The handwriting on the wall

July 28, 2008 at 4:28 am (Uncategorized)
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‘MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN’ (‘TINIMBANG KA NGUNIT KULANG’)
The handwriting on the wall

by Liling Magtolis Briones
www.businessmirror.com.ph

And so it came to pass that King Belshazzar of Babylon gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles. In the midst of Belshazzar’s revelry with his nobles, wives and concubines, the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the wall: mene, mene, tekel, parsin. Terror filled the heart of the king and all those in the palace.

All the king’s wise men could not read the handwriting on the wall. Finally, the prophet Daniel was summoned. He told the king the meaning of the words. Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Parsin (or Peres): Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

Today, July 28, the President will address a gathering of her nobles and satraps. She will deliver the annual Sona or State of the Nation Address. Whatever she says, however she says it, cannot erase the handwriting on the wall which is there for all to see.

There is more than one Daniel denouncing and exposing the perfidy of the present administration. As early as July 18, Social Watch Philippines started its series of statements and briefings on the national budget, the state of the economy and its impact on the social sectors.

This week, more Daniels spoke out—academics, think tanks and progressive organizations, particularly the youth. On Friday, former Cabinet members from four administrations (FSGO) issued a powerful statement, which was prophetic as well as poetic. It highlighted the seven curses which the present administration had inflicted on our hapless country: the food crisis, worsening poverty, deteriorating basic social services, corruption, wanton abuse of presidential power and illegitimacy.

Today, Social Watch Philippines, a convener of the Alternative Budget Initiative composed of 48 civil-society organizations, is presenting its position regarding the handwriting on the wall and the state of the nation:

• Mene, Mene: Your days are numbered

The latest that this administration can last is up to 2010. There are speculations about constitutional change, either to extend the term of the President or change to a parliamentary system. The public strongly rejects this move. Efforts to generate support for constitutional change at this time have been roundly rebuffed. The people refuse to give the smallest opportunity for the President or her anointed successors to stay one minute longer.

End of days is coming!

• Tekel: Tinimbang ka ngunit kulang

For seven years Social Watch Philippines has weighed the accomplishments of this administration in social development, particularly the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and found them grossly wanting. Mention has consistently been made of poverty, inequity, increasing hunger, deterioration in education, stubbornly high levels of infant and maternal mortality, low levels of health, environmental degradation and global problems related to trade and debt.

Inadequate financing

Lack of adequate financing partly explains the appalling failure in social development. Dr. Rosario Manasan of the Philippine Institute of Development Studies calculated that for four MDG goals alone, P94.9 billion in additional resources would be needed this year. The actual additions to the 2008 budget are nowhere near this amount.

For 2009, Manasan has calculated that additional resources of P100.4 billion should be added to the national budget for education, health, water and sanitation and poverty reduction. Again, this amount is not likely to be generated, considering escalating deficit levels.

Slowdown in the economy

Most of the counter-Sona assessments focused attention on social-development impacts. Social Watch Philippines has already issued extensive papers on nonattainment of MDGs. This is partly explained by the slowing down of the economy.

Official data on the growth of the economy indicate a clear downward trend in the gross domestic product (GDP). In 2007, the President called for a special conference crowing about a 7- percent GDP growth for the first quarter. During the first quarter of 2008, this has gone down to 5.2 percent.

The growth of agriculture, fishery and forestry has gone down from 4 percent in the first quarter of 2007 to 3 percent, also in the first quarter. Even worse, the industry sector has gone down from a hefty 6.6-percent growth during the first quarter of 2007 to 3.9 percent in 2008.

A breakdown of the industry sector shows numbers which are not for the faint-hearted: Manufacturing went down from 4.1 percent during the first quarter of 2007 to 2.3 percent in 2008. But wait! Construction went down from 21.7 percent to—que horror!—4.5 percent from the first quarters of 2007 to 2008!

Global crisis no excuse

The usual excuse is that the crisis is global. How come Vietnam has 7.4 percent growth rate, Malaysia 7.1 percent, Indonesia 6.3 percent, Thailand 6.0 percent and the Philippines a meek, embarrassing 5.2 percent?

The crucial factor is governance.

What employment?

