Inquirer, Conrad, Wllie

CRITIC'S CRITIC
Herman Tiu Laurel
6/6-12/2011



“The lowest form of popular culture - lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people’s lives - has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage.” - Carl Bernstein (American investigative journalist in the Watergate exposé).

Just as the RH bill debates begins reaches its climax when silent non-Church objectors to it got involved, like our neighbor on this page Butch Junia, House Speaker Sonny Belmonte shifts the issue to Divorce by expressing his support for the revived proposal May 30. A debate between Congressmen Golez and Garin was scheduled.

Issues Management?
Is this shift just an accident or is it a deliberate management of issues to keep the public and media’s attention away from issues that would adversely impact the prevailing oligarchic social system – issues such as the anniversary of the EPIRA and issues on the price of electricity, and anomalous power increases that are underway. Four particular power hike issues are in the pipeline: the PBR, Congress’ extension of “lifeline” subsidy and Senate’s lowering of threshold, renewable energy P 19/kWh FIT charges and NPC SPUG subsidy hike. As if on cue the Inquirer’s Conrado de Quiros also shifts his attention to the divorce issue in his June 2 Inquirer column “God wants.”

Meanwhile, the EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) of June 2001 will be ten years old by end of June, an accursed electricity privatization law that was inflicted on the nation the highest power in Asia causing Philippine industry immense setbacks, driving out investors like computer chip giant Intel in 2009 and thousands of its jobs along with it while penalizing over 14-million electricity consumer Filipino families. It is important to recall that the EPIRA was hatched in corruption in the lame duck Congress presided by Belmonte in June 2001 after EDSA II. A new Congress had already been elected in May of that year but with P 500,000 distributed (distributed by Belmonte’s staff) and P5 to 10-M NEA power project had been given to each solon, they railroaded the bill into law.

In the Dark Ages
There will be no recollection of EPIRA history in mainstream media. Analysts of Philippine opinion pages will note that the Inquirer and its opinion writers Randy David, Amando Doronilla, Joaquin Bernas, Ceres Doyo, Michael Tan, Conrado de Quiros et al rarely, if ever, (except Neal Cruz, sometimes) deal with the basic economic issues people suffer – abuse by Big Business or oligarchs.

On corruption issues the Inquirer Op-Ed page they focus on passé Marcos and Estrada issues and leave out the oligarchy that gets such corrupt laws as the EPIRA railroaded to the people’s ruin. Dutifully, last June 2 Conrado de Quiros takes the cue from Belmonte and pans his journalistic sights to the Divorce bill, writing “Finally, they’re discussing divorce again in Congress. And expectedly, Catholic Church leaders are raising hell again in the pulpits…” quoting Senate do-nothing Pia Cayetano and a Luz Ilagan saying “Let us not keep our country in the Dark Ages.” – but isn’t it EPIRA that’s keeping us in the Dark Ages?

No Free Lunch
The Inquirer does have economist Cielito Habito in “No free lunch”, but he dwells on economics pedantry, dishing statistics but avoids confronting the down-to-earth problems of the people. In his recent piece “Creating needed jobs” Habito drops Time and CNN big name Fareed Zakaria (maybe to catch the US establishment’s attention) and echoes cites the following for jobs creation: manufacturing; growth industries; worker retraining; small and medium enterprises. But there is no mention of the fundamental detail that is basic to the success or failure of each of those measures – the price of electricity that runs the manufacturing machineries and growth industries, lighting and MRT/ LRT commuting for the workers going to retraining and for small and medium scale enterprises. Habito will never court the ire of Big Business, the Lords of EDSA I and II, who are almost all now in Meralco.

Driving out Investors
OpinYon, Butch Junia and other columnists fill in the public on the power issues. My recent GNN cable TV show was entitled “The curse of EPIRA” and graced by Butch Junia and FDC (Freedom from Debt Coalition) former vicechair Wilson Fortaleza. The “jury is in” and judged the ten-year old power law a supreme failure: EPIRA gave“first world power rates for our third world country”. Instead of lowering EPIRA raised Philippine electricity rates it to Asia’s highest; it not failed to set up additional power capacity and fosters new power shortage fears; it sold 70% of government power assets without reducing the $ 18-B Napocor debt. PSALM claims it will pay off $ 1.5-B, which doesn’t even succeed in becoming a “consuelo de bobo”.

Now House Energy Chair
Dina Abad of Abad Kamaganak, Inc. wants to amend EPIRA to extend for another ten years its unjust “lifeline” rate subsidy set to expire June 2011, Dina Abad so good-hearted in giving power paying consumers’ hard earned moneys (but not her pork barrel) to her beloved poor. Then Senate energy chair Serge Osmeña wants to lower the lifeline rate threshold from 99kWh to a much lower level, if not he says “We’ll be driving out investors.”

Least Cost
Why don’t the legislators subsidize their “beloved” poor from the Meralco’s P 12-B 2010 profits (on only 3% volume growth), 2009’s P 6.5-B and P 2.8-B in 2008 (CEO Pangilinan is buying NBA’s Sacramento Kings for $ 220-M – profits from consumers!). All these windfalls from ERCapproved rate increases under the PBR (Performance Based Rate) of 15.8% and 4-year prospective capital expenditure (the old RORB, Return-On-Rate- Base, of only 12% on actual capital expenditure).

What incentives for ERC commissioners get to defy the law requiring rates that are “least cost” to power consumers! Finally, the Renewable Energy Act will be enforcing FIT (feed-in tariff) of P 19/kWh (3 times higher that our regular rate of around P 5/kWh) to attract “investors” into wind, tidal, solar, mini-hydro (excluding geothermal – why?). We’ll subsidize renewable power technology development while Ayala, Aboitiz, Lopezes et al will profit. Finally, NPC want s additional P0.24 centavos to cover losses (?) from its SPUG (Small Power Unit Generation) missionary lines for which NPC is already charging SPUG customers for. What insanity!

Low-End Distraction
Rarely, if ever, will these basic, vital energy policy and cost issues be in the Inquirer Op-Ed page columns. Thus, the Carl Bernstein quote and parallelism with Revillame: the Inquirer Op-Ed page is highend entertaining distraction to Revillame’s low-end distraction – “lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people’s lives - has overrun real journalism.”

(Tune in to Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m., and Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, topic: ”Tingting Cojuangco on the ARMM Elections”; visit http:// newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot. com for our articles plus TV and radio archives.)