov. 30, 2014.

However, on Sept. 16, 2010, the son of Ricardo Silverio Sr., Ricky Jr., sold the property to Monica Ocampo. A transfer certificate of title was issued to Ocampo. A few weeks later, Ocampo sold the property to Zee2 Resources Inc. A TCT was issued to Zee2  on Feb. 1, 2011. Twenty days later, Zee2 wrote a letter to Ambassador Isik asking her to vacate the property as the new owner wants to occupy it.

Isik refused to honor the appeals of the legitimate owner in spite of a Court of Appeals decision on March 8, 2013 confirming the sale between Ocampo and Zee2. A motion for review by Silverio Sr. was denied by the appellate court. Silverio filed a petition with the Supreme Court to reverse the Court of Appeals decision. The high court denied the petition.

Having settled the ownership of the property, Zee2 asked the help of the DFA which then arranged a meeting with a representative of the Turkish embassy who expressed willingness to settle the issue amicably. He also said that the embassy would start searching for a new residence.

However, the ambassador refused to honor the amicable settlement.

Ambassador Isik said she is just obeying the lease contract (which said she can rent and occupy the property until December 2014. By the way, she has not paid any rent since 2011) and expressed resentment over being dragged into the property dispute.

Isik brushed the court orders, refused to talk to DFA officials, and declared that she cannot be forced to leave the property as she has diplomatic immunity.