Last week, the government paid for a full two-page ad and issued a series of press releases on its so-called accomplishments. A claim was made that 9 million jobs were created from 2001 to 2008. These extravagant claims are totally erased by the fact that unemployment now stands at 8 percent and underemployment at double-digit levels.

Even as so-called millions of jobs were created for street cleaners, canal diggers, flower trimmers and the like, millions of jobs were also lost in manufacturing and construction. This resulted in a net loss of 168,000 jobs since April last year.

Governance

The present administration has been measured and found most wanting in the area of governance. No less than the World Bank has pronounced this government as the most corrupt in East Asia.

• Parsin: Reform is blowing in the wind

The people refuse to listen to the Sona and its claims. Change and reform are on the way. They already know the truth, and it will set them free.

POSTSCRIPT

Whatever happened to Belshazzar? He was thrown into the dustbin of history. Darius took over the kingdom of Babylon.

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‘They have to shoot me’- Villa-Ignacio on ouster move

July 22, 2008 at 12:03 pm (Uncategorized)
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Nagkakabukingan na po. Ang baho-baho na talaga ng Office of Ombudsman. That is what Malacanang got for appointing a friend of Mike Arroyo in that sensitive office. Somebody’s house is falling down, falling down, falling down. Buti nga! — Danton

***

By ARIES C. RUFO
abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak

The battle lines between Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez and Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio have been clearly drawn.

If push comes to shove, Villa-Ignacio said he will go to the Supreme Court and inform the justices of the underhanded tactics aimed at forcing him to resign his post.

In a hastily called press conference shortly after a show of force by subordinates of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, Villa-Ignacio, in a rare show of pique, said “they will have to shoot me” if Gutierrez’s allies would have him removed from the Office of the Special Prosecutor.

Deputies of Ombudsman Gutierrez closed ranks behind her and said the row between their boss and Villa-Ignacio should be resolved internally. (See Other Top Stories, Ombudsman rallies support from staff)

Villa-Ignacio is known to be a quiet person and rarely gives media interviews. But he told abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak that he can no longer keep quiet because it is his integrity that is being impugned. “They can fault me for my litigation skills but not my integrity,” the said in an earlier interview.

“I am sure they are going to suspend me,” Villa-Ignacio said during the press conference, referring to the estafa case filed by former prosecutor Elvira Chua against him before the Ombudsman’s Internal Affairs Board. “A foul scheme is being foisted against me.”

GMA wants new SP?
He said he “will go to the SC and explain the unthinkable things happening in the (Office of the) Ombudsman.”

Spilling the beans on the motive for his ouster, Villa-Ignacio said Malacanang wanted him removed to give the President a free hand in appointing a new Special Prosecutor.

He said his term as Special Prosecutor will lapse on Feb. 14, 2010, a period covered by the 90-day ban in the appointment to government positions before the May 2010 presidential race.

“(The President) will not be able to appoint my replacement (if that happens),” Villa-Ignacio said.

He said he is determined to stick it out even as he urged Gutierrez to resign as Ombudsman “if there should be a call.”

Ronaldo Puno’s case
Villa-Ignacio questioned the Ombudsman’s quick move to give due course to the estafa case filed against him when “there are other significant cases rotting in her office.”

He pointed out that the complainant, prosecutor Elvira Chua, had an axe to grind against him after he “disciplined” her, together with another prosecutor, for bungling a huge case.

This case, he said, was the Motorola communications contract involving Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno. He said Chua conveniently failed to attach a requirement in appealing the case to the SC, causing its dismissal by the High Court due to technicality. “They also resorted to the wrong mode in appealing the case.”

As an experienced prosecutor, Villa-Ignacio said it was unlikely that Chua committed an honest mistake, other than to ensure that the case is dismissed. “When Gutierrez found out this incident, she took the two to her office.”

He also pointed out that it was Chua who was behind the defective case filed against Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay which the Court dismissed for lack of probable cause.

The estafa case, Villa-Ignacio said, is part of a series of harassment moves by Gutierrez. These include disapproving the recruitment and employment of new prosecutors, denying a move to transfer the OSP’s office to a bigger space which will only cost government P1 a year, and keeping him out of the decision-making process in the filing of cases.

As to the OSP’s transfer, Villa-Ignacio said the Commission on Audit offered to lease its 3rd and 4th floors for the OSP’s use for P1 a year. But the Ombudsman, for some reason, denied the transfer.

