Hard to imagine, but it’s happening

IT’S HARD to imagine, but what is happening now is wireless electricity—the new high-tech system that transfers electricity as if through air.

With no wires attached, it can, among other things, light up a room, charge your smartphones and iWatches as you wander around your house, power laptops and TVs, operate toothbrushes and

other electrical gadgets as well as refuel electric cars while sitting on the driveway.

There is no worry about getting zapped. It’s perfectly safe.

The magnetic fields used to transfer energy are reliable and “failure-prone free.” It applies the same kind of fields that Wi-Fi routers use at present.

The use of wireless electricity is also starting to open new doors for application.

In the medical field, for example, it is currently being tested to recharge “heart-pumps” transplanted beneath the skin.

With wireless electricity, these devices would no longer require intrusive or invasive procedures to be recharged.

Some advances have also been achieved to efficiently transfer higher power load at some distance. This is made by the use of microwaves, which is capable of transmitting electric power to a target without wires or conduits.

When perfected, the technique will lead to collecting sunlight or solar power from space.

This will, in turn, allow the “uninterrupted generation of high power supply regardless of weather conditions or the time of the day.”

‘Tanim-bala’

Hard to imagine, but it’s happening now at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia)—the extortion racket called “tanim-bala” or the surreptitious planting of bullets inside the bags of unsuspecting local and foreign passengers.

Unauthorized possession of bullets and live ammunition is against Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Act, signed into law by President Aquino on May 29, 2013.

This illegal scheme by “lowlife denizens” in Naia deserves utmost condemnation in the face of efforts to elevate the competitiveness of the country into an attractive investment destination and, most of all, a likeable place to visit and/or do business with.

The government must obliterate this despicable practice. It is demeaning. It undermines Filipinos’ renowned brand of hospitality.

A bag inspector and an X-ray machine operator were reportedly suspended from airport duty pending investigation.

However, the way the bureaucracy is still structured, the ongoing investigation might just become a dud in the end.

For one, the airport general manager “does not have total jurisdiction, responsibility and authority to all matters in the airport.”

At present, various government agencies and units have independent line functions in the operation of Naia, or in all of our airports for that matter.

This bureaucratic trap is ironically dissipating the current government’s overall effort to prevent, much less eliminate, corrupt practices. It must be replaced with a structure that exacts total performance.

Also, we have yet to see a comprehensive program that will not only apprehend these scalawags, but also prosecute, convict and disqualify them from government service if found guilty.

To protect yourself from this trap, knowledgeable security practitioners recommended that you must insist on a process of complete transparency.

First, demand for a copy of the x-ray screen shot of your baggage before it was touched on suspicion of illegal articles.

Don’t allow a physical search of your baggage if not conducted in clear view to you and your own witnesses, including onlookers.

Demand that a higher ranking airport authority be present to witness the search.

Most importantly, never agree to open the luggage yourself.

The whole search process must be recorded and fully documented. Require a fingerprint test on the bullet, too.

In other words, the search process must be conducted in a professional and legal way that would stand up in court.

File the proper cases for lost time, grave inconvenience and undue damage to reputation against the apprehending officer and attendant airport personnel if falsely accused.

Bottom-line spin

To think that we just protested recently how the World Bank scored our country in the 2016 ease of doing business report, this disgusting matter at Naia is embarrassing.

The country’s rank dropped six notches to 103rd across 189 economies. A change in methodology is what got Philippine officials and businessmen riled up.

And while I may agree with the objections raised by the government about the World Bank’s latest study, it should not cover shortcomings—like the lack of protection for visitors and local residents from illegal schemes in Naia or in any part of the country.

The Philippines, in the same report, scored a bit better at 60.07 compared to 59.94 in 2015 on its distance to frontier (DTF) scale. This scale “captures the gap between an economy’s performance and a measure of best practice across the entire sample of World Bank’s 31 indicators for 10 Doing Business topics that exclude labor market regulation indicators.”

We must nurture this improvement by fostering best practices, which have been found to have strong correlation to high economic growth and development—parallel to the Apec’s theme this year: “Building inclusive economies, building a better world.”

(The writer is a licensed stockbroker of Eagle Equities, Inc. You may reach the Market Rider at [email protected], [email protected] or at www.kapitaltek.com)