Theres The Rub
The short and long
By Conrado de Quiros
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:01:00 05/07/2008
Of course, I too want to know why the hell I’m paying so much for electricity. I’ve been assured by the linemen that my connection hasn’t been tapped into, but despite employing all sorts of energy measures, including limiting air-conditioning to only a few hours a day, I still pay a small fortune to Manila Electric Co. (Meralco). So when government says the company is making super-profits, which almost by definition means ill-gotten, and threatens to hale it to court, I say, well and good.
That doesn’t mean I’m going to thank the government for it. That doesn’t mean I’m going to forget that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ought to be haled to court first. The problem is not the issue, it’s the entity proposing to solve it. The situation is not unlike government convicting Joseph Estrada for pillage and the Oakwood mutineers for a coup attempt. That’s all very well, except that the same fate, or worse, ought to visit the current occupant of Malacañang. Estrada did not turn this country into the most corrupt in Asia, Arroyo did. And the Oakwood mutineers merely attempted a coup, Arroyo wrought one.
It’s absolutely funny that Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) president Winston Garcia, in particular, the fellow who got into the news some years ago for spending GSIS money buying Juan Luna paintings, should be saying the things he does. As a Meralco director, he says Meralco shareholders have a right to know. Despite his efforts to get at the truth by way of letters to management, management has been mum. “They won’t even allow us to inquire about what they are doing. This is a fight for shareholders’ right. I have all the reasons to demand a change in management. The P30 billion [Meralco overcharge] is enough reason for any shareholder to demand a change in management.”
Now, never mind that the GSIS members also have the right to know how their hard-earned contributions, which have been seized from their pay, are being used. Has Garcia forgotten how his boss has just been spared from the national broadband network (NBN) hearings by the Supreme Court ruling that former secretary of socioeconomic planning Romulo Neri might not tell the people how she aided and abetted the graft-ridden deal? Who has a more compelling need to answer questions, the president of a company to one of his shareholders or the (self-proclaimed) President to the citizens of her country?
Garcia’s words should come back to haunt: “They won’t even allow us to inquire into what they are doing. This is a fight for taxpayers’ rights. We have all the reasons to demand a change in management. That the Philippines is now the most corrupt country in Asia and that Arroyo is now the most counterfeit ruler in Asia are enough reasons for any Filipino to demand a change in management.”
Why has government suddenly gone after Meralco?
The opposition is right: Because, like Ferdinand Marcos, Arroyo means to cow the Lopezes into submission, or at least tame their criticisms of government in ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. and ABS-CBN News Channel. Because, like Marcos, Arroyo means to take over Meralco and possibly the other Lopez companies. Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago says that in the event taking over Meralco becomes necessary, the Constitution guarantees that the state has the right to defend public interest against selfish private ones. She forgot that the principle carries a caveat, which says, “unless that state is the most corrupt in Asia, in which case it will only protect the far more selfish interests of a few.”
I myself can think of a couple of other reasons government has made the move. The first is to escape blame for the rice crisis that’s about to ravage this country. Hunger is no ordinary issue. None of the past scandals threatens to have the same explosive effects. With government finding it harder to import the staple and with the lean months (July-September) coming closer, Arroyo needs a scapegoat. Meralco is a convenient one. Everyone’s pissed off with their electric bills and the Lopezes have always fitted the role of the cacique “contrabidas” [villains] of yore or the overbearing rich of their current “telenovelas” [TV soaps]. It’s Propaganda 101: Blame the Lopezes for making the life of the poor harder with the power rates, credit government for making the life of the poor easier with the rice cards. Arroyo equals friend, Lopez equals enemy.
Are these the actions of someone who intends to go quietly by 2010?
That brings us to the second reason. Tightening the screws on the Lopezes has several uses. It puts pressure on them to be tractable, if not cooperative, particularly when the rice crisis truly bites in the lean months from July to September. It puts pressure on them to be cooperative, if not enthusiastic, when an initiative is taken to amend the Constitution. It puts pressure on them to be enthusiastic, if not to go all-out, when Arroyo calls for more powers to deal with emergencies, including suspending the Constitution.
Not quite incidentally, it puts pressure on Vice President Noli de Castro to shift loyalties completely away from the Lopezes to Arroyo. At least it puts pressure on the Lopezes to stop calling for De Castro to succeed Arroyo now or later.
Can Arroyo get away with it? Well, unlike Marcos when he took this populist tack against the “oligarchic” Lopezes shortly before he declared martial law, Arroyo has no credibility whatsoever. Marcos might have ceased to be popular by the early 1970s, but he was never this unpopular. And you have to wonder how long government can supply cheap rice to rice card holders.
On the other hand, Arroyo has shown more willingness than Marcos to do anything to keep power. And given that people like the Jesuits say it’s futile to try to oust her today because she is resolved to not go, she is being persuaded by the day that all it takes is grim determination to stay, possibly forever.
The long and short of it is that the short wants long. And the long and short of it is how long we are willing to be shortchanged.
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