It began with Megapacific
Villa-Ignacio said the tension between him and Gutierrez started when the Ombudsman moved to dismiss the P1.2-billion MegaPacific computerization case against officials of the Commission on Elections.

The panel, which Gutierrez created and was headed by Overall Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro, agreed to charge certain officials for the failed project, recommended further investigation as to other officials, and dismiss those with no evidence to indict them for the anomaly, Villa-Ignacio said.

But on orders of Gutierrez, Villa-Ignacio said the panel, of which he was a member, decided to drop the case against all officials. Villa-Ignacio protested and told a colleague that “it would be the last time that I would lend my name and credibility (to an Ombudsman report).”

(It will be recalled that Gutierrez created the Casimiro panel to disabuse allegations that the investigation on the MegaPacific case would be rigged. Gutierrez inhibited herself from the investigation).

‘Insecure’
Villa-Ignacio said the press conference called by Gutierrez’s allies to prove that there is no demoralization creeping into the ranks and the show of force “is a sign of insecurity.”

“Was there ever an instance where (former) Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo called for a show of support? There was none. You need not do that if you feel you have the support of the staff,” Villa-Ignacio said.

Belittling the show of support behind Gutierrez, Villa-Ignacio said there are those who feel otherwise “but they cannot come out in the open.”

We earlier reported that demoralization has crept into the ranks of the Ombudsman as a result of Gutierrez’s centralized management style. The disenchantment is worsened by the Ombudsman’s dismal performance in the Sandiganbayan where the former’s conviction rate has gone down. The dip in the conviction rate is being blamed on Gutierrez’s centralized decision-making process and her clipping the OSP’s role in the evaluation and assessment of cases.

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Bagsak

July 20, 2008 at 9:11 am (Uncategorized)
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Ellen Tordesillas
www.ellentordesillas.com

Sabi ni Gloria Arroyo sa Baguio City noong isang araw, “Kung alisin ang VAT sa gasolina at kuryente, ano ang ipapalit sa P80 bilyon na kita na ginagamit para sa mahihirap>”

Hindi ko alam kung siya ay tanga o nanloloko?

Ang VAT o value added tax ay 12 porsiyento sa presyo ng gasolina. Ibig sabihin noon, sa bawat isang daang na binabayad sa gasolina, ang P12 ay pumupunta sa pamahalaan. Kung wala ang VAT, dapat P88 ang ibinayad sa halip na P100.

Hindi tama ang sinasabi ni Arroyo na ang mga maykaya lang ang apektado ng VAT. Bakit mayaman lang ba ang guumagamit ng gasolina. Ang mangingisda ay gumagamit ng gasolina tuwing magpapalaot sa dagat. Ang jeepney driver at taxi drive ay bumibili ng gasolina tuwing magpapasada. Ang may-ari ng sari-sari store ay gumagastos tuwing mamimili ng paninda.

Ang mga negosyante at ang mga may-ari ng mga factory ay tumataas ang gastos sa VAT. Siyemre babawiin nila sa kanilang produkto. Kaya makikita natin yan sa pagtaas ng presyo ng lahat na bilihin: gulay, isda, karne, gatas, damit, gamit sa paaralan. Lahat na gamit.

Lumalangoy si Arroyo sa pera dahil sa VAT. Siya mismo ang nagsabi P80 bilyon ang kita niya sa VAT. Kaya sabi niya namudmud siya ng pera. Sinong lokohin niya?

Hindi ganito kahirap ang buhay kung wala ang VAT.Kung matino siyang lider, dapat ayusin niya pagkulekto ng buwis. Dapat walang smuggling. Dapat tigilan niya ang paglustay ng pera ng taumbayan.

Mabuti lang at kukunti lang ang naloloko niya.Tingnan nyo ang kanyang rating sa SWS survey na ginawa noong ika-pito ng Hunyo hanggang ika-30 ng Hunyo.mga huling araw na ito ni Arroyo sa pagbisita sa kanyang kaibigang si George Bush kung saan bitbit niya ang 63 na mga kongresista habang lubnog sa tubig at putik ang libo-libong Filipino na biktima ng bagyong “Frank”.

Lumabas ang galit ng taumbayan sa survey.

