MALACAÑANG (The notion, not the edifice) is a bit like one of those western movie storefronts -- an impressive frontage with not too much behind.

Take two items in Tuesday’s paper; GMA (Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) orders the police and military to finally put an end to the Abu Sayyaf Group.

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How long have we listened to that particular exhortation? Six months? Twelve months? Five years?

Or how about the ongoing spat over the Maasim coal-fired power plant? The Worldwide Fund for Nature notes that the country has passed the Philippine Climate Act of 2009 and the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 and yet the nation is still busily planning and building coal-fired power stations. Insane really when you consider all the clean geothermal energy the country sits on.

Then there's rice. We can't grow enough. We import the stuff. Yet on Friday there's news that Malacanang is thinking about lending to Brunei thousands of hectares of land to grow rice for themselves. Brunei that is, not the Philippines.

If Brunei thinks it can grow rice in Mindanao why can't we? It's not the people or the determination -- witness the crowd of small vegetable farmers who grew all sorts of produce from a small rocky and waterlogged patch of ground near Ecoland’s SM Mall.

So what's the problem? Why does Malacanang seemingly prefer to import rice than grow it ourselves? Could it be that government revenues derived from locally grown rice are limited and what cash there is circulates within a small community; that imported rice has to be paid for at source and that means government funds leaving the country and lots of lovely loopholes where public money can cascade into private pockets? Surely not.

On a lighter note I hope you're all paying close attention to the lawyer-driven was there or was there not a carnapping down at the Highway Patrol compound. Had the engine and chassis numbers been tampered with? Are the vehicles wearing registration plates belonging to another vehicle? Who are the real owners? Is there some mysterious and underhand financial deal going on?

Here's a dispute which could go on for years and make lawyers rich but wait a minute – the Highway Patrol is a national agency paid for with our taxes. It'll be us paying those lawyers! Yoicks!

Lastly lastly, and at a Brit expat gathering the other day the visiting representative of the British Foreign Office pointed out that more and more oldies are retiring to the Philippines and, to avoid in-law acrimony, we should be putting our affairs in order, ie, making out a will.

There are two ways to do this and both are described in my February 2009 article "Last will and testament" available on the Sun.Star website.