Sa tanong kung sila ba ay kuntento sa pamamalakad ni Arroyo, 22 porsiyento ang nagsabing “OO” at 60 porsiyento naman ang nagsabing “Hindi”. Kaya bagsak na bagsak ang rating ni Arroyo: minus 38 porsiyento.

Sabi ng SWS kahit daw sa Visayas, kung saan malakas si Arroyo, bagsak na siya doon. Sabi ni Remonde, talagang ganoon raw kasi mas gusto raw ni Arroyo na tama siya kaysa popular.

Hindi nga tama eh. Palpak nga siya eh. Kaya naghihirap ang bayan.

.

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Heartless, Cruel, Insensitive

June 27, 2008 at 4:18 am (Mayor JV Ejercito)
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GMA is heartless, cruel and insensitive. In continuing with her US trip, it shows that GMA gives more importance to meeting Bush and likewise conitnuing her junket tour with her minions rather than attend to the grieving families of those killed in the sinking of Princess of the Stars and other victims of typhoon “Frank”. She chose to bask in royalty during this particular trip in the United States and enjoys it so much while the whole nation weeps and grieves. To borrow the words of Sen. Ernie Maceda, “Truly GMA and her cohorts, the Cabinet, the 56 Congressmen and everyone in the junket are modern day Neros.”

Para kay GMA at sa mga tutang kongresista na bitbit nito, mas importante pa na kanilang hanapin si Obama o McCain, makita ang laban ni Pacquiao, kaysa hanapin at makita ang mga nawawalang pasahero ng lumubog na barko. Balewala sa kanila ang hirap ng damdamin na dinadanas ng mga kamag-anak ng mga pasahero, dahil wala silang kikitain sa mga ito.

My heart bleeds to those who have perished during the typhoon and all those killed in the sinking of the Princess of the Stars. I join our grieving nation in praying for their souls.

JV Ejercito

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‘Republika ng Pila-pinas’

June 18, 2008 at 3:48 am (Uncategorized)
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BIG DEAL
By Dan Mariano
June 18, 2008
The Manila Times

I don’t exactly recall when or where I first heard it, but “Republika ng Pila-pinas” aptly describes our national situation—thanks to the political gimmickry that the administration has resorted to in the face of very serious problems.

In its bid to prevent the rice-price shock, the skyrocketing fuel prices and exorbitant power rates from degenerating into yet another political crisis, Malacañang has resorted to several “impact” projects designed to portray itself as a compassionate administration.

Rice priced artificially below market levels—thanks to heavy state subsidies sourced from taxpayers’ money—is retailed in low-income communities. The authorities have yet to give a full accounting of just how much of the people’s money has been spent and continues to be spent for this project.

At many filling stations are public-utility vehicle lanes that dispense diesel priced a few pesos lower than exactly the same fuel sold to other motorists—again, thanks to subsidies raised from the taxes the rest of us pay. Some P3 billion in taxpayer pesos go to this diesel subsidy every quarter.

Consumers who used up 100 kilowatt-hours or less in May bring their electric bills to Land Bank branches for their one-time P500 handout. The administration claims that the P2-billion earmarked for their handout comes from the P18-billion “windfall” in oil VAT collections.

The officials in charge of these projects insist that they give financial relief to the poorest of the poor. However, the immediate effect of these undertakings are long queues of expectant beneficiaries—who complain far more often about how difficult it is for them to get their handouts than express their gratitude to their benefactors.

These impact projects also have far-reaching consequences, which only worsen rather than solve the root of the problems they purportedly address.

The bulk of the cheap rice that the National Food Authority retails in poor neighborhoods comes from countries like Thailand and Vietnam, whose farmers grow rich from the grains they export to the Philippines. Rather than support Filipino palay growers, the government’s multibillion-peso rice importation program merely enriches foreign rice producers and traders.

The diesel subsidies only encourage public utility vehicle operators to hang on to their smoke-belching engines, rather than shift to cleaner, more fuel-efficient motors. Result: worsening air pollution, especially in urbanized areas.

The P500 handout to so-called “lifeline” electricity consumers, as Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. has pointed, all too often goes to other—sometimes frivolous—expenses.

The opposition leader noted that there is no way to ensure that lifeline consumers use the P500 dole for paying their power bills. “In fact, they can spend the amount for anything else, including liquor, cigarette or illegal drugs in the absence of any clear-cut guidelines in the distribution of the money,” he said.

Pimentel said that if President Arroyo is really sincere in easing the financial burden of the poor, the better and more practical approach is to suspend or scrap altogether the 12-percent value-added tax (VAT) on the monthly power bills of residential users and the additional 12-percent VAT on the system losses that are being charged against them.

He faulted Malacañang for its persistent objection to a bill in Congress that seeks to lift the VAT on power even if temporarily. Pimentel argued that since diesel fuel and natural gas, which are used to run power plants, are already subject to 12-percent VAT the power generated and sold to consumers should no longer be levied the same tax.

Pimentel, however, raised a far more crucial issue: the lifeline handouts were never approved by Congress, which has the sole power of purse according to the Constitution. Notwithstanding the administration’s compassionate posturing, the President is not exempt from the constitutional rule that all public expenditures should have prior congressional approval.

“Of course, the people in times of financial difficulties may be happy for receiving the cash dole-out,” Pimentel said. “But the President should be reminded that she cannot play Robin Hood and disburse public funds just like that without complying with the requirements of the Constitution and appropriation laws.”

Earlier, former National Treasurer Leonor Briones branded as illegal Mrs. Arroyo’s order to set aside P2 billion as subsidy for small electricity consumers. Briones, a public administration professor at the University of the Philippines, pointed out that the handout is not covered by an appropriations law.

Briones warned that the President may be liable for impeachment if she is found to have violated the constitutional provision that all government disbursements should be covered by national budget laws.

Mrs. Arroyo has survived several impeachment attempts. Her political allies apparently still control the House of Representatives, where by law any bid to impeach her must originate. Threats of impeachment evidently do not bother her.

But as the economic situation worsens and as her administration responds with gimmicks instead of long-term solutions, how much longer can the President feel invulnerable?

As state funds are squandered in heavily subsidized impact projects—and ultimately dry up, how much longer can she keep her congressional alliances?

dansoy26@yahoo.com

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On GMA’s Marcos wealth policy by Mon Casiple

June 16, 2008 at 3:56 am (Uncategorized)
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The recent US Supreme Court decision on the Arelma case was unfavorable to the Marcos human rights victims. It basically accepted the Philippine government’s argument that the Hawaii court erred in allowing 9,539 human rights victims to file a suit to recover the $35-million Merrill-Lynch funds. It called for the case to first be tried in the Philippines before American courts try it.

In so doing, it upheld the archaic argument for the sovereign immunity of states over the more internationally-accepted principle of superiority of human rights over an individual state’s sovereignty. The latter has been the growing international consensus, particularly when the International Criminal Court (ICC) came into being.

Whatever, the irony here is the fact that both the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and the Madame Imelda Marcos are dancing the jig–both claim to have won in the US Supreme Court. Twenty-two years after EDSA I, the Arroyo government and the Marcoses are on the same side once again. No wonder, the government–-after Heidi Yorac died–-kept on losing and the Marcoses kept on winning their cases.

What we witness today is worst-kept secret of the Arroyo administration’s agreement with the Marcoses on the handling of the plundered Marcos wealth. Since the days of the Garcillano tapes and the first impeachment attempt, there has been a relaxation of relations between Malacañang, the PCGG and the Marcoses. We witnessed a PCGG commissioner’s dancing and beso-beso with Imelda during her birthday. We witnessed the brazen attempts of the Marcoses to get back their supposed PLDT shares and other sequestered properties. Then, there were the string of losing PCGG cases. The inevitable question is: who gets the commission?

At the other end of the scale, we are witness to an eight-year blockage of the human rights compensation bill by Arroyo’s Malacañang and its incessant fight abroad against attempts of the human rights victims to get at least part of the Marcos money for their successful judgment in the Hawaii human rights class suit. This administration, known for its extrajudicial killings and disappearances approaching that of the times of Marcos, has the same predilection for flaunting constitutional and human rights standards.

As it slips into its sunset moments, the Arroyo administration is ripe for judgment by the people. BY this latest affair, only major initiatives in relation to the Marcos human rights victims can deflect the coming condemnation of the Arroyo’s stint in the country’s politics.

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Ang ating mahal na Pangulo by Ducky Paredes

June 14, 2008 at 8:08 am (Uncategorized)
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Ang ating mahal na pangulo.

I mean that literally. Gloria Arroyo has been our most expensive president - ever!

In 2007, the Office of the President spent a total of P249.5 million to pay the salaries and wages of its regular employees; and P10.7 million to pay casual and contractual employees.

That’s P260.2 million to pay the rank and file of the Office of the President, and 58 other executive offices, agencies, commissions, and committees that report to the Office of the President.

But that’s not all. Gloria Arroyo spent more than double that amount for her foreign (P585.5 million) and domestic (P34.1 million) travels, according to the Commission on Audit (COA)’s report on the 2007 financial transactions of Malacañang. This means an average of P49.04 million per month on foreign travel and P2.84 million on local travel!

She spent much more - P618.6 million - on “donations” to yet unknown beneficiaries, the COA report revealed. Malacañang, the COA report showed, spent similarly big amounts for broad, discretionary, and seemingly identical accounts, including: Confidential expenses P149 million; Consultancy services P59.6 million, Representation expenses P56.8 million, Representation allowance P14.5 million, Other bonuses and allowance P28.8 million, Transportation allowance P10.3 million, Advertising expenses P6.9 million, Additional compensation P24.8 million, Extraordinary expenses P6.64 million, Miscellaneous expenses P5.4 million, Other personnel benefits P119.8 million and Subsidy to Regional Offices/Staff Bureaus/Branch Offices P46.6 million

The COA report shows that apart from these amounts, the Office of the President also paid P21 million in “yearend bonus,” P7.1 million in “cash gift,” and P651,000 in “honoraria.”

Gloria’s household is also quite expensive. Look at these items: Food supplies expenses P55.7 million or P4.6 million a month; Electricity P54.5 million or an average of P4.5 million a month; Gasoline, oil and lubricants P27.9 million or P2.3 million a month; Water P25.4 million or P2.1 million a month; Security services P13 million or P1.08 million a month; Janitorial services P4.8 million or P400,000 a month; Telephone, landline P13.5 million or P1.1 million a month; Telephone, mobile P9.07 million or P755,000 a month; Office supplies P13.5 million or P1.1 million a month; “Other supplies” P19.4 million or P1.6 million a month; Subscription expenses P1.04 million or P86,000 a month; Cooking gas P892,000 or P74,000 a month; Internet P332,597 or P27,716 a month and Cable, satellite, telegraph and radio P300,955 or P25,079 a month.

When we call her our “mahal na Pangulo,” that must be what we mean. Napakamahal talaga, di ba?.

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Tokenism too late

June 4, 2008 at 9:44 am (Uncategorized)
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It is last two minutes, and the slippery ball is hardly in the hands of the administration. Hounded by prices of oil, rice, food, etc, that have shot through the roof of the coliseum, the astounded administration people can only stare, and wonder, why 2010 is still two years away.

Last two minutes and the endgame is near. - Danton

***

By Lito Banayo
Malaya

ALL these bleeding heart “solutions” of the administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to the problems of soaring prices in almost everything smack of after-thought. Tokenism too late, to quell the restlessness of the masa. To prevent such restlessness from escalating into protests, and those protests to reach gale-force proportions as to destabilize her insecure regime.

When the price of rice started moving up last March, and everybody scrambled for subsidized cheap rice from the sparse warehouses of the National Food Authority, they went direct to the people, and asked them to queue for cheap rice. When the rice queues got longer and longer, and an inefficient NFA distribution mechanism caused tempers to flare up, and television crews to document these each night, government announced that they will start issuing “access cards” that would identify the poorest of the poor. Those identity cards will allow them exclusive purchasing rights for low-cost, heavily subsidized NFA-imported rice with 25 percent or more broken grains.

The whole scheme distorts the workings of the market. But it creates what the Boss Woman hopes would make for good propaganda spin. “She cares for the poor” is what she hopes the masa would say of her. Unfortunately for her, survey after survey says the people do not react positively. Her trust ratings continue to dive.

Simultaneously, she vents her fury against “hoarders” of rice, and herself leads NBI and police agents at “raiding” suspected warehouses. She even makes a show of going to the DOJ every day to make “kulit” the prosecutors, and ensure they file charges against the “hoarders”. The result? The market mechanism gets distorted all the more. Palay traders refused to buy palay from the harvests of Central Luzon, lest they be raided and tagged as hoarders. Supply tightens all the more, and prices of non-subsidized commercial rice hits the high 40s. This is your president, “the economist”, at work.

Then there is oil, whose price defies the world’s supply and demand situation, and keeps rising, with producers and commodity traders making barrels full of money. As we import oil, our pump prices keep going up, up and away. The Boss Woman is pressed by the Senate to consider reducing or suspending the collection of the expanded VAT on oil. She would not. Instead, her LTFRB grants a provisional fifty-centavo price increase. Commuters understood. But the Boss Woman says wait, and her clueless DOTC secretary says “halt”! A day after, when the Cabinet decided that there was nothing so objectionable to a fifty-centavo hike in fares, she finally says “Go”. By which time the price of oil had soared to higher than 130 dollars per barrel, and the local oil companies, deregulated as they are, hiked prices at a peso, then a peso and a half, each week. Caramba!

Now the jeepney and other transport operators who are suffocating from the weekly increases want 8 pesos to become 10 pesos. Fifty centavos is even less than a token. Now government will have to grapple with 2 pesos more, and soon, 3 pesos. Yet it will never let go of the VAT that it collects.

The Boss Woman would rather collect and make plenty, plenty for her chest, and then, out of her “kindness,” her “generosity.” her “bleeding heart,” grant leavings, such as access cards, special discounts, a token here and a token there. The spin is what matters more than simple, measurable and controllable decreases in the tax take.

But likely she worries – how would the balance sheet look like? What would the multilaterals and the lending agencies, and Fitch, Moody’s, Standard and Poor, decree? After all, they praised her for the E-VAT, never mind if it was at the expense of everybody, including her “beloved” masa.

Then she takes on another giant, the Lopezes of Meralco, to show the people that “she cares” and she “fights for them.” Along with her bulldog, el Cebuano Winston of the state pension fund whose billions are all locked in the bank of her “amigos,” los Aboitizes de Cebu tambien.

She blames the Lopezes for the ever-increasing costs of electric power that “her” Napocor generates and “her” Transco transmits which then Meralco distributes to you and me. Sure the Lopezes also buy half of their power from IPP’s, which include some of their own family corporations. Every spin from Winston and Luis Villafuerte in “her” House (never mind su hijo Mikey, who chairs the Energy Committee without knowing a single damn thing about it) blames Meralco for “hidden charges” and “hidden costs” and systems losses, but every thinking being wonders why, if these were so unlawful, so excessive, then what was “her” Energy Regulatory Commission doing all this time? Accepting bribes from the Lopezes or natutulog sa pansitan, or simply following the EPIRA law that “her” House rushed upon “her” pro-active bidding (with bribes from “her” National Electrification Administration to ensure congressmen’s attendance) in a special session called by her, tambien.

So why aren’t Filipinos cheering her? And when “her” SEC (correction: one commissioner) mysteriously and swiftly ordered Meralco to cease and desist from electing its directors in the annual stockholders meeting last Monday, why were people still booing her Winston? And why do her minions have to pay “her” people’s organizations, some instantly created, to say hallelujah to her and Winston and say f—k you, Meralco? And pay for full-page ads that only makes those pesky Inquirer people happy?

Now comes another token. Her DSWD wants to get 2 billion pesos from the coffers of “her” National Treasury, so they can subsidize the electric bills of los pobrecitos “la masa”.

It’s all tokenism. And too late. Because even los pobrecitos, “la masa” can see through her attempts at last-minute heroism to cover up for governance so bad and corruption so gross. And everybody, including los pobrecitos, la masa, realizes that things would not be as bad as they are, and as hopeless as they have become, were it not for her bad governance and corruption. That, no matter how many tokens she gives like leavings from her personal table of plenty, is the Filipino people’s unshaken and unerasable belief.

“What’s the problem?” Ask anyone in the streets other than Pampanga’s. “Gobyerno”, they will answer. “Who’s to blame?” ask next. “Gloria,” they will chorus.

“So what’s the solution?”

“Alisin si Gloria”.

As simple as that.

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